Hello everyone, Legion of Two here with an other chapter.

Chapter 2

UNSC Prowler Wink of an Eye, Slip-space, A week after departure from Reach, 2563, UNSC Calendar, 05:26

Lyle Burkhart hated being in slip-space for a week. But he supposed it was better than 8 months of travel that people had to endure just a few years ago thanks to Trans-light engine advances courtesy of Forerunner tech salvaged because of the Janus Key. Still, no one liked being in slip-space for a week. Fortunately, Burkhart had ways of occupying his mind.

"You know, I think I'm starting to get the hang of this game." Burkhart said with serious contemplation.

Petty Officer First Class Lynne Irene rolled her eyes. "Uh huh".

"No, I'm serious. I think I have a natural talent for Chess."

"You lost… again… for the 3,000th time."

"Yeah, but did you see the last game? It took Patriot 14 moves to beat me." Burkhart turned his chair towards Lynne. "That's a personal best!"

Irene sighed. "Right".

"I'm telling you, one of these days I'm gonna beat him. Just you wait." He said as he turned his attention back to the holographic Chess board.

"Ensign Burkhart is improving greatly." Patriot interjected.

"You see, even Patriot agrees!" Patriot chose not to tell Burkhart that the last game was him simply toying with the young Ensign. He wouldn't want to crush the motivation of a crewman after all.

"Will you shut that damn game off already." Irene berated him. "We're almost at the planet. Besides, I think the captain's coming up." As if on cue, Captain Michael Harvey entered the bridge, the crew quickly stood to attention and saluted.

"At Ease. I hope everyone is well rested, because we're going to be here for a while." Harvey said before gulping down his last bit of coffee. He nodded his head in disgust. "It's like I'm drinking liquid cow shit."

"Sorry to hear that sir." Burkhart responded. "We saved some of the sugar packets in our MREs that we didn't use so you could sweeten your coffee. I left it near the coffee dispenser. Did it help?"

"Sure did. Now it tastes like liquid cow shit with sugar. Thanks for the gesture though." The crew started to chuckled, which Harvey liked to see. On missions like this, it was important to keep the crews spirits up. He had seen firsthand what happens when tensions and frustrations are combined with cramped living conditions. That's why Harvey aloud a bit of leniency among his crew. Because any soldier knows, nothing relieves stress like humor.

But that didn't mean that his ship operations were any less effective. Harvey always commanded his ship with the crisp military efficiency that was the hallmark of the UNSC.

"Good morning Captain." Patriot said, materializing on the holotank. "All ship systems are reading normal and we'll be exiting slip-space in just over a minute."

"Good, I trust that standard procedures have been followed?"

"Yes sir" Ensign Burkhart reported. "Energy shields are powered up and reading one hundred percent. All Shiva Nuclear Warheads and Archer Missiles are primed and ready to fire. All HORNET Mines are ready to deploy on your command. Stealth systems have been engaged as well." Harvey nodded his head. Ever since the Human-Covenant War, the UNSC made sure that their ships wouldn't be ambushed when they exited slip-space. That's why all UNSC vessels had to be fully prepared and ready for any potential combat scenario at any given time. It was standard procedure to be armed and ready for battle when exiting slip-space.

"Prepare for slip-space exit protocols. Will be exiting near the plant's moon correct?"

"Aye sir." Irene answered. Thanks to the UNSC's vastly upgraded slip-space engines, not only could they travel hundreds of times faster, but could also make precision jumps that was simply impossible a couple of years ago. Now the UNSC was no longer restricted to exiting slip-space near the outer edges of a solar system for safety hazards. Harvey had learned early on just how much of a disadvantage humanity had compared to the Covenant.

Not only did the Covenant have thousands of years of advancement ahead of the Human race, but they also had a wealth of Forerunner technology to reverse engineer.

He knew that the San' Shyuum once had a Forerunner Keyship in their possession that they used to conquer the Sangheili and induct them into their hierarch. Harvey always gave a silent prayer of thanks to whatever god was looking over humanity that the Covenant had decided to disarm the ship and use it to power their 'Holy City' High Charity. Had that force been waged on humanity during the war…

He didn't want to think about it.

"Exiting slip-space in 15 seconds." Burkhart said, snapping Harvey out of his thoughts.

"Good. As soon as we exit slip-space get into geosynchronous orbit with their moon."

"Aye sir. All systems check green, exiting in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…"

The same rupture they went through a week ago pierced through the empty void two thousand kilometers away from the planet's moon. The Wink of an Eye fully cleared the dimensional bridge before the portal collapsed.

