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Authors note: "I submitted this already but have recently checked through it again and have several chapters ready to go."

Chapter 1: Mission for success. The Captain walked on the bridge and examined his crew, all of them too young to be manning this ship, but the Covenant had been to work on the UNSC fleet, they hardly had the personnel to man his ship. The UNSC Frigate Highlander, a strange model, new but strange. It had its own gravity generator capable of making .4 g's, not as much as some but good given the low power output of the reactors on the ship. He was always amused by how the ship looked like a tube with outcropping bulk heads, he could see it in the design from inside the ship, compact, rounded, the hallways had small alcoves running along them with an access terminal and a chair, the engineers crammed things wherever they could. Especially in the crew quarters, he was used to larger areas but he was already getting used to sleeping in what looked like an armoire, he stopped a chuckle when he thought of the crew being 3 people to one of these rooms.

Even on the bridge it was small; it reminded him of being in a close system fighter, monitors on every side of you and hardly enough room to breath, at least this time he had crew. In front of him was his helmsman, Ensign Dordly, an odd fellow but the only one with much experience. To his left was his tactical officer, Ensign Vew, he didn't know her but her training class recommended her. The only one that hadn't cut her hair to regulation. And to his right was the one he hated but couldn't lose, the engineer Ed Lok. He had the strangest name, but plenty of crewmen had already learned not to joke about it. Lok walked strangely because years ago a reactor conduit had over loaded and exploded, blowing both his legs off at the knee. The surgeons did a good job but he lost a foot and two inches and walked slowly. And standing at attention next to him was Corporal Hayes, a tall man who looked strange in the compact confines of the Highlander.

Corporal Hayes was the commander of all Marine forces on the highlander. He stood well over six feet and his dark brown hair seemed somehow fitting with the amount of scars on his face. He proudly wore a medal on his chest that showed the insignia of a Lieutenant inside a black circle, this medal meant he had temporary status as a Lieutenant until a Captain or above said otherwise. Hayes was a quiet type unless he thought some one was getting in his line of fire. the Captain knew him from when they both served as marines on the UNSC cruiser Harkon, until it was destroyed defending the Rigel system. Suddenly Ed's console erupted into a series of beeps and lights, Ed turned to the Captain looking surprised. "Captain, message for you from FLEETCOM."

"Put it up." The screen at the end of the narrow bridge had looked like a window straight to the stars a second before but now it was only the steely gaze of Admiral Jike. "Admiral!" The Captain snapped a salute." "I suppose your wondering why I had your ship put in the yard." The admiral talked slowly, too slowly for the Captain. "It may have crossed my mind" The Captain said. "First let me send you the info on what's been done so far." The view screen filled with green type. The Captain read quickly.

2 Shiva warheads were now on his ship as well as 10 extra archer pods and 20 point defense chain guns, then one acronym he wasn't familiar with, ODSTSIIIP. Before the Captain could ask about it the admiral jumped in, talking fast for once. "You and your ship have been slated for a special mission." A picture of a Covenant Carrier appeared on his screen. The Captain almost yelled battle stations. "This Covenant Carrier has been seen near the Rigel system. We want you to make best speed for it." "But that system has been glassed admiral, why should we go there?" "Patience Captain, This Carrier appears to be one damaged in a battle near this system, we believe its engines are down as well as its weapons" The screen snapped back to the admiral. "We may never have a chance like this again." "You want me to capture it don't you admiral."

"In laymen's terms yes, but this is something special." A picture of a Covenant prophet appeared on the screen. "As far as we can tell, this is one of their admirals, spy satellites have seen a ship believed to be carrying this land on this Carrier before it was damaged as well as three other such ships. this must be some kind of strategic meeting that was ruined when our ships found the fleet; With this many important people on board the Covenant are sure to send a rescue party soon." "Do you want me to capture these creatures or kill them?" The Captain asked.

"Capture them and bring them to the O.N.I. frigate station out side of the Tara system, and while your at it search the ship for anything interesting." "When do I leave admiral?" "You already have, my personnel activated your engines, and you will arrive at you heading in 32 hours, at the half way point engage Cole protocol except for the heading to the O.N.I. ship which will be 45.6 units to starboard of the heading. Oh, and I left something for you in cargo bay two." The picture of the admiral flickered and changed back to the stars. The Captain turned to the Corporal.

