Hey guys, Azores here with another chapter! Sorry for the wait, but hopefully you'll enjoy this nice, long chapter!

First thing I want to say is that when I was writing this story, I tried to do it loosely in the style of Harry Turtledove, who for those of you who don't know, is probably one of the greatest if not the greatest writer of Alternate History stories in the history of the genre. (Check out his 'The War That Came Early' Series or 'Southern Victory' Series if you're interested. He's written literally dozens upon dozens of books.) He typically writes his stories from the viewpoint of a handful of characters, typically no more than a dozen at most, a half dozen on average, and in a way where you don't get the whole picture of what all is happening in the world, but you get a pretty decent idea of everything that's happening in the story. I tried to imitate this in a looser, more expanded version that covers multiple events, but in the long run, I don't think I've done a good job. :/ (Would love to hear the audience's thoughts regarding this, whether I've done good or bad. Either way I want to know so I can become a better writer.)

Second thing is, while I haven't decided yet, I'm considering making the Prologues of Halo-Naruto a separate story from the mainline story, (Which will focus on Naruto, Sakura, Team 7, and everyone else from the mainline 'Road to Genin' Arc and whatnot.) Again, haven't decided for certain, but it may happen. Just thought I'd let you know in advance and would love to hear your thoughts on this.

-Azores


!WARNING!

This story contains content not suited for younger readers, such as Violence, Blood and Gore, Language, and Explicit Sexual Content. This Chapter's Rating will be placed at M-Rated. Future Chapters may, and most likely will switch back and forth between the T and M ratings.

Regardless, Reader Discretion for this Chapter is advised.


I don't own Halo or Naruto.

Bold-My Own Words

Bold & Italic-Locations, Time & Calendar

Normal-Narrative

"Normal"-Person Speaking

'Normal'-Thoughts

"Italic"-Foreign Language

'Italic'-Radio Chatter

/Italic\-AI/Computer typing


-In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

-In real life, strategy is actually very straightforward. You pick a general direction and implement like hell.

Jack Welch

-Politics is just like show business. You have a hell of an opening, you coast for a while, you have a hell of a closing.

Ronald Reagan


Prologue Arc-Episode 6
-Gunboat Diplomacy (P.2)-
(Part 6)

August 18, 2543
Sky Country
94 miles southwest of Kenhaba
Yuga Ravine

4 hours later

Nightfall
0.7 kilometers outside of the village

The afternoon mist had made movement incredibly easy. But nighttime, with the planet's moon in its new moon phase, the Spartans may as well of been ghosts. None of the outer patrols had spotted them, and any that had been in their way had never seen them coming. It looks as though the ninjas really had been called back into town. Why were they having a meeting? Who knew. All it had done was make infiltration all the easier. Even if a couple of patrols and an outpost had to be eliminated, no one would find the bodies until it was too late, along with the C-12 surprises they had left as well. By then, the Spartans would hopefully be long gone.

The village itself was small, gated in with a simple wooden wall and might have housed a few thousand or so in the past. The buildings were tightly packed, and all seemed to have an old, weathered look. It was situated to the west of a large natural spring that fed the stream going through the ravine. That was where the village hot spring baths were, and what appeared to be an armory was located in a large building near the center of town. That was where the UNSC weapons would likely be. A majority of the barracks for the inhabitants seemed to be focused around the southern and eastern sections of the village. They would have to search that area until they located where the scientists were housed.

This mission wasn't going to be easy, but nothing beyond their capacity.

Spartan Team Sigma's sniper was currently on a small ridge overlooking the village, some 700 meters out. A small squad of sky soldiers had been up here in a post when they arrived, but they wouldn't be bothering anyone anymore, or ever again. Khara had the whole ridge to himself.

Khara was quietly scouting out the perimeter of the village, looking for weaknesses and opportunities in the patrol patterns or gaps in the wall which could be exploited. His Mark IV Commando-Class Mjolnir was painted in a dark grey coloring, which gave the team marksman great concealment in this kind of environment. The rucksack on his back was filled with extra ammunition for both himself and his teammates should they need it. His weapon of choice for the mission was a somewhat rare weapon nowadays, an M250 Sniper Rifle with a suppressor attachment.


The M250 was the bigger, older brother of both the M295 and M392 DMRs, first coming into service in the 2450s. It did everything the DMR did at a further distance, even fired the same 7.62x51mm round that was common in many UNSC firearms. And it was very good at what it did. But nowadays, it was a rather rare sight to see in the service of a UNSC military unit. Why? Two reasons. The first was that everything it did, the DMRs did everything the 250 did but cheaper and lighter. The M250 was about 6 inches longer than the M392 and weighed nearly 10 pounds more for doing basically the same job. The second reason was that the 7.62 caliber that the M250 fired was simply too weak at a distance to deal with the armor and shields of the larger covenant species, namely the elites and the brutes. With the low rate of fire it had, it simply would take too long for the rifle to penetrate the armor and shields of either creature, giving them more than enough time to either get to cover or shoot back. For such opponents, the SRS99 series was much more suited for engaging covenant infantry, and some vehicles, at distance.

But human targets were a completely different story. Human combatants were perfect to use the 250 against.

Khara radioed into his comms to the other Spartans at the village as he eyed the squad of Sky soldiers at the gate entrance.


The road outside the village gates

Ami and Vasili were holding their position in the forest next to the road. They eyed the half-dozen soldiers outside the entrance, weapons at the ready. But, none of the soldiers seemed to know they were they as they casually patrolled the entrance. Their body language clearly showed they weren't expecting trouble. Their visibility would be bad too, due to the only light they had were the torches and lamps around the gate.

'Patrols look pretty methodical. If you time it just right, you could sneak on in without anyone noticing.' Khara suggested over comms.

"It's not getting in that's the problem. It's getting out and completing our mission without alerting every Sky soldier within 30 miles. We don't need to make this any more difficult." Vasili replied, watching the guards with his suppressed M392. An M7S could be seen clamped onto his back. Ami had the same weapon layout as he did. Since they wouldn't have a resupply, ammo standardization was necessary, especially if a firefight occurs.

'Our mission's to capture or destroy the UNSC weapons cache, and eliminate any scientists we can identify. We'll likely have to go loud at some point, Vas.' Khara spoke, earning a disapproving grunt from Vasili with the use of his nickname.

"The longer we can avoid that, though, the better." Ami said, "Vasili, how much C-12 do you have with you?"

"Right now? 10 pounds worth cut up into 4x4 inch pieces, save for the main charge set up as a three-pound blow pack. Enough to level most of this village, unless a fire breaks out and burns down the rest."

That was more than enough. Overkill, to be honest. But, they'll need to make sure they'll take out the scientists, especially. The weapons can be disposed of with a simple thermite charge, it was the scientists they needed to worry about. HIGHCOM wasn't sure how many were in the village, but their elimination, along with any research they've managed, would put a halt to any Sky Country plans to have their own firearms. Permanently, with any luck. More than likely, for a few years or decades at best.

"Good. We'll go about setting the charges first, place them in strategic locations. Once we've identified the location of the weapons and eliminate the scientists, we'll detonate the charges and use that to cover our escape. With any luck, they'll be so occupied with the damage and fires they won't notice us until it's too late." Ami spoke.

'So basically the same plan we used for Terra Nova and the Covenant Fuel Depot back in '41?' Khara asked, then followed with, 'Well, at least we won't have to worry about some hapless Jackal spotting us.'

"We barely got out of that mission alive because of those stupid birds finding us. Plus, we had a fourth member back then too, that busted us out." Vasili remarked.

'Yeah...' Khara quietly spoke, 'Cal really saved our asses there. Still, wish we had been available for that mission. Maybe it would have turned out different...'

Ami said nothing. She didn't like to think of when their team had comprised of four Spartans, instead of three. It merely reminded her of the sister they had lost. Cal-141 had been the 4th member of Spartan Team Sigma, oftentimes working in tandem with Ami as CQC specialists. The team had conducted a number of missions together since the team's creation back in 2536, with several Covenant staging areas and strategic points eliminated by them. Then, in May of 2541, the team was deployed to disrupt Covenant logistics on the recently conquered Inner Colony Terra Nova. The mission was a success, with several fueling centers destroyed along with 9 Covenant warships and tens of thousands of Covenant soldiers, but the team was compromised during the mission. Ami was spotted by a Jackal Sniper and as a result the team suffered severe injuries from a squad of Covenant Locusts, albeit save for Cal who had only suffered minor injuries. The team was stuck recovering for nearly 6 months afterward, but in September of that year, another mission was brought up. This time a high-value assassination mission of a Minor Prophet on a Covenant-occupied world called Heian. ONI had decided that for such a high stakes mission, a Spartan-II was needed, but the only one readily available at the time had been Cal. The rest of Team Sigma had wanted to go, but their injuries prevented them from doing so.

The mission preceded as planned with the deployment of an ODST fireteam along with Cal, and was a success as the Prophet was killed. But, during the mission, Cal was mortally wounded fighting a Brute Chieftain and died during the mission. Her death had a profound impact on Team Sigma. Ami, in particular, had blamed her carelessness in the Terra Nova mission as being the reason Cal died later on. If they hadn't gotten injured; if that Locust had missed by just another meter... But it hadn't, and they had gotten critically injured. And Cal was killed due to a lack of proper support.

Because they hadn't been there when she had needed them.

She breathed in, recomposing herself. This wasn't the time to reflect on the past. They still had a job to do. "It should go a lot better this time, but be on the lookout for those Shinobi. There's a good chance we will be engaging them at some point."

'The best of the UNSC versus the best of the Sky Ninjas. I'll be honest, I am a little curious about the prospect of seeing how this magic of theirs holds up against us.' Khara mused.

"Don't be too eager." Ami replied grimly, remembering the battle on Timur Island, "They're tougher than they look."

'I know. We watched and studied your helmet feed, remember?' Khara remarked, then marked a location on the team's HUDs, ' I see what looks likes a damaged section of the wall about 40 meters from the main gate, Sigma-One. You should be able to enter there without anyone noticing. Marking on your HUD, now.'

"Roger that, Sigma-Three. Continue to track movement in the village and eliminate targets of opportunity or value should they appear. Be advised, we're going silent from here on. We'll radio in if trouble happens." Ami replied, receiving a green wink on her HUD as confirmation.

Ami and Vasili slowly crossed the road and made their way towards the wall, the darkness covering their movement from the guards. They reached the wooden wall, and sure enough, part of the wall was damaged, the wood bent, rotten, and missing chunks of it form. It clearly had seen better days. A gap was visible on the wall, just barely large enough for a person to fit through. For a 7 foot tall super soldier, it would be a little tricky. But they managed. From then on, the mission was a go, and radio silence would be maintained until either they had completed their objective or they had been compromised.

For the next hour, the two Spartans moved about the village's, searching for the scientists' housing, and occasionally setting the C12 charges in strategic locations to maximize destruction and confusion amongst the enemy. Strangely enough, there still hadn't been any sign of the shinobi. Ami couldn't help but wonder if there was a reason for that and not the good kind.

They crept through an abandoned building, their helmet VISR system illuminating the room enough to allow them to see. Glancing out the window, they observed a trio of buildings that were clearly being occupied by someone. Several guards were around the buildings patrolling, on full alert as opposed to the ones at the walls. That immediately raised some red flags. They were guarding something or someone. HUD markers were showing that the weapons, all 6 of them, were inside the building they were guarding. Bingo. One target located, now they just needed to see if the researchers were there too.

The Spartans waited for a few minutes to observe the guards, seeing how many there were and if they were getting ready to rotate.

This waiting paid off, as the soldiers suddenly went stiff, coming to attention as a trio of newcomers came into view, appearing almost out of nowhere from the shadows of the building across the street of the dorms. These were clearly soldiers, but their gear wasn't anything like the guards or even the Iron Guards. They wore solid black clothing, with a short sword on their backs, some equipment visible on their body, and their faces covered by a steel mask.

Shinobi. Most likely the elite Iron Shadows that have been missing until now.

The body language of the Shadows showed confidence, but also alertness. They were expecting and looking for trouble. They calmly walked towards the guards but kept an eye on their surroundings.

"C-Commanders, what can we do for you?" One of the guards asked.

None of the Iron Shadows said anything at first, quietly observing the soldiers on guard, before the lead Shinobi asked, "What is the status of the researchers inside? Are they secured?"

"Yes, commander. We've doubled the guards as ordered and are keeping constant surveillance on them at all times as they work on their... project. They've given several complaints about their 'working environment' and their working hours, but have complied with us nonetheless."

"Good." The lead Shinobi said, "They'll just have to put up with it for now. These orders came from the Kage himself. And stay on alert at all time. No. Slacking. Off. We have reason to believe that we'll be receiving some... unwanted company tonight."

That made Ami pause for a second. There was no way they could have known the Spartans were here. No alarms had been sound, and they hadn't killed a single soldier inside the village. And the C12 charges deployed so far were well hidden. There was nothing that could have alerted the sky soldiers to their presence.

"Intruders? Here? But they couldn't possibly know what we're doing here! We've been so careful-" The guard began to protest, but was cut off, "Unfortunately, Captain, not careful enough it seems. Keep the researchers under guard and in their quarters for now, but be ready to move them and the equipment immediately if anything occurs."

"Yes, sir!"

That wasn't good. If the Sky soldiers knew they were coming, then this was about to get a lot tougher. It didn't help that they were damn near in the center of town, with hundreds of combatants around them, and currently no knowledge as to where the enemy shinobi force was. She pondered for a second what the best course of action would be, then decided. Looking over at her teammate, she motioned with hand signs. We move in. Set the charge. Remote detonate.

Vasili nodded in confirmation. The two then moved out of the building and into an adjacent alleyway, leading up to their target building and out of sight of the roving guards. They still didn't know where the shinobi had run off to, but they now knew for sure they were still in the area. Walking down the alley, they managed to make it up to the side of the building before a guard turned the corner and came walking down the same alleyway. The Spartans entered whatever cover they could find, disappearing into the dark of the night.

The guard leisurely strolled down the alleyway, unaware of their presence. The moment he passed Vasili's position, the Spartan struck. The guard barely gasped out as the knife was jammed into his throat, blood spurting out of the wound. Vasili dragged the dying man back into the darkness, then hid his body before moving up with Ami further down the alleyway, towards the back entrance of the target building. They could hear several people inside chatting and conversing.

'Setting charge.' Vasili said, planting the charge on the side of the building, before covering it up with various bits of debris. The three-pound charge of C12 would be enough to level the entire building, along with several others around it since they were all wooden structures. With the other half dozen charges in the town, there would hopefully be too much confusion and chaos occurring for the Sky Forces to mount an effective search for the culprits, giving the Spartans ample time to escape. None of the scientists or the stolen weapons would survive the blast, and their mission would be a success.


Sigma-Three's Location

Khara was monitoring a squad-size element of Sky soldiers that were patrolling down the road near Ami and Vasili's location near the scientists' residence. The Spartans should still remain hidden and go unnoticed by the Sky soldiers, he still maintained a vigilance in case something happened. With his skill and weapon, he could kill all six of the Samurai before they could sound an alarm. The 7.62x51mm rounds the M250 fired would make short work of the native's primitive armor. The only problem would be making sure none of their friends noticed, or at least notice until his team had exfiltrated out of the village, preferably.

There was still the charges they had left at the outposts out in the woods. Detonate them now, and the Sky Soldiers would be forced to investigate, weakening their defenses here in the village. Or they could detonate the charges in the village and use the confusion to let the Spartans escape while the Sky soldiers dealt with the chaos inside their village. Though that option should only be used if they were compromised, which could still happen, however unlikely it was.

But Chief Mendez had always told the Spartans one thing as they trained, "Hope for the best but expect the worst. Either way, adapt and overcome."

And that was something Spartans did very well, which is why when Khara realized someone was behind him a couple minutes ago, he didn't panic or even show any sign that he was aware. Instead, he played dumb, acting as if he hadn't noticed the individual behind him and continued looking through the scope. The individual was some 10 meters behind him according to the motion tracker, with two more flanking him. They were holding their position at the moment. Khara did some quick calculations in his head, coming up with several strategies and measures for defending himself, and quickly concluded that there was no way they didn't know he was here. As if to confirm this suspicion, the one individual in the middle moved to within five meters of him.

