First of all, I'm sorry about the delay. I'd blame writer's block, but I'm willing to admit to being a lazy ass for a couple of weeks. I've had a few other story ideas kicking around, so much so that I probably didn't give this one enough attention to get it done sooner. And as always, reviews are much appreciated.

By the way, if you're interested in the Halo storyline, I've put a pretty detailed analysis of UNSC ships in my profile, and a more in-depth look at how space battles in Halo would work. This is mostly just me filling in what's never explicitly stated, and rejecting some parts of canon that don't make sense. Most halo fans realize that there are contradictions aplenty in Halo canon, so a lot of this is just a solid reference for my own future writing.

In all, it's a pretty pragmatic interpretation of Halo space warfare, but it still fits the narrative of Halo just fine. Feel free to send me suggestions or requests for my entries. Just know that I'm pretty set on and willing to defend my choices for MAC power, but if you have anything more nitpicky, I'll take it into consideration.

Chapter 4

In the time that he had occupied his new quarters, John had eaten his usual double ration, which was nervously delivered by the ships mess sergeant, gotten exactly nine hours of sleep, shaved the heavy stubble off of his face, set up a firing range, and was currently in the midst of adapting his fighting style to the new weapons. The Krogan through the upper level window had given him a few curious looks, but he paid this invasion of privacy no mind. A Spartan's home is in their armor, not wherever they happen to be sleeping.

Though he tended to prefer his MA5C, he had to admit that the reloading process for these new guns was indeed much faster. Acquiring new heat sinks would be easy due to their near-ubiquitous nature, since fallen enemies would be likely to carry extras. The weapons' telescoping properties also meant that he could now carry three guns and his Spartan laser at once, with the ammo being interchangeable between them. This meant that he no longer had to ditch a gun that was out of ammo. This had all been explained to him by operative Taylor in the armory, who seemed polite enough, given that he was talking to a giant faceless suit of armor.

Sniping would be difficult to adjust to though, since the bullet fly-time was now much less. Leading the target like he used to would be a difficult habit to break. Not to mention that his enemies would now be using projectiles that were essentially impossible to dodge, unlike most covenant weapons. As he struck his various targets with pinpoint accuracy, hearing the distinct sounds from the hypersonic rounds, Cortana spoke up,

"You know this is pointless, right Chief? Sniping practice at 35 meters, with stationary targets? That's a little bit like running 'brushing-your-teeth' drills for you, isn't it?"

The Chief had to admit she had a point. At range of the interior of the cargo bay, it would be almost impossible for any Spartan to miss. Linda would certainly find it amusing if she could see this.

'No.' He thought, cutting that line of thinking off quick, 'Can't think about that now.'

Memories of his Spartans had been bothering him since he left for delta halo. They'd been separated for that pointless and unwanted award ceremony on Cairo station, and he never received so much as a whisper as to where they were since. In some ways, that was worse than him knowing they were dead. If that were the case, he'd at least be able to put it behind him.

So, for the moment, he was distracting himself with the new weapons. As for his current loadout, John had already tested the assault rifle, shotgun, hand cannon, battle rifle, SMG, and the Sniper rifle at least four times each. By now it was pretty clear to him and Cortana that he just wanted to keep his mind off things. Like the fact that any slim chance he had of finding out the state of his fellow Spartans was now virtually zero. He responded to the AI,

"Alright Cortana. But what else is there to do?"

"Oh I don't know, perhaps, interact? Shocking suggestion it may be, but if all you ever do is shoot at things and talk to the invisible woman in your head, people might think you're a bit unstable."

Interact? John couldn't think of a single thing that would be less appealing. Not only did he not know these people, he had almost nothing in common with them. Fighting a losing 27 year war had a way of coloring one's perception, and he doubted there was anyone in this entire galaxy that could relate. Cortana must have known this. Why would she suggest something like that?

"Cortana, you were there when every single person we cared about was killed. Then you were tortured to near rampancy by the Gravemind. Why do you still act like this? I'd expect you to take things a bit more seriously after what we've been through."

Surprisingly, Cortana didn't immediately respond. She actually seemed to hesitate, before saying,

"John, I was awake for six months while you were asleep, with nothing to do but watch. I don't know what the Gravemind took out of me, but it's possible that I'm now past middle-aged. If you only had seven years to live, I doubt you'd dwell on things very long either."

