Torfan

2178

SSV Boston 

War Room 

FTL en-route to Torfan

1 year after Urmola Station Raid 

The extended wait that was forced upon the Fifth Fleet before they could attack Torfan made the four Supernovas grateful that time didn't apply properly to them. Cole had learned from Kessler how to keep himself from aging at normal speed. Ryan was technically only three years old, but he was "born" as an 18-year-old clone of Unique Ryan, made purely of ADAM, so his age was largely debatable. Master Chief and Cortana were suspended from aging by what Cole liked to call "Halla magic" in order to keep Chief relatively young and Cortana from going rampant. And Alex Mercer was a virus that simply didn't age at all.

They would have destroyed the pirates on Torfan months ago, but when the batarians sent evidence of Ryan's stunt on the Urmola space station to the Council, things got complicated. Even though Ryan's attack was sanctioned, as the batarians were a rogue state, the Council couldn't ignore the fact that he was genetically modified, an illegal action in Council Space. It took every trick Cortana had just to prevent the Alliance from facing censure. After more than eight months, the Council threw out the whole matter on the grounds that none of their own scans picked up anything wrong with Ryan in the first place. Of course, when his very genetic code contained sequences to prevent electronic detection, there wasn't much they could scan. The Council knew they wouldn't find anything on the third try, but the eight-month wait was their unspoken "price for privacy". 

It might have actually dragged on longer, but a "batarian" was kind enough to run around the Citadel breaking Avina terminals. The "batarian" was never found, but he was last seen jumping out a of a thirty-nine story window. No body was recovered, though facial scanning identified the "batarian" as a known participant in the Skyllian Blitz. The case had landed on the desk of a Detective Bailey with C-Sec. The human glanced at the file once, smirked, wrote "PTSD" on the report, and got it off his desk as fast as possible. Bailey then sent a message to Captain Anderson. He let the good captain know that he expected a case of Jack Daniels for letting Alex Mercer commit vandalism. 

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Three days later the SSV Boston had rejoined the Fifth Fleet, and Hackett and the Supernovas began to plan for the assault on Torfan. It would have been a much easier matter those eight or so months ago, but it was obvious that the whole purpose of getting Ryan dragged before the Council was so the batarian-sponsored pirates could fortify their defenses. Now instead of a quick shock-and-awe, the Alliance was looking at an untouchable fortress. The rules of space combatprevented the Fifth Fleet from shooting the pirates' bunkers from orbit, and a ground war would rack up an unacceptably high body count for the Alliance. Luckily Ryan had a plan, which he had just finished explaining to everyone in the war room. They looked at him in complete shock, and again, Hackett was the first to speak.

"Ryan, this is brilliant, and coming from anyone else, I'd have them dishonorably discharged for being totally insane. The only question is, can the Chief actually do that?"

All eyes were on the Chief, who nodded in the affirmative. "I can handle it, but they'll be gunning for me once I've hit the GARDIAN defense systems." The Spartan turned back to Ryan expectantly.

Ryan had luckily considered this and said, "That's why you only need to make it to the defense systems. Then you'll just wait until I need those guns down. After that, I'd suggest hauling ass very, very quickly unless you want to be in Alliance Newsnet's Obituaries."

Chief nodded again, but didn't comment.

Alex smirked with his usual bloodlust. "Let's get to work."

Hackett sighed, "Agreed, we'll be dropping out of FTL in ten. Everyone, to your stations." The aging admiral turned to open a comm. to the fleet and gave the orders. "Hackett to Fleet: Torfan is a moon orbiting a garden world, so we can't scrap them from space. To make matters worse, their strongholds are built deep underground, so our only option is to go in after them! You will be under the field command of Major Kyle, but I've sent a little surprise for our pirate friends in the form of one Staff Lieutenant Ryan. You'll also want to know that the infamous Master Chief will be joining you at a later point as well. I like heroes as much as the next marine, but if you're willing to let two extraordinary commandoes take all the glory, then don't expect a ride back to Arcturus! Instead, try showing these Terminus bastards how the Alliance sent the turians crying to the Council for a peace treaty in the First Contact War! Win today, and never again will humanity have to suffer another Mindoir! Now, let's make it happen marines. Hackett out."

