On the Illusion of Might

by evevee

We thought ourselves powerful, able to conquer a galaxy with nothing but toys. When we overcame every challenge, breached the space between the galaxies themselves, what use were the words of a race ashamed of their own past? Yet we cannot deny that we were warned, for while a challenge to a human is laughable, a challenge to humanity is a death sentence.

4. Expectations Broken

Disclaimer: I own no franchise mentioned in this work. Halo belongs to 343, Mass Effect to Bioware.

For the Covenant, Solar cycle = year, Cycle = day, Unit = hours. That part is canon. I've made up a general equivalent to minutes as 'Portions'. That is NOT canon. Just wanted to be clear.

I have finished my latest college semester and passed, so huzzah for that. I will have a lot more time to write, but it is likely that I will keep with my current update schedule for a chapter every month. Apologies for the slow updates, I am not a very prolific writer.

Now for Review Responses! If you don't care, skip to the breakpoint below. For responses, later reviews will be listed first, because I'm lazy and can't be bothered to reverse-order them.

Linx007: Here's another one for you! No problem, I read reviews but I've not going to beg for them. If there's an issue, as long as it gets to me through PM or review, I'm good. :) Oh, yeah, Council reaction is...heh, well, I have about six different scenarios to choose from that I have written up. Many ideas. Much fun. Very nice. Thank you, I hoped it was fairly creative. Yeah, ONI had issues operating in the best interest of the UNSC, which is their job. First Contact here will probably not be what you expect, as a warning. It IS coming, I promise! Yeah, the whole superior species thing is an aspect I plan to explore extensively. Thank you!

Gaelas: So am I, but alas.

Belnonm: Your name irritates me for some reason. I think it's because I misread it as Belonm. Anyways, thank you very much!

Atisk101: Don't know who that is, but if it's a self-serving traitorous bitch then yes.

Moosejuice5: Your name amuses me, makes me think of the Monty Python Holy Grail starting credits. Glad you like it, hope you continue to enjoy it! Here you are. :)

InfinityGamer104: Thank you. Yeah, I like cleaning ONI, traitors to their oaths. Agreed, Palmer is inexperienced and IV's are overconfident in my opinion. Will do, sorry it wasn;t exactly soon, but not a fast writer. Glad to hear I'm doing well on editing.

Kitsune of darkfire: Agreed, completely.

Lord NV: I thought of it as a form of the UN. A lot of this story will probably pull from WWII and the Cold War that followed, although it may not be as 'Cold'. Don't agree with you on Kig-Yar, as if they joined a government like the Wardens, they could conduct piracy. The only thing that prevented them from piracy before was the Covenant. Thanks, tried to get the feelings in there, hoped it worked alright. Bad at dialogue, I tend to be too logical. Agreed on the Citadel idiocy on discovering new civilizations, but ultimately I will admit to thinking that the Council is made of idiots, so may need to go there. We'll see. Yes, I am disregarding HW2 as nonsense. I've thought about it more and found too many issues to fit it into my story. Good game, but I can't figure out the logic of Atriox attacking humans when Cortana is threatening the galaxy. Warden's will each use their own calendar, as they know the conversion between each time system. Presenting standardized dates based off of Warden's founding would confuse readers. Also, what is wrong with being centrist? I consider myself fairly moderate, albeit perhaps with a slightly human superiority tilt due to our adaptability.

Guest #1: Well, yeah, no duh it's human wank right now, I've only touched on the Halo side so far. We'll get to Mass Effect wank next chapter, calm them jimmies sir.

CHMIEL: WHY DO YOU TYPE IN ALL CAPS?! Glad to hear you are enjoying it, and here's your update, on schedule for once. Don't plan on ending this story, although I may sometimes slow down due to my instinctual aversion to effort. Truly my greatest flaw.

Brucec22180: Yeah, I'm kind of unsure about the name of Garrus' ship, to be honest. Eh, we'll see how it works out. May end up being something interesting or I may just plant my head in the sand. No idea how far the Spirit is from Earth, I haven't bothered figuring it out.

DarkRising32: Could you explain in a PM how the second chapter was sloppy? I would love to improve. Also, Chapter 2 by FF's numbering or by mine? Chapter 2 by mine is Chapter 3 by FF.

Guest #2: What the hell are you on about? I haven't touched anything about the Human-Covenant war in my story. That entire conflict is left in its canonical state. Also, Kilo-Five...blegh. No offense, but if that's your standard for story-telling, I'm ignoring your criticism. People largely forgave Germany post-WWII due to the view the Hitler deceived them, even though the Holocaust was fairly well known about, it just wasn't REALIZED exactly what hell the death camps were. Also, I have the government forgiving the former Covenant, and while the public may be a bit more hesitant, the help against the Covenant Remnants would create a unification of military force, something that has historically created much better relations between countries. As far as I can tell, the industrial capability of the UNSC was capable of constructing new vessels just fine in canon. Considering that I changed Halo 5 to give the UNSC access to Genesis, a devoted Forerunner construction facility, I think they'd be just fine. Halo has a dyson sphere in it, that the UNSC controls in canon. Thank you for the review, but I disagree with your points. If you wish to talk further, feel free to send a PM.

Masterix: Thank you! It is doubtful that Forerunner Sentinels will see combat in this story, sorry. I find that sentinels seem more suited to repair and construction rather than combat, which is the Prometheans domain. *hint hint*

RevengeS197: No problem, you have just as much entitlement to your opinion as I do mine. :) Agreed on the Flood, never made sense to me, and that is the issue. I don't WANT to deal with the Flood in here, they just curbstomp too hard if they get space-faring capability. As the the Spirit, they didn't find a different Ark. It was the same Installation 00 in Halo 3. I'm confused as to HOW they got there, which is why I'm throwing out HW2 canon, as it has too many plotholes for me to cover for. Glad to hear and hope you enjoy!

Guest #3: Thank you! Yeah, sorry, chapters are slow because I am incompetent at writing quickly. Hah, indeed, which is part of what I want to explore in this story. Instead of Two superpowers slugging it out over an even playing field, how would a conservative, consolidated human Superpower deal with a much weaker opponent in the Council. Council will have claws, don't get me wrong, just haven't gotten there yet. To answer your question, read on! As for the second part of that question, that may be a while away.

MysticOort: Thank you! I aim to please, as one over-sized teddybear weighing half-a-ton might say. Here you go, and GL and TC to you as well!

Husebad: Yea, I know. I'm dealing with that in a slightly different manner. You can disregard HW2, I only kept the Banished around because I like their potential, and Atriox is fun to write. No problem, thanks for the review.

---

February 26th, 2566

UNSC CFV-88 Spirit of Fire

Unknown System, Unknown Sector

Serina watched curiously as the unknown aliens boarded the Spirit of Fire from the small crack under the port-side hangar door. The compromised areas of the ship had been evacuated, depressurized, and sealed off with several bulkheads in the halls due to the damage.

When they moved to cut through the blast doors that separated the hangar from the halls of the ship, she let them be to see what they would do. These aliens were much different from any Covenant forces seen before, which lead the AI to believe that this was some new group.

According to the ship diagnostic report, the vessels outside were attempting to scan the Spirit but were apparently having difficulty penetrating the thick hull. From the hails and the actions of their boarding party, these beings were not looking for combat but instead seemed curious. They had examined several items in the hangar but had not taken anything. Serina would stop them should they try to get through one of the bulkheads to the pressurized areas of the ship, but was otherwise content with avoiding hostilities with them.

As Serina continued to observe the aliens, they began to fiddle with the controls for the blast door that had sealed when the area had depressurized. One of them walked up to the pad by the door and brought up his arm. Much to the AI's surprise, a holographic tool sprung up and started to try and send and retrieve data from the door panel.

This species apparently wasn't used to secured systems as the panel almost instantly rejected the foreign incursion. A quick look at the report sent to her thereafter told Serina that the alien hadn't even sent an authentication code to the door and instead tried to directly open it by skirting around the security protocol. After a couple more attempts that resulted in failure, the being backed away from the door and gestured to another wearing what looked like a portable plasma cutter.

