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Chapter Text

July 19th, 2552

Distant orbit of Epsilon Eridani

04:00 Hours

The UNSC frigate Black Baron, a Paris-Class Heavy, floated calmly on its designated patrol pattern. Captain Richards watched the darkness of space pass by the view-screens on his bridge with a cup of freshly-brewed coffee in one hand and a bagel in the other. Routine patrols around Epsilon Eridani were incredibly bloody boring, considering half the buzz he was hearing over the com of a mass of new ships arriving in-system for retrofits and repairs after Sigma Octanus and a slew of other distant ops. He sipped his brew calmly, looking around at all stations.

Manning sensors and coms were two green members he’d yet to bother learning the names of. Beside them was the Commander and his Executive Officer, Ava, however. The young woman was an eagle-eyed beauty that was a stickler for the goddamn rules, up to the point it pissed off even some of the veteran staff. The Captain didn’t care, so long as order was maintained aboard. Morale was screwed as it was

Ava Weathers was a fair-skinned girl, with blue eyes and burnished gold hair. Her uniform was spotless, her rank pins were polished to the point that, if the rays of the sun hit’em the wrong way, they’d blind someone and the leather navy shoes she wore shined with polish. 

She tugged at her collar, sighed and arranged the holster for her sidearm on her hip. The M6G Magnum was an unwieldy pistol for a dainty girl like her, but she was still one of the better shots aboard, beat only by a pair of his own Marines and the single ODST that had hitched a ride with them so he could more quickly get to Reach.

He didn’t care to ask the Trooper why he’d hauled ass aboard a ship when he could’ve joined with his company. He really didn’t give a shit about what a Jarhead was doing with his time. He hummed, bit down on his bagel, then sighed deeply and walked up to the edge of the viewing screen, looking at the bow of the ship. One of the two forward prongs of the ship, it contained the MAC, the UNSC’s force equalizer.

God, he loved the fucking MAC. Every time it fired, the man had half a mind to ask it to marry him. A Magnetic Accelerator Cannon that fired a slug at speeds fast enough to bust a hole the size of a school bus through the hull of any ship unlucky enough to be caught with its pants down, both metaphorically and, in the Covenant’s shielded pieces of shit, literally.

He asked, “Status report?” With the most uninterested voice in the world.

“Like the last couple of times you asked, sir, all clear. Scopes are clear, the view’s clear and the voids are clear,” Sighed the Commander as she joined him up front. She looked at him and asked, “How many coffees have you had today, captain?” with her usual impassivity. The man shrugged.

“I’d say about three…?” He replied absentmindedly, before taking a sip of the lukewarm drink. He arranged his uniform and patted it down, noting the semi-glare his XO was giving him, before sighing and stating, “Listen, we’ve been on patrol for a little over three days at this point and found nothing. If they want us awake 24/7, I’ll drink my goddamn coffee…”

“Understood, sir,” She replied with a degree of disregard, sighing and pinching her brow.

Some of the crewmen chuckled at the antics of the two Reach locals, while others just simply chose to keep their laughter to themselves. The ship continued on its route this way for the better part of a few more hours, with the crew just killing time by chatting or doing their jobs. Shifts changed, the Captain was sitting in his room and the entire thing was just… Boring.

So, when the alarms blared, the sensors sang like an out-of-tune choir of Catholic altar boys and the crew scrambled like a bunch of kids going toward the ice cream truck, the Captain took this opportunity and scrambled back to the bridge in full dress uniform. He walked onto the deck and asked, “Status report? The hell did we find?”

“Sir, unidentified small-sized contact 400,000 klicks out immediately to our two o’clock…” Reported the sensor station crewman. The Captain approached and looked at the Radar-like screen that pinged the target ahead of them.

“Anything from them? A ping, a signal, anything?” The Captain gazed upon the comm.

The crewman shook his head, “Yes, sir. They’re transmitting dead air, though. I’m detecting faint broadband radio transmissions from within the ship, as well as information packet receiver systems akin to our own single-beam communication systems.”

“Huh…” The man hummed, then ordered, “Attempt a hail, then. But keep our weapons hot. Bring us to yellow alert. Helm, take us toward the object and be ready…” and, before long, all his orders were completed, the ship blaring a singular, low-tone alarm as the lights aboard glowed gold. 

The Warship moved forward through the void, closing the distance between it and the unidentified object, all while the radio operator was attempting to ping it repeatedly. Despite that, the UNSC warship found itself closing distance with the strange contact. And as they came closer to the area, the crew’s eyes widened. 

They laid eyes upon a vessel, about the size of a corvette, floating amidst the ice rocks and frozen Oort Cloud. It was sitting there, motionless, although it was clearly powered, considering the fact the UNSC sensor crewman reported, “We’re detecting an active nuclear reactor aboard, sir. Seems the ship’s powered and active… Though I can’t, for the fucking life of me, figure out why they aren’t answering… Wait a minute… Sir, rads detected aboard. They’re mild right now, but the Reactor aboard seems to be failing.”

“Well, shit…” Sighed the Captain, then ordered, “Safety procedures demand we prepare for any dangerous situation. Prepare a team of Marines and Techs to go aboard via a Pelican to see what they can do to fix the Reactor. Is the reactor at risk of Wildcat destabilization, ensign?” and gazed upon the Sensors crewman. The man shook his head and Richards then ordered, “Then we bring the ship aboard.”

“... We’re getting a radio ping-back, sir,” The Comm crewman reported. The Captain made one motion of his hand, ordering the man to play the signal. Various tones and beeps started playing over the bridge’s PA… And the incoming stunned the crewmates of the warship. Numbers, spoken in German, bit by bit.

“ 39486… 60170… 24326… 01064… ”

The Captain licked his lips, nervous, then barked, “That might very well be their Mayday... Get that ship aboard, now. Prep a decontamination and repair crew in the hangar alongside a medical team. Let’s get those people aboard. If ONI fucking has something to do with this, I expect an immediate explanation from them the moment we break for Reach’s orbit. Move it!” 

“Aye, captain!” The crew chorused. Before long, the crew belonging to all shifts had immediately mobilized themselves to work. The shipboard company of Marines, clad in their own CBRN kits, marched alongside the ship physician, medical staff and a team of engineers and decontamination specialists while the Black Baron swung about to bring the unknown vessel aboard.

Descending down to the rear hangar of the UNSC ship, the crews waited for the room to repressurize. From within the confines of the hangar’s large cargo elevator, the group and the ship’s lead physician, Doctor Micah Stone, watched with muted awe as the unknown vessel, its hull marred by meteorite strikes and the marring cold of the uncaring void, was brought aboard and gently set down. Beside it sat the UNSC Pelicans that had brought it aboard, landed, crew checking the vessel out.

The rear door of the hangar closed and the hiss of repressurization filled the ears of the crews aboard. The door to the elevator opened, the Marines marching out first, MA5B Assault Rifles cocked, safeties falling off, as the doctors and crew walked up to the surprisingly-large vessel. The infantry surrounded the ship while the Eggheads and Skunkworks group moved in to check it.

One of the Engineers approached the side of the vessel, looking up at the cockpit to see that the lights had been turned off, presumably to conserve power or not overstress the reactor further than it already had been. He then hummed, running a gloved hand over the surface of the vessel itself. He paused, feeling a seam. He ran his fingers up the seam, then noticed the German and, surprisingly, Chinese writing.

“Found the Airlock!” The man reported. Before long, the doctor and a squad of Marines had gathered up ahead of it. The massive ship had a stripe design, it was triangular and it was weird, but the fact that the airlock remained on the side and that the languages they saw were from Earth’s many nations and nationalities told them this might just have been a lost exploratory vessel.

Or ONI.

Probably ONI.

The Marines tensed up as the doctor called the captain, stating, “Sir, this is doctor Stone. We’ve already found our way in. Shouldn’t be long before we’re inside the ship…” as she took a step back to let the engineering corps work their magic.

“ Good to hear, doctor. Be careful, though… We don’t know the state our… German-speaking friends may be in… ” He seemed to hesitate in the reply.

“Don’t worry, sir. I’ll have the major keep the Jarheads in check…” She replied with half a mouth, garnering a few chuckles out of the Marines. The leader of the men hummed and readied his shotgun, preparing to lead the insertion team. 

A hiss filled the hangar and the entire group tensed, turning to the airlock. The engineer from before had managed to find the handles to the airlock. Pressures equalized between the two starships’ hulls and the geiger counters of the crew had a minor spike come up. Calmly, however, the Doctor stated, “Radiation levels are within acceptable parameters for exploration with CBRN Gear.”

The group tensed, still. Weapons raised, they listened as the Doctor requested, “Permission to go inside, captain. The door is open… We have unsealed the hushed casket…” and just about everyone paused. Doctor Stone was, to say the least, one of the more eccentric medical staff of the UNSC.

The Captain’s approval was a hum and an affirmative grunt over the radio. She nodded to the men and lifted a flashlight from her uniform’s rear pocket, turned it on and aimed it at the corridor. Darkness was pierced, revealing the insides of the ship’s airlock. Industrial, familiar, yet so different.

The Marines also powered on the flashlights on their MA5Bs, heads-up displays updating as they proceeded inside. Pushing in, the group found themselves walking into what seemed to be the lower deck of the ship itself. Multiple doors, bulkheads, up-armored, were tried, but none opened, sans one in the cross-intersection. The one leading further to the rear.

The Major took point with his shotgun, scanning the area tensely. Audible, though muffled, were the sounds of their boots clanking against the grated floor of the ship and, for each Marine, the thumping of their heartbeat and their heavy breathing through the CBRN suits. Pushing forward into the next room, the Major came upon three more locked doors and a ladder.

“Looks like the only way is up,” Commented doctor Stone. She nodded to the Major and let him climb first alongside a pair of Marines. The man simply followed what he had been indirectly ordered to do, climbing up the ladder with his pistol drawn. First on top, the man took a step to the right and let the other Marines march in, followed by the Doctor and engineers.

“Multiple doors…” Reported the Major. 

“Rads are coming from the door ahead of the ladder,” An Engineer with a scanner said, “Through this door and to the left…”

“We’re splitting, then. A team takes the front and side doors. I, two Marines and a pair of engineers take the rear doors…” The Doctor stated as she hefted her sealed, lead-lined container, in which her medical kit and supplies were. She paused, however, when a Marine lifted his hand.

The air in the room grew heavy, each soldier and crewman tensing. The doctor looked to the Marine that raised his hand, then asked in a whisper, “What is it, trooper…?” just as she noted the faint outline of a gray dot on her heads-up display’s motion tracker. It winked off, then appeared again.

She blinked, then took a step back as the Major stepped up to the door, drawing his shotgun and tapping a button. The door split in two, opening with a hiss of depressurization, before the old Marine aimed his shotgun forward and into the darkness. He saw another trio of doors, one on their right, one dead ahead and one on the left.

“MT’s picking up movement dead ahead…” Murmured the officer.

“... And Rads from the left on the scanner,” The Engineer reported. The Marines fanned on inside the hallway at the stern of the vessel, weapons at the ready, followed by the Engineers and the Doctor and her staff. 

“That’s the reactor, then…” Murmured another Engineer.

“Benitez, Keller, Touma, you’re taking guard duty…” He ordered three of the twelve Marines in the room, “Keep the engineers safe while they go down on this old bitch… Doc? We’re moving with you, on your mark. Torres, report to the Captain. Tell him we may have found the crew… Or what’s left of it.

“Sir,” The soldiers chorused. The Doctor nodded, then stepped forward, toward the door to the rear. She paused at the door, turning to see the engineers seemingly having to force the door to the reactor open. She saw them put a specialized wedge in the airlocks thin seam, before sighing, turning away and putting a hand on the door.

She felt the slight chill against her glove and murmured, “This must be a cryogenics room…” as she pressed a button. The Marines formed up with her, weapons at the ready, as the door slid apart, revealing the rearmost room of the ship. A massive area filled with technology, multiple computer towers in the back, glimmering with lights, green and red, against the rear wall, as well as a singular cryopod, a massive, bulky ‘coffin’ with all the beauty of a brick.

The Doctor and her escorting Marines paused, stunned…

Beside the Cryopod, sitting down, was a young woman with dark-blue eyes and short, black hair. She had a seam running from one cheekbone, over the nose, to the other. Her skin seemed synthetic, almost porcelain-like, and the black suit she wore with a scarlet chestpiece resembled that of the SPARTANs  to some degree.

She gasped, looking upon the soldiers, then pushed herself to her feet from next to the cryopod. She seemed to be eyeing them all, suspicious, before the Doctor hummed and raised her hands. She greeted the girl, or Machine, whatever she was, with a wave, depolarizing her helmet’s visor. She pushed down the Marines’ weapons and looked to the Major, who offered her a mere nod. The other Marines also lowered their weapons.

The humanoid machine took a moment to register a human face, then disbelief seemed to set in. Her eyes grew a hint wider, but her face remained eerily impassive. She blinked once, twice, then waved back to the Doctor, before letting out what the doctor could only surmise was a cough when she hunched over.

The woman took one small step forward, before the Marine beside her put a hand on her shoulder. She looked back and said, “It’s one of the two crew-members, Major. And she’s unarmed. Look at her.”

“We don’t know what the hell she is, doc…” Replied the Major through gritted teeth.

“She’s clearly made by humans, at the very least…” Stone replied calmly, offering the Major a smile, then turning toward the seeming human machine and stating, “Though I’d very much like to know what ONI was doing and if this was them…” 

The radiation counters spiked hard once, clicking rapidly in the ears of the explorers, before cutting off. An Engineer breathed a sigh of relief and poked out from the Reactor room, stating, “We stabilized the damn thing! No thanks to the language barrier! Seriously, the German was hard enough to understand!”

“Thank you, Chief Engineer…” The doctor replied, then blinked. A migraine hit her like a truck, causing her to stumble. The Marines, who also seemed to have experienced this, caught her and lifted her back to her feet. She shook her head, took her helmet off and murmured, “Ow… That wasn’t good…”

“ Elster !” A voice, muffled, cried from the cryopod, more annoyed than afraid, “ Let me out !”

The girl next to the cryopod hummed, then pointed to the keypad at the foot of the pod and asked, “May I…?” to which the Doctor nodded. The woman approached the pad and punched in its code. The Cryopod then peeled open, its many layers further moving away, revealing a young woman with bright white hair and dark-red eyes. She had a bandage on her cheek and wore a white sleeping gown.

With wide eyes and a far more expressive face than ‘Elster’, the young woman tried to stand to her feet, stunned by the new arrivals, then coughed and fell back into the pod. She swore to herself in German, then rubbed her behind. She and Elster were both stunned, however, to see the Doctor running up to her side. Giving her a scan, the doctor murmured, “Just as I feared… Radiation poisoning and cancer cells… Hm… Should not be too hard to fix…” and then looked to the girl, offering a smile, “Hello.”

“Hi…” The girl replied, still surprised, “Y-You’re…”

“We’re human,” She nodded, “I am Doctor Stone. The fine gentlemen with firearms at the door are the Marines that were escorting me aboard your vessel. We received your distress call, or whatever that string of numbers was.”

“... It… Was supposed to be a Status Report, back home…” The girl stated. She coughed, then said, “Who are you all… You Eusan, like us?”

“No,” The Marine replied. The girl visibly paled, her skin bone-white, as opposed to the faint, pallid white it was before. 

“... Empire…?” The girl beside her asked, a sharp, focused and hostile undertone to her voice. Yet again, a negative answer via a shake of the head. Elster’s face relaxed, though she crossed her arms and asked, “What are you, then…?”

“We’re the UNSC,” Smiled the Doctor, “We’re your fellow humans.”

The girl with white hair coughed again, a small droplet of blood staining her hand. The Doctor looked to her and said, “We shall deal with that. Stretcher-bearer, please…” before motioning to one of her medical staff. A man walked in with a folding stretcher, unfolded it and set it down, then moved to the other side.

Elster put a hand on his shoulder and he looked back, “What, y’wanna lift her?”

The girl gave a nod, a hint of concern behind her eyes. The man lifted his hands in surrender, stating, “Alright, big girl, she’s all yours…”  as he backed off. Elster nodded, probably in thanks, then walked up to the girl and gently lifted her out of the pod. The white-haired one offered her a soft smile.

She then looked apologetically to the stretcher-bearer and said, “Sorry… We’re… Both very attached to each-other.”

“That’s fine…” The Doctor chuckled. The Marines also let out a laugh as Elster, now under escort, carried the shy young woman out past them. The girl and Elster both looked to see the Engineers walking out of the reactor room, carrying their equipment.

As the group descended out of the vessel, they were greeted by eager researchers and Marines that were uneased. They watched Elster descend with the injured woman she ‘cared for’, followed by the Doctor and the Engineers. 

Doctor Stone was fairly sure that their new arrivals were tantamount to a new ‘First Contact scenario wherein Aliens were involved. Sure, they were human, or human-looking enough, when they came down to land, but that didn’t really mean much to her.

She watched the young woman that had cancer, Miss Ariane Yeong, as per her own introduction, as she talked to Elster, a machine that acted, talked like and even seemed to be human enough to pass for one of their own. The Doctor had administered the medicine that immediately eliminated any risk of cancer from within the UNSC’s stocks, then simply let both Ariane and Elster talk.

“Where do you think we are?” Elster inquired, looking around at the other people.

Ariane shrugged, smiling, “Don’t know, but… This is incredible, honestly. We were flying a Penrose mission and, now, we meet a bunch of alien humans… I mean, look at them. Their technology just let them cure my cancer like it was nothing!”

“I agree, it is incredible…” Elster said cautiously, “However, we should be ready for anything…”

“You’re far too paranoid, Elster. C’mon, have some fun! We literally just met aliens! And they saved our lives!” Ariane replied, offering her a smile. The Replika blushed, rolled her eyes, then sighed and leaned back into her own bed, looking at herself. She had been stripped of the armor in order for the doctors to be able to treat her for her own issues with cancer. How they figured the oxidant issue, however, was honestly surprisingly dumbfounding.

They’d simply taken a sample of her blood, scanned it, ran tests and… Well, they somehow reversed the over-oxidation by replacing the damaged oxidant cells within the stream. Such precision and technological capability told the girl they were a faction to be wary of, if they weren’t allied.

Ariane then sighed, which caused Elster to look at her, worried. The girl shrugged and said, “I almost forgot we will probably have to call back home about this…” before she paused, eyes widening, “Wait, home!”

“Now, you realize…?” Elster hummed, allowing herself a small smile. She sighed, however, wiping it off her face, before stating, “Our people need us to find a new habitable world… What if running into these people might help us do just that?”

“Let’s hope so,” Ariane nodded. They heard the door to the medical bay open. A man and woman, both clad in bright white, clean-pressed uniforms stepped inside under the escort of a pair of Marines. The two girls looked at the pair, surprised, then Ariane waved and said, “Hey…”

“Evening, ladies. I’m captain Tomas Richards, of the UNSC Frigate Black Baron. ” Replied the man in uniform, “Apologies, but we have some questions pertaining to you and your ship…” and he eyed Elster. The Replika paused, unease, before nodding. Ariane also nodded, offering a more relaxed smile than her girlfriend. The man looked to his Executive Officer.

She stepped up, “I am Commander Ava Weathers, UNSC Navy. We have a lot to talk about before we arrive within Reach, though I’m going to assume you also have some questions, ladies. We will be doing as follows, for each question we ask and get an answer to, you will receive an answer back for a question of your own. Once we arrive in orbit above Reach, we’ll talk about accommodations.”

“That sounds good to us,” Ariane replied, smiling softly. She paused, however, when she saw the stack of papers the woman pulled out of seeming thin air. Elster also blinked, looking to Ariane as if to confirm that the stack of paper was real. The girl chuckled, worried, then nodded, before looking to the Commander.

Ava hummed, eyeing the two suspiciously. She looked to the Captain who simply nodded, before beginning, “So…”

Chapter Text

"... And the Eusan Nation, your country, broke free of the Empire through the Revolution, huh...?" The Captain inquired while Ava jotted everything down into her notebook. The two women gave nods. They'd told the full history of their people, of their worlds. From Vineta to Buyan, to Leng and Rotfront and the other multitude of small inhabited worlds within their solar system. It seemed like they'd never travelled out of it, weirdly enough, just that they'd fought a bloody Civil War there against an oppressive Empire. That bit matched the fact that their ship, the Penrose-512 completely and utterly lacked any form of FTL System.

"That's about it, yeah..." Ariane answered as she shifted into a seated position. The Captain hummed, looked to Ava, who gave a nod, then back at the girls. Elster seemed tense, sneaking glances at the armed guards behind the man. They were holding their strange rifles by the straps, slung over their shoulders and pressed against their backs, instead of at the ready.

"Interesting," Ava spoke, then asked, "If we check the travel records aboard your ship..."

"You'll find we are telling the truth. The ship has enough data on our home, too," Ariane replied, then scratched at a bandage on her arm. Ava nodded, her momentary skepticism seemingly fading. The Captain himself sat there, pondering the fact that an entire new solar system was home to human soldiers and their machines of war, peace and construction like these Replikas.

Elster spoke, "If you wish to access the data, we can go to the ship now. Accessing the mainframe requires the permission of at least one of the two crewmembers of the Penrose project ship," as she turned and moved her stumpy legs off her bed. She stood on them and was still a forehead taller than most of the people around. Calmly, she turned to Ariane and asked with the most heavy note of concern in her voice, "Will you be okay?"

The white-haired beauty smiled at her Replika girlfriend and nodded, "I'll be alright, Els. Doc said I'll be let out of here as soon as all checkups are done, after all."

The Captain stood up as well, nodding to Elster and saying, "Don't worry. Both of you are safe here. The UNSC doesn't do harm to fellow humans unless absolutely necessary, especially nowadays..." murmuring the last part and noting the worry on Ariane's face. The girls had asked about where they were, who the UNSC was and what the hell was going on. He had tiptoed around the subject of the Human-Covenant War and simply assured her and Elster they were safe where they were, that their little War was far away.

It wasn't. He knew that. Everyone did. The weight of the air on the ship told them both as much, even with all the friendly faux-smiles and the likes. It was just a matter of when at this point. When would it come to Reach? And when would the Covenant decide to wipe them all out? He sighed, stated, "We'll tell you more when we are on Reach and you have your feet on solid ground, ladies. Just a day or two more at maximum speed..." before motioning to Elster to lead the way.

"Thanks, captain..." Ariane offered him a kind-hearted smile. He smiled back, a bit melancholic, then nodded. Elster looked back to Ariane and smiled, too, before nodding and mouthing an 'I'll be right back' as she walked out with the UNSC forces. The young Bioresonant watched them depart and the door close behind them, before dropping back into her bed with a deep sigh, covering herself with a blanket. She murmured to herself with a smile, "Gestalt aliens... Wait till I tell Isa and Erika..."

... In the Hallways, Elster's feet clanged against the metal floor of the ship as she walked with the group. Tense as she was, the people around her were probably more surprised to learn about the fact that there were other humans stuck in a solar system. Elster had yet to wrap her head around the fact these people had managed to create Faster-Than-Light ships that could take them to new systems, new homes and new planets and resources in days, maybe weeks at most. It was nigh-incredible, considering what little the UNSC Captain had told them of their organization.

'The Military and Exploratory Arm of the Unified Earth Government', he had called it. Science and army, merged into one all-powerful entity. Much like the People's Army and Navy got the good tech first, before the Civilian sector. PENROSE was a Military Project, so the ship had some of the best technological advances ever put on any sort of naval vessel, even exploratory.

Going by the glimpses she was catching of the UNSC's technology, though, she felt the electronics on the Penrose were woefully underdeveloped. The UNSC technology seemed to heavily rely on 'touch-screen' technology, meaning a technology that did not require so many moving parts overall, just the ability to properly program the commands necessary on one of the screen's many 'touchable buttons' that flash on it.

Less moving parts, but probably slightly more complicated, now that she thought about it. With a calm sigh, Elster continued to follow the crew all the way down to the Hangar elevator. Entering said elevator, the girl now saw the deck crews of the UNSC ship tending to the 512, several of them wearing full-on HAZMAT gear. Infantry guarded the place as well, lined up next to the ship, rifles drawn, just in case.

They all stood at attention as the captain and his crew appeared. The man stopped one of the decontamination staff and asked, "What's the status of the ship?"

"Sir, she's safe to enter now. Radiation levels have dropped down to acceptable," The woman reported, her voice sounding a hit robotic due to the microphone through which she spoke. Elster couldn't help but give the HAZMAT gear a once-over. Advanced, with a Heads-Up Display mounted in the oxygen mask that linked to a rear heavy-duty tank and definitely lead-lined, as well as armored and semi-powered. It was an exoskeleton lined with radiation-resistant materials and with all the gear needed to calmly do one's job as if the Rads weren't even there.

She sure wished they'd had some of those aboard. Maybe they could've greeted the Black Baron on communications if they had them. She sighed and squelched the thought. The UNSC had saved her and, more importantly, saved Ariane. Maybe they could help save the Eusan Nation from any threat, future or present, too, if they wished. Some of the looks she'd gotten when mentioning Eusan itself, though, were... Well...

The captain gave an approving nod to the decontamination crew, called out "At ease," to the Marines after giving a lazy salute, then motioned to Elster to lead the way inside. The young Replika woman stepped into the hold of the ship that had been her and Ariane's home for several years at this time, then hummed. Sniffing the air, she felt no trace of any pathogens or dangers, nor did she feel the unnerving weight of the radiation she had felt before, when both her and Ariane were nearing their deaths.

The Infantry flanked her as they moved forward into the ship's cockpit. Elster sat herself down, then noted the Marine beside her tensing. She raised her hands and said, "Calm. I'm only doing what you asked me to do. Nothing more, nothing less. Not like the Penrose can do much more than maneuver with her thrusters..." before she pulled out a key from her pocket. She leaned over toward the central command console as the Captain put a hand on the Marine's shoulder. The soldier looked back at the man, nodded and took a step back while Elster did her work.

The woman popped open a panel on the console, which the gang now noticed eerily resembled the flight controls of 21st Century fighter aircraft, with both the LCD screens and everything. She slotted the key into a hole, tapped a few buttons as she hummed an old Soviet song, then pulled out a data drive from the panel after it popped out. It was a large one, resembling something one would see in the early 21st Century computers. She lifted it up and extended it toward the captain. She spoke calmly, "I've taken the liberty of removing any genuine State secrets... But this should give you a more detailed account of Eusan, AEON and us."

The Captain gingerly took the drive and handed it to one of their tech experts, then nodded, "Thank you for your cooperation, miss Elster."

"Anything to keep Ariane safe..." The girl murmured as she stood up. The Captain smiled at that comment, having been the sole person to overhear it. He let the troopers and docs lead Elster back to the medical bay, looking at the device in the hand of the Techs, then sighed and looked to Ava. The Commander shrugged, saluted and excused herself to the bridge, leaving the man alone with a few of his staff.

He walked further into the ship, curious of the place's arrangements. He found the mess hall, the cargo holds, even the topside airlock. It was an eerily familiar layout for an exploration ship, too. He even entered the reactor room, where techs were working on safely disassembling the device and removing the rods from within to dispose of them. It was an old fission 'reaktor', clearly.

Stepping into the last room he hadn't checked, the man found the bedroom of the human officer. Ariane had lined the place with beautiful paintings, most of them resembling an eerily familiar one belonging to an old artist. An Island of the Dead, of sorts... Though the latest one, the one that seemed to have been painted just before the girls had come aboard, depicted something else entirely. A beautiful sea of stars above a red desert, a sole figure staring up at the sun beating down on the surface, while figures shaped like ships blotted some of the sky out.

Huh... Curious, but alright.

"She's an artist, huh?" Commented a Marine from behind him, lifting one of the paintings. She whistled and said, "These are pretty fuckin' good, sir."

"Yeah," The man nodded, his mind thinking back to the repression of individuality within the Eusan Nation. He hummed, scratched his chin, then turned around and said, "Let's move. Leave everything for ONI to deal with. Techs need to get onto decrypting and reading what's on the Drive Elster has given to us. From there, we'll figure out a course of action pertaining to Eusan."

"Yessir!" Chorused the crew aboard. The Captain walked out and marched toward the elevator, aiming for the Bridge...

Back in the medical bay, Elster entered the place and gasped. She watched as the doctor helped a certain someone stand to her feet, with Ariane's legs wobbling under her own weight. Ariane stumbled, hummed, then said, "Guess the rads weakened my leg muscles a bit..." before looking to the doctor and asking, "Any magical treatment plans for this one, doctor Stone?"

"Indeed," The doctor nodded, "We have medicine to help with this and other types of muscle atrophy. Please, sit back down..." And she looked to elster, smiling, "Your girlfriend will probably want to talk to you." causing both girls to stammer and blush. With a short giggle representing her more teasing nature, the Doctor stepped away to the dispensary to retrieve the aforementioned medicine as Elster sat herself down on her bed.

"Hey," She nodded to Ariane.

"Hey, Els," Ariane smiled, "How are you holding up?"

"Decently enough, I suppose..." Elster sighed deeply, rubbed her face, then looked at her, "What about you? I saw you trying to stand up just now and..."

"I'll be alright, Elster. Like I told ya, final checkups, then we're out and walking around together. I wanna see the rest of this ship," Ariane quipped, then leaned herself on her hands, against the bunk. She beamed at Elster, who sighed deeply, her shoulders sagging in relaxation. She smiled broadly, this time, before picking up the cup with water on it from the stand next to her bed and taking a sip.

The doctor returned, lifted the medicine and showed it to the girls, then pulled out a sterile needle and a syringe.

Ariane let out a shriek like a fucking monster and jumped into bed with Elster, holding onto her robo-lover like there was no tomorrow. Elster blinked, furrowed her brows and looked at Ariane like she was crazy. The trembling Bioresonant mess looked to Elster and said, "I-I d-don't like n-n-needles..." with the shakiest voice in the world. Elster narrowed her lips, looking at the puppy-eyed girl in her arms with the most pure and wholesome thoughts in mind.

She looked to the Doctor, who giggled, then shook her head and said, "Let me get the pills, then..." and walked back to the dispensary. Ariane visibly relaxed in Elster's arms and sighed, relieved. Elster looked to her with a raised brow. Ariane blushed, letting out a short, awkward giggle as she fully embraced the Replika. Elster rolled her eyes, then held the girl close as the doctor brought the pills.

Come half a day later, Elster was walking hand-in-hand with Ariane(Who had gotten a uniform without any marks or colors so she doesn't get confused for staff). Down the halls they treaded, passing by infantry and Naval Crewmen, some of whom smirked at the sight. Well, most actually smiled at them. The Marines were a bit more stoic, but otherwise friendly, too. They even gave the girls directions to reach the Mess Hall.

Entering the place to grab a bite to eat for dinner before they'd go find their new accommodation aboard the UNSC warship, the girls were greeted with a room full of occupied or half-occupied tables, with a small buffet and a few dispensers for food and drinks. Sat at one of the tables, alone was a middle-aged man with dark-brown hair, a strong jawline, pale skin and a black shirt, cargo pants and military boots.

His shirt had an emblem on the left side of his chest, displaying a burning comet that resembled a metallic egg, colored gold for the pod itself and red for the flames around it. On top of it, overlaid, were a scarlet skull with a knife through the top of the head and a banner below with four letters. The girls made them out as they approached the empty table.

'O.D.S.T'

The man looked up and spoke, his voice smooth, calm, "Hello, ladies? Can I help you?"

"Hello," Elster greeted.

"Sorry for the bother, sir, but uh..." Ariane chuckled awkwardly, "Well, there's no other tables. Mind if we sit with?" And the man furrowed his brows. He looked around. Noting that, in fact, yes, the entire area was occupied save for his table, he sighed and gave them a nod. Ariane smiled and sat herself down, before looking to Elster and saying, "Bring me anything you're eating, Els."

"Sure," Elster nodded, then stepped off, keeping an eye on the table.

Ariane looked to the man ahead of her. He seemed to be in deep thought as he pushed his plastic fork through the mashed potatoes on his tray. "Take it you're those newcomers from that alien ship I keep hearing the crew talk about, eh?" The man inquired calmly, not taking his eyes off his food until he filled the fork full of potatoes and looked up at Ariane, taking the full bite of food into his mouth.

"That'd be us, yeah. Hi... I'm Ariane Yeong, Gestalt officer of the Penrose-512. That's my assistant Engineer Replika, Elster," She jabbed a thumb toward the taller girl as she sat herself in line to get the food, holding a tray in each hand. The man hummed, eyed Elster and nodded, before going back to his own tray, eyes locked on the food. Ariane hummed, blinked and found the silence immediately awkward, considering everything. She chose to break it, "What's your name?"

He hummed, then said nonchalantly, "Buck. Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck," and looked at her, "I'm an ODST. Orbital Drop Shock Troopers."

"Ooh, nice," She said, slightly confused, "What do ODSTs do...?"

"Well, to put it bluntly? It's in the name," Buck slightly smirked, "We drop from orbit in thinly-armored egg-shaped metal pods, right on top of the enemy." And he plucked up a slice of white bread, biting down into it and chewing it for a moment to let the girl's sudden expression of both awe and clear-cut, deep fear subside. He then added, further surprising stunned girl with his nonchalance, "Feet First into Hell's our Motto."

"... That's far too hardcore for me, Sarge," The girl quipped, then smiled brightly.

"Well, ya ain't wrong. We got a lot of washouts in the first few weeks. Training's no cakewalk either..." He quipped, then hummed and said, "Hey, quick question, Yeong. It true, what I'm hearing about your pal, Elster? She a robot of some kind?" pointing with his fork toward Elster as she asked for various types of foodstuffs from the lady cook serving the food.

"Yeah. Technically a biomechanical being, a Replika. They're meant to be nigh-similar copies to humans, but fulfill certain roles," She answered, interlocking her fingers on the table. Buck whistled, then snorted and looked over, watching as the being balanced on what looked like really weirdly-made stilts or peg legs march up to them with all the balance of a ballerina. She set Ariane's tray, which was chock full of meats and mashed potatoes, down, then sat herself with her own food in front of her. Hers was a bit more bland, some bread, a single type of meat and a single, large spoonful of potatoes. Ariane hugged her and Elster, usually blank-faced, smiled.

Buck smiled, too, a hint melancholic, "Oh, I see, now... Heh. My bad."

"Huh?" Both girls looked to him, confused. He shrugged.

"Nothing, nothing..." He sighed and picked up his tray, then stood up. "I'll let you gals enjoy your time together. I got something to prep for the arrival back on Reach. See you." And he stepped off, leaving his half-empty tray at the entrance. The two women looked to one-another, then shrugged and went to eat their dinners. Come another twelve hours after finding their small-time bunk on the ship, the girls were awoken.

The Commander was taking them to the bridge, now. Apparently, the UNSC wanted them to see the new planet they were going toward, courtesy of the data the captain had read pertaining to the Penrose Program's mission. Entering the bridge, the two girls were stunned to find it a hive of activity. Crewmen moved from station to station, shipboard data was playing across multiple holographic screens and the military chatter of the crews was audible across the deck.

The captain sat in the middle of the room, staring from behind the Helmsman at what came ahead. The two girls had noticed only the man and his subordinates up to now. Looking forward, however, the girls peered through the glass that separated them from the void ahead and both stared, paling, at the image before them. Communications spoke, "This is Black Baron, approaching Anchor Niner for docking procedures, requesting confirmation of following code Victor Papa Niner Niner Fourteen Tango Dash Oscar November India dash Sierra Echo Charlie Three. Priority is immediate for delivery of assets acquired during out-system patrol."

The confirmation came as the ship approached. Ahead, the two girls gazed upon the might of the UNSC Navy...

Hundreds, or perhaps over a thousand vessels of various sizes flew above the massive blue orb below them. Ranging from Frigates the same size as the Baron, to vessels damn near ten to twenty times the size, the fleet of black ships amassed at numerous staging areas and orbital dry-dock stations that were also armed to the teeth, Glimmering in the sun of this new system, the biggest ships of the fleet flew overhead, fighter-craft the size of the Penrose flying in and out of their massive hangars.

Orbital Platforms that resembled swords also hanged in high geosynchronous orbit above the planet, their cannons and defense pickets brightly shining in the sun of Epsilon Eridani. Two large delta-wing-shaped fighters with long tails, black as the ships they came from, buzzed by the UNSC Frigate's bridge before banking left together and moving outward, just around the perimeter of the UNSC Station they were docking to.

"My God..." Ariane murmured, awed. She wore a smile, though it was a mix of joy and fear. Meanwhile, Elster's mouth was agape, open wide as she stared at the vessels flying around them. She took Ariane's hand out of instinct and gently squeezed it, before the Captain and Commander turned to her. The man grinned and nodded, turning with his arms crossed to his chest.

"Welcome to Reach. Humanity's Fortress." He spoke proudly, looking straight at the two young women, "Also my birth planet."

"And say hello to the might of the UNSC's Navy..." Ava nodded, though she remained impassive. She spoke, "You will be briefed of the situation better by the handlers coming to retrieve you from the Starport in New Alexandria. We will stay in orbit, rejoin the fleet. This is presumably going to be the last time we see each-other, ladies. Have a safe trip to the surface."

"Thanks, commander, captain..." Ariane nodded, then smiled. She squeezed Elster's hand, looked at the distracted girl, chuckled, then turned back to the UNSC officers, speaking softly, "I think you've saved our lives... And not just... When you pulled us out of that mess. I still can't figure out how we drifted to a whole new system, but I'll take it over a slow death due to radiation. Thank you all so much..."

"Don't mention it, miss Yeong," The Captain nodded, then added warmly, "It's what we do. Farewell."

"Farewell," The two women gave them nods... And Ariane saluted. Elster followed suit out of courtesy for her girlfriend, only to be surprised by the two UNSC staff members returning the gesture. The two women were led out by a pair of Marines, down the halls and toward the airlock. Marching through an umbilical that had windows as thick as the Penrose's innermost bulkheads, the girls stared with awe at the ships passing above and around them, then turned back to look upon the UNSC Frigate that was their home for the past day or two. They also saw tugs gently removing the Penrose from the Baron's hangar, before taking it toward one of the Station's hangars for checkup.

In the busy station, four more guards met them. These ones wore black armors and face masks and carried suppressed firearms. They greeted the ladies, one of them taking off her mask. A blonde-haired woman with a headset greeted them with a nod, stating, "Hello, ladies. I am Captain Dare. I and my men are your escort for the trip down to Reach. If you'll follow me quickly to the hangar, please..."

The girls followed, of course. Not a good point to piss off the black-wearing Secret-Police-Looking team...

Chapter Text

As the terrifyingly-beautiful technological marvel that was an orbital elevator of the three present near the city they were going to, Ariane could not help herself, staring around at the majestic views of the worlds around them, the great big system of Epsilon Eridani and the world of Reach below them, all teeming with human life, military and civilian alike. It was beautiful.

Elster, meanwhile, remained on guard, eyeing the soldiers sat across from her. None of them exchanged a word or had so much as shifted their position once during the descent. It wasn't a non-recommended or forbidden thing to do aboard a Space Elevator, as it seemed. Movement while standing was prohibited during both descent and ascent, understandably. Who knew how a human body handled that many G-Forces?

Elster remained tense. She had left her toolset on the Penrose, so she hoped she was gonna get her and Ariane's stuff back ASAP. Personal effects of that type were nothing if not important to the two of them. That stuff had been aboard with them since the earliest cycles of their deployment on board that rusty old hunk of junk that damn near killed them. She looked over to Ariane, who also gazed back at her. The Replika girl simply smiled at her girlfriend, who suddenly wore a healthy blush as she smiled back.

The group felt the vehicle's descent begin to slow after a few minutes. Looking out of one of the many passenger windows, the two girls were awed to see it:The city below, the skyline filled to the brim with beautiful glass-and-steel skyscrapers resembling the very futuristic buildings one would find in old, banned comic books from the olden days. Ariane gasped, awed, then beamed, while Elster, despite her awe, focused more on the black-clad soldiers keeping an eye on the two of them.

As the elevator reached the bottom, the crews detached their safety belts and harnesses and all stood up. Dare motioned to the girls to follow them off and led them onto the tarmac of the place. A singular transport with four engines waited for them, painted military green. Guarding it was another soldier in black, who saluted Dare the moment she walked up to him. Saluting back, the woman hummed and climbed aboard.

The two Eusan citizens followed suit, clambering onto the vehicle. The sight of the skyline vanished behind thickly-armored walls of the vehicle. They sat themselves face-to-face with Dare and her squad once again, while the pilot up front was doing the final checks for the vehicle, then sat down as the rear hatch closed. Elster kept staring at the soldiers, who stared right back without even flinching. She hummed, took Ariane's hand in hers, then leaned back into the padded crash seat of the aircraft.

Ariane blushed heartily, garnering a few chuckles out of the soldiery in front of her, then hummed as a pit formed in her stomach. The aircraft took off, direction:The city of New Alexandria. Ariane hummed, then looked to Dare and started, "Hey, captain?" as she tightened her grip around Elster's hand. The ONI officer turned toward her, brow raised behind the strange narrow-visored helmet she wore, before Ariane continued, "Where're we going?"

"Currently, ONI HQ in New Alexandria. Afterward? Well, command decides, though one of our scientists has been incredibly vocal in getting both of you to another installation ASAP after reading the reports from your questioning," Dare replied professionally, causing both the girls a moment of distress. She hummed, looked toward the cockpit, then back at the two girls and added, "Relax. Doctor Halsey just wants to talk. So do the rest of us. I get being suspicious, though."

"Appreciate the fact you understand, ma'am," Ariane nodded, before feeling the aircraft begin its deceleration. She looked through the rear door of the cockpit and gasped. She murmured, "Wait, we're already in the city itself?! How fast did we just...?" as she saw an approaching tower coming ever-closer to the transport aircraft. A few of the soldiers aboard smirked and the pilot and co-pilot both gave thumbs up to the awed Bioresonant Gestalt.

"Fast enough. The Space Elevators aren't far from NA..." Dare noted, then hummed. She blinked, remembered something, then turned to ask, "Did... You two happen to see someone aboard the Black Baron? ODST, brown hair, looks like an absolute dork...?" her voice more subdued. Ariane and Elster both looked to her and the woman shook her head, "Nevermind... No time. We're landing. Pack your kit and let's move, ladies."

Ariane chuckled, murmuring, "Oh, I could feel something when she started talking about Sergeant Buck..." before undoing her Harness and standing up next to Elster. The Replika let out a short chuckle, then led the girl off the transport as the rear hatch opened. The Marines providing them escort descended first, however, onto the retracting landing platform.

The two women jumped off the vehicle and onto the platform, then gasped as they looked out. Below them, there was a thick fog layer obstructing the view below. Around them, skyscrapers as tall as the one they were on rose, various aircraft moving to and fro. Police aircraft, civilian leisure stuff and even some military like the one they'd come in with.

"Woah..." Ariane murmured, tightening her grip on Elster's hand. The Replika hummed and looked at her girlfriend, then at Dare and her team. The intelligence officer was probably smiling behind her helmet, going by the wrinkles Elster barely noticed behind the golden slit visor on her strangely angular helmet. She hummed, squeezed Ariane's hand and smiled at her.

The white-haired beauty beamed back, "It's beautiful... Isn't it?"

Elster gazed out toward the wider cityscape as she thought for a moment on how to best answer. While, yes, it was beautiful, it didn't beat a certain someone beside her. She decided to take a play out of the romances she saw in several of their old movies, stating, "Not quite as beautiful as you..." and that elicited the funniest possible response out of Ariane. The girl's pallid face grew a shade of red about as close to her eye color as it got and one could swear they could see steam coming out of the Bioresonant's ears, not to mention the screech like a squishy children's toy coming out of her mouth. Elster smiled at her adorable reaction, then nuzzled her and kissed her forehead.

"... That had to be the most adorable fucking thing I've ever seen..." Commented a female soldier from next to Dare. The entire crew laughed, while Ariane buried her face in Elster's shoulder to hide her embarrassment, letting out several noises that were akin to words, but with a higher-pitched voice, muffled by the frame of her Replika girlfriend. Elster wrapped an arm around the girl and hummed, smiling.

"Sister, I wish I had something like that," Another soldier quipped, shifting on his feet as the platform finally entered the tower's hangar. Dare waved to Elster and once more showed them to follow, with the Replika nodding calmly and nudging Ariane. The two women then followed their escorts off the Platform, to the sight of several dozen employees staring at them from multiple levels of the tower. As they got off and the pilots exited the aircraft, the vehicle was shifted with its platform onto a layered parking area of sorts.

Entering a lobby and atrium area, the girls were once again gazed upon by the locals. Though, for a moment only, as most then turned back to their business. Dare showed the rest of the soldiers to scatter, pulled out a card as the troopers moved to the armory in a column, then slid said card on a door access panel. One of the three doors ahead opened, revealing a tubular elevator with a glass exterior and metal floors.

The trio then walked inside, with Dare sighing and taking off her helmet. The blonde-haired woman underneath the helmet revealed herself to be one with a strong-ish jawline, but still some features of beauty. She turned to the girls and said, "You'll get asked a few more in-detail questions by the ONI agents present in the room I'm taking you two to. They've read the reports beamed over by the Captain of the Black Mark and have already decrypted the information copied from your ship's Data Drive, so they'll want it confirmed by the acting Gestalt officer aboard."

"Gotcha," Ariane nodded, while Elster seemed to slightly tense up. Ariane hummed, then asked, "What about our ship?"

"She's been sent off to Mars for a verification in the Reyes-McLee shipyards. Y'know, proper patching-up and all..." The woman shrugged, "All your personal belongings will be returned to you once you are either transferred to Earth or... Well, if you want, given positions within the UNSC. We need all the help we can get, especially from fellow humans who can do what you do."

Ariane hummed, looked to Elster and said, "We were hoping to send a ping back to home about us being okay..."

"That's already being worked on, too. A transmit system to attempt to make contact with the Eusan Nation is being currently prepared here on Reach," The woman replied, shifting casually from one foot to the other to keep herself busy. The Bioresonant smiled at the news, then elbowed Elster gently in her shoulder. Replika girl nodded approvingly, moving her hands behind her back. Dare raised her hands and said, "I can't promise it'll work, but..."

"We get it," Ariane nodded, smiling, "Thank you all for... Doing so much."

"Hey, we're all humans," Dare replied as the elevator descended to the bottom-most floor of the place. The door slid open and Dare motioned to them to go, "I'll be going back with my team. We're investigating something in another part of Reach. You two ladies take care of yourselves."

"Thank you, captain," Ariane replied, smiling, even with the troubling weight of the place they were in pressing on her shoulders. She and Elster stepped out to the sight of another agent of ONI, this one clad in a black jumpsuit. She motioned for them to follow farther down the hallway ahead as the elevator dinged, the door closed and it began to climb back up to the top. The two Eusan nationals followed the ONI agent down the hall and to the right at a T-intersection. The woman pulled a card out of her pocket, slid it against a scanner and a door to the right slid open. The two entered the place, finding it to be a room with a couple of recessed LED lights, a table and a couch in the middle.

"Please, take a seat, ladies. Chief Hanlon will be here in a minute to talk to you both..." The ONI agent stated. The two complied and, seeing that, she left, the door closing behind her. Ariane looked around, a bit surprised at the sight of the place, while Elster was seemingly already figuring out avenues of escape. Ariane couldn't exactly tell what was going on in the mind of her girlfriend. She just knew that the situation called for calm and cooperation with the UNSC for now.

"It's alright, Els," Ariane said, "We'll be fine."

"I know," The Replika noted, then looked at the camera in the top-right corner. Considering the red light, it was on. Understandably.

Ariane also noticed the cam. She smiled and waved, then leaned toward Elster and whispered as quietly as she could, "Feels like the Protektors' office," which got Elster even more tense than prior. The worst part was that Ariane was not wrong by any metric. It was pretty much just like that. That was what worried the LSTR unit right now. What would this place, a supposedly 'free' state, need a secret police for?

She paused as the door opened, noting several clicks in rapid succession. Then, in walked a redhead with short hair. The man's piercing, ice-cold blue eyes locked onto Elster and Ariane and the jet-black pistol in the black leather holster on his belt was worrying. Still, the man hummed, gauged them for a moment and gave a calm nod, before greeting, "Good afternoon, ladies," his voice smooth, friendly, "I'm Chief Edward Hanlon, UNSC Office of Naval Intelligence, Section Three."

He pulled out a strange tablet from his pocket and thumbed it as he sat himself down across from them, "I'm going to presume you two are miss Ariane Yeong and LSTR Unit 512, belonging to the newly-recovered scout ship of a same numbered designation. Having read the reports, as much of the decrypted database of your ship as I could and the questionnaire given unto you by the crew of the frigate that recovered you, I have to say... A lot of this seems nigh-unbelievable."

"And yet it's the truth," Ariane replied calmly.

The man shrugged and nodded, "I'm well aware, miss Yeong. The simple fact of your presence here is a decent confirmation. Still, the fact that there's a human system as-of-yet undiscovered by the UNSC is both tantalizing and terrifying news. We're not here to discuss this particular issue. I and my employers are more interested in the issues pertaining to what is called 'Bioresonance' in multiple of the shipboard logs and reports... Not to mention the data on the LSTR Unit is also fairly important."

Ariane frowned, then stated bluntly, "Elster's not just a machine. You know that, right...?"

"We have sentient rights, miss Yeong, so, yes, we know miss 'Elster', as you call her, is more than just a machine," Hanlon replied impassively, his face a stone mask that was unreadable to either of the girls. He kept re-reading something on the tablet he held, before stating, "However, that doesn't mean we can't be curious about her kind. Replikas, that is."

"... I guess that's fair..." Ariane nodded, uneasy. She took Elster's hand under the table and the Engineer Replika squeezed it gently, trying to calm her down. The man continued reading whatever he was reading, before setting the tablet down and grabbing one of the two carafes of water and a glass and pouring himself a drink. He hummed, took a sip to water his throat and looked forward once more.

"Similarly, we're interested in what little we could read about your powers, miss Yeong, though we won't do anything... Out of pocket to learn what we want." He stated, though that didn't inspire a lot of confidence in either girl, both feeling the oppressive air in the room weighing heavily down upon them. Swirling the water in the glass slowly, he continued, "I do have a few more questions I'd like to ask you before you are both sent from here to another facility, if you don't mind answering. Provided you do, we can provide you good accommodations for the duration of your stay. Maybe even a fast-track to UEG Citizenship, if the Eusan don't mind the duality."

Ariane blinked, looked forward and was about to speak, but Elster cut her off, stating, "We don't know the views of the Nation in regards to dual citizenship as you are proposing it, Chief Hanlon. We can report back and ask our people once the relay we heard about is calibrated and linked," as she eyed the Secret Policeman. Best not to answer anything before they were sure they'd get what they needed.

"Understood," Hanlon didn't even flinch, "If you don't mind the questionnaire, then? We can offer asylum at the very least after it."

"Please," Ariane nodded, then squeezed Elster's hand. Elster felt her mind ping for a moment, before feeling some of the tension in her body leave. She sighed deeply, noting that Ariane had probably used a bit of her Bioresonant powers to relax her. A mild, easy and weird use of such powers, but it was good Ariane remembered she still had them. Hanlon seemed to have noted Elster relaxing, seeing as he hummed.

Calmly, the man added, "Very well, let's begin..." and he tapped a button on his tablet, "SITREP-001, ONI SEC-3, Chief Hanlon, UNSC ID-551212-1-EH, communique Code Azure Encryption. Case PENROSE FIVE-ONE-TWO, recovered individuals, Exploration Ship Officer Ariane Yeong and LSTR-512 Maintenance Unit, called 'Elster' by officer Yeong, henceforth will be referred to as such during interview. Interview Number Oh-oh-Two, date, late 20th of July 2552, standard Military Calendar. We may begin. Officer Ariane Yeong."

"Yes, sir," The girl now tensed, looking at the man.

"First question is to be addressed to you." The man explained with a cold, calm voice as he looked over the questions on his tablet. He added, "As officer of the Exploration Ship Penrose-512, your answers will be taken most carefully under scrutiny and will be judged with utmost care by the UNSC, Office of Naval Intelligence and the UEG at large. Please answer as truthfully as possible so that we may all go home with a better understanding of you, the people of Eusan and what we may confront when entering your Solar System, should we ever go there. Understood?"

"Clear as day, sir." Ariane replied tersely, though she tried to remain friendly.

"Very good." Hanlon offered a nod. He looked at his tablet, thumbed it and scrolled down to the first question. Looking up at Ariane and maintaining eye contact with the Gestalt Officer/Bioresonant, the man asked with as calm a voice as he could, "Then, the database we were given by your Engineer, Elster, denotes the existence of a system-nation known as the Eusan Nation, is that correct?"

Ariane replied, "Yes, that's our home." As she tugged at the collar of her UNSC-given uniform. Elster herself seemed to grow tense once more as she scanned the room, part of her old instincts kicking in, as it seemed. She didn't even know she had the survival skills or training to look for a way out. She also noted the wall to their right was, in fact, a one-way mirror. There were more people listening to them than just Hanlon or the recording device on his strange tablet.

"I see. And the Eusan Nation, as per both the logs and the interview undertaken aboard the UNSC FFG-960 Black Baron, the nation was born out of a revolutionary action against a supposed system-wide Empire that held many people, both Humans, or Gestalt, as they are referred in the Database, as well as Replikas such as Engineer Elster herself, under its thrall." The man hummed, then chewed on his thoughts for a moment and asked, "Is that correct?"

"Yes." Ariane nodded.

He continued, "And the Empire and Eusan are still engaged in what can best be described as a Civil War over the System itself, yes?"

"Yes." Ariane nodded again.

"Understood." The man hummed, then continued with a professional tone, "Denoting the threat that war may pose to any possible arriving staff that would attempt a diplomatic approach, ONI wishes to know if we should consider the Eusan People's Army, Navy and Air Force as possible threats. The AEON exploration ship you came here with is currently, as I am sure you are aware, undergoing assessment as it travels to Mars. Should we expect a hostile response from your people?"

"I hope not, honestly." The Bioresonant stated meekly, before looking the man in the eyes, "The Eusan Nation just wanted all of us Gestalts to be free, same for our comrades, the Replikas. Sure, their methods are a bit... Inhibiting, but... At least I'd hope they'd see the logic in allowing someone as strong as the UNSC and UEG, who seem to own multiple Solar Systems, to help us in being rid of the Empire. We've made a lot of sacrifices for the War Effort..."

Inhibiting? The man made a mental note to rummage through the files on Eusan once more after they released these girls, continuing with the questionnaire by simply adding the clarification, "Understood, but I was more asking if we should be worried about the armaments your people bear. They must be the same as the Empire's. If you could tell us anything you know...?"

"Oh, that? Well..." Ariane blushed, a little embarrassed. She chuckled awkwardly and scratched her cheek, then replied semi-confidently, "I don't think you folks should be worried, honestly..." All while Elster was trying to figure out what they wanted from this. She hummed as Ariane added, "From what I've seen aboard UNSC ships, you guys have the number advantage, though I haven't seen your guns and stuff in play, so I can't make an accurate deduction."

"Mm..." The man sighed deeply, seemingly a little disappointed in the reveal. He continued, "I see. Very well. Onto the next question..." Then he squinted and read, "Bioresonance. Bioresonance is a supposedly less-understood property various Gestalts such as yourself, plus various Replikas can manifest. A very powerful ability, one might even say something akin to the powers of a god. Is it real and can it do the listed items within the database, such as..." He looked at the list, "Klimaforming, world shaping and telekinesis, not to mention a few other abilities that seem out of the realm of fantasy?"

"Oh, Bioresonance is real, yeah." Ariane grinned proudly, "I mean, here, look..." and she focused hard on the water carafe on their side of the table, gently lifting it up without touching it and pouring it into a glass. Elster narrowed her lips at the sight, wondering just how in-trouble this was gonna get them. Ariane, however, continued her work proudly. She smiled, set the carafe down and picked up the glass with her hands, taking a sip.

The man looked back to make sure the Camera was still working and Elster finally spotted the small com bead in his ear. He hummed, then nodded and stated, "I see..." as he jotted down a few notes on Bioresonance. Ariane looked to the concerned Elster and used her Bioresonance to calm her down again. Elster sighed deeply, rubbed her temples and took Ariane's hand. This was gonna be a weird day.

Ariane blinked, hummed, then smiled and remembered, adding, "And yes, we use it to Klimaform new planets for human habitation. It's a draining process, but I've practiced a lot for the Penrose program to be able to do it. Still takes a few days..." as she took another sip of water and sloshed it around in her mouth a bit, watering bits that were drying out due to the talking.

"Days." The man blanked for a moment, eyes shooting wide open before he corrected himself and put his mask back on, so to speak. He stated rather bluntly, "Officer Yeong, we have Terraforming technology akin to this and for us it takes years to get a planet to any acceptable level of habitability." Surprising both Ariane and Elster. They had technology to Terraform stuff? Huh, talk about useful...

"... Okay, maybe weeks...?" Ariane replied meekly... Elster squeezed her hand to reassure her.

"I see..." He cast a sideways glance at the one-way mirror to the side, before looking both of them in the eye and replying with some professionalism, "Duly noted. A couple more questions for you before we move on to miss Elster. Do you understand the fact that the UNSC and UEG seek to offer you and your compatriot asylum here until we can make contact with your people, but that this comes at a cost? You do know we are currently at war, yes?"

"Yeah. The ship crew told us a bit about your war, but said it was on some faraway worlds of yours..." Ari nodded, while Elster tensed. Ariane asked hopefully, Right?"

Elster noted the man's hesitation night immediately. Still, he answered them with the same thing the crew had said, "... Yes..." before switching subjects rather quickly. Something even Ariane picked up on, considering the fact she elbowed Elster. The man said, "Moving on, do you also understand that the UNSC and ONI may seek to learn about your powers, to see if we cannot cultivate them for our own defense?"

"Yeah...?" The girl nodded, calm and understanding, while Elster remained tense as a fucking wire being tugged at on both sides. Continuous attempts by her beloved to soothe her worked every once in a while, but Ariane was more focused on answering questions that felt like violations of the State Secrets of Eusan. Still, Elster could only bite down on her worries for now and let Ariane speak. And speak, Ariane did. "I mean, it'd probably bring you on even footing with the Empire and our Nation, at least... Oh, yeah, right, you guys seem far more advanced tech-wise than us, so..."

"Mm. Would you be okay with us allowing some of our doctors to do some tests? Non-invasive, of course, so they can learn about it?" The man questioned, calmly. It was good to know that they were probably more advanced technologically than both sides of a system-side Civil War. Still, the uneasiness of the Replika grew noticeable to the ONI agent's trained eyes. She seemed to be casting continuous glances at her girlfriend.

Ariane shrugged, though, careless, then replied unsurely, "... If it gets us a place to stay until we can contact home, sure, I guess...?"

"Ariane." Elster whispered, her voice stern, hard as stone, as she gently tugged at Ariane's hand. Ariane was surprised by the gesture, looking at her with wide eyes. Elster, however, seemed dead serious about this, enough so that Ariane soon realized that she had gone with the flow and calmly answered questions that could easily damn both of'em if Eusan ever learned about it. Not only that, but she agreed to be a guinea pig for them... Eh.

"It's fine, Els... They're talking about diplomatic missions, not a war." The girl whispered back, caressing Elster's shoulder with her free hand, then cupping her chin with said hand. The Replika paused for a moment, blinked and thought about the process ahead of them. Would Eusan accept that as an explanation? Would they think the two of them traitors? Would their people besmirch them and hate them...? Or would they be hailed as heroes for bringing an army to the System to end the Civil War? Elster did not know the answer. Nobody truly knew the future. Alas...

"... Right..." She relented, shoulders sagging as she loosened the tension in the joints and bowed her head, leaning into Ariane's hand. The Bioresonant beamed and pecked the girl on the cheek, which got a blush out of the Replika, both almost forgetting they're still in the presence of someone, or a bunch of someones, going by the one-way mirror and the camera.

The officer cleared his throat, taking their attention back to the matter at hand and getting both of them to go tomato-faced. He blinked, tapped his tablet to turn it back on, then continued, "Onto you, then, Engineer Elster. You are a Replika, right?" eyeing Elster. The girl paused for a second, to register the fact that she'd finally been addressed by him. A short hum escaped her lips as she decided to speak normally.

"Yes." She nodded, without hesitation.

"Anything you can tell us about yourself or any supposed fellow Replikas?" He inquired, already jotting down notes on her behavior.

"Nothing you probably haven't learned from our logs already." She shook her head and crossed her arms. That was something they could've easily gleaned out of the database and both of them knew it. He was just testing her to see something, she assumed.

"I see..." The man hummed and rubbed his eyes, before setting the tablet down and closing the window. There was just that question. Was he planning on winging it? It didn't matter. He added calmly, "Then I suppose there's nothing we could ask you beside if you would be interested to earn a living alongside miss Yeong while you wait for a return trip home?"

"... How?" Elster blinked, surprised. That caught her off-guard.

The man opened his tablet and opened another window, then turned it toward Elster and Ariane. Two documents to sign. A Non-Disclosure Agreement for Ariane that included all the info necessary on what work was gonna be done on her, as well as a 'binding work contract' for Elster, stipulating even the amount of money she'd hearn. The man stated, "Learning to repair UNSC equipment. Our War Effort is straining us, even with it being..." And he hesitated again, as if the supposed lie tasted bitter. Yet, he still added, "Distant... So we need capable hands for everything. Engineers and scientists especially."

"... Okay. If it means I can stay with Ariane while the tests are being done." Elster had taken a second to think. She thumbed her signature onto the tablet and was surprised to see that it... Actually confirmed it. Huh, colored impressed she was, the technology necessary for touchscreens being something beyond awe-inspiring to both her and Ariane for some reason.

"We'll do our best to keep you two together, miss Elster." The man replied. This one was with little hesitation. Rather quite direct and straightforward, in fact. Elster was glad they got that much, at least...

"That's all I'm asking..." She stated, then pulled her lover close and said with steel in her gaze, "I only care about her."

"Sweet, if a little selfish, but very well..." The man sighed and stood up, "That concludes our interview. We will provide asylum request forms within a few minutes of me departing to file my report, ladies. If you need anything, just wave to the camera and one of my staff will come assist you. We will also let you know within the allotted time to what facility you will be travelling for the work. Farewell."

The two girls looked at each-other...

Aboard the Pelican that headed the route to their new home, the girls, now asylum seekers within UEG Space, were sat together. Across from them was a pair of UNSC Marines that were also being transferred to this place, called 'CASTLE Base' by the UNSC. It was apparently an ONI Base deep within a mountain range on Reach. Menachite Mountain it was called, if Elster remembered correctly.

"Elster?" Ariane started, whispering and taking the Replika out of her thoughts before she got any deeper into a sort of spiral. She looked to her lover, then raised a brow, to which Ariane spoke, "Do you think I was a bit too forthcoming with information? Because I just... Realized when we were boarding the gunship, I talked like a parrot, just jabbering on about everything... Think we're in danger?"

The fact that Ariane realized it on her own was not surprising. Dear miss Yeong was the smartest Gestalt Elster had met in her admittedly-short life since coming out of the factory. Alas, she could only admit that, "Yes... Maybe a bit too much. But do you trust them? The UNSC, I mean? That they only want to interact with our people?" because she knew that spouting that much stuff was tantamount to treason.

At the same time, if they brought forth Allies to help their Nation beat the Empire, then they'd be hailed as heroes. Eitherway, it was a gamble that was nowhere near close to 50/50 odds in Elster's eyes. She was not a betting woman, though, so she could've been wrong. Ariane sighed, then looked to her and said, "Sorry... Maybe we should've just... Shut up..."

"We'd probably be in one of their prisons right now." Elster replied, squeezing her hand. The girls hummed and looked toward the Marines. Two of them had fallen asleep on the third's shoulders. And the poor woman was looking mighty tired of their shit. She tipped her cap at them, arranging her rosary around her neck. Oddly, she seemed to bear similar features to someone Ariane knew.

The Marine woman spoke, "You been staring for a hot second, kids. You good?"

"Just wondering," Ariane, "Who're you?"

"Sergeant Zhao Heng Lopez. Call me Lopez or Sarge," She stated bluntly, "Not a lot to talk about with me, you two. I'm just here to get you to that weird old lady, Doctor Halsey... Then I'm back aboard the Red Horse with these two chucklenuts asleep on my shoulder," and she shifted uneasily, before barking, "Benti, Cranker, wake the hell up!" which awoke the two other Marines, one of whom was wearing white armor.

Ariane chuckled, while Elster shook her head. The vehicle touched down on the side of a mountain face, slowly drifting inside the maw of the mountain itself. The Marines disembarked, with Lopez giving one motion of the hand. The two other Marines held guard next to the vehicle as she marched inside. The woman murmured, "Swear to Christ, I hate ONI shit..."

"Take it you're not very fond of working with the Secret Police, Sergeant?" Elster inquired. Lopez snorted.

"Girl, if these bastards were the Secret Police, half of the UNSC would be in chains by now and there'd be nobody fighting... Nah, I just hate the cloak and dagger shit. I'm a Marine after all. We like stabbing people in the front, not the back," She looked back to Elster and flashed a grin. Visible now, were the scars of her injuries. The woman was middle-aged and quite a rough beauty.

Elster sighed. Entering into the base through a multitude of security checkpoints where cameras, soldiers and ONI agents kept an eye on them all the way down to their intended target area, the girls finally reached the complex where the lab of the doctor they'd be working with was. It was so deep underground, it might as well have been a bomb shelter.

Lopez slid a security access card across a reader and the door opened, revealing a mess of a laboratory where a woman seemed to be working. Grey-haired and with her back turned away from them, the woman toiled away at something on the table there, next to a smoothed metallic wall, a lamp blaring a bright white light down on the work space. She spoke, her voice stern, "Leave whatever it is on the table somewhere. I will get to it in due time," before murmuring, "Damnable preparations are nearly done for RED FLAG..."

"Doc," Lopez started, "PENROSE case is here."

She paused, stopped whatever she was doing and turned around. The girls now noticed the various cups of coffee, either empty or half-drunk and rotting away on the desks. She turned around, revealing a tired-looking old woman that resembled more a grandmother that aged really well than a mad scientist. She pushed her glasses back up onto the bridge of her nose and arranged her turtleneck and labcoat, stating, "Sergeant Lopez..." with an impassivity that was nigh-mechanical.

"Yo," Lopez waved, "Job done. We got them here. I'll be going."

"Yes, yes. Farewell, Sergeant. Take care..." Halsey murmured, eyes focused on Elster and Ariane. Lopez hummed, smirked and looked at the two, before giving them a wink and stepping away. Ariane caught a faint red tint on her cheeks until Lopez left and the door hissed shut and locked behind them. Halsey, meanwhile, stared both of them down like someone scrutinizing their next piece of work, "PENROSE Case. Miss Ariane Yeong and miss Elster. I read your files and the recent ONI interrogation. Quite an interesting pair, you two... My name is Doctor Catherine Elizabeth Halsey. Welcome to OMEGA Section, CASTLE BASE. If you'll make yourselves comfortable, I'll be right with you." She hummed, then called out, "Kalmiya."

"Yes, doctor?" A disembodied, soft voice spoke, scaring the two.

"Give me a tenth of your processing power for the following tasks:Prepare and send a series of manuals on various pieces of UNSC equipment to the tablet prepared for miss Elster and prepare the sterile room for me to check on officer Yeong, please..." She requested as she plucked up the only cup of fresh coffee the girls saw and took a sip. She nodded approvingly, while Elster and Ariane found somewhere to seat that wasn't dirty with discarded food trays and empty paper cups. Halsey added, "Add in some classified documents as well. Project MJOLNIR's latest additions, the Mark-V and the still-prototype Mark-VI, shield generator and reactor specifics included. I fully intend to send our new friend out with the ability to fix everything... Everything but the Kitchen sink, as the euphemism goes... Cortana can wait two minutes."

"Right away, doctor." The AI replied and the PA dinged.

"Who was...?" Ariane blinked, surprised.

"An Artificial Intelligence I utilize for multitudes of tasks here," Doctor Halsey murmured as she sidestepped some trash on the floor and approached Ariane and Elster. She stopped in front of them, tidied up her hair a bit, then extended her hand, her face impassive, "Excuse the hurry. A major... Item of interest... Is set to occur within a few days. I have a lot of work I need to do still."

"We understand," Elster replied. She and Ariane both shook doctor Halsey's hand. Halsey nodded, hummed and walked back to her work station. Elster now noticed that there was an armored breastplate painted OD Green laying on said table. Ariane was still awed, looking around at all the tech just laying, strewn about. It was chaotic as all hell, but Doctor Halsey seemed to know where was what and when. Ariane's little look-around, however, was stopped by the audible groan of her stomach.

"Feel free to order any food you want from the terminal on desk three. And order me the same item that is saved on the top-left menu, please," Halsey jabbed a pointer finger without even looking away from her work. She stated, then she murmured to herself, "It is lunch after all. Not a healthy idea to work on an empty stomach..." as both Ariane and Elster stood up and walked to order. The two women looked at Doctor Halsey, then at the touch-screen terminal.

Ariane tapped it and gasped as the screen moved smoothly. She smiled and looked to Elster, before pulling up a menu to order the items. She tapped Doctor Halsey's previous order once... Then two more times. The food, whatever it was, seemed appetizing enough. Halsey, meanwhile, switched to another desk and began working on that item of interest. Elster hummed and Ariane stared, surprised.

Woman was a workaholic...

Chapter Text

The two girls ate the lunch(really the Dinner) they'd ordered. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't the best, either, whatever was in the wrap. Ariane watched the doctor finish up the last bit of work, all while Elster had already begun reading the manuals from the tablet and eating. Ariane chuckled at the sight, looking at the focused young Replika as she gently thumbed the tablet's touch-screen, having gotten used to it surprisingly quickly.

Meanwhile, she was still trying to properly operate the damn thing in her hands as she ate. Halsey sighed deeply, wiping the sweat off her brow, set her tools aside, then turned to Ariane and said, "I believe it's time for those examinations, miss Yeong. If you two would follow me..." motioning to the door of another room. Both Elster and Ariane stood to their feet at that, finishing their food. Elster, however, kept on reading, only looking up when they walked so she didn't bump into something.

Entering the medical room, a sterile, heavily-reinforced place with white tiles that were polished enough to partially reflect the light of the recessed and very powerful LEDs above. There was a holographic display to the left, a couple more specialized screens on the right, an operating table in the middle and several sets of tools on multiple tables. Although Elster tensed when she looked up and noticed them, she'd soon calmed down.

They weren't invasive instruments. Seemed like various scanning devices and tools meant to help Halsey understand what Ariane's bioresonance was. She hummed and stepped inside, then took a seat off to the side, continuing to read and peeking over the edge of the tablet every once in a while, all while Doctor Halsey strapped the several electrodes and sensors to Ariane's head.

Doctor Halsey began explaining, "This is a brainwave scanner. A device that combines a few different methods of examining the brain's activity in order to provide us an accurate picture of how Bioresonance works. We will be performing various stress tests to see what kind of modifications your cortex has during usage. To help with that, I have also prepared template screenings of normal human brains."

"In short, it'll read my brainwaves to see what makes bioresonance tick," Ariane clarified more for herself than anyone else. Doctor Halsey gave a simple nod, before moving to turn on the devices. Elster peeked over the tablet every so often to watch the experiments, while Halsey took her own tablet and prepared a series of tools. She hummed, lifted a foam ball and handed it to Ariane.

The girl stood there, confused for a second, all while the device behind her whirred and beeped semi-audibly in the background, the screens playing both three-dimensional representations of Ariane's brain with all its various shapes, lobes and sub-organs and two-dimensional readings of the brainwaves in the form of lines determining spikes of brain activity that specifically related to Ariane's thinking.

Doctor Halsey explained, "I saw you lift a carafe full of water, miss Yeong. Without touching it. I want you to do the same with this ball," then positioned herself to see both the girl's movements and the screens, keeping her tablet close to write notes. The Bioresonant hummed, smiled, then nodded. She focused on the ball, opening her hand by spreading her fingers out and away from it.

Before long, the girl's face grew impassive and her eyes seemed to glow for the shortest amount of time in the same shade of red as her irises. The ball was slowly lifted up and off of her hand, which she slowly pulled back to her side, simply focusing on her objective. The device behind her read various scarlet dots, pointing to exact activity on the three-dimensional representation of the girl's brain. The occipital cortex and the amygdalae lit up like a a triangle of Christmas trees. As for the two-dimensional, line-based readings, there was a massive activity spike that now formed a plateau well above the average functionality of a normal human brain.

Halsey was immediately jotting down notes as she saw the prefrontal cortex light up as well, the brightest mark of them all. Halsey was stunned by the sheer reverberations Ariane's brain activity had. The eagerness with which the doctor wrote everything down told both Eusan citizens that their newfound co-worker was actively excited by the prospect of forther studies.

Halsey stopped writing, then said, "Feel free to let it go, miss Yeong..." as she noticed the girl getting slightly strained, a vein bulging on the side of her head. Ariane moved her hand below the ball and let it drop, before setting the ball aside and looking to her physician. The woman hummed, nodded and said, "Up next, something I've presumed but I don't think I could get a better confirmation of outside of a laboratory like this... Miss Yeong, I need you to focus on me."

"Aaaaand..." Ariane blinked, sure where this was going and not really sure she liked it.

"I want you to read my thoughts, of course..." Halsey replied, which caused both Elster and Ariane to double-over. Halsey, meanwhile, spoke calmly, "Please, take it at face value, I know the full risks of what may be ahead of us, but I also need to understand if what you said is true. The last test after this one will be what you call 'klimaforming'. I'll bring a small pot of sand over for it."

Ariane and Elster exchanged looks, both of them clearly worried. Despite that, though, Elster seemed to give an approving nod to the girl, before humming as she looked over the tablet. She ran a hand down the side of the item, stopping at the bottom and tugging at the corner. She blinked as she saw a cable with a connection port pop out and hummed, before looking at herself.

Meanwhile, Ariane approved the Doctor's request with a wordless forward tilt of the head. Halsey took a moment to concentrate, before giving a nod back and starting to write and read the new data. Ariane focused heavily on the good doctor and began reading her thoughts. The girl covered her mouth and started to giggle, to which Halsey looked, slightly confused, while maintaining the same thought pattern. Ariane snorted and said, "Sorry, doc. Thinking of Puppies is adorable, but I can tell it's a little strained."

Halsey blinked, nodded and showed her to stop. Ariane complied nigh-instantly, shuddering and murmuring to herself about how she'd 'never do that again' as she watched the Doc tap away at her tablet, before walking back to another desk and picking up the pot of sand. The good doctor added, "The pot also contains a small plant seed I had put in just before your arrival."

Ariane hummed at that, then nodded, "Alright. Let's get to it, I guess..." and looked down at the pot. Focusing her mind yet again, the girl grit her teeth. Before long, Halsey was both terrified and awed at the sight of sand becoming fertile dirt, the plant gently rising out of the soil. Elster hummed and smirked at the sight of the awed UNSC scientist, while Doctor Halsey stared on, shocked.

Ariane sighed, settling down, then rubbed her head, "Ow... Too many tasks at once..." She then murmured. Halsey, meanwhile, had gotten enough data from all three experiments to confirm her theory. And by jove, was she not sure what to make of this entire goddamn mess. She hummed, blinked and rubbed her eyes beneath the glasses, before sighing.

"There are sleeping quarters down the hall just outside of this room and to the left..." She stated, "If you wish to go to sleep while miss Elster finishes today's lectures-"

"Already done," Elster stated, extending the tablet to Halsey. Her eyes shot wide open at that. Elster hummed, noting the confusion, then stating, "I discovered my architecture is not so different from the tablet's. I also found this," she pulled at the corner, revealing the wire and the port again, then tapped the back of her head and said, "And just slotted it in. Downloading the manuals was easy enough."

"... Uh-huh... You downloaded approximately two thousand three hundred and seventeen pages of manuals into your mind without so much as flinching..." Halsey hummed, then pointed toward a table and stated, "Go to that table and retrieve the item on it, please."

The Replika complied, calmly strutting up to the table. Ariane grinned at Doctor Halsey, then watched Elster retrieve the item. The girls were both surprised to see the chrome-finished frame of a heavy-weight firearm with a strange trigger guard. Elster hummed and looked at the weapon, then looked to Doctor Halsey, who nodded and showed her to go on and say what it is. Elster said, "An M6G Magnum with a smartscope and laser aiming module... Why do you have this?"

"ONI brought it over to test out your capabilities, miss Elster. Now that you have the data pertaining to repairing the overall M6 personal defense weapon systems of the UNSC Military and Police, I'd very much like to see if you can figure out what ails this certain pistol," Halsey explained calmly, leaning against the table in the medical room. Elster nodded and, without a hint of hesitation, she began taking the weapon apart, bolt by bolt, while aligning the weapon's main components to her right. She had first made sure it was safe by dropping the empty magazine out of it and pulling the slide back into a locked position. Pulling off the slide by unlocking it, the Smartscope and the trigger group being removed after, the girl hummed as she removed the bolt carrier group and...

She lifted it and pointed at the filed-down pin. She had accomplished a full disassembly of the firearm within under a minute, a rather surprising thing for someone who was only familiar with firearms through the manuals they had read, or, better said, slotted into their brains, then immediately discovered the issue. Elster then replaced the pin and fit the weapon back together in about the same time frame, with the efficiency one would expect out of a supposed Engineer unit Replika.

Elster then slid a fresh magazine in and surprised both Doc Halsey and Ariane, turning to them and asking, "Is there a shooting range nearby?"

She wanted to test her newly-repaired tool. Halsey hummed and said, "There is one on this level, but I'm afraid it's restricted to security personnel. However, I'd trust the work, miss Elster. Well done..." before murmuring something along the lines if, "If only Cortana could so easily plug the necessary data into her Matrix just like that without having to learn too much..."

"I still need to work. Manuals are fine, but hands-on work with these items will be the best determinant of my utility for the UNSC's efforts..." The girl sighed, then set the weapon down on the table and started, "Speaking of, doctor... I've been meaning to ask this and I'm sure Ariane has, too. What is your war? The only things we've been told by the captain when we were retrieved and by the ONI agents when we asked were that the war was far away from Reach and it isn't something we should worry about... Is it true?"