'He's getting ready to strike. He'll move quickly, try to overwhelm me before I realize he's there. Too bad, buddy.' Khara thought as he mentally prepared to engage his foe. The opponent was likely shinobi, given on how they had managed to sneak up on him, so he needed to be ready for anything. Anything. These Shinobi were simply that unpredictable if Ami's combat footage was anything to go by.

He heard what sounded like something being unsheathed, likely a knife or a short sword. It sounded too short to be a katana. The individual was getting ready to strike. Khara keyed in his comms and gave one word to his comrades, "Damocles."

'Damocles' was Team Sigma's codeword used during stealth operations, meaning that one of them or all of them had been compromised and that the enemy was aware of their presence. If it was whispered or spoken with a normal tone, it meant that only the individual who spoke it had been spotted. If it was shouted, then they had all been compromised. As far as he knew, only he had been located, so he spoke it calmly. He received two green winks as an acknowledgment of his communication. He received a response from Ami.

'Sigma-Three, detonate explosives in 30 seconds and go loud.'

Done. Sending a mental command to the bombs through his neural implant, a 30-second countdown appeared in the top left of his HUD. His companions would be retreating as quickly as possible through the town to put distance between them and any of the explosives. He, on the other hand, needed to deal with these three before he could cover them.

He shifted his hand to grab the handle of his combat knife sheathed on his chest plate, ready to use it against his opponents.

25 seconds.

His intruder made their move, closing the distance with incredible speed. Khara was prepared and in the blink of an eye, twisted his body around and jammed the 7-inch blade into the Iron Shadow's temple, a look of shock and anguish in the man's face as his body twitched uncontrollably. Khara quickly pulled the knife out and kicked the body back and rolled forward into a crouched stance, ready to-

Poof!

Wait, what?

The 'body' he had just kicked off disappeared in a puff of smoke, replaced with a block of wood with a piece of burning paper on it. What the hell was-

He was thrown back as the paper suddenly exploded, a paper bomb. His armor was covered in scorch marks from the vicinity and intensity of the explosion. He swung a hand out to grab his M250 as he was thrown off the ridge, down some 30 feet below to the ground. He caught movement in his peripheral on both sides of him and shifted his body right to take a shot at one of the Shinobi attacking him. The 250 gave a sharp, loud cough as it fired. The round was dead on but missed by a few inches. Granted, shooting a 4-foot sniper rifle one-handed at a moving target 50 meters away wasn't easy for anyone to do.

16 seconds.

Khara crashed onto the ground, rolling back into a crouched position, with three Iron Shadows pouncing on him immediately. He shifted his head to the side, dodging a swipe from a tanto, and retaliated with an elbow to the Shinobi's face, caving in his jaw and breaking his neck in one swift motion. This one didn't disappear, dropping to the ground spurting up blood. The other two, without any hesitation, slashed away with knives as Khara was killing their companion. He blocked one with his forearm while catching the hand of the other and crushing the hand, before pulling the Shinobi closer towards him.

9 seconds. Poof!

Dammit! Another wood replacement, with another paper bomb on it, ready to explode. He kicked back and rolled away as the bomb exploded, engulfing the other Iron Shadow and the corpse as it went off. Khara didn't know if that last Shinobi was a fake, too, but he wasn't taking any chances. He shouldered his M250 and pulled out his M7S, firing a burst into the smoke where the Shinobi had last been seen. He saw movement to his left and instinctively fired a burst, seeing three more Shinobi dispersing. There was at least three of them, he was sure. That or three copies of the same guy. Either way, the Shinobi were gonna have friends inbound, soon. There's no way the village defenders didn't hear or see those explosions. Luckily, it also meant that his team saw them, too, and knew he was in trouble.

5 seconds.

He heard something behind him and instinctively rolled to the side as three massive windmill shurikens went sailing by, slamming into the dirt nearby and firing a burst of SMG fire at its direction into the bushes, hearing a scream of pain. He heard another sound and turned just in time to see a massive torrent of water, in what he could have sworn was in the shape of a snake's head, come barreling at him. 'Crap,' he thought just as it slammed into him, trapping in a massive current of water that sent him slamming into the forest nearby.

At the same time, the countdown reached 0. All hell broke loose inside the small village.


Inside the Sky Country Village

Across the town, 14 explosions rang out. Enormous fireballs that destroyed buildings, and entire streets were flattened. The C-12 charges were designed to deal with the latest in Titanium-A Armor Plating. Medieval houses made out of wood, paper, and bamboo? Didn't stand a chance. Buildings were turned into wooden shrapnel that went flying out in all directions, stabbing into other buildings and unfortunate individuals that happened to be in the way. In mere seconds, the village had gone from a quiet night to an all-out war zone, with chaos and fires reigning everywhere as the Sky soldiers, whoever wasn't injured or dead, tried to figure out just what the hell was going on and who was attacking them.

The coup-de-grace, though, was the 3-pound charge left at the scientists' barracks. This bomb had been set to explode last and with the last of the other bombs detonated, this monster of an explosive detonated. The explosion roared out as the building was annihilated, along with the entire block and the scientists, a massive fireball that flared out, blinding everyone that saw it. The shockwave sent debris as far as a half-mile away from ground-zero. Anyone who had been within 200 meters of the explosion was now dead or near death, their internal organs crushed by the shockwave or impaled by various amounts of flying debris, or even worse, turned into nothing but a blood smear on the ground if they had been close to the explosion.

The village was now a raging inferno of numerous fires, death, and destruction strung about everywhere.


Ami and Vasili had managed to find cover and get safely away from the kill radius of the blast. That being said, the building they were hiding in had still collapsed on top of them, covering them in nearly a couple tons worth of wood and bamboo on top of them. A couple fires were raging outside of the building, the smoke obscuring their view slightly. But, they were alive, and they had accomplished their mission. Now, they needed to merely verify that the weapons had been destroyed, too, then they can regroup with Khara and exfil. And they needed to do this fast.

With hardly any effort, the two Spartans lifted the pieces of debris on top of them and began working their way out of the ruined house. Unfortunately, they must have drawn attention, because they heard someone from outside shout, "Over here! Someone's still alive!"

'Damn,' Thought Ami, as she and Vasili both pulled out their M7S. "Wait for them to come to us, then once the initial group is dispatched, we break out. Run and gun to the target, confirm the mission's accomplished, then exfil." Ami ordered through her comms, earning a nod from Vasili as they positioned themselves to a better defensive position within the fallen structure. The Sky soldiers outside must of thought it was a couple of their own people trapped inside the house, as they began shouting to the two Spartans, asking them if they were okay. They could hear the Sky soldiers moving the debris around trying to reach them.

"Hang on, we're almost through!" Shouted one of the voices. Seconds later, a section of the roof on top of Ami was slowly removed, slowly revealing the soldiers trying to free them. Ami timed her moment, waiting.

A man's head popped through the opening that was slowly being made, "Is everyone oka-"

The soldier didn't get a chance to finish as the half-ton supersoldier burst out of the rubble, slamming her fist into his chest and crushing his lungs and heart. The soldier, coughing up a spout of blood, was thrown back by the force of the blow, slamming into a half-destroyed wall and slumping over dead. The Spartan didn't miss a beat, following this up as the soldier was flying back with a burst of suppressed SMG fire at his companion, who screamed out as a half dozen 5mm rounds struck him in the chest. He, too was dead before he hit the ground.

Ami quickly surveyed her surroundings, finding herself encircled by a half dozen individuals. Iron Guard Samurai, who were now pulling out their swords and weapons to fight this intruder. The Spartan wasn't going to give them a chance. She quickly pulled off several successive bursts from her SMG, striking each of the Samurai before they could even retaliate. They weren't the only Sky warriors in the area, though, as several more who had heard the screams of their comrades came running over to investigate. Vasili made his move, popping partially out of the building and using his M7S to cut them down. Their shouts of dismay and shrieks of pain echoed out as Vasili methodically cut down the advancing Samurai, forcing the survivors into cover as he continued firing on them. They shouted for help, hoping that anyone nearby would hear them and come to help. That wasn't good. Pretty soon, more and more Sky soldiers would arrive to come to investigate the activity here. They needed to move and accomplish their mission, now.

"Sigma-Two, move now!" Ami ordered as she primed a frag grenade, tossing it at the dug in Samurai. A chorus of screams that followed the grenade's explosion confirmed she had thrown it right in the mist of them, but she didn't waste time dwelling on it. Both her and Vasili sprinted from the ruined house, moving down the devastated street back towards the researchers' residence. The air was thick with smoke and flames, obscuring both the Spartans' view and that of their foe. They could hear the shouts of Sky soldiers trying to reestablish some sort of order and coordination throughout all the chaos. Some of the leadership had to have been killed in the attack (They did set a C-12 charge at the officer's quarters.), so their chain of command would have definitely been crippled to a degree until they figured out who was alive and who wasn't.

90 meters until they reached the target. Good. The sooner they confirmed their mission a success, the sooner they could exfil.

Movement ahead. Three silhouettes. Not friendly. Ami was quick to dispatch the Sky Country Samurai, each one screaming as they were dropped in quick succession. They heard several shouts and orders from behind them in the distance. The Sky soldiers were starting to figure out that someone was inside the village, and moving to intercept. They needed to pick up the pace.

Ami heard something to her left and instinctively ducked as several arrows came flying at her, only one actually hitting her armor but failing to penetrate. She quickly returned fire with several controlled bursts from her SMG, killing a couple of the archers and sending the other ones scurrying for cover. The natives were shouting in dismay and shock, wondering just what the hell was killing their comrades with such lethality. The two Spartans didn't slow down, though. They sprinted towards the target, covering the last 50 meters with astounding speed as the Sky soldiers behind them struggled to keep up with the intruders.

"Here! This is the building!" Vasili spoke. There wasn't much left of it. Somehow a couple of the support beams for the house had managed to stay standing, albeit warped and charred to hell. Aside from that, there was nothing left standing of the structure. Instead, a charred pile of rubble and debris was all that was left, a large amount of it having been thrown up to 50 meters away from its original spot. Ami scanned for any of the ID tags for the weapons, even though they were likely destroyed. She found a piece of an MA5C, the rear half of the firearm with part of the trigger and magazine compartment warped, hidden under some wooden planks. Vasili managed to find an M6C and some bits of UNSC body armor, profoundly warped, that had been reported missing, too. He holstered the pistol and set a thermite charge on the remnants of the body armor, before setting up several more charges around the building ruins on other pieces of identified UNSC materials that had managed to survive, with Ami pulling overwatch for any unwanted guests.

Sure enough, the guests starting showing up as the Sky samurai located them, charging their position with a war cry. Bad move. Ami calmly and methodically opened fire with her suppressed M392, picking off of the attacking Samurai with ease as they charged. One by one, she dropped the attacking warriors with pinpoint accuracy, killing each one with a single well placed shot before moving to another target. A few archers were lobbing arrows at her from a concealed position further back, but the bolts couldn't penetrate the MJOLNIR armor, so she ignored them unless they were aimed at her head.

"Sigma-Two, status?"

'Almost done. Regroup with me and we'll exfil.'

"Affirmative," Ami answered as she took out another group of Samurai trying to assault her position. She primed a frag grenade and tossed it before pulling back to Vasili's location. She didn't bother to look and see what damage the grenade did when it went off, instead focused on recovering her team and getting the hell out of dodge. She arrived back to Vasili just as he was planting the last thermite charge on a piece of UNSC body armor. Vasili then pulled out two smoke grenades and tossed them, "When they come through here they're going to be in for one nasty surprise."

"Let's move."

The two Spartans quickly pulled out, using the smoke to cover their retreat. As this was all happening, Ami couldn't help but shake this weird feeling. Where was the Shinobi? They had to of known by now that the Spartans were inside the village, so why weren't they attacking? Were they waiting? Preoccupied?

Her question was answered as the two super soldiers heard someone shout, "Earth Style! Ground Shockwave Jutsu!"

Ami and Vasili both turned towards the source of the voice. Ground what? The two suddenly had a massive shockwave slam into them, sending the Spartans flying into some rubble with a resounding crash. Groaning in pain, the two Spartans quickly recovered to find themselves surrounded by over two dozen Shinobi, both Iron Shadows and regular Sky Shinobi, backed up by over 50 Samurai and archers. Without even hesitating, the two Spartans rose up on their little mound of rubble and opened fire, their M7S SMGs dropping several of the Sky warriors before they could even retaliate. Several of the bolder, more inexperienced Shinobi and Samurai charged forward, determined to kill their foe. Their inexperience cost them, as most were cut down before they could get within a few meters of the two super soldiers. The Shinobi were targeted first as they were the more significant threat. Any that were seen trying to cast a jutsu were gunned down mercilessly, being literally killed faster than they could cast their jutsus. A few, though, managed to survive the hail of gunfire and close in on the Spartans, forcing them into close combat.

One Samurai tried to swipe his sword at Vasili on his side, only the Spartan sidestepped the swipe and responded with an open-palm strike on the man's head, snapping his neck and caving in his skull as he was sent toppling back. A Shinobi launched a salvo of shurikens at Vasili, who let his armor take the brunt of the hits, none penetrating, as he finished off a couple more Samurai trying to cut him down. The Shinobi, seeing an opening, pulled out her kunai and lunged in for the kill. Vasili, however, saw the move and caught the ninja's wrist with his hand, before snapping it like a twig. The ninja didn't even have a chance to scream as the Spartan quickly finished her off with a punch to the gut, crushing her internal organs and snapping her back. He quickly tossed the dying Shinobi aside and fired a burst from his M7S at a trio of Shinobi advancing, killing one and injuring the other two who dove into cover.

Ami slammed the butt of her SMG into the Samurai's head, snapping his neck, before firing on another couple of Samurai charging in from behind. She turned around and flattened herself on the ground as a trio of fireballs went flying over where she had been standing. Pulling out her DMR, she began picking off the Shinobi and archers in the distance that were providing long-range support to the warriors that had charged in. This forced even more of the ninjas and soldiers into cover, not wanting to be struck by the absurd projectiles that seemed to ignore armor like it was paper. A Shinobi tried to hit her from behind, but Ami rolled over and slammed her foot into the ninja's kneecap, shattering it and causing the now screaming Shinobi to fall over, only to disappear in a cloud of smoke. A decoy? She couldn't dwell on it as she rose up and blocked another strike from a Shinobi, firing a round into his chest at point blank, then throwing his corpse at a pair of charging Samurai trying to climb up towards them. All three went falling back down the mound of rubble and were quickly dispatched by Ami, who then went back to picking off the Shinobi and archers in the distance.

Despite the incredible odds against them, they were holding off the Sky warriors pretty well so far. Far better than Ami would have dared hope. They clearly weren't used to dealing with firearms and must have assumed the lack of chakra would have meant they were weak opponents. That overconfidence had cost them. But unfortunately, they were quick learners. The survivors, whichever ones that weren't picked off, retreated back to their friendly troops. The mound of rubble the two Spartans had made their stand on was littered with dead Sky soldiers, their bloody and broken bodies sprawled out all around the two super soldiers.

Several of the Iron Shadows had cast some sort of dirt/stone wall to use as cover from the two Spartans' firearms. The reprisal allowed Ami to assess their situation at the moment. They were still surrounded by several dozen enemies, several of which could use magic. They had a Spartan missing and likely under attack, and they had probably alerted every Sky soldiers to their location for several miles. They needed to leave now before they ran out of ammunition or were overwhelmed. She had already burned through half of her M7S ammo and was down to two-thirds ammo for her DMR. They still had a few grenades left, along with a pound of C-12. Not to mention the thermite charges hadn't been-

Wait. The thermite charges! Some of the Shinobi had set themselves up right next to where the researchers' building had been. If they detonated the charges-

"Earth Style! Swamp of the Underworld!" One of the Iron Shadows shouted.