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Torfan surface 

Repurposed Escape Pod

The Master Chief and Cortana had spent a great deal of time modifying this particular escape pod. Now it served the same role as an ODST's drop pod. Since there was no real way to be "sneaky" in the middle of space combat, this was the Chief's only means of getting onto the surface of Torfan undetected. 

"Chief! Chief, can you hear me?" Cortana was asking more out of déjà vu than actual concern.

"Do you even need to ask? I don't think we landed on target." Chief was originally made a Spartan to fight insurrectionists and terrorists, and then the Covenant came onto the scene. Now, he was part of a fight against terrorist, and most of them were aliens. This was the closest thing to Christmas for him, and he didn't want to miss a moment of it. 

Cortana put up a nav-point on his HUD and remarked, "Your luck continues. We actually landed closer to the defense system controls than we were aiming." 

"Closer?" Chief was instantly on guard, and he reach for his rifle, a Kassa Fabrications Breaker VII (A/N Bungie seven reference, for the win!). There were definitely some perks to having a smart AI in the back of one's mind. "If it was too close, then we were definitely seen landing. They're send-"

"A scouting team?" Cortana interrupted. "They did. There are fifteen pirates coming by the looks of the comm. traffic. They just so happens to be coming from the direction of the defense towers. "Shall we?"

Unsheathing the collapsible assault rifle, the supersoldier let instinct take over as he prepared to do what he had beem doing for almost thirty years: killing those who attacked humanity. He knew that there were more... radical groups emerging that teachnically shared his goal. He knew that Cerberus was one of those groups. There was no way he would work with Cerberus, however. They were terrorist and extremists that made ONI look like good little choir boys. Of course, the Chief was proof that ONI produce better results. The worst part? Even Cortana could barely find any intel on them. They were that good at covering their tracks, for now at least. Maybe once these pirates were dealt with...

A distant voice shouting orders in a flanging voice reminded the Spartan out of his current situation. Diving behind a rock outcrop, Chief switched for his sniper, the Kassa Harpoon VII. He knew by now that the sub-harmonics meant it was a turian. They were born for military. They also looked and acted way too much like Covenant Elites - Sangheili - for his liking. It was just strange to be four hundred years and an entire reality away from the Arbiter's people and find a race so damn similar. 

Cortana noticed Chief's reaction to the pirate scout and returned her attention to her protector. Ryan and Major Kyle's forces could survive without her. The Chief couldn't, and hopefully, he'd never have to. "It's not an Elite, Chief."

For a moment, she got no replay. Then he gave a barely audible, "You're right," following by a quick and clean shot that ripped through the turian's bony head. "It's uglier." Another shot, and the other turian pirate wa breathing through its eye-socket, leaving the remaining scouting party in total disarray. "These guys are also a lot weaker. The Covenant would have had no trouble ripping apart this territory." Another shot, another kill. Soon, they would be onto his position. 

"Not entirely, Chief." Cortana corrected. "If you didn't have me, you'd be in a world of hurt. They have a variety of tech-based attacks that can be done with a simple omni-tool. Anytime they try to mess with your armor, I have to actively counter their actions. An Elite wouldn't be so lucky. Of course, the Covenant still has the firepower to win in the end." While she had given her mini-lecture, three more pirates - one of them a human - fell to the Cheif's aim. 

"Last I checked, you can't hack a Hunter. Tell me more later, I've been spotted."

With that, Chief ditched his cover, and switch back to his assault rifle, running full-pelt at the nine remaining pirates. In a tenth of a second, Chief's enhanced reflexes and vision had identified two salarians, four batarians, two humans, and a krogan. Two short rifle bursts later, and there weren't any humans in that head-count. The nearest salarian lit up his omni-tool to do... something. Based on his frustrated behavior, it was likely trying - and failing - to do exactly what Cortana had mentioned not even two minutes ago. 

"Cortana," Chief asked over the sound of gunfire and dying batarians, "Would this be what you were talking about earlier? Wait. Don't answer that."

He had no real worries until the krogan got closer. Mass-accelerator weaponry fired projectiles at higher speeds than their gunpowder equivalents. But the tiny metal shavings used as projectilies lacked the stopping power of actual bullets. Where kinetic barriers could hold out under heavy fire for a few seconds the Spartan's shields could hold out for several minutes.

