Orbiting the gas giant Treshold, what remained of the Halo ring was being searched by a much larger Covenant fleet as battlecruisers had formed a defensive perimeter around the ring pieces left behind from the explosion weeks earlier. A Covenant assault carrier had exited slipspace and approached their planetoid Menagerie, their holy city and homeworld which was also guarded by the largest fleet they had assembled.

"All I can tell you is there was only a single ship." A female Faunus in golden armour told three others in gravity thrones in front of her; the three High Leaders of the Covenant.

"Just a single ship? You are certain?" One of them asked.

"More certain than ever. It was named the Pillar of Autumn." She answered as most of the other Faunus and San'Shyuum councilors had whispered to each other.

"You had clear orders to destroy the entirety of their fleet! How could you miss one?" The female of the three asked.

"I didn't notice it until it slipped past my fleet. I took what ships were in my command and followed it." She answered.

"When you first laid your eyes on Halo, did its majesty blind you?" The much larger, muscular one questioned.

"Blind me?" She replied.

"Were you paralyzed? Dumbstruck?" He shouted a little.

"No. None of that." She responded.

"With the history of your war with the humans, are they the only ones that managed to evade your ships and land on the Sacred Ring?" He remarked about her service record.

"High Leaders, I know you will understand completely that once the parasite attacked-" She was interrupted by the Faunus and San'Shyuum councilors who began an uproar.

"I demand order in this council!" The female shouted as she slammed her fist onto her armrest.

The High Leader in the middle went forward. "I understand your instinct was to engage the parasite, Commander. But this Demon, this Master Chief?" He asked.

"I tried my best. But when I discovered her intent with the Sacred Ring...I was powerless to prevent it." She answered as she pictured seeing Installation 04's destruction.

This heated up the councilors even more, shouting at her. Phases like "She's a traitor!", "Heretic!" and "She's telling lies!" was heard from the councilors.

"Adam, this shouldn't go on any longer. The council demands we make an example of this heretic!" The large High Leader urged his fellow High Leader.

Adam held up his hand, silencing Ghira. "You've always been our most treasured instrument, Blake. You've led your fleet with honour and distinction...but you failed at protecting Halo, and thereby failing us and the Covenant." Adam dishonoured Blake for her actions.

"Nay! It was heresy!" One of the San'Shyuum councilors stood up.

All the other councilors around her were yelling in agreement as well as calling her other names for what she was unable to do.

"I'll rectify my failure and continue my campaign against the humans!" She told them her solution for what she was facing. Everyone had quiet down.

"That won't be necessary." He responded, signaling Tartarus to have his Brutes arrest Blake.

They grabbed her arm but she growled at them to back off as she turned around and walked to the exit with them following closely behind her.

"The Great Journey is nigh. And when it arrives, you and your greatest failure will forever be remembered...and you'll be left behind." He finished as the Brutes escorted Blake out of the chambers.

Meanwhile at Earth, ships were coming in from all the other Inner Colonies, and joined the UNSC Home Fleet for the award ceremony while Ruby, one of the last SPARTAN-II super soldiers, was with the Master Gunnery Sergeant in the Armoury as she was given a newer suit of armour, the Mark VI.

"Your armour plating was about to fail. There's viscosity throughout the gel layer. Optics? Totally fried. And don't get me started on the power supply. You know how expensive this gear is?" He finished with a question.

Ruby picked up her new helmet on the table and put on, the helmet hissed, and clicked when it was secured onto her head. She looked at the Sergeant.

"Ugh. You sound like Weiss." She replied.

The Gunnie scoffed. "Well then maybe Weiss is right, Chief. Anyways, I need to run a diagnostics test on your new helmet's targeting settings." He finished.

She nodded and stepped into the inhibitor where she would test the targeting on the Mark VI helmet.

"Well I guess it was all obsolete, anyway so no more complaints here. Your new suit's a Mark VI, just came up from Seongnam this morning. So please, try and take it easy till you get used to the upgrades. Okay, so let's test your targeting, first thing. Take a look at the top light." He said to her as she looked up.

"Good. Now look at the bottom light." He continued instructing her as she looked at the lights. "Okay. So something seems a bit sketchy, I want you to run through it again. Everything's normal but something is off. Look at all four lights, Chief." She looked at the four lights.

"Okay, I'm gonna make it inverted. Now try looking at the lights again." He instructed.

