2189, Sol System, Unknown Alien Vessel; One hour since vortex incident

Everything felt so cold.

Pain was all she could feel along with thin streaks of blood dripping down her head.

And something hard wrapped around her arms, the feeling of something dragging her away by force.

Slowly, L'Vari opened her eyes, her vision was nothing but filled by blurs before a wave of pain filled her mind and forced her to wince.

She clenched her teeth in agitation. She was a Spectre damn it! She fought in the Reaper War! She was meant to handle the worse possible scenario, not fail it so easily!

The pain began to fade away, giving her the chance to slowly open her eyes again.

As expected, her vision remained blurry, dizziness began to set in, making her nauseous but she fought against it.

Her eyesight became clearer after each passing second, the pain and haziness that filled her mind slowly disappeared. However, her body still felt weak, riddled with cuts and burns that made it excruciating to move.

And then her vision was clear, again; the first thing she saw was the floor, moving underneath her as she felt her knees dragged on its surface.

She slowly brought her head up and looked at her sides, seeing two of the hostile aliens dragging her to somewhere deep within the ship; metal gauntlets pressed tightly against her skin.

One of them noticed that she was awake and alerted his comrade which he said something back in return.

Without warning, one of the aliens grabbed her by the back of her head and forced her face down, only seeing the floor.

They continued talking after that, speaking in their native language that L'Vari could not understand. It sounded aggressive and feral, however, there were moments that they spoke quite elegantly; a far cry than what she expected from them.

She noticed they stopped moving, the hardened grip on her neck lightened a little.

The alien on her left yanked her head upward, an action infuriated the Asari Spectre but she remained calm.

Before her was what she assumed to be their leader, and he was big. Easily dwarfing all of the aliens she saw earlier, his height around nine feet if her estimates were right.

He wore much more advanced armor in comparison to his subordinates but it was more refined, more ornate and colorful. Definitely meant to display meanings of importance, however, it still appeared it withstand the harshness of war.

L'Vari's attention immediately shifted away from the massive alien's armor right after he activated an omni-tool. Possibly from her or one of the Commandoes!

She watched him play around with the device, scrolling through text files, switching to different pages, and viewed images from the codex.

"An intriguing device. Your people have come far," spoke the massive alien.

But this shocked L'Vari because he was speaking clear English! A human language!

Her armor's built-in translator was destroyed but she understood every word. Being proficient in a vast array in languages was a prerequisite for Spectres, along with the full capability to speak without technological aid.

But it further confused her why it needed to communicate her with a human language.

"Yet you understand so little, you have so much to learn." He deactivated the omni-tool. His voice was deep and gravely, like the rest of his subordinates. But it held so much weight, so much authority and sophistication that his kin lacked.

The massive alien walked a few steps closer to her and knelt on one knee to have a closer look at her.

L'Vari assumed he was trying to get closer to eye-level with her, but wasn't really able too because of his size. Him being so close to her like this made her feel so small and nervous. She remained calm, not allowing such fears to be shown.

And then the alien took off his helmet, filling the atmosphere with the sound of pressurized air as he pulled it off; revealing the face underneath.

The alien possessed an elongated snout with fang-like teeth protruding from the sides. A layer of thin dark-greyish fur covered his head, intimidating dark amber eyes that fixated onto the Spectre, studying her with a predator-like glare.

L'Vari felt genuinely intimidated. This thing looked like it could tear a Krogan in half.

"I know you understand me. I know you are an elite warrior according to your. . . codex."

"Wha. . . what do you want with me?" L'Vari asked, but received an angry hiss from the aliens on her sides.

The massive leader said something in their native tongue that calmed them down.

"I want you to answer my questions. Remain compliant and you will live. If you not, you will die horribly."

Another alien from somewhere else in the room began calling out to the leader.

With one of the aliens holding onto L'Var's head, she couldn't turn it, but could hear the urgency from the other voice.

She watched the massive leader say some things to the unseen subordinate and then said something to the aliens holding her as he stood up.

