Alright you guys so you all know what time it is.

It's time to jump feet first into hell. Sergeant Forge and the ODST's are taking center stage and show the galaxy the Spartan's aren't the only group of soldiers to be feared from the Spirit Of Fire.

The ODST's are one of my absolute favorite types of soldiers from sci-fi simply because of how they are chosen, trained and portrayed. Smug as they may be, they are chosen for a reason and are still considered the Elite, being just below the Spartans for a reason.

And now it's their time to shine. Had a few reviews that were spot on the nose on a few regards with what ODST's are gonna be used for this mission. Goes to show how hardcore fans some of the readers are and I love it.

On other related Halo news, we finally got our first looks at Halo Infinite Gameplay. And it looks amazing. Lots of new features and weapons but there are many questions to ask.

Who is this new Brute leading the Banished. What happened to Atriox? What happened to the Infinity? Blue Team? Cortana? The Created? I didn't like Cortana becoming Skynet but I still wanna know what happened to her. Where's Red Team in all this since they and the Spirit of Fire were the ones who were fighting The Banished from the beginning. Lots of questions I hope will be answered once the game comes out.

So let's get down to business people.

Where are we going? Feet first into Hell.

Rate Read and Review and as Always Have Nice Day.

Spirit Unto Dawn Chapter 12: Id Quot Circumiret, Circumveniat

ODST.

It stands for Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. An elite group of UNSC Marines that specialize in shock warfare tactics. Their method of infiltration by orbital insertion allows them to conduct missions against targets that other conventional forces cannot approach while remaining undetected.

Nicknamed the "Helljumpers", they quickly gained a reputation as a brutal and effective fighting force. Most ODSTs are often referred to as the elite or the creme de la creme of the Corps and seem to be in a class of their own, often coming right after the Elites, Spartans, and Brutes in terms of sheer ferocity and fighting prowess.

Barring the personnel of the SPARTAN-II and III Programs, ODSTs are one of the most effective forms of troops available to the UNSC, and the expectations placed on their units certified that they were all-volunteer outfits. Some outsiders often regarded such volunteers as "crazy."

Who would willingly join a corps where the whole purpose was to quite literally jettison themselves within pods from space, straight to the ground? The pods themselves have been aptly nicknamed "the falling tombstones". Premade and basically a falling coffin.

The ODST's apparently.

Which is why they have been selected for this mission.

The Spirit of Fire was back in space at long last with a mission in mind and personnel eager to get back into the action.

Within the pod bay of the ship, Sergeant John Forge was currently outfitted in a hybrid suit that is made from his usual marine suit and ODST armor.

He was rotating his shoulders, testing out the shoulder pads to see if they would obstruct his movement and was glad to see that it would not. His chest piece also was the standard ODST variant with a Battle Rifle attached to his back.

The Sergeant felt a slightly rough yet friendly shove from behind. "Forge."

Glancing behind him, Forge grinned slightly and nodded back at the ODST that stood next to him as he was preparing his own equipment.

Orbital Drop Shock Trooper "The Mustang", otherwise known as Major Vaughn. One of the toughest, craziest sons of bitches to ever join the ODST's and don the helmet of on. He is the Commanding Officer of the most prestigious ODST's aboard the Spirit Of Fire and in the UNSC for that matter, Boomerang Company.

With his own personal squad, Sunray 1-1, Vaughn led Boomerang Company with great success in the first six years of the Human-Covenant War. They had more victories than losses compared to other ODST companies and have a long history of dealing with some of the most extreme missions that only the Spartans could complete.

A wild man who feels more comfortable in a drop pod flying straight into the heat of battle, Major Vaughn was one of the best of the best aboard the Spirit of Fire.

The leader of this mission.

"It'll feel damn good to have boots on the ground after sleeping for so damn long." Vaughn remarked, fitting his chest piece on. "Slept for 22 years. I've had my fill."

Forge snorted aloud. "You and me both Major."

Vaughn only hummed in thought. "What happened to ya though? Heard some wild shit around 'bout you already being here."

"Don't ask me how I got here, it's complicated."

The Major only chuckled. "John, in case you forgot us being here in another universe is fucking complicated. So really, it ain't as shocking as you make it out to be."

At that, Forge couldn't help but agree with a light laugh of his own. "No complaints there, Major."

"Vaughn."

Both men looked back to see the second-in-command of Sunray 1-1, Warrant Officer Quinn approaching the two with her already armored up and helmet underneath her left arm.

Quinn had a fair complexion with brown eyes and brown hair with a slightly narrow face but a friendly demeanor.

"Quinn." Vaughn greeted with a nod.

"Forge." Quinn said to the sergeant, looking back to the Major. "Sunray's all set up back there. Waiting on you Major."

Vaughn nodded once more in appreciation, grabbing his helmet from behind him and with Forge joined the rest of Fireteam Sunray 1-1 as they were crowded around a HoloDeck.

On display was an asteroid with multiple areas highlighted, said areas displaying the fortresses and bases built into the floating space rock.

Standing underneath the asteroid was the newest addition to the Spirit Of Fire and their helper for this operation, Atlas.

Around the HoloDeck was Captain James Cutter who felt obligated to be leading this operation since it's the first official one the Spirit Of Fire would be undergoing.

Next to him was Petty Officer Gruss, the medic of Sunray with her shoulder pads and helmet having distinct red accents to accentuate her role upon the squad.

Sitting upon the HoloDeck on one of its corners was Corporal Turpin, the recon/drone operator of the team. A bit of an unusual oddball of an ODST with her beloved MQ-96 Support Drone she affectionately named Hank by her side, making some tweaks on him.

On the opposite end of the table was Lance Corporal Sparks, on his knees with his arms against the HoloDeck as he kept his sharp eyes on the projection before him. The designated marksman of the squad, Sparks is often seen as something of a wild card within the Spirit of Fire. From his rebellious streak matching and exceeding that of Forges' to his unnatural luck of getting the very best of the meal packs aboard the ship, Sparks was as eccentric as the rest of his squad mates within Sunray.

"Now that we are all assembled here, we can begin." Captain Cutter spoke up upon having the six men and women for this mission now surround the HoloDeck. "Atlas."

The ODST AI nodded, walking around as he highlighted the asteroid.

"This is Asteroid X57." Atlas said to the assembled group. "A Systems Alliance Asteroid so to speak that was originally orbiting the Gas Giant of Borr. This Asteroid is metallic in makeup which the Alliance has been mining out the interior for habitation later on by the SA. It has recently been taken over by Batarian Extremists and has had its course altered in the form of some Armageddon type nonsense towards the human colony of Terra Nova."

"Had its course altered?" Sparks spoke up, looking at the asteroid than at Atlas. "How in the hell did they do that?"

Atlas pinged three specific locations and enlarged them. "Status sensors reveal three fusion torches propelling Asteroid X57. This is the means in which the Batarians are using to send this into Terra Nova."

"Huh." Was all Petty Officer Gruss said.

"How'd they go and pull that off?" Corporal Turpin inquired with curiosity.

