Halo: The Last of the Prophets.

Prologue

At Forerunner excavation site- on the planet Distant Fringe
The Ninth Age of Reclamation-16 years ago.

The Minister of the Holy Archive sat uncomfortably in his chair. He only used the floating throne when he was out in the field, most of the time he used an anti-gravity belt, which he was more used to. The chair always felt a little restrictive and he never liked using it.

Just some of the disadvantages of his position, he thought to himself. Unlike most of his brethren, who rarely left the confines of the Covenant’s holy city, High Charity, as he was the Minister of the Holy Archive, it was his job to oversee the excavation of any Forerunner artefacts and return them to the archives. It meant he was constantly travelling across Covenant controlled space, making sure that proper care and procedures were followed, so the artefacts remained undamaged.

He wiped his wrinkled brow with the sleeve of his green tunic and looked at the orange sun overhead. Most of his kin would have despised this heat, but he was used to it, his skin had been turned slightly darker due to the sunlight. He turned his attention to the digging below. Sangheili walked impatiently from side to side, their armour glistening in the light, as Unggoy and Jiralhanae were digging feverously. The minister didn’t understand why the Sangheili had brought a contingent of Jiralhanae with them; they were for the most part temple guards and were rarely seen in any other roles. He had simply assumed the Sangheili commander had an extreme dislike of the creatures, and enjoyed seeing them do hard labour on their behalf.

Though he disliked the large hairy creatures; believing them to be simple and barbaric, in contrast to the other species in the Covenant, he had to admit they were effective. They were lifting massive rocks and tossing them aside, as if they were nothing. If they deemed that the mining equipment was too slow, they would use their large claws and use them instead. The Unggoy were having trouble keeping up.


‘Impressive aren’t they?’

The minister turned to his left and to R’Tan Nondovee, the Sangheili in charge of this operation.

‘Yes indeed, their efforts are most impressive, you have chosen your workforce well,’ He replied calmly.

The Sangheili nodded in respect and looked down at the dig site. His golden armour made him stand out from the other blue armoured Sangheili that monitored the workforce. The Minister knew that R’tan and his brethren would rather be fighting against the Humans, to prove their worth as warriors, but he would not question him or his orders.

‘How long do you think it will take for them to uncover the artefact?’ The minister asked.
‘Not much longer, a few more cycles, no more,’ R’tan said gruffly.

‘Good, when they find it inform me, and let them bring it to me. I would like to examine it personally,’ The Minister requested.

‘It shall be done, I shall hasten their progress,’ R’tan said.

‘Very good commander, your actions assist the Journey,’ the minister replied.

R’tan strolled off and barked orders at his Sangheili.

The minister sat there contemplating the war against the Humans. Ever since their first transgression of destroying holy relics, many years ago, they had continued to defy them and desecrated many Forerunner sites. Though the Sangheili shipmasters had been very efficient in wiping them out, they still stood defiantly against them. He knew it was only a matter of time until they were extinguished, and then they would have no obstacles in finally beginning the Great Journey.

The minister smiled quietly to himself when he thought of it. Ascension after all these years now seemed to be almost upon them. A few weeks ago they had found one of the sacred rings. But unfortunately the Humans had managed to destroy it. When he had learnt of this, it had only increased the minister’s hatred for them, as well as a large sense of grief for its destruction. But then, just as he had departed the High Charity, they had discovered a second ring, and their holy city now orbited it, and they were taking the steps necessary to activate it.

He wished he was there, at the moment it was activated, so he would be one of the first to join the Forerunners in paradise. But he had a job to do and he accepted it was his duty to complete it. R’tan reappeared and asked,

‘We have it minister; do you wish to inspect it now?’

‘Yes, I shall look at it in my tent,’ he replied looking over at the small purple structure that served as his living quarters.

‘Very good. It shall be brought to you shortly, I’ve just received a communication from the ship, I will return shortly,’ R’tan finished, heading into the main building.

The minister calmly glided into his quarters. It was very basic, with only the essential items needed to complete his work. He sat patiently as he could hear the strained grunts of the Jiralhanae as they came closer. Then five of them entered the room, wearing only tattered loincloths, holding a large metal tome.

The minister had seen many of these in his travels. These tomes usually were written accounts of the Forerunner’s long battle against the parasite known as the Flood. The Jiralhanae dropped it at his feet and bowed. This surprised him, most other species in the Covenant respected him, but they never bowed to him. It was quite flattering.

‘Here is the holy tome, as you requested your holiness,’ the lead Jiralhanae said.

‘Thank you for being so quick in your task, it has pleased me. What is your name, so I may reward you,’ the minister asked.

‘I am Drakus and I am the leader of my clan,’ he replied, still not looking up.

‘Arise Drakus, and witness me decipher this text,’ the minister said, taking a good look at the large text.

‘You honour me your holiness,’ Drakus said, rising to his feet.

The minister was about to start reading it, when R’tan and four other Sangheili entered the tent, weapons raised.

‘What is the meaning of this commander?’ The minister asked, anger filling his voice over the interruption.

‘Traitorous dogs, the Prophets have decreed the Sangheili to be cast down replaced by them!’ He pointed to the Jiralhanae, who had risen to their feet.

The minister was surprised at this. He had heard that was a power struggle back at High Charity, but he hadn’t thought it was as bad as this. He looked desperately for a means of escape.

‘And now, I shall kill you and these animals in the name of our fallen brothers!’ R’tan drew his energy sword and lunged at the minister.

The minister had closed his eyes, waiting for the searing pain of the blade to hit him. The blow never came. Drakus had caught R’tan in mid swing and the two were on the floor, fighting over the weapon. The other Sangheili raised their weapons and prepared to shoot Drakus, only to be tackled by the other Jiralhanae.

Drakus slammed his heavy paws into R’tan’s face, stunning him. His grip on the sword loosened and Drakus pulled it free and jabbed it into it his chest. R’tan roared in pain and then lay motionless. Drakus let out a battle cry and cut through a few more Sangheili, while his brothers relieved them of their weapons and used them against their former owners.

It a few frenzied seconds later the five Sangheili were dead with only the minister and Drakus and two of his Jiralhanae left standing. The whole experience had stunned the minister, but he regained his focus and decided his next move. They had to escape this world, or they would face the wrath of the Sangheili.

‘Drakus gather your pack, and take all the weapons you can find, we need to leave this planet, as soon as possible,’ the minister said grabbing all the items he needed and quickly grabbing some extra clothes just in case.

‘Of course your eminence, my lieutenant will make the necessary arrangements.’ He barked to the Jiralhanae to his right and he left the room, as did the other surviving member of the pack.

‘You saved my life Drakus, for that I am eternally grateful,’ the minister said.

‘My faith is strong, unlike the treacherous Sangheili, I will defend you with my life,’ Drakus replied.

‘Then you shall stay at my side, and together we can vanquish any foe that stands in our way.’

The two left the tent together, and readied themselves for the trials ahead, The minister didn’t know what lay ahead of him, but he knew that he and Drakus would crush their enemies together.

End of the Prologue


Chapter 1

Remote Sensing Station Atlanta-On the edge of the New Berlin system.
4th December 2568 Military Calendar 0.900

Ensign Donald Wright stood looking out at the blackness of space. For the last ten years he had been assigned to this remote station on the edge of UNSC space, scanning the immediate area, to pick up any incoming slipspace ruptures.

He looked at the wall-sided monitors that showed the contents of the last few slipstream probes he had sent out: multidimensional charts, a wash of false colour enhancements and a catalogue of foreign objects adrift in the slipstream, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Donald stayed vigilant though. The UNSC brass was getting a little jumpy, and had issued orders that all sensing stations on the edge of UNSC space to keep their eyes peeled. He personally didn’t know what they were worried about. The URF wouldn’t attack from space, as they knew they wouldn’t stand a chance against New Berlin’s orbital defence platforms, and the Covenant, well they hadn’t been seen since the end of the war.

He had heard rumours that the furthest UNSC colony Frontier had been destroyed by the Covenant. Though Donald doubted this, he was concerned about the rumours. He had family on that planet and he hadn’t had any contact with them in several months.

He put aside his concerns and focused on analysing the latest readings. Just like every other day, all the readings were at normal levels. The only thing of any real interest was a slight neutron silhouette in the last reading. While most people would have ignored it and assumed it was some debris, or asteroid in the slipstream, Donald didn’t like the look of it. He fired a few probes off and waited for the data to return.

It was some of the longest minutes of his life, but eventually the readings came back. He peered intently at the monitors, calculating the trajectories and checking for any other silhouettes. He noticed several more this time, all around the first one, and they were large, far too big to be simple debris. He checked the dimensions again and he came to a chilling conclusion. It was a Covenant battle group.

He fumbled around hastily, grabbing the radio and tuning to the correct frequency. He needed to warn FLEETCOM about the approaching forces.

‘Attention, this is Sensing station Atlanta with a priority message,’ Donald said.

‘This is FLEETCOM, go ahead Atlanta,’ a calm female voice replied.

‘Covenant ships detected on the edge of the New Berlin, ETA in the next few minutes, sound the alarm,’ Donald said, in a hurried tone.

‘Understood Atlanta, the word is being relayed to the ships in orbit, just hold position and transmit their inbound vectors,’ the voice replied.

‘Understood,’ Donald said as he flicked the radio off.

He then frantically worked on his keyboard, readying another slipspace probe and firing it off into the abyss.

The results came back and he quickly worked out the complicated algebra sums in his head. When he was certain that the answers were correct he transmitted the trajectories.

‘Vectors received, hold tight Atlanta,’ FLEETCOM replied.

With that done, Donald wiped the databases clean of all information, as ordered by the Cole protocol. Even though the Covenant knew the location of Earth, they didn’t know the location of all the UNSC’s new colonies, hopefully if they couldn’t find them, it would buy them some time.

When his last task was completed he sat back in his chair and watched through the external cameras as the Covenant fleet burst out of slipspace. The bulbous slivery-purple craft glided out of slipspace and ignored the tiny sensing station, and barrelled towards the planet.

Donald noted it was a relatively small task force, with only two Covenant capital ships and two destroyers in their lines. There were a few smaller craft, but nothing more. He wondered why they would bring such a small force to attack such a well defended planet.

Space then ripped open again and a massive ship made of dull grey metal appeared. It flew past the other Covenant ships and headed towards the planet alone. Donald didn’t know what the Covenant hoped to achieve pitting one ship against over 300 super MACS and the task force above the planet. It still made him feel uneasy.

The first salvo fired. Most of the slugs missed the large ship, hitting its escorts, tearing through their shields and gutting the smaller craft. The rest impacted the ship. It emerged from the barrage unscathed and retaliated with golden lances of fire, which cleanly cut through three of the platforms.

An unfortunate loss, but most of the escort had been destroyed. The second salvo finished off the remainder of the escort and once again the grey ship was lost in a ball of fire as the slugs impacted, and once again it reappeared unscathed.

The entire task force of two cruisers, three destroyers and eight frigates were firing everything they had at the ship, archer missiles and MAC cannons slammed into the ship, but nothing seemed to phase it.

It unleashed another barrage of golden energy slicing through several frigates and another defence platform. Donald sat paralysed as he watched the ship effortlessly take another barrage, and another. It then cut through the task force and golden beams shot in almost every direction, destroying anything that came into contact with them.

The space around the planet was filled with debris of the vanquished ships and defence platforms. The ship finished mopping up the remainder of the defence platforms and sat unchallenged above the planet.

Donald just sat stunned at the destruction he had witnessed. So many of his comrades killed, and they hadn’t even scratched their killer. He stood up angrily looking for something he could do. He noticed the cameras had been recording the battle, so he quickly condensed it and transmitted to UNSC command. Hopefully they could find some way of stopping this leviathan.

He turned to see hundreds of Covenant ships dropping out of slipspace. A mass of Capital ships and destroyers, even several carriers and super carriers. They took up position next to the grey ship and unleashed a barrage of blue fire on the planet.

Donald had heard of this but he never thought he ever witness it. The Covenant were glassing the planet. He slumped back into his chair, defeated. He didn’t care when he noticed several Covenant ships were heading his way.

He picked up a photo of his family on Frontier and held it tightly as the first plasma torpedoes impacted the station.

It was the last thing he ever saw.

End of Chapter 1

Chapter 2

ONI Training Facility C-88- Keyes Island, Earth
5th December 2568 Military Calendar 0.630

Kyle woke as the blaring sound of his alarm clock sounded next to his bed. He rose and flicked it off. He stretched, feeling the slight pain in his chest. He ignored it and got dressed. He was planning on exercising today, to get back to top performance; he’d been on forced bed rest for several days, while his body had been healing after the last mission.

Beside his bed, a flicker of blue light appeared, and a holographic image of a woman appeared. She was purple and had short cropped hair. Her face reminded Kyle of his mother, full of kindness and understanding. She crossed her arms and glared at Kyle.

‘And where do you think you’re going?’ She asked.

‘Training. Why?’ Kyle asked.

‘Because you’re not ready yet, you’re still not fully healed,’ she replied.

‘Mira, I’m fine and I’m sure Dr Singh would agree with me,’ Kyle argued. Dr Singh was the creator of the Spartan IV project, and Mira’s creator. He was the only non- military figure the Spartans respected.

‘Maybe, but I don’t like it, I’m coming with you, I’ll be monitoring your bio readings while you train. The minute you start pushing yourself too far, I’m pulling the plug. Deal?’ Mira said.

‘Deal. I’ll just get my suit,’ Kyle said.

Even though Mira seemed a little overprotective, he knew she did it for a good reason. During the last mission she had been with him when he effectively died when a Covenant bomb detonated in the building he was in. It was only due to her intervention that he was still here today.

As he grabbed the bulky MJONLIR armour and put it on, he thought about the last mission. It had been very tough. A Spartan team had gone missing and they had searched for them on the planet of Frontier and found a lot more than they bargained for. A Covenant fleet, a deranged UNSC admiral and a biological weapon that could wipe out all life on a planet in a few minutes.

Though they had put an end to the crisis, destroying the biological agent and the Covenant hunting for it, the cost had been heavy. The planet was destroyed and several of the team they had rescued, had died in the line of duty. It had tested Blue team both physically and psychologically but they had a learnt a lot from the experience and were more determined than ever.

He put his helmet on and walked back to Mira’s holographic image and outstretched a hand over the holo tank. He felt the cold watery feely at the back of his head, as Mira entered his armour.

‘Is it me, or is it smaller in here? Have you put on weight?’ Mira asked in an amused voice.

‘Very funny,’ Kyle replied sarcastically.

He walked out into the steel corridors of the facility and headed to the gym. The facility was relatively empty, with most of the Spartans being deployed throughout the colonies. Kyle wasn’t sure about the motive behind this, but he assumed it was just a precaution. Ever since Blue team had been de-briefed after the last mission, the brass in Washington had been mobilising the fleet. They seemed to be getting ready for an attack.

Kyle believed this as well. He didn’t think that the Prophet of Remorse, the Covenant’s fanatical leader had been killed when Frontier was destroyed. Kyle was certain that if he was still alive, he’d be back and all the colonies would face his wrath.

He entered the gym and headed straight to the weights. He set the gravity to normal, and lifted the large weight with ease and started a steady rhythm. He then moved to the next weight up and started again. Over the next hour he used every piece of equipment in the room at their highest difficulty setting. After he was done he crouched on the floor and took a moment to catch his breath.

‘That was…..impressive, it seems you’ve healed faster than I thought,’ Mira acknowledged.

‘I’ll guess that was a compliment, thanks Mira,’ Kyle said as his breathing returned to normal.

‘Well, sorry to spoil your fun, but Blue team has been called to the conference room, it looks like we have a new mission,’ Mira replied.

‘Looks like I healed just in time then,’ Kyle said.

He jogged down the empty halls and to the conference room. It hadn’t changed at all since he last visited at the start of his last mission. The four flights of stairs that lead to metal benches which all faced a central podium. Blue team were already at the bottom, in their green MJONLIR suits. Though to an outsider they all looked identical, Kyle could easily distinguish them. He sat next to the squad leader Caspian and his childhood friend Shen.

‘Any idea what the next mission will be?’ Shen asked Kyle.

‘Not a clue, but I’m sure it will be important,’ Kyle assumed.

‘Yeah, with the fleet mobilising and all the other Spartans deployed, the brass is definitely getting ready for something. Something big,’ Peter warned. He had always been pessimistic, but he said it prepared him for the worse case scenario.

‘I think they’re planning a surprise party for us, for all the hard work we’ve done,’ Alex said.

‘It’s probably the Covenant showing their faces again,’ Shen guessed.

‘Shhhh…. That’s the surprise,’ Alex replied.

‘All right it’s starting,’ Caspian said.

An elderly man in a dirty lab coat walked up to the podium. He wore thick glasses and his brown skin was covered in deep wrinkles. But his eyes still bore the same fierce intensity that they had when Kyle had met him as a child. This was Dr Singh. He cleared his throat and began.

‘Thank you for getting here so quickly, to be honest we need all the time we can get. The situation is dire,’ Singh said.

‘What’s happened doctor?’ Caspian asked.

‘This recording was taken yesterday by a remote sensing station on the edge of the New Berlin system.’

Kyle watched the holographic screen as it showed the recording of the battle, and how the colony had been wiped out. When the recording ended Dr Singh asked,

‘Do you recognise the ship?’

‘Yes it’s the Forerunner Battleship that we first encountered several months ago. I’d assumed it had been destroyed in the NOVA detonation,’ Caspian said grimly.

‘Well apparently it survived and they’re using it against us. Command thinks this is the prelude to a full borne invasion, which is why they are mobilising the fleet,’ Dr Singh said.

‘So what are our orders?’ Caspian asked.

‘Your main goal is to destroy that ship, by any means possible, but until it reappears, you’re going to defend Sanctuary.’

Kyle could understand this move. Many consider it to be ‘the new Reach’ it had been the UNSC’s main Naval port and ship production facility, though no where near Reach had been in its heyday. Like most UNSC worlds since the war, it was well protected, but in the face of the Forerunner ship that meant very little.

‘The Southerland will be departing in three hours. Good luck Blue team,’ Dr Singh finished.

The five Spartans walked out of the room and headed for the hangar. They knew they had a score to settle. A few months ago they had been ordered to destroy that ship, but had left it intact to stop a greater threat, and now it had come back to haunt them. This time it wouldn’t be so lucky.

End of Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Aboard UNSC Destroyer Southerland- In Earth Orbit
5th December 2568 Military Calendar 10.30

Kyle saluted the captain as the five Spartans entered the bridge.

‘At ease,’ the captain said. Unlike many of the captains Kyle had met over the years, he was short and was rather young, only in his thirties. Caspian outstretched a gauntleted hand which the captain shook vigorously.

‘Captain Richards are we ready to depart?’ Caspian asked politely.

‘We should be getting underway shortly, we should arrive at Sanctuary in a few days,’ Richards replied in a crisp English voice.

Richards was part of the UNSC newest generation of captains, they were all dedicated and hardworking, much like their predecessors. The UNSC felt they had great potential. Kyle just hoped they realised it.

The ship moved agilely past larger cruisers and defence platforms as she headed into the designated departure area. When they were in position, they were told to wait as a few cargo ships arrived. When the last one cleared the view screen of the bridge the navigational officer said,

‘Sir, control’s given us a green light. We’re clear to depart.’

‘Activate the Shaw-Fujikawa drive. Best speed to Sanctuary,’ Richards said.

‘Aye sir.’

The shimmed hummed with energy. Sparks flew off the ship as it tore a hole into slipspace. The eerie blue glow that made up the slipstream filled the bridge with blue light, and then the ship jumped forward into it.

Richards then turned back to face them, ‘You can either be put in the stasis pods for the next few days, or you we did set up a room for you. It’s your call.’


‘We’d prefer to stay on station sir, just in case. Is there anything else?’ Caspian said.

‘No, you are dismissed,’ Richards then returned to monitoring their progress.

The five armoured figures left the bridge and walked through the labyrinth of corridors that made up the insides of the ship. Kyle didn’t know how on earth he had managed to memorise the layouts of all UNSC ships back when he was a trainee, but it proved most useful here.

They finally reached the room. As the door slid open they surveyed their temporary accommodation. It appeared to a hastily empted storage room with some beds placed inside it. The room was very Spartan and by the book, just the way the Spartans liked it.
‘Well this is cosy,’ Alex said, looking at the beds.

‘So what now Caspian?’ Shen asked.

‘All we can really do now is wait,’ Caspian admitted.

‘Great. Stuck in a room with manic depressive here,’ Alex said pointing at Peter.

‘Huh, you wouldn’t say that I wasn’t here,’ Peter replied slyly.

‘And what’s that supposed to mean?’ Alex asked.

‘Look at your reaction when you thought Kyle was dead, you’d miss me,’ Peter said chuckling.

‘Well….that’s different,’ Alex said.

‘Care to explain?’ Shen said in an amused voice.

‘I don’t want to talk about it,’ Alex said in a harsh tone.

‘Well we need some way to pass the time until we reach Sanctuary, go on,’ Shen pleaded.

‘I said I don’t want to talk about it. Period,’ Alex said in a threatening voice.

‘Leave her be guys, we’re all still a little wounded from that mission. Not just physically either,’ Caspian said, looking out the viewport.

‘Amen to that, I’m not proud of how I acted back there,’ Shen admitted.

‘I’m just glad we got out of that hell hole in one piece,’ Peter said.

‘Well in comparison this mission going to be a lot tougher, the Covenant mean business this time, they’re throwing everything they have at us,’ Kyle said.

‘We’ve stopped them before, we can do it again,’ Alex replied.

‘I don’t know Alex, we can stop them on land, but in space, I don’t know,’ Peter said grimly.

‘I know it looks bad, but we were close to putting that ship out of commission the last time we were on it. We can do it, I know we can. Now we’d better get ready for our arrival. I have a feeling the Covenant will be on their way,’ Caspian said.

The Spartans left the room and split up, heading to different parts of the ship.

Kyle wondered what was wrong with Alex and if Blue team could actually pull it off. He knew they had to try, or millions would die as the Covenant wiped out their colonies one by one. Kyle just hoped they were up to the challenge.

End of Chapter 3

Chapter 4

At Forerunner excavation site- on the planet Distant Fringe
The Ninth Age of Reclamation-16 years ago.

The minister floated nervously, surrounded by his new Jiralhanae protectors as he examined the chaos around him. The remaining Sangheili had been neutralised, and the Unggoy were panicking, running about the dig site screaming in fear. Part of the minister felt like joining them, but he had to remain calm and collected. Their survival depended on it.

He assumed that the ship above had been alerted to the Jiralhanae’s insurrection on the planet, and they would definitely send reinforcements. As they had no other means of escape, they would have to take that vessel. Luckily for them, it was a relatively small scout ship, with only about thirty Sangheili onboard. The minister checked his forces. About fifteen Jiralhanae and a dozen Unggoy that had been ‘persuaded’ to fight with them. It would have to suffice.

‘Have your men pick up all the weaponry you can find, and quickly, the Sangheili will arrive soon,’ He ordered.

‘Yes your holiness,’ Drakus replied and he set about his task, grabbing weapons from the fallen.

As they picked up the last of the weapons, the minister noticed the two phantoms descending, the bulbous purple craft shining in the evening light. The minister assumed that they comprised most of the remaining Sangheili, with only a handful left to operate the ship. If they managed to defeat them, it would be a simple task in seizing the ship.

Over the horizon, he saw the tall armoured figures appearing over the top of a dusty, mound of dirt. The minister made out about ten of them, with another ten right behind them. While most where minor domos, the lowest rank in the Sangheili infantry, about five of them were majors, their red armour making them stand out from the blue armour of the minor domos.

The Jiralhanae growled angrily and roared at the Sangheili, as they advanced, moving at a fast walking pace, then they sped up, weapons raised, ready for the kill.

‘Eliminate them! Kill them at all costs!’ The minister shouted.

‘You heard his holiness, vanquish the heretics, for the Prophets and the Great Journey!’ Drakus roared.

The Jiralhanae charged, herding the Unggoy in front of them. Afraid of the large creatures in front of them, but even more of the ones behind them, they ran at the Sangheili, even though some of them weren’t even armed.

The Sangheili laughed at the small clumsy figures, and unleashed a barrage at them. Many of the Unggoy fell, but the survivors continued, climbing over the bodies of their fallen comrades and kept going.

The Sangheili seemed surprised that their were still Unggoy alive, and were almost taken aback as they came under fire. A careless minor domo was shot down; his mouth was filled with purple blood as he crumpled to the floor.

After a moment of chaos, the Majors restored order and the last of the Unggoy fell, but not before they armed several plasma grenades and hurled them into the Sangheili lines. They detonated, erupting into blue fire. Though none of the Sangheili fell, their armoured crackled with energy as their shields failed.

Then the Jiralhanae were upon them. Drakus lead the charge and sliced through several minor domos with his energy sword. The rest of his pack was also similarly fighting, shooting the shieldless Sangheili. The Sangheili weren’t giving up though, and they replied with a fierce barrage of their own.

It became a bloody fire fight, which neither side seemed to have an advantage. Several minor domos fell, as did several Jiralhanae. But things started to change when the two sides entered close quarter combat. The remaining Jiralhanae, enraged by the deaths of their brothers, knocked the Sangheili aside, and savagely hit them with their sharp claws. Blood seeped everywhere, as Sangheili skulls cracked and were slammed into the dirt.

The last of the Majors roared a challenge and drew an energy sword. Drakus brushed his fellow Jiralhanae aside and replied to the challenge with a roar of his own. He charged, and the two swords clashed, sparks flying from them. The two blades slammed into one another, causing the combatants to become locked in a desperate standoff. Both seemed to be have equal strength, as the neither could deliver a killing blow. Drakus rolled to the left as the Major lunged again. He then parried the follow up attack. The blades locked once again and the two enemies stared into each others eyes.

‘You and your kind are weak, we shall eradicate you for your sins,’ the Major sneered.

‘No it is you who will die, for your heresy!’ Drakus replied.

Drakus seemed to pull from some unknown reserves and started to push the Major back. The Major Sangheili fell to one knee, unable to stop the brute force of Drakus’ blade. He looked one last time in defiance before Drakus severed the Major’s head. To the minister it was the most beautiful display of strength he had ever seen.

As the last Sangheili fell, Drakus rose and roared in victory. The remaining six Jiralhanae joined him in his triumph and roared with their leader. The minister had to admit he too was impressed, these savages, fought with such tenacity, such resolve, even against overwhelming odds. The minister could see the start of a great military force, one that would make the stars tremble. But he couldn’t get ahead of himself. He needed to escape first, and then he could plan his revenge.

He floated to them and applauded Drakus. He bowed, his fur was covered in the blood of the fallen Sangheili so much half of his face was a deep purple.

‘Well done Drakus, now we must take their ship,’ the minister advised.

‘Yes your holiness, we shall take the phantom,’ Drakus said, heading towards the craft.

‘Once we are aboard, can you men fly it?’ The minister asked.

‘Yes, we have studied the Sangheili and we have had experience before we served them; we can operate the ship without any difficulty my lord,’

They hastily flied into the phantom and it took off after a few seconds. It shot into the atmosphere and headed to the ship in orbit. As they got close, the minister feared that they would be discovered and the tiny craft they inhabited would be vaporised.

Fortunately for them, the Sangheili let them onboard, believing them to be the raiding party. This arrogance became their downfall. It was a simple task for them to navigate through the ship’s corridors and arrive at the bridge. The Sangheili didn’t even turn around when the Jiralhanae stormed the bridge.

After a few seconds of violent slaughter, the fight was over and all the Sangheili lay dead. The minister looked at the view screen as they moved away from the planet and into slipspace. As the blue glow surrounded the ship, he decided from that day forth he would devote his life to getting revenge on the Sangheili and all the other enemies of the Covenant. He knew for the time being he would have to hide; it was not safe for him and his companions to return to High Charity until the turmoil had settled. But after the storm had passed, his enemies would feel his wrath, and he would make them feel remorse for their heinous crimes.

End of Chapter 4

Chapter 5


Aboard UNSC Destroyer Southerland-In slipspace, currently en-route to Sanctuary.
8th December 2568 Military Calendar 13.00

Kyle paced in frustration in the Spartans’ temporary quarters. He’d been cooped up on this ship for several days now. Though Caspian preferred they stayed at their stations and alert, just in case of a surprise ambush, Kyle wished they’d gone into cryo stasis. For him, the worse part of a mission was the travel to their next location. It usually took a few days, and most of the time, there little for him to do.

He had spent the last few days, helping wherever and whenever he could; down on the engineering decks when they needed help to maintain the machinery, helping the navigational officer with his telemetry sums and any other odd jobs he could find. He had also helped in the cargo bay, lifting massive crates of supplies to their designated storage areas. In between those times, he’d been down in the gym, keeping himself at top performance.

