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A Unngoy Life: Chapter 1: The Attack
Date: 23 June 2005, 7:18 pm

High Charity, Entrance to the Sanctum of the Hiearchs

Nugga the Unngoy shifted uneasily at his post near the entrance to the Sanctum of the Hierarchs on High Charity.
He was one of four Unngoy who were in the Imperial Unngoy Protectors. The other three were Lovu, Nazdreg, and Zawaz.
Lovu was a female Unngoy, but she could outsnipe any male from any Covenant race. Nazdreg had a specialty with fuel rod guns. Zawaz had been selected because he had survived the first Halo and a encounter with the Flood.
Nugga had been selected because he had saved the Prophet of Endurance from a Heretic assassin on Unngo in the Harbringer system. The assassin had been a Kig-yar, and had a energy sword. Nugga had killed the assassin by breaking it's arm and slicing the oxygen tank the assassin was using to breathe in Unngo's methane-filled atmosphere. Nugga had taken a near-fatal slash to the head, so the Prophet of Endurance had the back of his head incased in Lekgolo metal.
Nugga snapped out of his daydream when he heard Tartarus, the Jiralhanae Chieftain, shout over every Comm channel, "The Demon has entered the Prophet's holy chamber? KILL HIM YOU FOOLS!"
Nugga switched to the private Unngoy channel, "Everybody hear that?"
"Who didn't?" Lovu said over the Comm, "I already saw the Demon leave the chamber. It is heading for the Prisons."
"We've got bigger problems than one bad cyborg," Zawaz groaned, "Reports from the Civilian district indicate that Flood have enter that part of the High Charity."
"Then as a human once said: "What the Hell are we standing around for?" Nazdreg yelled over the Comm.
"I agree with Nazdreg," Nugga said, "Lets save us some civilians."

High Charity, Civilian District

The four Unngoy gathered at the Entrance to the Sanctum and then ran for the Civilian District. When they arrived at the outskirts of the district, hundreds of civilians of all Covenant races were running away from it.
Nugga grabbed a young Unngoy by the methane tank and asked, "How many civilians have been infected?"
The young Unngoy shrugged, broke free from Nugga's grasp, and ran off.
"We had better split up," Nugga said, "Zawaz, cleanse the parasite from the Sangheili and Kig-yar residential areas. Nazdreg, eliminate any opposition from the Jiralhanae and Yanme'e residential locations. Lovu, your with me. You and I will cleanse the parasite from the Unngoy and Lekgolo residential areas. Lets move!"
 Zawaz walked through the Sangheili home but didn't see anyone. The Kig-yar residential area was a different story.
The place was crawling with Elite Combat Forms and Carrier Forms that had been Kig-yar. He scan for any Covenant life that wasn't infected. Seeing none, he started planting the plasma charges. These charges should level this section of the Civilian district, taking out every Flood form in the area.
He had finished planting the plasma charges around the Kig-yar area when he was spotted. He pulled out two needlers and opened fire. He took out the Combat Forms near him easily, but it was the Carrier Forms he had a problem with because every time he destroyed a Carrier Form, five Infection Forms appeared.
"Be advised Nugga," Zawaz said over the Comm, "Being overrun. The plasma charges are ready to blow. All you need to do is hit the magic button."
A Infection Form leaped at him, but he whacked it with his needlers. Another Infection Form jumped him and this one made it. Zawaz watched in horror as his arms shriveled into tentacles. Then his bulges of skin appeared on him, his methane tank and armour fell off as the bulges grew. Then the Infection Form's sensory stalks popped out. Then Zawaz's head bulged up and he lost all conciousness, because another Infection Form was being formed inside his head, and more Infection Forms were being formed in the bulges on Zawaz's skin. Zawaz was now a Flood Carrier Form.

Nazdreg didn't see any flood in the Yanme'e section of the district. The Jiralhanae section was crawling with psychotic Jiralhanae and flood Forms. Nazdreg had to kill three bloodlusting Jiralhanae when they tried to rip his head off. Then he saw it.
A Human craft was head for High Charity. The craft was small in comparison to the one Zawaz's ship had chased to Halo, but it was coming in very fast due to the explosions from its aft engines. Too late Nazdreg realized that the ship was going to crash in the Jiralhanae district.
"Get outta there Nazdreg," Nugga yelled over the Comm.
"No," Nazdreg said, "The Flood have already realized that the ship is coming and I need to keep them at this location. Good luck with your mission."
Nazdreg heard garbled reports of Jiralhanae killing Sangheili warriaors and civilians. He muttered something and started firing the Fuel Rod Gun into the Flood. Then In Amber Clad crash into the district and cleansed it of the parasite.

Lovu and Nugga walked into the Lekgolo district to search for any civilians that might be left. Seeing none, they headed to the Unggoy district. Before they entered the district, Nugga said, "Its time to blow up the Kig-yar section of the Civilian District."
Nugga took a detonator from his armour and pressed the "magic button." A mushroom cloud of smoke billowed up from the other side of the district.
Once inside the Unngoy section, Lovu whispered, " The air in this section is methane, so we don't need the methane breathers here."
Nugga nodded in agreement. The two Unggoy slipped off their methane packs and tucked them in a alleyway near the edge of the methane pit. Then they removed the chest armour, exposing their bare chest to the world. Nugga glanced over at Lovu and saw her four large breasts that dominated her upper body. The Unggoy took off their arm bands after stashing the chest armour with the methane packs and stuck those in their as well. Lastly, they removed the gas masks from their faces. Nugga gulped in the air with relish and bared his teeth.
Nugga walked through the corridors of the Unggoy section while Lovu conducted surveillance with her Particle Beam rifle. Nugga cautiously opened each door but couldn't find a soul.
"Nugga," Lovu said, "Are Jiralhanae allowed to use energy swords?"
"No," Nugga said, "Why do you ask?"
"Because a trio of Jiralhanae is herding about five Unggoy to this complex by gunpoint," Lovu said, "There is Sangheili blood on their uniforms."
Nugga cursed under his breath, "Head back to the alleyway and get
your armour back on. We're getting out of here."

Nugga and Lovu were running on all fours so they would be harder to hit. They were almost to the Phantom dropship hangers when they were stopped by two Sangheili.
"Please help me," the first one said, "I am Dumalee. My comrade Lunamee here needs medical attention."
"We are headed for a dropshipso we can jump outsystem and escape this madness," Nugga said, "We were headed for the Harbringer System. Interested?"
"Yes," Dumalee shouted, " Anything to get away from here."
The group headed for the Phantom dropship Hangar when a wall of Flood Forms burst out the vent. The Sangheili roared with rage and pulled out a Energy Sword. He was about to charge the oncoming wall of doom when two figures stepped out of the shadows and open fire with a barrage of projectiles.
Nugga realized with wonder that they were being saved by humans. The group of Covenant dashed to the dropship hangar to find that they had arrived just in time to hitch a ride from the last Phantom dropship. The group clambered aboard and the ship took off.
"Wait," Nugga shouted to the pilot, "We owe a couple humans a favor."
The pilot nodded and flew the dropship over the position the humans were located. The pilot dropped down so the grav lift was right above the humans heads.'
"Get in!" Nugga shouted at them.
The humans, who were shocked to see a Unggoy telling them to get aboard, hesitated. Too late they saw the tidal wave of Flood Forms coming at them. They were overwhelmed.
Dumalee yelled at the pilot to take off. The Dropship blasted away from High Charity.

To be Continued…

A Unngoy Life: Chapter 2: Trouble at Home
Date: 24 June 2005, 8:32 pm

Harbinger System, Unggo

When the Phantom touched the ground, Nugga and Lovu jumped out and looked around. Dumalee and Lunamee followed, wearing oxygen tanks to breathe in the methane atmosphere. The Phantom's pilot, a Unggoy called Rafiki stepped out, carrying two needlers. Then they all saw it.
Jambo, the capital of Unggo, lay in ruins. It's towering skyscrapers of methane ice were gone. A planetoid-sized ring had embedded itself in the side of mountain the city was built into. A shock of realization swept through the group.
"Halo," Nugga said in awe.
"Lets go to Jambo so we can see it up close," Rafiki said.
The group clambored back into the Phantom, and Rafiki flew the dropship toward to Jambo's spaceport. The Spaceport was unfit for landing, however, due to Halo craving a trench through it, the Unggoy Council Building, the Pleasure district, the Residental district, the Communications district, and the Skyscraper district before crashing into the mountainside.
"Where is everyone?" Lovu wondered.
 Rafiki landed the Phantom in the spaceport's parking lot. Before the group left the Phantom, they armed themselves. Rafiki took a two Needlers with extra ammo, Lovu grabbed her Particle Beam rifle and a Plasma Pistol, Nugga took a Plasma Pistol and a few Plasma grenades, Dumalee was armed with a Energy Sword and a Plasma rifle, and Lunamee was dual wielding Plasma Rifles.
When the group stepped out of the Phantom, they spread out to look for ground transport. The only transport were two civilian Spectres and a damaged Ghost.
Nugga hopped in the driver's seat of the Ghost, while the rest of the group got in the civilian Spectres. The antigrav pods in the vechicles took about five human minutes to start up. Then the group left the spaceport.

Unggo, Jambo, trench carved by Halo impact

As the group sped down the trench wall, they searched for any sign of life. When they reached the trench floor, they drove toward the crash site. Suddenly they were ambushed.
A wall of Flood Infection Forms slammed into the Spectre Dumalee and Lunamee were in, and nearly flipped it over. Nugga opened fire on the Infection Forms with the Plasma Cannons. The Infection Forms exploded. Nugga had just stopped firing after he wiped out the remaing Infection Forms when something jumped onto the back of the Ghost. Nugga turned around in his seat and saw a Flood Carrier Form hanging on the rear of the Ghost with its tentacles.
He turned around and accelerated to maximum speed. As he sped towards the wall of the crashed Halo, the Carrier Form's tentacle wrapped around Nugga's methane pack.
I'm going to die, Nugga thought. Then he remembered that he was on Unggo so he didn't need the methane pack. He reached for the release catch on the pack but the Carrier Form's tentacle grabbed his arm. Nugga reached with his fingers for the release. His fingers brushed against a catch. He grabbed it and pulled.
His methane pack slipped off his shoulders, causing the Carrier Form to lose its grip. The pack flew off the Ghost and onto the ground. Nugga looked forward to see Halo's rim coming towards at a very fast pace. Nugga decided to get off the Ghost at that point. He jumped off, causing the Carrier Form to fall into the driver's seat and start swelling. The Carrier Form sensory stalks popped up over the edge of the controls. It had just enough time to realize what was happening before the Ghost exploded.
 Lovu gasped when she saw the Ghost Nugga was on crash into the outer rim of Halo. The Flood were still coming, but this time Carrier Forms were performing suicidal jumps down the trench, hoping to knock Dumalee and Lunamee off their Spectre. They were trying to do the same to thing to her.
"Dumalee!" Lovu shouted, "We need to split up. It will be harder for them to stop us if we spread out."
Dumalee heard Lovu and nodded in acknowledgement. He turned his Spectre around and sped away from the downed Halo. Lovu shouted at Rafiki to get the Spectre out of the trench. Rafiki pressed the accelerator to the limit and went vertical trying to get out of the trench. Then ten Carrier Forms leaped into the trench and slammed into the Spectre. The Carrier Forms exploded, sending the Spectre flying into the opposite wall. Lovu was thrown off the Spectre and out of the trench. Rafiki was trapped in the Spectre, so he was killed when it blew up. Then everything went black.

To Be Continued…

A Unngoy Life: Chapter 3: The Resistance
Date: 28 June 2005, 6:19 pm

Resistance Headquarters, Jambo, Unngo

Nugga awoke to find himself in a small ice cave. He looked around the interior of the cave and saw that his methane pack was by his bedside.
Strange, Nugga thought. Unngoy hadn't used ice caves since before the coming of the Covenant. So why was he in one?
He pulled a Plasma Pistol from his methane pack and looked around. Then he heard footsteps behind him.
In a heartbeat he whirled around and had the Plasma Pistol in the face of the intruder. Nugga lowered the pistol when he recognized the being as a Unngoy.
"You High Charity types always were jumpy," the Unngoy laughed, "I am Resistance commander Yappa."
"Nugga, Commander of the Unngoy Imperial Protectors," said, "Much has changed since the last time I visited, am I right?"
"Yes," Yappa nodded, "Halo crashed into Unngo four human weeks ago. The parasite awoke when it crashed into Unngo. For the last couple of cycles we Unngoy who haven't been infected are hiding out in these caves without Flood contact."
"And the rest of the Unngoy on the planet?" Nugga asked.
"Unknown," Yappa answered, "They are probably hiding from the Flood or the Flood haven't reached those cities yet."
"Why didn't you try to start the Great Journey?" Nugga asked.
"Because the Great Journey is a lie," Yappa answered, "As I have learned from the Oracle."
As Yappa said this, a green-tinged orb floated into the cavern.
"Hello, I am 504 Enlightening Informant," The orb said, "How may I be of service?"
"Nugga, ask the Oracle about Halo," Yappa insisted.
"Oracle, what is Halo's purpose?" Nugga asked.
"Weapons of last resort, built the forerunners to elimate pontential Flood host, thereby rendering the parasite harmless. After exhausting every other strategic option, my creators activated the rings. They, and all sentient life in three radii of the galatic center, died, as planned. Would you like to see the relevant data?"
Nugga gasped in realization.

Outside trench craved by Halo impact, Jambo, Unngo

Lovu awoke to find herself lying in the snow. She sat up and looked around. The Flood were nowhere in sight. She removed her methane pack and armour, exposing her body to the elements.
That when she saw it. A ship was heading towards her position. The ship's design was nothing like Lovu had seen before. As it landed, Lovu fumbled for her Beam Rifle. That's when the vechicle's occupants stepped out.
At first, only droids stepped out. When the last occupant stepped out, Lovu gaped. That occupant's body was completely made of metal, but it organic eyes.
"Commander," It said in a grating tone, "Have we found a new specimen?"
"Yes, Lord Grievous," one of the Battle Droids said, "A methane-breathing life form is very close by."
"Then capture it," Grievous said, "We need another specimen to make more warriors."
Lovu gasped. They must mean her. She aimed her Beam rifle at the Droid Commander, and fired.
The Beam Rifle blew the Battle Droid Commander's head off, destroying it.
Lord Grievous pulled something from his waist. Two seconds later Lovu fell to the ground, out cold.
"An excellent catch," Grievous said, "We shall make good use of this one."

Resistance camp, Jambo, Unngo

Nugga was in one of the hover chairs, sulking. He was astonished to learn that the Great Journey was a lie. Since Halo was embedded deep on Unngo, they couldn't destroy Halo without destroying Unngo in the process.
A messenger Unngoy ran into the ice cave shouting, "We have spotted an unknown aircraft landing near the Halo trench!"
"Do we have a visual?" Commander Yappa said.
"Yes, sir, but I don't think you'll like it," the Unngoy handed him a Cam pad and scrambled out of the room.
Yappa and Nugga looked at the Cam pad, and saw Lord Grievous and his Battle Droids exit the ship. The camera zoomed in, and Nugga got a good angle of the Battle Droid Commander getting its head blown off. What he couldn't see, was the weapon Lord Grievous used to stun Lovu. The two watched as the droids hauled Lovu onto the ship.
"Can we track the ship?" Nugga asked.
"Yes," Yappa said, "Why?"
"I'm going to rescue my comrade," Nugga said defiantly, while shouldering his methane pack. He grabbed a Energy Sword, two Plasma Pistols, and two Needlers. Then he walked out of the room.

Lord Grievous's Headquarters, Halo

Lovu woke up with a painful headache. When she looked around, she saw Battle Droids standing at each door. She also noticed that she couldn't move her limbs, her methane pack was gone, and that her body was in a tube of some sort.
"TELL ME WHERE THE REST OF YOUR SPECIES IS!" A voice yelled.
Lovu looked around and saw Lord Grievous interrogating a male Unngoy on the other side of the room. The Unngoy didn't look the type to betray his kind to save his own hide.
Lord Grievous kicked the Unngoy across the room and then pinned him against a wall with the claws on his foot. Lord Grievous grabbed something from his waist. A blade of light ignited from Grievous's hand, and he sliced the Unngoy's head off with it. The body slumped to the ground, and Grievous said in Lovu's direction, "This is what my lightsaber will do to you if you don't cooperate."
Lovu shuddered at the thought. Since she wasn't the only Unngoy here, it would be awhile before she was interrogated.
"Sir," one of the Battle Droids said, "We have the parasite."
"Excellent," Lord Grievous wheezed, "Bring in the Sangheili specimen."
Lovu gasped as Dumalee was strapped down and a comtainment field was put around him. Flood spores poured in from chambers above Dumalee.
His body began to twist about, bulges began to appear on his body, and his arms extended and grew whiplike appendages. When the process was complete, Dumalee looked like a cross between a Carrier Form and a Combat Form.
"Perfect," Lord Grievous sneered, "This combination of Sangheili and Flood spores is the perfect bio-warrior. I want 1,000 of these abominations by tomorrow."
"Yes, sir," The Battle Droid said, "But we need a host for the Flood spores."
"Stun the methane-breathing life forms, then select one to plant the spores in," Lord Grievous wheezed.
Lovu felt a jolt, then fainted.

To Be Continued…

A Unngoy Life: Chapter 4: Rescue
Date: 1 July 2005, 3:31 pm

Grievous's headquarters, Halo

Nugga popped out of the sewage duct in Grievous's HQ, and looked around. He saw two Battle Droids that were different than the ones that captured Lovu. He pulled out a Plasma grenade and threw it at one of the Droids. Nugga closed the lid quickly as possible. 3...2...1...BOOM! The grenade exploded, destroying the Battle Droids.
Nugga jumped out of the sewage duct and unholstered his Plasma Pistols. He crept along the wall, listening for the clank clank sound that Droids make.
While crawling through the ship, he encountered little resistance. He fried about five Battle Droids before reaching the Interrogation Chamber.
"Admiral, prepare to disembark from this cold hell," a voice wheezed.
Nugga slipped into a ventilation shaft just as the door opened. He saw Lord Grievous walk out of the Interrogation Chamber and head toward what seemed to be the bridge.
Nugga felt a sudden heatwave hit him, and he realized that he was in the engine vent. He felt a rumbling, meaning that the ship had just taken off.
He slipped out of the vent and into the Interrogation Chamber. Two Battle Droids stood at the sides of the doorway, looked at Nugga, and opened fire. Nugga dived into a roll and blasted the nearest Battle Droid with a Plasma Pistol on overcharge. The Droid fell in a heap of twisted metal.
"Uh-oh," the remaining Battle Droid said. Then it hit an alarm. Nugga jumped and brought both Plasma Pistols on the Battle Droid's visual sensors.
Now that the Battle Droids were taken care of, it was time to take care of business. Nugga turned around and saw something that made his stomach turn over.
Lovu was lying on a operating table in a containment field. Nugga looked for her methane pack and found it next to the containment field. He picked it up deactivated the containment field, and handed it back to her.
"How did you find me?" Lovu asked once she had put her methane pack back on.
"I saw you get captured, and took a lucky guess at where they went," Nugga said.
The two Unngoy left the Interrogation Chamber armed.

Aboard Doombringer,Bridge

Lord Grievous sat in the commander's chair, watching the bridge crew prepare to jump to Slipspace. A holopanel popped up from the arm of the chair, and the Battle Droid in charge of Security appeared on the screen.
"Sir, it seems that another methane-breathing life form of the same species has freed the one of specimens we captured and is attempting to escape," the Security Commander said.
"I'll have IG-88 look into this," Lord Grievous wheezed.
He turned around and saw IG-88 behind him. IG-88 had a cylindrical body that could jump 70 feet. He was armed with a long-range blaster and a pulse cannon handgun.
"Find them," Grievous said.

Aboard Doombringer, enroute to Hangar

"Come on!" Nugga shouted. He and Lovu had been running toward the hangar bay for the past ten minutes.
"Almost there," Nugga gasped.
Then a figure stepped out of the shadows.
"I have been monitioring you, methane-breathers," the droid said, "You are correct to assume that this is the way to the hangar. But you will not escape from me."
IG-88 fired his long range blaster at Nugga's head. Nugga dropped to the ground to avoid the shot. He rolled into a ventilation shaft, then grabbed his needlers. Then Nugga ran out of the vent and to the other side of the room, firing his needlers in IG-88's direction. IG-88 jump to the side, and the needles impacted harmlessly against the wall behind him. Then he jumped to where Nugga was standing. IG-88 placed the barrel of his pulse cannon handgun on Nugga's forehead.
"Since there is a 0% chance of you surviving this situation, any last words?" IG-88 asked dryly.
"Hey metalhead," Lovu said as she pushed the Plasma Pistol's output to it's limit, "Dodge this!" and fired.
The plasma bolt hit IG-88 in the head, and he fell to the ground in a pile of melted circuits and metal.
Lovu grabbed IG-88's long-range blaster and took off after Nugga to the hangar bay.

Aboard Doombringer, hangar bay

Nugga ran into the hangar and opened fire on every Battle Droid in sight. Then he and Lovu ran towards Lord Grievous's personal shuttle.
"Where do you think your going?" Lord Grievous wheezed as he stepped out of the shadows. A blade of light ignited in his hand. Lord Grievous slammed the lightsaber down in front of Nugga and Lovu.
"Muhahaha," Grievous laughed, "You can't win. Surrender and will let you live."
"Nugga," Lovu said in a polite tone, "Give this bastard our answer."
"Yes, ma'am," Nugga replied, and ignited his Energy Sword and attacked.
Greivous parried the first attack with his lightsaber, then tried to knock Nugga's face with his fist. Nugga brought his Energy Sword up and sliced off Grievous's hand.
"Raaagghhh!" Grievous roared as he clutched the stub of what was left of his arm.
"Lets go!" Lovu shouted at Nugga as she hopped on the shuttle. Nugga jumped in and the ship took off.

To Be Continued…

A Unngoy Life: Chapter 5: Tin Man is Back
Date: 5 July 2005, 6:48 pm

Resistance Camp, Jambo, Unngo

This was the third day Lovu and Nugga had been stranded on Unngo, if stranded meant living the good life. One thing was that Unngoy didn't need to wear the heavy methane packs on their home planet. Lovu and Nugga slept together every night, since Nugga had rescued Lovu from the Doombringer. Their victory would be short-lived, because Lord Grievous was coming back for revenge.

Nugga walked into the Resistance Field HQ to find Yappa looking at a Holomap of the city. The Holomap showed four starships of unknown origin landing outside Jambo.
"Lord Grievous has returned with reinforcements," Yappa said, "I say five legions per starship. That is twenty legion in that army, plus vehicle support. If he plans to launch a full-scale attack, the Resistance will be annihilated."
"Not unless we find a weak point in the Army's plan of attack," Nugga said, "Grievous probably knows that we know where his ships are. He knows the element of surprise for the main bulk of the army is gone. That's why he left at least one legion behind on Halo to attack our rear, while we focus our attention on the legions from the capital ships. The legion based on Halo will attempt to break through our rear and cause havoc among our ranks while the main bulk of the army delivers the killing blow."
"How are we going to counter such a large offensive?" Yappa inquired.
"We force the main army in to a bottleneck. Then plant a mine field around the crashed Halo so that lone legion can't attack us from behind. The army's main bulk will be stuck in the bottleneck, where we can wipe it out and completely destroy it. That trench that was carved by Halo will serve as the bottleneck."
"Good plan," Yappa said, "We'll start preparing for the battle now."

Aboard Doombringer, Bridge

General Grievous stood in the commander's platform, watching the Pilot Droids sent messages to the battleship Geneosis's Pride, the destroyer Grand Annihilator,and the Doombringer's sister capital ship, the Armageddon Flame, to land on this chunk of ice its inhabitants called their planet.
Grievous stared at his newly repaired hand. He would make the Unngoy that cut off his hand die slowly, very slowly.

Harbringer System, above Unngo, Ark

The Master Chief walk cautiously through the Ark's hallway. So far, he had encountered little resistance. For a ship that was carrying the last prophet hierarch on board, there was a lack of security. Then he came to what looked like a maintenance shaft. He wished Cortana were here. He slipped into the maintenance shaft with ease.
The shaft seemed to extend from bow to stern. He walked towards the bow of the ship, where he supposed the bridge would be. Then when he was near the bow, heard a familiar voice.
"Prepare to land the ship at Unngo's capital," The unmistakeable voice of the Prophet of Truth vibrated through the vent underneath the Master Chief. He carefully removed the grating from the vent. He looked down and saw the Prophet of Truth hovering right below him. The Master Chief pulled out an Energy Sword, ignited it, and jumped down next to Truth. He pressed the Energy Sword into Truth's neck as the bridge crew turned around and brought their weapons to bear on him.
"Drop your weapons, or your boss gets decapitated," The Master Chief said firmly.
One by one, the bridge crew set their weapons on the ground and kicked them over in his direction. A blinking light began flashing on one of the consoles. A Brute turned to it, then turned back to face the Hierarch looking very pale.
"Sir," he said, "Slipspace rupture on the far side of the planet.A ship of unknown origin just dropped out of Slipspace. No, make that two ships. No, three. They're pouring out of Slipspace. There are at least two hundred ships coming from there. They be able to detect us in two units, sir. What should we do?"
"Land on that planet," The Master Chief interrupted, "They will have a hard time detecting us."
"Too late," one of the Brutes said, "Multiple ships are launching starfighters. No lifesigns on board the starfighters. They seem to be using droids."
"No ship can stand that much combined firepower," The Master Chief said, "Land this ship now."
"Too late," another Brute said, "The starfighters are firing at us. Brace for impact!"
The Master Chief groaned. This space battle was going to be a disaster.

To Be Continued…

A Unngoy Life: Chapter 6: Lots Of Enemy!
Date: 11 July 2005, 6:19 pm

Droid Army Field HQ, Jambo

Lord Grievous walked into the Droid army's commander center. Two security Droids stood at attention as he passed. He entered the tactics room.
At a rectangular table sat the commanding officers of Droid Army. The human bounty hunter Jango Fett and his son Boba Fett were clad in their trademark Mandalorian Battle armor. Commander Durge, another bounty hunter, was a species of unknown origin. IG-88 was being repaired, so he was unable to be present in the meeting. Lord Grievous took his seat at the head of the table.
"As you are all aware," Lord Grievous began, "These methane-breathing lifeforms have given us trouble for the last time. Our final assault will purge their kind from this city, allowing us to take over this pitiful excuse for a city and eventually control this planet. The Droid Army will break into four groups, each headed by one of us. I will be leading two Legions of our Bio-warriors that will attack from Halo. Durge will lead ten battalions of Battle Droids, forty battalions of Super Battle Droids, and fifteen divisons of Droidekas through the trench that was craved by Halo. Boba Fett will lead the Hailfire Droid squadron on our right flank. Jango Fett is in charge of our AAT Tank brigade and our STAP squads on our left flank. The plan is to force the resistance into the trench, where we can annihilate the vermin all at once. Any questions?"
Seeing none, Grievous said, "You have your assignments. The attack begins when I give the signal. Dismissed."

Above Unngo, Ark

The Master Chief grabbed onto Truth's hover chair as the ship was attacked by thousands of Vulture Droids. The enemy fleet was closing in on the Ark's positon. The ship was going to be destroyed if the Covenant didn't fight back.
"Doesn't this ship have a weapons system!" Master Chief yelled.
"Yes," Truth answered, "The console at the front of the bridge."
The Master Chief ran to the console at the front of the bridge and examined the controls for the main cannon. They were not very different from the controls of a MAC gun. He fired the main cannon at the nearest cruiser.
The cannon's projectile blasted out of the cannon at a lightspeed. The round tore through the shields of the cruiser and continued through the ship, and went out the other side, and blew up the observation tower of the capital ship going underneath the cruiser.
Next Master Chief powered up the anti-starfighter weapons, then opened fire. The plasma beams tore through the Vulture droids and took out the shields of a few destroyers that were unlucky enough to be in the path of the plasma beams.
"The Vulture Droids are in disarray, Demon," one of the Brutes said, "The enemy is preparing to return fire. Brace for impact!"
The Master Chief stumbled as the ship was hit by a merciless barrage from every enemy ship able to return fire. The bridge shook as a shot connected with the Ark's engine.
"Losing altitiude," one of the Brutes said,"We are going down."
The Ark began to plummet toward Unngo very fast. The Master Chief crouched down to avoid being killed on impact. This is going to be a long fight, Master Chief thought.

Unngo, Jambo, Halo Trench, Resistance Defense perimeter

Nugga looked at the Unngoy around him preparing for battle. There were Unngoy so old they could hardly move, suiting up for war like they were young again. Female Unngoy were given needlers and sent into the catacombs with the younglings to protect them, with the exception of Lovu. All the other Unngoy were perparing for battle.
Nugga shook himself out of the daydream and grabbed a energy sword from the rack. He snatched a pair of Needlers and fastened them to his methane pack. Nugga grabbed four plasma grenades and looked down Halo Trench(as it was now referred to), and saw them coming.
There was at least twenty unknown but definitely hostile vehicles slowly advancing down the trench toward their position. Nugga slipped on his Imperial Protector helmet and switched on the Comm.
"Lovu, sound the alarm," Nugga howlered at the Comm.
"Already did," Lovu said in a cool tone.
Nugga watched as hundreds of Ghosts, Banshees, Wraiths, and Spectres powered up. This battle will decide the fate of Jambo be won by either my people, Nugga thought, or it will be won by the scum who are trying to take it from us.
Nugga heard a sizzling noise and looked up. The Ark hit the ground about a fifty clicks from Nugga's position. It kept going after it hit the ground. Nugga dived out of the way as the Ark smashed through the barrier and came to a stop. A figure stepped out form the bridge viewport. Nugga couldn't believe it. The Demon was HERE!
If Nugga could convince him to help, the Unngoy would stand a good chance at winning this battle.
The Flood had other ideas.

To Be Continued…

A Unngoy Life: Chapter 7: The Battle of Jambo
Date: 15 July 2005, 1:29 am

Halo, Resistance Rear Perimeter

Yappa pulled out two needlers in case of the predicted attack from behind that Nugga had spoken of. Hopefully General Grievous was leading the main bulk of his army into battle, and he wouldn't have to face him. His troops were a match for a bunch of droids.
Thunk!
The sound had come from underneath him. Yappa took three steps back and flattened himself against the wall, and motioned for his squad to do the same.
CRACK! The methane ice shattered, and hundreds of Infection Forms poured out.
"OPEN FIRE!" Yappa yelled and fired his needlers into the abominations.
"Nugga," Yappa yelled over the Comm, "Grievous didn't plan to attack the Rear, but the Flood did!"
He turned and ran away from the oncoming tidal wave of doom coming at him. Then a tentacle burst through the ice and dragged him down into the hole.

Jambo, Resistance Front Line

Nugga ignited his Energy Sword and cut through a Battle Droid that had gotten too close to the barrier. The fighting was the fiercest down here, even though he had heard that fighting was taking place outside the trench.
"Nugga," Lovu signaled over the Comm, "I just received word that the Flood attacked the rear. Also, I have received reports that Yappa was taken."
"GET DOWN!" The Demon yelled and pulled out a Carbine and fired at Commander Durge, who, until moments ago, had been sneaking up on Nugga.
Suddenly, energy shields activated on Durge's huge arms. He easily deflected the Carbine shot and then knocked Nugga out of the way, and charged the Demon. Durge was almost on top of the Demon when two prongs of energy shot out his back. The Demon had gotten an Energy Sword from somewhere, and now it had gutted Durge.
To the Master Chief's surprise, Durge began laughing. Then Durge began pounding him with powerful punches to the head. Then Durge delivered a roundhouse punch into the Master Chief's abodmen, causing him to lose his grip on the Energy Sword. Durge pulled the Energy Sword out of his chest with minimal effort, and began thrusting with the Energy Sword at the Master Chief.
There was a hissing noise, and suddenly Durge was minus his sword arm. Two seconds later, Nugga's Energy Sword sliced through Durge's middle.
"You okay, Demon?" Nugga asked, "I need your help with eliminating the Flood infestation that is occuring in the rear."
"Sure," the Master Chief said, "As long as we have some Brutes to back us up."
"It shall be done," the Prophet of Truth said as he floated up to them, "My Jiralhanae Honor Guard will accompany you."
"Let's go then," Master Chief said, "But we'll need transport."
A Shadow pulled up alongside Truth. Lovu was driving. The group clambered onto the Shadow and Lovu kicked it in gear, and the transport sped off to Yappa's last known position. Little did they know they were carrying a extra passenger. Durge was alive.