Serina was distracted from this scene by an alert from the mainframe of the Spirit of Fire. It simply told her that all systems were functioning acceptably. Serina herself had not fallen to rampancy due to her young age when the Spirit had been lost along with the long-term AI storage facilities on board colony ships.

Such storage was created in the early 21st century with the growing availability of atomic data storage when researchers had figured out how to store data bits on an atom. While not practical until almost 200 years later due to the inability to read information at a sufficient speed, this method was excellent due to other advances in the field.

The main two reasons that a switch had been made from biological to atomic storage for long-term storage was the amount of data that could be stored in a single space and the lack of degradation or data loss such a method provided. Biological data storage had been kept for random access memory due to the speed at which the DNA strands holding the information could be processed. While not in use, bio-RAM was kept in a cryogenic state to prevent architectural failure of the pathways.

With the technology combination of quantum processing, atomic storage for disk storage, biological RAM, and fiberoptics, human computers were unmatched by any current species. Even the Covenant, with thousands of years of a head start on humans, were unable to properly combat UNSC AI's, one of the only advantages of humans in the War. While these methods were superior, electrical computers still existed to process and handle low-level threads so as to keep an AI from slowing their cores with that data.

When their voyage home had begun nearly 35 years ago, Serina had plotted a predetermined course for the ship to guide them home using these simple but sufficient binary computers. After that, she had shut down her servers and AI core to prevent rampancy from claiming her when she was needed to guide the Spirit.

The small programs she had built were designed to have the sensors scan for celestial objects that could present a threat and then wake her if necessary. These had activated a short time ago when the ship had entered this latest system, and apparently just in time for the AI to detect the addition of the alien presence.

Serina brought her attention back to the cargo bay as the bright light of the cutter flared into focus. These aliens were attempting to cut through fifteen centimeters of solid Titanium-A plating using a tool that relied on the conductivity of the element that was being cut.

Unsurprisingly, they were having significant trouble against the molecularly reinforced material made to withstand Covenant plasma weapons that burned at 3000 degrees celsius. A plasma torch may make use of the properties of plasma, but it did not have the necessary heat to cut through such a surface in a clean and expeditious manner.

Eventually, after almost 30 minutes of cutting, they managed to make a hole large enough to advance into the halls of the Spirit of Fire. Serina was once again drawn from her observations by the sensors of the ship detecting a slipspace rupture further into the system. She diverted the majority of her attention to this new development, keeping a small tab on the aliens but knowing that the presence of the Covenant would present a far more immediate threat.

As she began her analysis, Serina noticed that the alien vessels were not reacting to the new visitors. It was probable that they did not have sufficient sensor technology to detect slipspace occurrences, their sensors were not as advanced as the Spirit's and operated at mere light-speed, they had seen the tears but disregarded them as errors, or they had seen the portals and just did not care. It was highly unlikely to be the last option, and seeing as the ships had seen the Spirit just fine, the middle two were also unlikely. It was valuable information to know for future encounters, provided they survived this one.

These aliens had not entered this system using slipspace, for if they had Serina would've been able to detect the residual Cherenkov radiation from any nuclear material. All UNSC vessels could detect such disturbances due to their combat nature, but the Spirit of Fire had superior sensors for the exploration and colonization missions she undertook in new systems and as such could detect subtle residual radiation from entrances further in the past.

Serina began preparations for the deactivation of the crew's cryo pods while the sensors gathered more information of whatever had caused the event. The virtually instant response from the sensors was distinctly absent without the latent slipspace effects that were provided by slipspace drives. Even without her drive, however, the Spirit still possessed faster-than-light sensor suites that utilized the ONI-made X-ELF radar system for planet-mapping and target location.

UNSC sensors and communications used the small slipspace disturbances produced by their drives to send and receive information faster than otherwise possible. This was possible due to the UNSC slipspace drives inability to power down, resulting in wasted energy that, while not dangerous, could be utilized to great effect.

As this was happening, the AI focused some attention back onto the aliens as they tried to cut through yet another blast door of the Spirit of Fire. If what had emerged from slipspace was Covenant in origin, then these beings would need to get back to their ships and avoid the fight. From what Serina had gathered from her own subtle scans, their ships were oddly lacking in mass and had almost no armor to speak of. Even if they possessed shields, ships of that size wouldn't be able to stand up to Covenant vessels without sustaining heavy losses.

The analysis finished just as the beings managed to slice their way through the second barrier. Serina quickly accessed , processed, and filed the report before ceasing the defrosting preparation on the crew before it could wake them. All vessels that had emerged into the system were made with human designs, albeit a few were not ones that Serina could find in the Spirit of Fire's database. The report also detailed what seemed to be patches or other inconsistencies in the hulls of the human ships. To get a more detailed report, she would need to wait for the incoming vessels to close with the Spirit.

It took nearly another hour and a door more for the aliens aboard the Spirit of Fire to suddenly come up short. They had been wandering down the passage that ran parallel to the hangar and would eventually curve towards the center of the ship and the main thoroughfares that were used to traverse the long length of the Spirit. Serina had been monitoring communication channels and had found some encoded messages, but she had neglected to break the encryption due to the lack of any translation software to understand what they were saying.

The group sent several communications back to the small ship from which they had come before beginning to backtrack down the corridor. On the way, one of their members stopped by the first door they had cut through and collected some scraps of Titanium-A, likely a sample to analyze the material in a controlled environment.

The aliens boarding team quickly reached the hangar and entered the shuttle that had pulled up to the side of the Spirit of Fire. As the transport craft reached the ship from which it had came, the group of sixteen ships pulled away from the Spirit and entered an intercept course with the human vessels.

Five human craft were approaching the starboard side of the Spirit from a good 250,000 kilometers out and closing fast. From UNSC designations, these ships were two frigates and three small corvettes. Seeing as UNSC corvettes had been disregarded as irrelevant when the Covenant's ships were so large, the likelihood of this being a UNSC force was small. The fact that ushc vessels were common when the Insurrectionist movement was in full swing pointed towards a significantly different faction.

The alien force had moved to put itself between the Spirit of Fire and the human ships in what seemed to be a battle formation. The smallest ships were arranged in three groups of four while the three larger crafts were in a three-point arc. The small ship that seemed to coordinate all the others, at least judging by the communication patterns, took a position under the center ship in the arc. This formation had coalesced as the group had passed over the Spirit on their intercept course with the human vessels.

Now in formation, the alien arrangement quickly left Serina's ship behind and moved to directly intercept the human ships. Serina could detect communication hails coming from the alien craft on the standard UNSC distress channel, but so far she had heard nothing from the human ships. She watched as the two groups drew closer together and eventually stopped. At the very least, she was satisfied that munitions were not yet flying between the two, although the continued lack of communications from the human vessels worried her.

As they sat and stared at one another for all intents and purposes, Serina managed to pick out and refine a symbol on the side of one of the frigates when it turned to keep its bow oriented towards the alien craft. The logo was made up of three different parts. The sides were two pieces of a curved arrow that arced over a metal depiction of a planet with at least five different continents visible. The AI immediately recognized the location as the mid-atlantic, with North and South America on the left, Antarctica on the bottom, and Africa and Europe to the side with a small bit of western Asia.

Assured that these were indeed human forces and at the very least had been in contact with Earth and therefore the UNSC before, Serina decided that the associated parties needed to get things moving. With that decision, the Spirit of Fire's engines flared and the massive 2.5 kilometer ship slowly eased itself towards the two groups. Within seconds of executing this adjustment, two of the larger vessels along with one of the groups of smaller ships started to turn around to face the Spirit.

Before anything more could occur, the human ships belonging to the unknown group finally sent out a transmission, albeit to the Spirit and not the unknowns. A female voice began speaking, "This is Captain Irene Finick of the SSV Boa to the UNSC Spirit of Fire. We are responding to your distress signal and are ready to provide assistance to return you to the UNSC. Do you copy?"

"This is UNSC AI SNA 1292-4 Serina in temporary command of the UNSC Spirit of Fire under orders from UNSC Captain James Cutter. We read you, however, we are unable to authenticate your vessel's signature. Please clarify your designation 'SSV'," Serina responded.

She quickly received a response from the Boa's captain, "Systems Alliance Space Vessel. We shall transmit declassified historical events to help eliminate the gap in your databanks."

