A/N: Well, here's the 11th chapter! Hard to believe I made it so far, huh? Anyway, to answer Slayer's yet again lengthy review, the three secret characters aboard the UNSC Higheron, will help Humanity more than anyone else that's an OC, but just wait and find out! My first ever flashback is going to be in this chapter, so watch out when you find it. Here we go now.

Chapter 11: Fortification

Alexandra sighed. From a map of the ship, they were directly above the room with the repair parts. She had taken the elevator all the way down here, just to push the wrong button.

"Come on guys, wrong floor. It's right below us so we just need to use the elevator once more" she told them.

"Figures, we always were the ones who slipped up on our ops." Carl said with a hint of annoyance.

Drake spoke up then, "Carl, don't say that. All you did was blow a hole in the floor of what we thought was an unoccupied building, and get us surrounded by an entire platoon's worth of Covenant" he laughed.

"Man, how was I supposed to know that the building contained a Forerunner Artifact?"

"Well, ONI did tell us that during the briefing, unless you were sleeping inside your helmet again" he snickered once more.

"Oh shut up, your not helping my attitude here."

"OK, children, settle down. Now, on to business. We are now at the elevator shaft. Does anyone want to tell me what we do now?"

Carl raised his hand in a sarcastic way and said, "ooh, ooh, do we get to go down there and get the parts?"

"Yes, now come on. We don't have all day" Alexandria laughed.

Master Chief and his fellow Spartans were riding an airlift Pelican towards the UNSC's flagship, the Resounding Hammer. Another Pelican was also taking team Grau Falk. Linda and John were cleaning their weapons and Will and Fred were resting with their heads on the bulkheads.

After a day's worth of heavy fighting, they had taken the generators that powered up the orbital batteries guarding the planet. All they had to do now was capture them and bring in some of their own to fortify the planet.

After they docked with the Resounding Hammer, the Spartans went to their ready room and had some well deserved rest. Team Grau Falk, however, had slept during slept during the three hours before the Pelicans first arrived.

Captain Tom Lind was nearing the slipspace exit. Ten minutes after his battlegroup had left the alternate dimension, Admiral Nimitz' fleet had entered real space too, and were transfered to the Fleet of Immense Power under command of Fleet Admiral Jakob Reiner.

The 330 newly arrived ships added to the already impressive number of ships of 283. The Captain opened a comm channel to Reiner.

"Admiral, the mission was a success. We have gathered an additional 330 ships, and found a planet we thought was lost to the Covenant. We have reestablished connection for them, and the Admiral of the fleet has said he would transfer his ships into your fleet."

"Very good, Captain. However, an enemy fleet is approaching from slipspace scanning. I advise you and our guests to prepare for ship to ship combat, and ready anti boarding parties."

"Yes sir, we will prepare for combat. Over and out."

The Prophet of Truth sighed, today was not going very well. From recent reports, the Traitors and the Human scum have captured Lobonikos and wiped out all Jiralhanea on the planet. Not only that, but the orbital batteries that did not make it to Lobonikos in time were destroyed by the Sangheili at a refueling station. It looks like he would have to garrison Denlida more than he thought.

Not only that, but the Traitors had given the Humans ship-borne shields, their FTL engines, and even how to build the weapons that the Forerunners had bestowed upon them as gifts! What more could go wrong, he wondered? The fleet he sent towards the planet were going to exit the alternate dimension in just another unit. He hoped they would be able to accomplish what the others had not.

Captain Lind was busy getting his MACs and his MAPC powered up for the nearing Covenant Fleet. All ships, including the RG forces, were anticipating the counter-attack.

A nuclear minefield was set up in the expected slipspace exit point of the attack. Although the mines did not have an EMP charge attached to their warheads, they still packed a punch to anything caught in it's blast. The Captain heard a warning beep and knew it was about to begin. The navigations officer told him the point of exit.

Damn. We set the field in the wrong area completely. Those mines aren't going to help in this battle, unless we lure them into it. But, that would be pointless, as we would lose some of our own ships in the resulting explosion. Well, at least we can win anyways.

As the Covenant armada exited slipspace, everything was quiet. Unless you count the fact that over 800 warships unleashed their fury on the enemy, which was trying to get their systems back online after the jump. Many MAC shells missed their mark and flew through space, and even a few plasma beams missed.

By now though, the Covenant counter-attacked. They launched three waves of plasma before the Allies were able to fire again. The balls of plasma slowly made their way across the battlefield, in a graceful manner, and washed into the shields of RG and Human vessels. 57 Allied ships became slagged wrecks as the plasma burned through their shields and into their hulls. A number of other ships listed to port or starboard, depending on where they were hit.

