Chapter 3

Location: Delta Arcturus System, Planet Outland, Outback City

Date: March 27, 2527

Time: 1300 Hours

The fires and smoke of the burning city of Outback were an ominous premonition to what was in store. But the only premonitions Spartans cared for were accurate military intelligence. The Colonial Militiamen, UNSC Marines, and even the ODST's had been quite afraid of the massive ship hovering over the city as the sounds of explosions, screams, and the occasional spat of gunfire echoed from the city now under occupation. But now the UNSC forces on the ground were fighting back with everything they had.

In the beginning of the fight overhead the UNSC base on the ground got word that they might end up losing orbital supremacy. So following doctrine to the letter the Marines and Spartans had quickly gathered as much of their weapons, equipment, and supplies as they could and headed into the hills away from the obvious target that was the Alpha Base. So with every vehicle they could get their hands on the Marines took off into the hills with the final man leaving just as a bolt of plasma struck the base's armory. The entire makeshift basecamp of Instacrete and Modular Buildings was pulverized in moments from above as golden bolts of plasma smashed into the base. The bombardment lasted half an hour, but little real damage to the actual unit was done.

But the UNSC Marines, ODST's, and Spartans were not about to throw in the towel. There was still a fight to be had on the ground, and they intended to thoroughly thrash their attackers with everything they had. But first thing's first, they needed intelligence on what they would be facing. So the Spartans and thirty-six ODST's had been tasked with infiltrating the occupied city of Outback and gathering all the information possible on their enemy. Sketchy radio signals from police and distress calls had told them that the hostile infantry seemed human, but seemed to use alien weapons. The handful of policemen and women in the city had been quick to try and evacuate the civilian population, but before they could even start the roads into and out of town were blocked. This left the fifty thousand people inside under the occupation of an enemy who had come to conquer.

The ODST's and Spartans had split into their individual squads to maximize their coverage of the city and find any weaknesses and strengths that they could. The ODST's had taken the underground route, snaking through drainage pipes and sewer mains to avoid detection. The Spartans had decided to take a more direct approach and test the abilities of their new foes on the surface. The city was choked with rubble from the short but intense bombardment from the ship hanging above them. There were many bodies of men, women, and even children laying there. The sight of dead civilians, especially children had unofficially turned the Spartans' recon mission into one of private vengeance. But they had yet to encounter someone to unleash their rage upon. The city was said to be occupied by over a thousand enemy troops, but they hadn't seen one yet.

"Where is everyone?" Sam whispered over the comms, saying the question they had all privately been asking.

"No way of knowing until we make contact with someone," Kelly replied, surveying the tall semi-built high rise office and apartment buildings for possible snipers or lookouts.

"If there's anyone left," Linda mumbled ominously.

"Hold!" Chief snapped, raising his feet into the air. As point man he had his motion tracker set to scan the farthest out and had gotten movement alerts ahead of them from the next street, "Big movement, ten degrees right, thirty meters out."

The Spartans moved into a crouch, anticipating hostile contact and rechecked their MA5B's with Linda fingering the safety of her SR99 to be sure it was off. They'd been waiting for this moment since entering the small city, and were eager to fight back. The Chief looked to Fred and Sam and put up two fingers and pointed to the right, the signal for them to move along the building. He turned to Linda, pointing a finger towards a tall food court/concourse mostly covered by umbrellas that spanned across the intersection where the Spartans knew someone or something was moving around. He turned last to Kelly, who he signaled to follow him forward along the left side of the road behind the cover of a row of dirty damaged cars and pickups. He moved forward, weapon trained towards where his motion tracker had picked up the movement that was still showing a large center of activity that was moving forward towards the intersection. According to the map the Chief was using the street that the bogeys were moving on intersected their street at a right angle. This put them right where they wanted to be.

Fred and Sam moved forward quickly, staying parallel to John and Kelly to be able to provide mutual support. Linda quickly found her way up a ramp and traversed her way to a stairway that hadn't been completed and gave her decent concealment. From where she was she instantly picked out the sources of their motion tracker contacts.