Serina noted a compressed data transmission arrive from the Boa. As it came in Serina began unpacking and organizing its contents while simultaneously responding, "Do you have any records of the alien species currently involved?"

"Negative, they match no known Covenant configuration. We noticed a group exit your port hangar as we approached. From your countenance, I assume they were of little threat."

"Affirmative, they spent some time carefully cutting through a blast door or two before you arrived. The crew is secure and no information was compromised in the breach," Serina answered.

At this point, the data from the Boa finished running through the Spirit's filtering servers, allowing Serina to process the information directly. The first thing that she went over was the events in the Human-Covenant war that the Spirit had missed in its long voyage. Serina was saddened by the records of the Covenant's advance into human space after they had left.

The record of the war cut off in April of 2543 with a battle in the Psi Serpentis system. As she viewed the description and progression of this conflict, Serina noted that these were likely former Insurrectionists that had split as the UNSC and UEG fell to the Covenant advance. With this suspicion, Serina examined the data for proof of this and noticed an open admittance to Insurrectionist origins in the history partition.

Much to her surprise, this faction had formed from both the UNSC and Insurrectionist forces that battled the Covenant. The scattered remnants of populations from destroyed and captured planets were gathering together, to flee the conflict and try and continue the human race as best they could. Billions had survived the Covenant by fleeing into outlying regions and surviving, while billions more stayed behind and perished.

The catalyst for their formation had been the arrival of Cole after the Battle of Psi Serpentis. With the might of a UNSC naval vessel and a solid leadership, the survivors made their way outside of UNSC space, picking up pockets of populations that traveled in their wake. Eventually, they settled on a new world by the name of Terra, and had attained a population of almost one billion from new arrivals as well as population growth.

As she quickly went through the details of the 'Systems Alliance' Serina noticed mentions of a species that had been named 'Protheans'. Accessing the information, Serina learned that these Protheans were yet another alien species that had disappeared. According to the description provided, their architecture was reminiscent of the alien planet the Spirit had visited, but seemed to incorporate some curves and other such designs apart from the constant angular construction.

Apparently this alien species had used some form of mass-altering substance to power their technology, a concept which this Systems Alliance had adopted. While some of the vessels in front of the Spirit were of obvious human design, matching the Charon light frigate and Mako corvette classes, there were several classes listed that were powered by this 'Element Zero'.

Intrigued, Serina continued the conversation with Captain Finick, having processed the information and formulated her questions fast enough that the human could not notice the delay. "So...Insurrectionists, huh? Would your so-called rescue include appropriation of this vessel?" Serina asked in a smartass tone. She didn't actually believe these Innies were hostile, but she couldn't help but make such comments in a stressful situation. Being caught between Innie-held vessels and a previously unmet species certainly counted as stressful in her book.

Finick responded after a second of silence to process the AI's bold and somewhat hostile comment, "Negative, we have nothing against your ship or its crew. When we broke away, the UNSC let us go. I'm sure that ONI knew of our formation and intent, but there were no attempts to intervene with the Navy. Albeit this was due to the closing Covie noose, but it still was enough for us to rebuild. I will not lie, if you return to former UNSC space, you will most likely find nothing but glass and alien bastards. The UNSC was losing the war badly when we left. Unless a miracle happened, there's no way they could have stood up to the alien invasion. We do not know the status of the rest of the human race, the risk of discovery by the Covenant was too high to go back."

Serina knew that the captain was correct in her assessment, however, she couldn't help but hope that the UNSC had somehow survived the onslaught. The AI did not spend much time on this thought and responded, "So how do you plan to help us? We do not have a slipspace drive and I would highly doubt you have any just sitting around."

"We do have several spare drives, in fact."

Serina grew suspicious of this and replied, "Convenient."

Finick shrugged, "We knew you were out here. It wasn't like we just happened by right when these unknowns appeared. The system of remote sensors we use to warn about possible Covenant detection tracked them as tracing your signal. Command figures that helping a UNSC ship might get some goodwill if they still exist, or goodwill from your crew if they do not. Considering you were drifting dead in space, we figured to get rid of some extra drives from ships that have been converted to using Mass Effect."

"You have a drive large enough for a ship of this size?" Serina asked in surprise.

"Several working in tandem, while inefficient, will work well enough so that you aren't moving at a snail's pace," the human responded. She continued, "As I'm sure you saw in the information we sent you, the Alliance has been moving to change to Element Zero drives. Slipspace may be more economical, however, we know that the Covenant can trace slipspace vectors and as such we cannot risk the continued utilization of that transport method."

"You have enough of this Element Zero to build a fleet?"

"We have enough for civilian and military use for several centuries, however, we do not want go against the Covenant with the size limits that using this material implies. Our supply is limited by the amount that the Protheans stored in their structures. From what we have investigated, Element Zero does not form naturally, at least not in this region of the galaxy."

Serina considered this before asking the obvious question, "Why make all that effort to move such an amount of material to what seems to have been a small outpost or relay?"

"We think that they were fleeing something. We have never found any larger ruins or any other trail. There were cryo chambers in the lower depths, but the seals had been broken and all that was left was dust. It's probable that the ships they arrived in were scrapped and the Element that was left was stored for later use. This store was probably supplemented by many supply ships to carry such an amount. It is possible that they're original home was destroyed or otherwise invaded and the last remnants of an interstellar empire came to rest and die, leaving behind what they had saved. As for what might have been chasing them, we know nothing."

"You're willing to share this much information?" Serina queried, her suspicions mostly laid to rest with the detail of information provided, but a last assurance and reaction wouldn't hurt.

"We're both human, and I figure you hate the Covenant far more than some descendants of Innies. There's no use in hiding public information either, as if our governments come into contact, there's no way ONI won't find out about this. They wouldn't even have to dig into something they're not supposed to, although I'm sure they would."

"Interesting, fair, and very true. History analyses aside, I think it time we address the alien presence that isn't dead," Serina stated. She would share this information with the UNSC, as Finick expected, if they managed to return with a slipspace drive, however, first they had to deal with the unknowns.

Captain Finick quickly replied to Serina, "Their vessels have signs reminiscent of our own Element Zero drives, as each has a bubble of distorted space-time around the vessel. We seem to use more advanced engines with our deuterium fusion reactor engines versus what appears to be antimatter engines limited by fuel consumption. They also seem to be running very hot. Inefficient manifolds."

"I can see that. Primitive, humans have had antimatter figured out since the 21st century, and have used it for engines since the 22nd. Any match to the alien ruins in Alliance space?"

"It is possible, but very unlikely. The Protheans appeared to incorporate subtle curvature into their designs, whereas these vessels are much more angular. Also, communication protocols used by the Augur structure are not garnering a reaction from the vessels." In that assessment, the Captain was correct. The alien ships had held their defensive formation throughout Serina and Finick's conversation, seemingly willful to let them be for now.

Serina considered the vessels in front of them for a short time. The design was very basic, much simpler than most UNSC ships. A large rectangular spine ran the length of all the ships and two large wings stuck out from midway down to the engines. It was likely that some form of cannon was mounted down this long spine, a tactic which the UNSC had utilized as well for their MAC's. The barrel for any form of large-scale weaponry, however, appeared to be far too small to fire anything larger than a standard tank shell.

"Before you arrived they were attempting to hail us. I ignored their hail as they were, and still are, an unknown. Following UNSC protocols I cannot contact them without express orders from the captain of the Spirit of Fire," the AI told her counterpart.

Finick responded, "I am under much the same orders from Systems Alliance Command for this mission. I cannot lead unknown or hostile forces to Systems Alliance space, and last we heard of the UNSC there were mutterings of adopting a similar policy. First thing to consider, however, would be how we're going to exit the system. All of my vessels are equipped with Eezo drives, but we cannot transfer the slipspace drives necessary for your travel with unknowns present in-system."

"It would take hours to install a new drive in the Spirit, so that's not a viable option for us here and now," Serina responded. She thought for a moment before arriving to a viable if slightly unconventional solution. "If you have the extra slipspace drives powered and synchronized then the portal will be much more powerful than any of your ships would need. We could ride in the wake of one of your ships for a short period to exit this region and allow us space to transfer the drives over."

