Planning to start showing events outside of those just involving Shepard, either as potential starting points for subplots/spin-offs or just to write something different. This first one follows that Captain Shepard shot in the face last chapter.

Another chapter, another attempt to entertain you all. I honestly do not have anything else to add, so on with the show!

Halo belongs to Microsoft Studios

Mass Effect belongs to belongs to Bioware

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XX Jiralhanae Cruiser the Ferocious Doctrine – 2773 XX

Kamak did his best not to show his fear, jiralhanae could smell fear and often said it made unggoy taste better. The Alpha Jiralhanae who had been placed in command of the attack on the planet was ranting and raging at his surviving forces. The big dumb brute didn't care that they'd been fighting sangheili and humans or that his stupid decisions on where the big guns went left them unable to fight properly, he was just afraid this loss would look bad on him. They'd barely managed to get back to the troop carriers before he'd ordered the cruiser into the Void.

Kamak did his best to focus on the Alpha Jiralhanae while also scanning the remaining Lances. Most where more heavily beaten then the one he belonged too, some consisting of only a single jiralhanae or unggoy. Actually, the Lance under the command of Wotanizus seemed to be one of the largest remaining. That was bad.

"And you!" The Alpha snarled as he rounded on Wotanizus, his long braided beard swinging from his chin as he did so. "You fled from battle! The others forced to retreat, their numbers whittled down but you… YOU RAN!"

"I would not see my pack destroyed due to a fool's planning!" Wotanizus snapped back only to receive a brutal blow to his damaged left eye, where the human reinforcements' carbine round had struck him.

"Watch your tone whelp! We are far from Doisac and your uncle's favouritism will not protect you." The Alpha growled as he stared down at the hissing Wotanizus in reference to his familial relation to the Chief of Chiefs and the younger jiralhanae's rapid advancement through the ranks. "Speak to me like that again and I will kill you myself."

But Wotanizus refused to be cowed by the Alpha and stared right back, teeth bared in challenge. Even when the Alpha readied his massive hammer Wotanizus did not falter and something, either respect for the younger jiralhanae's courage or fear of his uncle, stayed the Alpha's hand.

"Your actions have brought the stench of shame aboard this ship… And only blood will wash it clean." The Alpha growled before pointing past Wotanizus with his hammer. "Kill them."

"What!?" One of Kamak's fellow unggoy squeaked.

"Wotanizus has brought shame on all of you by making you flee from battle, now he will release you from this shame." The Alpha explained with a cruel chuckle, Wotanizus had ordered the retreat to avoid his pack's destruction and now would be forced to kill them… Or be killed himself.

"You… No… I will not!" Wotanizus roared but was prevented from lunging at the Alpha when the older jiralhanae's hammer hummed warningly.

"Do it, or it will be your blood that washes away the stink on my ship." The Alpha threatened.

"The stench of shame… It does hang heavy over this ship. And only blood will wash it away." Wotanizus growled as he turned to face his pack. The jiralhanae's single remaining eye swept over the assembled jiralhanae and unggoy, his thoughts and intentions unreadable. "But I feel only the one who brought it upon us can wash it away!"

With that declaration of intent Wotanizus drew his pistol and turned, the long curved blade attached to his weapon's guard coming down on the Alpha's hand. With a howl of pain the Alpha reflexively released his grip on the hammer before recovering and swatting the pistol from Wotanizus' grip then tackled his opponent. The jiralhanae snarled and roared in amusement as the young Captain challenged the ship's Alpha. They chanted and yelled as the one eyed challenger did his best against the older and more powerful Alpha.

Kamak and his unggoy brethren retreated out of the way, when jiralhanae got excited unggoy often got crushed. As he tried to put as much distance between himself and the fighting Kamak heard Wotanizus howl in agony, Wotanizus had held the upper hand but lost it after the Alpha dug his thumb into the wounded jiralhanae's damaged eye. As Wotanizus reared back in agony the Alpha forced him to the ground.

Dropping down and kneeling on Wotanizus chest the Alpha pinned the young Captain to the ground and began peeling away the helmet, he clearly wanted to see his victim's face as the life was crushed out of the body.