"Chief, I've got eyes on bogeys. Count twenty plus potential hostiles. Looks like our intelligence was right, these people look human. They've got gray armor, no headwear, and six foot staffs which I'm guessing are their weapons."

"Copy that, what's their alert status?" Chief asked as he and Kelly stopped short of the intersection behind the cover of the inert vehicles parked on the curb.

"Low to medium, they're moving down the sidewalks, smashing windows and storefronts. Assume they're looking for civilians," Linda called out again, her keen eye observing the strange group of hostiles in front of her.

"Copy that," the Chief responded, moving forward until he was right behind a large piece of rubble that had been blown off of the corner building and provided he and Kelly with a perfect line of fire.

Master Chief broke the situation down in milliseconds. Advantages: They had the element of surprise, superior cover, the high ground, and motion trackers to keep tabs on any movement. Disadvantages: Their weapons would have an unknown effect on their armor, their training and skill level was unknown, their weapons abilities were unknown, and their own physical abilities were unknown. He'd fought worse as a kid in training with little to no tools, weapons, or armor to assist him in battle. The Spartans would engage.

Fred and Sam carefully moved into cover behind a damaged truck to get out of the line of fire from where they had positioned themselves. The Spartans could now hear the voices of the hostile group moving towards them along with the sharp sound of glass being shattered as they drew nearer to the Spartan team lying in ambush. The trap was set, now all they had to do was wait for the enemy to walk smack into it. But even Spartans could be caught off guard by an unforeseen situation and that was exactly what happened.

"Blue Leader! Three civvies just broke from cover! They're headed our way!" Linda suddenly called out, "Hostiles in pursuit!"

Master Chief instantly poked his head around the corner to see and hear the effect of that sudden situation. The column of hostiles instantly went into an uproar as they gave chase, shouting in some odd language and abandoned all pretenses of coordination. They were chasing after a trio of civilians, all three of them probably younger than the age of fourteen. They were wearing normal kids clothes that were caked with dust and grime from hiding out in this war-torn city. But boy did they fly, the three of them turned the corner and ran straight towards the overturned truck where Fred and Sam were taking cover. The entire column of hostiles came running after them hot on their heels. Their armor jingling and clomping around as they held their staffs in both hands battle ready. The Chief could now see that they had a very weird black tattoo on their foreheads, and their faces and builds were very much human to the naked eye.

"Fred, Sam, get those civvies in cover, now. Blue Team prepare to engage on my mark," the Chief said, seeing the situation rapidly unfolding before him.

Four blue winks acknowledged his orders as the three kids reached the truck as Sam and Fred waited to snag them as quickly as possible. They passed at a sprint, but thanks to the Spartans' augmented reflexes the two Spartans snapped them up by their hoods and jackets, gingerly but quickly taking them off their feet and dropping them against the truck in cover. The three of them at first thought they'd been caught by enemy troops, and prepared to run again, but then caught a glimpse of the titanic armored Spartans and sat there with mouths agape. Sam moved back to be able to cover the sides as Fred moved to the other side but spoke over his armors speakers.

"Stay down, do not move under any circumstances," he calmly ordered the three still stunned children.

The group of hostiles now slowed down, seeing that their quarry had taken refuge behind the cover of the large truck in front of them. Several chuckled at the foolishness of the maneuver and then one yelled out in confident English

"Children! Surrender yourselves and you will be spared," he said, but received no response.

"Chief?" Linda asked, her finger on the trigger.

"Not yet," he responded.

The gray armored man had enough of waiting, and handed off his staff to one of his compatriots and pulled a smaller, almost snake-like weapon from his forearm. He triggered something and the device clicked audibly as it prepared to fire and walked forward, not suspecting what lay in wait. He walked to the side Fred was waiting on and brought his weapon up to be ready to fire as he made it to the corner. As soon as his hand with weapon in hand made it into Fred's line of sight he grabbed it, squeezing the hand and crushed every bone. The hostile screamed in pain as he dropped the device, but Fred didn't let go, he wasn't finished yet. With a sudden move Fred yanked him forward out of sight of the others who watched in stunned surprise at what had just happened. But then, Fred grabbed onto the man's back plate and collar propelled him past Sam and into a white steel wall headfirst. The man's body looked like it had been shot out of a cannon and impacted with similar force. His head hit the wall with a sickening crack, staining it with a blotch of red blood, and then slid down the eight feet to the ground.

