*Kicks in door and a marching band enters along with author*

Fuck yeah! I'm done with highschool! After a grueling several weeks and many a tear being shed by fellow classmates and slowly dying in a very hot and creepy basement (a floor below the stage) waiting for graduation to start, I am done! Also in summer vacation, so time! But, college is looming so that means lots of paperwork and tests. Damn it. I swear, they're making it so much harder than it needs to be.

But! You didn't come here to read my life story, you're here to read about this story! So, without further ado, to the reviewer wall!

(PS: If you see any errors, hit me up in review or PM, I read them all. I did all this myself, no beta so any errors are mine.)

Ozzie93: Said this in ch. 3, but I was on a ME reading trip through FF when I wrote the first chapter, so lots of Commanders everywhere and it leaked into my writing. For the background… Well…. All I can say is that stories tend to have a life of their own. I originally wanted to write the background in ch. 2. But obviously that didn't happen. It's happened to a lot of different authors too, it's unfortunate, but it happens. The fact that they don't exactly have time for a chat by the fireplace also doesn't help.

PhillyCh3zSt3ak: Things are going to happen differently in this fic, the Flood will make an appearance, but they'll be dealt with differently.

S.O.L: Kurama is a bit proud of the fact he is a demon, the most powerful of the nine notwithstanding.

HolyKnight5: Again, wanted to put in background info, or at least more of it, back in ch. 2, but obviously that didn't happen. Add in the fact that they don't have time to just sit down and chat about history doesn't help. Don't know exactly when I'll be able to put in the info, but for now, take it as an interesting mystery.

Also, wow. Your theory is pretty bloody close to what how I'm setting it as. But I won't say more than that.

Others: Thanks also to everyone else who said they liked the story, helps to keep me motivated to make time (as little there was before) and try to write some more for this story down. And well writing in general.

Disclaimer is back in ch. 1. Blah blah blah. You get the point.

"Normal speech"

'Radio'

"Demon, Bijuu, other supernatural beings"

24.7.2552 UNSC Calendar

Earth, Sol System, Inner Colonies

UNSC Planetary Defense Line

The CSO-class Supercarrier, the epitome of the Covenant Navy, is a might to behold. At the length of 27 to 29 kilometers with a width of 11.4 kilometers and armed with at the very least seven energy projectors, countless plasma turrets and pulse laser turrets, these titanic vessels are capable of taking on entire fleets and coming out the victor and can be considered the strongest non-Forerunner vessel ever created in the known galaxy. One of these vessels, the Triumphant Reverence, flagship of the Fleet of Furious Redemption, glistened in the sunlight coming from Sol as it charged its numerous energy projectors as it aimed towards the human fleet protecting Earth.

A few moments later, with the projectors ready to fire it finished aiming towards a cluster of Paris-class Frigates. Right before it could fire, a blindingly bright lance of blue energy crashed against it's shields, the shields itself holding for a split second before the lance speared right through the main bulbous head of the vessel, igniting the pent up energy and caused the mighty vessel to ignite in a brilliant explosion taking out several nearby CCS-Class Battlecruisers at the same time.

"Target destroyed, time till particle lance ready to fire at 45 seconds." Miyamoto reported.

Shikadai glanced at the battle map, "Keep picking off their supercarriers until they are all destroyed then move onto the assault carriers, the UNSC can handle the smaller vessels." The ship rocked noticeably as a plasma torpedo from a nearby battlecruiser hit.

"Shields down to 87% sir!"

Shikadai frowned, 'Damn it, no matter how much technologically better we are enough hits will still whittle down our shields before long. An ant can still beat a scorpion if there are enough ants.' He glanced at Miyamoto, "Do what you can to keep our shields up, redirect power from noncombat critical systems if need be."

"Very well Commander, redirecting power from noncombat critical systems to supplement our shields."

"This ship isn't designed for mainline fighting, all we can do is survive and take out as many of them as possible. Let's hope our reinforcements can get here fast enough or we're all dead."

Some time earlier…

"Lord Hood, I'll be deferring to your orders while we're here, where do you want us?" Shikadai asked.