Halo, Resistance Rear Perimeter

Lord Grievous walked into the Rear Defense Perimeter to find multiple Unngoy dead near the hole that his Bio-Warriors had chased the Infection Forms out of. He looked around to find about ten of his Bio-Warriors standing at the entrance to the passageway. He smiled and motioned the Bio-Warriors to hide.
Lovu slammed on the Shadow's brakes, and they stopped outside the Rear Defense Perimeter. Master Chief, Nugga, Lovu, and six Brute Honor Guards hopped off the Shadow and ran into the entrance. They skidded to a stop when they saw Lord Grievous blocking the path.
"Well, well," Grievous wheezed, "It seems that these methane-breathers have aquired some allies."
The Master Chief ignited his Energy Sword, and Nugga did the same. The Brute Honor Guard raised their Brute Shots and prepared to fire. Lovu leveled her Particle Beam Rifle at Grievous's head.
"You shouldn't be worring about killing me," Lord Grievous sneered, "As you should about killing them."
Grievous's Bio-Warriors stepped out of the shadows. Then Durge stomped in behind Lovu.
The Master Chief signaled the Jiralhanae to take care of Durge while he took care of the Bio-Warriors. With that, he and Nugga began slashing at the Bio-Warriors. Ten seconds later, the Bio-Warrios lay dead.
The Jiralhanae fired their Brute Shots into Durges gut. Durge collapsed under the barrage. For a second it looked like Durge was dead. Then a mass of tentacles erupted from the crater where Durge was. It hit the nearest Jiralhanae with the force of a rocket. The Master Chief turned around and saw Durge rise from the crater.
"Now you see Durge's true form," Grievous laughed.
Pieces of Durge's armour were fused to his body of tentacles. His helmet was the only thing intact. Nugga stared for a moment. Then Durge charged.
The Demon dodged Durge's charge and began hacking away at his back with the Energy Sword. Durge turned around and slammed his arm into the Demon's head. The Demon sailed across the room and hit the wall with a sickening crunch.
Durge turned his attention to Nugga. He charged Nugga and body slammed him. Then the tentacles swarmed around Nugga and absorbed him.
The Demon stood up and pulled out a Brute Plasma Rifle, and opened fire. Durge turned his attention back to the Demon and charged him again. He was almost on top of the Demon when a bulge appeared in his chest. Then a second bulge grew on his stomach, and a third on his arm. The Demon threw himself out of the way not a moment too soon.
Durge exploded. In the middle of the gore stood Nugga, dripping with digestive juices. Lovu stared.
"Plasma grenades plus my methane-pack," Nugga said, "Equals a bad case of indigestion."
"Now where were we," the Demon said, "Oh yes. We were about to kill Grievous."
"Muhahahaha!" Grievous laughed, "You think you can defeat me? Let's see how you handle one against three."
He lunged at the nearest Jiralhanae. The Jiralhanae raised it's Brute Shot to defend itself. Suddenly, two lightsabers ignited in Grievous's hands, and he used one to bisect the Brute Shot, the other to behead the Jiralhanae holding it. The other Jiralhanae went berserk and charged him. Greivous killed them with the precision of a artist.
"Now you all shall die," Grievous said.
Then his arms divided from two arms and became four arms. Then he pulled out two more lightsabers and ignited them.
The Demon pulled out a second Energy Sword and ignited it. Nugga ignited his Energy Sword, and Lovu ignited hers. Then they all charged Lord Grievous as one.
Grievous parried the first attack from the Demon. Then he thrust his lower right hand's lightsaber at the Demon's gut. The Demon blocked the attack with his second Energy Sword. Grievous lunged out with his left foot and grabbed Lovu's head with it, and he threw her into the wall.
Nugga charged Lord Grievous in a rage. Grievous grabbed Nugga's head with his right foot and slammed Nugga's head into the ground. Then Grievous began attacking with new intensity at The Master Chief, who could barely keep up Grievous's attacks before.
two minutes later Grievous scored a slash at the Master Chief's right leg. The Master Chief dropped to one knee in pain. Grievous saw an opening, and slashed the Master Chief's right shoulder with both of his left arms' lightsabers. The Master Chief fell to the ground. Grievous pointed all four of his lightsabers at the Master Chief's forehead.
"It ends here," Lord Grievous said and raised his lightsabers for the final blow.
Suddenly, gigantic Flood tentacles erupted out of the ground and grabbed Lord Grievous's arms. Then another wrapped around the Master Chief. More tentacles grabbed Nugga and Lovu. All four of the warriors were dragged down into Halo.

To Be Continued…

A Unngoy Life: Chapter 8: Three-way War
Date: 15 July 2005, 5:55 pm

Gravemind's Lair

Nugga woke with a start. He tried to move but realized that he couldn't move at all. He looked around and saw Lovu, the Demon, and Lord Grievous in the same predicament. The he saw it.
A huge mass was in the middle of the room. A smell like rotting flesh secreted from the creature. Nugga gagged at the smell.
"Gravemind," The Demon mumured, "I thought that there was only one."
"Incorrect, human," Gravemind said, "There are one of my kind on each Halo. When Halo crashed into this planet, I was overjoyed to find that it was filled with thousands of senitent life, perfect food for the Flood. In a matter of weeks, the Flood shall consume all senitent life on this planet. Then I will proceed to leave this planet and all senitent life in the galaxy. Muhahaha!"
"As for you, Lord Grievous," Gravemind said, "You have given my flood a new form to use, but I don't need Sangheili to make this form, I shall use the natives of this planet."
Gravemind pointed a tentacle behind Lovu. On the opposite wall lay Yappa, or what was left of him anyway.
His body was mutated by he Infection Form in him. His arms were gargantuan in comparison to his swollen body. His legs were shrunken and stubby. His torso was swollen from the Infection Forms growing in it. His eyes still showed signs of life, but Yappa had no control of his body.
While everyone else was staring at the abombination on the wall, Lord Grievous cut the tentacles holding him up. He jumped onto the wall and ran up and out of Gravemind's lair through the one of holes made by Gravemind's tentacles.
"NO!!!!" Gravemind screeched as Lord Grievous turned and ran out the hall.
Master Chief grabbed his Energy Sword and sliced the tentacle holding him. Then he cut the two Unngoy loose. The three of them ran out through the hole and ran for it. A enraged roar echoed from behind them. Tentacles lashed out at them. Gravemind was pissed. The Demon grabbed Nugga and Lovu by their methane packs and sprinted away from that digusting version of Hell.

Resistance Field HQ

The Prophet of Truth floated through the doorway of the Resistance Field HQ. A Unngoy saluted him as he entered. Truth floated over to the tactical map.
"Master Tactician, report," Truth ordered, "How goes the battle?"
"Not as we predicted, Hierarch," The Master Tactian answered, "Our forces in Halo Trench are holding, but our Ghost divisions are being forced back by the enemy's speeder squadrons. We placed two Wraith legions all across our defensive line, but the enemy tank forces have begun destroying Wraith squads when they get in range. Also, we have received reports of Flood attacks, employing a Combat Form of unknown origin. These attacks have been traced back to Halo, meaning that the Flood are using this battle to annhilate us from behind. Hierarch, the battle is lost. We must retreat."
"I understand," Truth said, "Have the Shadow transports begin evacuating wounded from Halo Trench, and tell the Banshee squads to give us cover fire. Have the Phantoms start retrieving Unngoy from the rear and make their way to the outskirts of the city."
"What about you, Master Hierarch?" Master Tactian asked.
"I will be leaving in the Ark," Truth answered, "It is not be capable of space travel yet, but I will use it to escape."
"Master Tactian," one of the Tactians shouted, "Reports indicate that Demon and company were sucessful at the cost of the Jiralhanae Honor Guard."
"Master Tactian!" Another one called out, "Slipspace rupture just outside the enemy blockade. It's our Divine Wind Fleet, the one that was sent to annhilate Earth. Wait, the fleet was larger than this. Noble Hierarch, their being followed by the Human fleet. Both fleets will be annilhated if Lord Grievous has his blockade open fire."
"Hierarch," the other tactian shouted, "There is a huge cluster of asteroids headed towards the blockade. Wait a moment, no that's impossible… Sir, I think those asteroids are actually spacecraft. I hope whoever is in those ships are on our side."
Suddenly, a hologram appeared on the Holovid. The face which appeared on the screen had a metal jaw. His head was covered in a strange metal. A cybernetic eye glowed a evil red next to his real eye, which glowed a blood red. His nostrils were slits that sat next to his eyes.
"People of this planet," The face said, "I am Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka and me and da Orks is gonna crush ya so Surrender or die!"

To Be Continued…

A Unngoy Life: Chapter 9: Da Orks
Date: 19 July 2005, 5:43 pm

Author's note: Orks have a tendency to speak differently than humans. A WAAAGH is a group of warbands of the greenskins(Orks) that merge into one army that makes a huge empire on its conquests. And here is a list of weapon equivalents:
Slugga=heavy pistol
Shoota=Assault rifle
Rokkit launcha=Rocket launcher
Big Shoota=Minigun
Burna=Flamethrower
Choppa=Axe-like weapons or brutal cleavers
Uge Choppa=big axe
Stikkbombz=grenades
Wartrukk=armed, open-topped transport
Death Kopta=helicopter
Warbike=heavy-armed Ork motorcycles
Wartrak/Warbuggie/Wartrak Skorcha=(Ork verison) Warthog
Battlewagon=tank/heavily armed transport
Fightabommerz=Longsword
Now read on…

Ghazghkull's Space Hulk, WAAAGH Room

Ghazghkull trudged into the WAAAGH Room and sat down at the table. Zagboss Skargrim Ruknar, the leader of the Burning Death Speed Freeks, Boss Snikrot, the leader of the RedSkull Kommandos, the Painboss, Mad Dok Grotsnik, and Ghazghkull's personal technical genius, Orkimedes, were all present.
"Thank ya all fer coming," Ghazghkull said, "As we all know, this planet is a ice world, so Skargrim, I suggest you 'ave your boyz put chains on ya tires. Warboss Grubnatz, get ya Warband prepared for da teleporta. Grotsnik, get yer cyborks ready to hit da enemy 'ard. Orkimedes, prepare da teleporta fer a large group. Dismissed!"

Jambo, Resistance Rear Perimeter

The Master Chief stopped running once he reached the entrance of the Rear Perimeter. After stopping he looked and saw the Shadow that he rode in on was totally destroyed. He looked up and a Shadow with a two Ghost escort headed towards him.
The convoy stopped next to him. A Grunt was manning the Shadow's Plasma Turret, and two Grunts were driving the Ghosts. The battle must not be going well, the Master Chief thought.
"I'll drive one of the Ghosts," the Master Chief said.
One of the Grunts got out of his Ghost and offered it to the Chief.
Suddenly, a flash appeared ten yards away. Twenty Orks appeared out of thin air. After taking in their surroundings, they spotted the Shadow and charged toward the Master Chief.
The Master Chief pulled out a Carbine and started firing at the Orks. He hit the lead Ork, but the Ork kept coming. The Ork pulled out a large pistol-like weapon and began shooting at the Master Chief. A three pound bullet fired from the weapon and put a six-inch bullethole in the Shadow.
"Get out of here!" The Master Chief yelled as he ignited his Energy Sword.
The Ork pulled out a crude-looking axe and lunged at the Master Chief. The Master Chief gutted the Ork on his Energy Sword. The other Orks took one look at their dead comrade, then at the Master Chief. Then they pulled out crude-looking axes, cleavers, and what looked like a chainsaw, and charged the Master Chief.
Suddenly, drop pods began falling out of the sky. Two drop pods squashed an Ork or two, and the door hitting an Ork in the back pissed it off. It turned around and began to hack away at the Helljumper that was in the drop pod. The Helljumper fired his Battle Rifle once into the Ork's face before the Ork decapitated him.
The Helljumpers got out of their drop pods only to end up in the middle of a close-combat nightmare. The Orks seemed to thrive on the carnage they caused. The Master Chief had to dodge three-pound bullets while beheading, skewering, or slicing up any Ork near him.
Ten minutes later, only the Master Chief, two Helljumpers, and four Orks were left. The Helljumpers were exhausted, but the Orks' strength was already recovered. The Master Chief pulled out a Plasma Grenade and threw it at the Ork that looked like the leader. The Ork went into a rage, and charged the Master Chief. The Plasma Grenade exploded, killing the remaining Orks, and knocking out the Master Chief.

Resistance Field HQ

Truth watched the whole fight play out on a Holovid from the Field HQ. He smiled inwardly. Not only was the Demon dead, but these heretic Unngoy and their blasphemy shall be silenced soon.
Just then, the Savior of the Unngoy, Nugga walked in, flanked by his dearest comrade, Lovu. They were surrounded by Jiralhanae Honor Guard.
Truth looked at the Honor Guard captain, a sign to kill everyone in the room. The Captain barked something to the rest of the Honor Guard, and they all simultaneously fired their Brute Shots into the Unngoy Tacticians. Nugga stared for a moment, then ignited an Energy Sword and gutted the nearest Jiralhanae. Then the Honor Guard turned and whacked Nugga and Lovu over the head. The two collapsed to the ground, and Truth motioned for the Honor Guard to leave. After surveying the damage, Truth left the room.

Droid Army Field HQ, Jambo

Lord Grievous trudged in the Droid Army Field HQ to see Jango Fett, Boba Fett, and a newly repaired IG-88 were waiting. Grievous walked over to his seat at the War table.
Lord Grievous looked down at his Comm system, and saw a light beeping on the Ground-to-Spacecraft Comm. He pressed a button and a hologram projector appeared in the center of the table.
A Droid Captain appeared in Hologram.
"Sir," The Droid Captain said, "Three strange fleets have appeared insystem. One calls themselves the Orks, another calls themselves the Covenant, and the third fleet are called Humans. These ships are well-armed, the Orks have landed a small unit of troops by means we have yet to discover. The Humans have also landed troops via drop pods. The three fleets are outside of the blockades firepower, so we can't attack those fleets without moving away from the blockade. What are your orders, sir?"
"Send as many starfighters as you have on your crusier, Captain," Grievous ordered, "My troops should be able to kill anything that these pitiful fleets throw at us."
"Understood sir," The Droid Captain saluted, and the Hologram vanished.

Aboard Human ship, New York, Bridge

Admiral Harper stood at the tactical readout on the Holoboard. Over a hundred unknown ships were stationed around the planet, in blockade formation. He had sent a squad of ODSTs to do some recon, but hadn't heard from them yet. Strange thing was, the Covenant weren't moving towards the blockade either. It appeared that the Covenant were as surprised as he was.
"Sir!" The ship's AI, Zeus, said, "The 'Orks' are moving their 'fleet' toward the blockade.
"Are they insane?" Harper wondered out loud, "That blockade has got to have at least fifty time more firepower. They'll be annihilated."
"Sir!" the Navigator shouted, "Slipspace rupture about ten klicks away. A huge ship sir, Covenant by the looks of it. The Identification code translates the name to High Charity. Wait a moment… sir, I'm picking up a second ship on scanner. Its Covenant, but I'm picking up Captain Miranda Keyes transponder signal on board that Covenant Cruiser, as well as Sergeant Johnson's. What do we do sir?"
"Get the fleet as close as you can to that blockade," The Admiral ordered, "And bring all ships up to Combat Alert."
"And Zeus," Harper said as he turned to the AI.
"Yes, Admiral?" Zeus asked.
"Give our new friends a warm welcome," the Admiral ordered.

To Be Continued…

A Unngoy Life: Chapter 10: Bad Feeling About This…
Date: 21 July 2005, 12:35 am

Resistance Field HQ

Nugga woke with a splitting headache. Literally. He looked around the HQ.
The room looked as if a bunch of Lekgolos had gotten into a bar fight. The bodies of Unngoy Tacticians were scattered across the room. Every piece of equipment was destroyed.
Then he remembered. The Jiralhanae. They had slaughtered the Unngoy in the room like animals.
Lovu. He looked around and found her laying near the entrance. Luckily, he found her pulse. He exhaled a sigh of relief. She was alive.
Nugga grabbed her limp form and crawled out of the Field HQ.

Outskirts of Jambo

Nugga carried Lovu into a small ice shop. Lovu woke up after he laid her down on the ground.
"Nugga," Lovu asked, "What happened?"
"Truth betrayed us," Nugga answered.
Nugga turned Lovu over on her stomach so he could unclip her methane pack. She wouldn't be needing her methane pack anymore. He took off his own so he didn't have to lug it around. Then he turned Lovu over. Her four large breasts looked extremely appealing. Lovu gave Nugga the 'I know what you're thinking and I feel the same' look.

Human Ship New York, Armoury A

Sergeant Thomas Dalton of ODST 5th Platoon, sat in the armoury cleaning his portable chaingun. His chaingun would be vital to the success of the mission.
4th Platoon had been sent down to that chunk of ice at 0900 hours. It was now 1750 hours, and they hadn't checked in. Admiral Harper had figured that the 4th was dead so he was sending in the 5th and 6th Platoons to establish a foothold in the city where the majority of the fighting is taking place.
Suddenly a female ODST stopped in the doorway of the armoury. It was Private Krystal Lee, one of Thomas's many highschool friends. Krystal was always hyper, which made her a good friend during times he was bored. She had quick reflexes, which was why the brass let her in the ODST program.
"Hurry up Tom," Krystal teased. She knew Thomas didn't like being called that name.
"I'm coming," Thomas said with a smile. He shouldered his chaingun and followed Krystal to Drop Pod Bay 2.

Drop Pod Bay 2

Major Smith paced back and forth across the bay floor. He was the Platoon's new commander after Major Johnson had been killed in the battle for Earth. Major Smith always wore sunglasses that prevented anyone from seeing his eyes when talking face-to-face. It reminded Thomas of a villian from a movie from the year 2000 he had seen. An Agent.
"Gentlemen," Smith said in a cold, collected tone, "I will not be brief with you. Your former commander may have given you a pep talk before a mission, but I will not. You will follow my orders to the letter, understood?"
"SIRYESSIR!" 5th Platoon roared in unison.
"Good," Smith said, "Now suit up and prepare for hot drop. We drop in T minus 5 minutes."
Thomas placed his chaingun in Drop Pod 7, next to Krystal's.
Krystal and her highschool friend and fellow ODST, Vicky Kobbels, both grabbed a Shotgun, some Grenades, and a Rocket Laucher with extra ammo for both guns.
Thomas did a ammunition check on his personal M6D Pistol. A full clip. He checked that he had extra clips of ammo.
Roni Guman, longtime friend of Thomas's, armed himself with a Sniper Rifle and a shotgun.
"Everyone in their Drop Pods now," the Major said in his cold, unnerving tone.
Fifty ODSTs strapped themselves in their pods, and the doors closed behind them.
"ETA to drop," Smith said over the Comm channel, "T minus 1 minute."
Thomas opened a private Comm channel to Krystal and said, "Am I the only who is creeped out by the Major's voice?"
"Nah, he creeps me out too," Krystal answered.
Then the Drop Pods were released, and they blasted out of the ship toward the planet.

Outskirts of Jambo, Grubnatz's Battlewagon

Grubnatz spat over the side of the Battlewagon. Ever since he had killed the former Warboss, he had been in charge. The Ork political structure was determined by who was the toughest, largest, and meanest Ork around.
His new bodyguard was given the best equipment he could 'convince' da Mekboyz to give them.
Grubnatz clenched his newly attached Power Claw. His entire bodyguard was equipped with mega-armour, power claws, and the choice of twin-linked shootas or a kombi-weapon.
Grubnatz looked up as he saw Phantoms fly overhead and headed east. Grubnatz knew that meant the retreating natives were coming this way. He yelled at the driver to turn the Battlewagon around, and to sound the Waggh Horn.
The driver complied, and the foot-slogging boyz turned to the battlewagon and ran to get in front of it. Grubnatz grinned. This Warband will have a lot of glory after we plunder this planet, he thought.
What he didn't realize was that he was being watched by four pairs of eyes.

Outskirts of Jambo

A Flood Unngoy watched what was happening on the outskirts of the city. The Flood Unngoy was Yappa, who could only watch the battle that was about to take place. Well, the Infection Form controlling his body had been ordered not to interfere in this skirmish. The Infection Forms developing in his chest were starting to reach maturity. Soon he would be a walking time bomb, like the rest of his former species could soon to be. Yappa sighed inwardly, knowing that he was doomed. But he swore he would do anything to help his people win this war.

To Be Continued…

A Unngoy Life: Chapter 11: On The Move
Date: 4 August 2005, 5:15 pm

Covenant Capital Ship High Charity's Glory, Bridge

Sergeant Johnson stood at the Holovid showing the Blockade. The Arbiter walked up beside him and looked at the Holovid as well.
"Friends of yours?" Sergeant Johnson asked.
"No," the Arbiter said in a flat tone.
"The Blockade is interfering with the Comm," Miranda Keyes said as she walked up to them, "I can't get through to anyone on the surface."
"If these aliens are as tactically advanced as I believe they are," Half-Jaw said as he joined them, "They probably knocked out the Comm towers the first chance they had. I'm going to hail the Human Fleet soon."
"Understood," Miranda Keyes acknowledged.

Outskirts of Jambo, Ice Shop

Nugga woke up lying on top of Lovu. He rolled off of her and decided to take a peek outside.
Bad idea.
Nugga saw the Ork banners rising above the buildings on the other side of the street. He shook Lovu awake and told her to grab her Beam Rifle and stay put while he found a transport. Nugga grabbed a Needler and a Energy Sword, then ran out of the ice shop to find a transport.

Drop Pod 7, Unngo's atmosphere

Thomas relaxed in his Drop Pod during the drop. He had twenty successful landings under his belt, so he had nothing to worry about.
"Sergeant," Major Smith's unnerving voice came through the Comm channel, "Are you seeing this?"
Thomas looked at the viewscreen and saw fifteen Ork fightercraft flying underneath their position.
Suddenly, five of the fighters peeled away from the formation and opened fire at the Drop Pods.
"I've been hit!" Krystal srceamed. Her Drop Pod's parachute exploded, causing the Pod to drift away from the rest of the group and the LZ.
"Gentlemen," Major Smith said in his usual tone, "If you are knocked out of your flightpath,when you land, try to find your way to the LZ."
Thomas heard the order, but was too busy worrying about the Ork fighter that was heading towards him. Thomas braced for impact.
Thomas's Drop Pod clipped the Ork fighter's wing, sending his Pod spinning off toward Krystal's Pod.
Thomas groaned as he saw a strange tank. Upon magnification, there were Orks in it. Thomas clicked the safety off the Chaingun. His Drop Pod was going to land right on top of that tank.
CRUNCH! Thomas's Drop Pod landed on top of three Orks in the transport. Thomas kicked open the pod door and opened fire on everything else in the battlewagon with his chaingun. The Orks didn't have time to react before Thomas killed them.
Thomas pulled out a frag grenade and tossed it where he figured the weakest point on the tank was.
He figured right. The grenade exploded, causing secondary explosions to rock the inside of the tank. Thomas thought it was about time to get off the tank at that point. He shouldered his chaingun, and leaped over the rail.
The last Ork on the top of the tank roared in anger. Thomas guessed this guy was the leader of this particular group of greenskins. Thomas waved good-bye to the apparently idiotic greenskin.
KABOOM! The tank exploded, knocking Thomas off his feet. He lay there stunned, thinking about what to do for his next move. First, he had to find Krystal.

Outskirts of Jambo

Yappa watched in horror as a huge, dome-like structure fell from the sky, crashed into Installation 03, crushing the ring with its sheer weight. The Dome, which Yappa realized was High Charity, stopped on the other side of the mountain after crashing through its peak. The Infection Form controlling Yappa's body sensed a presense like Gravemind, only it was coming from High Charity.

Outskirts of Jambo, Ice shop

Nugga brought a Spectre up to the front of the ice shop, yelling at Lovu to get in. Lovu ran out and scrambled into the Spectre. Nugga kicked the Spectre into gear and it took off toward the city on the other side of the mountain.

Jambo, Rear Defense Perimeter

The Master Chief woke up with a searing pain in his arm. He looked around and saw that he was surrounded by Battle Droids. Five Battle Droids stood over him, their blasters aimed at his head.
"Get up," A Battle Droid ordered. The Master Chief guessed this Droid was the one in charge.
"Hands up," The Commander Droid continued. The Master Chief complied willingly.
"Move," the Commander ordered prodding him with his blaster. The Battle Droids moved him on to a transport, and sent him to the interrgation chamber on board the Doombringer. The Master Chief groaned. After evading the Covenant for years, only to be captured by a group of Battle Droids.

To Be Continued…

A Unngoy Life: Chapter 12: As If One was Bad Enough...
Date: 7 August 2005, 6:46 pm

High Charity's Glory, Bridge

"Report!" Half-Jaw roared as the ship was pounded by a barrage from one of the Capital Ships in the Blockade.
"Our engines have been hit," one of the Sangheili replied, "Sir, we are dead in space."
Half-Jaw swore silently. If the ship was dead in space, they were sitting ducks for the blockade's accurate weaponry. That, and they couldn't stop Gravemind from landing High Charity on Unngo.

Outskirts of the city Mos Espa, Unngo

Nugga gunned the engine as the Spectre flew over a ravine in what was left of Mos Espa, a city on the other side of the mountain. Aside from Jambo, Mos Espa was the largest city on the planet. Even though it didn't have huge buildings, Mos Espa had the largest population on the planet.
Nugga stopped the Spectre after jumping the ravine. What he saw devastated him.
High Charity lay on its side in the middle of Mos Espa.
Nugga looked around and saw a wrecked Shadow lying upturned in the ravine he had just crossed. He looked back at Lovu who was lying on her side in the back of the Spectre. She hadn't been herself since being inside of Gravemind's lair. Nugga decided to leave her alone for the time being and take a closer look at the upturned Shadow.
Upon closer inspection, traces of Flood guts covered the Shadow. Nugga gasped. Either the Flood from High Charity have control of the city, or the Flood from Halo have already been here.
Nugga whirled around at the sound of a frightened scream, pulling out his Energy Sword and moving toward the Spectre. He heard a loud thunk behind him, and a mutated arm was the last thing he saw before he blacked out.

Lovu cowered underneath the Spectre, trying desperately to remain hidden from the Sangheili Bio-Warrior that had just knocked out Nugga. She had a nagging feeling that she was the reason that it was here. The Sangheili Bio-Warrior walked over to the Spectre and hit it with one of its arms with such force that it flipped the Spectre over, exposing Lovu.
Lovu tried to run, but the Bio-Warrior hit her over the head and knocked her out as well. The Bio-Warrior raised its arm to deliver the killing blow, when a jolt of electricity shot through its body.
"Bring those methane-breathing filth back to the Doombringer," A voice said in the Bio-Warrior's mind, "I will make them suffer."
The Bio-Warrior picked up Lovu and Nugga with its tentacles and grabbed their weapons as well. Then it trudged off back the way it came. What the Bio-Warrior didn't know was that the Sergeant Dalton had watched the whole scene.

High Charity

Cortana searched High Charity's mainframe for a way out. Ever since High Charity had crashed into the planet, Cortana's hope of escape was restored. Then she found her means of escape. The Prophet of Mercy's Hoverchair. As she hovered through the streets of High Charity, she saw Flood Forms everywhere. Then she saw a Grunt standing in the middle of a walkway, killing Flood left and right. She looked at the walkway, and saw that if some sorty of miracle didn't happen soon, the Grunt would be dead. Cortana decided she would be that miracle.

High Charity, walkway

Nazdreg fired his Fuel Rod Gun into a Carrier Form at point-blank range. The blast sent the the Carrier Form flying into a dozen Combat Forms. The only problem with his plan was that the shockwave knocked him off the walkway. He looked down, and saw thousands of Infection Forms staring at him eagerly. Nazdreg closed his eyes and waited for his impending doom.
But it never came. Nazdreg felt something slam into his body,forcing him to open his eyes.
He gawked when he saw himself flying in a hoverchair over the enraged mass of Infection Forms, who didn't like being robbed of their prey.
"Foolish AI of the metal man," Garvemind's voice echoed through High Charity, "You cannot escape my grasp."
"We'll see about that," Cortana said, which startled Nazdreg, "Lets see what my automated plasma turrets have to say about that."
Cortana activated the Plasma turret gird in High Charity, and set the Turrets hostile unit to destroy any Flood in the area.
Cortana smiled as the sound of Plasma fire and the unearthly screams of the Flood reached her hearing processors. Then she plotted a course out of High Charity.
Suddenly a glowing orb floated up along side the hoverchair. Cortana was stunned to see 2401 Penitent Tangent floating alongside her.
Suddenly they were out of High Charity, only to be stopped by a sight that surprised Cortana beyond anything the Master Chief had ever done.
There were thousands of Grunts near High Charity. The sheer number of Grunts without a Elite to keep them in line.
"Freeze!" A voice shouted behind them. the group of three turned around in unison, and saw a ODST pointing a chaingun in their direction.
"Hold your fire," Cortana said as she tapped into the soldier's Comm system, "This is human AI Cortana, and the Grunt and Monitor are with me."
"Apologies, ma'am," The ODST said, "Sergeant Thomas Dalton of 5th Platoon at your service. The Master Chief and one of my men have been captured by Droids of some kind. I'm going to need your help rescuing them."
"No," Nazdreg spoke up for the first time, "I'm not going with you. I'm going to see what is the situation with my people."
"They're fighting those Droids too," Sergeant Thomas said, "They told me that Halo had crashed into this planet."
"Well then," Nazdreg said, "I'm coming with you."

To Be Continued…

A Unngoy Life: Chapter 13: It Couldn't Be Worse...
Date: 13 August 2005, 5:55 pm

Doombringer, Brig

Private Krystal Lee woke up in a cell. There was no keyhole, since the the cell bars were made from electricity. Krystal silently cursed herself for joining the ODST program. She cursed herself for letting Thomas Dalton persuade her to join the ODST program in the first place. Then she cursed Thomas Dalton.
Then she stopped cursing Thomas Dalton. After all, he had been the only guy who understood her energetic nature during high school. Krystal had a hunch that Thomas Dalton had a crush on her during college as well.
"Your awake," a voice said behind Krystal, causing instinctively to go for her sidearm, which had been confiscated. She turned around and saw a sight that made her blood boil.
A female Grunt sat in the corner, staring at her.
"A Grunt?" Krystal wondered out loud in surprise.
"We are called Unngoy," The Unngoy corrected, "My name is Lovu, member of the Imperial Unngoy Protectors."
"Hey, quiet over there!" One of the Super Battle Droids shouted.
Lovu muttered something about frying that Droids circuits, then settled down to get some sleep.
Krystal relaxed and decided that she would have to wait for a while.

Aboard Doombringer, Interrogation Room

Nugga woke up with a huge headache. He tried to move his arms, but soon realized he couldn't move his arms or legs. He suddenly realized that he was in the same type of containment field that he had found Lovu in, but was strapped to a slab of metal. He heard the sound of claws clicking against the floor and he realized that he was in nasty dilemma. If Lord Grievous had captured him and Lovu, then he was in for severe pain and torture.
Lord Grievous walked over from the console and sneered at Nugga.
"Its time you suffer for cutting off my hand," Grievous sneered.

Aboard Doombringer, Ventilation System

Sergeant Thomas Dalton crawled along the ventilation shaft, listening for any movement outside the vents. Cortana was connected with his neural lace, so he had acess to the ships Comm channels. Thomas was annoyed. The thought of having to work with a Grunt was irritating.
"Hey, Grunt," Thomas whispered to the his new ally, "Never got your name."
"Its Nazdreg," Nazdreg answered, "And second, were called Unngoy, not Grunts."
"Don't get so worked up about it," Thomas replied, "Sheesh."
"Keep it down," Cortana said through the Comm channel, "We're almost at the Brig."
Thomas unclipped a fiber optic cable from his belt and stuck it out the vent. He hooked the cable to his helmets optics, and did a 360 degree sweep of the room. He saw a couple of Droids clad in blue armour, five captured Unngoy, Krystal, the Master Chief…
Thomas whipped the cable back to the Master Chief. If the Master Chief had been captured, then this was going to be harder than he thought.
Thomas pulled a grenade from his belt and tossed it down at the Droids. 3...2...1... The explosion put a hole in the Brig door, activating the alarm. The good thing was that the two Droids were a couple piles of scrap.
Thomas kicked the cover off the vent and jumped out. Krystal looked up when she heard him jump out. Thomas walked over to the cell door and deactivated it. Krystal stared at him through her helmet. She thought he wouldn't be coming for her. Nazdreg crawled out and began releasing the other Unngoy.
Thomas walked over to the Master Chief's cell and deactivated the electric bars. The Master Chief stood up and walked out of the cell.
"Sergeant Thomas Dalton of 5th Platoon, sir," Thomas stated to the Master Chief.
"Ahem," Cortana said, "If we're finished with the introductions, I would like to return to the Master Chief, and I suggest we get moving."
Thomas pulled the neurochip from his helmet and handed it to the Master Chief, who took it and slid into his neurolace. Click. Thomas brought his chaingun to bear on the hole in the door.
Suddenly, eight brown spheres rolled through the hole and formed a semicircle facing the group. The brown spheres unfolded into Droids armed with repeating blasters. Thomas considered firing at them, but when their Energy Shields activated, he saw it was hopeless.
"So," Lord Grievous said as he walked into the Brig, "These humans have formed an alliance with the methane-breathers and decided to come rescue their comrades. How very touching. Bring them to the Interrogation Room."
With that, Lord Grievous walked out of the Brig, followed by the Droidekas herding the prisoners to the Interrogation Room.

