Ashes to Ashes: Well, as promised (And in some ways forced) , here is a sequel to The Legend of Roland. If you haven't read LoR, yet, I would highly encourage you to do so before starting this. s/9852979/1/The-Safety-of-the-Dark This book is going to be coming out a lot slower than my last one, but I hope to have it done before next semester.

Avatar the Legend of Korra and the Halo universe are copyrighted by their owners. I own nothing except the idea to put them together…

Chapter One – September 2552

Former UNSC Cruiser Iliad

"Cap'n, got at least three dozen Covie ships coming out of slipspace." A young helmsmen spoke to his captain with concern. Their raiding party of fifteen frigates and one cruiser would be no match against Covenant Carriers and Cruisers.

The Captain monitored his display with concern. "Have they noticed us?" He asked.

A fair looking woman spoke from his left. Jordan Kyles manned the electronics for the bridge. "They have us pinged sir. Two Cruisers are breaking off and headed this way." She tapped on her counsel furiously. "Plasma lines are charging Captain…" She gulped with concern.

Captain wasn't a good term for Ethan Streks. He was a middle aged man with a greying hairline. Never married due to his life style and the man was not a member of the UNSC, but instead was an Insurrectionist. His fleet had been preparing to raid the UNSC facilities on Coral, and ten minutes later, they would have been in a full assault. Now Streks watched as plasma lit up the darkness of space, completely obliterating the trio of UNSC ships on station.

Streks pirate like life style told him that this wasn't his fight at all. Let the sharks have their prey, he could come back later for the remains. "Helmsman, prepare a slipspace jump to get us out of here and have the fleet follow."

The young man turned to face his leader. "Sir, the A.I. is off line for maintenance. We could all be killed!"

"Did I ask for your backtalk?" Streks hissed. "Punch in the numbers and get us out of here or we're all fried."

"Something fired!" Jordan cried. Her terminal flickered, but nothing seemed to happen. Suddenly, it picked up incoming plasma. "One, no two torpedoes inbound!"

"Anyday now!" The Captain shouted, pushing the odd electrical occurrence out of his mind.

The young helmsman closed his eyes as he punched the random vector into the slipspace drive. He cracked his eyes and saw the fierce plasma starting to fill the view screen as his stomach lurched into his throat from the acceleration. He screwed his eyes shut and held them for several moments.

"Good. Now hopefully they won't follow us." Streks relaxed back in his chair. His ships had the firepower and manpower of a UNSC assault group, but he had no glory to earn by fighting the Covenant. "Kyles, wake me when we are preparing for reentry." Streks said as he stood.

"Yes sir." She nodded.

The Captain left the bridge and wandered through his vessel. He kept the ships clean and almost too military regulation, but that was for discipline more than anything else. Rabble didn't fight well. As he entered his cabin, his first mate awaited him in full battle gear.

"So, no run?" The burly bald man asked.

Streks shook his head. "Too many Covenant, Carr. We'll stay low for a bit, then go back and check it out."

The man nodded. "Want me to take the bridge?"

Streks stretched and nodded as Carr turned to leave. "Wait, one thing. Any news about those thirty helljumpers? They willing to fight for us yet?"

Carr shook his head. "We have tried everything, but they are to set in their ways."

"We may be finished with them soon then." Streks sat down as his desk and removed a bottle of Vodka from the bottom drawer.

"We also had a man stealing rations." Carr added.

Streks raised his eyebrow in question. "One of our own?"

"Yeah, one of the newer guys."

"Flush him. Make him an example to the others." He took a swig from the bottle. "Have those Shock Troopers watch to. Maybe that'll help lighten their mood." Streks ran a dictatorship aboard his ships. Each Captain was hand selected and reported only to him. The slightest hint of disloyalty and entire parts of the crew might be eliminated. Not a pleasant sight, but it was how things worked.

Carr nodded and left the room, leaving Streks to his thoughts. In the hold of his ship, he held thirty ODST shock troopers. These men had been his prisoners for nearly a week now. They had assaulted his ship with nearly twenty more, but his men and the electric defenses dropped them. The others had been killed or left for dead, but these thirty could be of great use, if he could just get them to realize the UNSC was the bad guy here. Finally, he dozed in his chair dreaming of how great it would be to rule a world of his very own instead of relying on the scraps of others.

Avatar World

Roland's eyes cracked open underneath the dozens of blankets to see the pale whiteness of the inside of an igloo. He shivered slightly and wrapped himself tighter, quietly cursing the cold and the woman who dragged him here. If the Spartan III had one thing he despised, it was cold, and the South Pole had plenty of it.

Now mind you, Roland had been here once before, but there had been more pressing matters on his mind, such as Korra's lack of bending, her suicidal behavior, and a jealous guard that had occupied his thoughts, now all he could do was shiver.

"Are you awake yet?" Korra asked from the other side of the room.

The Spartan flopped around a bit until he could manage to roll over and look the other way. Through the crack in the blankets, he observed that she was already dressed and ready to head outside. He could also see the layer of ice forming over his armor in the corner. "You do realize it is somewhere around negative twenty, don't you?" Roland voice sounded muffled through the covers.

Korra could only laugh at his pathetic state. "What's a matter?" She teased. "Big bad Spartan scared of the cold?"

Roland didn't even twitch. "I don't care if it is the Glacier Spirits Festival or if we are getting married in two days, it is bloody cold and I am warm in here."

"Common…" Korra whined, "this is the last day we can go have fun before the craziness of our wedding." Roland just laid there looking at her. "If you don't get up, I'm going to take the blankets off you."

Roland shrugged. "Or you could just heat the room a bit. Anywhere above freezing would be preferable."

Korra smirked and took a bending stance. "Last chance."