While all of these had kept his mind busy, his body yearned to be tested. Part of him desperately wanted to get back on the ground and straight into the fray, but he knew he’d have to be patient for now….and that was proving to be very difficult.

The door slid open and Shen and Peter appeared, looking as bored as he felt. The sat on the beds, which groaned at the heavy weight of the MJONLIR armour they wore.

‘Man this is dull, I hate travelling on ships, I never have anything to do,’ Shen said.

‘I was just thinking the same thing,’ Kyle admitted.

‘I usually like these quiet moments, they’re like the calm before the storm. It’s nice and peaceful before all hell breaks loose,’ Peter said.

‘And that’s when things get exciting, but until then we’re stuck here,’ Shen replied.

‘Yes, and unfortunately we’re all going to have to put up with it. It shouldn’t be much longer anyway,’ Caspian said as he entered the room.

‘Hey where’s Alex?’ Kyle asked.

‘She’s in the gym, and she’s on her own,’ Mira answered.

Alex was starting to worry him and the rest of the team. Over the last few days, she seemed to be keeping her distance from the rest of Blue team, helping the crew and training on her own. Kyle had barely seen her since they got onboard.

‘What’s got in to her lately? She been odd ever since the last mission,’ Shen said.

‘I don’t know and frankly part of me doesn’t care, at least I get a break from her,’ Peter said coldly.

‘That was slightly cruel Peter, aren’t you worried about her?’ Kyle said.

‘Of course I am, I may not like her, but she’s still a team member, of course I’m worried,’ Peter replied defensively.

Kyle turned to Caspian and asked, ‘Do you think it’s because of me nearly dying last mission? She did seem to take that very hard.’

‘I don’t know….. and it has me as worried as all of you, but we need to focus on the mission. There is far too much at stake for us to be pre-occupied with our concerns about her. If she becomes a liability, we’ll confront her about it, but until then I want you to focus on the mission. Understood?’ Caspian ordered.

‘Sure Casp, I’ve got no problem doing that,’ Shen reassured him.

Kyle was about to reply, when Mira said in his ear, ‘We’re just dropping out of slipspace now, the captain has requested our presence on the bridge.’

‘Tell the captain we’re on our way,’ Caspian said, as he strolled out of the room, Kyle and the others right behind him.

They walked through the corridors of the warship and took the elevator up to the bridge. After navigating a few more corridors they arrived. Captain Richards sat in his command chair, looking intently at the forward view screen. The blue of slipspace dissipated and returned to the familiar black of normal space.

In front of them a green and blue orb appeared, growing bigger and bigger. Sanctuary. Kyle was impressed at what he saw.

The planet was similar to Earth, with large green landmasses and great flowing oceans. Lights from the major cites glimmered on the face of the planet facing away from the massive orange star. Surrounding the planet were large stations made of dull steel. Kyle counted about 300 of the stations, all with their large super MAC cannons facing outwards at the darkness of space.

In orbit, hundreds of shipyards and ships jostled for space; cargo ships and merchant vessels jumped into and out of slipspace, while large UNSC ships patrolled the area. Kyle could make out a least four cruisers, eight destroyers and even a Marathon class cruiser in the centre. It was an impressive display of force; Kyle just hoped they would stand a chance against the superior Forerunner battleship.

The destroyer glided through the myriad of ships and headed to the nearest orbital defence platform.

‘Amsterdam, this is the UNSC destroyer Southerland requesting permission to dock. Over,’ the navigational officer said.

‘This is the Amsterdam, we’ve been expecting you. Permission granted. Request that the sierra team reports directly to the station ASAP, the Admiral wants to give them a sit-rep.’

The ship moved closer and came to a slow stop. There was a small clank as they docked with the station.

Kyle looked around. It was then we he noticed that Alex wasn’t there. It seemed the others hadn’t even realised, being too pre-occupied with the mission. Kyle was about to inform them when the bridge doors opened and Alex came jogging in.

‘Howdy amigos, sorry for being a little late, I got a little caught up. So what did I miss?’ She said over the private COM.

‘You didn’t miss anything, we’re just docked and we’re going to the station for a sit-rep,’ Caspian replied.

‘Oh goody, what a charmed life we live, let’s go then,’ She said, as she turned back the way she came.

‘Somebody’s a little over enthusiastic about leaving,’ Shen commented.

‘Well I’m in the mood to stretch my legs a little, and this is hardly the ideal venue,’ Alex replied.

‘She has a point, time to disembark ladies and gentlemen. Let’s move,’ Caspian said.

They walked out of the bridge and the doors closed behind them.

End of Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Abroad UNSC orbital defence platform Amsterdam- in orbit above Sanctuary
8th December 2568 Military Calendar, 14.00

Kyle stepped out onto the station, the rest of Blue team right behind him. He surveyed his surroundings. Like most of the orbital defence platforms Kyle had visited over the course of his career, the ship was connected to the station by a series of clamps and walkways. They walked through one of these walkways, and Kyle looked through the clear panels and at the rest of the station and the darkness of space beyond.

He could still see the congested pathways which the hundreds of ships were navigating. Kyle took a final look and headed into the station itself. The overall design hadn’t changed from the orbital platforms back on Earth. The walls were covered in cool steel and many flights of stairs lead upwards to the higher levels. They ignored these and headed down a gloomy corridor, with only basic floor lighting so that the crew could see where they were going.

They turned left and walked past a small garden, filled with small bushes and flowers, protected by a thin pane of glass.

‘Ah they’re so pretty, perhaps I could make a necklace out of them later,’ Alex said looking at the flowers.

‘Another time Alex, we’ve got a job to do,’ Caspian replied.

The walked up several flights of stairs and walked past one of the station’s many hangars. They walked on the catwalk above and looked as the Pelican below them was being prepped for launch.

The finally reached the main command centre and the white uniformed officer who awaited them. He was short, with thinning white hair and had intense blue eyes piercing out of his wrinkled features. Kyle instantly recognised him.

‘Good to see you again Captain Winchester,’ Caspian said.

Captain Winchester had been in command of the ship that had followed the Elites and the Spartans to the Relay, where his forces had been crucial to turn the tide of that final battle. Kyle was glad to see him again in the face of this new threat.

‘It’s Admiral now, we all got a little recognition from command. They’ve placed me in charge of the defence of Sanctuary, mainly due to my previous experience with the Forerunner battleship,’ Winchester replied.

‘So what’s the plan sir?’ Caspian asked.

‘From our past experiences with it, and the more recent attack at New Berlin, I say we’ll adopt the plan we were going to use previously,’ Winchester suggested.

‘So you want us to board the ship and destroy it from the inside, while you keep it busy? That’s a risky plan admiral,’ Caspian advised.

‘I know Caspian, but we don’t have much choice in the matter. As long as we can keep them occupied and you decommission that ship, our sacrifice won’t be in vain,’ Winchester replied, sighing heavily, thinking about the number of men he would be sending to their deaths.

‘Understood sir. What’s our next step?’ Caspian asked, crossing his arms in a sign of anxiety.

‘At present, I’d like you to stay onboard the station; I think we’ll all be glad to have your presence here. You probably saw that Pelican as you were on you way here. The minute we detect the battleship entering the system, you head for that Pelican double time and take it out,’ Winchester nodded, and let out a small grin at the five armoured figures, then turned to a young lieutenant. They left and headed into one of the corridors.

‘Great, first we had to wait on a ship, now we have to wait on a station. Shall we wait in a queue next?’ Alex said sarcastically on the private COM.

‘You may not like it, but those are our orders, there isn’t anything we can do about it in the meantime,’ Caspian replied.

‘Yeah, but I wish there was something we could do, I’m itching for some action,’ Shen said, flexing his gauntleted hands.

‘Don’t we all. It was nice to see Winchester again,’ Kyle said.

‘Yeah, I missed the old fart….,’ Alex said.

‘I don’t know what you’re all worried about; she sounds perfectly fine to me,’ Mira said to Kyle privately.

A second later sirens sounded throughout the station, and the lights dimmed and were replaced with red warning lights. They rushed back to the command centre. Inside it was pandemonium, with crew running to their assigned stations, with the admiral in the centre surveying the holographic viewscreen.

‘What happened?’ Caspian asked, moving to the admiral’s left shoulder, to get a glimpse of the screen for himself.

‘Our sensing stations have picked up contacts, they’ll be appearing any second,’ Winchester answered.

Sure enough, there was a flash of light and a small fleet of Covenant ships appeared. Kyle could make out around 15 destroyers, 5 Covenant Capital Ships and one Carrier. The Forerunner battleship was no where to be seen.

Kyle waited for a second, as during the attack at New Berlin the Forerunner ship was the last one to appear.

But still there was nothing. Kyle wondered what the Covenant were doing, sending such a small force against such a well fortified position. Kyle didn’t like the looks of this.

‘Charge the MAC, order all UNSC ships to form a defensive perimeter around the platforms,’ Admiral Winchester ordered.

Kyle watched as the large UNSC Ships moved into position and prepared themselves. The Covenant fleet moved mercilessly through space, heading straight for the planet. Kyle was confused. They had to know they wouldn’t stand a chance, he had faced the Covenant in space several times, and he knew they weren’t prone to suicidal charges. It made him even more concerned.

‘Fire!’ Winchester shouted.

A volley of MAC slugs flew and impacted the first few advancing Covenant ships, ripping through their shields and gutting them. Many shots flew harmlessly into space, but the ones that had hit had done severe damage to the Covenant’s lines. Miraculously, the Covenant kept coming, flying past the burning hulks of their sister ships and barrelled down towards them. The second barrage eliminated half of the remaining destroyers and only left two Capital ships left standing. The Carrier hung back, watching the slaughter.

As the last ships erupted into flame after a third and final barrage, it pulled away and jumped back into slipspace. Kyle worries only intensified. The bridge crew were celebrating, while the Spartans stood silently. However, one of the crew had a look of pure terror on his face as he ran up to the admiral.

‘Sir we just got a transmission from the planet, they say Covenant troops have landed and they are under attack.’

‘But that’s impossible, we just wiped out their fleet and they didn’t deploy any landing craft,’ another officer replied.

‘Sir, I think I know what it was, it could be a Stealth ship, and the attack was a distraction,’ Kyle said.

‘Confirmed sir, I just picked them up on our scanners, we missed them during the battle,’ Mira said grimly.

‘Christ. Blue team get down there ASAP, whatever they’re doing down there, we need to stop them now!’ Winchester ordered.

End of Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Aboard UNSC orbital defence platform Amsterdam- in orbit above Sanctuary
8th December 2568 Military Calendar 14.30

Kyle rushed down the walkways and down another flight of stairs as he headed for the hangar. He took the next left and quickly went up another flight of steps. The rest of Blue team were right behind him, jogging through the station to their objective. Mira was updating Kyle of the most recent developments on the ground.

‘From the looks of it Kyle, it looks like the stealth ship deployed a large contingent of Brute stalkers, and they’ve overrun the UNSC forces in the area, and from what I can make out, have taken up residence in the nearby UNSC fort called Fort Dakota.’

‘Any idea on their numbers?’ Kyle asked as he waited for a set of reinforced steel doors open.

‘I can’t be certain, but from some heat scans from a weather satellite I borrowed, I would say there are about 40 of them,’ Mira concluded.

‘Then we’d better be on our guard. When we land, keep your eyes peeled and watch your motion sensors,’ Caspian said.

They entered the hangar, and headed down the stairs, walking down the main area. The Pelican was still there, and it still looked ready to launch. A man was waving to them from the back of the dropship He was dressed in a pilot’s uniform and wore a characteristic flight helmet, but his was decorated by elaborate blue flames. His mouth was still visible and it bore a large grin, showing immaculate white teeth.

‘Hey I heard you guys needed a ride, so I’d thought I’d give you a lift.’

‘Thank you Lieutenant,’ Caspian said politely.

‘No problem, just please call me Reggie,’ the pilot replied.

Lieutenant Reginald Cooper, more widely known as ‘Reggie’ was one of the UNSC’s best pilots. A few months ago he had shown all his skill and bravery when he transported them to the well defended Forerunner battleship. Kyle had assumed after he had seen Admiral Winchester again, Reggie wouldn’t be too far behind.

‘Well, we’ll save the reunion for later Reggie, as right now; they need our help down there, so let’s roll out!’ Caspian ordered.

Reggie didn’t need to be told twice, without another word; he turned and headed to the pilot’s seat, the Spartans right behind him. Kyle strapped himself into one of the seats and grabbed a MA5C assault rifle from the storage compartment over his head and inspected the weapon. After he was satisfied it was in working order, he gripped it firmly in one hand and placed his other hand on his lap.

‘All right, we’ll be on our way momentarily,’ Reggie said from the cockpit.

The Pelican hummed with power as Reggie activated the engines. The ship turned to face the exit. The heavy hangar doors slid back and air was sucked out into space. Reggie pushed the throttle forward and the pelican lurched forward and into the widening gap.

They shot out into space and then dived down towards the planet. They quickly picked up speed and Kyle looked at the madness around them. Since the brief Covenant attack the shipping lanes were in chaos, as all the civilian ships had hastily retreated back to the planet, while the UNSC warships advanced. Unfortunately there was no order in this retreat, as it was simply a blind panic to escape, which had already caused several collisions.

Reggie expertly rolled the pelican as he squeezed the craft between a closing gap between two cargo freighters. He then barrel rolled to avoid another collision and headed straight down.

‘Hold on to your lunch kids, this one’s going to get tricky,’ Reggie yelled. They dodged several more cargo ships and they hit the atmosphere. The exterior of the craft glowed red and they were bashed side to side by the increasing column of air that surrounded them.

They soared over the cityscape, and the tall skyscrapers that made up the capital city; Reflex. It was the main headquarters of ONI, and a lot of the UNSC’s high command, as well as the location of the training grounds for Navy Special Warfare and several OCS schools. To put it simply, Reflex was the UNSC’s logistical headquarters, so it was a key target to defend in the upcoming battle.

Their target wasn’t the city however, but the fort in the mountains, a few kilometres to the north. The cityscape started to disappear, and was replaced by snowy hills, which grew taller and taller. Over the crest of the final hill, a spec of green appeared, the outer wall was roughly a circle, with heavy defensive turrets running along the edge. Inside the wall were several green buildings. Even from this range Kyle could make out the central command post, and a rectangular green tent, that he assumed was the barracks.

The pelican descended and the engines whined as Reggie cut the power. The rear of the craft opened and the Spartans ran out taking defensive positions. Reggie had dropped them just outside the fort and it appeared to be for a good reason. The front of the fort was littered by dead marines. Peter crouched and inspected the bodies.

‘The first few were caught by surprise, but most of them were expecting them, but against those kinds of numbers, they didn’t stand a chance.’

Though it pained him to do it, Kyle scavenged some fallen weapons from the marines and grabbed some extra ammo and strapped it to his belt. The rest of Blue team did the same. Kyle examined his weapons and stood at attention.

‘So what’s the plan Casp?’ Shen asked.

‘Mira, can you get a fix on the Brutes’ location?’ Caspian asked.

‘Negative. The air is still too full of gunfire and debris. I can’t get a clear reading of anything inside the fort. I’m certain they haven’t left the area though,’ Mira answered.

‘Well if they are still here, they’re probably expecting us, so be wary for any potential ambushes,’ Caspian advised.

Acknowledgement lights winked on Kyle’s HUD as he activated his own light. Slowly, but carefully, they walked to the massive reinforced titanium door. It was slightly ajar, with only about enough space for one of them to walk through. Together they pushed the gap wider and slowly walked into the centre of the fort.

It was a similar picture to the one outside. Marines lay strewn about the snow, blood stains trailing through the white carpet. Kyle could make out the footprints of the marines’ boots as they had moved to engage the enemy. He could also make out the heavy footprints of the Brutes. It appeared they had simply walked by the marines, and then had opened fire when they were the most vulnerable. Though the marines had put up a brave fight, from the looks of the mass of spent casings, dark blood stains, and the occasional Brute corpse, they still didn’t stand a chance.

Kyle felt a moment of remorse for the fallen, and then returned his attention to the command centre. Hopefully, the security cameras had recorded the events and they could piece together what the Brutes had done next.

The walked towards the command centre carefully and quietly, their heavy boots, barely making a sound when they crunched into fresh snow. Kyle could barely see five metres in front of him, due to heavy snow fall. He found himself relying less on his eyes, but on his ears and motion sensor. They reached the command centre unchallenged and opened the door and then stepped inside.

It was a mess. Like most of his previous experience of the Brutes’ handiwork, he could easily see the signs. Plasma burns on the wall, spikes buried deep into the fort’s computers, and the mangled corpses of the command staff. Kyle assumed that the Brutes had finished them last, and had taken much sadistic pleasure in torturing them beforehand.

He tried to ignore the grizzly sight and located a computer terminal that was still in working order. He placed his hand on it, and felt Mira’s presence leave his suit, as she interfaced with the fort’s mainframe.

‘Accessing….. Ok I’m in,’ Mira confirmed.

‘Bring up the most recent security recordings, just before we arrived and display it on the terminal here,’ Caspian ordered.

Mira silently worked and the recording began on the small display. At first Kyle couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary; just two marines heading towards the front door, weapons raised. Kyle assumed they were curious about the guards who had not reported back outside the fort. They moved forward cautiously and left the door ajar.

A few minutes pasted and they didn’t return. Kyle noticed a line of footprints quietly walk into the centre of the base. Another pair followed and another. The marines, who were starting to notice this, raised their weapons in suspicion, and headed towards the centre of the fort.

And this is when the Brutes attacked, appearing throughout the base, cutting down a majority of the startled marines. The survivors desperately fought back, killing a few before they disappeared due to their active camouflage. They reappeared again, spraying another barrage at the survivors. After another quick and bloody battle, the last of the marines fell and the Brutes disappeared and the foot prints headed to the command centre. Kyle almost grimaced as he heard the screams of agony from the command staff, as the Brutes tortured them.

‘Stop the recording Mira, we’ve heard enough,’ Caspian said, sounding sickened at the screams of agony.

Kyle placed his hand on the terminal once more and felt Mira’s presence return to the back of his mind.

‘Mira, did you learn anything that could tell us where the Brutes went next? ‘Caspian asked.

‘From what I could determine from the recordings and the audio logs, they wanted something here in the command centre,’ Mira explained.

‘Any idea what they were looking for?’ Kyle asked.

‘I’m not completely sure, but I think they wanted to know the location of the generators that power the defence platforms,’ Mira said.

Kyle understood this move. Sixteen years ago, the super MAC’s had almost won the battle at Reach for the UNSC, even against superior odds. They had attempted to disable them, but were thwarted by the Spartans of that era. The Covenant had probably learned since then, that destroying the generators on the ground would disable these defences, making the planet an easy target. Though it was a cunning strategy, Kyle didn’t understand, why it was necessary, since they had already seen the destructive damage of the Forerunner battleship. It made Kyle uneasy.

Kyle was driven from his thoughts when a flurry of red dots appeared all around the command centre, and Kyle ducked as plasma fire whizzed past his head.

‘Ambush!’ Caspian cried as the Spartans regrouped and prepared to counter attack. The Brutes mobilised and then charged at the five Spartans. Kyle took a deep breath.

End of Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Fort Dakota-On the planet Sanctuary
8th December 2568 Military Calendar 15.00

Kyle exhaled as he opened fire with his MA5C. The first few rounds slammed into the wall, causing a small spray of bullet holes in the metal walls. The next volley was more promising, impacting thin air, then causing the Brutes’ camouflage to fail, revealing five of the large ape-like creatures behind them. The rest of the team got to work, quickly killing them before they disappeared.

As the last of them fell, Kyle checked his motion sensor. It was filled with red contacts. Kyle watched them as they all headed to the same point; the entrance of the command centre. Kyle aimed at the door, as did the rest of the team. The handle slowly started to turn and the door opened.

Kyle threw a grenade at the opening door. It landed perfectly at the base of the door. It erupted into an orange fire, and several Brutes were propelled across the room, slamming into the wall behind Kyle. The survivors ran away from them, their bodies slowly fading into the smoke. Kyle kept his weapon up, but the attack stopped as briefly as it had begun.

Kyle tentatively moved forward, walking over the fallen bodies. He reloaded and stepped out into the blizzard. Rifle raised, he walked through the snow. He could barely see in front him. His visor was clogged by a mass of snowflakes. Even in his temperature-regulated suit, he could feel the bitter bite of the cold.

He looked for any signs of the remaining Brutes, but he couldn’t find anything. The snow was falling too fast, covering any tracks the Brutes might have made. Blue team followed, searching the area. But still they couldn’t find anything.

‘Switch to infra-red vision, we’ll probably get a better idea were they are. Stay frosty Spartans,’ Caspian advised.

Kyle flicked on his infra-red, and the world turned to a dull blue colour, only occasionally brightened by the orange glow of his team-mates. They searched the
Fort, looking for any sign of their attackers. The Brutes had been very good to cover their tracks. Kyle couldn’t find any trace of them.

‘Mira, are they still here?’ Kyle asked.

‘From what I can tell they’re still here, watch your backs,’ Mira warned.

Kyle kept searching, he went into the barracks, which was virtually spotless, every item of clothing was placed neatly in the marines’ lockers. All the beds were made and the floors were cleaned to perfection. The only mess was the snow Kyle had trailed in when he had entered.

He was about lo leave went the floor caught his attention. The floor was slightly wet, and there was a small puddle in the middle of the room. Kyle got closer and inspected it. It appeared that water had been dripping from the roof, and that meant…..

‘Caspian, guys…. Did you check the roof?’

‘No, why?’ Shen asked.

‘Because I think our ‘friends’ might be using the roofs to evade us, we’d better check it out,’ Kyle suggested.

‘On it, we’re checking them now. Radio in if you run into any trouble,’ Caspian said.

Kyle turned and started to leave the barracks, but he heard a slight noise that only his enhanced hearing could have picked up. He was about to turn to find out what it was, when a heavy weight slammed into his side and he was knocked to the floor. He tried to roll free, but he was pulled back by his leg and he felt a few blows across his face. He remained calm and looked at his target; the large orange outline of the Brute in front of him.

He went for his rifle, but the Brute knocked it aside. It then threw him across the room. His back slammed into one of the lockers, bending the metal to an unnatural angle. He got up and pulled out his combat knife, turning the twenty-centimetre, serrated titanium carbide blade to face his opponent.

The Brute charged, but Kyle stayed were he was. He watched the charging goliath and waited. He waited until the Brute was almost on top of him and then he made his move. Using the creature’s weight against it he performed a counter throw and sent the Brute head first into the wall. Its skull made a large crack in the wall, and it got up, disorientated. Kyle ran forward and jabbed the knife into the Brute’s neck. Blood poured from the wound and trickled to the floor.

Rather than falling, the Brute became enraged and head butted Kyle, knocking him back. It ripped the blade from its neck and lunged at him. Kyle sidestepped and rolled to the side just as it came in for another attack. He found his MA5C and turned to face the Brute, weapon raised, just as it jumped at him. He opened fire, shooting one handed from the hip. Bullets tore into the figure and it roared in pain. It fell to the floor at Kyle’s feet, not moving and blood seeping from its body.

Kyle took a moment to collect himself and left the barracks. He found the rest of the team outside, by the large gate. They nodded and Caspian said,

‘Your guess was right, we found them on the rooftops, trying to evade us, but we took care of them.’

‘How many?’ Kyle asked.

‘About ten.’ Caspian said.

‘Hang on, ten? Where are the rest of them?’ Kyle said.

‘What do you mean?’ Peter asked.

‘Think about it. We killed nine in the command centre, you killed another ten around the Fort, and I just killed one in the barracks, that’s only twenty Brutes by my count,’ Kyle answered.

‘How many did the marines take out?’ Shen said.

‘Eight. I just counted,’ Mira replied.

‘So we’re missing about twelve more Brutes. Are you sure you got their original numbers correct Mira?’ Caspian inquired.

‘I’m about 95.68% sure my prediction of their numbers were correct,’ Mira said, sounding slightly offended.

‘Then where are they?’ Alex asked.

‘We’ll head back to the command centre, and look at the recordings again, see if we can find some answers,’ Caspian said.

They re-entered the command centre and re-watched the recordings. Kyle couldn’t see how they could have disappeared, as they obviously didn’t leave the command centre.

‘Wait a second. It looks like they didn’t leave, so what if there are still here?’ Shen said.

‘What do you mean?’ Alex asked.

‘They were looking for something in this room, so what if they found something? Like a secret compartment or passageway. We all know how much ONI likes to hide things, what if they hid something here?’ Shen asked.

‘I was thinking that too. Alright people let’s go over this place with a fine toothed comb. Mira, see if you can detect a secret compartment or passage below us,’ Caspian ordered.

‘Got it, pulling up records on the schematics and cross checking with ONI’s database,’ Mira said, getting to work.

The five Spartans searched the room, examining everything closely. Kyle inspected anything that might hold a lever or door behind it. He came to a broken computer terminal, which was slightly bent to the left. Kyle looked closer. No it wasn’t bent, it had been pushed.

‘Over here guys, I think I found something,’ Kyle said, motioning them over.

Caspian crouched down next to it, and pulled an optic probe from the side of his helmet, and fed the wire into the small hole between the terminal and what was below it. After a few second, he put the probe back in it original position and stood back up.

‘There’s a flight of steps underneath this terminal. Help me move this,’ Caspian said.

Kyle and Shen moved next to Caspian and together they pushed the terminal back, revealing a staircase. They activated their headlights and walked down the stone steps. It was extremely dusty and the passageway was filled with cobwebs. As they reached the end of the stairs, their way was light by small circular lights embedded into the walls.

It was a long corridor with lead to a large circular room. They moved forward, making sure they didn’t make a sound. Kyle turned his infra-red back on and then surveyed his surroundings. There was a wash of orange from the lights on the walls and the other Spartans at his side. In front of them, in the large circular room, he could see a large mass of orange figures, angrily throwing boxes across the room.

Kyle readied his weapon, and took aim. Caspian nodded and opened fire. The Brutes stopped what they were doing and turned to face their attackers. The closest Brutes’ armour crackled and failed, revealing the ape-like creatures within.

Alex primed a grenade and tossed it at the advancing Brutes. It detonated, turning all of Kyle’s view with an orange fireball. It quickly cleared and Kyle dodged a volley of plasma fire. They moved slowly forward, pushing the Brutes back. As the last Brute fell, they were practically hemmed to the back of the circular room.

Kyle turned his infra-red off and looked around. The circular room seemed to be a vault of some description, with every box in alphabetical order. Kyle crouched down and looked at one of the boxes. It was a steel lockbox and it was sealed tight. He opened the box and looked inside. It appeared to be filled with top secret documents, detailing some of ONI’s operations. Kyle assumed this place was an archive of some sort.

‘Kyle you might want to have a look at this,’ Shen said grimly.

Kyle walked over to him. He was standing by one of lockboxes that the Brutes had managed to open. They had destroyed the contents, which had left shredded paper all over the floor. Shen held a half destroyed document. He handed it to Kyle.

It seemed a normal ONI document to Kyle. It had the words ‘top secret’ and it seemed to be a research project, codenamed ‘Project LAZARUS’.

‘Ok, Shen, what’s so special about this?’ Kyle asked.

‘Look closer,’ Shen replied.

Kyle looked again and his looked at the name of the head of the project. It read Dr Claire Anderton. The attached photo was a twenty year old woman, with fair blond hair and sympathetic eyes which were very familiar.

‘It can’t be…..my mother was in ONI?’

Kyle felt numb, he couldn’t believe his eyes. He had no idea what project Lazarus was, but if his mother was involved he knew he’d have to find out.

End of Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Aboard Covenant scout ship Impending Venture-Above the planet Doisac
The Ninth Age of Reclamation-10 years ago.

The Minister of Holy Archive sat on the bridge of the small ship and looked down at the planet below and thought to himself. He had been on this planet for six years. Six long years. After their daring escape from the traitorous Sangheili, they had retreated from Covenant space for a few months. He then had asked the Jiralhanae to take him to the safest location they knew. They had chosen their homeworld, Doisac.

They had returned to their tribes and were locked in a bitter civil war with the other rival tribes. Drakus had taken control of his father’s former tribe and he was slowly converting the rival tribes to his cause one by one. In the first few years, the minister had very little to do with the conflict, but as time progressed, things had changed. After being in the presence of the Jiralhanae for so long, he had learned much of their culture, their ways, and their weaknesses. He had taken advantage of this knowledge, to manipulate the other tribes to convert them. He also advised Drakus on his strategy. So he was essentially pulling the strings from behind the scenes.

The door behind him opened and a bird-like Kig-Yar walked onto the bridge. Its spiny neck turned towards the minister and it bowed to him. His name was Zhor; the minister had personally hired him to acquire all the information he could about what was happening in the rest of the Covenant Empire.