"Very well. In that case…" Hood glanced outside of the frame, presumably to a map of the space battle nearby, "I'll have your ship shore up the main defense line, the Covenant is concentrating their Super Carriers there and while we can do damage, we can't deal them out fast enough to stop those things from breaking our lines. Sending you the coordinates now."

"Copy that Fleet Admiral, coordinates received. We'll hold the line. Nara out." Shikadai nodded to Hood before closing the channel, before he began relaying orders to his bridge crew, "Helm, plot heading to Alpha - Tango - 04557 by Charlie - Hotel - 34261, set speed to max sublight. Shields and Weapons prepare for combat, we are now at Code Red. Repeat, we are at Code Red on Combat Readiness. Weapons, I want you to specifically target their supercarriers, they're our biggest problem right now, use the particle lance since it's our biggest weapon in our arsenal and we need those things gone yesterday."

He took a breath after relaying his orders before sagging slightly into his seat, "Ah… This is so troublesome… Guess Lord Hokage's crap luck at missions is still holding up after all this time."

Miyamoto chuckled, "Yes, the Lord Hokage has had rather bad luck in his missions. Remember the time he told you about his first C-rank mission and how it turned into an A-rank?"

"Yeah… Of all the people who would meet he met the A-rank nuke nin Momochi Zabuza of the Bloody Mist and his apprentice." He smiled slightly, remembering the time Naruto recounted some of his adventures in his younger years before he was broken from his reminiscing from the officer at the Helm.

"Captain, ETA 30 seconds till arrival."

"Right. Warm up everything we got. This is going to be a tough fight, even if we are technologically more advanced."

Present…

"Arm slipspace missile blocks C through E, target Covenant battlecruisers 18 through 25 in sector 5!" Shikadai looked back towards a map of the battle, so far they've destroyed two of the five supercarriers with their particle lance, 17 CCS-Class Battlecruisers and 8 CAS-Class Assault Carriers through the use of their particle cannons, hard light lances, and slipspace missiles, along with a number of smaller classes. But at the same time, the UNSC lost at least 12 frigate packs and a good number of their cruisers while taking their pound of flesh from the Covenant. Still, the Curiosity had the largest kill count so far.

"Captain! Large group of Covenant space fighters and gunships are breaking off and heading towards the ODPs!"

'Damn it!' He looked at the map for a second as he weighed his options, "Take fighter flights 3 through 7 from their sectors and have them intercept and respread our fighter screen to cover their absence." The battle was going relatively well so far, but the Covenant still has a considerable number advantage over them.

"Sir! A number of battlecruisers just broke through on our right flank! The UNSC ships there are gone and we got orders from Fleet Admiral Hood to stop them!"

"Very well. Miyamoto, plot a micro jump right behind those ships. Weapons, charge hard light lances."

"Plotting micro jump now. ALERT to all crew, prepare for micro slipspace jump! Micro jump in 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. MARK." Right as he said mark, the ship cut open a slipspace rupture in front of it, and the ship slipped into it, the portal closing behind it. A scant second later a slipspace portal opened up behind the Covenant ships gunning their engines towards earth and the Curiosity quickly came out guns blazing. Hard light lances fired from their batteries and slammed into all the ships except for one, the beams breaking the shields and melting through the hull into critical systems causing each ship to explode.

The surviving battlecruiser, the moment it saw the portal opening, dove below the battle plane and evaded the hard light beam that would have destroyed it. Firing back, the plasma torpedoes raced through space and slammed into the Curiosity's shields quickly enough that it couldn't enact evasive maneuvers due to the knife-fighting range the two ships were in.

The shields held and the SU vessel fired it's particle cannons at the battlecruiser whose shields, unfortunately for them, didn't hold up under the assault and popped, allowing the particle rounds to slam into the ship's hull, burrowing through the armor and into it's guts causing it to blow up.

"Call Hood, tell him we took care of the battlecruisers and to restask some ships to cover this flank. We're staying here until those ships arrive."

"Affirmative, sending package now." The Comms. Officer replied.

"Captain! We got a supercarrier and some more battlecruisers bearing down on our position!" The Sensors Officer called out.