Aboard Doombringer, Interrogation Room

Nugga looked up as Lord Grievous walked through the door, followed by Lovu, the Demon, two Humans, four other Unngoy, and to Nugga's complete surprise, Nazdreg.
"Put that female methane-breather in the Containment Unit," Grievous snarled at a couple of Interrogation Droids, "They are going to suffer for cutting off my hand."
Lovu had her methane pack removed before the Interrogation Droids strapped her to a slab of metal and shoved her in the Containment Unit.
"Release the Flood Spores," Grievous ordered a Interrogation Droid.

Lovu stared in horror as Flood Spores began pouring from the ceiling. The instant the Spores came in contact with her skin, her body began to mutate. Her body enlarged by 1 foot, and the rest of her body grew to fit the dimensions. Multiple Incubation Sacs began to form on her back, while her abdomen began swelling, and her breasts were swelling along with the abdomen.
She glanced over at Nugga and saw that he was as large as her. Then everything went black.

The Master Chief grabbed a console for support as something hit the ship. He glanced at Nugga and Lovu. The Containment Field shattered, and the Flood Spores poured into the room. He saw Sergeant Thomas and his companion activate the armour seals on their ODST suits. The Unngoy were not so lucky. Their bodies twisted about as they grew to Nugga's size.
Suddenly, everything went dark.

To Be Continued…

A Unngoy Life: Chapter 14: A Very Bad Day
Date: 15 August 2005, 5:45 pm

Interrogation Room, Doombringer

The Master Chief turned on his helmet lights and saw that the Flood Spore Container was now embedded in floor. He looked at Nugga and Lovu, and saw that the Incubation Sacs on their backs were gone. Lovu's abdomen and breasts had returned to their proper size.
The four other Unngoy looked about the same size as Nugga and Lovu. Nazdreg, however was nowhere in sight.
"Damn those Orks," Grievous swore as he stood up, "They think they've won, but if I can't have this planet, NO ONE WILL!!!"
Grievous slammed his hand down on a large button, then turned round and ran out the door.
"Ship will self-destruct in three Hours," A voice said over the Comm.
Thomas and Krystal helped the Unngoy get up, then the whole group ran out of the room.

High Charity, Gravemind's Lair

Gravemind awoke from its rest. Ever since it had merged with the Gravemind on the planet, it had gained the ability to teleport High Charity. Now it sensed a ship in its selfdestruct mode beginning to destroy the planet. Gravemind called the Flood back to High Charity. When all the Flood had reached the safety of High Charity, Gravemind teleported High Charity to the Forerunner homeworld, which had been overrun by the Flood millions of years ago.
I have waited for a eternity to conquer the galaxy, Gravemind thought, soon the Flood will consume the Galaxy.

Unngo, Divine Mountains, Ark

Truth sat at the commander's balcony of the Ark's bridge. The Ark was ready for spaceflight.
"Prepare for takeoff," Truth said to the Jiralhanae at the pilot seat, "This planet may belong to the rebels for now, but we shall reclaim it soon."
There was a rumble, and the ship blasted off. Upon reaching orbit around Unngo, the ship scanned the battlefield.
The Droid Army Fleet greatly outnumbered the combined strength of the Human Fleet, the Rebel Fleet, the Divine Wind Fleet, and the Ork Fleet.
"Attention all ships still loyal to the Holy Covenant," Truth spoke over the Comm, "Retreat. These beings who call themselves the Droid Army outnumber us three ships to one. Retreat I say, retreat!"

Ghazghkull's Space Hulk, WAAAGH Room

Ghazghkull stood at the captains' platform of the Bridge. He turned at the sound of a Ork running towards him. The Ork halted two feet away.
"Sir!" The Ork saluted, "Orkimedes demands your presence, Sir!"
"Demands it??" Ghazghkull snarled, grabbing the Ork with his Power Claw, "HE DEMANDS ME??? If he wasn't our best mekanic, I would kill 'im."
"Its urgent," the Ork gasped.
Ghazghkull snorted as he dropped the Ork and stomped down to Orkimedes sector.

What's so urgent that you have ta demand my presence?" Ghazghkull roared as he stomped into Orkimedes workshop.
"The planet is going to explode in two hours," Orkimedes said in flawless English, "Give the order to retreat, and I'll teleport the Boys back to the Space Hulks."
"I'll do dat," Ghazghkull agreed, and picked up the FleetCom, "All Orks retreat to extraction points, The planet is gonna blow! RETREAT!"

New York, Hangar Bay Alpha

Thomas watched as Covenant ships of every type landed in the New York's Hangar. Thousands of Unngoy disembarked, wearing the military standard methane pack. They must have been informed of the imminent destruction of their planet. Thomas heard that the Covenant had collapsed into civil war, and the Elites, Hunters, Unngoy, Engineers, and a lone Prophet had forged an alliance with Humanity, and they agreed that once the war was finished, They could all work together for the better of both communities.
Thomas turned back to the prone forms of the Six Unngoy who had been affected by the Flood Spores. Thomas wondered what had happened to Nazdreg. He turned to the viewport to watch the destruction of Unngo.
3...2...1... The Doombringer's detonation could be seen from space. After the detonation, more explosions rocked the planet. Suddenly, Unngo exploded with the force of a hundred Fury tac-nukes.
Thomas was stunned for a moment before recovering. The thought of destruction of an entire planet seemed hideous to him. On the flipside, Lord Grievous was dead. If he was dead, then Humanity only had to worry about the Covenant or the Orks, whichever attacked first. Thomas sighed, then walked down the hall toward the barracks with Krystal.

To Be Continued…

An Unngoy Life: Chapter 15: The Aftermath
Date: 18 August 2005, 3:42 am

Slipspace, en route to Earth, aboard New York, ODST Barracks

      Thomas walked into the ODST Barracks with Krystal and the 5th Platoon greeted them with a welcoming roar of applause. There was a lot of patting on the back. Then someone brought out some beer, and everybody started getting drunk.
      Thomas was about to join in when Major Smith approached him.
      "The Admiral wants your personal report on what happened to those Unngoy that were contaminated by the Flood Spores," The Major said in his usual tone, "He also wants to congratulate you on your success of the mission. If you will please follow me…"
      Thomas nodded and followed him out, but not before glancing back at Krystal. After making sure she was alright, he followed the Major out of the barracks.

      When Thomas entered the Admiral's Office, the Master Chief was waiting for him.
      "Have a seat," Admiral Harper said, "Now, according to your report, Sergeant Dalton, the two of the Unngoy grew larger, formed Incubator Sacs on their backs, which disappeared after the tank shattered. Correct?"
      "Yes sir," Thomas answered in a careful tone, "Also, I was joined in the rescue by Unngoy named Nazdreg, who disappeared after the tank shattered."
      "Interesting," Harper muttered to himself, "Dismissed."
      Thomas saluted, then turned around and walked out of the office.

      Ghazghkull stomped about the ship, killing any low-ranking Ork stupid enough to get in his way. The Fleet had lost a Terror Ship, five Ravager Attack Ships and three Onslaught Attack Ships that had landed on Unngo just as the order to retreat was given, along with the 9,000 Ork troops army inside aboard. It didn't matter though, because Orks grew like rats because they've got a more plant-like reproductive system.
      Ghazghkull was only putting the anger up for show. His mind was working non-stop to figure out the location of the Humans. If he could locate their homeworld, the Orks could cause some real mayhem.
      "Warboss Ghazghkull, I have good news," Spaceboss Zagdakka Buzkrutt called, "The Fleet has been repaired, and we captured a Human Capital Ship, along with the crew. Orkimedes is examing the weaponry now."
      "Good," Ghazghkull smiled, which was difficult because of his Titanium-A Skull and his Iron Jaw, "Get the Brute Ram Ships to push the Human vessel into docking position with a couple of Kill Kroozers, then prepare to jump to the Charadon system. I want Boss Snikrot to start interrogating da Humans. Understood?"
      "Yessa," Zagdakka answered.
      Ghazghkull turned on his heel and strode out of the room.

      The Prophet of Endurance waited as the Cairo's airlock slowly opened up. Once inside, Endurance saw a Platoon of Humanity's finest soldiers waiting outside the airlock. Endurance smiled as he floated out of the airlock. He headed towards the bridge, followed by the Arbiter, Special Operations Commander Half-Jaw, Sergeant Johnson, and Captain Miranda Keyes.
      The bridge was a huge space, filled with walkways, consoles, and the crew members. Admiral Hood, the leader of the Human forces, stood, waiting, as Endurance entered the room.
      "Welcome to Earth," The Admiral said.

      When Nugga woke up, he was in the Medical Ward of High Charity's Glory, strapped down to a sick bed, and had three Medical Unngoy standing over him.
      "You're awake," One of the Unngoy said, "We thought you had died from the Flood Spore Infection."
      "How many are still alive?" Nugga asked, expecting the worst.
      "All of you survived the mutation process," the Medic answered, "Hopefully you will return to normal."
      Good, Nugga thought, Lovu survived as well. Then he drifted back into unconsciousness.

      Gravemind awoke from his yearlong slumber to find that High Charity had dropped out of slipspace and was drifting at the star system's edge. Gravemind was pleased. It had found what it had been looking for. The Forerunner homeworld.
      The homeworld of the Forerunner looked like a fortress.
      The planet itself was lush with color. Through the Flood, Gravemind saw the planets beautiful oceans, seven greenish-brown continents, and one snow covered continent at the planets South Pole. But in its orbit, Gravemind saw huge gun platforms, with more of the platforms under construction. Gravemind also ships armed to the teeth with weapons.
      A sentient race must have evolved after the Forerunner had wiped the galaxy clean of other sentient races
      With the technology of the Forerunner at the Flood's command, Gravemind thought, nothing, not even Halo, could stop the Flood from consuming every sentient being in the Galaxy. But why stop there? There was a whole universe full of potential sentient beings, ready to be consumed by the Flood. Once the Flood had consumed all living vertebraes in the galaxy, it would move on to consume any other senitent beings in the universe.

      "WHERE THE HELL ARE WE?"Ghazghkull snarled in rage as his new space hulk dropped out of slipspace, "This isn't Earth! Who was the jackass that progammed the coorindates for the Slipspace drive?"
      "That jackass," Orkimedes said as he entered the bridge, "Was me. I programmed the fleet to drop out of slipspace at what was Reach, which was once one of the humans strongholds during the Covenant's 'holy' crusade, so it is likely that the humans put a up a hell of a fight defending it. Meaning that there is probably a huge debris field from the battle."
      "Navigator, steer us toward that debris field near Reach's north pole," Ghazghkull ordered.
      "Thanks to Boss Snikrot's interrogations of the humans we caught," Orkimedes continued, "We have learned that the fall of Reach cost them their best ship, the Trafalgar, along with other ships. We could salvage those ships, and construct the largest Ork hulk ever built."
      "Excellent idea, Orkimedes," Ghazghkull commented, "Get your Meks together and start working on that as soon as we reach the debris field."
       "Understood," Orkimedes nodded, then strode out of the room to get his Meks ready to begin working on the hulk.

An Unggoy Life: Chapter 16: A Really Big Ship
Date: 20 August 2005, 4:01 am

Slipspace, en route to New Unggo, aboard Pillar of Autumn II
3.04.2554 (Military Calendar)

      Commander Nugga sat in the Meeting Room along with the Arbiter, Master Chief, Admiral Miranda Keyes, the American ODST, Major Dalton, and his partner, the American ODST, Lieutenant Major Lee. The ship was en route to a planet called New Unggo. The planet was being colonized by the Unggoy, who, after their planet was destroyed, were colonizing other worlds.
       "New Unggo sent a distress beacon that was picked up by a merchant vessel three days ago," Admiral Keyes said, "The merchant ship had sent the message to the local fleet. Unfortunately, the fleet is spread thin trying to stop a Ork Wagh that has already captured three colonies and raided many others in our fledgling empire."
      The fleet at had asked the United Worlds Space Command, or UWSC, as the alliance between Humanity and defect Covenant races was called, to send a ship to investigate the distress beacon, Nugga recalled from the mission briefing. The UWSC sent the pride of the fleet, the Pillar of Autumn II, to investigate.
      The Pillar of Autumn II had the combined structural design of a Covenant capital ship, but the appearance of a stretched photo of it's predecessor, the Pillar of Autumn. However, this ship had three-meter thick Titanium-A armor, improved laser-fine plasma beam turrets, and a pair of Super MAC cannons, Nugga remembered from the schematics.
      "If ONI's intel is correct on what happened to New Unggo," Admiral Keyes continued, "Then the remains of Covenant may be playing copycat with Ork tactics. If this is true, then Covenant are reemerging from their two-year silence. This is our chance to eliminate the Covenant once and for all."
      "But if the Orks are the ones who are attacking," The Master Chief said in a cold tone, "Their fleet will probably be a Kill Kroozer accompanied by at least five of their Onslaught Attack Ships."
      "Sir!" Cortana said rather loudly as she materialized onto the Holopad, "We have arrived at New Unggo, but I don't detect any Ork ships. I'm recieving transmissions from the Unggoy on the planet. The colonists welcome us, but want to know what our business is here."
      "Tell them that we picked up a distress beacon signal from the planet," Admiral Keyes ordered.
      "Already did," Cortana said, "Wait a second…sir! I've just received a total Fleet recall command."
      "Earth must be under attack!" Admiral Keyes exclaimed, "Cortana, turn this ship around and get us back to Earth ASAP."
      "Yes sir," Cortana said, and disappeared from the Holopad.
      "Dismissed!" Admiral Keyes said loudly.
      They exited the room, each being wondering who was attacking Earth.

      Aboard the heavy cruiser New York Admiral Harper stood, examining the tactical screen. At 0910 hours, a huge Ork fleet jumped insystem. Now the fleet was just sitting near Neptune, waiting. Apparently, the Orks had the brains to keep out of the orbital defense platforms' twin-linked MAC cannons, improved laser-fine plasma batteries, and powerful energy projection beam.
      What had shocked Admiral Harper was the gigantic Ork space hulk that seemed to be their flagship. The space hulk's engines seemed to be constructed around four human heavy cruisers, and six human destroyers. One of the destroyers had been fused to the top of the space hulk, minus its engines. The other destroyer seemed to have been fused two the underside of the space hulk.
      What shocked Admiral Harper was what the ships that was converted to the bow. It was the supercarrier Trafalgar, with a smaller carrier attached to the Apparently the Orks had been doing some salvage work at Reach. Harper spotted multiple sections of Covenant hulls, complete with plasma turrets, welded to sides, top, and the underside of the Trafalgar. A nose of what looked like a covenant capital ship had been welded to the front of the Trafalgar. Admiral Harper couldn't be sure, but it looked like the Orks had stuck a hangar bay into the underside of Trafalgar.
      Admiral Harper knew that Ork hulks of this size usually had the Ork leader on board. With a fleet this size, this particular leader must have a lot of resources.
      "Sir," Zeus said in a calm tone, "The Ork fleet is on the move. They're headed toward Earth. Orders, sir?"
      "Send the Fleet recall Command!" Admiral Harper shouted, "If these Orks want a fight, then we sure as hell ain't going to disappoint them!"
      Suddenly, the Ork hulk opened fire on the orbital defense platform New Tokyo. Admiral Harper watched as twenty-four Super MAC rounds were fired from the hulk's cannons. He looked over at New Tokyo. He didn't like what happened.
      The orbital platforms had been upgraded with the Covenant's energy shields, but even that couldn't withstand being hit by seventeen MAC rounds, let alone oversized ones. The first two rounds destroyed New Tokyo's shields. The third round hit the MAC cannon's ammo storage, causing a chain reaction. The New Tokyo exploded in a massive fireball. The other fourteen rounds collided with the remaining nine orbital guns in it's battle cluster, annihilating the cluster's remaining orbital guns.
      "Send a transmission to all the UWSC Naval vessels," Admiral Harper ordered Zeus, "Tell them that the Ork Hulk that has been raiding our colonies has shown up at Earth, and that they're welcome to join the mayhem anytime they want."
      "Transmission sent," Zeus said, "Shall I send the order to engage?"
      "Yes," Admiral Harper said, "Lets give 'em Hell."

      Warlord Ghazghkull sat on the command chair in the bridge of the Human supercarrier Trafalgar.
      The once clean and steel-gray bridge was now covered with the sludge and grime tracked from the various ships the Ork Meks had plundered to get the equipment. The walls were covered with graffiti from varying Ork clans. Besides that, the bridge had been crammed with multiple pieces of radar, weapons, and navigation systems, currently being operated by Meks
Now that this marvelous space hulk Orkimedes and his Mekboyz have constructed, Ghazghkull thought, has fired upon da Humies orbital guns, this battle will very nasty for the Humans.
      "Zagdakka," Ghazghkull called to the Spaceboss, "Think they know what we have in our hangar bays?"
      "I will guarantee they don't," Zagdakka answered, "They think the fleet is just five Kill Kroozers, five Terror Ships, and nine Onslaught Attack Ships. What they don't know is that Gorka and Morka's Central Hangar 1 is currently carrying ten Savage Gunships, each accompanied by two Ravager Attack Ships. It is also carrying fifteen Brute Ram Ships."
      "Exactly," Ghazghkull nodded in agreement, "They probably don't realize that Aft Hangar 1 has been remodeled to carry 20,000 Ork Fighta Bommerz. 10,000 of the Fighta Bommerz have been modified for space combat. The other 10,000 Fighta Bommerz are for the invasion of one of the worlds that our client wants us to capture, Sangheil."
      "Nor do they realize that Aft Hangar 2 is carrying 10,000 assault boats so we can commandeer some of their ships to use them for the invasion of Sangheil."
      "Spaceboss!" The taktics Mek shouted, "Large slipspace rupture off our port bow!"
      Ghazghkull turned to the view screen to see who this late arival was.
      The fleet that appeared from slipspace was a UWSC fleet, and a extremely large fleet at that. It was even bigger than the Droid Army's fleet at Unggo had been. Leading the UWSC fleet was the the pride of the UWSC navy. The Pillar of Autumn II. Ghazghkull despised that ship. It had destroyed his old space hulk a year ago.
      "Orders, boss?" The taktics Mek asked.
      "Bring us along UWSC fleet's port," Zagdakka said calmly, then he roared, "Then launch the Destroyer Nuke at the fleet!"
      The underside hangar was carrying a captured 2551 vintage UNSC destroyer that Orkimedes had taken every salvageable nuclear reactor and Shiva nuclear-tipped missile from Reach, and welded them to in the inside of the destroyer, turning it into one big nuke. Orkimedes had given them instructions to keep hangar's blast door shut and its shields at maximum, and to save it for the UWSC fleet at Sangheil, but Ghazghkull saw no reason why they shouldn't use the destroyer to annihilate the UWSC fleet here and now.
      "I want 2,000 Assault Boats launched at the Human ship leading that fleet!" Ghazghkull roared over Zagdakka, "Have as many 'Ard Boyz mobs as we can cram in the Assault Boats sent toward that ship, and I want two Mobs of Shoota Boyz. for every Mob of 'Ard Boyz! Have a hundred of the Assault Boats transport a Mob equipped with Mega-armour! I want five Kommando Mobs taking the best Assault Boats, and I want a mob of Flash Gitz as a diversion for the Kommandos! Launch the remaining Assault Boats at the UWSC ships. Before attempting to board the human ship on our starboard side, we must cripple it. Fire one of our standard MAC cannons to take ou their shield, then fire all of our forward plasma turrets at their engine. DO IT NOW!"
      The Gorka and Morka opened fire.

An Unggoy Life: Chapter 17: Uninvited Guests
Date: 25 August 2005, 7:42 pm

Aboard Pillar of Autumn II, ODST Barracks

      Major Thomas Dalton walked into the ODST barracks. 5th Platoon saw him enter, and stood at attention.
      "At ease," Thomas said.
      His platoon relaxed,and returned to their activities.
      "Whats up?" Krystal asked after they had reached his bunk,"Is the fleet recall command worrying you?"
      "Yeah, I guess you could say that," Thomas answered.
      Suddenly the ship rocked. Thomas grabbed hold of the nearest bunker, and grabbed Krystal around the waist before she hit the ground. He glanced out the viewport and saw something that made his stomach turn over.
      An enormous Ork hulk made of UNSC vintage ships came alongside the Pillar of Autumn II. It dwarfed the Pillar of Autumn II in comparison. Thomas looked on in horror as the huge hulk turned perpendicular to thePillar of Autumn II.Thomas saw that a quarter of the guns on it were MAC cannons. The of the weapons were either plasma turrets or Archer missile pods.
      Suddenly, Thomas realized that the turrets was aimed at the location of the ODST barracks, even if it was meant to hit the engine.
      "EVERYBODY OUT!" Thomas yelled.
      He didn't need to tell his platoon that. They had apparently seen it too, and were sprinting for the exit, all of them wearing their gear. Thomas grabbed his own helmet from his bunk and ran out the door behind Krystal, then hit the emergency blast doors switch.
      Just in time. He fell to the deck as one of the rounds connected with the barracks, demolishing it, continued through the ship's engines, and out the other side.
      "5th Platoon, sound off by squad numbers," Thomas said into the Comm, "Omega One."
      "Omega Two."
      "OmegaThree."
      "Omega Four."
      "Omega Five."
      "Omega Six."
      "Omega Nine."
      Damn, Thomas thought, Omega Seven, Omega Eight, and Omega Ten were MIA.
      "Zeta Squad, sound off by squad numbers," Thomas ordered.
      Thomas prayed Krystal wasn't dead. If she was, he'd kill himself.
      "Zeta One." Thomas relaxed at the sound of Krystal's voice.
      "Zeta Two."
      "Zeta Four."
      "Zeta Five."
      "Zeta Six."
      "Zeta Seven."
      "Zeta Eight."
      "Zeta Ten."
      "Be advised Major Dalton," Cortana said over the Comm, "Nine hundred Ork boarding craft have attached to the hull, and Orks are pouring out of them. I suggest you head to the armoury to get Energy Swords and Shotguns."
      "Roger that, Cortana," Thomas said as he acknowledged the advice, "Alright, 5th Platoon, everybody head for the armoury. The Orks want to take this ship, but we ain't gonna let them have it. So lets move!"

      The armoury was located one deck below where the ODST barracks had been. Ever since the UWSC had learned how to replace a depeleted plasma battery in a Plasma weapons, every ship had been given plasma weapons for there armoury.
      The armoury was rectangular-shaped, and was about twenty feet long and fifteen feet wide, with a blast door that was 4 feet wide and 7 feet high at each end, and two parallel titanium walls where the weapons One wall of the armoury contained a assortment Energy Swords, Plasma Pistols, Plasma Rifles, Needlers, Carbines, Beam Rifles, Fuel rod guns, Plasma grenades, and a few portable plasma turrets.
      The other wall contained the human weaponry such as M6C Pistols, Battle Rifles, SMGs, Shotguns, Sniper Rifles, two Gattling guns, Frag grenades, and three Rocket Lauchers.
      "Alright, I want every body to take a Energy Sword, and then take your pick for the secondary weapon," Thomas ordered, "Zeta One and Zeta Two, take a Shotgun and a Rocket Laucher as your weapons, but be sure to take extra ammo. We don't know what kind of Orks we're up against. I don't want to be caught up against Mega Armour Orks without the firepower to kill them."
      Thomas turned to the Energy Sword rack, grabbed a Energy Sword, walked over to the Human arsenal and selected a Shotgun, Plasma grenades, and some Frag grenades.
      The door of the armoury opened, and every ODST put the intruder in their gunsights.
      "Relax," The figure said, and walk into the light.
      The ODSTs lowered their weapons at the sight of the Master Chief and his companion, the Arbiter.
      The Master Chief walked over to the Covenant weaponry, and picked a Energy Sword, Then walked over to the human weapons and selected a Battle Rifle. The Arbiter took a Shotgun and a pair of Plasma Rifles as his weapons.
      After everyone was armed and ready, the group prepared to head for the bridge, which any tactician with half a brain would try to take control of first.
      Suddenly, the armoury door exploded inward, and twenty Orks opened fire from the other side of the doorway. Thomas recognized the staccato of Ork Shoota fire. Those guns fired rounds so big it blow your arm off.
      "Fire in the hole!" Thomas yelled as he tossed a Frag grenade through the doorway. The grenade exploded, and Shoota fire stopped.
      Thomas stood up and looked at the dust cloud. Acting on impulse, he reached for the Energy Sword clipped to his belt. Then he saw it.
      A Ork rose out of the dust. This particular was 1 foot taller than the average Ork, which normally stood at 8-9 ft. The Ork's arms were huge with slabs of muscle that Orks grow after a few battles. That meant the Orks that were assaulting the ship were veterans.
      Thomas saw the Bosspole on his back and realized that this Ork was a Warboss. The Ork pointed a strange gun at Thomas, which he guessed was a twin-linked Shoota.

      Ruzgob couldn't believe his good fortune. His old rival, Grubnatz, had been killed by a human soldier wearing black armor.
      Ruzgob took aim at the exact same soldier, to return the favor. Suddenly, two figures rose from the dust, carrying what Ruzgob realized were Rockets. The two humans fired simultaneously, and the rockets hit him with full force exploding on contact, effectively killing him.

      Thomas slowly turned around and saw Krystal and her American friend, Vicky Kobbels, standing behind him. somehow Krystal had lost her helmet, and was standing there, her tan face was beaming, sweating shining off her black hair.
      "Excellent work, you two," The Master Chief said as he got to his feet, then tossed Krystal her helmet, saying, "Try not to lose it."
      Krystal blushed, and slid the helmet back on her head. the helmet's airtight seal secured around her neck.
      Slowly, the rest of the platoon got up from the floor, followed by the Arbiter. They all looked slightly shaken.
      "5th Platoon, head for the bridge," Thomas ordered, "We must not let the Orks capture the bridge!"

      Commander Nugga crouched behind the Weapons Stations One, Carbine in hand. He, Lovu, and the other four Unngoy of the newly reinstated Imperial Unggoy Protectors waited on the bridge of the Pillar of Autumn II, while Spec Ops Commander Half-Jaw and the URSC Honor Guards confronted the mob of Orks on the other side of the blast door. Nugga could hear the sound of of Ork Shoota fire that was quickly answered by Battle Rifle fire through the 3 ft thick Titanium-A blast door.
      Nugga had checked the schematics of the bridge before the mission to Vor'Anoth. It was two stories high and a hundred yards in diameter, with maintenance walkways along the ceiling and attached to the wall halfway up the side of it. The walkways were perfect places to snipe from, so Nugga had ordered Lovu to set up a sniper post on a walkway attached to the wall.
      Nugga turned to the other occupants on the bridge. Lovu lay prone at her sniper post on the other side of the circular bridge. The bridge crew, which was made of five Humans, one Unggoy, and two Sangheili, was gathered on the other side of the room, SMGs and Plasma Rifles taken from their weapons lockers along the wall. Admiral Keyes was crouched behind Weapons Station Two, holding two SMGs. Sergeant Johnson was perched on one of the walkways along the ceiling, a portable machinegun turret set up and was aimed at the blast door. Two of the other Imperial Unggoy Protectors, Glor and Huka, were manning a portable plasma turret each of them had set up on opposite sides of the bridge. The other two females in the squad, Yanna and Holi, were postioned behind Navigation One and Two, their Carbines loaded and ready to fire on a moments notice.
      Nugga thought about why Glor, Huka, Yanna, and Holi were chosen for the Imperial Unggoy Protectors. It was probably because they were affected by the Flood Spores like Lovu and I, Nugga thought. After all, it had made their bodies grow by 1ft, became thicker, and was stronger than the average Unggoy.
      He looked down at his body. Ever since the destruction of Unggo, their bodies had never changed back to its orginal form. The scientists said that they would all have to live with the mutation, because no one could discover a cure for it.
      When they were selected for the program, they were given new methane packs that had a image of their home planet, Unggo. They were also given body armor that covered their entire body, minus the head, but they were given helmets to protect their heads. The body armor was extremely flexible and could take repeated blasts from any Covenant or Human arsenal, apart from a naval ships' guns. Nugga was hoping it could withstand an Ork arsenal.
      Suddenly, the sound firing stopped. Nugga made a hand signal to Glor and Huka, giving them the order to prepare to fire.
      "Holi," Nugga said over the Comm, "I want you to investigate the silence on the other side of blast door. Use extreme caution."
      "Why me?" Holi complained over the Comm, but crept toward the door. As she reached the blast door, she whispered, "Very quiet now…"
      The blast door exploded. Nugga looked away from the blast and shouted, "Casualty! Open fire!"
      Glor and Renam were happy to comply. The fire from their plasma turrets made the entrance look as if twenty plasma grenades had exploded in front of it.
      Nugga heard Holi scream, "NO! PLEASE, NO!"
      "Hold your fire!" Nugga yelled over the sound of the plasma turrets ceased.
      Glor and Huka stopped firing, and Nugga squinted through the thick steam, looking for Holi, but couldn't see a thing with all the thick steam blocking his vision.
      "Lovu," Nugga said over the Comm, "Is your Beam Rifle equipped with thermal imaging?"
      "Yes, but it wouldn't do me any good because that steam is hot from the Plasma salvo," Lovu said in a matter-of-fact tone, "Why?"
      "I want to know if Holi is dead," Nugga answered, "Her body would probably be cold, so there would be a dark patch in that steam."
      Suddenly the steam vanished, as if swept away by a giant hand. Nugga saw Holi lying by to the doorway wher the blast door had been moments before The ten Orks that up till then, had been creeping toward his position unnoticed. The Orks blinked in surprise for a few seconds, then pulled out their weapons and charged.
      "Open fire!" Nugga shouted and began firing at the Ork leader. The first shot hit it squarely between the eyes, killing it where it was standing.
      Nugga, Yanna, Glor, Huka, and Lovu kept a supressing fire, while the Johnson mowed the Orks down with the machinegun turret. In about two minutes, the other nine Orks were dead, compliments of Johnson's machinegun.
      Ten minutes later, the Master Chief and the Arbiter walked in, followed by Major Thomas and 5th platoon.
      "Damn," Thomas muttered, shouldering his Shotgun as he stepped over a dead Ork, "Looks like we missed the party."
      No one heard him, because they were paying attention to the holoboard, and what was happening on the battlefield outside the ship.

An Unggoy Life: Chapter 18: Space Battles Suck
Date: 26 August 2005, 8:33 pm

Gorka and Morka, Bridge

      "I must protest, sir," Orkimedes said as he and Ghazghkull walked back onto the bridge, "If we are going to conquer Sangheil, we must not…"
      "ENOUGH!" Ghazghkull roared in anger, "This armada is too large to be a single fleet. It must be made of at least five fleets. Correct, Zagdakka?"
      "Aye," Zagdakka agreed, "I'd wager the whole UWSC Navy has come into this chaos."
      "See," Ghazghkull said blunty, "The Sangheil fleet is probably a part of that juggernaut anyway. So lets go ahead and blow it up."

      The blast door for the Underside Hangar opened, and the shields deactivated. The Gorka and Morka turned toward the UWSC fleet, and sped straight at them, its twenty-four Super MAC cannons firing the opening salvo, followed by the thirty standard MAC guns, and its three hundred plasma turrets unleashing a tidal wave of plasma. The UWSC, who thought they had the advantage in this situation, didn't expect this tactic at all.
       The farthest ship from the fleet was blown in two as the Gorka and Morka's plasma turrets melted the Covenant ship's reactor, causing the ship to explode, sending debris outward, which crashed into Covenant ships that had been too close to the ship when it blew.
      The Gorka and Morka continued through the fleet, its guns raining a deadly hail of fire at anything in its way. By this time, the rest of the Ork fleet had broken contact with the Earth fleet and had joined the assault on the UWSC fleet.
      "Attention all Ork vessels,"Ghazghkull said over the Comm, "Take out as many ships as you can, then head for Charadon. We're going to use the Destroyer Nuke."
      The captains of the Ork ships' heard the transmission, and began to assist in the destruction of UWSC ships front of the Gorka and Morka.       The UWSC fleet realized what was happening, they began launching fighters to try and intercept it. But the Gorka and Morka had 10,000 Fighta Bommerz ready for space combat. Zagdakka ordered all the Fighta bommerz, causing mass mayhem among the fleet.
      As the it reached the center of the fleet formation, it released the Destroyer Nuke, and then when full throttle away from the fleet.
      "All remaining Fighta Bommerz rendezvous with the nearest Terror Ship. We will not activate the Destroyer Nuke until all of the fleet is clear of the blast zone!"
      The remaining ships in the fleet broke all contact with the UWSC fleet, and headed toward the Gorka and Morka's position. A Kill Kroozer strayed too close to the orbital platforms, and the Super MAC guns tore it to pieces in seconds.
      Most of his fleet had arrived, but Ghazghkull saw the UWSC's fleet begin to bring their guns to bear on the Gorka and Morka.
      "Orkimedes," Ghazghkull ordered as the last Onslaught attack ship reached the rendezous point, "Activate the Destroyer Nuke."
      "Yes, Warlord," Orkimedes grumbled, his bloodred eyes boring into Ghazghkulls back, and pressed the detonator.

KABOOM.