Halsey's shoulders sagged and a frown formed on her face. She sighed deeply, then murmured, "And yet again, we lie, thinking we know what is best for mankind..." as she slowly removed the sensors from Ariane's head. She set the items aside, looked to Elster and Ariane and told both, "I'm afraid my countrymen thought themselves saints for lying to you two. Kalmiya?"

"I and Cortana have already engaged a Dead Room protocol, doctor. All wire taps within are disabled and the cameras are playing looping footage, but I'd be fast about it," Kalmiya replied.

"Sorry it took us a hot sec. Had to study, y'know?" Another voice, eerily the same tone and the likes as Doctor Halsey's, if only a bit more peppy, "Hey, ladies. Nice to meet you."

"Hi...?" Both Ariane and Elster said, dumbfound, then gazed upon Halsey. The doctor sighed deeply and sat herself down somewhere, before considering how to begin the saga of the damnation of humanity to a slow, painful death by the hands of an alien invader. One would normally think going with the beginning is the best option and, to be honest, that was Halsey's train of thought, too.

So, she started with the beginning...

By the time Halsey had gone through the Harvest campaign and the subsequent glassings and battles, Ariane had pretty much been ready to empty her stomach and Elster had to take a few moments to process the sheer destruction seen in the images Halsey had shown them. And apparently, according to the doctor, she was giving the brief rundown of the 27 years of genocide.

Halsey hummed as she saw Ariane crying into Elster's shoulder, while the Replika was still stuck. The machine asked, "How many dead... At least so far...?" as she wrapped her arms around Ariane to comfort her. Halsey sighed and opened a document on her tablet. The Replika's eyes shot wide open and she covered her mouth at the sheer size of the number.

Thirty-three billion total deaths estimated... So far...

Elster had trouble wrapping her head around that number, because it felt so statistically and militarily impossible. She kept Ariane from seeing it, waving Halsey off and swallowing her own spit, before stating, "I... We... We're so sorry, doctor, we didn't..." to which Halsey shook her head and gave a reassuring squeeze of both their shoulders, something she was seemingly not used to doing. Elster then asked, "What about the Covenant's armada...? How close are they...?"

"Their latest engagement puts them at, or near Sigma Octanus... I hate to sound incredibly depressing or scarring, but that is tantamount to a stone's throw away from Epsilon Eridani. From us," She replied softly. Elster let out a sigh that denoted her exact feelings on the matter. If Doctor Halsey were to probably attempt a translation from either her or miss Ariane, she'd need to censor quite a few words. So, she simply nodded, "But we think we have a way of ending the war... It is why I've been... Looking into understanding how both of you operate. Why I'm still awake and helping our two AI, as well."

"Do you want us to be part of whatever plan it is the UNSC has to end this?" Elster asked, stunned that Halsey would be so brash to even admit it. The woman paused for a moment, hesitating, and that was enough for Elster to reply, "... I won't risk Ariane's life for anything. And I won't let her risk it, either... You can't ask us to fight your war, Doctor..."

"It is not a war, miss Elster," Halsey sighed, "It is the slow extinction of our own race. And no. I was not going to ask or demand that you fight in our damned little attempt at survival, or fight in this doomed operation to end the war. I intended just to learn if your skills could potentially be learned and used by us, but I cannot even begin to comprehend Bioresonance without any detailed books written by your own people or without further delving into researching it myself. As for your repair training, miss Elster..."

"... You wanted to see if it could be replicated if you ever got to make others of my kind as backups for the dwindling numbers of UNSC Engineers...?" Elster presumed as she patted Ariane's head. "But considering the shrinking time window you have..." and she looked at herself for a moment. Halsey seemed to get what she was going for, simply sighing and leaning against the desk.

Elster looked at her lover with worry, noting the girl clung onto her for dear life, terrified. It was all on both of them. They had asked to learn of humanity's war with the Covenant, just how bad it got and just how much mankind lost. Compared to it, their own conflicts and issues on Eusan seemed minuscule, almost incomparably so. Truthfully, anything would seem minuscule when compared to the galactic scale of this war...

The Replika didn't care about it. She looked at Ariane, concerned. What would become of her if this war reached them? What could they do? Run? She was sure the Covenant would find the human world they were hiding on and destroy it. The UNSC offered them a chance at survival, as minimal as it was. Survival against a threat the likes of which nobody in the Eusan Nation or the Empire ever thought they'd face.

"You can leave, if you wish, find safe harbor somewhere-" Halsey started, well aware ONI would have her head if she so much as let them get out without finishing her testing. Elster, however, turned toward her and cut her off with a motion of the hand. Halsey stared at the Replika with a hint of surprise, but chose to let her speak her mind on the matter.

"... If it means keeping Ariane safe... And only if you can guarantee to me that she will be safe... I'll do what must be done. Any vehicle that needs repairs, any weapon damaged or in need of servicing, I'll take care of it for any unit your commanders assign me to. If it means keeping her alive and well, I'll even fight..." Elster spoke with a determination one would usually find in a human behind every word. Ariane looked at her, stunned, before preparing herself to protest. Elster put her index finger on the girl's lips and shook her head. "I don't want to hear it, Ariane..."

Halsey hummed, allowing herself a small smile as she looked at the two. She spoke to Elster, "She will be safe. I will make sure she doesn't leave my side. And I do not much leave CASTLE Base, or OMEGA Level. It is one of the most well-defended and up-armored underground facilities on the planet. It'd take a nuclear weapon whose yield is in the gigatons to destroy this place."

Elster nodded, "Thank you, Doctor..."

"Those who are willing to put their lives on the line in defense of Mankind should at least have the lives of their loved ones be preserved. It's the least our people could and should do for you and anyone else who volunteers to fight," Halsey replied calmly, fiddling with her tablet. She noticed the terrified look in Ariane's eyes and reassured her, "As for you, miss Ariane, calm down... I'm certain miss Elster is both a proficient fighter and knows how to keep herself alive. The poise with which she walks tells of at least a military background to her matrix."

"Hm," Elster nodded. She looked down at Ariane and pecked her on the forehead, garnering a blush.

Halsey chuckled, then said, "There are dormitories down the right side. If you two wish to rest, go ahead. I have much work to do, still, including examining your neural patterns, miss Ariane..." to which Elster immediately lifted the girl in a bridal carry. Both AIs within the lab audibly chuckled at the sight, while Ariane blushed like she was a schoolgirl being asked to prom. Elster walked to the dorm, a proud grin on her face.

"They're a heartwarming pair," Cortana commented as she appeared next to doctor Halsey. The AI, young as she may have been, gleamed in a purple-ish hue, her short hair straightened out and her arms crossed to her chest. She added, "I kind of hope the Covenant never find Reach, because that means those two get to live relatively decent lives under ONI's employ, but uh... I know better."

"Indeed... Did you make your choice?" Halsey inquired, turning to the AI. Cortana hummed and nodded, before smirking. Halsey quipped, "I know I've asked you to make that choice days ago, but I want you to be certain of it... If you are, we can proceed with the next phase. John and his team should already be here. It's time to start the preparations..."

"Aye, doctor." Cortana saluted, then her avatar de-materialized off the holographic display.

It was about high-time humanity went on the offensive for a change.

Chapter Text

23rd of July, 2552

Standard Military Calendar

UNSC Forward Ops Base "Charlie"

Visegrad Region, Vieri

Dawn broke on the cloudy morning of the twenty-third of July, nearly four days since Elster and Ariane had arrived in the Epsilon Eridani system. Elster had already received her assignment pertaining to her job in the UNSC Military. Specifically, she would join a Marine Division stationed within the confines of Fort Charlie, somewhere near the Visegrad communications array. Apparently, ONI had that place locked down tight for some reason or other. Doctor Halsey had told her that one of her co-workers, Laszlo Sorvad, was working on something in the area.

So, Elster stood there, feeling a bout of nostalgia hit her as she flew in aboard a UNSC Pelican transport. After getting a crash-course for two days on UNSC weapons handling, the young Replika prepared herself to begin work. She eyed the other soldiers aboard the Pelican, each of them calm. Some listened to music, others exchanged small-talk and others yet slept. The flight from the training point on the East Coast of Vieri back into the center of the place had been relatively uneventful, if long.

The Replika held in her hands two things:Her new service rifle, the MA37, a bullpup design with an ammunition counter and display in her right hand and leaning against her thigh, and a duffel bag in her left. Not a lot of personal effects that had had to be picked up, sans for some items sent back from the Penrose-512. Her and Ariane's toothbrushes, the latter of which was already at CASTLE, last the heard, her toolset, some repair sprays she still had with her, some adhesive tape and Ariane's paintings, the lattermost, again, sent straight to CASTLE Base.

"Hey, Private," A Soldier in front of her spoke. He was a young man in his mid-twenties, head clean shaven. A tattoo depicting an eagle had been drawn on his neck, only the head poking out from beneath his scarf. She hummed and arched a brow at him. He smirked and tilted his head, "Check it out. Our new home for the next few months..." before Elster turned and stopped, mouth agape.

The UNSC Forward Ops Base was a sprawling complex of concrete buildings intermixed with rapidly-assembled vehicle bays, logistics vehicles milling about and armored hangars where UNSC Aircraft, tanks and other vehicles resided. UNSC HEMTTs, or Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Trucks, the backbone of the Army's logistics, carried everything from pallets of boxes, to fuel, to Marines and Army Troops.

The Pelican approached the Landing Pad and disgorged the infantry platoon. The Soldier that'd talked to Elster smirked as he took her side, watching her gaze around at the world. Tall mountains rose around the base, confining it to the wide valley between them. UNSC Falcon-class transport twin-rotor helicopters flew overhead, ferrying infantry to and from specific areas and training ops zones.

He elbowed her in the shoulder, taking her out of the short reverie of seeing the beauty of nature, then extended a hand toward her, "I'm corporal Travis. I think we'll be in the same squad, private... 3-Charlie."

The girl shook his hand with a firm, almost steel vice-like grip, then replied calmly, "Elster Five-twelve. I'm a private and the mechanic and armorer here," before retracting her hand. She hefted her duffel bag onto her shoulder and showed him to lead the way. As they walked through the base, there were various looks given by the soldiers present within the base. Worry, surprise, awe, fear... Whatever the look that one female private and her male buddies gave her was? She could understand it, honestly. Not every day you saw a Replika outside of Eusan.

"Sorry for the stares," Commented Travis. He cleared his throat and stated, "Not everyday people see someone like you."

"My thoughts exactly. It's no problem," Elster replied calmly, choosing to ignore the stares for now. Her mind was focused on other things. Images flashed in her mind, blurred. Black uniforms, rifles, the mud and pain of training. She paused as the flashes intensified, grabbing onto her head, then stopped almost instantly. Sighing, the girl closed her eyes and shook her head to clear her mind.

"You okay?" Travis asked, turning to her. She nodded, then sighed deeply, relieved that that little moment had passed. She then followed the worried Trooper and the rest of the men to their barracks. Inside one of the habitation areas, Elster soon found her bunk. She'd left her rifle in the hands of the armory's crews, instead opting to set up her personal effects in her trunk.

The familiarity of this place hit her way too hard for it to be normal. She focused on her work, choosing to ignore the gnawing feeling in the back of her mind that she had been somewhere similar before. She hummed, lifted up a picture of Ariane from her duffel and smiled. Her beautiful lover, young as could be, with that bright white hair and those scarlet eyes filled with love. Elster had caught her at the flight console during a burn to adjust their apoapsis and she had the cutest face when she focused.

Sighing, the girl stuffed the photo into her newly-given helmet. The UNSC was issuing its troops helmets with goggles that displayed HUDs, which included Motion Trackers, bio-readings on the troopers themselves and other various utilities such as knowing how much ammo one had in their weapon, the weapon they were wielding and the amount or extra rounds in their pouches.

She had also been given a standard-issue OD-green military BDU, which included the extra chest and shoulder armor plates, the knee and elbow pads and the undergarment of the uniform itself. The only thing she didn't get was boots, because of her legs. One Trooper commented, "I'm not seein' boots there, private... Ya good with not havin'em?" before pausing as he saw the legs, "Oh, shit... You good? Those some new prosthetics NAVSPECWAR 3's testing out...?"

"They're my legs..." Elster replied calmly, sitting herself down on her bunk. At least the uniform pants reached almost all the way down without impeding movement. The soldier winced and was about to apologize, before Elster raised a hand and said, "I'm a humanoid machine. This unit's new mechanic and armorer. Apologies for the confusion are unnecessary."

"Alright..." The soldier said, "Elster, right?"

"Yeah," She nodded, standing up and donning the shirt, which held the attachment points for the armor plates. She clipped the armor pieces on, both to the chest and to the shoulders, put on her kneepads and helmet, then moved around a bit to test flexibility. The shoulders didn't impede movement up to 90 degrees due to the flexibility of the plates. She nodded approvingly.

"Where ya goin'?" Another female Trooper asked, poking her head out from behind her bunk.

"The motor pool. I have work I need to do," Elster replied, "Then, the Armory..."

"And the rest of us have a patrol to run, so... Yeah, fair enough," Stated Travis as he hefted his kit to the side. He saluted Elster and said, "Be seeing ya around, chief engineer," with a smirk. A few of the soldiers let out short laughs as Elster stepped off, donning the full kit, sans her rifle and pistol. She just needed some alone time to process a multitude of things, such as the flashes in her mind. That was not a normal occurrence for any Replika. None that she knew of, anyway.

She walked across the base, stopping every once in a while to ask the local soldiers about directions. Finding her way to the motor-pool, the woman walked inside, to the sight of the UNSC's main battle tanks. The M808B MBT, called the 'Scorpion' due to its unusual shape, was a relatively large battle tank armed with a 90mm smoothbore high-velocity cannon that fired tungsten-tipped penetrators and HE rounds.

She hummed. ahead of the line of tanks was a smaller group of M12 Force Application Vehicles, nicknamed by the Marines and Army that used them as 'The Warthog'. She noticed one of the vehicles had a disassembled forward portion where the hydrogen-based engine lay, chunks of it missing. Probably the local mechanics giving it a once-over or something.

She hummed, approached the FAV, then started looking into what was wrong, checking the multitude of parts spread out around it on the floor. She realized they were all arrayed in order of the requirement for the re-building. From left to right, from the smallest bolt to the biggest chunk of the engine. She crouched and looked the pieces over, noting one of them was broken. A small valve that probably controlled the outflow of hydrogen, or stopped it from burning too harshly. She knew it was broken because the engine's manual looped back into her mind as she looked it over.

She hummed, pulled her tool set off from her back and set it aside, before pulling out a repair spray. The broken piece relied on a specialized polyurethane mix that sealed its surroundings tightly. That seal was broken, but easily replaceable with the items she had on hand. Calmly, she undid the cover on the part, scraped off the polyurethane mix, then added in the fresh one with the spray. Setting the piece aside, the girl then looked over any other chunk of the 'Hog that was broken as her mind flashed her images of something or other again.

Armored fighting vehicles, gunfire, rounds pinging off armor plate...

She staggered again, inches short of dropping a sensitive piece of the Warthog as her mind scrambled. She set the engine part aside, sat herself down and took her helmet off, blinking away a sudden blur that veiled her eyes. She sighed, cocked her jaw as she felt a faint stab of pain through her artificial nerves, then straightened back up to get to work. It wasn't a good moment for her to lose her shit.

She began working on the reassembly, taking each piece, meticulously re-cleaning it and polishing it, then setting it into place. Slowly, from the inside out, the woman rebuilt the engine in the maw of the Warthog within the span of a little over four hours. She hummed and thumbed the last piece of the 'Hog's engine into place just as a figure ran inside and demanded, "What the hell are you doing, Trooper?!"

Elster took a hot second to register the newcomer. A man in his early twenties, clad in a UNSC uniform with a jumpsuit and his armor set somehow put on backwards, stained by oil, grease and the likes. The girl looked to the man, noting that he had the same rank as her, then said nonchalantly, "I put it back together..." as she walked toward the left side of the vehicle and climbed aboard.

"I took it apart and found it'd blown a seal! The Marine company from New Alexandria brought the damn thing in for checkups when she started sputtering! It ain't safe to turn on right now!" The man protested in any conceivable way he could think of. The ginger-haired, green-eyed man then froze as he saw the girl tap the button. The vehicle's engine sputtered for a second, then roared and revved.

The girl hummed and turned it off, then jumped off and walked back to the front. She looked it over and said, "It may still need some adjustments... Could you pass me that socket wrench?" to which the dumbfound man simply stared at her for a second. She looked to him, not a hint of malice behind her gaze, just steely resolve to finish the repairs. At that, he nodded, walked over to her toolset and plucked up the item she asked for, before handing it over. She started her adjustments, then stated, "Please turn it on when I say so..."

The man nodded as he climbed into the driver's side. Elster hummed as she tightened the loose piece to the point she couldn't realistically anymore without breaking it. She then gave a thumbs up and the man pressed the button... The Engine purred to life like it would have in any other normal circumstance and the man stared, wide-eyed at Elster as she stood up and packed her kit.

"How'd you... Do that...?" He asked, "You're that new engineer, the... What'd they call you, 'unit'?"

"Yeah. LSTR-512. Engineering and surveyor unit, now a mechanic and Trooper," She replied calmly, before pausing as she heard boots crunching against the dirt outside the Motorpool. She looked up to see the Lieutenant of her squad and, snapping a crisp salute almost out of instinct, she also noticed that the outside had considerably darkened. How, god only knew. The man saluted back and nodded her at ease. She also noted the presence of Travis.

"Sorry to interrupt tea-time, private. We're moving out. Colonel Urban Holland, our CO, gave us and a few other squads a mission," The Lieutenant stated. He looked to the other mechanic behind Elster and asked, "These 'Hogs good?" to which he nodded. The Lieutenant hummed and said, "Everyone mount up. Grab extra fuel and ammo. Private Elster, corporal Travis brought your gun for you. You're coming with us."

"Sir," She nodded. Travis stepped up and handed her her MA37 and her pistol, as well as some extra ammo.

"Didn't think your first outing will be this quick, eh?" He quipped, shouldering his DMR. Elster felt a pit in her gut, but nodded nonetheless, mounting up with the Marines as the mechanic set the armor plate over the engine back in place. Travis took the gun of a Hog, while Elster rode shotgun. She checked her weapons almost compulsively, going from bolt, to ammo counter, to magazine for both at least three times before the lead Warthog lurched forward.

By the time Elster had realized they were out of the FOB, the girl only had the sky above and the light of the Warthog's touch screen console displays and headlights as illumination. She gazed up at the sky of Reach, the beauty of the stars floating out in the dark filling her gaze. It was somehow even more beautiful than flying through the void. Somehow. She just wished Ariane was here to see it.

"Hey, El-Tee?" A trooper radioed in on short-range. Elster could hear him thanks to her helmet's own built-in communication system.

"Go ahead, corporal," The man sounded sharp, focused, when he replied. Elster tensed up. She had a nagging feeling that something was abound to go down. The hairs on her neck stood on-end. The vehicles rolled on forward into the mountains as she waited to hear what the Corporal was about to ask, finding a road that climbed up to the upper areas of the range...

"What's the job...?" The trooper warily asked, "Cuz it ain't like the colonel to send our asses out on a milk run..."

"Visegrad Relay went dark. We're going in to investigate. Holland things it might be local Innies, but that's yet to be confirmed," The Lieutenant replied calmly. Audible was the rack of a few weapons' bolts as the Army troopers prepared for the worst. Meanwhile, Elster paused. 'Innies'? Insurrectionists? The UNSC had issues with splinter groups in the middle of a war for survival? She heard several of the Army troopers voice their disgruntlement over the communication system.

She'd have to ask more back at base. Shifting in her seat, the girl racked her weapons' bolts, feeding rounds into both their chambers and readying herself as they moved up the roadway. Travis spoke from behind her, "Sir, this is Travis, lead hog. We just entered a dark zone. Can't get coms with command on any freq, even backups... Might be we're being jammed."

"Shit," Swore the driver from beside Elster, "Sounds like we're in deep..."

"Stay frosty. Looks like we'll need to get the Relay back online before we got Coms. Cut the lights and turn on your VISRs. Let's get rough, Troopers..." The man ordered. The headlights of the vehicles. The VISR. Elster remembered the briefing and, for a moment, images flashed before her eyes. She shook them away quickly, feeling that pit in her stomach deepen. Tapping her helmet as the Warthog's lights went dark, the girl's eyes were soon enveloped by a fluorescent green, the HUD compensating by lowering its own brightness. She saw the outlines of allied troops, of their vehicles and of the surrounding area, more clearly defined now that they had them on as compared to the prior darkness.

She tensed, the grip on her weapon tighter as the vehicles rolled past a multitude of local abodes, circular in design and strangely constructed from what looked to be cheap, but resistant materials. Some locals were staring at them from the windows from which light still protruded, but didn't dare come down to talk or stop them. The vehicles rolled on past with impunity, through open gates and a few miles further, toward one of the mountain peaks.

The vehicles slowed as they reached an open 'field' of sorts in the mountainous area. Travis reported over com, "I'm seeing movement, sir. Hill at our twelve..." and he squinted, "Silhouette looks human. May need to dismount to check on him." before an affirmative response came from the Lieutenant. The squadron of three 'Hogs slowed to a halt, with Elster, Travis and their driver dismounted, marching up to the man. Travis lifted a hand and showed the man to stop.

He began speaking a foreign language at the group of infantrymen as the dog beside him barked at them. Travis rolled his eyes and murmured, "Fucking hell, it's a local. Hungarian... Someone get Tomas up. We need his ass translating this shit..." before watching the Lieutenant approach with their resident Hungarian infantryman. Elster fidgeted, jumping from one peg foot to the other as she looked around, eyes scanning the horizon and the tops of the jagged rock faces around them like it was an instinct she didn't know she had.

Multiple images flashed in front of her as she listened to the men speak, this time accompanied by the roar of sporadic gunfire, of screaming in one of the many languages of Eusan. The images were a blur, like they were muddled by the girl having submerged herself in water, or her vision losing focus. She saw the muzzle flashes, heard the roar of artillery cannons... And only snapped out of it when Travis tapped her on the shoulder. She looked toward him, her eyes wider, her behavior more alert as she felt the impossibility of her heart beating in her throat.

Travis blinked, then murmured, "You okay, Elster?"

She nodded awkwardly. The man hummed and said, "Right... El-Tee ordered us to form a perimeter. We need you covering an angle..." and he pointed to the left of the Lieutenant, about twenty meters, angling toward a narrow split, a pathway between the rocks that opened into a wider valley up on the top of the mountain range. She looked to Travis, wordlessly nodded and took up position, taking a knee and shouldering her rifle. The crosshair moved with where she pointed the weapon, so it was easy enough to aim.

In the meantime, she listened to the ranting young farmer, the Lieutenant and their translator. The Translator spoke warily, "... And that something landed nearby that spooked his herd of Moa... God only knows what it was. Kid says he heard sounds from near by the crevice about four klicks due east of here, which is about a klick out from the Array, sir." and the Lieutenant nodded approvingly.

"Tell him we're only here to see what the disturbance is about, then, if he can't get we're here to restore coms... And that we're not here to harm his herd of weird ostriches," The Lieutenant ordered calmly, then looked at the defensive perimeter formed around them. Elster hummed, meanwhile, eyeing the strange crevice and the hilltop every once in a while. She blinked, then squinted, her visor polarizing and zooming in as she gazed at the hill. A blur appeared in her eyesight again, this time looking like distortion in the air from a flame.

The dog barked incessantly now, turning back at the hill as his owner berated him, then turned back to the Army troopers...

Her eyes shot wide open as something appeared instead of the distortion. Like a layer of blindness peeling back, a figure, taller than the average human, bow-legged and clad in scarlet armor, appeared. The alien with four jaws took aim with a strange, almost fish-like weapon in shape, pink crystals glimmering like jagged diamonds at the top. Elster only had time to open her mouth when she heard and saw the shot.

A trail of crystalline fragments followed the sharpened projectile. It whistled like an arrow piercing the wind at the speed of sound, before slamming into the back of the unarmed young man and exploding. The boy collapsed as his back was blown wide open by the shot and a flurry of swearing and commands suddenly filtered into Elster's ears. She perked up and aimed toward the target, firing a burst of automatic fire toward the target. The third round was a bright tracer, bright enough for the squadron to follow where it went.

"FUCK!"

"CONTACT!"

"JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!"

"Fall back!" The Lieutenant bellowed, taking control of the situation, "Get behind the fucking hogs! Move it!" And he stopped as a second shot rang out from the left. Trooper Tomas collapsed, his lungs exploding outward as what Elster soon recognized as an azure ball of ionized gas-plasma-struck him. He died on the spot, rifle clattering on the floor. Elster saw where the shot had come from and fired on the move, training she didn't even know she had kicking in.

Leapfrogging from rock to rock to get back to the Warthogs, the girl now stood side-by-side with Travis. The boy swore a flurry of swears to himself as he peered over and fired his DMR, before ducking back into cover and calling out, "WHERE THE FUCK IS EVERYBODY!?" more directed at the enemy that engaged them. A plasma shot, this one green, hissed by their ears, right between them. It struck the ground, boiling away a topsoil layer and, with it, a patch of grass.

Elster poked out from behind cover, low and fast. She fired a burst at the advancing enemies and saw her rounds connect. They flashed off something blue that surrounded one of the enemies, which was clad in decorated orange armor, then ducked back and said, "They have shields..." immediately. She poked up again and fired a full magazine at said enemy. The bloom and slight recoil kicked hard, but Elster managed to lay down enough hate to kill it. It collapsed with a loud, guttural growl and died. Elster grabbed Travis by the Collar and said, "Move!"

She and him ran all the way back to the Warthogs as more plasma rained down on them. Another of their teammates caught a bolt in the back and tumbled over, a corpse before he even hit the ground. Elster ducked in cover behind the Warthog and reloaded her rifle as Travis called out, "Lieutenant, we gotta get the fuck outta here! Get back into range and call command!"

"You're goddamn right we gotta move!" The Lieutenant growled. He poked over the hood of the Warthog and fired, then ducked back as the reply of plasma and Needle fire struck the vehicle's front, superheating the titanium plate shielding the engine. One of the Troopers mounted up on the Warthog's rear machine gun and revved it up, firing. It spat point-fifty cal rounds downrange at around nine hundred rounds per minute. Red tracers filled their vision.

Elster felt her mind go into overdrive, her comrades' deaths suddenly hitting her like a brick as she went on to ask the Lieutenant, "Sir! Can't we hold them back?!"

"No!" Travis barked, "We gotta call for backup, sir!"

"Fucking hell, people, we've been engaged! Yammer on later, get in the Warthogs now!" The Lieutenant barked as the Trooper manning the Warthog's gun got sniped, his head popped like a zit. His corpse tumbled over the side of the vehicle, dead. Elster blinked, looked to Travis and felt her bionic heart start to race. Travis looked over and fired another burst at the enemy, then nodded.

"Drive, I'll shoot!" He told Elster and jumped on the 'Hog's gun, then opened up as a flurry of plasma and needles struck around them. She nodded and jumped into the vehicle, before looking back at the Lieutenant and the others do the same. The transport turned on and lurched forward as Elster pressed the acceleration pedal just in time. A boulder of green energy that made her in-built geiger counter flare slammed into the ground where they'd been, bubbling glass and a crater being the marks of the emerald weapon's strike.

Another hit a rear Warthog in the front axle, disabling the vehicle. The crew aboard had to jump out of fear it'd explode. Elster saw it all in her rearview mirror. Her heart racing, breathing erratic and with new memories that were not her own flashing back into her mind, the girl demanded "What the Hell just engaged us...!? Do your insurrectionists carry plasma weapons?! Do they have Shields?!"

"Wasn't Innies!" Travis replied angrily, turning the gun, "It was the goddamn Covenant! They're here! FUCK! Lieutenant, what in Hell's name do we fucking do!?"

"Get to the Station! We'll split up and try and drag these shitheels away from you, Corporal! You and private Elster repair the station, warn Holland! Tell him to send goddamn reinforcements if you get any sort of signal!" The man ordered, sharp. Their vehicle veered to the right, the Covenant troops seemingly in hot pursuit. Elster soon realized what this meant.

Humanity's mortal enemy was here, on the very Fortress of Mankind. Her heart sank as she felt a hint of despair pick at it. The roar of gunfire, the bursts of plasma, the whistle of the needle weapons, all awoke nasty memories from LSTR-512's memories, memories she should, by all accounts, not even bear. She shook her head, punched herself in the forehead to settle the issue, then gasped as another of those green projectiles struck in front of her. The hit melted the floor ahead and caused the vic to bounce up and down.

She growled, drew the M6G Magnum from its holster and cocked it with one hand, then aimed up at the bastards that fired at them. Squeezing the trigger, she felt the surprisingly light kick of the fifty-caliber Semi-Armor-Piercing High-Explosive round. The shot whizzed past the alien bipedal that had fired at them with the handheld cannon and Elster damn near crashed.

She veered a left through a narrower passage, trundling down and damn near hitting the edge. A scream took her attention to the rear. Blood seeped onto the rear tray of the vehicle as the man behind her collapsed on the gun. She called out, "Travis!" with more anger than fear in her voice. The man groaned and held onto his hip, where a purple crystal had embedded itself. He grit his teeth and, with a loud groan, pulled it out before it shattered into a thousand micro-fragments that'd cause the wound to be infected.

"I'm good, I'm good... Shit..." He grunted, then gasped as Elster veered to the left. He saw them on the Motion Tracker. Golden dots... Switching the freq, he called out, "Watch your twelve, watch your twelve! Friendlies coming in on a 'Hog! Enemy units in hot pursuit!" just as a needle round punctured and detonated inside one of the rear tires, stopping the vehicle in its tracks.

Another Trooper appeared in front of them out of a total of Six survivors, urging them out of the vehicle, "C'mon! C'mon! It's safe here!" just as Elster dismounted and grabbed Travis off the back of the 'Hog. She carried the wounded man over toward a house that had been built into the rock and dirt and into a garage. The Warthog behind them took another bolt of energy and detonated in a blinding flash.

"C'mon!" A Trooper Medic helped Elster drag Travis in, before another hit a door control button. The door shut behind them, allowing them respite and space to breathe, with Elster dry-heaving. She fell to her knees, taking her helmet off and rubbing her face, before looking to Travis. The injured Marine was being treated with Bio-foam by the medic, who said, "You got fucking lucky... Covvies hit us first... Shit..."

"How many?" Elster asked the Medic, worried.

"Thirty. There's six of us left. Do the math..." She replied. Elster leaned back against the door, then was shown to be quiet by the surviving team leader, a Corporal Barklay as per the HUD's display. Covenant Troops around them moved on top of the roof, their hooved feet slamming against the corrugated metal panels and disappearing in the distance, away from the house...

When the last noise vanished, the Troopers sighed in relief and Elster thanked God those creatures were stupid enough not to check this place... Maybe they must've thought they'd gotten us all, Elster thought to herself as she slowly crawled up to Travis and checked him. The man grunted, face pale, but he seemed okay otherwise. "That was a freaking shitshow and a half." He spoke with a grunt. A few of the Troopers let out distasted laughs of approval, while Elster sighed, relieved.

... Then the existential dread hit...

The Covenant were here...

... Ariane...

Chapter Text

Elster stirred.

Her mind flashed images of death ahead of her. Bursts of weapons fire rang in her ears again and again. The familiar rumbling thunder of an autocannon roared in the background, intermixed with night-unintelligible cries from comrades in arms. Jet-black uniforms clashed with silver-grey in a blur ahead of her and her stomach felt warm. Like blood trickled down her uniform.

A blurry figure appeared ahead of her, calling out a name she did not recognize and checking on her. The thunderclap of a main cannon's shockwave struck her chest, knocking the air out of her lungs. She saw the shell trace through the odd darkness, only to set alight the world with a detonation. The enemy, whoever they were, replied and the machine next to her shattered into shards of steel that washed over her body, the warmth of the fire too much to bear.

Light flashed and the girl felt the familiar weight of an assault weapon in her hand. The snap of bullets whizzing past her ear. The rumble of that autocannon from below. Azure water lay in the distance, a seaside resort, torn asunder by whatever war this was. She blinked and turned, to see the blurred figures, clad in combat uniforms. She could faintly distinguish smiles. They now sat around what looked like a campfire.

A name rang out in her ears again, unrecognizable, though familiar. The voice who spoke it was distorted, but audible. Female. Warm.

"Lilith."

Itou, another word rang in her mind. She felt a hand slam into her shoulder and jumped awake, fingers wrapping around her pistol's grip out of instinct. She looked up to see the Army medic looming over her. The woman took a knee and asked, semi-concerned, "You good? You were moving 'round quite a lot..." to which Elster nodded. She sighed and rubbed her eyes, then her gaze swept right. She noted some of the Troopers sat within the garage were keeping themselves occupied with maintaining their kit, that there was a vehicle that was taken apart in the middle, on a lift, and-

She blanked, eyes widening. Then, she looked up at the Medic and asked, "Where's Corporal Travis...?" as she noted that the young man was missing. Standing to her feet, Elster gazed down upon the spot where he had been sat and the Medic hummed. It was clear she knew where Travis had gone. And Elster could hazard a guess as she picked up her Assault Rifle. She looked to the Medic and stated, "Why wasn't I woken up?"

"Corporal felt it'd be unnecessary to drag you outta bed," The medic replied, slowly shifting her rifle to better rest on the magnetic lock on the armor. Noting Elster's look of concern on an otherwise deadpan synth-skin face, the medic stated, "He took half our squad with him to the Relay... See if they can't get it back online with our radioman, who was apparently a Telecom engineer before shit went sideways on Harmony."

Elster sighed deeply, rubbing her eyes, then murmured, "Why do people do stupid things like that...?" before shifting and pausing. The sound of heavy footfalls echoed from outside and every single man and woman in the garage tensed, grabbing their weapons off the floor. Elster squinted, put her helmet on and looked at the Motion Tracker. Grey dots for now.

She leaned against the door as the Troopers found positions to hold the line, aiming their weapons. The Medic sat beside Elster, weapon ready, then whispered wishfully, almost like a prayer, "Maybe they're friendlies and our IFFs are borked...?" to which Elster rolled her eyes. Could just as easily have been civvies or local wildlife, but no point to take the risk. The Medic whispered again, slightly saddened, "Fair..." as she looked over her rifle.

The Replika prepared to pop the door open. The corrugated metal most definitely couldn't take any AP round hits, but she still wanted to identify the hostiles outside, not just empty a mag or two and find out she killed Civilians. She shifted her left foot and heard a sharp clink as she kicked away a spent casing. Looking down, her eyes shot wide open. She grit her teeth.

The first Needle Rifle shard punched through the door, followed by a flurry of plasma weapon fire and more needles. The steel melted away, opening the door up as the Troopers took cover. One of them caught a blast to the face and tumbled over, head a fine scarlet mist. The others, however, managed to stick to cover. The Replika pulled out a grenade and tossed it past the door as more fire streamed in, before she heard several creatures squawk with surprise. The frag's explosion rocked the building, dust falling from the ceiling in lines. Elster had also picked up the birds squawking in pain, collapsing.

She was the first to poke out of cover, pying the corner and opening fire. Bullets started flying as training the Replika didn't even know she had kicked in. Firing bursts at the enemy to determine where they were through the smoke, she soon caught sight of two rounded blue lights with cutouts on the left and right 'sides'. Green shined through the smoke, as well as the flashing of blue energy shields. As the smoke cleared, she could finally make out the Covenant troops' silhouettes. A pair of the tall bow-legged bastards and... Birds. Right, she'd just killed a few.

"Fucking hell, Jackals and Elites!" Called out a Trooper, firing his rifle.

The Troopers around her joined in, the Medic poking out and firing from a prone position that covered most of her body behind the concrete pillar Elster was hidden behind. Both of them fired on full-auto, while their designated marksman fired at the exposed hands of the avian-like predators hiding behind active shields that resembled old medieval ones, except made as if of magic.

A round punched through one creature's four-fingered hand and disarmed it, its plasma pistol clattering to the floor in front of Elster. It squawked and cried in pain, exposing its mohawked head before another 7,62mm round from the DMR punched clean through its wide-open left eye and out the other side. The bird-brained creature collapsed, but the enemy Elites quickly seemed to reform the line.

Advancing in a sort of phalanx, the surviving Covenant troops pushed, with the tallest ones at the rear, giving orders and firing their plasma rifles at them. One had fired for so long, Elster now noticed, that he had to cool the weapon. Two vents popped out of the side and dark-blue ionized gas, clearly superheated by the rapid-firing of the weapon, ejected out the sides.

Elster poked out again and opened up on fully automatic. This Elite wore blue armor. The full magazine she emptied into him caused his shields to burst and two rounds punctured the chest plate it wore. It roared to the skies, its mandibles splitting wide open in pain, anger, or both, before it glared at Elster and aimed. The girl was quicker on the draw, pulling out her pistol and firing one round.

The Elite's head was split in two by the .50 SAPHE bullet. It tumbled over, dead before it even hit the ground, with a thunk that was audible even through the gunfire. The group, however, could not celebrate. There came the audible noise of alien engines. Ahead of them a bifurcated dropship appeared, its rear-mounted plasma cannon firing toward them. The building shook under the barrage as the Troopers and Elster still fired their guns.

"Fucking hell! Spirit, dropping in reinforcements!" The Medic called out as she ducked into cover and reloaded her rifle, slamming a fresh mag into place and racking the bolt. The ammo counter reset and she poked out again. She pulled a frag off her belt and threw it between the Aliens, causing them all to scatter. The surviving Elite, however, pushed forward instead of jumping out of the way.

It charged Elster, grabbing her by the throat and slamming her against the ground, before powering on what looked to be an energy dagger in its left gauntlet. It lifted its hand up and was about to strike at the girl, before the Medic opened fire. The shots burst the creature's shields and distracted it, allowing Elster to punch it square in-between its split lips. She grit her teeth and watched it stagger, kicking it off and aiming her pistol at it. She put three rounds into it. Two in the chest, one in the head, just as the new enemy reinforcements waddled in.

Another pair of fragmentation grenades flew out from the ranks, explosions shattering the bodies of diminutive aliens with rebreather masks and giant tanks on their backs. Beside them, more Elites marched in. Elster barely had time to scramble back to her feet and reload before they poured in, firing their plasma weaponry into the place. A burst of needles struck another of their Troopers, piercing the chest plate, energy arching off each shard that was close together.

The four shards detonated, splaying the man's chest wide open. That left them down to four Army troopers and Elster. She grit her teeth as another trooper took a green bolt to the arm, fell to the floor and still fired his weapon, only to get offed by another bolt vaporizing his chest. The Medic swore to herself and said, "It's fucking hard enough to treat patients, you assholes!" then opened fire again.

The Replika focused on taking out the short, stout little enemies that advanced on them. Bursts of fire to their heads seemed to do the trick, each collapsing, dripping a fluorescent azure blood from their wounds in contrast to the prune-purple of the other two alien groups. The Elites and the 'Jackals' as they were called. The girl grit her teeth and covered the Doc as she reloaded.

The DMR rang out again and another creature's head was busted open by the round, but the enemy was closing in and overwhelming them. This wasn't good by a long shot. Elster wondered if she should try and take them to press the advantage, but that would get'em all killed. She assessed the tactical situation while opening fire to suppress the enemy's advance.

"Someone gotta call!" A Trooper called out.

"I'll do it..." Elster murmured, then called out, "Cover me!" as she switched on her radio, hoping that there was some reinforcements on short-range. She spoke, "This is Three-Charlie, UNSC Army Fireteam under attack by Covenant forces, requesting backup!" then ducked as a needle punctured through one of their troopers' shoulders and knocked him on his ass. The others provided covering fire for the Doc as she ran to help. The girl called out again, "Repeat, Three-Charlie, UNSC Army Fireteam is under heavy attack! The Covenant are on Reach, I repeat, the Covenant are on Reach! We have wounded!"

She grit her teeth as a needler round exploded next to her, then poked out again, knelt and fired at the head of an Elite with her automatic weapon. The monster once again tried to rush her, slamming into her and slashing at her with its energy dagger. It clipped her face, a sliver of synth-skin burning off. She grit her teeth, headbutted the bastard, kicked him and managed to puncture his chest with the sharpened heels of her legs. It collapsed, wounded, before she finished it off with a burst from her assault rifle.

Her own blood mixed with the purple blood of the Elite she'd just executed when a splatter hit her cheek. She wiped it off and took cover, gritting her teeth... Before pausing as she heard a deluge of gunfire fill the air outside. She stood up, noting three more golden dots on her Motion Tracker, before the Medic poked up and said, "Holy fucking shit... SPARTANs..."

Elster was only familiar with the Human supersoldiers through reading up on their MJOLNIR Armor sets, courtesy of Doctor Halsey's manuals.

When she saw the first of them walk in, clad in that dark-blue mix-and-match MJOLNIR set, even she had to admit she was awed to see it. The seven-foot-tall Supersoldiers walked inside and gazed around, pausing only upon sighting Elster, with their leader, the blue-wearing man, walking up to her. She noted the tag above his head said 'NOBLE', followed by his rank. He towered above her and he was one of the middle-height ones. There were two more behind, one clad in dirty white armor with blue accents and a tall guy who looked like he'd work with the Mynahs, carrying an LMG.

The girl immediately snapped-to, saluting the Commander ahead of her, who shook his head and said, "At ease. You the one who sent the Distress Signal, trooper?" as he looked around. The medic tended to the wounded, the few surviving Troopers rested now, cheering weakly for the SPARTANs' arrival and there she was, in front of him. Upon receiving a confirming nod from Elster, the man asked, "Good. What's your name?"

"Sir, Corporal Lilith It-"... Elster blanked, eyes widening. She wasn't Lilith Itou. No... She felt a slight migraine coming on, before she closed her eyes shut tightly and shook her head, "N-Nevermind, sir, sorry... Private Elster, LSTR-512, callsign Three-Charlie-Six. Formerly of the Penrose-512, currently working for the UNSC as a repair Replika for various items... I and 3-Charlie were on our way to the Visegrad Relay to repair it when we..."

"... Those Troopers we found dead in the field," The big man spoke, "They were your team?"

"Sir," She nodded.

"Got it... Three," The Commander spoke over Radio, stern, sharp and focused, "Get the Falcon Two and Four took to Visegrad back to our position. It's being retasked to evacuate the surviving UNSC soldiers here," and, upon receivign a confirmation, he gazed upon Elster, asking, "How familiar are you with our systems, Private? Colonel Holland told us we should expect to meet a 'newcomer' when we were tasked for Visegrad."

"I can repair anything you give me, sir," She replied, straightforward, "Including com equipment. I think it's why I and my team were going for Visegrad."

"Then Two may find some place for you. Sorry to take you away from the Troopers, but we're going to need our own repairwoman," NOBLE Actual spoke factually, looking Elster right in the eye, despite the fact the girl couldn't tell that from his visor being polarized and completely opaque. He looked back to his teammates and ordered, "Five, Six, on me. We're taking the Private here and headed for Visegrad. Three, bring it down and pick us up."

The group exited out into open air, with Elster noting the dead Covenant. The Jackals she'd skewered with frags were still there, bleeding from the wounds caused by Shrapnel. Dead ahead, Elster soon saw the mountain range around her. With muted awe at the pure beauty of another, alien world, she shifted on her feet as the Commander stopped two Troopers and said, "If you don't mind surrendering some extra ammo for her."

"Sir," The two soldiers nodded and removed magazines from their belts, handing them to Elster. Taken out of her fugue, the girl gladly received the extra mags, slotting them into her armor's pouches, before looking up as the clap of rotors against the wind and the faint whirr of four turbofan engines reached her. Looking up, she saw the UNSC Falcons touching down, with one of them carrying a SPARTAN with a Sniper Rifle, green armor meant to match his surroundings, a ghillie hood and an SRS-99/99 AMR in hand.

"Take it this is the other Newbie we're picking up today?" The Sniper quipped as Elster and Noble One, Five and Six ran up to the chopper. The first Falcon lifted off on their left, flying off back toward FOB with the loaded injured. Elster hummed, watching their comrades depart, before looking at the SPARTANs as the vehicle flew beside the mountain range, above a mountain road and next to a slew of energy farms in the form of wind turbines.

"Noble Two, Sit-Rep?" The Commander requested over Radio as everyone checked their guns.

Jun looked at Elster and said, "Freq 33,1. That's ours. Switch to it if you're gonna be working with us." and the girl complied, quickly thumbing through the channels in her helmet, seeing the changes displayed on the helmet's HUD. At the same time, she gave a thorough check of her rifle and mumbled something to herself. Why had she said the name of a person she knew nothing about? Was it the personality matrix of that person that she was seeing? She had heard rumors, but...

No, she shook her head, then listened in. "... Dialed up my torch. Cut a way through. may take some time..." Oh, the door was stuck. Great. Elster suddenly felt a hell of a lot more tense about the oncoming fight. She felt the aircraft take a turn to the right and readied her weapon, tense, before looking at the SPARTAN sat to her right. The man was cool as a cucumber, weapon gripped firmly in his hand. He was carrying an AR, too, and the wide visor of his EVA Helmet told the girl all she needed to know about him.

As the aircraft swung in past one of the mountaintops, Elster laid eyes on the compound. A parking garage of some sort with a storage area lay to the left of the main building, while the outer 'greeting area' inside the gates was lined full of abandoned civilian trucks and bearing a rather large centerpiece resembling an umbrella under which a few vehicles were parked. The main building itself was bulky, looked like it was built out of sturdy concrete and held the direct link to the massive four-prong Antenna Dish sat at the summit. Plasma fire struck the walls as an advance Covenant team was engaging a sole SPARTAN sat by the main door.

The Commander looked to her, then said, "Gear up, Trooper. We're going in."

"Break's over, Six," Noble Five quipped jovially, lifting the .50cal LMG he carried with him while staring at the SPARTAN next to her. As the aircraft swung in and touched down. The soldiers piled out of the vehicle, with Six motioning to her to follow. The SPARTAN hefted his rifle and opened up on the first group of Covenant troops they met, wasting the bastards with shot and shell.

Six and Elster had quickly cleared the area of a first wave, before the Commander called out, "Private, up front," making Elster turn toward the door. She nodded and ran up to them, her toolkit still hanging off her side. She saw Noble Two crouched and working on the gate controls while the Commander started, "This is Elster. The one Holland told us about."

Two cast a quick glance toward the girl, then hummed and said, "If she can help me fix this mess, she's more than welcome to..." dismissively. Actual gave the girl a nod and paused, before looking up. More Covenant Dropships were coming in, which meant Elster needed to move fast. She knelt beside Two, then stuck her head in and looked into what she needed to do.

"Circuits aren't just flash-fused, two wires are completely fried and unable to take commands," Elster noted.

"I noticed," Two replied, a bit aggravated.

"Let me fix it. Focus on defending the door..." She stated, sharply, focusing on the repair work. The SPARTAN scoffed, but Elster was already working. She added bluntly, "I have a Bypass method I used once before on board the Penrose. Similar issue... Couldn't find spare parts, but it helped us in the long run..." to which Two nodded. Plasma and Needle rounds started flying in, slamming into the door as the SPARTANs scrambled to defend the base.

Gunfire echoed, the rattle of assault rifles, DMRs and the heavy machine gun carried by the biggest of them, not to mention the bark of a shotgun and the laughter of one of the SPARTANs. She eyed the fuses, squinting at the wiring as she pulled out another repair set with a spray. Calmly, she began applying it to the wiring itself. She ducked as a bolt of Plasma struck just above her head, shards of molten concrete raining down around her and onto her armored frame. She turned around, quick-drew her pistol and put a round right between the eyes of the diminutive alien that shot at her.

"Someone keep her covered!" The Commander ordered. Between her and the enemy, Noble Six stepped almost immediately. His assault rifle chattered as Elster quickly turned back to work, utilizing her VISR system to ensure she could properly see what she was hunting for in there. Coupling the supposedly-cut wires together, she used the spray to fix them, before hitting the button on the console. The top screen lit up green.

Elster called out, "It's fixed! Get inside!" before drawing her Assault Rifle and going to provide cover fire. First one in was Two, while Elster opened up in bursts to keep the enemy suppressed. Next came Six, then five, then Four and One. Five, however, held the door, continuously firing his MG toward them until it shut. Soon after, metallic thumps began to echo as the Covenant troops fired at the door, a thick vault-like door.

The Replika sighed, relieved, as she lowered her rifle and looked back at NOBLE Team. Two looked to her and admitted with a hint of a grudge, "Not bad..." before the rear door popped open. One and Six gave the girl nods of approval, while Five patted her on the shoulder as they walked inside. She hummed, noting the darkness of the place, before turning on her VISR.

"Can't see a damn thing..." One murmured, "Turn your VISRs on..."

As they took a left down a Hallway, Two said in a low voice, "Control room... Go easy..." while something pinged on their Motion Trackers. The SPARTANs pushed inside, clearing each corner, before taking another left to the sight of one of the only functioning lights in the place, a destroyed console filled with scars from the Covenant's energy weapons and a corpse laying on the floor, clad in a parka, with greying hair, a tac-pad on his left arm and two cauterized, precise holes through his back. Two ordered, "Six, check that body. Trooper, with me. If we're going to be fixing something..."

Elster followed Two up to the line and scanned to the right, noting a longer, darkened hallway and a wounded Army troo-... "Travis?" The girl stared, dumbfound. The young Marine bled from the injury in his side, plus two more he had received to the arm and leg. She looked to Two for approval, before getting a nod. Following that, she marched up to the man and took a knee beside him.

He flashed a weak smile at Elster, stating, "Hey, Els."

"Why didn't you wake me up?" She asked with half a mouth as she pulled a medical kit off the wall and opened it. She slotted in a fresh biofoam can to the biggest of the wounds and squeezed, causing the man to grunt in pain, before pulling an autoinjector with morphine and sticking it in his neck. The man breathed in, grabbing onto Elster's hand, then relaxed, breath softening.

"Didn't wanna disturb ya... Not after your first mission with us starting out like such a clusterfuck..." He replied calmly, patting her on the shoulder.

Elster shook her head, "It doesn't matter..."

One knelt beside her and asked, "How bad is it?"

"From what I can tell, sir? Fairly..." Elster replied bluntly. Travis laughed, then coughed and shook his head.

"Damn, not even gonna lie to make your friend feel better...?" He then quipped. Seeing as Elster didn't reply anything, he chose to wait to see what the Commander was gonna ask him. Calmly, she stood up and moved around to secure the area, turning back to see Two yank something out of Six's hand with a degree of malice. She hummed, looked it over, then pocketed it, whatever it was, before Five spoke.

"Got a live one over here!" He called out to his teammates, gently lifting a young woman with brown hair and dark-brown eyes, clad in a leather jacket, turtleneck and jeans. She got lifted to her feet as she punched at the SPARTAN, yelling at him. Five spoke calmly, "C'mon, out ya come!" before setting her down and holding her with both hands and stating, "We're not going to hurt you."

"Jorge," One arched a brow behind the helmet, or so Elster figured.

"I got her," He stated, then set aside his MG and held her as he stared at her, "Keep still and I'll release you..." while the girl still struggled. Elster blinked, feeling the hairs on her neck stand on-end for some reason. She held her rifle close, narrowing her lips. Six noticed her tense up and gave one small tilt of his head to the left, showing her to move in closer.

The girl Jorge held looked up at him and spoke in Hungarian, fear audible in her voice, "Még... Itt vannak." which caused the SPARTAN-II to stiffen up nigh-immediately. Elster didn't understand what that meant-She gasped as three of those tall, hunchback xenos dropped in, one swinging its long energy blade toward Jorge as he covered the young woman. Lifting her rifle, she opened fire as the Elites charged forward.

One of them pinned Noble Six down, while another swung his sword and aimed for Kat's head. The girl was quickly pushed out of the way by the Commander, who was firing away at the enemy with Elster's help as Four demanded, "What's your status, over?!"

"WE'VE BEEN ENGAGED!" Carter called out as he fired. Six punched one of the monsters in the face, then deflected an energy dagger aimed for his face. Kat aimed and opened fire with her pistol at the Elite that had pinned Six down. It scrambled off the SPARTAN as soon as the Commander and Elster kicked it off, before rushing forward and grabbing Travis. Both the Trooper and the girl they'd found started screaming while Carter slid Six's weapon to him. Carter called out, "Bad guy, coming out, Emile!"

The SPARTAN reloaded and aimed, with Elster right next to him, calling out, "Travis!" as she saw the man being dragged away behind the door. Carter grit his teeth as the girl screamed on and on. Elster wanted to run after him, but the Commander put a hand in front of her face and looked around. He turned to the girl, who said, "We have to go, sir! Now!"

Carter grit his teeth as Emile called out, "Tango blew past me! Permission to pursue!?"

"Negative, Four, stay on the door! Two! Handle her! Five, Six, Private, clear the hole!" The man ordered sharply, signaling them forward with one movement of his hand. Six reloaded, looked to Elster and nodded as Number Five rushed past them. The trio pushed inside, each taking an angle. Six and Elster each took an angle as Jorge closed the door behind them. The dark corridors were only lit by the girl's VISR system as they pushed, firing away.

They encountered squads of Grunts ahead, their weapons barking loudly as the enemy force fell back deeper into the hold of this place. Elster didn't care at this point. She advanced with the SPARTANs to save one of the people she'd managed to befriend. She couldn't save the rest of her squad, but she could at least get to Travis in time. She kicked down a Grunt, her 'foot' piercing clean through the creature's face and staining with blood.

Following that up, she lit the area ahead up with assault rifle fire, while, from Six's direction, a fragmentation grenade flew. She watched the SPARTANs take blasts of plasma to their Energy Shields, which caused a flaring gold color to appear in her vision. The shields, however, withstood the hits very well, the SPARTANs returning fire with MG and rifle fire.

The girl pushed up to a corner and took cover as a flurry of plasma rounds flew through. Soon joined by the two SPARTANs of Noble, though, the girl pushed in behind the cover of two shielded individuals, plasma striking shields and getting the return fire of actual 7,62x51mm and 12,7mm rounds fired from rifles and a Machine Gun respectively. Several of the Grunts panicked, throwing their weapons away as the SPARTANs charged in.

The Jackals, meanwhile, tried maintaining a defensive line. Tried. Their leading officer got stuck with a plasma grenade right on the exposed hand carrying the gun. The radioactive explosive tore the Phalanx into pieces, causing them to scramble all around. The birds that ran were shot in the back. The birds that held their line were shot in the front, their shields disabled by the electromagnetic pulse of the plasma grenade.

Pushing deeper, the SPARTANs soon found themselves in the midst of an open room where the server towers of the place resided. Below and on top of a platform across from them lay a dozen of them, cooled by what seemed to be either liquid nitrogen or some other substance that gave the room a misty hue. Jorge showed the girl to hold up before she rushed headlong. He threw a flare toward the other size, long-arming it, before stating, "This oughta drag'em out!" as he lifted his LMG

Indeed, a pair of Zealots popped out of cover, one of them already firing a heavy weapon at them. Boulders of scarlet-glimmering plasma struck the walls around the SPARTANs, shaking the place, while Elster took cover. She drew her pistol and switched on the weapon's SmartScope, aiming via the two-times zoom toward the Elites, the camera at the top letting her shoot over cover.

The gun thundered and she felt it in her wrist. She'd nailed a Grunt, then another, then another. These guys wore full face masks instead of just the normal gas mask, but that didn't help them. She emptied her magazine by sniping out the enemy's supporting elements with her pistol, reloaded, holstered the gun and took out her Assault Rifle again as she, Six and Jorge pushed forward through a narrow walkway on the right of the server room and into the other size.

One of the Zealots was met by focused fire from all three soldiers. He aimed his concussive weapon at Elster, who dodged by combat-rolling off to the side as the first blasts struck her position. She then watched as Six engaged the bastard up close, slamming into it and shoulder-checking it against the wall, causing it to drop its weapon. The SPARTAN then pinned the barrel of his assault rifle to its chest and opened up, emptying a full magazine into the beast he held in place. Its shield and the SPARTAN drew his knife, puncturing the hide that covered muscle and slitting its throat in one move.

The monster gargled blood and collapsed, dead, onto the floor. Six ducked as plasma shots came in reply, then drew his pistol and one-tapped the Grunt that was firing at him. Elster then pushed forward under cover from both Five and Six, rifle raised and with full intent of getting to Travis. As she passed the last of the server towers, she gasped and fell backward, dodging the swing of the last Elite's energy sword. It narrowly missed Elster and cleaved through the tower on her right, before the Elite refocused on her and snarled, all four of its mandibles opening as it glared at her, mimicking an impossibly-large human smile.

She rolled to the side as it swung down, cutting into the steel floor, then jumped to her feet and grunted as the monster gave her a full-on close-fisted punch to the face, causing her to stagger. It then sliced upward with the blade and Elster felt the burning heat of the plasma blade searing the synth-skin on her chest. She gasped, staggered back and saw her armor plate had been cleaved, deep enough to leave a mark.

Before she could even aim her rifle and before the Elite could strike again, though, Six pounced onto its back, clambered up in a flash and planted the tip of a massive combat knife into the back of its skull, twisting the blade and causing the monster to collapse, dead, in front of the girl. The SPARTAN looked at her, flicked some of the blood off his knife and sheathed it, before nodding.

Jorge gave the girl a pat on the shoulder and said, "Not bad for a rookie," before radioing in, "Actual, this is Five. Targets neutralized."

"Copy. Kat needs you three to reset a junction. Should be close..." The Commander replied as Elster already marched toward the rear room on the platform. She looked around, not for the junction or the obvious generator to her right, but for a certain someone. She scanned the room twice, then paused as she saw it in a dark corner. Laying in a pool of blood, a corpse.

Her heart, robotic as it was, sank. She walked up to the corpse, sliding her rifle onto her back, then took a knee beside the man that had died with plasma blade injuries. He lay there, pale as bone, his armor torn asunder and burned by plasma weaponry and the gut wound, marked by still-glowing lilac needle crystals. She put a hand on his shoulder, closed her eyes and lamented leaving him alone, before sighing deeply and shaking her head.

Solemnly, she leaned forward and retrieved his dog tags, sliding them into a pouch, before standing up just as Six reactivated the junction. He and Jorge looked to her as she stood up, turning to face them, before Jorge asked, "You doing alright?" as he saw the injuries. The cut on her cheek and the blade strike on her breastplate. He then saw the tags hanging out of her pouch and the dead Trooper and whispered, "Oh... I'm sorry..." with remorse behind his voice. She gave a simple, weak nod, before showing them to lead the way. Six and Jorge looked to one-another, then to her and replied with nods.

The trio walked back into the control room, with Elster walking up to see what Kat was doing so she could help. She sighed deeply, wanting more to keep her mind off Travis's and her new unit's death than anything else. Replikas, despite appearances, were used to working in what was called 'Cadres'. Groups of their own kind, or some times mixed groups, wherein they would interact and live with others. Certainly, she loved Ariane and she had been the biggest part of her Cadre in a while, but... There was something...

Her mind flashed yet again. A bloody puddle around her. She lay there, wounds burning, all whilst being cradled by one of her own. Soothing words, though unintelligible to her, were spoken, the blur of her mind blocking the face of the comrade that held her up. All she could hear now were her words, spoken with remorse, as the blue skies of Vineta grew dark above them, "You've done a lot... You can rest now, my dear... I'm so sorry..."

She felt robotic elbow knock into her own. Woken out of her stupor, she turned to Kat, who asked, "Are you okay...?" with some degree of worry which was masked by impassivity. Elster nodded, blinking. She felt something warm trickling down her face, but ran a hand and saw it was nothing. She shook her head, to which Kat started pointing at various wires and spoke, "I'm going to need your head in the game... Look, we're splicing the overland bundle here. Have to give Carter a direct line to colonel Holland back at HIGHCOM."

Whatever that flash had been... She did not want to put Ariane through a similar pain as the person in it... Ever...

"Got it..." The LST Replika replied as she got to work, aiding Kat with her toolset. She checked how many polyurethane repair sprays she had and noted to herself she still had a plentiful supply. Sticking one such poly-spray into her chest cavity, onto the open injury she received and through the armor plate, she pressed the trigger, feeling the sting of the spray patching her injury up.

Kat looked at her, unbetraying of any surprise she might've felt, and asked, "That like... Biofoam for you?"

"Repair spray... Polyurethane..." Elster replied calmly, setting the empty spray aside and continuing her work by utilizing specialized tools to splice into the thing. Kat hummed, nodded and helped her, all the while the others were talking in the background. The SPARTAN seemed to eye her every once in a while, calmly making sure the girl was doing proper work.

She sighed, then looked past her, at Six. She shook her head and said to Elster, "I'm Kat. Kat-B312."

"Aye, ma'am. I saw your tag..." Elster stated, then hummed as she worked on a section of the splicing, "... Elster. LSTR Unit Five-Twelve, of the ship with the same number. I am not UNSC, nor UEG."

"Obviously," Kat stated bluntly as she clipped two wires and made sure they linked properly, "The UNSC hasn't built Androids yet... Still, you have a reason for serving with us? Didn't you just arrive...?"

"Yeah..." Elster hummed, "How do you know that?"

"I hear what I hear," Kat whispered with a shrug, "Hey, what're you-?" She started, pointing at what Elster was doing. She coupled a junction of fiber wire with another and spliced them together utilizing a small welding torch. The console above whirred to life as the antennae reconnected with the transmit. Taking a moment, Kat hummed and gave an approving nod, "Good work."

"Thanks..." Elster replied.

Kat looked back as she stood up and said, "Sir. We have a link. It's patchy, but it's there... Can I ask something?"

"Shoot," Carter nodded.

She pointed at Elster and asked, "Can we get her assigned to us? Should ease my workload a lot if we have more things to repair. She's smart enough."

"I'll talk it out with Holland. Go," He tilted his head to the right. The two women nodded, with Elster being surprised that Kat would even request such a thing, before they walked out. Carter cleared his throat as the line grew clearer bit-by-bit, wondering just what'd gotten into Kat to request that they transfer a Non-SPARTAN to NOBLE. Sure, he could guess an easier workload, but it wasn't like-

"... I'm barely getting you!" Holland's voice took his mind out of its little fugue, the man clearly worried, "What's the situation, over?"

Carter spoke aloud, "Colonel, this is Noble One. There are no Rebels... The Covenant are on Reach."

"... Come again, Noble One? Did you say Covenant?" Holland demanded, his fear palpable even over the com line. Carter hated delivering bad news...

"Affirmative, sir. It's the WINTER CONTINGENCY," He shot back. He didn't wanna believe it either...

Holland's words voiced Carter's own thoughts perfectly, "God help us all..."

Chapter Text

Ariane paced her room, worried sick. Barely a couple days passed and she was already worried about Elster not even doing so much as sending a message. Some part of Ariane told her that the situation was gonna get worse, but she wanted to be positive. Maybe she was just working on repairing the stuff the UNSC Division she was assigned to asked her to repair. Maybe she was just overall busy running errands as she heard most Armies do to new Rookies. A light hazing of sorts. Hopefully nothing too bad.

Ugh, it didn't make sense, though. She'd have, at the very least, sent a message via one of the UNSC's tablets. Ariane had gotten hers just before Elster departed for her new duty station at Camp Charlie and Halsey had told her Charlie had one of the most secure com networks in the Vieri territory. Elster would've called by now. Something didn't sit right with Ariane.

And it seemed somebody could tell. She had long-ago noted the camera set up in her room to provide supervision of ONI's newest acquired asset. Hell, she knew from the forbidden books she read how ONI-like organizations behaved around new 'Assets' like herself or Elster, which just brought into question why in God's name did ONI approve Elster's transfer to a military unit? You'd think they wanted to study her kind of like Halsey was doing the non-invasive brain scans and stuff on the resident Bioresonant.

She sighed and plopped herself down onto the double bed, rubbing her face. The room was surprisingly comfortable for what was, in fact, the underground section of a UNSC Top-Secret Facility in a frickin' mountain. The absurdity of this entire situation struck the young woman, finally, and her heart began to race. They'd somehow arrived in a whole new Solar System, been rescued by a patrol vessel belonging to a highly-advanced, space-travel-capable Humanity that, however, lacked the ability to create Replikas or use Bioresonance, rather focusing on tech, and now she was stuck, being tested on, in these alien humans' base.

Concern, however, immediately turned to excitement, an ear-to-ear smile forming on Ariane's face as she processed the matter at hand. This was freaking awesome. Oh, she couldn't wait to get back home, honestly, tell Isa and Erika about this entire mess! Maybe these guys would help them against the Empire, maybe even help induct Eusan into their rank and file as a free nation!

She hummed as her mind then wandered to the War at hand, remembering what Doctor Halsey had deemed fit to show them so they could more easily understand the context. She felt a lump in her throat as the images of the Covenant's relentless genocide of mankind played back in her mind. So many glassings, so many deaths. She knew Elster had seen the total numbers of casualties, but hadn't gotten to ask her about it, nor see them for herself, considering her Replika lover had shielded her eyes.

The reveal that those books she read, the ones portraying Humanity's fight against the Alien, proved to be right sorta hurt. Because she'd honestly always hoped to see if there was other life beyond their little Solar System. That there was and it was both humans and aliens now terrified the young woman. That those humans and aliens were at war, what was tantamount to a war of survival for her own kin, was heartbreaking.

She sighed and squelched the thoughts, taking deep breaths to calm herself, before rubbing her face and murmuring to herself, "Elster... What's going on...?"

"Seems like someone's having a bad day," Spoke a familiar voice, though it was of slightly higher pitch and more jovial than that of the person that first came to mind. Ariane yelped and jumped, nearly falling off her bed in the process. The figure spoke, "Woah, woah, woah, relax..." as she finally materialized. A holographic display on the desk ahead of Ariane lit up and the purple avatar of a female form appeared, hands on her hips and a soft smile on her face.

"... C-Cortana?" Ariane paused. Halsey had warned her that her two AI companions, one of which was being prepared for a very important operation(AKA the one that was ahead of her), were quite capable of just roaming around the Base's systems on their own, some times popping in to do some stuff here or there. It had still spooked the everloving life outta her, though.

Opening her arms as a way of greeting, as if asking for a hug, the diminutive Avatar spoke to her, "The one and only." With a slight air of smugness, before her face turned back to its previous smile. She dida quick diagnostic, her avatar glowing a faint green as she inquired, "Ariane, right?" now jovial. Of course, she probably had files on Ariane, as well. Anything Halsey wrote and received. She just wanted to do small-talk.

"Yeah... Hi..." Ariane breathed a sigh of relief, clutching her chest. She breathed in, then out and said with a half-smile, "You scared me..." as she pulled herself back to a proper seated position. She examined the strings of numbers running across Cortana's holographic body, noting several things:She was an interesting one. She resembled Doctor Halsey quite well. She was cute. That last bit caused a faint red tint in the Bioresonant's cheeks, but she quickly suppressed it, thinking back on Elster. The blush returned, while Cortana seemed to ponder the situation.

Choosing to ignore the obvious joke she could make at Ariane's expense, Cortana simply said, "Sorry." before materializing on another holographic display next to Ariane's bed, smiling and crossing her arms to her chest. She explained, "Doctor Halsey says I need to deepen my interpersonal relationships for the upcoming op, so I decided to swing by and see what her newly-acquired study buddy-slash-subject is doing. Something on your mind?"

Noting the AI's incredible degree of friendliness, even compared to most other artificial beings she had met to date during her life in the Eusan Nation, the girl hummed and replied, slightly embarrassed, "... Yeah." But that replacement quickly transformed into worry. Worry Cortana must've clearly noticed in Ariane's speech. "It's Elster. She'd... Probably have called, or at least sent a message by now. After all, what's there to do beside fix broken vehicles and weapons, right?"

"Ah, gotcha," Cortana replied, cupping her own chin and taking a moment to think. She added nonchalantly, "You two did seem pretty close," while parsing through the questionnaires and the interview video herself. She had redirected a small portion of her processing power to learning whatever could be learned about the UEG's newest 'Citizens-to-Be'.

"More than close." Ariane murmured her reply, face red.

"Oh?" Cortana hummed, then smirked, "Mind sharing a little for a girl who doesn't get out much?"

"Heh, sure," Ariane giggled, rubbing the back of her head, "We were pretty much all we had aboard our ship, the Penrose, during our exploration duty. We were stuck together, so we figured we might as well make the best of it. Turns out some documents say that you shouldn't befriend your Elster unit when on ships like that... Heh, I may've done a tad more than just befriend Elster..."

"Ooh..." Cortana realized. She'd seen this type of romance before in some of the stuff she had been sneakily reading and/or watching whenever Halsey got some degree of sleep from her work. A short chuckle escaped her mouth, "Heheh," as she sat herself down, shining a blue tint this time, seemingly relaxed, "I see. That's cute. Explains how lovey-dovey you two looked."

"Ha..." The girl let out what sounded more like a whine than a laugh, before requesting, "Please, don't say that... I'm awkward enough around her as is." While Cortana could see her face glow all-the-more red. The sole reason for that was one only Ariane knew. She had pretty much gone head-over-heels with Elster because the girl proved herself to be a diligent worker and a shoulder to cry on, in a way. In the dark void of space, what more could a girl ask for?

"Hey, she's your girlfriend," Cortana quipped, grinning. Oh, Ariane was an easy one to tease. How cute. "Own up to it, sister."

"I am, I am! I'm quite proud of it, actually!" Ariane blubbered, a red-faced mess as she hid her face. Cortana chuckled at the sight and wondered for just a moment what that must've felt like. Having someone to love, she meant. Someone to care about so deeply as to call your own. Someone that calls you their own. It must've been heartwarming to some degree. Well, not like Cortana had a 'Heart', or a physical manifestation of one. She still cared about her creators lives-...

"Good..." She paused and showed her to be quiet, reading into an oncoming communique from a UNSC FOB nearby Visegrad. She blinked, eyes widening as she listened into the chat. Elster had called up Halsey from one of the com terminals. And going by the way she looked, it seemed as if the mission to the Relay got a little dicey. She'd heard through the Battle Net that the Army had deployed Fireteams to the downed Relay, but...

Ariane noticed the faint switches in the AI's avatar color, denoting her emotional state. She shifted uneasily, her composure regained, then asked the girl, "You okay?" as she felt a pit in her gut. The AI hummed, listening in still. Elster seemed fine, if a little distraught, unlike Doctor Halsey, who was actively freaking the hell out at the presence of Covenant forces.

"Yep. Good news, we did just get a ping from a UNSC FOB..." The girl replied to Ariane.

"Oh! Can I go see her?!" Ariane replied excitedly, jumping to her feet.

"Sure... Doctor Halsey's already there..." Cortana nodded, wary. Ariane must've noticed.

"... I feel like there's something you ain't telling me..."

"It's best if they tell you themselves..." Cortana replied once more, then disappeared off the holographic pedestal. That caused the pit in Ariane's gut to deepen. Something wasn't right at all. She marched toward the door, opening it and running out into the main lab, to see Doctor Halsey. She was a lot paler than before, gritting her teeth while images played on the screen ahead.

Halsey sighed deeply, then said, "Hello, miss Ariane..." and waved her forward. Elster's face now materialized on the screen as Ariane ran toward her. The girl only paused as she saw the injuries sustained by her lover. Wide-eyed, Ariane leaned in to look closer at the girl, before Elster narrowed her lips and realized she must've seen it. Running a hand over the scratch, the Replika sighed.

"I'm okay, Ariane..." The tired girl stated from across the screen. She looked up at her apologetically, then stated, "Though I'm... Sorry. I thought we wouldn't be fighting..." as she noticed the girl's concern. The Replika sighed once more, rubbing her face, before looking to Halsey. The woman nodded from behind Ariane and Elster took it as her confirmation. "The Covenant are on Reach, Ariane. They're here..."

Ariane's face dropped, fear visible in those scarlet eyes of hers. She tugged at the collar of her new uniform, feeling it too tight. Panic began to set in as her heart started thumping away in her chest. Noticing this, Elster started, "Hey, listen. I'm okay... I'm okay. I... Sort of knew what I signed up for the moment I volunteered to help Doctor Halsey's people."

"You didn't volunteer to be a soldier, Elster, you volunteered for repair work..." Ariane replied softly, looking at her injured lover with tears welling in her eyes. She'd already gone through one combat mission without any sort of training. Ariane had, of course, read the manual pertaining Elster and her possible flaws, the one memo she thoroughly read to make sure she gave Elster as good a place to live as any. Her memory imprint was of a soldier from Vineta, but that couldn't... She blinked and her eyes widened.

"To avoid resurfacing of Gestalt memories, do not show or give LSTR Unit photographs, especially of soldiers during the war. Do not show Elster unit movies or let it listen to Music. Do not try to befriend the Elster unit..."

The words on that damned paper rang in her brain now. Had she done this to Elster? Had she awoken some godforsaken memories of hers by not letting her be? And now she thought herself a soldier? Elster called out, "I did volunteer for military duty, not Civilian Engineering, Ariane..." to wake her up. Blinking, the red-eyed girl looked upon her lover, who looked with sympathy at her, stating, "Nobody expected them to be here this quick, did they?"

"No," Halsey replied, marching up next to her, "I had you assigned to the least dangerous base in the whole of Vieri, in the whole of UNSC space and as close as humanly possible to CASTLE itself. I'd pulled so many strings to make sure..." The woman sighed deeply and shook her head, then gazed to Ariane and stated, "I had called in a few favors... The 'talk of the town', as the expression goes, was that ONI Materials Group had petitioned the higher-ups to take Elster away within an hour of the report of you being found arriving on Reach."

"What...?" Ariane blinked.

"They wanted to... To put it as nicely as I can, miss Yeong, they wanted to see what made Elster 'tick'. An android with the supposed repair, construction and mending capabilities outlined in the many manuals and documents found aboard your ship during the short search undertaken painted a rather vivid picture of her capabilities..." She stated somewhat apologetically, though her tone of voice remained the same. Ariane had understood what she meant from the get-go. To say she was horrified... But Halsey clarified, "I convinced ONI and HIGH-COM that it would be best to see those capabilities... Including the supposed 'Soldierly' origin of our dear Replika... On the field."

"... And, again, I did say I'd volunteer to keep you safe. You were there when I did," Elster stated from the com. Ariane paused, blinked and narrowed her lips, looking between the two of them. So, the choice had been between deploying Elster as a temporary part of a military unit, with the thought that the Covenant would invade maybe months later, rather than right now, or sending her to be disassembled...

The white-haired girl hummed, her shoulders sagging, "Two evils and you picked the least worst, eh, Doctor...?"

"I'd like to think so," Halsey replied softly, then sighed and asked, "With whose unit are you now, Elster?"

"Ma'am. NOBLE Team. SPARTANs, apparently," The girl replied. Both Ariane and Halsey took a pause and looked at her, before Elster clarified, "They asked Colonel Holland to transfer me to them. You'd have to ask Noble One and Two why, considering Two seemed more than capable with the technical items," and she looked back as someone called out, their voice muffled, "Seems they need me for a briefing, ma'am... Ariane. I'll see you as soon as I'm back, okay? We'll make it through this... I love you..."

"Okay... Please, stay safe, Els... I love you, too." Ariane replied, pressing a hand against the screen. Elster put her own hand against it and smiled faintly, before the com line switched off. Ariane sighed and bowed her head. She murmured, "This is awful..." as her fingernails scratched into the table. Worry washed over her like a tsunami. She looked to Halsey, to see the same feelings represented in the cracking mask of the woman.

She sighed deeply, however, seemingly pushing down those feelings right in front of Elster, before stepping up to her and placing a hand on her shoulder. She said, "I only intended to keep Elster and you safe from the rest of the Office of Naval Intelligence... I swear to you, had I known the Covenant was coming this quickly, I would have kept her here."

"It's okay, doc..." Ariane trembled, staring at the darkened blank screen, at her reflection, "She's with SPARTANs, right...? I read some of the battle reports ya gave me and... If she's with them, she'll be alright. SPARTANs are your best troopers, after all..." and she paused as she felt Doctor Halsey's hand rest on her shoulder, followed by the doctor gently squeezing it. Looking at the woman, she could tell the steel-hearted Doctor Catherine E. Halsey was not used to having to do this. To comfort someone. And yet, there she was, doing it for a dumb girl who got bullied and was dating a robot. She nodded, her voice cracking, "T-Thanks..." before she burst into tears, wrapping her arms around the Doctor.

Stunned, though not unprepared for this kind of emotional outburst, the Doctor sighed, wrapping her left hand around Ariane, her right still gripping her tablet tightly. She let the girl cry her silent tears for a moment, feeling her hold on tight. She felt the hairs on her necks stand on-end, too. The air turned heavy, oppressive to some degree. She blanked, then realized that must've been the girl's Bioresonance kicking in. Halsey sighed, patting her on the head, then said, "Miss Ariane... Please... She will be safe with NOBLE Team. They are one of the best SPARTAN units in our ranks. And their newest addition prior to Elster is on-par with the best SPARTAN we have."

Suddenly, the weight in the air began to dissipate. Halsey sighed, relieved, as she patted the young woman on the back to comfort her. When all tears tried out, Cortana popped out and extended a compartment in which lay supplies. Halsey handed the girl a tissue from said compartment, then turned back to her work and stated, "We need to focus on our work here. I've nearly completed the last checks of the MJOLNIR MARK V sets I intend to give to the SPARTANs. Then, I can fully focus on understanding at least some fraction of your abilities..."

"... Will it help Elster?" She asked. Doctor Halsey arched a brow at her companion, who clarified, "If I learn how to use my Bioresonance properly. I can do menial stuff like raise a potted plant from nothing or lift stuff with telekinesis, but if I wanted to be of help to combat the Covvies, to keep Elster alive, safe, could I do it with your help, doc? If it meant understanding what I can and can't do...?"

Halsey hummed and looked at the girl, then nodded approvingly, "Yes. With knowledge on how your powers work, I will be able to combat any ailments or side-effects that may come with its over-use and I may be able to provide a boost... Perhaps a mechanical one, if given enough time..." as she lifted up her tablet and started writing out notes. Cortana chuckled, as did Kalmiya, while she worked.