Suddenly the area around the Spartans had turned into a deep, viscous swamp. The Spartans had noticed that the bodies were being swallowed into it, along with their mound of rubble. They were sinking into the marsh, and unless they did something fast, they would be trapped. Vasili quickly ducked to the side to avoid a fireball being fired at him but lost his footing as the rubble gave out from beneath him, his foot sinking into the bog. He tried to pull himself out but was surprised when he found out that he couldn't. The marsh was acting like quicksand, with even a Spartan's super-strength unable to break to hold on his foot. He was trapped. Ami moved over to help him, firing a burst at one of the entrenched Sky soldiers before attempting to help pull Vasili out of the swamp. Even with her help, they couldn't free him.

"This isn't good," Vasili commented, surprisingly calm about his predicament. Ami was about to respond when she noticed all the Shinobi popping out of cover, all performing hand signs. They were going to launch a mass attack at the two Spartans, looking to overcome them with overwhelming firepower where numbers had failed. Ami needed to think fast, and quickly came up with a plan. The two Spartans still had one trick up their sleeve.

"Vasili, prep the last C-12 charge, and when I tell you to, I want you to throw it as close as you can at that group of hostiles dug in," Ami ordered, with Vasili already prepping the charge before she was even finished talking. Ami, meanwhile pulled out a device off of her back, prepping it for use. With any luck, it would manage to withstand the barrage about to be thrown at them.

"Charge ready!" Vasili announced.

"Throw it, now!" Ami ordered as the Iron Shadows finished casting their Justus, simultaneously shouting out, "Fire Style! Great Dragon Fire Jutsu!"

Dozens of fireballs shot out, each in the form of a massive dragon's head, going straight for the two trapped Spartans. Ami slammed down the device and threw herself on top of her teammate as the fireballs slammed into them. A massive explosion rang that engulf the entire area, the two Spartans disappearing inside the blast. The blast could be heard from miles around.


Sigma-Three's Location

Khara was in one of the most challenging fights of his life, and of all the beings that would give him such a fight, he never thought it would have been something like a ninja. He had already killed 3 Shinobi with absolute certainty, but now he was facing another ninja that was leagues above the other ones he had fought. He dodged another swipe from the Iron Shadow Shinobi's tanto and quickly countered with a strike from his knife. But this Shinobi was proving to be quite the formidable foe. Every attack he performed was either avoided or countered with pin-point precision. It didn't help that the bastard had three more just like him assisting him, or her. Whoever this Shinobi was, they were a veteran. Both the warriors were matched in speed, with the Spartan having a distinct advantage in strength, but didn't do any good if he couldn't land a killing blow.

Both warriors parried one another, striking and counterstriking the other as they tried to gain an advantage on one another. The other three, while they would help occasionally, it was becoming clear to Khara that they were observing him, studying him to try and learn his strengths and weaknesses. He couldn't have that. They would learn secrets about the Spartan-IIs that couldn't be allowed to be known. They would need to be eliminated.

His opponent suddenly spoke up, a feminine voice confirming this was, in fact, a woman he was fighting, "Well, you're definitely one of the stronger foes I've faced. But it's about time this ended." The Kunoichi brought up her tanto in a defensive posture; one Khara mimicked with his knife while keeping an eye on his flanks. She spoke up again, "Who are you and why did you attack us? Answer now and things will go much easier for you."

Khara didn't respond. Instead, he maintained his defensive posture. They didn't know who the Spartans were. Good. Let's keep it that way.

After several moments of silence from the 7-foot super soldier, the Kunoichi finally spoke up, "Silent type? That's fine. We have ways to make you talk!" she charged forward, throwing a couple of diversionary shurikens at him to throw him off. Khara merely allowed the projectiles to deflect off his armor and lunged his knife forward, blocking the jab from the ninja's tanto before throwing a fist towards the Kunoichi's face, who expertly dodged it and launched a high kick straight towards Khara's head. Khara caught the foot, but to his surprise and before he could even respond, the ninja twisted her body into the air and slammed her other foot into his head. The move caught him off guard and threw him off balance. He hadn't expected her to be this fast.

The Kunoichi quickly took advantage of the Spartan's position and quickly went through some hand signs, before shouting out, "Body Freeze Jutsu!", slamming a palm full of electricity into the Spartan's chest before quickly backing up to avoid the retaliatory strike from the super soldier.

At first, the Spartan was confused as to just what the ninja had done to him, but then he began to notice something off. He felt... cold. Very cold. He could barely focus on his surroundings. His movement felt very sluggish, uncoordinated. He couldn't think straight. It was almost like he had somehow gotten hypothermia, but that was impossible. The temperature outside was 71 degrees, so there was no way he could have gotten hypothermia. But the symptoms were the same; he was already starting to shiver inside his suit. He heard the Kunoichi say something, but couldn't focus on anything she had said. He could see the other ninjas finally moving in, likely to secure him if he had to guess.

What the hell is going on? Was this some sort of jutsu? How the hell had she managed to give him hypothermia of all things? Khara couldn't think at all; his attempts to defend himself were feeble at best. The Kunoichi planted a firm kick into his chest that threw him back, with Khara barely catching himself on his hands and knees. He was now entirely under the effects of extreme hypothermia. His entire body was shivering, he couldn't think at all, and his teeth were chattering uncontrollably.


Had the Khara known anything about this Genjutsu he was currently under, he would have realized that all he needed to do was apply a suitable amount of heat to his body and it would have dispelled immediately. Luckily for him, the MJOLNIR armor's inner skinsuit, the which controlled and regulated the temperature inside the suit, had detected the sudden drop in the Spartan's core temperature and conducted an emergency heating to the suit's hydrostatic gel layer in an attempt to save its operator's life. The whole process, from detection of the core temperature drop to the emergency heating, took a total of ten seconds.


One moment, Khara was on his hands and knees, completely at the mercy of the Sky Shinobi who were now attempting to apprehend him, two of them grabbing him by the arms and shoulders trying to restrain him, as the third one took possession of his weapons including his knife. Whatever had happened, he was better, now. He could think clearly, move smoothly, and more importantly defend himself once more.

The Kunoichi in charge was giving the three other Iron Shadows orders regarding the Spartan, the first being to try and prep the Spartan for transport back to Kenhaba for interrogation. One of the Shinobi had been griping about how heavy the super soldier was, when the supposedly incapacitated super soldier came back to life, Spartan Time fully engaged. Khara quickly slammed his foot into the Shinobi's shin, snapping it as he immediately followed up with a left hook straight into the ninja's face, caving it in and killing the ninja instantly. He then twisted his body around to the other Shinobi, who had pulled out a kunai to stab into him. But he was stopped when the Spartan slammed his fist into the man's gut, causing the man to scream out and cough up a massive spurt of blood as his organs were crushed from the superhuman punch, the blood flowing out of his mask like a waterfall. The Spartan then took kunai out the dead ninja's grip and threw it into the third ninja's neck, lodging it in there and forcing the Shinobi to drop all of the Spartan's weapons as he grasped at his neck trying to dislodge the kunai as he slowly fell to the ground. The whole incident took barely 8 seconds.

The Kunoichi in charge had charged at him in an attempt to save her teammates but quickly changed this to avenging them once she realized that would be impossible. Tanto in hand, she lunged at the Spartan, who used one of her companions as a shield to block the strike. Enraged, the Iron Shadow Kunoichi tried to retreat, only to have herself pulled forward suddenly as the Spartan pulled the body past him, left arm cocked back and ready to throw. Too late, she realized that the Spartan had baited her and desperately threw herself back to avoid the imminent strike. She was partially successful as the impending attack struck her in her right arm, shattering the forearm and elbow.

She screamed out in agony, being one of worst things she had ever endured, as she tried to focus on her opponent and not her now useless arm. She quickly countered with a high kick to the Spartan's chest, using the momentum to backflip away from the dangerous foe and followed up by using her good arm to throw a salvo of shurikens at the Spartan to distract him.

Khara used the sudden push back to roll back towards his weapons, quickly snatching up his knife and M7S, before rising to a knelt stance, ready to fire. He was just a second late as he watched a smoke bomb go off, blinding his view of the Kunoichi. He didn't hesitate, however, and proceeded to empty the entire clip from his M7S into the smoke cloud.

He waited patiently for any movement, looking around for the ninja as the smoke cloud slowly dissipated. When the cloud finally cleared, he found that the ninja had fled, a small blood trail leading away from the fighting. No sense in trying to follow after her, she would be long gone by now. He had moderate injuries himself, his armor had all kinds of burn marks and scratched across it. Plus, the Sky forces now knew they were here, so he needed to exfil with his team now. As he picked up his Sniper Rifle, he heard a massive explosion. Turning around, he saw a gigantic fireball rising some one hundred feet into the air.

Exactly where Ami and Vasili were at.

Horror filled his mind as he ran towards the village, M250 in hand, screaming into his comms, "SIGMA-ONE, SIGMA-TWO, DO YOU COPY? AMI! VASILI! ARE YOU THERE, OVER?!"


Inside the Sky Country Village
Sigma-One and Two's Location

They were alive. Miraculously, the Bubble Shield, a prototype device that had been developed by ONI just months prior to Psi Serpentis, had held up to the massive explosion that had engulfed their position. Ami and Vasili couldn't see anything outside the shield; the whole area was obscured by smoke. But, they were alive. But the Bubble Shield wouldn't stand up to another hit like that. In fact, it probably wouldn't last long enough to try to withstand another strike. They needed to make a move and soon. Luckily, whoever had cast that swamp jutsu that trapped Vasili must have canceled it, that or the fireballs had dried up the swamp. Either way, Vasili wasn't trapped anymore.

'SIGMA-ONE, SIGMA-TWO, DO YOU COPY? AMI! VASILI! ARE YOU THERE, OVER?!' Khara's voice came screaming in over the comms.

"Khara! We're fine, but we have a bit of a situation! What's your status, over?" Ami replied.

'Thank god.' She heard him mutter, 'Roger, Sigma-One. I'm good, ran into a squad of those Iron Shadow Shinobi. Managed to eliminate most of them save for one that got away. Bastards are tough. What's your situation, over?'

"We're currently surrounded by several dozen enemy troops, mostly Shinobi. We've got a plan to break out, but we need you to detonate the explosives out in the woods then provide sniper support as we pull out. How do you copy, over?" Ami explained.

'Roger that, just let me know when over.'

"Affirmative. Sigma-One, out." Ami turned over to Vasili, asking him, "How are you?"

"Little shaken up, but nothing's broken or damaged." The Spartan replied. Ami nodded, "Alright, we have maybe a few more seconds before that smoke cloud dissipates. I'm guessing that these Shinobi are waiting for it to clear to see our condition. They're not. Otherwise, I think we would have had some company by now. Vasili, I want you to get ready to detonate that C-12 charge and the Thermite. Wait three seconds after Khara has detonated the charges in the forest, then we'll move through the chaos and break out toward Khara's position."

Vasili didn't verbally respond, just nodded as he checked both of his weapons and made sure they were loaded. Ami could hear the shouts and orders being given by the sky soldiers, ready for whatever is still inside the smoke. "Sigma-Three, standby."

'Standing by. Awaiting your command, over.' The Bubble Shield finally collapsed, with Ami quickly grabbing the device and placing the device back on the small of her back. The smoke around them was dissipating, their obscured view slowly becoming clear. They could see that the Sky soldiers were, in fact, maintaining their distance, hesitant to get close to the Spartans after what happened last time.

Good.

"Sigma-Three, execute."

In the distance, several explosions could be heard echoing in the forest, earning the attention of every Sky soldier, wondering what that was. With their attention distracted, they didn't see the Spartans suddenly burst out of the smoke, weapons at the ready. When they finally did, Ami gave the order, "Vasili, do it!"

The C-12 charge was maybe 50 meters from their position, so when it went off, they felt the shockwave slam over them. It wasn't anything like that attack that the Shinobi had used, that was like an artillery round exploding right next to them, it still made them lose their balance for a moment. But it had done its job. Dozens of Shinobi had been caught in the blast, killing and maiming instantly and causing the others to think another explosive barrage was inbound and run for cover. They were kind of right. The Thermite Charges then went off. The low hiss of several charges going off, each one so bright that the Spartans' visor adjusted their polarization to lessen the bright heat, gave way to the sound of dozens of high-pitched screams, signifying that several soldiers had in fact been taking cover in the rubble of the researchers' housing. Thermite, which burned at 4,000 Degrees F and was designed to melt through some of the toughest of metal armor, easily melted through the armor and flesh of the Shinobi and Samurai that were unfortunate enough to be taking cover on top of the charges. Their clothes were set alight while their flesh was melted down to the bone. Their screams of agony sent a wave of fear throughout the Sky soldiers, especially the ones who were able to see just what the Thermite was doing to their comrades. A few brave, foolish souls tried to rush over and put their friends out, only to catch themselves on fire, too.

After 20 seconds, the oversized thermite charges would eventually go out, but it had done its job. It destroyed any remnants of UNSC tech and distracted the Sky Army forces from the Spartans breaking through their little 'blockade.'

By the time one of them had realized the Spartans were retreating, the two super soldiers were already sprinting down the street towards the village gates, reaching a top speed of 55 km/h. They fired on anyone that tried to get in their way but refused to stop. Khara, who was now isolated and alone again upon his vantage point, began picking off any Shinobi that he saw closing in on his two comrades, forcing the ninjas to divert another squad to try to find and eliminate him. By the time they figured out where he was, he would either be long gone or be more than ready for them.

"Everest-Actual, this is Sierra-072 requesting extraction. Mission accomplished, over." Ami reported into her comms as she gunned down another Samurai to her right.

'Roger that, Sierra-072. Pelican inbound for extraction, ETA 6 minutes.' One of the Everest's communications officers answered.

"Understood, Everest. Sierra-072, out." Ami and Vasili rounded the street corner, just in time to see a couple of Shinobi be dropped by sniper fire, their bodies still falling as the Spartans ran past them. Suddenly, a pair of Shinobi ambushed Vasili, attacking him on both of his flanks. Ami moved to assist but another Shinobi, an Iron Shadow, slammed into her, trying to take her head off with what looked like a sword made of pure fire. Ami quickly ducked under the swipe and countered with a right hook. The Iron Shadow threw his head back, narrowly dodging the strike, before responding with a kick to the Spartan's chest. This continued for several moments, with Khara unable to help. The Shinobi were playing it smart, staying as close to the Spartans as possible, forcing him to hold fire lest he hit one of his teammates by accident.

The fire sword swiped across Ami's chest plate, searing the armor and burning through the weak points in the chest plate's side. The heat was so intense that it actually burned through her suit and charred her skin, earning a grunt of pain from the super soldier. This couldn't keep going on, she needed to end this now. Ami ducked under a kick from the Iron Shadow, who quickly twisted his body around to avoid the retaliatory strike from the super soldier. She had to admit, they were quick learners. They had realized that just one hit from the Spartans could be life-ending.

Ami sent her whole body forward, following the Shinobi as she tried to slam her shoulder into the ninja, who again leaped back from the attack. Ami overstepped her charge, as her left foot slide forward too much, causing her to lose her balance. The Iron Shadow saw his chance and lunged forward, fire sword at the ready and intent on taking her head off. Ami, however, had hoped he would do this, her ruse successful, as she quickly ducked under the strike and brought her right fist up. The fist, too close and too fast for the elite ninja to dodge, connected with the man's windpipe, crushing it and shattering the neck as the ninja was sent flying backward. The corpse crashed into a low wall some 20 feet away, the ninja's head hanging limply at an unnatural angle.

Ami quickly looked over to see how Vasili was, only to find him finishing off the last of his opponents with a knife to the woman's head. Dropping the body, Vasili looked over to his teammate and gave her a nod, signifying that he was fine. She noticed he was bleeding from a couple knife injuries on his side and what looked like ice on his left shoulder plate, but didn't seem to be too badly hurt. The two soldiers quickly continued their retreat, now just 20 meters from the village gates.

They managed to pass through the gates without incident, but they could hear the Sky soldiers starting to rally and regroup, a handful of Iron Guards even starting to follow after them to try and hunt them down. But they didn't have a hope of actually catching up to the Spartans, who at this point were already halfway up the ridge as they sprinted up to Khara's position. Khara was making sure that none of the Sky soldiers were able to follow as he kept sniping them to keep them confined to the village.