      Everyone on the bridge of the Pillar of Autumn II fell to the deck as the Destroyer Nuke exploded. For about five minutes they lay on the steel floor of the bridge, stunned. Then the Master Chief slowly got to his feet and looked at the holoboard, and saw something that shocked him.
      The fleet was gone. Vaporized. Out of the five hundred ships that had arrived insystem to combat the Orks, only twenty remained ready to fight, but their engines were dead.
      The Ork fleet was waiting outside the blast zone, as if to make sure that they had seriously damaged the fleet. Apparently satisfied, the Ork fleet jumped into slipspace. Now if the Orks wanted to raid a planet, the planet's army would have to hold out until the UWSC fleet arrived.
      Miranda Keyes was the second to recover from the explosion. She quickly evaluated the circumstances. The huge armada she had gathered was in tatters, the Earth fleet wasn't in the greatest shape either.
      "Get Admiral Hood on the Comm," she ordered the Sangheili Comm officer.
      Two minutes later, Admiral Hood appeared on screen.
      "I see your alive, Admiral Keyes," Admiral Hood said, "From the data we were receiving on the Cairo, we thought that armada you gathered was annihilated, along with the Pillar of Autumn II.
      "The armada was annihilated compared to what the damge that Ork fleet took," Cortana said as her hologram appeared, "The battle's kill ratio was one Ork cruiser to four-hundred-ninety UWSC spacecraft. This ratio is worse than the entire Holy War."
      "We need to regroup and figure out how to divide the remaining naval forces among the colonies," Hood ordered.
       "Understood," Keyes acknowledged, "By the way, I thought Admiral Harper was in charge of the Earth fleet."
      "The New York was gutted by a Super MAC round after the New Tokyo and it's entire battle cluster were obliterated by that huge space hulk."
      "Pity," Keyes said in a careful tone, "He was a good man. Preparing to dock with the Cairo."

      Charadon was a volcanic world. About twice the size of Earth, there was barely enough atmosphere to cover the planet, and that atmosphere had been polluted by the ash clouds from the millions of active volcanoes that were spread across its surface. The planet was mostly populated by Orks, their leader being the Arch Arsonist of what the UWSC called Epsilon sector. Everyone there, since Charadon didn't have any native lifeforms, was an immigrant.
      Strangely enough, this was where Ghazghkull's client had his command base. Ghazghkull had figured that if anyone wanted to build their command base here, they must be either crazy or brilliant. Charadon's constant eruptions provided perfect cover from nosy electronic sensors trying to scan the surface. The system had binary suns, making it very hard to get the radar in range with the constant solar flares emitting from the suns' surface. These features made Charadon the ultimate hideaway.
      Ghazghkull shifted uneasily as the Gorka and Morka dropped out of slipspace about three klicks from Charadon. His client had wanted two things. One, that the UWSC fleet around the planet Sangheil was destroyed, and two, that all commerical shipping to the colony New Unggo was to be stopped. The first objective had been achieved, and the second objective would be completed very soon.
      Ghazghkull stepped into the transport shuttle, standing at his full height, which was fifteen feet, and wearing his finest mega-armour bearing the Goff clan decal, stripes of black and white checkerboard patterns painted in various spots on his otherwise silver-gray armor. He was followed by Mad Dok Grotsnik the Painboss, Boss Snikrot of the Redskull Kommandos, Orkimedes, and Boss Zagstruk of the Vulchas, a Stormboyz mob.
      Stormboyz strapped rockets to their backs to blast them to the enemy, which was what Zagstruk had strapped to his back at the moment, along with the traditional Ork garb of a sleeveless Ork jumpsuit made of yellowish-brown leather, black steel-toed combat boots, with metal plating of the jumpsuit on the front bearing the symbol of a Shoota, identifying him as a Nob.
      Snikrot looked entirely different from Zagstruk. He wore a sleeveless Ork jumpsuit made of black leather and mud-covered combat boots. His arms had many stitches in them, his right arm bearing a tattoo of a red skull. A chain of ammunition was draped over his left shoulder, and a long, wicked-looking knife-shaped Choppa was sheathed in its scabbard, secured by a strap fastened to his right shoulder. His eyes glowed a evil-looking red. A bosspole that was fasten to his jumpsuit identified him as a Ork Nob.
      Grotsnik looked extremely different from anyone else. His obsession of perfecting his method of "serjery" had led to preforming experiments on himself. The result was that he became hunchbacked, exchanged his left arm for a bionik arm sporting a skorcha, a two-fingered power claw that extended all the way to his right shoulder, a cybernetic right eye, a metal skull, a Iron Jaw, mechanical organs, and a fuel tank on his back for the Skorcha. What was left of his skin was covered in stitches. He wore black steel-toed combat boots like Zagstruk's. He wore a pair of black Ork combat pants, and a bloodstained doctor's apron.
      Orkimedes, unlike everyone else aboard, was dressed in a brown, leather cloak with a hood that hid his face. His reasonably Ork-sized arms were folded on his chest in a very human-like position. Ghazghkull knew that under his cloak was his entire assortment of Mekboy's tools.
      "We've gotten to your client's base," The shuttle's Ork pilot called from the front of the shuttle, "Prepare to disembark."
      The landing ramp opened, and Ghazghkull exited the shuttle, followed by his retinue of leaders. They looked for the entrance to the base, but couldn't see it.
      At first glance, the landing pad looked like part of a ship's hull that had crashed into a extinct volcano. But it was meant to look like that. The majority of the base was underground, to remain hidden from prying eyes.
      Ghazghkull was about to return to the shuttle when a pair of hidden doors in the side of the volcano opened. The group waited as the doors opened.
       Two dark blue Super Battle Droids walked out onto the landing pad, followed by a figure as tall as Ghazghkull himself. The figure wore a white cloak that was only showed his foot-long neck and a metallic face that glowed with pure evil. The being walked up to Ghazghkull and stared straight into his cybernetic eye and organic one, a thing few lifeforms dared to do, because a low ranked being would end up dead if they looked him in the eye.       Only Ghazghkull's most trusted comrades or high ranking Orks ever looked him straight in the face.
      "Welcome to Charadon," Lord Grievous announced.

An Unggoy Life: Chapter 19: Lord Grievous and Ignorant Politicians
Date: 30 August 2005, 7:52 pm

Charadon, Droid Army base

      The base's hallways were carved through the inside of the volcano itself, the ceiling about twenty feet above their heads, supported by a network of steel framework. The smaller rooms were made from a strange metal that not even Orkimedes could identify.
      Lord Grievous led the way through the base, conversing intently with Ghazghkull about the requests he had made a few weeks earlier, while Ghazghkull's retinue of trusted followers admired the base's design, but kept alert for signs of an ambush.
      "Did you destroy the fleet at Sangheil?" Grievous asked in a quiet tone.
      "Um, yes and no," Ghazghkull replied carefully.
      "Excuse me?" Grievous said in a polite, yet deadly sounding voice, "What do you mean by that?"
      "We raided the Human homeworld, to try to capture some of the ships in the fleet that was stationed there," Ghazghkull reported, "We were doing fine until a huge fleet led by the UWSC's newest ship, the Pillar of Autumn II. We had the Destroyer Nuke, the one that Orkimedes built to destroy the fleet at Sangheil, launched at that fleet. It wiped out the majority of the the fleet, which was about five hundred ships. We also took out one entire battle cluster in the planet's orbital platform defense grid. We suffered the loss of one Kill Kroozer, but it was feeble compared to the losses the UWSC suffered."
      "I'm not surprised," Grievous chuckled, "I was counting on you to raid Earth, because I knew you don't like being given orders."
      Gahzghkull relaxed a bit. He had thought he was in trouble for not using the Destroyer Nuke on the fleet at Sangheil.
      "Tell me Ghazghkull," Grievous asked, "Have you ever heard of a race called the Forerunner?"
      Ghazghkull thought for a minute, then spoke.
      "Never heard of them," he shrugged, "And I've lived for five hundred years! You ever heard of the Forerunner, Orkimedes?"
      "Up til now, I've never heard of the Forerunner," Orkimedes answered.
      "What would you honestly think if I told you that the Forerunner were an ancient race that lived six billion years ago and were had done technological advancement greater than any species that exists today," Grievous asked.
      "I'd tell you to give that brain inside that tin can you call a head some air," Ghazghkull sneered, "If they were so advanced, why are they extinct now?"
      "What if told you that they had died due to their own creation?" Grievous wheezed.
      "I would believe you," Orkimedes interrupted, "Great beings usually get their own species destroyed by their foolish desire to push the limits of science."
      "What he said," Ghazghkull answered.
      At that moment, the group walked into the briefing room. The briefing room had been created by carving out the volcano's old lava chamber. the floor itself was made of pure hardened lava, unlike the walls and ceiling, which were made of three meters of steel.
      A circular table hovered in the middle of the room. It was made of steel, but didn't have any legs Ghazghkull could see, but he guessed that it was supported by an antigrav pod of some sort. Twelve chairs were positioned around the table, and six of them were already occupied.
      Four of the beings sat at one side of the table, one unoccupied chair dividing two of the beings from the other two. The other two beings were seated on the opposite side of the table, a chair separating them, paralell to the one on the other side of the table. Grievous sat down in the empty chair, and motioned for Ghazghkull to sit in the chair across from the one He had sat in.
      The the other two beings were the Great Despot of Dregruk, who sat in the chair on the right of the one that Ghazghkull had been offered to sit in, and Urgok the Unstoppable on the left of the chair.
      No one alive knew that the Great Despot's real name was Gazgrim, except for Ghazghkull, and that was because he had his closest followers assassinated. He was thirteen feet tall wore a dark gray suit of Mega Armour, the Ork verison of MJOLNIR armor, except it didn't cover the Orks' head. His he had his Grotz paint a fist, identifying him a Warboss, and below it was the symbol of the Waagh, a square that looked like a jaw filled with sharp teeth, which a Warboss only gets when he has gained enough power to claim a title that makes him feared throughout the Galaxy.
      The had some Mekboy switch the suits' standard kombi-weapon or quad Shoota out for a second three-fingered Power Claw, then had two Kustom mega-blastas, or a small energy cannons, mounted on each arm of the Mega Armour which would explain the energy converter fastened to his back.
      The Grotz, the sub-form of the Orks, were on the bottom of the Ork culture. Quite literally downtrodden (and kicked and beaten), the Grotz were usually on the wrong end of things, including the food chain! A usual job for a Grot was to clear minefields for the Orks by running through them, be living shields, or be used as stepping stones for the Orks so they could get through rugged terrain faster and could get to the fight faster.
      Urgok looked extremely different from the Great Despot. He was fourteen feet tall and wore the traditional sleeveless Ork jumpsuit, but it was covered with blood stains form multiple species. Two curved plates of steel rested upon his shoulder called Heavy armour, the weaker Ork verison of body armour. A huge cleaver-like Choppa was strapped to his back that must have been three yards in length. His dark green arms were bulging with the slabs of muscle that he had gained over the years. A fang that looked one-and-a-half feet long jutted out from his lower lip. A scar ran from the top of where his neck stuck out horizontally from his body and joined the head, to the his bottom of his jaw.
      Grotsnik, Snikrot, Zagstruk, and Orkimedes took a seat in the four remaining chairs. Grotsnik and Orkimedes sat down next to Urgok, while Zagstruk and Snikrot sat next to the Great Despot.
      Ghazghkull examined the four beings seated by Grievous. One he immediately recognized as Durge. The second one was a droid with with a barrel-shaped head and torso. The other two looked humanoid, but Ghazghkull couldn't tell if they were human because of the suit of what guessed to be Mandalorian Battle armor. He assumed that they were related.
      "To business," Grievous wheezed, then coughed, "I don't care if you haven't cut off New Unggo's supply lines, Ghazghkull, because I have a new agenda for you, the Great Despot, and Urgok."
      "Whats the job?" Urgok inquired in his usual harsh tone.
      "The Armageddon Sector," Grievous replied and emitted a series of small coughs.
      "If your intending to attack Armageddon," Ghazghkull stated in a matter-of-fact tone, "Forget it. I tried to take dat planet a year ago and lost my old Space hulk because of it, but I did a great deal of damage to the orbital defense grid."
      "Good," Grievous said, "Except this time you will be attacking with the full power of the Droid Army behind you. My Generals and I will accompany you on your ship."
      "Then what are we waiting for?" Ghazghkull said as he stood up, "Lets go!"

      "But Admiral Hood, you can't send the Pillar of Autumn II to Armageddon," Miranda Keyes protested inside the officer's lounge onboard the Cairo.
      The lounge's bar was stocked with various liquors, had a huge birch table. The white-colored walls, ceiling, and floor were a meter thick of Titanium A, making it impossible to eavesdrop on the conversation without some advanced equipment.
      "Listen Miranda," Hood said calmly, "If we lose Armageddon, we lose one of the four remaining old UNSC colonies, which is still recovering the attempted invasion the Orks did last year."
       "With all due repect, sir," Keyes said, "Armageddon is a hell compared to the other three colonies left. It only has three small continents near the prime meridian and the equator."
      "The planet's second largest and northernmost continent, the Fire Wastes," Keyes continued, "Is constantly fried by the system's star, and is uninhabitable. Same situation with the planet's largest and southernmost continent, the Deadlands, which is always freezing and covered insnow and ice. The planet's only continent that is habitable is divided into two different sections, Armageddon Prime and Armageddon Secundus, by a thick stretch of equatorial jungles that contains thousands of deadly species of plants and animals in it. It has the water areas called the Boiling Sea and the Tempest Ocean. The civilians and Armageddon's own military have to reside in large fortified cities that the citizens nicknamed 'hive cities' and are few and far apart because of the deadly lifeforms that live in the deserts outside the cities and the jungle. I see no reason why we even settled that planet in the first place."
      "Which is exactly why we need a naval hero such as yourself defending it," Hood replied, "Civilian morale has always been low on that planet, and ever since the first Armageddon War against the rebels, human morale has been on a slow and steady drop. If the experts are correct, we could lose the planet by succession from the UWSC in three years, even with the morale boost from the end of the Holy War, the boost was negated by the second Armageddon War against the Orks last year. The defeat of the Orks boosted morale somewhat, but not enough to stop the steady decline of businesses that pulled their investments away from Armageddon because of it being vunerable. The politicians feel-"
      "I don't GIVE A DAMN WHAT THE POLITICIANS WANT!?! " Keyes yelled in rage, then stopped. Outbursts like that one were not her style.
      "Forgive me sir," Keyes apologized.
      "This visit is over," Hood said in a end-of-discussion tone, "You will return to your ship, summon the newly refitted frigate Gettysburg, and the new heavy cruiser New Denver and set course for Armageddon. Once you have arrived at Armageddon, you will deploy your marines, Holy Soldiers, and ODSTs, in these cities. They are as follows: Hades, Tartarus, Death Mire, Helsreach, Acheron, Infernus, Volcanus, and Tempestora. Understood, Admiral Keyes?"
      "Yes, sir," Keyes said in defeat after a few minutes of silence.
      She turned on her heel and left the lounge to prepare the Pillar of Autumn II ready for departure.

An Unggoy Life: Chapter 20: Welcome to Armageddon
Date: 1 September 2005, 2:39 pm

Slipspace, en route to Armageddon, aboard Pillar of Autumn II, Briefing room

      Major Thomas sat in one of the chairs in the briefing room. The chain of command had been informed of what was going on, and he didn't like it. If there was one thing that Thomas hated more than anything, it was being used as a political morale poster.
      "I suggest we all return to our quarters and get some sleep," Admiral Keyes said in a tone that made it sound like an order.
      Thomas walked back down the steel-gray hallways of the ship back to 5th Platoon's recently repaired ODST barracks.
      When he got inside, he saw that most of the platoon was asleep. The only ones who were awake were Krystal, Vicky, Roni Guman, and the only friend Thomas knew who had a military rank for a first name, Corporal Major Bruno. The four of them were playing a game of five-card poker. From the way the poker chips were stacked, it looked like Roni was winning the game. Major was already out because of Roni's winning streak.
      Thomas walked over behind Krystal and teasingly poked her in the shoulder.
      "Hey!" Krystal giggled as she gave him a friendly knock to the side of the head.
      "Ow! Krystal! That hurt," Thomas moaned as he rubbed the spot where she had hit him.
      Everyone laughed, even Thomas. Ever since Thomas had met her, Krystal had always shown her affection for someone by pounding their head two or three times. Thomas liked her because of that.
      "Alright everyone," Thomas said in a no-nonsense tone, "Time to get some sleep. I'll brief everyone on the situation tomorrow at 0900 hours."
      Reluctantly, they all headed to their bunks. Coincidentally, Krystal's bunk was right above his bunk, so she quickly kissed him on the cheek before climbing into her bed. Thomas touched his cheek, then settled down into his bed and fell abruptly asleep.

      "Hailing the capital ship Triumph," The Pillar of Autumn II's Comm officer reported to Miranda eight hours later, "They will respond to the hail momentarily, sir."
      The Triumph was another new design from ONI. Instead of the flat bow of the old UNSC naval vessels, the ship had a bow that slanted downward at a 45 degree angle, and instead of a bridge at the bottom of the bow, the bridge was at the top of the bow's downward slant. The bow was connected to the engines by a neck half a kilometer long covered in fifteen meters of Titanium A. The ship had two Super MAC guns mounted to the underside of the neck, and thirty plasma turret batteries mounted on various parts of the ship. The Triumph's engines were about the size of three frigates stacked on top of each other. The Triumph was about the same size as the Pillar of Autumn II.
      Armageddon had a state of the art orbital platforms, better than the ones protecting Earth. This was because Armageddon was the backup center for ONI's weapon projects in case Reach was glassed. Since Reach had been glassed for the most part, Armageddon became the UWSC's last military stronghold. Ever since the formation of the UWSC, the defect Covenant races, which the citizens of Armageddon called the Defects, shared their technology being used on the battlefield, as well as the knowledge of the top secret projects the Prophet Hierarchs tried to keep under wraps.
      The orbital guns were equipped with the same type of weapon that the Ark had for its main cannon, as well as three Super MAC cannons aligned in a triangle attached to what the crews dubbed the 'Forerunner Cannon.' Four energy projectors were mounted on the corners of the square shaped station.
      A special feature had been intergrated into Armageddon's orbital platforms. The special feature was that if the lower section of the platform became critically damaged, the top section would separate from the bottom section, and still retain its three Super MAC guns AND gain agility.
      "They're responding, sir," The Comm officer called
      "Put it on the Holovid," Miranda ordered, and sat down in the commanders' chair.
      A face appeared on the screen. The face was human, was a white human, with dark brown hair, cropped in the military fashion. He had a pencil-thin mustache, but the thing that bothered Miranda the most was his right eye, which was a cybernetic eye that glowed red, complete with metal plating around the eye, which stuck out two inches from the rest of his face. Combine that with his deeply set eyes, and he looked very intimidating.
      "I am Rear Admiral Parol," He said, "You must be Admiral Keyes, for who else would command the Pillar of Autumn II."
      "Correct," Miranda replied, "We came to help defend Armageddon in case the Ork Waagh decides to swing this way for revenge."
      "I understand the politicians' concerns," Parol replied, "You may begin landing your troops in the cities that Admiral Hood assigned them. If the Orks attack and we're caught with our pants down, the monitor stations Mannheim, Memory of Harvest, and Najaf will alert us of any invasion."
      "Thank you," Miranda replied, "We'll start landing them now."

      Nugga led the Imperial Unggoy Protectors onto one of the two hundred Phantoms in the Pillar of Autumn II's hangar, not to mention the two hundred pelicans transporting the marines and ODSTs to Armageddon. The other Phantoms were transporting the combined forces of Sangheili, Unggoy, and Lekgolo, also refered to as the Holy Soldiers, to Armageddon as well.
      The Unggoy pilot motioned for them to get in, so Nugga checked the squad. Holi had survived the explosion during the Orks raid on Earth, so the squad was still complete.
      Nugga motioned for them to get into the Phantom, and they all complied. Then Nugga himself climbed aboard the Phantom and sealed the hatch. The Phantom rose, then took off, headed for the city of Volcanus.

      Thomas watched as 5th Platoon boarded two Pelicans. He watched Zeta squad get aboard their Pelican, and watched his own squad, Omega squad scramble into their Pelican. After making sure everyone was aboard, Thomas took his seat near the exit hatch. The hatch closed, and the Pelican took off and headed for the city Infernus.

      "Admiral Parol," the Comm officer of the Triumph reported, "The Najaf reports no irregular activity whatsoever."
      "Understood," Parol replied, "We'll be ready if those Orks try to invade us."

      When Thomas exited the Pelican onto the Infernus spaceport, he knew instantly why it was given that name. It was freakin' hot. One of the garrison commanders had come to show them where their barracks were located.
      "After you have gotten settled in," The commander said, "Feel free to explore the city as you please, but please wear civilian clothing."
      "Right," Thomas said in agreement.
      It was going to be a long tour of duty.

      The Gorka and Morka materialized from slipspace one klick away from the monitor station Najaf, followed by the Ork fleet and the Droid Army ships. The Najaf tried to transmit a warning to the Triumph and the rest of the fleet, it was annihilated in half a second by the Gorka and Morka's plasma turrets.
      Ghazghkull smiled. Armageddon may have beefed up security, but it was no match for the combined strength of his fleet, the Armada of the Great Despot, the Urgok's Armada, and the Droid Army fleet total firepower. Armageddon was be captured.
      "Lord Grievous, why don't you have some of your ships destroy the other two monitor stations," Zagdakka suggested.
      "I have already sent the destroyer Grand Annihilator and the battleship Geneosis's Pride to destroy the two remaining monitor stations," Grievous replied, "Their firepower is more than enough to eliminate two insignificant monitor stations."
      The Gorka and Morka began to steer toward Armageddon, and Ghazghkull's fleet, consisting of of ten Ork Hulks comprised of varying ships of several different races, slowly followed. Seven shark-like Kill Kroozers, their stubby "fins" carrying Energy projectors, advanced past the slow Hulks and the Gorka and Morka. Twenty Onslaught Attack ships, their rectagular shapes gliding through space, followed suit, but stayed alongside the Gorka and Morka. Thirty Ravager Attack ships were hidden in the recently modified Underside Hangar for ambush purposes. Behind this armada was at least one hundred Droid Army ships, and the Ork asteroid fortresses.
      Ghazghkull knew that on the opposite side of the system Gazgrim's armada and Urgok's armada were headed for Armageddon the long way.
      Urgok's fleet comprised of twenty Kill Kroozers and his personal space hulk, the Unstoppable.
      The Unstoppable was made of multiple Covenant vessels. It was as big as the Gorka and Morka,but it was only three-quarters of the Gorka and Morka's length, and it bristled with old-fashioned plasma turrets and the improved versions. The top of the ship's bow was made out of a Covenant destroyer, while the lower section of the bow was a Covenant crusier, but the hangars bays had been welded shut, given a ton of armor plating, and were filled with reactors for the ten energy projectors attached to the front of the hulk.
      The hulk's engines were made out of two Covenant carriers. Attached to the top of the carriers was the salvaged Covenant captial ship Regret's Journey. The hulk had at least three hundred of the old-fashioned plasma turrets ready to fire on demand. It had a one hundred-fifty of the improved plasma turrets ready to fire on a moments notice as well.
      The Armada of the Great Despot was made up of twenty-five Kill Kroozers, ten Onslaughts, ten abnormally large Roks, and the space hulk that was the armada's flagship, the Dictator.
      The Dictator was made of two of the UNSC's finest ships, the carrier Hannibal and the battleship Basra. The Meks had welded the two ships together so that the Hannibal's bow was fused to the Basra's stern. The resulting space hulk was about as large as the Gorka and Morka, but half as long.
      Both of the ships' hulls had been cannibalised by the Mekboyz. Three tons of Titianium-A now covered the Dictator's hull, plus it had a Kustom force field. The improvised hull had the Great Despot's symbol painted on the side, which was a huge, grinning skull.
      The ship's weapons consisted of captured one hundred plasma turrets, two hundred Archer missile pods, ten missile pods carrying Shiva nuclear-tipped missiles, three MAC guns, and a Super MAC cannon slung on the underside of the ship. Two of the hangars each carried ten thousand Fighta Bommerz. The third hangar carried fifty Longsword attack craft, each one carrying a single Fury tac-nuke. The final hangar carried capture ten pelicans, that had been given a extra ton of armor. Apparently the somebody in Gazgrim's territory had salvaged a human experimental weapon called the Nova, which was a nuke that could crack a planet in half. Despite its size, the Dictator could probably take out a human fleet singlehanded, if given the chance.
      "I want the Onslaughts to move in to cover us while we pick up some of those hodgepodge warbands on Chosin," Ghazghkull ordered the Comm Mek, "I want to be able to keep any UWSC ship that attacks the Gorka and Morka under continual fire after we spring the trap."

      The klaxons went off on board the the Triumph. Admiral Parol stared as the Gorka and Morka accelerated toward the system's ice planet, Chosin. It was followed by forty-seven Ork vessels and at least a hundred ships that he could not identify.
      The Ork fleet was probably stopping at Chosin because it was Ork-infested. They were probably going to pick up more Orks for the invasion of Armageddon.
      "Send a transmission to every UWSC ship in the system," Parol begin giving orders, "The Orks have come for revenge on Armageddon, and they brought friends. Tac Ops, Find out how the HELL they got this far insystem without being detected! Weapons One, prepare to fire on the lead Space Hulk."
      The Triumph accelerated toward the Gorka and Morka, firing its twin Super MAC cannons at the bow of the hulk, which was where the bridge was located on the ship. The rounds collided with the bow, and the Gorka and Morka began listing to the port side.
      A cheer exploded from the bridge of the Triumph, but was quickly silenced by the opening of the Underside Hangar. Inside was the piranha-like hulls of the Ork Ravager Attack ships. The huge jaw-like torpedo bay mounted in the front of the Attack ships had the uncanny ablility open and close with the push of a button for better accuracy.
      Suddenly, Parol noticed that the gargantuan Ork hulk was drifting toward the Triumph. This was no coincidence, he realized. He looked at the tactical readout of the ships hull and saw that the bow of the hulk remained in perfect condition. Too late he realized that the Ravager Attack ships' torpedo bays were opened to the maximum extent.
      The Ravagers opened fire.
      As the Triumph's attempted to escape, Parol realized that the Ork leading this Waagh could be no other than the one Ork that every being in a position of power feared for his cunning and power.
      Ghazghkull had come back for revenge.

An Unggoy's Life: Chapter 21: Return of the Beast
Date: 7 September 2005, 12:54 am

Aboard, Gorka and Morka, bridge

      Ghazghkull watched from the Holovid in approval as the Ravagers opened fire at point-blank range. Even if a third of those torpedos were duds, firing at point-blank range would make a dud just as deadly.
      One thousand torpedos streaked toward the Triumph. Fifty torpedos struck the shield, and the collapsed under the bombardment on one point. Then three more torpedos broke through the hole in the shield and impacted just above the plasma battery mounted on the nose of the ship, rendering it inoperative due to the fact the control for the plasma battery was located above it. The ship listed to the right, then the other 947 torpedos collided with multiple parts of of the ship's hull as it vainly attempted to escape the trap it had foolishly fallen into.
      The Triumph managed to limp out of range from the short-ranged Ravagers and the Gorka and Morka's own torpedo fire, but the Onslaughts kept a heavy rain of fire on the it. The Gorka and Morka gave chase and brought its gunsights of the twenty-four Super MAC cannons on the stern of the Triumph and fired all of them simultaneously.
      The Triumph's engines, under the strain of the constant Onslaught fire, exploded as all twenty-four Super MAC rounds penetrated the engines, the slipspace generators, the mess hall, the barracks, and out through where the neck connected with the bow, severing the bow from the rest of the ship. The ship's dentonation could be seen from planetside.
      "Begin landing the Roks," Ghazghkull ordered, "Have the Droid Army begin destroying the orbital platforms, and I want three Kill Kroozers on escort duty. Move it you lazy slimeballs!"

      "Keep firing!" Thomas shouted over the sound of machinegun fire as he sat in a Scarab control room while it rained large green apocalyptic flame blasts at the Ork warband on the other side of the city's wall.
      One hour ago, Orks began landing their huge Roks, the Orks clever use of asteroids by converting them into huge fortesses or orbital platforms, and had been landing them planetside, making teleporting multiple warbands down to the planet's surface a much safer task.
      For the last half hour, the 5th platoon had been teaching the warband that had been assaulting the west side of the city to keep their distance. The 22nd Marine division were being ravaged by an expert warband called the Burning Death Speed Freeks, identified by the burning skull emblem on their Waagh banner, who from the Ork clan called the Kult of Speed.
      The Orks from the Kult of Speed were known as Speed Freeks, who had an obsession for speed, and almost always used fast vechicles to get to the battle as soon as possible.
      The 88th Holy Soldiers battalion were faring better than the 22nd Marines, and were beating back the massive warband that had attacked the eastern section of the city.
      The 9th militia platoon was getting hammered by the warband known as the Blackfire tribe, who had breached the southern wall with their Gargants' artillery, the two-legged Ork verison of a Scarab.
      "Do we have any more Scarabs in the city," Krystal's voice yelled over the Comm.
      "Affirmative," Thomas answered, "But the 9th needs them more than we do. They have to deal with eight Gargants."
      "What about the Gauss turrets and the Scorpion tanks," She asked.
      "Negative," Thomas yelled to be heard over the increasing noise, "All of our turrets our being used to keep the Orks at bay, and the scorpion tanks were destroyed by Ork rokkits fifteen minutes ago."
      "Damn," Krystal swore over the Comm, which wasn't normal, since she didn't like it when people swore, period.
      "Leader," the Unggoy pilot called from the movement control part of the room, "You want to see this!"
      Thomas walked over to the console and looked at the Holovid. His stomach did a somersault.
      Three Gargants strode through the haze in the distance. Thomas could see the captured Super MAC cannon that jutted out of the middle in each one, and that seemed to be what each Gargant was built around.
      The stubby right arm bristled with Zzap guns, the Ork version of plasma turrets, except that it used energy instead of plasma. Thomas saw the left arm's two large guns, which Thomas guessed were either MAC cannons or a pair of energy projectors.
      The fragile control platform that was made of wood that formed the head of the Gargants was held up by wooden beams and metal bars. A direct hit on the 'neck' of a Gargant would remove its tactical presence from a battle.
Thomas looked at the warband that had been trying to reach the western wall. It had parted for the inevitable sonic discharge of the Super MAC cannon like the Red Sea did before Moses. Thomas knew what was going to happen.
      "Zeta One, get out of that Scarab," Thomas said as calmly as possible, then said in a panicky tone, "Those Gargants are going to fire on the Scarabs, and I don't want to risk the chance that it is aiming for either one. I know you don't want to die, either."
      "Hell yes!" Krystal whispered over the Comm, "I heading for the Banshee now."
      Thomas did the same after he exited the control room of the Scarab. He got in, and took off. He checked to see that Krystal had cleared the Scarab, and saw that her Banshee was just clearing the Scarab's deck.
      Something exploded, and Thomas saw Krystal's Banshee get enveloped in the blast, then his was too. Everything went black.

      What had happened was this. The gargant had fired the Super MAC cannon at the Scarab Krystal had been in, but the sonic discharged had caused a chain reaction in the second Scarab, this the explosion caught Thomas and Krystal.

      Nugga fired into the massive army of Super Battle droids that marched up the steep sides of Volcanus Mt in their neat rows, which had been wrongly named because the early explorers of Armageddon that Volcanus Mt was a volcano.
      Suddenly, Droid Speeder Bikes flew past the Super Battle Droids, the lead one carrying someone Nugga knew should be dead.
      Durge had returned.

      "Leader, Volcanus is lost," Nugga protested, "We must begin airlifting troops out of the city now!"
      "And let the Orks capture this city with their vile friends?" The garrison commander snorted, "I think NOT!"
      They won't get the city if we destroy it with them inside," Nugga suggested, "You have a large enough ammo dump to level the city."
      "I guess your right," The garrison commander nodded in defeat, "Send the order to disengage the enemy and make best speed to the spaceport."
      All over the city, Marines, Holy Soldiers, militia units, and ODSTs broke contact with the Orks and Battle Droid forces. Once at the spaceport, they waited for the next Phantom or Pelican to arrive. Orks and Battle Droids poured into the city, slaughtering any straggler units that couldn't keep up with the others.
      As Nugga scrambled into the last Pelican, Orks breached the spaceport wall. Nugga grabbed the rear mounted chaingun and opened fire on the charging Orks. As the Pelican rose, crude rockets whizzed past it, the Orks who had fired the shots desperately reloading their guns as quickly as they could.
      The Pelican cleared the city wall. Once it was a hundred yards away, Nugga pressed the detonator.
      The resulting explosion leveled Volcanus Mountain. Nugga prayed Durge was dead.
      "Pilot," Nugga called from the back, "Head for Helsreach."

      When Thomas woke up, he was lying in a medical hut inside the sandstone walls of the city Tartarus. He looked over to his left and saw Roni Guman lying on the ground two feet away. His left leg was in a cast. Thomas also saw Vicky Kobbels sitting up, her right arm in a makeshift sling.
      Thomas looked over to his right and saw Krystal was lying right next to him. She was fine except for a few minor injuries.
      Thomas looked down at his own body. Other than a few cuts and bruises, he was in perfect health.
      Suddenly realization dawned upon him. Infernus had been lost. They had lost the battle. The pain of defeat injured his pride tremendously.