"Okay. Let's do it..." Ariane replied, her face filled with determination.

Elster, meanwhile, sighed deeply as she took a step back from the coms console. She turned and marched up to the area where the Briefing was taking place. She saw the Nobles had formed a half-circle around One. Marching up to him, Elster joined the formation. Three gave her a welcoming nod, then listened in as Holland spoke, "... Doctor Halsey pinged my com just a second ago. She requested that Private Elster be treated with care. She was never meant to go into combat."

"She can hold her own pretty well. For a droid, anyhow," Commented Four in a whisper, looking at her. Five elbowed him in the shoulder.

"We understand, sir, however, Noble Two feels like she could provide an essential backup, considering her abilities in the maintenance and repair of electronics and equipment. She also notes her desire to have a reinforcement on the technical side of things," One explained calmly to the Colonel. A quiet hum reverbed through the speakers of the terminal, while Elster waited patiently to see what the word was.

"She's no SPARTAN, sir," Kat started as she stepped up to the com, promptly surprising Holland and Carter. She spoke in defense of the girl, eerily so "But technical expertise are necessary in our field of work, no matter where it is. And she's held her own next to Six and Five against the two Zealots that engaged them in the Server Room. Her fighting skills somehow match those of some of our Veteran Marines, sir, if not an ODST's."

That was dumb luck, Elster thought to herself. Though she did feel more and more reflexes kicking in with those strange flashes of memory. Whatever was resurfacing in her mind, it caused some degree of distress to the Replika. Holland, meanwhile, having listened to Kat's slightly-insubordinate questioning, replied, "I've reviewed your helmet camera footage from the mission and read the reports, Noble Two. The Private is still considered an HVI to ONI and the only reason we agreed to deploy her anywhere was because we thought the Covenant would not engage this early."

"If we promise we'll keep her safe?" Kat asked with half-a-mouth and half-jokingly, looking back at the girl.

Four snorted, then said, "Damn, I've never seen Kat this focused on getting someone inducted. Whatever you did, kid, you sure as hell woke up something in her..." words which got a glare out of Kat. Elster hummed, looking at them all bantering. The only one not really talking was Six, who was sat far away, after Four and Five. She stood between three and Four in the row.

"... I have a confirmed order from Doctor Halsey, signed by some of ONI's highest echelons, pertaining to testing LSTR-512's combat capabilities once again. Seems like orders change a lot around here." The man sighed, then stated bluntly, but rather absentmindedly, "Alright, Actual, I'm authorizing the transfer. You have your Number Seven for now, until either Doctor Halsey or ONI as a whole requests that she be reassigned somewhere else, or until your missions are complete," probably considering the situation.

"Sir, thank you, sir." One answered, looking back at Elster.

"We'll have new orders for you soon, I feel, Actual. Holland out," The man stated. The com line went silent, to which Carter and Kat both turned toward their newly-acquired teammate. Four gave Elster a pat on the shoulder and an approving nod, while the girl processed her nigh-instantaneous transfer. She looked at the datapad she had on hand as she heard it ping, before noticing the transfer notification. She thumbed it and sighed, signing, before looking at One and snapping a salute.

One saluted back and said, "At ease, Seven... Color me impressed command actually agreed to have you tag along with us. Hope we can rely on you for repairs to our armor and equipment."

"Sir, yessir," Elster stated.

"Easing my workload by a lot..." Kat commented with half a mouth, "Do you have any idea how many times Emile's broken his weapon...?" and that got a rouse and a snort from the shotgunner with the ghost face on his EVA helmet. Five also let out a laugh at that, while Six simply shifted his footing, looking at Elster and giving her a nod of approval.

"Let's start with introductions, then. I'm Carter, Noble One. You already met Kat, Noble Two. Then you have Nobles Three, Four and Five, Jun, Emile and Jorge respectively," Carter pointed out each member of the team starting with himself. Each SPARTAN gave a greeting to the woman, which she returned with acknowledgement in the form of a slight tilt of her head, "And Noble Six, our second newest."

Six looked to Elster for a few seconds, then hummed, "At least I'm not the only newbie. C'mon. I'll show you to the bunks and armory."

"Kat, order up a new armor set for her. Hers is damaged," Carter ordered as he craned his head toward her. Kat nodded, then looked to her.

"I'll see what I can sneak off an order. ODST or SPI, which do you prefer?" She quipped. The girl thought for a second. ODST armor was not that different from normal Marine armor, sans a few modifications made to ensure void-combat capabilities and survivability, including just slightly thicker plates of armor and cover over the whole body without impeding mobility. It would stop a needler round once. SPI, meanwhile, meant a Stealth suit of semi-powered armor designed and prototyped for Special Forces. Like SPARTANs.

"Can you even get her SPI?" Carter asked Kat, crossing his arms. Kat took her helmet off and arched a brow at the Commander, who waved it off and said, "Nevermind," before turning toward Elster again and stating, "I'd suggest that, then. Knowing Kat, she may even get you one of those fancy HEADHUNTER suits. I heard they're better than what we got in training."

"I'll take the SPI set, then. Mark II HEADHUNTER if you can make it happen," Elster looked to Kat. Anything to increase survivability. Aside from specialized motion sensors, the damn things had energy shielding. The girl recalled info on the HEADHUNTER set being included in the manuals she'd downloaded into her cortex. She had knowledge of how to maintain the photoreactive panels and the shielding within."

"Can't promise it'll be here by next mission, but alright. I'll help you mod it for your..." Kat looked down, "Legs."

Elster nodded, thankful, then walked with Six to their temporary barracks within the base. The rest of the team scattered around the base, to work on other matters. Jorge, however, walked with them, patting Elster on the back and stating, "Welcome aboard, Seven," with a smile hidden behind his bulky Grenadier helmet. Elster nodded in thanks, offering a half-hearted smile back. She wasn't okay by any metric or sense of the word. Not right now. Not at all. Her entire first squad was... Just gone...

... The images of Travis laying dead on the floor looped in her mind, intermixed with those memory flashes...

Chapter Text

Wide.

Elster could only describe the boots of the Semi-Powered Infiltration Suit MARK II as such. She gazed upon them under the light of makeshift lamps. Of course, they were made for humans with normal feet instead of... Well, pegs? She didn't even really know how to describe her narrow, slim calves and lack of feet, sans for a few pads that helped her maintain balance at the base of said calves. She sighed deeply, looking over the SPI suit itself.

The MARK II Headhunter variant was a beauty of a suit, designed specifically for what seemed to be pairs of SPARTAN Elites, meant for deep reconnaissance and other high-value missions deep behind enemy lines. Special Operations were a fairly familiar concept to the LSTR unit, her memories of life in the military, though still blurry, returning over time. She had memories from a life that was not hers. This one was beaten, a bit, though.

Apparently, the intent for this armor had been for it to be shipped as spare parts to one of the HEADHUNTER units out there. Some of its photoreactive panels were damaged and wouldn't work properly and some systems needed to be re-routed and reactivated. The shield emitters, HUD, Life Support and main micro-fusion reactor remained active and safe, however, so that was good. Less tenuous repairs.

She probably wouldn't be using the camouflage all that much. She just needed the armor plating beneath it to not be smashed so, if her shields failed, she could at least take one or two Plasma or Needle rounds before collapsing. She hummed as she tried to figure out a way to stuff the heavy boots so that her leg would not move within them. It was a good distraction from the thoughts of her first team dying around her.

She gazed back for a moment, looking from the open repair bay at NOBLE Team as they sat together around one lamp, the sky above glimmering with the beauty of the stars and atmospheric anomalies of Reach. They were trying to induct Noble Six into something, it seemed. And her fellow newbie was taking it in stride for the moment, simply following along as NOBLE and him talked and engaged in some sort of team-building. Elster hummed and turned back to continue the repairs on the armor set.

Again, she just wanted her set to work properly as armor. Stealth field could be repaired later. She made sure to patch up any possible damage to the undersuit she'd wear over her own unarmored frame, patching up a small tear here, a cut there and somesuch issues all around the bend, before standing up and looking at the helmet. The mirror sheen of the golden visor reflected her face perf-.

Elster took two steps back, staggered by the sight of a young woman with emerald eyes and dark-red hair that had stared at her, mirrored in the visor as if it was her own face. She blinked, shook her head and walked back up to the visor, leaning in to see her face. Mirroring her movements, the Elster in the visor ran a hand over the seam that ran down the middle of her face, through her cheekbones and over her nose, before sighing. Her face had returned to normal.

She needed to get her brain checked before it got either her or one of her teammates killed because of spacing out. She blinked, rubbed her face and murmured to herself, "Just relax, Elster... It'll be fine..." as she picked up the helmet and looked into the visor again, running a thumb over the glass gently. She flipped the helmet over and slotted it over her head, feeling the weight of the thin layers of Titanium interspersed with the shield generators and under the photoreactive panneling.

She sighed, taking the helmet off and setting it back next to the armor, before moving to the back and starting work on its reactor. She gently turned it off through a series of maneuvers necessary for deactivating such a heavy piece of equipment safely, then hummed as she started working on a bit of a jailbreak upgrade she'd thought up. Maybe she could up the output of the armor's reactor to provide a more 'fully powered' exoskeleton.

She sighed and stood up after finishing up repairs and slowly starting the boot-up sequence for the reactor. She then walked to join Six and the others as the first rays of the sun poked over the horizon. The SPARTANs all turned to greet their new Number Seven, before Jorge stated, "It took you a hot minute, Elster. Take it you're really looking forward to putting that armor on, eh?"

"I was making sure it was gonna be functioning properly..." She replied with half a mouth, "I'm still surprised ONI had it 'in stock'..." And she made the necessary air quotes, before sitting herself down. She gazed upon Kat. The girl had taken her helmet off and, even under the stone mask of the slightly-tanned young woman with short hair, she could see the faintest smirk as the woman tapped away on her own datapad.

"Kat has her ways," Emile quipped, leaning his shotgun against his shoulder.

"Clearly, so does she, considering she's making it fit for her peg legs," The Sharpshooter, Jun, stated bluntly as he cleaned the barrel of his SRS-99/99. He was the more quippy type of person, it seemed, at least to Elster. He had probably been the most interesting to try and decipher in the last day since her addition to team NOBLE. She, however, didn't know what to make of him.

Carter, however, sighed and stated rather dispassionately, "Jun," as if to make a point. The Sniper paused, blanked out and came back again, lips narrowed as he scratched the three-arrow tattoo on the left side of his face. He cast an almost-unnoticed and well-concealed apologetic glance at Elster, who didn't seem miffed by any of the remarks, then looked back to Carter.

"Sorry, boss," The man stated. Carter shook his head...

"Anyways..." He then started and gazed upon their newest recruit, as did everyone else. He stated directly, staring the girl down as if he was scrutinizing something specific about her, "Welcome aboard, Seven. Hope we didn't make a mistake," and then shifting to face her fully. The man was a SPARTAN, alright, with all the bulk Elster could see in that armor of his.

"You didn't, sir. I'll do my damnedest to keep up with all of you," Elster replied calmly, saluting him. Carter gave a salute back as the girl hummed, her mind wandering to home while the others spoke. Six, beside her, noticed her enter a moment of pause, letting her be as he listened to his new team talking to each-other. Seemed as though they were starting to get along.

Kat sighed deeply, then added, "At least she's protected enough now. Marine armor didn't do much against plasma weapons..." while performing maintenance on her prosthetic limb. The woman gazed at Elster for a moment, gave her a nod, then went back to working on ensuring her arm worked properly. Elster had seen prosthetics before, but nothing quite as skeletal.

Carter crossed his arms to his chest, then told his Second-In-Command, "Kat, I hope you know you're keeping watch over her. It was your idea to bring her in in the first place." in a deadpan. Elster took some offense to that comment, but chose not to counteract it for now. Just to see what Kat would say and if she would step up for her 'newly-acquired buddy'.

"I know, I know..." The girl waved it off. Elster narrowed her lips, a bit hurt.

She butted in, crossing her arms to her chest, "I'm not a SPARTAN, but I can take care of myself, sir..." before shooting a glance toward a curious Six and Kat, then back to Carter and stating, "No offense." Words which garnered a chuckle out of Emile and a hum of agreement out of Jorge. The eldest of the SPARTANs, the II, seemed at ease with the two new arrivals actually being talkative.

"None taken," The man replied, slightly pleasantly surprised at her gumption. He shot back to her, "You're still part of my team until further notice, which means we take care of each-other. Doesn't really matter what you are..." before humming as he remembered and shooting a glance toward Noble Two. Noting that she looked back at him, the man requested with an air of authority, "Speaking of, Kat? File?"

"Yeah. No black ink on her, surprisingly. File must be too fresh, even for ONI Censors," The girl stated, leaning back and setting aside the tools she used to make adjustments to her arm. She stood up and walked up to the group, which now formed a circle. She put her helmet on and let the suit re-seal itself, before craning her neck left and right to make sure mobility was alright.

Carter gave a nod, "Got it. I want the file ready. Have to see what we're getting into..." then paused as the radio turned on audibly in his helmet. He hummed, then replied, "Affirmative, sir. Yessir, we're ready to mobilize. We restocked ammunition. Yessir. Northbound, aye. NOBLE Actual, out," and he sighed deeply. Another day, another mission, Elster soon realized.

"What? Something happen, Actual?" Five asked more outta courtesy. He was aware a new job was on.

"... New mission's already incoming. Covenant warship emerged out of camouflage and hit SWORD Base. Dot'll have our briefing as we move," He replied and grabbed his gear off the floor, rifle included. A string of weapons being loaded and cocked reverbed throughout the entire base, surprising the UNSC Troops around them. Elster herself hummed.

"Sir. This means we're going in?" She raised a brow.

"It does, trooper," The man nodded firmly.

"I'll put my kit on, then," The girl gave a proud smirk of a sort, stepping off to don her new armor set. Before long, the Replika had fully donned the armor she had gotten and modified with Kat's help, noting the surprisingly light weight. She hummed, descending from the podium with her helmet slung under her arm and her weapons on her back. Quietly, as she joined the formation, she hummed an old marching hymn, its writers lost to time, running with NOBLE toward the Falcon Helicopters that would transport them over.

As the engines powered with mighty roars and the rotors began to chop through the air, the girl and her team-mates jumped aboard them, weapons at the ready. She boarded the bird with Kat, Six and Carter. The others took the other bird, with Jun taking a seat on the side to presumably provide overwatch as he had in the previous mission. Elster tensed again, memories of past battles a blur, flashing in her mind next to the few she's made on Reach.

As the Helicopters flew, though, that tension eased, parts of it replaced with determination to survive, just to see Ariane again. She ran diagnostics on her armor as the helicopter flew along the mountains for the next couple of hours. The UNSC needed them to fight. They would fight. She would fight for Ariane's sake, if it meant getting the poor girl a better future than anything that awaited her back with the Eusan Nation.

A few hours later

Babd Catha Ice Shelf, Eposz, Northern Pole

ONI SWORD Base

26th of July, 2552

Flying over the frigid waters of the northern ice cap of Reach, the two Falcons made headway toward the massively-important ONI Facility just ahead. To their left was a singular mountain face, a cliff so steep, it'd take an act of god to save whoever fell off it and to their right, the ice shelf's multitude of glaciers stood in the water, moving with the few currents. As pair of Falcons passed by an opening between two rock faces, Elster laid eyes first on the enemy's space-capable Corvette. The ship looked slim, organic, bulbous like a seamonster from old tales. Its plasma batteries, however, were technological and laying down Hell on Sword Base.

"Be advised, Kilo-33 and Kilo-34:Your current LZ is too hot!" The officer belonging to SWORD Control stated, his voice rather panicky. Elster shifted in her seat, feeling the armor she wore adjusting itself to her body shape and form. It was getting tight, but she expected as much from something that was meant to be a one-size-fits-all Power Armor set.

"Roger. Dot, stand by to receive and respond," Carter ordered with the same calm he and his team had rescued Elster. Elster, meanwhile, noted Kat had slid that chip they'd acquired from Visegrad into her tablet... Huh.

Elster listened in as a monotone female voice spoke, "Yes, Commander..." A short pause, then, "Coordinates received, initiate course correction," just as the two Falcon gunships turned to the right, past the island and toward SWORD Base itself. Auntie Dot, UNSC 'Dumb' variation AI according to a briefing Carter had given Elster on the flight over to Babd Catha. The AI began briefing, "The Office of Naval Intelligence SWORD Base is currently under siege by a Corvette-class Covenant vessel. Due to the sensitive nature of this facility, the use of orbital rounds has been, for the moment, prohibited. Regrettably, my efforts to obtain relevant data on enemy forces have been unsuccessful."

"However," Dot hummed, "Current defensive forces are insufficient. ONI has requested Team NOBLE's direct intervention to help secure SWORD base."

"Alright, people," Carter now sounded a bit less than pleased with their tactical situation as they approached the massive, modern-brutalist tower that was ONI's SWORD. He continued, "We're stuck with that ship for the time being, so let's focus on the hostile infantry. Give those troopers a hand..." and Elster tensed, her helmet's visor instantly polarizing as she thumbed the safety off her rifle. As the helicopters flew in low toward the courtyard, Carter ordered, "Kat, Elster, Six, you're out here. Emile, Jorge, you're next, get prepped."

Elster gently slid the bolt of her rifle back to make sure her weapon had ammo in the chamber. Six hummed, readying his DMR and removing the safety as well, while Kat cocked the slide of her Magnum back and looked to the two of them. She spoke, "Let's move, you two!" just as the bird hovered a few feet off the ground. The SPARTANs and Elster jumped off, weapons at the ready, with Elster jumping last out the same side as Six and Kat. Her teeth were rattled by the drop, courtesy of the heavier armor she wore now.

"Kat, you and your team push back the attack on Sword and get us some intel on our hostiles..." Carter ordered as the Falcon above flew off and veered right, presumably to go support friendlies as its 30mm nose-mounted chain-gun roared. Elster didn't need to be told twice. She pushed up with Six and Kat toward a barricade, noting the ramp and everything around was filled with boxes bearing military markings, as well as the sight of specialized forklifts.

"Roger, Actual, we're your Strike Team," Kat replied, then pushed forward as plasma bolts started to fly from the suspended walkway ahead. She called out, "Let's knock some heads together!" as they began their push, with Elster firing the first burst out of her Assault Rifle toward an Elite officer near the base of the walkway. Two rounds struck, causing the Covenant soldier's shields to flare. It let out a strange noise, lifted its plasma rifle and opened fire.

A trio of bolts struck around Elster and one hit Six in the shields as the man poked out. Three shots left the barrel of his DMR in quick succession and the Elite's shields collapsed as Elster thundered up the ramp that led to the walkway. She skidded to a halt in front of the Elite as it threw its hands and head up, its jaws splaying like flower petals as it roared in anger. Once its gaze came back down, it was met with Elster pointing the barrel of her rifle right at its head. A short burst left the gun again and the monster was dead, head split open by 7,62mm ammo.

She barely dodged a stream of lilac needles striking near her position. A grunt in front of her now focused its fire, bursts of projectiles that were semi-capable of tracking the intended target trailing Elster while she found a pillar to hide behind. Two needles struck and shattered off the shields of her armor as she ducked and rolled, before drawing her pistol. The SmartScope self-engaged and the girl had locked onto the Grunt's head. One audible crack later and the little creature was dead.

Following up, Noble Six stepped up the stairwell, his DMR rounds striking true an Elite 'Minor', one of the lower-enlisted Elite soldiers, as he charged up the stairs. Three shots burst his shield, a fourth struck his head and he went limp, falling onto the floor with a rumble and a thunk against the steel. Elster pushed up next to Six and the two advanced, covering each-other's sectors while Kat pushed down below.

"Spartans! Over here!" Called out one of the Troopers as the two crossed the walkway in a sprint. The trooper, a young female with Asian features and goggles, saluted and said, "Lieutenant Sam Lee! Sixth Company, First Division, 'Big Red One'! Glad to have you folks backing us up here! Didn't think command was gonna actually spare the Spartans, considering the rumors floating around!"

"What's the status, Lieutenant Lee?" Six asked as a needle rifle snapped off over his head, the round piercing through one of the thin walls next to the door at the end of the walkway. The SPARTAN then poked up and snapped off a shot at the hairier of the Jackals' avian brethren, the Skirmishers. Grey-skinned, with more heavily-mottled, porcupine manes covering the backs of their heads, the yellow-eyed bastards were also more skittish, for when Elster tried to poke up and suppress them behind the boxes and barricades spread out around the concrete courtyard.

"It's getting fucking tough..." Lee responded. She jabbed an accusatory finger toward the Covenant Corvette hanging over the lake and said, "Because of that piece of shit spawning a squadron of Banshees outta thin air, we can't risk sending Longswords out. Even worse is that they have enough of a task force deployed around the base's outskirts which disabled certain vital defenses on the first wave. Then, they started landing here, Spirits and Phantoms! First wave took out Ninth Platoon!"

Kat appeared up top as well, firing her pistol, then patted the two Lieutenants on the shoulder and said to Lee, "We'll deal with it. You reorganize your troopers and be ready to push. Six, Seven, let's move!" as she vaulted over their cover. The two others followed close behind while the Lieutenant rallied her men via radio and hand signals. The group pushed, meeting resistance from about half-a-dozen more elites and a squadron of Jackals and grunts.

Gratuitous use of frag grenades solved the problems with the phalanx of Jackals before it even came to be a problem, while the grunts, injured by the fragmentation, scrambled for cover or simply ran around in circles. Some braved the UNSC weapons fire, turning to return fire on their own. One such grunt was lucky enough to blast one of the Army Troopers with its overcharged plasma pistol before his head was pierced by a DMR bullet that punched straight through and set off the gas tank on its back.

The Elites, among them a Major, knew better than to retreat. They pushed, firing plasma rifles and repeaters at the group of SPARTANs and at Elster, forcing them to take cover. A Trooper that tried to switch positions was peppered by needles which coalesced and detonated, tearing off his right arm. Following that up, the Medic that tried to pull him into cover got his head sniped off by a Needle Rifle that was in a Skirmisher's hand.

Six returned fire and managed to snap the bird's neck with the bullet from his DMR, before aiming toward an Elite that charged him. The Elite Minor pushed him against a steel-and-concrete barricade, nearly knocking the tall segment of wall over and denting the metal. Six pushed against him, holding him at bay with his rifle. He used his weight, lifting both his legs and kicking the Elite in the chest. The bastard's shields flared.

Elster joined in next, firing her weapon into the Elite until his shields collapsed and his purple blood stained the ground below. The alien collapsed, dead, while Six reloaded. The Replika followed up with her own push forward, more images flashing in her mind. An open block, ruined, artillery raining down around them. Gunfire rippling, close quarters combat. She grew more bold now, more fierce with her movements.

Pulling her knife off her breastplate, she stabbed another Elite that came from the left in the throat. She'd felt the resistance of the shields, followed by a slight electric zap as they gave way to the blade tearing through the flesh of the beast. It gargled, clawing at is neck, while another of its siblings opened up on her with a Plasma repeater. The bursts of energy weapon fire burst her shield. She ducked behind cover as the armor plates heated, before reloading her weapon and throwing a fragmentation grenade at the Elite.

It ducked. It was wearing white armor, more ornamental, but also stronger, it seemed, so its shield tanked the hit better as shrapnel pinged off of it. Six and Kat, however, followed up on it by putting multiple rounds into it from both sides. DMR and Pistol fire shattered the shield and tore through the armor plating, brain turned to mush by accurate semi-auto fire.

Six switched over to his assault rifle after reloading his DMR and the three of them pushed the last three Elites, Elster taking on her own target by combat-rolling out of the way of his shots, standing up and engaging him with her pistol. She aimed for the head again, each of the two shield-busting shots staggering the Elite before the third punched clean through its helmet.

Kat hummed as they approached the sporadically-barricaded main entrance to SWORD Base, a lightly-angled 'ramp' leading up from the main vehicle gate at the lower base of some of the local rocky hills that surrounded the base, acting as a natural perimeter protecting from ground assaults. Noble Two then called up, "Noble Two to SWORD CONTROL, Courtyard is clear."

"Proceed through the main gate, NOBLE STRIKE, we'll call out priority targets for you..." The man behind the radio replied as the SPARTANs, Replika and a few Army Troopers descended down the ramp and through the angled gate of the place as it opened, revealing a small, reinforced underground section which was presumably specifically designed as a security area of sorts. Even though it now lay empty, save for a pair of boxes to the left.

Six marched up to one of the boxes and lifted up a strange pistol-shaped item. Kat's grin was audible behind her helmet as she spoke, "SWORD CONTROL, we just found a Target Locator. Any artillery available in the area?" while Elster marched up to the boxes and plucked up a few grenades. Clipping them to her belt, she looked over to the SPARTANs and gave them a nod. They replied with an approving nod back.

"Limited, but we'll prioritize what we can, ma'am," replied the radioman again.

"Got it," Kat replied as she marched up to a button and pressed it, opening the outer gate. The inner closed behind them, causing Elster to shift her gaze to the outside. Yellowed grass, tundra, rocks and salt-laden, glassy ice greeted them as they stepped outside. The Covenant Corvette still loomed far in the distance, plasma batteries howling and bombarding what seemed to be an airbase below.

"... It's incredible..." Elster murmured to herself.

"And terrifying to see up-close," Six said from beside her. The girl turned to him and offered a quick nod, both their faces shielded by the armor's opaque visors. All three armored personnel paused as plasma bolts flew up ahead, striking ahead of what seemed to be a Warthog running at maximum engine speed, its wheels crunching the semi-frozen dirt beneath.

"Three Echo Five-Seven, heading back to base! We got enemies on our six, how copy!?" The driver of the Warthog replied as he veered the vehicle toward the gateway. Elster paused, stunned, as she saw the vehicles chasing it. Two massive, bulky vehicles banked to follow it. They lacked wheels or tracks, instead seemingly hovering above the frozen ground. Their alloy armor shone an eerie blue in the sun, the stabilizing 'fins' on the front angling and dancing with the unevenness of the ground, while the rear shone an eerie blue. They were like whales, or sea creatures again, a motif seemingly common in anything Covenant.

One of them lifted its massive plasma mortar, a trident-shaped weapon, angling it for a long-distance shot. Before it could fire, however, Elster had noticed the scarlet rings around it, one large ring and one small, central one, concentric to the large. She then heard a whistle from above and watched as the first explosive shell impacted the enemy's vehicles. One of them detonated in a blue-orange flame, set ablaze by the HE blast.

The second soon followed suit as the Warthog braked in front of the SPARTANs, detonating and washing the ground it was on in its debris and in blue, plasma-laden fire. The Trooper driving the Warthog seemingly loosened, his head falling against the Warthog's horn button. The vehicle let out a short honk, waking the man up and making him shake his head, "Jesus fuck, that was close... Thanks, SPARTANs..."

Six offered him a nod. Elster, meanwhile, looked past the vehicle at the broken hulls and asked, "What were those...?"

"Wraiths. Covenant tanks," Kat stated as she motioned for the Troopers to disembark and head on inside, "These troopers were lucky. And we're lucky, too, since we need a transport Hog... Hm..." And she climbed on top of the vehicle, scanning the place. Two paths, two different targets. She called up, "SWORD CONTROL, you mentioned the enemy disabled external defenses and got inside. Anything we should be on the lookout for out here?"

"The old Farragut Station has its own communications relay. It's offline, but it should give us a link to command. Airview base, meanwhile, as a triple-A Battery that should help us clear the skies," Command replied just as a Pelican swung in to deliver another Warthog with a gatling gun in front of the gate. Kat hummed and looked to Elster and Six, before Elster marched up to said gun hog and boarded.

As the Troopers boarded their respective Hogs, Kat stated, "So, we're splitting up. One side takes Farragut, the other takes the gun battery?"

"Sounds good to me," Six replied. Elster nodded, hands firmly on the wheel.

Kat hummed, then sighed and jumped off of Six's vehicle, stating, "I'll go with her. Keep your eyes peeled, Six," before she mounted the gun on the back of the Warthog. She looked to Six and stated, "You take Farragut, Six. We'll take the AA gun," before looking to Elster and asking, "You do know how to drive, ri-" and being interrupted by Elster putting the pedal to the medal and... Damn near veering off the road three times already.

Lieutenant Lee hummed and said, "Well, I'm suddenly worried about them..."

"They'll be fine. Let's move it," The SPARTAN quipped as he took the driver's side seat of the Troop 'Hog. Lee and her platoon also hitched a ride on the vic... Elster, meanwhile, drove like an alcoholic bat out of hell. She tried to learn the controls, but she was just a technician, an engineer, not a freaking driver. The Trooper screaming in the seat next to her didn't help, either, as they rolled between a steep cliff-face and an even steeper descent.

As the vehicle bounced along the beaten path, Kat murmured to herself, "I'm driving on our way home..." before stiffening up as the vehicle rolled just a little too close to the hillside for comfort. They could see the Airbase, parts of it aflame from the Covenant's relentless bombardment. The Corvette was only drawing closer, Elster noticed even as she drove... Past the Marine cowering in the side seat.

They saw Airview up ahead, with the heavy gatling cannon battery resting in the midst of the reinforced concrete buildings. Plasma already began to fly as an Elite officer, stood atop the command building, fired at them. Kat shifted her gun and yelled at Elster with a hint of anger, "Keep her steady, Private!" before opening up. She felt a bump as the machine gun started its spin-up and began to fire, before seeing the corpse of an Elite stuck to the hood of the car.

Elster hit the handbrake hard, bringing the vehicle to a full stop in front of the base. She dismounted, as did the Trooper in the side seat, before both took cover behind it. Kat aimed for the Elite officer on top of the main building, suppressing it before it got a chance to fire whatever weapon it carried at them. Elster, meanwhile, pushed forward with the trooper, beside and past the AAA gun and into the building itself. The Trooper, meanwhile, kept other Enemy troops suppressed, with Kat laying down the hate.

When Elster peered over the top of the cover, she saw the Elite, a 'General' going by armor config. He was carrying a heavy-duty Covenant weapon, a launcher of some kind... And he was standing up to aim it, his shields already taking bursts of automatic fire. As the weapon charged, Elster attacked the man, drawing her knife, clambering onto his back and stabbing downward exactly where she'd seen Six stab one before-hand.

She was unlucky enough for it to feel her beforehand, swatting her away. It caused his plasma rounds to veer off to parts unknown, though, so she'd at least saved Kat from taking hits. Skidding across the floor and into one of the railings, the girl hefted her Assault Rifle and opened up on the monster as it aimed to fire at her, bullets sparking off its shield.

One round left the 'chamber' of the plasma weapon, trailing the girl and sticking to a surface behind her as she ran, before detonating and liquefying a chunk of concrete. Elster noted now the fact the weapon had a lock-on system, meaning its plasma projectiles could easily track and stick to her. That worried her, so she engaged the Elite with full-auto fire to try and throw off his aim.

Following up, two grenades came from the stairwell as the Elite dodged the girl's shots and tried to zero in on her. They were plasma grenades, neither of which stuck to the Elite. They, however, detonated with radioactive flashes of blue light which washed the Elite's shields, partially draining them to the point the blanket began to visibly shudder and shimmer underneath the prolonged assault.

Kat appeared from the stairwell and fired, .50 SAPHE from her pistol striking the Elite's chest on both sides, then his head. Three shots, one kill. Before long, though, the two women heard the roar of antigravity engines overhead and saw a Phantom approaching to drop off troops. Elster rushed toward the console on top of the roof and slammed her fist onto the activation button.

The turret below soon began to track, craning upward as its barrels spun. The first heavy burst of rounds spat out of its mouth, rounds tearing through the underbelly of the Covenant transport and shredding anything inside as it caught flame. Before long, one side's antigrav engines failed and the ship careened into the rock face to the left of the base, shattering into a dozen pieces.

Kat's shoulders sagged as she sighed in relief. She looked to Elster and stated tiredly, "I'm driving..." before vaulting over the side of the building and starting, "CONTROL, Triple-A is back in action. Skies should be clearing up..." and, as if to accentuate her point, bursts of anti-air fire from the Gatling gun tore apart a bunch of enemy Banshees and another Dropship heading for the area.

"Roger that, NOBLE STRIKE. Seems like Farragut's com relay is also back online. You have our thanks-" The radio cut off and burst into static as the Corvette moved closer, its plasma batteries pounding the station. Kat looked up at the Corvette, gritting her teeth, then jumped aboard the Warthog as a squadron of Banshees flew in toward the AA gun to distract from the trio of Phantoms moving to SWORD with vehicles, including what looked to be Revenant-class mortar skiffs.

"Noble Strike, this is Noble Leader. Get back to Sword Base ASAP." Carter ordered calmly.

The vehicle rolled Forward, Elster manning the rear machine gun as they trundled over the hills and uneven roads. The moment the first Covenant vehicle appeared, Elster already had the gun spun for the kill. The burst of automatic fire lit the vehicle up, bullets striking the front hull as the girl angled and aimed for the driver. Rounds sparked off an Elite's shield, all while Kat rammed into a Ghost, a lighter Covenant hoverbike, knocking it off the cliff.

Plasma raked the front armor of their vehicle, too, while smaller scarlet plasma balls began to fall inaccurately around them. Kat ordered, "Seven, focus on that Revenant! I got their infantry!" and, as if to accentuate it, their wheels caught an enemy Grunt and a Jackal underneath, squashing them. Their bones cracked beneath the heavy wheels, while Elster focused exactly on what she'd been told to fire. The Trooper aboard also engaged the enemy vehicle.

Thankfully, it seemed as if .50 caliber bullets from a machine gun were doing work. The spent casings clinked against the walls of the Warthog's bed as the vehicle braked and drifted to the left, narrowly avoiding the superheated scarlet ball of death, while one of the enemy vehicle's fins was torn off and its gun seemed to lose a magnetic coil, the plasma for the second shot dissipating.

A plasma grenade, lobbed from far away, landed right on the driver of the vehicle. Washed by a wave of plasma, the alien died as its vehicle exploded, split in two at the weaker midsection where he and any other co-pilot would've stood. They saw Six's Warthog barreling forward toward the main gate. Rolling past the dead Wraiths and enemy vehicles, past several rocks and deeper into the base's area, the two vehicles arrived at the Gate, which immediately opened to let them all in.

Dismounting, Six noted, "Take it you didn't sleep so well," as he looked at Kat.

"No thanks to her driving," Kat shot back as Elster readied her weapon. The group of Troopers, SPARTANs and Elster pushed inside, only to find a slew of Covenant Troops had just dropped in again. Today, of all days, was going to be a busy day, considering they'd just cleared this place out not even thirty minutes ago. At least there hopefully wouldn't be more reinforcements...

She hoped Ariane was okay back in CASTLE Base...

Chapter Text

Army Troopers held the line as NOBLE pushed in, guns roaring at midday in the courtyard. Two Troopers waved them all over, as well as their reinforcements, as the last of the Covenant's troops outside were cornered and killed, with one of the troopers calling out, "Sammy! Fuck me, I'm glad to see ya!" her smile hidden by a balaclava. The Lieutenant paused as she saw the Polish flag patch on the girl's shoulder.

"Hah! Hey, Katja!" The young woman greeted, bumping fists with her, "What's the sitch?"

"Outer team was just the group designed to split us up. Most of my squad's holed up in the underground parking lot... Pair of Hunters got their asses pinned, though," The Polak replied as she checked her kit. She called out, "Na litość boską! Pavel, I'm low on fucking 40mikes!" before pausing and grabbing four fragmentation rounds out of thin air. She nodded in thanks to the trooper as she dropped the spent casing of one from the underbarrel launcher of her MA5 and slid in a fresh grenade.

Kat hummed, "I thought Army only had MA37s."

"Put in the Requisition form for an MA5B with a UBGL myself," The girl quipped, grinning, "Gotta up the firepower of the squad without having to switch between weapons like some other Grenadiers," before looking to Pavel. The man rolled his eyes and patted the single-tube handheld grenade launcher on his back. Kat gave an approving nod, then looked to Elster and motioned to her to open the door.

To the sight of two hulking beasts of flesh and alloys. With one arm protected by a thick-enough shield made of alien alloys and another mounting a strangely-shaped cannon with various emerald-shining tubes poking out from the top, with armor plates that covered most of their bodies, save for the exposed, fleshy, eel-like midsections and the antennae on the backs of their armors twitching, the Mkgalekgolo, or Hunters, thundered toward the UNSC troops in a pair, one of them charging its cannon.

A baleful projectile left the maw of the weapon and struck a chunk of concrete some of the Troopers had taken cover besides, taking a good chunk of the concrete and two of the dozen Troopers present in the parking lot with it. Elster took cover behind a forklift as the other troopers poured in with her and NOBLE. The second of the pair turned toward them, its cannon charged.

The ball of energy shot out of the cannon flew right by Elster, causing her Geiger counter to flare up and click like a mechanical keyboard during a report writing session, before the concrete floor behind her exploded into superhot, molten fragments. One hit Elster's armor shield and almost broke through before evaporating. She grit her teeth, then started moving and firing at them.

Bullets sparked off the shield as Six, Kat and Elster, plus the troopers, focused on killing the bastards. Their armored hides were too thick to pen from the front, though. Another aimed its cannon and charged it, the radioactive particles making Elster's eyes 'water' with the granulation and static. The bolt of energy flew too close for comfort again, this time hitting one of the multitudes of military equipment boxers in the room. It melted the pallet and its contents.

"Christ all-fucking-mighty, I hate these things...!" Katja murmured as she aimed her grenade launcher and fired. She seemed to have caught one of the monsters by surprise, it being too focused on Elster. The grenade detonated off the top plate of the monster, staggering it and washing the ground in orange blood. The monster roared in pain, slamming its armored shield arm into the ground hard enough to crack the ground.

Its sibling, or bondmate, turned toward her. Katja's eyes shot wide open as she saw the arm cannon charge...

Before it could fire, though, Kat charged the monster and kicked the cannon hard, deflecting the creature's aim into the ceiling. The emerald cannon shot slammed into the ceiling above, destroying one of the light fixtures and raining shards of concrete and molten steel reinforcements down onto them. Kat ducked under a swing from the monster's shield arm and rolled away, drawing her pistol and firing into its back.

Six followed up by engaging the monsters from behind, pouring lead down onto their exposed orange eel midsections with his assault rifle. Kat, meanwhile, tossed Elster a plasma grenade as she took cover beside her and said, "Stick them! Two plasma grenades should do one in according to simulations!" before she cocked her robotic arm back, thumbed the activator of the plasma grenade and threw it.

Elster followed up by doing the same motions, just a hint slower. She threw her activated plasma grenade at the same monster as its feet thumped against the floor. It aimed its cannon at the SPARTANs, but was met by both plasma grenades sticking to its body and the cannon itself. After a short hiss and a chirp of the bombs charging, both grenades detonated only milliseconds apart from each-other, washing the monster in plasma and detonating its main cannon. It collapsed, its insides splayed out by the plasma detonation, the scent of burning sulfur filling the air.

Its bondmate saw the death, before turning to face the SPARTANs and Elster. It let out an angered roar, before charging Kat and the Replika, closing the distance even as a dozen rifles and pistols poured lead into it. It backhanded Elster hard enough for the girl to feel the air knocked out of her artificial lungs as she flew and slammed through one of the windows of the security booth.

Her head spun as memories played back of a similar encounter. A Mynah? No, a SAPR, the Schnapper or Sapper, depending on how a person wanted to call it. Bulky, tall, heavily armored and armed. The deadliest biomechanical beings in the arsenal of Eusan and the Empire. She jumped to her feet as her shields flared back to life, watching as the monster swung its shield and aimed its cannon, firing wildly. The bigger they were, the harder they'd fall.

Jumping over the console and back into the parking lot, Elster pushed up behind it and opened fire, bullets piercing the rear armor and the flesh of the multitude of eels in the colony, spraying orange-red fluorescent blood on the floor. She skidded to a halt as the monster turned to intercept her, aiming its cannon. A beam of radioactivity lanced out at her, cutting through one of the support beams and melting a good chunk of it.

She swore to herself in Eusan Standard, or German, as the UNSC called it, then combat rolled out of the way. She grabbed a plasma grenade off the floor, armed it and cocked her hand back, before throwing it. The beast tried to swat it out of the way as the rest of the Army and SPARTANS inside peppered its body with bullets. It staggered as Kat fired a full magazine of her pistol into its back and the grenade stuck itself right on its abdomen.

The detonation split the monster in two, melting a bit of the stomach and chest armor and sending the upper body tumbling onto the floor. Surviving eels tried to scramble out of the corpse, but the Troopers stomped them down into fine, orange mush. Lieutenant Lee breathed a sigh of relief, then murmured, "That was too close..." before looking to Katja.

"Seven, you good?" Kat asked as she reloaded her pistol. Elster looked to her, took her helmet off and revealed that not much had changed. She gave an impassive nod, to which Kat replied, "Good to know. Let's move it, people. Carter needs us in the Atrium ASAP..." before marching toward the booth. Six, Elster and a slew of the Troopers followed, with Six placing a hand on Elster's shoulder. The girl looked to him as she slid her helmet back on, before getting a nod of approval from the SPARTAN. He then closed his fist and bumped her shoulder in a friendly manner, before putting his index and middle fingers up to his face plate and sketching a smile.

Elster didn't know what it meant, but she replied the same, a hint happy at the sight. Kat let out a short chuckle at the sight, before marching onto the elevator. The Troopers joined them, a whole squad kindly cramping up a wide elevator with two exits. Elster hit the button for the Atrium and the elevator's doors closed, a single Platoon left behind to keep the courtyard secure. An explosion rocked the building and the elevator ground to a halt for the moment, lights flickering, before it started back up again.

"Corvette's hitting this place hard!" Emile called out over the com, the audible roar of a rocket launcher firing echoing.

"What stupid directive said we can't use Orbital Support...?" Kat murmured, "Gotta be four guns in orbit that could take this thing out in a single shot..."

Both Six and Elster kept quiet. ONI probably didn't want to lose whatever was in this place. Elster had learned not to rely on ONI that much, not after everything that was said to her about them. Halsey had been careful enough not to bring their wrath down upon her, though. She shifted on her feet, feeling a hint of creaking in her titanium bones. She hummed and gave herself a quick diagnostic, but found nothing wrong. It was likely that that Hunter's hit reset something in her skeleton.

The elevator dinged and stopped and the infantry poured out first, forming a perimeter. Katja and Sammy looked to one-another, with Sam noting, "The others should be backing NOBLE up. We're all yours, Strike..."

"Kat, Six, Elster, we're pinned down in the Atrium. We're gonna need the Backup and someone to go help Emile upstairs... Clear the airways," Carter stated as the group stepped out into the greeting area. Two wide corridors, one of which had a scanning system for contraband, greeted them. Between them, against the separating wall of glass and white steel, was the receptionist's desk. A corpse lay behind it, blood staining the wall.

"We're on our way, sir," Kat replied, "Let's move it, Troopers..."

"WELCOME TO THE OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE. AN ONI REPRESENTATIVE WILL BE WITH YOU SHORTLY." An automated machine voice greeted them.

Kat snorted, then replied dryly, "I doubt that very much, as she gazed upon the suit-wearing corpse that was bled dry behind the desk. She then watched Six take a squad of Troopers down the right corridor, through the scanner. She followed along with Elster, while the Dumb AI that must've been running the greeting op spoke something relating to Six. Right, ONI Reaper.

They pushed forward and around the right, veering with the corridor and arriving at the wide-open atrium. Ahead of them, taking cover behind some structures, Nobles One, Three and Five held position as bolts of plasma, needles and even beams of energy struck around them, cutting into the black marble floors and the steel walls behind them. Carter looked to them and Jorge called out, "Spartans! Over here!" as the Troopers scattered to meet the Covenant and reinforce dwindling squads.

Kat took a knee in front of Carter as the man reloaded his rifle, then told him, "We've made it, sir. Reinforcing Trooper units should be ready to help push.." And she ducked under a plasma bolt, drawing her pistol and snapping off a shot. It missed, but got the Jackal on one of the upper gangways to take cover as it pierced the glass under the railing. Carter gave her a nod and stood up.

"Six, we'll take care of the ground of the Atrium! Take a strike team and go assist Emile! Jorge, go with him! He'll need the backup!"

"Bet on it!" Jorge nodded as he fired his LMG, pushing forward. He raked a Covenant Elite's cover, punching through the thin sculpture sat in the middle of a pool of water in the middle, before filling said Elite with lead. Six looked to Elster, who gave a nod and reloaded her rifle as if to accentuate the point that she was right behind him, then she rallied up Katja and a few other Troopers.

The Polish soldier pushed up next to them, firing her rifle down at the Covenant below as she advanced. She joined up with Elster, telling her, "I'm sticking next to the girl I'm almost at the same height with..." as she watched Jorge stomping by. Ahead of them, in one of the hallways, plasma rained against a platoon of Infantry that was returning fire from the bottom of a stairwell.

One of them looked back and called out, "SPARTANS! Just in fucking time!" as Jorge pushed around the corner and lit up the top with Elster and Six's help. Elster pulled a fragmentation grenade off her belt and threw it at the enemy. A loud thump from above and a Grunt's corpse tumbled down the stairs, while an Elite roared in anger from up above. Pressing the advantage, the two SPARTANs and Replika pushed, with Katja close behind them.

She looked to the trooper and called out, "C'mon, Victor! We got asses to kick, brother!"

"Coming up! Let's go, Troopers!" The man barked as he lifted his DMR. The group pushed further up the stairs, using Jorge as cover while he was laying down the hate with his .50 caliber MG. Elster pushed past him, bursts of fire escaping the barrel of her weapon. Grunts collapsed and the Elite that had been hit by the grenade had his shields fail again before he kicked Elster down and aimed his plasma rifle at her. He opened fire into the woman, her shields taking the brunt of the hits as she stood under-heel of the monster.

Six came in clutch, though. Just as her shield broke, the SPARTAN slammed the butt of his rifle into the Elite's face, causing it to stagger, before putting the barrel of his rifle into the alien's stomach and pressing the trigger. The bullets tore through the Elite's midsection while Six pushed it forward with each step. As the last round in his magazine was spent, he kicked it over the railing, sending it tumbling to the floor with a wet crunch. He then marched up to Elster and extended his hand.

The girl took it, getting herself lifted to her feet(or stuffed boots?) by her comrade. She gave him a nod of thanks, then the trio continued pushing alongside the Troopers, up the stairs and through Covenant attempts at making defensive positions. Jorge maintained the frontline, pushing into the enemy while his comrades and the Troopers escorting them hosed anything that moved.

From one of the upper catwalks, a Skirmisher snapped off a shot with his needle rifle. The round pierced through the top of a Trooper's helmet and killed him on the spot, still travelling through his body before punching through the glass below. Katja saw the dead soldier and aimed up, firing a full-auto burst at the creature, forcing it into cover. With a growl, the girl reloaded and motioned to one of their designated marksmen.

When the Skirmisher poked its spiky head out again, it lost an eye and its brain. Katja followed it up with a grenade launched from her underbarrel launcher toward the Covvie position higher up. The group continued their push, punching through crowds of Covenant and all the way up to the top, where Emile was. The scent of missile exhaust and the breeze outside filled the place.

The marks of plasma damage were visible on the superstructure. A massive hole had been left by the Covenant ship's plasma bombardment, a gaping wound through which Covenant vessels seemed to try to assault. Covenant Banshees swooped in ahead of them, their twin plasma cannons raining a flurry of shots toward the Troops. Elster sidestepped the strafing run and looked to the left.

She ran and plucked up a Jackhammer rocket launcher, tossing one of the twin-tube missile launcher systems to Six while Jorge and the Troopers utilized their Firearms to shoot down the enemy aircraft above. Elster aimed and fired the first rocket of the game, nailing a Banshee flyer dead-on. The vehicle shattered as the tandem warheads of the missile struck true, parts falling over the edge.

Six followed up with his own kill, then another, and reloaded, dropping the empty tube off the weapon's frame and putting in a fresh one from one of the boxes below. The Troopers around them shot lead down-range as Covvies approached with Gunships from afar. They could see Phantoms coming in even through the smoke trails of their missiles. Meanwhile, in the distance loomed the very threat they were trying to destroy.

Elster and Six fired a pair of missiles at the incoming Covenant dropship, but one of them connected with an escorting Banshee instead, as it flew ahead. The girl sighed and both she and Six dropped their launchers, drawing rifles as plasma rounds lanced toward them from the side-mounted turrets of the vehicle. Emile growled and fired at one of the platforms on the side of the Phantom, missile connecting with and destroying the plasma turret.

It didn't matter, however. That side popped open and a squad of Elites in black armor dropped in, firing their plasma weapons and activating their camouflage as they landed. The girl, Jorge and Six all aimed up and fired at the Elites' supporting Grunt troops, filling'em full of lead before focusing on finding the enemy. Their motion trackers were useless, currently being jammed by what she presumed to be the enemy's active camouflage.

Six and her went back-to-back, rifles at the ready as they looked around. Six told her, "Disturbances in the air. Look for them..." as he aimed his weapon. He hummed while the Troopers around them also took steps back, covering each-other's angles and making sure to have their backs against something solid. Jorge and Emile busied themselves with either keeping the enemy's few remaining Banshees away, or with destroying them.

Elster hummed, watching as the air ahead began to ripple a little. Smoke plumes lifted to the sky, cinders still burning from Covenant plasma weapon shots. She hummed, glaring around as she waited for the enemy to make a move, before staggering as she saw one of the Troopers get grabbed. She heard his neck crack and saw the body go limp. It was thrown at her and she barely caught it mid flight, before feeling a hoof slam into her face.

She grunted, falling onto her back and drawing her pistol. The Troopers opened up, bullets pinging off the walls and hitting the less-protective shield of the Elite Special Operations member ahead. His bird-like mask appeared, translucent, as the bullets struck his general area. Enough for Elster to aim her pistol. She got it swatted out of her hand as the Elite grabbed her by the throat and threw her against the wall.

The girl squared up, though. She grit her teeth and charged the camouflaged Elite, adjusting her vision. She focused her eyes on the ripples in the enemy's camouflage, to tell where he was. She saw a plasma bolt reap a Trooper right next to Katja, before a second bolt struck next to her head. She charged the Elite that'd fired at the Trooper and grabbed onto his hand just as his plasma weapon's barrel flashed with the launch.

The round narrowly missed Katja this time, the Trooper watching with muted awe as someone that was not a SPARTAN was fist-fighting an Elite. Elster threw hands, a punch connecting with the Elite's jaw. She felt her hand stop in the helmet's alien steel and felt a slight surge of pain. Reeling back her hand, she slammed the Elite with a headbutt, pushing him back.

She was, however, definitely not a proficient Melee fighter like Six was. She watched the man duel the Elite, knife in one hand. The Elite grabbed the knife hand, pinning the SPARTAN against the wall before being kicked off of him. Emile and Jorge wanted to intervene, as did the Troopers, but most they could do was fire a few shots before the Spec-Ops camouflaged again.

Elster yelped as she received a gut punch which sent her staggering back. She grunted, then gasped and ducked under another camouflaged punch, but felt the brunt of a full hoof making contact with her abdomen. Following up, a punch hit hard enough to knock her helmet off her head and cause her to bleed from her nostrils. She collapsed onto the floor, grunting and in pain. Six, however, seemed to have noticed this, because just as the Elite was decloaking to stab her with its energy dagger, a Knife flew into the side of its neck, stunning it.

The girl, despite feeling like one of her artificial lungs had just collapsed, jumped to her feet and grabbed onto the knife and the Elite's breastplate. She roared a battle cry as she dug the Knife deeper into its flesh and sliced downward, ripping its throat out and spattering purple blood on her face and armor. She watched the monster collapse. Heaving and breathing heavily, the girl glared at the dead monster, a hatred bubbling up inside her that she never thought possible.

Sighing deeply and taking three heavy, long breaths to calm down, the girl wiped the oxidant from her nose and mouth with her gauntlet and sighed, marching to grab her helmet. Emile whistled as he dropped his launcher, stating, "That was a damn fine teamwork kill there, Six, Seven. That's how we get it done, Spartan!" before jumping off the box he'd used as high ground. He walked back to the Troopers, while Six and Seven both went up to look at the Corvette turning.

"Noble Team, Longswords are inbound and ready to push. Orbital defenses standing by to take the shot... You saved our collective Bacon back there," SWORD Control came back over the radio. Elster hummed, then sighed, relieved that the man was still alive. She watched with muted awe as two UNSC aircraft about the size of the Penrose, black and delta-wing shaped like she and Ariane had seen in space above the planet, banked toward the enemy ship. It powered its engines to full, fleeing up over the water.

Elster watched, her face filled with awe, as a burning white streak came down from the heavens, piercing through the clouds first, before punching clean through amidships. The vessel banked and buckled under the impact, its engines and plasma conduits blowing outward across the hull. Its nose banked down hard and it entered a steep descent as its antigravity engines failed.

Diving headlong into the cold waters below, the vessel sent shockwaves rippling into tidal waves across it, before breaching the surface and slowly, slowly disappearing beneath the waves themselves. Jorge appeared behind them, stating, "Beautiful, ain't it? Someone should take a picture..." before placing congratulatory pats on their backs. Elster hummed and looked back at Jorge, offering a half-smile, before looking ahead as he said, "Nice work, by the way. Both of you."

"We aim to please," The two of them said in unison, before gazing at one-another. Six hummed and crossed his arms to his chest, watching as the enemy vessel buried itself deeper in the sea, before humming as he listened in to the com. Elster quickly slid her helmet back onto her head and listened in while making sure all her systems were functional. She ran another quick diagnostic on herself and was thankful to find no permanent damage to be had, just a minor crack in her nasal synth-skin which somehow sealed itself.

"Five, Six, Seven," Carter began, his voice its usual stern self, though intermixed with a hint of surprise, "Get down to the science wing. Doctor Halsey wants a Debrief and Command's saying we're all hers..." Words which caused Elster to pause. All that came to her mind as she looked to her newfound teammates was:What was Halsey doing here? Wasn't she supposed to be at CASTLE?

"Repeat?" Jorge sounded enthusiastic, "Sounded like you said Halsey."

"I did." Carter replied in a deadpan.

"Copy that, we're on our way," The man replied as he and the two other NOBLE members marched forward. He spoke jovially, "Don't need command to tell me;Been all hers half me life," as he led them toward SWORD Base's science wing. Several Troopers gave the group passing salutes, while Katja and Sammy both grinned at the SPARTANs as they passed by and clapped for Elster.

Entering the Science Wing, the least damaged section of SWORD Base, the trio was met by Doctor Halsey herself speaking, her voice coursing through a microphone and filled with an unusual(to Elster) snide sense of scientific superiority as she spoke, "I requested your assistance, commander, and do not need a report of events right outside my doorstep. What I do require is a detailed account of your previous mission-" and she paused as she saw Elster and Jorge. A faint smile crossed her lips and Elster soon noticed Ariane right behind her.

The white-haired beauty waved to them, beaming as she saw the SPARTANs for the first time in her life. Elster took her helmet off and smiled at seeing Ariane, then hummed as she heard Halsey continue, "Jorge..." while gazing upon them. Her, Jorge and Six, to be exact. She then looked to Elster and gave a calming nod, before focusing on Jorge again, "What have you done with my armor...?"

"Just some..." Jorge looked at himself, "Improvements I've made."

"Indeed," She replied kindly, then looked to Carter and continued, stern, "Visegrad Relay. Its data center was home to one of my Xeno-archaeologists, professor Laszlo Sorvad," And she let the air in the room carry the words for a little longer, before adding, "Perhaps you could shed some light on his demise..." and looking back to Ariane. The girl was holding a tablet which she lifted to make notes.

"If he was a civilian male in his mid-sixties, he died with a Covenant Energy Sword through his abdomen," Carter replied calmly, stunning Ariane. Halsey's facade cracked for a moment, but soon reformed. Poor Ariane, meanwhile, frowned and wrote it down on the Tablet. Elster sighed deeply, disappointed that they couldn't get to the professor, or to Travis, in time.

Halsey spoke, "Elites, then...?"

"They engaged us as well." Jorge butted in, then added rather sadly, "It was just, uh, just after we found your scientist's daughter, ma'am. She was hiding in the-"

"Irrelevant," Halsey sighed, surprising both Elster and Ariane, "The Elites. Tell me more about them."

"Three, Zealot-class. One got by us," Jorge explained as he gazed back at the others, "The leader, from the looks of'im..."

"Zealots," Halset pressed the word, "Are you sure?" and she leaned against the pedestal that sat as a 'bridge' between them and her, seeing as she was behind a thick layer of presumably-bulletproof glass. Elster didn't know why that was important, but she felt like she was about to be told in this little debrief. Ariane, too, seemed very curious about the matter, waiting to write.

"Armor configuration matched," Jorge replied certainly.

Six added in, "Shield strength, too." while Halsey took a minute to process this. The woman stroked her own chin, considering possibilities.

"Why's this important, ma'am...?" Elster inquired, wanting to get to the bottom of things. Ariane was surprised by the fact that Elster had spoken out of turn for once in her life. Seemed much like the SPARTANs in the room were in agreement as they looked at her. They must've read the manuals, too, or at least gotten them from ONI through some tomfoolery from Kat.

Carter, however, stated, "I gave the order not to pursue. Our primary objective was to get the station's relay back online."

Halsey blanked, then hummed and replied derisively, " "Your primary objective? Commander, are you a puppet or a Spartan?" making sure to accentuate the words for the difference to be clear. Ariane covered her mouth and let out a short giggle, while Elster rolled her eyes and noticed Kat and Emile staring indignantly at Halsey. Jun, meanwhile, was just hanging out in a dark corner by himself.

"Ma'am?" Carter looked more confused than annoyed, thankfully, both brows arched up in a fit of surprise.

Halsey began to explain sharply, focused on Carter and on Elster, "There are those at ONI, myself included, who believe the Covenant dispatch Elite advance teams to hunt down artifacts of value to their Religion. Survivor accounts suggest such teams are small, nimble, and almost always Zealot-class. No doubt they came to the station for the abundance of ONI excavation data stored there. And you let them get away."

The Commander shot back sharply, "Data retrieval was not a command directive," Before locking eyes directly with Halsey. He was starting to reply to Halsey with the same coin, Even had we known, we had other, more urgent matters to attend to." making this entire conversation a series of gut punches for both Elster and Ariane. The young woman wanted to butt in and say something, but Kat was the first...

"Like warning the planet..."

Halsey sighed and rubbed her eyes, before stating rather bluntly, "Professor Sorvad's final entry in his field notes made reference to a "latchkey discovery." Latchkey... not a word he would use lightly." She accentuated the point, before glaring at Kat and adding a low, definitely irritated, "So let's hope that the data module your Lieutenant Commander stole contains it." while Kat pulled the drive out of one of her armor's multitude of pouches and dropped it in an extended transparent basket in the pedestal.

"Kat?" Both Elster and Carter stated, watching as the girl dropped the drive in.

"Before you ask," Halsey hummed, pulling the container back toward her while Ariane looked on, surprised. Halsey added, "I was warned the moment you attempted to access its contents, as I am with any unauthorized tap..." then lifted the item, a small, thin strip of plastic, metal and crystalline fibers. She looked at Kat and growled, "I could send you to the brig for interfering with my work."

Carter didn't seem to take too kindly to that, following up with words that further stunned both Ariane and Elster, not to mention Halsey and his team. "Maybe you'd like to join her."

"I'm sorry?" She arched a brow at him.

"We're under emergency planetary directive, 'WINTER CONTINGENCY'?" He asked rhetorically, causing Ariane to give a short giggle, while Elster crossed her arms to her chest. Six hummed, Jorge hid his grin behind his helmet, Jun snorted and Emile was inches short of laughing. Carter continued, "I'm sure you know the punishment for civilian interference in a SPARTAN deployment."

"Are you threatening me, Commander?" She replied semi-venomously, but more-so clearly impressed. The man did have the spine to call himself a SPARTAN, at least, Halsey thought. Ariane seemingly felt the woman's thoughts, flashing a smile at Elster, who gave a smile back. Six snorted at the sight, while Jorge patted him on the back and simply offered the brightest smile he could at the sight. He was still a SPARTAN, so the self-control needed to remain professional was taught from the earliest days of training.

"Just making a reading suggestion, ma'am," Carter joked, his voice softening upon him noticing that the situation had been defused. Halsey rolled her eyes and gave him an approving nod as the SPARTANs started departing. She pocketed the data storage device, looked to Jorge and gave him a nod of understanding, before stepping off. She stopped next to Ariane and whispered something which caused her to blush, before both she and Elster walked up to the window.

Both put their hands against the glass in the same spot, facing each-other. Ariane's mirthful smile vanished for a second as she noticed the injuries the girl had sustained via the blue light around the glass, but Elster shook her head and pointed at the purple blood, stating, "Not mine, don't worry. As for everything else, I got a few bumps and bruises from the fights, but I'll be alright."

"Okay..." Ariane nodded, her smile returning, "I miss you... Stay safe."

"I will... I miss you, too..." The Replika replied. Jorge hummed as he saw Doctor Halsey walk out with a smile. Ariane nodded, then sighed deeply and turned to leave as well. After giving Elster a quick wave, she blew a kiss her way, causing her to blush a little, before scratching the back of her head, slightly embarrassed. She waved goodbye back and watched Elster disappear down a hall with Halsey, then turned to face Jorge and Six.

She blinked as she saw Jorge's grin and Six with his arms crossed to his chest, asking them both, "What? What's wrong...?"

Chapter Text

Ariane was fast asleep, she was pretty sure. She, however, did not feel the semi-comfortable bed in ONI's CASTLE Base dorm under her. She didn't even feel the possible slab of titanium that was used as an operating table on which Doctor Halsey had put her in order to check various parameters of her brain activity during further tests pertaining her Bioresonance. No, she was floating in an empty void.

Her limbs were immobilized and she couldn't even look down to se herself. No, no, correction, the young woman could crane her head down. She just didn't see anything. Whatever was happening to her was not normal. Definitely and totally not normal. She should've had a body, at least, or been able to move. She felt her pulse, wherever her heart lay but below her, elevate.

Wherever she was, it did not bode too well for her. This place felt empty, awkwardly dark. She tried to blink away the Darkness, to force herself to wake up. Anything she attempted to do at the moment failed, driving her further into a panic. She blanked, paused and started breathing in and out, or, at least, simulating breathing to try and slow her elevated heartrate and racing mind.

She didn't know what effects Bioresonance would have due to an uneasy mind. She also didn't wanna test it out at this point. Too many variables, especially with the Covenant on the planet. That might've been one of the stress factors. In fact, the Covenant's presence planetside, even in small numbers, made everything feel like it was ending for a good reason. She'd seen the footage of what they did to the planets they 'conquered'.

And she dreaded for Elster... More than anything...

The girl blanked again, for but a moment. Blurry imagery resolved ahead of her, into a rusted-out nightmare. Concrete walls belied structural strength, a floor of steel grates sitting below her bare feet. Her long hair, no longer caught in its ponytail, flowed freely in a breeze that should not exist. On each side of her, rotting pews lay, lined with the shadows of humans and monsters. In the darkness past the grates on the wall in the rear of this strange hall, something pulsed.

The steel grates below her also hid something, deep below the darkness. Umbral, dark, pulsing, a seeming continuation of what flowed behind the Walls. The air felt oppressive, heavy to her. Behind her, she saw a door framed by a cage. It, too, was old and rusting. Oddly, the room was lit just enough for Ariane to see everything. She gazed down at herself, noting the white cryosleep gown she had worn before being taken aboard the UNSC vessel, hanging loosely off her frame.

She looked at her pallid hands, noting minor injuries long-since treated by the UNSC's advanced medical technology. Before long, however, her gaze was attracted to the centerpiece of the room. A mural lay ahead, on the farthest wall in the back the way the pews were facing. She took a step forward, hearing her footfall reverberate with a certain wetness against the concrete archways and walls around her.

In her ears came another reverberation, of a choir. Deep and barely audible, voices sang around her as she took another step forward between the rows of pews. The mural grew clearer the closer to it she got. A lone figure with two hands poking out of the wall stood, clad in a bright white veil. The choir remained at the same volume as Ariane approached it.

A golden halo outline surrounded the figure, the three stars of Eusan spread out at ten, twelve and two o'clock outside of it. The figure covered its face, a black, leaking mass with its right hand, while its left lay outstretched. Both arms resembled the desiccated remains of human ones, stuck in rigor mortis. The pulsing grew louder the closer she got to the wall, to examine the mural.

The white veil that covered the feminine figure's face became all the more torn as it reached its ghostly, pale legs. Despite her self-preservation instincts telling her better than to mess with it, the young woman put a hand on the mural, between the hands. She yelped as both hands suddenly grasped around that with which she touched the monument, the pulsating thump of a heartbeat echoing even louder, mixing with the choir of dark voices in a rhythm.

The figure leaned forward, her two-dimensional form in the frame of the monument pouring out into the distinct shape of a female frame. Her hands morphed, bloody, muscle and sinew visible through strips of flesh as it reformed. Her face was still shaded by the darkness within the veil, but the first to appear was her mouth and nose. She spoke to Ariane with an ethereal, beautiful voice, its words resounding in the deepest parts of Ariane's subconscious, "On the First Day, I was Crowned... And on this First Day, you shall Awake..."

Pressure built up in Ariane's mind as the figure's mouth opened again, feeling the woman pull her closer toward the wall, trying to drag her within it. She screamed and jumped as she felt an electric shock, her eyes shooting open. She grabbed onto her shoulder, panting heavily as the veins in her head thumped, her heart firing off like an assault rifle.

She looked to Halsey, the woman holding what looked to be a small stun prod. The Doctor's shoulders sagged as she sighed in relief, before asking, "How do you feel, miss Ariane? That must've been some nightmare..." as she set the prod to the side. Ariane's mind raced a thousand miles a minute as she got off her bed, before following Halsey almost instinctively to the medical room. Halsey explained, "That was a low setting, by the way."

"Still stinging, doc," Ariane quipped. Doctor Halsey hummed.

"What was your nightmare, miss Ariane?" Halsey inquired as she tapped away on her tablet. Ariane hummed, then calmly explained the entire ordeal to doctor Halsey, from the strange place that felt eerily familiar, to the figure in the mural, to her becoming real and trying to grab at her. Halsey had taken note of everything Ariane had confessed just now, with Cortana popping in on the medical room. After finally jotting down the last note, Halsey stated, "We'll do a checkup of your neural activity now..." as Cortana began preparing the devices needed.

Ariane hummed and nodded, letting the doctor set up the previously-used device to scan her patterns. She leaned against the table, letting the doctor do her thing while Cortana seemingly looked through a series of programs for the device. As the last sensor was attached, Doctor Halsey turned it on and... She gasped. Cortana herself went wide-eyed at the readings, then said, "What the hell...?"

"These readings are off the charts..." Halsey murmured. She took a moment to remember what Ariane had said about the dream. "'On the First Day, She Was Crowned... And on this First Day..." She looked at the girl and blinked. She kept up the scan for a few more minutes and made notes, before looking at Ariane and stating, "Whatever happened to you in that dream world, miss Yeong, it..."

"It enhanced your cognitive capabilities at least five-fold, not to mention the centers for Bioresonance are... Hyperactive," Cortana explained, turning to the girl and seeing her just as stunned as them. Cortana then murmured, "It's almost like God decided to give you a pass today... Or whoever that weird zombie lady in your dream was..." while working to determine just what could've given such an awakening for a boost. If it was truly a dream, even.

Ariane nodded, "Yeah... Got it..." and she looked at the readings, too. She couldn't understand some of the writings, but she knew, at the very least, that she felt more alert, at least. Her mind seemed to either be working overtime, or straight-up just working at a chunk of its intended power level now, compared to the earlier. She knew she was Bioresonant through reading some of her own medical data, but then why didn't she have the three stars so commonplace for Bioresonant beings?

She looked at her hand as Doctor Halsey brought out several necessary items for the next few experiments. Meanwhile, on another table in the room, there was a strange crown-like device being repaired by Doctor Halsey. Halsey also brought it over, before setting it down next to Ariane. The woman then hummed and handed her various items. She used her powers to lift them telekinetically, to move them around, to just casually do what she could easily do until now.

Interesting was the fact that her powers seemingly manifested more openly, now. She lifted a pot filled with water, a heavy item all-in-all. She felt it, even through the use of telekinesis with her Bioresonance. She hummed and pushed her powers a bit more, glaring at the pot. She gasped as the pot jumped upward, some water spilling from the top after the sudden deceleration.

"Oops..." Ariane murmured. Halsey, meanwhile, still kept her eyes on the neural responses from the use of her powers. She was also comparing them to the previous neurological activity from the girl during her 'first day' here on Reach. There had been a twelve-point-five percent raise in activity, of course, but it was also now a continuous stream of data instead of intermittent usage with pauses in-between, like her Bioresonant powers had been 'let loose' for lack of a better term.

She hummed and looked at the device she had set aside, next to Ariane, then she picked it up and looked it over. She hummed and asked, "Cortana, what are we looking at for projected inhibition and focusing with the prototype so far?" which stunned Ariane. They'd already got a working prototype to help with the Bioresonance issue? If there was something she could say about Doc Halsey and her AIs, it was that they moved fairly fast.

The Doctor loomed over a table with the device, connecting it to a series of wires next to the device. She began to calibrate it as Cortana turned to the girl and said, "Your development feels like it's getting artificially sped-up. Honestly, as long as you get time to learn to control it, I don't think it's gonna be a problem, but you can't blame a girl for being worried." and she shrugged. Ariane chuckled, nodding understandingly.

Halsey added onto the conversation, "I do suppose it's only natural to be concerned about the supernatural... Or the misunderstood," before walking up to Ariane and slowly removing the wiring off her head while the device began to calibrate itself nearby. To be quite fair, the device in and of itself was more of a 'crown of thorns' in design. It was obviously mechanical in some form, formed of wiring and various pieces of technology Ariane couldn't even name off the top of her head, despite hanging out with the doc and Cortana for a little over a couple weeks now.

She watched them with interest as they worked, with Doctor Halsey asking her to do various tasks every once in a while to ensure that her Bioresonant activity was still going strong. Of course, Ariane complied. She thought that if she could help fight the Covenant with her powers, she might as well. Those monsters killed enough people already. If Elster was gonna... No, no time to focus on that. She also needed to figure out who that being in her dreams was...

Elster herself, meanwhile, was tending to a UNSC Warthog in full armor. The ability to keep the exoskeleton on in case of anything was more than useful, honestly. It meant she had protection in case she made a mistake that got some shrapnel flung in her face. Right now, though, as she sat in the motor pool, she hummed and thought about the people back home. She wondered how they'd feel about her and Ariane forming up with the UNSC like this.

She sighed. She was sure the Protektors would throw a shitfit the moment they managed to read their minds, considering Kolibri units were generally specifically used for mind-reading due to their Bioresonance capabilities. While they were still limited compared to Gestalts like Ariane, or FKLR units, AKA Falkes, which were Commanders for multiple installations, they were still terrifying little bundles of psychic prowess.

Maybe they'd understand that this was about a bigger threat than the Empire, she thought to herself as she patched up the 'Hog's exhaust with duct tape. Maybe they wouldn't and she and Ariane would be gone all the same. Whatever the case, it was something to worry about if they survived the Covenant's deadly onslaught here on Reach and managed to escape.

She sighed and began putting the vehicle's engine bay back together. Seemed like these things had a penchant to break one seal or another every once in a while. Though, to be fair, this one was also hit repeatedly by plasma fire. She saw the carbon scoring on the forward plate, not to mention a needle shard embedded in the gun shield. She climbed onto the vehicle and pulled the shard out, then dropped it to the floor and let it shatter.

Jumping down from the vehicle, the girl walked out of the place and gazed up at the night sky. There was beauty in the stars as usual, but the fact that something else loomed above them, a small Covenant armada perhaps, made the stars all the more terrifying a sight. Which one of them could have been a Covenant ship, waiting, hanging above, ready to kill them.

She sighed and pulled out her canteen, taking an (admittedly unneeded) sip of water, before setting it aside. Her helmet was clipped to her belt, so she had it ready to grab at a moment's notice, should they need to deploy. Her mind wandered off in no particular direction now, as she strolled through this FOB on the Vieri territory, where NOBLE and their Army comrades had been stationed.

Ariane was one of the most prevalent thoughts in her mind, unsurprisingly. She dearly missed holding the girl close, but knew she was better off safe, underneath thick layers of rock, reinforced concrete and titanium plating. Better she be safe than in the middle of this war right next to her. As much as she loved her, Elster knew better than to even remotely question the circumstances. She just hoped Doctor Halsey would keep her safe, like she promised.

She paused and turned as she heard metal boots crunching the dirt below. She turned to face the new arrival and immediately saluted. Carter hummed, gave a salute back and nodded to Elster, "At ease..." before walking up to her. He then asked, "Everything in order, Private?" while the girl fiddled with a piece of equipment in one of her pouches. She nodded rapidly, then hummed.

"All's fine, sir. I just completed repairs on the Warthog that got damaged during the battle for SWORD..." She replied, then admitted with half-a-mouth "It took me a while to source the parts, seeing as this place is remote as is..." before noting that Jorge and Emile were the only others present outside and were talking. Kat, meanwhile, was inside a command post. She hummed and asked, "Take it Six and Three are out on that Recce op?"

"Yeah. Speaking of Six, he seems to have taken a liking to you." The man said as they started walking to the rest of the team. Upon noticing the arched brow of his mechanic, the man clarified, "I don't know many SPARTANs who'd give a SPARTAN Smile to anyone but our own..." and he looked back at her. She seemed to be processing the new information quiet well.

"That's sweet, sir, but I'm taken," Elster replied rather casually, prompting a snort out of the Commander. She hummed, "Though, to be fair, he does seem like an older brother type in behavior. Been making sure I take care of myself..." and she recalled the fact the man and her had even talked a little about the past. Friends and everything. And when both found they had nothing to really recall, they switched to talking about guns.

"Guess the Lone Wolf stuff with him was a bit of an overstatement... Mm, no, not likely," Carter hummed. Six did always operate better as a Lone Wolf, rather than part of a larger team during his own operations. Carter wasn't sure if Six wasn't some sort of special form of HEADHUNTER. Kat had given him files on potential recruits to replace Thom with and one of them was, in fact, a Headhunter.

Jorge greeted them with a wave, stating, "Commander, Seven."

"Nice of you two to join us," Emile quipped, sharpening his Kukri.

"Five, Four," She nodded in greeting to them, then looked at Kat and said, "I take it Six and Three need her for overwatch...?" before noting that Kat was, in fact, talking to both of them. A little squint and she could even see their helmet cameras on the monitor of the computer she was using for the data streaming in from their suits. MJOLNIR was a fancy piece of kit from what she remembered of the specs from Halsey's manuals. She wondered, however, just for how long the good Doctor had worked on the Armor. It was supposedly like a second skin to all SPARTANs, more than a piece of equipment. At least so she'd read in some of the reports.

Halsey had been thorough in making sure it was as impenetrable a Fortress as Mankind could muster for their elite soldiers.

"Hey, Elster," Emile started, "We never got to ask you, where're you and your girl from? We read some of the interviews and somesuch, but we never got the point... Eusan Nation?"

"A conglomerate of planets in our Solar System that has spawned out of a revolution against the oppressive Empire," Elster replied as she sat herself down, "At least that's what they always tell us," and she looked around. All three men hummed and looked to one-another, before looking to the girl. She shrugged, "The posters we had on our walls, the pictures of the Revolutionary and her Daughter on our walls... We were the Eusan People's Nation. It was a decent place to live, from what little I remember of it. Of course, shortages happened due to the War and all that..."

"Civil War that's still ongoing, I presume," Jorge hummed. Elster gave a nod, to which the group collectively seemed interested.

Elster hummed, then took a stick off the floor and started drawing the Solar System and its multitude of inhabited planets and moons. She pointed at the closest planet to the sun and said, "This is Buyan, the capital planet of the Eusan Empire and home of the Imperial Palace," then pointed at the next planet over, "A bit farther from the sun is Vineta, the ocean world ravaged by our war. Next is Kitezh, the world of Red Deserts, occupied by the Imperial Navy who are cutting off supplies for Vineta's rebuilding. Then there are the two gas giants around which Rotfront, one of our most populated moons, and Heimat, the center of AEON and the Revolution as a whole, orbit. Finally, Leng."

"Boss, doesn't this seem a little familiar?" Whispered Emile. Carter shrugged, looking over the detailed drawing of the System itself. It did have a certain resemblance to a certain human system that was of even higher importance than Reach, but it missed a few planets and moons, unless they only tagged the colonized ones. Even Leng looked like it was in the same position as a certain planetoid.

"And... No FTL?" Jorge asked. "No Slipspace, no nothing to explore the rest of the systems around you?"

Elster shook her head, "Penrose project ships get fired via a large mass driver from Heimat toward the outer areas." She then replied, making the group pause. She continued, "We hit somewhere around ten percent the speed of light thanks to the Mass Driver and our ship's engines were mostly for direction changes and orbital burns to keep us steady when and if we ever found a planet... Of course, that never came to be..."

"So, how'd you wind up over Reach, then...?" Carter asked with half a mouth.

"Didn't have that much time to check the navigation computer. If I did, I might've gotten some info over how we skipped our way over to a whole new Solar System in one go..." Elster replied, putting the stick aside and looking down at the replica of their home she had drawn so calmly in front of a squad of people she barely knew. She sighed deeply, rubbing her eyes, then stated, "Everything about me and Ariane clear now?"

"In a way," Jorge nodded, "Your Nation. Was it open to your relationship?"

"... I don't know. I never got to read the laws before I was deployed on the Five-Twelve," Elster shrugged, "I know the basics and I know Ariane was told to interact with me sparingly, but more than that pertaining to the relationship between Gestalts and Replikas is a blank for me. Probably for good reason, too..." and yet another memory flashed, this one her own, of how she and Ariane had spent their days aboard the ship. A faint smile appeared on her face, "Yeah... Not like it mattered."