"The Captain's gonna die!" an unggoy to Kamak's right shrieked.

"Someone help!" Another cried

"Run! Run! Run! We'll be next!" a third whimpered.

Agreeing with the third one Kamak began frantically looking for the exit. And then he saw it, the Captain's pistol. To the jiralhanae the Type-52 Pistol was just that, a pistol, but to the small frame of an unggoy it was more like a human shotgun. A powerful shotgun with enough kick to knock Kamak off his feet when he fired it at the Alpha.

"Gah!" The Alpha snarled as his shields, already weakened from Wotanizus' attacks, failed and his armour absorbed the rest of the impact from Kamak's panicked attack. He wasn't injured, just startled as no jiralhanae would ever expect to be attacked by another during a challenge for leadership.

The time it took for him to gather himself, plus the second it took to find the terrified Kamak, proved fatal however as the enraged captain beneath him lunged forward and sank fangs into his throat. Swinging his fist down he knocked the younger jiralhanae loose but the berserking Wotanizus simply tossed him away before the Alpha could do anything.

"AAARGGH!" Wotanizus screamed as he fell on the Alpha, fists pounding away at the older jiralhanae's head and face with enough force to dent and warp the armoured headdress worn as a mark of station. When Wotanizus calmed down enough to think clearly the Alpha was a twitching lump of muscle and fur with pulp for a head. When his still furious eye fell on Kamak, the little unggoy nearly fainted with fear. "You! Unggoy! Your dare attack during a challenge!?"

"I… I… He would have killed you…" Kamak managed to whimper before his voice died, taking the 'and then us as well' that should have ended that sentence with it. Something that may have been for the best.

"Your name?" Wotanizus snarled as he began to advance his trembling little saviour.

"I-I-I'm Kamak, I have served you since we left Doisac…" Kamak whispered as Wotanizus towered over him. Noticing he still held the pistol in his hands Kamak quickly held it out and began repeatedly apologising.

"…Keep it, as a sign of your new station." Wotanizus grunted before turning away and retrieving the still twitching Alpha's hammer. Pausing to study the weapon/ status symbol for a moment he then snarled with rage as he brought the hammer down, pommel first, and 'planted' it in the Alpha's chest like a banner.

"N-New station?" Kamak asked after a moment, his brain having been too preoccupied with him not being killed to fully register the words.

"Should the next few minutes go in my favour, you shall serve as my personal attendant." Wotanizus growled as he turned slowly to study the assembled jiralhanae, many of whom looked unhappy. "For now you and your fellow unggoy may leave. Treat your injuries and then feast, you all have earned it!"

Kamak was nearly swept away in the rush as the other unggoy departed. Managing to get his footing by the doors Kamak stopped and watched as Wotanizus flashed a cruel and bloodthirsty smile.

"If any object to a half blind 'whelp' taking command, voice your objections now." He snarled while reaching out to gently lay a hand on the hammer. "If not, take a knee and submit!"

XX Armoury; The Fires Of Sol – 2774 XX

Shepard accepted the hardsuit handed to him with a scowl. OPI Technologies may have pulled that plastic piece of crap but they'd replaced it with something barely any better in Shepard's eyes. Sure it had a bit more padding, and the shields where meant to be stronger, but it was still a glorified jumpsuit they expected him to wear while fighting 500KG space-gorilla that could probably bench Shepard's old car.

Moving into the small walled area where he and his squad could change Shepard began stripping off his fatigues and suited up. To look at the 'Victor' didn't look at the different to the 'Reclaimer' hardsuit, chest was a little bulkier and the pauldrons larger but it was really just the same old piece of crap. It even had the same crappy 'urban camo' pattern that was absolutely useless for the Penal Squads since the UNCS painted big red markings on the armour so they'd be easily differentiated from standard marines.

"Never gets old, seeing you scared of a damn helmet." Jones chuckled to his right as the older man finished his systems check.