"With the Alliance being occupied with the aftermath of the Citadel and recently being given a seat on the Council, the Extremist saw this as a chance while the Alliance is distracted." Atlas elaborated. "There could be a number of reasons as to why they're doing this but if you ask me, a lot of it feels personal."

"Everything these Batarians do against humanity feels personal from what I've read." Forge grumbled out.

"What's our time frame, Atlas?" Cutter asked with a small red timer appearing that was getting lower as the seconds ticked on.

"At their current rate of acceleration, the asteroid will collide with Terra Nova in approximately four hours."

"Four hours to either shut them down or destroy them in order to prevent the collision course." Vaughn noted.

"Any that we can shut them down?" Quinn asked.

Atlas nodded. "I can take care of that. Their systems are easy to handle and reprogram and control. My analysis shows torches must be disabled to cease the acceleration."

"You mentioned this Asteroid is under the control of the Alliance." Cutter muttered. "Have you been able to pick up on any survivors or distress signals?"

"This is all I've got so far." Atlas brought up a voice recording and played it for the group to hear.

"Hello? Hello?" It was a woman's voice, sounding frantic and scared. "Is anyone there? I picked up your ship on my radar. God, that's a huge shi- I mean, Can you hear me? They haven't found me yet, but I can't talk long. Please. Shut down the fusion torches or we're all going to die. God, I hope you're hearing this."

The message ended with the soldiers all looking at Atlas.

"What?"

"Nothing." Forge waved down.

Major Vaughn turned to Captain Cutter. "Not that I'm complaining or anything about this mission Captain, but why exactly are we doing this now? Why aren't the Spartans in this op? Figured you'd want them to take care of this instead of bringing out the whole ship."

"The Spartans are conducting their own mission right now." Cutter stated. "And we can't always rely on them for that. It's time we start showing the galaxy who we are and what better way of doing this then saving a Colony from an asteroid?"

Major Vaughn chortled around; a sentiment shared by the rest of his squad.

"Can't disagree with you there, Captain." Vaughn said with a roguish grin.

"So how're we doing this, Captain?" Forge asked, propping his elbows down on the table. "We got three fusion cores to deal with."

"Bombing them all to oblivion is out of the question due to survivors being inside one of the bases. Rather not take that risk." Cutter said. "We'll need to go in there hard and fast. Splitting up is the best bet with teams of three. I have confidence if we tackle all three at once we can take it out but we have this to consider. The terrain, the forces inside, biotics if they have any and the bases themselves. By this point, the Batarians probably familiarized themselves with the base. We will need to also consider the humans that are still inside."

Cutter looked to Vaughn and Forge. "We'll have to take them out one at a time because for the time being, unless we know where the survivors are, we risk their lives."

"Copy that, Captain." Vaughn said. "You heard the boss man, Sunray. Load up."

Sunray simply placed their helmets on, grabbed their weapons and headed towards their drop pods. Cutter departed from the drop pod to go to his observatory.

Upon the group of ODST's placing their helmets on, bluish shields flared around them. Within their HUD inside their helmets, the soldiers saw the top show the bar of their brand new energy shields to be at one hundred percent.

"I am probably never gonna get used to that." Sparks commented as he grabbed his specially redesigned M99A2S3 Stanchion Gauss Rifle. It had a camo pattern upon it with the quaint message of Harvest Sends Its Regards! inscribed upon the barrel.

"How does it feel to have energy shielding?" Atlas asked as Forge grabbed his AI chip and inserted it upon the side piece of his own ODST helmet. He wasn't sure if he would ever do the whole neural interface thing that the Spartans apparently have down when it comes to AI.

"Surreal, to say the least." Forge admitted. "Those Covie bastards always had that leg up on us for decades during the war. Now to have that shit at our disposal…"

"You guys are lucky you get them first." Atlas said cheerfully, a small display screen of himself within all the ODST's visors appearing. "With so many of the elites having been killed off at first without their bodies being recovered, there wasn't a lot to go around. Only you and most of the ODST's are gonna get it."

"What about those… what're they called here again? Kinetic barriers?" Quinn inquired. "Sounds mighty useful if you ask me."

"We're working on it." Atlas said. "Cortana and Dot with the other Engineers need to get our hands on a few and retrofit for the rest of the Spirit of Fire."

"These Barriers would have been useful during the war." Turpin noted, installing her drone Hank into her pod. "How would they have fared against Covenant plasma?"

"Er… from what my analysis shows, not all that good honestly." Atlas admitted. "Would have just melted right through em."

Atlas received a flat look from the Drone Operator with the new AI only shrugging its shoulders.

The drop bay suddenly began blaring it's alarms, signaling it was time.

"Alright ladies, enough chit chat." Vaughn said aloud, M41 SPNKR Rocket Launcher on his shoulder. "We're closing in on our objective."

The ODST's simply piled into their pods, slotting their weapons in and leaning back. The helmets let out hisses, compressing to allow them to walk through the vacuum of space.

"Ah, that's cool." Sparks remarked. "You guys have really been going through the motions of upgrades."

"Cortana is just getting started." Atlas said cheerfully.

The team went silent upon hearing the voice of Captain Cutter within their comm link.

"Sunray 1-1, approaching the first fusion torch now."

The drop pods jolted, with the hatches to their pods closing and pressurizing to become airtight in preparation for their drop.

They were slowly maneuvered towards their objective, the sight of the asteroid flying towards the colony of Terra Nova greeting their sights.

"I've done a lot of jumps, but this is certainly a first." Quinn quipped out, making the rest of Sunray chuckle.

"We are in position ODST's." Cutter chimed in once more.

"Acknowledged, Spirit of Fire." Vaughn said. "Sunray 1-1, What are we?!"

"ODST'S!" Was the unanimous war cry of the squad, Forge included.

"WHAT IS OUR MONIKER?!"

"HELLJUMPERS, SIR!"

"AND WHERE DO WE GO?"

"FEET FIRST INTO HELL, SIR!"

"DAMN RIGHT!"

The helmets of the squad polarized, itching having the standard silverish blue visor.

Several moments later, the pods jostled about before they were shot straight down towards the surface of the Asteroid.

As they descended towards the Fusion Torch, the ODST's heard echoing movement from the Spirit Of Fire above.

A moment later, missiles flew past their pods, bombarding several areas that had separate strange structures.

"We'll soften the landing for you." Cutter said, answering several questions the ODST's had in mind. "Those Heavy Turrets won't be a bother."

"Appreciated Captain." Vaughn replied. "Adjust course, Turpin. You're off."

"Acknowledged."

They were halfway down towards the asteroid when…

"Deploy chutes." Vaughn ordered.

The six pods had their brake chutes pop out from their tops, slowing their descent to a degree yet they were still coming in hot.

After several more seconds, the pods crashed down hard around the first fusion torch.

The pod hatches burst open, with the squad coming out of their pods with their weapons up and ready.

"Clear drop zone." Quinn said with the squad moving to group together as they moved towards the entrance to the first fusion torch base.

"And THAT makes two-hundred drops!" Vaughn stated as they all prepped to enter the structure.

"I'll bake you cake when we get back." Forge quipped.

Before they entered the base itself, Atlas had picked up on the transmission from the woman who they had heard earlier on the Fire.