The lack of the usual wry amusement in Cortana's voice was jarring. After this, the Chief became silent, as the realization hit him that his one remaining friend in this universe might too be gone in a few years, while he would continue living for maybe another hundred.

Cortana had been there since before Reach fell. She was there when they landed on Halo, she was there when he was forced to cave in Captain Keyes' rotted skull, she was there when he encountered the Gravemind, and was there when he destroyed the Ark. The most gut-wrenching thing he ever had to do was leave her behind in High Charity, and when he had to get her back, she was the only thing that kept him going through the Flood-choked hallways and the Gravemind's psychic taunts.

The thought of losing Cortana again was almost enough to send him into despair, but as always, he simply couldn't allow himself to. He had to keep going no matter what happens, because that's just what he did. Keep going when there was no one else left. He'd deal with this problem when it came, just like any other.

This intercom provided a sudden but welcome distraction from this line of thought, as the Normandy's pilot spoke,

"Uh, Chief? We've found a wrecked freighter, and the Commander says you're going with to investigate. Get prepped to board the shuttle." He sounded unsure of himself, giving the Chief an order, but the John quickly replied,

"Acknowledged."

Machinery came to life on the other side of the crate-filled hangar bay, as the clamps holding the shuttle lowered it to the floor and released.

There was near silence on the way to the planet, the only sound being the slight shaking of the Kodiak drop shuttle, while Tali'Zorah vas Neema was fiddling with her omni-tool, running calibrations on her combat drone. Adjust the mass effect field strength, tweak the discharge power. It was mostly pointless. She had polished the specs of her drone to a mirror shine a long time ago, and had the highest efficiency she could get with her current hardware. She was now just making tiny, inconsequential adjustments. However, she had nerves, and had to clear her head somehow.

Shepard told her that he didn't know what caused the crash, and that hostiles were a possibility. She was no stranger to firefights; she'd been in dozens since she began traveling with Shepard. But still she found herself getting jittery. Once more she mentally cursed herself. Shepard didn't look nervous, and the Chief… well, he didn't look like he felt anything. The enormous human just sat in the corner staying completely still, not regarding either of them. This did little to help her current disposition.

The shuttle's slight shaking they had felt since entering the atmosphere evened off, and there was a thud as they touched down. The door opened, and with almost unnatural grace, the Chief pulled out his rifle and quickly took point. After Shepard exited, Tali followed, and peered into the valley below. There were dozens of crates scattered around, and at the opposite end of the small gorge was the largest section of the broken ship. Tali analyzed the sight in front of her. She couldn't tell what caused the ship to crash, but the force of the impact indicated that the ship had lost all thruster power and mass effect fields before hitting the ground. A ship with functioning systems would still be more or less recognizable. She looked at Shepard for orders, who said,

"Lets see if we can find out what caused this. There might be data pads or terminals we can salvage." Tali nodded, as did the Chief, who made off at a brisk pace.

Over the next half hour they scoured the wreckage, and with the few logs they had found, concluded that the mechs this ship was transporting had suddenly activated and begun self-destructing, damaging enough systems to cause the wreck. Apparently the VI had gone haywire, but they couldn't find any specifics. There was no sign of hostiles. When they got back to the ship, they'd report the crash to the Alliance, and they could be on their way. Shepard activated his omni-tool to access the beacon, then pointed to the bottom of the valley.

"The distress beacon is down there. All that's left is to deactivate it."

Upon reaching the source of the signal, Shepard examined the banged up transmitter. A few taps on his omni-tool, and the slight humming cut out. After such an anticlimactic voyage, Tali felt all the dumber for getting so nervous. What was she expecting? For a legion of husks to come charging out of…

This though was abruptly cut off, as a green blur that she recognized as the Chief flew past her. She heard gunshots. Automatically going for her shotgun, she saw dozens of security mechs coming straight at them, and took cover behind one of the many crates. Shepard had dived in the opposite direction, and was now out of sight. How would shutting off the beacon cause them to activate? There was no time to consider this, as she heard an order from Shepard on her radio,

"Tali, get to the right and flank them, I'll keep them…" He began to trail off "occupied…" he finished quietly. Wondering what was wrong, Tali responded,

"Talk to me Shepard, what's going on?"