Over the last few years it had been increasingly grim. Not long after his escape, the Great Schism had truly begun and the war had been quick and bloody. High Charity had been overwhelmed by the parasitic Flood and the only surviving hierarch, Truth had taken the Forerunner Dreadnaught at the city’s centre and taken it to the Human’s homeworld and had activated a portal to the Ark. He had been stopped by a joint Human and Sangheili taskforce, and the Ark had been destroyed.

Most of the surviving San Shyuum that had escaped High Charity had been in the fleet above the Ark, and had been killed during the fierce fighting. Only a handful of them had survived the war and the Sangheili had been very efficient in eradicating the last of them.

‘What news Zhor?’ The minister asked.

‘Not much new information sire. The Sangheili are still relatively quiet, but there has been some heavy activity on the edge of Covenant space,’ Zhor replied.

‘Please if you have any information, tell me,’ the minister said, starting to lose his patience.

‘It appears that the only other remaining San Shyuum, the minister of Tranquillity has been killed by a Sangheili strike force,’ Zhor said.

The minister absorbed this information. With the minister of Tranquillity’s death, he was the only San Shyuum left in existence.

‘Thank you Zhor, you will receive your normal payment and a bonus for this information,’ the minister said, as calmly as he could muster.

‘You’re very kind my lord. I shall return when I have more information,’ Zhor said as he turned and left the bridge.

The minister sighed deeply into his tea and took a thoughtful sip. So he was the last of his kind….. For quite a while he knew he would be one of the last of his species, but the last? He still couldn’t believe it. He sat on the bridge for quite a while, alone and deep in thoughts.

If all his brethren were dead, he was the next target. The minister himself felt he had been lucky survive as long as he had. Not long after his desperate escape from Distant Fringe he had forged reports throughout the fleets and the colonies of his death on the planet. He believed that the Sangheili had bought the fake documents, as the transmission had originated from one of their ships. Though his brethren had taken similar steps to hide themselves, they had hidden themselves on remote planets throughout Covenant space.

The minister had come here for a specific reason. The Sangheili were still wary about attacking Doisac. They still knew the Brutes had a major naval presence above the planet, even though they were usually used against each other. The minister assumed that the reason why the Sangheili hadn’t attacked was because they feared that if they attacked, the Jiralhanae would stop fighting each other, and would band together to face them. The Sangheili had led a few raids to the planet a few times, but they had been driven to a standstill by heavy resistance.

The minister then thought what his next move would be. Sooner or later the Sangheili would try again and they would probably discover him, and kill him. They only way he and his followers were going to survive was if they took the fight to the Sangheili… Unless…. The minister stroked his chin. Perhaps he should pursue the information recovered in that Forerunner tome. It had taken him several years, without his more advanced translation equipment, lost on High Charity. The tome had detailed plans of an emergency last resort, if the Ark had been compromised; something called ‘The Relay’. If the minister could find the Relay, he could begin the Great Journey and become a God, and then he would become immortal and so his species would never die and his enemies would tremble at his name.

But he was getting ahead of himself; he couldn’t go gallivanting about Covenant Space, searching for a lost Forerunner relic, especially with the Sangheili still after him. First, he’d have to rebuild the Covenant, so he would have an army to search for the relic and defend him from his enemies. To do that he needed to propel Drakus into his father’s role, as the alpha chieftain of the Jiralhanae and to accomplish that, he would need a symbol of authority….

The minister thought for a minute then had an idea. The Fist of Rukt. Tartarus’ unique hammer had been a symbol of his leadership and dominance; just what the minister needed. He had learned enough about Jiralhanae customs to know that if Drakus wielded The Fist of Rukt it would strengthen his claim to be his father’s son and his right to be the alpha chieftain.

He activated the ship’s communication channels and called Drakus on the planet.

‘Drakus, I require your presence, please return to the ship,’ the minister said calmly.

‘Understood your holiness, I will return shortly,’ Drakus growled.

The minister could hear other voices in the background; angry roars and howls of pain. He assumed that Drakus was busy putting another of the small Jiralhanae tribes down. As he waited for Drakus to return, he thought about his chief lieutenant’s progress. Over the last few years, Drakus had taken his father’s old tribe, which was a shadow of what it was when Tartarus was its leader. Since they had arrived, they had turned it into one of the largest and most powerful tribes on the planet. There were only about two major rivals left, both with charismatic and vicious leaders, who all had a valid claim for the title of alpha chieftain. One was a distant relative of Drakus’ cousin and the other chieftain was Drakus’ half brother; Burkas. The minister hoped the hammer would give Drakus the edge.

‘You summoned me my lord,’ Drakus bowed before him. He had changed quite a bit over the last few years. His brown fur was starting to get streaks of grey and he had gained several scars from the many battles he had endured.

‘Yes. I have a mission for you Drakus, a mission of vital importance, that may help you achieve victory against the other tribes,’ the minister said.

‘You are both wise and honourable your holiness. It would be my honour to obey your desires. What is the mission?’ Drakus asked.

‘I need you to retrieve your father’s hammer from the second holy ring. With it you should be able to win this war,’ the minister said with real sincerity. He wanted Drakus to succeed. The two had both become good allies over the last few years.

‘A worthy challenge sire…....I will retrieve it and then nothing shall stop us!’ He roared in approval.

The minister wished he had Drakus’ enthusiasm. The second Halo ring had been overrun by the Flood and the Sangheili had set up a strict quarantine zone around it. It would be difficult for Drakus to elude their patrols, but the minister had complete faith he could do it. His planned depended on it.

‘I shall leave shortly sire, my lieutenants shall maintain the tribe while I am gone, but I believe your superior leadership and knowledge would be better suited in running the tribe, if you would be so kind your holiness,’ Drakus said.

‘You have nothing to fear Drakus; I shall maintain the tribe while you are on your mission. I wish you the best of luck,’ the minister said.

‘Thank you sire. I shall not fail you.’

Drakus bowed then left the room. The minister was once again left alone on the bridge. He sipped his tea and looked down at the war below him. Soon the war would be over and he, with his Jiralhanae allies would be the victors. Then it would be a simple matter of taking the Covenant back piece by piece and then he could finally have his revenge. He may be the last of his kind, but he would make sure he was not forgotten.

End of Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Aboard UNSC orbital defence platform Amsterdam- in orbit above Sanctuary
9th December 2568 Military Calendar 0.900

Kyle looked out of the window and out the shining orb that was the planet below. His mind was rampant with his thoughts, he hadn’t slept much last night, and he just still couldn’t believe it. He knew his mother was clever; she had always been more of a match for Odysseus, but an ONI scientist? He still couldn’t get his head around it. She had never said anything; she had never really left the house. Could it really be true?

‘Are you alright Kyle?’ A voice said in his ear.

‘I’m okay Mira, just a little distracted, did you find anything?’ Kyle asked.

After they had returned from the mission Kyle had asked Mira to find out anything she could about project Lazarus in the ONI systems. So far there wasn’t anything of interest.

‘Sorry Kyle, whatever it was, they’ve kept any information pretty secure about it. All I’ve managed to find out it was some kind of top secret research project, started during the war with the Covenant. It was very hush hush. Only a handful knew about it. I doubt even your father was aware what was really going on,’ Mira replied.

‘Please keep trying, I need to find out what my mother was doing,’ Kyle said.

‘Of course, I’ll try my best,’ Mira said.

The room the Spartans had been given was much larger than their usual accommodation, and much more luxurious. They had a few mahogany tables, with hand carved chairs, reinforced by steel. The beds were Spartan and nothing out of the ordinary and they had a large drinking cabinet filled with amber bottles of liquid. Kyle was looking out of a large view port that looked out at the hundreds of ships and platforms.

The rest of the Spartans were also awake, and were going about their duties; staying on station until they were needed. Caspian was on the bridge with Admiral Winchester, Peter and Shen were in the armoury and Alex….well Alex was on her own in the hangar.

As much as Kyle was pre-occupied with project Lazarus, his worries about her hadn’t disappeared. Her recent behaviour still concerned him, and he hoped it wouldn’t affect her performance in the next battle, as they all needed to be focused on the mission to stand a chance. He decided that he’d wasted enough time in this room and with his thoughts. They still had a mission to finish; he had to stay focused, even with this mystery about his mother’s past.

He grabbed the equipment he needed and headed up to the bridge. It was quite an uneventful walk. Any marines or officers he met in the corridors nodded or saluted at the sight of the eight foot tall super solider in this bulky MJONLIR armour. He climbed up the last steps and stood at the reinforced double doors as they slid open and he entered the bridge.

He met up with Caspian who stood at attention by the admiral. Kyle saluted him and stood to the left of Caspian as all three of them looked at the viewscreen, which showed the tactical positions of the fleet and the defence platforms.

‘At ease,’ Winchester said, and Kyle relaxed.

‘Good to see you out of that room, how are you holding up?’ Caspian asked on the private COM.

‘I’ll be fine Caspian, I’m still focused on the mission,’ Kyle replied.

‘Good. I was going to call you anyway, as well as the others. The admiral wanted to discuss our next move and give us our orders,’ Caspian said.

Three Spartans walked onto the bridge and saluted the admiral and took up position next to them. The remained silent as Winchester began.

‘Glad to see you’re all here, I wanted to begin by congratulating you on a job well done so far, but now to business.’ He paused and then the viewscreen behind him changed to a closer view of the planet.

‘Command and most of us believe the last attack was to test us, to see how well prepared we are, and as you can probably expect, we believe they will attack again,’ Winchester continued.

‘So what’s the plan sir?’ Caspian asked.

‘After that little assault on the ground, we believe that they will target the orbital platforms generators.’

The screen shifted and looked at a large enclosed valley, a few miles south of Reflex. It focused on a set of hills, which seemed to have very little ways to enter, except for a single pathway through the hills on the other side of the valley.

‘As you can see they are already reasonably well defended naturally, but we need to get some more military force in there and we could definitely use Blue team in there,’ the admiral said.

‘Will we be the only UNSC force in the area, or will we have support?’ Caspian asked.

‘You’ll have the 102nd Drop jet battalion with you, as well as any other troops in the area. We already have some reinforcements deployed in the area,’ Winchester replied.

‘What about our primary mission? What if the Forerunner battleship shows up?’ Shen asked.

‘Reggie will remain on station during the mission, should the Battleship appear, he’ll pick you up so you can go and take it out,’ Winchester replied.

‘Understood sir. We’ll leave in the hour,’ Caspian said.

They turned and left the bridge, moving together through the station, towards the hangar, through the labyrinth of corridors and stairways.

‘You okay Kyle? Is that thing with your mother on your mind?’ Shen asked on the private COM.

‘Yeah, but I’m trying to think about the mission,’ Kyle replied.

‘I can understand that, I’m as confused about it as you are,’ Shen said.

‘I’m more confused by the fact the Covenant hasn’t attacked with their Forerunner battleship, it could easily plough through us, why would they send a scouting force?’ Peter pondered.

‘Maybe they want something on the planet, it wouldn’t surprise me, with what we’ve seen,’ Shen replied.

‘Let me guess….. They’re after our sense of humour,’ Alex said.

‘Yeah, sometimes I think your razor sharp wit is more dangerous than any blade,’ Peter added.

‘What can I say, I’ve honed my skill to deadly perfection,’ Alex sniggered.

‘Well be sure to use that wit in the next battle, as we need to stop the Covenant from taking those generators out, so we need to take them out however we can,’ Caspian said.

‘I’ll try my best Casp,’ Alex replied.

As the entered the Pelican Kyle thought about what awaited them. The Covenant would soon be back and probably in greater numbers. Kyle knew he and the rest of the team would do their part of the ground. He just hoped the fleet above the planet would as well.

End of Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Aboard UNSC Pelican- In orbit above Sanctuary
9th December 2568 Military Calendar 10.00

Kyle sat silently, as the Pelican descended towards the planet. The rest of the team had been quiet since they had left the Amsterdam. Kyle assumed they were focusing on the next mission and what awaited them, which he could understand as he was doing it himself.

Things had calmed down since they had last descended to the planet. The civilian ships, which before had been in a frenzied retreat, were now back in orbit, some heading out to the edge of the system, preparing to jump into slipspace. Kyle assumed they were getting out while they still could, as the Covenant would soon return and they didn’t want to get caught in the ensuing battle.

They elegantly descended into the atmosphere and the dropship rocked from side to side in the thickening air. Kyle stood and headed to the back of the Pelican and looked out at the rolling hills rushing below them. The brownish-green of the fields below were odd to Kyle, having grown up in South Africa, and then Keyes Island, which was tropical, but it was strangely familiar to him, as if this had been in these fields before. He shrugged off the feeling and looked at their target.

The area looked almost exactly as it had in the holographic representation he had seen on the Amsterdam, the main difference it was much larger and a few more fortifications than he had seen on the display. Kyle guessed they had only recently been put up. As they drew closer Kyle could see small figures moving about the high ridges, leading up to the hills where the generators were hidden. The Pelican moved towards these figures and landed with a slight thump.

The rear of the craft opened and they stepped out. They were greeted by three black armoured soldiers, wearing black helmets with sliver visors. Kyle instantly recognised them as Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, better known as ODST’s. They were the best of the best, and were usually the first to enter the battle. Besides the Spartans, they were the best forces in the UNSC. Kyle was glad to have them covering his back.

The closest ODST saluted, and said, ‘Sir! We’ve been ordered to escort you to the command post at the top of the hill, please follow us.’

He turned and headed up the hill, on large pathway, which looked like it had received a lot of traffic. There were Warthog tracks, Scorpion treads and hundreds of footprints. Kyle was impressed with the scale of the operation. They weren’t messing around, they seemed to be well stocked for the battle; he saw men busy digging and reinforcing foxholes, and setting traps at the base of the hill. In the distance, Kyle could just make out some ODST’s on the ridges above the valley’s entrance, setting up sniping points.

As they reached the top of the hill Kyle inspected the base. It seemed to have a similar layout to the Fort he had seen yesterday, a central command post, a barracks, and several other buildings. The only real difference that these seemed to have been constructed recently, and were full of marines and ODST’s going about their allotted tasks. Kyle saw large AA guns spread throughout the base. If the Covenant came by air, they would be met quickly with a barrage of return fire. Watchtowers guarded the perimeter and machine gun turrets were spread tactically to attack any forces that came up the hill.

They were lead into the command centre were a man in black armour stood. He was lean and muscular, with a scar running across his the left side of his chin and neck. He had short black hair and cold green eyes. On his lapel, Kyle could see a single sliver star; a major. Caspian moved to the front and saluted the senior officer. The major’s face broke into a small smile as he returned the salute.

‘I’m Major O’Brian; it’s an honour to meet the fabled Blue team.’

‘Likewise Major, what’s the situation?’ Caspian replied politely.

‘As you probably saw sir, we’re setting up shop and making the area as fortified as we can before the Covenant show up,’ O’Brian said, moving towards a small holographic tank.

‘Nelson, are you online?’ O’Brian asked.

A blue light flashed and a small flicker appeared. He appeared to be in an ancient naval uniform. He wore a curved hat, and held a telescope in one hand and looked at them with furious intensity.

‘Yes Major, I’m at full operational status, ready for your commands sir.’

Kyle knew that he was a ‘Dumb AI’ as he seemed to lack the personality that Mira had. He heard her give an amused snigger.

‘Something funny Mira?’ Kyle asked on the private COM.

‘Nothing, really, he just reminds me of AI I worked with back on Keyes Island. He was very technical as well,’ Mira said.

‘Show the Spartans our strategy please Nelson,’ O’Brian asked.

The screen behind Nelson turned to a two dimensional display of the terrain. Green dots indicated all the friendly forces in the valley. It also showed all the buildings. Kyle made out all the buildings he had seen. The screen changed and blips of red headed from the other side of the valley.

‘When the Covenant arrives, they will either come from the air, or from the valley entrance here,’ Nelson said, pointing at the entrance with an out stretched finger.

‘We’ve set up AA guns set throughout the valley, and have several squads of marines armed with missile pods for a mobile AA force. If they come from the ground, we will move our heavy armour; five Scorpions to these positions.’

He pointed at five points in five small trenches in the middle of the defences.

‘From here they can do the most damage to their armour, while the nearby turrets and foxholes can take care of the infantry.’

‘What’s the plan if those areas are comprised?’ Caspian asked.

‘All our forces will fall back to the top of the hill, and use our second ring of defences to hold them off. The traps at the base of the hill should buy the marines enough time to fall back, and take out some of the Covenant forces as well. If this second line is broken, all the surviving UNSC forces will fall back to the entrance to the generators’ facility, and make our last stand there,’ Nelson finished.

‘Any other questions?’ O’Brian asked.

‘No sir,’ Caspian said.

‘Good, I suggest you head over to the armoury and stock up on some weapons and ammo. We don’t know how long we have until they come back,’ O’Brian advised.

The Spartans headed out of the command post and walked over the large metallic armoury. It was stockpiled with weapons and heavy cases of ammunition. Kyle walked to the weapon holders and picked a Battle Rifle and picked up ten spare magazines. He grabbed two M6G pistols and strapped them to his legs. He looked at the back of the armoury and his eyes were attracted to a green weapon. He instantly recognised it as a Spartan laser. He slung it to one shoulder and activated the weapon, then slung it onto his back.

Most of his fellow Spartans were similarly armed, with Alex with a sniper, and Caspian had grabbed a M90 shotgun, and Shen looked pleased with M41 rocket launcher he sported over one shoulder.

‘You always go for the big guns don’t you Shen?’ Peter said.

‘What can I say? I’m just a sucker for weapons that can level half a football field,’ Shen said.

‘Just don’t point that thing at me; we’ve got enough to worry about, without you blowing me to hell,’ Peter replied.

‘Don’t worry I don’t miss my targets……most of the time,’ Shen laughed.

‘Well after that reassuring statement, I think it’s time we moved,’ Caspian said.

They walked outside and surveyed the area. Kyle was about to head towards a barracks, when he saw seven figures heading directly towards them. They weren’t in the black armour of ODST, but an olive green. As they got closer Kyle recognised their armour as MJONLIR.

Two of the figures were slightly shorter than the other five and Kyle instantly recognised them.

Caspian gave an amused huff, and walked over to the other Spartans. The nearest Spartan, one of the shorter ones, went over to Kyle and etched a smile on his visor.

‘Nice to see you again Kyle.’

‘You too Brandon, is this your new unit?’ Kyle asked.

Brandon-197 was one of the surviving members of Team Sigma, along with Alice-236, which Kyle had met one his last mission. He was glad to see them as they have proved themselves in that last mission and Kyle deeply respected them.

The other five Spartans were also familiar, but Kyle hadn’t seen them for a long time.

‘Good to see you Caspian after all these years, Red team is yours to command.’

‘It’s nice to see you too David.’

End of Chapter 11.

Chapter 12

ONI training facility C-88- Keyes Island
15th April 2558 Military Calendar 0.800

David-031 stood to attention when Chief-062 entered the cramped Pelican. The ten children that stood in the dropship were laden down with survival gear and a small parachute.

‘At ease,’ Chief-062 said. She looked at all of them then continued.

‘Today’s exercise is king of the hill, but with a bit of a twist; you’ll be competing against each other and the terrain.’

She pointed down at the dense jungle rolling beneath them.

‘Not only will you have to watch out for the other teams, but you’ll have to keep an eye out for the local wildlife.’

David was not frightened by this warning. He knew he would be fine, over the last five years of training, the brutal regime, the hours of honing his body and mind for battle, he knew he wouldn’t fail.

‘Blue team, you’re up first, then Red team. The other teams are being deployed as we speak, so you’d better be on your toes when you land,’ Chief warned them.

David looked at the five figures that walked to the edge of the Pelican. Over the last few years a bit of a rivalry had grown between Red and Blue team, with Blue team usually winning the contests, with his team right behind.

Not today, he told himself, looking at his team-mates. Leon- 048, who was a thin child, with sleek black hair and dark eyes. Sarah-072 who had short ginger hair and freckles, and was beaming the rest of the team. Vladamir-023 had ghostly white skin and even darker hair than Leon. The last member of his team was Claire-053, who had raven black hair and was rather distant from the rest of them.

As for himself, he was rather tall for his age, and had straw-coloured hair and hazel eyes. He had taken up the role of their leader and he felt that they usually did a good job, he relied on his team and they relied on him. They were a very close knit group, and that’s why David didn’t want to lose. He didn’t want to disappoint his team again.

‘We’re over the drop zone in five. Get ready Spartans,’ Chief said.

David and the rest of his team waited patiently as Blue team got into position and prepared to jump. The first one to jump was their leader Caspian with Peter right behind him. He reminded David of Vladimir, but he was much more serious than him; Vladimir liked to crack a few jokes from time to time. The girl in their team; Alex came next, and then the black boy called Shen.

Then at last, the final member, called Kyle stood at the edge and hesitated. He turned and gave a wink in their direction as he jumped off.

‘Show off. I hope I’ll get a chance to pound his face in later,’ Leon angrily murmured beside David.

‘All right, it’s your turn Red team, good luck,’ Chief said.

David stood at the edge of the Pelican and felt the searing morning wind whistle in his ears. He could barely see with the wind blowing the moisture out of his eyes. He nodded to his team-mates took a deep breath and jumped.

He could feel his stomach rising up to his chest as he plummeted. He grabbed the cord on his right arm and tugged it, releasing the parachute. He felt it deploy and he was yanked upwards, and then he slowly descended. He hit the trees and cut the cords and landed on all fours.

The landing had winded him, so he took a minute to catch his breath and then stood up. He climbed up the nearest tree and looked up at the dark sky. It was slowly brightening and he could see the rising red of the sun just over the tree tops. He could just make out the running lights of the Pelican. As he watched he saw his team jump out and descend together, heading towards the lake, just a few minutes walk from his position.

He carefully got out of the tree and jogged over to the lake. It shimmered in the morning light. He rendezvoused with his team and they crouched in the brush, planning their next move.

‘Where’s the hill?’ Vladimir asked.

David pulled out his map and pointed at a black ‘X’ on it.

‘Here. So from our present location I’d say we’re a couple of miles away from it,’ David guessed.

‘How long do you think it would take to get there?’ Sarah asked.

‘With this equipment, the terrain and the distance, I’d say a couple of hours,’ Leon said.

David looked at the others and thought about the flag in his backpack. To win, he needed to place it at the top of the hill and hold the area for five minutes. He had no idea how close the other Spartan teams were, and some of the other teams would no doubt have set up a few traps. So they needed to carefully move as fast as they could.

‘Alright team let’s move, Claire you take point. The rest of us will be right behind you. Keep you eyes open for traps,’ David ordered.

Claire had been silent all through the journey and since they landed, but she nodded and moved in front of them, and crouched through the underbrush, her eyes darting around.

David had always wondered why she was so distant from the others, Sarah had said that Claire had told her that she had been captured by the Brutes and she had seen what they did to prisoners. She barely escaped with her life.

He couldn’t blame her; most of the children here had seen some horrible things before they came here. They’d all been in orphanages a few years ago, and before that most of them had had parents, and family. The end of the war against the Covenant had changed that however. Though the occupation of Earth had been short, it had been brutal. The children here were evidence of that brutality.

David felt he was one of the lucky ones, he had managed to avoid most of the horror of the war, but his parents had died in a car crash, not long after. It was slightly ironic to David, that his parents had survived one of the most costly wars in human history, only to die in a road accident. That irony didn’t comfort him though. The training he had received here did. It made him feel strong and it gave his life focus, as he had a clear purpose; to defend the civilians of the UNSC.

He forgot about the past for a second and checked his surroundings. They’d been walking for over an hour without any incident. Then Claire suddenly stopped dead and remained still in the thick undergrowth. David and the rest of the team did the same.

‘What is it?’ Leon asked.

‘Shhhhh,’ Claire replied as she held up her hand for a moment.

In the clearing in front of them, David could make out a figure, a small child. It was a girl with blond hair and a scar by her right eye. David recognised her as Alex from Blue team. From the looks of it, she hadn’t seen them. David saw this as an opportunity, she was on her own, and if she went missing, it would slow Blue team down, giving them a chance.

‘You guys thinking what I’m thinking?’ He whispered to the rest of the team.

‘Yeah, let’s take her out,’ Vladimir replied.

‘You do realise it’s a trap don’t you?’ Claire retorted.

‘We’ll have to take that chance, if we can incapacitate her, it might give us the edge we need to win this time,’ David replied, urgency in his voice.

‘What’s the plan?’ Leon asked.

‘You and Vlad creep round to the sides, Claire and Sarah will hit her from behind, and I’ll get her head on,’ David said, grabbing a rock from the dirt.

‘You not going to hurt her are you!?’ Claire asked in horror, seeing David with the heavy rock in his hand.

‘No. I’m just knock her out, the rest of her team will come looking for her, and wake her up. Any more questions?’ He asked.

They remained silent. He could see Alex was starting to leave the clearing.

‘All right, then let’s do it, and quickly.’

They rushed to their positions as fast as they could. When they were in position they charged at the unsuspecting Spartan. Alex looked around in surprise at the five of them surrounding her.

‘All five of you against me? Is it a special occasion?’ She giggled.

‘Yeah, we’re going to knock you out and leave you in this clearing,’ Leon said smugly.

‘Well that’s no way to treat a girl. And besides you forgot one thing,’ She said with an evil glint in her eye.

‘What?’ Vladimir asked.

‘This.’

Four children leapt from the trees and pelted them with small rocks. David raised his arms to shield himself from the barrage. Alex leapt away from them and slammed her foot in Leon’s neck. He went down in a heap. The rest of Blue team moved in and knocked them down one by one, David was the last to fall, as he felt a fist slam into his stomach.

He lay on his knees gasping for air as he looked up at his attacker. Caspian.

‘You really should know better David. Attacking a fellow Spartan?’ Caspian asked.

‘I just thought it would give the edge we needed to win,’ he managed to gasp out.

‘Winning isn’t everything, you need to think about your team, and most importantly any threats to you and their survival.’

‘You’re right, I wasn’t thinking straight, I let my desire to win cloud my judgment and walked right into a trap,’ David said bitterly.

Caspian outstretched a hand, which David grasped. Caspian beamed.

‘Now, how about a second chance, this time, on equal footing? We’ll let you get your team together and we’ll race you to the flag,’ Caspian nodded to him and headed over to his team.

David headed to his, who all looked angry and disappointed.

‘I’m sorry, I messed up badly, but we’ve got a second chance. You with me?’ He asked holding out his hand.

After a long pause they all grabbed it and stood united.

Caspian turned to them, ‘You ready?’

‘Ready Caspian, may the best team win.’

The ten children ran out of the clearing and to the large hill in the distance. At the end of the day, David’s team once again came second, coming only just behind Blue team, but David and his team didn’t care. They had learnt that day, that success wasn’t only judged by winning, but by the strength of your team. David knew that one day, his team would shine.

End of Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Aboard UNSC orbital defence platform Amsterdam- in orbit above Sanctuary
9th December 2568 Military Calendar 13.00

Admiral Winchester stood and looked out at the darkness of space. The last few years had been a trying time for the UNSC, and humanity. Even though fifteen years had passed since the end of the war with the Covenant, the scars from that war remained.

He had been there above Earth, as they had desperately taken the planet back from the invaders. In the end, only a handful of ships survived, and humanity were down to their last men. All the other colonies had been burned, billions dead and left lifeless. This had left them picking up the pieces and trying to recover from a near fatal wound.

Fifteen years on, he had been impressed with their progress. They had been able to rebuild most of the cities on Earth, and they had turned their attention back to the stars. Even though, they hadn’t even begun to recuperate the numbers they used to have, with all those born after the war, still in their teens.

That hadn’t stopped people though; they were determined to leave Earth and start anew somewhere else. With the UNSC fleet slowly rebuilding, and the cries to find new planets to colonise, they had eventually buckled and set up several colonies, Sanctuary being one of the first. Over the last few years a few more colonies had been established, all very close to Earth. They weren’t very populated though, with only about 10,000 on each of the other colonies, with Earth still being the most populated, with around a million inhabitants.

One of the first things people had been worried about during the first great exodus from Earth after the war was their safety. After the Covenant had nearly made the human race extinct, people were obviously more wary about the dangers of space travel. And thus the promise of orbital defence platforms over every new colony was born.

It was a nightmare to achieve this promise however. The resources required to create a defence ring over all UNSC planets had almost been impossible, and they didn’t have enough staff to man them. A few compromises had been made. Frontier didn’t have a defensive ring, which in hindsight had been a mistake, as it had probably been one of the reasons it was vulnerable to attack which had lead to its destruction last month. Also not all the platforms had a crew. Some were automated and controlled remotely by a central station, manned by a human crew. While this meant they avoided the problem of a lack of staff, it meant that if these central stations were destroyed, the remote stations would no longer function.