"We're clear. Now let's pull out." Ami ordered, radioed in on comms, "Everest-Actual, this is Sierra-072. Sierra Team has successfully exfil from the village and is awaiting extraction, over."

'Affirmative, Sierra-072. Pelican-437 is inbound. ETA 1 mike. Be ready to extract the moment it touches down. Everest, out.'

Sure enough, they could see the Pelican closing in out in the distance. Stealth was no longer needed, so the Pelican was hightailing it to their location as quickly as possible. And good thing, too, because Ami heard Vasili shout out, "Contact rear! Enemy foot mobiles closing in!" as he opened fire on several Iron Guards trying to climb up the hill towards them. Both Ami and Khara were quick to join in, cutting down several of the soldiers as they charged up. They were brave, no doubt about it, but bravery would only get one so far. A strong defensive position and superior firepower made quick work of the brave. The remaining soldiers were quick to move to whatever cover they could find.

But where were the-

"Earth Style! Earth Dragon Blast Jutsu!"

Sure enough, a few Shinobi were still kicking and had joined in the fight, looking for vengeance. Several giant 'cannonballs' were fired up at the Spartans' position, slamming into their cover, blasting apart like they were artillery rounds. Explosive Kunai were added into the mix, kicking up dirt and dust all around the Spartans and forcing to either dodge the weapons or duck into cover. None of this phased them as they continued to return fire on their attackers. A few of the Shinobi were trying to get close, but Ami and Vasili threw what handful of frag grenades they had left to discourage this.

"Pelican-437, Sierra-072! Be advised! LZ is hot! I repeat! LZ is hot! Requesting fire support, over!"

'Roger Sierra-072. Chaingun and Anvil-II Missiles ready to fire. ETA 20 seconds. Just give us a target, and we'll decimate it, over!'

"Affirmative, Pelican-437! Target marked! Fire at will!" Ami responded as she quickly ducked from a flying kick by an Iron Shadow that somehow had managed to sneak up. She fired her M7S, but none of the shot connected as the ninja dodged, retaliating with a series of slashes from a kunai across Ami's weapon, throwing off her aim. The ninja quickly followed this up by jumping up and slamming both of his feet into her chest, throwing her back. The hit hadn't been powerful, but it had been enough. She had been so focused on the one ninja she hadn't seen the second Iron Shadow closing in on her side, tanto at the ready until it was too late. A last ditch effort kept the blade from stabbing straight through her next, but the knife still cut through the front of her neck cut and right into her throat. Blood spurt out of the wound and onto the chest piece of her armor. She managed out a pain-filled gasp, followed by a throaty snarl as she grabbed the attacker by the wrist and slammed her foot into his gut, crushing his internal organs and breaking his spine. The ninja shrieked out in pain before being slammed down and having his head crushed by Ami bringing her knee down on top of it.

'Sierra Team, this is Pelican-437, we are going hot! Guns, guns, guns!'

Ami didn't pay attention to the roar of the dropship's chain gun as it strafed the Sky soldiers' positions, surely killing scores of them with one strike. She didn't pay attention to her teammates' calling her name, despite them having their hands full with the attacking Iron Guards. Her focus was on the one Iron Shadow still opposing her. She rose up and charged, pulling out her combat knife as she did so. The ninja lunged forward, too, grasping his kunai as they swiped at one another, parrying one another with their blades as they tried to gain the upper hand on one another. Ami suddenly closed the distance and slammed her fist into the man's shoulder, a sharp crack signifying that it had been broken. To the man's credit, he didn't cry out. Instead, he ducked low and jammed the blade into her side, cutting into the MJOLNIR armor's less armored skinsuit and embedding itself in there. Ami responded by slamming her fist into the man's head, caving it in and killing him on the spot.

As the body dropped, it was at that moment when she heard the burning of paper. She looked down and realized that the ninja had sacrificed himself to try and kill her with a paper bomb strapped to the kunai. She didn't have long to act. She quickly grabbed the kunai and yanked it out, ignoring the pain that followed, and threw it, but it was too late. As the bomb exploded, all she could do was bring her arms up in protection as the explosion engulfed her and sent her flying back.

Her suit had been damaged by the blast, burnt and battered. The cut on her throat had been made even worse as blood was flowing freely from the injury. She could taste copper in her mouth, and she faintly heard the sound of Vasili and Khara shouting out her name as she crashed into the ground, rolling several feet before coming to a halt. Her body ached in pain, and she was slowly fading out of consciousness.

She could hear the Pelican thundering away with its chain gun, followed by several missiles flying out, only to explode a few seconds later. Khara suddenly appeared over her, asking her if she was okay before he pulled out her can of biofoam to apply on her injuries. She could feel the burning sensation of the biofoam being administered to her neck.

Before consciousness left her entirely, she saw both her teammates grabbing her and carrying her onto the dropship before taking off back towards Everest. That earned a small smile from her. Her team had made it through and completed the mission.

And no Spartans died today.


14 hours later...
UNSC Everest
Admiral Cole's Quarters

"How bad are the injuries?" the Admiral asked, as he read the After-Action-Report of Sierra-024 and Sierra-125, 024 serving as acting Squad-Leader due to Sierra-072 being critically injured and put in an induced coma.

The doctor replied, "Sir, they've all sustained moderate to severe injuries, with Sierra-072 being the worst off. She's going to be out of commission for at least a couple months until her injuries heal. The cut on her neck was shallow, but it was deep enough that if she had done anything rash or sudden, her throat would have been torn open. It's honestly a miracle she didn't do any further damage to it." The doctor paused, then continued, "The other two Spartans will need to spend a month at least recuperating, with all the cuts, burns, and bruises they've suffered. But their injuries aren't anything life threatening like 072's is."

Cole nodded at this information, narrowing his eyes as he continued reading the reports.

The Spartans had completed their mission, as he had expected they would. But as was becoming the norm for the UNSC, the UNSC had once again underestimated the abilities of the Shinobi forces. Just as Satomi had informed them, the Sky Shinobi that the UNSC had fought on Timur Island had not the best the Sky Empire had to offer. They were mid-tier at best, save for maybe the individual known as Kotaro Sogo. The Shinobi that had been fought here, these Iron Shadows, were the elite of the elite of Sky Country's Shinobi Corps. And what was being reported by the Spartans wasn't really encouraging, either.

Immobilizing opponents by manipulating the environment, inducing foes into a hypothermia-like state, etcetera, etcetera. Jesus, can the bastards walk on water, too? Summon monsters to come to aid them in battle? What else were these nut jobs capable of? The old Admiral never thought he would say something like this, but he was really starting to hate magic.

Scratch that, he did hate magic. It represented an unknown and unpredictable factor within military operations, and he hated having a lack of intelligence regarding a foes capacities. Granted, the Covenant were superior to Human in both firepower and numbers, but they were both predictable in what they would do, and they didn't use magic. This? This was an unfair advantage that couldn't be answered. Each Shinobi Village, hell, each individual Shinobi operated differently from one another, meaning that tactics the UNSC would devise to defeat them wouldn't work on other Shinobi. The only thing that the UNSC had going for it was that these ninjas didn't have a proper response on how to engage UNSC forces, due to an unfamiliarity with firearms and the advanced technological weapons that they fielded. But over time, that would change. Eventually, the locals would start learning methods and tactics to counter or even turn this advantage against the UNSC, while they would still be in the dark trying to come up with an effective way to combat the ninjas that didn't require expending vast amounts of ordinance.

The Admiral sighed, massaging his temple as he contemplated all of this new information that was being gathered from the operation. Lyrenne had to of known of what they were capable of if she had been studying them for as long as she claimed. There was simply no way she didn't. If he had the knowledge of what these people could do, he would have waited on colonizing the planet, then conducting extensive recon and surveillance on the planet and its populace to garner more information before making a decision. So why was Lyrenne so quick to rush colonization, despite the apparent danger? She wasn't careless like that if he still knew her like he thought he did. Was there something going on that he didn't know about? Likely. Maybe she was under pressure from the other leaders within her faction of the URF. Who knows?

'Or she just using me like she did last time.' A darker thought entered his head, but he quickly banished it. Steady your breathing. Focus-

"Sir?"

Admiral Cole quickly turned and faced the doctor, who was staring at him puzzled.

"I'm sorry, doctor. I was lost in thought. What were you saying?"

"Right. As I was saying, sir, during our surgery on Sierra-072, we extracted something from her left thyroid, which had been partially damaged by the cut to her neck." The doctor typed away on his datapad and pulled up a photo of a small metallic device, still covered in the Spartan's blood. "At first, we thought it was some shrapnel since we were told she took the brunt of an explosion at close range, but upon further study, we found that the device was, in fact, UNSC in origin."

The device in question was a small pellet that seemed almost completely dissolved. It seemed that whatever the pellet was, it had been filled with something, as the interior of the pellet was hollow, leaving a dissolved outer casing that looked like it was on the verge of breaking apart.

"What is it?" He asked.

"The pellet seems to be made primarily of platinum, and we've detected traces of highly modified human growth hormones that are seemingly designed to boost the growth of both the skeletal and muscle tissues. That's not all. We've managed to date the pellet to when it was manufactured, or at the very least when it was inserted. If our data is correct, then this pellet has been inside her since Early 2525." Right when the Covenant War started, which meant one thing to Admiral Cole. A dark truth about the Spartans that bothered him considerable.

The Spartans were never made to fight the Covenant. They had been made to fight the Insurrection.

The timing was just too coincidental. He had already concluded long ago that the Spartans had undergone some sort of genetic augmentation. It was the only thing that could explain the Spartans' incredible capabilities. But, if their augmentations had happened in 2525, then there's no way that they had been made for fighting the Covenant. Their skills and abilities would have taken years to develop, even if they had been adults volunteers from the military. Their foe would have been the Innies that had threatened to throw the UEG into civil war until humanity found itself under siege from a coalition of genocidal aliens. He'd heard all kinds of stories and rumors surrounding the origin of the Spartans. Everything from clones meant to be the perfect soldiers to people kidnapped by ONI and brainwashed. He had never really paid them any mind.

Then October 23, 2538, happened.

An equally legendary asset of ONI just as notorious as the Spartans, an Operative known only as the Ghost, went rogue. Nothing was known about Ghost's past or history, as from the fact he was known as the single most effective and lethal operative ONI ever fielded outside the Spartan Corps, being responsible for the destruction of numerous Insurrectionist Cells and Covenant Operations. The man was a legend, one that was respected and feared by all, even his superiors in ONI. And then suddenly, he just up and went rogue one day, waging a one-man war against the most powerful intelligence organization in history, destroying numerous Black Sites, killing dozens of high ranking officers within ONI's ranks, and exposing dozens of ONI's dirtiest secrets across the human extranet, Waypoint. Why he did so? No one knew, and ONI surely wasn't telling. Some rumors claimed that ONI tried to assassinate him due to him becoming increasingly insubordinate, disregarding ONI's directive to either save lives or kill Covenant Soldiers. Others thought that the Operative simply went insane after so much constant, nonstop action and deployments. In the end, Ghost was supposedly killed in a firefight on Alluvion in April of 2539, though some still believe that he escaped, the damage to ONI had been done. They had been exposed to the public for the boogeyman they indeed were, crippled in their capabilities, and now no one trusted them. Well, didn't trust them even further, even they're most staunched defenders within the UNSC.

One such secret Ghost had exposed was the supposed truth about the Spartans' origins. 75 Children the age of 6 kidnapped and turned into child soldiers. Not only that, but they were replaced with defective clones designed to die excruciatingly after a few weeks or months. Illegal genetic augmentations conducted on their bodies when they were only 14 years old. Nearly half of the children died in the process, and a dozen had been permanently crippled, meaning there was maybe at most some 30-35 Spartans fighting the Covenant across all of human space. (If you included the three here with them.) And as if forcing them to watch their 'children' die horrible deaths wasn't enough. ONI apparently decided that these families had to be eliminated to minimize the chance of any leaks after one Spartan apparently encountered her mother on a colony under siege by the Covenant. (The mother died during the evacuation from what he had read, and had left a profound impact on the Spartan's psyche.) So they began eliminating all the Spartans' families one by one to ensure it didn't happen again. It was... disturbing, disgusting, and disheartening, to say the least. Some of the public had been mortified and outraged by the news, while others outright didn't believe it. Cole knew that ONI was comprised of some sick and twisted sons of bitches, but he always figured there were lines even they wouldn't cross. But kidnapping children and turning them into superweapons? Manipulating elections? Assassinating popular and influential politicians, along with some that didn't approve of ONI, then making it look like the Insurrection did it?

Looks like he had been wrong. He could understand some of their decisions, and why they did them, sometimes bad men were needed to do what was necessary, but others he just couldn't find any justification in them. He quickly banished these thoughts, though, in order to get back to the matter at hand. Turning back to the doctor, he asked, "Will there be any side effects regarding the removal of the pellet?"

"It's basically a growth hormone pill, sir. One that's already done its job years ago. All we have here is its casing. I can't say for absolute certainty, but I'd be surprised if there were any side effects from it."

Cole nodded at this, "Thank you for informing me. Keep me updated on their progress, doctor."

The doctor nodded, "Yes, sir." before leaving the room to return back to the medical bay of the ship, leaving the Admiral alone in his quarters once more; alone with his thoughts and demons.

Initially, after they made the jump into slipspace following Psi Serpentis, Cole had been planning on just spacing the Spartans to ensure they didn't cause any problems. But with everything that he had learned about them in the last few years, not to mention the respect and gratitude he had for all they had done for humanity, he found that he couldn't bring himself to do it. Child soldiers or not, they had fought to ensure humanity's survival as a species against a relentless and merciless foe, without question. They deserved better. Were they still loyal to the UNSC? Probably. But maybe, with time, the Spartans could be convinced to stay and help them ensure humanity's survival, if not buy it a few more decades at least.

For now, only time would tell.

Now if only he could get his own house, and his own demons, in order. He walked over into his bathroom and opened the cabinet, popping a few pills into his mouth before he walked out to prepare for bed. He looked up at a mantle that housed a few personal items on display. A photo of him during his graduation ceremony from the Luna Naval Academy. A pair of model ships of the UNSC Odyssey, the first colony ship the UNSC had ever deployed, and the UNSC Gorgon, the first destroyer to mount the MAC and a ship he had commanded. A photo of him with his brother and mother, shortly before she had passed away (He wondered how Michael was doing, knowing that he likely could never contact him again, lest he risks leading the UNSC to their little sanctuary.). Lastly, a wedding ring encased in a clear case.

Despite all the heartache the ring still brought him, Cole had never had the heart to just throw it away. He merely stared at it for a moment, recalling memories of happier times, before looking away and making his way towards the bed.

He didn't want to confront some of his demons right now. Instead, he'd be forced to face them in his dreams, like usual.


Morning, like always, came too soon. The alarm clock rang out at 0530, as it always did. He rose out of his bed gasping and covered in sweat, breathing heavily as he came out of his nightmares before glaring at the evil machine next to his bed. Slamming his hand on the alarm to shut it off, he rose out of bed and went to the bathroom, popping in a few pills to calm his nerves and clear his mind, then getting a quick shower in before going about getting dressed. Just as he had finished putting on his top and was about to walk out the door, his datapad started beeping, indicating a few messages coming in. Opening it up, one of them was a weekly report regarding the construction of naval shipyards in the moons of the system's Gas Giant, Custodes. Construction of the three shipyards, which had been centered around the moons C-5, 11, and 29 due to the large deposits of titanium found on them, was on schedule and with any luck, they would all be completed and ready to build ships within 8-9 months, sooner if more resources were devoted to their construction. If construction was shifted more towards the building of the smaller shipyards, the ones that would be used for building Corvettes, Frigates, and Destroyers, then they could have those up and ready for shipbuilding in just 5 months.

Cole also noticed that they had listed moon C-25, an ice-covered dwarf planet rich in hydrogen and had various mineral deposits under the surface, as a viable candidate for terraforming and were requesting permission to begin. Estimated completion time for the terraforming, though? 47 years to just make the air breathable, let alone making the ground suitable for Earth-based life to exist on. The Admiral shook his head. It was nice to see that some people were optimistic about the future, but such a resource-consuming project would be one reserved for the future if they survived that long. For the meantime, they had to focus on the here and now. If the planet could be terraformed in say, 10-15 years, to make them breathable and/or habitable for human settlement, like Reach and Sargasso had been, then he would have been all for it. Maybe. But this terraforming project would simply take too long to accomplish. It would have to wait, for now.