      Grievous walked down the hall of the Droid Army's capital ship, the Armageddon Flame. As he walked toward the tactical room, he noticed how clean the decks were compared to the decks on the Gorka and Morka.
      When he reached the tactical room, he saw four of the skeletal Battle Droids standing guard. As he approached, they straightened. Grievous nodded to the Droid captain, and walked inside.
      The tactical room was ten yards long and fifteen yards wide, and electrical equipment covered all of the gray walls. Computer consoles were secured to the walls and were being manned by more of the skeletal Battle Droids.
      In the center of the room, there was a neon green Holomap of the planet eight yards long and five yards wide, with each city colored in either red, gray, or blue. Blue meant it was occupied by the Orks, red meant it was held by the enemy, and gray meant it had been destroyed.
      The cities Hades and Volcanus were gray. Hades was gray because the last war Ghazghkull had waged here he lost because of that city. So in an act of terrible vengance, Ghazghkull literally threw rocks at it. The rock came in the form of a huge asteroid that flattened the entire city, civilians and all. Two other cities were blue, and the rest of the cities were red.
      The planet's landmass was made of three separate continents, which were colored in yellow or blue. Yellow meant ally controlled, and blue meant enemy controlled. The northern continent, the one that the humans called the Fire Wastes, was yellow, including the three human ore mining colonies. The southern continent, the one known as the Deadlands, was also yellow, along with all of the human water processing plants under Ork control. The third continent, which was located between the Fire Wastes and the Deadlands, was a different story.
      The habitable continent was divided into two sectors by a huge equatorial jungle. The sectors, including the jungle, were colored in either dark green, white, or orange. Dark green meant Ork-controlled, white meant neutral, and orange meant enemy-controlled. The western sector, the one called Armageddon Prime, which only had three cities, and the equatorial jungle were easily controlled by the Orks, minus one city. The eastern section, known as Armageddon Secundus, was enemy-controlled.
      However, the Orks had made a foothold in that sector by capturing the city called Infernus. The city that the Orks controlled in the western sector was called Tempestora. The Orks had been unable to capture the sector's southern city, Volcanus, because the UWSC flattened it with a nuke, rather than let the Orks capture the city. The other city in that sector was Death Mire, which Ghazghkull had given the Blackfire Tribe with the task of capturing it.
      Grievous walked around the Holomap. In about a week, if progress kept moving so fast, the Orks would control Armageddon.

      Underneath five miles of ice on the Deadlands, after six billion years of slumber, they awoke.

An Unggoy Life: Chapter 22: Total Chaos!
Date: 9 September 2005, 2:44 pm

Armageddon Prime, Death Mire's crossing

      The land surrounding the city of Death Mire was just that, a huge swamp that caused hundreds of deaths each year. The city itself sat in the middle of the swamp, It's walls of granite preventing a flood from the swamp. The walls had been reinforced with three-yard thick Titanium-A. Before the First Armageddon War, the city always had a mile-long landbridge and half a mile wide, and was the only route to or from the city without a boat, which was complete suicide because of the mysterious creatures that resided the swamp waters.
      The Orks figured that out the hard way when one of their crude boats was swallowed by a huge alligator monster. Then they decided it was best to use the landbridge.
      The Master Chief sat in driver's seat of a Gauss Warthog, with the Johnson riding shotgun, and the Arbiter sitting in the gunner seat.
      "By the black flames on their Waagh banner," Johnson said to the others, "I bet that this time the Blackfire Tribe is coming."
      "They have eight Gargants," the Arbiter murmured, "And it is likely that the Feral Orks that took refuge in the jungle after the last war here have joined their ranks."
      "Sarge, send the order up the Scarab line to fire at will when the Gargants are in range," The Master Chief ordered, "and tell them to aim for their 'heads.'
      "Roger that Chief," Sarge said, "Armour's on the way."
      The Master Chief turned the Warthog around, and drove off.

      Skabsnik the Ork was forty years old. But age meant nothing to an Ork. He led his Slugga mob as they trudged through the snow in the Deadlands to what the humans called Water Processing plant Omega. The plant was shaped like a dome for reasons unknown to the Orks. Not that they cared.
      Skabsnik wore the traditional Ork Slugga boy gear, a sleevless mud-brown jumpsuit with the occasional metal plate strapped to their shoulder and called body armour, which worked quite well, and a helmet with a pair of animal horns fatsen to the sides, just like the rest of his mob.
      The mob itself had a bunch of Orks not wearing headgear at all. Those particular Orks had to keep rubbing their ears to keep them warm.
      Skabsnik yanked open the steel door, and to his utter surprise, the door flew off it's hinges, smacked him in the face, and sent him flying five feet through the air and landed facefirst into the snow bank in front of the entrance. The whole mob saw it, and they all started collapsed in hysterics, and a few fell to the ground, clutching their sides.
      "'elp da old skraga up," Grimzag, a yoof five years out of the cocoon, chuckled.
      Skabsnik pulled his head out of the snow and chuckled, "Guess I don't know me own strength."
      The whole mob burst into laughter. Still laughing, the mob walked inside.
      "Oi!" Skabsnik called, "Nob Grimgull! Shift changed!"
      No answer. Skabsnik shrugged. Orks had always been lousy sentries.
      "Hey, Skabsnik," Grimzag whispered, "Hear that?"
      Everyone was silent for a minute. Then Skabsnik heard it. It sounded like a faint scritch-scratch from the other side of the plant's inner door.
      "Weapons out," Skabsnik whispered the order, "Badsnikk, check the door."
      Badsnikk stomped over to the armoured door. He prodded it open with the tip of his Slugga. He peered inside…
      The ground exploded underneath them. Badsnikk roared a battlecry, there was a gargle, and it was cut short. The rest of the mob, who never knew what they were fighting, formed a semicircle and began firing outward.
      "URGOK!" Skabsnik roared into the Comm radio, "WE ARE BEING ATTACKED! UNKNOWN CLASSIFICATION, UNKNOWN NUMBER OF CONTACTS…AH HELL, JUST SEND BACKUP! OUR LOCATION IS THE HUMAN WATER PROCESSING PLANT OMEGA!"
      Skabsnik tossed the radio to the side and saw that only he, Grimzag, the mob's Big Shoota specialist, Ruzdakka, and the Burna specialist, Badskul.
      "Retreat!" Skabsnik roared, "Badskul, Ruzdakka, cover u-AAAGH!"
      Unfortunately, the remainder of the mob didn't hear the order, and were consumed by their unseen enemy.

      Miranda Keyes was beginning to worry. After the demise of the Triumph, Two more Ork fleets had arrived insystem. Keyes could only guess that two more Ork warlords were in those fleets.
      The Orbital Platforms were assaulted initially by the what Keyes guessed was the Droid Army's fleet. The Orbital guns destroyed three of the Droid ships before they had gotten in range. The first salvo of the Droid fleet was devastating. The Orbital guns split into the Orbital Defense ships, and took out four more Droid ships before braking the blockade.
      "Cortana," Keyes said finally, "Send a systemwide transmission to the remaining Orbital Defense ships. Tell them to concentrate fire on the Ork fleets. We'll cover them."
      "Transmission sent," Cortana reported.
      Keyes leaned back in the captain's chair. Your move Ork, she thought.

      The Master Chief pushed the gas pedal to the floor as he drove toward the charging Orks of the Blackfire Tribe, who were followed by the Droid Army. A Big Shoota round shot through the windshield and bounced off the Arbiter's armor. Johnson was swearing up a storm, his battle rifle providing the accompaniment as it chewed up the Orks within range.
      They were five hundred yards the front of the charge when the Master chief spotted them in the rearview mirror. Phantoms and Pelicans. Lots of Phantoms and Pelicans, followed by the planet's militia forces in Warthogs.
      Two Phantoms flew over their heads, raining plasma at the Orks. The two phantoms stopped two hundred yards away from the charging Orks and dropped their passengers. Eight pairs of Lekgolo landed on the concrete with a loud thud. The Orks kept coming, sure they could defeat the strange new aliens. They didn't know what they were in for.
      All the Lekgolo roared in unison and started charging their fuel rod guns. The Orks kept coming, still unintimidated. The Lekgolo opened fire.
      The entire frontline of Orks exploded, and the Orks behind them were sent flying. But the Orks still kept coming, except some were swapping ranks with the other Orks. The Master Chief saw the crude Ork rokkit launchas aimed at half the Lekgolo. The Orks returned fire.
      The rockets connected with uncanny accuracy, since Orks, who were usually lousy shots. The remaining Lekgolo roared, and charged the Orks as one to attack them in close combat.
      The Master Chief gunned the Warthog toward the Orks, hoping to take a few with him.
      An Ork jumped up onto the Warthog's hood, punched through the windshield, grabbed the Master Chief, and threw off the Warthog. The Ork got a face full of lead because of that, thanks to Johnson and the Arbiter, but it didn't stop the Warthog from flying straight into a squad of Ork Warbikes.
      The Chief fell on top of an unlucky Grot, who got squished as the Mater Chief landed on him. The Chief stood up, and pulled out his Energy Sword.
I may die today, he thought, but at least I'll take some of them with me.

      Lovu fired her Plasma Rifle into the face of an Ork that had nearly scaled the sandstone wall that protected the major port of Helsreach. The Ork roared in pain, and let go of the handhold to clutch its face. Bad idea. The Ork fell off the wall, and landed in the sand two stories down. The Ork slowly rose up, and Lovu duck as a slug the size of her arm flew over the wall.
      She had been placed in of the 67th Holy Soldiers Battalion. Nugga was in charge of the 99th Battalion, which was holding up better than her's on the far side of the wall. Holi, along with Huka, was commanding the 35th Holy Soldiers Battalion at the Docks, where a tanker-sized Ork submersibles had risen from the watery depths and began moving toward the harbor. Yanna and Glor were leading the 55th Holy Soldiers Battalion and the 8th militia Battalion in defending the gates.
      "Lovu…Holi…Orks jamming…us…being overrun…need reinfor…Kill you…" Holi's voice was distorted over the Comm, and was followed by, the staccato of Shoota fire.
      Lovu cringed as she replayed the message. She turned to the battalion's sergeant, who was a Sangheili.
      "Hold the battalion here, Sergeant," Lovu ordered, "I'm going to assist in the defense of the harbor."
      "It shall be done, leader. May the gods protect you," The Sangheili replied.
      Lovu nodded, then ran to the docks.

      "Eat this!" Thomas shouted as he stuck his Shotgun into the face of an Ork that got too close to the defense line around the city of Tartarus.
      The defense line was set up to preventing the Orks from reaching Tartarus. It was essentially three rings of trenches inside one another that had been built to defend the city. The outermost trench was filled with explosives, to be blown up when the Gargants arrived. The middle trench had housed the planetary militia 3rd Battalion, and it was overrun in seconds. The innermost trench housed the battle-hardened ODSTs of 5th Platoon, 6th Platoon, and 7th Platoon. The defense of the city itself was maintained by Marines and Holy Soldiers.
      The ODSTs had been holding up for three hours, but his platoon was beginning to tire out.
      Thomas grabbed the Shoota from his most recent kill, climbed out of the trench, and opened fire with on the nearest Orks. The Orks dropped dead where they stood, Shoota rounds lodged in their skulls.
      Thomas tossed the spent weapon away and snatched up a Battle Rifle from one of the ODSTs from 6th Platoon as he leaped back into the trench. He stuck his head over the edge of the trench and surveyed the charging enemy.
      Orks blew up left, right, and center, but they still kept coming. they seemed to know no fear. Even if the UWSC defeated the Orks and won back control of this world, the Orks would just keep coming back, again and again. The Orks simply would not give up.

      Holi randomly fired her Plasma Pistol behind her. Huka had already been killed by the Orks. She screamed as an Ork carrying two Sluggas stepped out from behind a stack of plasma storage barrels. He grinned, and fired four rounds at her head. Three of the bullets missed, but the last one clipped the center of her methane rebreather. Precious methane gas began leaking out at an alarming rate.
      Holi crawled behind a old dumpster as the Ork ducked behind the storage barrels to reload. Desperate, she grabbed an old newspaper and covered the hole. It would have to do until she could get back to Helsreach's milita HQ. Then she poked her head out of the dumpster.
      The Ork had almost finished reloading, and she could see more Orks coming toward him. She had to do something fast to kill all of them at once. Then she glanced back at the Plasma storage barrels. They were the key.
      If the plasma inside them came in contact with oxygen or any other breathable gas, it would become very hot, and explode if it came in contact with another heat source.
      Holi stuck her firearm out the top of the dumpster, overcharged the Plasma Pistol, and fired it in the Plasma barrels. The ball of super-heated Plasma must have hit, because a second later an explosion knocked the dumpster on it's side.
      Holi crawled out and began to walk in the direction of what she was praying was the direction of the city's milita HQ.

      "Sir!" One of the skeletal Droids that had been working in the tactical room on the Armageddon Flame came running onto the steel deck of the Commander's Platform on the bridge.
      The bridge was triangular in shape, and about sixteen yards long by sixteen yards wide. Ten feet by ten feet windows, eleven inches thick, covered the front of the bridge. Fifteen Droids worked at their stations, all monitored by the Commander's Platform, which was fourteen feet in diameter.
      "What is it?" Grievous wheezed, sitting in the Command chair, watching the battle of Helsreach unfold via the personal Holopad he had in front of him, "News of the battle at Death Mire, I hope?"
      "No sir," The Droid replied, "I'm afraid that we have lost all contact with Ork and Droid forces positioned on the Deadlands."
      "Understood," Grievous nodded, "What a tangled web we weave. Inform the our guests of this new twist of events."
      The guest were Ghazghkull, Urgok, and the Great Despot. They had transferred to the Armageddon Flame after the destruction of the remaining Orbital Defense Ships made a pitiful attempt to destroy the Ork juggernaut.
      Grievous rolled his eyes at this. If those three Orks were going to rule the galaxy, they would have to defeat the UWSC first.

An Unggoy Life: Chapter 23: By The Gods...
Date: 12 September 2005, 11:05 pm

Helsreach, Alpha Dock

      Lovu climbed silently to the top of the lighthouse on the end of the pier at Alpha Dock.
      The lighthouse was basically a steel tower with a huge searchlight on the top.
      When she reached the top of the lighthouse, she lay down prone and surveyed the harbor with her Beam Rifle. The Ork sub was anchored in Beta Dock. She suddenly noticed the massive plume of smoke coming from the Plasma storage area in between Alpha and Beta Dock.
      She maximized the visual enhancer on the Beam Rifle and scanned the storage area. Seeing nothing, she returned to surveying the harbor. Then she saw it.
      Another Ork sub had risen from the water. It moved with the stealth of an Ork, because it's loud engines could be heard from the top of the lighthouse. But Lovu could see the rotting stuff covering the sub.
      "It can't be," She muttered. Then she tried to raise Nugga on the Comm.
      No luck. All of the Comm channels were still being jammed.
      Lovu turned and looked back through the scope at the second sub as it docked next to the first Ork sub. She zoomed in as the sub's door opened.
      An Ork-sized being stepped out of the sub. He began to walk toward the storage area. It seemed to be walking in a strange gait. Upon closer magnification, Lovu saw that the Ork had been infected by the Flood. It was very likely that all the Orks on that sub had been infected by the Flood.
      Lovu crawled back to the ladder and climbed down as quietly as she could.

      Holi stumbled as she walked in what she hoped was the direction of the militia HQ. As she got to her feet she checked her methane rebreather's supply gauge. It was half full. If she didn't find help soon, she'd die from suffocation due to lack of methane.
      A sound made her turn around. To her utter horror, a tidal wave of Flood Infection Forms was coming at her. She turned and ran. Unfortunately, she tripped over a loose power cord, and then the Infection Forms were upon her. The last thing she saw before she blacked out was an Infection Form burrowing into her breasts. She screamed.

      "Burn in Hell!" Thomas yelled as he threw a Plasma Grenade into the face of an Ork that had reached the final trench. The grenade exploded, and the Ork dropped dead.
      The 5th Platoon had been retreating from the last trench for over and hour. The Orks had been keeping the ODSTs on the run ever since the Speed Freeks had shown up on their red warbikes and warbuggies. A few ODSTs had managed to get a warthog up and running, for all the good it did, which was annoy the foot-slogging Ork mobs until a warbike squadron destroyed it.
      Thomas turned and continued running toward the open gates of Tartarus. He saw Krystal a few yards ahead of him. She had dropped her gun and was running flat out to the gates.
      Out of the corner of his eye, Thomas saw a Ork running in Krystal's direction, and it was carrying a Burna, an Ork flamethrower. If she was hit by that flame, it would incinerate her in five seconds.
      "Zeta One, HIT THE DECK!" Thomas yelled over the Comm.
      Krystal immediately dropped prone on the sand. The Ork fired the Burna, and the majority shot over her. Some of the flames hit her back armour, evaporating it in four seconds.
      Thomas fired a burst from the Battle Rifle at the Ork's head. It bounced off the bulky armor plating on it's shoulder, but it was enough to get it's attention. The Ork turned in his direction, and thomas sprayed it with another burst to the face from the Battle Rifle. The shots caught it right above the nose slits and between the eyes. The Ork groaned, then toppled over.
      Thomas ran to Krystal's side. The entire backplate, and the back of the kevlar jacket she wore, had been burned off, so only her skin was protecting her body.
      "Get up," Thomas grunted as he lifted her off the ground and draped her left arm over his shoulder, "We're almost there."
      "Go on without me," she moaned, "You'll never make it in time."
      "I am not leaving a wounded soldier behind," Thomas said firmly, "Zeta Two! Get yer ass over here and help me get your commander to the safe zone! Omega Three! Omega Six! Cover our asses now! On the double, Men!"
      Zeta Two sprinted over and garbbed her right arm. The two of the others kept a covering fire as they half-dragged, half-carried Krystal to the gates.
      The gates were a solid meter of Titanium-A, so they would be fine once they reached it. That is to say, if they reached it at all.
      Twenty yards away from the gates, Thomas saw Omega Six take a Slugga round to the left leg. There was nothing he could do, though, because he was already carrying Zeta One. He glanced back, and saw Omega Three help Omega Six get up. Together, they steadily walked backwards toward the gates, still keeping a cover fire for him.
      He glanced back a third time and saw a mob of Stormboyz, Ork jetpack squads, flying toward him on their rocketpacks, some flying out of control and meeting their doom when they crashed into the ground. The lead Ork carried two Sluggas, and was firing them at the other ODSTs headed for the gates.
      "You keep going," Thomas yelled above the sound artillery fire, "I'll hold them off for ya!"
      True to his word, he heaved Krystal off his back, and let Zeta One drag her back to the city. He turned around, and unshouldered his Battle Rifle. He fired a burst at the lead Stormboy, and one of the bullets connected with his rocketpack. The Ork spiraled out of control, and crashed into the ground a few feet away. The resulting explosion knocked Thomas on his back. He looked up and scanned the sky for another target.
      The Stormboyz were having difficulty reaching the gate anyway because they were being torn apart by machinegun and plasma fire.
      "What the Hell?" Thomas thought out loud, and looked back toward the gate.
      A hundred warthogs poured out of the city, folowed by fifty Shadow transports, and sixty Ghosts running escort. the Warthogs picked their targets and opened fire. The Shadow transports were retrieving the wounded ODSTs from the trenches, while the Ghosts provided cover fire.
      Thomas stood up and broke into a run. He had to get to the gate. Five yards from the gate he saw Krystal and Zeta Two lying on the ground. He hurried over and checked Zeta Two's vital signs. She was in bad shape, but she'd live if she got inside.
      Thomas shouldered Krystal and Vicky Kolbels, and carried them into the city.
      He saw the medics come running toward him. He smiled, then collapsed from exhaustion.


      Thomas woke up in one of the medic huts inside the city. He looked around and saw that he was lying on one of the stretchers, but he was in good shape, as far as combat-ready. He swung his legs off the stretcher and stood up. As he walked around the hut, he saw men and women being tended to by medics and the civilians assisting the medics.
      Thomas looked around at the ODSTs in the hut, but didn't see Krystal. When he asked the medics, they said she was in the next medical hut. He nodded, and jogged out in that direction.
      Upon finding that particular medical hut, he found her.
      Krystal was lying on a stretcher facedown. Her entire back was wrapped in bandages from the burns she had gotten in the battlefield.
      "You survived," Thomas said in a cheerful tone, then stated, "After we get off this rock, you are so getting promoted."
      "Yeah, I wish," Krystal smiled weakly, then turned over and tried to get up, but the medics forced her to lie down.
      "Don't worry Krystal," Thomas grinned, "They're airlifting civilians and the wounded out of the city and sending them to the Pilliar of Autumn II. You'll be safe there while we retrieve every other civilian and soldier off this god-forsaken rock."
      Krystal nodded, and closed her eyes as Thomas walked off.

      The Master Chief grabbed a Ork by the neck and threw him into the swamp, where the alligator-monster gobbled it up in three seconds. The Master Chief turned around and continued firing into the Orks with his Battle Rifle. He shot a Slugga Nob through the head, and it dropped dead. All the time, the Chief was slowly walking backwards.
      Suddenly, the Orks looked up. The Chief followed their gaze and saw Pelican flying toward him, guns blazing. The Pelican flew down in front of him, hovering two feet above the ground.
      "Get in!" Sergeant Johnson yelled from tail gunner's seat, "We lost Death Mire to the Orks five minutes ago. We're leaving NOW!"
      The Master Chief climbed aboard, and the Pelican flew away from the last military stronghold on Armageddon Prime.

      Lovu ran towards Nugga's position, with the Flood hot on her trail. She had seen a Sangheili become infected, and saw the process of how these Flood mutated their hosts in a matter of seconds, whereas it took the Flood on Installation 004 twelve hours to mutate the host body, and 005 it took five minutes to mutated the host body. She had to escape, because this information was vital to ONI research.
Lovu turned, and fired her Plasma Rifle into the the tidal wave of Combat Forms literally clambering over one another to get to her. The plasma hit the lead Combat Form in the head, which was a mutated Ork, and the Combat Form stood still. To Lovu's surprise, the Ork brain gained control of movement. It reached back to its neck, took hold of the Infection Form's sensory appendages, and yanked the Infection Form out of its neck. The sudden separation from the host's spine killed the Infection Form instantly. The Ork blinked for a few moments, then turned and started running for the city gate.
      Good thinking, Lovu thought, and tossed a Plasma Grenade into the mob of Flood forms. She continued running toward the wall, not waiting for the grenade to explode.

      Nugga watched, puzzled, as the Orks that had been assaulting the city defenses started retreating. A cheer ran through the 99th Battalion. He heard a slight panting noise behind him, so he turned around.
      Lovu stood there, panting. She was covered in entrails of some sort. Nugga squinted, and realized with horror that those were Flood entrails.
      "Flood," Lovu gasped, "Approaching…from…harbor…thousands"
      At that point she collapsed from exhaustion.
      "Tell the defenders along the wall to head for the spaceport," Nugga instructed the Sangheili Field Master.
      "But sir," The Field Master inquired, "We were victorious. Why do we need to abandon the city now?"
      "The parasite is here!" Nugga replied heatedly, then with authority, said, "How dare you question my orders! Do it now!"
      The Field Master spread the word, and soon all the defenders of the city had left by Pelican, Shadow, or the old Covenant Dropships. the only one who remained was Nugga, who, with one last, sad look at the city, got in a Seraph and left the city. He tracked the convoy's movements, and followed them. The entire convoy was headed for space, in the direction of the Pillar of Autumn II.

An Unggoy Life: Chapter 24: The Apocalypse of Armagedddon
Date: 14 September 2005, 2:53 pm

Armageddon Flame, Tactical Room

      Lord Grievous stood at the western end of the Holomap. Ghazghkull, the Great Despot, Urgok the Unstoppable, and their subordinates had all come to the meeting, including his own generals.
      "As I'm sure you all have been informed," Grievous wheezed, "The conquest of Armageddon has hit a snag in the plan that I had not foreseen. The Flood had been on Armageddon, buried underneath five human miles of ice for an untold number of years in the Deadlands. My guess is that they were there before the activation of the Halos, and were suspended in an inanimate state when the rings were activated."
      "How they got there, I do not know. I remembered the Flood being emprisoned on the seven Installations, but I never recalled them being placed on an actual planet."
      He looked around the Holomap, looking at the group gathered around it. He could see that everyone else was confused by what he had said. He could almost see the gears in their brains grinding to comprehend with it. He felt satisfaction, an emotion he had not felt in millions of years. It felt excellent.
      "One city has been taken by the Flood," He continued, "A city called Helsreach. That city was supposed to be taken by Warlord Skrag's Gargant Big Mob. Wasn't he fighting under your emblem, Urgok?"
      "That 'e was," Urgok replied, "He would be here with us, but he is aboard the Command Gargant at Acheron."
      "His incompetence is becoming tiring," Grievous said dangerously, "I suggest you give him this incentive to capture Acheron at all costs: Capture the city, or don't come back at all."
      "Well, that will definitely motivate him," Ghazghkull chuckled.
      "What about the enemy fleet in orbit around Pelucidar, my Lord?" The Great Despot questioned.
      "Patience Great Despot," Grievous answered, "They will be dealt with after we control the planet. Dismissed."
      Unknown to the group as they exited, a Grot had been listening to the entire conversation inside the vent, with an audio recording device, and had recorded the entire meeting. The Grot, whose name was Grubbad, pressed the stop button, and crawled stealthy back through the vent, and headed for the shuttle hangar. If he could get this info to the UWSC fleet, they could help the secret three-strong Grot resistance, which was planning to defect to the UWSC.
      He reached a slant in the vent that led to the shuttle hangar. This was the part Grubbad had always liked about this mission was the ventilation system. The slide.
      "Wheeeeee!" Grubbad whispered as he slid down toward the vent cover, so as not to alert the ship of intruders.
      He had be there to co-pilot the Ork shuttle back to the Gorka and Morka for Ghazghkull, or he would be wormfood for sure.
      Thankfully, the Droids never bothered with posting sentries at the doorways to the hangar because Grievous thought that all the Orks and their sub-forms were completely loyal to their masters. He had a lot to learn about Orks.
      Grubbad glanced at the Ork shuttle. It looked to the common Ork, it looked like a medium-sized asteroid with thrusters. But Grubbad knew better, because he had helped Orkimedes build it. The huge crater on the top of the 'asteroid' was actually a viewport for the pilot of the shuttle, and if looked at from the outside, it looked like a huge crater.
      Grubbad scampered up the boarding ramp and into the hollowed out section that was the passenger room. The room was basically covered in three inch thick Titanium-A. It had a small copper ladder leading up to a trapdoor on the ceiling that was the human equivalent of two feet squared.
      Grubbad climbed up the ladder with the grace of monkey, even wieghed down with the recording device. Then he heard a sound that made his pale green skin go white with fear. It was the sound of the hangar door opening.
      Grubbad hurriedly punched in the three-digit code. 1-3-0. Damnit, he thought as the trapdoors display display flashed ACCESS DENIED. The code was 1-3-0, it was 0-1-3.
      He rapidly punched in the code. The trapdoor's display flashed ACCESS APPROVED, and the locks deactivated.
      He pushed the trapdoor opened, and was quickly heaved up by the ship's Grot pilot, Gullzag, and the Grot manning the shuttle's Comm system, Wazzagrub, who were both members of the resistance.
      "Did ya get it?" Gullzag asked quietly as he quickly closed the trapdoor. His red eyes contrasted with his white skin, most of which was covered by a leather cloak which underneath he wore a pair of pants made from the jumpsuit of a dead Ork.
      At first glance, one would guess that Gullzag was scared. But Grubbad and Wazzagrub knew that Gullzag was an albino Grot, which made him an oddball. This status made him a bullying target for the Orks, who would usually kick him and beat him more than other Grotz.
      Wazzagrub looked like a normal Grot, with pale green skin and a pair of brown leather pants made from the same material of that Gullzag's were. The difference was that Wazzagrub was obessed with speed.
      "Oi, scumbags," Ghazghkull yelled into the Comm mic in the passenger room, "Get dis shuttle out of the hangar NOW!"
      Gullzag and Grubbad scrambled into their seats and started up the engines. Grubbad heard the hiss of the boarding ramp closing. He turned around and saw Wazzagrub setting up the long-range Comm, so they could contact the UWSC fleet.
      "Sending message now," Wazzagrub said, "Lets hope the Orks aren't listening."
      "I think the Droid Army is though," Grubbad said in horror as he watched a lasercannon battery on the Droid flagship they had just left charge up and prepare to fire, "Hurry up with the message."
      "Message is sent," were the last words Wazzagrub uttered before the lasercannon battery annhilated the shuttle with a single salvo.

      Ghazghkull stood in the hangar, watching with satisfaction as the rebel Grotz were killed.

      Thomas walked toward the grey landing pad at Acheron's spaceport as a Banshee landed there.
      "If you came looking for refuge, you're in the wrong place," Thomas said as he shouldered his Shotgun, "The city is being evacuated."
      "I came to warn you," the Sangheili said as he got out of the Banshee, "The Flood are on Armageddon."
      "SAY WHAT!" Thomas yelled in surprise.
      "The troops from Helsreach and Death Mire are heading for the Pillar of Autumn II as we speak," The Sangeili continued, "You must get your people to the ship ASAP."
      "Understood," Thomas nodded, "There's only the ODSTs of 5th Platoon that aren't casualties defending. That's about five men. We got one Pelican left. Everyone else has left for the ship. Lets get moving!"

      "Ma'am!" Cortana called as she picked up the Grot's message, "We received a transmission from a Ork shuttle two seconds ago. The message is an audio recording of a meeting between the commander of the Droid Army fleet, and the three Ork Warlords. The Warlords refer to the person commanding the Droids as "my Lord." This 'Lord' says that the Flood is on Armageddon, and had been undetected by humans because they were suspended in an inanimate state underneath five miles of ice. There is reference to a 'Great Despot' and it sounds as if this 'Lord' was there when Halo was orginally activated."
      "then we have no choice," Miranda said as she reached the command chair, "Are all the civilians and troops accounted for?"
      "Yes ma'am," Cortana replied, "Everyone is accounted for."
      "Then we use the Novas," Miranda sighed, "Launch one toward Armageddon. Send the second one at the Droid fleet. Set the detonators for one hour. That should give us enough time to make the slipspace jump back to Earth."
      "It is now 1300 hours universal time. Detonation time set for thirty seconds before 1400 hours," Cortana said, "Novas launched. Ma'am, we may need to get moving in less than thirty seconds. there is a Ork task force headed in our direction."
      "Navigation!" Miranda yelled, "We need a slipspace jump now!"

      Two seconds later, the Pillar of Autumn II, Gettysburg, and New Denver all jumped to slipspace. The Armada of the Great Despot had been given orders to destroy them, so when the UWSC ships jumped, the armada pulled into a stationary orbit around the small planet of Pelucidar.
      Urgok's Armada was given the task of patrolling half of the system's Oort cloud, to make sure the UWSC ships didn't double back. Grand Warlord Ghazghkull's fleet, accompanied by the Armageddon Flame and the battleship Apocalyptic Visions, patrolled the other half. The Droid Army fleet had been ordered by Grievous to continue maintaining orbit above Armageddon. The two other important Droid Army ships, the destroyer Grand Annihilator, the carrier Geneosis's Pride, and the three battleships Judgement Day, Day of Reckoning, and The Apocalypse.
      Five Ork Roks were stationed in orbit above the five Roks on the surface of Armageddon, because when one landed, it immediately became an instant fortress when it touched the ground. When the Flood had been unleashed, the Orks had begun using the 'tellyporta' installed on the Roks to teleport the Ork Warbands back to the ships they had been teleported from, even though the Ork fleets were near the edge of the system.
      Aboard the Armageddon Flame, Grievous had captured several Flood specimens for studying purposes. Among them was Holi, who had awoken and retained semi-consciousness ever since the Infection Form in her body had been captured and her entire body was placed in a cryotube in the interrogation room.
      At fifteen minutes to 1400 hours, the three Droid battleships in orbit around Armageddon made a small slipspace jump to meet with the Armageddon Flame and join the patrol, as the five Roks planetside began charge their slipspace generators. The plan was to make the jump into slipspace planetside and damage enough ground to wipeout the Flood that were planetside.
      Thirty seconds to 1400 hours, the Novas went off.

BOOM.

