Alright, next chapter. Still in University so not a lot of time for writing unfortunately. Mostly some filler and introducing Project JPDE characters.
Enjoy ~ Vinny
Still don't owe the characters, assets, and elements of JPDE, RWBY, Halo, and other fandoms I may have snuck into here. Only my own OCs.
UNSC Death by Calculus (Vindication Light Battleship), Slipspace
August 22nd, 2730
48 ships, each bearing enough firepower to lay waste to entire continents, serenely sailed through the depth of slip space.
To the naked human eye, it was a sea of pitch darkness. Nothing but pitch darkness.
Sydney stared out of the exterior cameras. Even to an uploaded/AI like himself, it seemed like a void.
It was….soothing in a way. There had never been a Slipspace type of fight of any kind in record history. No weapon existed that would be effective in slipspace, besides MACs or Particle beam Weaponry, but no one dared to truly fight within the streams of Slipspace itself.
It was peaceful in a way. Besides the odd cloud of hydrogen or comet, the sensors showed Slipspace was clear.
And that was what Sydney wanted.
CRASH!
Sydney mentally sighed. Right, time to prepare riot control. Hopefully not.
The uploaded took a deep peek into the Death By Calculus's fitness bay and he wasn't even remotely surprised what was going on and pleasantly surprised it hadn't devolved into base line violence.
Though the old wartime rivalry between Spartans and ODST had taken several steps down from trying to murder each other from time to time to a more passive phase, the two groups still had some bad blood between each other, at least regarding the rest of the force.
This was why Sydney was glad that the operatives of SWG-88 had taken up a more productive way of venting their collective rivalry tensions.
A couple of dozen figures, some UNSC ODSTs, a few Sanghehli, some Omnear Special Forces operatives, and some Spartans, all standing around a circular ring.
There were two figures in the ring. One was a familiar friend, Bolin Hori of the world of Remnant. A former hunter in training turned Spartan, Bolin and Sydney once fought alongside each other in flesh and blood before Sydney's composition and Bolin's augmentation into a Spartan. Despite having access to hundreds of advanced UNSC and Sangheli weapons, Bolin still fought with a staff that he was using to beat the living crap out of an ODST. Or at least trying.
Because his opposition was Lance Corporal Humphrey of the UNSC 48th Shock Battalion. A menace with a shotgun, terrifying in close-quarters combat, and with some of the augmentations derived from Spartans. And she was wielding an ODST combat knife parrying away at every staff smash.
Bolin was clad in traditional Mistrali Sashes and garb while Humphrey was stripped down to ODST undergarments.
Gone were the days when ODST had to make do with just being normal humans in a chaotic world and having to rely on superior training and guts. And gone were the days when the ODST seemed to be obsolete to newer Spartan 4s.
No, the advancement in augmentation technologies and wider adoption of such augment amongst the UNSC meant that soon a gap remained between the average marine or soldier and the best Spartans. So ODST went back to filling that Gap.
And as Humphrey and Bolin duelled, Sydney was sure that what tension there was burned away. Even if it was only bit by bit, slivers of tension burned away, it was many times better than what the Spartan 2s had it.
This was further exemplified when Bolin managed to smack Humphrey in the face with his staff (thankfully with the blades not extended) and she was sent hurling backwards a few metres.
"Owwww," Humphrey moaned, taking a pretty hard hit to her face. "I'm never underestimating a hunter with a stick anymore-agh."
"Speak softly but carry a big stick, I believe one of your forefathers spoke of that," Bolin smirked before calmly offering a hand up.
"Yeah yeah, quoting Teddy Roosevelt though pretty sure he didn't mean that literally."
The ODST took the hand up and was pulled upwards and the pair shook hands before stepping off the ring to cheers and cries of anguish, apparently from a few that lost credits.
Sydney backed out of that specific camera and returned to his duties when he got a ping on his communicator. "(Comms) Colonel, this Colonel McNeil. Care to join us for a meeting?"
"Copy that Colonel. On my way. Just let me get my body." Sydney quickly did a double-check, making sure everything was working smoothly and quickly transferred himself into one of his bio-organic bodies. The one with a fancy UNSC Dress Uniform for more day-to-day activities.
It took a few seconds to get to Locke's personal office before entering it, and Sydney was wonderfully presented with a nice and calming debate between the two majors.
"Perhaps we try mounting heavier Laser cannons on the Pelicans."
"Tried that once, replaced the chin mount with an M11 Viking Laser once, we nearly burned out the power plant."
"What about twin M8 Hwarangs?"
"Hmmm, that could work. But we'd still need to kick out two passengers."
"Replace one of the pylons with a battery cell?"
"Lose more anti-air capabilities with the loss of a missile cluster? No thanks. If we can avoid it, I don't get into gun battles with the enemy."
"Ah Colonel, welcome to my temporary office." the UNSC ODST colonel sitting at the desk away from the bickering pair. "Sorry, we had to boot your drones off to one of the escort carriers for room for Longswords."
Sydney took a seat next to Josh McNeil, the youthful ODST colonel. "it's no issue, sir. What are they arguing about?" Sydney gave a thumb towards the bickering majors.
McNeil, with a somewhat American accent, spoke. "Something about mounting or replacing more weapons with lasers. I'd fear for anyone on the opposite side of their gun barrels. Both are big fans of Attack VTOLS I'm afraid."
"Ah, I see, the common insanity of the normal ODST." Sydney snorted as he watched the pair continue arguing.
"Majors Roger P. Funk and Karla Haider may both be a bit looser on the regulations side but alas some of my commanders. They served the UNSC well."
A crash could be heard in the background. "YOU YANKY ASS!"
"Yes sir. So what is it you wanted to talk about?"
"Mostly hammering in a more coherent command chain and meeting the other officers. Quite a diverse group. Spartan Hunters, Sangheli warriors, ODST, Omnear special forces, civilian scientists, UNIA operatives, a lot to keep everyone from beating each other up." Locke lamented. "Of course, it already happened hasn't it?"
"A few hunters from team BRNZ and some ODST are having a boxing match somewhere down there. No one's dead, which is a vast improvement compared to 2 hundred years ago." Sydney added.
"Agreed. You seem fairly….close to those Spartans." McNeil noted.
"I served with them during the Broken Moon Campaign. Meet them during the Battle of Beacon. I was a part of the rescue force. Kept in touch with them whenever possible." Sydney explained.
"Broken Moon Campaign? I knew you were a part of the Broken Moon Campaign but you were a part of Goshawk?"