She could tell that something big was happening and it spooked her captors. The Spectre already felt the urgency starting to spread, and she did not like it.

"There appears to be unfolding events I must attend too," he said as he put his helmet back on. "We will have to talk later. Remain compliant like I said, or we will feast on the meat off your bones."

He said something to the two aliens that held her, most likely an order, before he turned around and walked away.

L'Vari felt her head pushed downward and felt herself being dragged away again. It was more rushed than last time, the two aliens holding her were walking faster than earlier.

As she was dragged, she heard the clamoring of more and more footsteps around her. More of these aliens were running around to and fro; they were all rushing and did it quite frantically.

Her experience as a Spectre gave her the familiar feeling that something big was about to happen, and she had some guesses on what they could be.

But suddenly, everything around her shook.

The aliens holding her said something to each other and began running, forcing her legs to grind against the floor.

And then everything around them shook again, causing more worry to the aliens.

L'Vari couldn't help but smile at this, knowing that these barbarians were becoming afraid of something. She hoped she would get some kind of payback for what they did to her and Sioni squad earlier.

Thinking of the Asari she lost reminded her of Representative K'Nir. She never saw getting shot during their escape and became worried about her fate. Since they spared her, there's hope they spared the Representative.

But these thoughts were interfered when the ship shook again. This time, far more intensely.

3350, Unknown Shield World, North Continent

Kitha took a much needed drink from her flask before putting back on the cupholder beside her.

The churrel ride had been smooth for the most part, something that Kitha and everyone in her small convoy found surprising.

They expected to see friendly outposts be under siege but that was never the case. According to the senior officers in charge of those locations, all hostile armigers immediately retreated via teleportation as soon as the slipspace portal opened; something that still bewildered everyone in those outposts. Rahkoan forces have either gone into hiding or regrouped into unknown locations.

Kitha wasn't liking this at all. However, she was glad to see more of her fellow warriors alive and well despite everything that went on. She and her squad felt even better after they repaired their communication arrays, and know that the other garrisons suffered few casualties.

They've reestablished comm lines with four outposts ever since they left, and the garrisons in those locations said they'll send out scouts to reconnect with other allied positions.

They were no longer needed, Kitha and her squad accomplished their mission and were now on their way back to Outpost Deivas.

Kitha activated her radio through her TACPAD. "This is Urs Actual to Urs squad, calling for status reports."

"Two-One is good, sister."

"Three-One is good."

"Copy. So you read any unusual activity, Vorik?"

"Nothing at all, sister. The outside is peaceful."

"Remain on guard and report in any unusual activity."

"Of course, sister."

"Yes, Chief."

Kitha deactivated her radio and decided to look around the vehicle's interior out of rising boredom.

Guthras was on the turret in the middle of the vehicle, casually shifting and turning to inspect the outside environment. And Odell sat on the backseat, looking out the window as he held his SPAR on his lap.

She then turned to Haeiyo who focused on driving the churrel, the white fur on his head glowed from the sunlight that beamed through the window. This gave Kitha the urge to joke to him about it, but decided not to.

He was a non-Sangheili Ascetic, he was from a race of moth-like insectoid-mammalians that originated from the Extorus galaxy. Like the other races that came from his homeworld, his people were considered to be strong and beautiful with the heart of warriors. This easily gained them favor from the Sangheili as their cultural traditions were quite similar in some ways; many humans compare them to ancient Japanese. However, they tend to keep to themselves but were welcoming to outsiders.

Haeiyo was no exception to this, but he was known to be quieter and more distant by his own people; oftentimes took things a little too seriously.

"You're getting better at driving. Good job," Kitha said.

"I've been practicing."

"Through simulations?"

"Yes." His reply was monotone but serious, almost all of his attention was on the controls, eyes focused on driving through the terrain ahead.

Kitha leaned back on her seat, shifting her gaze to windshield.

"Have you talked to your family, recently?"

"Yes," he said with a nod, and then remained silent.