Currently, that meant his enemies' weapons were all overheating, and their target wasn't even fazed by their bullets. The next few seconds were a blur of green as the Chief planted his boot in the salarian hacker's torso, an act that likely broke every bone in the amphibian's body. The batarian on his right tried to flank him, only to watch over seven feet of armor jump clean off the ground, out of the pirate's line of fire.

Chief landed behind his four-eyed attacker, grabbed him, and turned around just in time for the other surviving batarian to open fire on his own comrade (A/N: More cake for whoever can guess what Halo game has a similar moment). Taking the dead meat-shield's rifle in his left hand, Master Chief opened fire with both guns, one at the batarian, the other at the remaining salarian. All that remained was the krogan.

Said krogan made his presence known with a carnage blast from his shotgun, which the Chief casually side-stepped. The two warriors ran at each other, and in what would be an increasingly common occerrence in the years to come, the human hit harder. Ducking low, the hyper-lethel vector smashed the krogan linebacker-style, flipping the enraged alien over his head. Having learned that krogan didn't always die from lethel injuries, Chief grabbed his sidearm, a Hahne-Kadar Kessler X (something Cole had a good laugh about), and fired into the pirate's head until it stopped twitching. 

"Nice job." Cortana said calmly. "And I'm only detecting two more life signs between us and the objective. Better hoof it though. With Ryan's help, Major Kyle and his men are making quick work of the smaller outposts, but they'll be- damn!" Cortana was frantic now. "Chief, you need to get to the defense controls systems now! The Alliance soldiers - and Ryan - are pinned down by heavy turrets at the main stronghold, and the emeny forces are pouring out of the bunker! Hurry!"

Chief was halfway to the defense tower by the time Cortana had said heavy turrets. Kelly had always been the fastest Spartan, but any one of them was capable of speeds that violated most 21st Century speed limits. It was less than a minute before he had reached his destination. 

"Chief, dark energy spike on the other side of that door! They're biotics!" Cortana was really worried. The Master Chief had never faced down biotics. Hell, Unique Revan hadn't even let them onto his territory, for fear of what the Sith would do to the Spartan. 

Not even slowing down, Chief simply grabbed his knife by the blade, and slammed straight through the door. Taking advantage of the confusion this caused, Chief tossed his knife at the glowing batarian straight ahead of him, knowing that a knife wouldn't be stopped by kinetic barriers. His knife hit the batarian square in the head, killing him instantly. The Chief didn't have enough experience with biotics to know if he could shrug them off, but now wasn't the best time for testing that. He took the safe approach, and slammed his right fist into the floor, locking his armor. 

Less than a second later, a feeling of vertigo washed over him. It was similar to what the Chief had experienced when Cole hit him with a shockwave in a friendly sparring match, only Cole's attack had been much stronger, and Chief had taken that without going more than few inches off the ground. Biotics of this caliber, Chief decided, could be outright ignored. Stronger ones would actually take an armor lock to withstand, but only powerful asari and some krogan had that kind of power.

Releasing the armor lock, Chief got up, and walked menacingly towards the glowing human, feeling sick that one of his own kind would sink this low. By now Cortana would have informed Ryan that they had made it to the defense tower, and she was ready to hack the entire GARDIAN grid at a moment's notice. Until Ryan gave the order, he had a few moments to inform the man in front of him just how royally screwed he was. The human tried for another biotic push, and it hit Chief square in the chest. The result was unimpressive and barely even broke the Spartan's stride. Trying again, the pirate deployed a warp field, and actually managed to bring down the Master Chief's shields by twenty-five percent. Realizing that he couldn't hope to win, the biotic tried to run, only to see the giant green man grab his knife from the batarian's head and send it flying directly at his skull. His last conscious thought was that this was all Elanos Haliat's fault.

Chief calmly retrieved his knife again before walking up to the defense tower's main control panel. "Ready when you are, Ryan," Cortana said in a serious voice, ready to end this battle with the Splicer King's crazy - yet brilliant - plan. 