      Grievous slammed his fist into the table in the Interrogation room. The human bitch who commanded the UWSC ship Pillar of Autumn II was very cunning, that much credit was due. She had vaporized the majority of his fleet, along with the Grand Annihilator and Geneosis's Pride, and ten Ork Roks at once.
      They knew how to fight dirty. She was nearly as cunning in tactics as his own race had been. He had controlled the planet for an hour, only for it to blow up in his face.
      A blinking red light flashed on the Holopad he had with him. He must be receiving a Comm. He touched the blinking light, and the Holoscreen split into rectangular thirds. The face of Ghazghkull, Urgok, and the Great Despot each appeared on one of the thirds.
      "It seems that the UWSC had a backup plan in case the planet was captured," Ghazghkull growled, "We should have killed them when we had the chance."
      "While the extensive destruction of my fleet is a considerable loss," Grievous replied, "I know the location of the fragmented Covenant forces, and the Ark. I also know the location of the first Halo."
      The three Warlords gawked at him. The seven Halos were spread across the galaxy, each fifty thousand lightyears apart.
      "There are only seven true Halos," Grievous began, "The one Ghazghkull and I encountered on the ice planet, which, like Armageddon, is now gone, was a false Halo. The ring that had been embedded in the planet was designed to perform the opposite function of its larger counterpart. Instead of trying to starve the Flood, the ring was designed to annihilate it."
      "Installation 001 has a different effect when it activates," Grievous continued, "Unlike the six other Halos, it does not destroy sentient life. The ring's library contains a staff that can be used like the Index, but it will have a strange effect. The effect of this staff will reveal something in that Halo, and that something can only be obtained by the Ark. Unfortunately, the library is crawling with millions of Infection Forms."
      "Which is why we must head for the Isengard system," Grievous concluded, "If we ever are going to obtain this awesome power."
      "How do know this?" Ghazghkull asked, awed by the information.
      "I am a Forerunner,"Grievous replied.

An Unggoy Life: Chapter 25: Battle For The Ark
Date: 16 September 2005, 2:14 pm

Slipspace, Destination unknown, aboard Pillar of Autumn II, Sickbay

      Thomas walked into Sickbay, and saw that the entire room was full. Then he saw Krystal walking over to him. He smiled.
      She had to wear civilian clothing because her jumpsuit had been burned off. She smiled at him and walked over.
      "I'm ready to fight," she said, "All I need is a jumpsuit and a weapon, and I am combat ready."
      "Splendid," Thomas replied, "If you come with me, we can get your spare jumpsuit from the barracks."
      They both felt the ship deaccelerate, which meant they were out of Slipspace.
      Thirty seconds later, klaxons began going off all over the ship.
      "Suit up, 5th Platoon," Cortana's voice echoed over the Comm, "We have found the remaining Covenant forces."
      "You heard the lady, Krystal," Thomas said, "Suit up."

      The HEV drop bay was filled with special drop pods designed to punch through the hull of an enemy ship so the soldier could infiltrate the ship without having to perform a spacewalk to get inside.
      The remaining Imperial Unngoy Protectors were present, along with the Sarge, the Arbiter, the Spec Ops Forces, and the Master Chief.
      "Alright you old ladies, listen up!" the Sarge yelled, "We are going to lead the Helljumpers from 10th Platoon and 8th Platoon in the boarding of the Ark. Everybody get in the drop pods now!"

      Grievous relaxed as the Armageddon Flame dropped out of slipspace into the Isengard system. What appeared on the viewscreen was not what he expected.
      Apparently, the UWSC ships that had escaped from Armageddon were here fighting the Covenant. This change of events could work to his advantage.
      "Ghazghkull, have the fleets begin causing as much chaos as possible," Grievous instructed, "I will infiltrate the Ark alone."
      "Understood," Ghazghkull growled, "Good luck."

      Thomas kicked the warped door off the drop pod and stepped out onto the deck of the Ark. It was dimly lit, so he switched to night vision. At that moment, the Kig-yar that had been patrolling the deck came running around the corner, not looking in his direction.
      Thomas pulled out a Battle Rifle and whacked the Kig-yar over the head. As it dropped to the ground, Thomas switched to the Energy Sword, but didn't activate it just yet. Instead, he flattened himself against the wall and glanced around the corner. What he saw chilled him to the bone.
      Grievous was walking toward him, light sabers drawn. Behind him lay the bodies of three Jiralhanae and a second Kig-yar. Thomas sucked in his stomach as Grievous passed him in the dark. Grievous continued down the hallway, occasionally looking left and right. Thomas realized that he must be headed for the bridge, so he followed him.

      Ghazghkull stomped down to the assault boat launch bay from the bridge, a whole mob of 'Ard Boyz following him.
      "Is the assault boat ready?" Ghazghkull asked rudely.
      "Yes it is," Orkimedes answered.
      "Everybody in!" the 'Ard boyz Nob shouted.
      It was a tight fit, but the mob managed to squeeze inside the packed assault boat, which was little more than a three ton shell of Titanium-A armor.
      "Launch," Ghazghkull said into the mic.
      The hatch sealed behind him, and there was a slight decompression as the assault boat exited the lauch bay. At viewscreen was attached to the front of the boat, so the mob could see where they were headed. Ghazghkull could tell that the assault boat was on course, and would hit the Ark's stern.
      "Prepare for impact," he said into the mic.

      The Arbiter lobbed a Plasma grenade around the corner, and waited for it to explode, hopefully disabling the energy locks on the blast door covering the entrance to the bridge. Before the Flood, the Ark must have been a diplomatic vessel of some sort, because the bridge orginally had no doors.
      He glanced back toward Half-Jaw and the Spec Ops Forces, which consisted of four Sangheili and eight Unggoy, five ODSTs, the Unggoy Imperial Protectors, and Johnson. One of the Unggoy was carrying a Fuel Rod Gun, and the rest the Unggoy were carrying Needlers. The Sangheili were armed with a combination of Energy Swords and Carbines. The ODSTs were armed with the usual array of projectile based weaponry, but each one of them had an Energy Sword clipped to their belt. The Unggoy Protectors were all carrying carbines and Energy Swords. Half-Jaw was carrying an Energy Sword and a Plasma Rifle. Johnson was carrying a Shotgun and a Sniper Rifle.
      The Plasma grenade detonated, and the Arbiter signaled for the Fuel Rod Gun-toting Unggoy to fire a few rounds into the bridge.
      "Y-you d-d-do i-i-i-it," The Unggoy stuttered through chattering teeth.
      "Boy, you damn better do as he says or I'm gonna pull you out by your cornhole," Johnson warned, a nasty glint in his eye that seemed to motivate the frightened Unggoy.
      It waddled up toward the place where the doors had been, and stuck its head in the room. Almost immediately, the Arbiter heard the sound of a Brute Shot being fired, and the cackle of a Kig-yar inside the bridge.
      "Kill the heretic!" the Arbiter heard the Prophet of Truth shout.
      Two seconds later, the Unggoy crawled back, a plasma burn on the left sid of its face, and more burns covering its body. The Fuel Rod Gun it had been carrying was gone.
      "Kill Truth!" Half-Jaw roared to the Spec Ops Forces, and the whole group charged into the bridge, all of them firing weapons. The Arbiter ducked behind a console as a Jiralhanae fired its Brute Shot in his direction. He stuck his Carbine over the top of the console and fired blindly at the Jiralhanae.
      Soon pandemonium broke out. Unggoy began concentrating fire on their hated rivals, the Kig-yar. The Arbiter saw the ODST commander take a Plasma bolt to the gut. She screamed, and fell to the deck, clutching her stomach. The Arbiter noticed another ODST moving to get her wounded commander to safety. The Sarge kept the Kig-yar snipers' heads down so they wouldn't pick off the attack force one by one.
      Suddenly, a vent cover was kicked off from the ceiling vent, shich happened to land on Truth's head. The Master Chief dropped down, and began killing Jiralhanae before they could turn around.
      Suddenly, a hissing noise reached the Arbiter's ears. It was coming from the door on the other side of the bridge. The door suddenly flew off its hinges and crashed into Half-Jaw, knocking him out cold.
      The being stepped into the light, and the Arbiter saw a chance to obtain unending glory. He was going to kill Lord Grievous.

      Grievous smiled inwardly as he stepped onto the bridge. He was so close to obtaining the Ark, and now he ran into this. No matter.
      "KILL HIM!" Truth yelled at the Jiralhanae Honor Guards.
      The Jiralhanae turned around and fired their Brute Shots at him, and at the same time, the Humans and the other Covenant races opened fire on him.
      Grievous held out his hand, palm toward the wall of death, in front of his face. The wall of death that was coming for him halted two inches from his hand. He pointed his hand palm down, and the wall of death vanished.
      "Foolish mortals," he laughed, "You cannot defeat me."
      He made a sweeping motion with his arm, and everyone else in the room was thrown against the walls. He felt satisfied, then walked over to the navigation console, and began entering the slipspace coordinates for a star system known to the UWSC as Mordor system. Suddenly, a burst of projectiles hit him in the side. He clutched at the damage, then hit the Enter button.
      The Ark entered slipspace, dragging every ship from the battle along with it.

An Unggoy Life: Chapter 26: Orks Never Listen
Date: 21 September 2005, 2:09 am

Slipspace, aboard Ark, Bridge

      Thomas fired another burst from his Battle Rifle into the back of Lord Grievous, this time hitting him in the left leg. There was a hum, and a lightsaber ignited in Grievous's right hand. He turned around, and held up his hand as Thomas fired his Battle Rifle a third time. The three bullets stopped an inch from his hand, then fell to the ground.
      Ookay, no more using the Battle Rifle, Thomas thought as he tossed the Battle Rifle and ignited his Energy Sword. He charged Grievous, hoping to kill him where he stood.
      Grievous sidestepped the reckless thrust, and brought his lightsaber in a downward slash, trying to slice Thomas' arm off, but was parried by the Arbiter's Energy Sword, which caught him by surprise.
      Grievous stepped back to avoid a thrust at his head from the Arbiter. Grievous's left hand reached down to his belt, and three seconds later, another lightsaber ignited in his left hand.
      Thomas and the Arbiter charged Grievous as one, but halted as Grievous's torso began to spin rapidly, the lightsabers whirling in a circular motion. He began to advance on the Arbiter, lightsabers spinning.
      "Die infidels!" Truth cried, and the Energy Cannon in his hoverchair at the three of them.
      Time seemed to slow, and Thomas saw Grievous's lightsabers switch off, and his claws grasped the wall and began climbing up it. Thomas and the Arbiter dived behind nearby consoles as the blast shot past them.
      "Damnit!" Thomas swore as Truth fired again, and melted the console he had been hiding behind.
      He grabbed a fallen Brute Shot, and fired at Truth's overly decorated head. The shot seemed to connect, but Truth's shield deflected it. Thomas cursed again, then dived behind another console as Truth fired at the spot him.
      Grievous jumped down from the ceiling and sliced off the Energy Cannon, and sent Truth flying against the wall without touching him for the second time. Then he reactivated his lightsabers, and charged toward the Arbiter.
      "Wortwortwort!" Half-jaw roared, and launched himself off a console and into the fight, his Energy Sword a blur of motion.
      Grievous turned and parried Half-Jaw's insane attack with the ease of a professional fencer. He began backing up, and the others renewed their attack on him with ferocity.
      Suddenly, Half-Jaw had Grievous' right hand occupied with deflecting Half-Jaw's Energy Sword, and the Arbiter had his left hand occupied with parrying the Arbiter's Energy Sword. Thomas saw his chance to kill Grievous, once and for all.
      Just as he was about to strike, Thomas saw Grievous reaching for a second pair of lightsabers. But that was impossible, because Grievous was occupied with keeping Half-Jaw and the Arbiter from cutting off his hands. Suddenly, realization dawned upon him.
      "Watch out!" Thomas shouted a warning, "He has a second pair of arms!"
      The Ark suddenly, deaccelerated, and Thomas was thrown against a console. Half-Jaw and the Arbiter slid into the wall, but kept their Energy Swords in contact with Grievous' lightsabers.
      Grievous saw his chance and broke contact with Half-Jaw and the Arbiter. His second pair of hands unclipped two more lightsabers from his belt. He began to windmill his four arms, lightsabers forming a deadly greenish-blue blur. The Arbiter switched to a Plasma Rifle, and began firing at Grievous' head. Grievous stopped spinning his lightsabers, and sent all four of them flying against the wall with his force powers.
      With all opposition defeated, Grievous walked over to the navigation console and began to steer the Ark toward Installation 001. Then he looked at the viewscreen. He mentally gaped.
      Embedded Installation 001 was High Charity.
      "Typical Ork behavior," Grievous spat, " Tell them to blow something up and they let it get away. I should have sent the Apocalyptic Visions to eliminate it."
      He turned when he heard the repeated thuds as the 'Ard Boyz sprinted into the room.
      "What are you doing here?!?" Grievous snapped, "I told Ghazghkull I was going to take the ship alone!"
      "Tough luck," the 'Ard Boy Nob retorted, "Ghazghkull sent us here, we're here, deal with it. By the way, name's Kracka."
      Grievous wheezed a sigh. This is another one of the problems of working with beings that don't always follow orders.
      "Alright then, make yourselves useful and have four of your boys man the weapons, navigation, engineering, and the Comm," Grievous ordered, indicating the stations by pointing at them, "The rest of you guard the prisoners. That's an order."
      The 'Ard Boyz complied with the order rather efficiently. Kracka walked over and took what Grievous had said was weapons station one, and the three other Orks stepped over the fallen bodies of Jiralhanae and Kig-yar, and took Nav ops, Engineering, and the Comm. The rest of the Orks kept an eye on their unconscious adversaries.
      All of a sudden, a flash of light from an Energy projector erupted from High Charity. The Ark shook as the blast glanced the side of it's hull.
      "Report," Grievous said as he got up from the floor of the bridge.
      "Slight damage to one of the engines," the Ork manning the Engineering station shouted unnecessarily, "Other than that, we're fine."
      Suddenly, one of the ODSTs grabbed an Orks' Slugga from its belt, slid between its legs, and fired a round into the back of the Ork at Nav ops. The round tore through the Ork, killing it, out the other side of the corpse, and into the console. The console began to spark.
      The Ark suddenly accelerated, and almost everyone was thrown against the far wall. Grievous glanced at the Nav station, and saw that the accelerator had been hit by the Slugga round, and was overloaded.
      "Brace for impact," Grievous yelled, then ducked behind a console, and calmly keyed a message to the Armageddon Flame.
To: Commander Jango Fett,
From: Lord Grievous
      Jango,
      I have an important message for the Fleets. The old Covenant city, High Charity, is crashed on the Installation 001 and has an Energy projector that is Flood controlled, meaning that there is a massie amount of Flood on this Installation. I want you to inform Ghazghkull to send his own war horde to purge the parasite from the ring, and order the Great Despot to send the Varga Drop Legion to cleanse High Charity. But before doing that, take out that damn Energy projector! Use an Ork kill cruiser to do the job, those are expendable.
      Lord Grievous
      Two seconds later, the Ark crashed into Halo 001.

      Onboard the Armageddon Flame, Jango Fett sat at the conn, inspecting one of his laspistols for damage. He looked up at the sound of the Communications Droid walking toward him.
      "Message for Jango Fett from the Lord," the Droid said, and handed Jango a Holopad.
Jango took the Holopad, and examined it. Probably orders meant to keep the Orks from doing something stupid.
      He read the message, and paused at the mention of the Flood controlled Energy projector, and the massive amount of Flood on the ring.
      He glanced up at the Droid, which was waiting for new orders.
      "Send a transmission to the Gorka and Morka and the Dictator,"Jango ordered, "Tell Ghazghkull to send his own War horde to purge the Flood from the ring, and tell the Great Despot to have Varga and his Drop Legion to cleanse High Charity."
      "Yes sir," The droid saluted, and headed for the Comm station.

      Holi stirred within the cryotube, and opened her ice-covered eyes. That's when she knew that she wasn't on Armageddon anymore. Her breasts and abdomen had swollen to enormous proportions. Her arms' diameters had grown to the size of Earth's redwood treetrunks, and her left arm now ended in the typical whip-like attachment in place of her fingers. All f this was because of Flood mutation. She could feel her methane tank attached to her back, but she didn't need it.
      Holi glanced down to the base of her neck and saw the Infection Form's sensory appendages, except that they were frozen. If the 'eyes' of the Infection Form were frozen, did that mean it was dead?
      Holi tried to move her right arm up to the glass on the cryotube, but was unable to move at all. The Infection Form was still in control.
      Suddenly, her right arm shot through the glass cover of the cryotube, shattering it.
      The Infection Form moved Holi's arm in a criss-cross pattern, systematically destroying the glass. Through the mist, Holi could see a group of Super Battle Droids approaching the cryotube. The Infection Form thrust out Holi's left arm, and the cryotube's cover went flying into two of the Super Battle Droids. The Battle Droids held their fire.
      Why aren't they firing? Holi wondered. She didn't care if they killed her, because death was better than becoming a incubator for the Flood. Then she slipped into unconsciousness.
      The Flood form whacked a Super Battle Droid out of the way and barreled out the door, and headed for the hangar.
      As the Flood form reached the hangar, the Super Battle Droids started firing. Apparently they didn't want the Flood specimen escaping the ship. Unfortunately, they started firing too late.
      Suddenly, a harpoon piton with a Titanium-A cable embedded itself in Holi's side. An electrical current surged through the cable, stunning the Flood. It dropped to the deck, unconscious. The last thing it saw was a humanoid figure walking calmly towards it.

      Boba Fett watched as the Super Battle Droids carried the Flood specimen back to the Interroagation Room.
      "What happened?" Jango asked as he ran into the room.
      "Specimen got loose," Boba replied, "Had to electricute it."
      "Good job son," Jango commented, "We had better report the incident to Lord Grievous after he returns."

      Aboard the Godly Wrath, the Jiralhanae Ship Master Romulus watched as the holy Ark crashed into the third Halo. He glanced at the Tac screen, and saw that the Ork Fleets were moving toward the sacred ring.
      "Weapon Ops!" Romulus shouted, "Get into firing range for the Ork ships. Do not let them reach the sacred ring!"
      The Godly Wrath began to move into range of the Ork Roks. A Energy projector lanced out from its bow and gutted one of the Roks trailing Urgok's Armada. The armada continued onward, ignoring the loss of one of it's fortresses. Two seconds later, the Godly Wrath ran into a crude Ork minefield. The shields took the first couple hundred mines, but failed soon after that. A thousand Ork mines collided with the Godly Wrath's hull, imoblizing the ship.

      From the blackened crater from the Ark, a lone figure crawled out. Closer examination showed that the figure was Grievous, covered in soot.
      As he reached the edge of the crater, he dusted his armor off, and continued on. He knew that he could scare the shit out of any Flood that saw him at peak peformance. Then he continued walking toward the Library, toward his destiny.

An Unggoy Life: Chapter 27: 3rd Ring of Power
Date: 29 September 2005, 11:49 pm

Halo 001, aboard Ark

      When Nugga woke up, he was lying on his side against a console aboard the Ark's bridge. He looked around, and saw that the Covenant soldiers gone, and that the UWSC troops were just regaining consciousness.
      The Master Chief was standing guard at one of the entrances to the bridge. Three ODSTs had the second entrance covered. Nugga noticed that one of the ODSTs had burn marks on the chest armor. Nugga figured it must be the squad commander who got hit by the plasma bolt.
      Nugga got to his feet and saw that Lovu was alright, as was the rest of his team. The Spec ops Forces had sustained two Unggoy casualties, and the ODSts had lost one soldier.
      "Everybody move out!" Sergeant Johnson shouted, " We have to get the Index before anyone else does!"

      Ghazghkull stood at the conn onboard the Gorka and Morka, watching the holovid of Halo 001. It was a perfect circle, except for the huge bulge that was High Charity, which was about a seventh of the ring's diameter.
      "Grand Overlord Ghazghkull," called Warlord Morfang over the ship's Comm, "The hordes are ready to begin teleportin' down to the surface of the ring. You coming along, or should I lead them?"
      "I will be leading this War horde," Ghazghkull answered, "And you will be leading the first strike. Are the Speed Freeks ready?"
      "Ya," Morfang replied.
      "Zagdakka, gather my bodyguard," Ghazghkull instructed the his fleet's Spaceboss, "There's gonna be blood tonight!"

      Near the control room on Halo 001, there was a brilliant flash of light. The Flood horde standing guard were blinded for a few seconds, which was what brought their downfall.
      As the light died down, the Flood saw a colossal Ork war horde, made of billions of Orks, standing in front of them. A battlecry rose from its ranks and the Orks began to run headlong in the Flood's direction. Tens of thousands of Shoota Boyz were in the lead, their weapons decimating the Flood horde, and the Stormboyz providing air support, while behind them the Slugga Boyz ran as fast as they could to get a bit of hand-to-hand combat. Within three minutes, the Flood guarding the control room were reduced to nothing but a memory.
      The Orks began to set up a perimeter around the control room, the perimeter being made of old Forerunner canisters they had found.
      At that point, Ghazghkull teleported down from the Gorka and Morka, and took a look around at the control room.
      It had looked exactly as the control room on Halo 004 that Grievous had described to him before starting the operation of getting the Ark. He turned as Morfang came walking toward him.
      Morfang was clad in the traditional Mega-Armour a Wralord usually wears, complete with a twin-linked rokkit launcha and pincer style power claw.
      "The attack was a complete success," Morfang annouced, "We suffered no causalties whatsoever."
      "Excellent," Ghazghkull said in a confident tone, "Has the Great Despot launched Varga's Drop legion yet?"
      "Yep," Morfang replied, "Shall I have the Burning Death Speed Freeks begin elminating the Flood on this ring?"
      "Go ahead," Ghazghkull absentmindedly replied.
      Morfang turned around, and went to find Zagboss Skargrim Ruknar, the leader of the Burning Death Speed Freeks. Then he stopped, remembering that he didn't know where Skargrim was.
      Ghazghkull heard him stop and guessed what he was thinking, so he suggested, "He's probably modifying his Warbike with Orkimedes again int the front hall."
      "Thanks," Morfang said, and headed for the front hall.

      Miranda Keyes paced the floor of the bridge, wondering what to do. The ships at her command were outgunned and outnumbered by the Ork fleets, and if she had the fleet attacked the Covenant, it would definitely get the attention of the Droid Army fleet. the best she could do for the troops that were stranded on the newly discovered Halo was send reinforcements by dropship.

      Lovu scanned the mountainside below her position for any enemy activity with her Particle Beam Rifle. It had been three hours since the remaining soldiers who had been sent to eliminate Truth had left the Ark's crash site. The Flood knew that they were on Halo, and had been methodically searching for them.
      They had decided to hide in a fissure on a mountain that had been covered with snow for billions of years, and the Gravemind had an extensive knowledge of Unggoy, Human, and Sangheili biology. He knew they must be insane to hide there.
      The remaining troops were huddled inside the fissure, keeping warm with the few glow rods that an ODST had brought. She was a hundred yards away from them now, so if the parasite got her, she would give the others time to escape.
      For a split second, Lovu thought she saw the snow under her scope move. She maximized the enhancer, but saw nothing.
      "I must be seeing things," she told herself.

      Fifty yards away from Lovu's position, a Flood-infected Unggoy, the former Jambo resistance commander, Yappa, was running toward her. During the two years on High Charity, Yappa's mind had degraded into brain fluid. His body was now fifteen feet high and nine feet wide. The Infection Form controlling him had reproduced, and now twenty-one sensory appendages were sticking out of his chest. Globular incubation sacs five feet in diameter covered his back, each containing three Infection Forms. The arms were the most interesting mutation, because Yappa's left arm was now covered with whiplike fingers, whereas the right arm had somehow fused with the gun arm of a Lekgolo in Gravemind's primordial ooze. Yappa's body was now a Juggernaut.

      Lovu stood up and headed for the fissure, then heard an odd crunching sound. She knew it wasn't her feet walking in the snow, because Unggoy feet didn't make noise when walking through snow. She turned and saw a small pile of snow hanging fifteen feet in midair.
      "BIG PARASI-AGH!" Lovu didn't finish the warning because the Juggernaut whacked her off the ledge, and down the mountainside. One of the incubation sacs on the Juggernaut's back popped, and three Infection Forms went after Lovu. Her yell was was not in vain, and everyone hiding in the fissure had their weapons ready when the Juggernaut looked in.
      "Merry Christmas!" Thomas yelled, and 5th Platoon opened fire with the rocket lauchers. Twenty-three rockets zoomed toward the massive Juggernaut.
      Time seemed to slow, and the Juggernaut dodged twenty-two of the rockets. The twenty-third rocket hit it squarely in the chest, and sent it flying out of the fissure and down the mountainside.
      The Juggernaut rose from the snow and began to turn toward them again, then stopped. It turned away from them and headed for High Charity.

      Another blast from one of the Energy projectors on High Charity lanced out and struck the Armageddon Flame in the engines. The ship began to careen toward High Charity, unable to stop. Multiple Energy blasts lanced out at the ship in vain as it skewered High Charity.

      Grievous walked through the entrance of wall around the Library. A squad of Sentinels flew in his direction, accompanied by the ring's Monitor.
      "Greetings," The Monitor said, "I am 001 Ignorant Light. You, sir, cannot be allowed to enter this facility."
      "Am I Lord Grievous," Grievous said drawing himself to his full height, "ID code: 'Evil conquers all.' Now take me to the Index."
      "Of course Reclaimer," Ignorant Light said, and the pair of them teleported into the Library. Three seconds later, they appeared in the Index chamber, and Grievous retrieved the Index. Then he turned and exited the room, with Ignorant Light close behind.

      Holi was walking out in the open on the streets of High Charity in a Flood-like gait. Since her body was mostly Flood now, except for her internal organs, which the parasite hadn't used for incubators. She did, how ever, notice that her abdomen and breasts were getting increasingly large and becoming harder to carry the weight from them.
      The Flood weren't going to bother her anyway, since High Charity had been under attack from Orks before the Armageddon Flame had crashed into it. Now scattered Ork troops were scouring the districts, destroying anything that got in their way, while there were at least three platoons of Battle Droids, a company of Droidekas, and three battalions of Super Battle Droids, all being led by Durge.
      Holi turned at the sound of footsteps and saw an entire mob of Orks standing behind her. She didn't give them time to begin charging her, because she ran headlong into them, thrashing about, killing as many Orks as she could. A screech came from above the fight, and thirty Combat Forms jumped into the fray.
      Ten minutes later, the Ork mob was destroyed, and there was only three Combat Forms left. Holi lay on the ground, playing dead. One of the Combat Forms picked up a Slugga, while the other two picked up Shootas. Then they left.
      As Holi got up, she noticed that she was heavier than before. She crouched down on all fours and began walking away from the battlefield.
      Then she heard, "All Flood to my lair immediately. It is time for High Charity to depart."
      She scrambled toward what she thought was the exit. She had to get off High Charity before it got off of Halo. Unfortunately, she was running toward Gravemind's lair.

      On the far side of the city, Ork ships that were refered to as 'Brute Ram Ships' because of their reinforced nose, had finished carving a way out for the Armageddon Flame. The ship began to fire it's reverse thrusters. To Gravemind's surprise, the ship came out with ease, dragging High Charity's propulsion drive with it. Now the Flood was trapped on Halo again.

      Nugga walked out of the fissure, and saw three Pelicans heading towards their location. One of the Pelicans landed in front of him, and he saw a Sangheili motion for them to get aboard.
      The group divided into it's orginal groups and boarded the Pelicans, and they headed for the Pillar of Autumn II.

      Grievous walked into the control room, Index in his hand. He walked up to the controls for the ring, and entered the key code. All of this was done in plain sight of the Ghazghkull, Urgok, and the Great Despot. He turned the Index, and Halo activated.
      In a blinding flash, Halo 001, the Droid Army Fleet, and the Ork fleets vanished.
      After seeing what had happened to the ring, the Pillar of Autumn II and her task force made a slipspace jump back to Earth.

An Unggoy Life: Chapter 28: The Gathering Storm
Date: 8 October 2005, 2:45 am

One week later
Sol system, aboard Cairo, Briefing Room

      Miranda Keyes walked into the briefing room to find Admiral Hood and the other Admirals waiting for her. She took a seat in one of the chairs, and calmly waited for Admiral Hood to start the briefing.
      "I'm sure you're all aware of the absence of the Ork attacks on colonies in the past week, correct?" Hood asked. their was nodding of heads before he continued, "It is my belief that the Orks are mustering forces for another campaign against Earth. We must concentrate all UWSC forces for it's defence."
      "What if you're wrong?" Fleet Master Remus, a Sangheili in his late fifties, asked, "What if they attack New Unggo?"
      "We already have a massive Defector Fleet based at New Unggo," Colonel Ackerson commented, "But I have intel from ONI about a large Ork fleet bearing the symbol of a well-known Ork Warlord known by the title Over Fiend of Octarius. That fleet consisted of thirty Ork battle cruisers and twenty carriers."
      "I say we send two of the Unggoy Imperial Protectors as a safe guard," Remus suggested, 'They held back the Droid Army before, they can do it again against the Orks."
      "Agreed," Hood nodded, "We shall send the more recent additions of their squad to New Unggo, and place the other two at colony we let the Unggoy start in the Artic Sea."
      "I still object to letting those Grunt bastards start a colony on our homeworld," Ackerson muttered loudly.
      Keep your negative terms to yourself!" Remus snarled, and reached for his Plasma Rifle.
      "Gentlemen," Hood shouted, "We are at peace, remember. Ackerson, keep your mouth in check or next time I'll let Remus do it for you. This meeting is adjourned."

      Aboard the Forerunner ship Almighty God, Grievous inspected the weapon that he had taken from the Forerunner Armoury after Halo 001 had vanished.
      The Almighty God was basically an enlarged verison of the Ark, and was ten times bigger than it had been.
      The weapon was a polished black ring that had the power that the Halos possessed inside, and he could adjust the blast radius from three feet to fifty feet, and he wore it on his right hand. All he had to do was think the incantation.
One ring to destroy them all.
      This was the reason Grievous never cared for his species. Too poetic. The Flood had just awoken their common sense and caused the Forerunner to kill themselves. Then Grievous experienced an emotion he had never felt before.
Loneliness.
      He banished the thought from his mind and turned to one of the Battle Droids.
      "Is High Charity ready to be dropped out of Slipspace so it can be launched at that chunk of ice they're calling New Unggo?" He asked. The Droid nodded, and Grevious gave the order to release it from Slipspace in three minutes.

      Nugga and Lovu escorted Yanna and Glor to the Phantom that was taking them to High Charity. Suddenly, a MP came running toward them.
      "Your mission has been cancelled," he said, panting, "Reports are sketchy, but it sounds like New Unggo is destroyed."
      They all gasped. This event greatly reduced the Unggoy population. Again. It seemed that the Unggoy species was going to be extinct soon.
      The group turned, and headed back to the barracks.

      Grievous walked into hangar Alpha as the Ork shuttle transporting the Over Fiend of Octarius landed. He waited patiently as the door on the asteroid-like shuttle opened downward, forming a ramp. He squinted so as to see inside the shuttle. Then he watched as the Over Fiend stepped out into the hangar.
      The Over Fiend was clad in jet-black Mega Armour, equipped with a looted Covenant Energy cannon and a four-finger Power Claw. His face was covered with the scars of many battles, and his Bosspole was decorated with many helmets from Humans and Sangheili.
      "So yer the one whose gatherin' us up for another Waagh," The Over Fiend spat, "In my opinion, only an Ork should be doin' dat."
      Grievous ignited his lightsaber and bisected a Sangheili helmet on the Over Fiend's bosspole.
      "I suggest you hold your tongue," Grievous warned, and the Over Fiend glared at him. Then Grievous motioned for the Over Fiend to follow him to the Meeting room. Then they walked to the interrogation room, followed by an entourage of Super Battle Droids.
      The Meeting room was filled with Grievous' generals, Ghazghkull, Urgok, the Great Despot, and the annoying Prophet of Truth, who was chained against the wall without his hoverchair. Two other Ork Warlords, the Arch Maniac of Calvena and the Great Tyrant of Jagga, had come to the meeting on the terms that they would get a share of the glory.
      The Arch Maniac was clad in jade green Mega Armour, which was equipped with an enormous three-fingered Powerclaw and a Mega Blasta. He wore a pair of Mek goggles over his eyes, and his Iron jaw was covered with burn marks from experiments he had been doing with his Mekboyz.
      The Great Tyrant wore a gore red suit of Mega Armour, which was equipped with a twin-linked Big Shoota and a normal-sized Powerclaw. His eyes glowed a dark red, and everyone could tell that this Ork had gotten where he was the hard way. Fighting his way through the ranks.
      The Over Fiend sat down next to Ghazghkull, and Grievous walked over to where Truth was secured.
      "Welcome my most honored guests," Grievous said with grand elegance, "I have brought you here because I would like to you to join me in the largest Waagh that any being has ever attempted."
      The Great Tyrant, the Arch Maniac, and the Over Fiend looked impressed with Grievous' knowledge of their vocabulary, while the other three put on a seamless poker face. Grievous was satisfied with that. Now he just needed to kill Truth with the Forerunner ring and he would gain the trust of the new arrivals.
      "As a demonstration of my power," Grievous continued, "I will kill the last Covenant Hierarch without touching him." He turned to Truth and wheezed, "Ready to begin your so-called Great Journey?"
      "The Gods shall tread upon your unholy corpse in great disgust!" Truth said this and spat in Grievous' milk-white face, staining. Grievous snarled, and cleaned his face off with his left hand. Then he raised his right hand, palm facing Truth, and thought the incantation.
One ring to destroy them all.
      A beam of light erupted from the ring, and spread out so it covered the entire wall Truth had been chained to.
      Truth screamed. His body began to decay, and suddenly, it swelled up like a Flood host at Carrier Form stage, and Truth's scream became high pitched, he would suffer a long, slow death.
      If that was the lowest setting, Grievous thought. What would happen if it was at maxium power?
      Grievous motioned to a pair of Super Battle Droids to carry the screaming mass that was Truth away. Then he turned back to the Ork Warlords. They were gazing at him with great fascination. He had done well.
      "Let's get down to business then, shall we?" Grievous asked in a commanding tone.