"Yes sir. Feels like a century since that happened," Sydney's memories drifted back to a time when he just had to worry about his ass and that of his platoon instead of millions of credits worth of military planet-killing tonnage.
29 years ago, Late September 2701
Outer Edges of the Emerald Forest, Kingdom of Vale, Deathworld Remnant
14th Platoon, composite marine/army unit, 28th Fleet
Sergeant Sydney Ross gripped his M-55 Coilgun Assualt Rifle as he rocked in the seat of the Pelican dropship as it accelerated through the atmosphere.
"Change of plans brothers!" the Lieutenant yelled. "We are breaking off from the original plan and conducting SAR on a native transport!"
The was some mumbling in the cargo hold and on the Battlenet.
"Quiet down, a native transport carrying civilians was just shot down by the same folks who shot our Spartans. So we're going down there to introduce some Stellar Diplomacy! We go in, grab the civilians, and treat them! Remember, hearts and minds people! It's a first contact! So you see any inhuman monstrous beings or some Innie knock-offs and you blow them to hell! Am I right troopers!?" the Lieutenant bellowed.
"SIR YES SIR!" Sydney, along with the other troopers yelled.
"(Comms) Kilo six- one, All passengers, standby. We're dropping in, combat landing."
Sydney took a deep breath, waiting for the expected maneuvers.
Also abruptly, the engines of the Pelican increase power and the dropship banks to the left and sinks at a large rate. Sydney slid forward a bit, only held back by the restraints that prevented him from crashing into the trooper opposite to him.
The ship, along with the 7 other Pelicans, did its full flip and straightened itself out.
"(Comms) Tangos ahead. Multiple Native lifeforms and hostile gunners. Engaging!"
Sydney could hear the whirl and then the familiar Buzz that was the Pelican's 40mm Rotary cannons opening fire on some unseen foe.
"Remember! Anything or anyone wearing a white mask is an acceptable target! And the native animal life as well!" the LT yelled.
Sydney calmly waited as Pelicans flew until before he felt them decelerating and then, gently touching the ground.
"Go Go Go!" the restraints shot up and Sydney, along with the others, dashed out in a fairly orderly line towards the rapidly descending exit ramp. He was the third one out, right behind the squad leader and LT.
Dashing into Remnant's nascent evening, he moved to the side of the ramp, kneeled, and raised his rifle so he could cover his squad mates from enemy fire or hostile life forms in this clearing-
"-Hostile creatures! 8 O'Clock!" Sydney pulled the trigger of his M-55 and sent a flurry of magnetically accelerated rounds into a weird black monstrous-looking wolf creature with bone-like features. Said creature fell to just a quick burst.
Sydney switched targets, this time to another wolf-like creature and it was quickly dispatched.
When Sydney switched targets again, the other troopers in his squad were filling out and joining in on the impromptu gun line.
"(Comms) This is Kilo 6-1, we are taking off to provide air cover. Good luck down there." The Pelican's engines began roaring again and Sydney could feel the engine's force slightly push him behind as all the dropships began lifting off.
"(Comms) Contact! We got some kind of Bear creature!" A massive boar-like creature roared out behind some tree.
Sydney didn't hesitate, putting a few 6.5mm rounds into the bear, each magnetically accelerated round slamming and penetrating the beast's hide.
"Put some 20 mike Mike-" Sydney didn't wait as he quickly snatched a 20mm grenade magazine, shoved it into his under-barrel grenade accelerator, switched the programable ammo to HEAT, quickly swapped, trigger functions, and pulled the trigger. A single 20mm shot lanced out from the under-barrel accelerator and straight into the beast for detonating and turning the bear-like beast into a shower of monster bits. Sydney threw into a second shot just in case.
"Rocket up!" A UNSC marine with a boxy Pillium rocket launcher hefted it over its shoulder and fired. With a whoosh, a single rocket flew outwards past Sydney's squad and into an elephant-looking beast.
Yet the screams of firing and explosions began to die down, with the beast seemingly having enough and turning back.
"Ceasefire! Reload and prepare to move out!" The LT bellowed, which Sydney compiled, ejecting the 80-round magazine and shoving a new one in.
"Sergeant Torlin! Sergeant Zhang! Sergeant Ross!"
"Sir!" Sydney's fellow army and marine sergeants responded.
"Take your squads and secure the crash site. Any alien son a brute show their faces or sends some rounds your way? Put some rounds into them."
"Yes sir!"
"Ross, you have the demo packs and a heavy medical kit. Go with them and get ready to treat the wounded." The LT ordered.
"Sir!" Sydney got up from his nailing position, did a face-heel turn, and jogged over to join the army and marine squad moving out. He quickly took up a rear guard position behind the two squads, making sure no hostile came from behind.
As they advanced, Sydney got a chance to take in the view. A forest-like biome, it was reminiscent of the forests of the Cascadia region of Earth or New Arcadia that had been terraformed. It was…..idyllic in a way. Almost peaceful, calming, and-
Someone swore on the battle net and Sydney looked at his HUD, a couple dozen red diamonds ahead of Torlin's squad. Someone's shields took a hit. Then bullets began whizzing past the group.
"(Comms) We got whisky foxtrot up front! Taking fire from small arms!"
"(Comms) understood, weapons free."
"(Comms) Ross get your ass up here with the twenty Mike Mike!"
"On my way," Sydney obliged, navigating around Zhang's squad who had taken up a defensive stance where they stood and fired their own M-55 or DMRs.
Sydney joined Tori's squad, who were overlooking the beginnings of a deep, jagged, artificial trench recognizable from aircraft crashes. Speaking of which, the crashed bus-looking airship was shockingly fairly intact, with the most notable damage being the wings being ripped off.
Oh yeah, and the few dozen guys in white robes, white monster-like masks, animal features, and a wide variety of weapons from swords to boxy rifles to crossbows to old-fashioned hunting firearms. They were split into two groups on the other side of the airship, some were in the process of boarding.
"Ross, Jordan," he could hear Torlin's female New Zealander voice called out. "Use your twenty Mike mikes to pin those Whisky Foxtrot, I am marking targets on the net. Fire!"
Sydney and the other grenadier nodded and hefted their M-55s with the under-barrel grenade launcher before firing. Sydney sent the last three HEAT rounds of the twenty Mike Mike into the group on the left side. Each round slammed dead center into his enemies, detonating and sending a shrapnel storm their way.
Despite being an army logistical member, Sydney was well drilled and promptly ejected the spent twenty-mm magazine and inserted a fresh one, this time full of high explosive rounds.