Jorge gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder, which the girl accepted calmly. Sure, Eusan was a mess of a place, but at least it was home to some degree. She knew Ariane wanted to go home with the UNSC ASAP, to introduce them to the Nation and its people and, if possible, to help the UNSC induct their people into their wider empire. Honestly, Elster couldn't see that happening. What was more likely was a War breaking out.

Honestly, that was the last thing anyone ever needed, both here and back home. The UNSC was already dealing with a massed Covenant attack on Reach, presumably coming in hard and fast. She paused as she saw Kat stand up and walk up to them. The tech SPARTAN spoke, "We have a situation, sir..." as she handed her tablet to Carter. The rest of the squad gathered 'round, to see footage from Six and Jun's perspective.

A sea of purple lights filled their VISR displays. Images taken of a Covenant Strike Force. Carter murmured, "An army deployed on Vieri... You-"

"Already sent it to command. Holland confirmed that all troops are to enter High Alert. We're not sleeping tonight," Kat quipped. Carter hummed and nodded in agreement, looking to the rest of NOBLE. Elster tensed. That meant something big was coming up. A massive battle, presumably, if the Covenant were mass-deploying this large a force. Kat hummed and said, "We haven't figured out where they're deploying these units from."

"I feel like we'll find out early in the morning," Carter noted worriedly, "Pack your gear and load up on ammunition. If you want to sleep, do it now. Soon as Six and Jun are back, we're heading to the staging area..." to which the Group of SPARTANs and Elster nodded, already re-packing their magazines. This was gonna be it. Perhaps, they'd be able to throw the Covenant off Reach, buy themselves a little more time.

Elster felt a pit in her stomach, though... Something was gonna go really wrong...

Chapter Text

Elster held on. Images played back from last night's Raid on her HUD, ranging from the army of Covenant forces that'd clandestinely landed on Vieri, to the image of mass mobilizations across the entire planet. She watched with a muted awe the mobilization of forces taking place from a directly-linked Satellite above Szurdok. Hundreds of UNSC Vehicles, transports and even two Frigates vectored from orbit to assist in the assault came down upon the enemy's position. She could see the faint purple of the Covenant's LZ past the hills whilst manning the MG on the Warthog she'd just repaired, with Kat driving and Six riding shotgun.

Dot began her report to them, her voice dull as always, "It appears that Noble Team's discovery last night was not an anomaly. Large Covenant deployments have occurred undetected, and we are now under attack across the Viery territory, including orbital defenses. As per the Winter Contingency, we are countering on every front. Noble's reconnaissance has also identified sophisticated Covenant army hiding canopies, and has been pinpointed what's believed to be a landing zone for additional Covenant forces, the origin of which is yet to be determined."

"That landing zone has been tagged by UNSC Command as a Priority One target." Carter spoke over the radio. Elster tensed heavily, pressing herself into the MG's twin-stocks and making sure she was ready to take the recoil. She saw faint flickers in the distance, black and white clouds looming over the arid area of combat dead ahead, a place filled with mountains and wide canyons, resembling Kitezh. She heard Kat and Jun exchange words, then looked up at Carter's Helicopter, one among dozens of air assets which included Warthogs.

She then gazed forward as an explosion rocked the area. Noting the plume, she saw the mushroom-shaped device that presumably acted as a hiding canopy collapse under the blast. She gasped and ducked as a plasma bolt struck the gun shield of the 'Hog, then looked ahead and saw them. Three squadrons of Banshee fliers swooped in, their antigrav generators hissing and droning audibly. Bursts of plasma raked the assaulting force of UNSC vehicles, catching two Warthogs in the strafing runs. One of the vehicles burst aflame and flipped forward as a plasma boulder struck it.

"Looks like we stirred the Hornet's nest!" The girl commented as she shifted her weight to bring the gun around. She aimed up at the first Banshee, crosshair locking onto the thing, before she squeezed the trigger. Fifty-cal rounds left the barrels of the weapon at hundreds of rounds per minute, punching through the thinner plates of one of the canards and cutting it. The vehicle banked as one of its wing-tip antigravity generators failed, but the pilot regained composure just in time for Elster to rake the canopy.

It veered off and slammed into the ground ahead of them, causing Kat to steer left as shrapnel from the purple-white blast washed their vehicle and pinged off the gun shield. Behind her, the thunder of a 90mm ECH gun echoed and a tungsten shell punched clean through the maw of another Banshee, opening it like a can of sardines and causing it to blow up mid-air.

Kat veered left, then hard right toward a bridge upon which plasma mortars landed while Elster filled the air with machine gun fire. Kat looked to both of them, though, then called out, "You might want to hold on to something!" causing Elster to brace as she finally registered the destroyed bridge. She gasped and ducked from the gun, grabbing onto the Warthog's roll cage frame in preparation to jump off.

Kat punched it, the vehicle's engine revving and roaring and making Elster pray she wouldn't have to fix it again. She felt the imponderability hit for half a second as the vehicle jumped the broken bridge, then braced as it started to tumble over and pushed herself off of it. She felt herself hit the sandy ground hard, slamming into it and skidding to a halt across it, before hitting a rock with just enough force to wake her up.

She grit her teeth and watched as Kat went to wake up Six, before noticing the Covenant armed forces on the ridge they were. Plasma already started to fly their way, alongside concussion rifle blasts. She ducked behind a rock and went to grab her rifle off her back, only to feel nothing. She looked around in a panic, noticing it was on the floor, bent to hell due to the impact. She grit her teeth and drew her pistol, checking for dents and thanking the maker it still functioned.

Kat ran up to her and asked, "You still with us, Elster?!"

"Alive and kicking, no thanks to your driving! I need a bigger gun!" The girl replied, even garnering a short laugh out of Kat. She poked up over her cover and scoped in a pair of Grunts with her pistol. Two shots rang out of the barrel and struck both, causing the creatures to fall limply to the ground. This was gonna be a pain to deal with, she figured just as another Warthog crashed while trying to jump the bridge, the Troopers' screams audible from afar.

"Kat, Six, Elster, what's your status?" Carter requested calmly over the com.

Kat ducked behind cover as a bolt of plasma struck next to her. Six ran up to them and fired a grenade from his launcher. He had set it to remote-detonate, holding down the trigger to keep transmitting the 'stand-by' order. He let the grenade detonate in airburst, blasting apart a bunch of grunts and a lance of Jackals, before Kat replied to Carter, "Pylon is down and we're advancing up the hill!"

A Fuel rod blast struck behind them, atomizing a rock, followed by another one detonating just above them against a tree branch that immediately vaporized. Their Geiger counters spiked for a second before settling down again. Six poked his head up over cover and stabilized his grenade launcher on the rock, before squinting and firing a fragmentation grenade as his visor polarized.

Atop the hill, two green hover turrets, shielded and with glimmering emerald guns in their maws instead of the usual twin plasma blasters, aimed at them. The artillery turrets were being guarded by a platoon's worth of enemies, each in cover behind rocks or utilizing Jackals' shields as cover while firing needles and plasma their way. He ducked back down as the grenade exploded and said, "Two Fuel Rod Shades, plus about a platoon's worth of enemies."

"We gotta move before we get atomized," Kat noted, "Lieutenant, Private, let's haul it!" and she jumped out of cover, firing her assault rifle as she moved. Elster and Six both nodded to each-other and followed, Elster priming a fragmentation grenade and long-arming it toward a squad of Elites. Plasma rounds and a Concussion blast staggered the girl, but she pushed on as her shields recharged.

Six himself was being peppered by plasma pistol shots and needler rounds, but he managed to shoot off another 40mm grenade from the single-shot break-action launcher. It burst in the air, raining shrapnel down on the Elites. One of the monsters' shields broke and Kat was quick to draw her pistol and blast its head clean off as the trio pushed. Another fuel rod bolt lanced past them, radiation spiking, then struck the hulk of the destroyed Warthog they'd jumped the gap over the river with.

The team pushed forth, rifles ringing as they dodged Plasma Fire from all over the place. Kat cocked her right fist back and threw a punch with the momentum of her run behind it, snapping an Elite's neck with the hit. A second aimed its concussion rifle at her, but was pelted by rounds from both Six and Elster, the latter of which quickly shoulder-checked it, pinned it to the floor and filled it full of lead with her pistol. She ducked with a yelp as another shot from the fuel rod Shade turrets flew over her.

Her skin felt like it was being pricked by a thousand needles, while her internals almost had a moment of failure because of the radiation spike. She ducked and crouch-ran to the next piece of cover as she heard the impact of that round. She followed up by throwing a frag right at the antigrav base of the turret. The explosion seemed to do it in alongside the Grunt manning it as its husk rolled back upon detonation.

She looked to the ground and found a fallen Needler. Jumping, rolling forward and grabbing it off the floor, the girl took aim and opened fire. A full burst of needler fire filled the air between her and the enemy turret, several of the rounds making contact with the pilot and combining into a burning pink explosion which blew the turret's cannon clean off.

She hummed, looked at the now-empty Needler and tossed it aside. Kat gave her a nod and said, "Not bad..." before watching as a Pelican swung in for a landing. The two saw it drop off a Warthog with a pair of missile launchers as its mounted armament, all while Six was already moving toward it. He grabbed something off the bed of the vehicle as he reached it, then threw said something to Elster.

The girl grabbed it out of the air and looked to see it was a DMR. She checked the ammo in her pouches and nodded, before walking up to the Warthog. She paused, however, at the edge of the cliff, watching the battle going on across the river from them. On semi-open plains where the only cover was a piece of rock jutting out of the ground every few hundred feet, tanks and Warthogs clashed with Covenant Ghosts and Wraiths, while Falcons flew in low and fast alongside other defensive elements, putting the hurt on the Covenant's air support.

Six took the wheel of the Warthog, while Kat took the gun. Noticing this, Elster quickly marched up to the other seat and climbed aboard as Carter called out, "Two, Six, Seven, be advised:ONI has ID'd two hostile anti-aircraft guns southwest of your location..." while Six already hit the throttle to the max and began to drive. Kat replied to Carter, while Elster held on tightly to the vehicle's roll cage.

They trundled down the beaten path, next to the cliffside, while the battle around them raged on. Distantly, the enemy cannon roared as it discharged plasma shells. Six veered to the right, then to the left, drifting down a hill, then forward and up another. The first gun came into view, a massive emplacement, its coil-filled maw already powering to send in a second salvo of plasma bolts.

"2-Lima-4 to Noble, those guns are pounding us with high-velocity plasma shells!" Reported one of the pilots of the Falcon gunships. As the Warthog rolled forward, Elster could see the ongoing air battle, heavy gatling cannons meeting plasma from banshees. Elster was awed by the size of the Covenant's defensive emplacement, but hanged on tightly to the vehicle's roll cage still, holding her DMR close.

"That means support from the Frigate, Grafton, is also out of the question..." Dot commented impassively.

"Nobles, all our birds are gonna be stuck out of range until you take out that first gun," Carter ordered. Kat swiveled the rocket launcher of the 'Hog about as their vehicle rolled down the road and into the Covenant's lines. She zeroed in on an enemy vehicle first. A Ghost hoverbike was rushing toward them, firing its twin plasma cannons, while, on the hilltop where the first AA gun was placed, Covenant infantry came out to greet them.

Bolts of plasma struck around and over them, forcing Six to partake in some defensive driving. He drifted around a rock as a scarlet ball of plasma struck next to them. Elster caught sight of the enemy vehicle that fired it. A Revenant rolled up, aiming its gun at them. She grit her teeth and fired back at it with her DMR, feeling a slight prick of heat on her skin as bolts of plasma hit the Warthog and her from the right. She long-armed a grenade up the ledge where the Tyrant AA gun was, before watching Kat fire off a salvo of missiles from the launcher.

All six missiles connected with the Ghost, shattering the vehicle in a blaze as Six drove toward the Revenant, weaving through its shots. One round hit close enough for the SPARTANs' shields to flare, but Six floored it toward the machine while Kat locked onto it. A burst of missiles lanced out from the barrels of the launcher, puncturing the forward armor and immediately killing the crew as the vehicle burst ablaze.

The Warthog rolled around beside the ridgeline and climbed upward, meeting the first of the enemy's infantry head-on. A Covenant General Elite with a concussion rifle fired at them, hitting the Warthog and barely slowing it down as it plowed him through. Kat and Elster followed up by wasting a squadron of Covenant units that were reinforcing the man, missiles and bullets piercing flesh, bone and energy shielding.

"SPARTANs, new intel. The guns can't be damaged by normal weaponry." Carter spoke up.

"Which is why we suggest destroying the fuel cells inside," Dot added while Six and Elster dismounted and marched on inside, sweeping the area clear with assault rifle and DMR fire. A dozen Grunts met their end to bullets from their weapons as they pushed in, with Elster noticing the massive central glass-and-alloy pillar that was housing a blue-burning energy ball behind a shield. Humming, she kicked the shield, causing it and her own to collapse due to the similar frequencies interacting. She then threw a grenade inside it and motioned to Six to follow her out.

Alarms began to blare from the gun's control systems as the two walked out and looked up. Elster watched with muted awe as several conduits sparked and detonated across the body of the weapon, moving all the way up to the maw of the gun. One of the two prongs that contained the magnetic containment coils meant to shape the plasma into superheated bolts outright launched off the top, while the other bent to such a degree, it caused Elster to wince.

"That's one gun down," Kat commented. 2 Lima 4 called up air support as the SPARTANs walked over to the edge to see the ongoing battle Three massive, four-legged platforms had been deployed by the Covenant, plasma cannons on top firing toward the aircraft while the strange beam weapons mounted in their mouths spewed emerald-burning beams which melted UNSC tanks.

Explosions rocked the platforms, however, as the tanks and Warthogs returned fire. Kat hummed and said, "Well, fireworks are gonna be coming soon," as she motioned toward the two UNSC Frigates coming into play. The group ducked as the roar of fusion-powered engines came from above. Two of the delta-wing Longsword bombers also flew in, diving toward the valley where the enemy Scarab platforms were.

A multitude of explosions struck the enemy vehicles as the two aircraft dropped their payload, then banked away. Two of the Scarabs immediately got blown to pieces, followed up by the third's reactor going critical. Elster snorted and joked, "How's that for a blast...?" before turning toward the Warthog. Six and Kat gave each-other a look, then followed her to the transport.

Six immediately took the spot of driver again, while Elster sighed and looked to Kat, disappointment somehow deducible from her body's motions. The girl shrugged and said, "Six is a better driver than both of us. I'm not sticking my neck out in a place with cliffs to teach you how to drive..." before she reloaded the launcher's tubes and manned it. Six snorted, but managed to contain the laugh, SPARTAN discipline and all.

Elster mounted up and rode shotgun again as Six began their drive over, with Kat stating, "Six, I wanna get a better look at those Spires..." as they rolled by the cliffside. The SPARTAN nodded and veered gently to the left, before straightening their drive on the road. In the distance, several tall spires surrounded by energy shielding stood as monuments to the Covenant's presence in the area.

The vehicle ground to a halt for a moment as Six hit the brakes in front of a destroyed bridge. A Pelican was quick to fix it, however, as it flew in carrying a deployable bridge attached to the rear magnetic clamps. Upon arriving, the Pelican hovered and lowered the bridge as gently as possible, then lifted off. Six didn't wait for anyone to tell him to, pushing the vehicle's throttle to maximum and driving over the makeshift bridge.

They entered a canyon, travelling down one of the roads on the cliff face toward a group of industrial buildings built into the rock wall across from them. On a bridge dead ahead, Troopers exchanged fire with the enemy, using concrete barricades as cover. One of them noticed the SPARTANs and their 'Hog approaching and waved them over, a smile on his face. Kat traversed the missile turret toward the Aliens on the other side of the bridge and squeezed off a salvo of missiles.

A twin-plasma Shade Turret caught the brunt of the salvo, detonating and spraying shrapnel all around it. Several Jackals collapsed and two grunts died out of a squadron of twelve. The SPARTANs and Elster dismounted, rifles at the ready. The Trooper that'd waved them over spoke, "It's damn good to see you, SPARTANs!" as he and his comrades joined the team in its assault.

Pushing forward, Six spoke, "Keep it tight, Troopers," as he zeroed in on and shot an Elite whose shields were still recharging. Elster followed up with a few of her own DMR-based headshots against the Grunts and a disarming shot against a Jackal's hand, causing it to drop its Plasma pistol. She followed up by shooting it in the head as it exposed it. It dropped dead, its shield flaring and dissipating.

Pushing up past barricades and cover, the group put down whatever was wounded, but still moving. Dot spoke up, "New intelligence on an enemy High-Value Target being present in your area. An Elite Zealot, in fact," which caused the group to pause.

"Zealot? We're onto something big here, commander," Kat stated over the com, eager.

Elster racked her rifle's bolt and readied herself. She remembered what the last Zealot nearly did to her. Carter spoke up, "Eyes on the prize, Noble. Take out that Zealot if you can, but keep moving toward the Spire," all while the group began to push up the side stairwell of the industrial building. Kat hummed, then approached a pipe that served as cover and showed the team to wait with a raised hand.

Elster took a knee next to the troopers, while Six pushed forward and pied the corner. He took a step back and gave a confirmation nod as Elster saw it, too. Red dots on the Motion Tracker, marking a marching enemy unit. She shifted on her feet and pushed up next to them, before noticing a gas tank, painted red and with 'flammable' warnings plastered all over it. She pulled out her sidearm and aimed for the cap, watching as the Covenant's first soldiers came into view.

She then put two rounds through the tank, one in the cap, flinging it clean off, and another in the tank itself. The explosion rocked the platform and washed the Covenant troop in shrapnel. The UNSC forces marched past the metal-laden corpses and pushed further up the stairs, meeting the first true signs of resistance as Grunts with full-face gas masks opened fire on them. One of the Troopers behind the SPARTANs caught a needle right in the mouth and tumbled over, falling down the stairwell with several loud, sickening crunches during each impact.

Six put a grenade between that Grunt and his buddies, letting it detonate as an Elite Major turned the corner, hefting twin plasma rifles and opening fire on them. The entire fireteam lit him up, bullets pinging off the shield and causing the monster to stagger back under the whittling barrage of bullets. Once its shield burst, bullets started piercing through the body armor. It died, corpse flung over a safety railing behind it.

The SPARTANs and Troopers pushed on forward through the compound and underneath an archway of pipes. Six showed them to halt again, though, before poking out. A burst of automatic plasma fire struck his shields, nearly collapsing them. He hummed, drew his grenade launcher and quickly fired, blasting the grunt manning the plasma gun mounted at the end of the catwalk.

The group continued their push, meeting little resistance until the main courtyard. There, they caught sight of it. The Elite Zealot was present, carrying a Fuel Rod gun. Elster was really starting to hate those damn things at this point. Below it was a squadron of grunts and Elites, of course. The troop continued its assault, not even slowing down as they punched through the enemy, inflicting mass casualties.

Elster was the first to climb up the stairwell. She grabbed a plasma pistol off the floor and charged it up, aiming for the Zealot as it prepared to fire at her team. One ball from the Fuel Rod gun escaped and three Troopers were vaporized in a flash. Elster grit her teeth and let go of the overcharged plasma bolt. It homed in on the Elite, but it sidestepped it, then turned toward the Replika.

She boosted herself forward as the bastard started firing. Three bolts slammed around her, her Geiger counter kicking into high gear. She watched the bastard drop the spent artillery piece and grab a plasma repeater off its back, before opening up with it. Dodging under the bolts and taking a few against her shields as the others came about, the girl shoulder-checked the Elite and headbutted it, feeling her metallic spine slightly compress.

The monster replied with a hoofed kick square to her chest, sending her skidding back, before it charged her. It fired the weapon continuously, despite taking bullets from her allies, until it overheated in its hand. It tossed it aside and grabbed Elster by the throat with one hand, slamming her against the floor and cocking back its other hand. It clenched its fist and an energy dagger powered on.

Stabbing down, it felt its hand caught by Elster's. The blade stood mere inches from her helmet, held back only by the girl's left hand. She grit her teeth, then slammed her helmet's face-plate into the Elite's jaw while it roared, chipping a couple of teeth. She jumped back onto her feet and drew her rifle. She opened fire on it, combining her weapons fire with her allies'. She punched clean through the bastard's shields, sending it scrambling before Six finished it off with a headshot.

Six elbowed her in the shoulder and gave her a nod, before stating over the radio, "Actual, STRIKE Team, HVT neutralized and mining facility secured. We're proceeding to the next gun and the Spire..." and showing Elster to follow. Finding a hole in the floor, the SPARTANs and Elster descended down it, finding a deeper part of the facility wherein a garage was. Several Grunts spotted them and tried to make it to the vehicles they'd stored there:A Revenant and a Ghost.

Kat took the Revenant and told Elster, "Hop on," as Six took the Ghost. The girl complied, mounting up and feeling the light wobble as the vehicle's anti-grav generators kicked on. The two Covenant-made vics rolled forward toward the second gun, whose wail echoed around them as it fired. Covenant Troops already came into view, Elites, Jackals and Grunts.

Two of the Jackals lifted their shields and one of them charged its plasma pistol. It let loose the shot just as Kat fired the mortar on the back of the light tank. The EM burst disabled the vehicle's electronics for a short while, causing it to fall to the floor and skid a couple of feet. Six, meanwhile, sped forward, ramming through the Covenant forces even as the Elite General commanding the defense, one with a concussion rifle, fired at him.

The SPARTAN drifted the vehicle and fired the twin plasma cannons at the Elite, forcing it into cover while the Tyrant AA gun's maw boomed once more, plasma rounds lancing into the sky and striking one of the Falcons coming in to support them, vaporizing it in a blow. The Revenant soon regained its power, with Kat immediately lobbing a plasma shell the way of the Elite to force him out of cover. The round struck a rock, spraying molten material all over the place as the two crewmembers pushed the vic to its limit.

The Elite aimed its concussion rifle at them and fired a burst as they got close. Two of the three shots fired impacted the vehicle, sending it skidding into one of the three 'legs' holding the Tyrant in place. Kat and Elster both grunted, slightly discombobulated by the blasts, before Elster dismounted and Kat brought the vehicle about. Thundering footfalls filled their ears and all of them looked to see a pair of Hunters striding out of the place.

Elster swore to herself and ducked as the first of them fired its cannon. The heat and radiation made her feel sick, but she worked her way to dodging the hits, all while making sure the Elite wasn't gonna try and kill her. She saw the General as Six slammed into its back with the Ghost, before the SPARTAN turned toward the Hunters and powered on the vehicle's boost.

The headlong charge toward the Hunters was punctuated by volleys of plasma cannon fire from the vehicle. One of the Hunters, annoyed at the pest, swiveled about and swung its shield-arm downward. Six saw the attack coming and jumped off the Ghost just as the impact struck the vehicle and caved its engine bay in, before landing on the creature's arm and running. He pulled out a plasma grenade and slammed it into the beast's exposed head, then jumped.

Just before the beast exploded, Kat filled the other with enough plasma hits to cause it to stagger next to its sibling. There, the Plasma grenade shredded the stuck one to pieces, while its sibling was washed with guts and blue fire. It roared, pained and angry, before a second blast from the Revenant's mortar blew it to smithereens. Elster sighed in relief, falling flat on her ass next to the rock and watching as Kat and Six coordinated the hit on the enemy AAA Cannon.

The mortar shot that destroyed it lanced out from the smaller gun of the Revenant. A similar display to the previous gun filled Elster's visual sensors as she watched it detonate. She sighed deeply, stood to her feet and marched forward as radio calls came in and the two frigates approached their intended targets. A Falcon flew in with Jorge aboard, while Kat marched toward her. The girl patted her on the shoulder and told her, "They'll need a second gunner, Seven. Mount it up."

Elster nodded, then picked up the pace as Jorge waved at her. She saw Six get on the right-hand side of the Falcon and mount up on what looked to be an automatic grenade launcher. She went to the other side, sat down and took the other gun, to which Jorge said, "Need a ride, too, eh? Welcome aboard, Elster..." before the Helicopter began to lift off. "I'd beware, both of you. We tagged a lot of targets when we were travelling near the canyon..." Jorge told both of them.

Six and Elster looked to one-another, then nodded. Both tugged on the charging handles of their grenade launchers and watched as the ammo display flared and switched to the guns themselves. The Helicopter ascended and began its travel down the canyon. Below them was a rushing stream of blue water and, around them, were rock canyon walls resembling pictures from Kitezh. Beyond, lay the field of battle and several spires.

"On the bridge!" The Pilot called out as the aircraft flew in low. Dead ahead, between a series of other mining buildings and a wider open area, lay a bridge crossing over the crevice. It was being crossed by a squad of Aliens, so Elster and Six both tightly squeezed the triggers and let loose. Twin thumps echoed repeatedly from the two grenade machine guns, explosions blossoming across the concrete as the rapid-fire weapons spat out grenade after grenade.

The transport flew forth, exiting the canyon itself and banking right, to give the crew a clear line of sight on both the Spire and on a pair of Wraiths bombing the hell out of their allies farther on the left. Elster immediately started hammering her Wraith with the grenades from the launcher, hitting its rear multiple times and denting the armor. It blew apart at the seams, while Six's seemed to suffer a similar catastrophic failure.

The two continued firing as the Helo approached the target area, the main Spire, wasting several more platoons of enemies along the way. As the helicopter approached the target itself, the pilot seemed to hesitate for a moment. He spoke to the SPARTANs, "There's the spire..." as he hovered above the pulsating blue shield. Elster leaned over to get a good look at the Spire and her eyes widened. The sleek, strangely biological-looking 'stalk' rose tall, mushrooming at the top into a main platform with a thin, hollow shaft and a heavy base at the bottom.

"Copy. Dot?" Jorge inquired as he looked over the side at it.

"Latest intel suggests the Spire is projecting an electromagnetic energy shield," Dot replied with that same monotoneness Elster had become slightly accustomed to.

"Copy that. Priority one, pilot. Gotta know what's inside," Jorge stated. The Pilot hummed, hesitant, then gave his approval, gently nudging the helicopter inside. A wave of static washed over Elster's HUD and she felt the EM pulse prick at her internals, to the point she got slightly nauseous. She shifted uneasily in her seat and felt the vehicle begin to drop rather rapidly. Several callouts came from the pilot and the other Troopers aboard. Jorge himself said, "Lock your armors!" And Elster wondered if she could actually do-

The vehicle hit the ground like a hammer blow, skidding, sliding and tearing itself apart as it dug a neat little canyon in the sand. Elster had been thrown out of it. She hit the face of a rock hard, to the point where she heard and felt one of her arms stop working. The world around her spun for a moment, memories playing back of a similar had landing. A sole figure stood above her, checking her over, though she only had half her vision... All was blurry...

Then it cleared. Elster groaned and felt her left arm hanging loosely out of its socket. She looked over to the SPARTANs, to see them slowly recovering from the impact. Her left shoulder had, in fact, been pulled out of its socket by the force of impact, but no other diagnostics played over her visual sensors' HUD. She grit her teeth, grabbed onto the arm and pushed it back in with a sickening crunch of titanium bones and articulations locking back into place. She then pulled one of her three remaining repair sprays and shoved it in the wound, squeezing the trigger and letting the polyurethane foam form.

She let it cure as she stood up, then she tested the movement of her arm, rotating, flexing and extending it. Finding the movement range to be just right, she stepped up to the other two and grabbed a rifle off the floor, casting a quick glance of acknowledgement at the dead men that'd been with them on that bird. Jorge looked over at her and asked, "Second crash for the day. Doing alright?" to which she shrugged. Jorge hummed and nodded, then stated, "We gotta get upstairs, disable the shield. Six? You good on that end?"

The SPARTAN pulled out his grenade launcher and thumbed the switch. The Grenades would henceforth have a slight EM Pulse when fired, meaning Six could disable anything the Covenant threw at them for a short time. And considering the fact there seemed to be a Covenant Banshee overhead, well, Six probably already had a plan. Jorge gave a nod to them, then said, "Already picking up a lot of enemy contacts. Let's start pushing."

Elster booked it with the boys, rifle in hand as she scanned the tops of rocks. She wasn't in the mood to be ambushed or shot, honestly. She kept up with the two SPARTANs despite them being transhuman supersoldiers to some degree. Then again, she was as close and far to them as it got. Close in the sense of being tantamount to a superpowered human, but far in the sense of being who she was.

The first Covenant units appeared. A needle rifle shot snapped by Elster's ear, followed by a second one slamming into and detonating off her shields. A Skirmisher stood atop a rock, firing at them. In front, grunts and Jackals, as well as an Elite in blue armor. The SPARTANs and Elster formed a wedge with Jorge at the front. Bullets rang out as they met the enemy force.

Plasma bolts began to fly, some hitting the SPARTANs and blasting through their shields, others hitting Elster's own shields and armor. She dodged and weaved as best as she could between them. Some still hit and nearly punched through her armor, which she felt heating at points, but once they closed the distance, the first enemy was met with the butt of her rifle. Bones broke, necks snapped and bullets, boots, fists and rifles met alien skulls.

The further up they pushed, the harder the resistance got. And the damn Banshee had noticed them. Elster called out, "What the hell are they even defending!? We caught their Banshee's attention!"

"Apparently, it's a teleporter!" Jorge replied as he hefted his LMG. Six waved him off from shooting at the Banshee, drawing his grenade launcher.

"What's it linked to!?" She demanded as she took a knee and fired a burst at another Jackal that got on top of a rock. Three bullets, each hitting center mass at the sternum, throat and then head. The bird squawked and tumbled off the rock with a series of sickening bone crunches. A plasma bolt washed over the shield on her head, forcing her to blink away the greenish-tinted light in her eyes.

She grit her teeth and charged the Grunt that fired at her, slamming the butt of her rifle down on its head and cracking it wide open. She staggered, surprised at her own strength as the blue blood of the little creature stained both her weapon and her armor. Shaking her head to clear the surprise, she moved to follow the SPARTANs upward, then watched with muted awe as Six shot a grenade, let loose its EMP and disabled a Banshee before boarding it and kicking out the Elite.

She shot the Elite dead as she watched the SPARTAN take off, with Jorge noting, "Actual, Six is en route up to the Spire! We'll hold'em off here!" before motioning to Elster to follow him to the open area between the rocks and the platform. She and Jorge went back to-back, firing their weapons at the advancing enemy teams that were trying to cut them off.

"Copy that. I'll be in there with a Falcon as soon as the Shield's down. Prep for a hot extract, the Grafton's waiting to blow that thing to pieces..." Carter replied. Jorge and Elster nodded to one-another. Each turned to face the hostile targets pushing them, firing away in their respective 180-degree arc to keep them away. Elster herself was gunning at the Grunts trying to rush them from the Platform, keeping them suppressed with bursts of AR Fire.

"So, Elster," Jorge started as he swept the area ahead with his MG, pinning down a pair of Elites armed with plasma repeaters. He looked back while keeping the trigger squeezed down on the MG's trigger. He wanted to ask something, clearly, seeing as Ariane was clearly a fairly important person for Elster. He hummed and quipped, "When's the wedding?"

Elster snorted, "Soon as we're done here..." appreciating the light bit of humor as she attempted to keep the other enemies in the AO pinned as well. Of course, the battle wouldn't really last that long. Both of them looked up as the shield above began to dissipate. The Falcon came in, bursts of autocannon fire filling the place and wiping a slew of enemy forces as it touched down.

The two rushed aboard and jumped in, with Carter hitting behind his seat. The Pilot took the hint and lifted off, aiming to recover Noble Six first. The SPARTAN ran, with Jorge and Elster extending their hands out from the Chopper's side to catch him. The man jumped, pushing himself far, before both of them grabbed him and lifted him up onto the vehicle. He took a seat as Carter ordered, "Get us outta here!" before radioing in as the Chopper started flying away, "Control, this is Noble One! Spire One is green and you're clear to engage. Have a nice day."

Elster removed her helmet, listening from afar to the radio, "Copy, Noble One. Be Advised, All ground units:Frigate Three-One-Eight Heavy is inbound and MAC Rounds have been authorized!"

"MAC Rounds?! In atmosphere?!" Jorge seemed almost surprised.

"One way to get their attention," Carter quipped, "Hand on to your teeth, people!"

Elster smiled at the quip, then went quiet, her mouth slightly ajar as she saw one of the many UNSC ships she saw in orbit fly in. The gun-shaped vessel was beautifully utilitarian, reminding Elster of home, but the black armor plate with few white stripes gave it a sense of danger greater than what even the Eusan Navies could muster. It was eerily beautiful to watch it approach its target. Before long, however, Elster heard the ripple of charging magnetic coils, followed by the sharp screech of the round leaving the barrel. A bright-white flash burnt itself into her robotic retinas for half-a-second and the blast reverberated through her titanium endoskeleton, before she saw the spire cored, collapsing.

Jorge gave an approving nod while looking at the team, just as the sky above began to glow purple. Elster blanked, looked up and her gaze settled on the Grafton just in time to see a massive energy beam core her. The beam cut through the frontal 'prongs' of the vessel and into the bridge, a multitude of explosions rippling across the hull of the ship as the beam dissipated.

"New contact:High Tonnage." Dot reported, annoyingly monotone...

Elster gasped, looking up as Jorge called out dismally, "No, no! Somebody tell me this ain't happenin'!" and saw it. At an incredible length, with a hooked prow and massive bulbous body linked by a long neck, with armor plating thicker than any conventional UNSC vessel and sitting at many times the size of the UNSC's largest ships. Its energy projector, located in the belly, began to cool.

Elster's heart sank as her mind tuned out the conversation. She stared with not even awe, but an awful sense of dread at the massive Carrier...

What monster did the Covenant bring in from the pits of hell...?

Chapter Text

Team NOBLE had regrouped.

Barely.

Behind them, Covenant weapons platforms fired beams of hatred at their army comrades. Scarabs strolled past, feet thundering against the sands of the Szurdok region as the team climbed the side of a cliff face. Elster stared, mute, as the Covenant warship above had broken for orbit, while the Covenant's newly-deployed armies had begun their wider campaign in this area.

She sighed deeply as they entered a strange cave, walking with Jorge, Six, Emile and Jun all the way to the back. Sat at the mouth of the cave, Carter and Kat began talking. Dot, meanwhile, gave the report, "It seems our enemy is far more cunning than we thought. The Teleportation Spires doubled as a Covenant Cloaking device that concealed the presence of a Supercarrier in low orbit above Reach. Command has already recalled most of the Epsilon Eridani defense fleet from existing deployments and their arrival is imminent.."

Sitting herself down as Jorge threw down an armored briefcase containing heavy equipment. She paused as she heard Dot add, "The first Battle Groups should arrive within..." She paused, then a hint of fear in her deadpan voice made itself known as she stated, "Forty-eight hours..." words which caused Elster to double over. She took her helmet off, revealing fearful eyes.

"Forty-eight hours!" Jun snapped, "That's imminent?!" and he looked to Emile. The shotgunner shrugged and sighed, back leaned against a rock behind him, while Elster went on to reload her magazines with extra bullets they had on hand. She sighed and looked up at Kat and Carter as the two talked at the mouth of the cave, with Jun humming, "Uh-oh... Who's your money on this time?"

"Her," Jorge replied calmly.

"You always pick her," Jun replied with a scoff, garnering a laugh out of Emile and a short chortle out of Six as the SPARTAN started taking apart his firearm.

Jorge chuckled, "She's always had him dialed in." And that got a quick giggle out of Elster, too. The girl shook her head at the antics of the team, before looking forward at their two team leaders. It wasn't as much of a chat as it was an intense, focused conversation, it seemed. Pertaining their next course of action, Elster figured. Her enhanced auditive systems could tell faintly what was being spoken, though the surprising bout of tinnitus from fighting didn't help.

... How the hell did Replikas even get tinnitus? She wordlessly wondered as she tried to clean her ears with her pinkie. Emile noticed and laughed, before tossing the girl an MRE. She caught it, nodding in thanks to their resident lunatic and popped it open to start eating. She also noticed the light beam beating down in the middle of the cave was coming from a hole in the roof. One she hoped the Covvies couldn't easily peek through.

Popping open the food packet, the girl asked, "I never got to ask you all what your relationship is with each-other..." before taking a bite of a cracker. She technically did not need to eat, but her familiarity at this point, plus the resurfacing memories of her Persona, meant she felt more comfortable with munching down on anything to keep the boredom and mind-breaking idea that she had been someone else away.

"Most of us are replacements," Jorge noted as he hefted his LMG off the floor.

Jun pointed at Kat and Carter and stated, "Just the two of'em are original members. We had another guy, but he died a few weeks prior to us being assigned on Reach. Same company as me, Carter and Emile..." before humming and laughing, "Thom was a good guy..." before Jorge had noted Six was slightly uncomfortable with the discussion. They couldn't have been the only ones to read files, could they?

He got an elbow in the shoulder and shut up. Six stood there, awkwardly, before humming and turning toward their TLs. He tilted his head toward them and the rest of NOBLE nodded in reply, those that were seated standing up and marching up to their team leaders. They overheard Kat talking first, clearly indignant, "... and we're waiting for backup? They'll be backing up a graveyard!"

"All our nukes are out-system or went down with the ships that carried them," Carter replied annoyedly, noting the look on his XO's face, "You're preaching to the converted."

"How converted?" She tilted her head questioningly. If Six and Elster had learned anything, it was that when Kat had a plan, that plan was gonna come to fruition one way or another. And they could also tell that Kat and Carter had gone through enough together that the man knew what he was about to get asked:Some insane plan that would probably lead to death if it failed. Desperation makes one do weird things.

"I know that look, Kat," He stated bluntly.

Kat shrugged, "You can say no-"

"No," He deadpanned.

"Don't even wanna hear it?" She inquired, hopeful.

He clicked his tongue and took a moment to think. If it was bad, Holland would throw it out the moment it came up. If it was good, well, there was only so much life left in SPARTANs like them anyway, so why push death farther away than it should've been, right? He hummed and sighed, defeated, "Okay, let's hear it..." before leaning back and waiting to see what Kat's plan was. He saw the nigh-imperceptible catty smile on her face form and disappear in a split second.

She began, "Remember that accident a couple of years back? Colony ship en-route to Cygnus? Seven hundred dead?"

"If I remember correctly, a slipspace drive malfunction, right?" He inquired, well-aware there was some hidden gem here he wasn't catching on to.

"Actually, it worked fine," She smirked, leaning forward. Carter had seen lightbulbs pop up in Kat's brain before, but this one felt a little shadier than most. Listening to her explain confirmed his belief. She stated, "The drive was mounted improperly after a service haul-out. When it fired, it..." She paused and figured out a good way to explain it. She settled on, "Teleported half the ship to oblivion..."

"And this is relevant... How?" Carter raised a brow at his XO, all while noting that his team was approaching them. He had a feeling he knew where Kat was going with this.

"Well, a certain Covenant supercarrier could, with some assistance, suffer the same, unfortunate fate," She quipped, crossing her arms to her chest. She seemed to have struck a nerve there, seeing the faintest look of surprise form on Carter's face. She had to admit, it'd never get old, catching her old friend by surprise. Age difference or not, the two of them were still the SPARTANs that built NOBLE, so they knew each-other well.

"Even for you, Kat, that's-" Carter hummed.

"Inspired?" She shot back.

"Not the word I'd use..." He shook his head and leaned back. Noting the presence of his squad, he saw the confusion behind their eyes, despite the impassive stares of each. He looked to Kat and ordered, "Go ahead. Tell them..." as he straightened his spine a bit. He hummed and looked outward at the distant engagements up above as UNSC troops staved off a Covenant counter-attack around Szurdok.

Kat walked up to Emile, much to the man's surprise, and grabbed the hilt of his Kukri to try and remove it. Emile, defensive as ever with his toys, grabbed her right hand, that being her prosthetic, to stop it. She tilted her head with a grin and asked, "May I?" quite playfully. The SPARTAN looked back at his team-mates, including an amused Elster, then sighed.

"Don't cut yourself," He replied jokingly, letting go of her hand. She yanked the blade out of the magnetic lock sheath and kneeled in front of them, beginning to explain the plan. And Elster wasn't sure she liked the whole situation. So many things could easily go wrong with something like this. It was an improv plan wherein the training she was remembering demanded a strict adherence to doctrine.

... Wow, that was an odd memory to come up at this time.

"Objective," Kat began drawing a rough diagram of their plan with the tip of Emile's knife, "Destroy Covenant supercarrier in geosynchronous orbit above Reach."

"This sanctioned, sir?" Both Elster and Jorge whispered toward Carter, then looked to one-another and gave approving nods. Guess it was a common worry.

Carter snorted and replied with a half-hearted, "What do you think?"

"Oh," Jorge sighed. Elster crossed her arms. Of course, it wasn't. It was an impromptu, Guerrilla Warfare-style plan.

"Method?" Kat continued, looking at the team now that they were done talking, "A Slipspace drive in lieu of the Nukes we don't have. Delivery system:Us. Solvable, getting us up there. That," She hummed and stood to her feet, "and getting our hands on a Slipspace drive..." she then lifted the knife, letting it slightly fly and grabbing it mid-flight by the flat side of the blade. She smiled at Emile and handed it back, stating, "Thank you for sharing," as Four slotted the blade back in its specialized sheath.

"So..." Carter took a moment to process the plan, then sighed and asked, "All we need is orbit-capable transport and the single most expensive piece of equipment made by man..." with an unimpressed look. Elster snorted at the implausibility, which got a look from Carter and Six that shut her up immediately. The man hoped he wasn't too tough on the girl.

Kat noticed and ignored it, too, grinning. She shrugged defensively, then spoke in the usual ONI denial-deflection way of, "As a soldier in the field, I couldn't possibly have access to all of those assets. Though, I think a good place to look would be, oh, I don't know..." and her gaze slowly shifted to the left, "The nearest non-existent launch site for the non-existent 'SABRE Program', dismissed by three administrations as preposterous rumor, and in which our second newest arrival," she locked gazes with Six, "Was never a pilot."

While Six avoided her gaze, Emile bluntly stated, "You're scary, you know that?"

"She's fuckin' terrifying," Elster whispered absentmindedly. Jorge chortled at the comment, while Kat gave Elster a quick wink. The Replika took a moment to register that and her cheeks turned a tinge redder. She facepalmed and sighed, thinking of Ariane instead. Kat chuckled at the sight, then looked to Carter and hummed as she thought of the next step of the operation.

"All we need is a green light from Holland now," She stated as she fished through her pockets.

Carter scoffed and snorted, "Good luck with that."

"You're the one asking him," Kat pulled a tacpad out of her pocket and wiggled it in front of their team-leader, who didn't seem too fond of the idea of asking to do a suicide op like this from their CO. Thankfully, Kat knew NOBLE Actual would find some way to make it happen. She wiggled the tablet in front of Carter again, causing the man to sigh. He stood up and grabbed it out of Kat's hand, then walked to the back of the cave.

He sighed, "Oh, there's no way in hell he's gonna go for this..."

... Colonel Holland did go for it, in fact. Elster held on to the seat of the falcon she was on as they flew toward Farkas Lake in the Eposz area. Another beautiful vista with a wide lake sprawling across multiple kilometers. There was a beach ahead of them, full of rocky outcroppings, as well as a massive UNSC Military installation located at the other end from where they were landing. There was a fierce gunfight going on around the facility, too, obviously.

The bird dipped and performed a quick deployment of five of Noble's members. Jorge quipped, "Bit of a hike to the launch facility," as he readied his MG.

"Any closer's too hot to land.." Carter noted. Jorge gave a nod and Carter made a forward hand motion, "Move up the Beach, Noble!"

The group began their sprint up, feet stomping against the black sand below as they moved on in. Ahead, they could hear the thunder of assault weapon fire and the wail of plasma weapons. They saw a Covenant dropship swing in, dropping its deadly cargo of hostile Aliens while the UNSC troops inside fought. The Army Troopers behind the barricades fired away at the Covenant troops, forcing them into cover behind rocks.

Elster was the first to push, picking up speed due to her enhanced robotic physiology. She hefted her assault rifle and let loose a stream of bullets at the first Covenant Elite that came into view. A Blue-armored basic Elite got filled full of rounds, shield collapsing quickly, only for the remaining rounds to rip into it like it was nothing. Purple blood stained the beach, flowing down-slope toward the lake like a small river.

Kat followed up behind Six, her pistol knocking off the heads of several Grunts while their Elite handlers turned around to engage them. Plasma rounds lanced through the air, hitting and melting sand into glass. She ducked behind a rock herself, then poked out and opened fire, suppressing the enemy with Jorge beside her. Carter, Six and Elster pushed on forward, sallying through the line of Covenant troops.

A pair of Grunts turned toward them and opened up with their plasma pistols and needlers, but none of them were lucky enough to score any decent hits before Six put a bullet through each of their skulls with a DMR. The group paused, however, as the whistle of engines flaring echoed from above. Jorge jumped back, while Six and Carter combat-rolled off to the right and left, respectively, as a dozen Covenant drop pods thundered down onto the beach.

Elites spewed out of them. Minors, Majors and Ultras. One of the aforementioned Ultras zeroed in on Six, charging the SPARTAN and slamming into him by using its full body-weight, throwing the man backward and slamming him against a rock hard enough to break chips and chunks off of it. The Elite then drew its energy sword and swiped at the SPARTAN, but was quickly kicked in the chest.

It got staggered enough for Elster to push toward it. She slammed into it, feeling a sharp pain surge through her shoulder for a moment. She kicked it as it fell, then put the butt of her rifle in its face once, twice, thrice. The shield shattered and one of the Elite's teeth was chipped as the Replika hit it with the rifle. She then climbed onto its back, slinging her rifle on a mag-lock, grabbed it by the mandibles and twisted. A crackle-pop filtered into her auditory sensors as the Elite's spine snapped. It fell, limp, to the floor.

She stood up and, with her rifle now in hand, she opened up on another Elite Minor, putting several rounds into it before her gun clicked empty. She quickly reloaded it as Six joined her, DMR ringing. Bullets sparked off the shield around the head of the Elite, before said shield flashed, sparked and died, the monster collapsing with a high-caliber rifle round through its skull.

"Really good at headshots, ain't'cha...?" Quipped Elster as she slammed the fresh mag home, then racked the bolt. Six nodded and patted her on the shoulder, showing her to follow along with Jorge and the others. She took cover behind Jorge as plasma bolts halved her shield, then pushed up with the big man. Carter's rifle sang beside them, while Kat kicked away the Elite Major and put enough rounds into it to stagger and kill it.

The Troopers at the doorway to the base waved the Spartans and Elster over, with them all turning around and opening up on another squad of Covenant coming in to land. A platoon of Army troopers quickly filed out of the building as a heavily-accented voice called to the SPARTANs, "Get inside, SPARTANS! We'll hold the door!" before a multitude of UBGL 40mm rounds flew out and detonated.

Carter nodded and motioned to his team to move inside. Above, air defense cannons lit up the sky as a Covenant fighter swooped down toward them. Its shields flared as multiple high-caliber rounds and missiles struck it, before the shields died and the rounds tore at its hull. It careened off to the right and slammed against the top of the building, shattering in a blinding explosion.

The group moved down the Corridors, past squads of Troopers tending to the injured of the place. One of the Troopers pointed to their left. The group entered where they were directed and found a rather nasty hole in the roof, with remains from the Seraph fighter hanging from the roof. Jorge murmured, "Still can't believe Holland said yes to this..." as they pushed further into the facility via the narrow corridors.

"When it's the best we got, I can't imagine why he'd complain," Elster replied, pushing up with him and Six. The building shook and shuddered as plasma rounds impacted the place. Elster had to register Kat's little glance, but continued on with the team eitherway. They needed to get to that fighter and get the hell upstairs in order to get that Slipspace drive bomb operational. She needed to be up there.

"Right this way, SPARTANs!" Waved a Trooper toward them. Another blast shook the base and the Trooper, who was carrying a Jackhammer rocket launcher, stated, "Oh, dammit! Wraith on the lower platform!"

Six rushed up to the Troopers and grabbed a launcher from the side, hefting it onto his shoulder. He and the rocket team launched together. Six missiles streaked over toward the Wraith as it charged its plasma mortar. Each struck, cratering the armor at a specific point and causing the vehicle's internal fuel lines to catch fire and detonate, the blast causing the tank to blossom into a burning flower of alien alloy.

Dropping the Launcher, Six then followed the team deeper into the facility. An Elite appeared, throwing a trooper against a wall hard enough to snap her spine, before the SPARTANs all stopped and levelled their weapons on it. Elster could swear she saw the faintest twinge of fear appear in the Alien's eyes before five assault weapons lit it up like the lights on Heimat during the Anniversary of the Revolution.

They walked past the corpse, with Elster going to check on the dead Trooper. With a sigh, she closed the man's eyes and stood to her feet, rejoining Noble. Her mind raced now, as she entered the control room. Corpses littered the place, both Covenant and Army Troops, as well as another branch of the UNSC Military:Marines, clad in their olive drab uniforms and carrying MA5B Rifles.

She guessed this'd be a joint Army-Navy-Marine op, honestly. They had a ship coming in that contained a squadron of Marines. Walking up to the center of the room and holstering her assault rifle, the girl leaned over the Holographic table displaying the form of a Covenant Corvette stationed in low orbit above them. Their exact target for Operation:UPPERCUT's first Phase.

She watched blast doors split open ahead of her, revealing the frame of the four-engine heavy-duty Sabre-class fighter of the UNSC. An experimental design, it would be launched into orbit alongside the rest of its squadron with the aid of the specialized booster system attached at the tail-end, made up of four heavy-duty rocket engines and a central fuel cell.

It was a two-crew bird. She hummed. The UNSC probably needed someone who could tend to their impromptu 'warhead' if it got damaged, so with one motion of her hand, she let Carter know she was going, much to his and Jorge's surprise. She marched with Six up to the launch platform, before noticing Jorge approaching, too. The man spoke, faint worry hidden behind his usually calm voice, "You gonna be alright, Seven? I can take your place. Reach's my home, after all, not yours," to which Elster nodded. She looked to Six, who was already climbing to the top of the Sabre and mounting up in the cockpit.

She looked to Jorge now, and replied, "I have to go on this one, Jorge. I'll make sure to keep our bomb in top shape... And that we'll wipe that Covvie carrier."

Jorge sighed deeply, then extended a hand to the girl, which she shook firmly. He told her firmly, "Take care of yourself and Six up there. We'll make it count down here."

"I'll do my best," She smiled, depolarizing her helmet's visor for Jorge to see it. A sudden regretful expression formed, her smile dimming slightly, "You... Take care of Ariane if I don't-"

"Don't start with that, Els. Go," He stopped her, then tilted his head to the aircraft, "You'll tell'er you blew up a Covvie ship yourself, ya hear?"

Elster nodded and smiled, before rushing toward the aircraft. She strapped an M-SPEC Re-entry pack to her armor, before clambering up onto the aircraft's side and then pulling herself into the co-pilot/gunner seat. She gave Six a thumbs up and made sure her suit had enough juice and oxygen to keep her alive. As Six started running diagnostics, the canopy of the aircraft closed above them, locking into place and sealing with a sharp hiss of pressurization.

As the computer ran through diagnostics itself and the system, Elster started, "Hey, Six," while strapping herself in. Six turned toward her, looking out from behind the console ahead and straight at her, though she couldn't make it out thanks to the visor. She continued, "You're gonna need to give me a brief rundown of what I'm supposed to do... This is a RIO position, right?" She remembered that much from the old memories of encountering pilots during Vineta... Ugh, Vineta. Hell on the sea.

"WSO, but yeah," Six replied, turning back to his own console and running the final launch sequence. He explained as calmly as he could, "The touch screens should tell you what weapons we have selected. I'll be running the 35mm autocannons on the side. You have the missiles and gauge the fuel we have left for the flight. Keep me posted on the ship's status while I'm focused on flying, too... Oh, right. Radar as well."

"Got it," Elster braced herself as she heard the muffled roar of engine ignition and began to feel the rattle of the bird's frame as the escape-velocity-capable boosters powered. She felt the craft launch forward on a rail system, her body compressed against the cushioned seat behind her. She held onto both her belt and the console as the aircraft lanced up, leaving a trail of smoke behind itself.

In the corner of her eyes, despite her vision blurring, Elster could see half-a-dozen other Sabres launching from the facility's other ramps. The ascent was a G-force-heavy endeavor, forcing Elster to use techniques like focused breathing to keep her oxidant from flowing to the back of her skull and causing her to pass out. Sure, she was not human, so the G-Forces didn't affect her nearly as badly as they probably affected even Six, a SPARTAN supersoldier, but it was still an annoyingly common problem, it seemed. She thanked the lord, Kat and UNSC Procurement for her armor, though.

Piercing through the clouds and the upper atmosphere into the void above Reach, Elster once again saw the beauty of the planet below her. Scars now pockmarked Vieri, however, marks of the Covenant's deadly campaign on the planet below. The enemy Supercarrier had to go down if they wanted any hope of saving Reach as a whole. She hummed and thumbed her controls, feeling the vehicle's ascent begin to normalize. Beside them, the other strike fighters began to jettison their extra fuel and the boosters.

Six tapped a few buttons on his console and gave a thumbs up to Elster, who nodded and touched the few flashing items on her screens. A muffled thunk echoed from outside, followed by another, louder one. She checked the rear camera of the aircraft, watching as the orange tube containing liquid rocket fuel began its descent back into the atmosphere.

Six tugged on the bird's stick and brought them facing 'up'. Admittedly, there was no real direction in space, just the variabilities of their rotation in the three-dimensional space, rotation provided by the RCS thrusters installed aboard the void-capable fighter. She saw the gusts of RCS thruster exhaust as the craft stabilized, nose pitched toward what looked to be a distant orbital facility.

Six turned on their mainline engines, the craft rumbling slightly as its own rocket boosters engaged. He pushed the throttle to max and the bird lurched and launched forth, entering higher orbit in formation with the squadron. Six radioed in, "Anchor Niner, this is Sabre Bravo Oh-Two-Niner, en-route to your current position. All thruster systems green and engines hot. WSO, rear SYS and Weapons checks. Master Arm SAFE."

Elster nodded and ran through the list as the squadron moved toward Anchor 9. She spoke like a well-oiled machine, running the checks, "Master Arm SAFE, aye. Missile systems operational, lock-on and helmet HUD display check," she tapped a few buttons and wirelessly linked her helmet's HUD to the targeting display. It flashed, ran a quick diagnostic and gave a green light as the HUD-based crosshair for the missiles, a disconnected diamond-shape in a circle, flashed on. Elster reported, "Lock-on and HUD systems are green. Shipboard AShMs are hot and ready for combat use. All nominal, subsystems green, green, green, guns green, shields and radar, green. Bravo Oh-Two-Niner Wizzo confirms SYSCHECK complete, systems nominal."

"Roger. Bravo Oh-Two-Niner Pilot, confirming All Systems Green. On suborbital approach vector," Six stated and powered on his own HUD. Elster grabbed onto the handle next to the console, eyes locked on their displays. The display flashed with a rough approximation of their trajectory toward the Station ahead. Elster watched with muted awe as a Paris-class Heavy Frigate flew toward Anchor-9, the station itself resembling a massive three-prong construct with various hangars, guns and airtight corridors going between each prong. There were also various repair 'drydocks' in orbit, structures made up of two massive boons filled with tools and magnetic locks meant to keep ships in place during repair and refit. Or disassembly.

"Broadsword Bravo Oh-Two-Niner, this is Noble Actual. Do you copy?" Holland's voice surprised Elster. To the point the girl felt the need to double-check.

"... Bravo Oh-Two-Niner here, copy you loud and clear, Actual... Colonel?" She replied carefully, scanning the horizon for any enemy movement.

"Affirmative, Seven. Good to hear your voice, Sergeant, though I'd have expected Five to be the one to come with Six up top," Holland replied calmly, audible behind him being the noise of consoles beeping and AIs and personnel working. The man, meanwhile, spoke calmly, "Welcome to Operation:UPPERCUT. I'll be your control from here on out."

She blinked, "Sir, I'm not a-" And she paused as she received a data transmission. Holland's picture appeared on one of the consoles, the man grinning. Elster read the transmitted data aloud, "... Per request of Commander Two-Five-Niner, NOBLE One, field promotion required for NOBLE SEVEN, Private LSTR-512, to Sergeant for operational duty purposes and concentration of force... Sir?"

"Carter needed an NCO, Seven. He wants you to be able to form your own impromptu Fire Team if the situation calls for it during battles. I and Doctor Halsey agree. We'd have done a bigger ceremony if we had the time, but we've got more pressing matters to attend to. Good luck up there," Holland replied. Elster looked over to Six, who gave a simple thumbs up, before bringing the Sabre up next to Anchor-9 just as the UNSC Savannah docked at an 'umbilical', a long, armored tube meant specifically to allow docking procedures.

"All Sabres, this is Anchor ATC. We've detected impulse drive signatures. Multiple hostile contacts incoming. Our weapons systems our down and we need time to reboot them." A male voice stated. Six and Elster both noted the marker pointing out the arrival point of the enemy force, with Six banking the craft right and utilizing their RCS thrusters in conjunction with their normal engines to bring the aircraft about.

As alarms blared for contact in the fighter, Elster saw the first wave appear. A squadron of a dozen Space-capable Banshees, bearing extended plasma cannons in their mouths and seemingly-fixed canards. She held on tightly as Six banked right for them, ordering, "All fighters, break and engage," as he settled the crosshair of his 35mm cannons on the leading bird of the V-shaped formation.

The twin cannons thundered in half-second intervals, high-caliber shells whizzing by the enemy light starfighter. It and its squadron broke formation, with it turning hard left and diving toward one of the nine station-based refit and repair drydocks. Its siblings spun about to meet the UNSC's fighters as they, too, dived on their prey alongside the SPARTAN and his Sabre.

Tracers lit the void, meeting twin plasma bolts and slamming into the bodies of the enemy's lightest space-capable fighters. One round tore a canard off the targeted Banshee, sending it careening into a piece of Titanium armor that was floating around Anchor-9. The vehicle shattered against it in a blazing purple-red explosion. Six, meanwhile, chased the fighter that had banked and was running away from them.

35mm cannon rounds snapped by the enemy bird in bursts as it danced between the skeletal frames of ships undergoing maintenance. Elster prepped to fire missiles on Six's mark, locking the weapons onto the enemy Banshee. She braced and held on tightly as the voidcraft's RCS thrusters kicked in and it banked with the Covenant fighter. A round sparked off the Covenant fighter's canopy, followed by another that tore one of the rear engine fins off. The bird burned, but stabilized itself.

It made an incredibly sharp turn as it flew between two of the drydocks. Six pushed past the frames and banked up next to Anchor-9. The station was under the belly of their Sabre, so Six and Elster could barely make it out. Not like they were focused on it. Elster yelped as two bolts of plasma washed over the canopy, dissipating off the energy shields of the Sabre.

The enemy craft popped up behind them. Elster noted it and focused on it. The four boons making up the diamond in her targeting reticle realigned and blinked twice. She called out, "Target lock with the missiles!" words to which Six thumbed his stick. Four missiles left the side tubes under the wings of the aircraft, powered on their own maneuvering thrusters and engines and lanced off toward the Covenant craft.

Two missed and two struck, twin explosions flaring and dying due to the lack of oxygen. Six veered right and banked into the furball in the middle of the nine docks. He zeroed in on an enemy that was trailing one of their own. He opened fire, lighting the small-craft up with a four-second autocannon burst. The shells tore through the body of the Banshee, globes of drying purple blood floating out into space as the vehicle's engines died, leaving it a small, floating husk in the middle of nowhere.

Elster gripped onto her seat, tracking targets in the small furball as best as she could and calling them out for missile launches. Two of their Sabre squadron dived on a trio of Banshees trying to retreat. Another Banshee swept down on them while they were trying to kill its buddies, plasma washing over the wingman pair, with one of them taking a full burst of Plasma which burst his shields.

High-cal rounds tore through the enemy Banshee, however, as Six veered to intercept. The aircraft tried to dodge, veering right and utilizing its own maneuvering capabilities to avoid the UNSC bird. Six utilized his HUD's systems, allowing a lead indicator to appear in front of him. He lit up the enemy aircraft afterward, shells tearing it apart as it tried to flee.

"Good kills, but we're not out of the woods yet. Savannah Actual, reporting new bogie signature. Larger impulse drives, fighter-class. Station defenses are at fifty-six percent!" The shipboard crewman of the Savannah reported. Indeed, a dozen Covenant fighters, the teardrop-like Seraphs, appeared. They immediately banked for the Sabres, each firing their twin plasma autocannons rapidly.

The Sabres dodged, several taking bursts of fire that flared their shields. One of them had its shields burst and several plasma rounds melt the underbelly armor, but it still flew. The pilot aboard it swore and said, "Took some damage, but I'm still flying!" as she dived on another Seraph. Six used his RCS thrusters to push his bird down below a flurry of plasma shots, before using them to brake and get behind the enemy aircraft. He grit his teeth as the high-Gee maneuvers he pulled in order to stay on the wavy bastard's rear got to him.

Elster held onto her teeth metaphorically, as well, watching the SPARTAN dive on the enemy. Autocannons lit up the Seraph's shields, a full ten-second burst blasting through the Covenant craft's own energy protection. Six called out, "Lock it!" as Elster settled the crosshair on it. The two aircraft entered a turn-fight against each-other, forcing Elster to quickly lock onto the bastard before its shields recharged.

Her vision blurred due to the Gs for a moment, but she locked it on. Unable to speak, she slammed her console and Six gave a nod. Four missiles lanced out of the aircraft and turned hard to meet the oncoming Seraph. Three of the four struck, detonating on the hull of the ship. The blasts tore one of the rear stabilizers off, sending it careening into the void, one of its plasma lines broken and venting.

Six immediately veered for the next one as it charged him in a head-on, all while his comrades worked on thinning the enemy's numbers. The SPARTAN lit it up and was lit up in turn, plasma rounds splashing onto the shields of the Sabre. Luckily for Six, he'd started firing first. When he gave the go-ahead for Elster to send another burst of missiles, the enemy fighter was out of shields already. When all four missiles connected, there was little left but a cloud of debris through which Six and Elster flew.

Plasma bolts raked the top of their craft as a Seraph dived on them. Six was quick to pull another blindingly-high-gee maneuver, shutting his engines down and cancelling forward momentum with RCS, before turning to face the enemy craft and lighting it up with both guns and missiles, courtesy of Elster. It was torn to pieces by the heavy fire, detonating in a white-hot flash.

Multiple new contacts came in as the third wave. Anchor's guns, however, lit up. The 5cm coilguns in their rampart mounts lit the void as the last wave of Covenant craft emerged, tracer and HE shells tearing through both Banshees and Seraphs, all while the UNSC's fighters mopped up whatever survived. Six and Elster put down another pair of fighters and four Banshees before the word came, "Phantom Gunboats, detected on approach! Those things have anti-ship weaponry aboard!" from the Anchor.

As the four enemy gunboats warped in, Elster could immediately spot the difference. Whereas a normal Phantom was plain purple with some silver, these ones were darker, almost brownish in color and carried much, much bigger plasma cannons than their normal counterparts. One such cannon immediately tracked Six and Elster as they went in for the attack.

Bursts of plasma lanced forward, forcing the SPARTAN to roll their vehicle to the side to dodge the shot. He let loose multiple missiles after Elster locked onto it, the full burst setting the gunboat ablaze. The next one over was lit up by the cannons as it fired at them, with Six's squadron trailing close behind, missiles washing the ships that survived in hellfire.

Before long, the Gunboats had been dealt with before they even arrived in range. Holland voiced, "Well done, Bravo Oh-Two Niner. Seven, I take it this is your stop..." before Elster gave an affirmative hum. Six flew the ship toward one of the hangars and docked it, before punching in a code and pressurizing his suit. The cabin hissed with pressure equalization with the outside and Elster saw her target:A Pelican bearing the Savannah's slipspace drive.

She removed her harness and clambered out, making sure her M-SPEC Re-entry pack was still on just in case. She then gave a wave to Six and pushed herself off the Sabre and toward the Pelican, where a pair of Marines were tending to the bomb. As she floated through the void, she gazed down at the planet below and whispered, "I hope you're safe, Ariane..."

She saw several detonations flash down below. SWORD Base had come under attack again, it seemed. She felt her heart begin to race, Dot inquiring something in her ear that she didn't bother to answer. They needed to destroy the damn carrier now, free Reach from this mess. She looked forward at the Pelican and stretched her hand forward, grabbing onto the rails by which the massive Slipspace Drive that would be their bomb was attached.

She looked over the device, over the systems and over all necessary requirements as Holland gave a briefing about the situation. The Corvette they were aiming for had to be taken over, its com relay destroyed and it, brought in on a refueling track in order for the bomb to be close enough. Easier said than done, she thought to herself as she watched Six detach from Anchor-9. Boarding the Pelican, the girl strapped herself in alongside the Marines as the vehicle took off and joined with the others.

Their next target:The Long Night of Solace...

Chapter Text

Elster sat calmly aboard the Pelican, listening to the coms between the Frigate and the Sabre squadron. Uneasily, the woman lifted up her assault rifle and looked it over, before murmuring something to herself as more images of the old played in her mind. She swore, she needed to get herself checked the moment they arrived back anywhere near Eusan space. Her head hadn't been right since she first laid her fingers on a rifle here.

She slid the weapon back onto its magnetic lock on her armor's back, then stood up and started rifling through the supplies on the nets above their seats. One of the Marines aboard(because these were apparently Marines) asked her, "Something up, Sarge? You're lookin' awful uneasy, even behind that void-sealed suit..." and he paused as he saw her retrieve a machete off the top rack of the Pelican's storage. She hummed, clipped it to her belt and sighed as she saw a sudden switch of the troopers' expressions to fear.

"If we're going Close Quarters, I figure I need something bigger than a knife..." Elster replied. She sat herself down and scanned the troop bay of the Pelican, uneasy still. Images of a similar drop bay, filled with infantry clad in black uniforms, resolved ahead of her. It was blurry, but less so than previous memories. The soldiers themselves looked back at her, their faces invisible behind the armored helmets bearing the three stars of Eusan on their foreheads.

She felt a light tap on her shoulder and turned to see what her HUD only tagged as 'Fwb. Seo, A. INR-SA52514'. Alina. The girl's two visor ports were opaque, but even behind them, Lilith could see the scarlet eyes of her beloved and the creases of a small smile. The two nodded to each-other, Lilith remaining her usual stern self even as she was aware the thunder of anti-air artillery could soon break the awkward silence aboard the dropship.

She blinked. Elster did. Shaking her head, the girl looked again to the seat next to her to see a female technician working on making sure the data for the detonator was properly in place. Elster suddenly felt a pit in her stomach, however. She suddenly felt the entire place shudder, grabbing onto her crash seat. She looked to the pilot and yelled demandingly, "What the hell was that?!"

"Plasma charges are hitting the Savannah! The enemy's still got their main guns up!" The pilot reported, clearly worried for their own well-being, "We should be getting the all-clear from Noble Six soon, though!"

"Good..." Elster nodded. She stood up from her seat again and walked up to the cockpit to regard the hangar of the Paris-class frigate as a slew of activity went on, with the deck crews moving supply crates left and right and securing them in place so that the sudden depressurization didn't suck them all out. The workers soon left through the main doors and elevators, allowing the hangar to depressurize. With the Pelican sealed, however, the Replika and her comrades needed to worry very little in that regard.

She turned to the pilot and co-pilot and asked them, "Maybe dip low when we come out. Less risk of getting hit, I think..." to which the Pilot offered a simple nod. Elster paused as she heard Noble Six and the Colonel give the green light, before she nodded back to the pilot and co-pilot before going to strap herself in. Sitting down and pulling the metallic harness down to hold herself in place, the girl felt a pit in her stomach as the Pelican dropped out of the bottom of the frigate's bay.

She could see through the cockpit the two similarly-sized vessels exchanging cannon fire. The corvette's plasma batteries charged and shot, three wisps of plasma slamming into the side of the warship and cutting through the layers of Titanium alloy like a hot knife through butter. The aircraft veered right, toward the amidships section of the Corvette, with Elster connecting to Six over com and telling him, "Hope those shields are down, Six. We're coming in with the package."

A package that was several hundred megatons' worth of explosives, not to mention reality-defying bullshit, strapped into a neat and terrifying package that tended to rip ships out of realspace, toss them through Hell and then return them to another point with sometimes weird adverse effects like early or late arrivals. Elster needed to remind herself these people had probably discovered the most terrifying way to go Faster-Than-Light so far.

Sure, she'd seen speculative research during her early days at AEON, just prior to being sent to the 512, about producing an FTL drive based on the concept of Warp, but that damn thing would be more expensive than anyone thought and they probably wouldn't waste it on a Penrose ship. More likely to be strapped to a Generation Ship than a Scout Vessel.

She sighed as she felt the vehicle pass through the energy field of the central hangar. A prick of electricity coursed through the hull of the Gunship and through her own body, even through armor, followed by the sensation of equalizing pressures. The aircraft touched down and Elster stood up first, drawing her rifle off her back and dismounting with the Marines.

The UNSC forces formed a perimeter around the Pelican, with Elster stepping off toward Six as the Spartan descended toward them, before the two bumped fists nigh-instinctively. Elster said, "Thanks for the clear road. Was starting to think we'd get sunk with the Savannah..." as she depolarized her visor to offer Noble Six a smirk. She was feeling a little more confident. So far, so good, she thought.

Six shook his head, "Nah. We need our bombmaker alive. Plus, your girlfriend would've probably killed me if I let you die."

Elster snorted, then looked back to the bomb. She radioed, "Colonel Holland, this is Seven. Package is aboard and we're green to go..." as she walked over to the energy shield separating them from the void. She peered through it at the carrier hanging in low orbit several thousand kilometers away from them. The exchange of fire between the frigate continued, with more and more of the Savannah's armor being stripped away by the boiling hot plasma.

"Copy that, Sergeant. That means we're moving on to phase two..." Holland said proudly. Audible was the noise of typing on a keyboard "Six, take a fireteam and move up to the bridge. You'll have to manually initiate the refueling sequence. Once you do that, we're on track for the delivery."

"Copy that, sir," Six racked the bolt of his assault rifle after reloading, then motioned to a trio of Marines. The soldiers hefted their weapons and nodded approvingly, marching up to Six.

Holland then continued, "Seven, you and the rest of the Marines stay with the bomb... And discourage the curious..."

Elster hefted a Jackhammer rocket launcher out of one of the supply boxes brought out by the Marines. She stated, "They'll have a welcome party unlike any other waiting for'em, sir..." as she polarized and opacified her visor again. She turned to the Pelican, then paused and called out, "Six..." causing the Spartan to turn around. She offered a concerned, warm "Stay safe."

"You, too," The man nodded, then motioned for his Marines to follow him. Elster motioned to her Marines to form up and, once they did, she started making various hand signals, pointing out where each of them should move and take cover. Ranging from various outcroppings in the main LZ to the damaged remains of some specialized Covenant equipment and the hull of the Pelican, the Marines spread out evenly, ready to greet any oncoming Covenant troops.

Elster hummed and hefted the launcher properly onto her shoulder, scanning the place as her motion tracker pinged the half-dozen Marines around her and the Techs working on the bomb to ensure the detonator worked on a proper timer. She swallowed empty, feeling her biomechanical heart start to race. She shifted on her feet, making sure her weight remained evenly distributed, before clicking her tongue and licking her lips.

She felt as if she was sweating, but Replikas didn't have sweat glands. They only had the really important, major organs like hearts, stomachs and lungs, plus a large circulatory system meant to keep their Oxidant pumping through their bodies to allow them to operate properly. Still, that, too, felt like it was moving much faster. To the point a small warning displayed in her own eyes, the HUD of her OS telling her of various minor issues and overlapping with the UNSC suit's HUD...

She blinked away her own body's warnings as she saw a scarlet dot appear. She hefted the launcher and aimed toward the door it was coming from and activated the weapon's SmartScope. She squinted and heard the Marines shift their aim. The door pinged, then slid apart in its own, alien way, revealing two Platoons of grunts, a squad of Jackal marksmen and a trio of Elite Ultras, the white-armored, well-trained menaces of the common Covenant armies.

Elster wasted no time. The two rockets of the launcher left the tubes, trailing plumes of smoke as they danced through the air toward the formation of Aliens. Two of the Elites and a good chunk of Grunts managed to dodge the hit, but the first strike was devastating. The Elite Ultra in the middle and his retinue of Grunts caught the brunt of the blast, the Elite itself vaporizing as its dwarf troops died to the shockwave.

The Replika dropped the launcher, drew her assault rifle and sprinted toward the nearest point of cover as the first of the Jackals' shots rang out by her head, digging into the floor of the ship. Plasma rounds struck around them, hitting the same alien alloy they had as armor and heating, but not quite melting it. Elster poked out alongside a Marine and opened up on the Covvies as their DMR-wielding comrades focused on thinning out the Sniper Jackals.

A bolt of green plasma struck Elster head-on, causing her shields to flare and dip. She slid back into cover and let them recharge, before poking only the slimmest of her visor out to scope out the Grunt that'd nailed her. A black-wearing Special-Ops grunt. She huffed, drew her pistol and used the smartscope to pop the little bugger's head clean open, much to the surprise of two of its siblings that screamed aloud and threw their hands up in the air to run.

One of the Ultras had noticed Elster poking out. It fired its concussion rifle toward her, sending her piece of cover flying off the rails and slamming into the gunship. Elster rolled forward, then turned about and opened up on the Elite. Short, controlled bursts struck the creature's shields, causing the blue blanket of protection to flare twice. One of the Marines beside her got his body split in half by a bolt of plasma, while another with a DMR lost one of her eyes to the sharpened projectiles of a needle rifle.

Elster scoffed, then gasped as the second Ultra, one armed with a launcher that fired self-locking guided plasma charges, appeared behind her in a flanking maneuver. The weapon itself had been charged. She ducked as the Sangheili let go of the trigger, firing all four projectiles. Each banked to track Elster, with the girl being forced to move out of the way as the Elite itself chased her with the weapon.

She swore to herself, rolled, then turned and banked hard right, shaking her internal stabilizers to the point she nearly felt dizzy. The plasma rounds banked, two of them hitting the ground and detonating in a flash. The Replika charged toward the Elite, slamming with her shoulder into it as it tried to aim again, before pushing herself off of him and letting the plasma balls stick to him.

The two detonated, taking its shields out and enraging it. It growled and turned toward Elster, tossing the launcher aside and charging her back, before slamming into her and lifting her up. It powered its energy dagger and stabbed at the girl's abdomen, but she kicked off of him and nearly off the goddamn ship with just how close she'd gotten to the shield.

Its second charge was interrupted by a Marine that sniped its hat clean off its head, sending it crumpling to the floor like a stack of wet paper. He gave a thumbs up, but had his own head taken off by the Jackal snipers. Elster glared at the monsters, before watching one of them take the head off another Marine. She scoffed, grabbed a fragmentation grenade off her belt and threw it.

She then charged the last remaining Elite as it drew its energy sword. Firing the entire remaining ammunition load of her rifle, Elster tossed the weapon aside once it clicked empty and drew her machete. She ducked under the swing of the Elite's energy sword. A slight shift in the gravity of the ship threw the blade off just enough for it to luckily miss the intrepid Replika, who swung her own bladed weapon and cut across the Elite's belly, before spinning about, pouncing on its back and slamming the tip of her machete into the beast's head.

It collapsed to the floor just as Six entered the place with what remained of his own unit of Marines. Bullets struck the Jackals and grunts from the flank, with Elster now noticing that her own team was dead, pretty much. The Techs themselves were dead and the Pelican also had a massive hole in one of the thruster gimbals. Sighing, Elster yanked the machete out of the beast's back, cleaned it and slung it back into its sheath, before running toward their makeshift bomb.

She swore in clear-cut Eusan Basic and Advanced(Or German and Chinese, according to the UNSC's databanks?) as she undid the device's frame and started looking. Two wires had fused and multiple important components had been damaged, but were still repairable. She swore to herself again and pulled out her repair kit, going to town on the device as Six approached. He said, "Something wrong?"

"Flash-fried components..." She replied quietly, "Working on bypass... Processing power focused."

"Right." He nodded. He sighed and turned around, letting the girl work her magic on the device. And work her magic, she was trying to. The fused wires were burnt and their tips probably wouldn't deliver the current necessary to ignite the bomb's makeshift detonation sequence. She sighed and cut them, then started looking for replacements in her tool set. Luckily for her, she did keep some. Spot-welding them together, the girl continued looking through and noting a set of components that she could...

Easily...

Fix...

She looked down at her tools and noted only one more polyurethane repair spray. She grit her teeth and sighed, shaking her head, before murmuring to herself "... Going to have to find a way to make more..." before sticking the spray up. She squeezed the trigger, letting the polyurethane foam build up and watching it immediately harden. She pulled out a device to test the voltage, then connected it parallel to the wires and thumbed the command.

"Thirty seconds to endpoint..." Dot said.

"Dot... Quiet, please... Display timer on my HUD..." Elster replied, slightly annoyed. The AI's confirmation came in the form of the ticking digital clock appearing below her shield and health counter. Biting her upper lip as the counter ticked down below twenty-five seconds, the girl hummed, lifted up the cover and looked at its insides, then at the damaged components as well. She hummed and quickly fixed up a jury-rig.

"Almost..." She spoke as the counter ticked down to sub-twenty seconds. As something clicked and the voltmeter read the necessary power surge, the girl grinned and said, "Got it..." before sliding the cover back on. She called out to Six, "Good news and bad news..." before thumbing the activation and setting the counter to about fifteen seconds. She turned to Six and said, "Bad news is the bird's taken fire. Her gimbals are toast and that means our only way off this heap of junk is a nice dive..."

"And the good news?" Six quirked a brow. Elster nodded.

"I got the timer working... And it's down to ten seconds..." She stated. The two paused, looked to their sole exit, that being the edge of the shield, then nodded to each-other. Elster's suit immediately went into a hermetic seal mode to keep the oxygen inside before she and Six charged toward the exit. Jumping, the two grabbed onto each-other as they initiated their dive toward Reach itself.