He greenlighted the suggestion to shift focus on the construction of the screen ship shipyards and denied the request to begin terraforming of C-25. He did approve the establishment of mining outposts on the moon to start harvesting its resources, though. Habitable or not, many of the satellites orbiting Custodes were rich in resources, making them prime targets for colonization, or at least mining operations. He was sure Lyrenne, despite not discussing it with her beforehand, wouldn't have disagreed with the decision. Right now, the one thing they needed, arguably more so than soldiers and ships, was resources so they could build and supply those soldiers and ships.

He had discussed with the military and engineering portions of the 'Council' about building another trio of shipyards over Shensei's moon, Shirudo, or possibly expanding the number of shipyards in the Custodes Moons once the initial three were finished, but either or both of those options would have to wait until they had more equipment available to work with. Right now that was limiting everything they could or wanted to do. The quicker they solved this problem, the quicker they could build up their infrastructure and industry.


Luckily, things were starting to look better. One report he had gotten was that a colony in the Kaiser System, Brandenburg, some 8 light years from Shensei, had finished established several factories and industrial complexes. Most of which had been dismantled and shipped in from various Outer Colonies that had been evacuating equipment and people out here, and already were beginning production of several desperately needed goods and supplies. While the planet was planned to be a breadbasket world, its rapidly growing population, which stood at over 8,000,000 as of the consensus done back in July, had decided to invest in a modest-sized industrial sector in order to encourage immigration to their world. The moon orbiting the planet, New Trondheim, along with several asteroids in the system, was providing vast amounts of raw materials for feeding the colony's growing industry.

Another report he had received was that the government on Mbalenhle Cove, their supposed capital, was in the process of finalizing the last stages of an official government, with elections expected to take place in mid-late 2544 to establish an official government while the provisional government finalizes certain laws, organizations, and an official constitution. Lyrenne was over there now, debating and negotiating, with the various people and groups trying to establish a presence in this new upcoming government. There were already dozens of parties that had formed, all of them vying for power. Some were moderate/conservative in nature and policy, others more militant or technocratic in mindset, and a couple were just outright radical. He had even heard that there was a Neo-Koslovic Party that had been established, though no one was apparently taking this neo-communist remnant seriously. 'And luckily it would stay that way.' He thought. Though he couldn't recall anybody ever taking communism seriously (After centuries of continued prosperity and development, Capitalism and Democracy had finally won the war of economics and ideology within Human civilization.), the last thing they needed was a bunch of crazy, communist-wannabes trying to start a revolution. The admiral doubted it would happen, though.

Finally, he had received a message from Lyrenne herself, regarding the upcoming government. Apparently, news had spread that Admiral Cole was, in fact, alive and here in the Aquarii Star Cluster, which had been received warmly by the majority of people and had been a huge morale boost to the populace. Several of the political parties forming, regardless of their ideology and along with many in the masses, had all agreed that they wanted the Vice Admiral as their Secretary of Defense, though a couple was wanting him to be the President. This had him conflicted on whether or not to accept such a role. On the one hand, it would give him the ability to reform the military into an elite fighting force, set budgets to allow for massive military spending, buildup, and upgrade (Which they badly needed.), dictate policy regarding military affairs, and oversee military R&D projects that may help turn the tide in the war against the Covenant. (Which regardless if they were UNSC or not anymore, they were still at war.)

On the other hand, it would mean that he would more than likely be unable to lead fleets into battle against the Covenant if they did return. He would have to rely on naval commanders who, though undoubtedly competent in their right, were likely either untested in large-scale battles against the Covenant or were simply nowhere near as good as he was. He was a fairly modest man, but he would admit that he was very talented, a military genius, in the art of Naval Warfare; likely one of the best since Fleet Admiral Fransien Elzenaar, whose considered the mother of modern UNSC naval tactics and a critical mind behind the development of the MAC gun fitted onto UNSC Warships.

For most, the answer would have been obvious; become the Secretary of Defense. But he wasn't so sure. He had always felt that his place was on the front lines, using his intimate and vast knowledge on naval tactics to help stem the tide of the Covenant onslaught and kill as many of the 'holy' bastards as he could. A frustrated sigh escaped him as he pondered this decision.

'Vice Admiral Cole to the Bridge. Repeat. Vice Admiral Cole to the Bridge.' The intercom announced, disrupting his line of thought.

For now, he'd wait on making a decision. Rather, he'll visit Mbalenhle Cove, discuss things with the political parties and Lyrenne there, and then make his decision. Straightening his uniform to make sure he looked presentable, he placed the datapad on his hip and made his way towards the bridge, ready to handle on whatever today threw at him.


September 20, 2543
Marsh Country
Camp Dumont
Officers' Quarters
4.5
miles Southwest from Hidden Marsh Village

He slowly stirred awake, beside him on a small table his personal datapad was playing songs from a personal playlist, one he only played when he was remembering something he didn't need to dwell on, echoing through the room. He had been sprawled out on his bed, the sheets barely covering his legs. His body was covered in sweat. He narrowed his eyes in irritation. He had gone off the deep end again.

"Ohhh... fuck." Atlas was going to give him an earful when she found out. Good thing she was back on Everest right now helping research the cause of the 'July 19 Incident'.

'Tonight the music seems so loud,
I wish that we could lose this crowd,
Maybe it's better this way,

We'd hurt each other with the things we want to say,
We could have been so good together,
We could have lived this dance forever,
But now who's gonna dance with me?'

'Please stay!'

Leonard Barnes' head was throbbing, his vision groggy as he struggled to sit up in his bed. He slowly recognized the song. Of course, he would, it was his favorite. He grunted as he massaged his temple, glancing down to see several bottles, all empty of their contents, sprawled around the floor. Beside his datapad, he could see the old photo was lying beside it, with his M6G pistol laid above it.

As his vision slowly came back to him, he picked up the datapad and looked at the time. 07:21. Christ, nobody had bothered to wake him up? Looking around the room, he was then kinda glad no one did. Or maybe they had seen the mess, and decided 'waking the bear' wasn't a good idea. Sighing, he forced himself out of bed and walked over to his counter, but noticed that the mirror was broken, some of the glass lying on the floor along with a broken bottle. He knelt down and picked up the pieces, trying to recollect what all had happened last night, but he had been pretty buzzed before he had even gotten back into his room, so everything was a haze. All around the room, he could see a few messages that had been scribbled on the walls, mostly slurred and misspelled, but he could tell what they said.

Traitor!
Why can't I go home?
You abandoned them!
I deserve this Hell!
Don't forget them!
Fucking coward!

Growling in anger, he threw the pieces away, then looked into the mirror, what was left of it. Like always, he hated what he saw. The scar on his face ran down over his left eye had healed considerably since he had gotten it, though that had been many years ago. His chest and arms had all kinds of scars and bullet wounds, including a couple burns and bite/slash marks. Sometimes he wondered how he was still alive after everything he's been through and witnessed. Every one of those scars was nothing but fucking reminders. Memories that nowadays he hated remembering. Maybe that was why he hit the bottle so hard sometimes. Or perhaps he just used it as an excuse to drink. Glancing over at the photo, he knew none of it would ever top 'that day' as the worst day of his life.

'(Now that you're gone)
Now that you're gone
(Now that you're gone)
Was what I did so wrong?
So wrong that you had to leave me alone?'

He shook the memory from his mind, composing himself and focusing on what was supposed to be done today. He splashed some water on his face and took a few sips before cleaning himself up. He opened up his wardrobe and got into his BDUs, before grabbing his pistol and the photo. Holstering the gun, he looked at the family in the photo one last time, before gently setting it back down beside the datapad. He pulled out another photo, this one of a little girl, no older than 7, with blonde hair and bright green eyes, looking up at the camera from the foot of a bed. Like the last one, he stared solemnly at the photo for some time, before setting it on the table with the other picture, the only two reminders he had left of a life long since gone. One he longed to go back to. He grabbed the datapad and turned off the music, before placing it in his leg pocket. He looked around the room one last time, making a note to clean it up later before someone sees it.

With nothing else to grab, he quietly left the room and locked the door behind him.


Stepping outside and observing the sprawling Military Base before him, the Colonel couldn't help but be impressed with how quickly the base had been constructed, even by UNSC standards. Camp Dumont. The UNSC's only operating base on Shinsei outside of the Uzushio Islands, excluding a handful of small unofficial bases that were set up in the Kaizoku Sea and Kanashii Ocean on tiny, uninhabited islands and atolls. 11,000 of the best soldiers and airmen that the UNSC/URF had to offer were stationed here as part of their little... 'alliance' with Marsh Country, along with some 3,000 civilian contractors who were conducting various roles, like logistics and store management. The base had finished basic construction in less than a couple of weeks and was also being used as a quasi-embassy for the UNSC/URF. They had yet to establish an official Ambassador to the country, so for the moment, Colonel Barnes was acting Ambassador as well as the base commander.

Camp Dumont was about 7 square kilometers in the total area if you included the three firing ranges the camp had; with razor wire, fences, trenches with pillboxes, watchtowers, and even a handful of M8 ADSs covering the entire perimeter, with mortars set up to provide artillery support. All the forest and foliage had been cleared back by the engineers, giving the soldiers guarding the perimeter some 300 meters of unimpeded view, and providing an attacking force almost no cover whatsoever. An airstrip, capable of landing and supporting 15 Falcons at a time, or larger craft in smaller quantities, had also been constructed to the western part of the Camp, the part furthest away from the hidden village. 3 of said Falcons were always in the air patrolling the countryside with support from a half-dozen ARGUS drones loaned to the base by the Air Force.

The base had everything a mainline army base would have. A command center, officer's quarters, a motor pool, several barracks for the soldiers, armories, 1 vehicle and 2 infantry firing ranges, latrines, and 4 chow halls. And just like any other military outpost, there was also recreational areas, too. A couple of large military Postal Exchanges, or PX for short, was on site to let soldier buy whatever they needed. A few bars and clubs were available for the soldiers to blow off steam and relax off duty. Everything a soldier would need to be on the top of their game in a hostile land.

Barnes, unfortunately, didn't have time to go to any bars or clubs. He had an urgent meeting with the Numakage and his counsel regarding several things. One crucial one was the joint operations between UNSC and Marsh forces against the pirate factions within the country.

He walked down the pathway towards the command center, a good quarter of a kilometer from where he was near the center of the base. Soldiers from all branches were out and walking about, from infantry going to the firing ranges or to the local PXs, crewmen going to conduct maintenance on their vehicles, or the Military Police, a whole battalion of them were stationed here, patrolling around to ensure the camp's security. A few soldiers were outside their barrack sunbathing, while others were exercising outside or playing a couple sports such as soccer or basketball. A few vehicles were driving around, but for today no significant military maneuvers or training were being conducted, so the attitude for today amongst the soldiers was mostly one of relaxation.

Just by looking at the base, you wouldn't think they were in the middle of foreign territory.

The Command Center itself wasn't an overly impressive building, standing just two stories tall and was wider than it was tall. But, it was the heart of UNSC operations here on the Eastern Continent. Two guards were posted by the door, and both saluted when he approached. He quietly returned the salute and proceeded inside towards the war room.


War Room

The war room was easily the biggest room in the building, with a massive holotable in the center of the room, 10x8 meters in size and equipped with a catwalk to provide an overhead view of the map, that was capable of displaying the entire western half of Eastern Continent on a 1:500,000 scale map. Dozens of technicians, communications specialists, and officers were in the room, conducting various operations and tasks needed to keep the base operational and to maintain communications with both ground forces deployed and with HIGHCOM. The map itself showed several

"Colonel, sir!" A Lieutenant saluted. Barnes returned the salute and spoke, "Lieutenant Bradford."

"Sir, the meeting is planned to start in about 20 minutes. The Marsh leaders are on their way as we speak." Bradford explained.

"Good, let me know when they get here, LT. How many troops are deployed in the countryside as of right now?"

"Just the Army's Ranger Company, Meta, and the Marine's Force Recon Company, Indigo, at the moment, sir. The ODST Company, Charlie, had returned from the field 3 days ago and is recuperating from a 2-week field excursion." the Lieutenant answered, directing both of their attention to the map, which showed each unit's location within the Eastern Continent. "Since Operations were initiated on August 5, they've assisted the Marsh Military in clearing out 26 Pirate enclaves and outposts, and have conducted reconnaissance on 3 old fortresses that the Pirates use as strongholds in the Southern Marsh Region."

"Enemy Ninjas?" Barnes inquired as he walked over to grab a cup of water from a desk.

"Only a handful, but they were either dealt with quickly, or the Marsh Shinobi would engage them if they proved too much for us. We still have a relative advantage over them because of our equipment and technology, as they're still unfamiliar with it, for now. So we've been rather lucky regarding casualties, considering what our enemy is capable of, Sir."

That was true. They've only suffered some 19 Killed and 58 injured since Military Operations were commenced back in Early-August, following the Battle of Timur Island back in June. Considering they were dealing with a new foe that could wield... well, he didn't want to call it magic, but there really was no better answer for it. Magic or not, their casualties have been significantly light. But at the same time, these ninjas and locals were also dealing with a new enemy that didn't play by their long-established rules of warfare. The UNSC and the locals' militaries were both playing with significantly different rulebooks on warfare, and it was showing on the field. For now, the Lieutenant was exactly correct in his statement. They've been lucky, but one's luck doesn't hold out forever. They were about to deploy 5,000 soldiers to eliminate one of the largest pirate factions in Marsh Country, with thousands of their own troops at their disposal. This would be the largest operation they've conducted so far on the Eastern Continent when it begins, there was so much that could go wrong.

And Barnes was a firm believer in Murphy's Law.

Taking a drink from the cup, he asked, "Any idea as to how many Marsh Soldiers we'll be getting along for the operation?" He already knew they would be receiving at least 100 Shinobi to support the operation, 12 of which were the Marsh's ANBU, the elite of their Shinobi Corps. However, the total number of Marsh Samurai/Ashigaru was still questionable and likely would be light.

"Total? Somewhere around 6-8,000 soldiers, from what we were told. Mostly Ashigaru Conscripts. We haven't gotten an official confirmation as to the exact total, just estimates so far, Sir."

Barnes shook his head. Apparently, the Marsh Leadership thought that the countries at their border, who were now confirmed thanks to aerial recon to all be having their own set of problems to deal with, were a more significant threat than the tens of thousands of pirates and bandits that were pillaging the countryside. He had met the Daimyo and his military command, and if had to be honest, he wasn't impressed by what he saw. The Daimyo- what was his name? Morishita Senichi or something like that. Anyway, the Daimyo seemed more afraid of Sky Country than he did the pirates that were actively exploiting and killing his people. And the generals, save for the Numakage, bless his heart, didn't seem like they knew what they were doing when it came to the military, instead, they all seemed more interested in kissing the Daimyo's ass rather than protecting it. That had to change, and soon. The Daimyo had been downright disrespectful during their first contact, looking down on him and not even remotely taking Lyrenne seriously during the entire exchange. (To his amazement, she hadn't lost her temper once during the whole ordeal.) Apparently, ninja villages were about as Liberal as you would get for women in a continent that was mostly one giant Feudal-Age Japan, where women, especially those of the higher social classes, were considered beneath men and expected to be obedient little housewives that obeyed their husbands. (Much to the annoyance and irritation of quite a few women within the UNSC/URF Militaries.) He was glad General Osada hadn't been there. She would have killed someone if she had been present. If the rumors he had heard were true, then she wasn't known as 'Lady Fury' for nothing.

"Do we have a complete tally of the pirates' estimated strength?"

Bradford was quick to answer, "As of the last recon mission conducted 5 days ago, we estimate there will be some 20-25,000 combatants total in the entire region. Maybe 500 of which will be those damn ninjas, Sir. But poor quality, according to Intel."

