Thank you for the reviews and follows everyone, much appreciated. Chapter 9 isn't finished yet (just got back from vacation today, but I have made a bit of progress on it), but I'm uploading this since it's been about two weeks since I posted anything. Finally getting to the point where more humans start showing up.

Standard copyright disclaimer: I do not own Halo or any associated media, characters, or settings which are properties of 343 or Bungie. This is a work of fanfiction written purely for entertainment and not for monetary gain.

29 July 2549

Levosia, Human Colony

26 Draconis System

The radio message from the Covenant ships repeated, as the command center sat in silence. Korhonen was the first to act.

"Brisbane, Thunderer, this is Levosia command. Position to engage targets, but hold fire. Repeat, you are not weapons free, over."

"Command, this is Brisbane actual, repeat last."

"Confirm, Brisbane, hold fire, hold fire. We have a developing situation, over." Korhonen wasn't sure if the ships in orbit were picking up the Covenant(?) transmission, but for now he was keeping quiet about it.

"Alright, everyone, let's work the situation. These Covies want to talk, we'll talk, on our terms. As soon as they try anything funny they're getting shot out of the sky." At least these Covies knew English. Trying to contort his mouth to speak Covenant would have been enough of a problem even if he knew the language in the first place. Korhonen silently prayed one of the oldest prayers in the book; Lord, don't let me fuck this up. Then, he spoke.

"Phantom Chance, this is Captain Korhonen of the United Nations Space Command. Remain where you are, and keep your weapons offline. State your numbers and the nature of the information you carry."

It would take a few minutes for the message to get back to the Covenant ships, giving the UNSC time to plan their next moves. It was possible this was a trap of some kind, but this would be a change from how the Covenant normally acted. They were capable of deception and subterfuge on the tactical level, but even then they were a blunt instrument most of the time. There were a few rare instances of them acting sophisticated at larger scales, but overall the Covenant's strategy was about as subtle as a sledgehammer. Sending in fake defectors wasn't entirely out of the realm of possibility for them, but it was improbable.

As Korhonen waited for a response from the Covenant ships, an unexpected message popped up on his screen. Opening it, he saw that it was an encrypted text-only message from the prowler Anagram for Mongo. Apparently it was still in-system after all.

"CONFIRM PROBABLE TWO ECHO SEVEN JULIETT EVENT IN PROGRESS."

Korhonen frowned and dug a code book out from his desk drawer. He appreciated adherence to protocol, but of course the ONI spooks would use codes like that even on an encrypted system in the middle of nowhere. According to the book, 2E7 was the code for Covenant defectors, with the "J" denoting the species. Korhonen chuckled as he keyed in the confirmation message. Had ONI been aware of this, or were they caught flatfooted like him?

The ONI ship responded less than a minute later. "EXERCISE CAUTION. CONTINUE NON-HOSTILE CONTACT EFFORTS AT DISCRETION. MINIMIZE RISK TO UNSC ASSETS."

Tell me something I don't know, Korhonen thought. He turned to Smitson. "Pick out a remote moon or asteroid if these jackals want to talk in person. They're not coming on planet until we know what we're dealing with." Smitson shot his commander a thumbs-up and turned back to his console.

After a few minutes, the Covenant ship responded. "There are about two hundred kig-yar and a hundred unggoy on board. We have information and an artifact that is very heretical to the Covenant religion. "

"What the fuck is a kig-yar?" One of the junior officers in the command center wondered out loud. Korhonen himself had to think for a few seconds before remembering that 'kig-yar' was jackals, and 'unggoy' were grunts. He grimaced. Now he had 'getting a bunch of methane' on his to-do list.

"Confirm no 'sangheili' or 'jiralhanae' present." Korhonen knew he had likely butchered the pronunciation of those two names, but that didn't worry him. If there were actually no elites or brutes on those ships, then those jackals were probably a bunch of pirates. Korhonen hadn't dealt with jackal pirates too much, but they were a menace, especially for the more remote or insurrectionist-held outer colonies. At least they didn't glass the places they raided, but a bunch of them showing up was still a very bad day.