"Then tell me, how are they doing?"

"Just business as usual. Meeting delegates and discussing policies. Nothing else than that."

"Haeiyo," called out Odell from the back, his gaze not leaving the window. "One of your sisters' made headlines on the news, something about visiting a military hospital."

"I saw that," added Kitha. "She sang them a song through the intercoms."

"Yes," Haeiyo confirmed. "It's an old lullaby for injured warriors. It's meant to commemorate them for the sacrifices they've made."

"She said that in the interview, and is garnering a lot of fame for it. A lot of Sangheili are respecting her."

"It's going to make that lullaby famous too," said Odell.

"Yes," Haeiyo said stoically.

'He's almost as stoic as John-117,' thought Kitha as silence loomed over them. 'Here's an idea. . .'

"I have a question I want an answer to." This garnered a curious glance from Haeiyo. "Why can't you explain puns to kleptomaniacs?"

"That is a human joke," stated Odell.

"It is. Do you have an answer?"

"No."

"Guthras, do you have an answer," Kitha called out to the turret gunner.

"Not into that kind of humor," he replied as he kept scanning the outside environment around him.

Kitha returned her attention to Haeiyo. "Do you have an answer, Haeiyo?"

"No." He shook his head but it was obvious he was interested. "What is it?"

"It's because they always take things literally."

A small smile formed on Haeiyo as he tried not to laugh, earning a grin on Kitha. It was no secret that he always liked aspects human humor that was considered 'cheesey' as they put it.

She remembered another joke. "Why don't calculous majors have parties?"

"Why?"

"Because they can't drink and derive."

This brought out a soft laugh from Haeiyo, along with a smile to match.

"Why did the frog take the bus to work today? His car got toad away."

Haeiyo laughed even louder to this, nearly choking a few times.

Kitha smirked as she heard Odell groaned from the back.

"It surprises me how anyone would find those jokes funny," Odell said in an unamused tone.

"They're not that bad, Odell, and at least someone appreciates my taste in humor," responded Kitha as she watched Haeiyo's laughing beginning to die down.

"There's better humor."

"Then tell us. You always said you know better jokes."

"I'll tell everyone when we're back at Deivas."

"That tells me you don't have any better jokes."

Odell responded with a groan and nothing else, silence filling the vehicle for some time.

"Urs Actual, come in. Something's happening," came in an urgent Sangheili.

Kitha quickly reactivated her TACPAD. "Report."

"A battle is taking place in space, the explosions can be seen from here."

"Do you see who they are attacking?"

"Negative, sister. Whoever their opposition is, they're not in our visual range. Requesting to share live feed?"

"No need, brother, we will manage to see from here. But remain on guard for anything."

"Of course, Chief."

Kitha turned off her radio and glanced around everyone in the churrel. "Weapon and armor checks, now. Get your helmets on."

Everyone complied with her orders without question as they made quick checks to their gear. Their helmets assembled around their heads, filling the vehicle with the sounds of shaping metal sheets.

Kitha connected her TACPAD with the churrel's computer, summoning a holographic screen infront of the dashboard.

"Checking on exterior cameras and sensors. Odell, Guthras, are you connected?" Kitha asked as she continued typing on her TACPAD.

"Yes," they both said simultaneously.

"Good. Receiving visual now."

After typing the last set of codes, the screen displayed a zoomed view of the outside sky. Everyone was silent as they watched a series of explosions flashed around the blue expanse. The explosions closer to the planet's atmosphere appeared more like fireballs, leaving traces of smoke and flying debris.

Kitha had the camera put into its highest zoom. The Rahkoan ships were still too far away, but at least they could see a portion of the fleet overhead, along with the action taking place.

Rahkoan ships that have regained engine power were trying to gather small groups as they were being attacked by an unknown party. Many Rahkoan ships were shown to be hit by large numbers of projectiles, however, they did not seem to inflict much damage as they fired back. A few of them couldn't handle the constant barrage of attacks, and eventually exploded from the damage. However, a vast majority of the fleet's casualties consisted of corvettes or light destroyers, but required so much concentrated fire to have one destroyed.