Explosions caused by Jordan's grenade launcher ripped through the rip group, screams from both sides as shrapnel wounds and explosions erupted in White Fang left and right.
Sydney took note of a particular warrior with a massive war axe, bellowing a war cry as they came screaming toward his group. He calmly sighted the warrior and pulled the trigger and held it down.
The result was quite expected. The warrior's aura/biological energy shield took the first two rounds with ease but the third broke his warrior with ease. The last three detonated and before long, he was reduced to a torn apart corpse. Even before the body hit the ground, Sydney was already picking a new target.
In less than thirty seconds, 19 UNSC army and marine troopers, with superior training, mental physic, technological communications, and better and more reliable weapons, turned a force of hardened White Fang fighters three times their number into pink mist.
"Good shooting people." Tori complements the troops. "Everyone advance and secure the crash site. Ross?"
"Sergeant Torlin?" Sydney responded.
"Take Lee, Hughes, Farrs, and Miras and secure the inside of that airship. Everyone else, set up a perimeter."
"Got it. Troopers! Let's move, we got a ship to breach!" Sydney bellowed and began sprinting ahead of the rest of his fellow troopers, followed by his temporarily assigned fire team.
When they got there, he caught sight of a hatch near the rear of the ship that was wide open before a panicked White Fang member hastily shut it closed.
"We got a locked door, we're breaching." Sydney pulled out a rod of C-9, a breaching explosive and threw it at the locked hatch where it hit with a clunk!
"Sarge, I just did a thermal sweep. We got 32 native kids stuck in there, looks like most of them are either unconscious or trapped in their seat restraints on the first level. We also got 9 Whisky Foxtrot that just entered. 6 heading to the passenger area, the other three heading to the second level. All armed with melee weapons and sidearms but no one's staying to watch the door." Lee reported.
"Wilco. We split. Lee, Miras? You are with me. Farrs and Hughes? Take the second level. Stack up on me, we breach then split and take down our targets."
The four army troopers took up position behind Sydney, who was standing beside the side of the shut hatch. He had holstered his M55 and pulled out a flashbang and M-70 Laser PDW, which itself was an upgraded laser variant of the M20 PDW from centuries ago. He held both in each one of his hands.
"Breaching!" Sydney sent a single command through his neural interface and the C-9 detonated with a light BANG!
Sydney rounded the corner, pointing his M-70 at any potential hostiles. "Clear left!"
"Clear right!" Hughes shouted.
"Clear room! Split!"
Hughes and Farr began climbing up a set of ladders near the hatch while the remaining three approached the passenger cabin doors, sort of like on an old-fashioned airplane.
"Lee, Miras, you got the right, I got left." Sydney took a position next to the sliding door closet to the door while his two remaining companions took up positions near the right side.
He got the single. "Ready to breach."
"We're good. On your go sarge." Lee reported.
"Copy. Three, two, one, Breach!"
With the minor assistance of an exo-powered armour system, Sydney's gloved fist practically ripped open the door and his other hand-tossed in the flashbang. "Stun out!"
He ducked backwards, counted a few seconds, and then heard the familiar SCRSSH! Of the flashbang going off and screams from the occupants inside.
Sydney stepped back in. He spotted three White Fangs in his lane, two of them grasping their faces and another one pinning someone to the ground.
"UNSC! ON THE GROUND!" Sydney heard Lee bellow and was answered with a short burst of SMG fire.
Sydney focused on the two Whisky Foxtrot ahead of him and raised his right hand holding the PDW-70 and pulled.
A mere quarter of a second later, a single red pulse beam flashed out of the PDW-70's barrel and slammed into the head of one of the White Fang members. It promptly vaporized the head, cutting a hole straight through brain matter and hitting the wall behind him.
Sydney quickly switched targets and fired upon the second decapitated White Fang member, putting a clean laser shot through his head as well.
When he turned his attention to the last WF member ahead of him, he was genuinely surprised when a blade protruded from his back and the WF member was kicked upwards.
Not wasting a second, Sydney drew his combat knife and dashed forward. Catching the stumbling Whisky Foxtrot member, he promptly put them in a headlock and stabbed them through the heart (or at least where he thought the heart was).
He held this for a few seconds until the WF member stopped squirming, quickly dying in his hands. Then he extracted his Knife and let the body fall. It collapsed to the ground with a thump.
Bang! The last White Fang Operative on the parallel seating aisle falls dead. "Clear!" He heard Lee call out.
"Lane clear! Room Clear!" He heard Miras yell.
Sydney lowered his sidearm, sheathed his knife, and did a quick scan around him. Luckily none of the kids were hurt.
29 of 32 kids were still trapped in their seats with their restraints, like roller coaster ones. All of them in his lane were looking at him with fear, shock, some amazement, and terror in most of their eyes. Granted, he towered over them at 200 centimetres in armour and when he turned his gaze to a few of them, many of them shrunk back in fear.
Also, they were remarkably unaffected by the Flashbang.
But there was one that started fiercely at him. A red-haired, dark-skinned, wearing a sleeveless, muted orange zipper vest with black lining and a high collar, a pair of black jeans, and brown, laced shoes. And he had pure white eyes that just stared at him and a pair of wrist-mounted blades on his wrists.
Sydney toggled his speaker and he raised his left hand. "Friendly, friendly, not here to hurt you guys."
The red-haired kid almost scoffs jokingly. "Friendly with that kind of ordnance and those moves? I really hope that friendly look of yours is reserved for the Grimm and White Fang because I'm not sure if we want to see unfriendly."
"Fair enough." Sydney extended a hand towards the red hair, which he took and Sydney pulled him up. "Name's Sydney, yours?"
"Fox of Beacon Academy. Boy, I'm glad to hear the voice of someone not trying to murder us."
"FOX! Get your new boy toy to free us please!" a brown-haired, dark brown-eyed girl yelled from further down the seat, conveniently next to a seat with its restraints up.
"What Coco said. Can you free my friends?" Fox asked.
"One moment. Lee, Miras. Check the cabin ahead. Make sure no Whisky Foxtrot are up ahead using magic to hide themselves."
"Got it!"
"Yes, Sergeant!"
Lee and Miras stepped past the bodies of the WF they killed.
Sydney tapped the part of his helmet that was covering his ears. "Hughes, Farr? How are we doing up there?"
"(Comms) Farr to Ross. We're good sarge. Two WF down, we got one prisoner. Looks to be an NCO or Officer of some kind. We'll bring them out ASAP."
