I know, I know, I should stop starting new stories.

I just can't help it though! I keep getting fun ideas like the UNSC Infinity suddenly, well, falling onto Remnant. This should HOPEFULLY be a shorter story, because I don't plan to drag things out.

Might be a bit of a power-fantasy story by the end, I don't know. All I do know is I'm going to play this a bit like an RTS, Lasky is the main character in his bridge giving orders but not really running into too many people directly.

Chapter 1

"Captain Lasky."

Looking up from the Holotank, Lasky locked his eyes onto the small form of Roland hovering above another projector. "Roland. Any word from the away team?" The AI shook his head. The Infinity had just been reassigned from their original route thanks to information uncovered from a cache found on ONIRF Trevelyan which somehow slipped past initial surveys.

They weren't the first ship to respond to this request, the Valiant-class Carrier 'Spirit of Vengeance' alongside a pair of Paris-class frigates had already investigated the anomaly, but they went radio-silent after making contact. The Infinity was to approach the area, survey and conduct search-and-rescue operations if necessary. Under no circumstance was the primary ship to come within range of the anomaly.

When they arrived, it was a boneyard. The wrecked hulk of the Spirit of Vengeance was floating aimlessly, the engines completely cold. The two frigates had fared far worse. There wasn't even a discernable hulk, just fragments of the ship decks, sheets of armour, and other parts of the ships floating in space. Sweeping the area with sensors was found useless, something blocked their sensors from detecting anything detailed, something which shouldn't have been physically possible.

The Infinity was equipped with the most advanced sensor suite in the galaxy, second only to the Forerunners, owing to the fact that it was derived from tech uncovered on Trevelyan. As such, he authorized the delivery of an away-team, consisting of a squad of Spartan-IVs, as well as doctors Ruiz and Boyd, both of whom had previous experience studying Forerunner artifacts, utilizing a D-79 Pelican to deliver the team onto the hull of the ruined Carrier, where hopefully they would be able to find something, perhaps even just a last scribbled note or recording to tell him what the hell happened.

If they were lucky, they would be able to find someone alive in that ship. But, as with their sensors, as the Pelican exited the ship, static began to build across the connection between Pelican and Infinity, eventually cutting off communications entirely. With their sensors blinded, they couldn't even keep of track of the team aside from visually. And considering how far the Infinity was flying from the artifact, and thus the Spirit of Vengeance, that was extremely difficult. "Captain, energy reading from the Spirit of Vengeance."

Looking towards his Holotank, Lasky observed the hologram as it flickered, then a blue point appeared, denoting a friendly IFF had just switched on. Looking out the window where he could just barely make out the wrecked ship, he sighed in mild relief. "Uhh, Captain...the artifact is doing something." Then stifled a curse. Of course, as soon as one thing went well, another had to kick off.

"Do we have any communication with the away team?" Roland shook his head in the negative. Tapping the side of his console, Lasky frowned. If the artifact was responsible, the away team was going to get ripped apart the same as the ships were. But he couldn't risk flying in there with over 17,000 souls under his command, all for a small squad of SPARTAN IV's, a pair of pilots along with a pair of scientists. "Keep trying, we need to get them out of there." The Infinity shook at that moment. "Roland?"

"I don't know Captain, we just got hit by a wave of gravitational pull originating from...the artifact. Captain, we need to enter slipspace now, or-" Whatever the AI was about to say was cut out when another far more violent gravity-wave hammered against the Infinity, wrenching it sideways, sending Lasky sprawling to the side and landing hard on the bulkhead.

Then, with a flash of light, the Infinity disappeared, leaving only the artifact remaining within a floating field of debris.

"-tain! Captain Lasky!"

Blinking, Lasky shook his head, tapping tentatively on the sie of his head but feeling no blood or damage to his head. Just a nasty headache. "Roland, status report." He bellowed out from his place on the floor, shifting so his back was against the bulkhead. He could tell standing at this moment would just send him back to the floor.

"I...we're not in the same location. Our...Captain, our engines are dead, we're adrift above a planet, slipspace drives are out cold. Current trajectories place us drifting into the gravity well of the planet within...well, now." The ship shuddered slightly. "I've taken the liberty of requesting an ETA on our engines...they say they should cycle back on within a few minutes. RCS systems are also rebooting, shields are offline, the CR-03B's are offline, as are the M2551 MACS. Archers, Rapiers, and Howler weapon systems all non-responsive. That's the bad news. Good news is the M965 Point Defence Network is still online, but running at 47% efficiency. Twelve of the M85 AA Guns are still online, and...all but one of the M97 missile launchers are still online."

