The Halcyon Treaty

Fox felt the gravity regulators kick in as the battle-group entered the planet's atmosphere. Bastion, a fitting name for fortress planet. Would it be unbreakable? Would it fall if this new enemy attacked? What was their plan of action? Only time would tell. He looked around the room with his eyes, not moving his head. Everybody in the room looked emotionless, not a single crease in their faces indicating anything they were thinking about. Fox knew that Krystal, Damon, and his wife could probably read their minds, but he doubted they would do it.

Wolf sat in one of the chairs next to the weapons station, his arms crossed and his characteristic half frown, half smile plastered to his mug, his right eye closed and his left eye missing, covered by the electronic eye, relayed nothing of his thoughts. Leon and Panther stared out the windows, as if they weren't interested in anything. Olivia, the apparent newest member of the team, sat silently next to Wolf, as if she didn't care about anything that was happening, and only wanted to be near Wolf.

Fox turned from the Star Wolf team and looked at his own team. Krystal was humming quietly to herself, looking at all the displays, not understanding much of it, but looking at them anyway, if only to pass the time. Slippy worked with ROB at the controls to the dreadnaught, focusing completely on the multiple tasks he and the robot were attending. Falco maintained an air of aloofness, almost as if he were sleeping, but Fox knew that if an enemy fleet warped in, he would be strapped into his Arwing before anybody could even breathe.

Damon and his wife sat together, the smaller vixen's hand encased in her husbands, as if they were both statues. Hunter's head rested on his shoulder, her eyes closed, knowing her husband would protect her from anything. Fox smiled softly at the scene as his mind took over, the image forming in his head the exact same as what he was seeing, but showing himself and Krystal in their places instead. He suddenly remembered that Krystal could read his mind and desperately tried to think of something else.

He was still trying to make the image disappear when Krystal stopped humming. Fox noticed and turned to her, greeted by a soft smile on the sapphire vixen's face. She winked at him, then went back to humming like nothing had happened. The bridge continued to grow brighter as they dropped into the planet's atmosphere. Bastion, the fortress planet. This would be their home for some time now.

"I don't care. Find the retreating fleets and destroy them, and whatever they're using as a base. Fail me again, Solaris, and you know the consequences." The figure hidden in shadow bowed hastily, trying to get out of there as fast as possible. "Yes, my lord." Solaris remained on his knees until this leader of his pointed on scaly claw and commanded, in a baritone that stopped Solaris' blood cold in his veins. "Go, and do not fail me again." Solaris nodded repeatedly. "Yes, sire, it will be done." The green dragon quickly fled, his steel armor clinking together as he hastily ran from the figure sitting on the makeshift throne in the remains of Corneria's capital building. He knew that if he failed again, it would be his last, and he didn't particularly enjoy what he had heard from others that had been in his shoes. The Serpentis would do his job, and keep what he held dear to him.

Fox felt heavier as he stepped onto the bridge to the docking facility. He assumed the gravity was stronger here, but he decided to ignore it. He didn't ignore it for long however, his tail became harder to move, it was slightly more noticeable when he heard his boots clink against the metal gangway. The group that had been on the Great Fox followed him out, each of them looking at the new surroundings.

The naval base had been cleared out of a jungle, looking much like Fortuna had before the aparoids had taken over. The moist jungle floor, and it's towering acacia trees were abundant, dominating the landscape, and then civilization took over. The humid jungle was cut off, replaced by the black tarmac of the many runways, the white baseplate that housed the naval base's many components, ranging from the enlisted barracks all the way to the command and control center.

The group slowly mde their way towards the control tower, where they were to be debriefed. Fox looked back once more at his ship, his home, and saw the tank they had rescued before rolling down a ramp out of the hangar. The commander they had picked up waving at them from the top of the gun.

He saw Damon in his peripherals, the senior officer looking at the commander as if he was a lifeline and the vulpine was lost in a hurricane. "Sir?" Fox asked, raising an eyebrow. Damon said nothing, almost as if he hadn't heard the junior officer. Fox continued to look at the Colonel. Damon watched the tank roll out of sight. "Mike Yankee Sierra Oscar November" The Colonel stared for a few more moments where the tank had been, the engine fading away.

