SEE CHAPTER ONE FOR DISCLAIMERS
PLEASE READ & REVIEW, AND TEND TO THE TROPE PAGES
-CHAPTER START-
Realm H4-L0 → Urs System
Arbiter Thel Vadam, Supreme Commander of the Sangheili Alliance armed forces, leaned forward, resting his face on his folded hands as he looked at the holo-display in the control room of the Divinity-class supercarrier Immortal Honor. The fight against the Reapers trying to invade Sanghelios had been quite a thing. When they'd initially emerged from a warp-rift suddenly forced open between Realms, by sheer luck a significant portion of the Sangheili Alliance navy had been stationed near the planet, either as home-guard defense or preparing for simulated combat ('war games', the humans called it when they introduced the concept). Thus, after some initial surprise, the fleet had quickly rallied. Many more sections of the SA Navy had come running as soon as they got the word, fleets arriving from elsewhere in this Realm to bolster defense and help repulse the invaders.
The Reapers were certainly foes worthy of note, as befitting their reputation. They moved with cold, calculated action, acting as parts of a whole. Their weapons – some molten-metal cannons, some directed-energy weapons – were formidable by ship-weapon standards, though Sangheili-made energy shields could take them well enough. Furthermore, unlike the 'kinetic barriers' of their fictional counterparts shown by a few of the DDF's humans, the Reapers of this reality had genuine energy shields, capable of repulsing and protecting from directed-energy weapons as well as projectiles. Though, they could still be overwhelmed by enough force, just as any shields could.
However, the fight had not been in the invaders' favor. Sangheili ships had very durable energy shields, able to withstand multiple shots from the Reapers' main guns before failing. Their armor was fairly durable as well – not enough to stop a shot from a Reaper's main gun unshielded, but enough to reduce its force by some at least. And Sangheili ships' internal layout – decentralization, redundancy, and a very well-protected control room – meant that even the shots that hit weren't guaranteed to kill or cripple a ship. And of course, many of the Sangheili warships were so large that it was even harder to hit the right spot for a mission-kill when you didn't know what to aim for. Lastly, after enjoying so many eons of offensive superiority, the Reapers were getting a taste of their own medicine; even Reaper Dreadnoughts' shields could only take about three or four direct hits of a Sangheili ship standard plasma-torpedo, and a single torpedo could one-shot an unshielded Dreadnought. The particle-beam cannons carried by the bigger Sangheili ships could, more often than not, take out even a fully-shielded Dreadnought with only a couple seconds of continuous fire. And their 'Oculus' drone fighters just didn't have the punch or defenses to compete with the T31 'Seraph'.
The battle hadn't been completely one-sided; the wrecks of multiple Sangheili corvettes, frigates, destroyers, and light cruisers littered the space, along with some standard Yermo-class cruisers and even a few Sanghelios-class battlecruisers and one Reverence-class heavy cruiser. Around half of the still-active ships had some damage, most of it not enough to impede combat effectiveness but enough to take note of. The Reapers had taken heavy losses, but they still had quite a few of their number left, and now they were fighting a bit smarter; instead of a constant assault, they were going the hit-and-run route, taking position near their warp-rift further back from the battle through which a few reinforcements occasionally arrived and a few Reapers occasionally departed through back to their home Realm. They would hang back, enact repairs, move in to engage the Sangheili again for a while, and then retreat and repeat. They were zealously defending the warp-rift, their only way in or out of this Realm; the Sangheili fleet would not yet attempt a rush on the portal, knowing that the stubborn defense of it by the Reapers might cost them more than it had so far.
Right now, the Reapers were in the midst of another assault, exchanging fire with the Sangheili ships. Thel Vadam felt the light shudder and noticed the faint dimming of lights in the control room as his supercarrier's particle-beam cannon fired; it burned away two-thirds of a Dreadnought's shields before the Reaper managed to slide to the side out of the way, and kept going to kill a Destroyer that had been behind it. In the distance, a Purity-class destroyer was shieldless and badly damaged, yet still managed to fire a plasma torpedo that destroyed the weapons systems of one of the Reaper Dreadnoughts attacking it. The other Dreadnought then fired its main gun, punching a hole right through the Sangheili vessel; secondary explosions ripped through the ship, which then came apart into fire and wreckage.
"Arbiter!" a control-room crewman called out. "Something very large is approaching through slipstream space!"
"What is it?" Vadam asked. "More Reapers? Have they managed to travel through slipspace now?"
"I do not believe so; it is something else."
