"We can't stop them, they are hemmed in by the mountains, guarded on all sides and they shoot down any aircraft that dares to come close with supporting troops. Before our informant was killed he managed to send us a message that the Gnar'lak have reverse engineered Finnari rocket technology and from there plan to leave the planet destroying it completely on the way out." There was silence in the council chamber as the statement set in. All around, the grand halls echoed with the shuffling of many feet.

"Why.... what is the point of that?"

The council turned to find the human delegation looking more than a little confused.

The Finnari representative sighed deeply, "Their hatred of us has been a core trait of their species for centuries. Once upon a time they fed upon our peoples life force for nourishment. We were kept as livestock to fuel their hunger until eventually escaping their control, but by that time evolution had taken it's course. They must drain us to live, and are completely unsuited to empathy towards us, which would make consuming us that much more difficult. In essence they were designed to hate us, and now that the technology exists to sustain them, they have no real reason to stay." He hummed thoughtfully, "Then there is, of course, their grudge against the humans."

The human council seemed surprised, "Grudge, what grudge."

The Finnari whistled amused "May I remind you, Commander, that once upon a time you and your crew single handedly defeated one of their greatest armies saving us from enslavement and possible extinction."

The commander's mouth opened in a surprised, "Oh, right. I forgot about that. I didn't realize it had been such a heavy blow. It was one battle after all, and we only pushed them back."

"You Killed nearly all of their mature mating females."

"Oh..... whoops."

He waved a hand, "No matter, the point is their population took a heavy hit and it will take decades for them to rebuild, if they recover at all. Either way they plan on destroying the planet out of spite for us and for you who sided with us."

"Does that seem a bit of an over reaction to everyone else, or is that just me?" The commander glanced around the room for support.

"If they had a true name, Commander, I am sure the phrase "over reaction" would be in the title.... Now the true issue is how to even bother lying siege on them. The mountains make it impenetrable, all large ground vehicles, and low flying jets will be shot down. Not to mention that the terrain is not suited for large amounts of troops or military vehicles."

The human Commander stood and walked forward to examine the map, "This can be delt with.... But it depends on how many of them you'd be willing to kill." The room went very silent, and the human looked up "Guided missiles, nuclear weapons, artillery, or biological warfare. There are plenty of ways to deal with the issue, the biggest problem is that most of them will be lethal.... Likely for the entire remaining population."

No one spoke for the longest time, until the chairwoman leaned forward in her seat, "As dire as this situation may be commander, we would rather avoid such extreme measures. Not to mention that their anti-air defences are sophisticated enough to intercept a missile and if that was nuclear you'd be affecting the entire planet."

The man tapped his chin then paused, "How sophisticated is their system?"

"Quite radar pared with physics analysis mark objects based on speed, shape, movement and density. Anything larger than ten units, or ten pounds, traveling over 200 miles per hour, with an aerodynamic shape, and moving on a predictable vector course will be targeted."

The commander leaned over the table eyes locked up on the map with that predatory way that humans had when thinking, almost as if he was preparing himself for a hunt, "What if an object were to hit only one of those requirements."

"What do you mean."

"Say you had an unpredictable object traveling at 120 miles per hour or slower, but with a weight of up to 250 pounds?"

"How would these objects be entering the airspace?"

"From directly above."

"Like it was falling.....?"

The human smiled, "Exactly like that."

The council glanced at each other, "I don't think that would even register on Anti Air for meteorites, but commander, what sort of technology would you be using."

"No technology really." The man stood, "We would be doing this the old fashioned way, and if we do it right, no one has to get hurt."

"And what exactly is the old fashioned way."

"HALO."

***

"You aren't serious!" Krill screeched from the small antichamber off the GA council room. The Rundi chairwoman and one representative of each council stood around the table with shocked looks on their faces.

"For fuck's sake. Can you just be safe or FIVE MINUTES, every time I turn my back you ahve some stupid idea...."

"This isn't the first time that I have done it." The man replied calmly, "It was part of my training during flight school. One involved a simulated ejection from 15,000 feet and one was a HALO certification from 35,000 feet."

"This is stupidity."

"Madness."

The room chorused with agreement, even the Drev counselor seemed put off by the idea .