"Hey, don't just change my settings like that!" She said to him.

"Don't worry, its just testing, okay? We need to make sure your suit doesn't run out of batteries in the middle of battle." He replied. She rolled her eyes and looked at the lights, however with inverted looking settings she was confused.

"Can you just switch it back, please?" She asked nicely.

"Fine. Its back on normal, I think I've had enough fun messing with you anyways." He finished as he chuckled at her.

"You're so mean, Gunns." She replied.

"Ah, come on, Chief. Its only humour. Alright, stand by. I'm gonna offline the inhibitors. Move around a little, get a feel for it. When you're ready, come and meet me by the zapper." He said as she walked around, looking at what he had in the armoury.

She followed him to the next station to continue testing her suit.

"Alright, pay attention, 'cause I'm only going over this once. This station'll test your recharging energy shields. Press the button whenever you're ready, Chief." He explained as she pressed the button. It charged up and disabled her shields as they began to recharge a lot quicker than the Mark V suit.

"Bingo! As you can see, these shields recharge a lot faster!" He said to her as the beeping within her helmet was fast but slowed down. Sergeant Branwen then walked out of the elevator behind the Gunnie without him noticing.

"Whenever your shields go down, find some cover and wait for the meter to read fully charged. Then you should be fine." He gave her advice that would help.

"That, or she can hide behind me. You done with my girl, Gunnie? She looks just fine and I don't see training wheels." He surprised the Gunnie who turned around.

"Sergeant. Her armour's working fine. Though, she did skip the targeting diagnostics test earlier but we think it shouldn't be too much of a hassle for her so shut your chili-hole." He replied to him.

Branwen scoffed. "Look who's talking, Gunns." He said.

"Alright, Chief, you can go now. Just remember to take things slow, it'll take a while for you to get used to the suit." The Gunnie said as they went over to the elevator.

"Don't worry, I got her hand." They both stood in the elevator.

"So, Branwen, when you gonna tell me how you made it back home in one piece?" He asked.

"Remind me to tell you when its been declassified." He replied.

He scoffed again. "Huh! My ass! Well, you can forget about those adjustments to you-" His voice was slowly silenced as the elevator went up and the doors had closed.

"Heh, well he seems to be a fine mood. Probably wasn't invited. How do you doing, kiddo?" Branwen said as he looked over to Ruby.

"The suit's crotch feels tight, its kinda uncomfortable. Its probably just the suit. But things are going great, Qrow." She replied. Rubbing around her crotch to try and loosen the tight grip.

The elevator stopped, the doors open and both the Chief and Branwen get out to board a small tram that stretched around the station, connecting to the bridge. The tram began to move towards the command bridge.

"Earth... haven't seen her in years. She's beautiful, she's home. The way I heard it back then, the Orbital Defense Grid was nothing but theories, rumours and politics. But just look at it now. The Beacon is just one of three hundred geo-sync platforms. You know, they say that MAC gun can tear right through a Covenant capital ship clean without hassle. With fire being coordinated from the Atlas and Haven, I don't think anything's getting past this battle cluster in one piece. Ships have been arriving all morning. I don't hear much but I have a feeling something's big about to go down." He said to the Spartan beside him who was listening.

The Orbital Defense Grid, as he mentioned, was massive. Ruby saw the vast amount of platforms and ships in view. This specific battle cluster that protected a small portion of Earth's orbit above its surface. As mentioned the Beacon Station was in the same cluster as the Atlas and Haven. The tram approached the outside of the command bridge where there were Marine Corps personnel cheering for the return of Ruby, a decorated hero of the UNSC.

"Chief!" Was heard from the marines, many of them greeted her as well as she and Branwen approached the doors as there were cameras flying around them.

"Wait a minute! Cameras? You said there wouldn't be any." She said in response to seeing the cameras.

"Come on, kiddo, its only cameras. Besides, the folks need heroes to fight monsters. To give 'em hope so please, smile. At least we got something to smile about, huh?" He replied to her as the doors in front of them opened and both walked in.

Meanwhile back at Menagerie, Blake was being escorted by Tartarus and his Jiralhanae personnel. They came towards a ledge where the guards had placed her hands onto floating cuffs.

"It seems you've drawn quite a crowd." Tartarus said gleefully to the Supreme Commander.