Off to the 'side' of the battle, space-time rippled as finely-tuned rifts were opened in it, blue and black. The Arbiter felt a twinge of relief as from the slipspace rifts emerged a massive fleet of UNSC warships, led by the dreadnought Infinity. The human ships' main guns opened fire, superconducting coils propelling 600-ton projectiles of uranium and tungsten-carbide to 40% the speed of light. The MAC rounds smashed into the Reaper forces from the side, dealing great amounts of damage; Reaper Dreadnought shields were downed with only two or three direct hits, allowing following shots to slay the ancient metal entities, while Destroyers were lucky to survive even one. Some of the UNSC ships performed micro-jumps to form up with the Sangheili vessels, getting closer to the enemy, while the rest stayed back to pound the invaders from range. Thermonuclear missiles were launched, the 60-to-80-megaton blasts carrying boosted-EMP loads that wrought havoc on the Reapers' shields and systems, allowing the primordial heat of fusion to melt away their metal hides and outright vaporize those that were close enough to the blasts. UNSC point-defense guns pitched in to further cull the numbers of Oculus drones attacking the allied fleets, and smaller craft launched from the human capital ships to engage enemy fighters or rescue what Sangheili life-pods hadn't been destroyed.
"Arbiter Vadam," Fleet-Admiral Hood said as a holo-screen appeared in the Immortal Honor's control room, showing the Infinity'sbridge. "Apologies for the delay; it took a little while to get a proper fleet assembled."
"I believe the appropriate human phrase is 'better late than never', Fleet-Admiral" Thel replied. "Do we yet know if they are attacking other Dimensional Defense Force planets besides ours?"
"Lucavos, Equestria, Midchilda, Shakuras, and Cybertron are all being attacked. In the Systems Alliances' realm, their Earth has already fallen, as has the Batarian homeworld, and Palaven is being hit very hard, too. Commander Shepard is still alive, though."
"It is good to hear he still lives. If anyone understands the Reapers, it's him."
In the background behind Hood, Thel noticed Captain Andrew Del-Rio, the official shipmaster of the Infinity. He looked a bit annoyed at having his command over 'his' ship taken from him again; he'd led her on a few comparatively-minor missions, but for every 'big' development she'd taken part in Hood had taken the vessel as a flagship and assumed temporary command over it.
"We'll discuss further plans of counterattack later. For now, let's kick these bastards out of your star system."
With the human fleet joining in, the Sangheili rallied, pushing back against the Reapers. Soon, the metal abominations were being chased off again, but this time the UNSC/Sangheili fleet pursued them back to their area around the inter-Realm wormhole, hitting them at range with MAC rounds and particle-beam shots, killing many more of them. And then, faced with this overwhelming force, the Reaper invasion group did what nobody had ever expected them to do:
They retreated. The machines fell back en masse through the warp rift, some of them firing at the human and Sangheili warships to keep them back while their fellows passed through the rift, falling back afterwards or sacrificing themselves. As the final dark machine exited through the warp-rift, a cheer rang out through the allied fleet. For what may very well have been the first time in millions of years, the Reapers had definitively lost a battle.
-Break-
UNSC Infinity-class Dreadnought Infinity, Bridge
High-ranking and important individuals of the UNSC and the Sangheili Alliance – FADM Hood, Capt. Del-Rio & Comm. Lasky, the Arbiter, Rtas Vadum, Dr. Halsey, the Spartans John-117, Bellerophon-B047, & Sarah Palmer, and Theta Team members Laicixa, Erio, & Caro – gathered around the central holo-table.
"Many of our ships will require some time to enact repairs before they can join the fight in Realm ME-N7 or the other five worlds being hit" Vadum reported. "However, we do have some that we can send out at any time."
"From the reports I've gathered," Cortana spoke up, "Midchilda and Equestria need the most help right now. Cybertron's having some trouble, too, but earlier today a joint fleet of the Galactic Federation from Lt. Aran's Realm and the Strategically-Integrated Coalition Of Nations is on their way there to provide reinforcement and relief to the Cybertronians. The Tripartate are giving everything they've got to help Lucavos, with the Phoenix League gearing up to jump in, too. Lastly, Valerian Mengsk and James Raynor are coordinating a large-scale counterassault on the Reapers attacking Shakuras."
"Alright…" Hood said. "We'll send some of our ships and personnel over to ME-N7, including the UNSC Hopeful to assist wounded refugees. We can also spare a good-sized battle-fleet to help Equestria, though that might stretch us a little thin."
