Enemy of My Enemy (fanfic)

"''"Go, passer-by, and tell the universe ''That we perished in the cause, Faithful to our orders.""

The Enemy of My Enemy is a Halo fanfiction written by Katsuhiro.

It is late November 2552, and the Covenant Civil War is in full swing. But the people of the desert world Crassus don't know that. An out-of-the-way, strategically-unimportant UNSC colony, the human settlers eke out a living, mostly clustered around the planet's only real city, Horizon. Consisting of a few million civilians and a few thousand marines, they try to eke out a living in the harsh climate, living in relative peace. But all that changes...

The Sangheili/Elite battlecruiser Pride of Sanghelios is shot down over Crassus by the Jiralhanae/Brute assault carrier Implacable Duty. The Elite ship crashes on Crassus, and with Horizon having no functional ships the human & Elite factions are stranded with no way to call for help, while the Assault Carrier, led by High-Chieftain Torikus, settles in to start an attempt to wipe them off the map. The Elite forces, led by Shipmaster Vtan Arume, must forge an at-first uneasy alliance (well, uneasy on the humans' side; the Elites have no problem with it) with the humans of Crassus, and the two forces must work together to save their city and themselves from utter annihilation.

This fic is a rare golden example of how to do a truly superb story. All characters are well-rounded and develop believably over the course of the story, the tale is filled with suspense, well-done battle scenes, and Hope Spot after Hope Spot, with neither side showing any long-lasting advantage over the other. Spelling errors are also rare (though it has a lot of British-English spelling). This is definitely a must-read for Halo fans.

The author's description of the story as found on his page: "The first in a series of inter-connected events, this account sets out the events on the remote Outer Colony Crassus. While ultimately deemed inconsequential in the selective eyes of history, to the combatants involved it was anything but. Indeed, the Crassus campaign was significant for a number of precedents, most notably the willingness of Sangheili ground forces to allign themselves with UNSC personnel. Chaotic, bloody and protracted, the battle itself dragged on for some seven days prior to grinding to a crushing, unexpected halt. Even by the bloody standards of the First Covenant-Human war, the Siege of Horizon remains a well documented conflict, notable for its savagery, even to this very day."

Add more tropes as you spot them.

"-- "High-Chieftain Torikus, Shipmaster of the Implacable Duty, Lord of all Covenant forces on the world, Faithful Servant of the Hierarchs, blessed be.""
 * Ace Pilot: Zuka, Perry, Santos.
 * Anyone Can Die
 * Arm Cannon: The Brute Ripper, basically two Spikers (minus the blades) mounted on the forearm, with a palm-squeeze trigger.
 * Badass: Damn near everyone. Particular notice goes to ODST Staff Sergeant Murphy, who escapes pretty much every attempt made by fate to kill him, and Rukth Kilkaree, who is perhaps the most badass Elite in all of Halo fiction.
 * Badass Biker: The Jiral'han Brute siege-breakers.
 * Badass Normal: The ODSTs are frightfully effective despite being mere humans compared to the superhumanly-tough Brutes.
 * Badass Creed: Arume & Torikus each give their own when squaring off toward the end.
 * Badass Creed: Arume & Torikus each give their own when squaring off toward the end.

- "I am Vtan 'Arume, of the Clan 'Arume, Shipmaster of the Pride of Sanghelios, and I have come to end this conflict, through victory or death."