"We won't get far as our cores aren't optimal for the energy requirements of slipspace drives, but they should hold out long enough to get us out of the area," the human said. She made a gesture to deactivate the comms and give out several orders to an unseen crew. This was quickly finished and the captain turned back to Serina's image, "I understand how desperate you are to arrive back home, but I must require that you follow the Cole Protocol sent with the rest of the data. As I said before, the Covenant may still linger around UNSC worlds and we cannot allow them to find that the Alliance exists."

Serina processed the Protocol and verified the authorization before integrating the automatic fail-safes called for. This took several seconds during which the AI considered the implications of the changes. The purpose was obvious, even without the explanation provided for human eyes. "If I implement this, my crew will die. I will die with them. It was truly that bad for such extreme measures to be taken?"

"Only if defeat in the face of a Covenant advance was imminent. We'll make the first jump randomized away from both Alliance and UNSC space so as to assure that these unknowns cannot follow. The ships powered solely with an Eezo core cannot handle the warps of slipspace on their hull and barriers, so they will jump on a separate vector. Prepare your vessel to jump," Finick told the AI before cutting off the transmission.

Serina quickly did just that as she accelerated towards the Alliance fleet. The alien ships made no motion to stop the massive UNSC colony ship and instead held its defensive formation. It was good that they did, for had they tried to intervene in between the Spirit and her destination they would have been run over by the massive ship.

No preparations needed to be done as all had been completed when the Spirit had begun its long journey home. As the vessel neared the fleet, the Alliance vessels shifted to let the ship take position behind the old UNSC designs. Within seconds, the smaller ships had flashed out of existence, only a strange engine contrail left in their wake. The rest of the SA ships moved into a familiar slipspace transit formation, with two slipspace capable ships taking positions at the aft of the Spirit of Fire to maintain the wake for the massive ship.

As the Spirit matched the vector of the SA ships, a flash of white heralded the appearance of a portal in front of the head of the fleet. The tear grew as more power was added from the multiple drives on board the vessels. With a flare of engines, the fleet began to move towards the portal while maintaining formation. The alien ships made no move to intercept them and may have even backed off a bit at the sight of the slipspace portal.

---

February 28th, 2566

UNSC CFV-88 Spirit of Fire

Interstellar Medium

The journey through the eleven dimensions of slipspace went smoothly enough for travelling in the wake of much smaller ships. Had the crew been awake, they probably would have been concerned about the groans of the damaged port side, but for Serina it wasn't an issue. The Spirit and Alliance group were currently in dark space, the immense gaps between systems providing a perfect place to layover for the drive exchange. Engineers from the Alliance had already rigged the extra drives from their ships together to form a large enough drive for the Spirit of Fire.

Element Zero drives had been activated in place of the missing slipspace drives while the main engines were still powered by the standard deuterium reactors for propulsion. This change gave Serina a good chance to observe the capabilities of this new technology. With a reduced mass but a constant thrust output, the maneuverability of each vessel increased greatly.

Serina would love to take the innovations to assist the rest of humanity, but the Systems Alliance would not give her access. She suspected that this was due to the lack of AI support for the SA ships. Any AI that they had when they left the UNSC would have gone rampant, and without the infrastructure to create more they had done without. How they calculated jumps with their Element Zero drives was a mystery to her, but was something she'd be sure to learn if possible.

None of the Spirit's crew had been awakened from cryo as the drive installation and removal process was all handled by Serina. As it was, the Spirit of Fire was ready to depart back to the UNSC, likely as not to be destroyed upon entering in the wake of the Covenant. The Systems Alliance vessels were set to head back to their space, wherever that was.

So, with a silent volley of flashing rounds as a salute to the inevitable tribulations ahead for the UNSC ship, the Alliance vessels activated their Element Zero drives and flashed away. The Spirit turned to a random vector and activated its new slipspace drives, heading into the portal to begin its own journey home.

---

11th Day of 6th Month, 2437 (February 26, 2566)

29th Citadel Exploratory Fleet, First Battlegroup

Holding Position in Unknown System

The Council would throw high hell over this, Garrus just knew it. Not only had they found a new species, but they had found multiple species, if the different designs were anything to go by. To add to that, however, was that one of these species had advanced from the usual primitive exploration to utilizing some form of portals as transportation.

Considering that the other, newer, vessels used mass effect drives, albeit fairly primitive ones, this portal technology couldn't be better than Eezo drives. It was still a disturbing thought about how such a thing could be used in a weaponized form or for other miscellaneous uses.

His fleet could easily track the ships with mass effect drives by the signatures they were assigned when the sensors first detected them, but he had no idea how they could trace those portal ships. Not that he really wanted to find them again, even if he could. They may have been ugly, but Garrus and any other soldier could pinpoint their purpose the moment they saw them: those ships were built to fight.

While they didn't have mass effect drives that Garrus' fleet could detect, there was definitely some Eezo on all but the ridiculous 2.5 kilometer vessel. This allowed Garrus' crew to establish a mass index for each of the alien ships. The smallest ship was still a frigate by Citadel standard length designations, but could be as large as a small cruiser on the mass index.

The Citadel races all used extremely light materials so as to avoid the exponential Eezo cost. Instead of using metal or other dense construction material, the Citadel reverted to plastics and composites to build their ships. The only areas that armor was used was the hull so as to provide at least some protection. The main defense for Citadel craft were their kinetic barriers as they just made more economical sense.

Why increase the cost of a ship with armor that required expensive repairs and could be pierced when instead that same ship could have rechargeable defensive barriers that defended against all devastating attacks.

These aliens apparently had no such inhibitions. According to the mass differential and spectral analysis given to them by his fleet's sensors, each of those ships were made almost exclusively from titanium and had to have a significant portion of the outer hull devoted to heavy plating. If that was on the vessels a fifth of the size of that massive one, then he would bet that the thick door the had seen when entering probably provided a good estimate for the general hull, something which would prove a problem if they ever engaged that thing in combat.

With armor that thick, Citadel mass accelerator shells wouldn't penetrate due to their standard of thin hulls. Instead, the shell would flatten against the wall of metal, and while that may put a good dent in that section, on a ship that big damage needed to be dealt quickly and not by attrition.

Frowning at such thoughts, Garrus turn from the main viewscreen and made his way back to his command chair. Their mission was a success, so for now they would head back to base and give their report over the QEC. A race so new to the stars wouldn't be able to build ships of that size quickly, and even if they were experienced, it would require too many materials to be anywhere close to economically viable. If the Council wanted to bring this race under their guidance, the quicker the better so as to prevent any escalation of the alien's armed forces.

"Lieutenant, get us out of here. Jump on your mark, fleet stays in formation."

"Yes, sir," came the trained reply. With that finished, Garrus opened a report on his omnitool and began to type. He knew he'd have to do it at some point, might as well do it while the events were fresh in his mind.

---

First Age of Realization, Fifth Cycle/February 28th, 2566

Enduring Conviction

Interplanetary Medium, Reclaimer system

Atriox hated these damnable patrols. He understood that the Kig Yar needed to be kept away and he was perfectly happy to be given the mission of killing them, but actually finding the vermin just grated on his nerves. Hide and seek was not a game he was keen on playing, especially when it involved a glassed planet in human territory. The upside to such a situation, however, was that Atriox could catch up on reports from other Banished vessels.

As he finished the last of the fleet reports from a Banished battlegroup in Sangheili space, Atriox glanced around the bridge. Let 'Volir sat in the Shipmaster's throne beside him, examining reports and various other screens projected from the console. Other officers and crew attended to tasks throughout the large area, overseeing the operation of the Enduring Conviction.

Sangheili and Jiralhanae worked beside each other with practiced efficiency, each knowing what they needed to do and when without getting in the way of any others. Atriox hadn't seen the crew so relaxed and pleasant with each since he first met 'Volir and offered to refuel his ship, back when the bridge crew were all Sangheili.

With the formation of the Wardens and the solidification of leadership in both Sangheili and Jiralhanae space, tensions between the species had decreased significantly. The Sangheili's snobbish attitude of superiority from the days of the Covenant had decreased significantly from their betrayal by the prophets.