However, despite the brief victory for the Covenant aggressors, newly created MAC shells, balls of plasma, MAPC rounds, and plasma lances struck into their ships, creating a firestorm of destruction. With over 3 quarters of their fleet gone, the Brute controlled ships started to break away from each other, trying to avoid losing their lives. It didn't work.

A last salvo of Allied might pummeled the remaining ships, but from the last enemy vessels still alive, they were able to release their last batch of plasma before becoming distant memories. Finally, the UNSC was able to gain ground during the 30 year war.

Having just received word of the second fleets' destruction, Truth was furious. They had lost complete contact with Lobonikos, and was presumed to be in enemy hands. And with the Sangheili allied with the Humans, there was limited territory Truth was able to lead his fleets into, as the Sangheili were guarding them.

Then Truth looked at the cowering Unggoy informant, and told him, "ready all of our fleets, we are going to Denlida."

The Unggoy almost collapsed in fear, "y-y-yes Most Noble Prophet of Truth. Your will be done." With that, the little creature scurried away in fear. But the message would be sent, at any rate.

The Unggoy that stood with Truth and decided to not ally themselves with the Humans were still pathetic, although they had shown more courage than the ones that sided with the Traitors and the Humans. Within 600 Units, the 7 fleets guarding Truth's flagships would arrive at the heart of all protection, Denlida, their home planet.

Fleet Admiral David Harper was getting ready to send 30 newly built Orbital Defense Platforms equipped with both types of guns; the SMAC and the SMAPC. The generators required to power them were already on their way through slipspace to the Elite's homeworld, Retenkos. When everyone in his fleet was fueled up, they set sail through space, and tore a hole in it. In went the guns and the escorting ships.

After the SMACs and SMAPCs made it to Retenkos, the Admiral would have his fleet return to Earth in another jump. The space between Earth and Retenkos was uncontested, so they needed an escort, however, the route from Retenkos to Lobonikos was held by the Elites.

After an relatively uneventful trip through slipspace, they checked in with the nearest outpost, and cleared themselves to get fuel and rest. The prototype slipspace drives installed on the Admiral's fleet also needed maintenance, and minor repairs. One of his destroyers was crushed because the engine failed mid-journey, and was caught in-between real space and slipspace at the same time, so he didn't want to take any chances.

After repairs were completed, they headed back to Earth, with the OD Platforms going towards Lobonikos. Although the Admiral didn't like the thought of the Grunts and Elites aboard his ship, he allowed them to, though they got looks of disgust and partial fear from the Navy personell and Marines onboard.

The Sangheili Officer and his squad mates obviously didn't like being in the cramped compartments of the Human ships either, but the Unggoy with them were just scared out of their minds. To see so many Humans up close, armed humans, not to mention. One of the little creatures even soiled himself, much to the disgrace of his brethren and Sangheili, and to the laughter of the Human crew.

We are here to service and repair the Human FTL drives, and that is it, the squad leader thought. He looked at the cowering creature. The Humans were able to fend off the Covenant for longer than any other opponent the Covenant had ever faced, and with inferior technology, yet the Unggoy had the same technology as they did while in the Covenant when the Unggoy Rebellion began, and still their forces only lasted 2 cycles. Clearly they are not aggressive beings, but their only usefulness was to wear the enemies out, and then the Sangheili would charge in, and wipe out remaining forces.

Then, he realized, the Sangheili have no actual honor. We use other species as a way to wear an enemy down, and then mop up the rest and take all the glory. Not only this, but we have been serving false Gods and we have been wiping out a species which has caused us no harm to begin with. They have fought honorably, and for a just cause, whilst we have been fighting for, what was it? Glory? Respect? Haven to a realm which does not exist? I do not know. But I do know this, I will do whatever it takes to restore honor to my lineage, and I will willingly aid the Humans in their campaign to rid the universe of the self-proclaimed 'Prophets'.

He remembered his first combat mission against the Humans while walking towards the engine compartments.

Cesa 'Fortumee was riding the new dropship the Huragok have just come up with. The Phantom class dropship looked like a beetle. It had 3 shade turrets mounted in a triangular formation on the underside of the ship. Dark purple, it had a miniature grav lift in the middle of it, and also had docking ports on its rear in case the lift was obstructed in some way.

He and his squad. consisting of three other Sangheili, 10 Unggoy, and 4 Kig-Yar, were waiting almost with an air of impatience as the dropship sped towards their location. A place called New Mombasa, it was surrounded by the desert, except on the one side of the megalopolis that was the port.

When his squad landed, they met only light resistance. A squad of Humans had taken shelter behind a makeshift barricade. While four Unggoy went down, another lost it's arm, and a sixth was blown to buts by a poorly thrown grenade. The Kig-Yar had formed the usual defensive shield by overlapping their energy shields. Two of them went down from stray fire, and the survivors had ran to take shelter in a nearby alleyway.