The admiral forgot about the past for a second and looked out at the UNSC vessels that patrolled at the edge of the defensive ring. Command had been adamant that this colony had to hold, which was why he had been hastily promoted and put in charge of the defence of the planet. Winchester knew that the brass back home were obviously terrified of the Forerunner battleship and its incredible power, everyone was.

They’d lost two colonies in just under a month. It was like the old days during the war, when day by day they had received reports of yet another colony’s destruction. The only real difference was that this time they had very few colonies to lose.

That was probably why most of the Fleet had been deployed here. It was essentially their last stand. Their final major staging point before Earth. The lines had to hold, if they were going to have a chance of surviving. While the pressure would have gotten to some men, especially with the high cost of failure, it didn’t faze him. He’d fought do or die missions before, and he knew what was at stake.

‘Sir here the latest reports from the sensing stations,’ a young lieutenant said, looking nervous.

Winchester assumed he only been a child at the end of the last war, and this was his first real battle. Winchester couldn’t blame him, he’d been nervous when he’d first fought the Covenant, all those years ago.

‘Thanks son. Don’t worry, we’ll be fine. We’ve stopped the Covenant before and we can do it again,’ He said, placing a reassuring hand on the Lieutenant’s shoulder.

‘Yes sir!’ He beamed as he saluted Winchester and then left to attend his duties.

Winchester wished he felt as confident as he’d just sounded. The Covenant weren’t pushovers, and they’d only won by a stroke of luck last time, and they didn’t have an almost unbeatable ship back then. But they did have one trick up their sleeves; the Spartans. They had help turn the tide of the war last time, and this generation of Spartans were definitely living up to their predecessors’ legendary reputation. He had been deeply impressed by the ones he had worked with before; Blue team.

He had been pleasantly surprised when they had shown up for his briefing; it was like fate had conspired for them to meet again and finish what they started a few months ago. But he put this aside almost instantly, he still had a job to do, and even though he was glad to see them again, they all had an important mission ahead of them.

With these thoughts in his head, he looked at most recent reports from the sensing stations. Since the attack he had ordered slipspace probes to be released every hour and the reports were then to be immediately sent to the Amsterdam. While some may have considered this to be a little extreme, recent events had shown Winchester, that you couldn’t be too careful.

He eyed the reports as he sipped down a warm cup of coffee, his eyes darting at the readings and calculations. Everything looked in order, until he saw a large image on the final report taken. He analysed it and compared the shape to the known shape of the Forerunner battleship. He winced as it wasn’t a match, the reading was much larger than the ancient ship, and none of the edges matched its angular shape.

So it isn’t the battleship, he told himself, which gave him a slight feeling of relief, which left him as he checked it against the shapes of known Covenant vessels. It was a perfect match. The size of the disturbance meant there were a lot of them, far more than he had anticipated. He estimated the enemy fleet rivalled that of the fleets that had destroyed Reach and many other UNSC worlds.

He shouted to the nearest lieutenant, ‘All hands battle stations! Get the MAC charged. Get me the fleet now!’

‘Yes sir!’ the Lieutenant replied, as the bridge crew rushed to their stations and went about his orders.

‘Sir, got a COM Channel with Fleet Admiral Roslo,’ the communications officer said.

Good. Winchester said to himself. Roslo was a little arrogant, but he wasn’t a fool, if Winchester told him of the impending threat, he’d understand and act accordantly.

‘Put him on,’ Winchester ordered.

‘What’s all the commotion for Admiral?’ He asked. His thinning grey hair and portly features did not disguise his over-confident grin.

‘We’ve got a lot of Covenant ships coming in, I suggest you bring the fleet closer the platforms and bring your ships to battle stations, we need all the firepower we can get ready before they arrive,’ Winchester said urgently, as he didn’t know how much time he had left.

‘Understood. I bringing them back ASAP, I’ll have our guns ready as soon as we regroup around the platforms. Roslo over and out.’ The feed when dead as Roslo cut the communications.

‘Send an urgent warning to all civilian ships at the edge of the system to jump to slipspace on an outward trajectory from the other colonies. Any other non-UNSC craft should fall back behind the defensive ring or back to the planet itself,’ Winchester said.

He watched as the large UNSC ships slowly moved back towards them and then swivelled a hundred and eighty degrees to face the blackness of space.

‘Slipspace ruptures, directly off our battle cluster!’ A panicking ensign said.

‘Show me, maximum magnification,’ Winchester replied calmly.

The screen shifted to the blackness of space, which then glistened white as the Covenant ships tore back into their reality. It was then Winchester’s fears proved to be genuine; he could make out around a hundred Covenant ships, all in perfect formation as they dropped out of slipspace as one, then headed straight for them. He could make out several carriers, as well as many capital ships and destroyers, all with their weapons charging for the first barrage.

The bridge crew looked stunned at the mass of ships heading towards them; most of them had never seen such a terrifying display of force. He knew he’d have to take charge.

‘Prepare to fire, on my mark, let’s send these bastards to hell.’

He watched as the Covenant ships got closer and closer, looking eager for blood. He waited until the first wave of ships were in range and then he shouted,

‘Open fire!’

End of Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Aboard Covenant scout ship Impending Venture-Above the planet Doisac
The Ninth Age of Reclamation-10 years ago.

The minister sat impatiently on his anti-gravity throne as he listened to the latest reports from the surface. Drakus had been away on his mission for three weeks now, and during those three weeks he had been running Drakus’ large tribe from orbit. So far it had not been much of a challenge; the other rival clans were pre-occupied fighting against each other. He had only had to deal with some minor raids on the borders of their territory, nothing he couldn’t handle. The attackers had quickly been taken care of.

But this recent news troubled him. It appeared that Burkas’ tribe were close to eliminating the last other opposing tribe, run by one of Drakus’ distant relative. The minister knew if that tribe fell, it would mean Burkas would turn his attention to his half-brother’s tribe, and the last battle for supremacy would begin. The minister wished that Drakus was here, he was the one who could defeat Burkas, while he was simply the puppet master, pulling the strings from behind the scenes. He was not ready to reveal himself to the other Jiralhanae. When Drakus took complete control and became the alpha chieftain, he would make his presence known, as the last surviving Prophet, and he would call them to his cause, under the leadership of Drakus. That is of course, if everything went to plan.

Drakus’ absence did concern the minister deeply. When he had first ordered Drakus to the second Halo ring to retrieve the Fist of Rukt he knew it wasn’t going to be a simple mission. The Sangheili patrolled the system, and the ring was infested with the dreaded parasite.

He had last seen him when he departed from the bridge and had taken another Covenant ship alone, to the system. The minister had originally thought it would have taken a week or so to complete the mission, but Drakus had not returned. He decided to wait another week or so, but still Drakus had not come back yet.

Had he been killed or captured? Or even worse, infected by the Flood? These scenarios had all run through his mind during the last few days. He was beginning to contemplate who could replace him if he died, as Drakus’ lieutenants were hardly the best candidates to run the tribe and follow his commands; they lacked his devotion.

He was broken from these thoughts when the intercom chimed.

‘What is it?’ He asked calmly.

‘My Lord, a ship just jumped out of slipspace, it matches Drakus’ ship, he has returned sire,’ a deep Jiralhanae voice replied, with a bit of excitement in its voice.

‘Good. Allow him to dock and prepare a welcoming party at the airlock. I’ll be there shortly,’ He turned off the device and prepared to leave.

So Drakus had returned. He felt a slight feeling of joy at the news his champion had survived the trials he had set him. Hopefully he could now instigate the next part of his plan.

He calmly glided over to the airlock, which connected the two ships together. The minister was flanked by eight muscle-bound Jiralhanae, all in golden armour, just to be on the safe side, he couldn’t be too careful. The airlock hissed with venting air and it opened revealing Drakus carrying a large hammer in his hand. Its top was purple and had four protrusions of sliver metal with two on the back. The Fist of Rukt.


‘I have done as you commanded my lord, I have retrieved the hammer,’ Drakus said triumphantly.

‘Congratulations Drakus, you may tell me all about your mission went in my quarters, and then I shall explain the next step of my plan,’ the minister replied.

They walked in silence to the minister’s quarters and the two of them walked in side. The minister sat there and listened as Drakus recalled all that had happened to him since he departed three weeks ago.

When he had arrived the Holy ring, he had lurked at the edge of the system, watching the Sangheili patrols patiently, bidding his time, learning their patrol routes and patterns. When he felt he had them memorised, he moved, speeding past the patrols and heading into the ring’s atmosphere before the Sangheili even knew he was there. He took a Seraph fighter down to the surface and headed to the control room. Drakus had described the ring’s surface was infested with Flood spores. All the ground underneath his feet had been covered in the parasite’s organic mass. He had also noted that it was slowly dying.

He had made his way to the control room, meeting limited resistance. He said he had been occasionally ambushed by a pack of infection forms and he went up against a combat form once or twice, but there wasn’t as much of the parasite as he had expected. The minister assumed they were in hibernation, or more had been on High Charity than previously believed.

Drakus had bested them and proceeded to the control room. He had discovered that the only way to enter was by air. So he searched for a useable vehicle he could use. He said he found a serviceable Banshee and used it to enter the control room. The front was still a mess. He said it had taken a while to claw his way through the debris at the front door. The entire entrance had been opened by two bombardments with a Scarab’s primary cannon. It appeared that since the end of the war, it had caved in under the stress of the weakened structure.

Eventually Drakus said had broken through after hours of digging. He said inside the structure was relatively intact. It was a simple task for him to enter the control room. Inside, he found the structure had been separated into three levels, with his father’s hammer on the second level down. With a moment’s hesitation, he had jumped down and collected the weapon. It was covered with dust and had been unceremoniously been dumped where the mighty chieftain had fell.

Having retrieved the weapon, Drakus said he had carefully climbed to the highest level, by leaping with all his strength into the hole on each level. He then told the minister he simply jumped down to the catwalk and backtracked to the entrance, and then to his ship. The final trial had been eluding the Sangheili patrols as he left the ring, as they already suspected a ship had got past them, and they were on high alert for intruders. Drakus explained he had spent most of the time on his mission waiting for the patrols to die down so he could make his escape. After a week or so, he saw his chance and blasted out of the ring’s atmosphere and jumped into slipspace.

As Drakus finished his story, the minister had to say he was impressed.

‘You have done well Drakus. Your actions have aided me and the Journey, now we have one more task to perform, and then we can truly begin the reformation of the Covenant,’ the minister said.

‘Anything sire,’ Drakus replied. His unwavering loyalty was a great asset to the minister and his plans.

‘We need to end this civil war and get all the Jiralhanae under our banner. With them we can reclaim some of the other species and make our enemies suffer for their transgressions,’ the minister replied, malice in his voice as he thought the Sangheili that sought him.

‘What must be done?’ Drakus asked.

Straight to the point. A useful trait the minister told himself.

‘You must kill Burkas, and take over his clan. Then you can become the alpha chieftain of the Jiralhanae,’ the minister explained.
‘What about the other chieftain, and how can we defeat him? He has many troops as we do. It would be a costly battle. But no matter if that it your will I shall obey,’ Drakus said.

‘I would not concern yourself with the other chieftain, he will soon be destroyed by Burkas’ forces, and then that is when we shall strike, with minimal bloodshed,’ the minister smiled with the ingenuity of his plan.

‘What are you suggesting?’ Drakus said, sounding confused.

‘Surely you have no forgotten your own customs? You will challenge his dominance as a chieftain and fight a contest to the death, and the victor will become the next alpha chieftain,’ the minister replied.

He took pleasure in revealing his plan; he was using the Jiralhanae’s customs and laws to his advantage.

‘Of course, how could I have forgotten one of our most sacred traditions? Thank you for reminding me of it my lord. Your knowledge of our ways is impressive for an outsider,’ Drakus replied, sounding slightly embarrassed.

The minister was slightly amused by Drakus’ embarrassment and his attempt at a compliment. He knew the Jiralhanae weren’t the most civil of creatures, but it showed he had their respect…a powerful tool for him to manipulate for his own goals.

‘Thank you Drakus for your informative report on your mission. I’ll assume you are tired after the journey. Leave me now and rest. Tomorrow when Burkas emerges victorious, we shall usher in the challenge.’

Drakus bowed and left his quarters. The minister sat there for a time, contemplating what would happen next. The stage was set, and his pawns were moving, he could only hope Drakus could best his half-brother, or his entire plan would unravel. He quashed such feelings, as the outcome would be decided tomorrow. The minister settled himself down and went to sleep. They had an important challenge awaiting them, one they could not fail.

End of Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Aboard UNSC orbital defence platform Amsterdam- in orbit above Sanctuary
9th December 2568 Military Calendar 13.20

‘Open fire!’

Winchester felt the ground beneath his feet rumble as the MAC fired. Hundreds of slugs shot out of the platforms and hurtled towards the advancing mass that was the Covenant fleet. Most the shots were clear misses, as they flew harmlessly into space. The rest hit their targets, slamming into several destroyers, tearing through the ships and cleanly gutting them. They arced out of control and floated lifeless in the void. Their first shot had taken out about eight ships. Impressive at this range, but they needed to destroy or disable as many as possible in the second barrage if they were to stand a chance of firing a third.

The menacing sight of bulbous Covenant fleet drew closer and closer, when the orbital platforms opened fire again. Around half of the shots missed. Winchester cursed the lack of an AI coordinating the firing trajectories, as it was obvious that some of the platform’s commanders were panicking and firing too quickly, not thinking about their shots and it was costing them.

Luckily some of the slugs hit their targets, sending a formation of ten capital ships and five destroyers into disarray, as the rounds tore through them, fatally wounding the massive warships. Winchester assessed the battle so far. They’d managed to take out about a fifth of their fleet, but they were almost in firing range. When that happened, it would be touch and go whether they’d be able to take them out, before they knocked out enough platforms to continue towards the planet unchallenged.

‘Send a message to the other platforms; tell them to hold their fire until I give the order to fire,’ Winchester said.

‘Message sent sir. The other platforms have confirmed the order,’ the communications officer replied.

The next wave of Covenant ships bore down on them, their plasma batteries turning red as they prepared to fire the minute they got in range. Winchester waited. He waited until they were about to get in range and then he shouted at the top of his lungs.

‘Fire!’

Once again the deck rumbled as the MAC fired. The slugs shot out into space and hurtled towards the advancing ships. This time Winchester had aimed his shots perfectly. Just as the first wave of ships entered firing range they were met by a heavy barrage of MAC fire. The heavy rounds tore into the ships and they were stopped dead in their tracks. Atmosphere vented from them as the rounds ripped through the Covenant ships’ hulls. Their running lights flickered and went out. Some even exploded into balls of blue fire as rounds penetrated their cores.

Winchester assessed the damage and smiled. Around twenty warships had been bearing down on them, now they were either destroyed or disabled. A few of the MAC’s had made it past the nearest ships and had destroyed a few of the incoming ships. Now between them and the rest of the Covenant fleet were the dead hulks of their fallen brethren.

‘Sir look!’ An officer said pointing at the disabled ships.

Small craft were flying out of their hangars. At first Winchester thought they were escape pods, but as they got closer he realised that they were landing craft, guarded by a flight of Seraph fighters. Winchester knew what they were trying to do. As their ships were dead in space, they were trying to slip their craft past the UNSC defences and down to the generators below. He knew he’d have to stop them. He couldn’t hit them with the MAC, they were too small and he needed every shot for the bigger threat of the Capital ships.

‘Get the Fleet Admiral now!’ He barked as he punched in more targeting trajectories for the next wave of the Covenant fleet.

‘Sir we have him,’ the communication officer said looking up at him.

‘Put him on,’ Winchester said, sending the trajectories to the other orbital platforms.

‘Roslo here, what do you need Admiral?’

‘The Covenant are trying to get past us with their small landing craft and fighters. I need you to get your Longswords on them ASAP, before they can land,’ Winchester said urgently.

‘Understood, my boys will keep them busy for you. Roslo out.’

The Covenant fleet was moving, the closest ships were about to reach the hulks of the disabled ships. Then there were blue lights and the disabled ships were consumed with plasma.

‘What the hell are they doing? Why are they destroying their own ships?’ An ensign thought out loud.

‘They’re clearing the way for the next wave, by removing any obstacles in their way, Human or Covenant, so they can get in the best firing positions,’ Winchester said grimly watching as the Covenant ships burned as they were hit repeatedly by their former comrades.

‘But that’s barbaric!’ The ensign said in horror.

‘There is a reason why we call them ‘Brutes’ ensign. That’s why we can’t let them through. They’ll show the same courtesy to the colony below us.’

As the last ship was reduced to a small heap of burning wreckage, the Covenant fleet advanced and once again entered firing range.
‘All stations fire at will. Tell Roslo his ships have permission to engage the enemy,’ Winchester ordered, looking defiantly at the bulbous craft in front of him.

If they wanted this planet, they have to fight for it.

‘All orbital defence platforms have confirmed your order. The fleet admiral has as well, he sent a brief communication saying the Longswords managed to take out most of the fighter escort and about half of the landing craft, but they rest are heading planet side,’ The communications officer said, sounding worried.

‘Then, it’s down to the Spartans below. Tell them they have incoming Covenant dropships,’ Winchester said.

‘Message sent. They are preparing for incoming hostiles,’ the communications officer finished.

Good Winchester thought to himself. At least they were on site and waiting for the Covenant, unlike Reach where they had had to make their way there, which cost the lives of the defenders already at the generators. Hopefully this time, they might survive with fewer casualties.

He looked at the ensuing chaos as the two fleets met in space. Roslo and his ships were heavily outnumbered and outgunned, but they were keeping the Covenant fleet distracted, giving the defence platforms time, to recharge their MAC’s and support them. Still it wasn’t looking good. Around half the Covenant ships remained and they were all nearly in firing range. Once they got past Roslo’s ships, it would be down to simple luck if they were able to repel them before they took out enough human controlled platforms. Winchester gritted his teeth and planned the next targeting trajectories for the platforms under his command. He wasn’t going down without a fight; he just hoped the Covenant was going to be the side that gave first, or else all of this would be for nothing.

End of Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Omega base, by the orbital defence generators- on the planet Sanctuary
9th December 2568 Military Calendar 13.20

Kyle stood looking at the preparations for the eventual Covenant attack. They had just heard that the Covenant had just entered the system and were heading towards the planet. Though he knew that Admiral Winchester and the fleet would do everything they could to stop the enemy forces, it was likely that they would attempt to attack the generators that powered the platforms above, and they would be waiting for them.

Caspian stood with David and Major O’Brian, as they made their last minute battle plans. As Kyle waited with the other Spartans, Brandon moved closer to speak to Kyle.

‘It’s good to see you again Kyle,’ Brandon said.

During that last mission Brandon had really started to look up to Kyle and Blue team, and they had learned to respect him and the rest of team Sigma.

‘It’s nice to see you again Brandon. So how did you and Alice join Red team?’ Kyle asked curiously.

‘It was luck really. After we got back, we needed to join a new team after you know,’ Brandon looked at the ground and sighed.

All the other members of team Sigma had died on Frontier, leaving just him and Alice. Kyle really did feel sorry for him. When he had apparently ‘died’ his team-mates had taken it very hard, and still were if Alex was anything to go by. He didn’t know what he’d do in the same circumstances.

Brandon continued, ‘Well as I was saying, we were going to be transferred into another team, probably one of the other second generation Spartan IV ones, when David asked for us to be transferred into his team.’

‘Why did he do that?’ Kyle asked.

‘He said something about us having a lot of potential and being impressed with our actions on the last mission,’ Brandon replied.

‘Well it’s good you’ve found some new team-mates. Red team are one of the best group of Spartans I’ve have the pleasure of working with. You’ll learn a lot of them,’ Kyle said.

Caspian walked over with David and all the other Spartans turned to face them as they outlined their plans.

‘All right ladies and gentlemen, these are our orders,’ David said.

Caspian continued, ‘We’ll be on the front lines, in the foxholes defending the Scorpions, as they lay heavy fire on the Covenant lines as they move into the valley. Blue team will be covering the middle, while Red team will be on the flanks.’

‘If the first line of defences is compromised, we’ll fall back to the second line, as all the other UNSC forces will, but we’ll be the last out, so be careful guys,’ David warned.

‘If that line falls as well, then as the Major said in the briefing, we’ll make our last stand at the top of the hill,’ Caspian finished.

‘Any questions?’ David asked.

None of the Spartans spoke. They all knew what they had to do.

‘Good, then we’d better get into position, we don’t know how long we have before they attempt the assault,’ Caspian said.

‘Caspian, I just intercepted an urgent message from the Amsterdam. It looks like the Covenant are on their way,’ Mira said.

‘Then we’d better get moving, double time Spartans!’ Caspian said.

They jogged down to the base of the hill where the reinforced foxholes stood. Trenches ran too and fro each one, and five large trenches housed the five scorpions. All around Kyle, marines were moving to their station manning the turrets and taking up good firing positions in the foxholes and surrounding trenches.

As Kyle jumped down and took up position in the central foxhole, with the rest of the team right behind him. The ODST’s and marines looked up in awe as the five armoured figures stood next to them, reading their weapons.

‘Blue team’s in position, what’s your status Red team?’ Caspian asked.

‘We’ve just set up shop, my team is spread a little thin Caspian, we need all the firepower you can muster from the centre,’ David replied coolly.

‘Understood. Mira, what’s the latest Intel on the Covenant?’ Caspian asked.

‘It looks like Admiral Winchester ordered a flight of Longswords to engage them. They managed to take out a few, but they managed to get quite a few landing craft and vehicles through, luckily no air units, as they were able to take out the Seraphs guarding them,’ Mira answered.

Good. Kyle thought. Without any air units they wouldn’t have to worry about death from above and they could focus on the ground units.

‘Here they come,’ Shen said, holding his rocket launcher more firmly.

Kyle could see them; there was a mass of purple blobs in the distance, which slowly grew larger and larger. Eventually he could make out the bulbous shapes of around forty Phantoms. At first it looked like they were going to try and go straight for the generators; landing on top of the base at the top of the hill. It was then the AA guns opened up.

The Phantoms dodged frantically from side to side trying to make it through the heavy barrage. Several phantoms erupted into blue flames as the guns hit their targets. Realising that this strategy wasn’t working the Phantoms quickly retreated, and landed at the mouth into the valley. They took off and headed back into space.

Kyle watched as he could just about see the Covenant army marching towards them. He could make out around a lot of Brutes. Around 200 to around 250 of them, standing out from the green of the valley in their bright power armour. It seemed the Covenant had brought out all the forces it could muster, as Kyle could make out hundreds of Grunts and Jackals, and around fifteen Hunters. He could also make out a large swarm of purple headed straight for them. They were moving incredibly fast. With them were other grey blobs as well. As they came into focus he instantly knew what they were. Ghosts and Brute Choppers.

He grabbed his Spartan laser and looked through the targeting reticule, getting ready to fire when they entered the deadly beam’s range.

‘Wait. Leave them, the major all ready has a reply to this,’ Caspian said.

Behind them, Kyle could hear the roar of many engines. Then Warthogs shot over the foxholes and charged at the advancing vehicles. There were about twenty Warthogs to about eight Choppers and twenty Ghosts so they were relatively evenly matched.

As both sides charged at one another, Kyle wondered how the fight would go, when he felt the ground rumble as the five scorpions fired. Ninety millimetres of Tungsten flew by the Warthogs and into the advancing enemy armour. A few Ghosts were stopped dead in their tracks, as the rounds tore them and their drivers to pieces. The rest of the Covenant forces moved on, ignoring the burning hulks of the Ghosts.

They Warthogs opened fire. Their heavy 12.7 millimetre triple-barrelled machine guns, ripping into the advancing Ghosts. They returned fire, firing their plasma cannons. It quickly became a bloodbath as they two sides took each other apart. The Warthogs desperately strafed from side to side, trying to avoid plasma as Ghosts and Chopper sprayed fire as they pursued them.

As the fight finished, most of the vehicles were burning hulks. The last few Warthogs danced with two Choppers. The outcome was quickly decided as the Choppers rammed into Warthogs, knocking them of balance. As they tumbled and crashed the Choppers opened fire, Killing the occupants and destroying the vehicles.

They turned and headed towards them, eager for more blood. They were met with another barrage from the Scorpions. One managed to evade the slow tank shots, while the other was too slow and was consumed.

It advanced, ignoring the fate of its brother and opened fire. Kyle kept his head down as shots whizzed passed their foxhole. The Scorpions replied with another barrage and the chopper was blown to pieces by the combined fire.

Some of the marines cheered, but Kyle remained silent. This was only the beginning. Kyle noticed four blue lights rising from the back of the Covenant lines. They rocketed into the sky, then arced downwards and headed straight for them.

‘Plasma Mortars! Get down!’ A marine shouted to the right of Kyle.

The trails of blue fire hit the ground and two of their Scorpions were destroyed, their thick armour melting by the extreme heat of the projectiles. Kyle could see four bluish purple vehicles behind the hundreds of infantry. Kyle instantly recognised them. Wraiths.

‘Kyle, Shen get out there and help our tanks take out those Wraiths before they can get another shot off,’ Caspian ordered.

Kyle jumped out of the foxhole and grasped his Spartan laser firmly. He ran across the dusty rocks that made up the hill, making himself a moving target to the large vehicles.

As he ran he looked through the weapon’s scope. Though the weapon only had a 2 times magnification factor, and was no where near as effective as a sniper rifle, it gave him a slightly larger target to aim at. He squeezed the trigger and aimed the targeting laser at one of the central Wraiths.

He could feel the weapon charging as he took careful aim and fired. The blood-red beam shot out and hit the Wraith dead centre. It detonated and turned into a flaming hulk.

He turned around to see Shen taking aim with his rocket launcher. He fired two rockets at one of the other Wraiths. They soared through the air and slammed into their target, taking out its pilot before he even knew what hit them. Two Wraiths down, two to go.

The Scorpions opened fire, trying desperately to hit the Covenant tanks before they could fire. One shot was a clean miss, hitting a pack of Brutes instead. The other hit one of the Wraiths. It armour buckled, but it held. The Wraiths returned fire, turning one of the Scorpions to molten slag.

Kyle knew they were losing the Scorpions too quickly. He needed to take out the remaining Wraiths before they could fire again. He turned to Shen, who looked at the Wraiths and nodded once. He reloaded and fired at the injured vehicle. The combination of damage it had already taken from the Scorpion and the two rockets that impacted its side was too much for it to withstand. It stopped and exploded.

The Brutes’ lines were in chaos. Kyle could see chieftains barking at the lower ranked minor to regroup and focus. Kyle used this to aim his shot and fire at the remaining Wraith, just as it fired. The tank was blown to shreds, just as its final shot destroyed the last Scorpion.

‘You did your best guys, get back here, before the Covenant get too close,’ Caspian said, in a saddened tone.

Kyle could understand why. So far the battle had been at a stalemate, neither side showing any advantage over the other. The death of two Spartans could quickly change this. He quickly returned to his foxhole, Shen right behind him.

As they returned to their original firing positions he could see the Covenant forces heading straight for them. Grunts were in the front lines, charging at them in droves. Jackals formed a large phalanx behind them, protecting the main Brute force. Finally behind them were the high ranking Brute chieftains and the large Hunters. They were getting closer and closer, until it felt like the entire valley was covered in them. Kyle shouldered his laser and took out his battle rifle. He aimed the weapon and waited until the Covenant were in range.

‘All forces open fire. Let’s send these Covenant Bastards back to hell!’ O’Brian shouted over the COM.

The thunderous sound of hundreds of guns firing at once almost deafened Kyle. Bullets tore into the first line of troops, cutting down the small waddling Grunts. Most of the survivors threw plasma grenades or charged pulling grenades from their belts and screaming in terror. Most of the grenades went over their lines, but a few blew a few of the foxholes open, killing their occupants. All the Kamikaze Grunts were killed before they got to close.

They quickly re-organised just as the Jackals got into range. The marines gave them everything they had, but their shields were overlapped perfectly, and they couldn’t find a weak spot in the formation.

‘Switch to grenades, make a hole,’ Caspian shouted, priming a grenade. It landed in the centre of the slowly moving line of Jackals and detonated, sending several of the bird-like creatures flying. The Jackals nearby were stunned and were quickly taken down. Many marines followed Caspian’s example and a few seconds later, even more Jackals were sent flying, leaving huge holes in their formations.

The Jackals desperately tried to reform the phalanx, but they were finished off before they had a chance. This left the Brutes, who didn’t seem concerned about the failure of the first two waves. Kyle guessed they had been sent as cannon fodder, to test their defences, and waste their ammo. The real fight was about to begin.

An inhuman roar came from the back of the Covenant’s lines and the Brutes charged en masse. While Kyle and the rest of the UNSC force did their best to hold them back, the heavy machine gun turrets taking down scores of Brute Minors, before they got close, they eventually hit them. Kyle could see hundreds of Brutes, climbing into their foxholes and killing their marine occupants in a fit of feral rage.