After a few more seconds, he answered,

"Tali… look."

Not knowing what he meant, she peered out from behind her cover. There were still plenty of security mechs out there, but none were firing in her direction. They were all focusing on the Chief, who appeared to be moving faster than she had seen anyone move in her life. He was diving from cover to cover, firing his assault rifle near-constantly, only pausing to cycle the heat sinks. The mechs filled the air with bullets, but the few that contacted were halted by his strange yellow kinetic barrier. Meanwhile, the mechs were dropping like flies.

As the Chief ran for the next crate, there were two mechs in his path. This didn't seem to bother him, as he simply swatted one with his forearm, sending it flying, it's torso unit shattered. The other was directly in his way, but as he dove behind the crate, it failed to slow him at all. Instead, it was steamrolled underneath him. The mech was still partially functioning, though, and tried to raise its gun, but soon found its neck in a vise-like grip. In the most surprising thing Tali saw yet, he placed his boot on its chest and pulled. The head tore off like a toy. Those mechs were lightly armored, but were still composed of strong alloys and ceramic composites. Just tearing one apart with your hands wasn't something even a Krogan could do.

For the next few moments, Tali watched as the mechs tried to surround and pin the Chief down, but found it impossible. He moved far too fast for their simple programming to follow. The mechs kept pouring in though, as fast as the Chief could destroy them. Shepard reappeared on her radio.

"Tali, let's move."

"Yes, Shepard." She responded. They still had to get back to the shuttle, but it seemed like this task would be considerably easier now. The shipping manifest had said there were 180 mechs in this shipment, but how many were still intact was unknown. Tali sprinted forward, and found cover to the right of the Chief's kill zone, content with picking off mechs from the sideline.

Tali may have gotten pre-fight nerves, but once the fight came, she could handle herself quite well. Her method was always slow and careful. She may not have been able lay down fire as precisely and artistically as Shepard, or charge in and kill things as brutally as Grunt, but she didn't take any risks she didn't have to, letting her drone do the work, and taking down her enemies' shields with her Omni-tool whenever possible. She wasn't going to put herself in danger now, when she clearly didn't have to. On the other side of the valley, she spotted Shepard, who had adopted the same tactic, but with his sniper rifle..

The first of mechs wave slowed to a trickle, most of them headed for the Chief, so the group managed to move closer to the shuttle until the next wave arrived. This repeated three times before they got near it. Mechs were mostly coming from behind now, but at a slower pace than before, presumably because of the large dent in their numbers.

Tali considered making a break for the shuttle, but before she could consider it further, she heard a very unwelcome sound. It was unmistakably the pounding footsteps of a YMIR mech, a ten-foot-tall, heavily armored behemoth that most people would only dare to face with a gunship. She knew there was no way to fight this thing alone, but before she could even try to fall back, the mech spotted her. It fired a rocket.

There was a deafening blast, and Tali found herself sprawled upon the ground, shaken and disoriented. The crate she had been hiding behind was in splinters, and her kinetic barrier was down. She faintly heard the YMIR's minigun spinning up, and realized that it was over.

In the midst of demolishing the horde of sleek white robots, which were considerably weaker and slower than his usual opponents, the Master Chief heard an unfamiliar noise. He quickly placed several rounds from his assault rifle in the heads of the two robots in front of him, and turned to see a hulking white form fire a rocket at his alien teammate's position. It was too big for her to handle alone, that much was clear. The rocket made contact with her crate.

The Chief felt Spartan time kicking in once more, the rest of the world slowing down. There was no time to take the machine out with his Spartan laser. He would need to unholster, aim, and charge it, by which time the Quarian would be dead. He dashed forward as fast as his armor would carry him, crushing another robot into the dirt in the process.

The dust from the shattered crate cleared, and John saw the Quarian on the ground, stunned and completely exposed. The large robot's other arm made a sound easily identified as another weapon. Just as it was about to finish the her, he dove at it.

With no time to even drop his assault rifle, he slammed it into the mechs arm just as it began to fire, causing the gun to buckle under the pressure. The first few rounds tore the assault rifle in half, and the next few flew right into the Chief's face, dropping his shields to sixty percent. His fingers managed to find a good grip on its arm, and he forced it away from himself.