"We can assist in that" the Arbiter replied. "A joint fleet of your ships and ours will aid Equestria. Meanwhile, another Sangheili fleet will assist the Time-Space Administration Bureau – rally their ships and engage the Reapers assailing their world. Once the rest of our ships have finished repairs, and our warriors are properly armed and ready, we will deploy en masse to Realm ME-N7; I have no illusions of us having even a ghost of a chance against the entire Reaper Armada, so many there are, but we can at least save some planets and make the machines bleed for some of what they take."
"We will have to be cautious about exactly how many of our forces we commit" Rtas Vadum counseled. "If we are depleted by too much, we will be ill-equipped when Amon makes his move, or if this 'Ur-Didact' Forerunner war-criminal is still alive and ever gets free from wherever he is imprisoned. Not to mention Jul Mdama and his extremist renegades, whatever they may be up to…"
"Exactly" Captain Del-Rio agreed. "It'll need to be a balancing act; commit too little, and the Reapers might roll right over us, but too much and we'll be weakened in the face of future threats."
"Have we heard anything new from the Systems Alliance?" the Master Chief asked.
"Supposedly," Halsey replied, "they found the plans for a Prothean weapon of mass destruction that might be able to stop the Reapers. Construction has already begun, and they are still searching for personnel and resources to further it."
"I'm sure they'll appreciate some Huragok aid for that" Vadum replied.
"What about the warp-rift that the Reapers used to get here?" Laicixa asked.
"I've got some contact with The Ark" Cortana replied. "Mendicant and I will figure out a way to close it."
"Alright," Lord Hood said, "we have a plan. Let's get to work."
-SCENE BREAK-
Realm SC-29 – No-Canon-Name-Given System – Shakuras
In bursts of warping motion, dozens of Terran Dominion and Raynor's Raiders warships emerged from FTL, led by the Bucephalus and the Hyperion. At Valerian's command, every ship opened fire on the Reapers currently engaging the Protoss fleet, catching the metal monsters by surprise; Fusion-Cannon shots took down many Reapers with the opening volley, with much of the others caught by such surprise that the Protoss ships were able to rally and take out a handful more. The ancient machines moved to split their forces and engage the newcomers, in the process taking some of the heat off the Protoss. Dominion/Raider troop transports slipped past the battle in space, moving down to the planet to deploy soldiers and hardware to assist the Protoss warriors and war droids in fighting the Husk forces and few Reaper Destroyers that had made planet-fall.
On the planet below, Ahsoka and Shion sensed as the tide above began to turn with the arrival of reinforcements. They returned their attention to the Husks and Cannibals arrayed against them, emboldened by the turn of events as they charged in, using their energy blades and their agility to block or dodge the shots that Batarian-Husks fired at them. Ahsoka threw one of her lightsabers, the spinning green blade buzz-sawing through a row of a dozen Husks and two Cannibals, while Shion cloaked and continued cutting down cyber-zombies as they feebly swung or shot at thin air in a vain attempt to hit her. A larger force of Husks tried to rush them from all sides, but the two girls got in close to each other, back to back, and synchronized their energies. After a few seconds, a powerful Force Repulse raced out from them, hammering into the Husks and sending them flying, battered and broken.
Up in space, Valerian Mengsk looked out at the battle underway from the (very well-shielded) bridge of his flagship Bucephalus. The Protoss had done fairly well on their own; their ships had very powerful energy shields, and the control rooms were deep in the bowels of the ships, making them difficult for most anti-ship weapons to penetrate to. Their weapons were fairly capable, as shown by the numerous dead Reapers littering Shakuras' orbit. All the same, the wrecks of several Protoss ships were around as well, and scans showed that not all of them had all their escape pods and transport craft deployed…
The forward viewport briefly polarized as the battlecruiser's fusion cannon fired, the concentrated thermonuclear blast shooting out as a beam/blast of light and power; it struck a Reaper that was engaged with a Protoss cruiser, crushing the hostile's weakened shields and blasting a massive burning hole through it. A few seconds later, there was a flash of red light, and the Bucephalus' shields dropped by around 30%; they'd taken a direct hit from a Reaper Dreadnought's main gun. …No, not just any Reaper Dreadnought; one 25% larger than its fellows, with light-blue 'running' lights – the Leader-subclass Reaper that had supposedly identified itself to the Protoss leaders as 'Praetor'.