"That'll show 'em," Sam chuckled, hearing the frightened gasps of the enemy who had seen it all.

"Blue Five, engage!" John ordered, seeing the situation and took advantage of it.

"Engaging!"

A single crack sounded out and sent up a cloud of red mist where the head of one of the enemy had been. This shot was followed by another one, with the same result. Then the third shot rang out, striking one of them in the chest and blowing apart the plated metal armor and coating the hostiles behind him in blood. Right as that happened, John and Kelly stood up and fired their MA5B's at point blank range. Sparks and pieces of metal jumped from the enemy troops as they were now caught in crossfire from the other two Spartans who leaned out from behind cover and opened up. Their sixty round magazines of high tech armor piercing rounds did the job, and the Spartans advanced. The enemy was stunned and shocked at the appearance of these green walking death machines that were larger than any human they'd ever seen. Fifty caliber rounds continued to shred them from above as the four Spartans assaulting them cleaved through their numbers within seconds. One or two tried to fire, but simply sent their deadly ordinance of plasma into the buildings or the street around them. Hardly any of them had their wits about them in time to pull up their weapons and fire effectively as their numbers were finally brought to single digits and then to zero. The engagement lasted less than a minute, leaving a pile of bodies, some without heads or entire pieces of their chests missing, that bled their thick red blood into pools that collected and ran off into runoff drains.

"Clear!" the Spartans sounded off.

"Search the bodies and police those weapons," John ordered, "Blue Five, do you have eyes on any contacts?"

"Negative, area's secure."

"Blue Two, secure the civvies."

"Roger," Kelly responded and turned to check on the three civilians who'd started the whole thing.

The Spartans reloaded after sounding the all clear and waded into the bodies to search for anything that might provide valuable intel. Fred picked up one of the staffs, examining it in detail until he found a button that must have operated the weapon. He aimed it away from his team mates and tapped the button once to see the end of the staff open up and an electric current course down the bulbous end. He then tapped it again, and a golden blob of fire went straight into the wall he'd been aiming at. It impacted with a small explosion that blackened the metal and charred it black. He walked over and examined it, making sure his helmet mounted camera got every second. Once that test was done he proceeded to snatch up the other staffs and snake-like pistol weapons and gathered them up.

"Stash the weapons in that truck and mark this position," John ordered as he tossed the weapons into the back of the vehicle as Linda marked the position for all to see.

Then, a strange noise got the attention of the Spartans, and all turned to face the source from within the piles of bodies. It was an almost screeching noise not unlike the noise a rat makes. The Spartans then saw several worm-like things squirm their way from the bellies of the bodies of the enemy soldiers that had fallen.

"What the fuck?!" Sam about yelled, seeing one snaking its way through a pool of blood towards them.

"What are they?" John asked as he knelt down to look at one for himself.

"No idea Chief," Fred responded, poking one with the barrel of his rifle and received a hiss from the creature in response.

"Well one thing's for sure. These guys aren't human, unless I missed something in biology with Deja," Sam grumbled.

"Grab a bottle or something to hold them and stash them with the weapons," he ordered, and got an acknowledgement from Linda who tossed down a pair of half full water bottles. He reached out grabbed one of the creatures firmly, feeling the muscles of the two foot long creature squirming in his grip as it screeched and tried biting at him to no avail. He stuffed it into the bottle, and saw it start to swim around inside like a fish.

The other Spartans did the same thing, collecting the creatures quickly and without fear and once they found and collected all the live ones they turned their attention back to the mission. John signaled Linda to join them on the ground and went to see Kelly on one knee talking to the three civilian children who were now huddling together as they looked up at the Spartans. Kelly had moved them into the cover of a small diner and had the kids inside the kitchen away from the windows. Fred stayed at the entrance to the kitchen while the other Spartans took in the situation.