"Sarah:"
 * Bald Black Leader Guy: Staff Sergeant Raymond Howard.
 * Battle in the Rain / Empathic Environment: As the story nears its climax, Horizon experiences a rainstorm for the first time in over a decade. Helps the UNSC/Separatists in more ways than one; not only does it help them refill their water stores, it also helps
 * BFG - Several, including.
 * Big Bad: Brute High-Chieftain Torikus.
 * Big Good: Two of them: Administrator Jennings and Shipmaster Arume.
 * Big Damn Heroes:.
 * Bling of War: Torikus's helmet is very fancy.
 * Bloodier and Gorier: Unlike the games, the effects of weapons on both sides are described and shown in all their gruesome detail.
 * In keeping with the novels, wherein Covenant plasma weapons routinely vaporise arms, legs, and entire bodies.
 * Boisterous Bruiser: Zuka 'Ornon.
 * Casual Danger Dialogue: Characters mostly save talking for the all-too-brief lulls, but this shows up now and again. Shipmaster Vtan, alone with a jammed weapon, hears the enemy charging at his position and absently remarks, "Disconcerting."
 * Character Development: Everyone, even minor characters who are dead within three paragraphs, are given good characterization, and the main characters develop smoothly throughout the course of the story, especially Flight Officer David Perry's trek from a pilot with no combat experience to speak of and more than a hint of cowardice, to an experienced soldier as his time on Crassus rolls on.
 * Children Are Innocent: Little Sarah Jennings, who wins the hearts of the Separatist Grunts and a Hunter pair.
 * Click. "Hello.":
 * Combat Breakdown: As the siege reaches its end, both sides find themselves short on ammo and falling back on improvised weapons. Comparisons are made to medieval tactics.
 * Death by Looking Up:
 * Dirty Coward: Director Cauldwell.
 * Disney Death:
 * Distant Finale / Where Are They Now? Epilogue: Among other tidbits, it reveals that
 * Drop the Hammer: There are several Brute Chieftains; it's to be expected.
 * Dynamic Entry / Surprisingly-Sudden Death:
 * Enemy Civil War: why the Elites and the Brutes aren't on the same side. Also, some Brutes conspire against other Brutes.
 * Eye Scream: One of the Elites has his eye burst open during the initial crash. Also, when a Warthog is under attack, and the windscreen gets shot in, one of the marines gets a facefull and eyefull of shrapnel. His frantic clawing at the wreck of his eyes only serves to drive the glass deeper in.
 * Famous Last Words:
 * Fire-Forged Friends: On a grand scale, between the Humans and the Elite-led forces.
 * Fluffy Tamer: Little Sarah, who befriends a Hunter pair and doesn't find them scary in the least.
 * Genius Bruiser: It's noted several times that Brutes aren't all Dumb Muscle.
 * Goomba Stomp:
 * Groin Attack: There's a brief mention of someone taking a Spiker round to the groin.
 * Handicapped Badass: Rukth lost his left eye in the initial ship crash.
 * Heroic RROD:
 * Heroic Sacrifice:.
 * Hired Guns: The Jackal/Kig-Yar Yik, "Slayer of Men", as well as the rest of the Kig-Yar.
 * Hopeless Campaign: For the vast majority of the story.
 * Hope Spot: Every time it looks like the humans & Elites are starting to get the upper hand, something happens to tip the balance back towards the Brutes' favor.
 * Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Little Sarah becoming a close friend to the Hunter pair, to the point where.
 * Human Shield: Near the beginning, a Brute takes Sarah as one, infuriating the Elites ("Honorless cur! Hiding behind a youngling?!"); the Brute is promptly sniped by Zerat, and Sarah is unharmed.
 * Improbable Aiming Skills : Zerat Omdolo is pretty much the Sangheili counterpart to Spartan-II Linda-058. His calling card is to shoot enemy snipers right through their optic-mounted scopes... from over a kilometer away.
 * Also shown by Brambley during his scene with the Obstructive Bureaucrat.
 * Improbable Aiming Skills : Zerat Omdolo is pretty much the Sangheili counterpart to Spartan-II Linda-058. His calling card is to shoot enemy snipers right through their optic-mounted scopes... from over a kilometer away.
 * Also shown by Brambley during his scene with the Obstructive Bureaucrat.

"As the adrenaline coursed through Rukth's system, the entire battle slowed to a crawl. It was as though the entire universe had been recorded, and then played back at half-speed."
 * Invisibility Cloak: The Elites make very good use of their active camo.
 * Ironic Echo:
 * It Has Been an Honour: Last words of
 * Also spoken by before his
 * Also invoked by Rukth 'Kilkar before the climax of the war.
 * Jerkass: ODST Specialist Smith is shown to be a minor one. Also a Deadpan Snarker.
 * Kill It with Fire: Improvised flamethrowers are used to great effect..
 * Large and In Charge: Torikus; a marine who sees him toward the end thinks that "If the Brute's society ensured that only the largest and strongest took power, then surely this monster was an emperor".
 * Last Stand:.
 * McNinja: The Spec Ops Elites, their Exiled/Outcast cousins, and the Infiltration Brutes.
 * More Dakka: The Sangheili outlander Marikos loves human chainguns.
 * Mythology Gag: "Combat devolved."
 * This segment from Chapter 21 should sound familiar to anyone who's played around with Theater Mode.