"Ain't scared, just wondering why we have to wear this piece of crap instead of those big sturdy BDUs the marines use to have." Shepard corrected as he popped his helmet on and began running his own systems check.

"I'll tell you why…" A particularly unpleasant member of the squad by the name of McKay spat before leaning in towards Shepard for a conspiratorial whisper. "It's because those filthy xenophiles get a twisted hard-on every time they see us dress up like turians!"

"Huh, the idea that anyone could get a hard-on looking at someone as repulsive as you just boggles the mind." Shepard snorted, electing a dirty stare from the serial killer he was forced to work alongside.

"Knock it off ladies, Albatrosses drop in five so cut the chatter and get your guns." Their sergeant ordered, potentially preventing Shepard from getting to kick McKay's teeth in.

Letting McKay push past him Shepard waited a minute before joining Jones in the queue to be handed their weapons. While Shepard understood why they did this, no one in their right mind would let convicts have the same kind of access to weapons or armour as the standard marines, he still found it degrading having to line up in full view of the real marines and be handed a rifle. When he made it to the counter, and scanned his IFF, the quartermaster paused.

"Huh, that's new." The old marine grumbled before leaning to her right and set down a DMR in front of him. "Didn't think any of you idiots could be trusted to work anything above the ICW."

"Eh… I took some qualifying exam down at the practice range but…" Shepard began before the quartermaster cut him off.

"Don't care about your life's story, now get out of the way his I can arm the rest of you idiots!" She snapped at him.

Moving away Shepard took one of the modified PDPs, locked like the rifles so that they cannot be used until a sergeant issues a code groundside, and joined his squad. Strapping himself into the Albatross and stowing his rifle Shepard activated his VISR's uplink to the UNSC Database. Sure the Penal Squads had little to no real clearance but Shepard had worked out a way to patch his Omni-Tool into his VISR and that let him run some bypasses. A display taking up nearly half of Shepard's field of view popped up and began giving him Intel on the MA-403 DMR.

Someone nudged Shepard causing him to close his link. Looking to his side he spotted Jones, noticeable by his IFF, looking at him and nodding towards the sergeant who was glaring at Shepard.

"Lose the porn feed, I'm explaining what the objective is." The Sergeant was an asshole, way worse than the one Shepard and Jones had served under before, and seemed to hold each and every member of the squad in contempt.

"Hahaha… Didn't know those rumours about marines wanking over their guns was true." Shepard laughed, adding to why their sergeant especially disliked him. "I was checking the new gun, forewarned and all that."

"Sure you were." The sergeant said sarcastically. "Now, as I was saying, our target is a beryllium processing plant the Brutes set up. Recon says limited security so we're looking at grunt workers, Jacket watchers and whatever Brutes got sent to oversee the lot. We're part of the force ordered to capture this plant."

"Isn't this some ODST bullshit, why are we going?" Someone interrupted.

"Because our orders are to capture, not destroy, the facility. Beryllium serves some role in constructing their ships, so handing it over to the sangheili will boost their war effort." The sergeant informed them.

"WHAT!?" McKay roared. "Bad enough we're running around in turian pyjamas but now we're running jobs for those split-jawed bastards! Fuck that!"

"You'll do what you're told, convict, or so help me I will shoot you myself." Shepard really hoped the sergeant did that, McKay was an ass and he really hoped the man got fragged.

Whatever classy response McKay had planned to retort with was forgotten when another Penal Squad boarded the carrier and their sergeant informed them of the mission, with no complaints or backtalk. As the Albatross began its decent Shepard used his Omni-Tool to hack into the dropship's external cameras. Completely replacing his HUD with the sight of heat and friction and the planet below. Shepard loved this, just watching the planet growing larger and closer during re-entry.

XX Beryllium Processing Plant; Lorn V XX

The squad moved forward, through the thick foliage that surrounded the plant. Shepard was apart from the main group, the sergeant having ordered him to act as a scout, and so he was the first to get a clear look at the plant. No real walls to speak of at the boundaries, but the buildings themselves looked thick and solid. If they jiralhanae locked it down before anyone secured a hold this would be a lot harder. Scanning the lush greenery Shepard spotted the IFFs from nearly a dozen different squads as positioning themselves for the attack. The VISR programming also let him pick up the readings of any enemy combat harness in range, which was worrying.