"It makes sense. The high altitude is outside the Anti Air range, with minimal metal and an unpredictable landing vector, we would be unseen by their radar. If we open low it reduces the amount of time those on the ground would be able to see us all the better if we are thermally cloaked like they are. In that case we would be invisible by standards of radar and by those on the ground. We could send in troops, get in, and take over the entire encampment in a matter of hours with no bloodshed."

"This is madness." The Drev counselor spoke in, "When we asked for your tactical expertise commander, we hardly expected you to volunteer to throw yourself from the sky."

There was a muttering of agreement around the room.

"I know you humans are durable, but not even you can survive in that kind of environment."

The human sighed and rolled his eyes, "We have been doing this for literally thousands of years. Some people do it for fun." he growled silencing the room, "My point is humans have the perfect solution, and no one would have to get hurt,"

At the head of the room, the Rundi chairwoman shook her head, "We can't allow this. It is far too dangerous."

"Did all of you miss the part where we will have parachutes?"

The room stared at him confused.

Turns out that not one of their languages had a comparable word for the piece of technology, and the translation was less than adequate.

With a sigh the human ordered a five minute break while one of his crew members ran to get an example. WHen they came back, Commander Vir threw the backpack on the table, "Welcome to show and tell everyone, gather round, gather round. You see this." He said tugging at the backpack's straps, "This is what is keeping me from slamming into the ground at 120 miles per hour."

They stared at him blankly.

"Here's how it works." He grabbed the backpack and looped his arms through the straps threading his legs through the harness and tightening the cords, "This harness will keep me attached to the bag while I am falling." He hooked his thumb under a little blue clip, "This is the cord, once I pull this, the bag opens, and the chute comes out." he had his assistant open one of the bags and began pulling the large nylon tarp across the ground. The representatives stepped back.

"The nylon is shaped in such a way that when deployed it increases air resistance and drag slowing previous 120 to 17 miles per hour." The group murmured in surprise and he held up a hand to Krill who had opened his mouth in protest, "And before you have a conniption, the harness distributes the forces caused by the sudden deceleration. If the cord doesn't deploy the parachute when pulled, there are TWO backup cords after that. F neither of those work, you grab these tabs on the side which pull the entire back of the bag off releasing the chute inside."

"What are the health risks." Krill stubbornly continued.

"The bends, hypoxia, but both of those things can be dealt with. Nitrogen is released from the blood prior to jump, and pur oxygen is provided while the altitude is too high. Temperatures are mitigated with warm clothing. Honestly the biggest danger is an awkward landing and twisting your ankle. Seventeen miles an hour is pretty slow, some humans can run that fast, and coming in at a shallow angle helps for sure."

The aliens looked on unsure and nervous staring at the human with increased awe. Many of them had almost become used to the human's strange behaviors, but this? This was an entirely new level of insane, falling from the sky at hundreds of miles an hour on a cloudy day..... It was truly insane.

Unspeakably so.

"And where would you find people willing to do this?" The chairwoman asked tenatively.

The human smiled, and that wolfish grin was enough to cause the entire assembly chamber to squirm, "Oh, I know just the people."

***

"Hell yeah!."

"WHOOP WHOOP!"

"Let's go kick ETs ass!"

The plane rattled slightly coming upon a low pressure pocket. Their voices were somewhat muffled inside their oxygen masks and goggles rocking in their seats and against their harnesses. Krill and sunny stood inside the jet looking at each other in great trepidation.

Krill was so mad he had gone from ranting to enraged silence.

He refused even to speak to the Commander as he monitored their vitals.

Every time he passed by, the little doctor would slap the man in the helmet as hard as he could, which amounted to nothing more than amusement for the human. Sunny's feet clattered across the deck, and she wobbled a bit as she knelt in front of him behind his mask. Two eyes stared back at her today him having ditched the eyepatch for a prosthetic for obvious reasons. Behind the clear plastic surface, she watched his eyes crinkle a bit the way humans had when they were smiling, really smiling.

"I know I usually encourage your insanity, but this.... This is too much." She muttered

"Stop being such a mother hen." He chided softly, "I'll be fine." he winked with the fake eye, "I'm indestructible.

"That attitude is what worries me." She patted his shoulder watching the amusement in his bright green eye.

A human made a gagging noise off to the side, "Get a room already you two." Ramirez chimed in.

"Seriously if this gets any more touching I might just cry." Maverick responded

"True love!" Someone yelled.

"Wuv twue Wuv is what bwings us togeva today."

The commander sat up in his seat, "Shut your trash mouths you hooligans."