"Alright, bring us in towar…"

"Captain!" Patriot yelled frantically. "We have Covenant signatures over 'Eden'!"

"What?! How many?" Harvey asked in shock.

"Scanning." Patriot said. "Scans show five CCS-Class Battlecruisers, five SDV-Class Corvettes, and one CAS-Class Assault Carrier. And before you ask, they're not Separatists. Frequencies don't match."

"Did they detect us?"

"Doesn't look like they have. Either that or they're to busy to care."

'This is bad.' Harvey thought. 'They must be here for the damn Forerunner tech, but how did 'Mdama get the coordinates for Eden's location in the first place? That's classified tier one information. The only ones that know besides me, Lord Hood, and ONI are Lasky, the Arbiter, and the ships under their command.'

"Captain!" Burkhart yelled, snapping Harvey out of his thoughts. "I'm detecting Human, Covenant, and unknown signatures on the planet surface!"

"Are they Insurrectionist?"

"Not likely. If they were then they would have at least a couple of ships guarding the planet and I'm not detecting any know UNSC ship debris near the planet." Burkhart said.

"That's impossible! Humans can't be inhabiting another planet without the UNSC knowing about it!" Harvey exclaimed.

"Not entirely impossible." Patriot stated. "The Forerunners wanted humanity to be the inheritors of their technology. So it is possible that they seeded other worlds with humans as a way to insure that humanity survives after they fired the Halo Array."

"Are you sure?" Harvey asked.

"Does a bear shit in the woods?"

"Damnit Patriot, I'm not in the mood for jokes."

"Fine, yes I'm sure."

"And what about the unknown signatures?"

"Working on that now." Patriot stated. After a couple of seconds he spoke, "I accessed their version of the internet and found that the unknown signature is a species called the Faunus. Putting relevant data on the main screen."

What came on the screen shocked everyone on the bridge. It was a picture of a human female, but she was different. First she had what appeared to be two triangles on her head, but when he looked at them closely he could see that they were actually cat ears, but she also had human ears as well. And her eyes appeared more cat like instead of the normal eyes that humans possessed.

Then he read the information about them. He first found out that the Faunus have the same exact anatomy as Humans except that they share certain traits with different kinds of animals that can be found on earth. He also found out that the Faunus have remarkable hearing and night vision, which they use to great effect in combat.

But he also found that the Faunus weren't treated as equals by Humans. They were treated as animals or second-class citizens and some times as slaves.
Because of this the Faunus had one major conflict with Humans in their recent history, called The Faunus Rights Revolution or Human/Faunus war by Humans. The revolution stemmed chiefly from Humans' attempts to confine the Faunus to an area of Remnant known as Menagerie.

'Remnant, so that's what they call the planet.' Harvey thought.
But reading that Faunus are living amongst Humans in the present day, he deduced that the Faunus were at least successful in preventing this confinement. But in spite of the gains they made, the Faunus were still being treated like animals or second-class citizens by some Humans. But they still tried to gain equality. One such attempt was the White Fang.

After the Faunus Rights Revolution, the White Fang was founded as a symbol of peace and unity between Faunus and Humans. However, Humankind continued to discriminate the Faunus, prompting the White Fang to become the voice of the Faunus.

Initially, they took the classical forms of non-violent political protest, such as mass rallies and boycotts of organizations that discriminated against Faunus. It reminded Harvey of some of the more peaceful organizations that were created when African Americans where seeking equality that he learned about in high school.

Then, approximately five years before the present day, after fruitless attempts to be accepted by the Humans as equals, the leader of the White Fang stepped down and was replaced by a new leadership, one who didn't share the same belief in non-violent protest. Under its new leadership, the White Fang retaliated against the people and organizations who once treated them as lesser beings and slaves, mostly with violence.

Ironically, in an attempt to gain equality and make the Faunus race free from fear, the White Fang itself had become a cause of fear and hatred amongst Humans and Faunus alike. Some Humans now treat Faunus as equals, but it's not out of any true respect, it's from their fear of the actions of the White Fang.

After two years of terror attacks by the White Fang the territories of Remnant, or Kingdoms, joined military forces to face against the White Fang, calling it the Vytal Joint Defense Force. Anti-White Fang Faunus where allowed to enlist, but they were segregated away from the Human soldiers up until 2024 when they decided that desegregation of the military was better in the long run.

Now with this new information there was one question that need to be answered, and the one to ask it was Ensign Burkhart. "Sir what are we ganna do?"