"Rukth... Rukth was terrifying."
 * One of the ODSTs in Chapter 25 is named Mendoza, after the unfortunate Pvt. Manuel Mendoza from ''Halo: Combat Evolved.
 * The phrase "Were it so easy". Used in Chapters 16 and 28, the Arbiter says it in Halo 3's beginning and end.
 * A hologram of the Prophet of Truth is playing on the bridge of the Ubiquitous Triumph in "End Game", saying lines from Halo2.
 * Being a story based on a Bungie game, there are numerous references to the number seven, i.e. the battle lasts seven days.
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Most Brute names qualify, but Malwrekus deserves specific mention.
 * Nigh Invulnerable: The Super-Scarab takes a lot of punishment and keeps going.
 * No One Could Survive That: The reaction to
 * Nothing Can Stop Us Now: Brute Chieftain Malwrekus feels this way as his Scarab punches its way through the city's defensive wall....
 * Non-Action Guy: Perry, when he's not behind the controls of an aircraft.
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: 2LT Joseph Brambley, first seeming to be Major Abelev's spineless Yes-Man, soon reveals that he's actually an experienced Badass and a superb leader.
 * Obstructive Bureaucrat: Traxus Terraforming director Michael Cauldwell. Scared in compliance AWESOMELY by 2LT Brambley.
 * Odd Friendship: Between Flight Officer Perry and Sangheili Helmsman Zuka 'Ornon.
 * Offhand Backhand: Rukth barely notices
 * Pyrrhic Victory:
 * Potty Failure / Bring My Brown Pants - The above-mentioned Director Cauldwell pisses himself in fear after Brambley scares him into submission.
 * He does it again
 * Perry struggles with this throughout the story. He manages to hold it in.
 * The Power of Friendship:
 * Ramming Always Works: The opening space battle, where the Duty gets a face-full of the Sanghelios' engines.
 * Reasonable Authority Figure: Two of them: Administrator Amanda Jennings and Shipmaster Vtan Arume. The latter was very quick to propose an alliance with the humans, and the former was (upon seeing that they'd saved her daughter) quite willing to accept.
 * Red Baron: Rukth Kilkar becomes known to the Covenant Loyalists as "The Black Sangheili".
 * The two Hunters become known by their human allies as "The Hammer and The Anvil"... in addition to little Sarah's nicknames for them: "Jib & Jubb".
 * Rock Beats Laser:.
 * Screw This, I'm Outta Here:.
 * Sequel Hook:
 * Shoot the Messenger / You Have Failed Me...: Torikus has a bad habit of killing underlings who displease him or bring bad news.
 * Shout-Out: The author has read more than a little of Gaunt's Ghosts. In particular, Charlie Platoon's last stand, and Tactical Response 23.
 * I would say more than that. The whole thing reads like Necropolis, about the Siege of Vervunhive. But despite that, it deviates quite a bit: the walls are to prevent sand storms, the citizens are trained by the ODSTs instead of just plain fighting back, and there is a MAC cannon hardmounted inside the city. Dan Abnett never used jump pack equipped infiltrators, or bloodthirsty bikers, or an orbiting spaceship that could easily obliterate the city. But even with these variations, it is still very reminiscent of Necropolis and other Gaunts Ghosts novels. The Scarabs replacing the crab-walker-tank-things from Necropolis, Yik the Man-Slayer replacing the Sniper from Sabbat Martyr, Rukth mixing Mkoll and Mkvenner, and other things. One notable deviation is that there is no arrogant Nobles trying to take control (well, at least after Brambley convinced them otherwise... ) and no real enemy on the inside. The whole city is devoted to surviving. While this doesn't detract from the reading, it does kind of take out that extra edge.
 * The following phrase should be familiar to anyone who's read The Guns of Tanith (Just replace Rukth with Mkvenner):
 * The following phrase should be familiar to anyone who's read The Guns of Tanith (Just replace Rukth with Mkvenner):


 * Last Stand and his statue at the North Gate is VERY reminiscent to a certain Spartan King
 * Shrouded in Myth: Rukth becomes a legend to both sides as the Black Sangheili.
 * The Siege: Pretty much the entire story.
 * Simple Staff: Rukth shows himself to be at his most effective when wielding a spike/blade-tipped staff.
 * Single Biome Planet: Crassus has been stated to be pretty much one big desert.
 * The Starscream:
 * Super Prototype:
 * Taking You with Me:.
 * There Was a Door: How the Hunters play the Big Damn Heroes while rescuing Sarah from Brute Infiltrators. Made even better in that
 * To Serve Man: It is implied several times that Brutes eat human captives.
 * Heck, it's outright stated when Torikus goes about figuring out the logistics of . He mentions in an offhand comment that they would use the humans as both slave labor and a food source, so this obviously isn't something they haven't done before.
 * Training the Peaceful Villagers: "Murphy's Militia."
 * Tranquil Fury:
 * Torikus goes into this after the first attack fails. ".... it betrayed his barely contained primal rage. His voice, however, was unusually calm, restrained even. This was Torikus at his most deadly: not as a mindless berserker, but as a calculating murderer."
 * War Is Hell: This one should be rather clear by the end.
 * Wave Motion Gun: There are Scarabs; many Scarabs.
 * Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Asked (Why not just glass the colony from orbit?) and answered; pride and a lust for glory
 * Zerg Rush: At one point, a huge wave of Brutes tries to push through a wall of Elites wearing Jackal shields, in a scene akin to soccer hooligans rushing a fence. But in this case, the fense pushes back, holding strong, and the humans fire down on the Brutes, killing dozens. It's stated that the Brutes were so tightly packed and were trying so hard to push through, that many Brutes were dead on their feet because there wasn't room to fall over once they were killed.