The interesting thing was, as far as Korhonen knew, jackal pirates operating independent of the Covenant usually didn't care too much about their religion. What kind of religious stuff could they have found that would shake them enough to try their luck with humanity? Maybe they were worried that the Covenant's enforcers would kill them, so they fled to a human world? But there had certainly been Covenant heretics before who had been killed for their beliefs, if their history was remotely like Earth's. None of them had done this. Maybe that 'artifact' they had found was something about their gods or prophets that went against the official line.

"Nah, no four jaws or any of them here. Where do you want us to land?" The delay because of the distance to the jackal ships was getting annoying, but it at least gave him time to plan. That the jackal called elites 'four jaws' was an encouraging sign, the Covenant military would never tolerate language like that. (Of course, it could be a very canny deception, but that would be unlike the Covies he knew.) 'Them' was obviously referring to brutes. Even though the jackal hadn't used a slur for them, it sounded like there was actual hatred behind that word. Interesting. The ONI people on that prowler had to be having a ball at this.

"Smitson, do you have a landing spot picked out for me?"

"Yes, sir. Ice mine on the sixth moon of Levosia III. Terrain's flat enough for a Pelican or Phantom to land, and we can use the mine facilities to talk." The moon also had a thin atmosphere; not enough oxygen to breathe, but a full-on spacesuit wouldn't be needed. Fighting in an EVA suit was not a fun prospect.

"Send me the data package, I'll let our people know before we tell the jackals. One of you better tell the civvies at the mine, too, let them know they're going to have company." His console chimed as it received the data package Smitson sent over. He forwarded to the prowler along with a brief note, then opened a channel to the navy ships in orbit.

"Brisbane, Thunderer, Levosia command sending coordinates for a location on the sixth moon of the gas giant in-system. The Covenant ships will be moving toward that location. Hold fire, but keep a firing solution on them, over."

"Brisbane actual, confirm receipt of coordinates and orders. Sounds like you also got that message, over."

"Confirm Brisbane, we are working the situation." Korhonen paused for a moment. "Brisbane, Thunderer do you have any ODSTs on board, over?" The soldiers and marines on Levosia could handle a Phantom's worth of jackals, but better to be safe than sorry. Plus, the ODSTs would add a bit of intimidation. (It would be really nice if there was a Spartan or two around, but Korhonen doubted he was that lucky.)

"Brisbane actual, we have two squads, we'll get them suited up." That would be very helpful, if Korhonen remembered correctly a Phantom could carry about half a platoon's worth of troops, so that'd put them close to numerical parity. The contingency if that failed would be the Ares missiles on the Brisbane and Thunderer; if the jackals took out his ground element he would have the area carpeted with missiles (while the destroyers and his corvettes engaged the jackal ships with their MACs and other armament).

"Thunderer actual, we've got some marines and a few ODSTs we managed to get off Paris. We'll send them down." Good, even more reinforcements.

"Phantom Chance, sending coordinates and trajectory to landing site. Hold off with your ships, you may deploy a single dropship to the landing site. Any deviation will result in you being fired upon. Confirm you have received message and will comply."

A few minutes later, and the jackal ships were moving, headed toward the ice mine. "Understood UNSC, one Phantom only." There was some chattering and chirping in the background, presumably the jackals talking in their own language. "We're going to leave the artifact on the corvette, not enough room for it in the Phantom with everyone else. You'll get to see it soon enough."

Sounded like the jackal still wanted to be a bit cheeky. No matter, they'd get a better handle on what the 'artifact' was once they talked to the turkeys.

Phantom Dropship

Near Levosia III, 26 Draconis System

"Atmosphere is about 20% normal, mostly nitrogen. Need a mask but your eyes won't burst at least."

"I think I saw a bootleg human film where that happened once."

"Going to be awful if the humans have the meeting outside. Never liked wearing an oxygen mask for long, feel like a methane-sucker."

"Don't worry, Mirr, humans probably don't like it any more than us." Chac Lon sighed. "Assuming they don't screw with us for the sake of screwing with us."

"That'd just be petty." Mirr replied. "Besides, we're not actually Covenant. Sure we've done a bit of piracy but I don't remember ever glassing anyone."

"Still, probably don't like us. I wouldn't like me if me and my friends had shot at me and stolen my crap." Shim Vol added.