Breathing deeply, Lasky hoisted himself up, stumbling to the Holotank and resting his arms on it. "And our sensors?" Roland stopped for a brief moment. "Our sensor suite is now unjammed. Launching Orbital Drones now." Though completely unhearable from the Bridge, Lasky remembered the sound of those drones being fired out of the ship, breathing a sigh of relief. The Orbital Drones would be an immense help if the Infinity was falling planetside. "What's our landing zone look like?"

Roland brought up a new hologram. "It appears we will be landing in open desert. The region rivals the Sahara for size, but-" Roland cut himself off. Looking at the diagram, Lasky waited for the AI to inform him of whatever development just occurred. "Captain, we have unidentified incoming off the port-side, thirty kilometers out and closing at atmospheric speed. Bringing up visual contact now."

A direct-streamed view from one of the many on-board high-resolution cameras showed a swarm of black-coloured creatures flapping their wings and making for the Infinity at a swift pace. Each had a white mask in its face, and they were all colossal by comparison to a bird on earth. "Do they match any known signatures?" Roland shook his head. "Then authorize the M85 Scythes to engage if they get within 10 kilometers without responses, and line up targetting solutions for the Point-Defence Network." Roland nodded once and disappeared, leaving Lasky alone to look out the window.

He made to approach it, but the ship shuddered again. "Roland?" The disembodied voice of Roland, as he had no need to bring himself there visually, spoke with him. "We appear to have just run through the other end of some kind of massive barrier around this world. Our engines were just forcibly cycled without our engineers performing any actions. Preliminary observations suggest this barrier was the cause of our engines being disabled."

Looking upwards towards the sky, Lasky hummed, taking note of the fact that something had shattered the moon of this world. In the distance, he could hear one of the M85 Scythes opening up with a single 102mm shell, quickly being matched by other cannons as the unidentified targets approached the ship. "Captain Lasky, targets aren't responding to warning shots."

While he didn't like it, he knew that keeping the Infinity safe was more important than avoiding any possible kind of misunderstanding. "Shoot to kill." Immediately the CIWS systems lining the Infinity, a mesh of 20mm, 40mm, 70mm and 102mm shells being blasted out towards the unsuspecting creatures. Within a few seconds, the rounds started hitting their targets, clearing the skies with a single short volley of rounds. Further back, giant plumes of sand were kicked up from the onslaught of rounds landing. "All targets destroyed Captain Lasky."

"Can we stay airborne?" Roland made to shake his head, but then stopped, evidently consulting some of the numerous sensors on the ship. "RCS won't be enough to keep us airborne, Captain. However, if we were to activate the secondary repulsor engines with aid from the Huragok to overclock them slightly, we should be able to maintain altitude." He thought for a moment. "Do it."

Immediately he could feel their descent slow drastically as the two Covenant-based engines switched on, taking much of the immense mass the Infinity was made up from. Shortly after, he felt the jetting of RCS systems providing course corrections and slowing their descent massively. "Captain, the engines will not be ready to stop us from impacting. At this rate, the damage to the Infinity will be negligible, but will open us up to ground assault until we can get airborne." Nodding, Lasky turned away from the window and looked towards the form of Roland. "Get a battalion of marines ready for ground defence operations, prep a Firebase for drop, and get a squadron of Broadswords flying reconnaissance of the area. Coordinate them with the Orbital Drones for fire support if the ground troops need it. And open my comms ship-wide."

Roland did so, nodding once with his thumb down for a few moments, then giving him a thumbs up. "This is Captain Lasky. We have run afoul of a Forerunner artifact and are now on an unknown, uncharted world. We have already taken measures to defend the ship from possible hostile incursion. I will not lie to any of you, I do not know where we are, what we are going to face, or if we are going to get home soon, or at all. But I'll be damned if we don't give it our best shot. Roland will be giving orders to some of you. We are attempting to bring the ship back to full operations, but for at least a short period, we will be making landfall. Whilst on the ground, the ship will be vulnerable to incursions, so we need boots on the ground to help repel any hostile forces." Taking a breath, he finished. "We're going to be landside imminently. All hands, prepare for impact."