‘All marines fall back to the second line, Spartans. Clean up shop then retreat,’ O’Brian ordered.

‘You heard the man, get moving. Blue Team, eliminate all Brute resistance. Red Team, help the marines fall back to the second line,’ Caspian said.

‘Understood, I’m moving Red team back now, be careful Blue team,’ David warned.

‘Always am David,’ Caspian replied.

After a few moments of intense fighting, as the five Spartans held back the horde of Brutes that were trying to enter their foxhole.

‘Fan out Spartans, keep them pinned on this line of defences, until we get the signal to fall back,’ Caspian said, just ducking in time as a spike grenade impacted the wall he just been next to.

Blue team instantly followed their orders, pushing the Brutes back, and heading into the next foxholes. Kyle grabbed a fallen shotgun and sprayed lead into the Brutes in front of him. Their armour crackled with energy, absorbing the power of the shotgun blast. Kyle quickly primed a frag grenade and reloaded his weapon. The Brutes charged at him, their sharp teeth grinning at their cornered prey. The grenade detonated, killing all the Brutes in front of Kyle. He wheeled round and saw several Brutes behind him.

He sidestepped a volley of spiker fire and brought his shotgun into his opponents’ faces. As the last Brute fell he surveyed the battlefield. He could still see a large amount of Brutes were inbound to his position, and were nearly on top of him and the rest of Blue team.

‘All right, the last of the marines are in position, time to fall back guys, ASAP,’ Caspian ordered.

Kyle jumped out of the foxhole, looking back once to fire a few rounds into a few Brutes who were too close. He sprinted up the hill and into the second line of defences, the rest of the team reaching his position at the same time. Kyle picked up some more shotgun shells and tossed his empty battle rifle aside. He took up position, just as the Brutes cleared the first line of defences.

‘Roll out the welcoming mat boys! Show our guests some good old’ fashioned courtesy!’ O’Brian shouted.

The Brutes scrambled up the hill, some were on all fours, bloodlust consuming them. Then suddenly, half the hill detonated, as the careful placed lattice of Lotus anti-tank mines detonated at once. Very few Brutes survived the fierce explosion, and even if they did they were quickly taken down by the marines.

But it was a short lived victory; more Brutes were coming, climbing over the charred bodies of the first wave. The marines open fire, ripping into the advancing horde. Many Brutes fell, but they still kept coming. Kyle ducked as they got in range and Spikes shot past him. Several marines next to him weren’t so lucky and were hit. They screamed in pain and tried desperately to pull out the spikes in their chests. Kyle crouched by one of them, he was young; practically a boy and he looked terrified.

‘Hold still, I’ll get it out,’ Kyle said, grabbing the spike firmly.

The marine’s eyes widened in anticipation of the pain he was about to feel. Kyle pulled. The marine screamed in agony, his body jerking and twitching from the pain. Kyle ripped the spike free, and the marine relaxed. Kyle realised the kid was unconscious, presumably from shock. Kyle felt sorry for him, as he reached for a canister of bio-foam on his belt and sprayed it into the wound. He finally called a medic and told him to take him back to the base at the top of the hill. With his task completed, Kyle turned his attention back to the battle.

Both sides were losing men quickly. Over half the Brutes lay dead across the hill’s incline, with even more falling each second. However The Brutes were taking down quite a few marines with them before they fell. Kyle didn’t know which side would buckle first. Then it became evident who was gaining the advantage.

The Brute Chieftains were no longer holding back and were virtually at the second line of defences, with their Hunter escorts not far behind. One chieftain brought his hammer down on a cluster of soldiers, sending them flying. Another hit furiously the foxhole where Red team was. Kyle knew that their fellow Spartans could use a hand. As if Caspian had been reading Kyle thoughts he said,

‘Looks like Red team has their hands full, let’s help them out.’

They ran across the line, cutting down any Brutes that got too close. A chieftain leaped at Kyle, but he sidestepped and fired his shotgun into the creature’s skull, killing it instantly.

They entered the foxhole. The steel roof had caved in, as the chieftain had weakened it with its hammer. The seven Spartans were rising to their feet, knocking the debris aside. Unfortunately all the marines had been killed when the roof collapsed.

‘Are you alright?’ Caspian asked.

‘Yeah, were okay, just a few bruises,’ David said, grabbing his weapon and inspecting it, making sure it hadn’t been too badly damaged.

‘Ughh… I going to feel that tomorrow,’ Leon said.

A loud shout came from the intercom ‘All marines fall back to the final line! Spartans keep them busy until we get into position,’ O’Brian ordered.

‘You heard him, let’s get to it men,’ Caspian said.

Together the Spartans once again spread out across the line and held off the Brutes. Kyle looked at his ammo indicator. He was running low on shotgun shells, and the Brutes’ numbers seemed endless. He fired his last shot into a Brute captain, which tore its armour apart. Kyle flipped the empty shotgun and used it but as a makeshift club. He heard bones braking as the gun connected with the Brute’s jaw.

Another Brute leapt at him and knocked the two pistols from Kyle’s hands. Kyle leapt to the side, and grabbed a fallen SMG. He peppered the Brute with fire, but it didn’t hold it. It slammed into him, and Kyle wrestled with it as they both fought to disarm their opponent. Kyle knew he wasn’t as strong as his attacker, and his motion sensor picked up more Brutes behind him. Then the Brute went stiff and collapsed at Kyle’s feet.

It was then Kyle saw Alice, her MA5C still smoking. He nodded his thanks and threw a grenade at the Brutes behind him and opened fire, Alice right behind him. The combination of the gunfire and the explosion killed the Brutes almost instantly. Kyle took a moment to catch his breath, just as the next wave hit them. He emptied the contents of his SMG into the Brutes, grabbed two spikers and kept firing until his motion sensor cleared. Kyle checked for more enemies, but it was quiet. He contacted Caspian

‘This is Kyle, this area of the defences seem clear, how are the rest of you fairing?’ Kyle asked.

‘It’s a similar story here, it looks like we got the last of them,’ Caspian replied.

Kyle breathed a sigh of relief; at least they had managed to save the generators that at least gave the men above them a chance of success. He grabbed some ammo and climbed up to the top of the hill, the other Spartans behind him. Only a handful of men still stood to greet them as they reached the base. Kyle had no idea that they had been hit this badly. O’Brian saluted, which they quickly returned.

‘Nicely done Spartans, for a moment, that was getting rather hairy,’ O’Brian conceded.

‘No problem sir. Just glad we could help,’ Caspian replied.

Then a frightened marine ran and hastily saluted and then turned to O’Brian.

‘Sir, urgent message from upstairs. The Covenant has broken through their defences.’

‘How many?’ O’Brian asked grimly.

‘One Covenant Carrier and two capital ship escorts,’ the marine replied.

‘Where are they going?’ Kyle asked.

‘From what I can tell their taking up position above Reflex as we speak. I’m detecting multiple waves of Phantoms, most of which are headed for the city, while some are incoming to our position,’ Mira said

‘Sir, most of the marines guarding Reflex were sent here and to help the city’s inhabitants evacuate to a safe distance. While there are men still in the city, they won’t be able to hold that amount of Covenant troops. They’ll need your help,’ O’Brian said, looking at Caspian.

‘All right. Blue Team will head to Reflex and help defend the city. Red team, you’ll stay here and hold off the Covenant from destroying the generators,’ Caspian ordered. He turned and activated his COM.

‘Reggie, we need evac now, we need you here on the double!’ Caspian said.

‘Roger. I’m on my way, hold tight sir,’ Reggie replied.

Kyle’s relief had evaporated. The Covenant were determined to take this planet, and were launching a massive assault on the capital city of this colony. Kyle had a feeling that the battle for Sanctuary had only just begun.

End of Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Onboard UNSC Pelican-en route to the city of Reflex. On the planet Sanctuary.
9th December 2568 Military Calendar 15.30

Kyle sat quietly in his seat as the Pelican flew towards the city. Reggie had arrived very soon after Caspian had requested a pick-up. Kyle wasn’t sure how much they could do when they reached the city. They were hopelessly outnumbered; the entire crew of a Covenant carrier and two capital ships could easily take over the city in a matter of hours. Kyle also wasn’t sure if the defence back at the generators would hold. He knew Red team would not give up and would keep fighting down to the last man. He just hoped that none of the Covenant survived if it reached that point.

‘What’s the status in the city Mira?’ Kyle asked.

‘From looking at cameras in the city and the latest UNSC radio chatter, it’s not going well. We’ve got a large group of marines pinned down in the city centre, and more spread throughout the entire city,’ Mira answered.

‘What about the Covenant?’ Peter asked.

‘They’ve set up their main staging area outside the city, just a few kilometres to the west. As for their actual forces, they’re everywhere,’ Mira replied grimly.

‘Can you find us a safe place to land? I don’t want us to be pinned down by enemy fire the minute we land,’ Caspian said.

‘Scanning…. There’s a UNSC supply depot close to our present position, the defenders there have done a good job of holding the Covenant there, possibly due to the surplus of vehicles there. I’ll mark the location on your HUD, as well as passing it on to Reggie.’

A few seconds later a waypoint appeared on Kyle’s visor, as it did for the rest of them.

‘Have you got the location Reggie?’ Caspian asked.

‘Affirmative sir, course corrected and locked. We should be there shortly,’ Reggie confidently said.

Sure enough, the marker on Kyle’s HUD got closer and closer as they approached the drop zone. Reggie then started their descent.

‘Warning, I’m detected two incoming signatures headed directly for us,’ Mira said urgently.

‘I can see them on my radar. They’re too big to be missiles, but they are moving towards us awfully fast. I’m not sure I can get her down before they hit,’ Reggie said.

‘Just do your best Lieutenant, get us down as soon as you can and then bug out, but remain on station. We might need a quick pick up once we rescue the marines,’ Caspian said.

‘Tracking the targets. They aren’t UNSC aircraft, from looking at Covenant air units schematics, I believe they are Banshees. They are heading towards the back of the craft,’ Mira warned.

‘Sir, I can’t do anything about them if they attack us from behind, all my armaments are at the front,’ Reggie said, concern filling his voice.

‘Then we’ll have to take them out. Open the rear and we’ll do the rest,’ Caspian replied.

The rear hatch groaned open and wind rushed in, making the air howl around them.

‘Kyle, Shen. Do you still have enough ammo to take those Banshees?’ Caspian asked.

‘Yeah, I got a couple of rockets left. What about you Kyle?’ Shen said.

‘I’ve got a few shots left,’ Kyle replied, sporting his Spartan laser.

‘Then make them count, we won’t have a second chance at this,’ Caspian said.

Kyle and Shen moved to the very end of the Pelican and took careful aim at the two speeding targets. Kyle could barely make them out at this range, but as they drew closer their shapes became clearer and more menacing.

Kyle did his best to compensate for the movement of the Pelican and the speed of the Banshees, though it was still a difficult shot to pull of at this range. He focused every fibre of his being and squeezed the trigger. The targeting laser appeared. He slowly turned his body to keep the small laser locked on the growing target of the Banshee. The meter read fully charged and the deadly beam fired. It lanced out and struck the Banshee on the right head on. It detonated in a ball of blue fire and plummeted.

‘Nice shot!’ Peter exclaimed.

‘If you think that was good, watch this,’ Shen said, hefting his rocket launcher.

He took careful aim and fired two rockets. They flew through the air and headed for the other Banshee. The first rocket cleanly missed the aircraft and harmlessly detonated. The second hit its wing and ripped it off. The pilot lost control and quickly lost altitude and crashed.

‘Impressive… Good shot Shen,’ Kyle said.

‘Show-off,’ Alex replied.

‘Good work guys, now let’s get out there and get to work,’ Caspian said, ignoring Alex.

The Pelican landed and the Spartans ran out and took position.

‘All right, the marines are this way,’ Mira said as their HUDS were updated.

Kyle saw that they were quite far from their present location. On foot, they probably wouldn’t make it in time. Obviously Caspian thought the same thing as he asked,

‘We need transportation. Is there anything here we could use?’

‘Yes. I’m detecting two Warthogs still in the depot. You should be able to use them,’ Mira answered.

‘Good. Spartans move out!’ Caspian ordered.

Kyle jogged with the rest of his team-mates, placing the Spartan laser on the magnetic clamps on his back and grabbing his stolen spiker. As they drew closer to the depot, Kyle could see a skirmish between a small, well armed marine squad, and a large group of Brutes.

‘Those marines look like they could use a hand,’ Peter commented.

‘Yeah let’s help out,’ Caspian said, opening fire on the pack of Brutes.

The Brutes hadn’t noticed them, and were caught off-guard as they were hit from both the rear and the front. They quickly spilt into two groups; one heading towards the Spartans, and one heading towards the marines.

The Spartans had the advantage over their attackers, as they had already been weakened by the Spartans’ surprise attack. Their armour flickered and failed, leaving them vulnerable. Kyle rolled to the side to avoid a burst of plasma fire and reloaded his spiker and fired from a crouching position, killing, two of the weakened minors.

Alex tossed a grenade, killing another Brute and weakening another, which she easily finished off. Peter danced side to side, his shields flashing as he took a few hits. He rolled and took cover behind a crate. Most of the team were behind similar cover; crates and other boxes of equipment.

Kyle leaned out from cover and fired at the Brute captain, clearly evident in his golden armour. The spikes slammed into the armour, but it held. The Brute replied by firing several shots from his Brute shot. Kyle had to jump out of the way as the crate he was hiding behind was blown to pieces.

His shields flickered and warning sirens went of in his ears as his shields fell as the Captain caught him with a blast from his Brute shot. Kyle desperately dived from cover to cover, scooping up a spike grenade from a fallen Brute corpse.

When the meter read fully charged he primed the grenade and tossed it at the captain. It cleanly stuck his helmet. For a brief second, the creature desperately tried to tear it off, but then it detonated, ripping the Brute to pieces.

The Brutes were losing numbers quickly. The Spartans easily started to push them back, directly into the marines. Stuck between the both of them, the Brutes were quickly wiped out.

After the last Brute fell, a marine saluted them.

‘Sir, I’m glad you came when you did, we weren’t sure how long we could hold them off,’ the marine said, sounding relieved. He was Hispanic, and had short dark hair and brown eyes. Kyle guessed he was in his early twenties

‘It was no problem. Who’s in charge here solider?’ Caspian asked.

‘That would be Sergeant Epps sir; she’s with some men getting all we can use from the depot. Follow me, I’ll show you,’ the marine said as he turned round and jogged towards the depot.

‘And what’s your name marine?’ Caspian asked as they jogged.

‘I’m Private Perez sir,’ he replied.

They headed closer to the depot. Kyle could see the wrecks of both Covenant and UNSC vehicles. A large battle had already taken place here. Kyle was surprised the marines had managed to counter it so effectively with so little warning of the impending attack.

They finally reached the base where marines were grabbing everything they could; ammunition, turrets, communications equipment and anything else they felt they needed. Overseeing this was a small woman in a marine’s uniform, she was in her late twenties, and was rather short, with long blonde hair. Her eyes were full of warmth and she looked at the Spartans with admiration and gratitude.

‘You Spartans have a great sense of timing, we really needed the help back there,’ she said in a soft English accent.

‘Just doing our job Sergeant. Now to business, there are other marines in the city that need our help, but we need transportation. Our AI tells us there are still two Warthogs in the depot. Do you mind if we use them?’ Caspian asked.

‘With all due respect sir, I need those vehicles to move the supplies and give us some support if the Covenant shows up again,’ she said apologetically.

Caspian thought for a second, then said,’ How about a compromise. We have a Pelican on station above the city. If he helps you set up a staging area, can we use the Warthogs?’

Kyle thought it was a good compromise, except for the fact; it could make things difficult if the Forerunner battleship showed up.

‘All right deal, you can take them. Good luck.’ She smiled then went back to work.

Caspian contacted Reggie with his new orders and they headed into the depot. It was dark and only the floor lights illuminated the room. The room was a mess; containers stripped of their contents, boxes ripped open and tossed aside, and there were almost no vehicles in the depot, except for the two Warthogs.

The first was a standard Warthog with a chain gun. The second was a troop transport hog. It had no armaments, but its back was fitted to sit around 4-6 passengers. Just what they needed to transport the marines to safety.

‘Time to roll out. Kyle, you take the gun I’ll drive this Warthog,’ Caspian said pointing to the standard Warthog.

‘I’ll take the transport Hog. Peter, you take shotgun,’ Shen said.

‘That means I’ll ride shotgun on your hog Casp, it sounds much more appealing than sitting next to the pessimist over there,’ Alex said.

Kyle punched the door activation controls and strapped himself into the gun as the rest of the team jumped into the vehicles. The heavy metal door slowly opened, just as Caspian started the ignition.

As soon as the gap was wide enough, the two Warthogs shot out of the depot and speed down the main highway, heading into the city. Kyle hoped they reached the marines in time.

End of Chapter 17

Chapter 18

On a highway 37, city of Reflex, Sanctuary
9th December 2568 Military Calendar 16.00

Kyle held on firmly as the Warthog shot down the highway. Caspian wasn’t wasting any time; he was going as fast as the vehicle would go. Shen’s Warthog was right behind them. The highway was raised above the ground and Kyle couldn’t see much as they headed into the city. There were a few houses and tress, but there was nothing of any real interest. The road was relatively clear, as the population of Reflex had been evacuated as soon as the Covenant had first entered the system.

For a second, Kyle thought it was going to be an uneventful drive. It was then he noticed five shapes, coming from the direction of the city. As they drew closer, Kyle recognised the sleek purple shapes with their bulbous centres and two slender wings. Ghosts. Kyle started up the chain-gun. The triple-barrelled gun started to spin. As it reached its peak, it fired a barrage of bullets at the incoming vehicles

The Ghost entered weapons range and opened fire, their plasma cannons searing past the Warthogs. Caspian did his best to avoid the shots, as Kyle hit the nearest Ghosts with a full spray of machine gun fire. Their armour buckled and flew off, as they took damage. After focusing his fire on the nearest Ghost for a few more tense seconds it erupted into blue fire.

Shen’s Warthog was doing its best to keep itself between Kyle’s Warthog and the attacking Ghosts. They headed for the city, with the Ghosts in hot pursuit. Kyle managed to take out a second, getting a few lucky shots on the Grunt driving the vehicle. It stopped dead, and one of the nearby Ghosts slammed into it, severely damaging it. Kyle quickly finished it off.

That left two Ghosts still after them.

‘Persistent aren’t they?’ Alex said.

‘Your doing a good job Kyle, keep it up,’ Caspian said, keeping his eyes on the road.

Kyle could see the tall buildings that made up Reflex coming into view; they were nearly there. Kyle knew they need to get rid of their pursuers before then, as it would be harder to avoid their shots on the much narrower streets inside the city. So Kyle hit them with everything he could muster. He caught the Ghost on his right, tearing off one of its wings. The pilot struggled to regain control, as he fired wildly in all directions.

Plasma seared the road behind them, but Caspian managed to avoid it. Kyle used the turret to tear the wounded Ghost to shreds, until there wasn’t much Ghost left. Its systems overloaded and it blew up. The last Ghost ignored this and continued to fire at them.

Kyle took several bolts of plasma, and his shields flickered and died. He retaliated by shooting at it dead centre. Its purple armour was torn to shreds, and the fragile machinery became vulnerable. Without any hesitation Kyle kept shooting, until he hit something sensitive and the entire Ghost exploded. As his shields recharged, he turned the turret back to face the growing sight of the city.

As the highway ended and they drove past the first large skyscrapers, Kyle kept his guard up. The Covenant might be using the buildings for cover and they could attempt an ambush, so Kyle had to be weary. He eyed each building with suspicion, with his other eye looking for enemy movement on his motion sensor.

‘Where to next Mira?’ Caspian asked, stopping the Warthog.

‘Take the next right, then head the down the road and take the second left, and keep going, it should lead to straight to them,’ Mira answered.

‘Thanks Mira. Shen how are you and Peter doing?’ Caspian said.

‘We’re fine, we managed to avoid the worst of that last fight, we’ll follow your lead,’ Shen replied.

They set off and followed Mira’s instructions and headed down the route she had mapped. All around them were large office buildings and traffic lights. Kyle could barely see the sun through the mass of glass and metal.

As they drew closer they could hear the sounds of battle; gunfire, the screams of the wounded and the odd explosion. Kyle knew they must be getting close.

‘So how many are we up against?’ Caspian asked, as he took a sharp turn.

‘Around 35 Brutes, a couple groups of Grunts and Jackals and a war chieftain leading them,’ Mira said.

‘Understood. Let’s get in there!’ Caspian said, as he put his foot down on the accelerator.

The two Warthogs shot into the city square. It was a garden, with a large fountain and statue in the centre. It was roughly a hexagonal shape, with benches and low brick walls, splitting it up. Kyle could see around fifteen marines hiding behind these walls, desperately blind firing to hold off the Covenant forces that surrounded them.

The Warthogs splattered into the nearest group of Grunts, crushing them under their heavy tires, just as Kyle opened fire. The turret cut down most of the nearby Grunts in a matter of seconds. The Jackals raised their shields instantly, but they were no match for the fierce fire of the turret. Their shields failed and they were quickly taken down.

Any surviving Grunts and Jackals ran for cover, just as the Brutes turned their attention to the two vehicles. Caspian desperately tried to keep them moving, as plasma and spiker fire bounced of the Warthog’s chassis. He ploughed through a pack of minors, while Kyle killed the majority of the Brutes that were behind them. Alex was knocking back any Brutes that were trying to board the vehicle, as was Peter, on Shen’s Hog.

Kyle shot at the horde chasing them, their armour crackled and failed, and slowly their lines were starting to clear.

‘Look out!’ Mira warned.

Several green bolts slammed into the Warthog, sending it corkscrewing into and crashing upside down. Kyle was still dazed as he dragged himself from the Warthog and raised his weapon, firing at the Brutes closest to him.

‘Caspian! Alex! You two okay?’ Kyle shouted as he tossed a grenade into a pack of nearby Brutes and Jackals.

‘I’m fine. These Brutes have no courtesy. I go for a relaxing drive and look what happens,’ Alex said as she pulled out two SMG’s and helped Kyle hold the Brutes off.

‘I’ll live. Shen! Get that Hog out of here now!’ Caspian shouted.

‘Understood, we’ll hang back until the area is clear,’ Shen replied.

‘We need to take out that Brute Chieftain before he can land a few shots on the transport Hog,’ Caspian ordered.

They moved forward, cutting down any opposition that stood in their way, until they reached the pinned down marines.

‘It’s good to see you sir. We weren’t sure how much longer we could have lasted,’ a frightened marine said.

‘It was no problem, now, who’s in charge here?’ Caspian asked.

‘That would be the Staff Sergeant; he’s up in the building over there.’

The marine pointed to a tall office building behind them. Kyle could see that some of the glass on the fifth floor was broken and fortifications had been put in place there. He could make out the faint shapes of several men up there. So at least their commander at least knew how to support his troops, Kyle thought.

‘We need to get rid of their chieftain, so our other Hog can safely transport you out of here. You’ll have to distract them, while we take him out. Move out!’ Caspian said, as the three Spartans darted from cover.

The Staff Sergeant seemed to understand what they were trying to do, as just as Kyle darted from cover, and rolled to an overturned car, four sniper rounds shot past him, and into the nearest Brutes. The marines ran, firing at anything that moved towards them. The Chieftain in charge pointed to them and barked at his brethren to attack. Perfect.

Kyle leapt out from cover and with Caspian and Alex charged at the Chieftain. He had a few bodyguards around him, but they were all distracted by the marines. Kyle ditched his spiker and picked up a fallen Covenant carbine and a few plasma grenades. He primed them and tossed them in-between them. They detonated, killing most of them, and destroying the survivors armour. A few shots later, the bodyguards lay dead.

But by then they had lost the element of surprise. The chieftain had turned to face them, and was firing multiple shots at them. Kyle jumped to the left as his cover was blown away. Exposed, Kyle ran for cover, fuel rod projectiles right behind him. He crouched next to Caspian and Alex behind a small overturned bench. As the Chieftain reloaded and fired again, they moved, all three of them firing at him.

The co-ordinated fire didn’t seem to phase the Brute at first, but slowly, its armour buckled and blood started to seep from cracks. He let out a final howl as a sniper bullet shot from behind them and slammed directly into the creature’s skull.

Three more bullets shot out and hit the Brutes closest to the marines. Kyle had to admit he was impressed. Whoever was sniping up there definitely had some talent. They turned their attention to the remaining Covenant forces, and opened fire. A few frag grenades were thrown into the tightly packed Brutes, and a few seconds later, several explosions rocked their lines, leaving them dazed and disorganised. It didn’t take long for the combined fire of the Spartans and the marines assisting them to finish them off.

As soon as the battle was over, Caspian activated the private COM.

‘Shen, Peter you can move in, it’s all clear,’ Caspian said.

Now that the area was safe he appeared and stopped right by them.

‘Hmm…did I miss anything?’ Shen said sarcastically, looking at the carnage.

‘Stay put, we’ll be leaving soon, we’ll just see their commander before we move out,’ Caspian said.

‘All right we’ll remain on station,’ Shen said.

They headed into the building where the sniper fire came from. They were lead by the marine who had addressed them before. They climbed the escalators to the fifth floor. Kyle noticed that it had been hastily altered to serve as a sniper’s nest. Extra clips and sighting equipment were stored close to the pane of glass that had been removed, to allow their shots to fire unhampered. To protect them they had placed sandbags, and anything else that could have been used as fortifications; desks, chairs and even a few computers were strapped down to serve as cover.

There were several marines waiting for them, some of them held binoculars and other had sniper rifles strapped to their backs. Kyle assumed that half of them had been spotting targets for them.

At last, a marine with a staff sergeant insignia greeted them. He had quite a youthful face, but it was drained by fatigue. His expression was neutral, but he let out a small smile when he saw them. Kyle instantly recognised him.

‘Well, it looks like we just keep running into each other, doesn’t it?’ He said, outstretching a hand, which Caspian shook.

‘It’s seems that way. It good to see you again Sergeant Novo.’

‘It good you came when you did, these men wouldn’t have lasted much longer,’ Novo confessed.

‘What happened?’ Caspian asked.

‘After we heard that the Covenant was on the planet, we made fortifications at all the key buildings, but we didn’t expect an actual attack. Some of the men got careless, and they got caught by surprise when they attacked. I got as many men as I could out of there and set up here,’ Novo explained.

‘Any idea what the Covenant is doing in the city?’ Caspian asked.

‘No idea, but they were diverting a lot of forces towards ONI’s main offices. Let’s just hope they not after another thing those damn spooks hid from us,’ Novo said bitterly.

Kyle couldn’t blame him. Novo had been the only survivor from Frontier. He had seen hundreds of his comrades’ die, all due his superiors hiding the fact that there was a Forerunner facility under their feet.

‘Then we’d better head that way. Let’s move out!’ Caspian ordered.

‘Wait a minute sir. I need to ask you a favour. Some of my squad went to try and secure the central train station in the city, but I haven’t heard from them since. I think they need our help; you can get the ONI private train from there to take you directly to their offices. Please sir, we’ve both seen to many good men die due to their senior officers not doing enough to save them,’ Novo pleaded.

Caspian absorbed Novo’s words and then said,

‘Alright we’ll save them if we can. Have some of your men retreat fall back to the UNSC depot outside the city, there are some marines there who could use a few extra men. As for the rest, load up and get in the transport Hog ASAP.’

They walked back outside and got ready to roll out. Kyle wondered what the Covenant wanted with ONI’s offices. They mainly dealt with paper work and logistical operations. He had a feeling he’d know in the near future.

End of Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Aboard a Phantom dropship-Descending to the planet Doisac
The Ninth Age of Reclamation-10 years ago.

The minister sat nervously in the cramped Phantom. The tension was starting to get to him. Today was the day, the civil war would end and at last the Jiralhanae would be united under one banner. For the sake of his plans and his own survival, his champion could not fail. He was taking a great risk revealing himself to the rest of the Jiralhanae. Though Drakus and his tribe were faithful and would follow him, Burkas’ tribe was a different story. If the battle went against him, he could find himself joining Drakus not long after.

But it was a necessary risk. He knew he needed to reveal himself to stabilise their faith and to convert them to his cause. He was also here to support Drakus, to show a public demonstration of their alliance. On the surface it was purely for political gain, but it was deeper than that.

As they descended, the minister checked the settings on his chair. Doisac’s gravity was far stronger than to what he was used to back on the Impending Venture. Once he was satisfied that it would suffice he patiently sat waiting as they landed. His Jiralhanae bodyguards went first, making sure the area was safe, and then he glided out.

The first thing that got to the minister was the heat. The battle was being fought in one of Doisac’s many deserts. From what the minister had learnt of Jiralhanae culture, this desert was sacred and had been the battleground of many battles in their history; like most of the planet. What made it special was that was it was neutral ground, as neither side had claimed it, so it was a perfect place to host the fight.