The four Sangheili, however, stood their ground. Cesa primed and threw a plasma grenade, notable for their curious tendency to stick to organic targets. The grenade flew through the air, and melded onto one of the Humans' helmets. The Human took of the helmet and rapidly threw it back at them, with the helmet landing in the middle of the cowering Unggoy. The helmet blew up, and incinerated three of the Unggoy, while badly burning the last one to the point where it could no longer fight.

This was not going good, Cesa thought. So he took out and primed a second plasma grenade from his utility clip, and this time, it stuck to one of the Humans' faces. It ran around screaming at his friends to help him, and he blew up along with three of his squad mates. Now, with the Humans in a more manageable state, only five remained. The Kig-Yar came back out from hiding and returned fire.

The Sangheili fired until the last Human dropped to the ground. Although that very same one threw a grenade at the Kig-Yar before falling, Cesa was left only with his fellow Sangheili. He walked over to the makeshift barricade, and saw that it was still alive.

The vermin said something that he could not understand, and then shot it. With the Human dead, he returned to his brethren.

"Good job, 'Furnumee. I will tell my superiors of your accomplishments in battle. But, with our entire squad lost, we must return to the Prophet of Regret's flagship, The Pride and Justice." Cesa's superior called for a dropship, and they waited patiently for it to come to them.

"Thank you, Excellency. I will try to do my best in our next engagement." Cesa replied.

"I would hope so. Although we will no longer be battling here, at least until we get replacements. But, do not look upon our situation as bleak, for you will surely get a promotion for your accomplishment."

Cesa knew the promotion bit was just to cheer him up for not being in combat anymore, but he doubted he would actually be promoted upon his first day in combat.

Corporal Wally Dane knew it was over when that plasma bolt struck him in the chest. He fell down to the ground. He was trying to crawl away, even though the effort was pointless. What he did not expect, was for the Elite son of a bitch to walk over to him and kick him over. Dane could see the bastard looking at him.

"You go to Hell! You go to Hell and you die!" The Corporal was about to say something else, but the next thing that Wally knew was pitch black.

Cesa 'Furnumee almost walked into one of the bulkheads before he realized that they were at their required destination. A few units of time was all it took to service and repair the FTL drive. Cesa left the Human ship from a Phantom dropship, and was transported back to the ship he resided on.
Alexandra, Drake, and Carl finally got the FTL drive on their battered ship working. After reaching the bridge, they turned the consoles on, and input the proper codes in to reach Earth. Being that the Covenant have already found, they saw no reason to use the Cole Protocol's system to get back to Earth, not to mention they were near a dead planet that the Covenant had no use for.

A few hours later, they entered back into real space. They got a hailing call, and responded.

"This is the OD platform, Osiris. We have identified your ship as the UNSC Higheron. Respond immediately, or you will be destroyed."

Alexandra took note of the emphasis on the word will "This is Spartan 067, along with Spartan 103 and Spartan 041. Requesting immediate assistance and current events."

Apparently, the comm. officer was surprised to hear a human voice, much less that voice belonging to a Spartan, because it took a few seconds for him to respond.

"O-One moment please." There was static for a second until a gruff voice sounded. "Spartan 067, please let me in on where in gods' name you've been?"

"Certainly, sir. Me, Spartan 103, and 041 were on missions to far away to receive our Mark V Mjolnir Battle Armor. So, we just went and holed up in the Jericho system while sustaining ourselves on the ships' galley and repairing it constantly. Once we got the comm. channels back online, we were able to find out that the Covenant attacked Earth, and now we have an alliance with the Elites, Grunts, and Hunters. That is all we know, sir."

"Very well, Spartan 067, you've got quite a bit to catch up on."

The person on the radio with the Spartans concluded the recent events, and let it sink in.

"Yes sir. I understand completely. However, we need the Mjolnir Mark VI Battle Armor, we currently have the Mark IV version."

"Yes, I can see where that could cause problems. We'll send over a Pelican, and you can dock with us. We can receive three suits within two hours from Songnam."

"Understood, sir. We shall wait."

A/N: Whew! OK, now you guys and gals finally know who Alexandra, Drake, and Carl are! Slayer you should be happy now, but you may have figured it out from my hint I gave you. At any rate, Cesa 'Fortumee's first name is pronounced; Say sa. I'll get to work on the next chapter ASAP, but I hope you guys like this chapter. It was certainly hard to write, what, with combining everything into a linear story and all... Anyways, I hope you all liked it, and have a great day! I would very much like reviews, so please, do it. And BTW, Retenkos is the new name for the Sangheili (Elite's) Homeworld.