Chac Lon realized it was probably a good thing he'd left his human pistol back on the Phantom Chance. (He'd brought along a regular plasma pistol instead. Plus his trusty needle rifle, of course.) Showing off a trophy from a dead human wouldn't be the best way to start negotiations. Also probably a good thing he'd made the few deviants in his crew that collected human bones get rid of them back on Eayn. If the humans didn't like him having a human pistol they really wouldn't like seeing a femur lying around. (To be fair to those crew, most of them also had a habit of collecting sangheili and jiralhane trophies too.)

There were fourteen kig-yar in the Phantom: all four of the ship captains, the pilot, Shaon Tol, and eight 'bodyguards' picked from the most experienced and reliable of the crew. Teth and the other X.O.s had stayed behind; if this entire thing went bad they'd be responsible for getting the ships out of here. (Teth had asked Chac Lon for a specific plan on what to do after; Chac Lon's response was that he didn't care because at that point he'd be dead.) Everyone on the Phantom knew that the humans had all their weapons pointed at them; a single shot from one of the human ship's main guns would vaporize the Phantom before they even knew what was happening.

The Phantom continued its descent toward the icy moon. Their ships were well behind them now, holding off thousands of kilometers away as the humans demanded. Four large human fighters, each as large as the Phantom trailed behind them. Two close enough that Chac Lon could almost have seen into the cockpit, and two more miles behind (but certainly in weapons range).

In front of them, the terrain of the moon was coming into view, as the Phantom entered its wispy atmosphere. It looked like a barren and lifeless ball of ice, mostly smooth and punctuated by small ridges that irregularly criss-crossed the surface. Obviously there couldn't be any humans living here, Chac Lon figured the colony was a mining site or military base. That explained why the humans were directing them here; you didn't invite a potentially dangerous stranger into your house the first time yet met. And to be honest, they probably were trying to make them a bit uncomfortable.

Now they were close enough to see their destination; the human mining complex. It was a cluster of buildings lit up in orangish lights; at one end of the complex was what looked like a mining shaft, at the other end were several flat spots that were clearly landing pads. Three of them already had human dropships, Pelicans, parked on them.

"Looks like we've got our descent clearance boss, land on the pad with the blue lights."

Recc, the Phantom pilot, had been picked by Chac Lon as the best dropship pilot of their outfit. Unless things went very badly he wouldn't have to do any combat flying, but it helped to have every possible advantage. As their altitude continued to drop, he could now see some smaller objects arrayed around their landing pad in a roughly circular pattern. Chac Lon squinted, focusing on them. Weapons emplacements. These humans were definitely not playing around.

"Good work, Recc, keep it steady. Start things off by showing how smooth we are." He encouraged the pilot. He'd probably seen the human weapons too, but no use getting him spooked.

They continued the rest of their descent in silence, touching down on the landing pad a few minutes later. Recc brought the Phantom down softly, kicking up a cloud of ice crystals as it settled onto the surface of the moon.

"Alright, Recc, shut it off. Think we're going to be here for a while." The pilot nodded, and flipped a few switches; the Phantom sagged a bit as the engine shut down and the full weight settled onto the landing legs. (Modifying a few Phantoms to let them sit parked for a while turned out to have been a fortuitous investment for the kig-yar.)

They sat in silence for about a minute. Then the radio came to life; more instructions from the humans.

"You will exit your vehicle from the right side, in a single column. You will be entirely unarmed. Do not exit the vehicle until commanded. Failure to follow these instructions and you will be fired upon."

That sent a wave of chatter through the compartment. Chac Lon hissed in disappointment and anger as he set down his needle rifle and pistol. He'd been worried something like this might happen, but now he feared he had actually brought his crew here to die.

Levosia III Mining Station

26 Draconis System

"Well, they're not popping out yet, guess they understood some of your message, sir."

"Ah, we can let them sit for a bit." Korhonen joked. "Serves them right for showing up here unannounced." And the last twenty-five years since Harvest was left unsaid.