This machine was strong though, and extremely heavy. It tried to aim a rocket at him with its left arm, but he grabbed that as well, and a grappling match began, the heavy mech trying to bring its guns to bear, and the Chief avoiding them at all costs, while holding onto both simultaneously. The robot moved slowly, but had a lot of force behind its movement. John's power armor strained to keep the two-ton machine at bay. The Chief knew that if he let go for even a moment, it could be the end of him or the Quarian. Though he didn't feel any particular affinity for the alien, his job was to keep his team alive, and that's what he'd do, if he could just find a way to take this thing down.

Since both of his hands were occupied, he decided to use his legs instead. Shifting his weight momentarily to his right foot, with the left he lashed out at the robots knee joint. The vicious kick landed, and he felt the armor dent with a satisfying crunch. Not enough though, as the machine was still pressing down on him. He kicked again in the same place. This robot was clearly not very intelligent. All it did in response to this assault was continue to try forcing its weapons on him. He was beginning to regret not bringing the energy sword, but there hadn't been much reason to expect hostiles, and he didn't want to raise questions about his ace in the hole.

He kicked again, and yet again, each kick causing the knee plate to crumple some more, until finally it fell off. As he was about to deliver the final blow, his shields glowed gold, and his the bar in his Heads Up Display began to drop.

"Behind you chief!" Cortana shouted. Sure enough. more small robots were coming up behind him, firing at their now stationary target. As he tried to figure a way to keep from being riddled with holes, he turned to see one go down to the Quarian's shotgun, while another of the group began shooting at its comrades, causing the others to become distracted. The alien, it appeared, had a few useful tricks, and had his back for now.

Refocusing on the more pressing matter, he continued to slam his armored boot into the now-exposed knee joint. Just a few kicks later, and the giant machine faltered. One last kick caused the robot's leg to crumple at an odd angle, and it fell forward, the Chief dodging out of the way just in time to avoid it landing on him. The giant machine was now down, but not out, still trying to aim at him from the ground. The Chief didn't let up, though. He pulled out his Sniper rifle and placed a round directly into its head. He repeated this, and dodged the spray of bullets coming from its arm. He unloaded six heat sinks into the fallen giant before it finally stopped moving. A high pitched beeping that clearly meant a failsafe detonation emanated from the dead hulk, and the Chief threw himself away from it as fast as he could. The blast rocked him backward and dropped his shield 25% but this barely phased him.

The shuttle wasn't far now, and the Quarian and Shepard were carefully moving his way under the hail of bullets coming from the remaining robots. "Tali" as he had recently learned her name was spelled, was staring at him. Though he couldn't see her face, she probably had the same look he always got from the marines, whenever he flipped an overturned warthog, or broke a Brute's neck with his hands. He laid out a few more robots with his sniper rifle, providing cover for his teammates as they sprinted to the shuttle.

The trio climbed in, and the Normandy's landing craft hastily took off.

Tali was still regaining her breath as the Kodiak drop shuttle headed for orbit. As the adrenaline began to wear off, she noticed a sharp pain in her abdomen. She looked down, and noticed a piece of shrapnel sticking out of her, lodged in the armored under-layer of her combat suit. It luckily hadn't penetrated, but she would definitely be feeling that blast for a while. She pulled it out and flicked it on the floor.

She still wasn't quite sure that her eyes had told her the truth about what just happened, but she was fairly certain that the Chief had just taken a Heavy Mech hand-to-hand and won without much trouble. To look at him now, you'd think it had been nothing more than a light jog.

As she recalled, the blast had happened, and things were a blur for a few seconds afterward. She then looked up to see the silhouette of a dark green figure in front of a large white one. All she could do was stare, until the sound of approaching LOKI mechs awakened her from her disbelieving trance. When they said Super-Soldier, they hadn't been bosh'ing around. And now the Chief had saved her life. She had to be sure to thank him somehow, but he was so off-putting that she couldn't think how to approach him.

After they had some time to regain their composure and breath, Tali noticed that Shepard looked angry. Not "this was all my fault" angry, Shepard wasn't one to dwell on failures like that. Not "always with the goddamned mechs" angry either, but definitely angry about something. Sure they had been ambushed, but they made it out just fine, and the Chief had delivered a spectacular performance. Tali couldn't see why he'd be mad about a successful mission.