For the first time in his life, Harvey didn't know what to do. 'Does this even fall under Winter Contingency protocol?' he wondered. 'They're not even part of the UNSC and their living with a species unknown to the UNSC.' But then he remembered the oath that he and everyone in the UNSC made when they joined. The oath to protect humanity and recently its allies. 'Their still human and the Faunus are their allies.'

"Ensign, contact Lasky. Tell him that Winter Contingency is in full affect and to get his ass here now. Also send him the information about the Faunus. We don't want our guys shooting at them when they get planet side."

UNSC Infinity bridge, slip-space, En route to planet Remnant 2563, UNSC Calendar, 05:30

"Captain, we're dropping out of Slipspace." Helm Officer Devéro called out. "ETA, two minutes."

Lasky braced himself against the holotable that dominated the bridge of the Infinity. The table projected a blocky blue model of the ship, flanked by Battlegroup Dakota and the Covenant Separatists' three CCS-Class Battlecruisers and the CAS-Class Assault Carrier Shadow of Intent.

It was only minutes ago that he got the massage from Captain Harvey and now he was on his way to 'Eden', or what the Humans and Faunus call it Remnant. When he first read the massage he thought that the captain was joking but when he continued reading he found out that Harvey was dead serious. But he still couldn't believe that there was another planet inhabited by humans and a unknown species.

And when he read about the Faunus he was shocked to say the least. A species that has the same anatomy as humanity but has some animal features like additional animal ears, horns, or tails. But also have advanced hearing and night vision that surpasses humans. His mind was blown away.

And now he was en route to the planet to help them, because the oath he made when he joined the UNSC demanded him to.

Lasky looked up from the holotable to see every crewmen on the bridge. He could see that they were on edge, eagerly waiting for the order to begin the fight. He could feel their excitement, fear, anger, and confusion: excitement for the coming fight and the chance to beat the Covenant, fear for their fellow soldiers' lives and their lives as well, anger at the Covenant for attacking a people who hadn't even left their world, who weren't ready for an invasion of aliens on their planet, for dragging them into their war, and confusion; confusion for how their was a second set of humans separate from the ones that originated from Earth.

"Understood Lieutenant." Lasky said in response. He looked over to the right where the Infinity's weapons officer sat, "Lieutenant Austen. Prepare bow energy projectors, ready all forward MACs and prep all missile pods."

Lieutenant Eric Austen nodded, "Aye sir!" He said back energetically, hands racing across his station. Infinity's model on the holotable was now highlighted an eerie green as shields were raised and main weapons were activated.

"Roland." Lasky continued, the small yellow figure of Infinity's resident Artificial Intelligence snapped into existence on the opposite end of the holotable.

"Yes sir?" The small AI asked, hands clasped at the small of his back and feet shoulder width apart.

"Prep Onagers, ready the Pulse Lasers, and bring our Fortress network online." Thomas ordered. The Covenant were almost guaranteed to be deploying strike craft, without Infinity's CIWS suite active, they would be overwhelmed and possibly boarded.

Roland saluted, "Aye sir."

Then the Infinity's sides were filled with black dots as the CIWS suite activated.

"When we drop out," Lasky commented, "I want Broadsword Squadrons Alpha through Hotel deployed to engage the forward advances of the enemy force. When the skies are clear, I want ground forces prepped to go planet side to help the local forces with engaging the Covenant. Tell Fireteams Crimson and Whisky they're deploying with the ODSTs."

"Understood sir." Roland said. He paused for a few seconds, "Squadron leaders report green as well as ground forces. They are readying now."

"How about the Wink of an Eye?"

"Their sending us telemetry on the fleet's location and are saying that all ships except the Assault Carrier have their shields down, probably not expecting a fight sir."

"Thank you Roland." Lasky said.

"Of course sir, just doing my job." The AI commented before disappearing.

"We're dropping out of slipspace..." Helm Officer Devéro said, "Now!"

Lasky looked up and out of the Infinity's expansive bridge windows. The aurora-like colors of Slipspace vanished in favor of the endless void of space, and in front of them was the planet Remnant. In the distance hovering over the planet were the Storm Covenant's Battlecruisers, Corvettes and their one Assault Carrier. They were just outside of Infinity's effective combat range of 120,000 kilometers at a little over 200,000.

"Designated squadrons, launch." Air Group Lieutenant Commander Peter Sebastian called out from his station to the left of the bridge.