Before they hit the ground, Roland dropped the pre-fabricated Firebase, the metal construct flaring in-built RCS systems to guide it to a suitable landing zone in the desert beneath them close to the Infinity's LZ. A few moments after the Firebase selected a location, the Infinity began scraping sand, bleeding downwards momentum in favour of horizontal, which left it scoring a giant line in the sand before the immense weight of the ship arrested its momentum. "Roland, damage report."

A wireframe model of the Infinity appeared, some marks of red on the underside, but near-all the ship was still in a plain blue. "The underside armour of the ship has taken light damage, and one of the main RCS thruster groups has gone offline, but overall, damage is within projections. Firebase Alpha is within a half-kilometer of the ship, and all aircraft ports are uncovered."

Of course, since they were on the underside of the ship, all ten Strident-class heavy frigates were trapped within the ship, but that was a problem for the future. "Have a squad of SPARTAN IV's join the ground party. Any sign of the Away Team, did they come through with us?" "Unknown Captain Lasky. Our sensors have picked up settlements and aircraft on this planet, but none match any known habitation or aircraft designs. I shall inform you if any evidence of the Away Team or their Pelican is uncovered." Nodding once, Lasky turned his attention to the side of the ship.

"Deploy the marines."

On the surface of Remnant, one man was stood in his tower, overseeing humanity as it lived.

Taking a sip from his mug, he turned away from the pleasant view of the city of Vale, to be met by a far less pleasant scene. "James, I agree that we cannot leave this event uninvestigated. But sending Atlesian Battleships is an unnecessary display of military might. This is not the way to go about this." Meeting the firm gaze of his associate, Ozpin did not falter. "Vacuo has asked for aid in dealing with whatever anomaly has appeared within their lands, and a team of Huntsmen would be the best for this situation."

James Ironwood, General of the Atlesian Military, seemed far less inclined to believe him. "Exactly. Vacuo has asked for aid, and Atlas will give it. Three Battleships are already en-route via Sumire. Whatever this threat is, Salem, White Fang or otherwise, we will meet it with an iron fist." Refusing his natural urge to pinch his nose at how militaristic his old ally was after his injury, Ozpin took another sip of his beverage.

Vacuo was unfortunately vague about what exactly they needed aid with. Then again, with how lawless their Kingdom was, it was lucky that they even managed to call for aid. "Well James, I suppose as long as your Battleships do not adopt a shoot-first ask-later approach, I shall simply have to be alright with that." Ozpin knew when he had a weak bargaining position, and James knew it as well. "Though I will be sending a team from Beacon to Vacuo to investigate."

James frowned. "I'm sure my ships will be able to handle this." Smiling behind his mug, Ozpin shrugged.

"We shall see."

"Captain, one of the Swordfish have spotted more hostiles approaching from the north."

"Bring up a real-time camera feed." Doing so swiftly, Lasky observed the swarm of creatures currently blasting their way across the desert at a breakneck pace. "Alert the Firebase, I want guns trained on that bearing. have the M202's been fitted with rotary cannons yet?" Roland shook his head. "We'll just make do then. Bring half the Broadswords back for CAS tasking, and get those CIWS online and tracking." His orders given, Lasky turned his attention back to the beasts they were fighting.

Much like the aerial flock earlier, the creatures were purely black and white, each having a mask covering their faces. There were several species of animal, all in some way resembling animals native to earth. The bulk of the pack were made up of creatures running on four legs, some far larger and more hulking than their smaller counterparts. Then there were two-legged creatures, snakes, and a variety of other types of creature.

Muttering an order, Lasky observed the situation from the perspective of an M202 Stationary Weapons Platform, one of the few built around the Firebase. So far the only thing visible for the troops in the base was the giant dust-cloud the swarm was kicking up in their frenzied rush. "Roland, are any of the Mark 2551's online?" The AI responded in the affirmative. "Can we direct-fire on those targets?"

"Affirmative Captain Lasky. They will be engageable until they get to within ten kilometres. After that, the gun won't be able to depress far enough to engage." "Do we have a probaability for those contacts not being hostile?" Roland chuckled. "Highly improbable Captain Lasky." Nodding once, he closed his eyes. "Fire one round."