"Then take them down and get somewhere safe to enjoy the fireworks!" Ryan sounded both excited and exhausted. She guessed it had something to do with the fact that he was dual wielding a pair of Devlon Stinger Vs, and dual wielding seemed to be a foreign concept to everyone else in the territory. It also likely had to do with the fact that his position was on the verge of being overrun. Even the Rapture Raptor could only hold off an army for so long while keeping the men under his command from dying. 

Chief wasted no time yanking Cortana and holding her chip about an inch from the main console. Cortana "jumped" from the chip to the console, and flooded the system with an override command that would keep the guns down long enough for the Fleet to make a very special delivery. "It's done Chief! Now let's get out of here. Ryan said to enjoy the view, but I'd rather do it from very for away. See any nice scenic ledges on your way here?"

Taking Cortana and plugging her back into his head, Chief gave the faintest hint of a smirk beneath his helmet. "You told me on Delta Halo that I always take you to such nice places, why would today be any different?" Without another word, the Spartan made a mad dash in the direction they had first come from. This place wasn't going to be standing long.

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"Staff Lieutenant Ryan," Ryan turned to see Major Kyle. "With all due respect, there's not a damn chance we're gonna make it into that central bunker! If we try to charge them, the casualty rate will be off the charts. Where are the non-Alliance assets?"

Ryan knew that he was referring to Cole and Alex. Ryan knew exactly where they were and it was all his idea in the first place. Nobody else was informed though, but that was because Ryan and Hackett thought it was better off this way. It was also nobody in the entire damn Alliance had been aware that this was actually the central buncker in front of them until minutes ago. They thought it was just another outpost until previously-concealed heavy turrets were pounding their location with rockets. Luckily Ryan had diverted most of the rockets at other rockets. Either way, Chief had signaled in, and now it was time to hit these bastards with something nobody in galactic history had ever seen. Activating his omni-tool, Ryan calmly ordered, "SSV Boston, drop them.

The Alliance vessel thundered over the battlefield, totally unafraid of the GARDIAN defenses that Cortana was temporarily keeping offline. Nobody knew what to think as the cruiser opened its hangar bay, and instead of deploying a Mako or a gunship, a tiny, human-shaped figure fell out, followed by another one. As the Boston returned to orbit, the first figure began to fall even faster, gathering more and more electricity in its hands as it fell. The second one evened out into a glide, still at least twenty kilometers up.

"Lieutenant, what are they doing?" The major screamed, having never seen such a display of insanity in his life. He was sure that even that the krogan weren't this crazy.

Ryan grinned with a mania that would have impressed Alex himself. Council says that we can't use nukes! So we're  dropping those two on the bastards instead!"

This had been the plan. Once the Boston was able to drop them off without the GARDIAN towers shredding her hull, Cole would strike first and the resulting EMP would take all systems down within that underground bunker.

Which was exactly what was about to happen. Cole was closing in on the stronghold's main entrance, now looking more like a blue comet of electricity than a human. Then, he landed. 

BOOM!

The stronghold buckled under the impact, but the main damage was the shockwave that spread through everything not made of rock. All the turrets were fried; the power inside the base went offline instantly, and easily half of the pirates left on Torfan were cooked inside their own armor. 

Cole got up and dusted himself off, turning to Ryan and giving a half-hearted salute, "System are down. See you leathernecks on the other side." Without another word, he turned to the side, and spark-stepped right off the battlefield. 

Major Kyle looked at Ryan in disbelief. "You planned this?"

Ryan sighed. Major Kyle was a good officer, but he didn't fully understand how important it was that they dealt a heavy enough blow to the Hegemony here at Torfan that the four-eye lunatices would give up their bullshit. They would leave Citadel space, and they would stop attacking human colonies. He couldn't the time to say this at the moment, and he respected the chain of command enough to let Admiral Hackett make that point clear. "Yes, Major. I did plan this, and Admiral Hackett gave it his full support."

"This isn't was, Lieutenant! This is slaughter!"

Ryan had enough, "And would they give us an of the courtesy you want to give them? I'm not a monster, Major. Any survivors after the next drop will be taken alive."

"Next drop!?" 

Alex wasn't able to glide very well in his armored form, but it ws better than facing the extremes of space without his armor. Still, he was grateful when he saw Ryan paint the target zone, clearing him to bulletdive on Torfan. The Blacklight Virus curled p and dove, faster than when on Akuze, and this time he was spinning for the added kinetic hell. He was now only ten kilometers away. Then five. Then two. Collision was imminent. 

