yes, i know that it has been longer than a week since my first post but i do have an excuse for it ! :)

but i hate excuses. so instead of giving you the excuses i instead give you the good news.

CHAPTER 2 IS UP!

i know that its a little short, but i hope to remedy that in chapter 3 which i hope to post in the next couple days.

Thanks Soooo Much To All My Readers And Especially To All Those Who Have Set This Story On Alert And Favoring My Story (Though i think it may be a little to early to tell whether its worth it or not but i appreciate the vote of confidence never the less.). Also Thank you to TheLastHuman and WarHawk'42 for your comments. your words of encouragement are ever appreciated.

Also for the sake of your knowledge of my Version of the ME universe i have decided to start adding Galactic Codex entries for your amusement. So if you have a question about something I write in the chapter write it in a comment or send me a pm and I will do my level best to explain it.

Hope you enjoy

I DON'T OWN M E OR HALO!

"Our Legacy"

Part: 1: A Spartan?

Chapter 2: "We've Got Trouble".

Date: January 10, 2681

Time: 0723 Hrs

Location: Neylon 5 system asteroid field, outer colonies, sector 37

John Shepard sat in his small stealth craft in total silence on a large asteroid. The small craft he sat in was barely able to be considered such. It was all of ten feet long, the front 7 of that made up the diamond shaped cockpit that had little enough room for a regular sized man, let alone the massive Spartan that now inhabited it. The remaining 3 feet of the small craft was made up of a stealth field generator and a miniature Mass Effect Drive that allowed it to move without leaving any trace of heat. That alone made these small crafts known as "Panthers" due to their black appearance and their legendary ability of being completely undetectable to modern scanning methods. Perfect for missions just like this one.

There he sat waiting for the Covenant cruiser that they knew, by scan, was going to be flying through this very area within the next few minutes. He raised his head and looked around the area for the other 11 Panthers that awaited the coming cruiser. None of them were visible.

Perfect, he thought. Let's hope it stays that way.

Several hours ago, stealth satellites that floated throughout the system had intercepted some very interesting transmissions that, after being translated, were discovered to be commands to a fleet of Covenant ships hiding out within the Neylon Prime Systems massive asteroid belt. The fleet was readying for assault on the system and would begin in nine hours, and even if the defense forces of the system had sent for aide it would take at the very least 3 days for the Alliance to send any form of assistance. By that time, the planet would be glassed and anyone not with the Covenant would be dead.

that was the plus and minus of living on an outer rim colony. You have all the freedom to do, literally anything you want to, but when trouble comes, no one's around to help.

Thus the Sangheili Captain Bulg'R, the commanding officer of the defending forces of the system had come up with a plan to attempt to save the young colony. Get together the most combat experienced individuals of his small command, have them fly out into the asteroid belt in the flight path of a covenant cruiser, hitch a ride to the fleet then blow up the largest ships in it. That was three hours ago.

John started. A light gleamed in the distance. He smirked, "There you are." His excitement only got higher as the sleek purple of the small Covenant cruiser glided into view. A few moments later he activated his Panther's ME drive and started toward the much larger cruiser. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw 11 black blotches that marked the rest of the infiltration teams.

By 'small' he meant it was rather small for a covenant ship. Most of their vessels were still larger than their Alliance counterparts. But that didn't mean that they were anymore advanced, at least, not for the past couple centuries.

Inside of 27 seconds all 12 Panthers had managed to find a place to hide on the ship. John found a little nook near the aft of the ship and activated his magnetic locks. Three of the 12 man team, two humans and a Sangheili followed. There were three Spartans on the infiltration team, each of which would command a team of three Marines. The three teams would board three separate ships and hopefully cause a big enough chain reaction to destroy a large enough portion of the fleet that the small fleet of a few dozen defending ships would be able to deal with what was left.

But they first had to get aboard. And that would be the easy part.

The Cruiser floated through the asteroid belt with amazing fluidity. Dodging and swinging around the larger rocks with little to no effort as the ships kinetic barriers kept the smaller ones at bay.

So far so good. That was an understatement. He expected to lose a few men in the belt, but none had been lost.

In another minute the cruiser entered a clearing in the belt, according to what John could see, it had to be at least a hundred kilometers wide, maybe more. Then the fleet came into view.

"Wow…" he said aloud. Spread throughout the clear area was a fleet of covenant warships of, at least, 120 ships. Most of the ships seemed to be of average sized destroyers, between 250-350 meters long. But around the center of the fleet were 19 of the new, 2 kilometer-long, Carriers and one Covenant Assault Carrier. The massive 10.3 kilometer flagship dwarfed every other vessel in the fleet.

How long have they been planning this? The question went unanswered. But it was unnecessary; he already knew that, in order to have this kind of base of operation, the Covenant had to have been planning this for a while. That, plus the fact they decided that it was worth the risk of one of their super-sized assault carrier ships. This was not good news. This meant that this must be the start of something big.

But why start on a backwater world like Neylon 5? That was an answer that he was very likely to never learn, so he put it out of his mind.

John decided that the Assault Carrier would be the ship he would board. If he could make that ship go critical, that explosion is almost certain to destroy most of the fleet. Not to mention the blow to the Covenants Pride if they succeeded.

The other two Spartans were near enough to make visual contact with John. With a quick wave they got his attention. The smaller of the two other Spartans, the Female, made a quick gesture with her hands. "Which one?" She asked silently.