The Colonel whistled at the numbers. This was going to be a tough one. Air Force was going to have to be on point with the support if they wanted to avoid heavy casualties. Those ninjas and pirates may not be top grade, but even a weak ninja or pirate could do some severe damage if they're in the right place at the right time.

"Sir, the Numakage's entourage is approaching the building." Another officer called out. Barnes looked to one of the video screens to show the Marsh delegation being escorted to the building, with the Kage amongst them. Barnes noted one of them looked like a samurai. Maybe one of the Marsh Military Commanders? Either way, it was taking a bit longer than usual due to them looking around, amazed that so much had been constructed in such a short time. How long would it have taken them to accomplish the same thing, without Chakra? Half a year? Three-quarters? He didn't know, and it wasn't important right now.

"Alright, folks. Showtime. Remember to smile, shake hands, be friendly. You know, all that bullshit." He joked as he took one more drink of water, making sure to drink all of it before tossing the cup into a bin. That was another thing that was annoying. Thanks to the whole July 19 Incident, they had to import every bit of food and water to the base, from orbit. Strict regulations had been made regarding food and liquids until the eggheads could figure out what could be done regarding the 'contamination'. HIGHCOM didn't want to store anything on the ground because they were afraid this Chakra might contaminate their food and water stores, and they couldn't have their soldiers getting sick, even if it would only be for a few days. All it meant was that Logistics' job was just going to be even harder.

He understood why HIGHCOM was doing it, he would have done the same thing, he couldn't help but gripe about it. At least they didn't have to always worry about making sure 14,000 people were getting fed every day. He unfortunately did. Thus, he had the right to sit there and bitch about it. (In his mind.)


Barley a couple minutes later, the Numakage and his small delegation of 7 others (were some them secretly bodyguards?) entered the room, amazed at the size and scale of the room and all the equipment that was in the room. 4 of the delegates quietly converse with one another, while the other 3 quietly stood watch, observing the room around them. Those were likely the guards, but Barnes wasn't going to call them out on it. If it let the Numakage's entourage feel better and it kept tensions cool, he wouldn't say anything.

"Lord Kage." Barnes greeted, walking over to the group, "Welcome to the command center. Glad you could make it." He held his hand out. The Kage stared at it for a moment, before cautiously returning the gesture, gripping the Colonel's hand with his own. The two men shook, with Yukinaga responding, "Colonel. You always seem determined to make a spectacle whenever I see you."

The Colonel shrugged, "Ah, only when I'm trying to impress someone. Though normally it's a woman, not a bunch of men."

That earned a couple amused snorts from the group, with Barnes smirking a the dumb joke. He motioned with his head, "Well if you'll step over with me, I'll show you the tactical map and the rest of our command center."

The group walked over to the massive table, observing the highly detailed map being displayed. The Shinsei locals were awestruck at both the sheer size and detail the map was providing. "This is incredible." He heard one of the delegates mutters.

"It's largely thanks to our satellites doing real-time coverage of the region. We currently have 4 observing the continent at the moment, giving us real-time imaging and observation of any area we wish. For example, if we wanted to observe what was happening over in the southern part of Jinpo." The satellite zoomed in and magnified the Demon Country capital, before magnifying in on the southern district of the city, where many of the markets where located. With the view the satellite gave, it would look as if the machine was viewing the settlement from barely 20 meters off the ground. They could see thousands of people going about their lives in the marketplace, completely unaware they were being watched from nearly 400 miles into the atmosphere. It was an incredible sight, one that the Marsh Delegate wasn't ashamed to admit aloud. Sure, many ninjutsu techniques could yield similar results, but nothing on this scale and with such accuracy, save for maybe the Hidden Leaf's Hyuuga Clan and their famed Byakugan, and the Kage doubted that even they could do on such a scale.

"So, with such a system in place, we can observe the surface of anywhere on the planet that we wish." The ODST Colonel continued explaining, "Especially if we wanted to track personnel." Barnes was careful not to mention that because the natives had nothing in the way of electronics that this would be harder to do. Better not to let them know that there were some limitations to their technology.

"So what about one of the old fortresses that the bandits are using?" One of the delegates asked.

Barnes had the satellites shift over to the closest of the forts, an old one from the days of the former Sky Empire that was some 54 miles Southwest of the Hidden Marsh. The fort covered an area of roughly 2 square kilometers, with a lake covering the approach from the South and East, a small harbor built to allow for ships to dock at the fort. The lake was connected to a river that led out to the open ocean, meaning the fort's harbor would typically have a few ships docked. The interior of the fort had some 12 buildings in total, most appearing to be nothing more than warehouses, while a couple buildings were massive, standing some three stories in height. The fort had a basic wooden and stone wall protecting the perimeter, rising some 20 feet in height and with openings in the wall to allow large ballista to fire down at attackers. A dozen watchtowers, with a very basic and minimalist design, manned the walled, watching over the open plain for any sign of attack. The jungle around the fort had been cleared of most trees for a good 150 meters, giving archers a good field of fire while also providing little in the way of cover for an attacking force. For any medieval army, this would have been quite a challenge to overcome. Luckily for the UNSC, they weren't a medieval army.

"The pirate forts all have fairly similar layouts, save for the other two which don't have harbors. Those two are built into the sides of a couple of mountains. They all serve as a sort of headquarters for operations conducted by the pirates. If we take them out, we'll cripple their strength throughout Southern Marsh Country. If we can eliminate enough of the pirates in this assault, we may outright cease their operations throughout the area, giving your country's government some breathing room. Current garrison estimates have been placed at anywhere from 5-6,000 personnel, each. It looks like this Shao Peng has a lot of troops, money, or both to spare." Barnes spoke, studying the fortress' layout.

Though they were studying the map as well, Barnes noticed several of the Marsh Delegates scowl at the mention of Shao Peng's name, as if it was a curse word.

"Either way, this won't be an easy fight. They may not know when exactly, but they know we'll eventually be making a move on these forts. They'll do everything they can to keeps us from taking out their strongholds." The Colonel commented, he turned his head to the delegates, "Do we have an official number on how many troops Marsh Country will be providing for this operation?"

"Our Commander for the operation, General Fujitani, reports that he has at his disposal some 7,000 troops ready to go into battle. Our Daimyo is confident that these troops are more than adequate to deal with these pitiful pirates." One of the delegates answered confidently. Barnes arched an eyebrow at this statement. 'If that's the case, why didn't you deal with them sooner?' He thought. He noticed the Numakage seemed skeptical too at the statement. Regardless, Barnes said nothing regarding the comment. Instead, he asked, "Lord Kage, what about Shinobi support?"

"We have deployed some 60 Shinobi Teams, 240 Shinobi, for the operation," The Numakage answered, to the surprise of the UNSC Officers, "All comprised of Chunin and Jounin, save for a couple squads of ANBU. Aside from the ANBU squads, there will be three commanders overseeing the Shinobi force, one for each strike force."

"Good. Very good, they'll come in handy if we encounter any Shinobi resistance. We're not expecting much or anything too high quality, but better safe than sorry." If they were going to commit more Shinobi to the operation, Barnes wouldn't complain.

"This rabble will be dealt with one way or another!" Another of the delegates declared, "These pirates have never faced an attack of such magnitude. There's no way we can lose-"

"There's plenty of ways we can lose, so please don't jinx it!" Barnes snapped, silencing the politician, "Make no mistake, this won't be an impossible assignment, but it's not a walk in the park, either. There's a reason these pirates have been terrorizing your countryside for so many years, now. Because they have a lot of troops and assets at their disposal and there's plenty of ways for this to go wrong. And I'd rather keep the chances of those happening to a minimum. So, we're not going to do anything that will jeopardize this mission. We're going to play it safe."

"These pirates have been able to pillage as they like because we didn't have the manpower to deal with them properly beforehand." Snapped the delegate, clearly angered and insulted by Barnes interrupting him, "With such a force of experienced and well-equipped troops before them, surely they won't be able to withstand us."

"Even with the Terrans assisting us, Shao Peng's forces will outnumber us nearly 2-to-1," The Numakage countered, earning a snort of annoyance from the two delegates that had been arguing with them, "The Colonel is correct in his assessment. We can't afford to be careless in this operation, or Shao Peng's thugs will be able to rampage through the countryside unopposed. If we lose this battle with them, they'll retaliate and get bolder after defeating such a large force, especially with them knowing how stretched thin we are. Something we can't afford right now."

"So, when we commence the operation, we'll play it slow and steady. The pirates won't be able to go anywhere without us knowing. They'll likely try to retreat by river towards the ocean if things go too badly for them, but we'll have aircraft available to keep them from escaping." Barnes explained, the map showing a simulation of the battle playing out at one of the river fortresses, with small little soldiers, boats, and planes representing units. "Now the two mountain forts will be a little trickier because they'll definitely have underground tunnels to escape through if the fort starts falling. I've requested some bomber aircraft equipped with bombs capable of penetrating the mountainous rock, but as of now, they're not available. That might change in the future, but I wouldn't count on it. Unless we can figure out where those tunnels lead out to, we'll have to accept that some of these pirates will likely escape."

"How can you be so certain they have these tunnels?" One of the delegates argued. Man, they were really starting to get on his nerves, even for politicians.

"They're a couple of fortresses literally built into a mountainside. I'd be amazed if they didn't have some sort of underground escape tunnel." Barnes countered, "Plus its pirates we're talking about. They're bound to have some sort of escape plan should things start going south."

His sighed as he tried to think of what all they could do regarding this possibility, but there wasn't much they could do. They didn't have the troops to cover every angle, so this meant that they would have to rely on any aircraft available to monitor the area. But they would more than likely not have many available, due to many being used for close air support. Hopefully, the ARGUS Drones would be up to the challenge of maintaining overwatch in the area, but he would only be able to divert 3 for the operation. They couldn't afford to weaken the Camp's security too much.

The arguments and discussions regarding the operation continued for several more hours, with a good portion of it being him arguing with the delegates, who were now clearly a bunch of the Daimyo's yes-men, as they tried to come up with plans that were either undoable due to manpower shortage or just outright insane and unfeasible. These men clearly had never led a military operation or even been anywhere near a battlefield. (Unless it was after the battle was over.) But, he managed to bear through the meeting, and judging from the Numakage's expression, he wasn't the only one that seemed to hate being in the presence of such delegates, politicians, whatever you wanted to call them.

As the meeting concluded, and everyone began returning home, the Colonel breathed a sigh of relief. He managed to bear through it. He hated briefings and/or meetings with politicians. Nine times out of ten they were always either assholes or entirely out of touch with the situation within the military; or both. Luckily, Takashima Yukinaga seemed to be fairly competent and seemed to understand the situation their troops would be facing. Even better, despite the massive risk to the safety of his village, he had agreed to deploy a large amount of his more experienced Shinobi to assist in the operation; provided that Barnes and the UNSC bolster the security of the village with their own troops. For him, that wasn't a problem at all. His men enjoyed taking leave off inside the village, and it gave both the Shinsei natives and the UNSC to interact and learn more about one another, which would hopefully lead to more peaceful coexistence. Not to mention it would give them a better experience on how to communicate with the other native governments as more first contact parties were sent out, with hopefully peaceful outcomes.


As he left the building, the Colonel looked around the camp once more. Several platoons were doing afternoon physical training (PT), while others were off heading to the chow halls to grab dinner. He thought about heading over there himself but decided that he'd wait an hour or so before going. Let the lines die down some so he could get through quicker. For now, he'd take a stroll through the base and just observe the camp. It had been a while since he'd done so.

Making his way down the road, he moved towards the direction of the front gate, which led to the village some 4-5 miles away. It was an hour and a half on foot, which none of his troops were willing to do, so more often than not they would take a vehicle, which took only 7 minutes. While his forces weren't allowed leave inside the village, yet, the Colonel still needed to keep an eye on the ones that did accompany him or one of the other regulars that went to conduct diplomacy with the village leaders. Say what you want about the various branches of the military, but they all had one thing in common. They knew how to cause a commotion. And the last thing he needed was to deal with a drunken bar fight (Which ever since the July incident happened, none of his men had been willing to try and drink some of the local cuisines.) or one of the soldiers being caught banging someone's wife/husband. (Which he was certain had already happened, but couldn't prove it.)

He was snapped out of his thoughts, though, when he heard a commotion at the front gate. "We've already told you, twerps, before that you're not allowed inside. Now, get lost! Go home!" He heard one of the MPs shout, earning a sigh from the Colonel, who already knew who it was they were dealing with.

"I'm not a twerp! You're a twerp!" Came the childish reply. Yep. The 'rug rats' as the MPs had started calling them, among less flattering names, were back trying to sneak inside the base.

As he arrived at the front gate, he saw the MP squad surrounding 6 kids, the oldest of not a day over 7. And sure enough, the gang's little unofficial ringleader Nishihara Yuyu was amongst them. She was the daughter of some local bigshot merchant, who both had interestingly enough had been witness to the UNSC's first contact with the Hidden Marsh. Ever since that day, Yuyu had been obsessed with the weird foreigners that had built a base almost right next door to her village. Initially, it had started with her talking the heads off of any UNSC soldiers that had entered the village, but that eventually hadn't been enough, so Yuyu began to try and sneak into the base to go explore. She'd get caught every time, much to the amusement of the soldiers. Initially, they'd let her off with a warning, but soon enough, the sneak-in attempts started getting old really fast, with the MPs losing patience due to it making them do more work and paperwork regarding the incidents.

The children, mainly Yuyu, were throwing a fit, acting as if they hadn't done anything wrong. The MP Sergeant, clearly annoyed, had his arms folded, while his squad had surrounded the children to make sure none of them attempted to run inside the base. Usually, Barnes would have let this slide. They're kids, how much harm could they do? … Well, on that note... He shook his head. He didn't want to think about that. But, this was now the 5th time they've tried to sneak into the base. (For Yuyu, it was attempt number 9.) Something needed to be done about this. While he doubted that this was something the Numakage needed to know about, perhaps talking to their parents might do the trick.

He walked over to the gate, doing his best to fight off the craving for a drink or the shaking in his hands, and approached the group asking, "There a problem, Sergeant Gomez?"

"Nothing, sir. We're just dealing with the twerps again." The MP replied, saluting.

"Shut up! You're a twerp!" Shouted Yuyu, despite not knowing what the word meant. Barnes knelt down, smiling, "Hello, Yuyu. Getting in trouble, again?"

"No!" The little girl replied, pouting. "We were just looking!"

One of the MPs held up a couple shovels, arching her eyebrows, "They were trying to dig under the fence."

"Nuh-uh! We were looking for bugs!" Yuyu lied, earning nods from several of the children.

"Oh, Really?" Barnes asked, noticing one of the MPs pointing further down the fence perimeter, about a couple hundred feet away towards a hole in the ground that was maybe 2 feet across and a foot deep, "And this search for bugs just happened to be right next to our fence?" The children started looking away from him, trying not to look guilty. They weren't very good at lying and had a long way to go before they could lie and deceive. Especially for someone like him. Barnes sighed, gathering his thoughts before speaking, "Children, there's a good reason why we don't want you sneaking into the base. There's a lot of dangerous things in here that could hurt you if you're not careful. And the last thing we want is for you to get hurt."

"But, but, there are so many cool things in there! All those weird flying things you have, the-the..." Yuyu paused as she tried to remember the word, "CARS! Yeah, the cars, and, and the weird buildings! You have so much cool stuff in there. We just want to see inside!" The little girl pleaded, followed by a chorus of 'Yeah' by the other kids.

The Colonel merely shook his head and sighed. These kids would just come back again in the future, and they really couldn't afford a distraction right now with a major operation about to happen. He tried to think, come up with a solution to this little dilemma. And then it hit him. They wanted to see something cool, huh? Alright, then.

"Alright, I'll make you a deal. I'll show you something super awesome! But!" He paused, noting the excitement in the children's eyes, "You must pinky swear that you won't try anything like this ever again!"

Most of the kids looked confused, "What's a pinky swear?"

Barnes grinned, holding up his pinky finger as he explained, "A pinky swear is the most serious of promises! It's where you promise to keep your word no matter what. If you were to break a pinky swear and people found out, no one will ever trust you ever again! You don't want that, do you?"