"Copy that. Bag them but focus on releasing the kids first. Their restraints are locked in."
"(Comms) Copy. Hang on…..Sarge we've got some sort of electronic interference. I've got the controls but it seems to be enforcing some sort of lockdown. Might be an electronic virus."
"Can you get them released?"
"(Comms) Yes Sergeant. Bypassing….now!"
All at once, the restraints lifted upwards and released the kids from their seat restraints. There were suddenly cries and cheers of jubilation, relief, and general positivity as some dive-tackled another student.
"They're freed, good work you two," Sydney reported.
"(Comms) Thank you, Sarge. Up one thing. The bridge crew and staff are dead. Not from impact."
"Sorry, what?" Sydney turned his attention to this new bit of information.
"(Comms) Hughes here. I found them all shoved in the Captain's cabin. Someone cut and shot them up. And I got a breach in one of the bridge walls. Think someone boarded before takeoff, killed the crew, set the ship to an automatic waypoint, and jumped out. Can't be sure but that's what it looks like. Maybe to kill or kidnap the kids?"
"Hughes, can you confirm that those crew members were killed by hostile fighting and not by the crash?"
"(Comms) Slit throats and bullet holes say otherwise Sarge."
"(Comms) I've got access to the ship's cameras and data log. I got footage of a sort of infiltrator here and….yeah there are signs of cyberwarfare here. This was no accident. This is a murder plot or abduction."
"Alright, download the ship's logs, security records, and anything you can get your hands on. UNIA probably gonna want a look at this. And make sure you carry the prisoner out. We'll start getting the students out."
"(Comms) Wilco. We got it. Farr out."
"Yo Sydney?" Fox said breaking Sydney out of his trance. "What now?"
And Sydney suddenly had the attention of all the kids. All 32 of them, all ranging from 16 to 19, were staring at him.
Cue minor-stage fright.
"Alright before I go on, does anyone need any serious medical attention?"
A bunch of the kids looked at each other, whispering and murmuring before most of them shook their heads. "I think we're all fine." a pink-haired bunny girl added.
"Okay. Students, we're getting you out of here before the wildlife or White Fang come in force. Grab everything you need and let's get moving!"
(Flashback ends)
UNSC Death by Calculus
August 22nd, 2730
"Feels like a century ago, back when I was a simple logistics officer that got kicked into line infantry because we didn't have enough demo experts and medics in the Datong battlegroup." Sydney sighed, reclining in his chair.
"I can't say I understand what you feel but I know what it feels like. My brother's a military researcher at Hammerfest base on New Arcadia. It got raided by Innies, and got turned into a frontline commander after most of his command died. '' McNeil answered.
"Yeah. Even centuries later, we're still hard-pressed for competent manpower. Think that's why a lot of people in the Marine Corps, SOCOM, and Army pushed for squadrons like mine to be created. Frees up manpower with automated systems." Sydney remarked.
"Yes indeed. And partially what I wanted to talk about." McNeil pulled out a Datapad and Sydney took it.
The Uploaded took a moment to read. "Joint training maneuvers Colonel?"
"The use of AI-controlled armies is….well it is not a new concept but you and the other uploaded AIs with your independent squadrons are the first successful implementation of them. And any coordination is primarily with smaller special forces units. Not enough joint combat between a larger formation-"
"Like an entire ODST battalion. Might be difficult outside of sims but I should be able to find us a spot to do some joint combat training." Sydney replied.
"You up for live fire colonel?"
"Once a trooper, always a trooper," Sydney smirked.
"Good. Roger! Karla! Get your asses over here! We got a war game to plan." McNeil shouted.
"Finally! Let's finish this up, got a score to settle." Funk declared, coming over to the table.
"In your dream Earther." Karla scoffed.
August 24th, 2730 (2 days later)
UNSC Thomas Edge (Henry Hudson Class Science ship)
There was one benefit to being a forerunner uploaded/AI and it was that unlike UNSC AIs, he didn't need to have a DataCore or processor on one location and could easily transfer himself to other vessels. Even during slipspace. The advent of FTL communications meant that he could easily transfer or connect with other ships.
As such, this was the reason why he was able to slip into one of the science ships for a meeting with some of the civilian scientists that were assigned to his force.
"You had access to a stock of material that weighs nothing on a periodic table and didn't tell me? How could you-" a familiar geeky science female voice anguishedly declared.
"Might I remind you frualin that Nullapndusium is highly cancerous, deadly to at least four species, and has a tendency to violently rip apart anything in a gravitational wave if weaponized? And remind you that the Sangheli are the only ones with a meaningful deposit?" a German-sounding lady said artificially.
This time, Sydney was in his hard-light hologram mode. Unlike the warships, the science vessels like the Thomas Edge had not been modified to his liking nor had he had the chance to do so. So no robot body on the ship and as such, he is such to his hardlight figure.
Sydney knocked on the door of the lab. "Colonel Ross here! You need something from me Peach?"
"Ah, Mister Sydney! Come in! Vahlen, can you leave for a moment."
The door slid open and Sydney walked in to be greeted by what seemed to be an overflowing room full of science equipment, charts, hole boards, tables, more lab equipment, dust samples (shockingly), and more.
Around one of the tables was a lightly tanned, blond-haired woman standing over six feet, wearing what was definitely an old-fashioned science lab from centuries ago, pink lipstick, gold eyes, and a tie that wasn't even tied and just draped around her neck.
This figure is Professor Peach, a former botanist/dust scientist from Beacon Academy. Unlike most of the other professors, Peach joined the students who followed UNSC forces on their campaign on Remnant and eventually worked up some science degree working for the UNSC's R&D department. When she learned several of her old students were embarking on an adventure to another galaxy, she promptly joined up to provide additional scientific support.
While primarily a scientist, Sydney still had to remind himself she was a former hunter and probably could still beat him in a fight, despite the uploaded having access to centuries of hand-to-hand combat knowledge at his disposal.
And there was the hologram of an AI, who promptly bowed and whose hologram disappeared.
"Professor." Sydney politely nodded.
"Rising through the ranks aren't we mister Ross? I remember when you were just a humble little soldier that got swept up at Beacon." Peach giggled.
"Yeah, been a high rise. Gone from commanding my own boots and hands to a quartet of carriers and now a defacto battleship Battlegroup. Shit, still remember the time your students went toe to toe with a pair of UNIA Spartans." Sydney added. Simpler times.