Korhnonen and a few of his staff had quickly boarded a shuttle to the moon once the meeting place had been decided on. Thankfully, in the confusion, one of the younger officers in the command center, an Ensign Nguyen, had gotten the bright idea to send around a copy of FM 189-03, "UNSC Kig-Yar (Jackal) Species Handbook (an Office of Naval Intelligence Publication)". Aside from reminding him what the jackals actually called themselves, the 15 page pamphlet actually taught Korhonen a bit. He'd never dealt with the feathery bastards too much as a naval officer, but he'd heard various stories about them. That they smelled terrible, ate humans, and were terrifying to fight in urban areas. Looked like all of those were at least part true.

The biggest thing was that jackals seemed to love making money above all else. It would be amusing, if quite disappointing, if the ones in the Phantom outside were just here to scam a few credits off the humans. Korhonen also idly wondered if ONI had ever tried paying off the jackals. Maybe this was all some ONI setup?

Though, he doubted whether the handbook was completely accurate. Serving in the UNSC paid well, but it wouldn't make you a billionaire. The Covenant was probably the same way, but there were still a lot of jackals in the Covenant military. At least some of probably had other reasons for joining up.

One of the other interesting things he learned was that there were a couple different kinds of jackals, depending on what part of their home system they were from. (They all looked kind of like birds, but one looked even more like birds than the rest of them.) Also that they could be more than six feet tall, which surprised him. He'd always thought they were smaller. Well, most of his experience with them was in video footage from a distance.

The handbook also had a page or two of cultural info, but a decent chunk was how to deal with jackals in combat. Not surprising, but (God willing) not useful today. Korhonen looked across the room at the pair of ONI agents who had arrived by shuttle from Anagram for Mongo about forty-five minutes ago. If this went right they'd get more information about jackal culture and society today than in the last couple years combined. That was the kind of thing that could make an entire career for one of those agents.

Another minute passed.

"Well, then, let's get this over with." First, Korhonen had to make sure the welcoming party was ready.

"Team Alpha, ready?"

"Ready, sir. 50 is cocked and loaded."

"Confirm, Alpha is green. Team Bravo, ready?"

"Ready, sir, I've got four tubes hot and loaded if the turkeys get uppity."

"Confirm, Bravo ready." Both teams of ODSTs outside had weapons trained on the Phantom, and were probably itching for a reason to shoot. Even if the jackals did come out guns blazing they wouldn't last long against emplaced heavy machine guns and rocket launchers.

"Team Tango, ready?"

"Yeah, I'm ready. Gettin' a bit tired of standing around waiting on these bastards."

"Copy that, Tango ready." Team Tango was an ad-hoc group of Marines and ODSTs from the Thunderer, led by an experienced sergeant who'd been in since Harvest. They were handling security inside the hangar that had been hastily set up as a conference room. Not the most luxurious setup, but it would do for now.

"You guys need anything?" Korhonen turned to the two ONI agents standing awkwardly in the back of the room.

"No, just as long as you've got audio and video recording set up. I'm mostly here to tell Mongo if there's fire or just smoke, they'll head back and let the important people decide what's going on." The agent shrugged apologetically.

If this actually was Covenant defectors and they had some important artifact ONI would be all over this. Despite its reputation, Korhonen had actually had mostly positive interactions with the spooks. Still, all the more reason to make sure this was done well.

"You may now exit the vehicle. Proceed single file, follow the soldier with the red lights." Looked like some lucky ODST lance corporal got picked to play hall monitor to a bunch of jackals.

To his credit, the ODST didn't show any apprehension as the right side door of the Phantom came open. The first jackal was out even before the door had fully opened, jumping over the lip and landing in the snow. This one was wearing gold-colored armor, and might have had more feathers than the average jackal (though it was hard to tell with the EVA helmet covering most of its head. Korhonen consulted the handbook. Looks like a skirmisher champion, must be the head honcho. The rest followed in a single line, most in gray, black, or green armor. Fortunately, it looked like they were all unarmed, though the sixth in line, in gray armor, had some kind of data pad in hand. A list of demands? Heh, for once we have the advantage.

As the jackals got closer, Korhonen studied the one in front. Its armor looked a bit different from the picture in the handbook; a few of the pieces looked a bit off from the rest, and some markings appeared to be haphazardly painted on. Another little piece of evidence that these guys weren't Covenant military. He also noticed the lead jackal fidgeting with his right hand, and had seen it drift towards his hip a few times. Probably not used to being unarmed in a situation like this. He turned to Smitson, standing next to him. "Looks like these guys are a bit shook up."