The two looked back as they descended, watching the Covenant Corvette go into the maw of the Long Night of Solace. First, it was a flicker to them. A dark-blue bolt of lightning flashing in the dark. Then, it was the corona of a blue giant that suddenly expanded. Then, the detonation came as the slipspace portal ignited, a massive ball-shaped portal that tore through realspace splitting the void and engulfing the neck of the Supercarrier.

Then, it collapsed in on itself with a flareout of electromagnetic energy, a shockwave rattling both the Spartan and the Replika and knocking out their communication systems save for close range. They watched with muted awe as the Covenant Supercarrier, a 29 kilometer long behemoth, missed a good portion of its body now as its two remaining hull sections entered atmosphere, burning up...

... They'd done it...! Ariane ought to know they did it...!

CASTLE Base

Ariane was once again laying in bed, alone, with her thoughts. Castle was starting to feel more like a goddamn prison than anything. She sighed deeply, arranging her clothes, then stood to her feet and walked out of the room and into the lab. Cortana was sat there with Kalmiya, her seeming sibling AI, both of them running through various programs together. The two noticed her, with Kalmiya, who was a faint emerald instead of Cortana's azure-purple combo, waving.

She waved awkwardly, before a voice whispered in her ear, "And yet again, machines..." which caused her to look to her left. Cortana quirked a brow up at her and Ariane waved it off quickly. She walked past the two AI while they were working, then looked around the lab, trying to see where Doctor Halsey was. She turned to them, then hummed and wanted to ask.

"Doc's gone over to HQ. Some big meeting of the top brass," Cortana said, watching as Ariane took a seat ahead of them. She smiled and added, "IF you wanna watch Kalmiya teach me a couple more infiltration programs, be my guest. We've got a lot of work ahead of us. And I do mean a hell of a lot." And, as if to accentuate her point, she lifted a holographic screen out of nowhere and started parsing through its code.

"Eh, why not," Ariane shrugged and crossed her arms on the table, "Might as well see how AIs do hacking, right?"

The boredom that settled in moments later told Ariane that maybe she shouldn't have asked that stupid question. The girl was half-asleep as Cortana and Kalmiya talked about some boolean or other pertaining to one of the harder targets to hack. She sighed, craned her neck left and right to hear the muscles and articulations pop back into place, then stood up and walked toward the lab.

The devices used to measure her bioresonance capabilities lay still on the table, next to a bunch of documentation written in Halsey's hand-writing. She picked up the notes and read some of the data, including the bits about making progress. The words on the progress were uplifting, at least, because it meant Ariane was doing something with her mind beside worrying about Elster.

She sighed and looked at the devices, wondering just what Doctor Halsey had in mind. She also noticed an unfinished item on one of the tables. A crown of sorts, full of wiring and sensors and the likes. Walking up to it, the girl picked it up and looked at it, before pausing as she saw the three Eusan stars. She hummed, running a finger over the device, before gently putting it on her head.

It seemed mostly all there, sans the cover she presumed would be a helmet of some kind. Thumbing the switch on the side to 'on', the girl paused as she felt a surge through her mind, an energy-based surge that shook her to her very core and seemed to awaken something within her. Deep within. That voice from before, the voice of that strange mural, spoke softly, "It is here, but... Incomplete..."

She blanked, then felt the device heat on top of her head. Letting out a scream, the girl turned it off and threw it back onto the table, staggering back. She breathed heavily, surprised as she saw some of the exposed wiring glow. She breathed a sigh of relief, then tried to wipe the sweat off her forehead, then paused and screamed as she saw her hand was on fire.

Well, it wasn't on fire per se, but it was certainly holding a flame. The girl stared, bug-eyed, at the orange flame dancing in her palm, before slowly clenching her fist and watching it extinguish. All the while, she felt no pain from it, oddly enough. Clenching her fist, she saw the energy pulse back into her hand. Blinking, the red-eyed, white-haired beauty blanked for a moment as she tried to register what the hell she'd just done.

"Holy shit..." Ariane murmured to herself.

"Impressive display of pyrokinesis, miss Yeong..." Halsey spoke from the doorway, scaring Ariane enough to make her yelp. She turned to the Doctor and was about to speak, but paused as she saw the look in her eyes. Pure, unadulterated and complete fear emanated from Doctor Halsey's otherwise calm demeanor, her eyes wider than footballs as she approached.

"Doc... You okay...?" She asked, the worry in her chest welling as she felt Halsey's uneasiness. The Doctor shook her head and opened her tablet. She thumbed it and showed Ariane to come closer, before pulling up an hour-old video from one of their orbital buoys. From the satellite, multiple Slipspace ruptures appeared... Tens. Hundreds. Ariane's breath caught in her throat as she saw the familiar, organic-like shapes of Covenant warships

The image cut as Halsey said, straight-laced and in a deadpan, "We are accelerating all programs and preparing for the worst... I will recall Elster to us whenever I can, miss Ariane, but we need to be prepared with the project. If you are going to become part of Humanity's hope for survival, Ariane, I'm afraid we will be intensifying our training..." and she set her tablet aside.

Determination seemed to fill Ariane as the girl gazed upon Doctor Halsey. She looked at the device on the table and at the still of a hundreds-strong Covenant fleet still emerging out of Slipspace and decided. Giving a nod to the Doctor, she said, "Whatever it takes, Doc. Even if I won't sleep in the next few days, I don't care... Let's get it working."

For mankind... And Elster...

Chapter Text

"Lili?"

Ugh... Just five more minutes...

"Lili, c'mon. You know how the Commissar is about tardiness."

A sigh.

Lilith... No... Elster? No, no, Lilith stirred awake, rubbing her eyes and murmuring in her usual half-awake tone, "Why now...?" to which Alina smiled. Extending a hand to her squadmate, Alina Seo helped Lilith Itou to her feet from her cot in the back of the dark-blue tent. The two girls waded out of the makeshift barracks where a dozen men and women slept in cramped conditions, then marched down the remnants of an old road. Far away from them, they could see the destroyed skeletons of ancient buildings, torn asunder by the war.

Two artillery cannons sat out amidst the shallower waters, pointed upward as their crews did maintenance. High in the sky, past the blue and in the dark, star-spangled void, two fleets did battle, the flashes of explosions filling the void as well. Beside them was a staggeringly-long double trench line filled with infantrymen and Replikas from the Eusan Volksarmee.

"Seems like we're getting some new combat Replika types to help us in the fighting. So's the word, anyhow..." Alina explained, turning to her grumpy sleeper of a girlfriend and asking her, "Are you okay, Lili? You look a little worse for wear. Bad dream?" and she slowed her step to match Lilith's. The tired-looking girl shot her a glance that pretty much told everything that needed to be said.

Alina chuckled awkwardly, then nodded. They marched past another trench and toward the Commissar's, only for both of them to be surprised as they saw a slew of new-model Replikas. Two... Mark that three models. Only one interested them for this run, however. Sly smirks that hid sharpened teeth, heavy-duty assault weapons and steel alloy bodyarmors. One of them arranged her garrison cap on her head and flashed the two girls a grin filled with those shark-like teeth., an evil gaze in her eyes-

Elster jumped awake. Her feet didn't feel like they were on the ground, instead dangling. She blinked as her eyes opened and she found herself a couple feet off the ground instead of standing. She saw hands wrapped around her legs and felt herself leaned against armor, the faint, indistinct scratching of Titanium alloy against itself filling her helmet's auditory sensors.

She looked ahead, to see she was being carried. She spoke, "Six..." a hint groggy. The Spartan hummed, then turned back and nodded. She stated, "I'm awake... You can put me down..." to which the soldier complied, allowing her to settle down on her own two feet. She stretched and yawned, before adding, "Guess I got knocked out by the re-entry... You okay?"

"Dislocated my shoulder, but I set it back into place when I landed..." The Spartan answered. He turned toward her and extended an M6 her way, grip first. She took the pistol and nodded in thanks, then pulled back the slide a little and checked the chamber. One round in, a couple mags at the ready. She nodded to Six and then turned back, to see the mountains in the distance.

She went bug-eyed as she saw the remains of the Covenant Supercarrier laying in rest, still burning, atop a mountain range that almost seemed split at the seams by the impact. Removing her helmet, she revealed that her jaw had, in fact, dropped. Blinking, she smiled and sighed, relieved, before nodding to Six and showing him to lead the way. The two were stumbling up a hill.

The audible sound of gunfire from a distance didn't feel the girl with confidence. She scrambled up the dirt mound and clambered to the top... Only for her heart to drop as her helmet fell out of her hand and clattered on the floor, all color draining from her half-machine face. Six stepped up, too, stating, "I picked up Maydays when I got my com system working..."

New Alexandria, the Crown Jewel of Reach, burned. Above the city's skyline, three Covenant Corvettes just like the one they'd used to destroy the Long Night of Solace, brought about their plasma batteries, raining hell down upon the city as Covenant dropships deployed troops. She whispered, deflated, "We failed..." to which Six shook his head. Turning to the Spartan, she raised a brow.

"... Deep down, I think we all knew it was done the moment the Covvies came about," Six stated nihilistically, taking his own helmet off to reveal a young, average-looking guy with black hair and eyes more blue than the sea. His face was laced in a multitude of scars from bayonet to bullet wounds, but he seemed calm. Determined, even. He told her, "But Reach is Reach. We aren't going to go down without taking a good chunk of'em with us."

"What's the point...?" The girl replied with a tired voice as memories of their War flashed in her mind.

He shot back, calm, "Now? Saving as many as we can, if for nothing else than to spite these alien pieces of shit." And he walked up to Elster. Patting her on the shoulder, he said, "Our people still need us, Elster. Ariane's fine for now... She'll get out with Doctor Halsey, I'm sure. So, let's focus on helping as best as we can in the city, aye?" and looking to her for confirmation.

She narrowed her lips, then sighed deeply and picked up her helmet. Dusting it off, she slid it back onto her head and let the seal kick in, before drawing her pistol and stating, "Let's move it out, Spartan..." which got Six to ready up his own pistol. The two ran forward and into the city, entering one of the many promenades and moving via the rooftop of one of the buildings.

Six stopped next to a door, then looked over a railing, before giving a hand signal pointing the way down. She nodded and the two of them jumped down a floor. Pushing up with the wall on their left, the two arrived at a Plaza and Elster stood, mortified, for a moment. Civilians lay, slumped against the walls or dead on the floor in pools of their own blood. Men, women... Elster averted her gaze from one corpse.

She walked up to one of the Civilians and took a knee, then felt for a pulse. She sighed and shook her head. When Vineta burned, when hellfire rained down from the Imperials' ships, all she could see was the destruction of her home. All she saw was the deaths of loved ones, of friends, of family. It was why she'd even stayed on Vineta to fight...

She grit her teeth and stood up, before giving a quick motion of the hand to Six. The Spartan nodded and the two went into full sprint, choosing to outright avoid the bodies if they could help it. They'd stack enough Covenant bodies for it to even the hell out, she thought as they pushed on through into a building, only to be met by a trio of Jackals. With little hesitation, however, the two soldiers domed each enemy, letting their splattered brains and blood be the mark that told the world they'd been killed. Elster, however, kicked one's head in on the way out.

The duet of Spartan and Replika pushed through into another building, descending to the basement and sweeping the place like a pair of Special Ops. Elster's survival instincts had kicked into high gear to the point she was checking every corner of the bowels of this place slowly. They only had their high-caliber pistols and that was about it until they ran into friendlies.

Various radio signals played across their com, including one of a trooper requesting Fire Support as the pair slowly pushed through the city's underbelly, pushing past markings, trash and various machines used to keep the place in working condition. The two met a group of Grunts in this 'sewer' so to speak. Bullets made short work of the little creatures.

They left behind diminutive corpses and fluorescent blue blood splatters on the floor as they climbed back up to street level. The two covered each-other's rears, Six noticing a hint more tactical ability in Elster now. She was checking her corners more, pying every single one of them, her pistol pointed forward and at the ready in case a first target appeared.

As they exited onto another promenade, Six bobbed his head right as a needle round slammed into the white wall behind him. He lifted his pistol and popped off two shots at the Skirmisher with a needle rifle, before sliding into cover behind one of the promenade's handrails. Below them, down a ramp and a level lower, UNSC Marines duked it out with massive, hair-covered beasts with thick helmets and the looks of gorillas.

"What...?" The girl blanked. Six growled, then stood up and advanced toward the Marines, firing his pistol one-handed. Elster blanked and joined him, providing covering fire. She ran toward a railing, jumped onto it and used it as a boost-off point. She saw one of the massive brutes pin down a civilian and prepare to rip her spine out, before she brought down her heel in a low kick that cracked the beast's helmet. She drew her machete as she landed, rolled and slashed the beast's throat with high-enough speed to pierce its thick hide.

It collapsed, gushing blood from its throat, but Elster saw that the machete had dulled ever so slightly. She grit her teeth, aimed her pistol and shot at the other Brutes that were charging them, before living the Civilian with her left hand and dragging her out of harms way as she was screaming bloody murder. She joined Six and the Army Troopers and Marines in the rear, before looking around and taking the place in.

Terraced, with multiple vantage points. This side of the strange food court-style Plaza was owned by the UNSC, with DMR-toting soldiers holding the high ground and sniping away at the advancing army of massive gorillas. Elster, meanwhile, was on the 'ground' level with Six and a mixed platoon of Marine and Army troopers, plus about a dozen Civvies that were being hunted for sport.

That made her blood boil...

... But the horrid laughter she heard from up ahead filled her ears and sent her down a path of remembrance she didn't want to undertake. She watched as a Replika with violet markings instead of her own scarlet stepped out into view, firing bursts from a rifle with a polymer handguard and folding stock. Spent mid-caliber casings dropped to the floor as the short-haired machine moved back and fired.

She brandished her knife and Lilith caught a glimpes of her teeth. Sharp as sawblade teeth, but human-looking otherwise, the sadistic Replika's mouth was lined by the damned teeth. She rolled back, pulled a frag grenade off her belt and threw it, before staggering as one of the Brutes charged her, the thump of the detonation filling the air. Elster saw the beast charging the under-equipped Combat Specialist Replika, to which the girl brandished her knife.

Elster stepped up first and put about half her remaining magazine of the M6G into the Brute's head, sending it tumbling to the floor. The Machine turned her head toward her unknown savior, then asked with a heavy-handed accent, "I see rescue is prompt here, then. Who are you?" only to pause as she saw Elster remove her helmet, revealing herself. The girl's grin grew wide and she burst into a bellowing laugh, "An LSTR UNIT! Now, that's rich! Got lost, Magpie!?"

"You're the one who's lost, Krähe... What are you doing here?" Elster demanded. She noticed a dead Marine to her right and marched up to him, whispering an apology and taking his ammunition and his DMR. She saw Six grab an assault rifle and ammo, before she turned to the Crow, the Volksarmee's new favorite toys from Vineta. A Fifth-Generation Combat Specialist.

The Crow quipped, "Just taking in the sights of a city ablaze... Didn't know we're dealing with genuine apes now, though."

"Because you're not on Vineta..." Elster sighed and slid her helmet back on.

Six walked up to her with the Marines and Troopers and asked, "You know this thing, Elster?"

"She's a Crow. Unconventional warfare specialist, including PsyWar..." The AI replied, before looking over her DMR. She racked the bolt of the weapon, feeding a round and checking the damaged ammo counter. She sighed, relieved to see that it read full on the mag, even with the crack in the windshield. She checked the scope and nodded approvingly, seeing it wasn't busted, before walking up to the Marine she took it from and retrieving the tags.

"Huh..." Six looked to the Crow, who was grinning menacingly, Assault Rifle leaning on her shoulder. Some of the Marines and the Civvies also noted the gaze she was giving, with Six murmuring, "So, ONI's gonna love her... Noted..." before turning to Elster and adding, "We gotta move. Civvies will need Evac out of Traxus Tower. We're their escort 'till Noble finds us or we run into them." And he pointed to one of the massive High-Rises just up ahead, bearing the TRAXUS markings.

"Fine by me..." She replied and shouldered the DMR. She walked up to the Crow and said, "If you want to live, you tag along with us. If not, I don't mind one less of you out there."

The Combat Specced Replika snorted derisively, then held her rifle with both hands as she stared Elster down straight in the visor, "Oh, I'm coming along... Simply to understand who the hell these people you threw your lot in with are... And how you got here..." then she looked to Six. The Superhuman soldier was somehow shorter than her by about a foot. It was confusing for both Six and Elster, to have to look up at the killer.

She hummed, however, then noted the blood stains on their armor. With a grin, she asked, "We going? I wanna have some actual fun without her..." She jabbed her index against Elster's chest plate, "Interrupting me..." before she turned toward the upcoming wave of enemies. Elster's shoulders sagged, before she shook her head and showed Six to keep the Civvies close.

The two pushed up next to the Crow as she aimed her weapon and opened fire toward the ranks of the Covenant brutes charging them. Crow, however, hummed and told them, "Take a step back~..." before dropping a mine at her feet and taking a couple herself, right behind cover. The trick was she had dropped the mine just as the Brutes were coming into range...

And one of the dumb beasts stepped on it...

The explosive yield removed the Brute's leg below the knee, sending the massive monster staggering forward on one wounded leg that was embedded with a ton of shrapnel. It also caught both of the Brute's packmates as they charged, severely wounding one and disorienting the other. The Crow calmly walked up to the stumpy-legged Brute, pulling out her combat knife... Before sticking the blade through the thinnest part of the skin on its neck and slicing down. She kicked the brute down as blood gushed from its wound, right in front of a squad of Grunts and Jackals. The Grunts screamed and the Jackals staggered.

With the knife still bloody, the girl drew her Assault Rifle off her back and opened fire. Spent casings fell to the floor, the fussilade joined by the Spartan's and the LSTR unit's weapons. The two surviving Brutes dropped dead to the floor, their weapons clattering next to them. Elster grabbed the Crow by the collar of her armor and dragged her into cover, before poking out and shooting at the retreating Grunts with her DMR.

Six said, "She's nuts..."

"She did just try and flay one of those monkeys alive, so, I agree..." Said Elster. She looked back to the Civvies and Marines they were escorting, most of which seemed frightened by the new Replika. Said Replika cleaned the blood off her blade and sheathed it, then looked to Elster and Six and smirked. The Spartan and Elster looked to one-another as the Marines advanced, with Elster stating, "I'm not sure we can take care of her. From what I remember, they respect strength, so our best bet would be to show her that... Or smarts."

"You met one before?" Six asked.

"Prior life, yes," Elster nodded. Notably confusing the Spartan with that reply, the girl sighed and added, "Listen, long story, let's just..." And she paused, "She's gone already, isn't she?" then got a nod from Six. The girl looked ahead, watching as the Crow moved around the targets on a flanking route, Knife and rifle at the ready. She rolled her eyes, then said to Six, "Go after her. We'll distract the targets here."

Six nodded. Elster waved to the Marines, then balled her fist, pointed it toward the fortified Covenant position ahead and moved her balled fist back and forth. The Troops nodded and joined her up front, all while leaving two Marines to guard the Civvies. Scattering around cover as bolts of plasma and Needle rounds snapped past them, the Army and Marines engaged in the firefight.

... Six, meanwhile, trailed behind the Crow. He caught up with her about midway through the flank and she whistled, clearly impressed, "Pretty fast for a Gestalt! Unless you're also a Replika under there!" and she flashed him a grin. The Spartan rolled his eyes at that. Yeah, she was going to be a pain to deal with, but Elster did just tell her how to solve this issue.

"Classified..." He replied snidely, "But close enough to Human."

She snorted, "Jawohl, jawohl. What's your rank then, 'near-Human'?"

"Lieutenant," He shot back, which caused her smugness to evaporate for a moment. It returned moments after as she was about to mouth off a comment, but Six grabbed her arm and dragged her into cover as a plasma cannon caught sight of them. The grunt manning it let loose a full burst of plasma fire toward them, striking the ground and boiling away concrete and the topsoil of a decorative plant display.

Six looked to the Crow and told her, "Since you took us on a flanking route that just got us shot at, you'll listen to me. We'll both walk out of this and then you and Elster can do whatever the hell it is you Replikas do, but we need to work together to get out of this..." all while the Crow watched him, a little awed that he wasn't flinching even as plasma struck their own cover, melting chunks of it.

She hummed and replied, "We'll see how good a lead you are, then. All yours, Kamerad Leutnant." as she racked the bolt of her rifle. Six started counting the magazines she had for the weird weapon, which took box steel mags like old STANAG M4 rifles. She only had one magazine left, which caused a slight degree of annoyance to the professional Spartan.

He hummed and looked over to his right, to see a dead Trooper. He positioned himself and rolled toward him, letting the Covvie track him with bursts of plasma fire, before grabbing his assault rifle and some ammo. Jumping back into cover, the man extended the weapon and ammo to her, then said, "Take these. Interchangeable ammunition with the rest of us..." before he drew his pistol, aimed from behind cover even as plasma struck his shield, then snapped off a shot.

A scream of pain and a thump. He nodded to the girl and motioned for her to take the left, before jumping to his feet and charging forward, assault rifle drawn and chattering off already. He left a trail of spent casings as he fired at the reinforcing Grunts and the two Brutes dead ahead. The girl seemed to adapt to her new bullpup rifle well, too, firing bursts toward the enemy, bullets taking chunks of flesh off the Brutes.

Six grit his teeth, slinging his AR on his back as the Brute ahead aimed for him with its one-handed pistol. With two thick blades poking out of the front, a bent, leather-bound handle that had a sharp pommel and two barrels lined with coils, the Brute Spiker spat out the massive, jagged crystal-like metal projectiles left the barrel, pinning against the floor below and damn-near hitting the Spartan. Had he not dodged to the right, he might've gotten skewered even through the shield.

Closing the distance as he filled the Brute ahead with Lead, the Spartan slung his rifle onto his back, drew his combat knife and ducked under a swing from the growling monkey, then under another, rolled off to the side and clambered onto the beast's back, surprising it. Before it could grab him and throw him off, the man slammed the tip of his blade against the back of the monster's head, straight into the cerebral cortex.

It let out a sharp scream, collapsing. He saw that the Replika had kept up, too. She was agile, dodging under the beast's attacks, before drawing her knife and stabbing it in the eye. She twisted the blade with a deranged laugh, before pulling it out with a whole half of an eye still hanging off of it. She then shouldered the rifle and emptied a whole magazine into the squad of Grunts that was backing the enemy up.

"Not bad..." Six remarked as he sheathed his knife.

The Replika let out a short laugh, before stomping a Grunt's head in with her sharp foot pad. She replied, "Maybe this'll be fun after all..." before pausing as she saw the Spartan listen in via Radio. He sighed and gave a quick, quiet reply, before motioning to the Crow to follow him. She rolled her eyes and did as asked, the two of them sprintign all the way to the base of the Tower.

They found Elster past the entrance to an Atrium, nearby one of the upper sections of the local Cargo area. The Marines and Troopers carried wounded Civilians and their own soldiers inside, with the Survey Replika telling them, "Corvette did a number on this place after both FPF systems failed to bring it down... The Lieutenant here told me we have to clear them a path so they can get the civvies out..."

"Damn..." Six sighed, annoyed...

"Good news, though?" Elster added, Six now realizing she was relaxed. She said, "We have backup. Orbital Drop Shock Troopers... Some 'Bullfrog' unit..." before showing the two to follow. The Crow huffed as she walked along with them, looking to the injured civilians and the Troops. She murmured something about them being 'weak' before pausing as she saw Elster shoot a glare her way. She knew it was a glare because of the movement of her body.

"Good thing we took the alternate route the Spartans found..." A Marine murmured, "Would've had to go through the lower sections of Cargo..."

"We still ain't got shit in the way of transport until we find a way across to Traxus from here, though..." Another stated, then groaned as their Corpsman gave him medical care. He grunted and said, "Why'd these bastards have to hit now of all fucking times...? I was having a nice, easy Shore Leave back home and they had to fucking shoot at us..."

Entering the area, the group laid eyes on a platoon of ODST Bullfrogs. Equipped with jetpacks and armed to the teeth, the Marines' Special Forces turned to the girl and the Spartan and their TL said, "Well, if it isn't the people the Radio's buzzing about..." before shifting his assault rifle onto his back, "I'm Sergeant Danvers. We're about to take a little trip through this clusterfuck," and he motioned to the broken platforms of the place, "To give our Civvies a clear way through to TRAXUS. You three up for a little leapfrogging? We got the room for you."

The two Replikas and the Spartan seemed dumbfound until they noticed the extra jetpacks...

Chapter Text

The Crow loomed over the edge, staring down at the drop, then shook her head, "I'll take the long way up. I'm not a Fallschirmjaeger member..." turning to Elster. The hotheaded Engineer Replika snorted and took her helmet off, offering a small smile and a nod. She watched Six walk up to them with only two Jetpacks, before tossing Elster one. The girl mounted it onto her armor's back, letting it link systems.

She looked to the Crow and said, "Then take care of the Civvies with the Marines."

"And play nice," Six ordered her, before elbowing Elster in the shoulder gently. The girl nodded and turned to the Crow, who hummed and sighed, shoulders sagging. She replied with an affirmative nod back, before checking her rifle as the sound of packs' thrusters powering on came out, a roar of fuel being spent. Crow looked up, watching the Spartan, Elster and the Bullfrogs leaping across chasms with courage and gusto.

She sighed, then turned toward the Marines in the room and said, "I'm with you, I guess..." flashing them a toothy grin. The men, though wary, nodded to her and showed her to follow along toward the Civilians. Entering the lobby, the young Crow found herself facing dozens of people who seemed very much afraid. Above them, the Corvette of the Covenant armadas kept pouring plasma down on various UNSC positions across the city.

Feeling the ground beneath her feet shake, she sighed and looked around at the Civvies again. A family caught her eye, three children and their mother. The father, it seemed, was the Marine comforting them. His wife wept as she caressed his cheek while the children, two girls and a boy, held onto the father for dear life. She hummed, clicked her tongue and marched up to the Marines at the front of the lobby, taking cover behind a rather large plant pot.

One of the few Army Troopers present in the place crouched beside her and shouldered his DMR, murmuring, "Can't believe the rumors about fembots were real..." as he scoped in one of the entryways. Crow hummed and chose not to answer to him, simply casting a sideways glance at the man. He hummed, shook his head and waited as the ground below them shook again, nearly throwing off her aim. A few of the civvies yelped in surprise at the hits, but most stayed calm.

The Trooper looked to Crow and asked her, "Aren't you and that other one, Elster, from the same country?"

Crow huffed and flipped up the iron sights of the rifle, stating, "Yes, we are..." annoyed. Why'd she even have to answer a Gestalt soldier anyhow? Weren't they usually the ones who died first in this entire mess of a war? And what the hell was the Lieutenant as far as people went? Honestly, the amount of shit that Crow had to deal with right now was not pleasant. Hell, she didn't even have a nickname yet.

The Marine also seemed to have taken the hint and gone quiet. The Army troopers hummed, with one of them tossing an earpiece to the girl. She clipped it to her ear and turned it on, listening to Elster and the Lieutenant as they advanced, rifles chugging away as they fought and killed aliens. She should've taken the goddamn Jetpack and joined them, honestly. This was gonna be boring.

Just as that thought finished airing itself out of her brain, a needle round snapped by her ear, shaking her to her core. It slammed into the wall, embedded itself there and detonated, showering the ground with micro-fragments of purple crystalline material. With eyes still wide, the Crow stared down the monster that had fired. An Elite decloaked in front of her, followed by a squadron of Grunts and several more of its siblings.

She shook her head, clearing her block, before grinning with sharp teeth. She called out to her newfound comrades, "Targets! KILL'EM ALL!" before opening fire. The first ape to charge her seemed to be aiming dead for her ass. Easy kill, she thought as she stood to her foot pads and lit it up. She started moving, drawing her knife and making sure it was still sharp by slitting the throat of one of the stout chittering creatures escorting the Brutes.

The fluorescent blue blood stained the warmachine female's face as she surged forward, meeting the first Brute head-on as the infantrymen of gestalt origin around her gained some degree of confidence to join. The Civilians themselves cowered behind cover, as they should. They'd just be in the way of the trained killers keeping them alive in this clusterfuck.

She eyed another Brute. The beast eyed her as well. She stood up. It prepared its strange pistol with the two shanks at the front. She slung her MA37 onto her back, drew her pistol and knife and grinned, before the two manic creatures charged headlong at each-other. The girl fired the high-caliber pistol under the cover of her Marine 'comrades', before sliding under a swing from the beast's fist, sidestepping a slam-down with the blades of the weapon and putting the barrel of the pistol to its chin.

She shot twice, its strange helmet flung off its head as it collapsed to the floor. Crow, however, didn't expect what came next. A heavy-duty hammer swung from her left. She could barely dodge it in time, but it did ring her bell by striking the plant pot right next to her, not to mention sending bits and pieces of marble, metal and dirt all around as if a concussive blast paired with grenade shrapnel. It pinged off her Titanium chest-plate and a chunk embedded into her hip, though not deep enough to cause any lasting damage.

She grunted, however, then charged at the beast, slamming into its belly and feeling as if she'd hit an electric fence, considering the electric shock coursing through her body. Before long, she swept the leg of the beast, but found herself taking the brunt of the massive hammer's pommel to the face. It damn near broke a couple of her teeth and did succeed in sending her back, staggered.

Two soldiers beside her took bolts from another beast's Spiker, one of them pinned to the wall with a spike clean through his throat. The other lay on the floor, writhing, only able to watch the beast that shot him approaching. She shifted her aim, drawing her pistol despite her own dizziness, then she shot. Two bullets hit the thick hide of the monster, causing it to turn toward her.

She looked up and watched the hammer come down for her head. Rolling out of the way, she felt the air knocked out of her artificial lungs, her biomech heart starting to pum erratically. She quickly doubled over, standing to her feet and skidding to a halt as she aimed the pistol, then emptied the magazine into the Brute that'd charged her with the hammer. Another Brute flanked her, meanwhile.

The hammer brute was still alive and charging headlong at her, its armor glimmering gold under the blasts of Covenant plasma cannons. She grit her teeth, drew her assault rifle and took a knee, turning to the flanking Brute and running from the hammer main. Casings clattered to the floor as the rifle chattered, bullets piercing the hide. One lucky shot nailed the flanking Brute in the eye, sending it toppling over. A glowing spike flew by her cheek from one of its siblings

The hammer-wielding Brute charging her suddenly dropped dead, only for a shot to ring out. She looked over to the right to see Elster and the Lieutenant, the latter carrying a DMR as they advanced to join the defense. The Lieutenant called out, "Civilians and wounded in the elevator first. Elster, keep them safe. Crow, up front!" and turned to her. The riflewoman grinned and rushed up to their side.

"Took your sweet time, Herr Leutnant!" She then quipped as the surviving Marines and Troopers formed a perimeter around the elevator, Civilians filing in behind them, carrying their wounded and the wounded Marines. Those who could still walk entered the elevator and provided cover from there, until the last man boarded. The Spartan gave a tap on Elster and Crow's shoulders and pulled out a grenade, thumbing the pin out and priming it. He threw it toward the leading Brute, letting the grenade do the rest of the work as they entered the elevator.

Elster hit the button for the top floor, the ovoid elevator's doors closing shut behind them. Elster sighed and seemingly wiped sweat off her brow on instinct. She looked to Crow and said, "Not bad, for one of your types..." which garnered a grin out of her once more. The Crow, however, looked out of habit to the Lieutenant, who gave a nod of approval as well.

"She can listen to orders and shoot well, sir," A Marine Sergeant quipped, "I think she'll do fine... Just keep the creepy fucking smiles to yourself..."

"No promises," She grinned. She then turned toward the other side of the elevator, back to the doors, and watched them go up higher and higher. New Alexandria was a massive city, even if most of it was walkable. The buildings rose high into the sky, high enough for some to be 'tapped' by the Corvettes up above as they flew, scraping their sides and breaking multiple windows while their plasma batteries continued to rain hell down on the city.

Six hummed as he listened to the radio calls, then looked to Elster and Crow and told them, "We'll have a Falcon waiting for us next to the Pelicans. Local com's redirecting us to the Starport to protect an outbound flight of civvie craft heading out of the city. Afterward, they'll help us RV with Noble... Hell, we made record time by sheer luck, courtesy of splitting up."

"And that right there's why I'll never take a fucking jetpack..." Murmured the Crow as she checked her rifle. She hummed, then walked over to the window and stared down at the river, where UNSC PT Boats and drones ran interference between the massive Civilian Spaceport and advancing enemy units, gatling cannons lighting up the sky with tracers to keep Banshees away. She could barely make out the Civvies being loaded beside the massive T-shaped transport ships.

A Marine commented, "Fuckers are hitting my home... Hope command don't expect me to run away..." as he scratched the top of his left arm. The Spartan and girls saw the man had a prosthetic limb and several burn scars. He looked to them and said, "Spartan, sir. I'm... A Reach Native," his accent obviously Hungarian, local. Six nodded, slinging his rifle onto his back as the elevator reached the top.

"You got one helluva fight ahead of you," Crow smirked, "Ya really not planning to ditch, Gestalt?"

"The fuck would I ditch for?" He shot back, glaring at Crow as they walked off through the rooftop atrium, which was lined with wounded Civilians and Marines being tended to and awaiting Evac. A few Marines guided the wounded to the sides as Pelican dropships landed in the open-air landing pad up a flight of stairs and dead ahead. The plants in the dozens of pots were burned and shattered glass littered the corners of the atrium, alongside hundreds of body bags.

"Just sayin'," She shrugged, "I, the Leutnant and maybe that LSTR unit can handle the heat. You normal Gestalts are squishy enough as is."

He growled, "Shut it. Even if I'm squishy, I'll go down swinging at these Covvie bastards fur even remotely trying to burn my home..."

She nodded, then hit him in the shoulder and said, "If only more of you Gestalt types were like this fucker in my world, the Imps might've had one helluva run for their money while trying to take Vineta from us." Which, well, the Marine felt was a bit of a backhanded compliment. He nodded to her and didn't add anything to it. Elster, meanwhile, shook her head and sighed.

"Excuse her, corporal," She said, taking her helmet off, "Crows aren't particularly the brightest bulb in the chandelier..."

"Heh. It's fine, ma'am. I heard worse from off-planet Refugees, to be honest," He replied, slinging his rifle, a DMR, onto his back, "Got into a couple scuffles about it myself..." And he motioned to a scar on his neck, "Cut me with a switchblade, one of the fuckers did..." which made Elster wince as they walked up the stairwell. A pair of other Marines trailed behind them, one of them carrying a missile launcher despite her size.

The group made it up to the Landing Pad, where three Pelicans were being loaded while several more approached from the distance. One Falcon, as promised, with a nose-mounted 40mm autocannon and side-mounted grenade launchers, waited for them. The pilot had kept the bird's engines hot. Six looked to Elster and gave her a pat on the back, then motioned to the vehicle.

The Spartan, Replikas and the Marine Designated Marksman boarded the vehicle, Elster manning the left-side grenade launcher while Six took the right. The Marine and Crow were on the seats, with a fifth joining them aboard being a Corpsman. Said corpsman gave a spin of her hand to the pilot and the VTOL's engines roared, flames jutting out of the nozzles behind the turboprops as it lifted off, then turned and dipped its nose down for a fast descent.

The Marine and Corpsman held on tightly, while Elster and Six gripped onto the side-mounted guns as Six patched the radio through and said, "Lieutenant Grey, this is Noble Six. I'm en-route with a Fireteam to your position near by the Docks to provide aid in reactivating Air Defenses. Be advised, we'll be coming in hot..." as he swung his Grenade Launcher right about thirty degrees and aimed at the enemy Banshee closing in for the kill. He let off three grenades, two of which directly impacted the Banshee's canopy and detonated, shattering the flyer.

"Copy that, Noble. God bless you. We need every ounce of help we can get here... To all evacuation craft off of NA Starport, we've got incoming reinforcements and will reactivate the Air Defense Net momentarily. Stand-by for confirmation of the all-clear." The UNSC Army officer in charge of AirDef nearby the Port called out. Elster swept the grenade launcher over twelve degrees to the left and angled it three down as the helicopter flew parallel with the river, then fired a grenade, keeping the button pressed.

An EM blast splayed out from the grenade's detonation, spraying the Banshee she targeted with shrapnel. One of its engines coughed, before both died to the EM blast. It careened left and crashed into the river as the Marine and Crow opened up with their rifles toward any other enemy craft. Plasma rounds shot past the pilot's cockpit, some striking the top of the bird's fuselage as it flew by the Port, giving them a clear view of the crowds evacuating aboard the UNSC's few remaining transports.

More grenades and rounds flew as the aircraft swung around a rocky beach, where Covenant troops had landed in droves, nearby a terraced area with a building at the rear which presumably served as the UNSC's command area before the Covvies took it over. Swinging the bird around just as a Transport radioed in, "UNSC Air Defense Command, this is Transport Three-Charlie, I can't wait any longer! We are full and have to leave now!" the group watched...

"Negative, Three-Charlie, stand by for a bit longer!" The man replied. The group watched the ship's engines power on. The first of three transports lifted off, turning to its left to try and leave... Before one of the plasma turrets of one of the three ships above tracked it. Two boulders of plasma smacked into its rear, sending the aircraft on a doomed course down to the bottom of the sea floor, even as the captain of the civvie ship called Mayday.

"... Fuck," The Marine swore, "Bastards..."

"We'll make'em pay, Corporal..." Six noted as the helicopter swung in for landing by the beach. He climbed to Elster's side and took a knee, waving to the officer on the deck. The man nodded in greeting, saluted and watched as the small fire-team descended from the Falcon, with the Corpsman immediately heading to tend to the wounded Army troopers and help their medic.

Elster looked forward as Six talked to the Lieutenant in charge of the unit, Grey. A more light shade of dark skin, an officer's cap and a shotgun. The man sat in the middle of Covenant plasma fire like it was nothing as he talked to the Spartan, who was much the same. Taking cover behind the rocks, Elster and the Crow stared forward at the position they were supposed to take. Three missile batteries, each located on higher ground. Anti-ship missiles, obviously, going by the size. Beside them, the Corpsman tended to an Army soldier, whispering to him.

Crow hummed, "It'll be Uphill, every way... Fuckin' A to the Army for losing the High Ground..."

"Not like you haven't dealt with worse on Vineta," Elster quipped, shouldering her rifle while the Designated Marksman that'd come with them was taking potshots at Jackal Skirmishers, who were, in turn, firing back with their own needle rifles. Crow snorted and gave Elster a slap on the back to confirm. Elster, meanwhile, turned to Six and waved him over.

The Spartan joined them behind the rock, taking cover and aiming his DMR before firing and nailing a Jackal. He leaned back forward and said, "We'll have to re-sync the tubes to the central controls..." before pointing toward the central building, "Up in there. Sole door open's gonna be the one with the overwatch pos. Elster, you take the Army and the Marine and start activating the sync in the missiles. I and Crow will punch down the middle."

"You got it," Elster nodded.

"Sure thing!" Crow affirmed jovially. Six nodded, then rallied the Army and Marines up, checked his ammo and gave the signal.

Elster burst out of cover, rallying the Platoon behind her as they pushed forward in a blitz toward the first ASM Battery. Her gun roared first, nailing a Brute and a pair of Grunts with a full burst. The Brute doubled over from the hit, giving ample time for the Reach Native Marine to snipe its hat clean off. The other UNSC troops followed closely, taking cover behind wrecked and overturned Warthogs, behind rocks, behind railings and metal damaged by the battle, to provide cover for Elster as she went to the first missile pod.

Jumping over an in-built flowerbed and landing with her feet on the metal floor of the promenade, the girl ran toward the gun and hit the sync button, taking cover as plasma and needles flew her way. Her shields flashed, flared and died as a burst of plasma from an Elite's repeater washed over her, forcing her back into cover. One of her SPI suit's plates was hit and damaged, while another tanked a Needle, causing it to shatter on impact.

"Fucking hell..." Elster swore to herself. She pulled two grenades off her belt, primed and threw both with one hand, causing the Covvies to scatter. She motioned for her team to move forward, putting lead into heads as they did so. Several Grunts tried to counter them, alongside a Phalanx of Jackals with shields, but the Reach-born Marine was quick to throw a Frag at them after cooking it for a few seconds.

The frag shattered the phalanx, providing ample opportunity that the understrength fireteam soon exploited, taking them and their Grunt escorts out with flashes of gunfire and, some times, stomping their heads in. They all focused fire on a pair of Elites next, hosing the bastards down and filling them with enough lead to replace a good chunk of their bone structure.

Elster finally noted the name of the Reach Native on her HUD. 'Nemeth'. It lacked a diacritic on the rearmost letter, but the young man was bearing the rank of Corporal, obviously. And, upon quickly pulling up a short service profile, Elster found him to be quite a developed soldier. She gave him a nod as they pushed onto and activated the second anti-air piece. Elster radioed in to Six, "We have two pieces up! Moving onto the last!"

"Copy. We've almost cleared the place out here, though the Crow took a hit..." Six replied over Radio, "See you downstairs once the missiles are hot."

"Rog. Seven, out," She replied as they pushed together. The Marines all threw Grenades at the next enemy position, which included a Shade Turret. The flashes and rumbles of grenade detonations shook the ground, shrapnel tearing through Grunts and even stripping an elite of its shields. Bullets flew, a needle round caught an Army trooper in the chest and sent him tumbling forward, while another wounded the Hungarian. He grunted and kept on going, even as the small needle exploded in his hip.

They blitzed the enemy position, emptying entire magazines and taking the lives of the dozen remaining aliens in the area. As the gunfire died down on all sides of the battlefield, Elster approached the last missile tube and patched it into the correct freq, then sighed deeply and radioed, "Six. We're green here... Fire at will..." only to receive a humm of confirmation and the click of several buttons.

The missile systems all turned toward the enemy ships, each tracking one, before firing their volleys, covering a good chunk of the promenade and beach in the smoke of exhaust. Each missile arched, dodging enemy defensive fire, only to slam into the maws of the Corvettes. Six shots each tore plating and caused azure and scarlet fires to burst from the hulls of the enemy's ships.

"This is Charlie Transport Unit... We're taking off. Thanks for the cover, Spartan, Troopers... Godspeed," The captain of one of the surviving ships spoke as they took off and flew toward the horizon, past the massive stalks of orbital freight elevators, the same type of which had brought Elster and Ariane down to the planet so many weeks ago. Elster hummed and watched as Pelicans came in to evacuate the wounded, before hearing the radio crackle to life as Six walked up to her.

"... Six, Seven, this is Noble Five! Do you hear me?" Jorge's voice resolved as the com unscrambled.

Six nodded to Elster, who smiled briefly, then listened in. The male Spartan answered, "Five, this is Six and Seven. We're alive... Good to hear your voice," as he slid his rifle onto his back. Elster shot a glance back toward Nemeth and gave him a salute, to which the Hungarian corporal replied with a smile and a nod. He boarded the Pelican for the wounded.

"Good to hear you two alive, as well! Hah, we'd half thought you went up with the Supercarrier..." Jorge was obviously happy to hear them, but the bitter aftertaste of disappointment could be felt behind each word. "... I'm sorry, you two. We should probably have figured the Covenant would send a bigger Fleet the moment they realized how important Reach is..."

"It's fine, Jorge... We're sorry about this, too..." Elster sighed.

"It's alright, Els." He replied, obviously worried, but hiding it very well, being a Spartan and all. He relayed to them, "We're sending a bird to pick you up at those coords. You stand by there. Boss is gonna want to talk to you about some upcoming op while we're still in the city. See you up here. Five, out," And the radio cut just as Six pulled out a flare and activated it, tossing it in front of them.

Oh, boy...

Chapter Text

New Alexandria sadly burned.

Above the cover of the clouds, UNSC Aircraft provided evacuation for the few remaining areas occupied by either military or civilian survivors. Buildings that would otherwise have had lights on now burned, some of their superstructure exposed by the Covenant's relentless plasma bombardment from earlier. In the far distance, a Covenant Corvette's husk lay, burning and, farther yet, Covenant Cruisers' excavation beams burned the ground below, the rising stalks of the three orbital elevators that Elster and Ariane rode down now waning, about to melt.

Fires burned in the distance, as well, the ocean boiling away, too. Elster had taken her helmet off, regarding the sight from the back of a Pelican, sat down next to Six. Ahead of them, the Crow had fallen asleep, cradling her newfound MA37 rifle. It was standard for the cruelest of the lot to be able to sleep things off just like that. The LSTR let out a hum, staring out at the Cruisers in the distance, then murmured, "I hear Orbital's not going much better..."

"Covenant came in with a full force," Six sighed, "Obviously, things are not going to be particularly pretty..."

Elster gave a nod, watching as the Pelican swung by several towers interconnected by long walkways, only to touch down at a nearby landing pad. The Spartan and Land-Survey Replika stood to their feet, with the latter kicking Crow awake and causing her to stagger and jump. With a growl, the combat Replika descended from the Pelican with them, to the sight of Carter on the deck and two Falcons on the landing pad behind him.

Both Six and her saluted the man. He saluted them back and said, "Good to see you both back. Jorge was worried sick when you winked off the radars..." before pausing as he saw the Crow, "And this must be that other Replika you told us about." and turning to examine her. The Crow's sharpened teeth greeted him as she bore a standard grin. It made Carter, a Spartan, uneasy to see something like her.

She gave a nod, "Evenin', Commander. Need some heads knocked together?"

He hummed, then said, "I'll take it under consideration," before looking to Elster and Six and stating, "Sorry to cut the visit short, but Kat's going to need you. We're facing a disorganized evacuation and Covenant Jammers in a multitude of buildings, making reinforcements and consolidation impossible. Your job's to take three of the jammers out and rally up whatever survivors you can."

"Sir," Six nodded, "Consider it done."

Elster racked the bolt of her assault rifle to emphasize her own support. He nodded to them and told them, "Don't die on us now. We'll need all hands on deck when we get out of here," before he walked back toward the other Falcon on the deck and boarded it. The Spartan-Replika Trio stepped off toward the other Falcon as the faint pit-patter of rain started to filter in.

"Yo, LSTR Unit," Crow demanded, "When am I gonna get cool armor like that?"

"Ask requisition and the Logi units, if there's any still alive on this planet," Elster shot back coolly as she climbed aboard, then plopped herself down. Taking her helmet off, the young woman shook the artificial hair on her head to straighten it out, then examined the helmet itself as Six took the pilot's seat. She then manned one of the machine guns on the side and slid her helmet back on, wordless.

Crow followed suit, manning the opposite machine gun and linking it to her own systems, only for her HUD to receive a quick update. She pulled back on the bolt handle of the MG, then hummed and smirked as she saw it feed a fifty-cal round. Happy with it, she swiveled it on its mount to test its arc of fire, finding the 180 degrees left-right traverse and about 160 depression and raising capabilities satisfactory. She activated her com and said, "Not bad! I like this thing!"

"Wait 'till you see its nose-mounted cannon," Six replied as he pushed forward on the thrust lever. The turboprop of the VTOL hissed, then roared as the jet-wash kicked dust up around the helicopter. It lifted off the pad and banked right, with Elster holding onto her machine gun so as not to fall out. She sighed, clipped a safety harness to her armor and tapped her com transmit twice. Six replied, "Had to get us moving, Els. Nothing much I can do."

"Rog," She replied, then turned to the Crow and told her, "There's a safety harness system next to you. Clip it to your belt or armor so you don't fall out on sharper turns..."

The Crow did as instructed, only leaning forward to see the nose-mounted high-caliber chain gun as the Spartan revved its motor. She whistled, impressed, grin still on her face. As the helicopter began to fly between the high-rises of the place and Six radioed in to Kat for directions to the nearest jammer, Elster hummed, gazing at the Pelicans still doing their best to evacuate.

She turned back toward Crow and said to her, "Elster."

"Huh?" The Crow turned back toward her, "What?"

"I have a name. Elster. Use it," She replied, "You need a name, too."

"Do I, though?" The Crow inquired, grinning, "And can't I just use Crow?"

"No..." Elster shot back rather defensively, "Bad memories... From Vineta," She then murmured as she turned back to her gun, ensuring her crosshairs were properly aligned with the weapon's own sensors. She zeroed it as they flew, the helicopter banking gently around an office building that burned, a fire scarring the side, windows blown out by the pressure wave of a plasma blast.

Crow snorted, "Riiight. I forgot your Replika class was made from a Vinetan veteran that died..." before she hummed, her grin slowly dissipating, "I think I met you before. Outpost Mainz, right on the Front Line. Itou or something, right?" a strange sight to behold being a seeming show of calmness from the otherwise-murderous war machine. Still, she must've attempted something...

Elster's mind flashed with memories of Lilith Itou once more. She sighed, squelching and letting them dissipate, "Yeah... Long time ago..." before telling her, "I'm not her anymore, though it sure feels like I'm back to those old habits some times..."

The Crow snorted, "I'll be fucked if I don't know that feeling..."

"So... Rita?" She asked.

"Ew, what the fuck, no," The Crow frowned, "Too 'normal'."

Elster snorted and shook her head, "Exactly why I chose it..." before humming. She paused as she saw the silhouette of a possible enemy flyer in the clouds below. It dipped up. She swiveled her MG and said, over com, "Six, contact. Engaging Banshee!" before her thumbs pressed against the paddle-shaped trigger of the MG. It chattered, the burst of fifty-cal rounds striking the forward canopy of the Banshee Flyer as it dipped up to engage. Twin plasma cannons heated white hot and spat globs of azure, a burst of plasma narrowly missing their Falcon as the Spartan dipped and swiveled the bird about.

Elster kept up the pressure, bullets piercing the canopy, tearing into the canards and causing the antigrav units to puff dark-blue smoke. The nose-mounted cannon finally found purchase as Six settled his own crosshair on the target. A burst of fire rattled the light gunship's hull. The high-caliber rounds left the barrel of the gun and struck the Banshee dead center, punching three holes into the canopy and destroying the line feeding the charging fuel rod gun in its maw.

An emerald explosion enveloped the enemy flyer. It shattered to pieces, shrapnel pinging off the hull of the Falcon. More plasma bolts arced up toward them, with Crow ducking as one hit the roof above her. She swiveled her MG about and let out a slurry of insults directed at the pilot of the Banshee, before lighting it up. The Banshee dipped, its engine coughed and it banked to the left to rearrange for another attack run it would never get to make. Armor-piercing fifties tore through the inside of its canopy and spatters of purple blood seeped through one of the ship's wounds as it dipped down and disappeared below the clouds, aflame.

"Good kill..." Six told them, "First target's the hospital. Be ready to haul it the moment we land..." and he turned the Pelican toward the NA Hospital, which lay dead ahead of them now. The helicopter's engines puffed as Six began the descent toward the landing pad. The Spartan dismounted first, with Elster and Crow jumping out of their seats, folding the guns aside. He motioned to them to rally up, staring at the high-rise hospital, then told them, "We're taking this a floor at a time. Covvies dug themselves in."

"Sir," The two nodded, before they began their push. The entry through the main door brought them to the top floor of the lobby, a spiral design of modern architecture tinged with some older cues, including wood floors. On the lowest floor was a small garden of sorts, square in the center of the concentric rings that made up the floors and descending pathways of this section of the hospital.

And in-between them and the bottom floor lay multiple squads of Covenant, of which the Grunts seemed to notice them first. Crystalline shards lanced up from below as two grunts armed with needlers fired. The shards broke upon the glass separating the Spartan and Replikas from them, shattering it and sending micron-sharpened shrapnel into its structure, ever weakening it.

Following up, a platoon of Grunts engaged them from down below, green bolts of plasma tracing the air where all three had stood. Six had taken cover beside a pillar, opening fire down the slope with his rifle. Elster, meanwhile, pulled a pair of grenades off her belt and rolled them down the pathway after priming them. The Elite supporting the grunts noticed the frags coming down and only had a split second to react, jumping out of the way as thunder roared and shrapnel pinged off of his shields.

With more than half the grunt platoon having died to the fragmentation grenades, the suppressing fire that had pinned both Replikas and Spartan down subsided, giving the trio a chance to return fire on their own terms. First to pop up was Crow, her gun roaring with the same fury she had in her eyes. Bullets hit and chipped the floor, embedded themselves in concrete surfaces and struck and pierced the armor of the remaining grunts, spewing fluorescent azure blood onto the floor.

Elster came in next, advancing by one of the railings and opening up on the Elite, rifle chattering as the ammo counter ticked down rapidly, both on her HUD and on the weapon itself. The shots flared the monster's shield, cut through the plate and pierced flesh, spewing its purple lifeblood onto the floor. Once the rifle's counter turned red, displaying the double-zero of an empty mag, Elster quickly drew her sidearm and put one round into the Elite's maw, spattering blood and brain matter on the wall support behind it.

She gasped as she caught two blue bolts of plasma in reply. Her shields flared and drained to half, forcing her to take cover behind an overturned bench. Ahead of her, a pair of Elites with enclosed helmets, jump packs, white armors and plasma repeater rifles advanced, firing in staggered bursts to ensure the larger, more dangerous plasma machine gun did not overheat in either of their hands.

She eyed a plasma grenade on the floor, just beyond her cover. Leaning forward and attempting to reach it, the girl felt a larger needle round skip off her gauntlet, shattering into the floor next to her and forcing her to pull her hand back. She grit her teeth and eyed a Skirmisher with a Needle Rifle behind the Elites. With four quick moves, the woman slapped in a fresh magazine for her rifle and reset the counter.

She watched a primed plasma grenade arc over her head, only to land square between the Elites. It flashed, the air boiled and both Elites lost their legs and a good chunk of their armor, their shields overloaded by the plasma. Two cracks echoed as Six advanced next to her, his DMRs' barrel still evacuating smoke. She motioned to Crow to move up, which the crazier Replika did joyfully, hefting her AR and opening up on the Skirmisher ahead. Multiple shots punctured the beast's greyish hide, but it managed to let loose one extra Needle round before collapsing.

Said needle round struck the Crow square in the breast-plate of her titanium armor plate, sending her tumbling back as it pierced, then exploded. Elster growled, ran forward and grabbed the girl by the scruff of her armor's neck, pulling her into cover before firing bursts at an advancing Elite Major. He took cover and then swiveled about, taking a knee to lower his height and sending bursts of plasma from his twin plasma rifles.

Several bolts struck Six's shields, draining them as the Spartan took cover. One splashed across his unprotected armor and heated the Titanium slightly, but it immediately cooled when he took cover. The bolts struck and pounded his cover, melting the plastics and metals that made up the decorative panels on the walls and glass railings. Elster looked to Crow and asked, "How bad?"

"I'll fucking live," The machine replied with a growl, patting her pierced plate down and pushing off some of the microshrapnel. She murmured, "Now I'm really gonna need new armor..."

"We'll get you some, Rita," Elster smirked behind her helmet. A flurry of swears in German, Chinese and Russian struck Elster's auditory sensors, making her chuckle, before she ducked back under cover as a bolt of plasma struck the glass above her, superheating and shattering a chunk of it, sprays of molten glass and broken shards raining down below. Two more platoons of Grunts waddled up the stairwell.

Six called out, "Grenades! We can't afford to stay here!" Before priming another plasma one. Elster nodded and grabbed two off the floor, holstering her rifle. She primed them and threw them at the same time with Six. Three distinct hissing thumps filled the room and their radiation counters clicked for a moment. A dozen Grunts flash-vaporized in the blasts.

She and Six pushed forward, with Six sprinting forward at an incredible speed. Fast enough that when he cocked his right fist back to slam down on an Elite, the first connected and snapped the bastard's neck, folding the spine and sending the Elite stumbling back, dead on the floor. A pool of purple blood flowed below it. Elster followed up with two rounds that connected with another Elite's shields. She picked up a plasma pistol, overcharged it and let loose the massive bolt.

It struck the Elite, frying its shield and scarring its armor. With that, Elster tossed the spent pistol aside, letting it simmer due to overheat, and put another two rounds from her pistol into its face. She dropped the half-empty magazine into a pouch and slammed in a fresh one, before she slid the gun back onto the thigh mount and pressed the advance alongside Six and Crow.

Several floors further, the trio made it to the central area of the lobby, taking cover behind massive flower pots containing dying plants. Plasma and crystals criss-crossed above them and hit their cover, boiling away faux-wood, the plants and the soil in the pots themselves. The trio hummed, popped up as soon as they heard the first plasma rifle overheat and laid into the enemy.

Two grunts were filled full of lead. A third stumbled and his shots went wide. The elites leading the pack crumpled under the whittling firepower as the Spartan and his escorting biomechanical comrades pushed forward. Crow stepped up toward an Elite, dodging an attempt to bludgeon her head in and drawing her combat knife. With a roar worthy of a berserker, she slammed the tip of the blade int othe side of the Elite's neck, piercing through the bodysuit and ballistic layering and cutting into its artery. Swiping down, the woman seemed to bathe in the purple blood for a moment, staining her face and armor.

She pushed forward and rejoined Six on his right side, noting, "Bit of payback..."

"Don't go committing suicide by Elite," Six quipped darkly.

Elster added, "Would save us a headache..." jokingly. Crow lifted one digit in an ancient, but easily recognizable gesture, causing both Elster and Six to snort. The group pushed further, toward one of the bridges that linked the towers that made up the Hospital. There, they found three things:Various high and low points, the roaring gunfire of Army Troopers pinned down by Covenant and the jammer itself at the farthest point in the back, covered by Elites and energy shields.

Elster huffed, while the Crow growled and Six simply stared. The trio joined up with the Army Troopers, Six stating, "Sixteen Charlie, you and your platoon are with us. Cover to cover, leapfrog and engage. Look out for the Elite Rangers... And someone get me a sniper..." just as one of the Troopers, a girl, stepped up and nodded to Six. The girl, a mixed Asian-European who wore some extra equipment for sniping on her helmet, hefted her SRS-99 and nodded.

Six gave one hand motion, an open-palm point toward one of the upper areas where flower pots were, so she could use them for cover. She nodded and scrambled off toward it. The rest of the Army Troopers formed up loosely with the Spartan and his comrades. Bolts of plasma slammed into their cover while Jetpacks hissed, their users soaring forward and landing on elevated platforms.

One of the Elite Rangers' closed helmets cracked open, spraying blood and bone and brain matter on one of its brethren. The Alien collapsed in a heap. Another thundercrack echoed and a second elite with a Needle Rifle had its armor punctured by a 14,5mm round. Up above, two contrails dissipated as the Sniper aimed her next shot. Two needle rounds flew by her, but she didn't even flinch.

With a single motion of the hand, Six ordered the assault to begin. The surviving Army troopers long-armed grenades over the energy barricades, each landing in a cluster of Covenant units. The detonations either killed or disoriented the enemy enough, allowing the platoon and the Spartan to advance. Gunfire once more filled the hall as grunts and their comrades were put down.

A flurry of rounds left the Army Troopers' rifles as they cut down the remaining survivors, with Six, Elster and Crow finally able to advance on the pulsating Covenant jammer unabated. Electricity arced off its body, the central radiator pulsing rapidly with various non-lethal radiation bursts per second. Their helmets and systems overall seemed to be enduring the brunt of the damage, with the Crow finding herself in the need to slam herself in the head to reset her ocular sensors.

Six put a hand on the device, then tapped in a few commands on the holographic display, courtesy of his systems' translation component. Three hand signals and everyone backed away as the plasma coil containing the power of the device overloaded and it detonated in a bright blue flash. Elster coughed, shaking her head, then murmured, "I hate these things..."

Six nodded, then radioed, "Command, this is Noble Six. Sixteen Charlie survivors at the hospital require EVAC. Objective One complete..." before humming.

"... To anyone on this net," A familiar voice played over Elster's restored com, "This is Gunnery Sergeant Edward Buck, 11th ODST, requesting support on the South Side of the city. A few of my men who were helping get left-over Civvies out are under attack by Covenant. Need someone who can back me up and eliminate the Covenant support while I get them outta there..." before Kat's reply quickly came over the radio.

"..." Elster smiled, then radioed, "Gunny, this is Elster. I'm on my way over now. Kat, I'm gonna need a Falcon at the Hospital. Let Six and Crow deal with the rest of the com jammers..."

"... Roger that. If you're sure," Kat replied.

"Sure as can be," Elster quipped.

"Heh. I'll welcome the help any time, Elster. Watch your flying, air's thick with these covvie bastards," Buck replied over the radio. The platoon all rushed outside, to the top of the tower and toward the evacuation vehicles. A Pelican and another Falcon landed on the pad, with two Marines manning the latter. Elster looked to Six, gave the man and Crow a nod, then climbed aboard the helicopter.

The two said their quick goodbyes before Elster powered on the Falcon's engines. The two Marines beside her jumped on the machine guns as she lifted off and banked down, turning toward where her HUD had updated the NAV Point. Behind her, she saw Six and the Pelican evacuating Sixteen Charlie moving toward an area thick with buildings. She gazed forward once more, then radioed Buck and said, "Gunny. I'm on approach vector."

"Check your three o'clock," The man replied. She gazed to the right, to the sight of a second Falcon manned by ODSTs, the soldiers clad in black, tactical, fully-sealed armors. Buck, at the controls of the Falcon, gave her a thumbs up, though she didn't know if he was looking at her or not due to the polarized visor of his helmet. She replied in kind, however, before the two Falcons formed up. "I'm surprised," Buck commented, "Where's your girl?"

"She's safe in CASTLE Base," Elster replied, her mind flashing to her beautiful girlfriend. With all the hell she'd been going through, she had had little time to think about her, though she knew in the back of her mind that she was the one she was even fighting as hard as she was for. Buck hummed, before humming an affirmative as he maintained an echelon formation with the Replika.

The two watched the first Banshees emerge in their path and aligned the guns on their Falcons, letting loose volleys of autocannon fire. The two banked to opposite directions, clearing the path and trying to destroy as many enemy flyers as they could, while, around them, Covenant dropships headed for the evacuation site. Elster hummed, radioing in, "Noble Seven to allied assets, retreat into the building. We'll clear the air and bring in a Pelican for EVAC..." before squinting. Her visor polarized, increasing magnification and allowing her to see the other ODSTs.

They pulled back to within the confines of the building's stairwell. Tracers still flew through the doorway, but now the Covenant were bottlenecked when they had to deploy and engage them. It was still an uphill battle for the Shock Troopers, which was the reason Elster now zeroed in on the leading enemy Phantom and lit it up. The rounds of the Autocannon tore through the purple-hued hull of the enemy dropship, sending it careening into a building as one of its engines detonated, leaving it without stability.

They had a job still. Evacuating the ODSTs and the Civilians, followed by getting the hell out of here as well. She felt a ping in her neural network, however, followed by a set of flashing coordinates. Her HUD blurred and seemed to flicker for a second, only to return to normal moments later, which made her worry the Covvies had dropped another jammer nearby...

... No time to worry about it now. Civvies needed rescue.

Chapter Text

The autocannons of the two Falcons thundered, raking the Covenant forces and their transports and digging holes through purple-hued armor plating. The ODSTs below appeared out of cover, two carrying Jackhammers. The missiles lanced out of the tubes, tracking Covenant Banshees as they attempted to turn and welcome the Air Support themselves. One missile detonated like a flak burst, spraying shrapnel all across a Banshee's belly and causing one of its engines to sputter and die. The antigrav system, now unbalanced, sent it careening into a brother. The other struck dead center, vaporizing the bird.

Elster banked and broke formation from the Gunny, sweeping in and letting loose a torrent of explosive rounds toward the Covenant nearby the LZ. She then swept over and fired bursts at another pair of Banshees while her side-gunners let loose concurrent streams of rounds from their own guns. Buck radioed, "Two, left!" before both Falcons swung about and engaged, their autocannons thundering rapidly like lightning during a summer storm.

Another pair of Banshees exploded as the Pelican the pair had escorted swung in to recover the ODSTs. A sniper shot rang out and another Banshee banked surprisingly hard left, then slammed into the side of a building and clean through a window. Elster eyes the sniper below, a man with a custom set of ODST Armor, as he and the others boarded the aircraft. Buck called, "Thanks for the cover, Elster. See you Earthside."

"No problem, Gunny. God be with you," She replied, which garnered a snort from the man and a murmur about 'God being on vacation', then swung about, "This is Noble Seven, departing off Grid 219-222, am currently Northbound, heading back into the city... Kat, if you can hear me, I'm gonna need approximate coordinates for where Six and his unit are..."

"Roger, patching the coordinates into your NAV now," Kat replied, overly cautious. She was probably making sure the Covvies weren't tracking the com as the Replika dipped down and flew in lower, near the cloud cover below them, keeping an eye out in the mist of the towers below for any other possible hostiles. She radioed to her gunners, requesting that they keep an eye out as well, before taking a short left around one of the towers belonging to the Hospital.

Her HUD picked up a new target approaching. She zeroed in on it and shifted her aim, before a burst of plasma washed over her canopy. The glass crackled and popped, but didn't shatter as the hot plasma bolts struck. She swiveled her bird, showing the armor as she aimed the cannon. One burst left the barrel and the Banshee's bulbous forward hull blossomed and exploded outward, its sensor suite inoperative as it dived.

Not dead, but out of action. Elster kept her eyes peeled and heard the chatter of her gunners' MGs as well, watching as scarlet tracers dotted the night sky and lit the clouds around them, passing through. Bullets pinged off the hull of a Banshee, AP rounds piercing the belly again as it lanced upward, breaching through said clouds. A plasma conduit caught fire and the bird's engines failed.

The TEAMBIO of one of the gunners flatlined and Elster saw plasma in the corner of her eyes. A second Banshee appeared on the right side, its cannons still shimmering scarlet after firing. She gasped as she saw the corpse of the right gunner slumped over onto his weapon. She grit her teeth and said, "Stand by, Private. I'm gonna bring us in for landing as soon as I find them..."

Her HUD's NAV pointed toward Club Errera, at the top of one of the high-rises. She pulled up on the stick and brought herself and the Falcon up. More plasma bolts struck the top of the aircraft and warnings began to blare in the cockpit. The Falcon's engines sputtered, its rotors slowing for just a sec and causing them to dip in altitude. Elster countered this as best she could, the aircraft regaining altitude control and lifting up toward the club. She eyed the enemy flyer as it passed above her, just out of the firing arc of her cannon.

It swept in for another strike, plasma rounds piercing the heated upper hull and causing one of the thrusters to pop and explode. The Helicopter dipped again, but they were close. She tried to bring it about and fired a burst next to the Banshee to deter it while her sole remaining machine gunner tried firing back as well. The Covenant air asset veered hard left, dodging the burst that went wide, before bringing its nose about again and charging its fuel rod cannon.

Elster gasped, watching the burning emerald glow form at the barrel, then called out, "CORPORAL! JUMP!" just as the weapon fired.

Thankfully, the two were level and next to Errera's landing pad. The Trooper jumped first, grabbing onto the side of the pad and hanging there for a good minute, trying to avoid the blades of the chopper. Elster popped open her canopy... Then felt the heat prickling at her bio-components, her outer polyethylene layer boiling with the armor as an emerald blast boiled and melted the chopper.

Her shields overloaded and broke as she landed on the platform, rolling like a barrel to the left. She drew her pistol and aimed it at the banshee, before firing once, twice, three times and proceeding to empty her entire magazine into it. She must've hit one of the antigrav pods, because the aircraft dipped, turned and boosted away at maximum speed. She grit her teeth, felt her back and saw that, no, thankfully her SPI Armor hadn't melted.

She then scrambled to her feet as she saw the trooper still hanging there, then ran up to him and grabbed him by the wrist, calling out to him, "I gotcha!" and dragging him up. The man panted, breathing a sigh of relief and wiping the sweat off his brow. She told him, "Good legs..." before scanning the skies as she racked the slide on her pistol. A round fed from the fresh magazine she had slapped in mid-run.

She also noticed Six's chopper to the right, damaged and scarred by plasma... But flyable.

"Thanks," The boy replied, his voice tinged with a light accent and the heavy breathing. He was olive-skinned, probably of another ethnic group.

"Corporal Asher, right?" She asked him as she helped him to his feet and handed him his assault rifle off the floor. He nodded, to which Elster patted him on the shoulder and said, "C'mon, Jim. I'm thinking I'm gonna need the backup..." before depolarizing her visor and offering the young man a smile. He nodded to her, racked the bolt of his AR and followed along, seemingly eager for action.

Elster radioed, "Six, this is Seven. I'm on Errera's landing pad... You good?"

Static and white noise played over her com. She swore to herself. They must've been pinned down by something. She radioed to Kat, boosting to maximum, and stated, "Two, this is Seven, Errera Jammer is not down yet. I think Six got held up by something..." and Kat's reply came in scrambled as well. Though it was an affirmative. With a sigh, she radioed, "Proceeding to assist... Out."

"Take it we're alone?" The rifleman asked. She nodded.

"For now... Hoping a Spartan and a fellow Replika are inside..." She shot back, then murmured to herself, "Can't believe I called her that, but, oh well..." as they pushed forward, rifles up and scanning their sectors. Errera was strangely 'orange', considering the doors with LEDs that slid apart and revealed a two-prong hallway. Both of them took the right-hand door, entering into a massive, multi-level dance floor area with a bar in the far back.

And gunfire intermixed with the beats, obviously. The DJ was dead on the controls. The green fire of a plasma pistol's shots still burned on his back.

Down below, at the base of the illuminated dance floor above which a holographic chandelier with a massive disco ball hanged, she saw Six taking cover as a Fuel Rod shot slammed into said floor, boiling away glass and the lights below that illuminated the Spartan and the Troopers in emerald. The Crow was beside him, firing up at the enemy with a 7,62 LMG she'd acquired from somewhere.

Up top, the lumbering forms of a Hunter pair hid in the darkness, illuminated only by the bursts of plasma from the Covenant Elites around them and their own rare shots with the Fuel Rod cannons. The jammer pulsed behind the beasts and Elster's com shrilled with static, her visor and senses temporarily in chaos. She shook off the effects, showed the corporal to follow along and quickly descended toward the Army Troops, Six and Crow.

Crow took cover as she reloaded the LMG with a box magazine, just in time to see her descending. She yelled, "Took your sweet fucking time!" before a yelp escaped her mouth as another emerald blast boiled the air, their rad counters spiking, then calming. Jim marched up to a pair of troopers and patted them on the shoulder, then opened fire with his AR toward the Elites.

"Good to know you missed me," Elster clapped back sardonically, grinning behind her helmet. "Status," she then asked the two of them as she grabbed a grenade launcher off the floor. Beside crow, a Medic tended to a wounded Soldier, the grenadier. She reloaded one grenade into the tube, then looked to Six as he shouldered an SRS-99/99 Sniper Rifle.

"Elites came out of camouflage just as we wiped out a platoon of Grunts and the Brutes guarding the top floors. They funneled us in and pushed us back down here, away from the jammer and the pair of Hunters... Jammer's next to the bar if you feel like grabbing a drink," He quipped rather calmly as he scoped in an Elite with a Sniper. The rifle rang out and one Elite's hat flew clean off its head. He turned to her as he dropped the empty magazine to the floor, next to two others and a bunch of spent casings, before slamming in a fresh one, racking the bolt and stating, "Rita nearly got domed, too."

"Needle rifle round pinged off my fucking skull," She stated, pointing at the scratch on her synth-skin, right on the temple, then called back, to Six "And don't call me that shit, LT." annoyed.

"I like the name," He shot back. Elster snorted, while the Crow... Pouted? Elster ignored that for her own sanity and Six's.

She asked, "What's the plan, then?"

"Well, if we can take out the Elites..." And he motioned to the figures slinking around in the Dark, probably trying to flank them, "We can advance, though that leaves the Hunters... Any idea on how to deal with'em? Cuz 40-mike-mike won't do much unless you plant it center-mass into that eel colony," before he scoped in an Elite and knocked its hat off as well, alongside a good half of its face.

Elster hummed, then said, "I take right, you take left, then we pincer the Hunters?"

"Sounds good," Six replied, then slung his sniper onto his back, grabbing the MA37 and checking it over. Elster gave a hand signal to the Crow and a couple of Troopers, Jim included... Then did something she remembered she could do. She winked her status light red for one second. As a Fuel Rod shot over their heads and hit the pedestal and console where the DJ's corpse was, vaporizing both in a bright flash, she winked it gold, then, as the first Elite appeared on top of one of the pillars, she flashed it green.

The Spartans and their escorting comrades burst out of cover in full-on sprints, Elster emptying an entire magazine into the Elite with the Needle Rifle at the top. She wanted to draw her pistol, but the Trooper beside her snapped off a DMR shot mid-run that sent the hinge-jaw tumbling over onto the ground, its neck cracking as it impacted the glass floor head-first. The smaller Trooper cheered, her Russian accent preposterous, "Fuck yes! Eat shit, Suka!"

She ducked as a bolt of plasma hit just inches short of her head, then turned around and threw a pair of plasma grenades off the floor toward the target. One actually stuck to the Elite and detonated, taking its leg clean off and washing it in radiation. Elster charged up the stairs, rifle forward. She reloaded the weapon and fired bursts at Elite Minor-ranked troops, before body-slamming one into a wall, which shattered its shields.

She planted the barrel of her rifle into its stomach and let loose a flurry of rounds that tore through its gut, muscles, intestines and the spine spattering the wall behind in a purple hue, masked by the shadows in the club. She turned to the right and lifted her pistol, watching as Jim stepped up and fired an overcharged plasma pistol at the Elite. Its shields flared and died, with Elster following up with a headshot from the pistol.

She grabbed the grenade launcher off her belt next and lobbed a frag the way of the lumbering monstrosity ahead. The detonation sent shrapnel into the eel colony and made the emerald bolt of hatred shoot wide from its cannon, hitting one of the holographic emitters on the vaulted ceiling. As Crow charged up the stairs and opened fire to distract the beast, Elster called out to her, "Bounding assault! Cover each-other as we move! That means you, too, Rita!"

"Fuck you, Elster!" The girl replied, though with a hearty laugh, "Ya got it!"

The Spartan, meanwhile, danced around the enemy's shots with his half of the platoon. Plasma bolts struck where he'd been moments ago while he pushed forward. Grabbing a shotgun off the floor from next to a dead Army Trooper, the man started pumping the remaining shells into a pair of Elites ahead. Once the weapon clicked empty, Six had closed distance and drowned the enemy's shields.

One of the Elites brought its overheated plasma rifle down on him, but the Spartan blocked it with the shotgun and pushed it aside, before pumping outward and tossing both weapons aside. The Elite tried to activate his energy dagger and slash at the Spartan, but Six pumped both legs and pushed himself back, before slamming an elbow into the Elite's buddy and stabbing it in the throat with his knife.

The troopers with him pelted the other Elite with rounds, his shields flashing azure and deactivating. Bullets pierced the thick hide of the reptile-like hunchback. Purple blood pooled at his feet as he collapsed to the floor in a heap. The Spartan twisted his blade in the other Elite's throat, brought it downward and split his airway open, before yanking the blade out.

He looked over to Elster and her troop, then over to his own target. He balled a fist and motioned for the Army Troopers to take cover, then charged the hulking titan of alien steel and eels, sliding underneath its legs as it swung at him with its massive shield arm, before stopping against a wall with his feet and drawing the pistol. He aimed the gun and put several fifty-caliber pistol rounds into the monster's back, sending it into a furious rage.

It swiveled about and swung the shield in a low sweep, digging into the floor with it and damn near taking the Spartan's head off. Six, however, rolled out of the way, pounced to his feet and charged the tank once again. He sidestepped another downward slash from the beast's shield arm, grabbed onto one of the sensory spines poking out of the back armor and found purchase hanging onto it.

It started bucking like an angry bull at a rodeo, forcing Six to dig his boots into its alloy legs and pelvis to hold on as it wildly swung. A bullet ricocheted close to his head, the Spartan turning to see Elster, the Crow and their Army Troopers engaging the beast's pair with their rifles. She gave one hand signal to the Crow and both girls hefted plasma grenades, throwing them onto the beast's midsection before pulling back.

Six pulled a frag off his belt, primed it and slammed it into the beast's exposed abdomen, before jumping off, skidding back and murmuring something to himself. It turned, aimed and charged its fuel rod gun, then orange eels exploded outward, splitting the beast in half and spraying fluorescent orange blood onto the floor. Synchronized with it, the two plasma grenades washed its mate in radiation and boiling-hot plasma before it could so much as roar.

With both beasts dead, orange blood and dying eels spilling from their insides, the Spartan, Replikas and Army Troopers met in the middle, with Elster panting and stating, "I really fucking hate these things..." before stomping an Eel out as it crawled toward her. Six snorted and gave an approving nod, before stepping off toward the jammer. Rita, the Crow, snorted as she watched him insert the commands and take a step back.

Several pulses came in increasingly-rapid succession before the device detonated in a bright blue flash, causing the Troopers to close their eyes, Elster to polarize her visor and the Crow to turn away. The static that rang in the background of their coms cleared, with Six tapping the side of his helmet, holstering his rifle and stating, "Two, this is Six. I and Seven rendezvoused. Last Jammer is down."

Elster looked to the Troopers and paused. She waved to one of them, a Lieutenant, and asked her, "Did we fight together?"

"I think so, ma'am. Back in SWORD maybe? I know Katja was there alongside a couple other people," The young woman gave a nod. She had Asian traits, but seemed like a combo between Caucasian and SEA. The name of her IFF read 'LEE'. She was a Lieutenant, so Elster kind of snapped a salute, to which she replied in kind and shook her head, "No need. Thanks for saving our collective Bacon."

"No kidding," Jim snorted, "I think I'd still be falling if she didn't grab me off the side of the landing pad."

"Christ, Jim, always getting into trouble..." Quipped the woman. She sighed, "Now, to find a way off this roof and to an Evac site-" She paused, then put her hand to her ear. She replied, "Copy, command. Tango Platoon's active. We're down to fifty-three percent combat effectiveness, however we're ready to answer any call to arms... The Generators? Roger. Will we be meeting other Platoons?" and she smiled, "Copy. Copy that, sir. We're waiting for evac on at Club Errera. Spartans just helped us bust the Com Jammer. Roger."

"Take it you got new orders, as well?" Six asked.

"Yessir," She replied, "They'll be evaccing us out of NA and moving us to help defend the planetside generators for the orbital MAC Platforms. Command doesn't want those falling any time soon, so it'll be our job to keep them secure... Afterward, we'll see. Space is thick with the bastards, though," And she gave a sad smile. Almost as if she was aware this remained a one-way job. "At least, I'll be seeing my friends one last time before we all inevitably die."