They were definitely young. The oldest was thirteen and the two younger ones were eleven and seven years old. The oldest had dark brown hair that came down past his ears with brown eyes. He wore a black leather jacket with a patch on the shoulder that the Spartans recognized instantly as the patch for the 7th ODST Battalion with the ODST symbol sewn in colored leather on his back. He, like the other two kids had on a pair of blue jeans that were cut, stained, and dirty from their recent experience. The eleven year old had on a light blue Arcadia Hornets football hoodie with the number "54" in big block letters on the front and back. His hair was shorter and was the same color and his eyes were the same brown. The youngest had spikey brown hair and big blue eyes that stared at the Spartans the whole time. He wore a green zip-up forest digital camouflage windbreaker that all the kids seemed to wear. They all seemed to have very similar shaped faces and noses and if the Spartans were to guess they'd have guessed that they were brothers. But the Chief turned to Kelly and demanded an update.

"Kelly, status."

"Chief," Kelly said, "These three have been through a lot. They're physically healthy aside from exhaustion and dehydration. But mentally I'd recommend a full psychiatric evaluation and mental rehabilitation. Some of the stuff they say they've seen is pretty nasty."

"Have you asked about the location of the rest of the population?" John asked.

"Yes Chief, they said that the hostiles have been rounding up the civilian population and taking them to the spaceport and locking them into the warehouses under heavy guard. From what they've witnessed anyone wearing a uniform of any kind was stood up in front of them and publicly executed as a symbol of what happens when they resist."

"So what do we do with 'em?" Sam asked.

"We can't take 'em with us to our objective and the nearest Helljumpers are well out of range to escort them. They'll only slow us down Chief," Linda stated plainly.

"We can't leave them and we can't stay here," Fred noted as well.

"Where are our recon teams?" the Chief asked, looking at the tactical map that gave him the real time location of every UNSC soldier within the city.

There were three groups of dots from each of the three ODST squads that were deep within the city. They'd played it smart and stayed below ground. First Squad was within a kilometer of their position, Second Squad was farther out near the residential sector, and farthest out, near the space port was Third Squad. The Chief looked at the three children who were now his only source of intelligence of what had been going on in the city. He needed to get them out of the battle area and pull back to recon the space port. Priorities were first and foremost safeguard his unit's tactical effectiveness, ensuring the safety of civilians second, and third gathering tactical and strategic intelligence and then acting on it with a planned out operation. He broke down the situation once more, he had three civilians under his protection. They've apparently witnessed quite a bit of the initial attack on the city seeing the fate of the other civilians and the execution of people in uniform, more than likely cops and militia. That type of knowledge would prove useful, but he had to be able to get them safely out of the city first off. But they'd also been able to keep themselves free while being hunted and pursued and not getting caught. The Chief looked at them out of the corner of his eye when he remembered that fact, it reminded him of the training he and his fellow Spartans had gone through at their age. That wasn't lost on Sam either, who noted the minute glance from John.

"They kinda remind you of us don't they?" he said.

"Our situation was different."

"Was it?" Sam asked.

"I suppose not," John said.

He knew that moving farther into the city was tactically unwise, with civilians, children for that matter, in tow he and the Spartans would not be as combat effective as they would without them. But priorities were priorities, and he had no alternative.

"We're pulling out," Chief ordered, "Contact the Helljumpers to do the same. Rendezvous at Waypoint Bravo. Kelly and Linda, you're on point, Fred cover our six. Sam, we're on flank security with the civvies in the middle. Exfil out the back door."

The Spartans hesitated for a moment before acknowledging the order and moving to stack up by the back door. The kids sitting on the tile floor of the kitchen saw the Spartans moving to leave and stood up when the largest Spartan walk over to them with rifle in hand. He towered over them by nearly three feet in full MJOLNIR Mk IV Armor and could see the nervousness in their faces at being approached by someone as big and powerful as him.

"We're getting you out of the city. Stay between the Master Chief and me, do what we say when we say to do it. Keep your mouths shut, eyes open, and we'll be alright."

"Yes sir," they all said.

"Good, let's get you outta here."

Fred was keying into the comms, connecting with the ODST's to inform them of the change of plans, "Blue Four to Switchback, come in."