At the same time, the Jiralhanae envy of the Sangheili had diminished as they began to experience the vast difficulties inherent to managing an interstellar empire. The establishment of these two powerful governments created an awkward situation for jointly-crewed vessels that had disobeyed the Prophet's orders. This group of lost vessels was where Atriox saw an opportunity to turn the Banished into more than a small rebel group.

As the Human-Covenant war came to a close and the Great Schism raged on, Atriox sought out vessels that wanted no part of either side. Most of these were vessels with a crew made up of Sangheili and Jiralhanae that had fought beside each other instead of one above of the other. Their years of combat against the humans had forged a companionship that could only be found in soldiers. Atriox offered these crews the option of joining the Banished, not to fight against their own kin, but to destroy the Covenant Remnants that had betrayed them all.

So it was that the Banished became their own military force, eventually becoming strong enough to take entire planets for themselves and away from the Remnants. The humans had seen what they were doing and left well enough alone, although it wasn't rare in an engagement for the Banished to get shadow signatures lurking around the edges of a system, likely the human ONI organization keeping tabs.

The Sangheili and Jiralhanae had also noted the efforts of the Banished and officially granted Atriox and his vessels permission to cross their territory. The humans had not officially declared closed or open borders to the Banished, which was a large part of why Atriox was keen to finish up this hunt and leave the area.

While the Banished were technically classified as an independent organization and therefore legally allowed to enter human space, it wouldn't reflect well on them to be drifting above a formerly glassed planet with shields raised and weapons ready. Even if the Enduring Conviction were sitting idly by, there was no assurance they wouldn't pick up an escort along the way. Several other independent groups that Atriox kept in contact with had reported being tailed by private human vessels, although official UNSC ships had merely watched from their posts or as they passed by.

Apparently the human 'corporations', as they called them, were allowed to operate their own ships and were doing so quite freely. Most were ships from human corporations chipping away at the glass that covered so many worlds. Nothing hostile had occurred between any parties, leading Atriox to believe that the captains were merely tailgating so as to get a good look at alien ships without being shot at.

The Enduring Conviction hadn't yet had a run in with any humans, but if it did, Atriox had half a mind to offer to eradicate the pirates that plagued human borders. With a little favor from a human organization with terraforming rights, the Banished could possibly establish a forward operating base for their mission.

That train of thought led Atriox to consider the meeting that had given the Banished purpose once more. After the formation of the Wardens and the official declaration that the Remnants had been crushed, the Banished had lost their defining goal. Atriox had founded the Banished to fight the Covenant and the demagoguery that the San'Shyuum represented. Now that mission was complete, but disbanding the Banished seemed like a mistake, seeing as how the organization was both voluntary and well respected.

Let 'Volir had stepped up and suggested that Atriox follow the Chieftain of Doisac back to the Jiralhanae homeworld and ask for a mission. Acknowledging the intelligent idea and quick thinking of the Sangheili warrior, Atriox had done exactly that.

Lydus had seemed pleased to meet with Atriox and had given the Warlord a proposition. If the Banished so wished, they could separate from both the Sangheili and Jiralhanae without interference from either party, an option that both Lydus and the Arbiter had agreed upon for the Banished effort against the Remnants. Atriox had almost instantly denied that possibility, something that Lydus seemed to be fully expecting as explained the second option of hunting Kig-Yar.

The pirate hordes had appeared while the Sangheili and Jiralhanae fought and were proving to be a great hinderance in repairing damages from the Schism. This had been exactly what the Banished leader was looking for, both to allow his warriors to gain honor in combat and to help rid the galaxy of such reprehensible filth.

In return for their assistance with the matter, Lydus had promised that should the Banished be attacked by any party, they would have the support of the Jiralhanae and Sangheili. Atriox had expressed his concern about an attack by the humans, but much to his surprise the old Chieftain merely scoffed.

According to his meeting with the UEG president, the humans had little interest in Covenant space beyond investigating the Forerunner structures and technology left behind. Considering that the humans would know where every Forerunner artifact was anyways and their status as the Reclaimers, the concession had been easy to make. Neither the Jiralhanae nor any other race, besides the Huragok who had allied with the Reclaimers, had the technology or expertise to investigate the ruins and as such they were left to the humans.

So far, Atriox had heard that the humans were staying true to their word. Instead of quick expansion out of their territory, they were building fleets and armies. The Covenant was familiar with the concept of consolidation of power, but the rate at which the humans did so was, as always with their species, unexpected.

Atriox huffed in annoyance as he ran that train of thought dry, allowing boredom to overtake him once again. With a grunt he stood from his seat and clomped off towards the video screens showing the outside of the Enduring Conviction. He saw 'Volir give him a passing glance before continuing to dutifully ignore the footsteps of his leader. The officers of the bridge made way for him, some giving salutes and others a simple nod. As he reached the screen showing the world of glass below, Atriox considered their current target.

This particular pirate vessel had led them on one of their longest chases yet, starting in Jiralhanae territory and going straight across the Sangheili expanse before ending in the current human system. While they weren't terribly far into human space, they were well past the border between the humans and Sangheili.

From what the sensors had told them upon entering this system, the Kig Yar had blown their slipspace drive while trying to mask their signature. That meant that this hunt would end here, seeing as an unshielded frigate going against a well maintained assault carrier was laughable at best.

Atriox wasn't entirely sure why the ship had fled to human territory rather than into the Kig Yar dens on the eastern borders of Warden space. It was possible that the pirate captain thought that a Banished vessel wouldn't follow them that far, but even so, their chances against the Enduring Conviction were far better than the chances they would face when the humans found them.

The Banished ship needed to exit slipspace to find targets, whereas the humans would emerge from slipspace next to a vessel and ram it, resulting in an easy kill. Atriox considered it cheating, but couldn't argue against its effectiveness. After all, if the humans wanted to build their ships like mobile battering rams to defeat former Covvies, then they could have at it.

The Jiralhanae themselves were struggling with enforcing their own territory, hence why the Banished were recruited to assist. Jiralhanae space had the second largest number of planets from former Covenant systems and was on the frontier of Warden space, seeing as they were only recently discovered before the Human-Covenant war.

Sangheili territory lay between the Jiralhanae and human territories and took up the largest portion of former Covenant space with several hundred planets in their domain. While their fleets had been heavily depleted by the Schism, the Sangheili still had sufficient numbers to patrol most of their area.

The other former Covenant species had a fair number of planets between them, but none had anything more than bare bones for fleets. Each was working to fix that issue, but for the moment they were virtually defenseless. These weakened species made up the western territory of Warden space as looked upon with the humans the closest to the galactic core and going towards the rim.

While the humans had more planets, most former Covenant colonies were more developed. The reason for this was largely due to the relatively conservative settlement of territory due to artifacts of the Forerunners.

The human's own domain had grown at a rate that put any expansion efforts of the Covenant to shame. While not the size of the Covenant in the pre-war era, at their current rate of expansion the humans would eclipse the former empire within the decade. Compared to the current galactic map, the humans far outclassed every other species, encompassing a large part of their local spur and even beginning to expand towards the galactic core.

Massive fleets had quickly followed as they recovered from the war, a trend that was only accelerated with the accretion of Forerunner artifacts under their control. As more worlds were terraformed back to habitable status, there was a notable increase in the number and range of UNSC patrols. This recovery had propagated the spread of the Forerunner designation of the humans from just the Swords to almost all of the former Covenant species. Even the UEG had acknowledged the term Era of Reclamation to be officially from 2552 to the present day on human calendars.

Atriox had no issue with saying it as it was and acknowledging the human title. He respected the humans for their determination and might during the Human-Covenant war. They had fought the same enemies as the Banished and had stood firm even on the brink of annihilation. It showed a strength of will that any Jiralhanae or Sangheili could appreciate.

His boredom was alleviated as a shout from the sensor op caught his attention, "Sir, slipspace portal detected. Far side of the moon, approaching the orbit of the human world."

"Our prey?" Let 'Volir asked.

The Sangheili that had spoken waited a second for an analysis before responding, "No, sir. New contact, different slipspace signature. No visual, we'll have a line of sight in approximately one hour if we keep orbit and they stay their course."