"So now we've got the personal attention of one of Sovereign's 'siblings'…" he muttered. "Wonderful…"
Praetor began to move toward the Dominion flagship, only for several heavy railgun shots to hit it from the side, smashing against its shields. The Dominion destroyer Jensen was opening fire on the Leader-type Reaper, and it now turned to 'face' the ship. Its crimson beam lanced out, burning away at the Jensen's shields which were already taxed from attacks by Oculus drones; the shields soon failed, and the beam sliced through the vessel, chopping off a significant chunk of its starboard rear section. Even as it began to list, fire spewing from its new hole, the Jensen continued firing, trying to at least bring Praetor's shields down. But it was not to be; another shot from the Reaper pierced through the vessel's core, triggering explosions that ripped the destroyer apart. Valerian swore and pounded his fist on the nearby railing; there would be no escape pods from that.
"Sir!" an Ensign shouted suddenly. "Scanners have something huge approaching through warpspace!"
"Damn it! More Reapers?" Valerian asked.
"Negative, sir. It's-"
There was a sudden rush of motion off to the side, as an utterly massive creature emerged from FTL, 8000 meters long with glowing purple 'eyes' – a Primal-Zerg Leviathan.
"Kerrigan…" Valerian said with relief.
"And this is why I didn't go hunting for Amon after I killed Arcturus…" Sarah Kerrigan said over the comm.
More Zerg Leviathans emerged, the space-faring organic titans catching the Reapers by surprise due to their sudden appearance, their sheer size, and that most of the machines had never seen anything like them before. The Leviathans' mouths opened, and streams of superhot bio-plasma shot out, impacting and melting through Reaper shields. The titans also dispatched hordes of flying Zerg – Mutalisks, Guardians, Devourers, and Scourges, all bearing the purple pigmentation and eyes of Kerrigan's Primal Hive-Mind; they engaged Oculus drones and Reaper Destroyers, some of them even starting to whittle away at unshielded Reaper Dreadnoughts, their tiny size allowing them to more often than not dodge the Reapers' attempts to shoot them back.
"Great timing, darlin'" Raynor said. "Let's show these overgrown cuttlefish what happens when you piss off all three of the Koprulu Sector's major races."
"All forces, form up with our allies!" Executor Selendis ordered her fleet. "Heavy carriers, focus fire on Praetor! Interceptors, keep their drones off the Hyperion! Destroyers and cruisers, coordinate with the humans & Zerg and start culling their Dreadnoughts' numbers!"
"We've pinpointed some locations groundside where the Protoss and marines are having trouble" Kerrigan said. "Sending some Zerg down to help take the heat off them. We'll show those cyber-reanimates why the rush tactic they're trying is named after us, not them."
Zerg drop-pods were deployed from some of the Leviathans, dropping down towards Shakuras' surface with the goal of inflicting further casualties on the invading Reaper forces. Meanwhile, Kerrigan's Leviathan fired another bio-plasma blast at Praetor, weakening the Leader-type Reaper's shields further. The Reaper fired its beam at the Leviathan, but the titan moved to the side, its thick hide withstanding the glancing blow as it cut a comparatively-narrow glowing-hot gash along its side. A fusion-cannon shot from the Bucephalus took Praetor's shields the rest of the way down, but the mechanical monster fired its own gun again; the Dominion battlecruiser shuddered as its shields failed to stop 100% of the shot, a burning line being cut across the ship's top. Then, however, another fusion-cannon shot, courtesy of the Hyperion, struck Praetor full-on from behind. The hyper-concentrated thermonuclear blast was a fatal blow, burning/blasting a hole almost completely through the Reaper, obliterating its core. Praetor's lights went out completely, and the Leader-subtype Reaper drifted in space, quite dead. The Bucephalus blasted it again for good measure, blowing it to pieces.
Within seconds of Praetor's death, the remaining Reapers received a single order transmitted from Harbinger: "WITHDRAW FOR NOW". Obeying, they fell back toward the warp-rift, sporadically firing at the Terran/Zerg/Protoss forces to keep them from pursuing as they passed through the rift back to Realm ME-N7. The few Reapers currently groundside lifted off as well, making for an escape; not all of them made it out of the atmosphere, and most of those who did were also destroyed by the waiting fleets. The Husk forces, bereft of leadership, still continued to fight, but without support or reinforcement of their numbers from their masters, they would eventually be wiped out by the Protoss and their allies over the next few days.
"They are running?" Stukov asked from aboard Kerrigan's Leviathan.
"They're probably pulling back to reinforce their efforts in their home Realm" Raynor replied. "Maybe they wanna finish 'harvesting' there first so they can commit more of their number to this Realm afterward."