"Indeed. Now we're hurtling towards another galaxy with ships that could annihilate the old Atlas air fleet a thousand times over. Fascinating!" Peach exclaimed.
"Yup. So where's the rest of your staff? If you had one." Sydney looked around, noticing the place was empty except for Peach and an AI.
"Just on a lunch break. I'm going through everything we know on Nullapndusium With this galaxy seemingly having a large deposit, we were trying to figure out what a civilization could do with it and maybe find an answer to your Darkmatter detonation. One of the Sangheli ships had a cache of this stuff and gave it to us, said it might be more useful for science since their knowledge of Nullapndusium usage is not great outside of military matters. Anyways you are familiar with this element correct?" Peach turned to look at a small canister of the sample.
"Vaguely enough. It's an element believed to come from supernovas or planets affected by supernovas. And something about it creating a gravitational field that makes things lighter or heavier depending on electric charge? And it's highly toxic to most species and likely to induce cancer."
"Correct on all! You keeping up with science class even graduated." Peach praised.
"Well, it helps when you have the memory of an AI to memorize all those formulas. I've only ever gotten close to Nullapndusium once and because some old Covenant Warlord was hoarding a stash." Sydney admitted. "Everything is from old ONI or UNIA files."
"Fair. Nullapndusium is very rare, which is likely why species in our galaxies never made use of it on an interstellar level. Not many benefits that you could get when you have access to Forerunner-derived sciences. But that explosion you picked up at the Forerunner base has led me to conduct some a few experiments to see what caused it."
"And what have you come up with?" Sydney asked.
"One second. I have been trying to figure out what you could use Nullapndusium for that isn't a giant bomb and my staff came up with an idea. Something that could explain what caused the explosion and a potential use for such large quantities of Nullapndusium." Peach shifted and leaned against the table. "Tell me, are you familiar with a Slipspace Catapult?"
Sydney wracked his electronic memory. "Uhhh no? Never heard of one?"
"Figures. I was doing some history digging and I came upon when you Terrans first developed FTL. Your people came up with a bunch of ideas for colonizing Reach and other worlds near Earth and it boiled down to two. Option one was to go Make a bunch of giant ships with their own slipspace drives. That resulted in the Phoneix class and Odyssey Colony ships. Remember that this is before mass production so Slipspace drives were very expensive. They eclipsed the GDPs of even large island communities like Hawaii and Taiwan. The second idea was essentially, a big gun. Or more accurately, a giant catapult."
"A….. slip space catapult?" Sydney was generally confused. He never heard of such an idea.
"Figures." Peach tapped a datapad and then a giant holoboard descended from the ceiling with a schematic of a giant space station. "The idea is simple. Make a giant space station that could open portals to slip space, fire ships through slipspace, and then open a hole so that they would pop out in a star system. The idea was that since ships rely on the stations to keep them in and then pushed out of slip space, the UEG could use their existing fleet of ships rather than have to retrofit and build new ships to accommodate FTL drives. So cheaper. But the UNSC thought this was a terrible idea and you could guess why."
"A military force would have a massive strategic chokepoint that one would have to dedicate a lot of resources to defend. That and you would need a return station to get back to Sol if you couldn't colonize the system." Sydney remarked.
"That and they never figured out how to get ships out of slipspace once they entered without drives. Some thought maybe giving ships drives that could just open portals out, it's much easier to get out of slip space than in but people argued you might as well give every interstellar ship an FTL drive so the UEG went with just building FTL capable colony ships instead."
"Fascinating history topic but what does that have to do with Nullapndusium?" Sydney inquired.
"Getting to that. You know that Slipspace isn't the only form of FTL. Jump and Alcubierre drives are used by non-covenant or human-related nations. All Omnear ships are equipped with jump drives even though all of them also have Slipspace drives. But slip space is generally the most flexible so that's why former Covenant and UNSC use Slipspace drives. However, another galaxy may not have that incentive. Especially if they have access to say….a massive deposit of Nullapndusium." Peach explained.
"Huh. So how?"
"My staff, Vahlen, and I have been doing some studying and digging at Sangheli records. Fascinating designs but generally impractical in our galaxy and with Slipspace….well even modern Nullapndusium drives do match up to a century-old slipspace drive In Slipspace, you in theory could travel forever as long as you can dump all the excess heat and static electricity into the void and your ship works. Something the UNSC developed long ago. With a Nullapndusium drive, you would need to exit FTL to vent those."
Peach turned to the canister and the holo board. "But the massless idea has given my staff some ideas and someone came across the Slipspace catapult instead. What if instead of using it like an Alcubierre drive, you used it as a Slipspace catapult?"
"So I had my staff work on a model. And we've created something that could be scaled up for something useful on an interstellar level."
Hardlight barriers suddenly appeared around the table and the canister phased out of existence. Then two hatches on opposite sides of the table opened up and what appeared to be a pair of a mish-mash of the Human ARC Railgun and a Covenant Zubo Beam Rifle pointed directly at each other.
"Professor?"
"We crafted this experiment inspired by the Slipspace Catapult and handheld weaponry. Now watch."
The weird contraptions pointed at each other and then powered on.
And then, out of nowhere, a blue, luminescent tube appeared between both barrels. Flowing like energy, like a plastic tube.
"Prof? Uh what?"
"Remember that energy field a Nullapndusium forms. Some interns on my staff pointed out that with some manipulation, one could create a massless tube. Now watch."
Sydney continued to observe at incredible speeds, a metal sphere shot out of the barrel of one of the contraptions through the energy corridor and right through the other contraption. "Woah! The hell?"
"That, my youngling, is a potential idea for FTL systems in this new galaxy. A series of what are essentially giant railguns or catapults that could connect an entire galaxy. What you just witnessed was a metal sphere no bigger than a fingernail travelling several times the speed of sound. Imagine a ship, weighing practically nothing, travelling across an entire span of space."
"Really? But how? What could make this more effective over slip space?" Sydney questioned.
"That's the neat part. The larger the catapult, the larger the massless corridor. Currently, we designed this just for metal spheres. But you could scale this up to transport spartans from one space station to another. One side of a planet to the other. Or say, build it up for interstellar transport. Do some refining and you get larger catapults. Take a guess what size a catapult station would take to move a ship, say the size of your vindication, would need to be?" Peach teased.
"Well. Assuming you could refine this further, quite large. You could scale it up several hundred thousand times. Considering a current Vindication mass upwards of 25 million tons fully loaded…..loaded….Shit! You would need a catapult 5 times larger than an Infinity class carrier!" Sydney exclaimed
"Correct. And what else you would need?"