"Let's see what the admiral left us." The pressure doors of Cargo Bay 2 glided open to reveal racks of stowed Assault Rifles, Battle Rifles, SMGs, Rocket Launchers, and Shotguns. Along the walls were crates of Frag Grenades, Satchel Charges, Anti-personnel and Anti-tank mines, Deployable Motion Sensors, and Space Combat suits, but what he noticed most were 20 cots bolted to the floor. Military cots. He walked past the wall of weapon racks towards the cots, next to each cot he saw an oversized footlocker, open. He peered into one of the footlockers; there was a service pistol, two dress uniforms, polished and folded, a pair of service boots and a ration pack. He heard a foot step and then the clunk of a stand at attention. Then from behind another row of weapons he heard someone bellow. "CAPTAIN ON DECK! LOCKER INSPECTION! FORM UP!"

The Captain and the Corporal both turned at the same time towards the sound. Standing next to a crate was a 6'7 tall armored ODST soldier, holding his helmet in his left arm and saluting with his right. This must have been the admiral's help, a group of ODSTs. "At ease soldier." The soldier let down his salute but continued to stand straight as 19 other soldiers formed behind him ready for inspection. "I am Lieutenant Stat of the first ODSTSIIIP division." The first soldier barked. the soldier had dusty blonde hair at regulation length, he looked young, maybe 19 or 20, but his rank was too high to be a greenhorn. He seemed healthy but somehow sick, like a witness to a horrible murder, his face was pale and his eyes never moved, they were stuck at attention. "Ready for inspection." The soldiers said at once. The Captain stood, the soldiers didn't move an inch, they were too willing, like a dog that hadn't been fed, and they didn't even appear to be breathing. "As you were soldiers, no inspection, I would like to speak with you Lieutenant." "Yes sir." The Captain watched as the Corporal walked over to observe the new soldiers. "Perhaps you can tell me what ODSTSIIIP stands for Lieutenant." "No sir, that information is classified to rank of admiral and above." "Very well, have you been briefed on our mission?" "Yes sir." The soldier seemed to think as if it was strange to be asked these questions by a person in command. "Corporal get over here." The Corporal walked over beside the Captain. "Yes Captain?"

"Corporal, as of now you are the active CO of this division; you may pick a sergeant to be your number two." "Thank you sir, I'll make sure these men are ready." "And Lieutenant." The Lieutenant eyes opened even wider, eager to accept an order. "I want your men ready to go 30 seconds after I give the call.' "I'll have them ready in 15 sir." The Captain turned on his heel and walked out while the Corporal gave his speech on a life used and a life wasted and how he would use theirs in a heartbeat. On his way back to the bridge he stopped by the mess hall and grabbed his favorite food, Ration 3: turkey and mashed potatoes, it almost tasted right. On his way in and out of the mess hall marines and crewmen saluted, he had been a Captain for years but he still remembered being the one saluting and licking the tread of the Captain's boot. He walked onto the bridge quietly to see what the three did when he was gone, but it was hard with all the crewmen at their station make a lot of noise out of saluting. When he got on the bridge everything seemed just as he had left it. Ensign view turned and made a quick salute. "Captain, we might have a long fight when we get there, it might be good if you got some rest." The Captain stared at the Ensign, she was only the second to tell the Captain when to sleep, the other had been years ago, he was killed when a bulkhead exploded, a bulkhead the Captain would have been killed by if he hadn't been taking the Ensign's advice. "Ensign, I'll sleep when I'm dead and that might be very soon if I'm sleeping when the Covenant finds us, if you need me I'll be on deck C. "Nice." Lok said under his breath, he had always liked quick comebacks, even if the comeback wasn't a palm strike to the face.

The Captain grabbed his data pad and left for the stairs. He was still uncomfortable with half a g; it was hard to look serious when you hop into the room like a rabbit. He arrived in the marine exercise room where he received yet another round of salutes. One of the sergeants yelled "YOU CALL THAT A SALUTE! THIS IS YOUR CAPTAIN!" A second later the sergeant kicked the soldier in the back so he was in a bowing position. The Captain remembered his own marine barracks like this on the Harkon, he was boxing heavy weight for month, and he got taken out by the Corporal. He walked over to the weight lifters and selected a 400 pound weight to start with. It was annoying to have to work out to keep from being too weak to walk on a planet but he had to do it like every other person on the ship. Before he even knew what was happening he was in a weight lifting contest with a sergeant and the marines were around yelling lift! lift! lift! He was about to win when his muscles started to burn and his bones started to feel like jelly. He was right about to give up when the ship shook and the intercom said "Captain we need you on the bridge." He dropped his weight and left as marines fought over who would have won. He ran onto the bridge "REPORT!" "An asteroid field sir." Dordly replied.