He nodded, "Take care, Lieutenant. And chin up... Maybe we'll make it."

"Heh... Yeah," She sighed. The Spartan and Replikas led the way out of Club Errera just as a Pelican touched down at the landing pad. They took the Falcon, while the Army Troopers boarded the Pelican and left for other, more distant and untouched parts of New Alexandria. Elster sighed, meanwhile, leaning back against the seat while holding onto the Machine Gun.

"Helluva night, huh?" Rita turned toward her, "You look like you've seen some shit."

"Got singed by a Banshee's Fuel Rod Gun..." She replied, "It was fucking close."

Crow snorted, "Ouch. Lucky fuck."

"Wouldn't call getting washed in green shit radiation lucky, Rita," She shot back, causing the woman to frown, before her odd grin returned. The girl shook her head and chuckled, before sighing and tuning into the radio. Dead ahead of them, among smaller burning towers, lay what was left of ONI's Headquarters. Their target and a surprisingly untouched building.

The Falcon moved toward the landing pad that slid out, with Kat noting to them, "Whatever you did out there, Six and Seven, it sure knocked the air out of the enemy's lungs. The assets putting pressure on us here were removed... Welcome home..." just as they touched down. Moments later, the pad itself retracted into the wide, elevated hangar, which contained a multitude of other vehicles, still packing for evacuation for the last remaining ONI Assets in town... Sans the Spartans.

Six jumped out of the Falcon's pilot seat just as his comrades dismounted, then took his helmet off and shook his head. He ran his hand over his buzzcut hair, then looked over to Elster and a seemingly-stunned Crow. Elster took her own helmet off, revealing minor burns on her facial structure, plus a couple of missing patches of skin that revealed the inner workings of her face. Her armor had the scars of battle, as well. Her back was singed and a bit darkened by the blasts of Fuel Rod guns, while the front bore a multitude of pockmarks and wounds from plasma and needle weapons that hit while her shield was thin.

Six looked to the Crow, blinked, then asked, "What's with her?"

Elster had to take a moment to see it. The usual boisterous attitude, crafty smile and evil gaze were replaced with a look of surprise and Elster swore she could see a twinge of a blush on the face of the Replika. She blinked and shrugged, choosing, yet again, to ignore the possibilities. Six sighed and said, "Right. C'mon..." then led the two off the landing pad and into the building...

An elevator ride up to an upper floor later, the Spartan walked to the sight of a damaged atrium area. To their left was a handrail over which they could see the other floors and offices. Around them were doors to top floor offices, some of which were open, the offices themselves ransacked and destroyed, presumably by ONI, so as to leave no intel to the Covenant.

From the ceiling hanged a Banshee flyer that Elster recognized, considering the dozen holes in its belly. It had careened into and broken the top-most window, then caught itself in the wiring above. It now hanged, lifeless, a spatter of purple blood dripping from its hull onto the floor below, in a pool off to the side. Sat in the wider Atrium, behind one of the larger windows of the place, was all of Noble.

Emile was the first they saw, the man sitting next to Jorge and cleaning his knife. Jorge himself sat, staring at his helmet with an impassive gaze. Afterward came Carter, the man gazing out the window while sat next to Kat, who was working on splicing into a console to get some comms going, going by the headsets resting around her, each meticulously taken apart so that they may provide spare parts for the makeshift relay.

Finally, Jun was sat on the railing near the massive window, gazing down a pair of binoculars. He murmured, "Look at this place. Used to be the crown jewel..." before hearing the crackle of glass under heel of MJOLNIR boots and turning to see who had arrived. He smiled, his three-arrows tattoo wrinkling with his cheek as he called out jovially, "Hey! You made it!"

"Not for a lack of the Covvies trying to murder us," Elster replied, rubbing the back of her neck.

"Heh, ain't that how it usually is," Jorge commented. The trio turned to see him actually smiling at them, having set his helmet aside. He stood up and walked to them, adding, "Glad to see you two made it. We were starting to get worried after we hadn't had contact those last couple days. You kids nearly gave us all a bit of a heart attack..." before putting hand son both their shoulders and squeezing them in his usual friendly manner.

"Took us a while to trek into an area that had signal," Six replied, offering a smile back, "Sorry."

Carter shot back, "All that matters is that Noble's not understrength, Six. Glad to have you both back..." before eyeing the Crow, "As for you..."

She gave another mock salute, grinning wildly. Elster told them, "That's Rita. Our Crow." while grinning.

"Hey, I didn't-!"

The Crow wanted to protest, but Six said, "Rita's been mighty useful, sir... For one hell of a crazy shock trooper, she's helped us a bunch when we were out in the morning in NA..." which caused the girl to shrink, cheeks a twinge red again. Elster blinked, looked over to Rita again. She fiddled with her thumbs and Elster's eyes shot wide, to the point she tapped Six on the shoulder and showed him to follow.

Stepping off to the side, Elster asked awkwardly, "What did you do to her?"

"Nothing...?" Six shrugged, looking at the Crow as she seemed to take a moment and snap out of her stupor. She sat herself down next to Emile, bragging about something or other. He told her, "She seems the same old lunatic we met in the morning to me..." and the unconvinced Elster walked back with him to the group. Emile looked to Elster expectantly, to which she told him, "She gutted a bunch of Brutes with her knife on the way here, so I think she's right up your alley..."

Emile snorted, "Sure sounds like it, Seven. She's a gal after our own taste."

"Yeah. And once she learned to take orders," Six looked to her, "She actually was quite good at the job."

Another blush from the Crow and some unusual shyness cinched it. Elster scoffed, grabbed Six by the collar much to the surprise of the gang and dragged him out of earshot, before telling him, "You poor, poor fuck..." and pointing at Rita, only to clarify to a confused-looking Noble Six, "She imprinted on you, you idiot!" and let out a short giggle, "She must've seen the stunts you pulled a couple times too many. It's how Geiers take command of them, by showing surprising strength and capacity of command..."

"And...?" Six quirked a brow up at her, "What do you mean, imprinted...?"

She chuckled, "Brother, you're in for a world of fun... She likes you," then patted him on the shoulder and sidestepped him, walking to Carter. Six blinked, confused, then turned to watch her leave. Turning back to the Crow as she got into a bragging match with Emile, he blinked again, totally confused, scratched the top of his head again, then sighed and marched up to Jun.

"Hell of a sight..." The LST Replika stated as she walked up to Carter, all while looking around at the damage sustained by ONI's HQ.

Carter nodded, "ONI HQ being a ghost town... Yeah," then he turned to her, "You doing good, Elster?"

She shrugged, "... Worried, sir..." before looking to him, visible concern in those blue eyes, which looked more human than when Carter had first seen them. Almost too human for a machine like her, he thought, only to remember this was the same girl who had fallen in love with her crewmate and made sure their ship made it all the way here. He gave an understanding nod.

"All of us are, Sergeant," He told her, "Best we can do is keep pushing forward..."

"Can we talk to HighCom? Get her off this rock with doctor Halsey...?"

"Don't know... It's not in our prerogative to put requests out to ONI..." He replied, scratched the back of his neck, then calmly added, "If we get proper coms back, you can try and put in a req for it, but I doubt they'll listen. CASTLE is too important to abandon for the moment and there's rumors of a meet nearby UNSC HighCom for all available Spartan teams going on a major operation. That doesn't include us."

"Doesn't include Gauntlet, Red and Echo teams either, sir... Rumors true?" Jun looked back, "That they put them on civilian evac duties?"

"Those are senior level communiques," Carter replied annoyedly, turning a glare toward Kat. Jun snorted and looked back through the binocs.

She shrugged, "I hear what I hear..." as she worked on the console with a pair of plyers, removing shrapnel, "Point is why put Spartans on defensive deployments...?" before the entire room broke into an unspoken quiet, Elster and Rita noticing this immediately. They tensed, wondering the same. Why put teams of elite killers out into combat duties they had no business attending when they could be sabotaging enemy supply lines, or destroying staging points, or... Anything? Anything to slow this down even more?

To slow down Armaggedon?

Carter inquired, "You asking me if we're losing...?"

Kat's reply was grim, sending Elster's mechanical heart sinking. "I know we're losing..." She stated, turning to Jorge, who, despite trying his best to maintain professionalism and his usual calm, had to look away. She looked back to Carter and demanded, "I want to know if we've lost..." as she turned back to working. Carter blinked, letting out a deep, defeated sigh.

"I need that link to SATCOM, Kat," He switched the subject.

She shot back, "Chasing it... This console's got more shrapnel in it than transceivers..."

Elster sighed and approached Six and Jun. The two gave her apologetic looks as she leaned against the railing Jun was sat atop, simply staring out into the wider city. The distant flashes of Covenant Cruisers' excavation beams lit the area beyond the mountains, the void and thunder of artillery thumping even through the walls, muffled by them. The death throes of a world and here Elster was, witnessing them from Ground Zero. She asked in a murmur, "How'd Cruisers get through if Orbit's still fighting...?" really not wanting to know the answer...

"Some ships slip through," Jun replied, however, "Ain't the first time it's happened."

"Ain't that a pain...?" She murmured, a rhetorical question.

Six nodded, "Aye..." Before humming and looking to Elster, "It'll be fine. Doctor Halsey's one tough nut... And Ariane? Well, if she's anything like you describe her, she'll be alright."

Elster gave a half-hearted smile to Six, then nodded. All of them turned around as Kat called out, "I got signal!" and turned to the Commander. A faint trickle of static echoed over, with Kat stating, "It's patchy, but it's there..." before blinking, "Wait. Colonel Holland, hailing us! What's he doing on an open channel...?" as the entire group tensed and turned their attention toward her. All save for Jun.

"Let's hear it," Carter ordered.

"... Along the southwest quadrant of the City. Sierra 259, if you're receiving this, I'm authorizing override of radio security protocols to link with this channel..." Holland's voice sounded worried. The entire Spartan team exchanged glances, with Carter stepping up toward Kat. The girl lifted an earpiece and looked at her commander.

"How long for a secure channel?" He demanded

She shrugged, "Can't guarantee secure anymore."

"Could Covenant trace it to us?"

"I could..."

A moment of hesitation could cost them either their lives or next mission. He nodded to her, to which she handed him the headset and told him, "Keep it brief..." before grabbing her datapad and activating sensors, just in case. ONI had a bunch of security protocols, cameras and the likes installed all across the place, so the paranoid bastards gave them ample warning with this stuff.

As the Commander went to talk, Elster tensed, feeling prickles in her synthetic skin, her eyesight blurring. She rubbed her eyes, then turned to the Crow to see a similar reaction. Rita stood to her feet and a chill shot up both girls' spines. Jun leaned forward, peering through his binoculars, "Movement... Covenant vehicles vacating the area. And they're in a hurry."

"How often you see Covenant retreat for no reason...?" Emile asked, an edge to his voice. Jorge slid his helmet on as well...

Elster did, too, trying to activate her armor's shields.

Six put his helmet back on, before a collective chill hit the group, Kat yelling out, "Radiation flare! Big! Forty million Roentgen!" as she tapped her device. She tossed it aside and stood to her feet, looking to Carter. The man turned to his technician with a question, before calling out, "Atomic excitement scrambled the signal! Ninety million now!" as she read out the data.

"Source?" Carter demanded as Rita stood up, too, drawing her rifle.

"Airborne!" Kat shot back, then her eyes widened, "CLOSE!"

"How close?!" Elster barked. Her entire world seemed to shatter, her vision going dark for a moment as a charging energy weapon whirred. A great gust of wind shattered the window behind the young woman, spraying the place with glass and shrapnel. She turned back as her vision slowly returned, only to see the flare of a Covenant Cruiser's excavation beam as it lanced down at the Earth below. The beam glared red, washing the room in its evil light...

"THAT CLOSE!" Kat replied, fear palpable. She and the other Spartans scrambled, with Six and Elster helping Kat up to her feet as she grabbed her helmet and slid it on her head. The eight-person group ran toward the elevators in the back as radiation continued to prick at them. They entered them, with Kat looking to see she was with a worried Six and Elster in the same glass elevator. She asked them, "First glassing...?" before getting a nod. She replied weakly, "Yeah, me too... Don't worry, though, I got it," as she hit the button to activate the elevator, nearly missing the second time, and put her helmet on. She activated her datapad again and said, "Our best bet is a fallout bunker on sublevel two, ninety-six meters east of our current pos... We get orders from Holland, sir?"

"Two orders, one being for Elster," Carter replied over com, surprising the Replika. He told them, "She's taking the next Pelican out to HIGHCOM. Doctor Halsey's requested her presence for the big op we all know is coming. RED FLAG..." before sighing deeply. He looked to the four members of his team on the same elevator as him, then told the group, "NOBLE's going to SWORD."

"SWORD?!" Jun demanded, "Covenant own it now!"

"Which is why they want us for a Torch And Burn op," He replied as the elevator reached the sublevel, doors opening, "Keep doctor Halsey's data from falling into enemy hands..."

"If the data hasn't fallen already..." Kat sighed deeply.

Carter shrugged, watching as their elevator arrived, too, "Maybe! But word is the Covenant's still looking for something!"

Kat, Six, Elster and Crowe pushed off, beginning their sprint as Kat complained, "Where does he get off calling a demolition a priority o-"

Time seemed to slow for Rita, the newly-named Crow. She heard the distant whirr of antigravity engines get closer, even through the hubbub and rattle of the plasma beam coming down on the city. She craned her head left as time around her did slow to a crawl. Through the hole in the wall above, through which azure light streamed, a nose came first, blotting said light out. Then, it resolved into a Covenant Phantom, the manta-like drop-ship's side door opening to reveal an Elite in gold armor.

He aimed a Needle Rifle toward Kat and Six. Rita's heart skipped a single beat, before she charged forward, time regaining its usual speed around her as she called out to them, "LOOK OUT!" just as the needle rifle hissed. A needle punched through her shoulder, sending her tumbling to the floor. Though where her shoulder was when she took the hit, would've been Kat's head.

The two Spartans stumbled forward alongside Elster, all three stopping as they saw Rita drop to her stomach, holding onto her shoulder. The other Replika of the group scowled, drawing her pistol and firing up blindly at the elites as she charged to grab her. Six gave one hand signal to his team and five assault rifles and an MG let loose toward the Covenant dropship as it waved off, the Elite general scowling at them.

Elster picked up Crow and demanded, "You alive!?"

"Yeah!" Rita growled, "Fuck me, that smarts, though!"

"C'mon! C'mon! Get in!" Carter barked, waving them forward. All members of NOBLE entered the bunker, the thick bulkhead doors closing behind them. Adrenaline that coursed through the veins of the Spartans began to dissipate, while Elster set the Crow down and pulled her repair pack out. Rita still had one repair spray and a bunch of plasters on her. She used a pair of self-sealing plasters on the shoulder and gave an approving nod, before slumping down beside her and taking her helmet off.

Rita heaved, then smirked, "Thanks, Elster."

"Don't mention it..." She replied, then gave a smile and a nod. She nudged the Crow's shoulder with her elbow, before she slowly and steadily went on to laugh. At first, it was a slow, simple, weirdly tense laugh. Only moments later, over half a minute of laughter, did it become a boisterous, joyous laugh of disbelief. A laugh in which Rita joined, while the Spartans simply smiled at them and the Civilians stared with muted awe. Six took his helmet off and shook his head, chuckling, too...

Three days later, SAR arrived as the Spartans and Replikas exited out into the world once more, to see a river of molten glass. Elster stared out at it, not filled with fear, but with determination. Three days in the darkness allowed her to think things through. She would get Ariane off this rock as soon as she could, get her to Earth... And keep her safe that way.

As she boarded the Pelican heading for FLEETCOM, she turned to Noble Team and called out, "Commander, sir!" causing him and the others to turn toward her. She offered him a kind smile, then snapped a crisp salute, "I'll see you soon! Take care of yourselves, Noble! It's been a bloody honor!" which got salutes and smiles back out of several of them. She then called out, "And Rita!" which made the Crow turn, before telling her, "Take care of the El-Tee, big girl."

She gave a faint smile, her lips shielding her teeth this time, then saluted, "You fuck'em up out there, too, Itou!"

"It's Elster... But yeah, see you..." She smirked, then waved goodbye, boarding the Pelican and nodding to the Marine staff aboard. It lifted off, taking off toward FLEETCOM and boosting forward. Sat down in the rearmost seat, Elster stared outward at the skeletons of the city's buildings, boiling and bending still under the stress and heat of the burned soil, plasma scarring a still-fresh reminder...

... They'd make it. They had to. All of them...

Chapter Text

Elster clenched and unclenched her armored fists. She hadn't had time to be briefed before the Pelican had brought her to the ship she needed to board. The UNSC Pillar of Autumn waited in low orbit above Reach. Past the canopy, the girl could see the orbital engagement still ongoing, the husks of UNSC ships hanging amidst their still-fighting brethren, MACs roaring, missiles flying, plasma countering.

Tracers and plasma bolts filled the void, the Replika bracing as bursts of energy weapons fire shook the dropship nearly off-course. They'd broken through the atmosphere, but being set ablaze by plasma cannons was more worrying than burning up mid-flight. She stumbled over toward the cockpit, eyeing the warship they were gonna be landing on. The Autumn, a massive, chiseled form of Titanium with a rapid-fire MAC and enough weapons strapped to it during its refit to outdo a UNSC Valiant's standard configuration, engaged the Covenant vessels from afar with its main and secondaries, tracers from its Ramparts lighting the void as it aimed for Covenant dropships and fighters.

The Pelican's engines roared as the pilot, a woman, called out, "Coming in for a rough landing!"

Deceleration kicked in as artificial gravity seemed to suddenly turn on, Elster's stomach doing flips. The Pelican landed on the deck, its engines smoothing the touch-down. The Pilot listened in on a radio transmission, then looked back to Elster and told her, "Off you go, Sarge. They're gonna need you on the deck. I gotta deliver a few Spartans on the deck..." only to watch as the squadron of a dozen or so Spartans stepped inside and started preparing their equipment.

Elster nodded to the pilot, then turned to the Spartans' officer and gave him a salute. He saluted back, before turning back to work. Elster exited the Pelican and marched up the deck, only to catch sight of the man she was supposed to meet dead ahead. Clad in dark-green MJOLNIR Mark V, with the number 117 written on his breastplate and the rank denoted above his head, Master Chief Petty Officer 117 stood on the deck with a pair of other Spartans.

She had heard of the Chief's exploits. Even read some of the reports regarding his most recent mission on Cote D'Azur courtesy of Doctor Halsey wanting her to know who she would be working with. She approached, took her helmet off and snapped a salute, stating, "Master Chief. LSTR Unit 512, here as per Order from the Office of Naval Intelligence. I'll be your maintenance assistant and fourth gun for the upcoming mission."

Chief looked over Elster and nodded, saluting back, "At ease, Sergeant. We don't salute fellow NCOs," before turning fully to face her, "I presume you've been briefed, but in case you haven't, parameters have changed. Spartan RED Team is deploying planetside to assist with the defense of the generators powering our ODPs. Without the ODPs, Reach is lost."

"Sir," She replied, "And Blue Team?"

"We're going to Orbital Station Gamma. Main objective is to destroy the navigation data of ONI Prowler Circumference, since its crew couldn't get to it in time," The Chief replied, then motioned forward and said, "Follow us. Your new callsign's Blue Four for the duration of the op..." as he took the lead down the busy halls of the UNSC warship. Red alert sirens blared overhead.

"Sir," She nodded as they began their march toward the closest armory. There, while Marines were gathering their own gear, the Spartans also went to pick up stuff. The two other Spartans, identified as 058 and 005 by their IFFs, grabbed MA5B rifles, the UNSC's sixty-round-firing high-caliber assault rifle, plus M6D Magnums. Similar to the Gs employed by the Army, if with a little more kick and hard-hitting potential.

Spartan 058 also plucked up an SRS-99 from the racks, sliding it onto her back just in case. Elster, meanwhile, went on to retrieve a standard assault rifle and pistol loadout, plus extra ammunition for it. The male Spartan, 005, commented, "Strange armor they have you, Elster. Looks almost like MJOLNIR... I'm seeing slight light refraction coming off of the panels."

"Semi-Powered Infiltration, sir," She nodded, racking the slide of the M6D. She peered inside, examining the weapon from the rifling to the slide and bolt, before letting go of the slide and sliding a magazine in. She thumbed the slide release and felt the heavyweight pistol slide slam forward, feeding a round into the chamber. She thumbed the safety of the pistol on, sliding it onto the maglock. She then started checking the rifle as she explained, "Turns out command had a need for more Spartans, as far as rumors go."

"What team were you assigned to before this, Elster?" Chief inquired, turning to her.

She nodded, "Noble Team, sir. Spartan unit, too."

"Never heard of'em," 058 hummed as she finished checks on her weapons, "All green."

"Same here," 005 added.

Elster replied, "Good to go as well, sir..."

Chief nodded, then radioed, "Captain, this is Blue Team. We're commandeering a Pelican for the trip out. Advise doctor Halsey:the Sergeant has joined our rank..." before he motioned for the team to follow. The titan clad in MJOLNIR Mark V stepped out and marched back toward the Hangar with his team in tow. Elster hummed, checked her weapons again, then slid her helmet back on and let the seal kick into place.

Boarding the Pelican, the Spartans and Replika prepared themselves for the worst, with Chief handing Elster some spare ammunition and telling her, "Keep it loaded. The MA5B isn't accurate beyond five hundred meters..." as he sat himself down in one of the crash seats. The Pelican lifted off toward the station, dancing through the fire of enemy weaponry as it boosted forward at maximum speed.

Gamma Station was in orbit over Reach, thankfully, meaning that their arrival was quick. Chief pulled up a holographic display of the station, noting some of the damage it sustained. In the distance, there was an ongoing battle between a Corvette and a Frigate, while the Pillar of Autumn was coming in from the rear as well, though they were lagging behind.

Elster noted a chunk was missing out of the ring structure, murmuring, "Hope everything's pressurized," as she activated her suit's oxygen system to test things out. Just in case, she thought. Even as a Replika, depressurization might pose an issue to her biomechanical components. She stood to her feet and sat herself back down closer to the hatch, checking her rifle even more thoroughly

005 told her, "Important sections probably sealed off, 512. Keep it steady," as he readied his AR. He looked to the Chief and stated, "She's a bit twitchy."

"If she worked with Spartans before, she'll be fine," Chief replied, though he was wary about this 'Noble Team'. He'd ask Cortana when they got back to the Autumn. Looking over to the pilots as the Pelican flew, he saw the flashes of MAC Rounds flying over the Pelican. They struck two Covenant Frigates that had just dropped out of Slipspace and started deploying their own troops.

Elster donned a jump pack and walked over to 005. She quickly gave his a check, tugged at a fuel line and found it too lose. She then rapidly re-threaded it into place, pulled on it and found it didn't go taut as easily. Patting 005 on the shoulder, she said, "Pack's fine now," before she checked her own. Chief and the others looked to her, a bit surprised, before 058 gave her an approving nod.

058 stated, "I'm Linda, Elster."

"James," 005 stated, "Thanks."

"Don't mention it. Don't wanna lose a Spartan out there," She replied, her tone low, but friendly. The Spartans and Replika soon went quiet as the vehicle powered its main thrusters, allowing them to touch down in the base's hangar. The back hatch popped open, with James and Elster popping out first, both sweeping in 90 degree arcs with their rifles, until they locked onto the same wall. Linda and Chief jumped out next, with James giving Elster a tap on the shoulder.

They started going along the edges of the station, toward where their NAV was pointing. Chief reported, "On board. proceeding to the Circumference..." as he swept each corner they passed by with his rifle and pied each doorway. Covenant were already on the station, so that meant they would encounter hostiles soon enough. Elster was tense enough about that, but the professionalism of the Blues kept her grounded and somewhat calm.

She was also thankful to find that the Station was, in fact, somewhat pressurized. The Spartans and her continued their push past several rooms they had little time to clear, before the hairs on Elster's neck stood on-end and a voice whispered to her, "Right..." causing her to dive low. Flames exploded from the wall, the metal melting under the impact of a micron-sharpened plasma blade. She swiveled up and aimed her rifle at where she thought his gut would be, then opened fire.

Bullets pierced a weaker shield and purple blood sprayed across the wall. The hunchback shape of an Elite resolved, its optical camouflage dying. It collapsed onto the floor in a heap, energy sword hilt clattering to the floor. The Spartans all swiveled about and, as soon as the first Elite was noticed, they opened up. Bullets clinked against the metal floor, some falling through the grating as the fireteam opened up on a platoon of stealthed Elites.

The Spartans didn't even give the bastard commandoes enough time to reply, volleys of bullets puncturing through the weakened shields of stealth Elites. Several did get plasma rounds out, bursts landing near Elster, one round boiling through the grating. Another struck and sprayed itself across Elster's chest, staggering her. She thanked the lord for her shields, which were drained almost completely from the burst.

The surviving Elites moved away from the engagement, camouflages reactivating as they dipped into a side hallway. Elster grit her teeth as she stood to her feet, glaring at the bastards and keeping her assault rifle trained. Chief and the other Spartans formed up with her, each watching a different direction. James commented, "Good instincts, Elster... A nanosecond slower and..."

"Thanks..." She growled back, on alert. She didn't mean to be hostile to the Spartan, but the release, combined with whatever voice she heard, caused her to turn extremely cautious about her surroundings, even to the point of being more tense regarding even interacting with her new teammates. Chief nodded to her, however, then gave a chop of the hand forward, ordering the team to move out.

The team advanced in a diamond formation, Linda bringing up the rear to keep watch while James and Elster sat on each of John's flanks. All reloaded their weapons, putting the magazines they'd expended rounds from into distant pouches, before slamming in fresh ones and locking them in. They did this on the run, with each keeping eyes open for Elites.

Linda hummed as distant pops, repeating in a familiar pattern, echoed. She called out, "Friendlies in the next bay. Engaging Covenant units, from the sound," words to which Chief gave a nod. He staggered the teams, threw a fragmentation grenade ahead the first sight of air distortions. The grenade landed square in the midst of a pair of the Elites, shrapnel tearing through the two and even distorting others' camo.

Elster ducked under the blade swipe of the first, drew the knife attached to her armor and, whilst sliding, slit the tendons at the second joint of one of the legs, causing the creature to crumple. Cancelling her forward momentum, the girl threw herself toward the Elite and slammed the tip of her blade into its throat, tearing flesh and sinew before twisting and pulling out. She drew her sidearm as they ran forward and sniped the first Jackal in a space suit she saw.

A slew of the beasts surrounded a fireteam of Marines, probably out here for the same reason as them. And farther ahead was their objective. The station shook as it was hit by plasma fire, but the Spartans kept steady on their feet. One of the Marines cried out, "SARGE! We got Spartans incoming!" his voice full of joy. He ducked behind the box he was using as cover as a corner of it was melted by plasma.

The leading man, a dark-skinned male with an officer's cap and a shotgun, peeked out of cover and grinned, the cigar between his lips flaring at the tip as he took a puff, then pushed it out of his nostrils. He called out, "Good eye, Bisenti! Marines, the Cavalry is coming! Jenkins, I want our asses in gear toward the Circumference the moment they get here! Ain't got time to waste!"

"Aye, sarge!" Jenkins called out, wary, as he poked out and fired his rifle. Chief and the others joined them, firing their weapons at the advancing Covenant units. These ones weren't cloaked. The Elites had better shields, while the Jackals carried gauntlet shields and somewhat heavier armor thanks to the space suits. Elster found that annoying and wondered if a Grenade was a good idea amidst this entire mess.

Plasma and needle rounds quickly answered whatever killer thoughts the Replika might've had, forcing her behind cover. Chief took a knee beside the Sergeant and asked him, "Prowler?" as he fired back at the Covenant.

"Just down that-a-way, on the docking ring!" Johnson shot his open hand out in the direction of their objective, "Bastards got us cornered before we had a chance to get to it and wipe it clean! You'd think ONI spooks were more careful with secrets like where Earth is..." before he pumped his shotgun's pump and put two shells of buckshot into an Elite that got too close for comfort.

Chief gave him a nod and told him, "Prepare your men for exfil, Sergeant. Spartans, let's move it," as he began firing suppressively toward the Covenant, nailing a couple of Jackals with well-placed close quarters bursts. The Spartans and Replika all stood to their feet, the Marines tagging along with them as per the Sergeant's own wishes. Chief wasn't about to tell the man 'no' if he wanted to provide support.

The Elites and Jackals focused on the Spartans, to the point Elster was almost going non-hit by plasma rounds. Thankfully, that made her far more capable of laying down her own hate. Bullets struck shields from the assault weapons as the Marines, Spartans and Replika made a mad dash toward the target. Bolts of plasma did strike shielding, finally, causing the Spartans and Replika to stagger for a moment.

However, Chief and the others continued unabated, with the Covenant needing to focus on multiple targets at once. They entered the Prowler, with the Chief immediately heading for the computer with Elster. The Marines, James and Linda covered the rear, weapons barking as each Covenant member that attempted to advance was turned into Swiss Cheese.

Elster tapped away at the holographic display, hearing another murmur of a female voice that was so familiar, "... Perhaps you'll make it in time, but I would move faster..." with the Replika freezing for a moment. She shook her head as Chief cast a concerned glance her way, then refocused and redoubled her efforts, initiating the automated COLE PROTOCOL systems and making sure that they worked properly.

With one final press of a button, the computers flashed scarlet with warnings, to which the girl told the Chief, "I set the sole shipboard Havoc to detonate in ten mikes! Should shake the Covenant up plenty. EMP will wipe out the remaining traces of corrupted data!"

The leader of Blue team gave a nod, then radioed, "Objective accomplished. Exfil," and motioned for Elster to follow along. These Spartan-IIs were a tad more professional than Jorge, as it seemed. Or, well, Jorge was plenty professional when it mattered. They just seemed more machine than man at the very moment. The group began their sprint back toward the Pelican...

"Right! Linda!" The voice barked in her head again. Elster moved almost automatically, slamming into Linda as bursts of plasma fire melted the wall to their left. They would have hit Linda. The volley was so thick, Elster could feel her synth-skin prickling at the heat and radiation. Linda looked over to Elster, a bit surprised, then gave the girl a nod, to which the Spartans watched Elster pop two frags out.

Damned be the damage to the station, it was already lost. She simply held onto the Marines in case of depressurization, the twin thump of grenades temporarily silencing the plasma volley. Just enough for the Spartans and Marines to pop out and engage. The still-dazed Covenant soldiers swiveled around to try and engage, but the bursts of speed with which the Spartans and even the Marines ran out stunned them.

Two Jackals were gunned down by Linda's deadly precision bursts, while another trio and an Elite died to Chief's automatic fire. He dropped a spent magazine and looked over the end of the barrel to make sure he wasn't warping it. A plasma round struck his shoulder, causing shields to flare, then another, a green bolt from an overcharged pistol, partially charred his armor's chest.

James replied in kind, throwing two more grenades toward the Jackals and Elites that had fired. The concussive blasts and shrapnel shredded three more Jackals and dazed two Elites enough, their shields flaring. Linda drew her pistol and snapped off two shots, the bullets piercing the shields and punching clean through the Elites' open maws, killing both.

Immediately after that display of cold, calculated precision, she turned her head to her Replika compatriot and said, "Thanks."

"Don't mention it," Elster replied.

"... Blues, if you can hear me, get yourselves aboard ASAP. We have one last thing to retrieve, per Doctor Halsey's request, and the evacuation is handled by the others," Cortana's voice played over the radio, "We'll be moving in to retrieve you now. New Covenant fleet just jumped in-system as well. Seems like the final wave..." and the Chief and others wordlessly quickened their pace. Elster felt a pang of hope, that maybe Halsey and Ariane would tag along with them, then...

Linda, Chief and the Marines quickly pounced onto the Pelican, while Elster fired another quick burst at the pursuing Covenant forces. She then jumped in next, leaving James as last. He called out over radio, "Take off! I'll be right behind you!" as the Spartans and Marines opened fire to cover him. Bursts of plasma struck around and on the plates of the Pelican's armor.

As the vehicle lifted off, the rear hatch close to sealing, James turned toward them. In a mad dash, the Spartan dodged bolts of plasma and powered on his thrust pack, utilizing it at maximum power to throw himself into the Pelican. A momentary warning flashed onto his HUD, but his hand outstretched toward those of his fellow Blues adn of Elster, all of whom caught and pulled him into the ship as it lifted off. The back hatch closed, with every single Marine breathing a sigh of relief.

Johnson told them, "Saved our asses just in time, Spartans. Thanks..."

Chief gave Johnson a nod, while James removed his pack and told Elster, "Thanks for the fix... Got a warning about pipe damage. Thing might've sent me careening into outer space if you didn't fix it," to which Elster gave a nod, stunned at herself. She'd managed to save two Spartans from potentially losing their lives and winding up on the Missing-In-Action list.

"How did you do that?" Linda asked, sitting herself down.

Elster shrugged, then partially lied, "Gut instinct..." as she stood up. A short chuckle, ethereal and distant, echoed in her noggin as the Pelican touched down. Amidst firing its guns, the Pillar of Autumn prepared to descend down to the planet's surface. However the hell a Cruiser of this size and tonnage was going to land safely onto a planetside drydock, only they knew. It would probably have to undergo a quick rearm and refit, too.

She hummed, then looked to Chief as they dismounted and asked him, "Sir, we really going to try and nab enemy leadership...?"

"Yes," The Spartan nodded, "That was the mission. Missions change, though..." before motioning for her to follow. Johnson and the other Marines and Spartans dismounted from the Pelican as it was getting refueled, the Hangar doors closing in behind them as the ship began adjusting its systems for the upcoming descent. The group marched over toward the ship's ice box, with Linda and James having decided to follow along.

"We going into Cryo?" Elster asked. Chief nodded, to which she said "... I'm staying for now, sir. maybe they'll need help getting whatever it is aboard."

Chief replied with a nod and said, "We'll see you soon, then, Elster."

The girl nodded, then turned around and marched back toward the Hangar, watching as the crews prepared and steadied themselves and the vehicles. The vessel began to vibrate as they descended into the atmosphere. Some minutes later, a reverberating metallic thunk echoed as the vessel touched down amidst the Aszod Break Yards, with Elster already attending to repairing and/or keeping the Pelicans in working order.

It would only be thirty minutes before the Hangar doors opened, Captain Keyes walking onto the deck. Elster and every other man and woman present stood at attention, snapping salutes. The Captain saluted and nodded back, before telling them, "Three Pelicans, one gunship. Sergeant Elster, with me. We're going downstairs personally to retrieve the Package."

"Yessir," Elster nodded as she and a few Marines packed into the Pelican with Keyes.

Keyes hummed and arranged his uniform, then said, "Catherine told me about you. Welcome to my crew for the foreseeable future, Elster..." and he quickly checked his sidearm. Elster nodded in thanks as the Pelicans lifted off and headed down toward the cliff face. Around them, Banshee flyers and Dropships were destroyed by accurate fire from a mounted MAC Gun. The man told her, "Noble Team's present already, I see."

"Noble, sir?" She smiled, "They have Halsey and Ariane with them...?"

Captain Keyes seemed to know that Elster would ask this. His features, like chiseled out of stone, formed into a frown. He sighed and said, "Catherine also warned me you'd ask that... I'm afraid not..." as he stood up. Elster's heart sank in her chest when he told her, "Miss Yeong and her are back at CASTLE, according to her own message to me. We're to retrieve the Package and bug out."

"Sir, we can't just-!" She stood to her feet, heart starting to race.

The Captain shot her a calm, knowing glance, "I know, Sergeant... I know... The good doctor told me of the bond between you and Ariane. As much as I hate to tell you this, we'll just hope they hold underground until ONI can put together a search and rescue party..." which caused Elster's heart to sink further. She fell back into her seat as the Pelican moved in to land.

The girl sighed deeply, almost wishing to jump out and join Noble on the deck. Standing to her feet and drawing her MA5, the girl took a knee beside the captain as the hatch propped open, with half of Noble present on the deck. She noted their IFF tags flare up, including Kat's, Jorges and Six's here and Emile's and Carter's near the mounted MAC Gun. And she also saw another certain someone, her body scarred by burn marks, but her rifle still held up and at the ready.

Six, whose armor had been stained by carbon scoring, stepped up and said, "Captain Keyes, sir," as he pulled the package, a glowing blue cylindrical container, off of his back. Rita stepped up to the line and noted Elster, then flashed the girl a grin. Elster gave her a nod, before looking to Six as Captain Keyes descended onto the landing pad beside the shipbreaking yard's drydock. The Spartan also saw Elster take her helmet off. She offered a kind, but wary smile at him, her Synth-skin damaged, but visibly still attached. He gave a nod and said, "Elster..."

"Good to see you are all still well, Nobles," She told them, "Doc Halsey probably knew she could count on you all."

"You ain't without thanks, Els," Jorge noted, jovial and clearly smiling behind his helmet.

Keyes nodded to Six as he was handed the package, telling them, "Noble should pack up and be ready to Exfil with the rest of us. We'll need every Spartan we can get in this fight..." all while gazing at the gathered force. Above, on a different platform next to the Aszod facility, the Onager MAC cannon, a planetside mass driver, fired one of its ferromagnetic slugs through the coil-hoops. A flash and a crack of thunder later and a Covenant dropship vanished.

"Sir, can't do, sir," Six noted, "We got orders from Vice Admiral Whitcomb to redirect and try to defend the planetside generators, too. Word of mouth is a Company of Army, two of Marines and a few Spartans have been redirected there, as well."

"Red Team," The man nodded, "We can lend you a Pelican. Fly it safe."

"We'll try not to slam it into a Scarab, sir," Chortled Rita. Though concern washed over both the Captain and Elster, neither commented on it, while Kat gave the girl a slap upside the head. Rita pouted, then sighed and shook her head as she took up defensive positions, before gasping. As the air around them electrified to the point of discomfort, she called out, "Emile! Cruiser comin' in off our ten o'clock!"

Keyes blanked, then noted the massive frame of the warship punching bow-first through the clouds of smoke and ashes. He radioed, "Noble Four, I'm gonna need fire on that cruiser or we're not getting off this planet!"

"You'll have your window, sir!" Emile replied proudly.

"Six, Rita, move up to us, we're gonna need the backup in a second! Jorge, Kat, keep the Pad open for our ride! And Elster, get moving, they'll need you up there." Carter's voice echoed over com as the Pelican Keyes had ordered forward touched down. The Spartan and War Replika turned toward Elster, who gave them an approving nod. They both gave her a quick salute, before rushing off to assist as a Covenant Dropship flew in overhead.

"Jorge! Kat!" Elster called out as Keyes boarded the Pelican. The two turned toward her, which allowed her to tell them, "Stay safe! And get to Menachite if all else fails! Please!"

They knew why she wanted them to go to Menachite if the Generators fell. Both gave her silent nods, with Jorge hefting his LMG and telling her, "We'll get her off this rock safe, Els..." garnering a weak smile from the girl as her and Keyes's Pelican maxed out its engines. Overhead, the Covenant Cruiser's excavation beam charged, causing her synthetic hairs to stand on-end.

"Hey, Elster!" Emile called over a staticky radio, courtesy of the MAC charging. Elster tapped her com to signal she was listening as the Pelican was halfway to the Autumn's hangar. Emile chuckled and said, "Give'em hell out there!" before the MAC roared, burning white trailing a line in Elster's vision, before the belly of the Cruiser exploded in a flaming flash. The Autumn's takeoff assistance engines roared below.

Elster felt tears welling in her eyes as the Pelican touched down, Keyes calling out, "All stations, brace for castoff..." over radio. He turned to Elster and put a hand on her shoulder, telling her, "We'll get them back, Sergeant..." to which she nodded. Wordlessly, she stepped off the Pelican and toward a window as the Autumn accelerated out of orbit. Breaking through the atmosphere allowed Elster to see the extent of the damage.

Down below, Reach burned. The Covenant fleet's plasma beams boiled away her oceans, her mountains being flattened by beams from the poles to the ecuatorial line. Around them, the debris of dozens of UNSC vessels littered the void, destroyed and gutted. A vessel's name came into view, a Frigate. The Black Baron. Her hull boiled, split in half amidships...

And below, fire flashed over the Menachite mountains, Elster's heart stuck in her throat. No, no, no, please no!

... She collapsed to her knees as fire seemed to burn over Menachite, over CASTLE Base, over Reach. The sole human world she and Ariane had known in this place burned away below her. And she was all the more helpless to stop it. Her mind raced as rivers of tears flowed down her cheeks. She prayed at that had been an explosion above Menachite, not on it...

Though, how could she know? All she saw now was ashes and the trail of Covenant plasma fire as they chased the Autumn. Half-a-dozen Covenant Cruisers gave chase to them. She could see them in the corners of her blurred vision as the voice spoke to her in her mind once more, a derogatory, vile tone, "You failed her... You broke your promise, you worthless little robot... But, maybe, you'll be capable enough to make these bastards pay for it!"

... Elster felt fury well in her chest... This was it, then, wasn't it? She had failed Ariane...

Standing to her feet, the Replika glared at the Covenant vessels trailing them as they prepared to enter Slipspace, plasma bolts and beams lancing past the hull. Turning away from it, fists clenched. Whatever it was these bastards were hoping to achieve, they weren't going to get it. She marched toward the deck once more, knowing her time moping was better spent working...

"Good, you insufferable little copy. You took my place in this reality, so make yourself useful. I couldn't protect my Alina and you couldn't protect your Ariane... We are alike... But, through you, we get a chance to right the wrongs, because you're still alive. Now, work! Work yourself until the synthetic skin and armor on your hands peels away..."

The visage of a soldier of the Eusan Volksarmee came to Elster, her right eye bandaged and a rifle in hand. Lilith Itou stared back at LSTR-512 within the confines of her biomechanical mind. She spoke to Elster, her face a scowl, "And when all the Work is done and your blades are sharpened... Kill them all for what they've done to you! ALL of them! For our loves... And for ourselves!"

She cracked a grin. One Elster copied beneath her helmet.

... No more tears. Only work. Only payback.

Chapter Text

Elster worked on maintaining the UNSC's vehicles. From Pelicans to Warthogs to tanks, the girl hadn't rested a bloody day as they travelled Slipspace for their unknown destination. Random jumps were apparently fairly monotone. Who knew? She thought to herself as she gently pulled the control panels of the Scorpion she was now working on off. She pulled out a few tools from her belt and started working on the vehicle's wiring, parts of which seemed fried by overuse. Or plasma. She didn't really know if the Autumn's tank battalion had been deployed, but, at least, the mental exercise kept the unwanted 'guest' she'd found herself with after Reach's Fall tuned out.

She scoffed as a small electrical current coursed through her finger. She checked the wire to see that the rubber had partially melted, revealing a chunk of the inner conductor. She clipped it with one tool and started quickly replacing the rubber sleeve in the affected area as best she could. Moments later, she was done. In truth, she was mostly doing this to really keep her mind off of... Everything.

Not just Lilith.

Everything.

Climbing out of the tank with a huff, the girl took her helmet from the left and jumped off the vehicle from its back-right track, before looking around at the hangar she was in, watching the crews do final checks on the vehicles. An engineer approached and extended to Elster a datapad. She took it, clipped her helmet to her belt and started writing out the report at about three words every second. Two minutes was all it took for her to properly compile everything that was wrong with the tank, simply handing it back to the man.

She walked off, sliding her helmet onto her head and entering one of the armories. A Marine quartermaster greeted her, "Sarge. Came for the daily?" to which she nodded. The man pulled an MA5 assault rifle off one of the racks and slid it underneath the glass window, then did the same for an M6 Magnum pistol. Alongside them, he handed her about a dozen mags of AR ammo and four mags of pistol ammo.

Sliding each into a pouch, Elster stepped off toward the Range, rifle in hand. The chatter of Marine rifle fire echoed all around her as half a platoon of men trained at the various booths. She ignored the stares for now, shouldering the AR. She slid a fresh quad-stack magazine into the back of the weapon and hefted it, aiming through the SmartScope system toward the target at about average engagement range.

She squeezed for barely a quarter of a second before three rounds burped out of the weapon, each striking a fairly centralized area in the alien silhouette target's body. Impressive ROF for something with sixty rounds in a magazine. Made sense, too... With a sigh, the girl took a more capable stance. Left foot forward, right back and perpendicular to the left's axis, a slight slouch forward and the rifle properly pressed into her armored shoulder.

She squeezed again, for a second. A burst of nineteen rounds left the barrel in a tight grouping. A few Marines whistled, with one of the men commenting, "Damn. That's the new bot we got? She's got a helluva good aim," his thickly Australian accent fairly obvious. Elster tried to ignore the gawking and comments for now, though she kept steady on the range.

"Was with Spartans beforehand, amigo" Another, with a strange accent, commented, "Hey, Bisenti, you saw her in action."

"Yeah. She's good," The guy replied, watching as she aimed and fired again, then stated, "She's something else entirely, though. Scary shit, apparently. Whisper is ONI, maybe, but I'm not sure," as he slung his own rifle onto his shoulder. The woman fired another burst, trying to ignore the stares and the rounds once again landed dead onto where she'd aimed them.

With a sigh, she lowered her rifle, dropped the half-empty magazine and pulled the bolt back to retrieve the bullet inside. A familiar voice spoke to her, "Getting stage fright, Tin Can?" with the most smug tone of a voice ever. Elster almost jumped out of her synth-skin, her eyes shifting to see Lilith there, leaned against the booth in her combat uniform, a grin on her face. She mocked, "Oh, sorry. Did I scare you?"

The Replika took a moment, scoffed, then swiveled around and marched out toward the door. A blink later and Lilith was waiting right there, a grin on her face. "Can't get away from me~," she declared, "I'm in your head, after all. Or are you in mine?" then she paused as she watched Elster walk off. With a roll of her eyes, Lilith's form disappeared from next to the door, but her disembodied voice continued to mock, "C'mon, bot. It's no fun if you don't answer. Might even make me think I'm crazy."

Elster did the smart thing as she walked to surrender her weapons, surprising the quartermaster at the lack of expended ammo. She shut off her armor's external speakers and replied to Lilith, "I'm not in the mood. Can you just do me a favor and erase yourself like the errant bit of code you are...?" only to stagger as she turned around to see the Itou woman standing about a foot from her.

Lilith almost sang, "No can do, kiddo~! We're together come hell or high water and you won't get rid of me that easily~!"

"Does putting a bullet in my skull shut you up, I wonder?" Elster murmured a rhetorical question as she walked out of the armory and down one of the many walls through which the honeycomb braces of the Autumn's armor and superstructure passed through, marching by deck crew, Marines and even one of the janitors. A short laugh from Lilith told her that it would, in fact, only kill them both. And she couldn't do that while the Covenant still existed. She couldn't let them go for-

"Ooh," Lilith joked as she started walking by Elster, "I can feel that fury. Good. A little bit of me is still in that copycat head of yours."

"Obviously," Elster shot back derisively, "You're still talking to me," And she looked forward to see a pair of Marines armed with MA5s marching by. They gave Elster a quick nod as she walked. She simply nodded back too them, watching one of the Marines walk clean through the apparition of Lilith. She thought for a moment if she was in the final stages of her Persona Degradation.

Lilith answered the unasked question rather openly. Though the tone grew a bit more... Respectful, low, tired, "I'd say we are at that stage..."

"Don't speak like you're me," Elster hissed, "You're just a Ghost... A leftover that they should've deleted with the rest of this template. Replaced with a proper LSTR Persona Template instead," only to almost double over as Lilith appeared ahead of her, a burning glare marked by one good eye of two meeting Elster's own stunned one. The figure took a step back, a bloody gash marking where her right eye used to be. Elster felt a stinging in her own eye, to the point she put a hand against the cold, polarized glass of her SPI suit's visor.

"Without me, you wouldn't have been able to bond with your Ariane as well as you did," Lilith shot back, walking around the Replika within the now-empty hallway. Her voice was cold and focused, "Without me, you would not have seen the resemblance between her and Alina Seo. My Alina," then she stopped in front of Elster again, growling, "You wouldn't be you without me, you deranged, broken little machine! Be grateful I died so you can live, because, without me, you're NOTHING!"

Elster was about to reply, though the words caught in her throat, mouth open, face morphed into an expression of anger. She grit her teeth, biting back the remark. Because she knew Lilith was right? Because she didn't want to seem crazy for arguing with herself? The AI bit of Cortana Six and NOBLE had delivered was probably following her around through the cameras, so it was best not to give her a reason to eighty-six her.

So, Elster put on a poker face and replied, "Maybe... I was nothing before Ariane. I am nothing again," in a deadpan, "And you're the same kind of Nothing as me since we are stuck together..." then she walked through Lilith's apparition. Why was she arguing with her own mind? She thought to herself that maybe, just maybe, she would have been better off putting a bullet in her own head now. She'd failed Ariane, finally broke and now had this piece of shit soldier girl screaming into her brain about it.

"No," Lilith replied, once again walking by Elster's side, both eyes back, a deadpan look on her face and her garrison cap sat on her head. The same cap Elster had worn aboard the Penrose-512. She spoke, "You aren't nothing, you moron. You can still get revenge. I died before I knew if I had to avenge my Alina, bleeding in a hole in her arms. I died when the Imps let hell rain down on our heads. You? You still have some time to do what has to be done. And I'm here to guide you into doing that. Maybe we'll both get some damned closure afterward."

"Hm..." Elster thought for a moment, "Keep quiet while we're fighting. I don't like distractions."

"You sure?" Snorted the girl, though that wasn't derisive, more amused. She told her, "I saved your and that Sniper's asses on board the Station just before we departed."

Elster paused, "That callout... That was you?"

Lilith nodded, her grin returning, "See? I'm useful. So, how about you through that high-and-mighty queen bitch attitude out of the airlock and let me help you get some payback on these hinge-jawed freaks and their stout little suicide units?" only to pause as Elster turned to face her. They were outside the range of any camera and in an empty hall.

Elster crossed her arms and answered, "Fine. Only callouts."

"Aww, no girl talk?" Chuckled Lilith, "You hurt me so, Elster," and she smirked. She extended her hand, but then paused and realized Elster couldn't exactly shake it. Instead, she gave a slight nod of her head that only Elster would pick up and be able to replicate. And replicate it, she did. Lilith's grin grew into an actual smile, her crazy eyes fading for a second, "... It's nice to have a second chance. Give'em hell out there, Tin Can."

"Will do, Schizophrenic Hallucination," Elster murmured, which got a laugh out of her.

"I like that! Haha!" She snorted, "Just call me Lilith, though."

"No," Elster said monotonely, garnering another laugh out of Lilith. She could hear Lilith think, 'This is gonna be a great friendship' as she laughed. The two only paused, however, when her HUD flashed and a message text box appeared on the left. Cortana's message. It said, 'The Captain wants to talk to you on the Bridge'. She sighed and turned around, then marched over toward the bridge, with Lilith quieting down for now and retreating to the back of her consciousness.

Walking into the bridge, Elster was surprised to see the deck crew active as ever. She marched up to the front, watching the Captain and Cortana debate something from afar against the holographic screen that separated him from the forward gunners of the Pillar of Autumn, men on chairs that hanged above a perceived void, though separated from said void by the windows of the ship.

Cortana, though a hue more purple than prior, turned to face her. She smiled and waved her over, to which Elster took a step forward, reactivating her external speakers as Lilith said, "Y'know, if I was an AI..." but then cut herself off with, "Nah, nevermind..." even though Elster had heard the thoughts she was about to speak and shuddered a little. With a light sigh, she stopped in front of captain Keyes and Cortana, snapping a salute.

"Captain, sir. Sergeant Five-One-Two, reporting as ordered, sir..."

"At ease," Keyes nodded, "Good to finally meet you properly, Elster. Cortana was just telling me everything I needed to know about you, but I wanted to hear it from the horse's mouth, if you'll pardon the euphemism..." And he took a puff from his strange pipe. She nodded, waiting to be asked anything and Keyes obliged, asking, "Look, I know things are tough, Sergeant... And I know what you think you lost, but trust me. If there's anyone who's going to survive what happened at Reach, it's doctor Halsey and anyone who's with her."

"... Thank you, sir..." She spoke, slightly reassured by her words. He gave her a gentle pat on the shoulder, then nodded.

Then, he turned and continued, "I should ask, though, what is a Replika? Reports haven't been forthcoming."

"Sir. A Replika is a worker automaton built out of Titanium, polyethylene and synthetic skin, as well as biocomponents meant to replicate human functions to a degree," She replied calmly, "Each of us is specialized in one role, though there is the rare multirole Replika out there. I am... Was an Engineer meant to support a colony and exploration ship, but, as you can see..."

"Necessity is the mother of invention," The man nodded, "Glad to see you've adapted."

"Mostly due to my Persona Template, sir," The girl replied. A slight confusion crossed Keyes's face, but Elster answered the question ahead, "Each Replika also has a Persona Template implanted into their artificial brains. Mine's apparently from some soldier that fought on one of the fronts our homeland had opened during their rebellion with the Empire..." And she was a mouthy bitch, Elster thought, but didn't add. Lilith laughed a little at that.

Keyes nodded, "Then your skillset's welcome any time. I have one more question and something to tell you. First things first, why'd you tag in with us?"

"No other options, plus your people healing Ariane," She replied, "Her cancer..."

"Right," The man nodded, "Got it... Now, onto what I wanted to tell you," and he looked to Cortana. She approved him telling her, which gave him the chance to say, "We have a destination."

Confusion streaked across Elster's eyes, though it wasn't visible. She spoke, "Sir, aren't we on COLE PROTOCOL? Random jumps?"

"This is technically a 'Random Jump'," Cortana chuckled, "A destination I found in an artifact buried under SWORD. We'll be hitting that spot now... Maybe we'll be able to find something to turn the tide of this damn war already. Captain figured it'd be a good idea to tell you about it, for you to be ready for when we deploy. BLUE's gonna need their new tech bot."

... Despite it taking a moment for Elster to adjust to this new info and Lilith speaking some comment that the girl ignored, the Replika simply nodded and said, "Alright... I got it. Let the Chief know I'll be ready for anything they need me for," then took a moment to think. This was gonna be one hell of an operation if it was some form of ancient alien super-weapon.

Maybe they'd find their payback there, after all...

Chapter Text

"Cortana, all I want to know is, did we lose them?"

"I think we both know the answer to that..."

As soon as the Pillar of Autumn had exited Slipspace, two things had become apparent. One:The Covenant fleet had chased them all the way over here and they arrived first, with an entire force of Covenant Cruisers and one capital ship on their tail. Two:Whatever lay in front of them was possibly the most incredible thing that anyone had laid eyes upon. Floating neatly in geosynch orbit above a massive gas giant was a ring-shaped artificial construct.

Elster had seen it when they came in and the first signs of a pit in her stomach formed. Now, on the lower floor of the Autumn's main hangar, the Replika had finally managed to fully fix and modify her armor. Alarms began to blare over their heads as she started donning it, sliding her helmet on her head. The deck, already a hive of activity, seemed to engage double time as Marines, maintenance crews and military personnel moved up to their rallying points.

She didn't know, nor care if they were going in. Lilith spoke to her in a suddenly uncharacteristic calm, "Keep your eyes open, Tin Can... I have a nagging feeling we're about to see the worst few days of our lives down on that thing," to which the Replika simply hummed. She checked the systems of her HUD, watching them all boot up one by one, including her stealth coating panels activating and reflecting light. She looked at herself as she vanished in the dim, flashing lights of the deck, then gave an approving nod. She took her helmet off.

Sliding her MA5B onto her back and an M6 pistol on her hip, she ran over toward the Marine gathering point as Cortana reported, "... All combat crews, report to action stations. Internal and External contacts are expected," in an eerily calm voice. She looked over to see Sergeant Johnson coralling his Platoon and decided she'd tag in with them for the fight. Joining the lineup of Marines on the deck, she stopped beside Bisenti, who looked up at her. With one quick glance, she gave the man a reassuring nod.

He nodded back, then straightened up as Johnson began to speak. The Sergeant-Major's voice was proud, fierce and belligerent as he called, "Men, we led these dumb bugs out to the middle of nowhere to stop'em from getting their filthy claws on Earth, but we stumbled onto something they're so hot for, they're scrambling over each-other to get it!" whilst marching in front of the crew. He grinned and continued, "Now, I don't care if it's God's own anti-sonofabitch machine, or a giant Hula-hoop, we're not gonna let'em have it! What we will let'em have is a belly full'a'lead and a pool of their own blood to drown in!"

Stopping at the head of the two columns of Marines, he turned about with his MA5 leaned against his chest and that smug, know-it-all grin one would expect out of someone with Johnson's experience. He demanded, "Am I right, Marines!?" in a booming, proud voice once more. Elster couldn't help but grin at that. Despite their predicament and all else...

So, she chorused with the Marines, "Sir, yessir!"

"Mhm, damn right I am!" Johnson declared proudly, "Now, move it out! Double time!"

The Marines displaced from the formations and marched with the other platoons to the deck. Johnson bumped Elster's shoulder with his fist and gave her a nod, then yelled at some of the younger Marines, "All you greenhorns who wanted to see Covenant up-close, this is your lucky day! Sergeant, you're supporting me and my boys. Extra gun is appreciated in the grand scheme of this cluster..."

"Aye, Sarge," She nodded, then slid her helmet on her head. The pair of Sergeants marched through the hangar and into the hallways, taking one of the routes closest toward their target bulkhead. Elster drew her rifle, thumbed the safety off and racked the bolt, watching as the bullet locked into the chamber. Marching down the wide halls, Elster saw the Sergeant looking at her. She inquired, "Something the matter, sir?"

"Just wonderin' when in God's name I wound up working with both Spartans and an Android or whatever..." The Sergeant replied, giving the woman in SPI armor a once-over with nothing but a hint of concern behind his gaze. He added a quick, "No offense," probably to try and dissuade Elster from doing anything dumb. She wasn't planning to, anyhow, but it was nice.

"None taken, Sarge," She replied softly, then added, "It wasn't exactly in the cards for me to be here anyhow..." while checking her gear again. She hummed, then told him, "Since I am, though?" lifting her MA5B as if to make a point, "I'm not letting the Covvies take an inch without a gallon of their blood to paint it." which made several of the Marines around whoop and cheer.

"Heh," Johnson flashed a bright, pearly-white grin at Elster, then told her, "Oorah, kid. Oo-goddamn-rah," before sliding a cigar between his lips and using a trench lighter to light it. He told her, "Saw what you did aboard the Station. Saved our asses and a couple Spartans, too," as they marched past several Marine platoons heading to their respective bulkheads.

"Rather have everyone around me live, Sarge..." She whispered, pulling out something she'd kept with her since the beginning:Their photo. "Reach took too much."

"... Oh, right. Captain did tell us you had a loved one dirtside," Johnson looked upon her with both pity and an apologetic gaze. He took a moment to consider his words, then remembered that Keyes had told them Elster needed reinforcement and that Ariane was with someone he trusted. So, he told her, "Eh, take it from me, she'll be fine. Hell, if she's with someone Keyes trusts, I've got zero doubt in my mind she'll be right as rain, even underground."

"I know... Thanks, though. I trust doctor Halsey and NOBLE Team," She nodded.

"Worked with Spartans before BLUE?" Johnson quirked a brow.

"Aye. On Reach, during its defense. Five-and-a-half weeks together. I knew them all by name."

"Well, damn," He snorted, "If we do swing back around, maybe we'll get'em all off."

"Aye. When we swing back..." And she paused as the ship hook. The ship had been shaking for a while from Covenant blasts.

"Mm. That's the spirit," He gave hera pat on the shoulder as they reached their designated Bulkhead, then turned to the group, "Now, eyes and ears open. We're about to get some unwanted company. Marines! Asses in gear! Bisenti, O'Brien, I want combat pattern bravo! Jenkins, you Mendoza and Fitzgerald keep your eyes open for anything coming from the front and rear in case Alpha and Bravo squads get shot to hell and we have to pull back! You got a name?"

"Elster, sarge."

"Elster, you tag in with me. We'll keep tabs on the main bulkhead."

The Replika nodded and shifted herself behind cover. One of the reinforcements poked through the midst of the hallway here, giving just enough cover for the girl. The Marines also set up, some going prone, others pressing their rifles and peering between the other braces in the hallway. Some took cover a door down from the bulkhead itself. Before long, hard metallic clangs echoed, with Johnson stating, "Easy, Marines. Wait for the doors to pop..." before doing a quick press-check on his rifle.

The hiss of plasma cutting through metal filtered in. Up ahead, the bulkhead began to melt. In the distance, the ringing of gunfire echoed, met with the snap-pops of plasma and needle rounds. Elster watched as the bulkhead ahead was cut in several more places, before the quiet swish of a plasma grenade activating came next. Then another. Then a dozen more. Her eyes shot wide open as she called out, "TAKE COVER!"

The blast that followed washed the hallway ahead with plasma. Elster could just barely make out the silhouettes off the Covenant's troops behind the flash-boiling blast as her eyes adjusted and visor polarized. She was the first to open fire, standing up and firing a burst from her AR into the closest grunt. A plasma bolt snapped out and hit right beside her, heating the Titanium reinforcement she was taking cover behind.

The hallway was then lit up by tracers. As the Marines regained their footing from the blast's shockwave and their ears were ceasing their tinnitus-infused ringing, they opened fire. Bullets sparked off the walls and struck Covenant units, with one of the leading Elites being caught by so many rounds, his shields overloaded within the span of a second and he collapsed, sprawled out across the floor in a pool of his own purple blood.

Johnson snorted at that as he dipped back into cover. Two needle bolts struck where he had been as he checked his ammo count, noting he was at half-a-mag. He poked out and fired again, nailing the Grunt that'd shot at him in the head, before standing up and calling out, "Marines, suppressing fire! Elster, on me!" before the replies of their troop came in the form of Oorahs and gunfire. Johnson tossed a fragmentation grenade to Elster and nodded to her, before both primed and rolled them forward. Two thumps shook the ground.

The Marines then formed up and pushed out toward the Covvies, one of the supporting elements catching a plasma bolt to the chest and dying on the spot. Elster pushed past the corpse, having seen him flatline on the TEAMBIO. She ran forward toward the leading Elite, cocked her fist back and slammed the gauntlet right into the side of the hinge-jaw's neck, deep enough into the muscled bodypart to hear his vertebrae snap.

Lilith called out, "Left."

Elster dodged as a burst of plasma fire struck the spot she was in. She drew her pistol and snapped off three shots, each nailing the Elite in the head and with the last completely sending its helmet flying. Two bolts struck her armor's shields, almost overloading them as Lilith called out rapidly, "Check rear!" causing Elster to elbow the Elite charging her straight in the gut. She heard it groan, before doing a 180 and planting the barrel of her rifle into its belly, then squeezing off what was left of her mag.

Cortana's voice spoke over the PA, "All hands, abandon ship. I repeat, all hands, abandon ship. We will evacuate ASAP and regroup on the Ring ahead."

She dropped the spent mag of her AR as she watched Johnson and his Marines suppress the remaining enemies, before Johnson called out, "You heard the Lady! Move it out, Marines! We're heading to reinforce Alpha and then going for the nearest Lifeboats! Sarge, take point!" and turned to Elster. The girl nodded, peering past the man for a moment and into the Covenant boarding ship, to see their usual purple motif, holograms and the likes. She sighed and showed them to follow.

Advancing to the next Bulkhead over as the ship shook from the impact of plasma charges, Elster watched another Marine ahead suddenly lose his head, corpse falling in a sprawl. His buddies and the Navy personnel they were escorting, most of which armed with only pistols, gasped as they saw Charlie pushing up, with Jenkins calling out, "Check your six, Friendlies coming in!"

Elster fired a burst at a Grunt, then at another, plasma striking around and onto her, while Johnson and the others spread out around the bulkheads. Johnson asked a crewman clad in an orange jumpsuit, "Where are the nearest lifeboats?! We'll get your asses there in one piece and get off the old girl with you!"

"Next intersection and up the stairs! Bulkhead 13!" The crewman, one 'Freeman', as per his name tag, replied as he drew his pistol. A crowbar was clipped to his belt, meaning he was probably maintenance. Elster felt an eerie kinship with the man, but said nothing as she watched Johnson lift his hand up, showing the Marines and her to follow. Plasma bolts and gunfire were being exchanged up ahead.

Tracers sparked off the walls as Johnson barked over the com, "Alpha, check your fire, allies coming into the intersection!"

He pushed through the door frame, firing at and suppressing a squad of Grunts that let out yelps as they moved up. Up above, thundering footsteps echoed through the floor. Elster commented, "Sounds like Chief and Blue Team are on the move..." as she pushed forward with the men. She primed two grenades and threw them, then watched as a plasma bolt trailed forward and struck a Marine defending the intersection up ahead in the chest. Two more shots followed and the man's torso was gone.

The intersection was a two-level area with a stairwell attached to the honeycomb structural reinforcements. It led up a floor, rather unsurprisingly, and the upper terrace gave the Marines a good line of sight on the Bulkhead as they engaged. The man in charge of Alpha moved up to Johnson with a trio of other Marines and provided covering fire, though the Elites in charge of the attack spearheaded the assault now. Bullets sparked off shields and azure bolts retaliated, two Marines and a group of unarmored crewmen dying in the volley.

Elster took cover and, the moment the first Elite stepped into her LOS, she lit him up like he was a Christmas tree. All sixty 7,62x51 rounds spat out of the barrel of the AR at close range, causing the creature's shields to flash, fail and die in a bright blue display. She unclipped the pistol from the magnetic lock, aimed it and executed the Elite, only to feel the heat of a plasma volley hit her. She ducked back into cover as her shields flared, then yelped as a bolt hit her shoulder. It didn't melt, but it did heat up the plate.

She shifted, kneeling as she pressed herself against the wall and dropped the spent magazine from her rifle, only to slap in a fresh one and rack the bolt. She looked to Johnson as he took cover beside the other edge of the entry, only for both to gasp as two grenades launched forward. Chief and James jumped in from the top, the former taking a knee and firing bursts from his AR.

Bisenti cheered, "Woohoo! We're fucking saved!"

Elster watched James floor an Elite with his fist, before pinning said Elite down and pumping it full of lead in front of its Grunt subordinates. He looked at the terrified diminutive aliens, rifle barrel still smoking, pointed at the head of the Elite. The glare he had could be felt from behind his visor as he snapped his rifle up at them and all three screamed bloody murder.

A sniper shot rang out and blue blood painted the wall. Linda called out, "Took you a moment, James..." over the radio, her voice cold. Chief pulled the bloodied blade of his knife from the other Elite's neck, then, with a chop of his hand, ordered the fireteams to move out. He looked to Elster, who nodded, before all of them stood to their feet and fast-marched up the stairs. The ship shook and Elster nearly fell, but James caught her. The two exchanged a quick nod as they continued the climb.

A row of pods sat ahead in an open hallway, guarded by a fireteam of Marines. It would've been a platoon, but going by the corpses littering the area, both of Marines and of Jackals, Grunts and Elites, the fight here was tough. The lead Marine gave a quick salute to the Chief before hitting the button to open all four pods. Chief spoke, "Each Spartan takes a pod. Elster, you take the fourth with the Sergeant-Major. See you planetside."

She nodded, "Take care, Chief. Blues," then climbed aboard with the Sergeant-Major. She sat down at the end of the left row of seats as they entered, with the others following inside. The pilot climbed aboard last and took the cockpit seat of the Bumblebee lifepod. Johnson took the seat opposite Elster, with the girl saying, "Never been in a lifeboat before..."

"Well, brace yourself. Damn things kick like a mu-!" Johnson got cut off mid-warning and had almost bit his tongue as the decoupling charges kicked the ovoid lifepod out from its hatch. Through the rear, Elster could see the Autumn getting pounded by plasma from the Covenant's distant naval assets. Sparse was the return fire of the 5cm CIWS batteries, nor was there any answer from the missiles. The bow of the ship had armor plate that'd been boiled away, revealing the twisted internals of the MAC, its rails destroyed and many other marks and fires permeated the heavy cruiser as it barreled toward the planet.

Elster radioed, "Cortana! What the hell is going on!?"

"The Captain's going in for manual landing!" The AI replied, part annoyed, part wary. She then told "I've sent reentry vectors to your pilot, Elster. You, Johnson and your Marines wait for pickup! We'll find the rest of the Blues, then we'll come pick you up. Did you copy my last?!" as slight static began to play over the com. The Autumn flew overhead, angling for a hard entry into the atmosphere of the ringworld ahead.

"Rog!" Elster shot back, then gasped as she watched the teardrop-shaped Seraph fighters sweep in. Two trailed a pair of more distant pods, their plasma cannons flashing. The pods exploded in twin, sunlike blazes, but the Seraphs were immediately chased off by two surviving Longswords that banked in. Elster could also see other pods, Single Occupant Exoatmospheric Entry Vehicles. ODST Pods. She asked, "We had ODSTs aboard?!"

"A Battalion!" Johnson replied, cocked his jaw and said, "Damn, that blast caught me off-guard!"

"Sorry, Sarge, but you knew the ride was gonna be bumpy!" The pilot reported, then warned, "We're vectoring in for Atmospheric Insertion! Brace!" which caused several Marines to tighten their straps. Mendoza put his hands together in some form of archaic motion and began whispering what seemed to be a prayer to himself in Latin, which Johnson mouthed in synch, his Cigar in one hand and rifle clipped into a hold by his seat.

Elster wondered what the hell Religion had to do with making it. Lilith, meanwhile, spoke to her and her alone, "Give'em a break. There's never atheists in a foxhole... Or the lifepod of a Starship in this case..." with a slight tone. The woman's apparition was leaned against the back door of the pod, arms crossed. She wore her standard black armor, her face surprisingly impassive except for furrowed brows, "You strapped in tight?"

Elster gave ever the slightest nod to Lilith, only noticeable to her, who was in Elster's mind. She said, "Good... Gonna be a rough landing. Brace when I tell you to," and Elster immediately registered why she had changed in personality. Her soldierly instincts had kicked in, much like during those flashbacks. Lilith noted this little addition in Elster's mind and actually cracked a genuine smile, "I'm not an ass 90% of the time. Figured I should give you a couple of stern talking-tos so we make sure we both make it through this... If there's even an inkling of Ariane being alive in that brain of yours, I want you to focus on it so we can stay alive. We're two peas in one pod."

Elster thought of a reply to test it out. "... I won't die... Not as long as I know she's still on Reach..." Which contrasted fairly strongly to what Elster had been like only a day or so ago. Lilith nodded approvingly, before patting her own chest with her fist and disappearing the next moment. Still, Elster could feel her presence in her mind, like a second, splintered part of her.

She felt a momentary heat increase, then a light twitch as the Pilot adjusted the pod for re-entry, belly down. The surface of the ring below grew in the rear hatch's window and Elster could make out greens, continents, oceans, an entire ecosystem. Was this the Forerunners' doing? What had they even built this strange ring installation for? A feeling in the back of her mind was that not all answers to that would be pretty.

"Now. Brace," Lilith's calm voice rang in Elster's head.

She leaned forward, pressing against the straps. The Marines, seeing this, did the same, bowing their heads and covering them with their hands. Johnson gave a thumbs-up to Elster as the girl put her hands behind her head, with the Pilot calling out, "We're going in hot!" as the pod began to shake. Wisps of fire grew around them, turning into a full-fledged dancing flame as the atmosphere caught them.

She made out the peaks of mountains. An emerald valley sat below, covered in forests and various alien structures of a silver alloy that popped out amidst the green and rocky greys. She grit her teeth as the Pod adjusted again, entering its set course as the fires of re-entry dulled and died. Sudden deceleration caused her to slam back into her seat, denting it slightly and nearly ripping the straps as she got sent forward again. The landing flaps of the pod had deployed, with the roar of the burning deceleration engines following.

Parachutes deployed as the Pod slowed even further... Then, came the flop. The pod landed on its belly, dead into wet grass and probable mud, skidding across it and burying its maw and belly further into the muck. A deck crewman that was with them had his straps break. He went flying across the pod's entire length, slamming into the back doors with enough force to break them and his spine.

The corpse dropped onto the floor as the vehicle finally slowed. Elster undid her straps first, then moved up to the door and pried it open with both hands, pushing it aside and turning to call out, "Move it out, Marines! Sarge, structure on our twelve!" while pointing. A two-prong alien structure that resembled a claw spat out a ball of blue energy into the sky, a contrast to the dozens of lifeboats falling all around them. The structure sat at the middle of the valley, amidst trees and a few steps from a creek with water as clear as crystal.

Johnson coughed, hit himself in his chest armor once and said, "All Marines, sound off and follow the lady!" then waited as every single man aboard, sans the dead one, cried out their reply. The pilot swiveled in her chair and climbed out of it, a bit wobbly, then grabbed an MA5 out of a hidden compartment and tossed her helmet aside. The Sergeant-Major undid his own strap, grabbed his gun and put his cap on, telling Elster, "We're going for the structure! It's the only visible piece of shelter we got in this open killbox! Move!"

"Oorah!" Heartily replied the Marines as they grabbed their gear from underneath or beside their seats.

Elster jumped out of the pod and scanned the area with her rifle...

Chapter Text

The building that they had managed to secure was an energy projector of some kind, continuously firing blasts of energy high into the Ring's atmosphere. That, however, was not the most concerning of things right now. It was the fact they were on a ring and a Covenant Armada was bearing down on their locations as they spoke. Kneeling beside one of the pallisades of the place, Elster peered down the massive, green canyon they were in. Creeks through which water flowed, random alien Flora and Fauna and a massive drop at the end that led to the most extraterrestrial, yet beautiful view.

The ring arched up high into the sky, the widest point on the inverse horizon closest to them being a wider section of the ring that Elster could swear she could see into if she squinted hard enough, followed by an ever-narrowing structure the farther away it got, that looped all the way over their heads and behind them, hidden by a rocky cliff wall. She murmured to herself, "This entire place is impossible..." as she shouldered her MA5.

She looked back at the Marines as Sergeant Johnson arrayed them into defensive positions. The distant hum of antigravity engines echoed across the valleys, from all directions. Two Banshees flew overhead, diving toward where another Pod had crashlanded. Elster had managed to see a green figure moving stealthily from the crash, but couldn't make out if it was the Chief or any of the other Spartans.

Johnson approached and knelt beside her, then said, "Can't get radio contact with anyone else. Everything's scrambled," before shouldering his MA5. The cigar between his lips glowed for a moment, a strand of smoke rising up and vanishing. He puffed out the smoke in his mouth and took the cigar out from between his teeth, stating, "That pod got any movement?"

"Saw one green figure," Elster replied, "Might've been a Spartan. IFF can't pick him up from this far..." and she turned to watch the sky as the hiss of antigrav engines seemed to be inching closer. She told Johnson, "I'd get the men ready. I'm hearing possible contacts..." before casting a sideways glance at Lilith, who was sat beside her with a Eusan-made rifle in hand.

She smirked and said, "What?" upon feeling Elster's thoughts, "A little morale boost. You know I'm here to help, right?"

Elster didn't deign to answer, simply watching Johnson wave his hand to his men, sending them into cover with a couple of hand signals as a Spirit Dropship, the bifurcated type of transport the Covvies loved to use so, flew in from amidst the canyons. Lilith's smile disappeared as she, too, vanished, with Elster hefting her AR and watching the drop-ship land. It'd probably seen the Life Pod.

Indeed, it landed fairly close to the Pod. The one corpse was still there. They hadn't managed to bury him before the roar of more enemy forces came. Elster twitched as distant gunfire echoed, then watched a Banshee careen to the floor, its antigrav pods smoldering, then flaming. She smiled, realizing that the friendly in that pod, whoever they were, was engaging the enemy.

She, however, didn't quite smile when the first plasma bolt washed over her cover. Johnson called out, "Contact! Asses in gear, Marines!" as he raised his rifle over the edge of polished silver alien alloy and opened fire. A suppressing burst landed around the Elites, Grunts and Jackals advancing on them, with the Jackals returning fire from behind their portable cover with plasma pistols and needlers.

A pair of Marines and a Corpsman moved up to join the fighting force, the latter with a Magnum she was using to pop at the enemy. Elster poked out from behind cover and let loose a half-second burst from her rifle, too. The rounds struck the shields of an Elite who was quick to shoot back, blue blots of plasma hitting. One struck Elster's helmet, causing her shields to flare as she huffed and ducked into cover.

Tossing a grenade over the edge, she checked her ammo counter. Lilith said, "Two, coming up the ramp. Grunt. Elite," and Elster's gaze moved down over her cover and at one of the ramps. She dropped another grenade and popped out to fire after the thump. The Grunt got a round clean through its skull, collapsing with a chitter and a hiss of his methane tank, while the Elite jumped off the platform and returned fire.

His shields flared once, twice, three times. At the third, a round pierced and struck it right between the eyes, killing it on the spot. Elster looked over to the Corpsman as she tended to a Marine that'd taken a Needler round, then looked at Johnson and nodded. The Marine Sergeant flashed a pearly grin, the cigar between his teeth as he poked out and opened fire on another advancing unit.

The Jackals were pinned down, but a second Spirit swooped in, its rear-mounted plasma cannon letting loose one trifecta-shaped lilac plasma volley after another. The shots struck and superheated the alloy of the building, but it didn't melt. One Marine was struck as he was running with his rifle, only to be vaporized on the spot, turned to red mist. Elster swore to herself, while Lilith asked, "You think we can take out the turret?! It's chewing us up!"

"No heavy weapons!" Elster replied after muting her speakers. She stood up and fired. Bullets pinged off the turret, but one struck the gimbal it was on, causing it to go wide for two shots. It disgorged its troops, an Elite with a jump pack launching itself straight toward them. When it landed, it hefted its plasma repeater and swiveled about toward Elster, opening fire.

The Replika rolled out of the way, sprang to her feet and charged it, emptying her magazine into it before she shoulder-checked it onto the ground, drew her knife and planted it straight through the tinted glass visor of the alien, where she instinctually knew its eye was. She dug the blade in even deeper through the cracking glass, then twisted and puled it out.