"Uh? Fuck tons of money? Enough to rebuild a good chunk of the Sol Defence Fleet?" Sydney guessed.
"Almost. A ton of Nullapndusium. And here's the thing. The Nullapndusium Core? It has to be exposed to outer space for such a concept to work. I did some comparison between those older ONI files you had. What is similar to a hypothetical Nullapndusium Core needed for such a Catapult?"
"...Motherfucking Mantle! That's almost similar to a Darkmatter Detonation device!" Sydney began to paint a greater picture now.
"Exactly. A Nullapndusium core, especially one to operate a catapult needed to send a ship as large as a Vindication, the largest class of ship a civilization would need at minimum to maintain an interstellar civilization, would have enough Nullapndusium to match that detonation you picked. And here's what supports that theory."
Peach tapped the datapad and the holoboard descended. It was now showing the data of the Darkmatter Detonation. A map of the Sculptor Galaxy was shown. Then it zoomed in on the lower portion, near the detonation site.
"Vahlen and my staff were going over the data you picked up. Before the detonation, the Forerunner sensors, blessed their tech, and picked up a pair of energy signatures. One originating at the blast site." Peach tapped on the system that blew up. "An one here, mere moments after the detonation. About 300 light years away." Peach tapped another part of the galactic map, quite a few fingers away.
"We ignored this for a time being, and then we came up with the massless catapult corridor contraption. Then we cross-referenced the energy signatures from our contraption to those of the sensors. Guess what?" She practically sang.
"They matched." Sydney breathed out. "Someone left the system before the detonation. A ship or maybe a probe! Or a drone! Someone travelled between star systems before the explosion, if your data's right!"
"Exactly. And then we dug through the records of the Forerunner sensors. Most of the databanks were corrupted so we haven't gotten anything older than a weak but…."
Sydney's jaws dropped when the galactic promptly began lighting up with red dots practically everywhere. "Reaching Rus Rabbits….those are all signs of Massless Corridors like the one you guys made?"
"Yup! We had a few other theories but this one stuck the most. We're not the only species in this galaxy."
"...I left you guys alone for 4 days and not only have you figured out another use for Nullapndusium, but you also figured out we're probably not dealing with a primitive species in this galaxy and a potential cause for a Nullapndusium detonation…wait- What could have Nullapndusium that detonation actually? Never asked that?"
"Well, we're not sure. All we do know is that a potential Nullapndusium Catapult would have the right ingredients for such a detonation. That being said, a Nullapndusium bomb is essentially an upscaled old explosive barrel in those old video games. Throw something large at it-"
"And it explodes." Sydney finished. "And you said a Nullapndusium Core would have to be exposed to outer space?"
"Correct. Why?"
"So then….our detonation could have been a complete accident, if an asteroid just rammed into it, or a deliberate act. Are you sure this is what caused a Darkmatter detonation?" Sydney questioned.
"Honestly? Could be anything. I'd need a closer in-depth look at this galaxy. But that's honestly our best guess. You wouldn't really need a large core with Nullapndusium for other matters. Not unless you planned on creating a bunch of bombs." Peach shrugged.
"Yeah…." Sydney glanced back at the galactic map. "That's a lot of corridors. Whoever's making those probably has a large grasp on the galaxy."
"Agreed. Well at least hopefully, we got an idea what we're up against." Peach added.
"Yeah. Against a fucking waterfall. I can have a drone back to the Kongo in a few days. Can you get everything sorted out by tomorrow? Your theory's probably the best one around. Better let the admiral know earlier."
"Of course. Once I'm done with the last set of experiments, everything will be available for you. And Mister Ross?"
"Hmm?"
"Please do inform Miss Valkyrie Ren that she does have a medical checkup when you get back." Peach gave an evil smile.
Sydney gave one back. "I'll be sure to let her know."
With that, Sydney disengaged his hard light hologram projector and transferred himself back to the UNSC Death By Calculus.
Special Tactics Teams Bay, UNSC Death by Calculus, Vindication Class Battleship
September 2nd, 2730
"huh….huff..huhh-I hate you." Arslan glared at one of her fellow Spartan team leaders, Jack B. Ivory, as she panted from her prone position
"Why? Because you are jealous I have a gravity dust knuckle punch-agh-" Jack's smirk turned into a wince of pain as she collapsed onto the floor onto her hands and knees. "Gah! My ribs!"
You see, though all these hunters were now in their forties, they were still kind of like kids. Advance age extensions helped with that.
So they had the brilliant idea to try a Spartan-only Hunger Games-style match. In full Molnjir. In their Spartan Bay. With live ammo. And shields. And- the cabinet was open wide and yeah it didn't go well.
Headless to say, Arslan and Jack were not the only ones in absolute agony.
"My leggggssss…" Nolan sobbed, slumped over Scarlet who was prone on the ground outside the ring. Both of whom were breathing heavily and covered in cuts and bruises. "Why Nora? Why the Hammer?"
"I feel this is somewhat….ironic since I use a whip," David remarked, somehow in full Moljnir and tied to the ceiling via rope….somehow despite weighing three tons in full armour.
"Speak for yourself Mister…..ugghhhhh," Bannan Cony, one of the newcomers from Remnant and a bird faunus mumbled, finding herself stuck to a wall.
"My ears." Amas whimpered, slumped straight forward over an ammo crate with Velvet and Fox further collapsed onto of him.
Needless to say, all 27 Spartans were….. incapacitated. Which was impressive. All of them were incapacitated to the point of all them stuck to the walls, the ceiling, or just slumped on the floor.
Then the doors to the Spartan Bay opened up and one of Sydney's robot bodies was being pushed in by several ODSTs.
"To our lord and saviour Spartans, please accept our humble sacrifice on the Battlegroup's AI," One of them said.
"Mantis, you know Spartans don't do artifica sacrif…..cri..fic."
Half a dozen ODST and a Single upload looked around the bay, the damage occurred, and 27 sprawled-out Spartans.
"Oh, so it wasn't some demonic ritual spawning the Flood that was keeping my guys awake. Just a massive kitty fight." A female ODST remarked, doing her best to hide her giggling.
Sydney sighs. "Guys, what did I tell you about keeping Deathy by Calculus intact? We've had it for less than two weeks and now…." Sydney looked up to the ceiling to see 3 Spartans, one of them David, hung or impaled on the roof. "You've broken it in."
"...Sorry…." a meek voice from Pyrrha, somewhere across the room, replied.