"Why were we plotted to fly through an asteroid field?" The Captain was genuinely pissed. "We weren't sir; this field wasn't here a day ago when a cargo shipment came through!" "Dordly, are you saying this entire field came here in one day? this is an entire asteroid ring!" A console beeped. Ensign Vew turned "Captain, I may have the answer. The view screen flickered from a view of the asteroids to what looked like a research station. "that's a Covenant orbital battle station, we've seen them along their supply lines orbiting asteroids or even ships, but this one is bigger, see that tube that looks like a fighter bay? It's full of extra engines, and right now half the asteroids here have them on them." "So the Covenant are putting engines on asteroids and flying them in the way of our supply lines?" The Captain said as he leaned towards the screen. "It looks that way sir, but I would guess they put a ship in an asteroid field and then opened slip space and are using the engines to move the asteroids into a pattern." the Captain thought for a second. "But would the Covenant go to all this trouble to stop a supply line? And the time seems suspicious for them to just have moved it here, maybe the Covenant know about our mission." Ensign Vew turned in her chair.

"I wouldn't think so sir, people have been pretty tight lipped about this mission, maybe the Covenant are trying to stop a different mission, and our ships use this supply line a lot." "Good idea Ensign, check FLEETCOM about any taskforces moving through this area in the next week or so." The Ensign turned back to the console and started typing, after a second she turned back. "Sir, there's a taskforce of cruisers moving along this supply line and will be here in two days." The Captain nodded. "Well, we might as well take this station out before it causes any trouble. Ready the" The Captain was cut off by Dordly. "Sir, two asteroids have initiated their engines and are moving towards us, one dead ahead and one starboard, it's moving in front of the station sir, both will collide with us in fifteen seconds."

"Evasive maneuvers, if there is one thing we can out maneuver it's an asteroid." The ship lulled to port and accelerated as it rolled on its side, the asteroid from starboard flew past, but rotated bringing a large outcropping of frozen rock straight at the Highlander, like a large fist the rock collided with the side of the ship. The Captain was thrown into a bulkhead by a sudden and violent movement of the ship. "WHAT HAPPENED?" The Captain barked. "SIR!" Dordly said panicked. "The asteroid hit us, it knocked us into a straight course with the station, I can't get control of the engines, they just keep going, we have thirty seconds!" "DORDLY! Trigger two of the starboard emergency maneuvering pods." Dordly took a second to find the command. He finally found the button and punched it. For the second time the Captain was thrown into a bulkhead as the ship rippled and a loud BROOM sound echoed through the corridors. "It did it, we missed the station, we are directly to port of the station, our starboard side is right next to them." "Excellent Dordly put the image up."

The view screen flicked from the asteroids to the strange floating station, one spot on the station began to glow a pleasant indigo blue, then quickly turned to a horridly bright blue and white orb. "Ensign Vew, arm archer pods S 1 through 5, light those Covenant bastards up. Fire in a shield buster pattern" The Captain sat down in his seat to prevent being thrown into a bulkhead for a third time. "With pleasure sir." Vew typed commands on her console then turned towards the main view screen, apparently wanting to get a good view of the chaos. Fifty orange lights followed by pillars of smoke streaked towards the station. Small streaks of plasma fire intercepted several missiles. The remnants of the first salvo of missiles neared the station, and exploded on the hull. "What? No shields?" Vew exclaimed. Spheres of explosions and fire peppered the station, the Captain watched as the strange purple metal twisted and broke. In seconds a large cloud of atmosphere began venting and hovering around the fallen station. The near ready plasma torpedo dissipated. "Sir, we must have hit the power conduit for the plasma torpedo. The engines on all the asteroids just went dead; they must have been powered by the same magnetic field that the plasma torpedo uses." "Excellent, Lok, how much of the station appears as though it could have some Covenant hiding in it?" "Lok stared at his screen for a second then turned back to the Captain. "It looks like about 3 cargo bays have been sealed, give or take." The Captain tapped the intercom button on his command console. "Corporal Hayes, get a pelican of your best marines, I want your men to take that station.

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