An Unggoy Life: Chapter 29: Good Old-fashioned Dogfight
Date: 12 October 2005, 3:36 am

Aboard Cairo, Briefing Room

      "Admiral," Cortana said in calm tone, "I've just discovered an invasion force that arrived insystem two minutes ago. It's the Orks, sir. They're back, and they brought the Droid Army with them."
      "Get ODST 5th Platoon to the Longswords ASAP," Admiral Hood ordered, "And have any available pilots get to their ships. We don't want to be caught with our pants down when their fighters get here."

      Klaxons sounded, and 5th Platoon dashed to their Longsword singleships. Aboard the Defector fleet, Seraph Fighters were being launched.
      The Pillar of Autumn II, headed for the approaching Ork vessels.

      "All ODSTs, attack pattern Alpha," Thomas shouted into his helmet mic as his Longsword exited the Cairo, "Kick in the afterburners, everybody. We don't want to be late welcoming these bad boys!"
      The Longswords had been fitted with Plasma Cannons to replace the machineguns. This made even more deadly.

      The Over Fiend watched as the Humans sent the welcoming committee. Grievous' ruse had worked.
      "Launch the Fightas," he ordered an Ork, which sent the fleetwide order to every carrier in his fleet.

      "Ork Fighters dead ahead," Thomas said in satisfaction. He pulled the Longsword into a roll, and peeled off from the main formation.
      "Omega squad, follow me," he ordered, "Zeta squad, fall in behind us. Once we reach the Ork flight line, break formation and cause as much havoc as possible. Try to stay with a wingman so you don't get shot up. Contact in three…two…one…"
      5th Platoon broke formation, and started attacking any Fighta Bommas in range.
      Thomas twisted his ship into a barrel roll, Plasma cannons ablaze. A trio of Fighta Bombers decided to take him head on, which was a mistake on their part. They came in the classic wedge formation, Shootas blasting away. Thomas targeted the leader, and bisected the Fighta Bomma with his Plasma cannons. The two halves kept coming forward, but the Ork wingmen were moving faster, and collided with the wreckage, destroying them as well.
      Something hit his port wing, and Thomas tracked a quartet of Fighter Bombers on his radar.
      "5th Platoon, could use some help about now!" Thomas yelled into the mic, and pulled into a dive under a Ork carrier to evade the fire from the quartet.
      "Keep your pants on!" Krystal's melodic-but-annoyed voice came over the Comm, "I am enroute on your position with Zeta Two as backup."
      Thomas watched on the radar as Krystal and Zeta Two pull up behind the Orks and tear them apart their Plasma cannons.
      "Zeta One, Zeta Two," Thomas asked, do you have a firing solution for your Shiva missiles?"
      "Yes," Krystal replied, "Why?"
      "Fire the missiles at me," Thomas said, "That's an order!"
      Krystal fired her missiles, as did Zeta Two. Thomas did a sharp U-turn, but not sharp enough for the missiles to lose target lock. He hit the afterburners, and accelerated toward the 'mouth' of the Ork carrier. Ten Fighter Bombers were just leaving the hangar when Thomas cut them apart with his Plasma cannons. He fired his Shiva missiles at the Hangar wall, and continued firing his Plasma cannons, tearing through the superstructure of the carrier. A minute later, Thomas shot out the exhaust port for the engines, which were aflame. The tactic of trailing the missiles behind him had worked, because the carrier exploded twenty seconds later.
      "That was crazy," Krystal said disapprovingly, "Great job!"
      "5th Platoon," Thomas called over the Comm, "Regroup and lets tear these Orks apart!"

      "Admiral Keyes!" Cortana said in a panicked tone, "Slipspace rupture behind us! it's a larger invasion force of Orks accompanied by the Droid Army."
      "Recall the fighters," Keyes said, They won't get away this time."
      "Acknowledged," Cortana said, "Sending order now."
      Thomas listened to the message and swore out loud. They had the largest wave of Fighter Bombers that ever attacked a UWSC fleet on the run, and now they had let them get away?!? He calmed himself, and activated a Comm to the platoon, and said in resignation, "5th Platoon, return to the Pillar of Autumn II. The Orks got past us and are headed for Earth. I repeat, the Orks are now behind us and are headed for Earth. Return to the Pillar of Autumn II."

      Grievous stood on the command platform of the Almighty God, and stared in satisfaction when he saw Earth. He glanced at the tactical readout, and saw that the UWSC wasn't as stupid as he had thought.
      The UWSC Fleet was spread out in classic flanking formation, with the Human ships on one side, and Defector ships on the other.
      Grievous opened a Comm channel to Jango Fett aboard the Armageddon Flame, and said, "There is a UWSC task force behind us. deal with them."
      "It shall be done," Jango said in a cold tone.

      The Armageddon Flame reversed its course, and was followed by the battleships Judgement Day and supercarrier Bringer of Death. The trio of ships accelerated toward the task force being led by the Pillar of Autumn II. The Judgement Day turned to port, presenting it's starboard side to the opposing task force. Then it's Laser cannon batteries opened fire on the New Denver, pounding the heavy cruiser's bow with immense numbers of Laser blasts. After five minutes of the endless barrage, the New Denver's bow collapsed under the pressure, and it caused the ship's nuclear reactors to overload. The New Denver exploded in a blast of flame.

      " Sonuvabitch!" Thomas yelled as he swerved to avoid the debris, "Cortana, permission to engage?"
      "Affirmative,"Cortana replied.
      "All right 5th Platoon, We got the green light to engage!" Thomas shouted excitedly, "Lets not disappoint 'em!"
      The Longswords in 5th Platoon activated the afterburners, and shot toward the Judgement Day.
      Off we go, into the wild blue yonder, Thomas thought to himself, recalling the old USAF fight song for some odd reason.
      "5th Platoon, keep that capital ship from launching its fighters," he ordered, "Zeta One and Zeta Two will fly wingman with me. We will cripple that battleship's engines so it can't hit anymore of our ships without being repaired. Move it, ODSTs!"
      Thomas turned the Longsword away from the rest of his platoon and Zeta Two and Zeta One peeled off the foramtion and followed him. He twisted the joystick so that the fighter was parallel to the Droid Army battleship. He shot past it's engines about a kilometer, then did a U-turn and fired his Shivas at the battleship's exhaust ports. Six Shivas streaked toward the ship, its defense grid unable to destroy the missiles because the aft section was its blind spot. Thomas watched with glee as all six missiles flew in the largest exhaust port.
      Explosions ravaged the Judgement Day from the inside. A second barrage had just begun to open up, and the cannons exploded in mid-reload. The ship rolled over on its side like a wounded animal. Thomas hit the afterburners and flew away from the scene, 5th Platoon not far behind. The platoon was headed for the Pillar of Autumn II for their next orders.

An Unggoy Life: Chapter 30: Battle for Seattle
Date: 16 October 2005, 6:24 pm

Pillar of Autumn II, briefing room

      5th platoon sat quietly around the table as Cortana outlined the plan for them.
      A warhorde of Orks from what was referred to as the Cult of Speed had landed in Washington state, and were heading north toward the state's capital, Seattle. 5th Platoon's goal was to cut them off at the historical highway called Interstate 5. The Ork force was about three hundred biker squadrons and who fifty groups of Truck boys. It was unknown what else the Orks had, but 5th platoon would have help from 67th Holy Soldiers battalion, the Imperial Unggoy Protectors, the Master Chief, 351st marine battalion, and the 225th Airborne division in defending Seattle.
      "After you have repelled the first wave, contact me," Cortana finished.

      Thomas sat at the rear of the Pelican, a portable turret resting against his right shoulder, identical to the turret the rest of the platoon was carrying.. Strapped to his back was a M19 SSM Rocket Laucher, and a Energy Sword was clipped to his ammo belt.
      The Imperial Unggoy Protectors were given the sacred weapon that the UNSC had referred to as the Plasma Sword. They were in a Phantom flying a pararllel flight path to the route the Pelican was taking.
      A Plasma bolt glanced off the Pelican's tail, followed by a larger Energy blast. Thomas chanced a peek over the hatch so he could get a look at their attacker.
      A pair of Ork Warbuggies zoomed along I-5, which strangely enough, had no traffic. Ever since the highway had been built six hundred years ago, it had been packed with commuters, trying to get to work or on their way home. Now it was empty because of the evacuation order given three days ago.
      Thomas unclipped his seatbelt and grabbed the aft machinegun turret. He brought the targeting HUD on the leading Warbuggy, which was armed with a salvaged Plasma turret, aiming for the driver.
      He opened fire. He missed the driver, but the results were just as satisfying. The Orks hadn't realized that a gas tank on the topside of a military vechicle yet, and as the rounds shot past the driver's head, it tore through the gas tank and igniting the fuel. The Warbuggy exploded, causing the second one to veer off the highway and collide with an evergreen tree. Thomas sat back down, satisfied with a double kill.

      Nugga watched the rear viewscreen in the Pilot seat, while the Unggoy pilot steered the ship toward the human city. Nugga was about to go back to the passenger compartment when he saw a gigantic flock of Fighter Bombers coming up behind the Phantom.
      "Bring us closer to I-5," Nugga whsipered to the pilot. The pilot glanced at the rear viewscreen, and nodded. The Phantom descended, and stopped three hundred yards above the highway. Nugga angled the aft camera so that it had a good view of the fighter group. At first the Fighter Bombers paid them no attention, but then a single fighter peeled off from the formation and accelerated toward the Phantom.
      Nugga glanced ahead of the Phantom and saw a large billboard. The Ork fighter leveled out behind them, and opened fire. Nugga's head nearly collided with the ceiling as a round glanced off the Phantom's engines.
      "Bring it to ground level!" Nugga shouted. The pilot looked at him in confusion, but Nugga kicked the joystick, sending the Phantom into a dive toward the ground.
      The Ork followed, eager to destroy the Phantom. The Phantom crashed through the post supporting the billboard, causing it to fall forward toward the Fighta Bomma. The Phantom pilot pulled up on the joystick, leveling out at fifty feet above terra firma. The last thing the Ork pilot saw before it crashed into the billboard was an advertisement for the civilian version of the Warthog.
      The Unggoy pilot, looked at Nugga as if he was crazy, and continued for the road block that would be the first line of defense for Seattle.

      The massive Ork warband sped along I-5, confident of their strength and might. There were fifty yards away from the city when they slammed on their brakes in shock.
      Three hundred Ghosts, two hundred Spectre, four hundred Warthogs, and twenty Scorpion tanks lined up and armed for combat. Standing the rear of the formation were a dozen Scarabs.
      "I told the Fighta Bommerz to damage as much of the formation as possible before returning to their refuel point?!" The Warboss roared in frustration. "Retreat!"
      The order went through the chain of commad, and the Orks reversed direction, and ran, with the UWSC forces tearing apart the rear of the retreating Orks. The Orks picked up speed, and then the 225th Airborne division flew over them and dropped Shiva missiles on the remaining Orks, killing the remaining troops.

      The Master Chief walked into the Comm tent to contact Cortana.
      "Cortana, the Orks have been defeated," the Master Chief reported.
      "That was fast," Cortana said, surprised. Suddenly she touched her holographic forehead, and a scream of pain escaped the speakers. Her figure became distorted and vanished. An image of 343 Guilty Spark appeared.
      "I'm sorry," Guilty Spark said apologetically, "The transmission has been lost. Reports indicate the Pillar of Autumn II was struck by a Energy blast from the Forerunner ship, and has crashed into the Moon. The Droid Army has begun retreating from the battle and headed toward the wreck, while the Orks are assaulting the capitals of the UK, the US, France, Germany, Spain, Israel, Japan, China, and Russia. Would you like to set up a rescue mission?"
      "Yes," The Master Chief replied.
      "I knew you would," Guilty Spark said spitefully, "Unfortunately, you cannot be allowed to attempt a rescue mission until the Orks on-planet have been exterminated."
      The Master Chief stood there in quiet fury. Suddenly Thomas burst into the Comm tent shouting, "Word just came through. The UN armies say they can hold the Orks at bay."
      "Well, speak of the devil," Guilty Spark said in a scared-sounding tone, "Permission granted for a rescue."

An Unggoy Life: Chapter 31: Race to the Moon
Date: 21 October 2005, 1:00 am

The Moon, Pillar of Autumn II

      When Cortana regained full systems control, it was too late to stop the ship from crashing into the Moon. A new six mile crater appeared on the pocketed surface of the moon as the Pillar of Autumn II crashed into its surface. She found it strange that the ship didn't become embedded in the moon, since it had crashed bow-first.
      The ship was damaged beyond repair. The fusion reactors were scrap metal, cracked open by the blast from the Forerunner ship. The nuclear start-up reactor was intact, for all the good it did. One of the Super MAC cannons was offline, but good news was the plasma turrets were still functioning.
      Cortana rebooted the tracking system, only to discover that hundreds of Droid boarding craft were headed for them.
      "Admiral Keyes," Cortana reported. "We have multiple boarding craft inbound on the Autumn's position. I advise all marines onboard to defend the ship at all costs."
      "Understood," Miranda acknowledged. "Sergeant, send the order through the ship to keep the Droid Army from taking it."
      "Yes ma'am," Johnson said, and saluted.
      Cortana returned to her analysis of the moon's surface. It was made of granite, but upon closer examination, Cortana found an unknown metal substance in a crater one mile due north of their position. She triple-checked her calculations. There was no error.
      There was a Forerunner complex inside the Moon itself.

      Ghazghkull watched as the Droid Army fleet withdrew from the battle and proceeded to the moon orbiting Earth. He turned to Zagdakka.
      "Ready the Assault boats," Ghazghkull ordered, "I will be personally leading this operation. Send a message to the other Ork Warlords to get to my ship. There's another battle to be fought."

      Sergeant Johnson fired his Sniper Rifle, and blew the head off a Droid Commander that had just exited a boarding craft, adding it to the headless tin can to the pile of Battle Droids in the doorway.
      The Battle Droids had captured the engine room, and had been attempting to capture the armoury that Johnson had been inside, gathering weapons for the bridge crew. A squadron of Marines had been there at the same time, and now three were left. The Battle Droids paused about an hour ago, and had started again five minutes ago.
      "Sarge!" Ensign Tolkaze yelled over the sound of gunfire. An Arabian, he was naturally olive in complexion, but looked white as a ghost under his helmet. "We can't hold them off much longer!"
      "Damn it, Tolkaze!" Johnson yelled, "We will hold them back, even if they send their best bastards at us! You're a Marine, soldier! Start acting like it!"
      A Battle Droid stuck it's head around the corner, then pulled it back as Johnson fired at it. The corridor became deathly quiet.
      Suddenly, Durge dropped down from the ceiling vent inside the armoury in his humanoid form. He pulled out a captured Energy Sword and charged Tolkaze.
      Tolkaze ducked underneath the blade and planted a Plasma grenade to the breastplate of Durge's armour. He dived through the behemoth's legs as the Plasma grenade exploded.
      "That count as acting like a Marine?" Tolkaze asked.
      "We'll see," Johnson answered grimly.
      As the smoke cleared, Durge turned and faced the Marines in his true form. He lashed out at Tolkaze with his left arm, stretching like rubber, and snapped the poor marine's spine. Johnson could have sworn that he heard Tolkaze mutter, "Praise be to Allah." He grabbed a Shotgun from the rack and fired a shell at the beast.
      Durge turned and charged Johnson, grabbing Tolkaze's Battle rifle as a club. Johnson slammed the butt of his gun into Durge's face, causing him to stumble backward. Johnson saw an opening, and picked up a crate of Plasma grenades.
      Johnson tossed the crate at the Durge, and followed through with a Frag grenade to detonate the Plasma grenades, yelling, "Frag out!"
      The crate landed on Durge's head, while the Frag landed at his feet. Durge moaned, and the Frag blew. The heat set off the Plasma grenades, destroying Durge as his body liquefied, then evaporated in under a second. All that remained of Durge was his helmet. Johnson kicked it into a corner.
      Johnson got to his feet, and shouted at one of the marines. "Get Admiral Keyes on the line!"

      "Understood, Cortana," Keyes said as Cortana finished outlining the plan. "Sergeant, get your men to the hangars. Once you get there, get a Pelican, and head for a crater one mile north of here on the Moon's surface. We'll meet you there."

      Thomas walked to cockpit of the Pelican, listening to the emergency transmission from the Cortana through his Comm. He replayed the message, and put it on speakers. He looked back to get an idea of what 5th platoon thought about this. They all had there helmets on so he couldn't see their facial expressions, but their body language gave them away. They would go. Thomas turned to the Master Chief.
      "You sure about this?" Thomas asked over a private channel. "If Cortana is right, and there is a Forerunner installation there, there is a good chance that it's crawling with Sentinels, Enforcers, and who knows what other Forerunner robots they have in there. And we all know that if there are Sentinels, you can be certain there are Flood in that structure. You sure you want to do this?"
      "You know the code of conduct, Major," the Master Chief answered. "Never leave a fellow soldier behind."
      Thomas nodded, and passed the order to the Pelican's pilot. They were going in.

      Nugga turned to his three comrades in the hold of the Phantom.
      "Friends," Nugga began, "We were orginally headed for the Moon to rescue the crew of the Pillar of Autumn II, but the circumstances have changed dramactically. The ship's AI discovered a Forerunner structure on the Moon. Now our orders are to recon the installation and elminate any parasite that are not in statis, if there are any Flood at all. Apparently ONI Section Three wants us to get a specimen for them."
      "Do you honestly expect us to listen to a bunch of desk workers?" Glor asked politely.
      "Of course not." Nugga answered. "If see any Flood, you kill first, ask questions later."
      "We here!" The Unggoy pilot shouted fearfully. Nugga nodded to his squad, and the four of them dropped down to the Moon's surface via the grav lift. This will be an interesting recon mission, Nugga thought as he felt the uncanny felling that his stomach was still on the Phantom.

      Grievous walked into the bridge of the Pillar of Autumn II, Durge's helmet in his left hand. He encountered no resistance until he reached the navigation terminal. Cortana had been removed from the ship's computer, but that didn't mean Grievous couldn't figure out where they were headed. Grievous had been an elite hacker during the last civil war between the Forerunner, and had cracked the enemy encryption codes, and had led his side to victory. That was how he gotten to this position.
      Grievous rebooted the computer terminal, and mentally smiled. The UWSC had a long way to go before their technology even came close to equaling the Forerunners' skill. Grievous typed in a series of symbols, using an alphanumerical hacking code that he was certain even an electronic being as modern as the ship's AI couldn't block, then hit the Enter key. It took three seconds to insert itself in the system, then it recalled the coordinates from the deleted files that had been deleted from the recycle folder. Grievous chuckled. This is child's play. He turned to the Super Battle Droids that had escorted him to the bridge, and led them back to his shuttle.

      Ghazghkull walked toward his personal Assault boat, which looked like a kilometer-sized asteroid. The other Warlords were already onboard, ready for the fight. Ghazghkull had received a transmission from Grievous ordering Ghazghkull to come and help him explore the Forerunner installation. Ghazghkull was going, but only because he wanted to. He stepped into the Assault boat. The Assault boat rose a few meters above the deck, and streaked out of the ship and toward the Moon.

Aboard the Cairo, a radar officer noticed an anomaly near the Moon. Three seconds later, High Charity appeared next to the Moon, dwarfed by its size. It landed upturned on the Moon near the recently discovered Forerunner structure.
      A Super MAC round from the Gorka and Morka slammed through the MAC platform's Comm array a minute later, obliterating their capability to contact anyone. The Cairo continued firing at the enemy fleet, unable to communicate. The UWSC forces were on their own.

An Unggoy Life: Chapter 32: Forerunner Moonbase
Date: 23 October 2005, 5:48 pm

The Moon, Forerunner installation

      Miranda stepped off the Pelican on to the metallic floor of the Foreruner hangar after the blast doors closed. The hangar interior looked exactly like the inside of the wall around the Library, only larger. She clicked off the safety on the shotgun Johnson had given her. The rest of the bridge crew, which consisted of four Unggoy, two Humans, and one Sangheili, were armed with an assortment of Plasma Rifles and SMGs. Sergeant Johnson had a Shotgun and a Sniper Rifle, and the squad of Marines were armed with Shotguns and Battle rifles, with the exception of a few specialists Marines who were armed with Rocket Lauchers and Magnums. The Arbiter was armed with an Energy sword and what seemed to be his favorite human weapon, a Shotgun.
      Miranda watched as a Gauss Warthog hit the floor, followed by 5th platoon. The Master Chief followed them, trailed by the most annoying machine in the galaxy, Guilty Spark.
      "Aw, Chief, why'd you bring Mr. Lightbulb along?" Johnson called, clearly annoyed about the matter of having Guilty Spark with them.
      "He claims that he can lead us through the facility." The Master Chief answered.
      The Phantom dropped off the Imperial Unggoy Protectors and accelerated out of the hangar just before the doors closed.
      "We'd better get moving." Miranda said as she handed Cortana to the Master Chief.
      "Follow me, if you please." Guilty Spark said. The group headed toward the doorway that led into the complex. He accessed the terminal, muttering, "That's odd…"
      Suddenly, a burst of light erupted from the terminal and engulfed Guilty Spark. The Monitor fell to the ground, its light gone. The door stayed locked.
      "Strange," Cortana muttered. "Chief, insert me into Guilty Spark's mainframe."
      The Chief nodded, and removed her from his neural lace, and inserted Cortana into the Monitor's body, and stepped back.
      A human-size hologram of Cortana appeared above the Monitor. She unlocked the door, and began to lead the Master Chief and the rest of the group in to the structure.

      The Orks made their own hangar five minutes later. The Assault boat's door opened, and Grievous walked out first. He was followed by the Ork Warlords, who didn't care what the installation was unless it was a weapon. Grievous motioned for them to follow him as he led them into the structure.

      The Flood entered the complex last. Using his teleportation ability, Gravemind teleported a swarm of Juggernauts inside of the hangar that the UWSC forces had landed in. The Pelicans were overwhelmed in a matter of seconds by the Juggernauts, and the swarm continued into the base.
      On the other side of the base, Gravemind teleported a swarm of Flood Combat Forms to deal with the Sentinels.

      "We've got lots of Sentinel activity up ahead," Thomas reported over the Comm as he reconnoitered the hallway ahead of them. The architecture resembled the hallways on Halo 004, according to Cortana. "There are ten Enforcers coming towards us. Everybody hide!"
      There's no place to hide." The Master Chief reminded them.
      The group readied for a firefight as the Enforcers hovered around the corner. The first Enforcer halted, and a pale-blue beam of light shot out of it's optical sensor, covering the entire group. The light returned to the Enforcer, and it continued past them.
      After the column of Enforcers had left, Thomas whispered, "That was odd."
      "Let's go," Cortana suggested. They continued onward.

      Grievous raised his hand in a 'stop' motion to the Orks, and stepped into a chamber they walked into. The room was circular, the walls a dark gray color, with a Sentinel portal every meter or so. Grievous stepped into the center of the room, where he could see the other seven corridors that he hadn't explored yet.
      Suddenly, an unearthly screech reverberated from the corridor ahead of Grievous. Ghazghkull knew what they were, and thought, Finally, a worthy opponent.
      The Flood ramapaging down the hallway toward the room. The Ork Warlords raised their weapons, but Grievous called them off. He raised his right hand, palm out, at the oncoming wall of rotting flesh. A beam of light erupted from the ring and filled the hallway. The unholy screams of the Flood escalated in key, and in a split-second, the entire swarm was vaporized.
Grievous motioned for them to continue, and they kept moving.

      Nugga turned at the sound of heavy footsteps as the group moved further inside the base. He glanced around the corner, but nothing was there.
      "I think we're being followed." Nugga said to Lovu. She nodded in agreement.
      "You're just being paranoid," One of the Marines in front of them said in an optimistic tone, "This place has been deserted for billions of years. There's nothing to fear around-"
      Suddenly, a Flood Juggernaut burst through the floor in front of the Marine, grabbed him by the waist, and pulled him through the floor. Three Marines fired their Battle Rifles in vain into the hole the Juggernaut had dragged the unforunate Marine through. Nugga ignited his Energy Sword in case there were more Flood nearby.
      The Juggernaut seemed to be a combination of multiple host parts, which varied from the legs of a Sangheili to the shield arm of a Lekgolo.
      "We have to keep moving," Cortana said with urgency, "There are more Juggernauts in this passage. They will tear us apart if we stay in one spot."
      Miranda nodded, and shouted, "Move it people! Out of the hallway!"
      Nugga leaped over the hole, his comrades close behind. The four of them sprinted toward the next room with a speed unusual for an Unggoy. The squad of Marines were not so lucky.
      One of the Marines was grabbed by a Juggernaut that had burst through the right side of the cramped hallway. He fired two Shotgun shells at point-blank range at the Juggernaut's mass of sensory appendages that protruded from what had been a Jiralhanae's chest. The Juggernaut slammed it's right arm into the head of the Marine, the Lekgolo shield that had been fused to the Juggernaut's flesh smashing the human's skull. Nugga saw a incubation sac pop on the Juggernaut's right arm, and an Infection Form crawl out and begin infecting the dead Marine. Another Marine was crushed by the Juggernaut's right arm as it pulled the dead Marine through the hole. The two specialist Marines were snatched up by a Juggernaut that had dropped down from the ceiling. They didn't stand a chance. Nugga could hear them screaming as the Juggernaut leapt through a hole in the ceiling, dragging the Marines with them.
      Johnson shoved his Shotgun into the rotting flesh on a Juggernaut's 'head' as it smashed through the floor and attempted to grab him. The Shotgun shell blasted the Juggernaut's 'head' apart with a loud POP! The dead Flood form tilted backwards and fell through the hole it had created. Johnson watched as Miranda and the bridge crew made it past the defensive line of Unggoy led by the Master Chief, who were blasting the Juggernauts as they came into range.
      "ODSTs!" Johnson barked, "We are out of here!"
      The ODSTs ran ahead of Johnson, keeping the Juggernauts busy dodging bullets while gradually retreating toward the battle line.
      As Johnson reached the battle line, a Helljumper tossed a frag into the hallway. The grenade exploded, and the hallway was filled with Flood guts.
      "Keep moving," Cortana said in an urgent tone, "That frag will only slow them down."

      As Grievous walked down hallway where the Flood had come from, Ghazghkull turned to the other Warlords. "I think Grievous has been in charge of this operation too long," He whispered. A nod from the rest of the Warlords confirmed their agreement in this opinion.
      "Then he will have to be removed," Ghazghkull continued, "I will be the leader after that. Understood?" Again, the Warlords nodded in agreement.
      "Follow me," Grievous said as he came back from the hallway, "I believe I have found the control room."

      Nugga gasped as the group walked into the control room. It was huge. The center of the room was only accessible by a large, x-shaped walkway that connected all four of the entrances to the center. Below them, the room dropped down three hundred feet before it reach the floor, and it was the same case for the ceiling. Instead of the usual Forerunner décor, the room was a bright shade of yellow that caused Nugga to turn away from the fear of becoming blind. Forty Sentinel portals were scattered across the walls at random. The central hub of the control room was fifty yards away from them, so it was easy enough to reach. The problem was what had just come out from the hallway to the right and left of them, and who had just appeared in the hallway on the other side of the central hub.
      Grievous stood, staring back at them while the Ork Warlords came out behind him.
      The Flood came pouring out from the hallways in every form possible.
      Then all hell broke loose.

An Unggoy Life: Chapter 33: Deathtrap
Date: 30 October 2005, 7:49 pm

Forerunner Moonbase, control room

      Ghazghkull charged past Grievous, eager for a fight. A Juggernaut jumped down from the ceiling and landed in front of him, blocking the walkway. The Juggenaut had four tentacle-like arms, what looked like a Jiralhanae's torso, and legs that looked like they belonged on a Yanme'e. The Juggernaut stood fourteen feet high, but, unfortunately, Ghazghkull towered above it by a good three feet. Ghazghkull curled his Powerclaw into a crude fist, and slammed a devastating right hook into the Juggernaut's 'face.' The Powerclaw tore through the Juggernaut and came out the other side clutching the abombination's spinal cord. Ghazghkull yanked his Powerclaw out of the Flood form, and the Juggernaut collapsed into a pile of rotting flesh. Ghazghkull laughed, the adrenaline pumping through his veins.
      The other Warlords charged toward the center hub, their minds filled with only one thought.
      Kill anything that isn't big and green.
      Grievous shrugged, and reached for his lightsabers. A trio of Carrier Forms leapt from the catwalk above him, attempting to render their prey defenseless against the Infection Forms inside their bodies. Grievous grabbed the first kamikaze Carrier Form by one of it's legs as it fell past the walkway with his left leg's claw. The Carrier Form began swelling, and Grievous knew he only had a few seconds. He hurled the suicidal Carrier Form at the walkway on his left of the central hub, where it detonated in front of the entrance, sending the Flood near it flying down into the abyss-like floor of the room. Flood grenades, Grievous thought, and laughed as he prepared to face the other two Carrier Forms.
      The second one missed the walkway entirely, flailing wildly as it plunged toward the floor. The third Carrier Form landed on it's back three feet from Grievous, but it bounced off the walkway from the impact. Grievous selected a pair of green lightsabers, and charged into the fray.

      Lovu fired her Carbine at an Ork Combat Form. The round went through the former Ork's left eye, and burst the Infection Form inside the Ork's neck. The sudden internal explosion severed the Ork head, and the Combat Form dropped dead. She began to search for another target.
      Suddenly, a Flood Form dropped down from one of the catwalks above the central hub and landed in front of her. Lovu noticed that the 'Flood Form' didn't have any visible sensory appendages. In fact, it was about the same size as Lovu except a few feet taller, and had a methane rebreather exactly like hers. Most astonishing of all, it had an Unggoy's head.
      "Lovu…" It said in a voice that had all the likeness of someone who had their vocal cords removed, but Lovu recognized it.
      "Holi?" Lovu asked, and Holi nodded. Then Lovu looked up as a more Combat Forms leapt from the catwalks overhead. Holi grabbed Lovu and covered her as a Combat Form landed where she had been standing three seconds before. Lovu was surprised, but then again, finding a lost teammate that was infected by the Flood and regained their freedom didn't happen on a weekly basis.
      Holi pulled out a twin-linked Ork Big Shoota from an 'incubation sac' on her back, which was about the same size a standard methane rebreather, and filled the Combat Form with ninety pounds of lead. It was a mighty Jiralhanae Combat Form one moment, and the next it was swiss cheese. Holi set Lovu down, and punched a Juggernaut in it's disgusting 'face,' knocking it off the edge of the central hub.
      Lovu got to her feet and blew up a suicide Carrier Form as it fell toward them. The Infection Forms inside the incubation chambers burst from the unexpected detonation of their host body.
      Suddenly, Sentinels began teleporting into the control room via their portals. Fifteen Enforcers floated up from underneath the central hub, while Lovu noticed five Enforcers missing from the twenty she had seen in the hallway. The Sentinels began slicing Flood forms to pieces with their Lasers. The Combat Forms began leaping at the Sentinels, while some of the Carrier Forms use kamikaze tactics on the Enforcers, which was basically jumping off a catwalk and hope to land on one of the Enforcers and detonate, which would destroy an Enforcer.
      "Do have any short range weapons in you, Holi?" Lovu asked as she destroyed a Sentinel as it emerged from a portal below them. She fired two more rounds into the portal itself, destroying it.
      Holi handed Lovu a Shoota, and continued firing at the endless tide of Flood Forms.