"We cannot hail them at this time without deploying a comm relay and revealing our presence," reported the Jiralhanae on the communication console before the inevitable question was asked.

Atriox nodded to 'Volir as the Sangheili looked to him, silently communicating his approval of initiating contact. As the Enduring Conviction pulled away from the world of glass, Atriox made his way back to 'Volir's command throne. He waited patiently as the Shipmaster finished giving orders to the crew before asking, "Humans?"

'Volir needed no clarification for the question from his commanding officer. He took a second to consider a readout he brought up from one of the command consoles before replying, "There's no distinct match to the signature, but based on the power output and quality of the slip, I can see no other viable option. Fluctuations from their entrance seem to indicate an unstable or unrefined slipstream drive. We have no indication of the Kig Yar's exact position, but we do know they're still combat capable."

"Indeed. Keep alert for any activity, if there's fleet action I want you ready to engage," Atriox ordered. 'Volir nodded before directing his attention back to managing his bridge. So it was for the next few minutes as the Enduring Conviction made its way to communication range with the human ship.

Atriox kept his gaze on the main bridge screen, watching the stars go by and waiting for the new vessel to be brought into visual and communication range. His wait was not long as the Banished flagship started a gravitational slingshot around one of the moons of the glassed planet. As they came to the dark side of the celestial body, the distinctive grey hull of a human vessel slid into view on the main screen.

The ship was oriented with the bow facing away from the barren moon below, presenting the port side to the main screen. It was immediately apparent that the humans had been in combat at some point as the side of the vessel was heavily scarred. As the Banished flagship closed in on the inactive vessel, human characters became visible towards the top of the vessel.

"Check the ship database for any reports of a UNSC Spirit of Fire. Comms, hail them," 'Volir ordered. Atriox ignored the chatter as the Shipmaster's commands were carried out. Instead, he kept watch on the ship as it continued to show no signs of life. Usually, a human ship would hail any foreign vessel in their territory or at the very least move to intercept. From the way this one was drifting, however, it was either abandoned or dead in the water, for whatever reason.

"No response on any channels," reported the officer.

"I have a vessel match in the human archives. UNSC Spirit of Fire, Phoenix-class colony ship, went missing from Arcadia on February 10, 2531 in human measurement. Declared lost with all crew three Solar Cycles after. There was a report of its existence behind enemy lines, but they were proven false," announced the Sangheili minor assigned to the task. At this news, 'Volir turned to Atriox in deference to his command role.

"Contact the human fleetmasters. Inform them of their missing ship and that observation reveals no sign of survivors aboard. I will lead a team to search the ship, make it clear that it is a search and rescue mission. Shipmaster, if our quarry shows itself, burn their hides. Protect the human ship, it may garner us favor for more operations in this sector. Have my clan assemble in the ventral hangar," Atriox ordered after a few moments of thought.

With an objective set, Atriox turned and made his way off the bridge. As he moved through the Banished vessel, various crewmembers and ground personnel made way for him while acknowledging his presence. While the vast majority of silent greetings were simple nods, some crew gave full salutes. The Banished were not a military organization, a fact that Atriox was perfectly fine accepting. The rigid military hierarchy of the Covenant was best left behind for the more relaxed mercenary organization of the Banished in his opinion.

This command structure not only allowed Atriox to draw in soldiers with a less strict regimen than the former Covenant, but also allowed units operating in the Banished to work together closely without the pomp of social class imposed by the religiously driven alliance. There were still ranks and orders were obeyed, but building a relation with former Covenant soldiers would help break down barriers from the War and Schism.

Such thoughts faded from his mind as Atriox caught sight of his general standing to the side of the main corridor. Seeing his leader, Decimus joined the Jiralhanae Chieftain as he made his way to the main hangar of the Enduring Conviction. A Jiralhanae warlord and one of the generals of the Banished, Decimus was well known for leading from the frontlines along with harboring a grudge against the Storm Remnant for their continued loyalty to the Covenant. As the second in command of the Banished, Decimus led the small guard that accompanied Atriox when their commander inevitably insisted on boarding possibly hostile vessels.

The other warriors assigned for the boarding mission were lined up outside of one of the Type-25B troop carriers that the group utilized for transportation. Once Atriox and his lieutenant had stepped aboard, the other four members of the boarding party loaded in as well. With the party aboard, Decimus slammed his fist against the wall to let the pilot know that they were ready to leave. As the transport pulled away from the Banished carrier, Atriox grabbed Chainbreaker from where it had been brought aboard by one of his team. With his personal weapon ready and about half-a-unit to their destination, Atriox began his briefing.

"The human vessel has been confirmed as missing from earlier in the war against the Covenant. We have contacted the humans to let them know of the situation, so expect their presence in-system at any point. Our mission, however, is to ascertain the presence and condition of any survivors aboard. There has been no distress signal, nor any other signs of life. Be warned, any survivors will likely be hostile due to the ongoing war when they lost contact," he informed the team.

"Combat rules?" one of the Jiralhanae asked.

"Attempt to stun, I do not want unnecessary casualties for the humans to complain about. If resistance is heavy, fall back. This isn't an assault, it's a scouting mission. I want every warrior going in to come back out. Preferably in one piece." There were a few deep rumbles at the morbid humor to remind them that ground combat against the humans was never easy when they became entrenched.

The last few portions of the flight were spent checking on gear and muttering amiable insults back and forth. As they drew closer to the human ship, the lack of evasive maneuvers for point defense guns was obvious. Encouraged by the friendly, or at least apathetic, response, the pilot quickly brought the dropship to a hangar that was part way open on the port section of the vessel. The breaches in the hull had already called for each member of the insertion team to be able to operate in a vacuum environment, so with the Banished craft in position, the atmosphere was depressurized in the troop bays.

"Form up, stay close, and watch your back," Decimus ordered as they stepped out into the void of space. Using the handholds on the extended troop-bay doors, the group quickly made their way down the dropship to the breach that lead into the human vessel. Atriox led the way into the dark space, dropping to the ground as the artificial gravity came into effect. He hefted Chainbreaker but kept the weapon deactivated as he scanned the interior. Determining that they were alone, he moved out of the entrance so that the rest of his team could enter.

Decimus came in next, carrying a modified Gravity Hammer that the crew had named Atriox's Fist, after the legendary Tartarus' Gavel. Seeing as how they were both weapons for the leaders' respective lieutenant's and Decimus commonly led the way with his pulverizing strikes, Atriox had abstained from commenting on the nomenclature. As long as the Banished members did their jobs and obeyed his command, they could name whatever they liked after him.

The last of the team dropped in behind their commanders, spreading out to the sides to scan the area and provide a rearguard. With all boarders now in position, the group advanced towards the far side of the hangar they had entered. Various UNSC vehicles were stationed around the area, all showing signs of combat with plasma burns and scrapes from rough handling.

Atriox took all this in as he stomped across the floor, his heavy footsteps sending small vibrations through the metal plating. Seeing as no resistance was presented to their intrusion, the squad moved towards the exit of the hangar, keeping their formation tight as they did so. Within seconds they arrived, only to find the entrance to the halls of the UNSC ships already open.

Several of the rearguard moved forward to set up in the hall, letting the walls protect the sides of the group. Atriox ignored this as he took a knee to examine the hole cut in the titanium door. From the way it was cut with precision, it looked like a small plasma cutter had been used instead of the Covenant way of opening UNSC doors, which usually involved plasma grenades and copious amounts of firepower from heavy weapons.

Someone had already been here, neither Covenant nor human. Humans would already know that a plasma cutter would be a terrible tool to use on the molecularly reinforced metal, and Covenant wouldn't try for this clean cut on a human ship. After a few more seconds of inspection, Atriox stood once more and slipped through the opening, his armor scraping against the cut made for a much smaller being.

Once more they advanced into the ship, the deserted corridor stretching before them. They quickly reached another breached door and crossed its threshold. Weapons were kept ready but in a relaxed position as the group reformed.

Within another minute they came across a third barrier. Atriox grunted in annoyance, seeing that it was cut open in the same way as the others. There was no way that such work was quick, meaning that whoever had been here was present for an extended period. Glancing around, the Banished leader's attention was drawn away from his observations as a report from the Conviction came through.