He could see two camps of tents, with a large 100 metre distance between them. In these tents were hundreds of Jiralhanae, which had come to support their respective chieftains, and to fight if something went wrong. As he glided through the camp, he caught a lot of stares from surprised Jiralhanae, who quickly bowed to him.

He couldn’t blame them; most of Drakus’ tribe were unaware of his existence, but now as he made himself known, they were obviously surprised. Thankfully they were all loyal to Drakus, and to the Prophets. The Jiralhanae on the other side weren’t as devoted however.

He entered the large central tent, which was elaborately decorated. Drakus was in there alone, strapping the last of his armour on. It covered his entire body and was blood red. The Fist of Rukt was strapped to his back. With his ornate helmet in one hand he turned and bowed to the minister.

‘Rise Drakus,’ the minister said.

‘My Lord! I am surprised to see you here. I thought you were staying on the ship.’ Drakus said, sounding confused.

‘No. The time where I hid has ended. We are on the verge of a new age, an age where the ancient promise of the Covenant will finally be achieved. I want to be there for the advent of this age,’ the minister replied.

‘I see holy one. I cannot fault your logic.’

‘Indeed,’ the minister replied.

Another Jiralhanae entered the room and bowed to the two of them. He then said, ‘Chieftain, they’re ready.’

‘Thank you, I’ll be there shortly,’ Drakus replied, putting on his helmet and strapping it down firmly.

‘Good Luck Drakus. The hopes of the all the Covenant are on your shoulders, but I have faith that you will succeed,’ the minister said.

He pondered the situation for a moment. The scene was much like it had been a few years ago, when he had first met Drakus, when he had saved his life and started their partnership. And now the situation seemed to have come full circle. It was all or nothing, with Drakus putting his life on the line, for him and for the whole Covenant.

Drakus left and the minister was left in the tent, absorbed in his thoughts. He was feeling rather nervous, and for the first time in many years, feared for his life, as well as Drakus’. He put these thoughts aside and headed to the fight.

All the other Jiralhanae were heading there as well. They all stood in a line, leaving a large area between the two tribes. The minister took up his position at the front of the line. Two Jiralhanae left the two separate lines of their brethren and slowly walked towards each other. One was Drakus, his blood-red armour making him stand out, as his calmly moved towards his opponent; Burkas. He was in bright sliver armour, which in the bright sunlight almost blinded the minister.

The two stopped about 3 metres apart from one another and respectfully nodded at each other. In a loud voice Burkas yelled.

‘I see your Prophet has at last come out of hiding. When I kill you, I’ll keep him as my pet, much as he does to you and your tribe.’

‘You have lost your faith, half-brother, and your heresy cannot go unpunished. The Prophet is here to see justice done,’ Drakus replied.

‘Enough of these lies! It is time to end this!’ Brakus drew his weapon.

It looked like a standard gravity hammer, but Brakus had added some personal modifications. A large spike was on the hilt of the weapon, and the curvature behind the hammer had been cut to be razor sharp.

Drakus drew The Fist of Rukt and prepared himself. Brakus came at him with lighting speed, swinging a heavy blow towards Drakus. Drakus dodged and brought his hammer up to block as Brakus tried to land another attack.

They rolled apart and launched another attack. Drakus swiped at Brakus’ legs, knocking him off balance. He fell, and narrowly missed Drakus’ follow up as he tried to hit him when he was down. Burkas slammed his hammer, and the gravity altering device inside the hammer, made the strike make a large thunderous sound. Drakus was knocked back, but he quickly started getting to his feet. The minister was surprised he had survived the blow, Jiralhanae hammers were very heavy, and the force that their owners wielded them, usually meant that the target didn’t survive many heavy blows. He assumed that his champion has only been caught slightly, but it was enough.

Now with him on the sand, he desperately tried to regain his balance and parry the next crushing hammer swing. Hammer hit hammer and their shafts ran down one another. The two were locked and both were trying to overpower the other. Even at this distance, the minister could see both were snarling and growling at each other.

In a sudden quick motion, Brakus jabbed with the hilt of his weapon into Drakus’ side. The large spike ripped through his armour and blood started to seep from the wound. Drakus howled with pain and swung a one handed blow at his rival, as he brought his other hand to cover the wound.

The swing had little power behind it, and it was easily parried and counter attacked, as Brakus’ hammer slammed into Drakus’ knee. There was a sickening crack and Drakus fell to the ground, unable to get back up. He had lost his helmet in the melee and he couldn’t stop the bleeding on his wound. Brakus stood over him, hammer raised above his head. He let out a victorious roar and brought his hammer crashing down. Both sides were roaring and yelling in anticipation of the kill.

But it never came. In a last bid for survival, Drakus swung his father’s hammer with all the strength he could muster and hit Brakus in his arm. It knocked the final blow off course and broke Brakus’ left arm. By some unknown reserves, Drakus somehow got back to his feet, and brought a heavy blow on Brakus’ head. Brakus had still been reeling from the last attack and it caught him completely by surprise. His helmet was knocked off, and with another crack of broken bones his jaw was broken as the hammer came crashing down.

Dazed, he tried desperately to counter attack, but he no longer had any power behind his swings. Drakus kept on coming and blow after blow landed on his half-brother. Eventually after a horrible display of violence, Brakus was beaten into submission, his once pristine sliver armour now dented and covered in his blood. With a final heavy slam from The Fist of Rukt it was over.

Drakus let out a roar and all the Jiralhanae at the minister side joined in until all he could hear were they victorious voices. The other side were not so happy; they looked stunned, unable to believe what they had just witnessed. Drakus limped back to his tribe and stood before the minister. He was a wreck. His armour was badly dented and he could barely stand, but he somehow he managed to bow to him and then rise. The minister couldn’t believe at his endurance, to him it was amazing.

He also felt an overriding sense of relief and joy that his ally was still alive. He personally conceded that over the years he had been accustomed to his presence and he had become rather fond of him. He had become a useful tool for the minister to achieve his goals.

As he rose, he looked at him, as if he expected him to say something. The minister quickly thought and then said,

‘You have done me proud chieftain, at last, this petty war is over, and we can finally begin our quest towards the Great Journey.’

‘And we shall be your escort, my Lord,’ Drakus replied. Even through he was trying to hide it, the minister could hear the pain in his voice.

Drakus turned and shouted, ‘Jiralhanae, hear me! I am now your chieftain and you will obey the rule of our noble Prophet, as we work together as we strive to begin the Great Journey!’

All the Jiralhanae bowed to him, even the ones from Brakus’ tribes. In the loudest voice he could muster the minister said,

‘For so many years, we have been in the Ninth Age of Reclamation, the Age where we were finally going to begin the Great Journey. But alas our enemies caused the prophecy not to pass. But that time is now over. From now on we have a new goal, a new purpose and a new vision.’

The minister paused for a second, for dramatic effect, then continued,

‘From this day on, we start a new Covenant and The First Age of Restoration, and I shall begin anew as the Prophet of Remorse, as I led you to ascension!’

All the Jiralhanae roared in approval and chanted his new title. Remorse…it was a fitting title for the last Prophet Hierarch, as he would cause his enemies the same remorse he had felt these last few years.

At last he could start to finish what Truth had started, and this time, they would not fail.

End of Chapter 19

Chapter 20

In the city of Reflex-On the planet Sanctuary
9th December 2568 Military Calendar 16.30

Kyle stood in the gunner’s position on the back of the Warthog and looked around, keeping vigilant for any signs of Brute activity. Since they had reunited with Sergeant Novo, and started their journey to the central train station in Reflex, things had been quiet. Kyle hated when the Brutes did this, as his instincts told him that somewhere they were lying in wait, as he had seen them pull off these tactics so many times before.

But like Kyle assumed, it remained quiet, with no enemies in sight. Kyle guessed that they would hide until they reached the station, then attack en masse.

‘How much further Mira?’ Caspian asked from the driver’s seat.

‘Just a little longer, take the next left and it should be right there in front of you,’ she replied.

Caspian turned the wheel sharply and screeched left and then right. Kyle had to hold on tightly to stop himself from falling off the speeding vehicle. Shen quickly turned and was able to keep up with them. Caspian turned again, and they were in a large road section. Dead in from of them was the station.

Its front was made completely out of glass, and the top was slightly angled inward. Beyond the glass, the building was made of spotless white tiles, which covered the floor and walls. In the middle of this central room was a large electronic board, which normally would detail all the trains of the day and their times and destinations. As the city was empty it was black.

Caspian parked right outside the building and leapt out of the Hog. Shen quickly parked next to them, and they all filed out and stood at the front glass revolving door.

‘So where are these marines Mira?’ Caspian asked.

‘Scanning for IFF transponders now…..I’m picking up several up on the second floor,’ Mira replied.

‘Any sign of the Brutes?’ Kyle asked.

‘I’m getting a small force nearby the IFF transponders, only about ten or twelve distinct figures,’ Mira answered.

Kyle didn’t like the sound of that. He had a hunch that there may be more Brutes than there appeared to be in the station. He thought for a second, trying to determine how they might have evaded Mira’s scans.

‘Mira, did you scan the underground tunnels?’ Kyle said.

‘Of course. I didn’t pick anything major, just a few sporadic heat signatures and movement down there, though my scans were interfered by the foundations…...’ Mira said coming to the same realisation as Kyle.

Kyle turned to Caspian and explained, ‘The Brutes could be hiding in those tunnels, where our scans have inference, and they could easily be setting up a trap.’

Caspian thought for a second then replied, ‘Then we’d better check it out. Kyle, you take Alex and Peter down into the tunnels, make sure they’re clear. I’ll take Shen and the marines and we’ll assist Novo’s marines. Watch each other’s backs down there. Understand?’

‘Yes Casp, we’ll be careful. Good luck,’ Kyle said.

The two groups split up, Caspian leading the marines into the large plaza, which had escalators up to the second level. Kyle led his fellow team-mates to the left and followed the signs that lead to the underground station. They headed to the far left of the room and down a flight of steps. Kyle’s eyes adjusted as they entered the next room, a small gloomy corridor. The walls were made of metal and were dull and didn’t draw the Spartans attention.

They continued down the corridor and turned right into a larger corridor, this time made from dull red bricks greeted them. This time the room was much more brightly illuminated. Right in front of them was a large blue sign that read ‘Central Reflex Underground Station’. They were in the right place.

They slowly continued, weapons at the ready. On a normal day, this station would be packed with people on their daily commute home, but due to the evacuation it was uncharacteristically quiet. It was slightly unnerving. They eased through the ticket barriers and looked down at the multiple escalators in front of them. They all descended for what seemed an eternity, as they all went down to different underground tunnel lines.

‘Which escalator should we take?’ Kyle asked. He didn’t really want to split up his team. If there were Brutes down here, and everything hit the fan, they stand more of a chance together than alone.

‘The strongest signals seem to be coming from the central tunnel, heading northbound through the city. Be advised, I’m reading some power outages down there. It will be pitch dark down there,’ Mira warned.

‘Great, we’ll won’t be able to see them. It’s a shame really, I’d love to see their ugly mugs,’ Alex said.

‘I think it makes a nice change, and besides, your night vision isn’t that bad, you’ll still be able to see them,’ Peter retorted.

‘Yes but they don’t look the same. Green isn’t their colour,’ she snickered back.

‘All right guys and gals, focus. We need to be careful. Peter, you take point, you’ve got the best night vision out of us. The minute you see something, click your acknowledgement light twice. Me and Alex will cover the back,’ Kyle ordered.

Alex and Peter silently nodded and headed down the frozen escalators, Kyle right behind them. He always felt strange when he walked on one of these things, especially if they were immobile, it just didn’t feel natural him. All the walls, escalator steps and supports were made of the same dull grey metal they had seen in the corridor. The dim lights flickered and winked on and off. Part of Kyle felt like he was descending into hell.

As they reached the bottom of the stairs, all the lights were out, and Kyle waited for his augmented eyes to adjust to the darkness. The corridor they were in had a semi circular shape and was covered in small while tiles, similar to what they had seen above them. It twisted and turned, bending left, then right and dropped down, causing them to carefully walk down another flight of steps.

As they reached the bottom they were greeted by a final long corridor which had two exits either side of them to the platforms. Kyle inched forward, holding his carbine close and keeping a gloved finger on the trigger, just in case.

Kyle heard a noise on the left-sided platform, followed by an angry bark. Kyle’s motion sensor was going crazy, flickering and picking small red dots very close to his position. Down here, the device was practically useless. He’d have to rely on his instincts.

‘I don’t like this,’ Peter whispered.

‘Neither do I, maybe we should turn back,’ Alex said, sounding nervous.

This took Kyle by surprise. Alex wasn’t a coward and she’d seen worse things than this. What on earth had her so spooked? As much as he wanted to he couldn’t concern himself with the reasons. They still had to finish their search and, he’d have to make sure his comrades followed his orders.

‘No. we’re going in. Pete, you move in first on the left and recon. Let’s try and see what we are up against. I’ll take right side tunnel. Alex ,cover our backs.’

For a second it looked like Alex was going to protest, but she seemed to come back to her senses and turned and checked the stairway from which they had come from. As Kyle moved forward, he could feel a slight pang of fear in his chest as he drew closer and closer. He took a deep breath to calm himself and peaked his head around the corner.

At first Kyle thought nothing was there, but as he looked more closely he thought he saw something in the dark. A slight outline of something. It then vanished without a trace. He didn’t trust his eyes and flicked his visor to infra-red. While most of the platform was blue, he could see about five large orange figures, all growling and roaring at each other. Their armour was so familiar, Kyle instantly knew what was down here. Brute stalkers.

Peter’s acknowledgement light blinked twice. Kyle moved back out into the corridor, seeing Peter doing the same thing.

‘How many did you see?’ Kyle asked.

‘Six maybe seven,’ Peter said grimly.

‘How about you Alex?’ Kyle asked, as she crawled over to them.

‘I saw about four coming from behind, we’re trapped,’ she said.

‘We’ll take them out one group at a time. Nice and quiet. First we’ll take out the five on the right, and then the rest on the left. We should be able to take out the four Brutes behind us in a fire fight, let’s go.’ Kyle said.

They quietly moved back into the right-side platform and crept up the five Brutes. Peter drew his combat knife and slit the first Brute’s neck. Kyle broke the second’s a moment later. Alex held back and covered their backs. The last three Brutes were close together. They have to take them all out at once.

Peter and Kyle together snapped the closest Brutes necks and they slumped to the ground. The last Brute saw them and was about to let out a surprised roar, when Peter threw his knife into the creature’s neck, before it could even whimper.

Peter retrieved his bloody knife and they headed into the left sided platform and repeated the exercise. After half of them were dead, Kyle was about to silently take out the next Brute, when a loud crack broke out in the tunnel and the Brute fell dead to the floor. He turned to see that Alex had taken the shot, her battle rifle still smoking. Now the jig was up.

Kyle quickly dived back and threw a few grenades at the surviving Brutes, ripping their armour to shreds. Peter finished them off. But Kyle could hear other Brutes, shouting and roaring in the tunnels. Kyle knew if they stayed here, they were going to be outnumbered very quickly.

‘Time to go. Move!’ He shouted, moving forwards, shooting at the four Brutes in front of him; blocking their escape. He managed to take out another, and weaken a second, leaving him vulnerable as Alex passed a round through its head. They quickly mopped up the rest, but Kyle’s motion sensor was picking up a large mass of red behind them as it flickered. Kyle started to jog, getting up the stairs as fast as he could; Peter and Alex were right behind him.

They ran through the corridor and sprinted up the escalators. Kyle could hear the Brutes getting closer and closer. He knew he couldn’t outrun them, they have to stop them. He turned and took up the best firing position he could on the cold metal steps.
Alex and Peter had kept running, but Peter abruptly stopped and had taken up a similar pose.

Alex stopped and shouted, ‘What are you doing? We need to keep moving.’

‘They’re moving too quickly, they’ll catch up, and besides we’ll be leading them to Caspian, who hardly needs enemy reinforcements right now, we need to stop them here,’ Kyle replied.

‘They’re too many, we need to rendezvous with the others!’ she retorted.

‘We’re Spartans, we don’t retreat. Now follow your orders!’ Kyle barked at Alex. Now was not the best time for her to have a break down, he needed her here.

Reluctantly she obeyed and took up position in front of Kyle, battle rifle at the ready. The Brutes clambered up the stairs on all fours, baying for their blood. They were met with a barrage of fire, as all three of them fired everything they had at they incoming Brutes. Minor after minor fell, and then their captains.

Kyle let a war cry as his carbine clicked empty, as he tossed his last grenades at the enemy forces heading right for him. He picked up two fallen plasma rifles and cut down any Brute that got too close.

Kyle could feel the blood pumping in his chest, as he dodged another barrage and slammed the butt of his rifle into a Brute’s head. He didn’t know how much longer he could hold out, but he wasn’t going quietly, as he fought like a man possessed, killing anything that came within three feet of him.

He felt his rifles strain as they ran out of power. He could see a spiker, but he knew he’d never reach it in time, but then, as he cut through a Brute that leaped at him, he realised they were all dead. The only other living things left standing was Alex and Peter.

Panting heavily Kyle slowly made his way up the escalators after taking the spiker and another plasma rifle. When the other two got to the top, they stood and waited for orders. Kyle waited until he felt he could speak again, and then turned to Alex, with anger coursing through him.

‘What the hell did you think you were doing?!’ Kyle said, wiping the blood from his visor.

‘What do you mean?’ Alex said quietly.

‘Don’t play dumb with me, you’ve been acting odd ever since the last mission, especially with me, we need to settle this here and now, or I can’t trust you to do your duty when we get in another fight,’ Kyle said firmly.

‘He’s right Alex, whatever it is, it nearly compromised our mission,’ Peter admitted.

‘Okay I screwed up, I’m sorry. But I can assure you there’s nothing wrong,’ Alex said defensively.

‘You were always bad at lying Alex, stop avoiding the issue,’ Kyle said sharply.

‘It’s….it’s personal,’ Alex conceded.

‘We’re a team, a family, you can tell us anything,’ Kyle said, trying to calm down.

‘You remember how I told you how I got my scar?’ Alex said.

Kyle recalled the memory.

‘Didn’t you say you got it while evading a Brute patrol?’ Kyle said.

‘Yes, but that’s only partly true. I wasn’t alone when the Brutes found me,’ Alex said, sighing heavily.

‘Who was with you?’ Peter asked.

‘My older brother, Thomas. He was strong, impulsive and my best friend,’ Alex replied.

‘What happened?’ Kyle said, intrigued.

‘When the Brutes caught us, they tortured us, Thomas was hurt pretty bad. After taking turns hitting us for their own sadistic pleasure, they decided to finish me off. Their chieftain was going to use his claws to slit my throat, when Thomas shoved him off balance, and causing them to cut right by my eye instead. He told me to run, just as they turned on him. He was torn to shreds. I only just got out of there alive,’ Alex said.

‘Well, that sounds like all our stories, we all lost family during the war. What does this have to do with me?’ Kyle said.

‘When I first met you, you kinda reminded me of him, the way you were so headstrong, so confident, and still listen to me, and we could joke around. As we grew up, you became like my bigger brother, looking after me and the team, as well as being a true friend. When I thought you died, it brought up all the memories of my brother. All the memories I thought I put behind me a long time ago. It’s just doubled the blow for me, now I’m afraid if we lose you, it will be like losing my brother again,’ Alex finished.

Kyle could sympathise with Alex. He remembered when he was faced with his mother’s killer, and how those old painful memories came back to the surface, no matter how hard he tried to resist them. He chose his next words carefully.

‘Alex, I know how you must feel, I just recently went through something similar myself. But you have to accept the past needs to stay in the past. Thomas is gone. I can’t replace him, and nobody ever will. Look at what his sacrifice has meant. You’ve become a Spartan, and you’ve been able to save humanity from the Covenant. Don’t you think that is worth the sacrifice?’

Alex thought for a second. ‘You’re right…I can make a difference, but if I keep looking at the past, I’ll never be able to shape the future.’

‘Exactly, live in the present, not the past,’ Peter said.

‘What about you? I’d hate to see either of you die,’ Alex confided.

‘Alex, we’re Spartans, we’re tough but we’re not invincible. One of these days, one of us will not be making it back. We’ll miss them, but we have to keep going, or their death will be in vain, it was the principle thing we were taught, and I still believe it,’ Kyle said determinedly.

‘You’re right, you’re both right. God, I’ve been so stupid about this. How could I have let my emotions get the better of me, I’m a Spartan for heavens sake! I should know better. I’m sorry for acting like a complete idiot for the last few weeks,’ Alex said sheepishly.

‘Its fine, we’re just glad we’ve got the old you back,’ Peter said.

‘Yes, I knew you’d miss my taunts! Now that’s enough soul-searching for one day, let’s get going!’ Alex said in an upbeat tone.

At last Kyle felt relieved that things were finally getting back to normal between them. But he knew it wasn’t over, they still had to get to ONI headquarters and the challenges that awaited them.

End of Chapter 20

Chapter 21

In the city of Reflex-On the planet Sanctuary
9th December 2568 Military Calendar 17.13

Kyle silently jogged, heading to Caspian’s position. He arrived back at the front door, and the mass of glass that made up the entrance. Through it Kyle could see that the sun was getting lower in the sky, and it played an orange tint to the sky. Kyle checked his armour’s internal clock. 17.14. It was getting late. If they were going to get the train to ONI’s headquarters, they’d have to go soon, as the trains all shut down automatically at 6.00.

He moved at steady pace, following the NAV points Mira left him. As he walked deeper into the station, he entered a large plaza, which was filled with shops, all selling various items; train tickets, small gifts and general tourist information. The roof above them was as white as the titles they walked on, and was made of reinforced steel. The whole structure was held up by multiple metal pillars, painted white and designed to mimic marble.

Ahead of them, was a flight of steps, which led to the second level, which overlooked the plaza they were in. The three Spartans effortlessly covered the distance between them and the stairs and climbed them with ease.

‘Where are they Mira?’ Kyle asked.

‘Caspian and the others are just a little further in. Keep heading right, then take the third left, you’ll know it when you see it,’ Mira answered.

‘Thanks,’ Kyle said.

‘It’s what I’m here for,’ Mira replied in an amused tone.

They continued heading right, passing a few seats and some more small shops. The first real turn left was to a platform, heading down to the south of the city. Nothing they had to concern themselves with. The next turning was another few platforms, all heading out of the city. At last they reached the third turn. Kyle now understood what Mira had been talking about.

In front of them was a huge iron archway which seemed to lead into what first appeared to be similar to the plaza they were just in. On closer inspection it looked more like a VIP lounge, with a mix of expense shops and luxurious furniture. Kyle noticed that several of these had been stacked to form some cover, and Brute corpses littered the floor. Kyle walked further in, and past what had once been the secure entrance, as the barrier that had once stood denying entry had been blown away.

Kyle could see Caspian in the middle of this lounge, with Shen , Sergeant Novo and the marines. Kyle noticed there were quite a few more of them now. He assumed these were the soldiers who had been pinned down here. As he got closer he noticed not all of them had made it. He noticed that several bodies were slumped on the floor, puddles of red blood oozing from them. Caspian seemed relieved to see them.

‘I was starting to get worried. You didn’t radio in, so I was starting to fear the worst. Did you run into any trouble?’ Caspian asked.

‘Yeah, we ran into that ambush I was predicting. Nothing we couldn’t handle though,’ Kyle replied.

‘Good. We didn’t run into major resistance, we were able to deal with them rather quickly,’ Caspian explained.

‘I bet Shen took that well,’ Alex said sarcastically.

‘How are the marines?’ Kyle said, turning to look at them. Some seemed to be close to a breakdown, their eyes darting around manically, while others stared blankly into space.

‘Some of them are a little shook up, but I’m sure they’ll be fine. They have Novo leading them,’ Caspian answered.

Kyle had to agree with him, Sergeant Novo had seen far worse back on Frontier and had come back fighting. If anybody could keep the marines together, it was him.

‘So where’s this private train Mira?’ Caspian asked.

‘Hmm……from what I’ve been able to determine its one floor above us, only accessible by an encrypted elevator,’ Mira said.

‘You think you can crack it?’ Kyle said.

‘Not a problem, it’s pretty basic stuff,’ Mira said confidently.

‘So where is it?’ Alex said.

‘It should be past the security checkpoint at the back of this room. I’ll mark it with a NAV point,’ Mira replied.

‘Then let’s move Spartans, gather your weapons, get those marines moving and head for that elevator,’ Caspian ordered.

Kyle moved into the room, picking up a fallen MA5C which he gripped firmly. Like most of his brethren, Kyle preferred UNSC weaponry to the alien weaponry of the Covenant, so he was glad to carry a human rifle, rather than his captured spiker.

Novo was calling the marines, and wearily they got up and followed his lead. Kyle jogged with him, as they headed to the elevator. Novo gave Kyle a small grin.

‘Well, together again huh? Isn’t life ironic,’ Novo said.

‘You can say that again,’ Kyle replied.

‘So let me get this clear in my head. We’re on our way to ONI’s headquarters in a deserted city, with all the Brutes on the ground heading there as well. Is it me, or are you feeling a strong sense of déjà vu?’ Novo said.

‘Some things never change,’ Kyle said.

‘Let’s just hope it doesn’t end the way it did last time. We’ve lost too much already. I really don’t want to see two planets destroyed in under a month to be honest,’ Novo admitted.

‘Hopefully, it shouldn’t come to that, but if we have no other option, we might have to do it again, for the sake of the rest of the UNSC,’ Kyle replied. He knew the importance of this mission, and if the opportunity rose, he wouldn’t hesitate to instigate it if it meant the safety of the rest of the UNSC.

They reached the lift and Kyle moved the electronic keypad. Mira’s presence left his armour and the terminal beeped in acknowledgement. As quickly as she had left him, Kyle could feel Mira return. They walked into the elevator, which was surprisingly big, as all five of the Spartans and the marines managed to fit inside. It shot upwards and abruptly stopped as it reached the third level. The doors slid open and they slowly filed out. Kyle observed his surroundings.

It was a large platform, with several banners with ONI’s emblem on it; The UNSC Eagle, with a large unblinking eye in its claws. The floor was made of cold grey stone and the walls were made of white tiles. In front of them was the train, which was painted black, and looked like any other train Kyle had ever seen.

They walked through one of the open doors and looked around, keeping their weapons ready. They slowly moved through the still train. Kyle moved carefully through another carriage, checking all the seats for any sign of Covenant tampering. They had made it through about half the train and so far it looked clear.

Kyle thumbed the button which opened the door to the next carriage. As he walked into the room, he knew something was wrong. All the seats had been ripped apart. Kyle could see claw marks through the soft padding. He cursed underneath his breath and checked his motion sensor. So far he could only see yellow friendlies. He moved forward, assault rifle scanning for targets.

He kept his eyes and ears opened as he moved forward, slowly inching forward as he checked every seat for enemy contacts. He checked the walls and the ceilings, but the room seemed to be clear. Not lowering his guard, he opened the door to the next carriage and as the door opened he was face to face with a Brute Captain.

At first the captain looked as surprised as Kyle was, then he roared at his comrades

‘Demons! Here on the train. Eliminate them!’

Kyle didn’t waste anytime. He back-pedalled and fired a whole clip into the Brute. His armour flickered and broke under the barrage, which he retaliated with several grenades from his Brute shot. Kyle dove for cover as his shield flashed with golden energy and were drained by a third.

The marines behind him had quickly taken cover and were providing covering fire. The Brutes were forced to take cover in the other carriage and blindly return fire. When Kyle’s shields had recharged, he stood up and leapt over the remains of the seat and primed a frag grenade. He tossed it into the middle of the next carriage and stood by the door, firing a few shots to keep the Brutes pinned.

It detonated and Kyle could hear the howls of pain from several Brutes who had been close to it. He surged into the room, taking three un-armoured Brutes down before they realised what was happening. Kyle used up the rest of his clip taking out another Brute minor. That left three more Brute minors and the wounded captain.

Peter and Shen had been right behind him and they managed to another two minors. The captain roared a challenge and charged and was quickly taken down by the three Spartans combined fire. The final Brute primed a spike grenade and tossed it at them. Kyle ducked behind a seat as it detonated. Sparks flew as one of the screens in the seats that usually showed the latest news broadcasts was blown to pieces.

Kyle fired a burst into the Brute’s head. Its helmet was knocked off, and it staggered backwards. Kyle ran at the creature and quickly knocked its weapon aside. He brought his fist up and slammed it into the Brute’s jaw. The Brute howled in anger and swung one of it huge fists at him. Kyle used the creature weight against it and sent his opponent flying. A few seconds later the creature was dead, as Kyle fired a few rounds into its crumpled form.

Satisfied the area was clear, Kyle lowered his weapon, as did Shen and Peter. Caspian entered the carriage and surveyed the carnage.