Lasky saw the six hundred F-41 Broadswords fly by from the bridge windows. All of them were racing towards the Seraph Fighters, blowing them out of the sky with high powered missiles and pulse laser strikes.

Lasky looked at the holotable to see the Autumn-class heavy cruisers and Paris-class heavy frigates forming up around the Infinity. Their shields were raised and weapons ready.

"Priselkov, open communications to every vessel in the fleet. Tell them they have permission to fire at will. Helm! Bring us into firing range!" Lasky shouted as he took up position at the fore of the bridge.

Then the battle for Remnant start. MAC rounds and Plasma all raced towards their targets. Plasma from the Separatists ships tore though the unshielded Storm ships and hit the reactors, making them go critical and for them to go up in flames while MAC rounds gutted the Covenant Remnant ships, making them dead in the water. Thirty seconds later it was all over.

Most of the Covenant fleet was destroyed, the only surviving Covenant ship was the Assault Carrier. It jumped to slip-space before it could get severely damaged. Now the Storm Covenant ground forces were cut off from supplies and a ride out.

After seeing the destruction of the enemy fleet, Lasky turned to the communications officer.

"Hail them."

Beacon Academy, 2025, Remnant Calendar, 05:30

Hell. That is the only word to describe what the landscape looked like.

Lisa was watching the battle being waged in the distance atop the roof of Beacon Academy that was now the command center for the defense effort. She could see the once proud City of Vale now in ruins, all thanks to these invaders, or the 'Covenant' as they call themselves.

The prime minister was an elegant woman. Her beautiful brown hair fluttered in the cool breeze that was blowing as her hazel eyes look at the sun begin to rise over the horizon. It would almost look beautiful, if it not for the weapons fire and other sounds of battle.

A soldier came up behind her and joined in watching the sun rise. The soldier was Corporal David Beckham, a wolf like Faunus wearing a full combat vest and his rifle slung across his shoulder. He didn't say a word for several seconds, just enjoying the view. It was Lisa who broke the silence, "Is something the matter corporal?"

He hesitated momentarily before answering, "There are anomalies forming in space." he said, "The same kind that formed just before the aliens arrived. The commander requested you be informed and to come inside."

With a nod both turned towards the roof top entrance. She took a last look at the destroyed landscape of the once lovely city and then entered the doorway, Corporal Beckham following shortly after her. When they reached the CIC, the only thing that could be heard was the typing of keyboards and occasional speech, the battle no longer being able to be heard through the thick walls.

In the center of the room was Commander Silas Keller, the current highest ranking military leader that Vytal had left, his dark emerald eyes staring at the holomap in front of him.

Prime minister Zuko walked up and stood next to him. When he noticed her arrival he turned and gave a nod in greeting. The commander wasn't a very social man when he was concentrating on something. In this case the reported anomalies forming above them.

The commander turned to one of the working technicians, "Are any of our satellites in range of the anomalies yet?" he asked in his deep voice.

The man pointed to a huge screen across from the commander hanging on the wall. There, it changed to show the slight shimmering of the aliens suspected method of travel. The same technician estimated that whatever was coming through would be there in two minutes, due to the increasing intensity of the anomalies fluctuations. Many turned to look at the screen, hopping that what was coming through wasn't enemy reinforcements.

All of a sudden an estimated thirty-five white portals tore through space, expelling vessels of both Covenant and unknown designs. The only differences were the colors of the ships, a gun metal grey, and a different symbol: an eagle with its wings spread in a defensive manner and its talons grasping a planet. There were ships of varying sizes, the largest being five kilometers long. There was writing on the side, most likely the ships name: UNSC Infinity.

'What? That's Valic.' Lisa thought. 'How do these aliens know Valic?'

When they all saw the four Covenant designed ships in the fleet they thought that victory could never be achieved, only delaying their destruction. What happened next surprised them all. The new arrivals fired upon the Covenant fleet. Enemy ships were being blown apart left and right. Some munitions went through multiple ships, two and sometimes three.

Confusion and shock was clear on everyone's faces as the Covenant were slaughtered, the new arrivals achieving complete surprise and not giving them any time to react. In the span of thirty seconds most of the Covenant force was disabled or destroyed with ships gutted, split in half, or missing entire sides. The fleet then began to move into orbit where the Covenant used to be.

Then there was a beeping coming from a communications console to the commander's right. Snapping out of their shock Keller and Zuko approached the console, "Where is it coming from?" the commander asked the officer.

"From the new fleet in orbit sir." was her answer.