Tali's lifetime of living in cramped quarters had made her, like all Quarians, very finely attuned to the social atmosphere around her. She could feel an almost palpable increase of the tension inside the shuttle, as Shepard stood up and said,

"Chief." One thoroughly displeased sounding word was enough to get the Spartan's attention, who looked at the Commander. Shepard continued to speak,

"Next time, you take cover and wait for my orders when something happens. I don't know if you're used to working on a team, but you don't pull stunts like that. Ever." His words were slow and deliberate, seemingly trying to fit the largest amount of displeasure possible into each one. The Chief talked back,

"I was merely responding to an immedi-"

"You don't respond like that!" Shepard snapped. "If you sprint off to kill things by yourself, your teammates get left behind. If we're too spread out to provide mutual support, well, just look what almost happened to Tali." Tali was surprised to see Shepard like this. She'd never seen him this angry before. The Chief had just saved her life, and now Shepard was saying that he was responsible for endangering it in the first place. It was very confusing to the Quarian. Shepard continued,

"If we'd been more coordinated, we could have taken down that Heavy from a distance, with little risk to any of us. Instead, your actions endangered one of my crew. Next time, we do things the safe way, and you wait for orders, is that understood?" Shepard stared the Super-Soldier down, who responded,

"Understood, Commander." and said nothing else. His body language was unreadable as always, but his voice betrayed his resentment. Shepard sat back down. About a minute passed when quietly, but loud enough for the Chief to hear, he added

"Thank you for helping Tali, Chief." It was grudging gratitude, but there nonetheless. The Chief nodded in acknowledgement, and the trip back to the Normandy proceeded in silence.

A few hours later, Shepard was sitting at the desk in his quarters, reading the files given to him by the Chief, which he had used to update his personal codex. His main interest at the moment was Spartans. The Chief had told him a few things, but was, as usual, sparing with information. The main entry on Spartans read:

Originally intended to quell insurrectionist rebellions, Spartan-II commandos were selected from the absolute best that humanity had to offer. After given extensive biomedical augmentation, Spartans could have been considered near untouchable in terms of strength, reaction time, and speed, but this was not enough for UNSC commanders. To make the most of these augmentations, Spartans were also outfitted with the absolute bleeding edge of military technology - Project Mjolnir, a highly advanced set of powered armor. Weighing almost 400 kilograms, but still allowing the user to move several times faster than normal, this armor was also given the most refined sensors, communications, computers, and power systems that human technology had to offer.

However, all this came at the price of being phenomenally expensive, resulting in production costs that rivaled some shipbuilding projects. Another drawback is the fact that if anyone besides an augmented human tried to use Mjolnir, they would find themselves critically injured or dead within seconds, due to the hyper-reactive nature of the suit. Only those with near-perfect physical control, such as Spartans, can safely use it.

After the Covenant invasion of 2525, the focus of Spartans shifted from insurrectionist control to defense of besieged planets. In doing so, they were known to garner every major commendation that the UNSC had to offer, apart from the prisoner of war medallion, as no Spartan has ever been captured to date.

While scoring victory after victory on the ground, the Spartans found themselves incapable of affecting the outcome of space warfare, where the real fate of planets was decided. Despite this, when the Office of Naval Intelligence went public with the program, the Spartans became humanity's most visible heroes, raising morale across the entire UNSC.

Shepard closed the entry. There was some interesting information in it, such as the Chief's armor and these "Insurrectionists", but it still felt like it wasn't the whole truth. It was pretty clear that there was more than just the Chief in the Spartan program, but he had never specified where his Spartans were when he was fighting on the Ark. Perhaps that's why he didn't want to talk about it. Maybe they were all dead. This would explain his reluctance toward teamwork with anyone besides his Spartan group.

Shepard had been reading these files for some time. He had to admit that the UNSC had some impressive technology for its lack of element zero. Miniaturized fusion reactors, highly compact nuclear weapons, artificial gravity, gigantic space elevators, and of course, the Magnetic Accelerator Cannons. Add to this an industrial base more than an order of magnitude greater than the Systems Alliance, and the UNSC could lay out a lot of firepower. The fact that they were losing for almost the entire 28-year war was a huge testament to the power of this "Covenant".