‘Oh did I miss something?’ He said, sarcastically.

‘Not really. Is the rest of the train clear?’ Kyle asked.

‘Yeah, we just cleared the last of the carriages. Let’s head to the driver’s car and get moving,’ Caspian ordered.

They walked calmly onwards and into the driver’s compartment of the train. Kyle stood at the controls, with his team-mates and Novo behind him. The marines were scattered through the train, making sure it was secure.

‘You think you can drive this thing?’ Kyle asked Mira on a private channel.

‘It shouldn’t be a problem, just place me down on the controls and I’ll do the rest,’ Mira answered.

Almost reluctantly Kyle placed his hand the controls and once again Mira’s presence left him. He heard a metallic clunk and watched as the doors on the side of the train closed. The floor lurched as the train started to move forward. It slowly lurched out of the station and picked up speed as it headed through the city. Below them the cityscape rushed by, as they were several stories above street level. Kyle was about to sit down in the driver’s seat when he heard a familiar whine.

‘Phantoms! Keep your head down,’ Caspian shouted as the dropships pursued them.

Plasma fire melted through some of the rear compartments, turning the rear of the train into a fireball.

‘How long until we reach the station?’ Kyle asked.

‘About three minutes,’ Mira replied.

‘I don’t think we have that long,’ Kyle said, as the Phantoms moved closer.

Kyle heard heavy thumps on the roof of the carriages.

‘Everybody to the front car now, they’re landing on the roof of the train!’ Caspian said.

The Spartans moved out and back into the carriage. All the marines were making their way in, and were getting into position. Kyle saw sparks coming from the roofs of the other cars. They were cutting there way in.

‘The minute they land, let them have it,’ Caspian said.

There was a loud crash as metal smashed down into the other cars. More thumps followed as Brutes leapt into the train.

‘Open fire!’ Caspian shouted.

The combined fire tore through the first line of Brutes, before they even had a chance to turn and face them. Any survivors of the first wave quickly moved into cover, Kyle could make out a least twenty Brutes in the train with them. Overhead the Phantoms shot by, spraying fire at them. Windows broke and parts of the train were burned away. Kyle wasn’t sure how much more it could take.

The next wave of Brutes slowly advanced through the train, and stood in the doorway of the carriage, the fires behind them making them look slightly demonic, as they raised their weapons.

A tense fire fight broke out as Kyle tried to keep in the scarce cover in the carriage as the Brutes charged. Brute after Brute fell, but they still kept coming. Several grenades went off next to him, and the seat he had been hiding behind was torn to pieces. He dove to the side and fired blindly at the horde. He heard a few yelps as some of his bullets hit them.

Novo turned to his marines and yelled, ‘Frag them!’

All the marines, including Novo himself armed their grenades and threw them at the Brutes. Kyle quickly found some cover as they detonated, causing the rear of the carriage to burst into a barrage of explosions. As they subsided Kyle inspected the damage. The metal in front of him had been charred black, and had been bent out of shape by the force of the blast, but it had held. There wasn’t much left of the Brutes, just a few bits of armour and body parts. Kyle couldn’t see any survivors.

Just then the train started to slow down. He headed back into the driver’s compartment and saw a tall glass building in front of them; ONI’s Headquarters. The train slowed to a slither and entered the station. The track went through the middle of the building; around twenty stories up, which left a large square hole in the centre of the building, which the station was located.

The train finally stopped and Kyle placed his hand on the controls. Mira almost instantly returned to his armour and then said in his ear,

‘See, I told you it wouldn’t be a problem.’

‘It wasn’t so easy on our part, we’re lucky there still a train left to drive. Now where were these Brutes headed in the building?’ Kyle asked.

‘I’m getting a lot of COM traffic, but from what I’ve been able to gather from their communications, there are two teams. One headed for the top floor, the other for the basement.

The building itself is in total lockdown. Nobody enters, nobody leaves. I should be able to get you inside, but the elevators will not function. You’ll have to make your way up the stairs,’ Mira said.

‘Then we’d better get moving, Spartans, we’ll be heading for the top floor. Novo, you lead the marines down to the bottom, stay together and keep in radio contact. Understood?’ Caspian said.

‘Yes sir!’ They all replied.

‘Caspian, there is one more thing. I just received a message from Red team. They say they have engaged the enemy,’ Mira said, concern in her voice.

Kyle couldn’t blame her. If they were fighting the Covenant at the generators again, it meant they had come in force… Kyle wondered what they were up against. They were all silent for a second and then Caspian said,

‘There’s nothing we can do to help them now, we’ll carry on with our mission. Move out!’

Kyle followed orders and headed into the building, still curious about Red team’s predicament. He concluded that he should focus on the job at hand, even if he was concern for his fellow Spartans.

Kyle let Mira open the large sealed doors and they walked inside.


End of Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Omega base, by the orbital defence generators- on the planet Sanctuary
9th December 2568 Military Calendar 17.30

The sun was slowly setting in the valley. Alice watched as the sky slowly changed from blue to a light orange, as it faded into the night’s sky. Then large columns of light activated around her as the base’s watchtowers turned on their high-powered search lights.

She sat quietly on one of these watchtowers patiently inspecting and configuring the sniper rifle that was prepped on her lap. She changed the scope and increased the calibre of the rounds she was firing, just in case the Covenant brought in some heavier infantry, mainly Hunters. Alice held the weapon, testing its weight and looked through the scope making sure she was comfortable with it. Satisfied with it, she placed the rifle on the sturdy wooden floor and slowly climbed down the wooden ladder back down to the base, to rendezvous with the rest of Red team.

Personally, she preferred to work on her own, she liked it when it was just her, her gun and the enemy. Though she did respect every one of her comrades, she had always been a bit of a lone wolf. It was probably why she had been asked to provide sniper support by David, knowing that would be the best use of her talents. Alice appreciated that, and had gladly taken the order. As she headed to the command centre, where the rest of the team were receiving a status update on Blue team, she quietly thought about recent events.

In what seemed like an eternity ago, she remembered being conscripted into the Spartan program. She couldn’t remember her parents; they died shortly long after she had been born. She’d been in an orphanage all her life and the sudden change had terrified her. She had already been shy to begin with, and the sudden change had not changed the situation.

In time, she had opened up, as she had to rely on her team-mates to be successful, but she still wasn’t the most sociable of the Spartans. As the years went by she became accustomed to her team-mates as they had to her. Then they went to Frontier and everything changed.

Seeing her friends die, killed right before her eyes had been the first real loss she had ever experienced, and she had taken the blow hard. Alice had come to see them as family, the only family she had ever had, and now they lay dead. On top of that, they had been captured and tortured by the Brutes, though the physical pain she had endured was no near as painful as the psychological pain she had to face.

But Blue team had come to their rescue and they had escaped the planet, but at a heavy cost. Alice had left behind nearly all her team on that planet, all of them had fallen, so that the rest of them could survive. It was a horrible strain on her mind, as when she thought about the friends she had lost it filled her mind with sorrow.

Luckily, she had not been the only survivor from her team, as Brandon had also survived. Alice felt that the only one who truly understood her was Brandon; the two had become very close friends after the events on Frontier. On their way back to the nearest UNSC world, Brandon had sat with her and they had kept each other company. Brandon seemed to have known what she was feeling at the time, as she couldn’t bare to talk, so he had stayed respectfully quiet, just silently sitting with her as the ship hurtled on, thinking about their shared loss.

When she had felt up to it, she had confided to him, about all her feelings, and he just sat and listened, and reassured her when she was finished. Alice could easily say that Brandon was like a brother to her, something she had never had. She didn’t even want to begin to think about what she would do if he died, so she stopped thinking about the past, as she entered the command centre.

Inside Major O’Brian, with Nelson at his side stood explaining their plan if the Covenant attacked again. Red team stood at attention, and were listening carefully to him. They all turned to look at her. Alice hated being the centre of attention, but over the years, she had become rather professional about it. She had to be, especially being a Spartan; marines always pointed and stared.

‘Ah there she is Major. Give me a sit-rep Alice,’ David asked.

‘It’s quiet out there sir. I couldn’t detect any Covenant activity heading our way, so far they only seem to be heading into the city,’ Alice replied.

‘My latest scans of the surrounding area confirm that statement Major,’ Nelson added.

O’Brian thoughtfully stroked his chin and looked at the holographic display which detailed all the units and structures in the valley. Alice noticed there were a lot less green friendly units moving around, and all of them were up at the top of the hill. That last battle had really thinned their numbers.

‘If they’re busy in the city, they’ll eventually turn their attention back to us. If this is the start of an invasion, these generators will be at the top of their list,’ O’Brian said grimly.

‘Are you certain of that sir? I know they have already launched an assault here, but now all their forces on the ground are heading into the city, there must be something there they want, or they would have just glassed the planet,’ David argued.

Alice quietly listened as she moved to Brandon’s side. He gave a slight nod to her presence and the two of them focused on the conversation.

‘They do have a few ships above the city, but it’s not enough to take the planet, they’ll have to take out the platforms to get enough troops down, and if they’re going to glass us, they’ll need more ships to do it precisely. Either way, these generators are high on there list of targets so we need to be ready for them,’ O’Brian argued.

As if on queue, Nelson said, ‘Sir, I’m picking up Covenant forces heading towards us, they’ll be here in three minutes.’

‘So there you are ladies and gentlemen. We need to get into position. They’ll be here soon,’ O’Brian said.

‘Understood Major, where do you want us?’ David asked.

‘I’d like most of you on the front line, by the turrets. If anybody can hold them back, it’s you. It will give us time to prepare for them,’ O’Brian replied.

After receiving his orders, David calmly turned and left the command centre, the rest of Red team right behind him. Over the private COM he said.

‘Alright, Leon, Sarah you’ll be with me in the middle of the defences. Vladimir and Claire will take the left and right. Brandon, you’ll cover our backs and Alice will provide sniper support.’

The Spartans silently acknowledged and headed to their positions. Alice could hear sirens reverberating in her ears, as she saw marines scrambling into the trenches that made up the front lines. She headed back into the watchtower were she had been just a few minutes ago. She grabbed the ladder firmly and effortlessly climbed up.

When she was up and in position, she grabbed the sniper she had left there and quickly reassembled it and slid a magazine into the weapon. She calmly looked through the scope and increased the magnification to x5. She could make out several vague purple bulbous craft at the entrance of the valley. As she increased the magnification, she saw them more clearly. She estimated there were about five Phantoms, and some light armour. It seemed to be more of a raid this time, rather than a full blown assault. She assumed that their forces were still busy with their mission in the city.

‘I’m in position sir. Hostiles identified. Around five Phantoms dropping troops and I can make out seven ghosts. Requesting permission to engage,’ Alice said, taking careful aim, as the Phantoms descended and their Brute occupants leapt out.

‘Permission denied. Hold fire until I give the signal,’ David replied.

Alice was confused by this, as she had a clear shot at the targets, and she was sure she could thin out their lines before they got too close. But she wouldn’t question David’s orders. He was a more experienced solider than her, and whatever the reason he had to deny her request, she was sure it was justified.

So she crouched patiently, watching as the Brutes moved into the valley and mercilessly advanced towards the base. The Ghosts pulled ahead of the advancing infantry, and were almost at the base of the hill, leaving a visible blue trail in the darkness as they surged forward.

Alice didn’t know what David was waiting for, they were almost on top of them, if he held much longer, there wouldn’t be anything left to defend.

Then, just as the Ghosts were halfway up the hill, the heavy turrets that were scattered across the front line opened fire, cutting the Covenant vehicles and their Grunt occupants to ribbons.

‘Alice, you may engage the enemy. All other forces fire at will!’ David ordered.

Without any hesitation, Alice lined up a shot and fired. The Brute captain she had been aiming at dropped like a stone, a single bullet hole in his skull. Three more shots rang out and three Brute minors fell, their weak power armour no match for high calibre sniper rounds.

In one elegant gesture, Alice pulled out the empty magazine and slammed another home. She aimed at another Brute Captain and fired. The Brute’s armour saved it, as it flickered and crumpled at the force of the round. Another bullet later and the Brute was dead. Alice turned her attention to some of the closer Brutes and used up the rest of her clip taking out another minor.

She reloaded and fired again. Four more minors fell, dead before they even hit the ground. Even with her best efforts, the Brutes seemed undeterred and were rapidly climbing the hill. The turrets ripped scores of Brutes to shreds, but more and more took the place of the ones that had fallen. Alice feared it wouldn’t be too long before they were overrun.

She fired more frequently now, working with the turret fire to mop up any Brutes that were getting too close. She cursed under her breath as her sniper clicked empty. She dropped the weapon and slid down the ladder, drawing her SMG.

She jogged to the trench and jumped in, taking up position with a group of marines as they fired everything they had at the Brutes. Unfortunately most of the Brutes were now in firing range and replied with a barrage of their own. Spikes slammed into the foxhole, and hit several marines, killing them instantly. Alice’s shields flickered and failed. She ducked as more spikes shot past were she had just been standing.

She rose to one knee and fired a sustained burst at a Brute that had been attempting to enter the trench. Her shields recharged and she was back on her feet, running down the trench; firing at any hostile contacts. She found the rest of Red team all desperately holding of the Brute horde. Vladimir held a Shotgun in one hand as he grabbed a Brute and shoved the gun into the creature’s mouth and fired. There wasn’t much left of the Bute’s head, just a bloody mess and a smoking gun.

David swung his battle rifle like a club, and knocked a Brute over. Wasting no time, David made sure his opponent didn’t get back up, as he fired several bursts into its skull. He turned and saw Alice, and then said,

‘Ah there you are. The marines are falling back, to make a final stand at the command centre. We’re going to hold them back for as long as we can. Grab what you can and give us a hand here.’

She nodded in acknowledgement and grabbed an assault rifle and fired a fully automatic barrage at the mass of Brutes in front of her. She could hear heavy thuds as Brutes entered the trenches all around them, and encircled the seven super soldiers. Alice’s motion sensor was swarming with targets all around her, but she didn’t give up, as more and more Brutes filled her vision. She let out a roar and cut down the nightmarish monstrosities, refusing to yield, even as her shields failed, and red warning lights covered her HUD.

She felt a searing pain in her right thigh as a spike slammed into her leg. Alice fell to the ground. She ignored the pain and kept shooting one-handed, as she pulled herself back, with the other. She could taste blood in her mouth, all her muscles groaned in protest, but she continued to fight, pulling the spike out of her leg and willing herself back to her feet.

Alice dodged and weaved as spikes flew around them. All their armour sparked and crackled as their shields desperately tried to recharge. But then the tide started to turn. Alice noticed that fewer Brutes were attacking, and one by one, the last remaining Brutes were taken out.

As the final Brutes fell, Alice let out a sigh of relief and limped over to her comrades. They were all bruised and bleeding, but none of them appeared to be badly injured. David surveyed the carnage and said,

‘Well done team. You’ve done the UNSC proud today, showing that even against overwhelming odds, we Spartans hold the line.’

Alice looked at Brandon. His armour was dented, and he had a nasty looking cut on his shoulder, but other than that he seemed fine. He looked at her and traced his fingers across his helmet to form a ‘smile’.

‘So what now David?’ Sarah said, wiping the blood from her MA5C.

‘We’ll take an hour to patch ourselves up and restock on supplies and then we’ll go and assist Blue team. From the amount of Covenant converging on the city, I think they might need a hand,’ David explained.

‘But what about the generators sir? Won’t the Covenant just attack them again while we’re gone?’ Brandon asked.

‘I know it’s possible they might attack here again, but I’m willing to take that risk. I’m relying on the fact that the city seems to be their top priority, as this attack seemed like an after thought to me. Hopefully, they’ll keep their attention there, so we can leave this area lightly defended,’ David replied.

Alice had to agree it was a risk, but letting the Covenant go unchallenged in the city seemed to be an even bigger risk. She had seen first hand what had happened when the Covenant had attacked a city, and she knew that there must be something they were after, and whatever it was, they couldn’t let them have it, no matter what the cost.

It seemed like Brandon thought this as well, as he remained silent as they headed back to the base.

As she walked towards the nearest medic she wondered what the Covenant was after and whether the cost in stopping them was going to be as great as it was on Frontier. Part of her prayed that this time it was different.

End of Chapter 22

Chapter 23

ONI headquarters-in the city of Reflex, on the planet Sanctuary
9th December 2568 Military Calendar 18.00

Kyle took his first steps into ONI headquarters, with the rest of Blue team and the marines behind him. In front of them was a marble hall, with tall black pillars, and the golden eagle of the UNSC holding an unblinking eye in its claws was on a banner above them, making sure that it was clear this building belonged to ONI. In front of them was a large steel door. To the left of the door was a small security terminal, with a space to swipe an identification card.

Kyle moved forward and placed his hand on the terminal, and it bleeped once and the doors swung open. Kyle went in first, his assault rifle raised and his finger on the trigger, just in case. He looked around and surveyed his surroundings. It seemed to be reception area of some sort, with a large circular desk in front of him. Large stacks of papers and files were heaped behind the desk. A computer terminal was humming quietly on the desk, its monitor blank, with only a UNSC logo on the screen.

Satisfied that the area was clear, he lowered his weapon, with the rest of his team-mates following suit and looking at their surroundings. Caspian turned to Kyle and said,

‘All right we need to find out where those Brutes are. Kyle, have Mira hack into the mainframe.’

Without a word Kyle moved to the terminal and placed his hand on the computer and he felt Mira’s presence leave his armour. A moment later her voice could be heard on the intercom.

‘All right I’m in,’ Mira said calmly.

‘Any sign of these Brutes?’ Caspian asked.

‘I think so, I have some strong thermal readings on the top floors and a few more in the basement, some of them are a little faint,’ Mira answered.

‘All right I think it would be best for us to split up. I’ll take Blue team and we’ll check out the top floors, while Sergeant Novo and the marines will check the bottom. Mira, I’d like you to stay in the system, just in case we run into a few snags and to get us through any of the security systems,’ Caspian explained.

‘Got it, I’ll keep your HUDS updated as fast as I can,’ Mira said.

As she fell silent a marker appeared on Kyle’s HUD, leading down the nearest hallway. The two teams moved to their tasks and headed in opposite directions.


Caspian lead them further into the building, as they walked down the brightly lit white- walled corridor and came to two elevators. Both looked like they were rather old-fashioned and fragile at first glance, but were heavily reinforced on closer inspection.

Mira suddenly said, ‘You can’t use the elevators. They’ve been locked down, until the threat has passed. I can’t seem to disable the lock down. You’ll have to take the stairs.’

A new marker replaced the original one and led them to a green door which had above it a sign saying ‘Fire exit.’ Kyle thought for a second. Most of these doors were rigged to activate an alarm, so that the rest of the building was aware of the fire. He was sure this one was as well, which would alert the Brutes to their presence. He turned to Caspian and voiced his thoughts.

‘Wait, if we open the door, it will trigger the fire alarms and blow our cover,’ Kyle said.

‘Don’t worry I disabled the fire alarms. The Brutes will not know you are coming,’ Mira reassured them.

They shoved the door open and looked at the stairway. ONI headquarters had about eighty floors. From what they had seen of the thermal images the Brutes were on the seventy eighth floor, while they had arrived on the fortieth floor. That meant they had quite a lot of floors between them and their target.

Trying not to think about the amount of steps he was about the climb, Kyle surged forward, and leapt up flight after flight of stairs, with the rest of Blue team right behind him. Their heavy boots slammed against the stone steps causing their footsteps to echo throughout the stairway. They continued up the stairs, passing the sixtieth floor, then the seventieth, and finally after what felt like an eternity, they reached the seventy eighth floor.

Kyle took a second to catch his breath and then quietly opened the door. It was dark; Kyle could barely see two feet in front of him. He assumed the power was out on this level.

‘Oh great, no power. These Brutes must just love the darkness,’ Alex said, as she turned on her helmet’s flashlights.

The rest of the team quickly did the same, and quickly, the hallway they were in was illuminated by powerful beams of light. As they slowly moved forward, making sure they all stayed in the light, Kyle started to notice that compared to the regimental cleanliness of the lower floors, this floor was a mess. Top secret documents were ripped to shreds on the floor; computers and desks had been flung around the room, leaving splintered wood and bent metal littered on the ground.

‘They really did a number here, we must be getting close. Keep frosty Spartans,’ Caspian whispered.

They inched forward, trying to make as little noise as possible, keeping their heavy boots off the broken wood and tattered papers. It was then Kyle heard a noise, it was quiet, but he clearly made out a guttural growl. He dropped to one knee and held up his hand. The rest of the Spartans stopped dead and crouched next to him.

‘What is it Kyle?’ Shen whispered.

‘I heard something, it sounded like a Brute, it sounded pretty close,’ Kyle answered.

‘Cut the lights. Peter you go first and recon ahead. If you see any Brutes, you move straight back to our position. Are we clear?’ Caspian said.

‘Like crystal Casp,’ Peter said as he crept past them as they flicked their headlights off and they were plunged into complete darkness.

Even though Spartans could see better in the dark than any normal human, they still preferred to fight in the light, as it was much easier to co-ordinate. It would be hard to spot the Brutes, even with their augmented eyesight, especially if they had active camouflage. Out of the entire team, the only who would stand a chance of seeing them clearly with the naked eye was Peter.

They sat there tensely waiting for Peter to return, their weapons raised; keeping a silent vigil. Kyle kept absolutely still as he could hear the heavy breathing of Brutes drawing nearer to him, he dimmed the electronic display of the MA5C, and checked the amount of bullets in the chamber. 28. It would have to do. The other three Spartans next to him braced themselves, preparing for the fight that was inevitably coming.

The breathing grew closer and closer, until it was almost on top of them. But suddenly it grew strained for a second then went silent. For a moment Kyle thought it would restart again, but then he saw a figure in his peripheral vision. He was about to level his gun at this new target, but he recognised Peter in a heartbeat. He crouched next to them once more. Even in the darkness, Kyle noticed he held his combat knife. That explained what happened to the Brute then.

‘What took you so long, you losing your touch?’ Alex asked.

‘You wish, I just pinpointed all the Brutes on this level and took one out covertly,’ Peter replied.

‘What are we dealing with?’ Caspian asked.

‘I could make out about eighteen Brutes, not counting the one I took out. They seemed to have taken out the power to bypass a large door in the middle of this floor. They’ve spread themselves across the area, and are patrolling all the corridors. They all have active camo and thermal sensors from what I could tell,’ Peter reported.

‘Damn. Any ideas?’ Caspian whispered.

‘I’ve got one, it’s risky but it should work,’ Mira said tentatively on their private COMS

‘What is it?’ Shen asked.

‘They do have many patrols, but they are all relatively small groups. If you can take out enough of them covertly, you should be able to easily eliminate the rest. I suggest you start from the centre and work your way outwards,’ Mira said.

‘Good idea, we’ll use our thermal vision to locate them, stick together and keep quiet. Peter you take point,’ Caspian ordered.

The five Spartans inched forward, slowly moving into the next room. It was another large lobby, with a few overturned chairs and sofas. Kyle could just barely make out a large metal security door surrounding the central office. Also in the room were three orange figures, they were all facing away from them, their attention on the metal door. They were pacing back and forth in the centre of the room. They hid behind one of the sofas as Kyle could hear them talk to each other.

‘How much longer must we wait? All we need to do is destroy this door so we can assist our brothers below.’

A second Brute said, ‘You must be patient, we must wait for them to get into position, and then we shall open the door.’

The first Brute then replied, ‘and then we shall learn what secrets these vermin have been hiding about our lords.’

They watched as they slowly walked past them, as they growled quietly to themselves into an adjacent corridor. When they finally couldn’t hear them anymore, they moved forward and split up, each of them taking a separate corridor. Kyle kept his head down and his eyes open as he surveyed his surroundings. It was hard to make out anything with his thermal vision, but he could make out several offices and many large computers quietly humming to themselves.

Kyle could see two Brutes ahead of him. They hadn’t spotted him yet, so he quickly dove into a nearby office and hid behind a mahogany desk. He watched them as they slowly searched each office, checking the computers and the cabinets for information and in each one tearing the papers to shreds and smashing the computers in frustration as they didn’t find what they wanted.

Kyle knew they’d be entering this office soon, if he was going to take them out, he’d have to do it now. He waited for the Brutes to check the office adjacent to him and charged at them. He quickly brought out his combat knife and slit the first Brute’s neck before he even realised Kyle was there. Kyle the dropped the lifeless body and threw his still bloody knife at the second Brute, which was just turning to face him. The knife cleanly slammed into the creature’s skull, and it dropped without a sound.

Kyle retrieved his knife and sheathed it and headed further into the maze of corridors. He could barely see in front of him, all he could see was the dull blue of the cold surfaces surrounding him. Kyle kept his breathing to a minimum, as he entered the next corridor. He couldn’t see any more Brutes so Kyle moved forward. He was just about to lower his guard when several orange figures approaching his position. Kyle turned to take cover, when he saw more orange figures coming from the way he had just came. He was surrounded. He knew he couldn’t hide in time, he would have to fight.

Kyle primed a grenade and threw it at the figures in front of him, just as they spotted him. It bounced once and landed at their feet and detonated. The Brutes flew back and collapsed in a heap. Kyle turned and fired a fully automatic barrage into the Brutes behind him. He ripped through their armour. Two of the Brutes fell as the bullets tore through their flesh. The last Brute was still standing and it let out an angry howl as it charged at him. Kyle wasted no time. He flipped his rifle and swung it like a bat, slamming its butt into the creature’s face. He could hear the crack of its skull, and blood splattered across his visor.

Kyle could hear more angry roars heading his way. They were obviously responding to the explosion and gunfire. Kyle slammed another clip into his rifle and got ready. He could see a mass of red dots on his motion sensor. They grew louder and louder and then, they went silent. Kyle stayed on guard.

Several orange figures headed towards him on all sides, surrounding him. He was about to fire, when he recognised the figures. It was Blue team. Caspian nodded and they all stood down.

‘We heard gunfire, you run into any trouble?’ Caspian asked.

‘Nothing I couldn’t handle,’ Kyle replied pointing out the bodies.

‘I count eight here. Kyle must have got the rest of them,’ Peter commented.

‘All right, I’ve managed to reroute power to this level, I’ll be reactivating it shortly. I suggest you deactivate your thermal vision,’ Mira advised.

‘You heard her, return to normal vision mode,’ Caspian ordered.

Kyle returned his helmet’s vision to normal, just as lights illuminated the corridor around them.

‘Mira are you picking up any more Brutes on this level?’ Kyle asked.

‘Negative. The security cameras reactivated when I restored power, as well as more accurate thermal imaging. You’re the only ones left on this floor. The only other readings I’m picking up are in the underground floors of the building,’ Mira answered.

‘Then we’d better see how Novo and the marines are doing. Novo report,’ Caspian said into his COM.

‘Here sir, we’re in some sort of vault on the bottom floor. There seems to have some kind of heavy security doors blocking our way, and we haven’t found any evidence of the Brutes,’ Novo’s voice said as it crackled on their radios

‘Roger that, we’ll be with you shortly,’ Caspian replied.

‘Okay, see you soon. Oh shit, Brutes! They’ve got us pinned down, we need to fall back. We can’t reach the stairs, can you open those doors?’ Novo asked. Gunfire could be heard in the background, as well as the screams of the wounded and the inhuman roars of the Brutes.

‘Mira, can you open them?’ Shen asked.

‘Negative. You need to activate the manual override in the director’s office,’ Mira explained.

‘Where’s the directors office?’ Alex said.

‘It was the central office on this floor; I’ve disabled the security around it.’ Mira explained.

‘Understood. Let’s get going Spartans, those marines don’t have much time,’ Caspian said.

The five Spartans ran back and headed into the director’s office. It was very well furnished, with elegant black titles, a beautifully crafted oak desk. The walls were covered in ancient antiques, books and documents that were hundreds of years old. The Spartans calmly walked forward and checked the room for the manual override.

‘I don’t see this override. Why does ONI always have to keep things so secretive?’ Alex grumbled.

‘Any ideas Mira?’ Kyle asked.

‘Try the books, I believe they might of hidden in there,’ Mira said.

They searched the bookcases feverishly, knowing that every second counted if Novo and his team were going to survive. Kyle picked up a hefty tome, called ‘The Keeper of All Secrets’. This intrigued Kyle and he examined it more closely. He scrolled though the book, which seemed to be some sort of fantasy novel. As flipped to the next page, he found a large gap where they would have been paper, and a single grey button nestled in between the pages.

‘Found you,’ Kyle said, pressing the button.

‘That’s got it! Novo get your men out of there,’ Mira said urgently.

‘Thanks Blue team, we’re moving. We’ll hold out for as long as we can,’ Novo replied.

‘Roger that, we’re coming, just hold on until we arrive,’ Caspian said as he cut the channel. He turned and said to them,

‘Okay team, let’s get moving, Novo and his men are counting on us, lets not disappoint them.’