"Reclaimers have confirmed our message and have ships en route, sir," a bridge officer reported, the distinctive baritone of a Sangheili obvious.

Atriox made a motion to fall back to his unit as he responded, "Understood, send our transport back, we will be there soon."

The Jiralhanae scout party turned away from the penetrated door, making the previous rearguard the leaders and leaving Atriox to watch their back. Used to such operations and dynamic position alterations, Atriox easily fell into his roll, keeping his peripheral vision on the hallway behind them.

Nothing appeared as they made their way back to the hangar, a process which was much shortened due to the already-cleared corridors they were travelling. In short time they had reached the last door, each member carefully pulling themselves through the opening as Atriox kept watch behind them.

As such, the Banished leader was the first to see the glint of light flashing down the hall. He reached back and tapped the nearest warrior, silently communicating that he had seen something. The silent signal quickly went through the party, resulting in a hurried effort for the rest of the team to go through the hole and towards the opening on the hangar door.

When the last of the troops were through and it was just him and Decimus, Atriox motioned for his general to fall back. Decimus glanced at the flashing light that had gotten brighter as the unknowns advanced towards their position. Unwilling to argue, the Jiralhanae general retreated through the breach, leaving Atriox alone.

Before what he assumed were humans could reach him, the Banished leader followed into the hangar. He quietly activated the channel to his dropship and asked, "Estimated arrival?"

"30 seconds," the pilot responded.

"Defensive positions around the exit, prepare to leave," Atriox ordered his guards.

The Jiralhanae obeyed without hesitation, hauling several crates towards the breach that led to the void. Decimus took cover behind a human warthog, ready to jump out at the first sign of combat. Atriox himself stood out in the open, his armor the best among them for absorbing enemy fire long enough to get to cover.

Within seconds the humans that had been following their withdrawal reached the breached hangar blast door, pausing to examine the cut just as Atriox had before. With that done, they moved into the space, scanning the area. While hidden from their direct view, Atriox could see all of this by the way the beams of light moved about the space, illuminating whatever the humans were looking at.

Eventually, the humans once more advanced, and Atriox took note of the soft thuds that were distinctive to one extremely dangerous human combat unit. As the group of three armored humans rounded the nose of a dropship to reach the port hangar door, Atriox's suspicion was confirmed as three Spartans came into view.

Judging from the age of the ship as well as their armor, these weren't the Demons that had become common on many UNSC ships. Instead, these were what many were calling Elder Demons. Humans called them Spartan-II's, the Covenant had named them enemies of the Great Journey, but all Atriox knew for sure was that he and his team could not hope to take on all three.

While the Banished leader could probably engage an entire team of Lesser Demons and win, perhaps even fight a single Elder Demon to a standstill, three would be almost impossible. Even outdated as their equipment was, three Spartans working together would be able to take out entire ships, let alone Atriox's small team.

One was already looking in his direction, the other down to the other side of the space, and the last scanning behind them. Almost instantly the other two Spartans turned to face him, their weapons trained on his face and chest. Atriox tensed his hand around the grip of Chainbreaker as he held the hammer loosely in both hands, ready to swing if one of the Demons charged.

Surprisingly, the Spartans held their fire, apparently unsure what to do with a Jiralhanae that wasn't trying to kill them. Both sides stood still, ready for a fight but neither wanting to begin it. Atriox was sure that the Spartans had seen his team, even in cover of darkness. As it was, the Jiralhanae Warlord was content to stay in this standoff as his transport drew closer to the extraction point.

Seconds later, the dull vibration of the Banished dropship against the hull outside could be felt. Knowing their priorities, the first two Jiralhanae warriors began a slow retreat to the ship, their warhammers useless against Demons. Every Covenant, Banished, and any other group who had fought the Spartans knew that close combat with one was a death sentence.

One of the Demons flicked his weapon towards the retreating forms of the Banished, only to bring it back to Atriox as he shifted to draw attention away from his troops. Decimus moved next, taking position next to the opening to attempt to keep the Demons out. At this point the general was following procedure, as a truly determined Spartan would be past him before he could react.

The other two warriors cautiously made their way to the exit, their Brute-shots aimed at the Spartans. They slipped under the door, leaving only Decimus and Atriox to face three Elder Demons. One of the humans began to edge away from his partners, likely trying to get a line on Decimus.

Atriox distracted them from that plan by lighting up Chainbreaker, bathing the hangar in red light. He needed to buy time for the drop ship to turn around and present the empty bay to allow Decimus and himself aboard.

"Shall we begin?" the Banished leader muttered in his deep baritone, just before he slammed Chainbreaker into the metal deck plating.

The modified gravity hammer did it's job, creating a wave of distortion that pushed the Demons back a step. Before he could lift Chainbreaker, though, the humans were already in motion. Several round pinged off his shields as the Demons reacted, their attention focused on the threat he posed.

Atriox released one hand from his weapon, letting the other lift it. His free hand shot forwards, aiming to grip the lead human around the neck.

The Spartan dodged his attempt, cutting to the side to avoid his outstretched fist. Atriox's other two opponents kept up their fire, quickly decreasing his shields even with their outdated firearms.

With a click, Atriox activated the gravity attractor on his weapon, catching one of the Demons off guard by the new and unusual ability. As the Spartan hit the end of Chainbreaker, Atriox grasped it with both hands and swept it back around.

As the first Demon was already within his sweep, Atriox continued the swing towards the third human. Another flick and the previously pinned Spartan on the end of his mace went flying, colliding with the third Spartan and putting them out of the fight for the moment.

Unluckily, this move had presented his side to the Demon right beside him, who made its presence known as Atriox felt a blade becoming jammed between his armor plates. The Demon tried to free its weapon, but failed as Atriox swept his arm back, catching the Spartan in the side and sending it into a roll that the human quickly recovered from.

By this point, the other two Demons were back in the fight, advancing rapidly behind the bursts of lead that issued from their weapons. Knowing that the knife had broken his shields, Atriox threw up an arm to let the armor plating take the projectiles instead of receiving any shots to the head.

Decimus stood out of the fight, letting his leader once more prove his strength. The general glanced back and noticed that the dropship had finished its turn, the maneuver seeming to take much longer than the several seconds that it had. He bellowed a warcry, letting Atriox know that their ride was ready and drawing a Spartans attention.

With one Demon recovering from Atriox's backhand, one now focused on Decimus, and the other running the clip of its weapon dry, the Jiralhanae took his chance and slammed his mace down, once more sending the Demons back a step at the shockwave the emanated from the center of impact.

Atriox quickly backed off, pulling out the knife in his side and letting it clatter to the deck. The Banished leader ducked behind his general, slipping under the jammed hangar door and into the relative safety of the transport. Decimus appeared a second later, shields glowing at the breaking point from the concentrated firepower of the humans.

"Was that really necessary?" Atriox's fellow Warlord asked, irritation clear in his tone.

Atriox huffed and replied, "Of course. A single Elder Demon is a worthy foe. To battle three, even if defeated by their hands, is an honor."

"And a good fight it was," Decimus agreed, letting the matter of his leader's recklessness drop in favor of acknowledging his battle prowess.

Atriox grinned and gently lowered Chainbreaker as the human ship shrunk into the distance, the view changing to stars as the transport quickly made its way to the Conviction. Standard procedure would have the troop bay doors closed, but the pilot knew the Jiralhanae leader's preferences and left it open.

"Enduring Conviction, this is Atriox."

"Sir, Enduring Conviction, responding," the communication officer's voice responded.

"Alert the humans, presence of Spartans is confirmed. Their status appears to be green," the Jiralhanae ordered.

"Yes, sir."

The trip was quickly over, the bay door still open even as the dropship entered the hangar. Before the transport could fully settle, Atriox hopped off, landing on the floor of the Convicition's hangar bay with a dull thud. He felt the impact beside him as his general dropped down as well.

Atriox turned slightly to address Decimus, "Good work. Tell the others to take a day off duty, their shifts will be covered." Decimus grunted his confirmation of the order and began making his was around the dropship. Atriox quickly made his way out of the hangar, back towards the bridge.