"Miyamoto, tell me that the particle lance is recharged…"

"It is. Target the supercarrier with the particle lance?"

"Yes, same as usual. Fire slipspace missiles F through G on the battlecruisers. What is the status of our shields?"

Miyamoto glanced at Shikadai, "It is holding currently at fifty percent and recharging at a rate of two percent every minute."

"Alright, do it."

The Curiosity reoriented so that the spinal mounted particle lance was aimed towards the looming supercarrier as weapon went through it's firing sequence. Unfortunately, the super carrier fired one of it's energy projectors before the Curiosity could fire. The energy projector reached the ship in less than a second and slammed into the golden hexagonal shield surrounding it and knocking the ship off course by several kilometers.

"Miyamoto! Status on our shields!" Shikadai yelled out as he held on to his chair as the ship shuddered hard.

"Shields are holding at 33%. We can take one more shot like that but no more after." He replied.

"Incoming plasma torpedoes!"

"Micro jump us above them! Orient us to come out with our particle lance pointing at that supercarrier and our slipspace missiles firing at it as well! Have our particle cannons targeting half the battlecruisers and our hard light lances the other half!"

"Micro jump in progress! Brace!" Miyamoto said as the ship slipped into the opened portal in front of it, dodging the incoming plasma torpedoes before coming out of the portal right above the supercarrier.

The Curiosity let loose it's particle lance the moment it came out of the 11th dimension of slipspace, giving back what the supercarrier gave with a vengeance as it's other armaments targeted and fired on the escorting battlecruisers. The particle lance hit the large bulbous head, breaking the shield and penetrating through the hull and out the other side causing secondary explosions to rock the ship, but was still combat-able. The slipspace missiles rocketed out of their hold and entered into slipspace portals that took them inside the massive ship and exploded, taking everything and everyone in their blast radius into the 11th dimension to either die when supplies ran out or the deadly forces that pervade the realm.

The particle cannons opened fire a second after the particle lance fired, the rounds racing through space and slamming into the battlecruisers to the same effect as their earlier brethren, that is having their shields popped and the rounds burrowing into their hull and causing them to explode. The hard light lances though, unlike before where they merely speared into ship's hulls, this time the lances moved across the ship, carving them into a number of pieces as debris and bodies was sucked out into space.

"Supercarrier and the eight escorting battlecruisers destroyed Captain. That makes it three supercarriers and thirty-one battlecruisers along with eight assault carriers and a number of smaller classes." Miyamoto reported as the ship moved silently in space through the debris field of the destroyed Covenant vessels, some of the debris actually being pushed out of the way by the shields.

"Give me a status report of the ship." Shikadai ordered as he leaned forward in his chair and eyeing the constantly changing battle map.

Miyamoto glanced at him from the corner of his eye, "Missiles down to 48% available ordnance. Shields are currently holding at 38% but the debris field isn't helping it recharge. We have some minor damage to some electronics on the areas where that energy projector hit our shields but the Huragoks and repair drones are taking care of it, should be done in a few minutes. Power levels are stable and no casualties reported, killed or wounded. All systems and sections reporting in green and waiting for your orders."

"Incoming communication from Fleet Admiral Hood Captain." The comms. officer called out, pushing some buttons and putting it on screen.

Lord Hood came on the main screen, looking more haggard than he was earlier. "Before I say anything else Captain, I would like to thank you and your crew for what you've done so far. I can say without a doubt things wouldn't be going as smoothly as it has so far without your help."

Shikadai nodded, "No problem Fleet Admiral."

"But the Covenant don't look like they're about to throw in the towel yet, despite losing three of their supercarriers to you already. I'm retasking some frigate wolf packs and cruisers to hold your position and they should be arriving soon. Till then, you'll hold that flank before you can re-" Hood's comm. line blinked off the main screen as static began filling the comm line instead.

"Captain, we lost contact with Fleet Admiral Hood." The comms. Officer said, "Attempting to reestablish contact now…."

"Captain! We're picking up Forerunner signals on Earth's surface along with a large Slipspace portal above the city of Voi! Nearby Covenant vessels along with the Forerunner Dreadnaught in their possession is running into the portal. All other Covenant vessels are still in system and fighting the UNSC fleet." The Sensors officer reported.