This made several of the kids nervous, with their little ringleader quickly making her decision, "No! I won't break it! I promise!"

"Pinky swear?" Barnes asked. Yuyu quickly held up her own little pinky finger, "P-pinky swear!"

The Colonel wrapped his pinky around her own, shaking it before replying, "It's a deal, then." earning excited shouts and gasps from the group of children. He turned to Sergeant Gomez, "Sergeant, contact headquarters and the motor pool. Let HQ know I'll be gone for a bit and then have the motor pool send over an 831 for transport."

The Sergeant smirked and saluted before keying in his comms gear. Barnes motioned for the children to wait for a moment. After a couple of minutes, an M831 Warthog came strolling up to the front gate, the driver waving at them as he brought the vehicle to a stop. The driver, Staff Sergeant Watson, saluted before asking, "You needed a drive somewhere, sir?"

"Yeah, just a ride back to the Hidden Marsh," Barnes replied before making his way back towards the rear of the hog. Looking over at the children, who were eyeing the vehicle, Barnes spoke loudly, "Well, come on. Hop in."

The children perked up at this, their eyes wide with excitement. "Really?! We're gonna ride inside the car-thing?!" One of the excited boys asked.

"That's right. We're gonna drive you all the way back to the village, then you can tell all your friends about it." Barnes answered as the kids excitedly came running towards him and the vehicle. As they came to him, he picked them up one by one and lifted them into the back of the hog. Once he got the last of them on, he then climbed up and started fastening them to their seats with the seatbelts.

"What is this?" Yuyu asked as Barnes fastened her belt.

"A seatbelt. It keeps you in the seat while we're moving, so you don't accidentally fall out."

"Why?"

"Well, because if you fell out while we were driving, you could get really hurt. And none of us want that. So make sure it stays fastened in there. Don't remove unless we tell you to." The little girl nodded in understanding, along with the other kids. Having one of the locals hurt or killed by one of the UNSC troopers or hardware, whether by accident or intention, was the last thing he wanted right now. God forbid one of these kids had snuck inside and found themselves on the firing range while it was being used. As long as he could do something about it, though, he would. If he had to give an inch here so the kids would stop trying to sneak in, so be it. Granted, he was still going to have a talk with their parents afterward. After he clipped the last belt in, the Colonel hopped down and climbed into the passenger's seat, leaning over and whispering into Staff Sergeant Watson's ear, "Let's keep the speed under 25. Drive 'em 'round for about 10 minutes tops, then we'll head back to the village. Sound good, Staff Sergeant?"

"Yes, sir."

"Alright, let's roll."

The warthog roared to life as the driver began driving the vehicle down the road, much the shock and excitement of the kids in the back who were squealing their heads off as they moved down the road. While the warthog could go much faster, for the kids this was the fastest they had ever traveled in their lives. "It's like a giant metal horse!" One of the kids shouted.

"Yeah, except we could go much faster if we wanted to." The driver replied. This earned several excited shouts from the kids, all of them asking if they could go faster. But Barnes was quick to shut this idea down, "No, no. We're not going any faster than this." The children all groaned and tried to get him to change his mind, but the Colonel remained steadfast. The roads here around the Hidden Marsh weren't bad, but they were still fairly bumpy in some places, and he didn't want the kids being thrown around in the back and getting scared shitless. He'd never hear the end of it if he did.


After a few minutes of driving down the roads, the driver took a right and drove down towards the Hidden Marsh's front gate. They passed several people entering and leaving the village, some walking others using a horse/ox-pull wagon. All of them stared at the strange machine driving passed them, while the children in the back waved and shouted at everyone they passed. As they got to the gate itself, Staff Sergeant Watson pulled the vehicle off to the side of the road and parked it some 50 feet from the entrance.

"That was fun!"

"Let's do it again!"

"Yeah! Please?"

All the kids were pleading with him to go on another ride, but Barnes shook his head. "Sorry, kids. This was a one-time thing." The chorus of 'awws' didn't faze him either as he started to undo their seatbelts, handing them down one by one to Sergeant Watson. Even as they were being taken out of the warthog, they were still trying to plead with him to go on one more ride. But Barnes remained adamant. This had been a one-time thing. That was that.

As the two UNSC soldiers escorted the children back to the gate, they converse with each other, talking about how amazing that had been.

Yuyu, though, didn't give up on trying to convince Barnes on changing his mind. "Um, what if, um, we show you something awesome, too? Then will you let us go on another ride in the car?" She asked hopefully, trying to put on her most innocent and cute face she could muster. Barnes, though, wasn't going to be swayed. He shook his head, "Now, now. We had a deal. This was a one-time thing, too. I can't just be going around giving you, and everyone else rides just because they want to. Both Mr. Watson and I here have lots of stuff we have to do."

"We could help you with it!" Several children supported this idea, hoping it would get them another cool thing to experience. Both the soldiers chuckled at this claim. "Christ, they're tenacious."

"Yeah, you said it, Sergeant." Barnes laughed, before turning back to the children, "Kids, we appreciate it. Honestly, but you can't help us with the things we need to get done. It's just too dangerous for you." This response seemed to deflate the children's hope, earning several 'aw' from the group.

The Colonel knelt down, and spoke, "But I'll tell you what. You find something really cool, something really super awesome, and the next time I'm in the village, you can come and show it to me. How does that sound?" This seemed to get their spirits back up, excited at the idea of getting to show the nice weird star soldiers (Barnes had heard the locals calling the UNSC that a couple times.) something really cool from their village. They were all talking excitedly to one another about what they could show him before a voice caught their attention.

"Children, come here." They looked to see a couple of women staring at them, one of them, Yuyu's mother, looking at the children while the other one was glaring at the two UNSC soldiers. Barnes groaned softly, knowing full well who she was. While some of the Marsh locals were still hesitant or relatively courteous regarding the Terrans that had set up shop literally down the road from their village, some of the locals outright just didn't like them or trust them. A good number of those were Shinobi, too, who thought that these Terran soldiers were inferior to them because they couldn't use chakra or ninjutsu. It appears that many Shinobi tend to think rather highly of themselves due to their unique position, which Barnes figured that after several centuries being some of the most powerful and influential individuals on any given battlefield on Shinsei had led to a bit of a superiority complex amongst most ninja.

One of those individuals was Mihara Riko, who was the purple hair, red-eyed woman giving them the death glare and also happened to be the Clan Head of one of the Hidden Marsh's Shinobi Clans. This meant that she already had quite a bit of sway in the inner politics of the village, and she had been against the idea of a mutual assistance from the Terrans; citing that there's was simply too much they didn't know about them and in the span of a couple months had already built what was basically a fort right next door to their village. (Which, if Barnes was being honest, wasn't exactly wrong. Camp Dumont was for all intents and purposes a military base.) She had garnered quite a level of support from some of the Shinobi corps and the merchants of the small village, who were worrying that they would have to compete with the Terrans if they tried to begin large-scale trading with Marsh Country, to which it had become undeniable that the UNSC could outproduce any of the local merchants and blacksmiths on goods after trade was allowed over in the capital city, Hashimaki. Granted, it had mostly been nothing but simple medicinal and clothing products, but it had thrown the local merchants and manufacturers into a rage as they couldn't compete with both the quality and quantity of Terran goods. Locals like Riko had used this as a rallying cry against the Terrans, stating that if they got too friendly with the 'sneaky, deceitful Terrans,' they would end up economically dependent on them as they out produced the Marsh in both quality and quantity of goods. (Which was also, unofficially, true. Sugarcoat it however you want, the UNSC/URF overall plan was to assimilate Shinsei and its population, eventually. But they couldn't say things like that aloud.)

Yuyu's mother, her name he had forgotten at the moment, was scolding the children for going towards the UNSC camp. Mihara was still glaring at them, clearing getting ready to say something to him. Regardless of whether or not he actually liked her, or would rather like to see her jump off a cliff, Barnes remained courteous as he spoke, "Miss Mihara. How are you, today? Oh, and Mrs. Nishihara, if I could speak to you a moment regarding-"

"Spare us your fake courtesies, Barnes." The Clan Head responded, spitting out his name as if it were a curse. "And stay away from this village's children. They do not need your people's thoughts polluting their heads." Now a small crowd was gathering regarding the commotion at the gate. Barnes noticed a couple of Marsh ANBU were keeping an eye on the situation.

This was bad. He already knew what the cunt was going to do. Make a big scene and make him out to be the bad guy to everyone watching. He could either A) try to debate with her, which was a bad idea because debating isn't really his strong suit. Or B) he could just hop onto the hog and drive off, ignoring her entirely but potentially also portraying the UNSC's leaders as a bunch of wimps without a backbone. Also a bad idea. Either way, he wasn't going to be doing the UNSC any good.

"First your people invade our lands and try to put our merchants out of business, now you're trying to pollute our children's heads."

"With what? A car ride?" Barnes asked incredulously, "If giving a car ride to children is somehow corrupting them, then by all means, please tell how, because I can't think of anything." Honestly, what kind of superstitious bullshit were these people feeding to each other? Were they telling each other that the UNSC people eat babies, too?

"Those children should never have been at your base!"

"I agree," Barnes retorted, "so care to explain to me how they keep sneaking out and walk almost 5 fucking miles to our base? This has been like the 5th time they've tried this, and for some reason, none of you seem to want to do anything about it." He narrowed his eyes, "Or are some of you encouraging them to do this?"

Riko sneered at him, "How dare you accuse us! You think we would use our children to-"

"You're damn right I do. You're Shinobi." Barnes interrupted, his patience having run out from doing this so many time, "You're all about using deception and sneaking around and all that bullshit. So yes, as a matter of fact, I do think so. Now, as much as I love our little shouting matches to see which of us is the bigger asshole, Lady Mihara," He mockingly addressed her, which just angered her even further, (Good.) "I have more important things to do than to get into said shouting matches with you. So, I'm gonna get in my car and go home."

He then pointed at Yuyu, "And you, Yuyu! Yes, you. Stop. Trying. To. Sneak. On to. The base. Seriously, there's a lot-"

Yuyu's mother suddenly interrupted, wrapping her hands around her daughter defensively, "How dare you-"

"Hey, hey, HEY!" Barnes snapped, before making a close mouth sign with his hand, "You. Shush! No one was talking to you! I was talking to little mini-you right at your feet. Quit trying to sneak on to our base! There's a lot of dangerous things that you can get hurt from, Yuyu, and the last thing I was is you or one of your little friends getting hurt in any way. You understand?"

Yuyu, not sure if she was in trouble or not, hesitantly shook her head yes. Barnes ignored the glares from some of the villagers that he was getting. "Good," He smirked, "Now I'm still expecting to see something super cool from you the next time I visit."

This brought a smile and a giggle from the girl, much to her mother's annoyance. Mihara especially wasn't too happy about being ignored, "We're not finished here!"

"Oh, yes we are. You go do whatever you want, I'm going back and getting some food to eat." Barnes replied nonchalantly, as he climbed back into the Warthog with SSgt. Watson, starting up the vehicle. As he shifted the drive into reverse, he watched the crowd of villagers glaring or staring at the odd machine the two soldiers were riding around in. He sighed as he took a swig from his canteen, before placing it in his lap.

Sure, winning hearts and minds was a good strategy, when it worked. But with these people, the Colonel couldn't help but wonder if it would actually work. Sometimes, the whole hearts and minds strategy went right the window, case in point the Islamic Wars of the early 21st century or the Second American Civil War. Sometimes, no matter what you tried, the number of people that hated you was simply larger and more influential than the ones that liked you. And that leads to situations where you suddenly find yourself fighting a bush war. It's even worse considering that these people have no heritage or shared connection to the Terrans, aside from the fact that they're both human beings. This makes sympathizing with one another or finding middle ground all the more difficult.

And difficult can quickly turn into something worse. Like war...

...

Christ, this is depressing to think about. Why the fuck is he thinking about such crap?

As they drove away from the village and back towards the base, Barnes took a swig from his canteen, the drink calming both his nerves and his mind as they drove on. With all that was going on, he'd rather not think of what the consequences would be for his little incident at the Hidden Village's Gate, both from the villagers and from his own superiors. In the passenger seat, the Staff Sergeant looked at him questionably as the Colonel took another swig, before asking, "You sure you should be doing that right now, sir?"

Barnes looked at Watson, arching an eyebrow at the man. After a few moments, he just snorted in amusement, before offering the Staff Sergeant the whiskey-filled canteen.

"I won't tell anybody if you don't, Sergeant."


September 20, 2543
Moon Island
Moon Country
Hidden Moon Village

Klaudia Osada took a sip from the small cup, before placing it back on the table in front of her. The 44-year-old General had never tasted sake before, having preferred vodka or bourbon growing up, but she had to admit, it wasn't bad. Nowhere near as potent as Vodka, but it did taste fairly good. (Not that anyone really drank alcohol for the taste.) The room she had found herself in was... interesting. Apparently, this room is what the natives called a 'tea room' or Chashitsu, where they would drink ceremonial tea and conduct some of their diplomacies. The interior was rather simplistic, with only a short table in the center housing the tea and drinks. A couple hanging scrolls with Japanese writing and some flower pots were hung up on either side of her. A simplistic but rather beautiful design. Meant to convey serenity through simplicity.

But she wasn't here to gaze at pretty flowers or scrolls. She was here, along with General Rosenbaum, to do her fucking job. Though, to be honest, she wasn't exactly a trained diplomat, but she could make due and play the niceties if needed. Rosenbaum, with his polite nature, was more suited to the role. Along with his lean physique and slick, professional look.

The man across from her was wearing a red and black kimono, his white hair tied up in a small bun. His skin was a natural tanned color, a trait shared by most of the inhabitants on this sun-kissed island. His eyes lids were beginning to show noticeable wrinkles, implying he was around the same age if not slightly older than Klaudia or her colleague, General Rosenbaum, who was also present beside her. The Kage's green eyes studied them studied them intently, trying to decipher their intentions. Klaudia knew the look; someone who was good at reading other. She was fairly good at it herself.

General Rosenbaum decided to speak first, "Lord Ishida, we thank you for seeing us on such short notice. We understand this is rather unorthodox, but we had many things going on back at home that required our attention and couldn't send a message sooner. We hope you can forgive us for rushing through this."

Ishida Kunihiro, 4th Tsukikage of the Hidden Moon Village, gave a genuine smile at the two, nodding, "It's fine, General. I'm sure whatever problems you were facing were important. I must admit, I've never seen clothing like yours. Are they some sort of military cloth?"

The clothing the two were wearing were the Army Dress Uniform for General Osada and the Marine Blue Dress Uniform for General Rosenbaum. The standard dress uniforms for their respective military branches. Have been for several decades now.

"Yes," General Osada answered, "They're the respective uniforms for our military outside of combat."

"Ceremonial?"

"In a way, yes."

"Hm," Kunihiro mused over this, intrigued by the uniforms, but was quick to move on from the matter, "Well then Generals, pleasant small talk aside, why have you come all the way to my village today?"

"We wanted to hire your shinobi for a mission and discuss a couple of potential trade agreements that tie in with this mission," Rosenbaum answered.

The Kage shifted in his seat, pondering this as he eyed the two, "And what is mission exactly?"

"The elimination of the pirate clans in the Sea Confederacy."

Kunihiro's eyes widened at this. This was not what he was expecting. Eliminating the pirate clans? Impossible, at least for his own nation. Those that wanted to destroy them didn't have the resources available to do so, and those that did were either too far away and/or just didn't care to. "You may want to reconsider this, friends. Many over the years have tried to wipe out the pirates there, and none have succeeded. And even if I wanted to, I don't have the shinobi numbers available to both assist you and defend my home from certain retaliation."

"These pirates have never faced anyone like us, I can assure you, Lord Kage." Rosenbaum assured, "We've already run the simulations and are more than willing to divert resources to ensuring your nation's safety throughout the campaign."

"I can't merely just take your word on that, General. I need proof, evidence, and guarantees."

"True," Osada chimed in, "Perhaps if we could show you that we're sincere in this, would you be willing to support us then?"

"Perhaps. I would need to see just what kind of troops you have at your disposal and just what exactly is your plan in regards to dealing with Shao Peng and the other pirate lords."