Roland released the blankets slightly. Korra was only about three feet away so, he lunged for her.

"Roland!" Korra shrieked as the Spartan landed on her and wrapped her up in the blankets with himself. "It is time to go." She laughed, wrapping her arms around him.

"Hmmpf." Roland glanced at his armor again. "Could you at least warm up my suit?"

Korra looked at the ice layer atop the armored plates. "You don't need to wear that. I have some Water Tribe skins that will be warmer." She jumped up and grabbed the clothes from a box near the entrance.

Roland finally shrugged off the blankets and stood up in the freezing air. "Fine."

"Hurry up, or I am leaving you." Korra reminded him.

Roland leaned over to kiss her. "Nah, I'd have to go find someone else then." He said with a grin.

"Yeah right…" Korra coughed. "No one else would come near you."

Roland stood up. "With this body and my charming smile?" He chuckled as he finished getting dressed. "I'd have them lining up at the door."

"Uh huh… the exit door." Korra rolled her eyes. "Ready yet?"

"Yeah…" Roland stretched and slid on his boots. "So what are we doing exactly?

Korra grabbed his hand and pulled him out the door. The entire festival was below them, stretching across the entire village. The smell of different foods wafted through the freezing air. Different games and events were everywhere and Korra looked like a six year old. "We are going to have fun." She smiled as she took off down the slope.

"Yeah… fun freezing our extremities off." Roland muttered as he took off after her.

Former UNSC Cruiser Iliad

"Captain, we have entered real space." Officer Kyles said from the hatch.

Streks straightened up at his desk. "Thank you. Any nearby planets?"

Kyles tapped away at her tablet. "Yes sir, there is as small system with three planets only a few thousand kilometers away."

Streks raised his eyebrow in question. "Habitable?"

Another moment of tapping. "It seems the second planet has earth like atmosphere. We will need to get closer for more scans."

Streks nodded. "Very well, set your course for this planet. Any sign of it on the charts?"

"No sir, we are outside of all known space."

"Perfect. Signal the other ships, we may have found a haven."

Kyles nodded and walked back to the bridge. Streks on the other hand stood and walked towards the hold of the ship. He passed several of his armed men before entering a small bay that had been repurposed as a prison hold. "Look lively lads, got our captor here for another visit." A large ODST sat looking out of the bars. He was stripped to his undersuit along with all of the others, but still held a very intimidating look with his rippling muscles.

Sneers came from the cage of "Get away innie boy" and "Go screw someone else." But Streks chose to ignore it. "I offer once more the ability to join my crew." He said loudly. "You will simply be split apart across the fleet and treated as individuals. You will be allowed to live and fight alongside the crew and earn a keep for yourselves. All you have to do is renounce your loyalty to the UNSC and agree to serve with us."

The roar coming back from the ODST's was deafening, but not surprising. Someone however shouted a simply command of "AT EASE!" And the noise halted instantly.

One of the men walked forward until Streks could get a good look at him. The man seemed to be in his early thirties. Fit, but not like some of the others and was only about six foot two or so. Not the most physically imposing of the group, but Streks didn't know who he was. His shirt was removed, and his eye caught on the rectangular tattoo on his right arm. The colors were a simple red, white and blue and seemed familiar, but Streks pushed the thought aside. "What can I do for you?" He asked.

The man cleared his throat. "I am Captain Wayne, of the UNSC. Platoon leader in Bravo Company 2nd Shock Trooper Battalion, and leader of these men." His voice had a subtle southern accent, but when he spoke, it command respect. "We have talked it over, and request you either kill us, or drop us on the nearest moon you can find, because we are never going to fight for you."

Streks shrugged. "Very well, you will be transferred to the Tampa and dumped out of their airlock so I can watch each of you turn into ice cubes." He looked across all of the faces he could see of these grizzled veterans. "Any last requests?"

A man next to the Captain spoke. "Our armor." This man had "Feet First into Hell" tattooed down his arm. "If I am doing one more jump, I want to be in my kit."

Streks thought for a moment. He knew their armor wasn't sealed, so what harm could it cause. "Very well, you may have your armor returned."

With that, Streks left the room to arrange for the transfer. The man who last spoke grinned wildly and looked at his Captain. "We might just do this, sir."

Captain Wayne nodded. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves, Sergeant, but yes, we might." Wayne looked around for his senior enlisted man. "Grylls, get over here, and bring Wells." He hissed loudly.

The two ODST's worked their way towards the Captain. Gunnery Sergeant Grylls was a season veteran of fighting both the Covenant and the Insurrectionists and was a more than capable leader in combat. Sergeant Wells on the other hand was still pretty green. She had a few drops under her belt, be Wayne still wasn't sure how she would perform as a leader. However, she had some experience with electronics which could be invaluable.

Wayne looked at the two NCO's. "Wells, you need to talk to everyone. Find out if anyone else has any skills involving conning a ship. We'll need someone to take over. Grylls, you get our best marksmen. As soon as we start to fight back, find them weapons and roll through. Give me five of them and take the rest to secure the engine room. Once we take the helm, we'll get the hell out of here."

"Talk about a break, huh sir?" Grylls chuckled. "Sending us to one of the frigates instead. Gonna be a good day."

"It should be." Wayne smiled. "Hope you both ate your Wheaties, cause we're getting the heck off this ship."

Well, I know it was short, but I hope you like the first chapter. I'd like to thank everyone for the reviews on The Legend of Roland and The Safety of the Dark. Y'all are the reason I'm writing this. For the ones who have been with me for awhile, I'd love to hear any ideas you have for this next book. Like I said in the header, this s not going to be updated nearly as much as my first one was. I hope to update once a week or so, but I can't even promise that. Please review and let me know what you think!