"...I'll go get the jacuzzis ready. It'll be full of Regen Gel. You'll heal up, please don't injure yourselves….again."
"Wait, you have a jacuzzi on this boat?" an ODST asked.
"Yeah a couple, had it built yesterday with some spare materials. Just ran the necessary safety tests an hour ago. Why?"
The ODST looked at the wounded Spartans. "I call Dibs for us Helljumpers!"
Said ODSTs gained nothing but hateful glares from the 27 organic spartans for the rest of the day.
Waypoint Nexus…History…UNSC Military Operations of the 28th Century….Remnant Planetary Crisis/Broken Moon Campaign…Battle Of Beacon
Introduction
There are thousands of Terran worlds out there, each one home to millions to billions of citizens, each one with its own culture, and each one leaving its mark on history. Worlds like Harvest and Reach are famous for their significance during the Human-Covenant War, the World of Sumo was the world where the universal Sapient Rights treaty was signed that ended the Created Crisis, Erubus, Mars, and Tribute famous for being major shipbuilding hubs, and many other worlds have played their part in history. But recently one of the newest worlds to be inducted into the Terran Commonwealth was once a battlefield and the site of history-changing events: New Moncreala, better known as Deathworld Remnant. First contact between Remnant and Earth would mould history and the future of warfare. And one battle sparked it all: the Battle of Beacon Academy.
Planetary Description
On paper, Remnant seems to be an extremely habitable world for humans. It shares a large amount of the same ecosystem, many of the same lifeforms, familiar cultures, and even language as Earth itself. It has only one natural Satellite Crescent, it exists in a solar system with a nearly identical star to that of Earth, its climates are nearly identical, its gravity is the same as the human homeworld, and it's home to a native population of humans. Remnant is located in the Oum System, around 12,000 light years away from Earth and yet feels like a step into the past.
Yet take a closer look and one will find a world radically different to humanity's homeworld. Chief amongst the differences is the presence of Grimm, described as the 'Creatures of the Darkness' by its native beings and extremely hostile to even non-human organic sapient life. The Grimm have been discovered to be an experiment to create another counter to the Flood and likely the reason why such beings are hostile to sapients. The discovery of the Grimm caused brief panic amongst the UNSC Security Council and to this day, the usage of the Grimm as weapons of war has been forbidden and enshrined in the Geneva Conventions.
However, there is more than a hostile life in the world. As mentioned before, Remnant is homed to a native population of human and near-human-like beings known as the Faunus. These have been confirmed to be a part of another Forerunner experiment to create countermeasures against the Flood and unlock a previously unknown ability in human beings through genetic and biological manipulations. This is known as Aura, the power of the soul, and native humans and their Faunus counterparts can harness this power. The Faunus, believed to be a major side project in genetic manipulation, are a variant of humans with various animal characteristics like dog tails, bunny ears, shark fins, and more.
Before First Contact, the world was divided into five major national governments. 4 of them, referred to as kingdoms, which dominated much of the world in terms of politics and economics, were Vale, Atlas, Mistral, and Vacuo. A fifth nation, known as Menegarie, represented the largest concentration of Faunus outside the kingdoms though was considerably weaker than any of the Kingdoms. Due to losses suffered from the Remnant Great War (estimated to have killed roughly 3.4 Million people), the people of Remnant do not use major military forces (barring the Kingdom of Atlas) and rely on aura-imbued warriors known as hunters. While generally effective against even the ground forces of the UNSC, Swords of Sangehlios, and other spacefaring powers, they notably require years of training and as such, all four kingdoms are typically built around a hunter academy that also houses the primary communication system known as the CCTS (Cross Continent Transmit System). Before the UNSC/Remnant First contact, the World had a population of 148 million humans and Faunus.
First Contact History
The world of Remnant was discovered by the exploration ship UNSC Gannick 2 and the escorting destroyer UNSC Starry Sights, a refitted Hyperion Class Destroyer meant for escort duties. After dropping out of Slipspace and into the Oum System in 2712, the crews of both ships were confused to find a human civilization in an abnormally advanced Pre-Spaceflight age. After the idea of this being a lost colonial settlement was debunked by the discovery of native history databanks, the UNSC Gannick sent a report back to UNSC High Command, requesting additional reinforcements and specialists while the two ships continued to scan and recon the planet.
The first heavy assets were the Triton Class Cruiser UNSC MosquitoFish and several escorting Frigates and destroyers. This was later followed up by the Epoch-Aurora class Heavy Carrier UNSC Marigold and Autumn class Cruiser UNSC Singapore, flagship of battlegroup Datong of the 28th Fleet. Among them were several UNIA and Spartans that were assembled into an ad-hoc formation to conduct recon operations. Known as Task Group Goshawk, this force was inserted onto the planet via stealth D-108 Seriemas (Successor to the D-102 Owls) and began collecting on-the-ground information.
During this mission, Goshawk discovered that the world was in the midst of a global holiday known as the Vytal Festival, which was used to celebrate the end of the Remnant Great War. Amongst the standard festivities (which included lots of partying, drinks, food, and alcohol), the celebration also included gladiatorial-like combat using hunter-trainees hailing from all the inhabited continents. All were congregating in the City of Vale, which was where Goshawk travelled and visited.
Inadvertently, Goshawk accidentally changed history when they stumbled upon elements of the Terrorist organization known as the White Fang and engaged in a gun battle. This attracted local attention including several Vytal tournament players including Yang-Xiao Long and Penny Polendia. Goshawk was able to escape unharmed but not before the battle resulted in both Yang and Penny being wound moderately and forced to drop out of the Tournament. This incursion resulted in Pyrrha Nikos winning the Championship and the Festival as a whole.
Conflict
Spook by this incident, two Platoons of UNSC Marine and army troopers were sent to extract Goshawk however on their way, a transport carrying several Hunter Trainees teams, including Pyrrha Nikos and her team, was unexpectedly diverted over the edges of the Emerald Forest and shot down by the White Fang. This also attracted a large horde of Grimm which began bearing on the transport. Choosing to save lives over maintaining secrecy, the UNSC army and marine troops alongside Goshawk diverted to the crashed transport to rescue survivors. There, Marines and Army Troopers engaged and defeated the vanguard elements of the White Fang and Grimm before opening up the transport and managing to extract all 10 hunter training teams. Before any semblance of proper first contact could be made, a major Grimm attacked and both the UNSC forces and Hunters in training teamed up to defeat the horde before meeting up with the Spartan team.