The ship rocked ever so slightly from the firing of a 25cm ferric-tungsten hyperdense slug at a hair under 30 kilometers a second. The impact was far more noticeable than the firing however, the ground beneath the ship itself shaking as the immensely-dense shell slammed into the ground with a force well over 5 million newtons. "Survivor count?"

"Only a few stragglers on the outskirts of the impact site Captain Lasky. The pressure wave of the impact ruptured the internals of all targets within the blast radius. Though, it's curious, the corpses of the fallen are disintegrating into absolutely nothing." Lasky felt his eyebrows raise in unconscious surprise. Confirmed, all corpses have already disappeared, no evidence remains of their presence aside from recorded data."

"Make sure you keep those marines away from contact. If they can disappear upon death, I don't want to know if they have any other tricks up their sleeves. I want a fifteen-kilometer exclusion zone set up and marked around the Infinity in as many languages as we can. Get me eyes on those settlements, we need to know what-" Roland interrupted Lasky by bringing up a live-feed from one of the drones orbiting the planet. "Are you sure this planet matches absolutely no registered planets Roland? Not even Insurrectionist-held or lost?"

"Ship logs have no recorded data on this planet, nor the shattered moon. The star systems briefly recorded by sensors also do not match any known star-charts." Palming his chin, Lasky leaned in, enlarging the image and thinking. They were definitely humans, or extremely close to humans, in appearance. They acted like humans, walked, they even had moving vehicles. Ergo, they were probably human. "Maybe we entered a Forerunner shield-dimension of some kind?"

"Possible. Without sufficient data however, there is no way to know for sure." Roland then brought to his attention a specific point of the satellite images, zooming in to reveal one of the humanoids holding a handheld device. "However, it is probable that these humanoids are in fact of the same species and have been influenced by human society in some regard." The device was plainly English, the words inconsequential in the face of the fact that they were using the exact same written language.

"For now, we'll hold off on making contact until we're fully established. What's the progress on the overclock for the XR2's?" Roland brought up a readout of the repulsor engines. "The Huragok have managed to produce an increase of 7% output. When the engineering crew assigned to the malfunctioning RCS system report completion, we should be able to generate enough thrust to gain altitude. However, we have an operational ceiling of approximately 240 kilometres. Thanks to a breakthrough by Doctor Rivera, we were able to calculate the size of the barrier, as well as analyze exactly what it did to the ship."

A diagram of the planet was brought up over the Holotank, then above the surface a large spherical block appeared, denoting the area of the barrier. "This region of space was responsible for our engine issues." A section flashed red. "However, when we entered this region, our engines were simply cold, which was when the order was given to restart them. A few dozen kilometers down-" Another portion flashed. "-our engines cycled on their own. We theorize that entering this region will leave us fully operational, but going beyond 240km over the surface of the planet will enter us into a dead-zone, where our engines will cycle off."

Shaking his head, Lasky got to work. He first requested an ETA on the completion of repairs to the faulty RCS system, then moved on to begin recalling non-essential personnel from the Fire-base on the surface. The structure itself was left active, an area-denial system and pre-established base if the Infinity needed to land here again. As he began making plans for approaching one of the settlements, Roland chimed in. "Sir, we have...nearly three dozen unidentified radar contacts closing at flank speed, a hundred kilometres out."

"On table." A group of holograms appeared, three oddly-shaped vessels being escorted by a group of straight-winged small aircraft. "Are they hostile?" "Unknown Captain." They haven-" Roland stopped for a brief moment. "Comms just reported a wide-band transmission emanating from the central vessel." Peering closely at the ship, Lasky announced clearly. "Let's hear it."

A crackle came through the table before he heard the voice of a male, he sounded perfectly human, evidently a military man from his tone. "Unidentified...vessel, you are in Vacuo territory. State your intent or we shall be forced to use deadly force." Clearing his throat, he gave a single nod to Roland, who opened comms with the other ship. Or rather, broadcasted in much the same manner, presuming that if they were sending messages in such a way, they could also receive them.

"Approaching craft, this is Captain Lasky of the UNSC Infinity. Our intent is not hostile. However, we will protect our vessel from foreign intrusion. Respect our temporary exclusion zone or you will be fired upon. We do not intend an engagement, but attempts to breach our perimeter will be met with swift force, copy?" The comms were silent for a few moments, before the mans voice came through, far clearer this time, from using a single communication band, rather than wide-spectrum.