"This is Switchback we copy," came the response from the ODST Lieutenant.

"We're pulling out, rendezvous as Waypoint Bravo for evac."

"You can't be serious!" the voice of the ODST officer hissed.

"Affirmative, Blue Team has secured intel on possible location of the city's populace," Fred repeated, "Pull back and rendezvous with us."

"Have it your way Spartan. Switchback out."

Fred just shook his head as he terminated the transmission, "Sometimes I wonder how those ODST's haven't all been thrown in the brig."

"You and me both," Sam grumbled.

"Let's move Blue Team," the Chief ordered, getting a nod from Kelly and Linda who shoved open the door and spread out, aiming down both sides of the back alley where the small strip mall had its trash bins and outdoor storage.

"Clear," Kelly called, waving the other Spartans to follow them out.

Sam walked out, joining Linda where the rear was covered as the three kids walked out behind him and took cover behind a garbage bin. Then John and Fred walked out to join them and closed the diner's door behind them.

"Move out."

Linda and Kelly moved towards the bend in the alley moving towards a bend in the road that would take them to a road that led out of town. The alley was barely large enough to hold a large truck and two cars wouldn't be able to pass one another. Much of it was covered by buildings and/or wreckage of said buildings. Thankfully there weren't any bodies to worry about averting the eyes of the three kids. But the Spartans probably thought that the kids had seen their fair share already.

The trip out of the city was uneventful, and thankfully the enemy hadn't decided to open fire on them from above. Their motion trackers had kept them clear of patrols and lookouts, much to the irritation of their baser military instincts to engage and destroy. However once they made their way to the outskirts where there was a buffer zone of construction between them and the rocky hills and woods. They all accepted that they'd have little cover like they did in the confines of the city streets. So the Chief signaled the larger and stronger Spartans to grab a kid and carry them on their back so they could make better time to the rendezvous point.

Sam picked up the oldest boy and wrapped his arms on his shoulders and with Fred taking the youngest and had to carry him in one arm because his small arms weren't big enough or strong enough to hold on effectively. The Chief picked up the middle boy and carefully moved out and got into a slow jog that would have matched these boys' sprints. So the Spartans rapidly made up time, and soon they had arrived at the rendezvous point fifteen miles out from the city. The ODST's had all linked up themselves were moving along the ridgeline towards them but were still a solid eight miles away and two hours walk from the Spartans. So the Spartans tucked their VIP's into a small cave that would provide excellent concealment from the air and from the ground. Kelly checked them for any injuries once again. Finding nothing the Spartans now found that they had nothing to do, and Spartans got restless easily when bored. Linda was perched outside on the top of the hill keeping an eagle eye out for anything that came close to them from the air or from the ground. But at least the three boys had found the bravery to ask questions of the Spartans and that provided an outlet for their boredom.

"What are you? I've never seen a soldier like you before," their oldest charge asked, sitting down next to Fred who was sharpening one of his four knives, "And I used to live on Reach. I've seen all kinds of soldiers."

"Classified," the Spartan responded without missing a beat.

"Are you robots?" the youngest asked from his spot.

Every Spartan turned in the cave turned their heads to look at him and he reverted to looking at the dirt and stone floor rather than return the gaze of the four Spartans.

"We're human, just as human as you three," Sam replied with a chuckle.

"Not quite," Kelly whispered into the comm so that the boys wouldn't hear her.

"Can I ask your name if I tell you mine?" the last and quietest of the boys asked.

"Why not? Let's humor him," Sam shrugged, "Sure thing."

"I'm Carter," the youngest said eagerly.

"Nice to meet you Carter," Sam chuckled, "I'm Sam."

The little boy held out his hand in a gesture that made the Spartan cock his eyebrow up in curiosity. That was something that not very many kids of seven knew or even used. So when this little boy held out his hand sincerely and held it there the Spartans were rather curious about it all. So Sam made a sincere effort to shake his hand and not crush it with his immense strength. But he had his muscles under tighter control than ONI had over the rest of his life, so he was interested to see that the boy tried to squeeze his hand as a normal handshake normally worked, but due to the fact he couldn't even get his hand past his palm made that tough.