"What in the- What was That?! I don't know who you are, but — Damn it! Got to go."

"Let's move people." Vaughn ordered. "Two lines. Forge and me up front. Quinn, Gruss, in the middle. Turpin, Sparks, in the back."

The team got into formation as the door opened and they moved in. The first room was a locker room it seemed with nobody inside but the second one…

"Lucy, I'm home~" Forge called out with Batarians raising their heads up upon spotting the ODST's all clenching their teeth and growling.

"Harak. Chekt. Chekt!" A Batarian soldier shouted as quadrupedal creatures with large lower teeth and spiny feelers on their backs hissed and charged at the Shock Troopers.

"The Fuck are those things?" Vaughn asked as he fired at one with an assault rifle

"Varrens." Atlas informed them. "They're native to Tuchanka."

"Not the time for Zoology." Forge gritted out as one Varren drew close to him.

Rather than back away from it to get some distance, Forge threw his hand out and grasped one of its large lower teeth's. With his own strength and the momentum of the Varren's run, Forge managed to guide it and direct/toss the beast into a nearby crate.

The Varren's head crashed against the metallic surface, dazed for a moment until it felt a boot against its neck. A moment later, lead filled its head courtesy of Forge's shotgun.

Vaughn saw two Batarians far back behind some kind of strange structure, using it as cover.

"Sparks."

The marksman wordlessly moved towards several other crates for cover while taking aim at the two Batarians on the far end of the room.

Exhaling softly, Sparks fired off his Gauss rifle twice and landed a head shot on one and a neck shot in the other.

Quinn, Gruss and Turpin moved in tandem with each other, eliminating each Batarian they had their sights on. The trio of overwhelming firepower made quick work of each Batarian unfortunate enough to be their target.

"All targets down." Quinn reported, the room being cleared.

Gruss wordlessly walked over to a human body that she had spotted the Varren were chewing on, her kneeling down to inspect it thoroughly while shutting the man's eyes.

"Check for survivors." Vaughn instructed, the group splitting up though they remained vigilant.

There were none for the most part with the base being abandoned or emptied out for all intents and purposes.

"Anything?" Forge asked aloud, receiving negatives from the entirety of Sunray.

That was until…

Turpin saw that they wouldn't find anything so she opted to move to the second floor. Entering the first room she saw, she found herself standing within what appeared to be a control room.

"Guys, get up here." Turpin said through the comms. "I think I found the main controls to this place."

A few moments later, the rest of the squad was in the room with her.

"This the place?" Sparks asked looking around.

"Yes it is." Atlas confirmed for them excitedly. "Forge, if you would. Just hold me out in front of that panel."

Obliging the AI, Forge pulled the AI chip from the side of his helmet and held it out before the control panel. There was a glow of blue data that extended out from the chip to the panel with all the controls and lights turning blue a moment later.

"There, one Fusion Torch down." Atlas said proudly.

Not a moment after the Torch was turned off did they get contacted once again by the mysterious woman from earlier.

"I'm reading that the torch is offline. Was that you? Can you hear me?"

"Yeah that was us." Forge confirmed for her. "Who are you? The hell is going on here?"

"My name is Kate Bowman." The woman introduced herself. "I'm an engineer. I was part of the team assigned to bring this asteroid to Terra Nova. We were attacked yesterday by Batarian extremists. I've been hiding since they arrived. I think they know the torch went out."

"Then tell us this, Ms. Bowman." Vaughn said. "Why in God's name would these four-eyed freaks opt for stealing an asteroid to send it into a colony?"

"I don't know. But if this asteroid isn't slowed, millions of people on Terra Nova are going to die. If I find out anything I'll - I've got to go. Good luck."

With that the communications shut down, leaving the squad alone again.

"Is this gonna become a pattern?" Sparks asked with Gruss grunting in agreement.

"Seems like it till we clear up this rock." Vaughn stated. "Let's move Sunray, we've got two more Torches to shut down."

The Squad simply moved in unison, running towards the exit of the structure.

They arrived at the first room within the base and the first thing they saw was a lone human with a rifle in hand, nervously checking his surroundings.

"Freeze! Drop your weapon." Forge said aloud, holding up his magnum.

The man turned around and shot Forge, the bullet harmlessly deflected off of his shields.

"Oh, god! I didn't mean to… are you hurt?" The man said in complete shock of his actions.

"Well he ain't dead, so there's that." Vaughn said before smacking Forge's helmet in the back. "Next time, don't startle people like that."

"No, that's my fault." The man spoke up apologetically. "I didn't even realize you were human until… well. Guess I'm not much of a soldier. I don't recognize the uniforms, who are you guys?"

"I know you're scared, but we're here to help." Vaughn said calmly. "We're with the UNSC."

"UNSC? What's the- Never mind. I'm Simon, Simon Atwell. I'm the Chief engineer on this rock."

"Alright, Simon." Vaughn nodded. "I'm Major Vaughn. This gung-ho marine is Forge. This is Quinn, Sparks, Gruss and Turpin. We're Sunray 1-1."

"It's good to meet you all." Simon said graciously. "But listen, we don't have much time. The Batarians fired up the fusion torches. You got to shut them before we hit Terra Nova! There are four million people down there, my family. They live in Aronas. My kids and grandkids. Nice community. Good schools…."

"We get it, Atwell. Bad shit is gonna go down." Forge interrupted. "What the hell are we dealing with here?"

"X57 is 22 kilometers long. Twice the size of the asteroid that wiped out the Earth's dinosaurs. It would be like millions of fusion bombs strike at once. Millions. The heat of the blast… a thousand kilometers away, clothes will ignite. There'll be global wildfires. Air shock will flatten everything for hundreds of kilometers. Terra Nova will die, not just our colony, the planet. There'll be a climate shi-"

"Simon, we're a bit on a time crunch." Major Vaughn interrupted the chief engineer. "So can we get to the more serious matter on hand."

"What if there's a chance it'll land in the ocean?" Turpin spoke up.

"That would be even worse! Tsunamis would sweep inland at hundreds of kilometers per hour. Millions of tons of water would be vaporized at the point of impact. Global cloud coverage. The plants could all die. And if they go, the whole ecosystem rolls over. I'd have to run the numbers, but take my word for it, it'd be bad."

"X57 would have struck near the capital city. The most densely populated region." Atlas said in the comms.

"Can you answer this for us." Vaughn said. "From what we know, Batarians run criminal and salving gangs. Fucked up, but they're all about profits. Blowing up a planet seems ass backwards. What does this gain them?"

"I've heard all the stories. Slave rings ranching people like animals. Pirate bands burning colonies to the ground. But this is… The Citadel Convention forbids asteroid drops. I never thought the Batarians would go this far."

"Alright, so these assholes aren't the usual genocidal fuckwads that wanna blow up a city." Forge rambled off. "So can anyone explain this?"

"I didn't expect all this to happen." Simon said with a nervous voice. "This is beyond my field of expertise."

"You could say that again." Sparks said, his helmet jolting to the side from Quinn's slap.

"You were on the ground when this happened." Vaughn brought up. "How many Batarians have you seen, and where?"