The five Spartans left the office and ran towards the stairs. They knew that Novo and his marines didn’t have much time left, and that time was rapidly running out.

End of Chapter 23.

Chapter 24

ONI headquarters-in the city of Reflex, on the planet Sanctuary
9th December 2568 Military Calendar 19.00

The five Spartans ran as fast as they could, heading back the way they had come. They knew that even though Novo and his marines were brave, and would never back down, they didn’t stand much of a chance against the camouflaged Brutes. They needed to get down there and quickly.

It seemed that Caspian had been thinking the same thing as he quickly asked,

‘Mira, please tell me the elevators are working.’

‘Negative, I still haven’t been able to disable the lockdown, they’re not going anywhere,’ Mira answered.

Caspian cursed under his breath and quickly thought about their options. The way Kyle saw it, the only way they could get down to the bottom floor was to take the stairs again, but by the time they got there it would be too late.

Caspian then asked, ‘What floors are the elevators on?’

‘Twenty three and forty eight. Why?’ Mira said.

‘Do you think our shields could take the friction of sliding down the elevator cables?’ Caspian said.

‘I think so, if you increased the density of your shields to your hands and feet. You’ll also have to slow yourselves down to endure the impact with the elevators,’ Mira advised them.

‘Noted. Can you open the elevator doors?’ Caspian said.

‘Certainly,’ Mira answered.

Kyle could hear an electronic clunk as the doors opened.

‘All right, everyone into the shaft double time!’ Caspian ordered.

Kyle adjusted his shields and walked tentatively to the open shaft. He readied himself and leapt into the shaft. His fingers brushed against the thick steel cable and he grasped it firmly, as his muscles were strained to breaking point as he strengthened his hold on the cable.

When he was sure his grip was strong enough he called out to the rest of the team, and Kyle moved downwards as they joined him on the cable. Kyle then let his grip loosen, and he slid down the cable, quickly gathering speed. He could feel the heat build up around him, as his gauntlets brushed up against the cable.

Even with all the shielding around his hands, Kyle had never felt such intense heat before. He didn’t know how his hands hadn’t been burned by it yet. Kyle looked down and saw the growing shape of the first elevator. Using all his augmented strength, he gripped the cable firmly again, slowing his descent. The heat increased even further. Kyle could feel the pain burning up his arms; he didn’t know how much longer he could hold on, his mind was screaming to let go.

At last he finally slowed down enough for him to control his movements again and quickly aimed at the large hulk of the elevator and let go. He fell for a fraction of a second and slammed into the cold unyielding metal. He felt the metal twist and groan under his weight, but it held. The rest of the team landed next to him and stressed the metal even further. Caspian looked at each at them and asked,

‘Is everyone alright?’

‘I’m fine, just a little singed,’ Shen answered.

‘All right, onto the next cable and down to the next elevator,’ Caspian ordered.

And so it began again. Once his shields had recharged, Kyle plummeted downwards into the darkness. Kyle ignored the pain and focused on his descent. Lights flew by him as floor after floor hurtled by. Once again an elevator came to view and filled his vision. Kyle jumped off and crouched on top the elevator as the rest of Blue team joined him. They moved the hatch at the top of the elevator and slid down into it.

‘Peter, blow the floor, we need to get down to the bottom of this shaft,’ Caspian said.

‘Got it,’ Peter calmly replied.

He grabbed a charge from his belt and placed the wired detonators into the putty like explosive. When it was ready, they climbed back on to the top of the elevator and braced themselves for the impending explosion.

‘Fire in the hole!’ Peter said as he pressed the detonator.

The floor underneath them rumbled as the explosion rocked the elevator from side to side. As the smoke cleared they inspected the damage. The blast had ripped off most of the floor, only leaving the edges of it intact. The doors had also taken a beating and the metal was contorted at an extreme angle.

They held on tightly as they moved to the edges which worryingly started to bend and strain under their combined weight. In the large hole, Kyle could see their target, the next elevator cable. Wasting no more time, Kyle jumped into the hole and grabbed the cable and slid down it to the bottom floor, the rest of the team behind him.

‘Mira we need you to open the doors,’ Caspian said, looking up at the elevator they had just come from. It was starting to weaken and the sounds of strained metal grew louder and louder.

‘I’m working on it, give me a few seconds,’ Mira responded, just as the elevator’s brakes buckled, sending it rocketing towards them.

‘Any time now Mira, we don’t have all day,’ Kyle said, as he looked up.

‘Got it!’ Mira said triumphantly, as the doors whooshed open.

Kyle knew they didn’t have much time, so he quickly aimed his jump and threw himself at the open doors. He hit them dead centre and rolled in the bottom floor and moved aside for the others. Caspian was next, followed by Peter and Shen. Alex was the last one out of the shaft. She made it out, just as the elevator crashed down into the bottom of the shaft and where she had just been.

‘Ok, from now on I’m not trusting Peter with explosives,’ Alex said.

‘Let’s get moving, where to next Mira?’ Caspian asked.

‘Take the left and head down the hallway then turn right, you should see a large reinforced door, that’s where you need to go. I’ll mark it on your HUDS now,’ Mira explained.

The marker appeared and they took the left into another abandoned corridor. Unlike the offices they had seen on the floors above, these were more security offices. They were filled with security equipment, footage of all the cameras on this level, reinforced glass, and motions sensors filled them. Kyle guessed that this vault had something pretty valuable in it, or they wouldn’t have gone with this length of security to protect it.

They reached the door to the vault. It was very thick, around 15cm deep and made of a dull gun metal grey. It was slightly ajar and bullets were strewn about on the floor. A few dead Brutes were around the entrance, pieces of their armour around the lifeless bodies. In the distance they could hear gunfire. They were still alive. Kyle felt a sense of urgency fill him.

‘Where are they Mira?’ Caspian asked quickly, raising his weapon in response to the sounds of battle.

‘I’m getting interference again, that area must have kind of restriction as I can’t get any information from the cameras or the motion sensors. I suggest you follow your instincts,’ Mira suggested.

‘Move it Spartans!’ Caspian said.

Kyle and Shen moved to the door and pushed the heavy mass of metal back, making the gap wider. When they could all fit through, they entered the vault. On closer inspection, he realised they had made a mistake. This wasn’t a vault, it was an archive. Hundreds of metal boxes, similar to the ones they have found underneath fort Dakota were filed alphabetically and they were numbered with an identification code. In the centre of the room they were several large computer databases which hummed quietly. A smaller door was at the rear of the room, which was also wide open and led to a similar room.

They ran to it, guns at the ready, and there was still no sign of Novo and his men, but the sound of gunfire was closer now.

‘We must be getting close, keep moving. Activate your thermal vision and stay frosty,’ Caspian ordered.

They moved in, and as they reached the second open door, Kyle picked up something orange. It wasn’t facing them, and it was blocking the door. It size made it clear it was one of the Brutes. Kyle quickly fired, surprising the creature. It turned to face him, only to be gunned down by the rest of the Spartans.

Cries of surprise came from the next room and more Brutes came to investigate; only to be cut down by the Spartans combined fire. An angry shout came from the next room, as they took cover at either side of the door.

‘You incompetents! Kill these human weaklings and then we’ll deal with these Demons.’

The Spartans didn’t give them that chance. They stormed the room, covering all angles as they entered the room. Kyle could make out six Brutes, with only half that number facing them. At the rear of the room, Kyle could see Novo and his marines.

All five of them fired, ripping the Brutes’ armour to ribbons, making them visible to the surviving marines. Bullets tore into the Brutes as they were hit from all angles. As the last Brute fell, the Spartans lowered their still smoking weapons, and walked over to Novo and the marines. Some of them were in pretty bad shape; they had lost a few more men since Kyle had last seen them, and some of them were obviously wounded. Sergeant Novo himself was holding a bloody wound on his shoulder. He seemed visibly relieved to see them.

‘Man, I’m glad you came when you did, I didn’t think could have held on much longer. You Spartans have a great habit of saving our buts just in time huh?’ Novo joked.

‘Let’s hope it’s the last time we have to do it Sergeant. Those Brutes were really going for you. Did you find something down here?’ Caspian asked.

‘Not something, someone,’ Novo said, moving to the side and revealing another person.

He was of average height, and was balding and he wore thick glasses. He rose to his feet and tentatively moved forward looking at the armed soldiers with a suspicious look.

‘This is Dr Ian Harmer, he’s a scientist here. He said he stayed behind to protect this archive,’ Novo explained.

‘I couldn’t allow those barbaric creatures get to this archive; it contains all the information ONI has on our operations. It would be disastrous if they found out some of the information we know about the Forerunners,’ Dr Harmer said.

‘Understandable, but dangerous, Brutes don’t show mercy, you could have been killed,’ Caspian warned.

‘It was necessary, somebody had to guard them,’ the doctor argued.

‘We’d better get moving, we don’t know how long we have before more Brutes arrive,’ Caspian said.

‘Actually, my scans indicate the Brutes are retreating,’ Mira said as she appeared on the holo terminal that was by the computers in the centre of the room.

‘Huh? When did the Brutes turn chicken?’ One of the marines asked.

‘Incoming transmission from Red team, I’ll let them explain it,’ Mira said playfully.

‘Blue team are you alright?’ David’s voice said as it came over their radios

‘We’re fine, what’s your status?’ Caspian asked.

‘We’ve been fighting our way through the city with as many marines as O’Brian could spare, we’ll be at ONI’s headquarters soon,’ David explained.

‘Roger that, we’ll be waiting,’ Caspian said as he cut the radio link.

It was then Kyle had an epiphany. This was the hub of all of ONI’s information about their operations and projects. This was the best place to look for information about project Lazarus.

‘Mira, can you interface with the databases down here?’ Kyle asked.

‘Hang on a second…..Ok I’m there. What do you need?’ Mira said.

‘Try to find anything you can about project Lazarus, documents, staff, what it was, anything,’ Kyle said desperately. He had to know what his mother had been doing.

‘Lazarus…….how on earth do you know about that? Barely anybody in ONI was aware of its existence,’ Dr Harmer said looking surprised.

Kyle turned his attention on the doctor and grabbed him and slammed him against the wall. Peter was about to pull him back, but Shen stopped him.

‘What do you know about Lazarus? Tell me!’ Kyle shouted.

‘Wait…..if you’re from Blue team that means….. How did you find out? We took a great deal of precautions to keep it hidden, you shouldn’t know about it!’ Dr Harmer said angrily, showing no fear, even as he was being strangled by a seven foot tall super solider.

‘We found files in fort Dakota. How was Claire Anderton involved in the project?’ Kyle asked, his grip tightening on Harmer’s neck.

‘Claire? Why she was the centre of the project, the one who came up with the idea in the first place. It was her masterpiece, and I wish she was still around to see the fruits of her labour right now,’ Harmer said, letting of a weak smile.

‘What do you mean?’ Kyle said.

‘I know who you are Spartan. You are Kyle Anderton, son of Jack and Claire Anderton, you are one of the best Spartans of the Spartan IV project, but you are also the end result of Project Lazarus,’ Harmer said.

‘Explain yourself; what do I have to do with Lazarus?’ Kyle said furiously.

‘Around 25 years ago it was nearing the end of the war with the Covenant, and we were losing men and resources in a costly war with a superior alien species. The best hope humanity had produced were the Spartans, a group of fearless soldiers who would never give in, never surrender. They were magnificent, but there were too few of them, and the pre-requisites for any new candidates were very hard to find in a dwindling population.

So our plan was simple, to produce a child with exceptional abilities, one who could one day become a Spartans and continue the fight against the Covenant. Claire got pregnant during the project and volunteered her child as a test subject. We used the best gene therapy and augmentations we had on the still growing embryo. Six months later, the child was born; you,’ Harmer said.

He continued, ‘Once you were born, we decided to study your development, to see if we had been successful, and our initial results were minimal, you grew up normally for the first few years of your life, but as you reached the age where you could talk and started to question the world around you, our results skyrocketed immensely. Your brain activity radically grew, as did your other co-ordination, speed and reaction time. While these weren’t superhuman results, we have definitely improved your abilities to some of the highest the human body would normally allow. We were impressed.’

‘Wait a second; how the hell did you monitor him? I was with him nearly every single day, and I don’t remember anything that could have been examining Kyle, so how did you get this data?’ Shen asked.

‘We had our own little helper to keep an eye on you,’ Harmer cryptically said.

‘Odysseus…..’ Kyle said.

‘Yes. Didn’t you think it was a little strange that you were the only boy with an AI? He was there to watch you. To see you develop and report back to us. He was also programmed to protect you, to ensure our prime subject didn’t come to harm, and he fulfilled his role perfectly,’ Harmer explained.

‘What happened at Camp Foreman, he didn’t do it because he cared about me, he did it because he was ordered to,’ Kyle said bitterly.

‘Oh quite the contrary, he grew to like you immensely as he studied you. By the time of his demise, he had become a bit over protective of you, he was starting to question our orders. We were considering replacing him,’ Harmer replied.

‘I glad you never got the chance; he was the only real thing I had in my childhood.’ Kyle growled.

‘Please…you never had anything real in your life. It’s been scripted from before you were even born. We made you what you are. It was because of us that Singh found you and conscripted you in the Spartan IV project. It was because of us, you became the great soldier we had always intended you to be. Without us, you would have been nothing, a worthless child that would have died years ago. But because of us, you have become a useful tool, blindly following our bidding as we silently watched your progress. You owe us everything!’ Harmer shouted.

Kyle could feel the anger burning inside him, as he tried to cling to some hope as he asked Mira,’ Is it true?’

‘I’ve just been through the data. It’s all true. Everything he’s said. I’m so sorry Kyle, I didn’t know,’ Mira said.

Kyle clenched his fists and hit the doctor in his jawbone. He could hear a sickening crack as the bone shattered by the force of his superhuman strike. And then he hit him again and again in a blind fury, punishing the man who had been controlling his life all these years from behind the scenes.

‘Kyle STOP! Killing him won’t ease the pain; we’ll work through this together when we got out of here, but right now you need to think about what you’re doing, you making a terrible mistake!’ Caspian shouted as he tried to pull him away from Dr Harmer.

‘Am I? This man has been manipulating me since before I was born, and I’ve been his puppet ever since then, but no more. He needs to pay for what he’s done to me!’ Kyle shouted as he knocked Caspian aside and raised his fist to deliver the killing blow.

Harmer chuckled, as blood trickled from his heavily bruised face. His glasses were broken and they clattered onto the floor, into a pool of his blood.

‘Ah, you’re truly an efficient killing machine. It was a privilege to create you. Now kill me. Prove the puppet master that you still obey, even when you know the truth,’ Harmer said defiantly.

‘Kyle listen to me, I know you’re angry, but this isn’t who you are. He claims to have made you, but he’s wrong, they may have changed you physically, but the person you are, your personality, they never crafted that, you did. You always have had a choice, look at Rondo, you spared him. And why did you spare you mother’s killer?’ Mira said.

‘She….she told me that revenge isn’t the answer; it just causes more pain and offers no peace. But was that another lie? Just another deception?’ Kyle said.

‘Kyle, you’re mother loved you, I know that wasn’t faked, and I know what she did seems wrong, but she did with the best intentions, she wanted to give the best chance to survive in a war that looked like it was the end of humanity. She did it out of love, not malice, and if she could see you now, she would be disappointed,’ Shen pleaded.

‘You’re………You’re right. This is not who I am, no matter what they think I am,’ Kyle said, as he lowered his fist and walked away from Dr Harmer, not looking back.

‘Come on, let’s go,’ Caspian said grimly.

‘Oh, I don’t think you’ll be going anywhere,’ Dr Harmer said coldly, as he held a pistol to Novo’s head.

‘Doctor, put the gun, down. Nobody needs to get hurt,’ Caspian said.

‘I’m afraid I must disagree. I can’t let any of live now, you know too much about Lazarus. If it came to light, it could ruin me, and the project,’ Harmer said his finger dangerously close to the trigger.

A single shot rang out into the night. Dr Harmer smiled in satisfaction, but then noticed the gunshot wound in his forehead. He raised a hand to the wound, as he crumpled to the floor. Novo moved as far away from the body as he could, noticeably shaken.

Kyle lowered his still smoking rifle and turned away from the body not saying another word.

‘Move out, we’re done here,’ Caspian said as they left the archive.

End of Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Omega base, by the orbital defence generators- on the planet Sanctuary
10th December 2568 Military Calendar 05.30

Kyle woke with a jerk, awaking from a nightmare. He vividly recalled his mother and scenes from his childhood, which suddenly transformed into an operating theatre. He looked down at his body and saw tubes and wires, as the surgeons cut into his flesh and slowly reshaped him, remodelled him into a monster. The last image he saw was his grotesquely disfigured face as he looked at it in a mirror.

‘Are you alright Kyle?’ Mira asked. Kyle had been so preoccupied he hadn’t even taken off his armour.

‘I’m fine. It was just a bad dream,’ Kyle murmured.

‘You want to talk about it?’ Mira asked.

‘Not really, it’s not important,’ Kyle said dismissively.

‘Are you sure, it look like it really got to you. Was it about your mother?’ Mira probed cautiously.

‘Yeah,’ Kyle said coldly.

‘You must know she did it with the best intentions, and she loved you dearly. I thought we were past this,’ Mira said.

‘I’m trying; it’s just a lot to take in. I don’t even know who, or what I am anymore,’ Kyle replied.

‘You’re still the same person, nothing has changed; you just know more about yourself now.’ Mira reassured him.

‘I know that, I just finding all of this hard to accept. I’m trying the best I can, but it’s still a struggle,’ Kyle admitted.

‘I can understand that, but like Caspian said earlier, we’ll get through this in time, but right now we need to focus on the mission,’ Mira said.

Kyle got up and stretched his numb muscles. ‘You’re right. When do we have to rendezvous with the others?’ Kyle asked, recalling the events of last night.

After they had left ONI’s headquarters they had met up with Red team, and they had help them drive off the remaining Brutes. They had then returned to Omega base, where Major O’Brian had unveiled a daring plan. The Covenant had set up a large base in a few kilometres outside the city. It was in a large flat field, which was perfect to allow troops and supplies to be fed down from gravity lifts from the orbiting Covenant ships. It also made it easier for them to see a potential attack, as there was very little cover between the beginning of the field and the base itself, so it would be rather costly to attack from the ground.

O’Brian had suggested a two-pronged attack. The two Spartans teams would be dropped over the base, where they would infiltrate the base and sabotage their defences. O’Brian and all the rest of the UNSC forces would then move in and finish the job. It was risky, and the Spartans would be on their own for most of the operation, but that’s the way they preferred it and they had jumped at the idea.

After they had finalised the details of the plan they had decided to get a few hours of sleep, as they were going to attack early in the morning.

‘In about 20 minutes outside the armoury. We’d better get moving if we want to get there in time,’ Mira explained.

‘Got it,’ Kyle said, heading towards the door.

As he left he surveyed the base. It was pandemonium, as the marines made their final preparations for the attack, scrounging ammo and supplies, and running some checks on some vehicles they had taken from the marines at the depot, who had joined them for this battle.

Kyle ignored this and headed straight towards the armoury. Most of Blue team were already there, as well as most of Red team. They greeted Kyle and they waited patiently, watching the chaos that was going on around them.

‘Where’s Caspian?’ Kyle asked Peter.

‘He’s having a last minute talk about the plan with Major O’Brian. David is there as well,’ he answered.

‘How are you doing Kyle? We were worried about you,’ Shen said, looking concerned for one of his oldest friends.

‘I’m coping. It’s all I really can do right now,’ Kyle replied.

Caspian arrived with David right behind him, and the two teams turned to their leaders.

‘Good to see you’re all here early, we’ve got a lot to go through,’ Caspian said, and then continued,

‘You all know the plan, but I’m quickly going to go through the specifics once we get into the base. Once we drop into the base, it’s going to get very hot very quickly, and we won’t have much time to act. Our first goal is to disable the turrets guarding the base. Scans indicate that they have a large generator at the north east side of the base. If we can take it out, all their automated turrets go offline.’

‘After the generator is destroyed we’ll split up. Red team will try and sabotage their vehicles, while Blue team tries to open the main shield door,’ David added.

‘Once those objectives have been completed, we’ll regroup and hold them off until the cavalry arrives. Any questions?’ Caspian asked.

All the Spartans were silent.

‘Good, the Pelicans will be here soon, so get your weapons and all the ammo you can carry, we’re going to need it,’ Caspian finished.

They entered the armoury and selected their weapons. Kyle grabbed a shotgun and slid cartridges into the gun and placed more on his belt. He then grabbed an MA5C and checked it was functionally normally. Satisfied, he strapped the shotgun to his back and held his rifle at the ready. The others were similarly equipped with close range weapons. Peter had grabbed some explosives, while Shen had taken a rocket launcher and a MA5C.

When they were ready, they left the armoury and calmly walked down the hill and into the valley. The area had been cleared since the last battle, and there were a few marines were standing by two Pelicans. They saluted as the Spartans and moved aside as they moved to the rear of the craft. Reggie was waiting for them, as well as another pilot.

‘Sir, good to see you. We’re all ready here, just say the word,’ Reggie said.

‘Good, then let’s get going,’ Caspian said.

Blue team entered Reggie’s Pelican and Red team entered the second Pelican. Kyle strapped a parachute to his armour and sat uncomfortably in one of the seats as the Pelican’s engines thrummed to life.

The Pelicans soared into the air and hurtled forwards. Kyle silently stared at the rear door and the small view port. The grassy plains rushed underneath them as they approached Reflex. Kyle watched as they flew over the tall skyscrapers and the dead stillness of the deserted city. As the last of the buildings left his vision Kyle heard Reggie voice on his COM.

‘We’re nearly there Spartans. ETA four minutes.’

‘Understood, prepare to drop Spartans,’ Caspian said.

They all rose to their feet, and headed towards the rear of the craft. The door opened and the wind gushed around them. The Pelican started to rock from side to side, and Kyle grabbed the handrail above his head.

‘We’ve got some heavy AA fire here, you’d better hold on to your helmets back there,’ Reggie said.

Kyle held on as they speed on, the dropship weaving from side to side as enemy fire surrounded them. Reggie then said,

‘Okay we’re the drop point, good luck Spartans’

Without another word, the Spartans formed a line and one by one jumped. Kyle was the last out, and he took a split second look at the large purple mass below him that made up the Covenant’s base and then he jumped.

He could fell his stomach rise into his chest as he plummeted like a stone. Around him he could see the small green figures of the other Spartans from Red team falling with him. They grew bigger and bigger as they approached the ground. Kyle kept his cool as large green trails of plasma shot past him. Hopefully at with the speed of his descent he would be able to avoid most of it, that of course was until he activated his parachute, and then things would get tricky.

He yanked the cord and his body was pulled upward by the expanding parachute. He held on tightly to the two cords that lead from either strap, and used them gently to avoid the plasma fire. The base was growing bigger now, it now filled his vision and Kyle could make out a large number of Brutes underneath them, with several Spartans holding them at bay. Kyle aimed for them.

He cut the cords and fell a few feet and rolled, coming to his feet in the centre of the base, He grabbed his assault rifle and fired a full automatic spray into the advancing Brutes. Armour cracked and broke, blood splattered over the dusty earth, and several Brutes fell, only to be replaced with double their number.

Kyle kept moving and took cover behind some Covenant communication equipment. The rest of Blue team was there, firing everything they had at the advancing Brutes. One by one, Red team landed and joined them, leaving a growing pile of fallen Brutes behind them.

Kyle ducked as spikes shot past his head. Caspian shouted over the gunfire,

‘Peter blow up that generator, everybody else cover him!’

Peter got to his feet and ran, heading towards the north east of the compound. Sure enough there was a large generator there. It was a large circular column that rose two metres in the air. The rest of the Spartans moved to form a protective circle around him as he worked. Kyle went from cover to cover and fired at any Brutes that were getting too close. The base was on full alert as Kyle could hear shrill alien sirens in his ears.

He primed a grenade and tossed it into a pack of Brutes. It detonated and blew them back, leaving a smoking hole where they had been standing. The survivors got up and charged and were quickly brought down with Kyle’s shotgun.

‘Almost done, just hold them off a little longer,’ Peter said, not even turning from his work.

Kyle didn’t stop firing, switching back to his MA5C and thumping bullets into the advancing forces. As many as they shot down, more replaced them. Kyle had never seen so many Brutes. None of them gave up though, as they kept fighting, bringing even more of them to their knees.

‘That’s got it, it’s rigged to blow in twenty seconds, we’ve got to move,’ Peter said.

The Spartans moved forward, forcing the Brutes back, just as the generator detonated. The explosion made the ground rumble and the smoke billowed into the sky. With the primary objective completed the moved to their secondary ones. Red team headed to the inactive vehicles while Blue team headed towards the large shield door.

As they moved towards the massive shimmering door, Kyle readied himself, turning around to fire a few bursts into their pursuers. Shen fired two rockets at either side of the door. The shields flickered and fell, as the columns that produced it toppled and fell. They fought there way back to Red team as they rigged the Covenant vehicles to explode; Peter went to assist them, which left the four of them to hold off the Brutes.

Large figures came at them and charged their fuel rod cannons. Hunters. Six of them. They ducked to the side, as the cover they had been hiding behind melted into a mass of scorched debris.

‘Shen deal with them. Kyle and Alex, come with me, we’ll distract them,’ Caspian ordered.

They ran to the side, concentrating all their fire on the large blue goliaths. Some of their rounds penetrated their soft exposed sides and orange blood coursed from the wounds. Some of the Hunters let out inhuman howls and turned to face them, crouching down to present the smallest target they could and shuffled forward, their guns glowing green as they prepare to fire again. The beams shot past them as they continued to run.

Shen fired two rockets, reloaded and fired again. The rockets hit the slow moving Hunters dead centre and three of them slumped to the ground. Dead before they even touched the ground. The remaining Hunters roared in anger at the lost of their brothers and charged at Kyle. In a split second decision, Kyle scooped up some fallen spike grenades and charged at the closest Hunter. The two figures ran at each other head on, until at the last second Kyle, rolled to the left and flung the grenades at the Hunter’s exposed back.

They hit the mark and detonated, ripping the armour away, and stunned the massive creature. Wasting no time Kyle pulled out his shotgun and fired point blank into its back. Orange blood covered his visor as Kyle was temporally left blind, but he could hear the dying cries of the Hunter as it crumpled.

Kyle was just cleaning his visor, when he heard the heavy footsteps of one of the remaining Hunters bearing down on him. He knew he couldn’t get out of the way in time and waited for the death blow to come crashing down. It never came.

A rocket shot past his face and slammed into the Hunter, killing it instantly. Kyle could feel the searing heat of the blast as his shields took the majority of the blow. He rose to his feet, nodded thanks to Shen and turned his attention to the last Hunter. Enraged, the creature charged at Shen only to face another barrage of gunfire and rockets. It fell without another sound.

Behind them there was a mass of explosions that tore most of the east wall to shreds. Kyle turned to see the burning hulks that were once the Covenant’s vehicles, and the Spartans running towards him.

Now that the two teams were unified once more, they formed a ring at the entrance of the base and fired in union at the horde of Brutes behind them. Hundreds and hundreds of them chased them and Kyle took cover behind some overturned Covenant weapon holders. Kyle thumbed another magazine into his rifle and fired in short bursts. The rounds hit the nearest Brutes and ripped their armour off. The others quickly finished them off. More and more Brutes charged but Red and Blue teams worked together; killing any Brutes that got too close.

Bullets flew as the Spartans mowed down wave after wave of Brutes, but it seemed like a hopeless battle as the Brute forces seemed infinite. Kyle cursed as his MA5C ran out of ammo. He shouldered the weapon and drew his shotgun. Most of the others were running out of ammo and they all changed to their secondary weapons and fought up close and personal. Kyle didn’t know how much longer they could hold out.

It was then that he heard a dull rumble in the background. It grew louder and louder, and then, Kyle could see figures heading towards them, flanked the vehicles. The reinforcements had arrived. Knowing that they allies were nearly with them, Kyle redoubled his efforts and fought as hard as he could; killing any Brutes that stood in his way. As he fired the final shell in the weapon, the marines were with them and charged forward. A few marines handed the Spartans a few more clips of ammunition and they joined the charge. Slowly but surely, the Covenant lines thinned and were pushed back further and further into their base.

As the last of them fell, a cheer rose from the marines. At last they had driven the Covenant off Sanctuary. Kyle didn’t share their enthusiasm as he looked up at the large shapes of the Covenant ships above. They still had plenty of Covenant troops in them and they were plenty of them left in orbit, not to mention they could simply glass the planet.

They may have won on the ground but it all depended on the battle above them. Kyle just hoped Winchester and the captains above them won, or all their efforts would have been for nothing.

End of Chapter 25