"NEAR, FAR, WHEREVER YOU ARE, I BELIEVE THAT THE HEART WILL GO ON!" Their voices were a discordant wash of half yelling half singing all in different keys arms around each other, swaying back and forth.

The commander punched Ramirez in the arm but it didn't stop him from singing, though eventually their voices petered away.

"Someone forgot to bring our soundtrack?"

"What soundtrack?"

"Come on, shouldn't someone be playing Fortunate Son?"

Commander Vir shook his head, "Fortunate son is for helicopters, just like Danger Zone is for jets." he turned to Sunny and Krill, "The two of you better get inside." Sunny patted him on the shoulder before reluctantly retreating behind the door. The lights in the back went dark, and the pilot came over the line, "Depressurizing."

She felt and heard the plane rattled as the ramp hissed open peering through the little window in the door. Red light illuminated the darkness behind them casting the humans into silhouettes as they were ordered into a standing position grabbing handles on the ceiling to keep themselves up. Sunny watched heart hammering as Adam raised a hand holding high waiting for a signal.

The lights in the back of the jet blinked green and the arm cut downwards.

The marines broke into a jog towards the end of the ramp.

She couldn't look away. At her side Krill cursed repeatedly and creatively.

The first of the marines leaped suspended for a moment framed against the cloudy sky, but a blink later and they were gone. Adam followed after the last marine stepping up to the edge of the ramp turning around to wave at sunny before pitching backwards into darkness.

***

Wind roared tugging at their clothes pressing against their faces their arms held out to the side. Breath came in short ragged gasps inside the plastic oxygen masks that cover their faces. All around them the sky was dark, nothing but the glowing hands of their altitude gages. Darkness enfolded them and the wind continued to scream as their bodies fell helplessly from the sky.

Time roared by with with the passage of the wind, and the gage inched twaords 3,000 than passed it. They had agreed at 1,5000. The clouds broke around them, and the ground below grew closer and closer and closer. The well of the mountains rose up in their vision.

One thousand five hundred, they reached out, and chute's exploded upwards with the flapping of wings. They waited with bated breath for Anti Air fire, but when none came, they remained silent slowly curving themselves towards the ground. A ground that was quickly approaching.

In orbit, the GA ship circled slowly watching with awe and horror the feeds sent to them by cameras on the Human's uniforms.

***

The Gnar'lak general had been working late on his plans. The FInnari had driven them back with the help of the so called GA and were now threatening his species with extinction. Why they would side with such a disgusting primitive race continued to boggle his mind, a mind which was admittedly one track and aggressively unimaginative.

The Gnar'lak had survived for thousands of years in an almost opposite way to the humans. Where they were cognitively adaptable, the Gnark'lak had survived being straight forward and unchangeable. Where this evolution had helped them to survive in the past, when diplomacy became involved they found their species to be falling behind, a relic of a more barbaric time.

Of course this was not something they were particularly capable of seeing since their minds were not built for possibilities and philosophical debate. The Gnar'lak knew two things, survival, and that the only way to get it was the Finnari..... Well I guess he knew three things and the third was that the Finnari were nothing more than a resource to be used and farmed. It was that simple, it seemed reprehensible that a logical species would take up arms against him with a source of food.

It would be similar to aliens coming down from the sky on earth and siding with cows against humans, or at least that's how they saw it despite the Fennari being sentient and greatly more intelligent than cows.

All of this thinking was making him angry, and with a foot he shoved open the door to walk out into the early morning sunrise.

What he found, was his entire army immobilized on the ground before his dwelling. Six humans dressed in dark gear, and holding familiar weapons stood before his door. One human had his lieutenant pinned to the ground with a boot weapon pointed at his head. Another human was busying themselves tying up another platoon of his soldiers.

One stood patiently outside his door as if waiting for him.

He stared in disbelief.

"Good morning general." The human said baring its hideous teeth at him, "By the power invested in me, Commander Vir of the UNSC Harbinger and the GA, you are hereby detained for the callous plotting of genocide and world destruction."

He glanced away wondering if he could run, but a soft click and the human's smooth voice stopped him, "I wouldn't do that if i were you general."

He turned his head staring at the ugly creature, "Something.... Seems familiar."

The human simply grinned, "maybe, i've been here once before..... To assist a rebellion."

The general knew exactly who the human was.

And even he knew there was no chance of escape.