"A reasonable request, lord Tsukikage." General Rosenbaum answered, "We don't have our entire force here, but I can show you what you would be cooperating with. As for the plan, we can show you right now if you wish."

'Earning a nod from the Kage, Klaudia pulled out her datapad and pulled up a map of the Sea Confederacy Region, much to the surprise and interest of the Kage as he observed the strange device. With the map pulled up, two distinct forces were shown being labeled Expeditionary Brigade Rosenbaum (EB-R) and Expeditionary Brigade Osada (EB-O) respectively and displayed in both English and Japanese.

"Our forces are comprised of two 20,000-strong armies, each one assigned to attack the two main islands of the Confederacy, Sea island, and Hondu island. But, before we attack these two, we will conduct what is known as an 'Island-hopping' campaign, striking and seizing the smaller islands around these two islands." Klaudia explained, the datapad showed the two main forces dividing into several smaller forces that attacked and captured several of the smaller islands around Sea and Hondu Islands. Klaudia continued, "This tactic will accomplish two critical objectives in our strategy. The first is that it will secure the smaller islands and allow us bases from which to operate from before conducting the main assault, and second, it will cut off the two main islands, where the majority of the pirates' forces are stationed, from any outside help and supply." As the last of the smaller islands were secured, all the military forces converged on the two main islands and began their assault.

"When our main assault on Sea and Hondu island commence, we'll strike fast and hard. Any of the larger settlements that are dug in and defended will be encircled and bypassed by our forces as we surge towards the capitals. Our main objective at this point of the operation is to isolate and destroy as many of the pirate forces in one fell swoop as we march towards the capitals."

The kage arched an eyebrow, "Not capturing Shao Peng or the pirate lords?"

"Second main objective, but secondary to capturing the islands. Either way, dead or alive. Same with any of the other high ranking leaders, though we would prefer to capture as many of them alive as we can for intelligence purposes. But things happen in war that are out of our control." General Rosenbaum answered, "Our main goal is to seize these islands and eliminate the pirates controlling it. Shao Peng and the other pirate lords are powerful because of the resources and men at their disposal. Take those away and what do you have left?"

"A fat, old man who'll be dead within a month without his protection. He has few friends outside the pirates. Same goes for the other lords." Kunihiro answered, with some sneer in his voice. "I will admit, your plan is well-thought and sound. I'm not so sure about the number of troops you're committing, though. Just 40,000 troops? While they don't have many, it's well known that the Pirate Clans have several rogue Shinobi in their employment. Just a handful of them in the right place and right time could devastate your forces and disrupt your entire plan."

"That's why we're requesting Shinobi from your village to help us. We're not familiar in dealing with Shinobi, so better to have someone that is familiar to assist us, preferably someone who stands to gain something from this whole operation." Klaudia responded, shifting in her seat to get a little more comfortable.

"And what does Moon Country stand to gain from such an endeavor?"

"Territory, farmable land, and an ally that will come to its aid should there be a crisis." Rosenbaum answered. Klaudia kept her face neutral.

This caught the Kage's attention, "Territory?"

"Yes, lord Tsukikage. Moon Country is a small island, and there's only so much territory that can be used. Farming or housing. It can't do both. Sure, fishing the ocean can cover part of the food problem, but eventually, you'll have the problem of overpopulation, and nowhere to send them. But Crimson Island to the south," The datapad shifted down to the mid-sized island some 180 miles to the south of Moon Island as Rosenbaum continued, "has large amounts of farmable land and several goods deposits of precious metals to mine. Even better, the island is sparsely populated in comparison to the other islands, with maybe some 300,000 people living on it compared to the... what? 2? 3 million people living on Moon Island? And Crimson is much larger than Moon Island, too. With Crimson Island under your control, along with the half dozen smaller islands in between, you would be killing two birds with one stone." There. The carrot was being offered. Time to see if Moon Country would take it. While their location had also been taken into account, the fact that Moon Country wasn't a very wealthy nation either also played into the decision to approach them for this mission, with the hopes that they would be too tempted to say no. If they could get the support of Shinobi for their operation, then it would accomplish two things. The first being that they would get a firsthand look into Shinobi Operations and Tactics, which would hopefully give the UNSC more insight into how to counter such warriors. The second being that, if all goes well, then the UNSC would have another potential future partner for further operations that may require Shinobi assistance, since Marsh Country's viability was still questionable at best.

"And you would just gift this to us? Hand over an entire island, several islands, that are rich in farmland and resources, just like that?" The Tsukikage asked skeptically, keeping his voice neutral as he spoke.

"Not really a gift, considering what we're about to go through. I'd say it's more of a reward and a show of gratitude to a nation that chose to help us, and in large part, the Elemental Nations, deal with a long-standing threat," Klaudia replied, stopping to take a sip from her water bottle. Setting it down, she took a breath before she continued, the Kage's attention completely on her, "Lord Tsukikage, with all due respect, this operation will happen with or without your support. We have every intention of taking control of these islands to increase our influence within the Elemental Nations and to eliminate these pirate clans that pose a threat to our operations. But, we also want everyone to know that we aren't just merely a bunch of conquerors. We can be reasonable and worked with. We can be your best friend or your worst fucking nightmare. Either way, the Sea Confederacy is going to be taken, and that fat sack of shit and his cronies are going to be taken down. One by one. We merely thought we could at least try and work out a deal with your nation that would be beneficial to both our people. But that's going to be up to you to decide."

Both the military leaders stared at one another, unmoving as they studied the other. General Rosenbaum was glaring at Klaudia for her use of such foul and blunt language during such an important diplomatic meeting. He was afraid her attitude would dissuade the Kage from helping. Despite all the firepower and skill the UNSC had at its disposal, they still didn't have a solid answer for the Shinobi Problem, at least one that didn't require a lot of heavy munitions being exhausted. If their infantry came under attack from Shinobi, especially skilled ones, then there would be casualties. That's why they were here trying to enlist the aid of a Ninja Village. And in Rosenbaum's mind, Klaudia may have just fucked it up.

There was an awkward pause between the three individuals as the Kage and General continued to stare at one another, almost as if they were having a contest.

Finally, the silence was broken, and with a chuckle of all things as the Tsukikage smiled, "Well, I can't say I would be sad to see Peng go. Though, I doubt many would. I will admit, it is a tempting offer, but I cannot make this decision on my own. If you don't mind waiting a few days, I need to consult this with both my village's Council and my Daimyo regarding this offer. Before I do, however, there are a few more questions I need to ask before I do."

"Understandable, Lord Kage," Rosenbaum answered, sighing with relief on the inside, "What are your questions?"

"How long is this operation expected to take?"

"If this operation goes perfectly according to plan? 6 weeks of combat, most of which would happen on the two main islands considering their size, followed by a month or two of pacification and mopping up any stragglers or holdouts. Though, like all plans, nothing ever goes perfectly, so we'll improvise and adapt when needed." General Rosenbaum answered.

This answer caused the Kage's back to straighten, his eyes widening slightly, "6... weeks of combat? With just 40,000 soldiers? No offense meant, General, but you can't possibly be serious? The Pirate Lords have at least that many troops on either of Sea and Hondu Islands and can hire thousands more to bolster their numbers in a matter of weeks. Your men would be outnumbered from the start!"

"Something we anticipated, Lord Tsukikage, and planned for accordingly. We have a few tricks up our sleeves that will balance out the numerical disadvantage." Klaudia replied, "I say this with full confidence Lord Tsukikage, that they have never faced anything like our military before."

"Yet you're concerned about the possibility of a few rogue Shinobi disrupting your campaign, which leads me to my next question. How many of my Shinobi are you looking to hire?"

The two generals looked at each other for a moment, this is the question that they were both concerned with. They weren't sure just how the Kage was going to take it when he was told how many they were looking to hire.

"Due to the sheer size and scale of the operation, not to mention our uncertainty as to just how many enemy Shinobi we'll be dealing with if any, we were planning on hiring some 100 Shinobi from your village, Lord Tsukikage," General Rosenbaum answered, shifting in his seat to get more comfortable. "If we're going off of your ranking system for just how dangerous and/or serious a mission this is, I would say this at the very least a very high A-Rank Mis-"

"More like a high-level S-Ranked Mission, and if you're looking to hire 100 of my Shinobi, then I hope you have the funds to pay them all. I've had missions where multiple Shinobi squads were required before, but 100 Shinobi?! My country might as well declare war on the Sea Confederacy if you're requesting that many." This was the first time the Tsukikage actually sounded angry, though it was very restrained. They knew this would be a significant amount of the Hidden Moon Village's strength, like a tenth or so, being taken away for upwards of 3 months, so god help them if someone decided to attack the country. The village maybe had 1,000 Shinobi fielded wearing its headband, but not even half that number was ever in the village at any one time, with most being out on missions needed to provide badly needed income for the poor village and its Shinobi. So with all of that in mind, it was rather understandable why the Kage sounded angry. Was angry.

"I understand this is a large number, especially considering the small size of your nation's Shinobi Village, but you have my word that we would make up for this and compensate for such a drop in your number of Shinobi available." Rosenbaum was quick to reply, trying to salvage their situation.

"How?

Rosenbaum was about to answer, but Klaudia beat him to the punch, "Lord Tsukikage, we could sit here for hours trying to justify such a massive acquisition of your Shinobi, and how we could help protect your village should something happen, but I'm a firm believer in actions speaking louder than words. So with that in mind, how about my fellow general and I merely show you as to why we're so confident in not only our military's chances regarding this campaign we're about to embark on but also in our ability to protect your country from reprisal as well. If you're willing to do so, Lord Tsukikage?"

The Kage pondered this for a moment, before nodding, "That would do. I'll still have to head to the Capital and discuss this with my Daimyo, so shall we schedule a follow-up meeting for, say, a week from now before conducting your demonstration?"

"Lord Kage, if your Daimyo was willing to come here, we could have a demonstration done in the next couple days." Klaudia offered, knowing full well that the Marines could be at here location in a matter of minutes if she or Rosenbaum ordered it. But, no need to spoil that little surprise. Best save it for the demonstration.

The Tsukikage considered it, but shook his head, "No. I will go meet with the Daimyo, then upon his decision, we will have your little 'demonstration'. Then, we may come to a decision regarding whether or not our Shinobi will assist you."

'For you, though, this demonstration won't be quite so little.' Came similar lines of thought from the two UNSC generals. Both of them nodded, "Very well, Lord Tsukikage. We shall wait upon your Lord's decision. We thank you for both your countrymen's and your own hospitality, Lord Tsukikage." Rosenbaum spoke as the two stood up and bowed politely.

"You're more than welcome to stay as my guest." The Kage offered standing up and returning the bow.

"We appreciate the offer, Lord Kage, but we'll still need to finalize some things before the operation commences. You'll hear back from us before the week's over." Klaudia replied. "Thank you again for your hospitality."


As the two left the village behind them with their squad of Marine escorts, the two converse with one another regarding the day's events.

"So, do you think he'll go for it?" Klaudia asked as she lit up a cigarette.

"Hard to say for certain, but he was definitely tempted by our offer. That much is certain. I'm just worried we made the offer too tempting," Rosenbaum answered, "Still, I think there's a good chance for it, though."

"Didn't we agree beforehand upon what would be offered, though?"

"Yes, but we also need to look at this from their perspective. We, a bunch of random, strangers wearing weird clothing they've never seen before from a 'country' they've never heard of or have only just heard of, come in and suddenly request their help in invading and annexing another nation, in the form of requesting basically a tenth of their entire military to come and assist us." Rosenbaum explained, "It's unsurprising that they would be skeptical or hesitant to assist us. Still, I'm wagering that the offer is going to be too good to pass up. We might not get the 100 shinobi we requested, but I don't think they're going to refuse, either."

Klaudia took a long drag from her cigarette, before blowing out a long stream of smoke, "Well. Doesn't matter to me either way. Our forces are ready, regardless of if we get their help or not. And Shao Peng's fuckers aren't going to stop us, no matter who he has helping him out. All the ninjas in the world won't save him from an orbital strike or a missile barrage."

On that, Rosenbaum agreed. But, better to have solid intel and planning rather than just assuming things would go your way. "So, any word on our little favor we requested?"

A smirk graced the Brigadier General's lips as she took another drag from the cigarette, "As a matter of fact, yes. We're only getting 10 of them, though, so we'll need to work out just how we're deploying them amongst the troops. I planned on using my 5 to assist in breaking sieges for villages or towns since I doubt they'll be engaging anything that's a big threat to them. Still, 10 Scorpions will be a nice addition to our firepower."

Rosenbaum chuckled softly, "I'm sure the men will appreciate it. It's always comforting to have armor support, even if you don't think you're going to need it."

"Sir, 'Mam." One of the Marine escorts suddenly spoke up, "Just received word. Pelican will be here in 5 minutes."

Both of them nodded at this news. Klaudia finished her cigarette then put it out as Rosenbaum spoke again, "One last thing, General. You need to start watching your tone and manners during meetings like that."

She grunted irritably, "Elias, I'm a soldier, not a diplomat. If they have a problem with me, then they should have sent a diplomat instead of me."

"They can't. All the politicians are either too busy working to establish our government or too busy securing their own little influence and power base. Or both, most likely." Rosenbaum snorted at that last statement, despite how true it likely was, "Either way, they're stuck with me and you to do negotiating for now. I know it's not your area, but I need your help if we're going to make this work. Can you at least do that, Klaudia?"

She glared at the man next to her. He was lucky the two of them went back a bit. Otherwise, she wouldn't be as cooperative as she is right now. That was probably part of the reason why she got demoted and exiled to guard a backwater colony within the Army, instead of fighting the Covenant within her beloved Marine Corps. Ultimately, she relented, "Can't promise anything, Elias, but I'll do my best. You know how much I hate politics."

Rosenbaum seemed to accept that answer, as the two silently watched the Pelican descend from the clouds. After a few moments, Klaudia suddenly asked, "How are the girls doing?"

Rosenbaum sighed, "They're surviving, at least, and finally here on Shensei. How do you think any children would do seeing their mother killed and their homeworld glassed?"

Rosenbaum's family had been on a small colony call Irondowns, a small mining world housing a population of maybe a couple million. A couple of months ago, the Covenant had located the lightly defended world and attacked. The UNSC defenders, though heroic in their duty, were swept aside with ease and the colony was burnt to the ground, most of the population dying with it. Elias' wife and her family had been amongst them, their two daughters surviving by sheer luck, being on the last transport off of the colony. While he was grieving at the loss of his wife, he was honestly more grateful that his daughters had survived. It would be the first time in 3 years that he's seen them in person once he got back. But, at least they could have a future, now.

He felt a hand on his shoulder, hearing Klaudia speaking, "I'm sorry about your wife, Elias. Margaret was a good woman."

As the Pelican touched down, Brigadier General Rosenbaum merely nodded as they all stepped onto the dropship, ready to go home. With a grim bit of realization, General Rosenbaum realized that for many, this was now the only home they had left anymore. And many of them would fight tooth and nail to maintain what they had left.


And that's it for this chapter! Hope you enjoyed. This one was a bit longer than I intended, (Definitely the longest one I've done yet. Jesus, 28,790 words.) but I think it was necessary this time. Hopefully, this will make up for my absence. As always, feel free to leave some constructive criticism and/or a review, I always love hearing your thoughts and opinions regarding all of my stories. Thanks as always for reading my stories.

Oh, and for those of you wondering the song if you didn't happen to know, that was 'Careless Whisper' by the one and only George Michael, although the version I'm thinking of and was using at the time was an extended remix made by someone on YouTube called 'To By', with the video being titled 'Wham - Careless Whisper (Extended Mix)'. Go check it out if you're interested. Fair warning, it's 11 minutes long, but the last minute and 40 seconds are the best in my opinion. May not be into long extended mixes like that, (Which is fine, not everyone is.), but for me, I enjoy listening to extended mixes of songs I love while writing. (Just helps get my flow out for some reason, even if the music doesn't fit what I'm writing.)

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Feel free to leave a review regarding how I did and some constructive criticism if you feel it's needed. I always appreciate it.


See Y'all next time!

-Azores