"Let us not give them the chance" Artanis said. "All Templars, focus your power on the warp-rift!"
While no single Protoss could ever hope to psychically force the warp rift closed by himself, billions of them working in unison most certainly could, especially with assistance from Kerrigan and any sufficiently powerful human psyker aboard the fleets. The warp-rift destabilized, fluctuating, and then it abruptly collapsed.
"Abathur, report."
"No casualties from strain of closing rift. However, many Protoss exhausted by effort, even when workload spread out amongst billions. No permanent damage, but will need days to recover."
"We'll use those days to prepare for full-scale conflict" Valerian said. "We'll need every ship and every soldier at their best. Once we're ready, we'll move out to assist the rest of the Dimensional Defense Force against the Reapers."
"I've been preparin' my people for this for months" Raynor said. "Just need a little time to get everything ready to roll."
"Let's hope everyone's holding out for that long…" Kerrigan replied.
-SCENE BREAK-
Realm LN-34 – Beacon System – Midchilda
A Reaper Destroyer collapsed dead with an earth-shaking thud, a hole blasted through to its core by a Ragnarok Breaker. Hayate panted lightly as she floated back down to the ground, observing her handiwork. Around her, the others finished taking out the Husk forces that had been accompanying the Destroyer in its march toward Eragen, intent on 'harvesting' the city's populace. The past few days since the invasion started, they'd been all over the planet, splitting up and rejoining as needed to handle various trouble spots, and today they'd just happened to be together to discuss strategy when they'd detected the Destroyer coming and had moved to intercept. Now, on the quiet battlefield, they gathered together.
"We can't keep this up forever" Teana said. "They're gonna grind us down eventually."
"We have to hold out for as long as we can" Hayate replied. "We have to hope help will come before we reach that point."
Up in space, the vast majority of the Bureau Navy was still engaged with the space-side Reapers. It was so far a stalemate; the Bureau had a slight advantage, but that was nullified by how each time a Reaper was slain, another came through the warp-rift as replacement. Plus, there was Pinnacle, the Leader-subtype Reaper proving capable of taking and dealing damage its lesser brethren could not.
"This is gonna get a hell of a lot worse before it gets better" Vita replied. "If it gets better."
"Don't say that" Nanoha replied. "It will get better. It has to."
"And what if it doesn't? What if… What if help doesn't come in time? What if we lose, and the Reapers kill or 'harvest' us all? …What if we've spent the past several months preparing for a fight that's still just plain unwinnable – wasting time level-grinding for a boss with infinite HP and a one-hit-kill attack?"
"Pessimistic fatalism isn't like you, Vita" Signum said.
"You know as well as I do we've never faced anything even close to this."
The girls jumped as a deep boom sounded from above. They looked, and saw as a dead Reaper Dreadnought plummeted from the sky, shedding parts as it fell towards the mountains. High up above, the Bureau ships that had killed it were already engaged with others of its kind.
"At least we're not going down without a fight" Ginga remarked as she watched the Reaper Dreadnought crash and fragment against a mountain.
"But how much fight do we have left?" Fate replied.
Suddenly, Raising Heart chimed.
"Attention," the AI stated, "long-range sensors detect multiple signatures approaching through slipstream space. Trajectory suggests they are coming from Naval Headquarters. Signals do not match those of typical Bureau ships."
"Are there any satellites or ships we can tap into the external cameras of?" Nanoha asked her Device.
"Working…"
After a few seconds, a holo-screen formed, showing the view from a recon satellite that the Reapers had yet to destroy. Space-time warped and shifted, and a multitude of Sangheili and TSAB ships emerged from slipspace, opening fire on the Reapers.
"The Sangheili are here!" Nanoha said. "See? I told you help would come!"
"There is something else coming" Raising Heart reported. "Something even larger."
A very large slipspace rift opened; 'Group Nanoha' at first thought a fleet must be coming through such a big 'opening'. But instead, what emerged had their jaws drop. It had changed quite a bit since they last saw it; the large ventral fin had been removed, its old blue and gold colors replaced with silver and white, the TSAB coat of arms printed on its side, its entire form bristling with various types of weapon emplacements – magical, projectile, and directed-energy – that hadn't been there originally, and what looked like two very large weapons of some sort built into the bases of the 'wings', with a third slung under / built into the 'chin'. Though it had changed, the 14-kilometer dreadnought was immediately recognizable to the group groundside and to everyone else who saw it.