"Communications with Fleet Admiral Hood has been achieved, putting him on the main screen." Hood reappeared on the main screen, several cuts on his face and his uniform crumpled up along with various crewmen behind him running to and fro.

Shikadai raised his eyebrows in surprise, "Sir, what happened? We lost communications with you just now and we're detecting Forerunner signals on the surface of Earth near Voi."

"Wait one Captain, we've *cough* lost contact with our forces on the ground, we are trying to reestablish contact now."

"Fleet Admiral! Contact established with the Master Chief and Commander Keyes." Said an offscreen comms. officer. The Chief and Keyes then joined the line.

Hood fell into a fit of coughing for a second before he spoke again, "What did Truth just do?! *Cough* Did he just activate the rings?!"

Then a female voice, which Shikadai assumed was Commander Keyes, spoke, "No sir, but he certainly did something…"

"Evac wounded and regroup. Wherever Truth went-"

"Sir, new contact slippin' in." A sensors officer said from aboard the Cairo.

"Captain! Flood biosignature detected coming from that new contact! I repeat: Flood biosignature detected on Earth!" The sensors officer on Shikadai's bridge crew reported to their shock.

"Captain Nara, you've fought the Flood before?" Hood asked.

Shikada sighed, "Not me personally, but the Shinobi Union has. We've discovered several Forerunner installations already including Installation 01, which would be one of the Halos the Forerunners built. The ring was almost lost when a Flood outbreak happened when a previously unknown Gravemind, which we believed was hiding, broke out of their containment. We managed to contain the outbreak with the help of the ring's monitor, but we lost a lot of people, right Lord Hokage?"

Naruto then spoke up for the first time in the conversation, "Yes. We did, we lost entire companies to them before we got smart. This was a few years the Kaguya Incident which allowed us to travel to the stars so not all of our troops was fully outfitted with Forerunner equivalent weapons and equipment since it was so advanced. It wasn't before we found their weakness with fire and changed our tactics did we finally got any headway in dealing with them."

"Either way," Keyes started, "That Flood ship landed in Voi, it's spreading all over the entire city."

"How do we contain it." Hood flatly asked towards no one in particular.

"Find the crashed Flood ship, overload it's engine core. We either destroy the city, or risk losing the entire planet."

"Do it." Hood ordered with not a second's hesitation.

"Chief, make your way to the crash site." Keyes ordered.

"My men and I will join him. We can't let the Flood get beachhead in this city, or it'll be increasingly difficult to dislodge them." Naruto said seriously, "Captain Nara, pull any troops on Earth that can be spared and transport them to around the city, we have to cordon off any path out of the city and prep your ship for cleansing operations."

"Cleansing operations?" Hood asked.

"What you would call glassing, the best way we found so far to deal with massive amounts of Flood. The best you can do would be using your nuclear arsenal, but that results in deadly radiation which I doubt you would want on your home planet and the missiles can be shot down." Shikadai explained.

"New contacts above Voi! IFF says they're Covenant Separatists!" The sensors officer aboard the Cairo cried out. "Picking up a message on all bands, it's from the assault carrier in the center!

"Hail Humans and take heed. This is the carrier Shadow of Intent. Clear this sector while we deal with the Flood."

"Damn it. This can be both a good thing and a bad thing. Chief, heads up. You're about to get help from the Elites. " Hood warned.

"Fleet Admiral," Shikadai started, "The ships you sent just arrived, we're heading back to the main defensive line."

"Very well Captain. The sooner those Covenant ships get dealt with, the faster we can deal with the Flood. Hood out." Hood blinked off the main screen and Shikadai sighed once more.

"Helm, move us back to our old position. Miyamoto, do what you can to replenish our shields as much as possible before we get there. Weapons, rearm and charge our weapons. Let's finish this."

So. Space battle. How'd I do? First one I ever wrote so wouldn't mind your guy's thoughts. I'm updating my stories now it's summer so you guys can expect more updates to my other stories if you read them. Have a nice summer guys, I sure as hell will!

Review! Review!