However, once the battle concluded and UNSC forces temporarily moved the hunters in training to the tree line for medical treatment, the crashed transport was bombarded by a military airship from the Kingdom of Atlas and a communications blackout rolled over the entirety of the city. Fearing the worst and against all First Contact protocols, Goshawk, the marine and army rescue force, and hunters in training all travelled to Beacon Academy. They found it had biome a battleground, with Grimm and White Fang forces attacking the students. To make matters worse, they had hijacked the Atlas military forces present which was now firing upon Vale.
With the situation rapidly destabilizing and unwilling to let children die in front of them, the UNSC force declared Protocol Columbus Corruptor, a codeword that stated that UNSC forces were witnessing a humanitarian disaster on a Pre-FTL world and moving to assist. This was further authorized by Vice Admiral Kenneth Ford who deployed the cruisers UNSC MosquitoFish and UNSC Singapore to Remnant's surface, alongside a dozen Yukon class Assualt frigates, to assist.
UNSC force proved to be the major factor that turned the tide of the battle. Singapore and MosquitoFish arrived mere minutes over Vale via an in-atmosphere Slipspace jump and set themselves upon Grimm aerial creatures and several White Fang transports. Goshawk, the temporary callsign for all UNSC forces on Remnant (including the hunters, marines, and army troopers), entered Beacon Academy and engaged White Fang and Grimm alike. Supported by Longsword Bombers, rapidly deployed Vultures, the Yukon Frigates, and dropped in ODSTs, combined Hunter-UNSC forces obliterated all resistance, including the mastermind of the operation known as Cinder Falls (taking a MAC round to the Face) and knocking down the Wyvern class Grimm attacking Vale.
The appearance of UNSC forces in Beacon Academy, along with the appearance of hundreds of orbital ships, sent shockwaves across Remnant and caused major panic that was eventually quelled by the rapid arrival of a proper diplomatic team which was able to establish rudimentary diplomatic connections with the remaining Kingdoms and Menegaries. Humanitarian efforts were conducted almost immediately with UNSC forces, later supported by other allied species, arriving to bring critically needed power generators, food, construction materials, and more.
Legacy
The battle of Beacon would lead to what is called the Broken Moon Campaign, a reference to the crescent-like shattered moon of Remnant. With more information on the Grimm, the Battlegroup Datong was more heavily reinforced with half a dozen Phoneix Class assault transports, several dozen Yukon class assault Frigates, several UNSC Marine and Army Divisions, squadrons of UNSC Airforce fighters and bombers, and Special Operations Divisions SWG-PS 64 and SWG-PA 77. In addition, reinforcements from the Swords of Sanghelios and other ex-Covenant Species were filtered in to aid in the fight against the Grimm.
The appearance of interstellar human and alien forces and their overwhelming military might have promptly destabilized the political stage of Remnant. The Kingdoms, once the largest powers on Remnant, had become mere ants to the might of the UNSC forces. The arrival of the Singapore and Mosquito Fish had promptly bumped the Kingdom of Atlas's military might to that lower than even the Planetary Defence forces of the Terran Commonwealth. The failure of the Atlas robot forces, combined with the revelation of the attempted assassination of Pyrrha Nikos and her fellow teammates along with extensive corruption, meant that over time, Atlas would be subsumed into the Terran Commonwealth itself, along with all of the other kingdoms amalgamated into the Planetary Union of Remnant.
Old cultural ideas of Remnant also began to clash with those of the UNSC, primarily the UNSC's fair treatment of the Faunus. The continent of Menegaries surprisingly opened up quickly to the UNSC and the first nation to be brought up to UNSC living standards as well as the location of the Basura Space Elevator. This perceived preferential treatment gave rise to a Pro-humanist/xenophobic movement that eventually aligned themselves with the being known as Salem before being crushed by UNSC forces and labelled as traitors.
There was also a perceived betrayal by many hunter trainees. During an incident after the battle of Beacon where a UNIA agent and a pair of UNIA spartans attempted to forcefully interrogate a number of Beacon Students before attacking an army trooper trying to stop it, 2 dozen hunter trainees were able to, to the surprise of UNSC personnel, render the Spartans unconscious and the UNIA agent disarmed. This led to many UNSC marine, ODST, and army units welcoming several hunter trainees and active hunters into their ranks, leading to a perceived idea that the UNSC was stealing away the protectors of humanity.
But most importantly, it revealed to the UNSC the threat of the being known as Salem, the one who aided in the orchestration of the Battle of Beacon. It uncovered the fact that Cinder Falls was responsible for both the Attack on Beacon and an attempted assassination on Pyrrha Nikos. Most importantly, UNSC forces would discover that the Grimm were derived from some variant of the flood and ironically meant to counter the parasitic foe of the Forerunners. With fears of it spreading off-world, the UNSC fully committed to bringing down Salem and ensuring the Grimm didn't spread off Remnant.
It would be the beginning of the Broken Moon campaign. The beginning of a new war.
Special Warfare Group-S 102 Force strength
1 Vindicaiton Class Light Battleship
1 Point Black Class Stealth Cruiser Prowler
4 Posideon Class Light Carriers
6 Hyperion Class Heavy Destroyers
10 Anlance Class Support Frigates
10 Mulsanne Class Light Frigates
18 Strident Class Heavy Frigates
4 Nakdong Class Supply and Refit ships
2 Vancouver class Escort Carriers (destroyer tonnage)
2 Henry Hudson class Science Ships (Civilian)
2 Kestrel Class Drone Destroyers (ONI)
2 Starry class Heavy Freighters (Civilian)
300 Assort automated Strikecraft and recon drones
100 Assorted Auxiliary Craft
3 Sapient AIs
Able Detachment, Special Warfare Group-PS 88
7 Spartan Hunter Teams (aura users) (Teams JNPR, CFVY, ABRN, AMBB, BRNZ, JPDE, and NDGO)
1 Battalion of ODST Shock Troops Infantry (48th Shock Battalion)
2 ODST (armour) Company, Trident and Tiger (18th Armour Battalion)
2 Companies of Omnear Special Forces
2 Squadrons of C-220 Longsword Heavy Fighters (UNSC Marine Corps)
3 Squadrons of S-930 Pegasus strike fighter (UNSC Marine Corps)
Several squadrons of D92-TC/G Pelican Dropships (UNSC Marines)
1 Company of Sangheli Riftborn/Ranger Special Warriors
2 Regiments worth of landable ground and atmospheric battle drones
Several civilian and UNIA science teams.
7 Sapient AIs