Damon finally felt his wife's hand on his shoulder, the smaller vixen looking into her husband's eyes. Damon took his wife's hand, the couple making their way to the control tower. The rest of the group looked at each other. They didn't spend much time doing it, as they knew time was something they didn't have much of.

The air conditioned tower was a subtle change from the humid base grounds. Fox and Krystal looked around, then at each other, both of them trying to find where they were supposed to go. Krystal, however, spotted a flash of red in the sea of green, brown, and black camouflage.

General Pepper emerged from the ocean of uniforms and saluted, quickly dropping it and getting down to business. "Welcome to Bastion. This is our fortress planet, a fallback point, Corneria has been under attack too many times, and we knew that one day, not even the Star Fox team would be able to save it. Which is why we had the 'job boom' about ten years ago, if you remember. We needed workers to get these bases built."

Fox needed to ask a question, and apparently Pepper could tell. "Something wrong?" Fox nodded. "General, you said before that we were fighting an enemy with the forces of the rest of the galaxy? When did we meet alien species'? How did we get all these bases built?" Fox had a barrage of questions, but Pepper held up his hand, cutting the Colonel off. "The Lylat system is part of the Milky Way galaxy, as you already know. However, there was recently a war that raged for almost half a century. An entire race was almost wiped out, despite them having colonies across almost every arm of said galaxy. They were almost annihilated, and it shows. Almost every one one of the colonies they had...have ceased to exist. Planets coated in jungles and rivers were turned into orbiting balls of pure glass."

The group looked at the General, all of them now interested in what he was saying, each of them eying him closely as he continued. "After many years of fighting, and their main military outpost being destroyed, and their homeworld being invaded twice, their enemy found an artifact on their planet. This artifact was a portal leading to a super weapon producer. The producer itself was a large space station, almost along the terms of an artificial planet. This construct was almost 20 times the size of Corneria. This race, called humans, followed the enemy to the construct through the portal They didn't do it alone. The enemy had recently begun a schism, religious disputes and a rivalry between the two ruling military classes sparking the fuse for the schism, the ruling class siding with one, the other side taking the side of the humans. These separatists were one of the military rulers, called sangheili, or 'Elites'. The Elites helped the human forces invade the construct and push the loyalists back, spreading their forces thin as they fell back to the command room, where they would fire the super weapon."

Fox and the group continued to listen, each of them looking at the General's stony face as he explained what was happening, each of them seeing a towering green figure not too far away. "The super weapon producer was the command center for seven of the super weapons, each called 'halos'. The rings would have wiped out all sentient life in the galaxy with enough biomass to sustain a parasite that had been locked away by the ring's creators. The Humans and the Covenant, both loyalist and separatist, called this parasite 'The Flood', as they would reanimate the corpses of their enemies. The rings wouldn't kill the Flood, but they would starve them to death. The Humans and the Covenant Separatists invaded the control center where the Loyalist leader, a prophet by the name of 'Truth' was going to fire the rings and kill everything in the galaxy, believing it to be a way to achieve a 'great journey' of sorts. They needed a human to activate the rings, and they managed to capture a human marine. The human rank structure being similar to ours, he was the Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps. One of the leading members of the Human's fight against the loyalists, and having survived the battles of Alpha Halo and Delta Halo. He was immune to the Flood, as a result of an earlier battle on one of the human colonies."

The green figure was moving towards the group, the figure silent and, as large as he was, made no sound, the heavy metal armor not even making the clinking noise on the floor, as most armored boots would. They couldn't see a face, as it was covered by a gold visor, unable to be seen through. "He was needed to activate the Ark, the producer that would activate the rings. The Humans and the separatists had two soldiers that were equal to that of what would be called 'one-man armies'. The humans had a naval enlisted man, a super soldier trained from the age of six along with multiple children, and then augmented with special enhancements. The humans called these 'Spartans', after super soldiers that had been born for war in the time of early civilizations. This super soldier was the last of his kind, an infallible soldier, his name being only 'Master Chief Petty Officer John-117'. The Separatists had their own, a soldier that had once been a fleet commander, one of the highest military ranks possible, but when the humans destroyed the first Halo, he was stripped of his rank and became the Arbiter. An Elite that would rush into battle for suicide missions, A field commander as much as an individual soldier on the front lines. Both of them assaulted the control room and allied with the Flood leader, 'The Gravemind'.