"They landed at the main facility. It's locked down now; they changed the pass codes. No idea what's going on inside. I did see groups head out to each of the torch stations. Couldn't say how many, though. Enough to give you a fight." Simon said.

"Any idea who's behind this? Head honcho of this whole operation?" Quinn asked.

"I heard a couple of them talking. They mentioned a "Balak." It sounded like he's the one in charge. They didn't seem convinced this was a good idea, but they were scared of the guy. Scared enough to do what he wanted." Simon stated with slight conviction.

"Batarians everywhere, and my team need to shut down all three torches. Anything else we should know?" Vaughn asked.

Simon rubbed his chin for a moment until he recalled a particularly crucial detail. "One of the torches is surrounded by live blasting caps. We were set up to excavate when we arrived at Terra Nova. I rigged them with proximity detectors. Going on foot is your best option when you're close to the mines, just go slow and easy and you should be fine."

"Can you disable them?" Vaughn inquired.

"Not from here, no. There are manual controls by the entrance to the torch facility, inside the blast zone. You can disarm the caps there." Simon said. "Oh, and before you all go. I had a crew working off-site when the attack hit. I'm worried about them. These Batarians are ruthless. I saw them smash the faceplates of guys working vacuum. And those Varren… I don't think they always wait for a corpse before feeding."

"Any idea where we can locate them?" Turpin asked, raising her tac pad.

"They were running checks on our perimeter equipment Easiest thing would be to tap into the transmission tower out on the surface. The equipment stations will show up on your sensors."

"What do you figure, Major?" Quinn asked, looking at Sunray's leader.

Before the Veteran ODST is able to respond, static fills their ears followed by the voice of their Captain.

"Sunray 1-1, do you copy?"

"We're here, Captain." Vaughn responded, "Go ahead."

"I'll be deploying C-squad to locate and rescue those missing crewmen on the Asteroid." Cutter said. "Atlas just sent me a schematic of the facility they're holed up in. C-Squad will take care of this matter while you six focus on disabling those Fusion Torches."

"Acknowledged, Captain." Vaughn said.

"Hold up." Forge spoke up. "Serious question here. How do we get to the next fusion torch then? It ain't exactly a cake walk… more of a moonwalk if anything."

"I'll be sending you a Pelican dropship to get you over to your next Fusion Torch. We'll take care of the defense turrets surrounding them."

"If we come in hot like that, the Batarians may get a bit trigger happy." Quinn pointed out.

"We'll have to take that risk." Forge stated. "We're losing time here just talking around and there's still survivors out there in danger."

"Forge is right." Vaughn said, turning to Simon. "You better find a good place to hide. If the Batarians come back and find you…"

"Yeah, I think I'll make myself scarce. Good luck to you all." Simon nodded, moving into the base they cleared just now to find a secure place to hold up until this entire situation blows over.

Not a moment too soon, the squad received a new transmission.

"Sunray 1-1, Sunray 1-1, this is Pelican 0635, arriving at your location now and ready for pick up."

"Let's move." Vaughn said, the ODST's and Marine Sergeant running out of the base.

When the team stepped outside, the Pelican was waiting for them with its back ramp lowered for them to enter. Once they got inside, they once again heard the now familiar voice of Kate Bowman.

"Can you hear me? I'm getting all kinds of interference. Damn this thing. Sorry, there's a lot of feedback. I'll see if I can fix it. In the meantime, just keep doing what you're doing."

The ODST's exchanged glances with one another, some shrugging as they really didn't have any ideas of what to say other than silently gesturing 'let's get on with it then'. The Pelican spun round and flew up and over the mountainous region of the first Fusion torch towards the second one with the pilot seeing a glowing perimeter and heavy turrets present.

"Got ourselves a rough landing." The pilot informed the squad as he flew forward, hands over the primary weapon of the pelican. "Got more of those Four-eyed assholes at the front door."

"Leave them to us." Forge said. "Just take out those turrets."

As the Pilot nodded and moved to engage, the ODST form of Atlas appeared before the pilot, startling him.

"Whoa." He jumped slightly. "Jeez new guy, don't go and scare me like that."

"Sorry, Pilot." Atlas said apologetically. "Just wanted to warn you. You gotta make sure to pick your shots carefully. If one of the bullets sets off the mines within the perimeter, then it could set off a chain reaction and the entire area will collapse. The Fusion torch going off like that would be… catastrophic to say the least."

"It's gonna be one of those missions, huh?" The Pilot murmured grimly until a daring smirk appeared. "Hell, I always like a good challenge. Hang tight everyone."

Gunning the ship forward, the Pilot made an aerial spin in the air and aimed at the first turret in his sights. Unleashing a torrent of metal, the bullets shredded through the turret with the Pilot maneuvering around for the next one.

The pilot took out the other two turrets before floating over the entrance to the next Fusion Torch.

"Whoa." The Pilot jolted his pelican to the side to avoid two sets of rockets that the Batarians below fired at him. "Watch it you jackass's. This is my only Pelican dammit."

The back ramp opened with Sunray 1-1 opting to get a running start as they all jumped out from the Pelican. Major Vaughn started their assault by firing off both rockets at the Batarians below, with Quinn and Gruss tossing down UNSC and Covenant grenades.

Though the landing was slightly rough and hard on the knees, it was nothing new to the ODST's as they quickly took out the remainder of the surviving Batarians.

"Fucking assholes." Sparks murmured. "What the hell do they want with them sending a damn asteroid to a colony?"

"Well if we can stop ourselves from killing one of them, feel free to ask Sparks." Vaughn retorted walking over to a control console. He looked at it curiously, glancing back to the perimeter they just flew over then over to the Sergeant.

"Hey Forge." Vaughn called out to him, the Sergeant turning to his direction. "Think Atlas could deactivate this panel here? Feels like the controls to the mines behind us."

"Atlas." Forge said.

"Sure can." The AI confirmed cheerfully.

The Sergeant went over to the Control panel and held out the AI chip of Atlas like he did in the first Fusion Torch base. The familiar blue data stream appeared and a moment later there was a 'ding' to signify Atlas had completed his task.

"Alright Sunray." Atlas said, tone serious. "Got a lot more Batarians and Varren's in this one then the last. Looking at about twenty of these guys with a half dozen Varren. A few rocket drones flying around as well."

"That's it." Forge reloaded his shotgun. "They should've sent more."

"You hear that Hank?" Turpin said excitedly, her drone now floating over the team. "You finally get to play with someone."

"We should all be so relieved." Vaughn remarked, going forward as the entryway to the Fusion Torch opened.

They entered the base, finding a very similar locker room entrance as they did with the first Fusion Torch.

"Huh." Sparks hummed aloud. "I'd figure humanity here would be a bit more diverse with how they build each base."

"What?" Quinn looked at their marksman incredulously. "What gave you that idea?"

Sparks only shrugged. "I dunno. Just a thought is all."

"Enough chit chat folks, time we face the music." Vaughn said, the door to the main floor opening. "Go! Go! Go!"

The squad ran in, immediately coming under fire from the Batarians stationed in the base, their shields soaking up the fire.