"Yeah, a couple of them seem twitchy. Must realize humans and jackals haven't been the best of friends in recent years."

"Ha, right. Especially with all those guns Alpha and Bravo have pointed at them." The two ODST teams were moving forward and keeping pace with the column of jackals, positioning themselves to keep the aliens in a crossfire. Their posture had relaxed a bit, though, once it was clear all weapons had been left in the Phantom.

The column was at the hangar airlock now. Only seven jackals (plus the ODST) could fit into the airlock together. Still, for the trooper, this was the most dangerous part; he would be isolated from both Alpha and Bravo teams on the outside, and Tango on the inside. Even though the ODST was armed, if the jackals attacked they would tear him to pieces.

Chac Lon followed the human soldier through the doorway, into the airlock. Only half his group could fit in at the same time; the rest would have to wait outside under the watchful eye of the humans. Silently, he gestured for six of the other kig-yar to follow him. Shim Vol, Shaon Tol, Thac Vol, Shan Vol, Tsan, and Zhun headed in with him; the rest would wait outside.

The seven kig-yar filed into the cramped airlock, along with the single human. Despite the lack of space, none of the kig-yar seemed eager to get close to the human. Chac Lon realized that was probably for the better, it would keep the human from getting too jumpy. With a hiss, the airlock sealed, and he felt the air moving as the system cycled out the moon's atmosphere for breathable air. After a bit, a green light lit up on the controls and pleasant tone chimed. Chac Lon still kept his oxygen mask on. Awkwardly, the human stared at him for a few seconds, before sighing and unclipping his own mask. Chac Lon didn't think it was likely the humans would pump poison gas in here, but better safe than sorry. And it wouldn't hurt to let them know he had his eye on them. (For all the good it would do with his squad unarmed.)

The door opened, and the human stepped out of the way. Chac Lon started walking forward, only to be met by another human pointing a shotgun at his head.

"Alright, you alien bastards. Follow me and don't try anything funny."

The first thing Chac Lon noticed was the large brown stick in the human's mouth, with a glowing ember on the end. The second was that the human's finger wasn't actually on the trigger, but hovering nearby. So he probably wasn't about to be shot in the face.

Chac Lon held his hands out to his side, emphasizing that he was unarmed. "For some reason I feel like you don't like me very much," he said, half-jokingly.

"Thanksgiving was never my favorite holiday." The human's response got a laugh out of some of the other humans; Chac Lon had no idea what he was talking about.

Hissing in frustration, he followed the human's direction, heading toward a table set up in a large open area. It looked like the meeting was being held inside a hangar or warehouse of some kind. A few humans, dressed in more formal uniforms, were already at the table, and a trio of large flags stood behind it. The kig-yar recognized the UNSC flag as the most prominent, but not the others.

Behind him, he heard the airlock cycling and door opening as the second half of his party arrived inside. Looking over the table, he saw that one side looked like it was allotted to the humans, while the other half but had a bunch of chairs set up. That must be for us. The humans had also been kind enough to put out cups of water for everyone, which he thought was a nice gesture. Chac Lon decided on the center chair, directly across from the most important looking human. They had an image of a stylized bird on their collar similar to the one on the UNSC flag, so they had to be some kind of high ranking officer.

Act cool, project confidence. Chac Lon thought as he sat down across from the human officer. They've got control of the situation but you have to let them know they aren't going to walk all over you. He stared at the human, sizing him up. Black hair, medium build, a bit shorter than the one with the shotgun. Looked like he was doing his best to keep his expression unreadable. Smart.

Chac Lon was about to speak when the human opened the conversation. "Which of you is Chac Lon?"

"That would be me." The kig-yar smiled as he leaned back in the chair. "I would like to formally offer the services of myself and my crews to the UNSC."

The human looked unimpressed. "And why should I take that offer instead of throwing you all in a cell? What makes you different from any of the other Covenant?"

I'm not Covenant you idiot. Chac Lon almost said, but he decided on a different tack. "What do you know about the Great Journey?" He paused for effect. "And the Forerunners?"