She staggered as a pair of needle rounds struck her in the back, exploding off the shield. Johnson's rifle rang again and the cries of a Grunt and Jackal followed. Elster turned back and watched the Sergeant kick down a third alien, plant the barrel of his weapon in its face and squeeze, spraying blood and methane. He jumped back as the punctured methane tank detonated, then watched one of his Marines get turned to mulch.

Jenkins swore to himself and dragged the Sergeant to his feet as Elster rejoined them, then said, "This is nuts!"

"Mayday, mayday," Johnson activated his radio, "This is Fireteam Charlie, requesting aid from any UNSC troops nearby. We've got a lot of covvies bearing down on our heads!"

"Sergeant, this is Blue Actual. Stand by, we're on our way," Cortana's voice replied over the radio, calm. The distant chatter of another AR echoed, Elster standing to her feet and watching Chief appear from amidst the trees, slam an Elite down and kick its head in, snapping its spine and crushing its skull. Purple caked the dark-green boot of the Spartan's armor as he stepped forward, wading through a small creek and lighting up Jackals whose backs were turned to him, shields facing the Marines.

He was quick on his feet as an Elite swung for his head, dodging the hit and striking the Alien's chest with an open palm. The hit staggered the Elite enough for the Spartan to blunt its second, messier swing, grab its weapon hand and twist it. The Elite's jaws splayed out as it screamed in pain, then let out a guttural roar of anger. Chief swept its legs and kicked its ribcage in.

He then turned around and fired a full burst of assault rifle fire at a squad of Grunts that were charging him. The diminutive creatures collapsed, their fluorescent blue blood painting the greenery of the valley. Another pair of Elites charged the Chief, but the Spartan was quick enough. His assault weapon's inaccuracy was nullified at the range the aliens were at, each round striking one's or the other's shields.

When the counter went red and the gun clicked empty, Chief quickly drew his pistol and put two rounds into one Elite's chest and a third into his comrade's head. Both collapsed, the first gargling blood as the Chief marched up to it and shot it in the head. Cortana voiced, "Dirty, but efficient. We still have ammo for any other distress signals... To all Marines of Charlie, this is Cortana. Area's clear."

The Spartan turned and watched as Elster descended first with the Sergeant and his troops. She snapped a salute and spoke jovially, "Glad to see you're alive and kicking, sir. Any word from anyone else in Blue?"

"Sparse comms," Chief replied, "They're alive, but will land in other parts of this Valley. We need to go find them."

"Roger, sir," Elster replied, "If you need the extra gun, I'm green..." And she patted her gun.

"Welcome back, Blue Four," Chief replied, then asked, "Cortana, status on that EVAC for the Marines?" as he started checking his gear. His armor was scorched in places by the plasma blasts. Elster also noticed denting from needles probably breaking on the plate amidst other things, with even Lilith chiming in with a sound of awe or two in there. The Replika sighed and gave a final once-over of her weapon.

Cortana had replied, "Contacting... Echo Four-Nineteen, this is Cortana. Foehammer, you still on station?"

As Elster tuned into the Radio, she heard a heavy southern accent kick in, the female pilot replying, "Here and copying you Five-by-five, Cortana. I'm on my way to your location with a little ride, gift from the boys and girls. Should just be a minute," and, indeed, it was less than that. The Spartan, Marines and Elster looked upon the beauty of a Pelican as it swung in for touch-down, carrying a Warthog FAV in its magnetic clamps.

It dropped the vehicle, with Elster noting, "I'm taking the gun," as she moved toward the landing site. The Marines followed, with Johnson right beside her. The dark-skinned man bounced up onto the side seat as Chief took the wheel, with Foe Hammer reporting her takeoff with the surviving crew and Marines. Chief pressed on the acceleration and the vehicle's engine roared in a higher pitch. He swiveled the wheel right and the wheels spun, kicking up mud and dirt.

The vehicle then rolled forward, Elster manning the fifty-caliber gatling on the back. She looked around at the scenery as they drove forward, up and down bumpy roads and around hills, while Johnson commented, "I'll be damned if whatever aliens made this Hula-Hoop didn't make it pretty... Almost reminds me of Illinois a little," as he shifted his rifle and set its buttstock on the floor, leaning the rest of it against the chair as he held on.

"Looks picture-perfect," Elster murmured. She saw some of the weird alien wildlife around them scramble out of the way as the Chief drove and she also felt the weight of the suspension as they made the jumps. She spun the gun around while keeping an eye on the sky, only to pause as she saw escape pods incoming. She told the Chief, "Several more pods, incoming. They're landing in the valley like you said, Chief."

The crew rolled down into a deeper canyon via some dirt and rock ramps, only to see the massive maw of what at first looked like a cave, only to resolve into a silver alien structure not to different from the energy projector they'd just defended. It was massive, big enough to fit an entire frigate through, and lit by recessed blue lights. Cortana commented, "This cave is not a natural formation..." almost ironically.

"Yeah, no shit..." Lilith whispered in Elster's brain, causing the Replika to snort.

Johnson commented, "Don't matter to me. None of this damn ring is natural," as he slid a cigar between his lips again, "Shit, doubt God would've made something like this..."

"You a man of the Church, Sergeant?" Joked Cortana. Johnson snorted and shook his head.

"Grew up in Chicago and went to Church, aye. Auntie Marcille raised me right, I'd say," He replied rather jovially as they took a sharp left up a ramp, the wheels of the Warthog barely gaining traction against the glowing alien metal. As they crested the top of the bump, a bulkhead that seemed almost like a wall opened, its seams barely visible at first, before it slid wide open.

A massive hall revealed itself, a chasm stretching down the middle. Two triangular support-like structures acted as the ends of the platforms that faced each-other and the ceiling was tall, almost obscured by the darkness. The walls curved in on themselves, each bearing pillars from which faint light emanated. Both the Replika and the Sergeant stared with muted awe at the sight, while Chief scanned the area, his motion tracker picking up various targets.

Cortana said, "We've got company. Around those pillars..." which got the Replika's attention. Several box-like pillars stood to the left and right of the 'road' leading toward the pyramid-shaped support on their side. The faint hum of charged plasma weapons and the heavy breaths of Grunts echoed, though the latter were muffled by the rebreather masks. Elster could just barely make out a ramp to the right and some sort of control system that was being guarded. The shadows of Jackals moved to her right. She swiveled the turret toward it and hit one of the two triggers, starting the weapon's spin cycle.

Johnson clicked the safety of his rifle to off as he lifted and shouldered it, murmuring, "C'mon, you alien bastards. Like to see you try takin' us on..." as he scanned his sector. Chief drew his own pistol and scanned the surrounding area as he held onto the wheel, ready to bring the vehicle around. It was strange to him that the Covenant was waiting, but he and Cortana didn't complain.

"... They have troops concentrated to the right and I'm detecting an energy source below us, linked to a console there," The AI spoke. She put up a Waypoint on the Spartan's and Replika's HUDs. She then told all three, "Don't like how they're waiting for us to make the first move... Maybe they know something we don't about this place? I'm trying to look into their BattleNet now."

"They're trying to keep the good cover..." Chief shot back, the sight of an Elite bounding to another piece of cover registering in his peripheral vision. He switched his speakers off and sent a single-beam communication to Elster, which the girl accepted. He asked, "Your suit at one hundred percent, Elster?" to which she gave a nigh-imperceptible nod. He replied, "I know about it. Cortana gave me a blueprint. Dismount... Use it."

"Sir, all due respect, wouldn't it be better for me to stay on the MG?" She asked, warily peering through the sights of the weapon. Chief shook his head. His right hand's fingers moved, forming a signal. 'Stealth. Advance. Flank.' She nodded. Chief looked to Johnson, tapped him on the shoulder gently and tilted his head to the MG, then lifted three fingers for both him and Elster to see.

At two, the Sergeant thumbed the safety of his AR and put it on his back, while Elster tensed. At two, Johnson slowly lifted his ass off the seat and Elster cycled the command for the armor's camouflage panels to kick in. And at one, the Replika jumped off the bed of the truck just as the first bolt of plasma struck overhead. The photoreactive camouflage panels engaged, her form melding with her surroundings like a smidge of paint at first, then resolving properly as she moved into the darkness. The gatling cannon spat out its first burst at a Jackal to Elster's immediate left, punching through the shield and etching the Alien's body in bloody marks.

Elster slinked into the shadows, moving over to flank the pair of Elites as Johnson and the Chief engaged. The Elites roared orders to their subordinate alien comrades, with Jackals pushing forward and Grunts right behind them. One Elite, a major from the looks of his scarlet armor, stood and barked orders, aiming his plasma rifle and firing bursts at them. It ducked in cover as Johnson swiveled the MG toward it, the Sergeant calling out, "Come on! I got plenty'a'lead for all of you!"

Elster pushed forward, drawing her machete quietly and crouch-walking toward the Elite. She looked over to her right to see two Elites in blue armor moving forward as well. She pulled a plasma grenade off her belt and, as she approached the Elite commander, she primed, activated and tossed it onto one of the passing blues. It stuck almost magnetically to the Elite's breastplate, stunning it and causing it to roar. The blast vaporized it and seared the other Elite, taking its shield offline. Chief finished it off with a moving headshot from his pistol.

The Replika's cloak deactivated as she brought her Machete toward the alien commander's neck. She felt it hit shields, felt the slight drag and resistance, then felt it piercing sinew and muscle. She slit to the left, blood pouring from the Elite's throat. Gargles of purple foamed in its open throat as it collapsed, with the Replika reactivating her camouflage as a pair of Grunts and another blue-armored Elite Minor charged her.

Plasma bolts struck where she'd been as she rolled out of the way. She pulled a UNSC Frag off her belt, primed it and rolled it toward the Elite and his escorting troops as she dodged their rounds. The thump of a detonation echoed amidst gunfire and hissing plasma as she turned a corner, drew her machete again and slammed it through the Elite's shield, clean into the back of its neck and through its spine. She brought it down again. And again. And again. With almost brutal fervor.

Blood spatters marred her camouflage. She deactivated the armor's cloaking, wiped the blood off her machete and the plates, then slid the blade back into its sheath. She radioed, "AO Clear... I'll go activate that terminal," only to receive affirmative replies from the Sergeant and Chief. She climbed the ramp and marched up the side corridor. She only took a moment to stare at the view of the cavernous room before feeling her heart sink. Part thought that the depth and size of this place was terrifying. Another part wondered what Ariane would've thought.

Both those thoughts made room for Lilith telling her, "If you wanna make it out of here and see Reach again for yourself, focus. We've got a job..." as she appeared beside her. She cast a short sideways glance at her possible schizophrenic, persona degradation-induced companion, then turned and marched to the terminal. It was a flurry of holographic buttons and geometric shapes and designs that made her head partially spin.

She sighed, noting the central hexagon as it flickered up and down, blue and orange, before her hand hovered over it and she pressed down. What surprised her at first was that the damn thing felt physical. More of an actual button than a light trick hologram. She blinked as Cortana said, "Whatever you just did, Elster, I'm detecting a power increase between the pylons ahead..."

The Replika slid her rifle onto her back and watched as twin prongs extended from below the pyramid-shaped pylons, visible emitters powering on with a distant, reverberating hum that shook the girl to her core. Before long, what looked to be a platform of some kind flickered into existence. A blue bridge, shimmering azure in the mild darkness. The Replika stood there, staring for a moment with awe.

She snapped out of it when her com clicked twice, a check from the Chief. She tapped it two times as well, then ran back down the ramp and past the Covvie bodies. She grabbed a plasma rifle off the floor as a backup, allowing her armor to check it for ammo count. 87%. Respectable. She stowed it on the mag lock on her other thigh as she ran, with Johnson demanding, "What're you doing, Elster?!"

"Testing it!" She replied, "Making sure before we roll the 'Hog over!"

She stopped in front of the supposed bridge, right at the edge of the pylon. She leaned forward uneasily, her biomech heart suddenly starting to race. Gently, she put one foot forward until the heel first touched the light. A slight hiss echoed as the boot made contact. As she set the sole down properly, she quietly prayed to herself... And pressed down hard. The bridge shimmered around her foot, but it was solid.

She gave a thumbs up to the Chief, who revved the Warthog's engine and rolled the vehicle forward. Johnson, who was back in his seat, said, "Taking a wild guess you're as crazy as the Chief, Sergeant," with a smirk when they stopped beside her. She shrugged, neither confirming nor denying it before climbing back aboard the 'Hog and manning the MG.

The vehicle rolled forward across the bridge, Johnson casually casting a glance down at the chasm past their sole, shimmering path over it, before immediately leaning back inside the Warthog and murmuring, "Damn..." as he looked back to Elster. The woman seemed to be unfazed by the fact they were crossing a bridge made of light. He inquired, "You good?"

"Scared shitless, Sarge," She replied, part jokingly, part genuine. Johnson snorted jovially while she added, "It's not every day we get to roll over a bridge made of hardened photons..."

"Not a bad deduction," Cortana replied as the vehicle rolled on through further tunnels. She told Elster, "That was a bridge made of hard light. It's a rather old concept in terms of our science, but we've never gotten it past any form of theory. The people that built this place certainly had a better understanding of it than we did, if they can just make bridges out of it."

"Shield barriers employed by the Covenant seem similar," Elster replied, "Dealt with a couple of them on Reach."

"The Szurdok Ridge battle," Chief cast a glance toward Elster. She nodded, with the Spartan commenting, "All Spartans wanted to be there, but preparation for another op you were supposed to participate in with us took priority..." while Johnson hummed a tune to himself. As they exited out into the second Valley, their radios crackled to life. Without a word, Cortana put three more waypoints. Chief hummed and said, "Elster, take the closest. We'll head for the other two and evacuate after the last distress signal has been cleared."

"Roger," She nodded, looking over to the nearest area. After Chief drove her close, she jumped out, her main concern now being RVing with the Marines and possible Blue Team Member that was still alive. She checked her gear, reloaded her rifle and pistol and ensured that the plasma rifle still held a charge, before marching forward beside a creek, her camouflage system active.

Chapter Text

Elster had narrowly made it past a patrolling Phantom and into what seemed to be a box canyon with only one exit. A mass of rock stood dead ahead of her, top positions obscured by the trees. The escape pod had come down close to the creek and exit and she could faintly make out the bodies of a pair of Marines that hadn't survived the crash, alongside ammunition.

Two Platoons of Covenant also stood just upstream of her, led by a trio of Elites. The faint flicker of a friendly IFF on top of the rocks past them told the Replika that the Crew and Marines here had made it at least mostly in one piece. She radioed, whispering, "Chief, Echo Four-Nineteen, be advised, about to make contact with hostile units in my area, but can confirm friendlies are alive. Foe Hammer, hope you're on standby."

"Roger, Sarge. I'll be on you like a tick on a dog the moment you give me the green light. Just make sure the LZ's clear. Don't wanna take any unnecessary fire with the old girl," The heavy accent of the woman's voice filtered through the radio. Elster gave two taps of her com system to confirm Foe Hammer's request, then slinked forward, parallel to the water, until she was well within the canyon.

She then peeled to the right, toward the crashed pod, rifle in hand. Slowly marching toward it, she noted another two Covenant platoons, bringing the total up to maybe sixty aliens in the AO. Though, thankfully, she could also see up the slope now, noting the markers of the UNSC crews on her HUD. She quickly grabbed extra ammo for both her pistol and rifle, sneaked past one of the patrols and climbed up to the top of the rock outcropping.

A Marine lay hidden beneath one of the bushes covering the top, his sniper rifle pointed at the platoons of Elites and Grunts at the mouth of the canyon. She soon also noticed the rearguard, a pair of Marines and a crewman, the former two armed with rifles, while the crewman carried a Magnum. She whistled to the rearguard, causing them to swivel about and aim their rifles at her before she decloaked.

One of the Marines, a woman, let out a sigh of relief and murmured, "Christ, Sarge. Give a girl a heart attack, why don't'cha...?" as she straightened up.

"This it?" Elster inquired as she saw Lilith sitting beside the Sniper. She paused as four more IFF tags appeared behind a rock, watching as two more Marines and crew poked their heads out. They were injured, though thankfully walking injured. She told the Marines, "Pack whatever you can and be ready. We're gonna be hauling it the moment I clear an LZ for our pilot."

"Looking forward to getting out of the shit, ma'am," Replied the other walking Marine. He crawled over to the sniper, patted him on the back and motioned toward Elster, who gave him a nod. Stoic and calm, the Sniper replied with a nod back. He was FORCE RECON per the tags, meaning some of the elite Marine scouts and snipers. Good, she needed people she could rely on to hit a shot.

The Marine female asked, "Whadda we do, ma'am? There's a dozen of'em for each one of us."

"You hold back and don't fire until I give the signal," She replied, making sure she was broadcasting on short range so all the other Marines around her could hear. Noting the confusion in her wards' eyes, she told them, "You'll know the signal..." before drawing her machete. She activated her suit's stealth systems and started down the hill while the Marines prepared a base of fire, with one of them and the crewmen standing by to cover her.

The Sniper murmured, "For a mech, she's got balls..."

"All I care about is if she manages to get us outta here, man," The female Marine beside him replied as she checked her ammunition counter and the magazines, making sure she still had plenty. She spoke, "You think the ODSTs are alright? Heard com say they managed to set up a FOB somewhere on the Ring. Before we got cut off, y'know...?" as she racked the bolt.

The Sniper nodded, zeroing on one of the farthest Elites while watching for the flickers of active camouflage from their newfound Sergeant. He saw a flicker, then two fragmentation grenades appear out of thin air, primed. They landed in the group of Elites and Grunts at the mouth of the canyon's entrance, surprising all of them. Two thumps and bright flashes of light filled the air, followed by smoke, several dead Grunts and disoriented Elites with weakened shields.

"Guess that's our green..." The Sniper murmured, slowing his breath and heartbeat and waiting for that precious moment between them. He squeezed the trigger and the rifle, set up on its bipod against the rock, kicked back into his shoulder, the 14,5mm round screaming through the air and taking the helmet off of one of the Elites. The man refocused his aim, shouldered the rifle and zeroed in on the second Elite, then snapped off a shot.

Elster advanced, uncloaking and bringing her Machete about on the last Elite, severing his spine at the mid section and pinning it to the floor by using all her weight. She reversed the blade in her hand, cocked it back and hit through the back of the Elite's skull, out through its open mouth as it was screaming in pain. The blade was stuck for the moment, so she left it. Drawing her pistol, she engaged the second platoon as the Marines started raining hell on them with their MA5s

The rounds punctured the grunts' thinner armor, causing several of the survivors to scramble for cover despite their Elite commander's orders. Elster pushed forward and primed a plasma grenade that she long-armed toward the leader as bolts of plasma sizzled past her. She narrowly missed, the Elite dodging out of the way and now focusing on her. It let out a roar, powering its right-hand energy dagger and firing its plasma rifle with its left hand as it charged Elster.

The girl scrambled to try and withdraw her blade from its dead sibling's spine, barely managing to do so in order to hit the Elite's plasma rifle hand. It brought its dagger down on her and punctured her shoulder plate through the shield, which overloaded. The girl scoffed, pulled her knees back and then splayed her legs outward, delivering a double-kick to the Elite's chest before scrambling to her feet and drawing her pistol.

She put several slugs into its body, then aimed for the head once the shields were weakened. The Marine rearguard charged down the hill in the meanwhile, gunning down the grunts, considering the audible screams of the little guys. She fired and fired her pistol until the last bullet in the magazine punched through the shield and took the right mandibles right off.

The Alien, alive, but wounded, roared into the sky, angry, then charged and grabbed Elster by the throat, cocking back its fist and delivering an armored punch to her gut. He threw her like she was a ragdoll, then turned to try and engage the Marines, but found its head was suddenly missing thanks to the Marine Sniper in his perch. Elster coughed, took her helmet out, then threw up the contents of her synthetic stomach into the stream.

That rat bastard had had a mean right hook, she thought to herself. The female Marine ran up to her, throwing her rifle onto her back and helping her to her feet. She said, "Nice moves, Sarge. Where'd you learn to fight like that?" only for Elster to look toward the River as Lilith sat on the other side, giving the girl a thumbs up. Elster looked to the Marine, who, in turn, said, "Yeah, nevermind, boss," with a smirk.

The Replika lifted her helmet off the floor, slid it back on and spoke, "Foe Hammer, this is BLUE 4... Confirming, Marines are-" and she paused and drew her pistol as she saw a figure flash ahead of her. The figure was, in fact, a Spartan in Mark V. Linda-058 from the identifying markings. Behind her was a squad of Marines that had been trailing her, rifles at the ready. The two nodded to one-another, then Elster continued transmitting, "Marines on my POS are safe. Requesting EVAC..."

"Roger, Blue Four. En-route with a comfy seat for you and them." Foe Hammer replied.

"Nice work," Linda complimented, though her voice was a deadpan, "We were watching you work your way through here."

"Just two platoons. Had the backup of Marines," Elster downplayed it. She really hadn't done much. In fact, she'd nearly gotten mulched by that last Elite. Linda, however, seemed to appreciate the honesty. She radioed, "Chief, I rendezvoused with Petty Officer Linda. Did you find PO2 James?" as she watched the Pelican swing in for landing. Chief's reply was the sound of assault weapon fire as a confirmation. Elster smiled at that and said, "Roger that, sir. We're on our way to you..." then climbed aboard the Pelican.

She walked up to the cockpit as the Marines and Linda set themselves up and told her, "We're gonna go find the Chief! Orbit around them 'till they manage to clear the LZ, give us a site to EVAC them from!" and she got a thumbs up from Foe Hammer. Carol Rawley, Elster soon recalled. She'd given some though to reading about Carol and her work and the woman was a decently good pilot. Had been with the Autumn's airwing for a while.

The Sergeant sat herself down at the edge of the Blood Tray, face-to-face with Linda, who was setting up her Sniper Rifle to provide support to the Chief. As the Pelican skimmed the tree and canyon tops, Elster reloaded her rifle and pistol and knelt, holding onto a railing as their Pelican swung in just above a cliff face on the Ring's supposed eastern side. Another one of those towers sat there, firing blasts of energy into the sky.

Plasma and tracers were being exchanged in the building ahead. Carol reported, "Everyone, hang on tight! We got Banshees on approach!"

"I have them," Linda replied as she lifted her sniper. When the first Banshee angled toward them, charging its plasma cannons, her Sniper thundered, nailing the aircraft throuh one of the cannards and in the engine on the same side. It veered off to the left and careened down into the valley below, exploding in the water maybe five hundred meters below them. Its sibling tried to engage, but found itself destroyed in much the same way.

Linda hadn't even broken a sweat. Elster admired that. Lilith did, too, considering she appeared beside Elster and gave a thumbs up. The girl then spoke, "Interesting outing so far..." as she peered over the edge. Linda started sniping Covenant troops on the ground as the Spirit Dropships around them began veering away, then paused as a Status Light winked green below.

Cortana radioed, "We're all good to go down here, Foe Hammer."

The Pilot let out a short laugh and swung in for landing, touching down just in front of the Chief and the others, right at the edge of the cliff. Chief and James boarded the transport with the Marines. Both Spartans gave Elster a nod of greeting to which she replied, while Johnson bumped his fist against her damaged armor shoulder and said, "Thanks for the ride, kids..." before sitting himself down and breathing a sigh, "Damn..."

Carol spoke, "We got a base set up by Major Silva and his ODST battalion! That's where we'll be headed!" as she swiveled the bird around. Elster took her helmet off her head and rubbed her eyes as the Pelican flew, wondering to herself just how big the mess on this ring was gonna get. She looked to Johnson, Chief, James and Linda and all saw just how tired the woman was. They even saw new injuries and plasma scoring on her armor.

Time to rest and recuperate before the next job, then...

Halo Installation-04

Forward Operations Base 'Alpha'

Situated on a butte above the valleys they'd been fighting in, Alpha Base was a makeshift camp by all means. Prefab structures that had been erected mere hours ago, being patrolled by hundreds of surviving UNSC personnel including Marines and the crew of the Cruiser that now lay crashed somewhere on the massive ring installation. Upon landing, Elster's first instinct was to go grab something to eat, despite not exactly needing it.

Breathing a sigh, she looked over the base, watching Marines and ODSTs set up at various points across the base and also noted some entry points to the underground Forerunner facility below. Descending from the landing pad with the Chief and the others, she looked to Johnson. The man looked back at her and took a drag of his cigar, then blew the smoke away from her. He said, "Helluva day, eh?"

"Only easy day was yesterday, Sarge," She shot back. The man let out a laugh and nodded approvingly.

As the groups of soldier separated, Chief stopped Elster and said to her, "Get some rest. We might have another job up soon..." as Cortana started trasnmitting data to everyone. Elster nodded and snapped a quick salute Chief's way. She then watched the three Spartans head for the base's makeshift command post, a larger prefab building, colored the standard Marine OD Green.

Entering the barracks, the woman sat herself down on the farthest cot and put her helmet down beside her. Leaning her head on her hands, she breathed a shivering sigh. Lilith sat down beside her and said, "I don't envy the situation you're in, just as an FYI..." before adding, "I know you got this, though. Yes, it might sound completely outta left field coming from me, but I doubt I'd be doing as well as you with all the shit being thrown our way..."

The Replika straightened up and looked at Lilith. She noted new injuries appearing on her face. Scars, scratches on which makeshift bandages were set. Her armor was scratched and scarred and her rifle was banged up. To both of them ,it must've been like staring in a mirror, though. Lilith gave the girl a light smile and said, "Me and Alina faced tough shit on Vineta... You probably still have the memories in there..."

"Yeah," Elster replied in a whisper, "I do..."

Lilith snorted, then laughed, "Remember that one time the Imps decided to fuck with us during the Ascension Feast Day? Their big, weird, Christmas-like holiday... Dropped mortars filled with confetti on top of our heads as a bit of a mockery and a greeting. Y'know, to piss off the political staff keeping tabs on us in those flooded fucking trenches, just after Luna was blown to bits..."

"I don't think we fired a single shot on that day," Elster whispered, peering into her helmet's visor, looking at her reflection. Her injuries, the scratches on her synth-skin and face, matched those on Lilith's. She chuckled a little, sad, "Even when the Commissars were shoving their boots into our asses to 'return fire, for they insult the Revolutionary and her Daughter'! Hehe..."

Lilith giggled as she leaned back against the bunk, "That was a fun day. Alina made us a beef goulash. The pot was emptied the moment our Platoon caught wind of it... Hell, I'm sure we sent some over to the Imps, too, more as a joke than anything. Don't think it ever got to them, though..." then she sighed, smiling. She looked over to Elster as the same memory presumably flashed in their heads, "... Of course, there were bad days... The 23rd of the 6th month..."

"Rat bastards dropped monofilament bombs on us..." Whispered the Replika as she gripped her helmet tightly, nearly bending the metal, "Bisected Elise and Rebecca on the spot... Ng was bleeding from so many cuts and poor Klaus... I never fucking thought I'd see what was supposed to be mining and construction equipment being used like an antipersonnel bomb with such gross accuracy..." and she rubbed her shoulder. Lilith looked over to the black armor she wore and noted the chipping from the hit. They'd been through so much on Vineta...

"We shot chemical bombs at them before," Lilith replied, "I still remember my nose stinging from the combo we dropped. What was it, VX and mustard gas? We were pretty fucked too..." then she straightened up as Elster scoffed. She looked over behind her and disappeared, before the Replika turned around and saw the Marine female she'd rescued with the others approaching.

"Sorry to bother ya, Sarge, but Major Silva said he wants to speak to you. He just finished debriefing Chief and his team and I think he wants to know your stance on the next op we're about to undertake..." She told her. "Capt'n Keyes was nabbed alongside a few of our troops, per Cortana's analysis of the Covvie BattleNet," the girl then told Elster as she stood up.

Elster nodded, "Got it... Thank you, Corporal Wu."

"My pleasure, ma'am..." The girl replied, smiling. The Replika was about to leave, but decided to do one more thing...

"... Can I call you Alexandra?" Elster asked, turning to face her, "Because I have a feeling we'll be operating together for a while."

"Sure thing, ma'am," Alexandra replied, then smiled.

The Replika nodded, "Then call me Elster," and she extended her hand. The Marine gripped and shook firmly, smiling at the Sergeant still, before the two gave each-other a nod. Elster then stepped outside, where she saw James and Linda sat on some boxes, cleaning out their weapons and reloading rounds into their magazines respectively. Both Spartans turned their heads toward Elster, acknowledging her just by looks. She raised a hand in greeting, then marched over to the command tent.

Stepping into the CP, the girl was greeted by a man with greying hair and black eyes staring at her. He was clad in the standard ODST BDU, colored jet-black, and his wide-visored helmet lay beside him. She usually thought highly of ODSTs, courtesy of having met Buck beforehand, but something about Silva smelled wrong. She snapped a crisp salute as she entered and said, "Sir, Sergeant Five-Twelve, reporting as asked..."

The Major nodded, "At ease, Sergeant... I'll be damned."

"Sir?" Elster raised a brow as she settled down. She noted Silva's executive officer, one Lieutenant McKay, was sat on the sidelines, watching this.

Silva stood to his feet and approached Elster, stating, "Never thought I'd see the day they deployed actual androids, much less sent them to fight beside us," then he sized her up, looking from the top of her head to her armored toes and asking, "From what some of the Marines here say, you're good with both a gun and a wrench, right? Helped fix things aboard the Autumn before everything went down crap creek without a paddle..."

"Sir, yessir," Elster replied.

"Alright, then, Sergeant," He told her, "I don't know your type like I know those freaks out there," and he tilted his head to the Spartans, which caused a little anger to bubble in Elster's chest. She kept it down, however, as the man told her, "So I'm hoping you won't do anything to dissuade me from trusting you. I need your ass in gear and checking every piece of equipment our raiding parties bring from the Autumn. If we're gonna be deploying to rescue the Captain soon, I want our gear squared away. Understood?"

She could feel the passive aggressiveness oozing from this man, but he was her superior. Not all superiors were good people, much less anywhere near smart enough to understand what they had under their command. Without looking him in the eye and carrying a flat tone to her voice, she replied, "Five by five, sir. Show me what needs fixing and checking..."

"What a fucking asshole..." Lilith murmured in the back of her mind.

He patted her on the cheek and said, "Alright. Lieutenant McKay, get robot-girl over here to her station. Dismissed," before walking back to the table to start preparing a plan. McKay sighed and saluted, then walked over to Elster and tilted her head. Walking out of the tent, Lilith started swearing up a storm in Elster's noggin, while Elster herself narrowed her lips, a few inches short of saying something that might get her court-martialed to the Lieutenant.

Instead, she decided to quip, "Man doesn't seem to like me much..."

"Major Silva doesn't like anyone much," Joked Lieutenant McKay, "You're lucky he didn't tear into you the same way he went after the Chief and his Spartans. I don't get his problem, but I'm not going to question a Superior... Not when we're in the middle of one of the strangest and possibly most pivotal events in human history..."

"Aye, ma'am," She replied.

McKay gave Elster a nod back, then smiled and sighed, "Glad to have an engineer aboard, Sergeant."

The two entered the motorpool and the Lieutenant let Elster to her own. The girl walked over to the first vehicle she could see, a Warthog with a lot of carbon burns on its sides, and started tending to it. A few hours passed before she heard the thundering footsteps of a MJOLNIR-clad individual. Looking back, she saw the Chief had entered the room. The man stepped up to her, then said, "We're moving out. I convinced major Silva we'll need you for the raid on the Truth and Reconcilliation."

"Stealth mission, sir?" She asked jokingly, but he nodded. Elster replied, "Roger. I'll be your forward eyes and ears..."

Sliding her helmet onto her head, she followed Chief toward the Pelican. The Spartan turned toward her and asked, "Are you at one hundred percent, Elster?" with a calm tone. Though, either she hallucinated it, or she actually heard it, but the Replika could swear the Chief's voice actually betrayed a slight concern for the Replika. And that meant for her, not for the fact she'd be a liability to the mission.

"Aye, sir," She replied without hesitation. Chief nodded back to her, then handed her extra ammunition, an MRE and some supplies before leading her toward the Pelican. A squad of ODSTs and one of Marines, that was the complement they were taking into battle. Linda was also sat at the rear of the bird, checking her rifle before takeoff. As she sat herself down, Elster whispered a short prayer to herself... One she hoped Ariane would hear back on Reach, if she was still alive.

Linda finished the checks on her rifle, slid it on the rigging on top, then watched as Chief gave FoeHammer the go-ahead to launch with the sun setting on this side of the Ring. Another job, another mission, another rescue. All of those aboard prayed to whomsoever they followed, or didn't pray at all, but hoped they would make it home. They trusted the Spartans would get them home, though. They were Spartans, after all.

Humanity's heroes wouldn't fail now...

Chapter Text

Under cover of darkness, amidst the plateaus of a desert plain, Echo-419 and her payload of Marines and Spartans slowly flew toward the landing site of the Covenant Cruiser Truth and Reconcilliation. The massive enemy ship, its hull gleaming purple in the starlight, hovered menacingly over the plateau, the marks of the Autumn's MAC shots still visible on its side armor plates.

"Got a few good shots in, I see?" Elster commented, looking upon the vessel's damaged form. Cortana gave a light affirmative chuckle as the aircraft swung in for landing. Chief racked the bolt of his rifle and looked over to Linda, who was screwing on a suppressor to the end of her sniper rifle's barrel. Elster checked her own gear, then knelt by the rear hatch of the Pelican.

Cortana began, "Captain Keyes is being held aboard that ship. The Cruiser Truth and Reconcilliation. His transponder and lifesigns are still reading strong, same for the Marines captured with him. As Elster observed, I got a few good shots off on it before we had to abandon ship, so them landing to repair has given us the window of opportunity necessary to move in and retrieve the Captain."

"Uh, question," One of the Marines aboard started, "How the hell are we getting aboard it?"

Johnson hit him over the back of the helmet and pointed at the belly of the Covenant vessel, stating, "There's a gravity lift ferryin' troops and supplies to secure the plateau while they conduct repairs. It's two-way, so we're headed up it and into the ship's belly," and turning to Chief and Cortana. "I get that about right, ma'am? Cuz I have a feelin' I did," He smirked proudly.

"Dead-on, Sergeant," Cortana replied jovially, "Elster. You good?"

"Green across," The girl replied, then looked over to the damage on her shoulder. She told them, "I'll be using the SPI's camouflage to scout out a route ahead through the enemy lines. You folks just trail behind me as best you can," before humming. She drew her machete and quickly sharpened it against the thigh plate of the SPI suit, nodding approvingly when she saw enough of an edge. She stowed the weapon in its sheath and clipped it closed, then turned to Linda, "Mind watching my back, ma'am?"

"No problem," Linda replied, cradling her sniper.

She activated the camouflage and jumped down, then started skulking forward, making sure to shield the damaged shoulder plate from view. As she crept forward, the girl could make out various Shade plasma turrets sat across the multitude of elevated areas, guarding bridges from amidst desert foliage and rocks. The Grunts operating the guns chittered and chattered, while Elster activated her visual feed to give Cortana and the other LOS to what she was seeing.

Moving forward, she heard Lilith whispering, "Never been on Stealth Ops like this before. You think we'll make it?"

"It'll be fine," The Replika replied after making sure she'd shut off every piece of communication and her speakers. Lilith moved beside her at a walking pace, like she was on a stroll. It almost made Elster feel ridiculous. Almost, until Elster remembered Lilith was invisible to everyone else and she was slowly and steadily losing her god-damned mind due to Persona Degradation acceleration.

She crawled past a patrol of Grunts led by the standard Elite and grabbed and stabbed a Jackal before it could squawk for help. She then radioed, "Multiple guns across the entire area. Marking them now..." before she put several markers via her HUD on the enemy plasma turrets. She then climbed up the side of a cliff and approached one of the turrets, drawing her blade again.

Climbing onto the back of the turret, she grabbed the Grunt by the mask and slit its throat, leaving it slumped back into the turret's system to make it seem like the little guy was still on guard duty. She jumped off the gun turret, then slowly crept around it and eyed the next one over. She prepared herself to move, until the swing of an Energy Sword took her out of her stupor. Or was it Lilith yelling, "Duck!" loud enough to wake her to that oncoming hit?

She ducked under the strike, coiled, then jumped off the edge of the cliff back down to the lower area, looking up to see the Elite that had swung at her. His active camouflage flickered has he scoffed, blade glimmering erratically. He shut the blade off, scoffed and disappeared with his active camouflage, causing Elster to sigh and call out, "Chief, Linda. Situation update:Possible Covenant Stealth Teams... The Elite that nearly took my head off didn't seem too happy to see us."

Climbing out and marching, she joined the Chief and the Marines just as the Spartan and Linda took out the enemy patrol teams with sniper rifle fire. The shots rang out across and bounced around, probably causing confusion amidst the Covenant's garrison for where the rounds came from. The Marines and ODSTs supporting them on this op just watched, Johnson taking puffs from his cigar as he cradled a shotgun. He looked to Elster, who was staring with a degree of confusion at the shotgun, then quipped "I like to keep this baby for close encounters..." before flashing a grin.

Elster shrugged and nodded, then followed the group as they pushed deeper into the canyons around the plateau, through Covenant patrols and defense units. It was terrifying just how cleanly the Spartans wiped the floor with the enemy, to the point Elster only had to scout the target areas out before letting Linda and the Chief do the heavy lifting. Cortana spoke into her radio, "You doing okay, Elster?"

"Just bored," The Replika replied as she knelt beside Johnson again, rifle at the ready as Linda's sniper rang out, "Seriously, who knew having two Spartans would make this mission a cakewalk...?" She then murmured to herself as she watched Linda's majestic sniping skills in action. She wanted to comment on the fact that they maybe should let some stuff be for the Marines and her, because she was already seeing Bisenti and Dubbo playing paddycake while Johnson simply smoked his Cigar and kept his eyes open.

Cortana chuckled, "It is how it is."

The Spartans stood up and the group continued their advance, Lilith humming a tune in Elster's ear. Or, well, her head. Elster hit her helmet and sighed, then blinked and looked back. She turned about just as a strange waviness in the air took her attention and she opened fire. Bullets sparked off the shield of the Spec-Ops Elite that nearly took them by surprise. The Marines and Johnson swiveled about, too, with the Sergeant firing half the mag tube of his shotgun.

"Same Elite's been tracking us since we dodged his hit," Lilith told Elster, "We gotta move to that Lift."

Elster kept her rifle trained on where the Elite had gone missing, then fired another burst to pin it down, bullets striking and chipping stone. The group continued forward, pushing deeper into the Canyon itself with their weapons at the ready. They found the Gravity Lift platform and noted the bright purple light that encased it all around, as well as the high ground around.

The Replika warned everyone, "That Elite might have a trick up his sleeve..."

And the group tensed rather obviously. As Linda started her work on clearing out the enemy's defenses around the Grav Lift, Elster kept an eye open for any disturbance in the air that could signify an active camouflage Elite sneaking up on them. She scanned her sector beside a tense Sergeant Johnson, who told her, "Y'know, when I signed up for the Corps, the enemy didn't have any fancy-schmanzy active camouflage... They had two sticks and a rock like the rest of us, but they hid in crowds and used terror tactics..."

"Heh," Elster(and Lilith, in her head) let out a chuckle, "Frankly, I fancy fighting Aliens more, sarge... Beats having to shoot a human being."

"I agree wholesale," Johnson replied, "After 27 years of this bullshit, I don't think I could put my crosshairs on another man or woman from our species without hesitatin' and getting myself and my squad killed," before he quickly started loading whatever shotgun rounds he'd expended on gunning for the camouflaged alien bastard. It wasn't long before both heard a spine-chilling callout, though.

"Hunters!" Linda called out.

Elster turned on her heel toward the landing where the Grav-Lift touched the floor and watched two Hunters and a platoon of Elites descend from the ship. The hulking masses of armor and eels stomped forward, beady targeting sensors locking onto them. Both lifted the Fuel Rod cannons on their arms and charged, Chief calling out, "Scramble!" before grabbing the closest Marines and jumping over the edge with them.

Two bright-green explosions blossomed where Elster and the others had been and two Marines had been caught by the blasts, vaporized in an instant. The wall of stone behind them had been cratered, radiation and heat still simmering as the melting rock fell in globs. The troops scrambled for cover as the Elites aggressively engaged them with their plasma rifles from up close.

The Hunters stomped forward, charging their cannons for a second volley as a Marine fearfully cried, "To hell with this, man!" but remained in Cover. He poked out and fired at the lumbering beasts, bullets ricocheting off of the alien battle-plate that kept them safe. The alien pivoted toward where the shooting was coming from. Elster gasped, grabbed the Marine by the collar and jumped out of the way as their cover melted in a flash of heat and skin-prickling radiation.

The girl watched the second Alien slam its shield down onto a Marine that was trying to change positions, vivisecting the man in a gruesome sight. She swore to herself, drawing her Magnum and aiming for its exposed midsection. She planted two good Magnum shots into its hip, vaporizing several eels in a dangerous display of accuracy, but it got the creature turning to face her. As well as its bondmate.

Both turned and aimed, then fired.

Elster ducked, rolled and sprung to her feet, running toward an Elite. She opened fire, aiming for the head. Three shots, two cracked its shield, one its skull. It sprawled to the floor. Elster felt her mechanical heart go into overdrive as the Marines around her, Johnson included, engaged. The Chief and Linda were fighting the Hunters, with Linda sniping Elites in the meanwhile.

Linda sniped an Elite clean between the eyes, drew her MA5 and turned to engage. She opened up, bullets zipping through the air and ringing against the battle-plate of the Hunters again. She chopped her left hand forward and Chief gave a nod, before utilizing his enhanced strength to surge forward. The ODSTs and Marines around focused on taking down the small-fries. The Elites.

Johnson rushed an Elite, pinned the barrel of his shotgun against the Alien's chest cavity and pumped out five shells right into it. Purple blood spattered his face as the monster collapsed, with him soon switching targets and weapons. Firing his pistol three times, he nailed another Elite whose shields were down. He reloaded his shotgun quickly, then rallied the Marines and Shock Troopers, surrounding one of the Hunters and pumping it full of lead.

The alien roared angrily as bullets hit its exposed sections, then swung its shield. It struck and cut another Marine in half, forcing them to back off further, before turning and charging toward Johnson. The Sergeant grit his teeth and rolled to the side, pulled out his pistol and put two more SAPHE slugs into the beast just as it cracked another man's skull open.

Its midsection exploded, spraying orange blood and eels all around as it collapsed. Johnson grit his teeth and said, "This is some fine mess you got us into, Captain..." as he pulled a fragmentation grenade off his belt and threw. He watched Elster charging the second Hunter, which was enraged by the death of its bondmate. She worked to support the Spartans.

Johnson, however, noticed the incoming and called out, "Elster, on your ass!"

The girl swiveled about and rolled out of the way just as the decloaking hand of the Elite Spec-Op that had been hunting her, Chief and Linda appeared. In one fluid motion, the Elite swung the blade toward Elster, cutting a gash into her suit's chest plate and damaging more camouflage plates. The Elite disappeared before either the Spartans or the Marines could open up on it, but Elster gripped the breastplate and called out, "I'm good, I'm good..." As Linda and a Medic ran to check on her. She murmured to herself, "I just repaired this thing..."

Lilith sighed, "I have a nagging feeling that asshole's gonna be a pain going forward..." while she watched the last Hunter explode. Elster replied with a hum of agreement as Linda lifted her to her feet. She patted Elster on the chest, then looked around the place at the corpses and blood marking their engagement here. The woman slung her sniper onto her back, exchanging it for her MA5, then looked to John. The Chief gave her a nod.

Cortana radioed, "Echo Four Nineteen, we have a few casualties. Request you bring in the support team," before sighing. The AI knew there was something going on in Elster's mind. She could feel the alterations the girl was suffering even from here, strangely enough. She just didn't bring it up because it probably wasn't conducive to their current well-being to get their engineer Section-Eighted.

As Foe Hammer replied affirmative, the aircraft swung in and deployed another platoon of Marines to reinforce them. Johnson, who was loading his shotgun, stepped onto the Grav-Lift alongside Chief, Elster and Linda and asked, "You folks ever been aboard a Covenant ship before?" with all the calm of your average joe discussing the damn weather. Elster had to give him props for that, she thought.

"I have," The Replika said calmly as she entered the lift, "It was purple."

A few snorts echoed, one female. Alexandra joined the gang on the lift and gave the Sergeant and everyone else a quick salute. The Grav Lift activated and Elster felt herself become weightless. She, the Spartans and Marines suddenly were lifted up into the belly of the beast. A white flash covered them as they were teleported inside and, suddenly, the group was standing inside one of the ship's multitude of massive cargo bays.

Compared to the Covenant Corvette Elster was aboard, this place suddenly felt like a maze. Looking up, the girl saw various floor and doors, not to mention dozens of boxes, stored vehicles and even a couple of the enemy's famous Wraith Tanks. These models looked like a different pattern or make, but they were still menacing, even turned off. Elster, however, snapped out of her momentary fugue and joined the Marines in a circle formation, each gun covering a different angle.

"Already not a fan," Linda quipped, "Remember the first time we boarded one?"

"Yeah," Chief replied, though the Replika could detect a glint of sadness behind the Spartan's stoicism. So, they'd boarded a Covvie ship like this before, too. Interesting, she thought, then listened to the Chief as he asked, "Cortana, status? Did you lock onto Captain Keyes's transponder signal?" while scanning the room. No Covvie Ambush the moment they came up. Weird.

"I'm putting up a NAV Point with an estimate location, though I would suggest we head for the ship's bridge. It'll be easier for me to locate him if we have access to the schematics of the Cruiser," The AI replied. The Spartan nodded, lifted his right hand and index, then spun it in a concentric fashion. The Marines and Elster all stood to their feet, weapons at the ready.

As the group began to move forward, advancing in a narrow column through the ship's interiors, they went through the first door. Chief and Linda took the lead, both pieing each side of the corridor with their rifles before giving the clear. Two Marines pushed forward next, each covering a direction of the corridor. Then, came Elster and the rest of the platoon, Johnson and Alexandra close beside her.

"Straight up," Cortana said. Chief led the group up a hallway ramp, past an intersect point with a supporting pillar around which elements of the ship's inner structure had been exposed via removed floor panels. Intricate, fiber-optic circuitry that made human tech look primitive yet again, all arrayed so neatly, one would think a religious sect was far more careful with their stuff than they let on.

Pushing further up, the group met their first contacts:A platoon of janitorial grunts, from the looks of things. The Unggoy, stout, shouted in surprise and went to draw the plasma pistols off their hips. Each received a bullet in the head from the group, with Linda scoring several headshots of her own. Johnson commented, "Leave some for the rest of us, ma'am," while grinning.

"This place is way bigger than I thought it'd be," Lilith commented, "Makes that Corvette we were on look like a tiny cargo ship..."

"And the Penrose, claustrophobic," Elster whispered to herself as she thought of Ariane. Part of her wondered if she was still alive and how she was handling being underground for so god-damned long. Shaking that thought off so she could focus on the mission(despite a short, bitter laugh from Lilith,) she pushed with the Chief now, kneeling beside him as they pied another corner. A few more contacts came through the hallway, but were quickly dispatched.

Cortana hummed, then said, "Hold it at this door... I'm seeing a lot of movement on the other side. Seems like this is the Cruiser's hangar bay," as she started hacking the door. She told them, "I'd be ready for anything, honestly. Covenant BattleNet's in a frenzy about us 'desecrating their holy ship' with our presence. Hearing a lot of insults thrown at the fact we were even on the Halo..."

"Heh, fucking hinge-jaws," Elster laughed with an undisguised disgust for the aliens. She blinked, wanting to ask Lilith where that came from.

She knew, so she pushed it deep down. She braced for the moment the door popped open, loading a fresh magazine into her rifle like the other Marines. Her shield flickered and she looked to see some of the damage she got when she was slashed across the chest must've gone to the armor's shield generator. Great, so she was not gonna be able to cloak anymore and her shield would be failing.

Wonderful...

She racked the bolt of her rifle, then, the moment the door opened, she broke into a sprint alongside the Spartans. Taking in the sight of the cavernous multi-level hangar of the ship, the Replika noted that a drop ship was parked nearby. Covenant soon opened fire from all levels, forcing the groups to scatter into cover, Elster firing bursts up at the Elites, Grunts and Jackals firing down on them from above.

Linda drew her sniper and took down several of said targets, two of which fell just in front of them. The Replika poked out of cover and gunned down a pair of grunts, then pulled and primed two plasma grenades, long-arming them toward an enemy position. Two thumps and the radiation-filled flashes of plasma grenades washed the enemy in a baleful blue light.

The Replika gave two chops of the hand toward Linda, then poked out and opened fire, providing cover for a trio of Marines to join the Sniper, Alex included. The young woman knelt beside Linda, reloaded her rifle, then pulled out a grenade, thumbed the pin release and threw it into a crowd of advancing Grunts. The subsequent explosion dealt with them.

She stood up, used the cover she was behind as a support for her rifle and fired the full magazine at an advancing Elite. The rounds cut through its shield as she focused fire, then several punctured it. A plasma round skimmed over her head, partially melting her helmet and forcing her back into cover as her shots went wide. Linda noticed the Elite without its shield and put a slug from her pistol into its head.

The accuracy of Spartans was terrifying. Elster wasn't a slacker, either, but to consistently hit headshots like that was sort of terrifying on another level for the mechanoid. Cortana said, "I've unlocked the door on the far side! Move! We've got another couple levels before the Bridge!" and the Spartans jumped out of cover. They moved almost like blurs to the naked eye, snapping Aliens' necks, shooting and or pinning and killing them with little remorse. The Marines and Elster pushed up behind them, watching this happen.

One Spartan-II could clear out this place alone no problem. Two of them were just meant to cause maximum psychological damage to the Aliens, Elster figured. And a part of her that was deeply intertwined with Lilith's more warlike personality laughed enough for a smile to creep up from deep below on Elster's face. She lifted her rifle and fired a burst dead center-mass into a Jackal's chest, causing it to collapse.

As they burst through the doorway, the Spartans held back to guard the Marines' entrance. Two of them caught needler rounds in the back from a Jackal, but Linda managed to snipe its hand, then split its head in two with her rifle. Elster scrambled and dragged both injured Marines into the hallway as the door shut, then let their Corpsman check on them as she and Alexandra covered the front.

"Cloaked!" Lilith called out. Elster's hand shot out almost instinctually as she grabbed Alexandra by the collar. Two cloaked Elites appeared ahead. Plasma bolts and needles zipped past the two just as the Replika dragged the girl into the cover of her flickering shields. Chief and Linda moved up front, taking shots to their own shields and putting down the Spec Ops squad with deadly accuracy.

Alexandra breathed heavily, then smiled and said, "Thanks, Sarge."

"Don't mention it," She patted the girl on the shoulder, then stood to her feet and joined the Spartans up front as part of the shield wall. She grabbed the shield gauntlet of a dead Jackal off the floor, lifted it in front of herself and the Spartans and activated it after mashing buttons on it multiple times. She said, "I'll be your mobile cover, Chief! You two just get us to the Captain!"

Chief patted her on the shoulder as a confirmation, while Linda drew her sniper. Johnson hollered, "Marines! Form up! We're pushing through, hard and fast!" before watching the Corpsmen lift the wounded to their feet. The group pushed through the door as plasma rounds struck the shield, causing it to glow a burning red. Elster fired her pistol via Smartscope link as they pushed on, tracers flying over her head and the Sniper Rifle roaring repeatedly.

Elster watched the aliens fall, the Elites ordering tactical repositioning of their troops while Grunts panicked and Jackals forced themselves to form Phalanxes to try and counter them. The shield gauntlet on the girl's hand began to overheat, flaring. She shut it off and switched to her own rifle, the Spartans giving her a space right between them to open fire and cover her own sector.

The Marines behind them moved as fast as they could, keeping pace with the Chief and his team while firing their weapons to suppress or kill the enemy. The group moved like an Assault Squad of the Eusan Volksarmee would and Elster's mind danced in memories of the bloodshed during trench warfare. The blades glistening in the light of the shattered moon of Vineta, the troops charging forward with little remorse to meet the Imperials and their technological hubris.

When the shield cooled, Elster became the wall between her allies and the enemy's fire again. The gauntlet took shots and flared, but never failed as they advanced to the next floor, then the next, leaving dead Covenant in their wake, though sadly with casualties. A corpsman caught a plasma bolt while they went up a ramp, two Marines met a grizzly end to a plasma grenade...

Every loss metaphorically weighed on the Replika. She could see it weighed on the Spartans as well, by how much more aggressive they became. Even Linda's concerted Sniper shots came in quicker succession. The fact she was hitting every single one while on the move and climbing around variable geometry was a true testament to her skills as a sharpshooter. Elster was glad to be part of this team. They'd make it back to Reach yet...

... So she could at least get some closure? No, Lilith, not that, Elster thought. So she could find Ariane.

She scoffed, then grunted as a needle round struck through the waning shield gauntlet and nailed her in the shoulder. It shattered off her own shield, but the followup didn't, embedding itself into the damaged battle plate of her armor, just above the stomach. She felt it explode, but the strange adrenaline-like rush she was feeling momentarily prevented her from feeling any pain, should it be there.

She cast a quick glance down and saw no oxidant leaking. Good. Lilith even whispered to her that they were fine. They needed to keep pushing, even as plasma and bullet were being exchanged between the boarding party and Covenant security detail. By the time they'd made it to the bridge, Elster, Chief and Linda had all taken damage to their armors, with Linda commenting, "I should've changed with Will..."

"He's busy building up the defenses of Alpha," Chief replied as they pushed up to the door. The group sent a second to reload their weapons, with Elster feeling up the extra damage on her armor. This was gonna take ages to fix up, but at least the plate held enough for a couple needle rounds. Her shield had also come back, but she'd burnt out the gauntlet.

She tossed it aside as Lilith said, "That's our mobile cover gone... And I'm sensing a lot of new contacts past this door."

Elster didn't need to sense them. She had a Motion Tracker like the Spartans did. She looked to the Chief, standing to her feet and asking, "Sir, how're we getting off this boat after we've got the Captain?"

"We either call Foe Hammer, or commandeer that Drop Ship we saw," Chief replied, "Make our own exit."

Cortana chimed in, "Better grab the Spirit. Safest bet to confuse the Covenant. Their Net's in shambles about us making it as far as we did anyways..." while trying to unlock the door. She gave a signal to the team to wait, which meant Elster could settle down for a moment, sighing deeply as she checked her gear over again, pistol included. Plenty of ammo left, she thought to herself. If she expended it all, she could just nab a Covenant weapon off the floor and use it.

She looked over to Alexandra, noting the girl was a bit twitchy due to the adrenaline spike in her system. She approached, knelt beside her and asked, "You got someone waiting for you, Alexandra?" only to watch the girl turn to face her. Despite the wide, bloodshot eyes, Elster could see just how tiring this was for the average human being. She was running out of breath herself, but she was a machine. She could more easily recover.

The girl swallowed, trying to calm herself, then nodded, "Yeah..." before pulling out a photograph. A young, redhead woman with a smile cradled a baby in her arms, with Alexandra hugging her in full Dress Blues. Elster smiled at the sight, taking her helmet off to reveal some extra scaring on her synth-skin, though nothing too detracting. She gave the girl a gentle elbow.

"You'll see them again, Alex. We'll make it off this hell," The girl reassured her. She then looked a little better adn chuckled, "The kiddo's cute. Yours?"

"Yeah. Medical procedure, in-vitro fertilization and all, plus some small gene tampering here and there to match both of us," Alex snorted, "She's a Wu-McClelan through and through... Thoroughbred and all... Heck, last I heard from Sarah, she's walkin' now..." before she narrowed her lips and seemed to force down the tears that were forming at the corners of her eyes down. It was clear to Elster she was worried she wasn't making it off this place.

"What's your wife working as?" Elster tried to change the subject.

Alex cleared her throat, then said, "Reyes-McLees on Mars. Retrofit designer for the UNSC Navy. Hell, if you look into it, I'm sure some bit of the Autumn's redesign has her name stamped onto it," with a smile. She looked at the Sergeant and smiled, "That woman saved my fucking life... After a bad row two years back. Had a bad case of psych issues after a mission went pear-shaped... She came into my life just at the right time."

"Your wife's keeping you safe even from that far away," Elster chuckled, then her smile turned a little sad, "I know how that is..."

Alex hummed, then gave her Sergeant a gentle elbow, stating, "I heard about your wifey, too, Sarge. Don't worry, if everyone says she's fine, she's fine..."

"Thanks, Alex," The girl nodded. She heard the seals of the door hiss, then slid her helmet back onto her head and patted her on the shoulder, "Alright. Asses in gear. No time to reminisce..." only to lift her weapon. Alex hit herself in the helmet twice, cocked her jaw and stood up, joining the breaching team alongside Sergeant Johnson, Bisenti and a few others, Spartans and Elster included.

The moment the door slid open, a dozen guns lit the room. The cavernous control room of the Truth and Reconciliation became the site of the quickest firefight yet. As the guarding Elites rushed to counter the intrusion, the officer on the bridge powered his sword and barked orders, only to pause as he saw the Demons and their little Imps following along.

Elster slammed against an Elite, then grabbed it by the head and slammed her head, helmet-first, against its jaws, shattering teeth and the somehow disrupting his shield with her own. She drew her Machete and, with one swipe, hacked off the Elite's head. She gasped, however, as the Energy Sword-bearing officer barreled through another pair of Marines, cut them down with his sword and then charged and pinned Elster to the rear wall grating.

Grunting in pain, Elster watched as the Elite was immediately being peppered by UNSC rifle fire. Its shields whittled down as it swung wildly at the UNSC forces, managing to catch another three Marines. It was Chief's prompt intervention that took it down. Two shots to its hand from Linda sent the shattered hilt of the sword to the floor. The Chief followed by grabbing the arm, twisting it and snapping it, before throwing the Elite over his head and immediately grappling its neck. He turned his torso quickly and a sickening snap-pop echoed through the room.

Then, all was silence. Chief pushed up to the holographic control surfaces situated on the raised platform where the Officer had been while the Marines, Linda and Elster secured a perimeter. She joined the Spartan up top, watching as Cortana was parsing through the ship's data. The AI looked up at her from the holographic pedestal, then smiled and said, "Harder life than engineering, eh?"

"Ha," Elster let out a single, dry sound to resemble a laugh, "It's a rollercoaster..."

"You're doing fine," Chief replied, half-reassuring, half-deadpan, "Noble Team must've taught you well..."

"Heh. Adapt or die, sir," Elster replied, staring at the holograms dancing around them with a hint of muted awe. Were it not for the fact that this was one of the ships that had probably burned Reach and the fact that this was an alien vessel, the woman could almost find herself lost in here, too, much like Cortana probably could. It wasn't long before Cortana gave a nod and the Chief yanked her chip and slotted it back into his helmet.

A NAV Point flashed on all HUDs... A squad of Marines chose to hold the Bridge as the others moved out...

A few more hallways later and the team breached the Brig. The Chief towered over a dying Elite as it crawled toward the console in the middle of the room full of energy-shielded cells. He put a slug into the back of its head, then moved over toward the console while the others pushed the corpses out of the way. Hitting a few buttons, the doors opened.

Chief stepped into the Captain's cell as the other Marines marched over to help their buddies. He extended his hand to Keyes, who berated them, "Coming here was reckless! You two know better than that!" then took Chief's hand. He stood to his feet, sighed and dusted himself off, "Thanks... And good to see your comrades here as well..." before walking out with Chief. He pointed at the Marine POWs and ordered, "Lock and load, Marines. We're getting off this boat."

"Yessir!" The POWs replied, grabbing the weapons of dead Covvies off the floor.

"Captain," Johnson saluted, "Lookin' a little worse for wear, sir. Your medals are a bit scuffed."

"Heh. Good to see you, too, Sergeant," Keyes replied with a smirk. He knelt and picked up a needler, then said, "While we were stuck in here, I overheard the Covenant talk about this ring. They call it 'Halo'..."

"One moment, sir. Accessing the Covenant BattleNet..." Cortana replied. Elster stepped up beside the Chief and Linda, then gave the Captain a nod. Keyes replied in kind and gave her a gentle pat on her shoulder, before sighing. The AI then said, "According to the data in their networks, the Ring is an object with a deep religious significance. If I'm analyzing all of this purple-prosey wording correctly, Halo is some kind of weapon, one of vast, unimaginable power..."

Keyes seemed distraught, scratching his chin, "Then it's true. They were talking about deployed Search Teams on the Ring's surface looking for the place's control room. One of them even said that whoever controls Halo controls the fate of the Galaxy... This is bad news for all of us. If they find the Control Room..." and he sighed, "Chief, Cortana, we're gonna need your help to get off this ship. We'll start looking for the Control Room ourselves later. Keep taps on their BattleNet."

"Yessir," Cortana replied.

The Captain ordered, "Chief, take point..."

The Spartan did as ordered, leading the group through hallways they already cleared and back into the bridge, then past it. Cortana radioed, "Foe Hammer, we've retrieved the Captain and all other POWs and we're headed for one of the landing bays. Can you make it to us?"

"Negative, Cortana. I've got Covenant air patrols on my tail and I'm starting to find it a lot harder to lose'em. Sorry..." The woman replied, wary. The blaring warnings of her Pelican's systems echoed through the com to notify them that she was telling the truth. Well, that complicated the issue of escape, but not by much, Elster figured. They still had one way off this boat.

"Understood, Foe Hammer... Guess we're finding our on way off. Wonder if that Drop Ship's still docked."

As it turned out, it was. The Spartans moved up, with Cortana warning, "We're gonna have to unlock it. Make it snappy, Chief. I'm detecting Covenant reinforcements en-route to our position..." to which Chief did as asked. Elster moved up beside him and covered as he undid the magnetic lock keeping the Spirit in place, as well as the active shield keeping them from heading out.

Keyes climbed aboard with the Chief and Elster, the latter performing as quick and thorough a check as she could to make sure the ship was running smooth. Keyes took the controls and seemed to get acclimatized to the hologram symbols quite quickly, simply bringing the ship about and saying, "Everyone, aboard!" as he settled it next to where the Marines were. Everyone else jumped aboard, with Linda coming in last and weighing the ship down a little.

"Give us a minute, sir. I'm trying to help Cortana interface with the ship's systems..." Elster said. They had some data on Spirits. Not enough.

"No need. I'll take this bird out myself," Keyes grinned, then cracked his knuckles and grabbed the controls again, shifting the craft to try and get out through the open, unshielded bulkhead. Elster hummed, then sighed and looked over to Chief. The Captain hummed as he seemed to be getting acclimatized to the systems, dipping forward a little and nodding approvingly.

Cortana gasped, "Captain! Hunters!" as a pair appeared on the top floor of the hangar. Keyes grinned, then pushed the throttle forward, utilizing the weight of the ship to splatter the creatures and narrowly avoiding a pole in the middle by utilizing the open space between the ship's two troop compartments. He pulled back the throttle, bringing them back and aligning them with the exit. He was good...

"Nice flying, sir," Elster quipped, then sighed and sat herself down as they flew outbound from the Truth and Reconciliation.

Chapter Text

In Alpha Base, the situation was rather calm. The Marines and crew celebrated the Captain's return for a bit before the planning phase came into being, wherein the Captain was deciding on the next course of action. Elster sat at her bunk, reloading her spent mags with fresh AP rounds while also trying to figure out a way to patch the damage to her armor. It was tough, considering there was no UNSC Support for lightyears around them and all she had to work with were basic tools.

So, that had been it for her stealth options. She sighed, patching the last of the damage up with plates of armor she managed to salvage from those Marines that had passed in combat. Donning it yet again, she slammed home a fresh clip into her MA5B, then slid it onto her back and walked outside, to the dim lights of Alpha Base. She breathed a deep sigh, then slid her helmet on and walked to the Briefing area.

Captain Keyes spoke to the group of gathered Marines, ODSTs and Pilots, "... The Covenant are looking for Halo's Control Room. As I'm sure you all have guessed, we have to get there before them, else we're all gonna be facing issues the likes of which I don't think we wanna think about. To that extent, I'm ordering the deployment of Blue Team and supporting elements to an island several hundred miles up-rotation where something the Covenant call 'The Silent Cartographer' is. Per Cortana's translation, it's supposed to be a map of the entire Halo Ring."

He continued as the holographic image of the ring spun, "Cortana has also identified Covenant outpost locations on the Ring through their BattleNet communications. We'll be deploying strike teams to eliminate those as well, meaning I will need two members of BLUE for the job," only to watch as Linda and James step forward. He nodded to them and said, "Alright, that means the Chief and Elster are going to hit the Cartographer. That understood?"

"Sir, yes sir!" The force replied loudly.

"Alright. Dismissed," Keyes ordered, then started checking his own gear. He looked over to Elster as she walked up to him, then asked, "Something I can help you with, Sergeant?"

"Came to make sure everything's in order, sir. You seem to be prepping for another outing yourself," The Replika replied kindly, taking her helmet off. Keyes noted the injuries on the woman's face, the burn marks and cauterized wounds from plasma round impacts. Similar marks scarred her armor, which now had a non-functional Stealth capability. She raised a brow at him.

Keyes cleared his throat and nodded, "Yes. I'm taking Sergeant Johnson and a small team over to what the Covenant described as a weapons cache... We'll have to track one of their patrols to ensure that that cache actually exists, though. If it does, we'll take it from the Covenant and use it for our own against them. Leave the contents for ONI to study if and when we get home..."

"Shouldn't you wait for backup from one of the Spartans, sir?" She asked, worried. Keyes shook his head, to which Elster sighed deeply, rubbing her eyes. She replied, "Alright, captain... Stay safe," and she saluted, "See you when this is done, sir," before she packed her gear and went with the Chief to Foe Hammer's Pelican. Two other Pelicans would tag along with them on the assault on the Cartographer. Chief and Elster gave good luck nods to Linda and James, both of whom returned the favor.

Aboard Foe Hammer's Pelican, Chief checked his weapons, watching Elster do the same. The group braced as they flew over the water. An archipelago of islands from which alien structures protruded surrounded the three advancing Pelicans as they flew in low to avoid the Covenant's fire. The bright azure water below reflected the shadows of the Pelican transports as the Pilots and Marines also prepped.

Alex spoke to Dubbo, a smile on her face, "Hard rock! Looks like we're about to go on a tropical vacation!"

"Squatters nearby are gonna be a pain, but I wouldn't mind spending a day here! Place looks warm!" Dubbo replied, garnering a laugh out of Alex and racking the bolt of his MA5. He pushed his boonie hat's flap out of his eyes, then looked over to the Chief and Elster, both of whom remained deadly quiet as they prepared to drop. Plasma bolts began to sizzle past the Pelican dropships as the biggest island came into view.

Foe Hammer reported, "Covvies are shootin'! Brace for hard contact back there! We're droppin' you off and pulling back ASAP, so get set to come out swingin'!" which the Spartan, Replika and Marines took as 'stand up and get ready to kick ass'. Chief and Elster braced as the Pelican swung in and hovered over the beach, then jumped out first as plasma bolts struck around them.

The Marines moved in close behind, boots leaving prints on the beach as Elster barked, "Go! Go! Go! Up the Beach, Marines!" and followed Chief forward. Both power-armored individuals fired their weapons in the charge as Elites returned fire, their shields flaring under grunt, Jackal and Elite attack, but they pushed forward as the other two Pelicans landed, disgorged dozens of Marines, then lifted off and left with Foe Hammer.

Taking cover behind a set of rocks with the Chief and a few Marines, Elster finally had time to look upon the wider place. A beautiful island, though it had steep cliffs from which vines descended. Pine trees also stood atop the massive central plateau and, from it, Forerunner structures also sprouted. Dropping a half-empty magazine into a separate pouch and slamming home a fresh one, Elster said, "Looks like a lot of Forerunner tech here. We sure this is the place, Cortana?"

"Covenant presence seems to think so, aye," The AI replied, "Their BattleNet's full of activity. Sounds like they're pissed at us."

Elster snorted, sounding to herself like Lilith, who also listened in. She said with vitriol toward the Aliens, "Good. Fuck'em," before poking out and firing a volley at a platoon of retreating grunts. Dubbo and Alex, both beside her, joined in, gunning down the dwarven aliens with impunity, spraying their fluorescent blood across the floor. Two Jackals formed a small shield wall while the Elite behind them primed and tried to throw a plasma grenade.

Chief drew his Magnum and sniped the Jackals' hands, exposing them to the Marines. A full volley from a dozen Marine rifles pretty much replaced the aliens' blood with lead, while their Elite officers were gunned down on the spot, trying to engage. Cortana radioed, "Foe Hammer, the beach is clear..." as the UNSC Forces pushed to beneath the covoer of a Forerunner structure that looked like a large Gate.

"Roger, Cortana. We're comin' in with a little present, stand by!" Foe Hammer replied. The aircraf barreled forward like out of the rifle of a gun in the distance, before angling its engines to slow down. Behind Echo-419, Bravo-022 and Charlie-097 also came in, carrying a Warthog each. The Pelicans hovered and dropped their Cargo on the beach, much to the Spartan's, Replika's and Marines' jubilation.

Waller, the Marine Sergeant, called out, "Didn't know you made Home Calls, Foe Hammer!" with a smirk.

"You know our motto," the woman shot back jovially while she and her comrades lifted off, "We deliver!"

"Music to our ears, Foe Hammer," Cortana chuckled while Elster laughed. She told Chief, "Grab a 'Hog and let's get rolling, Chief," which the Spartan complied to immediately. Elster mounted the gun and Alex rode Shotgun as the vehicles roared forward over the sandy dunes of the beach in an arrowhead formation. Chief and Elster's 'Hog stood at the front as they drove around the Island, its greenery greeting them warmly.

As they rode over the dunes, by the steep cliff face, Alex spoke, "I'll be damned if this isn't somewhat beautiful..." only to crane her head toward the Ring's up-going horizon on the right and murmur, "In a very... Scary... Alien sorta way..." which got a hum of agreement out of Elster. The vehicles rolled ever forward until they saw another structure that poked out from the cliff, a platform with an entryway at the top. Covenant Shade Turrets swiveled toward them.

Elster turned her own gun on its mount, squeezing the trigger and letting a volley of fifty-caliber BMG spew out. Bullet holes pockmarked the purple alloy of the shades as their triple plasma shots struck around the Warthogs. One of the Marines driving swerved right, running right into a pack of Jackals that were trying to get their shields up. Chief's left-most escort, however, caught a volley of plasma straight to the driver's compartment, killing the man and the passenger riding shotgun.

Dubbo swore a bloody storm from the back gunner seat and fired at the Covvies as the vehicle moved on Inertia alone. Elster joined him, pinning several Covvie units down with accurate fire, but taking multiple plasma rifle and pistol round herself. Her armor heated on the shoulder and chest, while Alex fired her AR from the passenger seat. She was inaccurate, but at least she was laying down fire.

Cortana said, "I'll be damned if the place isn't thick with them! This must be the Cartographer installation!"

"Take the ramp up!" Elster barked. Dubbo ran toward them to try and jump on board as his own Warthog melted under fire. Elster caught the Aussie marine and told him, "You owe me a pint for that one, Chips..." before swiveling around on the gun and firing as Dubbo laughed and gave an affirmative reply. The Second 'Hog rolled up beside the Chief's and hers and the two took a dirt ramp up to the station itself.

Dismounting after running over an Elite, Chief took a trio of plasma blasts. Two took his shields out and a third struck right in the center of his chest, though it was thankfully an uncharged plasma pistol shot. It scarred the MJOLNIR, though didn't penetrate or damage the shields. Cortana said, "That was close..." only to watch Elster, Dubbo and Alex, as well as the other three Marines beside them, waste the Elites that had tried to kill them, plus their Grunts. Cortana spoke, "Really not taking prisoners either... Elster, you're with us. Marines, keep the door open."

"Aye, ma'am!" They all shot back. Chief reloaded his rifle, as did Elster, before the two moved into the building.

Entering the halls, Elster noted several person-sized holes to their left and right, murmuring, "I swear to Christ, if we meet Elite Commandoes, I'm gonna be pissed..." as she pushed further in. Thankfully, that wasn't the case, though reaching a slope that led downward, the pair found themselves face to face with a group of Covvie troops, among them being a Zealot.

It roared at them, while Cortana barked, "Don't let it close the door!" only for it to be too late. The AI swore to herself, then said, "Alright, there must be another way in... Clear the stragglers out..." and the Spartan and Elster quickly did as asked. Exiting the building as Cortana called Captain Keyes to ask for further orders, the two watched the Marines prep the Warthogs for go.

Chief sighed, then told Elster, "Wait here. If we find an override, we'll come to you."

"Rog," Elster replied, then found herself a nice comfortable seat. Alex and another Marine stayed behind with her as Chief took off toward their next objective, with Elster taking her helmet off and breathing a sigh. She saw several new marks on her armor, nicks and cuts from blades and the likes, then said to herself, "I'm not gonna walk outta here whole. I can feel it..." as she examined the helmet's visor.

She stared at the small waves of the artificial sea slamming against the sandy beach, finding the idea that a ring like this could form a natural upper crust so strange, yet at the same time, probably on point for the Forerunners. Scratching her chin, the girl closed her eyes for a moment, listening to the seas, to the waves, to the distant gunfire to try and tune out worries.

"Elster..." A voice whispered, causing the girl's eyes to shoot wide open. It was recognizable, if faint.

"You heard that, too?" Lilith asked, Elster feeling just how surprised she was as well. If it hadn't been Lilith, then who... Lilith spoke, "No fucking way," partially grinning in front of Elster. She offered, "Maybe you're right, tin can... Don't get your hopes up, though," with a smile. The woman more-so teased her instead of meaning it in any harmful capacity.

She sighed heavily, wondering how they were gonna get to Reach to check, though. She shook her head, than whispered to herself, "I'll figure something out," only to turn toward Alex and the other Marine and ask, "Alexandra. Mind if we talk...?" to which the woman smiled and nodded. The other Marine, his helmet scribblings identifying him as 'Strauss', nodded, smiled and took the girl's place on watch. Alex sat down next to Elster and the girl spoke, "He nice?"

"He's a newbie," Alex chuckled, "Private James Strauss, UNSC Marine Corps. Guy signed up straight out of college, too. Just finished training on Reach when they pulled him in with us on the Autumn." and she heard the man laugh at that. Honestly, finishing boot only for the Covvies to come down on your head immediately after was probably the scariest fucking thing in the world, Elster thought. She should know, she experienced it, technically.

"Should'a stayed with the economics bit, but I think I'd've shot myself," Strauss added onto the convo with a grin, "Word of mouth is our economy's down in the dumps anyways, no thanks to these dickheads," And he kicked the dead Covenant Elite next to him. He continued, "Girlfriend isn't happy I signed up, but she can't say shit to me anymore..."

"Taking a break?" Alex asked.

He shook his head, then smiled sadly. The two girls' hearts dropped and Alex bowed her head, "I'm sorry, man..." to which he shook his head. Of course, there was probably someone taken by the Covvies for every person in the UNSC right now. They must've been the descendants of the original soldiers, considering the war was going on for nearing on 30 years now.

He told them, "She moved with me to Reach, so I'm... Feeling a bit guilty for dragging her all the way over there just a month prior," before looking to Elster and stating, "But, hey, one more reason to hate these split-chinned freaks, right?" only to get nods from both women. The man turned around and continued watching the AO, while Elster turned toward Alex.

She stated, "I didn't get to ask what happened on that mission..." only to see Alex wince. She waved it off and said, "If you don't wanna talk about it, it's alright, but I figured I should ask so we can pass the time a little quicker."

The girl nodded, then sighed and leaned back against the structure's wall. She murmured, "... We were engaging some Brutes in a jungle. The big, fat, hairy, ugly bastard kind," and she looked to Elster. She continued, slightly trembling, "We got separated during an engagement. Brutes had a bit of fucking tactics, split us up and corner us. I and a couple other Marines got away. Managed to hide in the underbrush when they found us. Sarge and El-Tee weren't so lucky. El-Tee took a shot to the head and died instantly, but Sarge..." she shuddered, "... I'm not exaggerating when I say they took a bite out of him, Els..."

Elster blanked, "They ate your Sergeant?"

The girl nodded, shuddering, "And we couldn't do a damn thing. IF we did, if we sprung up, we'd be dead or..." And she gagged, tears welling in her eyes, "I don't... Even want to think how Sarge must've felt every waking fucking second of that ordeal. And I don't want to know how it feels either," then she looked to Elster, tears welling in her eyes. The Replika gave the woman a pat on the shoulder.

"And that's the stuff your wifey helped you forget," Elster reminded her, "Or cope with, at least. So let's get you back to her so she can help again," then she bumped the girl on the chest. Standing up, she heard the radio system in her helmet ripple to life and set her helmet on. She spoke, "Go for Five," before pausing as he listened to the thunder of gunfire. She also heard the echo of a door opening from within the building and said, "Uh... Chief, be advised:Door's probably open."

"Good. We're on our way, but we're meeting resistance," The Spartan replied as he revved the engine of the Warthog. The distant gunfight drew closer, only to die out and be replaced by the roar of the 'Hog's hydrogen engine. Chief drove it up onto the deck, dismounted and showed Elster and the Marines to follow. The girl nodded, readied her rifle and gave another pat on the shoulder to Alex, as well as one to Strauss, who smiled and nodded in thanks.

The group moved in, staggered column formation, weapons raised and at the ready as they pushed forward. They descended down the hall, only to be met by the sight of the Zealot taking a swing at the Chief. The Spartan narrowly dodged the attack, while Elster fired into the Zealot's reinforced shields. It charged her, cutting her weapon in half and pinning her to the floor, before roaring into her face.

Alex and Strauss, however, were quick, delivering rifle butts to the monster's face that sent it staggering and allowed Elster to draw her pistol, firing her full magazine into the beast's head, causing its shields to burst. The Chief came in next, slamming the monster against a wall, grabbing it by its head and twisting until he heard its vertebrae pop out of place. Cortana said, "A Zealot... Damn..."

Chief walked up to Elster and offered her a hand, lifting her to her feet while Dubbo commented, "That was cuttin' it a lil' close," as they walked deeper into the place. Taking a right down a dim corridor, the group came upon a massive chasm, gasps echoing all around. Elster and Chief peered down the massive hole, with the Spartan kicking down an object and listening for the moment it impacted.