"The refitted Saint's Cradle…" Teana said, reading the ship's new name printed on its side. "The Olivie…"
Plasma torpedoes and particle beams from the Sangheili ships joined ship-grade 'breaker cannon' beam-shots from the TSAB vessels, lancing out at the Reaper forces orbiting Midchilda. Seconds later, the Olivie's weapons sprang to life, mass-drivers and plasma-beam turrets opening fire. Some of the Reapers actually seemed to panic at seeing a hostile ship so utterly massive and well-armed, some trying to get some distance from the behemoth while others immediately scrambled to return fire, concentrating their main weapons on the Bureau dreadnought. However, this left them vulnerable to the Bureau/Sangheili fleet, which used the opportunity to destroy more of the distracted Reapers; meanwhile, the dreadnought's massive power core enabled it to be outfitted with proportionately powerful shields, which easily withstood the shots that hit it (so far).
The gun-ports on/in the forward bases of the Olivie's 'wings' glowed with charging power. After several seconds, they fired two humongous beams of raw destructive magical energy – jumbo-sized 'breaker cannons'. The beams obliterated three Reapers, burning through their shields and then their ancient metal bodies with only a couple seconds of sustained fire. Pinnacle, the leader of the Reaper force invading this system, tried to lead its brethren in a counterattack, but took a few hits from Sangheili plasma torpedoes that heavily weakened its shields. The orange-lighted Reaper was then unable to get out of the way of a blast from the Olivie's chin-mounted heavy breaker cannon, burning a huge hole right through the evil technorganic entity, obliterating its power source and its sapience core. The Reaper corpse was then unceremoniously shoved aside as the Olivie brushed past it, firing its multiple secondary weapons at more of the Reapers.
Within minutes, the Reapers began a retreat from the Beacon system, falling back through the warp-rift. Those groundside tried to escape as well, though only around half made it all the way to the rift. They would fall back for now, until they had conquered enough of Realm ME-N7 to spare more of their number for trying to take Midchilda again at a later date. The TSAB ships in-system then moved toward the rift, and half a dozen of them fired synchronized Arc-en-Ciel shots at it, the combined force destabilizing and collapsing the rift.
Down on the planet, outside the city of Eragen, Nanoha smiled as she patted Vita on the head.
"See?" she chirped. "I told you we'd be okay."
"{STATIC}ate? Hayate?"
With the Reapers having left, their comm.-jamming field was finally down. After days of worry, Hayate finally heard her dear friend's voice again.
"Reinforce?" she replied. "Are you okay?"
A holo-screen sprang up, showing an image distorted with static but rapidly clearing up, showing the face of the human who'd been born 110,000 years ago, rescued and trained by the Librarian, and sent to LN-34 only to be bound to the Book of Darkness until her recent resurrection.
"Thank goodness" Reinforce breathed out. "I've been trying to contact you for days now. You look alright. What's happened?"
"A Sangheili fleet and the Olivie just chased the Reapers away from Midchilda and sealed the breach they'd used to cross over to this Realm. Where are you right now?"
"The… The Reapers hit Midchilda?-!"
"We're fine. Like I just said, the DDF chased them off."
"Okay…" the ancient human gathered herself. "Precia-san and I have been here on En-Hazred, investigating a Forerunner site we found here; it seems they visited Al-Hazred's hotter 'sister' planet as well. We've almost lost three of our people to local predators, but other than that things are calm over here. …Now that we know what's happened, we'll be over there as soon as we can. How are things over there?"
"We've taken some losses," Fate replied, "but nothing too heavy. That said, it'll probably be a week or two before the Bureau's ready to hop over to ME-N7 and join the fight for real."
"I, of course, won't be waiting that long" Teana chimed in. "The minute I have the ability to go check on any of my other team-members, I'm doing so."
"We'll try to make contact with Admiral Hackett," Hayate said, "find out the state of things over there. It's probably not too good…"
"Alright. As I said, we'll be there soon. Get some rest; you probably need it. I'll see you in person soon. Reinforce out."
"This was just the opening battle…" Signum said. "We'd best prepare ourselves; the real war starts now."
"Let's head back to base for now" Subaru said. "I need a shower and a nap."
"I'll join you" Teana replied. "We'll help clear out surviving Husk forces after we've recuperated a bit."
In orbit, the Bureau and Sangheili ships began established perimeters, rescuing lifepods, enacting repairs, and dispatching ground troops to the planet below to engage remaining cyber-zombie forces, as the Olivie stayed in position, keeping a watchful 'eye' over all.
-CHAPTER END-
Next Time: Back to Realm ME-N7, as Team Shepard goes to save the students of Grissom Academy