He looked at the clock next to him, which read 10:34 PM, but suddenly blinked, -synchronizing with local time. It then read 3:21 PM. That meant that they were very close to Ilium. It would only be a few more minutes now, and they could venture out to find the Justicar, the over 900 year old asari warrior. He wasn't sure exactly what a Justicar was, and could find very little about it on the extranet, but what he had heard seemed to imply great power.

Shepard didn't know how to convince her to join, but his status as an undead, citadel-saving, ex-spectre seemed to carry some weight. He hadn't known how to recruit Thane or Mordin either, so he'd just improvise, as usual. There was also the matter of relocating Miranda's sister, which would take place in two days. That meant the crew would be getting a good, long shore leave. They needed it. He had noticed that his crew was looking a bit fatigued lately, and Ilium would be a great place to spend their substantial Cerberus paychecks.

All that was left was to decide whether to bring the Chief or not. The Spartan was potentially his greatest combat asset, but Shepard wasn't sure if he could trust him in a firefight around civilians. And there were a lot of civilians on Ilium. He ultimately decided against it. Having the Chief around was bound to but a damper on any diplomatic situation they might encounter, but Miranda and Garrus would work just fine. He could always trust Garrus to cover his back, and Miranda knew her way around Ilium pretty well, in addition to her substantial biotics.

Over the intercom, Joker spoke up once more;

"Approaching Nos Astra on re-entry vector, entering atmosphere in two minutes."

Two hours later, the Normandy SR-2 was docked at the Nos Astra spaceport. After the crew had received the news of a 72 hour shore leave, they had all jumped at the chance for a break from the confines of the relatively small ship. Even Grunt and Jack had come out of their respective holes, likely to make their way to the seedier areas of the city.

Leaving the ship unguarded was no issue. Only an idiot would try to violate security in this area of Nos Astra. The image of being a safe place to trade was what drew millions to Ilium, and the planetary government wasn't about to let that image be tarnished. And even if someone did try to break in, EDI was more than capable of keeping them out. After Shepard, Miranda, and Garrus had left to find their next team member, only one organic being remained inside the ship, the Master Chief, who was currently arguing with the artificial intelligence in his suit.

"Cortana you know I don't like being in public. And I doubt that I could just blend in." The AI was getting impatient,

"Chief, all I want to do is go out for a few hours for some firsthand information gathering. We can read all we want on the extranet, but we can't be sure just how different this universe is until we see for ourselves. This planet is a hub of alien culture, and I can't just pass this opportunity up. Information gathering is what I'm for."

"Which goes back to the problem of me being in public." John replied.

"Look, you don't need to go to crowded places, and you don't need to talk to anyone. Can't you just take a girl out on the town for once?"

John couldn't help but quietly chuckle at that one. He did have to admit that it had only been eight hours since the mech incident, and he was already getting restless. He didn't know if he could take another three days of doing nothing, on a ship with no gym and no proper firing range. Spartans always had to do something, as they spent most of their lives either fighting or in cryostasis.

"Alright, let's go" He said reluctantly. He sincerely hoped he wouldn't run into large crowds. He might accidentally step on someone's foot, which would probably involve hospitalization for the unlucky person.

"Oh, and no weapons, Chief." Alright, this was a bit much.

"Cortana-"

"No, John. Your armor is enough of a weapon by itself, and we don't need the police giving us a closer look than they already will. Besides, this city's got the best security outside the Citadel. We'll be fine."

Giving his guns (including his replacement assault rifle) one last reluctant look, he headed for the elevator, unaware that the Normandy's AI was watching him very closely.

Half an hour later, John was walking down the ground level streets of Nos Astra. The general cleanliness and kilometer-high skyscrapers reminded him of New Mombasa, except with more flying cars. He wished he had something to hold onto, though. The lack of a weapon in unfamiliar territory was unsettling. Even though his combat instinct told him he was safe, old habits don't die easy.

Pedestrian traffic in this area was sparse, but the few blue-skinned aliens he had passed seemed to stare quite a bit, and gave him a wide berth. Those that walked in pairs could be heard whispering furiously when he passed. He supposed they had no reason to call the police on him for just walking, but he still didn't like taking the chance. Whatever happened, he wouldn't let himself be taken in. He simply couldn't allow it. If he complied with the police, Shepard could get him out eventually, but they'd take his armor, and probably discover Cortana with it. AIs being illegal in Citadel space, they might have her destroyed. He didn't let Guilty Spark take her on Halo, and these aliens would have no such luck either.