"Sergeant, this looks wrong." Shepard reported in as the rest of the squad moved up. "No way the Albatrosses went unnoticed but there's no sign they even registered us."

"Brutes are thick as posts, what do you expect?" Someone from the back of the squad snorted.

"No he's right… Grunts just moving about, acting normal." The sergeant said just as the order to move came through.

BOOM!

The distinct sound of a round from a jiralhanae grenade launcher, or Brute-Shot, exploding rank out as the other squads moved forward. Particle Rifle rounds, coming from Kig-Yar snipers atop the plant's roof, began taking pot-shots at the marines and Penal Squads members moving forward.

"Fuck that." Shepard spat before diving back into the cover of the local foliage. Readying his DMR and tracking the trails from the Kig-Yar shots Shepard lined up a shot and dropped one. A retaliatory shot from another sniper sent Shepard running, skirting the edges of cover looking for another firing position. Taking another shot, Shepard wounded a sniper and was moving again before its friends got target him.

"Kid! Kid where are you?" Jones' voice buzzed over comms.

"Hidden in the trees, taking shots at the snipers." Shepard replied as he crouched down and readied another shot. "Where are you?"

"He's firing on the snipers from the treeline." Jones said to someone, most likely the sergeant. After a bit of back and forth Jones addressed Shepard again. "That was close, Sarge was about to kill your guns for deserting."

"Where the hell does he expect me to desert too?" Shepard asked out of genuine curiosity. "Command gave me the long range and accurate gun that won't do me any good in close, right? So it makes sense I stay back and use it… Another Jackal down!"

"Good point, I'll tell him that." Jones laughed before screams of 'Incoming!' rang out and the sounds of explosions came from the plant's main courtyard.

"Shit! Shit, shit, crap, dammit." Shepard cursed as he downed another sniper. He'd stopped moving in between shots as the soldiers in the courtyard kept the Kig-Yar from focusing on him. Although now he had to as he had no clear shots left.

Moving forward in search of a target Shepard reflected on how bad an op this was. No support, no real plan and no groundside recon… Whoever planned this clusterfuck had better lose their job over it. When he reached the courtyard he found a jiralhanae Captain and over twenty unggoy dead along with the bodies of many humans. The remaining soldiers were either busy attempting to breech and secure the plant itself or providing suppressing fire to keep the remaining snipers pinned down and unable to fire on them.

"Blast it open!" Shepard's sergeant ordered before noticing Shepard's approach. "You! I never ordered you to stay back! You just bought yourself another year in the system, at least!"

"Yeah and how many of those snipers have you taken out?" Shepard spat as he squared up to the NCO. "This whole operation is bullshit and I for one refuse to die because of bullshit. So you got a problem with me thinking things out, fuck you!"

"Enough!" Another sergeant ordered. This sergeant, older and holding seniority over Shepard's one, ordered the marines to use enemy plasma grenades to breech the doors and told Shepard, along with a group of standard marines, to move through the facility and take the roof. "Deal with those damn Jackals, understood?"

"Yes Sir." Shepard said with a salute, just to annoy his sergeant, as the doors to the facility where blasted open and UNSC personnel flooded in to kill or capture anyone inside.

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Something of a running joke it seems will be my use of taking Warhammer 40k planet names and using them for jiralhanae/sangheili controlled planets. Did it in the CODEX timeline without realising it and just caught myself doing it here. I'm gonna keep doing it since I like 40K, not as much as Warhammer Fantasy, and it's a good source of names.

Next chapter should see Shepard released from his service in the suicide squads and we'll be moving into him as a member of the UNSC proper. The CODEX has a mostly complete timeline up until the Eden Prime mission as well as entries on guns and BDU/hardsuits.

Another chapter, another attempt to entertain you all. I honestly do not have anything else to add, so on with the show!

Halo belongs to Microsoft Studios

Mass Effect belongs to belongs to Bioware

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