Sparks hung back, popping out from around the corner of the doorway they entered from and shot a Batarian in the head on the second floor above.

Turpin sent Hank forward, the large drone barreling into one of the smaller rocket drones. The size and force of Hank caused the drone it tackled to go crashing down to the ground, breaking apart upon impact.

Hanks' creator all the while switched from her assault rifle to her new needler as she ran at two Batarians firing at her.

Though her shields were dropping, they held strong. Turpin fired her plasma weapon, the purplish-pink needles embedding themselves into the Batarians in front of her.

One immediately fell over dead when several struck his chest and head.

The other one however, dived out of the way yet still got struck with several of the plasma needles. Several got in his leg and another in his hip.

He yelled out in pain which in turn morphed into howls of complete agony upon the plasma needles literally bursting after a few moments.

The Batarian was crying out profusely, his trembling hands not sure which injury to go to as the pain was overwhelming his senses.

He was squirming intensely, being broken out of his pain induced stupor when he heard something fall right next to him. Craning his head, he saw it was another of his Batarian comrades with a plasma needle in his neck.

He then noticed a shadow befall him, looking back up in wide eyed terror at the same armored human that had injured him.

"N-No, NO, Wa-WaiGURKH."

A needle through the mouth silenced the Batarian, ending his life.

Vaughn drew near a Batarian, dodging the bullets that he was able to whilst the shields took care of the others. Putting his right foot forward, the ODST swung his rocket launcher at full force and clocked the Batarian clean upside the head.

Though he had a Battle Rifle and magnum, there was something satisfying about using his prized Spanker as a melee weapon.

As soon as the Batarian fell to the ground, Vaughn pinned him down with his knee to his chest and a quick headshot ended the bastard's life.

Gruss was moving back from two Varrens that were charging straight at her with one suddenly getting shot through the head courtesy of Sparks.

With only one Varren now, she waited for the Varren to pounce. As soon as it did she angled her body out of its way, its jaws crashing into the wall behind her. It slumped down towards her which worked fine for her.

Pulling out a specially made serrated combat knife, she stabbed the war beast through its lower jaw. The jagged edge of the knife served as an easy means of cutting through the Varrens skin. The quadrupedal creature howled and whimpered until it slumped over dead.

Forge was quite literally punching a Batarian to death with his bare fists, finishing it off with a magnum bullet to the head. His shields flared up before he was tackled off the dead Batarian by an alive one.

The two tumbled, struggling against one another until Forge one out. Grabbing his shotgun that had fallen to the side in the scuffle, he bashed the stock against the Batarians cheek.

Pumping his weapon, he pointed it at the head and quite literally blew it apart.

"Well…" Forge flicked the blood off his armor. "Should've expected that."

"Damn, Sergeant." Atlas commented. "You should know some restraint."

"Restraint?" Forge snorted. "From me? Or an ODST? Have you forgotten their track record?"

"I know." Atlas said with a huff. "I based my look after one, ding dong. It's just that shit on you ain't gonna be easy to clean off."

"Just let me deal with that." Forge said, flicking off more blood and chunks of what was either flesh, bone or brain.

"Yeah, yeah." Atlas said. "Controls to this Torch should be one the second floor like the last."

Forge only nodded, looking over to the rest of Sunray, seeing they were killing off the last few Batarians.

Seeing that they were finished, Vaughn ordered his four squad mates to stay behind in case of any Batarian or human survivors appearing whilst he and Forge headed up to the main control room of the Fusion Torch.

A few minutes later, Atlas deactivated the second fusion torch with none other than Kate Bowman contacting them once more.

"Are you there? You've got to hurry. You've really pissed them off. Their leader's setting charges everywhere. I think he's going to blow this whole facility."

"We're working on it." Forge said. "This ain't exactly a bree… ok, it kind of has been really. This armor is fucking wild."

Rather than hearing Kate respond, a different voice was heard. One not as friendly as hers.

"Get away from there." a voice came over the line, harsh and guttural.

"Don't shoot!" There was fear in the woman's voice. "Please no."

Boots, and the sound of someone being thrown to the ground.

"Who's disabling the torches?" That voice caught Vaughn's' attention. It had the ring of command. If he were to hazard a guess, judging by the fact that the only named Batarian they were aware of was this Balak. Vaughn figured it would be safe to assume that this was the aforementioned extremist.. "I won't ask again."

The gunshot made the two seize up, sharing a look with each other.

"Get her out of here."

The line cut off.

"Well fuck." Forge muttered.

"She ain't gonna get killed so easily." Vaughn said, moving to leave the facility.

"How the hell are you certain about that?" Forge couldn't help but ask.

"She's survived this long, hasn't she?"

Wordlessly, Sunray 1-1 exited the base with them piling into the pelican and flying off towards the next Fusion Torch.

The Third Torch was guarded exclusively by heavy turrets, their pilot taking them out in rapid succession.

Dropping the ODST's off at the front of the base, the squad moved in wary and ready for anything they would encounter.

The locker room they entered was the same as the other two yet this time the lighting was a bit darker with a moody shade of blue.

"There's only a straight shot of Batarians and Varren waiting for us on the other side of that door." Atlas informed the squad.

"Sounds like we're in for a bulrush." Forge noted.

"That's actually the best way to break through them in this case." Atlas encouraged.

"That's what we've been doing for the last two Torches." Vaughn idly said, loading his rocket launcher.

"Careful guys." Atlas said warily. "We're dealing with some Shock Troopers in there. Biotics. I'm marking them on your HUDs as priority targets."

"Appreciated, Atlas." Gruss stated.

Vaughn contemplated momentarily before looking to the marksman of Sunray.

"Sparks, you're up." Vaughn instructed. "Let's see if that camouflage is as good as Cortana and Dot told us it'd be."

Ever since the Spirit Of Fire and her crew settled upon Autumn with the remnants of the super carrier that plagued Reach during the war, there was an overabundance of new technology at their disposal.

Not only were Elite body shields incorporated into the armors of the ODST's but also other more useful upgrades and abilities that they had field tested before this mission. One of them being the invisibility units that they had quite a lot of now. The two AIs and Engineers quickly got to work to make them compatible with non-Spartan personnel with the ODST's being the lucky first batch.

Sparks stood in front of the door, initiating his active camo and grinned beneath his helmet that it worked wonderfully. Grasping his Gauss rifle tightly, the door before them opened with Sparks moving in first.

The rest moved through with Batarians all running forward to attack.

Within their HUDs, Atlas marked the Shock troopers with Sparks getting into a comfortable position and looked through his scope.

The rest of the ODST's charged straight in, unleashing their firepower upon the Batarians. Several were shot down in rapid succession while the surviving few ducked for cover.

The Shock Troopers stepped forward, three of them in total. The aura of Biotics radiated around their forms, the one in the middle throwing out his arm.

Quinn yelped in surprise at being ensnared by the Batarians Biotics, struggling against her "bonds".

She didn't have to struggle long as Sparks quickly clipped the Biotic that caught her in the head. A moment later, the Shock Trooper to the dead one's left joined him as he was shot through the chest and neck.

The last surviving Shock Trooper attempted to get to safety yet his mistake of turning away from the enemies in front of him cost him his life as Turpin and Gruss gunned him down.