KA-BOOM!

The bunker ceased to exist when he slammed into it, and Alex continued to fall deeper into the stronghold. After tearing three levels apart, Alex came to a halt, and he poured his biomass into the tunnels on either side of him. 

SHINK! SHINK! SHINK!

Countless more pirates, both inside and outside the base, were shredded  and speared by hundreds of ink-black biomass spikes. 

"You are no soldier. You are a butcher. The Butcher of Torfan." Major Kyle said with zero emotion.

Ryan scoffed. "I kept our casualty rate at almost zero, Major. With respect, if you feel guilty for my actions, then you can oversee the imprisonment of the remaining pirates. I already told you, sir, I'm not a monster. But I'm not a monster. But I do believe that a point needed to be made to the Hegemony. Look at your men." Ryan gestured to the celebrating Alliance soldiers. They were crying with joy, and the batarians had surrendered to prevent further losses. "Tell me, if I hadn't taken this route, how many of them never would have been able to return home to their loved ones? If I have a resource at my disposal, I will capitalize on it in war, or else I have to tell those loved ones that their husbands and wives died because I held back. Can you at least understand that?"

"Maybe he can't Lieutenant," Hackett's voice came in over the comm. Ryan didn't even know he was patched through. "But I certainly can. You crippled the batarian efforts to hurt us, and that's the most I could ask of you, or anyone else in the Alliance today. Job well done, Commander Ryan. Hackett out."

"Did he just call me 'Commander'?" Ryan barely had time to ask this before everything faded away from him, and the familiar music  of Halla's flumes surrounded him.

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New Solara

Station of Explanation

Ryan looked around and saw that Alex, Cole, and the Master Chief had also been brought here. But who had summoned them?

He got his answer when the great Unique Shepard appeared before them. They couldn't see Shepard's face, nor could they make out the commander's current appearance. Nobody in all of Halla actually knew what Shepard's nationality or gender was. The commander's powerful voice rang out.

"I'm sending you a few years into the future on my territory. They won't be needing you for a while. You've made a good impression." Shepard pointed at Cole, "A hero," at Mercer, "A survivor," and at Ryan, "and a tactician."  Looking at the Chief, Shepard continued, "and nobody forgets a supersoldier. I'm going to give you this one bit of advice before returning you to my home: Make friends. It will make everything so much easier, and even the four of you can't stop what's coming without a few allies."

With that, Unique Shepard faded from view, and all four began falling again through space, time, and reality. They could all hear a conversation as they began to return to the territory though: 

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2183

Arcturus Station

"Well, what about Ryan? He's N7, and the file says he's the best to come out of the program. No background though..."

"He doesn't have one. He just showed up in Rio standing outside the recruiting office running his mouth. A week later, he was practically running the entire N-School. A month after that, he brought slave raids in the Traverse to almost to a total halt.

"Ryan's good. He proved that in the pirate war up to and including Torfan, but that battle showed us that he wouldn't have gotten as far without MacGrath to balance him out. That guy's been fighting with us since Elysium, and he's not even Alliance."

"Both of them? We're betting humanity's fate on two rivals playing off each other's strenghts?"

"That's the basic principle of humanity's methods, isn't it?"

"I'll make the call."

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In 2176, four incredibly special humans appeared on the galactic scene. Over the next two years, they used their remarkable power to secure humanity's colonies from the threat of pirates. One was a sociopathic monster that could shift biomass at a cellular level. Another was a man who could absorb and discharge electricity, as well as bring it down from the sky. The third was an amazing supersoldier, over seven feet tall with countless augmentations and - unknown to the galaxy - an AI in his helmet. The last of them was a man whose very genes provide countless tricks and talents that he bring to bear on his enemies.

The galaxy called them freaks and heroes in equal measure. Among themselves, they were known as......

The Supernovas of Halla. 

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Hey guys this is the end of the prologue. Next we are finally on the Normandy and off to Eden Prime! 

This is Shadow signing off

This is not my story for from it, this goes to Blindluck92 on Fanfiction.net and I don't care if you call me a stealer I'm giving him credit where it is do because I could never be good or amazing as many people like them or the people of Wattpad.