"I want to be just like you guys," Carter said, a buck toothed smile appearing on his face as he looked at the emotionless visor of the Spartan.

"Maybe you will," Sam responded.

"Mayday! Mayday!" their radios all of a sudden crackled loudly, "This is Switchback, we've been engaged by hostile forces. Requesting assistance."

"Blue Team, lock and load, we need to get to them now," Chief ordered, getting up from where he'd been sitting against the cave wall.

"Someone needs to stay and watch over them," Fred said, walking out of the cave entrance.

"Linda."

"Yes Chief," the sniper responded.

"Thanks for volunteering, keep a low profile, do not engage anything or anyone until we return with Switchback unless you've been compromised."

"Copy that Chief," said sniper growled at being volunteered to have to babysit.

"Take care of them for us," Kelly chuckled as she walked out and jogged off to follow the rest of the team.

All Linda could do was stand at the entrance holding her sniper rifle tightly, remembering not to squeeze too tightly, else she'd be left without a rifle and the replacement would be deducted from her pay. That's the way it had happened the last time, and the time before that. She didn't want another two thousand cubits deducted from her salary, not over this. But as she watched her team mates disappear over the ridge to help the engaged ODST's she couldn't help but shut off her comm and growl to herself.

"You guys suck."

Location: Epsilon Eridani System, Planet Reach, Menachite Mountain ONI CASTLE Base/Stargate Command

Date: March 27, 2527

Time: 1400 Hours

There were not very many things that hadn't been considered by ONI, especially in a place like the SGC. Dozens of contingencies, plans, back-up plans, and back-up plans for the back-up plans had been made up and thought out in detail by the officers, their staffs, and the A.I. that the SGC used. Every member of the battalion sized ONI security force had been briefed on the plans that had been laid out and were ready for just about anything.

The gate room itself was an interesting setup. It was quite large, being twelve meters by forty meters in its dimensions. A full platoon of guards with full combat gear and weapons ranging from MA5B Assault Rifles, M247H Heavy Machine Guns, 102mm SC-HE Rocket Turrets, and a quartet of M8 Automated Defense Systems was already stationed inside the large room. The gate room was built within the confines of a solid four feet of Titanium-A Battle Plate, reinforced concrete, and EMP shielding. The gun positions were scattered in front of and to the sides of the Stargate with the four M247H fifty caliber machine guns set up with two on the floor and two on a balcony that hugged the walls and in front of the control room. Two rocket turrets were positioned on the balcony parallel to each other behind armor plate. Two of the M8 Auto-Turrets were positioned directly to the side of the gate with two more positioned in the ceiling above the Stargate. Numerous deployable titanium bunkers were built into the floor and walls to give excellent cover to the guards on the concrete floor leading to the steel ramp to the Stargate. A powerful elevator was built into the floor where it could bring up Warthogs AFV's, Mongoose ATV's, or even something as large as a Scorpion could be brought up. But there were no Scorpions that were down there, as the Stargate was not large enough to facilitate such a large vehicle. To gain entry to this room there were two entrances opposite one another that required a palm scan and security code to be entered. Then above the indoor fortress was the control room.

This room was the nerve center of the whole operation. Dozens of computers, terminals, and screens relayed their important information directly to the standard crew of thirty men and women charged with its smooth operation. The primary dialing interface was an isolated terminal that was only accessible when two palm scanners set apart from one another had the hands of two cleared officers pressed down at the same time. It was a security measure of course, and one that only fifteen people in the entire UNSC were able to properly clear. The control room window overlooked the Stargate from the rear of the room with a balcony directly in front of its concave blast proof window. Two layers of Titanium blast shields were capable of being deployed in seconds in the event of an emergency, and all of it was under the supervision of a single Smart A.I. named Galileo.

All of this was in place with one addition, a team of ten men and women outfitted in full armor varying from the more prevalent ODST Battle Armor, to a single ONI Reconnaissance BDU, and a Marine BDU with a sealed helmet. The armor suits were slightly modified to be sealed from chemical and biological agents that may or may not be encountered by the offworld team. The unit was handpicked, it was meant to be the best of the best, and it would have to be if it were going to be stepping through the Stargate.