The rest of Sunray moved in, with the ODST's being relentless in their onslaught against the Batarians as they killed each one with ruthless efficiency.

Vaughn proceeded with Forge to move up to the second floor when Atlas had informed them of the base being cleared of enemies.

Entering the main control room of the Fusion Torch, like before, Forge held out Atlas's data chip with the AI disabling the Fusion Torch.

"Captain, all torches have been disable, Terra Nova is no longer in any danger." Major Vaughn reported in.

"Crisis averted and Armageddon has been cancelled." Forge said proudly.

By all accountants, the mission is technically complete but there is still one issue.

"It's not over yet, the ones who are responsible still must be stopped and hostages need to be rescued." Captain Cutter informed over comms.

"Hey, Major." Quinn called in from the first floor. "We got more Batarians coming in."

"Hold on." Vaughn said as he and Forge turned and sprinted back to the others.

They heard gunfire up ahead, running out with Forge ducking from a few stray bullets.

"What's the situation, Quinn?" Vaughn asked as he joined her behind her cover.

"These new four-eyes came in with one saying he doesn't wanna fight." Quinn said.

"So you shot at him?" Forge said/inquired with a flat look.

Though her helmet was polarized, the look Forge received was enough to convey the silent expression of "you don't have any right to say that to me".

Forge got the message and backed down.

Vaughn's eyes narrowed beneath his helmet, thinking on the matter of a Batarian wanting to speak to them first.

"Ceasefire, ceasefire." the Major called out to his squad.

A moment later the shooting stopped with both sides now at a standstill.

"I'm coming out." Said a Batarian from the other side. "Don't shoot."

Though they kept their weapons at the ready, Sunray did not engage as a single Batarian clad in red armor got out from behind a crate with his arms raised.

"Who the hell are you?" Forge questioned tersely.

"Charn." The Batarian introduced himself. "And to be honest with you all, I do not wish to fight anymore. This doesn't have to end in bloodshed."

"Really?" Turpin's tone was fierce. "Mind explaining all this fucking madness of sending a meteor at a colony?!"

"Let's just end this peacefully." Charn said amicably.

"I didn't think you Batarians knew the meaning of the word." Forge retired.

The other Batarians bristled, but the leader smiled. "Look. I'm just doing my job here. Hijacking this rock wasn't my idea. I signed on to make a little profit, a quick slave grab, nothing more." Charn said

"A Slave grab?" Vaughn growled. "You fucking bastard, cause of you and your crew an entire planet is gonna die with millions of people on it."

"And how in the hell is a slave grab any better?" Gruss snapped. "Genocide is awful but slavery ain't no saintly way of profit."

"Don't you think I know that? I'm just following orders here. If it were up to me we'd have already left." Charn said defensively.

"And what makes you think we plan on letting any of you live after all the bullshit you have pulled today?" Vaughn inquired rhetorically. "Just cause we let you go now, doesn't mean you're not gonna shack up with others from your race for another slave run."

" Balak would skin me alive and sell my hide out of spite either way it seems." He grinned, one of the more disturbing expressions Sunray had ever seen on a Batarians face. "Crazy bastard. This whole mission has gone to hell and I'm gonna pay for it."

"Damn right you are." Forge stated, raising his rifle only for Vaughn to stop him from executing the Slaver.

"You get one chance." Vaughn stated. "And one chance only. If you don't give us a good reason as to why we should let you live, you're dead either way. Now start talking. What do you know about Balak."

"Alright." Charn nodded. "I had a bad feeling about this from the moment we landed. Now Balak wants you all dead. And what Balak wants, Balak gets. I can't change that."

"Not helping." Forge said, making Charn now sweat nervously.

"Look… I can shut this whole shit down right now." Charn offered. "There's some of the crew left over in the main facility but those that are left I can get them to leave here and now."

"And?" Vaughn said expectantly.

"We… will stop doing these slave runs." Charn said. One of the Batarians was about to object when he was shot and killed by Vaughn.

"Balak will get what's coming to him, and so will you if I ever catch whiff of your name involving slaving raids again. Are we clear?" Vaughn threatened in a dangerous tone.

"Perfectly." He tossed him a keycard. "Balak's holed up in the main facility. You'll need that to get in. Don't underestimate him. He's a mean bastard." He nodded to him and turned back to his guards. "Let's go. We're getting off this rock"

"Vaughn." Cutter said in the comms. "This is our chance to convince a Batarian to help us weaken the Hegemony further. I have a proposal for him, repeat after me."

"Wait! Before you go, my superior has an offer for you and your men." Vaughn called out to Charn who looked back

"An offer?"

"Yes." Forge and the rest of the ODST's raised their weapons at them. "An offer."

Charn and his squad shifted uncomfortably at all the guns pointed at them. "I'm listening."

"If you haven't already heard, it ain't looking too good for your people right now. The Anti-Slave faction and their influence is growing everyday with your raids being stopped left and right now. The Hegemony's focus will change from raids to protecting their own colonies. It's only a matter of time before pirates and slavers are gonna be run out of business."

"And your point is?" Charn inquired.

"Sooner or later, the Anti Slave faction will succeed and you guys will be branded as criminals. But that doesn't have to happen."

"What do you mean?"

"The hell do you think we mean?" Forge barked out. "It's simple. Either change what you're doing and help the Anti-Slave faction or spend your life as a real criminal for the rest of your life being hunted by Bounty Hunters that maybe aren't as shitty a being as you guys are."

Charn glared at the marine sergeant yet he wasn't a fool. What these humans had just told him held merit and weight to their words. It was undeniable that the Hegemony's problems were starting to grow at an exponential rate and judging by the trajectory of the rest of the galaxy, the days of slavery were soon about to come crashing down.

This goes against everything he had known and grown up on… but dammit, they were right. It was either change or be killed.

"F-Fine." Charn conceded. "We'll help the anti-slave faction overthrow the Hegemony."

"B-boss are you-"

"SHADDAP!" Charn yelled at his subordinate that spoke up. "I hate that they're right, but they are. It's either we do this or we go to Omega and pray that we don't wind up dead."

The other Batarians though clearly hesitant realized they must go along with this if they wanted to live.

Charn looked back to the ODST's, being unable to hold back a small grin.

"You humans are insane." Charn remarked. "I hope you know that."

"We get that often." Vaughn said dryly. "Now leave. I'm tired of seeing your face."

Charn snorted but departed all the same.

Sunray 1-1 only looked on with Forge grunting in discontentment.

"You can't kill every single alien here, Forge." Atlas said knowingly.

"Really? Do slavers count?" Forge grumbled. "Fucking bastards."

"If they do show their faces around, they went back against their word. They'll get what's coming." Vaughn assured. "Come on, there's only one facility left to deal with."

With that being said, the squad left from the last Fusion Torch base and entered the pelican that was waiting for them.

The pilot flew towards the last facility that needed to be dealt with, Sunray being informed of the chief engineer's crew being found dead by C-squad.

Once more, turrets were used as the main line of defense for this facility and once again they were quickly destroyed by the Pelicans' weaponry.