Cortana wasn't as talkative as usual for this trip, taking in the sights, and soaking up as much information as could possibly be gleaned from anything the Chief's helmet-cam saw. There were numerous wireless networks around, but she restrained herself from conspicuous hacking. She still had to maintain secrecy, and she wasn't going to compromise John for her curiosity. Besides, this alien world provided quite enough new things to analyze. Architecture, economic systems, government, observing how these "Asari" interact. It was fascinating. An all female race that resembled humans, and could reproduce freely with any other sapient species. UNSC personnel would definitely have preferred running into these aliens rather than the Covenant, for more reasons than just peaceful relations.

The Chief and Cortana continued down the street in the shade of the enormous skyscrapers, Cortana doing the sightseeing, and the Chief trying to act like there was nothing unusual about his presence. Cortana would make comments on her observations, seemingly innocuous differences from their home universe. Mostly things that the Chief had never experienced to begin with, his former civilian life being so long ago that he didn't even remember what his last name used to be. He still wasn't comfortable with the idea of being out here, but Cortana seemed to enjoy it, and he could deal with all the strange looks.

As they continued the walk at a brisk pace, they entered the outskirts of Nos Astra, where the buildings were shorter and less well-kept. Not exactly run-down, but in poorer shape compared to the sparkling clean central area. It was near the entrance to a back alley where Cortana said,

"Chief, wait. Listen." John did just that, turning up the volume on his audio feed, and heard a faint female voice coming from the alley. There was a door in that direction. Not an automatic one like most in this city, but manually operated with a handle. It was slightly ajar, and the voice came from within. He heard it say,

"Mr. Kant, Eclipse gave you that loan when no one else in the galaxy would help. Now we try to collect, and it's just gone? Every last credit? With no accounts, investments, or traceability to show for it? Eclipse… frowns on such behavior, Mr Kant. You've been warned twice. Eclipse doesn't send commandos to give warnings."

A different voice tried to stammer a response, but was cut off.

"I see you've been packing your things. Ah, and you bought a ticket to Omega. Thinking to hide, perhaps? I almost wish you would have made it Mr. Kant. Disposing of bodies is so much easier there."

A trio of shots rang out. John's motion tracker picked up four blips moving for the door, as an armored Asari burst out of it, with three masked figures following, two human and one "salarian" as he remembered they were called. For a split second, the presumable "commando" stared at the large figure in front of her.

A this moment, John had a choice to make. He could run, and probably lose them, but that would mean they'd keep looking for him indefinitely. Or he could attack, and take them out before they could report him to their superiors. It was a pretty simple choice.

The Asari raised her assault rifle, but before she could get a shot off, he dashed forward and smacked it out of her hands, following up with a punch to the chest plate. As the commando flew back, the other three opened fire, draining his shield bar to half. The chief grabbed one and snapped his neck, pulling the SMG out of his hands. He then delivered several close-range headshots to the other two mercenaries, and turned to face the Commando, who was getting back up with a large dent in her armor, and looking very angry.

Blue energy surrounded her, and the Chief felt a strong force pushing him backward. Against it, the apparently cheaply built gun started to break, and the Chief ditched it. So, this was biotics. This would be the first time he ever faced them in combat. The Asari was obviously straining to keep pushing him away, and couldn't use her sidearm. So, John took the initiative, forcing himself forward against what felt like an extremely powerful river current. He slowly got closer to the commando, and the energy field began to weaken. Only a few feet from her, and it gave out so suddenly that John flew forward, tackling the alien to the ground. There was still defiance in her eyes as he lifted his fist up, and brought it down on the Asari's face like a pile-driver. The fight was over.

Letting the blood slide off the shield around his fist, John heard Cortana's voice in his helmet.

"Let's get back to the ship quickly, Chief. Someone will have heard that." John silently complied, heading toward the center of the city slowly enough not to be suspicious. It looked to be a long three days, not coming out of the Normandy again.

Hope you enjoyed it folks! By the way, I always kind of though that Bosh'tet equated to something like "shit-head" in Quarian language, thus Tali's particular use of the word bosh. A bit silly, I know, but what the hell. Also, when I was typing the words "over 900 year old", I felt such a temptation to put OVER 9000! In there instead, but I refrained. I'll probably regret it in my later years.