This told Kitha that the attacking party wasn't the MWR, as the weaponry used against the Rahkoan fleet was way too weak. She also noticed that many of the disabled ships were being left alone, but this could be that unknown party had to focus solely on the reactivated ships.

"Is it possible that some of our navy came through the portal?" asked Haeiyo.

"Impossible. Scans only detected Rahkoan ships, and it shouldn't take a barrage to destroy a corvette," stated Odell.

/RECEIVING PRIORITY TRANSMISSION FROM OUTPOST DEIVAS./

"Opening transmission from Deivas. Stay on course, Haeiyo," said Kitha.

"Yes, Chief." He nodded.

/OPENING PRIORITY TRANSMISSION./

"This is General 'Irosomai, report in."

"This is Urs Actual. We saw what's happening in the stratosphere and are halfway to Deivas," Kitha replied.

"Forget about returning to Deivas and take shelter in Outpost Fare. Things may become dangerous and I don't want you to remain in the open."

"Affirmative, General. Is our outpost under attack?"

"No, but I've already alerted all allied positions to prepare for combat. For now, go to Fare and aid our brethren there."

"Yes, General." Kitha cut the transmission from Irosomai and switched it the squad's comm channel. "Urs squad, we will take shelter in Outpost Fare and provide assistance until further notice."

"They are right off in the distance, Chief," stated Haeiyo as pointed at a structure far away from them.

Kitha connected to the outpost's comm channel. "Outpost Fare, this is Urs squad. Come in."

"We read you, Urs squad. We already cleared things with the General, the front doors will open for you," replied a human operator.

"Affirmative, Fare. Thank you."

It didn't take long before they made it to the outpost, stopping right in front of the large bulkhead as it began to open.

Unlike Deivas, Fare was a prefab building designed and used by the MWR military. It was a rather boxy structure with some round curves on the sides, a far cry from the Forerunner structures on the planet. This was meant to make the building more modular and flexible to add modifications quickly and efficiently.

"Get inside, Urs. The Lieutenant wants to see you."

"Affirmative," Kitha replied as the small convoy drove into the outpost one by one, the entrance leading them underground.

After the last vehicle went inside, the bulkhead closed shut while the vindras defense turrets began scanning the environment around them.

The sky overhead slowly filled with more flashes, more explosions, as parts of debris began to hit the atmosphere.

2189, Sol System

"Shit, shit, shit, shit!" Joker whispered to himself as he frantically worked the controls, swerving the Normandy around building-sized debris all while dodging through hordes of cluster missiles. And to think he had a few seconds to breathe, an alarm flared above his radar, alerting him that an enemy fighter was accelerating behind him. "Oh, come on!"

He hit the accelerator on the Normandy's engines to get away from the enemy fighter, having to narrowly dodge more debris, other friendly ships, and explosions! Despite his best attempts, the fighter was still right behind him.

"Warning: incoming missile," warned the Normandy's VI.

Joker looked at the radar again, seeing the missiles as two small white blips quickly getting closer and closer to the ship. "Damn it!"

He added more speed on the engines to get as far away from those missiles as possible. He drove the ship into another part of the debris field that apparently had plenty of derelict ships. Like earlier, he swiveled and looped around pieces of ship parts in hoping that the missiles would hit one of them. His prayers were answered when one of the missiles did hit a huge chunk of metal and exploded, consuming the area around it in a large fireball.

"Yes!" Joker cheered to himself as he saw one of the white dots disappear from the radar. This immediately changed when he looked out the viewport to see he was about to go head first onto an inactive ship. "Oh shit!"

The pilot reacted quickly hitting the deceleration and drove the ship downward, just missing the other vessel by a dozen a meters. After that, he went back to avoiding the fields of debris around him, swiveling and looping around metal parts nearly the size of the Normandy.

"Warning: incoming missile."