"I am General Ironwood of the Atlesian Military. You are violating the territory of the Vacuan government. You will submit to lawful detainment for trespassing on Vacuan lands and establishing a forward operating base, or you will be treated as hostile." Grimacing, Lasky considered his options. Evidently this General Ironwood was a by-the-book soldier. The Infinity had probably broken more than a few laws by crash-landing in the middle of this desert, even if it seemed worthless, and he wanted a piece of the pie from their ship.

He really didn't want to start an engagement with forces he knew nothing about, not to mention it would probably be seen as an act of war against the Kingdom of Vacuo and whatever other Kingdoms existed on the planet. But just fleeing would also put the Infinity in a tight spot. "We will not be submitting to detainment for our actions, as they were out of our own control." Being the direct man that he was, Lasky pressed on. "And this transparent attempt to glean information from us will not be forgotten General Ironwood. The UNSC Infinity will be departing from this area imminently once our engines have been fully cycled. I would recommend that you do not undertake hostile actions or we shall be forced to respond in kind and in full. We would like to have peaceful relations with the inhabitants of this planet, but if pressed, we shall undertake our tasks alone."

Cutting the comms off, Lasky leaned down. He was a military man, he knew how to command soldiers, how to deploy Pelicans who might never come back. But actually speaking with another about things like whether they broke the law or why they shouldn't be fighting was never his strong suit. Give him an MA5 and a grunt to shoot over trying to establish a dialogue with antagonistic opposing commanders any day. "Are we ready to go Roland?" The AI nodded once.

"Then let's move."

Ironwood watched the colossal vessel keenly, his ears picking up on yelled reports from different crew members and easily compartmentalizing it.

The commander of that vessel, Captain Lasky, had done little to ease his concerns. A five-kilometre-long ship appears out of nowhere in the middle of the Vacuan desert, with nobody knowing where the hell it even came from. It definitely didn't seem like some sort of ploy by Salem, even she wouldn't be able to make something of that size in secret.

The way he spoke though made clear to the seasoned General that he was confident in his ability to protect himself and his crew. From just how massive the ship was, and the clear protrusions along the hull of countless gun emplacements, Ironwood didn't doubt that if they ventured into engagement range, his ships would be ripped apart. But he couldn't just turn around and leave, that would make Atlas look weak, cowardly. Looking down at the scroll in his hands, Ironwood swallowed his pride and made a single call.

"Ahh, James, a pleasure." Ozpin's face, devoid of any audible smugness, appeared on the device. "What can I do for you?" Thankful that for once Ozpin cut straight to the chase, Ironwood began explaining the situation.

"It wasn't a Grimm in Vacuo. We don't know where it came from, or who its allegiance lies with, but a ship longer than Vale just appeared in the middle of the desert. They've already responded with blunt refusal to us in regards to their trespassing on Vacuan lands. Much as it pains me to admit it, I believe your Huntsman may stand a better chance of at least gaining an..." Ironwood trailed off, looking out his bridge windows.

"James?" Ozpin asked over the scroll connection. Turning the device around, he showed Ozpin just what he was looking at. "My word." The ship was lifting off the ground, a vessel larger by far than Amity Colosseum, without any clear indication of dust being used. The sheer size of the ship was astounding, and the fact that it was rising up under its own strength was incredibly surprising.

"Sir, Grimm sighted off the port bow of the vessel." One of his bridge officers called over at Ironwood, his screen revealing several dozen Wyverns alongside a murder of Nevermore flying towards the ship. The ship continued its ascent, clear of the sand beneath itself, then the large engines at the rear fired up, great cones of flame erupting out of the thrusters and forcing the ship forwards at an alarming increase of velocity. Before Ironwood could even give an order, the ship was reaching speeds faster than a Bullhead, climbing higher than the maximum operational altitude for even his sturdiest Battleship. Ozpin could be heard taking a sip from his mug through the screen.

"Well, this is an interesting development."

Like I said at the start, this SHOULD be a short story, because I want to basically just write about the UNSC Infinity blasting Grimm with superior firepower.

...Spartan Ops Episode one is awesome, hush. Watching those Strident-class Frigates dropping out, then watching the Pelicans diving off the hangar sides and through the Covenant...awesomeness.