The prime minister and the commander shared a glance. Both were curious who these new arrivals were and if they were here to help or to conquer them like the Covenant was trying to do now.

"Answer it." both said in unison.

"Roger."

Everyone turned to the main screen as the technician routed the message. What appeared on the screen next shocked everyone in the room. It was a human, a living, breathing human. He had a slight tan to his skin, brown eyes, and brown hair with in a military style cut. His face looked stoic but there was something that flickered across his face. It was too fast to identify clearly, but it looked like shock or astonishment.

After a few moments of silence the human spoke, "This is Captain Thomas Lasky of the United Nations Space Command, Commanding officer of Battlegroup Dakota and the UNSC Infinity. To whom am I speaking?"

'How is this possible?' Lisa thought. 'Humanity only exists on Remnant. But here is a human saying that he's from a separate faction of humanity, originating from somewhere besides Remnant.'

After getting over his initial shock Silas spoke, "I'm Commander Silas Keller, commanding officer of the Vytal Joint Defense Force. Beside me is Prime Minister Lisa Zuko of the Kingdom of Vale. What is your business here?"

This 'Captain Lasky' looked to his left, probably listening to a crewman. After a few seconds he turned back to them, "We're here to help with your Covenant problem."

The shock and confusion were heavy enough to slice through it with a knife. The commander looked at the captain with a critical eye, looking for any signs of deception. Seeing none, he glanced at Lisa briefly before asking the question on all of their minds, "Why?"

"We are here for two reasons. First is that your human. Every member of the UNSC made an oath to protect humanity, even if their not apart of the UNSC."

"They're not just humans down here Captain. There is another race called..." Lisa started to say but she was cut off.

"The Faunus, we know." Lasky said. "We had our AI search your database when we first arrived."

"Okay what's the other reason?" Silas asked but he felt like he wasn't going to like the answer.

"Our second reason is that there's technology beneath the surface of your planet that they want. We can't let that happen."

Curiosity spread itself onto the Minister's face. 'What is beneath our world important enough to have our world invaded, our people killed, and our home destroyed?' she wondered. Apparently someone else was having the same thoughts as they voiced the thought out loud.

Lasky was silent, his face scrunching up in deep thought. After several minutes of silence, he spoke, "That will have to wait, right now we have a battle to win."

Seeing that no more was coming for now, she now, she nodded, "What troops do you have available."

It was at that moment that a new voice entered the conversation, "Captain, Lieutenant Buck says that the ODSTs are ready to deploy ground side. Also the Arbiter says his warriors are ready to deploy as well."

"Thank you Roland. Tell Buck he has permission to drop." Seeing the confusion on many of their faces the Captain gave an inquiring look.

"What are ODSTs?" queried the minister.

"ODST stands for Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, they're the Special Forces branch of the UNSC Marines and second only to the SPARTANS. They drop from high orbit behind enemy lines in a single manned entry pod and cause havoc amongst them."

"So what are SPARTANS then?" Silas asked.

After hearing that, Captain Lasky formed a smug smirk his face. "They are the best of the UNSC."

After hearing that, there was one more question that needed to be answered. "So what's the plan?"

"The ODSTs will drop in and destroy enemy Anti-Air so that we can send in dropships to assist your soldiers in the fight against enemy ground forces and to evacuate civilians to safe zones.."

Lisa looked at Silas. They both knew that they couldn't win the battle for their home on their own. They needed help and here was this faction of advanced Humans willing to give them that help. "Whatever assistance you need, you'll have it." She said, looking back at Lasky.

"Excellent. We're sending you the frequencies and decrypting sequences for our communications. Use them to communicate with our troops and advise them on paths and terrain our sensors missed. Lasky out."

The communications officer began typing franticly in order to match their frequencies. Minutes later he stopped and flexed his fingers to get the feeling back into them. Shortly after he stopped typing, com chatter started to come in, one signal stood out among the rest.

It was from the ODSTs of the 105th.

"How do we go in Marines?!" One person yelled over the com. His voice sounded a lot like a famous author Silas met once.

"Feet first sir!" was the reply.

"Alright, we're droppin' into hell, troopers! It's time to grow a pair!"

Authors Notes: Well that's chapter 2.

There's something that I want to talk about that has to involve the some of the OCs that some of you have sent me. Most of them I like and they were well thought out but some I I didn't like, mostly the UNSC OCs.

Some of them are way to young to even be in the military. If your going to send me a UNSC character then try to make his age over 18.

Please review, fav, follow, and all that fun stuff. Legion of Two out.