Exiting the Pelican, Vaughn held up the keycard he was given before flicking it away with Forge stepping up and having Atlas open the door for them.

Passing through the first room they came to an atrium with three levels and bad guys on every one of them.

"Let's get to work, ODST's." Vaughn declared, immediately hefting his rocket launcher on his shoulder and firing at a cluster of Batarians on the second level.

Turpin unleashed Hank who began either firing at other drones, plowing into them or assisting the others as they fought their way through the facility.

Sparks opted to take the stealth route, having his active camo on as he went about sniping Batarians and Varren or sneaking up on them and killing them with his bare hands.

Gruss, Quinn and Vaughn charged forward together, fighting off multiple Batarians and Varren across the second floor while Forge and Turpin were on the third.

It was chaotic to say the least with six fighters(seven if you count Hank the drone) running rampant across the facility with the means in which they killed the Batarians to be exceptionally ruthless.

Gruss and Quinn were gunning down several Varren that ran at them when suddenly a set of rockets that flew in from the other side of the second level blew up in front of Quinn.

The Warrant Officer sailed back through the air, landing hard on her back with a grunt.

"Quinn!" Vaughn skidded over to her side, hefting his SPNKR up and firing at the Batarians on the other side of the Atrium.

Gruss joined the two a moment later, Quinn already groaning as she sat back up.

"I just got the wind knocked out of me." Quinn said with a wince in her tone.

Gruss quickly checked her over with Vaughn providing covering fire.

"Can you stand?" Gruss asked with Quinn nodding.

With Gruss's help, Quinn rose to her feet though she was nursing her arm and back.

"Bruised lower back and possibly sprained and bruised arm." Gruss concluded. "Try not to do anything risky."

Quinn only chuckled in a low manner, feeling the effects of her new injuries yet she forcefully squashed her thoughts on them down and continued to shoot. ODST's were trained to take crazy amounts of pain and endure for the sake of the mission.

Up above, Forge just killed off another Varren when he dived out of the way from a Biotic blast that was aimed at him by a Batarian shock trooper.

"Come out human." The Shock trooper bellowed out. "I will tear that helmet off your face to watch your face as you die."

"Oh yeah." Forge challenged. "Come and get it then, asshole."

The Batarian shock trooper charged forward towards the sound of where he heard Forge's voice.

The marine sergeant popped out from his cover and fired at the Batarian, yet the Batarian threw up a Biotic barrier to withstand the barrage of lead.

Gritting his teeth, Forge knew he would get in close so he opted for his magnum and fists alone.

The Shock Trooper has his Biotics flare around him, fist raised as he prepared to fight this human hand to hand.

Yet…

Something unusual happened.

As soon as he got close to the armored human, his Biotics… they dissipated and vanished.

The Batarians' bewilderment and shock served only in Forge's advantage as the Sergeant decked the Shock Trooper in the face and shot him in the head.

Forge snorted to himself. "Self-aggrandizing douchebag."

The ODST's eventually killed off the last of the Batarians, reconvening at the center of the Atrium on the first floor.

"Any sign of that Balak guy?" Turpin asked.

"Nada." Forge shook his head, looking over to a set of stairs. "Maybe he's deeper inside the facility."

"Looks like the only place we can continue going forward to." Quinn noted with a slightly strained voice.

Before they even reached the stairs a Batarian walked out, bodyguards and a Varren with him. His skin was a green-ish color they hadn't seen on a Batarian before. "You humans," he growled out. They recognized the voice from the radio. This was Balak. "You're almost more trouble than you're worth."

"You must be Balak then." Vaughn assumed.

"Thanks for saving us the trouble of finding you." Forge said chipperly.

Balak only sneered in utter contempt at the soldiers before him.

"Human arrogance at its finest."

"We just killed an entire battalion of you bastards across this rock." Turpin stated. "With only Quinn here getting hurt up until now. I think we've earned the right to be a bit arrogant."

Balak wanted to retort but instead held up what looked like a device of some kind.

"I'm leaving this asteroid. If you try to stop me I'll detonate these charges, and your friends are all going to die." He held up the detonator and he cursed under his breath. If he even dropped that thing the bombs would go off.

"You lowly bastard." Forge snarled. "How fucking depraved do you gotta be to send an asteroid hurtling towards a colony of millions of people!"

That made Balak seethe with rage. "This is nothing! You humans have done far worse to the Batarians. We've been forced into exile, forced to survive on what we can scrounge up, it's been like that for decades."

"Cry me a river you goddamn psychopath." Vaughn retorted angrily. "There's no way in hell we're gonna let you do this."

"These people didn't even do anything to you, why the hell are you doing this?" Quinn pointed out angrily.

The team just needs to buy little more time for Sparks to get into position.

"Didn't do anything! Aside from colonizing a world that could have been ours, aside from using resources that should have been ours! We were left to defend ourselves, but the humans were stronger than us. We knew that the council knew that. But it didn't matter, it was you. You and your kind are the only reason we're in this position." He was a fanatic. A true believer in his cause. Nothing he could say would change his mind. If he wasn't holding that detonator he'd have popped one in his head already.

"Fuck you!" Forge roared. "Your main government is run off of slave profiteering and pirating. You just got what was coming to you after so many years of being a bunch of rotten bastards."

"We had no other option!" the Varren at Balak's side growled menacingly. Vaugh wasn't worried. His squad would be able to take it bare handed if they wanted. "Sometimes you need to get someone's attention before they'll listen."

"Major, in position and waiting."

Vaughn only nodded subtly.

A moment later two shots rang out, one killing the Batarian next to Balak and the other cleaving through his arm.

"AURGH!" Balak bellowed out, clenching the bloody stump of his arm. He looked up in time with his eyes wide with absolute fear as the five ODST's raised their guns and blasted him and the two Varren he had with him away.

"Well… that's that." Turpin remarked however Atlas had something to say on that matter.

"There's still those charges that need to be taken care of, if left unchecked the whole base will go up in flames."

With directions from Atlas, Sergeant Forge disables all the charges.

The bombs were deactivated in a relatively short amount of time.

Kate Bowman and the rest of the hostages were clear and safe now with them coming out to greet the ODST's.

Just in time to, it seemed as Chief Engineer Simon Atwell arrived inside the Atrium.

"Katie." Simon said in relief upon seeing her. "Everyone! Oh thank God you're all ok."

"Simon." Kate said happily, beaming at seeing her boss.

The crew all gathered around the engineer with Simon looking to the ODST's.

"You saved them." Simon said with a joyous tone. "I can't thank you enough for this."

"I thought you were gonna stay someplace safe." Vaughn remarked slyly with his arms crossed.

"I… There might have been something I could have done to help. I thought I should be here. I know this asteroid better than anyone." Simon said determinedly. "But looks like you guys had it handled. You did it, another hour and our course would have been irreversible."

"Just doing our job." Forge said plainly.

"Where's Balak?"

"Over there in a heap of his own blood." Quinn remarked, thumbing over to where his corpse lay. "Sorry bout the mess we left behind with all the bodies."

"Better that then having an asteroid lead to the death of a planet." Kate said darkly with no one disputing her statement.