Their objective was a simple one: Go through the Stargate and acquire technology to defend the Earth and all her Colonies from any aggressor, and if needed, eliminate said aggressor. To command this team was Colonel Jonathan "Jack" O'Neill of the most elite ODST outfit in the UNSC had been chosen, his reputation as an elite and trusted operator in conflicts all across UNSC territory went back several decades and placed him where he now stood. Chosen for her unrivaled technical intellect was Captain Samantha Carter of ONI Section 3, who'd been the foremost expert on the Stargate's capabilities and the operating system with which the Stargate would run off of, her job as the team's technical officer would be to deal with any technology that was encountered while offworld. The odd one out in this band of the UNSC's elite was a civilian, Doctor Daniel Jackson, who was thought of as the finest interpreter and had been the one civilian to actually volunteer to go through the gate and figure out how to dial the team home when the time came.

At the moment the ten men and women of the team were checking and rechecking their equipment, weapons, and themselves. Of course they had the option to opt out right up until they were ordered through the gate where a replacement was slated to take their place in the team. None of them however wanted to opt out. Even as the timer on their HUD's counted down the minutes to when the Stargate would dial none of them flinched away from the mission. Not even Dr. Jackson who sat toying with the single M6D Magnum in the holster at his hip.

The rest of the team was armed quite heavily compared to him. The most common weapon was the M7S Silenced SMG's that seven of the ODST's carried. A single ODST held an M739 SAW, while two others carried Jackhammer Rocket Launchers on their backs. One of the other ODST's held an SR99 Sniper Rifle slung over his shoulder for long range fighting to compliment his Silenced SMG. Captain Carter carried an M7S and M6D to keep a similar ammunition type in the squad so that ammo could be split if worse came to worse.

Soon though, the countdown timer in their HUD's reached zero, and the dialing sequence commenced. Sirens went off across the base, hatches and doors locked shut, security personnel rushed to their positions, and hundreds of cameras and sensors started rolling. The Stargate started turning, and one by one, the glowing crystals began lighting up as the groaning of stone on stone filled the gate room. The team felt their hearts start to race in their chests, and their eyes studied every single movement of the Stargate as it spun and the chevrons encoded and lit up one by one. Finally at the seventh chevron's lock a sudden tidal wave of what appeared to be water jetted from the ring, engulfing a camera that had been placed directly in front of the device. The signal was lost instantly, and the camera disappeared at the sudden retreat of the splash of watery material. Everyone watching couldn't help but do a double take at the strange watery image rippling in the ring. The triggers of the numerous guards were not untouched as they waited for anything to come barreling through at them. But nothing happened.

It had begun, the UNSC had dialed the Stargate, and would soon realize a great many wondrous things were out there. But out there waiting were dangers, dangers that would soon bring the full might of the UNSC into a conflict that no one could have imagined. A conflict foreseen thousands of years ago by a race that even at this moment were watching with curiosity as the UNSC took its first bold steps into a larger universe. For unseen by the full might of the Epsilon Eridani Fleet and its numerous Orbital Defense Platforms a small vessel from an ancient and wise race observed the start of a new era for the galaxy.

Yeah I know I forgot about Teal'c this chapter, but if I had put him in this update I would have a chapter over ten thousand words long. And that is way too long for one chapter, I'm not Tom Clancy (Rest in Peace) so I'll try to keep the chapters within a range of 5K-8K Words in the future. Thanks for reading, hope you guys enjoyed it, and I'll see you again when I update my next story in the cycle.

Now this is something those of you who've read my story A Brutal Truth know I love to do. A poll! You vote for whatever it is I ask for input on, and here it is.

I plan to give SG-1 an A.I. of their own for use in the field. What should I name it?

Indiana Jones

Audie Murphy

Columbus

Let me know your vote in review form, voting ends when I update again in a few weeks.

Next Chapter Preview: First contact for the SGC (Teal'c is in it this time I promise), and the Spartans turn loose.