"I know!" Joker replied in annoyance as he navigated the ship through the debris field. He glanced the radar, seeing the red blip ever getting closer to the ship's right side.

There was less debris the more he dove down, but he couldn't take the chance for turning on the acceleration, again. There were still large starship chunks around them to make that a bad idea.

BOOM!

The Normandy shook violently from the explosion, forcing many of the crew in the CIC to scream in fear as they either fell on the ground or were thrown off their chairs.

"What just happened?" Joker asked as he saw what seemed to be a clearing up ahead.

"The missile collided with a piece of debris," the VI responded monotonously. "Warning: starboard has received extensive damage."

"Any hull breaches?"

"Negative. Detecting rising temperatures beyond safe levels. Sensors also detect armor plates are melting."

"Well, that's just great!" Joker growled in clenched teeth. "What about that fighter?"

"Hostile strikecraft broke off pursuit four minutes and fourteen second-"

"Okay, okay, I get it."

The Normandy finally flew out of the debris field, before it changed course to head back to the fleet.

Things were bad, really bad. Actually, things were going to shit if Joker had to be honest.

They severely downplayed the strength of these ships. Even with the use of heavy firepower, it was very taxing to destroy just one of their smallest ships; and 'smallest' as in the ones no bigger than half a kilometer! A single one of those vessels were capable of destroying dozens of Coalition ships with ease. It didn't help that more of them were slowly coming back online.

So far, only the smallest of ships were reactivating while the big dreadnaughts stayed dormant. Joker really hoped those things never come back online, they were already having massive casualties by facing the smaller ships. Everything right now was a chaotic bloodbath, and there was still the next phase of the operation!

"Joker! What's going on?" came in Shepard from behind. The Normandy pilot couldn't afford the time to even glance at him as he had to focus on the controls.

"Chaos, that's what it is. We were getting tailed by a fighter, I had to lose it in the debris field."

"And all that shaking?" Shepard asked.

"From a missile. It didn't get us but it exploded near us. We sustained some nasty damage on our starboard but no hull breaches."

"Could the ol' girl still handle any more hits?"

"She's still up to take more abuse, Captain, but we'll need to be more careful." A monitor beeped from his, alerting him of a high priority transmission from Hackett. "Incoming transmission from Admiral Hackett. Putting it through."

Hackett's voice came urgently through the comms, "This is Hackett to Normandy, come in Normandy."

It was Shepard who responded with, "This the Normandy, we read you."

"What the hell are you doing that far out, Shepard?" Hackett asked irritably, alarms blaring from his end of the comms.

"We were being pursued by a fighter, sir, we had to evade it in the debris field," Shepard explained. "The Normandy is en route back to the fleet. What's your status?"

"Not good. More alien ships are coming online and our losses are getting higher. We just lost two of our carriers."

"Damn it!" Shepard nearly shouted in clenched teeth. "How badly will this affect the invasion force?"

"Marginal, we still have plenty of troops for the ground assault. I had them posted further away from the fighting with additional protection."

"And our opening?"

"It's a wide birth now, Shepard. We managed to get these aliens to retreat to the sides, but that may not last long. This is our chance to send in the ground invasion. Are you and Normandy still operational?"

"We are, Hackett. We've come too far to pull out now." Shepard said with fiery determination that hasn't been seen since late stages of the Reaper War. "Get the landing parties ready for planetfall. We'll be there soon."

"Affirmative, Shepard. Hackett out."

Shepard turned to the pilot, giving him the familiar look of fiery determination, yet still maintained an air of professionalism. "Double time it, Joker."

"Yes, sir!" Joker punched the ship's accelerator and drove the engines to overdrive.

Authors Notes: It's been a long time since I uploaded a chapter, so here you go and enjoy the read! ^w^

I apologize for the wait, been having a lot trouble with life recently, which has affected my time to write.

And I won't be doing any Codex entries for a while; I find them unmotivating to do, and such a chore. I may do a separate page about them some day.

Again, enjoy the chapter! ^w^