      The Master Chief gutted a Combat Form with an Energy Sword as it leapt down from one of the many catwalks above the central hub. He switched to his Battle Rifle, and fired a burst into the 'face' of a Juggernaut that seemed to be covered in Lekgolo armor, with a pair of Lekgolo shields on it's two upper arms, while the lower pair carried two Plasma Rifles. The Juggernaut turned and faced him, randomly firing it's Plasma Rifles. The beast charged him, hungry for the kill.
      The Master Chief dropped his Battle Rifle and tossed a Plasma grenade on the Juggernaut's face. He ignited his Energy Sword and sliced an arm off of a Human Combat Form and killed it with the Ork Slugga it had been wielding with the skill of a novice.
      The fighting continued for two hours, and when every Sentinel and Enforcer was destroyed, the numbers of the Flood began to dwindle. Soon, only two Juggernauts were left of the Flood, not counting the hundreds of Infection Forms. The Ork Warlords were all alive, their bloodlust satisfied. Grievous was standing in the middle of the central hub, his milk-white body covered with bits of Flood entrails.
      The UWSC forces, on the other hand, had suffered quite a few losses. The Sangheili who had been on the bridge crew was dead, killed by the detonation of a Carrier Form that had landed on top of the Sangheili. Three of the Unggoy bridge crew were infected by the parasite. Both Humans on bridge crew had been vaporized by the Arch Maniac's Mega Blasta.
      The remaining two Juggernauts charged Grievous, who remained where he was, his lightsabers deactivated.When the Juggernauts were two yards away from him, he struck.
      He moved so fast that Nugga had trouble keeping track of Grievous' body in the white-green blur of movement. Grievous seemed to be using his lightsabers to fight the Juggernauts. Seconds later, Grievous stopped, and the Juggernauts lay in pieces on the central hub's walkway. Then Grievous turned toward Nugga and the rest of the UWSC forces. Out of the corner of his eye, Nugga saw the largest of the Ork Warlords aim his weapon.
BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM.
      Ghazghkull fired a single volley from his Quad Shoota, which was a overkill. Bullets the diameter of Nugga's arm tore through Grievous' body like it was tissue paper. The force of the subsonic impacts knocked Grievous off his feet. The entire left side of his artificial ribcage was torn apart by one of the bullets, destroying his left lung. Another one of the bullets had blown a hole through his 'collarbone,' barely missing his trachea. The other two bullets had hit his left arm, but Grievous had been separating that arm when Ghazghkull fired. His lower left arm lay on the floor two feet away from him, still clutching one of his lightsabers. His upper left arm was missing a hand, which had been obliterated by the last bullet.
      "Why-"Grievous wheezed, and a hacking cough erupted from his voice box, followed by blood erupting from his left lung.
      "You were too powerhungry," Ghazghkull spat, "You figured you could control the most powerful Ork in the galaxy. Me. Then you expanded your power by gathering the other six Ork Warlords from the corners of the galaxy, and brought them all under your control." At this Ghazghkull spat a second time, and continued. "Then you expect us to follow you just because of you're ludicrous conquests against the UWSC forces. Your tactics lost you Unggo, and when the UWSC abandoned Armaggedon, you were too ignorant to notice that there were planet-killing bombs right under your nose. The planet blew up in your face, and it cost you a substantial portion of your fleet, and an even greater portion of mine. Your species died billions of years ago, and now it is time for you to join them." With that said, Ghazghkull activated the beacon for the Assault Boat to retrieve them.
      There was a sound of breaking metal, and the Assault Boat crashed through the ceiling of the control room. The Ork Warlords stepped inside, and as the Assault Boat fired up it's reverse thrusters, Ghazghkull appeared in the airlock again, carrying a looted Covenant Anti-Matter Bomb. He set the timer for five minutes, and tossed it down to the floor of the control room. He shut the airlock door, and the Assault Boat flew away from the Moon.
      "Can you teleport us to the Pillar of Autumn II?" The Master Chief asked Cortana.
      "Yes," she answered, and teleported the group back to the ship.
      Grievous rose from the floor and pulled out his holopad. He activated it, and sent a transmission to the Armaggedon Flame.
      "Commander Jango Fett," Grievous said, "Order a retreat of all your forces. The Orks have betrayed us, and the UWSC will not aid you in your plight. Sadly, I cannot join you. You must go on alone. End transmission."
      Grievous walked toward the teleportation platform located in the center of the control room. He stopped to pick up his lower left arm and continued onward. He set his destination for Alpha Centauri system, and the Forerunner facility that had given him this body before Halo was activated. He stepped onto the teleportation platform, and was gone in a flash of light.

      Gravemind gathered his power and engaged the teleporter. In a burst of light, High Charity disappeared.
      Two minutes later, the Droid Army Fleet made a slipspace jump, with the Orks in close pursuit, having gathered it's forces from Earth. Ten seconds later, the Forerunner Moonbase exploded, forming another crater on the Moon.

An Unggoy Life: Chapter 34: Eye of the Storm
Date: 14 November 2005, 4:42 am

UWSC HighCom, Australia, Earth

      The survivors of the UWSC force that had been to the Forerunner Moonbase had been called to HighCom for debriefing. All of them attended, with the exception of Holi, who was being operated upon to see if they could return her to normal.
      "So what you're saying is that this Grievous person was betrayed by that enormous Ork Warlord named Ghazghkull?" Colonel Ackerson asked.
      "Yes sir." The Master Chief replied, "Ghazghkull shot Grievous himself, and the other Orks didn't even lift a finger aginst it. My assumption is that-"
      "Your assumptions are not facts." Ackerson cut him off. "Either Grievous is dead or he isn't."
      "We didn't see him leave the base sir." Krystal pointed out. "It is highly unlikely that he survived the explosion. I'd say it's safe to assume he's dead."
      "Point taken, Lieutenant Major." Ackerson replied. "That is all I needed to hear from all of you. Dismissed."

      "I don't like this." Thomas said to Krystal as they exited HighCom. "We're assuming a bit much that Lord Grievous is dead. Remember that he was the one pulling the strings in the campaign on Armageddon. He also survived the destruction of Unggo, so I wouldn't be surprised to see him …"
      "He was drowning in his own damn blood, Thomas! There is no way in hell he could have survived! Let the ones up in HighCom do the thinking ahead!" Krystal emphasized what she said by hitting him in the side of the head with an open-palmed slap.
      "Thanks Krystal, I needed that." Thomas said, rubbing the side of his head. "Say, when was the last time our platoon had some R&R?"
      "A long time." She replied in with a sigh.

      Nugga walked into the barracks to find Lovu packing her luggage. As he glanced around the room he noticed that Yanna and Glor were not in the room.
      "Where are you going?" Nugga asked politely.
      "To the Unggoy colony on Europa, one of Jupiter's moons." Lovu replied. 'The brass decided to give us some shore leave for once."
      "It's about time." Nugga grinned and started packing his bags as well. "What about Holi? What are they goning to do with her?"
      "The scientists here are Earth are going to see if they can return her to her orginal size." She answered. "Hopefully, they can remove all the Flood DNA inside her. If they can do that, they could probably remove the Flood DNA inside the rest of us. We can finally be regualr Unggoy again." When she finished, she slung her luggage over her rebreather and walked out of the room. Nugga followed her five minutes later.

      Ghazghkull stomped into the meeting room aboard the Gorka and Morka. The other six Ork warlords had already gathered here and were waiting for him.
      "Now that we've eliminated Lord Grievous," Ghazghkull began, "we can finish this Waagh the Ork way!"
      The Ork warlords nodded in agreement. Grievous had used the Orks' strengths in all the wrong ways. Now that Ghazghkull was leading the Waagh, they would be unstoppable.
      "Begin summoning your warbands," Ghazghkull said in an evil tone. "Next time we attack Earth, we will crush all opposition."
      "But who will get Earth when we conquer it?" The Great Despot asked.
      "I will." Ghazghkull replied. "I could've taken Earth with my own troops, but it seems pointless to fight amongst ourselves if there are new enemies to conquer." The Warlords nodded in agreement. "Soon we shall be the rulers of the galaxy, and no one is can stand in our way!"
      "But before you get carried away," Ghazghkull reminded them, "We need to establish new strongholds closer to Earth. Here's what we're gonna do…"

      Aboard a Forerunner Installation, near the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, Grievous reappeared on the teleportation grid. Exhausted from the battle, he collapsed. As his body dropped to the ground, a pair of Battle Droids moved to his side and heaved him into a renewal chamber so his mangled body would be repaired.

      Two days later, Grievous awoke. He looked up to see the tanned face of Jango Fett staring back at him.
      "I see you obtained my message." He said, his voice dripping with disdain.
      "My loyalty is only to you, my lord." Jango replied. He watched as Grievous flexed his newly replaced hand. Grievous stood up, and Jango led him to a viewport.
      The Droid Army's entire fleet was in orbit around the gigantic Installation. The Armageddon Flame, the supercarrier Bringer of Death, the destroyer Day of Reckoning, and the destroyer The Apocalypse.
      "My retribution shall be swift and merciless." Grievous said with a note of confidence in his voice. "Ghazghkull shall pay for his treachery."

End of Book I

An Unngoy Life: Book II: Chapter 35: Sabotage and Assassinations
Date: 20 November 2005, 8:31 pm

Unggoy Colony Alpha, Europa

      Nugga walked along the streets of the Unggoy Colony Alpha, quite relaxed. Since the atmosphere was methane, Unggoy didn't need to wear their rebreathers. Nugga turned and walked into the hotel he had been staying in for R&R, feeling the sheer joy of shore leave. He headed straight to the hotel room where he and Lovu had been staying at.

      Lightyears away in the Omega system, near the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, the medical ship Eternal Life was orbiting Omega IV, the only planet fit for human habitation in the binary system. A young Unggoy security guard named Inku was making his rounds. The medical ship was two spheres connected by a single corridor big enough for a Lekgolo to walk through at full height. The larger of the two spheres was three miles in diameter, with a hangar large enough for a three Phantoms to fit inside it with plenty of space between the wingtips. The smaller of the spheres was the bridge, equipped with long-range scanners that could detect the least amount of life a lightyear away. The ship was staffed by a mixture of Unggoy, Huragok, Humans, and a handful of Sangheili.
      As Inku rounded the corner, he noticed the fluorescent stains of blood on the walls of the corridor leading to the crew's quarters. Normally he wouldn't have paid any attention to the bloodstains, but the medics never used the crew's hallway as a shortcut to the emergency room. He followed the trail of blood into the crews quarter's. He looked inside.
      Seven of the Eternal Life's personnel lay on the deck. Three of them were Huragok, who Inku realized were dead as soon as he saw them. All three were cut in half. The other four were Unggoy. Two of them lay on top of each other, both of their rebreathers ripped off there backs and Inku guessed that they had been lovers. Their bodies lay on top of one another in a primal position. The third Unggoy lay in two pieces, not counting its rebreather. The fourth Inku recognized as the ship's newest Comm officer,who lay propped up against one of the many doors in the darkened hallway, the head four feet away from Inku's foot. He stepped back, then dashed over to the intercom panel in the wall on his right.
      "MEDICS! CREWS' QUARTERS NOW! HURRY!" Inku shouted into the microphone. The Sangheili on intercom duty relayed this message to the Medics, then to the Eternal Life's captain, who ordered the Comm officer to send a message to Earth requesting assistance. Unknown to the captain, something watched him with satisfaction as he gave the order.

      Nugga twisted away from Lovu as the Holopad on their bedside table activated. How annoying, Nugga thought, just when I get a chance to be alone with Lovu for a few hours, somebody calls us. He reached over and hit the talk button. Then he rolled back to Lovu.
      "Ahem," an annoyed voice said from the Holopad, so familiar that Nugga almost jumped out of bed with surprise. "I see you two have been having a good bit of R&R." It was the Pillar of Autumn II's AI, Cortana. "Unfortunately, the military has to cut short your instincts' progress and has ordered you to be at the spaceport at 1200 hours, Earthtime, sharp for the departure of the UWSC Phantom that came to pick you up. New mission, but I'm not allowed to tell you over an insecure line. Transmission terminated."
      Nugga glanced over at the clock. It was 0903 hours Earthtime, so they had almost three hours before they had to leave. He pulled off the covers and got out of bed to begin reattaching his armor. Lovu did the same.

      At 1150 hours, they were ready. The two of them waited at the terminal as the Phantom docked with the spaceport. When the Phantom's door opened, they hurried inside.

      As the recently repaired Pillar of Autumn II traveled through Slipspace, 5th Platoon and the Imperial Unggoy Protectors were being briefed on their new mission.
      "The medical ship Eternal Life is the only ship equipped with advanced medical equipment in Omega system." Cortana began. "Two days ago, one of the guards found five of it's personnel dead, and two seriously injured. Both point to the logical conclusion that there is an enemy presence on board."
      "So what you're saying is that we have to find this dangerous stowaway and kill it?" Major Dalton asked. "Why not just send in a squad of marines?"
      "Because two of the personnel found dead were behead and cut in half." Cortana replied. She disappeared as the ship reentered normal space.
      A few minutes later, she reappeared. "Your transports are ready for departure. I advise you to use caution when searching the ship. Enemy is to be assumed heavily armed and extremely dangerous."

      Cortana had gotten the second part of her warning correct. In the ventilation shafts of Eternal Life, three Terrorist Droids hid. Painted space-black and built close to the design of Grievous' body, their purpose was to inspire fear into the enemies of the Forerunner. Armed with laserblades, they were a dangerous force to fight head on.
      The Terror Droids had orders to cause as much mayhem on the ship as possible. They waited for the arrival of enemy reinforcements after being informed by their master of the Pillar of Autumn II's arrival. If things went as planned, the Omega system would belong to their master in a matter of days.

      Thomas stepped out of the Pelican, a shotgun propped up on his left shoulder. At the hangar entrance stood a Sangheili and a trio of Unggoy security guards. Shit, Thomas thought, why doesn' t the chief have to do this type of work? He knew the answer, but he didn't like it. He decided to go meet with the security chief while the Unggoy Protectors and the ODSTs were unloading the Pelican.
      "Inku was the one who found their bodies." The Sangheili said, indicating Inku as one of the Unggoy with gesture of his hand. "It is most likely that he will be targeted next."
      As if on cue, one of the Terror Droids burst through the hangar floor. However, it did not attack Inku. Instead, it charged the ODSTs that were still unloading the Pelican.
      The ODSTs saw it coming and opened fire with a collection of Magnums, SMGs, and the Pelican's machinegun turret. The Magnums and the SMGs were ineffective against the Terror Droid's armor, but the machinegun turret tore through it like a knife through butter. The Terror Droid fell backwards and landed in a pile of fried electronics.
      Krystal walked over to the newly established junk pile. She pointed her shotgun at the 'head' of the Terror Droid. Thomas could almost see the anger on her face.
      KABLAM! The shotgun shell shattered the faceplate into millions of shards of unknown metal. Krystal shouldered her shotgun and bent down to clean the fragments off her boots.
      There was a screech of metal as the Pelican slid across Eternal Life's hangar floor as it unexpectedly listed to one side. Thomas planted his feet squarely on the ground and tilted his body opposite the sudden slanting of the floor to keep himself balanced. Most of 5th Platoon just landed on their asses as they lost their balance. Krystal was one of them.
      "What in the name of God was that?" She yelled at the ship's security chief. The Sangheili shrugged, apparently as bamboozled as Krystal was.
      "All security officers," An Unggoy's voice shouted over the intercom. "Captain dead! Enemy on ship!"
      "That can't be good." Thomas muttered.
      "They'll be heading for the engine room next." The security chief said. "We must hurry."
      "They may have already been there." Thomas muttered, then he motioned for 5th Platoon to follow him. "Tell the crew to get to the escape pods, then get aboard the Pelican." The Sangheili nodded, and hit the Comm, saying, "Attention all crew members of the Eternal Life. Abandon ship!"

      In the Forerunner structure, Grievous sat upon the High Dark Lord's throne. The throne towered twenty-five feet high, and was painted space-black. It signified all that his cult had stood for. The cult's values; Greed, Envy, Lust, Despair, and Carnage were marked along the throne's peak.
      "My Lord." IG-88 bowed, his cylinder-like legs bending to a ninety degree angle before the bow actually occurred. "Jango Fett has the Armageddon Flame, the supercarrier Bringer of Death and the Droid control ship Merciless Executioner ready to make the jump to the Omega system. Shall I give the signal?"
      "Do it." Grievous nodded, and watched as the small invasion force jumped into Slipspace.

      On the outskirts of the Quinrox Sound, the Ork Hulks Chaos and Mayhem and their attendant fleet of Kill Kroozers and Onslaught attack ships waited for the go signal from Ghazghkull's hidden base. Aboard the Mayhem, the Arch Maniac of Calverna stood in it's box shaped bridge. Like all Ork bridges, it was crammed with electronics and dirty as hell.
      The bridge itself was located in the center of the Mayhem, as was the same design for the Chaos, which was identical to the Mayhem in every aspect of the word. The design was a precaution against concentrated fire at the usual location of a ship's bridge, the bow. The Arch Maniac had his Mekboyz attach the bow of the Triumph, the unlucky ship that was the first UWSC casualty of the Armageddon conflict, onto the bow of the Mayhem as a dummy bridge.
      The ship itself was about the size of the Dictator, the Great Despot's personal flagship, but twice as powerful. The Arch Maniac had created a crude form of a *Particle Accelerator,* which the Arch Maniac had welded to the undersides of both the Chaos and the Mayhem. Attached to the sides of each ship were Plasma cannons, three per side. The hangars were filled with hundreds of Fighta Bomma in takeoff position.
      A face appeared on the holopad in front of the Arch Maniac. It was one of Gahzghkull's communication officers. "Time for some conquest." It said, and the hologram vanished.
      "Prepare to jump to Slipspace." He said to his Comm officer, "we leave in five."
      He was right. Five minutes later, the Arch Maniac's fleet made the jump to the Omega system.

*Markisallo imagined the Particle Accelerator, I just used it differently*

An Unngoy Life: Chapter 36: Here They Come!
Date: 3 December 2005, 11:26 pm

aboard Pillar of Autumn II, hangar bay Alpha

      As the Pelican touched down in Hangar Bay Alpha, Nugga could hear the sirens going off all over the Pillar of Autumn II. He turned and looked out the hangar door, which had a Plasma shield to keep a livable atmosphere inside. As he scanned the space around Omega IV, he couldn't see any enemy ships nearby. Then he saw the Slipspace rupture behind the silhouette of the system's largest planet, the gas giant Omega V, which was slightly larger than Sol system's Jupiter. He squinted to see better, and could see the outlines of several Ork ships.
      "All pilots to their ships!" Cortana said over the Comm. "That goes for you too, 5th Platoon! Move!"
      "You heard the lady!" Thomas shouted. "To your ships!"

      "Your Maniacness." The Tac ops Ork said in a throaty voice. "The UWSC is launching their fighter squadrons as you predicted. Permission to launch our Fighta Bommerz as our countermove?"
      The Arch Maniac nodded. "Have Commander Krug lead the Fighta Bommerz. While they keep the UWSC forces locked in combat, we will use our weapon. Inform the Chaos of the plan."

      Krug was an Ork of great piloting skills. He was short in height compared to the average Ork, standing at seven feet tall, pitiful by Ork standards. His skin was darker than average, and had bulging biceps and triceps, which were larger than that of an average Ork pilot. He wore a brown, sleeveless leather jumpsuit, with a pair of black, steel-toed combat boots to keep his feet dry. He had a small knife-like Choppa, given to him by a Kommando, secured in a sheath on his back. On his right hand was a Powerclaw.
      As he listened to the orders, he ordered the Grot ground crew to begin preparing his Kustom Fighta for takeoff. Two minutes later, he was in the cockpit, making final preparations, with his Grot copilot/mechanic, Zag.

      Krystal flew her Longsword out of the hangar bay, quickly followed by Alpha Squadron. She steadied the fighter as it wobbled in the slipstream of the Pillar of Autumn II.
      "This is Cortana." Krystal heard over the Comm. "Be advised, my scanners show more contacts emerging from slipspace above Omega IV, and by the looks of the signals I'd say the Droid Army has come out to play conquer the UWSC again. Removing their presence in this system is now your immediate priority."
      "Roger that Cortana." Gold Leader, the commander of the entire Longsword force, acknowledged the order, then called out the status check. "This is Gold Leader, all wings report in."
      "Red Leader standing by."
      "Green Leader standing by."
      "Blue Leader standing by."
      "This is Bravo Leader, standing by."
      "Alpha Leader standing by." Krystal said grimly.
      "Omega Leader standing by." She smiled as Major Dalton reported in. She heard the rest of the squads' members report in, but was only-half listening. She was examining her scanner, watching for signs of any activity.
      "Gold Leader," Krystal said, interrupting role call. "I'm detecting smaller movement outside the Ork fleet, heading towards us very fast."
      "I show nothing on my scanner." Gold Leader said. "Are you sure your scanner isn't-WHAT IN THE HELL!"
      Krystal looked up just in time to see a lightning bolt of energy connect with the starboard stabilizer of Gold Leader's Longsword. "That was a Zzap gun!" Krystal shouted at Gold Leader. "Gold Eight, Gold Seven, take care of that AAGH!! OH MY GO-" at this point another energy blast from the Zzap gun tore Gold Leader's ship apart.

      "That was too easy." Krug muttered as he watched Gold Leader's ship disintergrate. He turned his attention to the droid starfighters emerging from the Merciless Executioner. There were thousands of them.
      Krug smiled. "This should be fun." He clicked on the copilot Comm. "HEY ZAG! I WANTED THE ZZAP GUN AT FULL OUTPUT ON THAT LAST SHOT! MOVE IT, SCUMBAG!" He switched it off, and chuckled. Zag only needed a little persuasion.

      Thomas activated his Longsword's plasma cannons, destroying an Ork Fighter Bomber as it flew past him. "Omega squadron, break off attack and regroup. I repeat, break off and regroup! Alpha Leader, order your squad to break off and regroup. Over!" He blasted a trio of Droid starfighters that had been on Bravo Leader's tail. "Thanks Omega Lead, I thought I was Floodbait for a moment-" he was cut off as a jet-black Ork Fighter Bomber gutted Bravo Lead's Longsword with a blast of energy from a Zzap Gun mounted on it's underside. Thomas keyed on the Comm. "Omega Two, your now in charge of Omega Squadron. I have score to settle with a certain Ork Fighter pilot."

      Nugga dashed into the hangar bay, and climbed into the cockpit of a Seraph Fighter. As he began activating the start-up cycle, Admiral Keyes' voice came over the Comm. "Just what do you think you're doing?"
      "I'm going to help the fighter squads with the battle." Nugga replied in a determined tone, "I owe them that much." He opened the hangar doors, and launched the Seraph into space.
      Lovu and the rest of the Unngoy Imperial Protectors dashed into the hangar just in time to see Nugga's Seraph exit the hangar bay. Lovu didn't stop running. She dashed into the nearest Seraph, closed the hatch, and launched out of the hangar in three seconds.

An Unngoy Life: Chapter 37: Personal Vendettas
Date: 18 January 2006, 1:07 am

Somewhere in orbit around Dante IV, aboard the Droid Control Ship Merciless Executioner

      Jango Fett watched as the Battle Droids began assembling in the hangar bay. An invasion force 2,000,000 strong, nothing could stand in it's way. Consisting of 1,000,000 Super Battle Droids, 500,000 Battle Droids, 200,000 Droidekas, and 300,000 Terror Droids. Jango turned his back to the scene as the troops began loading themselves into the storage racks of the hundreds of MTT transports, which would in turn be loaded into the Landing Ships. Jango's train of thought was interrupted as a Pilot Droid ran to his side.
      "Urgent Holovid from Boba Fett." It said, handing him a Holopad.
      "What is it, son?" Jango inquired. He had been hoping everything would go according to plan.
      "The UWSC and the Orks have started attacking us, father." Boba Fett replied. "Our starfighters are putting up a fight, but they is too many of them. we can't beat them without some ground-based air support."
      "On my way." Jango Fett hurried to a grav lift. Two minutes later, he was prepping his personal ship, Slave I.

      "Damn Ork!" Major Dalton swore as he fired his plasma cannons at the mysterious jet-black Ork fighter. The fighter swerved out the way, and fired it's Zzap gun at a laser turret on the Merciless Executioner. The turret took the blast right at the base. Explosions rocked the turret, and it exploded.
      Krug swerved out of the way as the UWSC fighter fired at his Fighta Bomma again. "Annoying bastard." Krug muttered, and did a 180 and headed back towards the Mayhem.
      Suddenly, a ship shot out of the Merciless Executioner's hangar bay and began firing at Krug's fighter. "Damn!" Krug muttered, and switched to the highest gear, and shot toward the Mayhem like a thunderbolt.

      Nugga watched from inside the Seraph fighter as the Chaos became larger and larger with each passing moment. He pulled out a carbine from the Seraph's weapon locker, and switched the controls to manual. The Chaos's turret defense grid had just started tracking him, and he didn't want to get caught in their crosshairs.
      He could see the hangar bay about fifty yards away from the Seraph. He hit the afterburners, and was nearly thrown out of the seat as the Seraph flew into the Ork hangar and crashed into the far wall.
      Nugga blacked out for about thirty seconds, which was plenty of time for some of the Orks in the Hangar Bay to alert their superiors. When he woke up, more Orks were already on their way.

      Lovu swerved her Seraph out of the way as a jet-black Ork Fighter shot past it. What in the name of…?! Lovu thought, and then swore as Slave I zoomed past, firing a steady burst of laserblasts at the Ork Fighter. Finally clear of the danger, she activated the homing beacon on Nugga's Seraph. It was in the starboard
      "Need a hand?" A voice said over Comm, which startled Lovu so much that she nearly jumped out of her seat. "We thought you and Nugga could use some help." She saw a quartet of blips appear on her radar screen.
      "Holi you fiend!" Lovu laughed, "I see you brought Yanna and Glor. Who's the other guy?"
      "The Unggoy who was on the Eternal Life, the one named Inku," Holi replied, "He decided to come along and help us fight."
"Good enough for me." Lovu replied, and hit the Seraph's afterburners, and shot toward the Chaos.

      Nugga regained consciousness, and heard the sound of an fusion cutter on the Seraph's hull. He picked up the Carbine and glanced around the cockpit. He found the molten circle forming on the stern wall. He leveled the Carbine, and waited.

      A lone Mekboy skillfully used the fusion cutter to carve a hull in the crashed Seraph, a mob of Shoota Boyz behind him. He was almost finished when a second Seraph shot into the hangar, blasting everything insight. It was followed by three more Seraphs, each one landing in front of the crashed Seraph, forming a semicircle around the Shoota Boyz.
      The Mekboy pulled out a Superstikkbomb, the explosive equivalent of a barrel of dynamite. He watched as the Seraph farthest from his position opened it's exit ramp. He gaped at the creature that emerged.
      From what he had heard from one of the Mad Doks, Lord Grievous had been experimenting with Flood DNA, using Grunts as test subjects. This one seemed to have escaped and joined UWSC forces. It lunged at the Shoota Mob, tearing the head off an Ork had been too close.
      The Mekboy was about to throw the Superstikkbomb, when the portion of the hull that he had been cutting through collided with his back. He turned around, shoving the hull section out of the way.
      "What the-" The Mekboy didn't finish his sentence as Nugga fired three rounds from the carbine into his skull. He dropped dead.
      Nugga jumped out of the Seraph, and lunged at the nearest Ork, whacking it in the back of the with the butt of his carbine. The Ork was about to turn, but it's head was separated from it's shoulders by a Particle beam from Lovu's Beam Rifle.
      When the hangar was devoid of Orks, the group meet in the center of the hangar.
      "You shouldn't have come," Nugga said flatly, noticing Inku's presence.
      "Hey," Lovu replied, "We're a team, and a team sticks together." Then the group scrambled toward the exit, before more Orks arrived.

      Boba Fett watched as the Droid Landing Ships headed for Omega IV. The invasion would be swift and deadly. The planet would belong to the Droid Army within a day. Nothing would be able to stop them.

An Unggoy's Life: Chapter 38: Reinforcements and Explosions
Date: 10 July 2006, 6:36 pm

Pillar of Autumn II, Bridge

      "Incoming transmission." The Pillar of Autumn II's Comm officer shouted. "It's from the carrier New Baghdad, which appeared on our scopes two minutes ago."
      "Patch it through." Keyes ordered, clenching her teeth as she watched the Holovid. The Droid Army had begun sending down invasion craft to Omega IV's surface. She looked up as a holoscreen appeared at the top of the Holovid. The image showed a Russian, whose face showed the scars of many battles. Bald, and bearing a serious look in his eyes, he was undoubtly a veteran.
      "This is Captain Alekseyev." He said, "How may we be of assistance?"
      "Do you have any landing craft?" Keyes asked.
      "Three thousand Pelicans awaiting my signal." Alekseyev replied.
      "Get as many troops down to the surface of Omega IV as you can before the Droid Army can secure a foothold on the planet," Keyes ordered sharply, "I'll have my ODSTs meet your marines at the capital city. Keyes out."

      "Yes, ma'am," Major Dalton replied as Cortana gave the Platoon comander his instructions. "Alright whelps! Listen up!" He bellowed to the Platoon after Cortana was finished, "We're goin' planteside! Follow those Landing Ships and try to prevent them from landing their troops. Move out!"
      He slammed the throttle to full and rocketed toward the nearest Landing Ship, Plasma Cannons blazing like hellfire. As the turrets on the wingtips of the Landing Ship's I-shaped fuselage began to track him, a Super MAC round disemboweled the ship. Thomas watched as the MTT tanks that had been in the ship's cargo hold begin to float out into space, while some burned up in the atmosphere.
      "I hope Cortana can take out some more transports before they land." He muttered under his breath.
      He tapped his Comm, and sent a hurried transmission to 5th Platoon. "Omega squadron, start headin' planetside! We need to cover those Pelicans!"

      Jango jerked the controls to the left as three Longswords flew past Slave I.
      "Father, a message from Lord Grievous," Boba said over the Comm, "You're to head down to the surface and lead the troops in the assault of Omega IV's capital, Hegemony." Jango couldn't see his son's face behind the green battle helmet, but he could tell from the slight tilt of the helmet that Boba was worried.
      "Understood," Jango nodded, "Jango out." He looked at the jet-black Fighta Bomma as it blasted away to safety. Another time perhaps, Jango thought, and reluctantly maneuvered Slave I around till it was trailing the Landing Ships down to the surface.

      Nugga crept down the hallway of the Chaos, Holi two steps behind him. Lovu had taken point at the corner up ahead, while Yanna and Glor were covering the squads six. Inku was in the middle of the group, clutching his Plasma rifle like his life depended on it.
      "Clear?" Nugga asked Lovu over a private Comm link. Lovu pulled her head back and shook her head, then held up three fingers. Then she crawled backward to Nugga position.
      "Four Orks. Each of them is carrying a double-barreled weapon with their right arm, probably a shoota, and each of them is wearing full helmets and heavy armour," Lovu said, then added, "Odd thing is, their left arm seems to be mechanical, with some sort of claw appendage at the end, and their legs are made of an unknown metal compound."
"Cyborgs," Holi interrupted, "I noticed Grievous talking with Ghazghkull's head doctor, called Mad Dok Grotsnik. He experimented on himself so much that he has several mechanical augmentations on his body."
      "Well that makes things complicated. Their metallic bodies make them impervious to a Plasma grenade," Nugga said as he considered his options. He looked at Holi, "Do you think you could take them out?"
      "It's possible," Holi replied, and held up the Superstikkbomb that she'd taken from the dead Mek. "Or we could use this."
      "Good idea, but that thing probably has enough yield to blow them up as well as us, so I think it's best you fight them head on," Nugga told Holi, then pointed at the Superstikkbomb, "I'd better hold on to that just in case one of their shots hit the arming pin, or worse, the explosive itself."
      "Agreed," Holi nodded with difficulty, and handed the Superstikkbomb to Nugga. Then she walked around the corner into plain view of the cyborg Orks.
      In Ork terms, Orks who get augmented by Mad Doks are known by the name Cyborks, because of their incredible endurance and strength. As Holi stepped into plain view, one of the Cyborks yelled "Enemy has reached da main hallway!" and leveled it's double-barrel weapon, which so happened to be intergrated in its right arm, and opened fire on Holi. A grot who Lovu hadn't spotted turned and ran toward the bridge to warn the Kaptain, while the other three Cyborks leveled their weapons and opened fire on the gargantuan Flood-Unngoy.
      Orks are known for their inaccurate firearms, but with the four Cyborks blocking the hallway while standing shoulder-to-shoulder, their bullets were making contact with Holi's Flood skin, and tearing through it. Holi made it to the Cyborks, and tore a Cyborks's gun arm off, and swung down with her tentacled arm with immense force onto another Cybork's head.
      The Cybork crumpled as the arm caused his skull to cave in, but the remaining two Cyborks launched themselves onto Holi, slashing at her head and body with their large Powerclaws. Holi knocked one off, and knocked its face in. The last Cybork drew back its Powerclaw and delivered a deadly punch to Holi's abdomen. Green blood erupted from Holi's abdomen, splashing onto the Cybork. She swung both arms down at the Cyborks's head in unison, and smashed it into the ground. She limped back around the corner as five more Cyborks entered the hallway.
      "Too…weak to…fight anymore…" Holi moaned as she clutched her abdomen.
      "Back to the Seraphs," Nugga ordered, and the squadron retreated back to the hangar. As they entered the hangar, Nugga could hear the sounds of more Orks following them. He dashed to Holi's Seraph, and helped her on board.
      "Everyone get out of here," Nugga said as he entered the Seraph's pilot seat. The four other Seraphs left the hangar, and Nugga nodded to Holi. Holi pulled the arming pin out of the Superstikkbomb and tossed it alongside Nugga's crashed Seraph, then hit the emergency close on the hatch. The hatch slammed shut, and Nugga gunned the afterburners, and shot out of the hangar, not wanting find out how long it took a Superstikkbomb to detonate.
      The Orks found out as they entered the hangar, because five seconds after Holi pulled the arming pin, it exploded with the equivalent force of a Fury tac-nuke. The explosion rocked the entire ship, followed by an even larger explosion that engulfed the Chaos and four Onslaught Attack Ships. The second explosion had been caused indirectly by the tac-nuke, which went off at precisely the moment the Chaos's Particle Accelerator cannon had prepared to fire, causing a chain reaction that over loaded the reactor fueling the accelerator, causing a critical meltdown.
      With it's sister ship gone, the Arch Maniac the Ork fleet pull back and regroup in the shadow of Omega VI, a small planet on the outskirts of the system.

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