A thought then occurred to Simon. "Say, you didn't happen to find any of my engineers, did you?"

"Yes, all of them. Their bodies, anyway." Vaughn said simply with Simon and the people they had saved jolting at the bluntness of this information.

"Oh. I- I see. Well, the. I guess it's better than not knowing." Simon said, expression falling before looking back up at them with a grateful look. "Thank you, for my family's lives. I don't think I'll stick around though, not with the team here. Too many ghosts. It's time for me to get back and spend some time with my family."

The ODST's could only nod in understanding.

"Who are you guys anyway?" Kate suddenly asked, making the former hostages all look at her at the sudden question.

"Pardon?" Quinn said.

"I mean, what are you?" Kate clarified. "Are you Alliance?"

"No." Simon frowned in thought. "At the first Fusion Torch, you mentioned a UNSC. What's the UNSC?"

"Nothing to concern yourselves over." Vaughn stated.

"Are you mercenaries?" One of the humans asked.

Sunray 1-1 shook their heads in the negative.

"Then, before I go ...I'd like to offer you all something… maybe you'll have more use for it than I will." Simon spoke up, holding up a key card. "As lead engineer, I get some quality items here. There's a locker room here filled with armors and other weaponry we frankly won't be using for the time being. None of us here are soldiers anyway. Take your pick; you've earned it."

"Appreciated." Quinn said, graciously accepting the offered card.

As the assembled engineers and workers of the Asteroid dispersed around the Atrium, Vaughn noticing Kate Bowman's dejected face as she walked away from the group.

He went over to her with Kate seating herself on a bench that was untouched the whole time the firefight was going down. "Are you alright?"

Kate looked up at the ODST with a few tears streaming down her cheeks. "Yeah, I-I'll be fine."

The Major waited patiently for her to answer properly as she inhaled shakily while clutching the bench tightly.

"I just wish my brother was alive."

Vaughn frowned, thinking on this matter when he recalled that when Kate was taken prisoner by Balak he heard a gunshot in the end. "Your brother was the one Balak killed."

"Yes." There was complete and utter sorrow on her face, and a deeper ache that Vaugh recognized.

"Aaron." She spoke softly. "He was the one who convinced me to join the team here and said it would be an adventure. He was always so stubborn, but always wanted to do the right thing no matter what." Kate opened her mouth to say more, but then closed it as more tears streamed down her face. "I don't mean to sound ungrateful but…"

"I understand." Vaugh said. He had no doubt this young woman would be just fine. It would take some time, but if she was strong enough to have done what she did already, she was strong enough to face what came next.

"You've been through enough today; I'll get out of your way." Vaughn said politely with Bowman giving him an appreciative smile.

"Thank you."

As Vaugh was turning to leave Kate stepped forward.

"I don't even know your name."

He looked at her and simply tipped his head forward. "Major Vaughn of ODST Boomerang Company. UNSC at your service."

"Thank you, Major Vaughn. For everything you did today."

"Save some of that for yourself. That was a brave thing you did, Kate. Contacting us on the radio, risking your life."

"Stubborn and determined runs in the family. My father was in the Alliance, back on Earth. I think he was disappointed none his kids signed up, but he'd be proud of Aaron. Sorry… I just…"

Vaughn was silent, allowing her the time as he was familiar with this sight having seen it all too often.

"It's gonna take some time to get everything back to normal soon enough… almost everything."

"You've been through a lot. I'll get out of your way. So long, Kate."

"I appreciate that Major. I hope to see you again someday." Kate said, walking off to rejoin the other engineers and workers.

"I think our job here is done, Major." Atlas said within his helmet with Vaughn nodding.

"Let's move out, Sunray." Vaughn ordered. "Gruss, here." He tossed her the keycard Simon handed him. "Take someone with you and retrieve whatever they got in those lockers. We'll take it back with us."

The team departed from the atrium, with several of the people they saved giving them their thanks

Gruss and Turpin quickly headed on over to retrieve the armor and weapons from the facility's lockers.

Awaiting them was their pelican, the Pilot giving them a job well done as they sat down and felt the ship fly back to the Spirit of Fire.

The trip was relatively silent for the most part until…

"Hey Atlas." Forge spoke up. "How did the asteroid get all the way over here? Why wasn't someone alerted sooner?"

"From what I was able to tell when I was in the systems, the asteroid was scheduled to arrive in a day or two. Balak just sped it up. The rock is full of valuable minerals, but it was too far from Terra Nova to be profitable. So they attached some fusion rockets to it and drove it back. It was all going smoothly until…"

"Right." Forge leaned back.

"Still, we got ourselves a haul." Sparks pointed out. "Never thought I'd get something like armor and weapons out of a mission."

"Feels like a video game when you mention it." Turpin joked.

Among the armor and weapons were light and heavy armors along with standard issue Alliance grade weaponry. Surprisingly a Quarian armor was among the loot.

"How is this gonna fit us at all?" Quinn asked.

"Maybe one of our new Geth friends may like it." Forge remarked. "Red could maybe use it."

"He's a robot."

"Yeah but he has his own body." Forge countered. "Maybe he could retrofit for himself."

"Meh, whatever." Sparks leaned back in his seat. "I just wanna get back to Autumn and get some grub. I'm starving."

"Here, here." Quinn said in agreement with the rest of Sunray following suit.

"First mission back is saving a colony from an asteroid, the boys back home aren't gonna believe this." Vaughn stated with a grin.

"That's a hell of a way to get back into the action after being asleep for so long." Forge added making the rest let out a few cheers of their own for a job well executed.

And that'd be another one done.

The ODST's have made their debut and the Spirit of Fire finally got to spread its wings again.

The Galaxy is gonna start feeling the presence of the Fire more and more as time goes on.

Hope you guys enjoyed the bloodshed they caused because I was watching a lot of John Wick to get some creative ideas on how they would kill off the Batarians and Varren in this one.

BSX and I have been pretty busy on both our ends with Bullet working on the spinoff of Infinite Wars as well as publishing his own new original crossover between My Hero Academia and the Justice League while I gotta return to some of my neglected stories and working on developing new ones.

Halo Infinite Gameplay was cool but not gonna deny the Doom Eternal feeling I was getting from it, specially with that grappling feature Chief had on him. Like before, lots of questions that hopefully get answered in due time.

BSX: Not gonna lie, I just want to know what the hell happened after Halo 5 and Halo Wars 2. The answers will come in due time. Next up, the Marines are gonna be stepping their boots on the ground.

FMW: Yeah, we plan on utilizing everything the Spirit of Fire has to offer cause we got a ship with a small army at our disposal. It's no fun if we exclusively focus on the Spartans, awesome as they are. And going off of something I said earlier, BSX and I have been busy on other projects with yet another joint story in the works. To say that this next one is bigger than the story we have here… well, that's an understatement.

BSX: Big understatement. With everything going on in the world and such, I just hope everyone is taking care of themselves.

So with all that being said, stay safe everyone. Don't go out and do unnecessary risks and all and hopefully, like before, all this madness blows over and we can return to a semblance of normalcy.

Until then folks.

Rate Read and Review and as Always Have Nice Day.