The figure stopped next to Pepper, not saying anything, letting the General continue. "They killed the prophet and the main loyalist forces. The Gravemind betrayed them, Sergeant Major Johnson managing to get a crashed 'Pelican' dropship that had come to rescue him, the only occupant being Commander Miranda Keyes, the daughter of the officer that helped destroy the first Halo, losing his life in the process. She had come to save Johnson, he had told her to kill him, and then herself, so the covenant could not use them to activate the weapon. She didn't get the chance, she was shot in the back before she could. Johnson was saved, but only after he had been forced to activate the weapon. The Arbiter and The Master Chief were too late, but managed to kill Truth. Johnson was able to get to the ship and pull out, the Spartan and Elite tried to get aboard, but were knocked off by the tentacles controlled by the Gravemind. They managed to fight their way out, and saw something that gave them an idea. They made their way out of the command center, and saw another Halo, a replacement for the one that had been destroyed. It was only partially complete, and a premature firing would destroy it and destabilize the Ark. The Human and Separatist forces were evacuated, the Arbiter, The Master Chief, and Sergeant major Johnson made their way onto this new Halo. The two fought their way through wave upon wave of Flood as Johnson piloted a human Destroyer to an area nearby to give them an escape option. The two got into the control center as the Master Chief and the Arbiter guarded the entrance to the firing center. The Master Chief had used an AI to help destroy the first Halo, and she had kept data on it, using it to fire this new one. Johnson took the AI and went to fire it, accompanied by the monitor of the installation, 343 Guilty Spark. As Johnson began to start the firing process, the monitor learned what was happening, and mortally wounded Johnson. Spartan 117 managed to destroy Spark, but Johnson wasn't going to make it out alive. He gave the Spartan his final orders and died in his arms."

The figure next to them tensed slightly, and the group could already tell that he was the Spartan. "The Spartan activated the ring and got out as quick as he possibly could, making his way towards the Destroyer. As he gunned his vehicle's throttle, he leaped into the hangar bay, flipping nd flopping as the Arbiter was thrown from the gunner's seat. The Spartan put his AI into the tank there to start the ship's engines as the Arbiter made his way to the cockpit. The portal was destabilizing as the Ark shook itself apart. The portal closed as the ship made it halfway through, severing the destroyer as the Arbiter went through and the Master Chief stayed. He was missing for 7 years, an has never spoken of what happened while he was missing. The humans and The remnants of the Covenant Separatists later formed the 'Halycon Treaty', the two of them becoming allies, and later, they found us and we formed an alliance. The ambassadors are the Commanders of each side, Spartan 117, and the Arbiter. We have their aid in taking back our planet, and our system. More of the story will be explained in detail at meetings. But now, I want you all to find your places and get settled in,, we have a lot of work to be done."

The group saluted, Pepper returning it. The General nodded to them and went on his way. The Spartan stayed where he was, motionless in the armor. "I take it you're Colonel Mccloud?" He asked, his deep voice sounding filtered out through the Helmet's speakers. Fox nodded, feeling the tension of the rest of the group behind him. The armoed figure snapped into one long straight rod, the position of attention being assumed within an instant, and a hand brought to his visor in a crisp salute. "Sir, Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, reporting for orders, sir." Fox hesitated, then saluted the Spartan, who remained that way, and probably would have forever had Fox not gave him the command of stand at ease. "Sir, I've been assigned to your group. They assigned Special forces teams of each force together with each other, and myself and the Arbiter have been assigned to your group." Fox nodded.

"Master Chief, if we're going to be working together, then we need to get to know each other. I'm sure you've settled in already?". "Yes sir, I'm in the SPECWAR area, literally next to your room, as well as the Arbiters. If you need help moving anything, I'm at your command.". Fox nodded at the figure. "Thank you, Master Chief.". The Spartan nodded, and Fox turned to his group. "All right, you heard the General, it's getting late and we need to get settled in...so hop to it!"