"They'll be disappointed if they came to hear me beg." She bitterly answered.

"Are you sure?" He replied with a smirk on his face.

Energy beams then hit Blake on both sides, sending waves of pain throughout her body as she screamed. A few seconds later, Tartarus then turned over to the Covenant personnel who were all watching.

"There can be no greater heresy! Let her be an example of all who would break our Covenant!" He said to the crowd watching as they cheered once more. He then barked an order to his two Jiralhanae guards as they grab onto Blake's chest, pulling off her armour and clothing, leaving her nude.

With her armour and clothing off and weakened from the energy beams earlier, she hung limply from her restraints. Beside Tartarus, a glowing brand rises from the floor behind him as he picks it up and strides forward to her. She weakly raised her head as she saw what was coming to her. He then pressed the brand against her upper right chest near the shoulder and above her right breast. She fought the pain but gave in and screamed again, loudly this time.

Ruby and Branwen came up to Lord Ozpin, a UNSC Fleet Admiral in command of the Beacon and the UNSC Home Fleet itself.

"Ruby, Sergeant Major, its good to have you both back." He said to both of them shortly after saluted while an officer behind him whispers in his ear. "Go ahead, Weiss." He continued.

Weiss' avatar had appeared on a nearby holotank and looked at the Admiral. "We have another whisper from Io. Our probes are en route." She replied.

"Well I'd hate to say this; I apologize, but we're gonna have to keep this brief." He said to them as he turned away to grab the medals.

"You look nice." She said to Ruby.

"Thanks, Weiss. I'd say the same." She replied.

"And you can't because?" The A.I. responded.

"You're an A.I., Weiss, you have an avatar but not a physical body." She answered.

"Oh, when I get back into that helmet of yours." She responded with a friendly threat.

"Sergeant Major, the Colonial Cross is awarded for acts of singular daring and devotion, for a soldier of the United Nations Space Command." He said as he clipped the medal onto Qrow's ceremonial dress.

Later a young red-haired woman joined both Ruby and Branwen in line as Ozpin had an award which was for her father that she was going to accept.

"Commander Pyrrha Nikos. I can say your father's actions were within the highest traditions of military service. His bravery and courage in the face of impossible odds reflects great credit upon himself, and the UNSC. The Navy has lost one of its best." He said as he handed her father's Colonial Cross medal, a tear ran down their eye.

Just before they could hand out Ruby's Colonial Cross, the alarms began to sound off as Weiss had already checked what caused the alarms to activate.

"Sir, multiple slipspace ruptures directly off our battle cluster." She said to the admiral as he turned around.

"Alright, show me." He replied.

"I count fifteen Covenant capital ships holding their position just outside the kill zone, sir, in standard formation." She reported as the UNSC Home Fleet was going to engage the Covenant fleet.

"This is Fleet Admiral Harper, we are engaging the enemy." One of the admirals in the Home Fleet relayed out to the Beacon.

"Negative. Form a defensive perimeter around the cluster, make sure none of them get through." He said as he then turned to Nikos. "Commander, get to your ship and link up with the fleet." He ordered.

"Yes, sir!" She said, saluted and left.

"You got the MAC gun, Weiss. Once they enter our range, open up." He said to Weiss.

"Finally, some practice." She replied as she turned back to the screen.

"Something isn't right, Weiss." He said as he looked at the screen.

"Why is that, sir?" Weiss asked.

"Look at the size of this fleet. If I'm not mistaken, Remnant was destroyed by a fleet fifty times this size." He replied.

"That...is concerning, sir." One of the officers replied.

"Sir, additional contacts. Boarding craft and lots of 'em!" An officer behind them reported.

On the screen in front of them, they saw a lot of boarding craft launching from the Covenant assault carriers, and heading straight towards the Beacon, Atlas, and Haven.

"They'll be targeting our MAC guns to take them offline, giving their capital ships a straight shot at Earth." Ozpin said to the officers as he turned to look at Chief. "Master Chief, defend this station!" He ordered.

"Yes, sir!" She acknowledged as she looked to Branwen. "I need Crescent Rose!" She said as he nodded.

Branwen and Ruby left the bridge as Lord Ozpin turned back to his command station. Through the bay windows, the MAC cannon was seen and the fleet went to engage the Covenant attackers as Longsword fighters hurtle overhead trailed by Marathon-class cruisers.