As he emerged, 'Volir turned his head slightly and inclined it in the common Jiralhanae gesture of respect to a superior. Atriox waved him off and stood behind the Sangheili shipmaster, letting him do his job. The trip to the human vessel had only taken a little over a unit, and most of that was walking through empty corridors.

'Volir was apparently not busy, though, as he asked, "Demons?" Atriox rubbed his side, where he could still feel the nick against his hide from the human's blade, but laughed slightly to show his pleasure with the fight.

"Elder Demons. A good fight," he responded.

"Against three Elders? You could've been killed with ease," 'Volir admonished.

Atriox huffed and replied, "The vaunted Sangheili bravery at work, I see."

"And the Brute earns his name," 'Volir retorted easily. Atriox scoffed but let the insult slide, the banter a common occurrence between the battle-hardened warriors.

A moment of silence passed before the Jiralhanae explained, "I needed a challenge. The crew is getting restless with these damned pirates, and the possibility of a human fleet entering the system doesn't help. I secure their confidence with the honor of fighting three Elder Demons while keeping on the good side of the Devil himself by recovering his battle-brothers."

"You do know that with the confirmed presence of three Elder Demons, their Master Chief himself might make an appearance in system," the Sangheili warned.

"So be it. Keep the ship alert and ready to jump. I'd rather not get ran over," Atriox replied. While it sounded like a joke, it was a legitimate danger if the Master Chief, or Devil as many now called him, made an inaccurate jump in a rush to retrieve his fellow Demons.

Falling into silence, both leaders watched the space in front of the ship. As they watched, a flash of swirling black ringed by a vortex of white burst into place, heralding the exit of an Infinity-class vessel. The human ship cleared the event horizon of the portal and the hole closed, showing off the improved human slip capabilities with such a clean entrance.

Seconds later, another portal opened, this time quickly disgorging the individual pieces of one the Guardians that made up the fleet of Demons. Atriox watched the two vessels drift towards the derelict he and his team had just left.

His attention was drawn down as the same communications officer who had talked to him while in flight reported, "Receiving hail from the humans."

"Open the link," 'Volir ordered. A screen opened at the front of the bridge, showing a human captain standing on the bridge of the vessel. From Atriox's knowledge of humans, he appeared to be of Asiatic descent.

"This is Captain Yang of the UNSC Eternity, along with a UNSC Spartan Guardian, responding to a communication from the Banished vessel Enduring Conviction reporting a lost UNSC vessel. Please confirm," the human quickly rattled off, the drone of procedure evident in his tone and stance.

'Volir quickly sent the logs of their time in system, knowing that the humans would request them anyways. He then replied, "Report confirmed, sending information now. We have performed a preliminary scouting and found multiple blast doors breached as well as compromised conditions. There was confirmed contact and combat with Spartans as our team was leaving."

Yang seemed to perk up slightly at this news. He knew that Spartans had been confirmed to be aboard, but he had probably assumed that they were in cryo or dead. The captain quickly gathered himself, "Understood. Casualties?"

"None, though it was hard fought," Atriox responded, baring his teeth in a Jiralhanae grin.

"Noted, glad to hear." While the human didn't actually seem to care that much, Atriox took what he could and grunted.

"We are in the system hunting a Kig-Yar pirate. Might the Demon's vessel be able to find them?" 'Volir asked, breaking the short silence that had followed Atriox's non-verbal response.

Yang turned away from the screen for a second to shout something to one of his crew. A response quickly came back, though it was unintelligible due to the angle. The human turned his attention back to the screen and answered, "They're sitting behind a planet further in-system. We'll deal with the Spirit, you may do what you need to, but try to keep them away from our operation or the Eternity will destroy them. And thank you, for letting us know about this." The last sentence was delivered hesitantly, the captain obviously unsure about the Banished but willing to at least work with them.

With that, the communication cut out, revealing the human and Forerunner vessels pulling away to attend to their disabled comrades. The stars in front of the Conviction moved as the Banished carrier moved away from the rescue effort, following the coordinates sent to them by the humans on the Kig-Yar ship's position.

Merely a unit later, or a little more than a human hour, their work was done, the destroyed vessel drifting in two pieces with no survivors. Now finished with this hunt, the Banished flagship turned away, opening a slipspace portal and leaving the system. Behind them, the humans continued the rescue effort, ignoring the departure of the CAS-class carrier.

---

So it is. Hope you enjoy, and if you have any question please feel free to shoot over a PM. I tried to stay true to canon as usual while inserting my own flare. Next time, we'll be going to the Citadel to get some Mass Effect Wank in over there. This should be the last of the chapters devoted to setup on the Halo side. Well, that don't involved ME races. That's a whole different can of threshers!

I know that the Banished exploration of the ship was quick, but not much to describe there. The fight between Atriox and the Spartan was meant to be quick, as it would be in canon, if 343i could pull their thinking device out of their main exhaust port and get ONE fight between a Spartan II and something right. They've now slowed down the Chief vs. Locke fight as well as Red Team vs. Atriox to where it looks like regular soldiers. FFS, 343i, Spartan IIs have reaction times fast enough to dodge rockets and even bullets in Spartan time. This isn't hard.

Mandatory rambling:

I've always wondered why Cortana didn't just store herself on the main hardware of the Dawn. I figured that it was perhaps because the ship had been split in half and perhaps the computing power of the vessel was focused around the bridge, where the Arbiter was. Serina going offline doesn't make sense to me, though, as with a whole ship she could set up a little program to activate her data disks when something happened. No need for her to stay awake the whole time as they drifted across space.

I would assume the racks holding these disks would be in a room similar to that of Roland's in Spartan Ops. Since this area would have temperature control for heat regulation, long-term data storage would be easy, as it is usually temperature variations that cause degradation of disks.

That is assuming the UNSC uses Hard Disks, which is unlikely since we already have Solid State technology today, and are developing data storage on an atomical level (IBM recently managed to store a data bit on an atom). Needless to say, I think most sci-fi (Mass Effect, Halo, Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar, whatever) vastly underestimate the computational power and methodology of futuristic architecture and instruction sets.

Speaking of computing technology, the whole section on UNSC computing methodology and technology is drawn from our current leading-edge research on those subjects. Humans possess a working Quantum computer. We are looking into the use of DNA as a carrier for bits, which can be processed by a ribosome that has been given instructions by mRNA. We use light channels in fiber optics and even in some super-computer processors to transmit data, a method that is only being slowed by the translation of light to electric signals.

Mass Effect canon is that Citadel-race sensors only operate at light speed, ergo the need for picket frigates for spotting. Halo sensors seem to be operating at faster than light-speed, as seen when slipspace ruptures were detected immediately after the destruction of the CSO-class supercarrier Long Night of Solace.

Citadel ships use anti-protons injected into a hydrogen-filled chamber, annihilating both to create excellent propulsion and a LOT of heat. We here in the 21st century create antimatter at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. So...yeah. We could have Citadel-style engines for propulsion within the next century.

UNSC ships use Fusion drives, which utilizes the plasma created from the deuterium reaction as propellant. The Infinity's drives are actually repulsor engines, though. Covenant ships use Impulse drives. Forerunner ships like the Dauntless would use reaction drives. The difference? Fusion drives would need to refuel every couple decades or so, perhaps less if the reaction yield is sustained and efficient. Impulse drives would need to be refueled regularly, as seen in Halo: Reach with refueling at the Long Night of Solace. I assume Forerunner engines need to be refueled once every never or so, seeing as the Mantle's Approach worked just fine after sitting around for 100,000 years.

Let 'Volir is the canon Shipmaster of the Enduring Conviction. I don't really like his name, but that's what it is. Going to be getting to the actual contact between factions here soon, sorry for all the setup. This is not the last of the Banished, either. I like Atriox as a character, and having an independent faction like the Banished puts up some interesting options.

I also don't get why he was fighting against the humans. I get that he wants power, but even if he does get a Halo ring as was his plan in Halo Wars 2, how exactly does he plan on keeping Cortana from getting it or from the monitor killing all of his forces? I've edited it so that Atriox is actually clever and not the typical brute that I think he was in HW2.

Thanks for reading, GL and TC!

-evevee