"Big one," he replied

With a quick jerk of their heads they acknowledged then lifted their left fists and started counting down silently with their fingers in unison. 3..2..1.. on Zero they activated the timer by which they would set their ships detonations. 45 minutes from now all their improvised bombs would go up in a brilliant flash that would hopefully engulf most of the fleet. Hopefully

The female quickly sent him another message. "Good Luck."

John nodded solemnly then replied, "You too."

In another minute, their host ship flew into the fray and the team disengaged their locks and shot off toward their destinations. The other teams flying off to their own targets and John and his team heading off to the largest ship in the fleet.

It took them nearly seven minutes to span the gap between the ship they rode in on and the Colossus of the Assault Carrier. The giant ship stood out against the blackness in the familiar purple that the Covenant still favored when constructing their ships. It was easily the largest ship that John had ever seen. By his estimation, the Alliance could probably fit 5 of their Super destroyers inside of it, if not more. It was kind of hard to tell when a ship was that big. But he knew it wasn't the biggest ever built. That title belonged to the now extinct Covenant Super Carriers. And those were wiped out since the Third Covenant Incursion; no one had bothered to use so many resources on a single ship sense.

The whole time he and his team flew he reviewed every scrap of knowledge he had on the massive vessels that, during the Covenant/Human War, was one of the most common vessels among the Covenant fleet. The training he'd been through had already taught him this, but to actually see one of these things up close and personal really drove the point home. For a moment he imagined what it must have been like for the Human fleets to look out their windows over 3 centuries ago to see a fleet of ships just like that one preparing to fire their plasma torpedoes on their much weaker human prey.

How many human lives has this ship stolen? The thought made him suppressed a shiver.

Don't worry about that now John, he told himself. That problem will soon be rectified if I have anything to say about it.

As they drew nearer to the vessel John decided that the best method to accomplish the task would be to enter through a docking hanger and work their way to the command deck. Once there he would be able to initiate the ships self destruct. And with the power that this ship packed, the resulting BANG would prove to be lethal for most of the surrounding fleet. He grimaced and hoped it would be enough.

The three marines followed silently behind him as he neared one of the small hangar bays of the massive ship. When they had come to within a few dozen meters of the translucent purple shield that held the vacuum of space at bay he stopped his vehicle and activated the magnetic locks.

Without a word he activated his suits active camouflage system and as one he and the other 3 invisible soldiers evacuated their vehicles and made their way to the shimmering shield with the help of their magnetic boots. After a quick glance to make sure the way was clear John stepped through the portal and swiftly and silently made his way into the shadows on the far right side of the room. The other three operative followed suit. Their invisible bodies were outlined in a bright green glow thanks to a new form of radiation imaging developed less than a year ago by ONI. And although they could not see him, they could see where he was on their motion detectors on their HUDs.

He smirked lightly; it was amazing what kind of tech ONI had to play with these days.

After a moments inspection of the area he quickly fell in line behind a three Grunt patrol that was heading in the direction of the highlighted route on the map in his HUD. Quickly and silently he and his team worked their way through the complex of corridors and rooms that made up the interior of the Assault Carrier. Their progress was painfully slow as they inched their way forward toward the command control of the ship. But with every step John's excitement grew. They just might make it through this after all. All he needed to do was make it to the Fleet Master's controls and he would have complete power over the ship. From there he would set the ships self destruct.

Several times, John had to shift visible spectrums to allow his team to see him in order to give hand signals, but other than that, nothing of consequence occurred on their way to the bridge.

After what felt like an eternity, but was only 13 minutes of travel they arrived at the doors to the Bridge. Once at the door he shifted his Camouflage into his team's visible spectrum and gave the Universal Halt signal, a closed fist raised.

He quickly took a scan of movement in the room beyond the doors, what it revealed was two souls at the door, one in the center surrounded by another 7, and another 20 souls scattered around the room the room in a symmetric order.

So, one Fleet Master, the two at the door and the other seven sircling him are probably guards, Brutes or Elites most likely, then a flight control crew of 20. All that against 3 marines and myself.

In smooth mechanical movements he relayed the information to his team with orders for them to seal the door and take out any not immediately life threatening targets, and leave the others to him. Their lights on his motion detector blinked in affirmative as they awaited his go order.

He took a split second to marshal his thoughts and grab the two heavy pistols resting on both his thighs and set the round set of his weapons to high powered incinerator rounds. This firing mode only gave him 40 rounds per clip but that should be more than enough for this. This should be easy, he thought , then activated the door controls and stepped in.

here is the codex entry for the spartan program, hope that this answers some questions.

Galactic Codex: SPARTAN Program

The SPARTAN Program, less commonly known as the ORION Project, was part of an effort to produce elite soldiers through mechanical and biological augmentation. The SPARTAN-II program was the first in the series to meld advanced exoskeleton technology with Human soldiers with superior physical attributes.

Though the Program was originally intended to quell rebellions The Human-Covenant war marked a change in Programs directives; Due to the Spartans pivotal role during the War a new objective was added to the Orion projects goals; to create a group of elite soldiers meant to subdue insurrections in their infancy, without substantial military casualties, to minimize civilian casualties and avert civil war, to substantially reduce the cost of conventional means of pacification, And finally to act as a final safeguard against extinction in case of another inter species war.

Since the Orion Projects creation over 300 years ago, the Spartans have grown to become their own branch of the United Systems Alliance Military including it's own small fleet and army. as long as the Spartans exist they will be a safeguard for Humanity and the Alliance.