Said moment never came, causing Elster to comment, "So, don't fall down that hole... Noted," before turning. Chief took point, rallying the Marines and Elster as they pushed deeper into the complex. The descent met them with more Covenant troops. Four levels they had to descend, four levels they had to fight through, engaging Grunts, Jackals and an entire battalion of Elites, or it felt like that.

Pushing into the central room, low on ammo, Elster negotiated the corners with two fragmentation grenades that caused the Elites in hiding to spring their trap early. The detonations caused their shields to break even as they opened fire with needler and plasma rifle. Maybe half-a-dozen Elites. Elster drew her Machete and swung for the first one's head, hitting the neck at the base somehow and slicing clean through.

Chief came in next, parrying an Elite's swing with the bottom of its plasma rifle, sending the strike to the side and spinning about to deliver his own high roundhouse to the four-jawed alien's face, staggering it. He pulled his pistol out and shot the Elite point blank, before charging another that was about to take a swing at Elster and firing into its back. Purple blood sprayed the floor, with the Spartan slinging his rifle onto his back, grabbing the Elite by the midsection and hefting it with all his might and the power provided by the MJOLNIR, before throwing it over his head and into a wall. A sickening crunch echoed, the Elite's spine turning into an accordion.

Elster followed up, kicking an Elite in the gut, obviously with less strength than a Spartan, then stabbing it clean through the top of its mouth, only to slice down and open its throat before twisting and pulling out her Machete from it. Chief followed that up with drawing his knife from its sheath, turning it so he was gripping it by the blade and throwing it at the fourth Elite, nailing it in the eye and causing it to stagger, its shots going wide.

Elster spun about, drew her pistol and a plasma pistol she'd retrieved from a Grunt and laid into the fifth Elite, then watched Chief jump over the sixth as it fired its needlers at him, the crystalline shards shattering off of the armored plate. He grabbed the Elite's jaw mid-flight, landed and pulled the Alien's head back, straightening his spine for a second and delivering an elbow straight to the base of its throat.

As that Elite gargled its last dying, bloody breath, Chief retrieved his knife from the one he'd nailed in the eye and, with some flourish, sheathed it. He looked to Elster, giving an approving nod, to which the Girl said, "Even score for now..." Sighing deeply. The two heard another step out into the line of sight, a stealth Elite, then put a slug into him each. She called it, "Dibs," with a grin behind her helmet.

"Hm," Chief sighed, "Good job."

The Marines sat at the entrance stared, wide-eyed, with Alex commenting, "... I suddenly feel extremely fucking useless. Someone really oughta explain to my dumb ass why we didn't just make more of'em from the get-go..." as they approached and started policing the bodies. The Spartan and Elster stowed their weapons, then turned to the central pedestal in the room. It had a hologram button below.

Cortana chuckled, then said, "Press the holographic display..." and the Chief did as asked. A segmented presentation of the Halo appeared, with all of the surface details they could ever need. Cortana pulled up the data they needed, then said, "Got the Control room... Here..." Flashing a dot near a snowy biome. She told him, "Let's get back to the surface. Seems like the Ring is permeated by a network of tunnels used for maintenance. Tunnels big enough for a Pelican to fit through and tunnels we have access to right on this island. We can use those for fast travel."

Chief nodded, recorded the location and motioned for the group to fall out. Climbing back up four flights of railing-less alien stairs was just about as nerve-wracking as going down them. Less so for the Marines, out of whom Strauss found the time to joke, "OSHA's gonna be pissed at the ancient aliens that built this place. No safety regs whatsoever," and that got a few laughs. Not out of Chief and Elster, though.

Exiting back out into the sunlight, Cortana radioed, "Foe Hammer, we're ready for pickup. Make room for a Platoon," and she watched the Pelican swing in for a landing. Its back hatch and the Blood Tray hanged out over the edge of the building's platform, allowing the team to climb inside, with Cortana stating, "Thanks for the prompt response. We found the Control Room and we're hitching a ride, if you don't mind..."

"Not at all, Cortana," The girl replied, watching the crews sit themselves down. She spoke, "Where to?"

"Follow these coordinates," The AI replied.

Foe Hammer blinked, confused, then requested, "Uh, Cortana, you sure these're the right coords? Because they're showin' as underground!" as she still complied, bringing the aircraft over to a central point on the island. A door slid open below them, a massive slab of Alien steel and technology, revealing a deep, dark hole that led to the Ring's underground.

Cortana replied, "The Covvies did a thorough seismic scan I managed to corroborate with the help of the Cartographer. The Ring is honeycombed with criss-crossing tunnels that lead all over it. And we have our insertion here," before she flashed the girl the coordinates again.

Captain Rawley replied, slightly unsure, "Hope your analysis is on-the-money, Cortana, cuz my old girl won't really turn on a dime..."

"Heh. Don't worry, Foe Hammer," The AI shot back, "And look on the bright side. The last thing the Covenant will expect is an aerial insertion... From underground," and she watched the Pelican begin its slow descent into the hole. When they were fully inside, the door slid back shut, much to the chagrin of the Marines and the pilot, though Cortana's comment had eased spirits.

... Christ, things were escalating, Elster thought to herself. She hoped what she'd heard while waiting was what she thought it was.

... A sign that she wasn't just fighting for revenge.

Chapter Text

Flapyap, small Unggoy, patrolled the platform in one of the tunnels of the mighty Halo, the holy relic that would deliver him and his nipple brothers to the Great Beyond once activated. Yes, they had to take control of the central Temple within this valley from the Humans, but at least the Demons and their strange Apollyon, as one of the Sangheili survivors referred to that strange woman fighting beside them in a terrifying cloaking armor.

Well, they weren't here and the few humans that were apparently in the snowy Valley nearby were just simple imps and their 'Marines', the lightly-armored ones that died to a couple shots from his plasma pistol. Flapyap felt plenty confident in his chances of survival. He waddled around past some of his sleepy brothers, one of which had a red, curved methane tank. Flapyap approached gently and tugged at the valve, topping up his own tank with the sweet breathable nectar.

Afterward, he shut off the valve and waddled over to the edge, looking over the vast, alien beauty of their Gods' creation. Beautiful lights shimmered in the walls, glowing azure. The glows reminded him of the fluorescent brightness of Balaho. He was one of the few Grunts old enough to remember their homeworld and he so longed to see it again. But after the Great Journey, they'd ascend to Godhood together, finally equal with their Sangheili leaders.

He looked over to the Sangheili Minor as the lumbering, hunchback patrolled the area, plasma rifle gripped tightly in his hand. He was a scary one, though far less scary than the boss that had come from the Truth and Reconciliation after the human leader escaped. That was not on him, thankfully, Flapyap thought. He continued waddling around on patrol, heading toward the edge.

He heard a weird noise coming up the shaft of the tunnel and blinked. His two beady eyes stared forward and wondered what it was. Maybe it was another of the place's constructs, coming to say hi to him and his brothers. No, no, it didn't sound like their antigravity devices. Nor did it sound like one of their Huragok. They had left them all on board their vessels.

So what could make such a weird droning noise?

He approached the edge, treading a bit more carefully as the noise grew louder, then peered down into the darkness below, praying to the Gods whose Holy Ring he stepped foot on not to fall over. He did not fall over the edge. He did, however, jump back with a scream that alerted his comrades and the Elite in charge of them. A human dropship emerged ahead, the pilot and co-pilot staring right at the grunt.

... Aboard Echo-419, Chief, Elster and their Marines waited for Foe Hammer to bring them about. The woman looked back into the Cargo Hold as plasma round started hitting the drop-ship, washing over its armor, and yelled at them, "This is as far as I can go! I'mma have to double back and get out through the previous intersection, but I'm gonna try and bring reinforcements!"

As the aircraft fully turned about, giving the Chief, Elster and their Marine element a clear view of the Covenant that'd been waiting for them, they opened fire. Cortana replied, "Roger that, Foe Hammer. See you when we'll see you. Let's get moving, you two," as she watched Elster dismount first through Chief's HUD. The Spartan followed up next, looking at the Grunt laying on the floor with its weapon far off to the side. It trembled, the Spartan stomping toward it.

It scrambled to its feet and ran out through the large door at the back of the massive platform. The Spartan turned his attention toward the Elite as his shields failed under a plasma barrage. Two shots nailed his chest plate and melted part of it, but didn't break any seals, thankfully, followed by a second shot to the thigh that burned a little. Chief dodged out of the way of the next few shots as Elster swept in.

The two focused fire on the Elite, peppering it with bullets, but not before the girl took a blast to the chest that caused her to stagger. Thankfully, the extra armor she'd welded on took the brunt of the hit, leaving the seals and other important tech-bits below intact. Her shields regenerated as she sighed, then shook her head, vision a bit blurry due to the plasma blast that flashed in her eyes.

Cortana spoke, "If we head out through those doors, we should find our way out into the valleys. If I'm reading the data right, though... We've still got a few miles' trek."

"Let's get rambling, then," Elster quipped. Chief nodded and the pair pushed forward, past the corpses of the dead Covenant, weapons at the ready. Pushing into the corridors, the pair was a tad surprised to see just how expansive they were. Tall, large and completely unnecessary to a degree in terms of wasted space, but still sort of beautiful in their own way. Symbols glowed from the Forerunner alloy, arrayed in beautiful tapestries of sorts that the pair walked by, keeping their weapons trained forward.

Coming upon a left-ward turn, the Spartan and Replika both peered from behind cover down the corridor, to the sight of the small Grunt they'd left alive fleeing into a wider room at the end of the Hall. Chief gave a quick chop of his hand toward the door and Elster nodded, taking point with her rifle and a grenade at the ready. Approaching the door and waiting for whatever sensor usually picked up their movement to do so, the Spartan and Elster prepped for a hot breach.

Once the door did slide open, splitting into three distinct parts, the girl primed and threw the frag into a crowd of waiting Covenant. The explosion rumbled through the place as the two surged forward, rifles up and firing the moment their HUD reticles turned red. Bullets scraped the Covvies' armor and pierced through, splattering a mix of purple and fluorescent azure on the floors, walls and strange geometry of the rooms they were in.

Aside from the presence of Covenant and, now, their corpses, the room felt surprisingly empty, like a sort of liminal space to Elster. The duet pushed forward, further down some corridors and to another door. Once the sensors to it activated and it opened, the pair emerged onto a bridge rising high above the Valley. Elster lifted her hand as flakes of snow fell around them, then peered over the edge of the Forerunner structure, a faint memory.

"Interesting," Cortana voiced, "The weather patterns here are natural... I wonder if the Ring's weather systems are malfunctioning, or if the creators wanted it to have inclement weather..."

Lilith, however, made sure that came front and center, stating, "... I miss Rotfront..." which got Elster's mind wandering back to what was Ariane's home, too. A snowy moon orbiting a gas giant above which Heimat, the Nation's Capital, also orbited. The Chief saw the girl pausing at the edge of the Bridge and approached her, tilting his head curiously.

She nodded, then paused as she heard a call, "This is Fireteam Zulu, we're taking fire and requesting backup from any UNSC forces in the area!" Just as a Pelican flew overhead, two Banshees trailing it and firing on it. One of its engines sputtered and blew, with the Chief and Elster lifting their weapons to fire upon the Banshees. They'd gone too far, too deep into the valley to even consider it, however, causing Elster to scoff.

"Guess that's our cue," The girl commented. The Chief nodded and the two began pushing down the bridge, Covenant troops emerging almost out of the Woodwork Advancing over the bridge, the pair moved from cover to cover as plasma bolts and needles zipped over their heads. The Marines behind them also moved up, though they were seemingly lagging a bit behind.

Alex popped up next to Elster, primed a frag and hefted it toward a duo of Jackals hiding behind their shields. The explosion, shockwave and shrapnel staggered the two, which gave Chief and Elster ample opportunity to put slugs into the pair. The Spartan and Replika moved up with the marines bringing up the rear, frags out and guns roaring as they advanced.

Elster slammed the butt of her rifle into the face of an advancing Grunt, sending it over the edge. An Elite ahead aimed and fired his plasma rifle at her, washing her shields in azure fire and nearly overloading them. Chief and Elster lit the Elite up, staggering it and forcing it into cover. To that, the Replika grabbed a plasma grenade off the floor, thumbed the scarlet activation strip and threw it as it started to glow its usual blue.

The explosion stripped the elite of what was left of his shields and boiled away armor, forcing it out of cover. It roared in anger, then charged Elster, powering an Energy Dagger. Fueled by whatever passed for adrenaline in their bodies, it tanked several shots from Chief's rifle and, as the man reloaded, pinned the Replika companion against the floor, raising the dagger.

The two Marines behind Elster gunned it down, bullets piercing the plate and spraying purple blood all over the armor. The Alien collapsed, dead, over the Replika, who kicked it off to the side and gave a thumbs up as thanks to the group. Alex chuckled and she and Strauss lifted the girl to her feet. The four-man team continued forward, weapons at the ready and through another door.

Another set of Covenant in weirdly samey rooms and a descent onto the bottom of the Valley later, Elster couldn't help but question, "Man, the Forerunners have really crappy interior designers, don't they...?" as a joke. Cortana and Alex snorted at the comment as they walked down a corridor toward the exit out into the valley. She spoke, "I mean, repeating rooms? Really? Do they even serve any practical purpose beside transition points?"

"Not from what I can tell on the schematics," Cortana giggled, while Chief walked with slight confusion.

Elster shrugged at the Chief as if her point had been proven. The group then exited out into the wider valley. While it was more like a box canyon, the place was still wide and beautiful, the snow crunching beneath their boots as they left the repeating, if also strangely interesting Forerunner structures. Outside, though, they were met by a group of Marines taking cover beside a few rocks, backs against the wall as Banshees and Ghosts strafed them.

A ball of plasma impacted a few meters ahead of Chief, Elster and the two Marines providing them escort, causing them to scramble for cover behind taller rocks as well. Peering out from behind, they could see a second fireteam engaging the Covenant ahead, as well as a Covenant Wraith, its plasma mortar arced and firing at the rearmost line of troops. The group also notice why almost immediately. One of the Marines of Zulu had a Jackhammer launcher.

The Spartan poked out and fired at a Ghost as it swept in, firing its twin plasma cannons. The bullets hit the exposed sides of the craft, causing its antigravity engines to sputter. It fell to the floor, skidding to a halt on the ice as the Elite that drove it jumped out. Chief drew his pistol next and fired three direct shots into the monster's head, before waving the Marine with the launcher forward.

He nodded, stood to his feet and held close the rocket launcher. His comrades all opened fire, Elster, Alex and Strauss included, providing him cover as he ran toward the Chief. The Spartan caught the man mid run, put him into cover as gently as possible and took the Launcher from him. Shouldering it and activating the smartscope function, the Spartan squeezed the trigger, let the launcher tube rotate into position and squeezed again.

Two rockets tracked, flying in a straight line toward the enemy armor. They impacted with force, detonating. Chief had aimed strategically and taken out the main cannon and one of the Wraith's stabilizer fins, causing it to start drifting off to the side. Its crew, two Elites, jumped out of the main canopy, one of them with a broken leg. They were gunned down by Zulu on the spot, purple blood painting the snow.

The Marine Sergeant called, "Cease fire, Marines! Cease Fire and rally up!" then turned about, grinning. He saluted the advancing fireteam of four and said to them, "Chief, Elster. Glad to see you and your Marines could make it, sir. We were half-worried we'd be getting outta this valley in bodybags..." before turning toward the crashed Pelican they'd come in with. A Marine was helping drag the wounded pilot out and tend to her.

"Sorry we're a little late, Sergeant. Status on your troops?" Cortana asked over the com, a little worried about the boys.

"Operational, though we're down a few men. They took one of our other AT Boys out when we crashed and three Marines got blasted the moment we filed out," The man replied, motioning to the four body-bags sat by the Pelican. He continued, "But we're doing fine otherwise. If you need us, we're ready. We also dropped in with a tank the pilot had to jettison when we crashed."

The man motioned to the tank that had landed in a pile of snow, seemingly undamaged, off in the distance. More Covenant troops began to advance toward them, their Banshees coming in for another sweep. Chief told the men, "Pack your gear. Let's move it out..." before radioing, "Foe Hammer, status?"

The drone of Echo-419s engines answered him, the Pelican touching down right beside them. Carol replied, "Bringin' in reinforcements, Chief! Friendlies and a 'Hog, coming in to support the advance! Also, be advised, one of my squadron mates is in the air here, too. Callsign, Echo-217. Flight Lieutenant Shiela Polaski! Girl's flyin' an armed Pelican, so if you want CAS, she's on our freq, orbiting the place with me!'

"Copy," Chief replied, then nodded to Foe Hammer as they moved in front of her Pelican. She gave a thumbs up, then lifted off again. The Spartan then requested, "Echo Two-Seventeen, this is 117, requesting CAS as we advance toward the Control Room..."

"Chief, 217. Copy your last. Gimme targets, this ammo's heavy," The woman replied as the Pelican, armed with a 40mm nose-mounted chain gun and missile pods, hovered down into the valley. Chief jumped on board the tank as they reached it and traversed the turret. He fired once, then again five seconds later, each 90mm Tungsten shot piercing through the front of and destroying a Ghost.

As they rolled forward, Sheila opened fire, 40mm APHE rounds flying in volleys toward enemy vehicles as they advanced to greet the UNSC troops. Chief aimed the main cannon of the tank and fired twice at another Wraith, piercing its front and causing it to detonate, the crew inside presumably and hopefully dead. The armored advance continued through the winding valley, past frozen ice lakes and rivers and through the gentle snowfall.

The Warthog, which Elster now drove, barreled forward in front of the Chief as a scouting vehicle, Alex hanging onto the side and Strauss manning the gun, utilizing it to shoot down enemy Banshees flying a little too close for comfort. Alex, who was firing on Grunts, commented, "Feels good to have some armor behind us!" with a smile on her face. Beside them, Marines rallied up and advanced, Zulu's members firing their weapons and raking the Covenant's advance forces with their own rounds.

Missiles launched from the pods of the Pelican above, Sheila calling out, "Barrage, hot!" as the High-Ex cleared them a path through the more light vehicles and Covenant defenses that lay ahead. Elster, meanwhile, drove fast and loose, making jumps and allowing both of her passengers to fire on the enemy as they rolled forward. She looked over to the left, noting that, behind the shadows of the cliffs, there were active Shade turrets.

Radioing, she said, "Chief, be advised, Shade Turrets and enemy ambush unit appeared on our Nine the moment we turned that corner you're about to take..." and she primed a Grenade, throwing it mid-drive toward the enemy. It bounced off of the rocks they used for cover and detonated, but got their attention from the Pelican and the Tank. Chief's answer was an affirmative hum, combined with the thunder-clap of the 90mm main gun of the ship-transportable Scorpion.

The Covenant position erupted into flames just as the first Shade plasma bolt landed next to them. The Pelican above, meanwhile, fired all armament available as they rolled forward, Covenant troops waiting in other positions falling to the volley of concentrated firepower. Combined Arms, Elster thought to herself, God bless it. She heard a voice whisper again, "Elster..." before feeling a surge of energy.

She drove nose-first into a Covenant platoon, running over the Elite and leaving its mangled corpse on the hood. She braked, sending the corpse flying into a rock, drew her pistol and fired, then ducked as a fussilade of plasma washed over the windshield and her body. Strauss groaned, feeling a needle stuck to his arm, but he spoke, "I'm okay! Minor injury!"

The vehicles pushed deeper into the valley, coming upon a rock wall, a ramp, several Covenant tanks set up above said ramp on a berm and a tunnel leading through the wall. Sheila called out, "Rocket pods hot! Heads down!" before she swiveled in, stabilized and fired a volley of rockets into the enemy position. Azure fire flashed as the Marines cheered, pushing toward the enemy's positions and firing. Three Wraiths. The Covvie infantry took rounds next, from both the MG mounted on the 'Hog and the cannon of Chief's tank.

Cortana radioed, "Polaski, get over the ridge and prepare to provide us cover in the next valley. We'll be clearing through the tunnels ahead and engaging the Covenant as we move..." only to receive an affirmative reply from the pilot as the Pelican powered his engines, moving above the cliff and pushing forward. Cortana then told Elster, "You're our forward eyes, Els. Keep it steady."

"Roger," The girl replied as she rolled over into the tunnels, similar 'cave formations' to the ones they'd found when they first landed. She jokingly asked Cortana, "Do these seem like natural formations?" and that go a laugh out of the AI. Rolling forward, however, The Marines and their Sergeant and Chief kept their weapons close, passing through the massive tunnels and such until they reached a chasm with two light bridges. A massive underground complex that traversed several paths.

Covenant were waiting for them there. Elster barked, "Dismount! We're supporting Chief on foot..." before she jumped off of the vehicle and took cover. Bursts of plasma hit the armor plate, drilling holes and heating it up to a dull red. She replied in kind with her assault rifle, nailing a Grunt while the Shade turrets turned to welcome them. Chief and Zulu came in, the tank's main cannon reverberating across the underground tunnel complex. A Shade Turret turned to shards of alloy after the Tungsten shot hit it.

Elster pushed forward with the Marines not that far behind, slamming into a Jackal, pinning it to the floor and kicking its neck until she heard it snap, before rolling off to the side as an Elite aimed and fired his plasma rifle at her. She looked for the button to activate the bridges and soon saw it. It was close enough to make a sprint, so she did, hitting the button and rallying up Alex and Strauss, the trio boarded the 'Hog again, running over the Covenant across the chasm while Chief focused on taking them out with his tank.

The heavy Covenant resistance continued into the next Valley, the two vehicles and their air support engaging both enemy Flyers and ground troops with extreme prejudice, their advance stalled simply by the Covenant's desire to keep them pinned through the mass use of Grunts. Still, that didn't stop the pair of transports, the passengers of which immediately saw their targets.

Rising high, stuck in the rock face of a valley with a stone bridge hanging up above, an ornate and intricately designed, somewhat rounded pyramid sat embedded within the wall. Cortana spoke, "There it is..." as they advanced. It was a silver pyramid the likes of which made those on even Kitezh seem small in comparison. And Vineta's own old Pyramids, in the desert regions, seemed to pale.

Alex whistled, stating, "That's massive..."

And it was loaded with Covenant Troops, they soon realized. Dozens upon dozens of them stood at each layer, including the top. Advancing into combat, the Spartan and his Replika counterpart continued to advance, cutting down Covenant forces and running them over. Before long, however, the Spartan and Elster had had to dismount from their fighting vehicles, leaving the platoons of Marines behind to provide covering fire while Sheila's gunship laid into the Covenant's other troops and aircraft.

Pushing up the first level, Chief spoke to Elster, "We move together. Cover my back, I'll cover yours, as usual, Four."

"Sir," She replied, dropping a spent magazine onto the floor and slamming in a fresh one, before shovving the bolt forward with a slap. The two turned the corner under an arch and engaged a platoon of Grunts and Jackals, Elster sniping the Jackals' hands while Chief put them down with bursts of his rifle. Lilith laughed as she saw Elster's aim get better, but paused as a plasma volley hit the girl and boiled her armor plates.

Elster scoffed, ducked into cover to let her shield recharge and made notes of the new burn marks on her armor as she went. She moved forward to help cover the Chief, whose shield had also failed, forcing him to take cover. A Jackal sharpshooter, sat at the back, aimed a Needle Rifle at them, the shot whizzing just over their heads. Elster drew her pistol, aimed through the smartscope and sniped it.

They pushed up to the next ramp and climbed to the second level, rushing through a squad of Grunts that was trying to set up a plasma cannon on a tripod. Elster grabbed said Plasma Cannon and started using it as a heavy weapon, her mind wandering to Jorge and, by extension, to NOBLE. She wondered if they fared well on Reach, even as the world burned around them...

Squelching the thought, she focused on fighting. They would be fine. She would be fine. Elster and the Chief just needed to hitch a ride back to Reach to grab them and their friends, then rush back to Earth. By the third and final level, there were few Covenant left. Cortana spoke, "Looks like this is it. I'm detecting few remaining Covenant contacts..." Then she radioed, "Echo-217, can you provide evac to the Marines below while we investigate? Our job here's about to be done."

"Affirm, see y'all home, sir, ma'am," Sheila replied as the Pelican swung in for landing down below. Going through into the expansive hallway leading to the Control Room, they met little resistance... It was surprising, really. Most of the Covenant seemed to have gone outside in order to fight. Delving deeper into the place and taking a left, the two soldiers and their AI came upon a wide-open area.

A catwalk of a material made to resemble glass lay ahead of them, surrounding a central holographic sphere of some kind. Metal and glass railings separated them from the wide, ovoid room's massive drop, while a holographic representation of the Halo Ring itself floated around them. Chief and Elster approached the central console in the middle of the control room, with the Chief tapping a few hardlight hologram commands and slid Cortana's chip into one slot that appeared.

The woman's avatar appeared, larger than life now and wearing a smile so wide one would think she won the lottery. Chief looked up at her and asked, "Are you alright?" with a hint of worry in his otherwise stoic, calm voice. He watched the AI's avatar flare in a series of colors as she looked to herself, beaming and seemingly absorbing the ring's knowledge.

She replied happily, "Never been better!" before looking at him and Elster, beaming, "You can't even imagine the volume of information! So much, so fast! It's glorious!" and she gesticulated in the most jovial way possible, pirouetting around and looking at each and every thing entering her Data Stream with the curiosity of a child in a very fancy candy shop.

Lilith murmured, "Feels like I've seen this somewhere before," as memories of the Great Revolutionary and Her Daughter came into being. Elster didn't comment... Simply because she hoped Cortana wasn't the type to go full megalomaniac like those two. Yes, Lilith hadn't been alive when the two started their Civil War against the Empire, but still, Megalomania felt like a simple standard for the two dictators.

"So, how do we use it?" Chief asked, leaning his MA5 on his shoulder.

Cortana furrowed her brows, asking impatiently, "What are you talking about?"

Chief defensively raised his left hand and showed her to settle down, before stating, "Let's stay focused... How do we use Halo to defeat the Covenant?" while Elster simply looked around at the holographic displays and symbols dancing around them in the dimness of the room. This place felt so wrong to stand in for some reason, as if it was worse than any weapon any human, sane, crazy or in-between, could conjure. Lilith hummed, seemingly agreeing with her thoughts.

She had mistakenly tuned out of the conversation between Cortana and the Chief. When she blinked, her eyes opened to the sight of a desolate place that felt like it breathed around her. Fleshy growths spurred from below the rusted catwalk she stood upon. Lowering her rifle, she looked around, eyes wide, then cocked her head right. A figure in white stood, arms outstretched. Her left hand had four rings on...

Elster almost jumped out of her skin when the figure, faceless, suddenly and seemingly teleported in front of her, grabbing her by the throat. A faint, thin jawline appeared from behind the darkness of her white veil and she spoke, "Do not let them open it..." her voice echoing, an ethereal phantom. Two scarlet eyes peered at Elster from behind her veil as she said, "... Do not let them reach neither there, nor here... Doom awaits those who venture beneath the false soil..."

The girl paused as a lock of white hair poked out from around the veil. Her mind flared and turned to a rush of memories, of thoughts. Her heart welled, though not with joy, but with fear. She gasped, suddenly feeling the urgency to get to and stop Captain Keyes. She felt Chief's hand land on her shoulder, with the Spartan showing her to follow. Cortana, meanwhile, stared with surprise at the girl. The two gave each-other a nod goodbye and Elster ran after the Chief, determined to find and stop the Captain before all hell broke loose... She still didn't know what she was being warned about, but it'd made her synthetic skin crawl. Whatever it was, whatever Dark Secret lay buried...

They needed to get there. Stop it...

Chapter Text

Elster gripped her rifle tightly, listening to the radio signals coming in from Alpha Base. Echo 419 had been kind enough to bring them over to the last known spot Captain Keyes and his squad had been in. She tried to see beyond the fog of the massive forest they were flying through, but saw no sign of the ground until Foe Hammer brought them in low enough to land at the edge. While Chief and Foe Hammer exchanged words, the Spartan and the Replika dismounted the transport, weapons at the ready.

They slid down a small, steep hill face from their landing zone and saw the alien swamp around them. A place that was teeming with alien flora and unseen fauna, parts of which seemed to glow in the darkness, like beacons in the fog. There were also Forerunner lights in the AO, though they lit the trees and some of the thick underbrush with white light. Chief looked to Elster, balled his fist and showed her to follow him.

She nodded and followed along, the two pushing through the thick shrubs, deeper into the enclosed area. Blood stained the dirt below, both Covenant and human from the looks, trails leading over to various dead-ends or into the water of the nearby swamp and lakes. As they pushed through those areas, Elster was starting to feel more and more of a sense of dread while they walked.

Chief remained eerily quiet, simply listening to the crackling, the pop of gases bubbling up to the surface in the swamp's ponds and scanning the place. Passing through an opening between a pair of taller trees that were linked by both their branches and vines that seemed to form interlacing patterns, the two also saw a crashed Covenant Spirit, the bifurcated dropship hanged by the vines upon crashing, its doors open, congealing purple blood pooling at its base and staining the water.

A distant crackle that sounded almost too organic echoed and Elster's motion tracker picked something up on their right. She swiveled about and aimed her rifle, looking up on the hills to see silhouettes moving. They were tagged as friendlies, weirdly enough. Chief nodded to her, then showed her to stay focused as they crept forward. It wasn't long after that they started finding fluorescent blue blood stains. Grunt blood, but no bodies.

Concerning, Elster thought. Lilith spoke to her, "... I really don't fucking like this place..." in a murmur. Elster clicked off her microphones.

"You're not the only one..." She then replied, "Something about it feels completely and utterly wrong. Was there even an actual weapons cache here, or did the Captain and his men come to a Covenant ambush...?" before she sidestepped a rock. Lilith let out what sounded like the vocal version of a shrug, but her voice cracked. Elster suddenly felt the oppressive nature of this place and wondered just what the hell happened. She was seeing more blood-

Chief balled his fist and took a knee beside a rock as the screams of Covenant troops filled the air. Up ahead, tracers lit the fog and the silhouettes of the stout Grunts and spindly Jackals appeared. One of the Unggoy ran right toward them and passed through the fog, screaming. Chief grabbed him by the throat, snapped his neck and set the body aside. Elster reactivated her mic and looked to Chief, asking, "... How often do you see the Covvies retreat like that, Chief? Especially against our own weapons...?"

"Not often enough..." The Spartan replied, worried. He looked to her, lifted his open hand and lightly tilted it forward. Elster nodded, stood to her feet and crept forward, moving past the corner where the Grunt had come from, only to find trails of blood leading out into the fog, painting the shrubs and grass in an unnaturally blue fluorescence. To their left, there was a crashed Pelican, its radio still operating.

A massive structure appeared in front of them, lights peering through the fog as if guiding the pair toward it. Moving past a shrub, Elster came upon the building first. It was an underground facility not unlike those they'd seen previous, including the stuff below Alpha Base. Though this one felt wrong. It almost felt like Elster's entire body was repulsed by the idea of going in there, her feet frozen in place as she stared at it. Lilith told her, "... I don't think I wanna go in there, Els. It feels too wrong..."

Elster agreed, but they had to. They had to find captain Keyes and the others. She heard Chief stop beside her, then looked to him as he tapped her on the shoulder. He motioned forward, to which she nodded, forcing herself to take the first few steps forward. As soon as her boot went from the wet, muddy floor of the swamp to the metal of the building, a vision of red flashed in front of her. Walls of flesh pulsated. The dark veil had fallen upon the place.

She stumbled as that ancient-feeling voice spoke to her again, "You're too late..." causing the girl to grab onto her head. Lilith huffed at that and Elster could feel her alter ego urge her forward now, mentally. Chief turned on his heel to face Elster, who simply shook her head, then stepped forward, rifle still raised. The two came upon a massive central area that had no other doors or entrances save for the one they came through, as well as what seemed to be a central elevator shaft.

Covenant technology and barricades lay scattered around haphazardly, boxes containing empty plasma rifles and pistols and needlers sitting, upturned. Elster approached the side of the strange hexagonal-shaped shaft with Chief, then watched him call the elevator down. Lilith whispered, "If we're actually doing this, I feel like you might wanna activate whatever seal we still have working on this thing."

Elster did so, letting the armor's helmet seal engage. As the elevator, a form of glass and alien alloy, ended its short trip up on the landing, the Spartan and Replika boarded it, Elster covering the doorway as Chief went to activate it. It slightly lifted up, antigrav systems engaging, before it began to smoothly slide down the 'rails' keeping it in place. She scanned the walls, noting the lights and glowing symbols, then looked back at Chief.

Chief shrugged, then sighed and radioed, "Captain Keyes, this is Spartan 117, do you copy?" only to get static. He tried again, "This is SIERRA-117 to any UNSC forces on this net, we're making entry to the weapons cache. If you can hear this, try and converge on this signal..." only for more static to filter into his ears. He turned the com off, then said, "Either the structure's interfering with radio, or there's nobody listening..."

"I'm genuinely praying it's the first option, sir," Elster replied almost quietly as the elevator stopped, revealing the 'lobby'. Covenant tech and items also lay, tossed about here. The two jumped off the lift, weapons at the ready as they pushed through, past a wall and down a ramp. The terrifying thing was not the vastness of the Alien structure they were wading through, nor the haphazard placement of Covenant gear around the place with no discernible dead Marines or Covvies to speak of. It was the silence.

The only thing the two could hear as they walked through the alien hallways, narrow and strangely-shaped as they were, was their own footsteps. Boots clanging against the alien steel that made up the entire ring and the inner structures built within the confines of the unnaturally natural beauty of such a place. They watched each-other's back, hearing the faint and very distant groan of the Ring's multitude of systems operating.

Both remained on alert, of course, but there was a degree of relaxation. This felt like the first time in a long while where neither had had anything to fire at, nothing to empty their weapons on, or emptying its weapon at them. Usually, such silence was the calm before the Storm. Elster prayed they'd just find Captain Keyes, Johnson and the boys stuck somewhere, lost in the depths of this hellscape.

They exited into a room with a massive central glass observation rhombus of some kind. Blood stained the floor, this one Covenant, purple, ugly. Elites, probably, Elster thought as she scanned the two-tier room, looking up at the square design of the catwalk up above and the four bridges that led to the central platform holding the metal and glass in place, where a console resided.

Chief tapped her on the shoulder and pointed at a corner on the left side of the room, where part of the catwalk had collapsed onto some debris, a small fire burning behind, further charring the destroyed corpse of a Jackal that looked like he'd been torn apart bone by bone. The two climbed onto the rubble and took the catwalk up, moving through another door. It was one out of four, the sole that was not locked and marked by red glow.

They exited out onto another elevated position, this one with a lightbridge connecting the two sides. Down below, terrifyingly enough, there were more blood stains, these ones mixed between Grunts, Elites and Jackals, the latter two's blood diluting the blood of the Grunt, which was draining into what seemed to be a grate below. The two felt the Light Bridge together, then walked onto it.

All this time, Elster felt one thing:A rising sensation of fear. Whatever was going on here, whatever this 'weapons cache' actually was, considering Cortana had openly told them they needed to stop the Captain from opening it. She'd made it pretty clear they had to stop him, so, here they were. As they passed through another set of corridors and through a similar room as the one before, Elster couldn't help but feel ever-worse fear.

As they walked by a set of locked doors, a thump filled their ears, causing both Chief and Elster to pause. They looked through, trying to figure out just what the hell made that noise, but saw nothing through the glass. They exchanged another quick glance, rather obviously concerned, before pushing on forward and arriving at a door. Behind it, they heard whimpering.

Both readied their weapons, then popped the door, only for the thunder of a human handgun to fill their ears, the fifty-cal round zipping past their ears. A Marine, a human, cried out, "GET AWAY FROM ME! YOU'RE NOT TURNING ME INTO ONE OF THOSE THINGS!" only for Elster to try and poke out again. She ducked behind cover as the man fired again, yammering on.

Elster asked, "What do we do?"

"Disarm him and get him to calm down..." Chief replied, wary. He wasn't even sure if they could do that. He called out, "Marine! Cease fire! It's us! We're with the UNSC!" before trying to poke out again. The shot skimmed the wall, fragments of the copper jacket hitting the Chief's shield at reduced speed. He almost let out a swear, an uncharacteristic reaction to him.

Sighing, he showed Elster to wait, stowed his rifle, then eyed up a route to the Marine. Pressed against the wall, the Marine spoke, "... They took the live ones...! Oh, God, I can still hear them! First, the Sarge, then the Captain, then Mendoza and Jenkins! YOU'RE NOT TAKING ME, YOU HEAR?! YOU FREAKS, YOU MONSTERS! STAY AWAY FROM ME, ALL OF YOU!"

... In a burst of speed that surprised even Elster, Chief was on the Marine before he could get off another shot, disarming him and tossing his pistol aside, before speaking, "Corporal Watts, settle down. We're not hostiles..." though he could see he was barely getting through, the man scanning the place, almost erratic. When he finally managed to lock eyes with the Chief, or look into his visor, at least, he seemed to calm down.

"C-Chief...?" His voice cracked. He watched Elster come out next, whispering, "A-And the Bot, Elster... I-I'm okay, sir, you can l-let me go now..." only for Chief to look at Elster. The girl gave a nod, while Lilith grumbled something to her. Chief, nonetheless, let the Marine down gently. He turned to face them, eyes wide, bloodshot, fearful. He pulled his legs toward him, hugging them, then mumbled, "I'm safe... They aren't here anymore. I'm safe."

"Can you tell us what happened, Marine...?" Elster asked as she knelt in front of him.

"They took them... Oh, God, I can still hear them screaming..." The man whimpered, "But I'm safe now... Right? They ain't gonna get me anymore, right...?" And he looked to Elster and the Chief with tears in his eyes. Chief sighed and put a hand on the man's shoulder, though found no words to comfort him. Both he and his companion could tell the poor man was too traumatized by whatever he'd seen. Which didn't bode well for them.

The Replika asked him, "Can you make it back to the surface, Marine?"

"I-I can... I can try..." He replied, "Where's my gun...?"

She looked to the Spartan for confirmation. Someone as unstable as the Marine here probably should not be allowed to carry a firearm, but could they really stop him? What if whatever got his friends came back? And if it got Sergeant Johnson... She sighed, then nodded to Chief. Grabbing the man's pistol off the floor, she handed it to him, grip-first, then said, "Back the way we came, there's an elevator, Marine. Go to it, get upstairs, call for backup. We'll need it."

"A-Aye, Sarge..." He nodded, trembling hand grabbing onto the pistol's self-molding plastic grip, "I'll make it..." and he was helped up by Elster and Chief. He saluted both of them, swallowing empty, then slowly stumbled forward through the door. Elster and Chief both looked back as he disappeared into the corridor, before both drew their rifles and decided to advance. They'd come through that area. It was clear.

Continuing to push through, deeper into the alien facility, the pair walked into another one of those containment chambers, only to find that the glass on one of the faces was shattered and some sort of yellow-glowing purulent substance dripped down onto the floor from a vent above. The Replika's boots crunched the shattered alien glass as she poked through, looking up and utilizing her flashlight to scan the area. Just a vent full of goo above.

She sighed and shook her head, Lilith murmuring, "I really feel like we should turn back. Somethin's gnawin' at you, too. And Chief. I can tell..." to which Elster huffed in agreement. Indeed, both she and Chief had a sinking feeling that their presence here was not a good thing anymore, that they should've brought a nuclear warhead to this place to bury it.

Didn't matter. They entered another set of corridors and, finally, found a ramp. Around them, medical packs, guns and ammo lay scattered, thrown about, stained by human blood. A pool of congealing red lay at the end of the ramp. Though, yet again, there were no corpses. A distant crack echoed to them, Elster noting that a faraway IFF tag flatlined. She swore to herself and said, "Should've dragged him with us..."

"Not every decision we make's going to be the right one, Sergeant," Chief reassured her, "We have work to do. We can mourn after," and she looked to him. Sound logic, if a little cold, but she didn't expect anything less of a Spartan. She nodded, the two descending down the ramp toward what seemed to be a sealed door. On said sealed door, next to the central locking mechanism, there was a human-made device.

Elster nodded to Chief and turned to cover the rear, aiming up the ramp with her rifle as the Spartan got to cracking the door code. When the door cracked open, however, the Replika could swear she heard an audible gasp from the Chief. Turning around, she, too, gasped, watching the corpse of one of the Marines land in Chief's arms. He looked like he'd been torn to shreds by something, his left arm hanging limply by a thread of skin and sinew. His face was mangled and his armor was torn in multiple places, bullet holes and claw marks.

She made out his name tag on the chest. Mendoza. Chief looked to her and motioned for her to get in, the girl nodding and walking backward as she did so. When the door shut behind them, Chief gently laid the Marine's body down to the side and allowed Elster to check on him. Ahead, in another pool of blood, more guns and ammo. And Jenkins's helmet. Just his helmet.

Chief crouch-walked up to it, rifle ready as he swept the great hall ahead, a hall with six doors, including the one they'd come through. It rose high, arching into an almost imperceptible ceiling, various geometric forms and lights placed around symmetrically. It was either the perfect spot for an Ambush, Chief thought, or worse. When he looked at the helmet, he found that the camera had been running.

He pulled back the chip from the cam, slid it into his helmet and activated single-beam com, allowing him to broadcast it directly to Elster's HUD as well, in the corner. Elster maintained security as they watched the clip. It started relatively harmless, Jenkins filming as he, Johnson, Mendoza, Bisenti and a bunch of other Marines descended down into the foggy swamp, arguing about music or something.

Then, Chief quickly skipped forward to their insertion into the same alien structure they'd waded in on. Johnson's orders to secure the place came next, what with leaving a squad behind. The further the video progressed, the more the pit in Elster's gut grew. When it skipped to the part where a Covenant Elite was shown, laying on the floor and disemboweled, Elster felt her lunch coming back up. Captain Keyes showed up next and they proceeded further along...

... Until they got into this room. First, a distress signal from 2nd Platoon, the ones left on the surface. Next, a loss of com. Then, the thumping of doors, the alien metal of one such door bending. Then, distortions started to appear on the cam as Jenkins panned left, revealing something... Something very alien... On Bisenti, gnawing at his throat and seemingly trying to burrow into him, all while Mendoza tried to pull it off of him.

Swarms of the little, balloon-like creatures soon swarmed over the Marines and Captain, attacking them with their appendages, clawing at them, cutting at them, trying to pin them down and infect them. The last sight of Jenkins's helmet cam was it being thrown aside as one of those creatures burrowed into the man's chest, digging through armor plate, cloth, flesh and bone, distorting the man's body, breaking bones as he screamed in pain... And then the feed cut.

RUN, ELSTER! a voice cried into her head. It wasn't Lilith.

Chief and Elster looked to one-another, then went back-to-back as that same thumping filled their ears again, this time undistorted by the helmet cams. Their Motion Trackers were malfunctioning. No, no, they weren't. That massive blob of red coming their way wasn't a malfunction. The doors around them started to break and buckle under the weight of a tidal wave of those small infectors.

The Spartan and Replika watched the first doors bust open on their left and right, the swarm of creatures skittering toward them, strange, flower-like appendages dancing in front of them as they tried to grab at them. Chief called out, "FIRE! FIRE!" with the most fear Elster had heard in a Spartan's voice ever, something that sent chills up her spine. She did as ordered, opening up with her rifle. Bursts of automatic fire caused the small balloons to pop in pus-filled explosions.

Still, they kept coming, the Swarm coalescing into one massive tidal wave. Chief tapped Elster on the shoulder and the two started backing away toward the door, firing their assault rifles on full-auto, disregarding accuracy and ammo count. They'd hit any damn thing if they fired the Swarm's way. Two small infectors pounced toward them, one latching onto Elster's armor and then exploding as her shields flared. The same happened in Chief's case.

The two sealed the door behind them as they ran, leaving parts of the swarm behind. Upon running up the ramp, they saw more and more contacts proliferating on their scanners. Some flared friendly, then switched back to the hostile scarlet. The Replika swore to herself, "Fuck this!" before grabbing the shotgun up off the floor and whatever ammo she could scrounge up. She racked the pump back and saw a round in the chamber, then motioned to the Chief to lead the way.

The two scrambled out and back the way they came, only to be met by swarms of more of these creatures. Said creatures weren't alone, however. So Elster found out when a bipedal monster slammed into her from the side, growling and groaning and gurgling, its vocal chords distorted. The alien creature looked like a twisted mockery of the human form when she looked at it first. Its left arm was broken in places. From the wrist, two massive claws protruded just above the broken hand, the arm looking much more heavily mutated the further up she went. On top, a tumorous growth resided, from which the tentacles of the infector poked out.

The Marine's head was twisted off to the side, broken in a forever-formed grimace of absurd pain. The monster stumbled forward, growling from its twisted neck, before lifting its arm up and trying to swing at Elster. She didn't hesitate to slam-fire three shotgun shells into its upper body, killing the infector that controlled it and subsequently tearing the tissues apart, shot by shot.

She scrambled to her feet with Chief's help, then watched the man take a swing to the back from another. This one was an Elite, twisted to suit the needs of whatever creature was controlling it. The Spartan swiveled about, hitting the beast with the butt of his rifle, which staggered it. He then put the barrel right up to its chest and fired center-mass, emptying the magazine into it and spewing its blood all over himself. Or whatever passed for blood.

The two kept on running as more and more infected charged after them, firing their weapons as they did so. Elster spoke, "Cortana was right. This wasn't a weapons cache, it was a containment room! And whatever we and the Covenant did let these things out...!" only to pause as an Infector was about to jump the Chief. She shot it out of mid-air with the shotgun, before swiveling about and firing the last rounds in the tube. She started reloading the weapon as they ran.

"The Covenant were here first..." Chief obviously didn't want to blame Keyes and the others. She understood, but whatever the case, right now, that was not the point. There was a legion of these things coming out of the fucking side rooms and they were about to be overrun. Still, they punched through the rooms they'd come through, weapons at the ready as they did so.

When they got to the elevator room, Elster turned about and started dumping the remaining shotgun rounds toward the horde. Chief then punched in the request for the elevator to arrive, only for both of them to hear a massive detonation. From up above, the debris of the elevator fell down the shaft, ablaze and, with them, maybe their sole hope for survival.

No, there had to be a way out. Chief showed Elster to follow him and the two pushed through the horde yet again, taking a different turn in one of the rooms. They ran through hallways, finding piles of corpses, blood soaking the walls. The Covenant troops that'd come here lay dead in various rooms, barricaded. Some of their deaths looked self-inflicted.

Lilith, meanwhile, panicked, "I can hear them..."

"I can, too..." Elster replied quietly.

"No. You don't understand. I can hear them all..." Lilith replied, voice trembling. Elster paused and listened for a moment, then felt a chill shoot up her spine. Audible to her were the pain and the screaming of the damned horde behind them, but not in the same way she was hearing them now, distorted. The hosts of the infection forms screamed in pain, begging for the release of death. Whatever consciousness of them remained inside those twisted forms of flesh, broken bone and cosmic horror did.

She looked back, then whispered, "... They're bioresonant...?"

"This is fucked. This is so fucked..." Whimpered Lilith. The stoic that broke. Great, Elster thought as she listened, "There's so many of them... God, even the Covenant..."

"Pull yourself together..." Elster spoke, though even her strength seemed to wane. She looked to Chief and said, "Sir, we gotta move faster..." only to pause as she saw they entered yet another elevator room. Chief called it down almost immediately, then turned just in time to hear and watch Elster scream as one of the monsters jumped on her and swung for her.

The hit knocked her helmet off of her head and the Spartan could see her gritting her teeth, trying to keep the monster off of hersellf, pushing with all her might against the twisted form. He ran up to her, put the barrel of the weapon against the monster's bulbous protrusion and fired, killing the infection form. Elster spat off to the side and said, "Thanks. Warn me next time..." As she wiped the blood off her face and put her helmet on.

"I'll make sure to next time..." Chief replied.

Standing up, she drew her AR and opened fire alongside the Chief into the crowd of monsters. Still, they swung, they charged... Some even fired weapons. Assault rifle fire, though inaccurate, started pouring through the door as infected Marines poured out into the crowd, bullets striking shield and armor plate and forcing Chief and Elster to slowly back away toward the Elevator just as it reached.

Chief hit the button, then paused as it started descending. Elster panicked, stating, "Oh for fuck's sake, CAN'T THESE ALIENS EVER DO THINGS THE WAY WE WANT'EM DONE?!" her voice cracking. She aimed the weapon up and fired at the forms trying to descend toward them. Some jumped, others crawled on the walls. Still, the tidal wave didn't stop, chasing them all the way down.

They started running again, ignoring whatever hellish areas they were wading through, rifles in hand and firing whenever they met hostiles. Chief took as wing to the shoulder, his shields flaring and failing, followed by a second claw, but he pushed through it, gunning down the two that attempted to kill him. Elster, meanwhile, ducked under one swing, but got hit by two more. She fired as they ran, too.

Samey hallways that lead to samey locations. It was almost unbelievable just how similar everything the Forerunners had built was. It wasn't long before they made it to another elevator area, where they paused. A platoon of Marines pointed rifles at the door they were coming from, only for one of said Marines to call out, "Jesus Christ, Sarge, Chief! We nearly wasted you two!"

"Report, Marine," Chief requested, "Any infected?"

"No, sir. Thankfully none," The Marine nodded, "This is a route up. There's a defensible position upstairs if you wanna move there, but the Captain and Sergeant Johnson aren't there yet..."

"I... Don't think they're gonna be here any time soon, Marine," Elster whispered, causing the Marine to gasp, then said, "We should get moving. Everyone, on the elevator," before they all boarded it. Taking the elevator up to the exit, which was a different one than normal, the troops filed out. Elster heard her radio crackle to life and looked to the Chief, smiling. She spoke, "Echo Four-Nineteen, this is Elster! We're alive and we need EVAC immediately! Did you copy!?"

"Loud and clear, Sarge! I got scared when we lost contact down there, but I'm on my way! Find a defensible position and hunker down!" The pilot replied as the elevator reached the top. They piled out of the place, moving in a staggered column to the center of the swamp. What looked like a Forerunner pumping station of some kind resided in the middle, surrounded by marsh and murky water. The Marines, Spartan and Replika immediately set up around it, transmitting their beacons wide across the net.

"We got incoming already!" A Marine reported. Tracers started flying, only to be replied to by plasma weapons and other tracers. This wasn't the Covenant, obviously. The enemy, whatever they were, surged forward from the mist, waves upon waves of infectors and bipedal combat forms, charging the UNSC. Still, the Marines and their two NCOs did a good job keeping the bastards at bay.

It wasn't long, however, before what looked like floating automata descended from the heavens. Silver-grey hulls, grappling appendages and in-built energy weapons shaped like a small drone, a bright blue eye glaring at the Flood. Beams of energy spat out from the underslung weapons, sizzling and cutting through the alien infection ahead, protecting the Marines.

Elster and Chief looked up, stunned, before watching one of the Drones descend upon them and examine them. It chirped something, turned around and opened fire with its main beam weapon at a Flood form. Then, both of them were enveloped by a golden light, a nauseating feeling causing Elster to stumble. Down below, gunfire and energy beams continued to strike the tide of mindless enemies, their bioresonant voices still screaming at them.

The Spartan and Replika, however, paused, watching a small, ball-shaped drone coming down toward them, humming a tune. It stopped upon seeing the Spartan and spoke, "Greetings! I am 343 Guilty Spark, Monitor of Installation 04! Someone here has released the Flood from containment. I intend to annihilate this infestation, but I will need your help and the help of your Construct, Reclaimer. This way, please."

... And before long, both Spartan and Replika vanished with the Monitor, Foe Hammer's calls landing on deaf ears, save for the Marines she now landed to rescue.

Chapter Text

It took a moment for Elster’s internals to flip back to normal as they landed. She rolled forward against the metallic floor of whatever godforsaken Forerunner structure they were in, the Bioresonant screams of a thousand alien beasts sending shivers up her mechanical spine. She straightened up, aimed her rifle around, then looked at the Chief and Guilty Spark.

The floating eyeball spoke, “Welcome to the Library. A true compendium of all information stored on the Ring and home to the Activation Index. If you will follow me to it, Reclaimer and Asset,” before he sputtered forward, jovial as ever. Elster and Chief exchanged one glance, then quickly moved to follow, preparing their projectile weapons.

Chief picked up a Shotgun from the ground, noting the dead Flood Form that had been burnt out by nearby Sentinels. He found the ammo in the poor Marine’s belt, slid it into pouches, then walked forward. Shepard was not far behind, picking up the Marine’s second pistol and making sure her machete was still up to snuff.

“ Fuck this place, ” That certain fun voice in the back of Elster’s head spoke. She agreed quietly as she and the Chief pushed past the complicated, shining alien architecture of the place toward the first set of massive doors. Lilith added, “We’re in deep shit, Elster. Whatever Tinkerbell wants us to do here better fucking work…”

“Chief,” The Replika spoke, turning her gaze to meet that of the Spartan as they approached the door. The two stopped as Guilty Spark began working on the locks and Elster switched off her externals, then transmitted to Chief over single-beam, “Do we even know what the hell we’re doing, sir? I have a bad feeling about this place.”

“It’s a building filled with these parasites, Sergeant,” Chief replied, obviously wary, “We grab the Index, get out as fast as possible.”

“And then?” She asked, scanning the area behind them. The slithering and warbles of the alien creatures echoed from around  them, followed by the massive bulkhead door behind them hissing open, Sentinels flying past them into the room. 

The Spartan stared at her and replied, “... Then we fire the Ring, find a ship and go back to Reach.”

She nodded. The two then turned about and pushed forward, following Spark toward what seemed to be a massive central chamber. The Library was a sprawling complex, bigger than even the grandest skyscrapers on any Eusan planet, regardless of if it was Imperial or Nation. Both tall and deep and with a central concentric area, it almost glowed gold…

Chief hadn’t been distracted, though. When the first ping appeared on their motion trackers, marked red, he called out, “Elster,” as he prepared the shotgun. The girl readied her assault rifle, shouldering it and aiming straight for the vent. The first creature to pop up was the mangled form of a Covenant Elite. It dropped too all fours and surged toward them toward them, jumping down from the vent and roaring.

… Then the tide followed, a whirlwind of screams replying to their sibling.

A horde of monsters appeared from all around. Chief called out, “To the door!” before showing Elster to follow. The two fired their weapons on the run, painting the Forerunner alloys below their feet in pus and congealing blood as they did so. The demonic entities trailed them, their wailing screams laying on Elster’s Psyche.

The two made it to the door, dodging enemy units and their fire. One charged Elster, cocking back one of its two mangled claw-hands, but the Replika was quicker on the draw, her machete slicing through rotting and decomposing flesh, smearing her left gauntlet with their blood while her rifle barked. She aimed center-mass, right at the infection forms at the heart of it all.

Chief, meanwhile, made short work of the enemy with the shotgun. The eight-gauge soelkraft buckshot rounds ripped through the monsters, biting chunks out of them. Spark commented, “Truly interesting choice of armaments! Combine that with your Combat Skins and you should normally be unable to survive this onslaught of Flood…”

He cast a glance at Elster while working to open the next door. The Synthetic was a strange one, almost familiar, but the AI didn’t bother to say anything. If the Reclaimer allowed, he would investigate her at a later date, provided she did not become infected. He hummed a tune, re-tasking a Sentinel force to assist.

The dozen or so drones appeared, firing their energy beam weapons at the Flood forms as they began to swarm again toward Chief and Elster in an almost coordinated way, firing plasma, needles and bullets their way. Elster was picking her shots. Three-round bursts straight to the enemies’ infection form tentacles, meaning the infection forms themselves collapsed.

It didn’t help, though, when she saw one infection form immediately burrow its way into its dead sibling’s place, reviving one of the alien parasite-infested corpses to continue its charge. She swore and said to Chief, “Tactical update, sir! They can revive corpses with the Infectors! Best to blow’em all to bits!”

“Already on it,” The Spartan replied almost apathetically as he fired his shotgun, spraying gore and viscera on the monsters behind the one whose  torso he took off. He ducked under a swing, slammed the hard butt-stock of his shotgun into the attacker’s body, staggering it, then put the barrel of the shotgun against its chest and fired.

He felt two more pounce on him, causing him to lose the Shotgun as both started beating on his shields. Elster was quick to swivel about and aim, firing a long burst across the lateral axis of both alien creatures, destroying their spines and temporarily stunning them. The Spartan immediately punched clean through them with both hands and let the corpses fall before grabbing his shotgun.

The two nodded at each-other, with Lilith quipping, “That’s gotta be the fifth time you saved his ass…”

Elster turned, kneed an alien monster, kicked it, then fired a burst right at its infector form. She then replied to Lilith, “He and his Spartans have saved mine enough for it not to count,” before she yelped as she took a slash across her back from one of the monsters. She staggered, doubled over and almost fell.

Chief caught her in a surprising burst of speed, then planted a buckshot shell right into the Combat Form’s chest, spraying its internals and causing them to go external. The two nodded to one-another, with Lilith snorting as she watched the two go to town on the Flood, firing their weapons. The moment Spark called out, “Lock disengaged. Follow me, please!”

The two nodded and rushed forth, though the Horde behind them trailed ever closer, not to mention more of it appearing from the walls, to the point both were worried they were gonna empty their entire supply of ammo. Though it was impossible, thanks to the Flood-infected humans that were rushing them carrying both sides’ weapons, it was still… Worrying.

Chief knelt and pumped three shots into a squadron of beasts, nailing one of the inflated, infection-filled balloons that were carrier forms. Elster beside him dumped a magazine into the beasts that were sent flying by the detonation of the stumpy-legged form with tentacles. Chunks of rotting flesh boiled the moment the Drones overhead fired again, though two of them were immediately sniped.

One Combat Form, an old Marine whose tag was still visible, though fading with his erratic lifesigns on Elster’s hud, aimed a Jackhammer rocket launcher. The girl barked, “LAUNCHER!” only to roll out of the way as both rockets from the tube screamed toward them, spraying them with shrapnel at the moment of detonation. 

The Spartan and Replika focused it, gunning it down and destroying the launcher. Both primed grenades and hurled them into the horde as they backed toward the massive door, watching it slide open as more Sentinels poured through and beamed the undead, focusing them down by threat level. Chief showed Elster to move, providing her cover with his shotgun.

She nodded and moved back behind the door, taking cover as rounds zipped around them, plasma and kinetic, then barked, “SET!” allowing Chief to turn and run as she laid into the Horde with her rifle. The door began to rapidly close, the multitude of moving Forerunner metal parts sealing shut behind the Chief as they made it into a corridor with strange, blue-glowing shields on the right.

She dropped the spent magazine and spoke to Spark, “You took your god-damned time closing that one,” with a huff. The floating eyeball simply let out a short, but spine-chilling laugh as it flew into what looked like a tunnel. She spoke, “I really don’t like him,” as they walked, with Chief seemingly agreeing via a nod.

“Only have to bear him ‘till we get the Index,” The Spartan told her, then asked, “Was it Noble that made sure we could get off of Reach?” only to watch the girl pause. He scanned the woman’s armor, noting the various plasma marks, the gashes, the damage and black marks, then he looked right into her visor. She nodded, to which he said, “Good to know… I’ll thank them when we meet them.”

“Sounds good, Chief,” Elster spoke, a smile on her face. He really was convinced people had survived Reach, wasn’t he? Even after all he’d seen these past twenty-something years of the Covenant burning planets and killing billions. She told him, “Thanks. I think I needed a little boost after…” and she shuddered, motioning to the general direction of the horde as they walked through.

He nodded. He would never say it out-loud, but he was scared, too. The Flood was a new enemy. Something ancient and evil. Something they never should’ve encountered. Part of him was glad Blue Team was nowhere near this part of the Ring, but he was concerned over their well-being. Alpha Base was, hopefully, safe…

The two pushed on through, Elster a bit more focused. Straggler Flood units ahead of them engaged, firing their weapons one-handed. Still more skittered and appeared from various tunnels beneath or from the same pipes that 343 Guilty Spark had encountered. The Spartan and Elster fought their way through to the best of their abilities, their armors now stained by the marks of pus and gore.

Elster drew her Machete again and cut her way through whatever forms drew closer, feeling their claws and arms striking at her, causing her shields to dip by the slightest percentile. Chief was doing better, though not by much, with the Shotgun giving him an ability to clear pretty decent chunk of the beasts and rip them to shreds.

When they reached the next door, Elster knelt and opened fire toward the horde, sheathing her machete and watching as more and more of those damn things appeared on her Motion Tracker, forming what was basically a gigantic, squirming red mass on the tracker versus two golden dots and a few greys.

When the door opened, the Spartan and Elster stepped through, letting the machines above deal with the hostile threat, before the door shut behind them again. Though it was an unsurprising thing, the two now remained dead quiet as they kept on pushing through the place, encountering more and more hordes.

It seemed as though the Flood, even in as primal a state as they seemed to be, had one focus:Stop them from accessing the Ring’s defense systems and wiping them and the Covenant out. Self-preservation instincts for these things were quite high, despite being what felt like hive-minded Zombies from a bad horror flick Ariane would’ve shown her on the ship.

They were not the stupid undead, however. These things learned how to wield weapons, how to fire them and how to even reload them in some cases. One of the beasts had nearly gotten them with a rocket launcher double-shot, damn near dooming all of humanity in one quick shot. She was sure Chief had noticed it, too,  but these things were smart.

The Spartan and Elster stopped in front of the door again as it shut behind them, finding themselves in an enclosed space with two entrance holes and a lot of cover. He ordered, “Reload,” as he pulled out several eight-gauge shells and started sliding them into the tube. Elster checked her rifle over, dropped a half-spent magazine and slammed a fresh one home. The counter reset to green, counting sixty.

She heard Guilty Spark speak, “Wait here! I will disengage the lock myself…” only to notice that the door was, in fact, stuck.

She sighed and said, “Ambush?”

“Ambush,” Chief confirmed, weapon at the ready as the holes ahead of them started clanging with everything from combat forms to infectors pushing through them. They opened fire the moment the first yellow flesh popped forward, but deep down they couldn’t wait to be out of here. Spark was probably genuinely trying to kill them.

Regardless of that, the two fought, gaining a few more superficial marks and blood spatters on their armor to signify the Flood’s continuing attacks on them. Plasma rounds burst against the Chief’s shields, followed by a volley of automatic rifle fire which Elster quickly returned in kind, cutting down several more of the creatures.

She threw a grenade and watched Chief join her, taking cover beside a pillar supporting the vaulted ceiling near the door as he dumped more shotgun rounds forward. Lilith spoke, “You know, I’m starting to really hate Forerunner Eyeball. Cortana’s genuinely cool, but this fucker-ELSTER, WATCH OUT!”

The girl felt the air knocked out of her lungs as the Chief pushed her out of the way of a Spanker missile that flew right where she’d been. He lifted the shotgun and blasted the rocketeer, before running to and grabbing the weapon off the floor. He shouldered it and realized he couldn’t fire into the alien crowd without killing both himself and Elster, then slung it on his back and kept pumping Shotgun rounds into what was by now a tidal wave of beasts.

When the door began to open again, the two bolted through, firing whatever was left of their ammo as they moved. Elster, however, lagged behind, feeling her own machine lungs somehow burning like real ones. Lilith once again called to her, but her ears rang now as she felt the weight of something slam into her.

Time slowed as she saw a Flood form decloak, a burly Elite, taller than the others. She skid across the floor, the entire time her ears ringing. When she stopped in front of the pit that lead down to the nothingness of the Halo Ring’s internals, time seemed to finally return, that ringing only growing higher in pitch as she saw the alien monstrosity coming at her…

… And for but a moment, she saw a SAPR unit, armed with an autocannon, rushing her…

Only to snap back to reality a second later as a Shotgun blast, then another and another ripped it to shreds, sending it tumbling end-over-end into the pit below. Chief moved over to Elster, grabbed her by the hand and lifted her to her feet, then handed her a plasma rifle and said, “Rifle went down the hole. C’mon,” as they moved forward.

She nodded and followed, firing the plasma rifle behind them and making sure the weapon stayed charged. She mumbled, “The fact these fucks can now use active camouflage doesn’t paint a pretty picture for our chances of survival, sir,” to which Chief simply gave her an elbow in the shoulder, a sign to stay calm.

The two pushed through another door that, this time, Spark had opened surprisingly quickly as the Horde closed in behind them. The tidal wave grew to the point it encompassed most of the motion trackers’ screen, so they needed to move fast. The Forerunner Monitor spoke, “We are nearly there…” before approaching an elevator with them.

Clambering onto said elevator, a massive gravity-defying, ornate platform, Spark told them, “Keep the Flood away to the best of your abilities, Reclaimer. You and your Synthetic have proven yourselves quite resilient to these creatures despite the lacking biohazard protection,” almost sounding proud of them, somehow.

Freaky little bastard, Elster thought, to which Lilith agreed. The two kept up the pressure, firing at the horde and keeping them away to the best of their abilities, only to stumble as the elevator powered on, dipped a little as the antigrav system kicked in, then moved on and up. As it raised high toward where the Index was held, a beam of azure light descended down the center like a guide rod.

Elster sighed and tossed aside the plasma rifle, which was almost empty, before drawing her pistol. She switched to Single-Beam and told Chief, “He’s been testing us, maybe even planning to use us as a backup to contain these things. How do we know this thing will even take out the Covenant, much less the Flood? Especially after all we’ve seen here…”

“It’s our only lead,” Chief replied, straight-laced as always, as he checked his shotgun, then tossed it aside. He grabbed the rocket launcher, looked it over and realized that one of the two missiles had been fired. Slinging it back onto his back, he drew his own MA5B, racked the bolt and told her, “And if it turns out to be a dud, we’ll figure something out. Spartans adapt, Sergeant.”

“I know, sir,” She replied, “I’m a Replika, though…”

He shook his head and said, “You aren’t any less of a Spartan today than any of us,” before shouldering his rifle. She smiled a little behind her visor, then watched Chief check his armors’ damage, finding it to be superficial. He then told her, “Now. Get ready. The moment we grab the Index, we book it and find a way to the Control Room.”

“Sir,” She replied. When the elevator reached the spot, the pair spotted it:The Index. A small device, resembling the hilt of a dagger with a glowing emerald line going down the center. It was locked in a containment device with an active haptic interface of some sort, similar to most Forerunner tech. Chief tapped on it, activating it and unlocking it, several pieces shifting into place.

The moment he retrieved the Index, though, the teleport system activated… And once more, she felt her stomach turn inside out. Though, this time, it wasn’t long before they landed with their feet on a familiar, transparent platform which had a holographic ring floating around it. The Control Room lay dead ahead.

Elster and Chief exchanged glances, with Spark stating something. The girl brought up rearguard, pistol drawn, while Chief went on to the control console and put the Index in. It was then that the Ring first screeched to life, its internal reactors seemingly spooling audibly below them… Then it shut off. Spark spoke, deflated, “That wasn’t supposed to happen…”

“Oh, really !?“ Cortana demanded, seemingly irate. An energy shockwave sent the Monitor flying back, rolling onto the floor before it powered on its engines. Though as Spark sputtered, Elster could faintly make out the trails of Sentinels moving up from below. She took a few steps back, looking at Spark, then gave an elbow to the Chief.

The Eyeball wasn’t here just to talk, was he? She spoke, “Chief, we gotta move…”

Only to hear Cortana… "You have no idea how this ring works, do you? Why the Forerunners built it? Halo doesn't kill Flood, it kills their food. Humans, Covenant, whatever. We're all equally edible! The only way to stop the Flood is to starve them to death. And that's exactly what Halo is designed to do: Wipe the galaxy clean of all sentient life. You don't believe me? Ask him!"

She froze, then looked at Spark. Chief swiveled about, shotgun in hand, then asked, “Is this true?” in the most deadpan, Spartan-standard way ever. The damn Ring was a WMD meant to wipe out SENTIENT LIFE and that little piece of shit had left it out. Elster scoffed, preparing to put a slug clean through its eye socket.

Spark hesitated for a second as Elster aimed her pistol. He, however, replied, "More or less. Technically, this installation's pulse has a maximum effective radius of twenty-five thousand light years. But, once the others follow suit, this galaxy will be quite devoid of life, or at least any life with sufficient biomass to sustain the Flood,” Then, he paused and asked a calm, "But you already knew that... I mean, how couldn't you?"

 "Left out that little detail, did he?" Cortana asked mockingly. Though Spark began to monologue as Chief removed Cortana’s chip from the console, Elster spotted something moving in the background. The door to the Control Room seemed to crack open. Cortana told Elster, “Be ready to book it, Els. Figured it’s as good a time as any to call for some backup nearby…”

Elster nodded, swallowed empty, then paused as she saw a friendly IFF pop up. A familiar IFF. She heard Spark state, “Save his head. Dispose of the rest,” with a cold, calculated tone, as a swarm of Sentinels appeared. Though Spark retreated, the first shot of the battle rang out:A sniper rifle’s bark. It was followed by the chatter of automatic rifles and another thunderclap as the Drones’ shields failed.

Two familiar members of Blue Team moved forward with a platoon of Marines. Chief spoke, “Linda, James… Just in time,” to which the two Spartans nodded, surprisingly cool under pressure. Beside them was a platoon of Marines they’d retrieved, which meant they were not Flood Bait, which also meant they’d be fine moving with’em.

“We have any chance for Evac?” Elster asked, “How’s Alpha Base?”

“Flood hit it around the same time you all just appeared on our Radars again, but it’s been secured since. Most assets have left, though, with Silva going off on his own,” Linda replied, shouldering her sniper, “We should move. Our only Evac’s a Pelican off-site, about a click back through the Valley, and I don’t think Echo-419 is gonna wait for us long,” to which Chief and the Replika nodded. 

Elster noticed the scorch marks on their armors and the dents and damage on the guns. One of the Marines’ MA5s lacked the ammo counter, the glass having shattered after a needle round had seemingly impacted it. Some lacked armor, others were bandaged up and only biofoam held them together.

Chief rallied the Fireteam up behind him, showing them to follow, with Cortana stating, “I’m afraid we can’t depart yet, Blues… Without the Index, the Monitor can’t activate the ring from this Control Room. What we need to do is destroy it, obviously, which would require a detonation reaching in the hundreds of Megatons, if not more. A starship’s fusion drives.”

“The Autumn ,” James suggested as the team started moving forward, “Last I heard, her engines were still intact.”

“Then that’s our target. I’m gonna work on locating it on the Ring,” Cortana spoke, “Before that? This area contains the Ring’s main firing mechanisms, made up of three pulse generators, so I’d like to take those out as well before we move any further…” and she appeared on the TEAMCOM, visible via their HUDs, “Follow the markers I’m placing.”

“Echo Four-Nineteen, this is Blue Two. We’ve located Actual and are on the move. Be advised:Hostile High Value Targets are located in the AO and we’re moving to destroy them,” Linda spoke calmly, “Take off from current position and orbit the Canyon to the best of your abilities. If the area becomes too hot, depart. We’ll find our own way out…”

“... Roger that, ma’am. Godspeed… ” Foehammer seemed uneasy to leave them behind… Understandably…

Chief ordered, “Move out.”

All of Blue, now reunited and with Reinforcements, gave an affirmative reply, though it was silent. They pushed forward, Spartans and Marines moving together through the massive hallway of the Control Room. Red hostile dots appeared on their Motion Trackers, but they were ready to greet them with bullets. It was gonna be a tough fight.

Least they weren’t alone anymore, Elster thought to herself…

Chapter Text

The Blues and Elster pushed through crowds of Covenant and the Flood attacking them with the support of the Marines advancing behind them. Human kinetic projectile rifles barked loudly, spewing azure, purple and sickly yellow blood onto the alien metal walls and floor as they pushed through. Linda’s sniper rang loud, rounds ripping apart enemy Sentinels that were trying to dive down on them.

“How’d you manage to piss off an alien AI?” James asked as he slammed the butt of his rifle into the mouth of another Grunt. Chief huffed, while Elster didn’t seem too keen to talk about it either. The Spartan hummed, then made sure they knew he understood. They continued advancing through the enemy formations, dodging needle rounds, plasma bolts and bullets from both enemy sides, plus particle beams from the Sentinels.

Elster rolled forward as one golden Sentinel’s beam slashed exactly where she’d been, cutting a line into the metal, but not melting it. She straightened up from the combat roll, aimed and fired her AR at almost point-blank with the drone, watching its egg-shaped shield flicker, then die under the barrage of bullets before the rounds ripped its internals apart.

She grabbed the falling drone out of mid-air and ripped out the beam, gripping it firmly and finding the specific ‘wiring’ as they ran. When she picked the right alien connection lines to charge and fire the weapon, she hefted it and aimed toward a Flood combat form, watching a strange reticle form on her HUD. She squeezed and the beam zipped out, boiling and burning away the Flood creature by basically melting it down to its constituent parts.

A Marine was grabbed by a Flood form, screaming bloody murder as it tried to tear his armor off, but Linda was quicker on the draw, snapping off two shots from her pistol as they ran and grabbing the Marine by the collar before making sure he wasn’t infected. He nodded in thanks, pale as the snow outside before grabbing his rifle off the ground and continuing the push.

They pushed out to the main door, waiting for it to detect them and slide open as they formed up into a half-circle and opened fire at any enemy that moved their way. Swarms of infector pods charged them, almost looking like they were being marshalled forward by the Combat Forms. Elster aimed for an Elite Combat Form, then gasped as it roared at her.

For a moment, both she and Lilith heard something in the broken tongue of the Elites, before watching it charge her way. The girl grit her teeth and aimed, firing on full auto. The rounds ripped through the monster’s body, digging holes into the rancid flesh. Two Marines joined her and laid it low with their own rifles.

As the door fully opened, Elster felt the wind outside hit her back. She didn’t move, but she did feel and see the gusts blowing through the BDUs beneath the Marines’ armors. Turning to face the outside, she gasped as she saw another platoon of wounded Marines waiting for them there, fighting back both Flood and the Covenant.

One of them was a recognizable young woman. She ran up to her and tapped her on the shoulder, which caused her to immediately  swivel about and aim her rifle, her one good eye wide. She had a bandage running diagonal over her right eye and the lack of depth perception actually seemed to cause her registering the SPI-clad Replika to take a second.

Alex Wu gasped, however, when she did, stating, “Elster!” before smiling, though still visibly shaking like a wet dog, “Holy crap…” and then pausing and gasping as she saw the Chief, too. She spoke softly, “You’re both alive. Thank the Lord…” as her voice cracked. She turned around as she heard the callout of one of her buddies, then saw a Combat Form pounce him.

It ripped his armor plate off and then stabbed him clean through the chest with its hand. “No!” Alexandra barked, lifting her rifle. In unison with Elster, she laid down rounds until the alien creature was nothing but mush on the floor. Before long, though, Elster moved over and shot a burst into the man’s corpse to make sure he didn’t come back.

The Replika then looked at Alex and asked, “How’d you lose an eye…?”

“An Elite,” She replied, “Bastard popped up out of nowhere when we were on a routine patrol here. Slashed my eye clean out and cut down several of my Squadmates, too,” and she scoffed, rubbing a hand over the bandage. Elster sighed at that, then nodded, to which the woman told her, “Be careful out there. Son of a bitch is still around. And if these things got him…”

The Replika hummed, sighing and looking around as she watched Flood, Forerunner Machinery and the Covenant battle it out. Alex’s voice cracked again as she said, “Man, you see one zombie movie and you think…” before whimpering, “God, I hate these things so much,” and looking upon the corpse of one of the Human Combat Forms.

“Agreed,” Elster mumbled. She looked at the Chief and said, “Sir, maybe we should call up an Evac for our Marines. Proceed on foot to take out those generators if Cortana can point them out,” then paused as she saw the NAV Points pop up on her HUD. 117 nodded, tapping his helmet’s side as if to say he’d already given Foe Hammer the signal.

She smiled behind her helmet, simply tilting her head forward slightly in approval, then looked at Alex and said to her, “You and the other Marines are getting outta here… I don’t know where, but you’re getting off of this rock, or at least somewhere safe and away from here,” before pausing. She then told them, “We’ll see you when we’re out of here, too… But first? We’re blowing this nightmare up.”

“Okay…” The girl nodded, smiling, “I’m looking forward to that,” just as the drone of the Pelican’s engines echoed. Though plasma bolts, needle rounds and tracers criss-crossed in the sky, trying to bring it down, the Spartans and Replika began clearing out a path for the Marines to hitch a ride. Foe Hammer looked back, counting the Marines, then sighed and waited for Chief’s signal.

The man gave a chop of the hand. The woman lifted off moments later, taking off right into the sky with the survivors it picked up. Blue Team began its push down the pyramid, dodging bursts of automatic fire from the human Combat Forms and plasma bolts and needle rounds from the Covenant and their own Lost Souls.

Chief slammed the butt of his rifle into the jaw of an Elite and swept the legs out from under a Flood Form before drawing his pistol and executing the monster on the spot. He dismembered it with a couple of good stomps to make sure it wouldn’t get back up, then showed everyone to follow them to their intended objectives.

They pushed on, down the ramps and through enemy defenses, a team of four Spartans and one very, very angry Replika, the screams of the monsters filling her mind. Lilith loudly whined, “God, they’re FUCKING LOUD!” as she was trying to block them out. Elster huffed as she kicked high, sending a beast falling backward. She emptied what was left of her AR’s magazine before changing it out.

The Replika didn’t have qualms about pushing forward, descending down through the three-way battle until they reached the bottom of the pyramid, bullets ringing loud in the snowy night, yellow pus and blood staining the snow and mixing with the Covenant’s. The Spartans and Replika were ruthless. Where bullets didn’t cut it, blade and fist met whatever charged at them.

Elster’s fist slammed through the chest of one of the Elite-based combat forms. She ripped it out and flicked as much of the muck off as she could before turning and pumping more rounds into the enemy that tried to corner them. She grit her teeth, expending ammunition and her strength, to the point she could swear she was feeling phantom pains with every punch. Every artificial muscle fiber in her body burned as she fought through, rifle in hand.

Beside her, Chief and the rest of the Blues were no different, diving into the dark snowscape ahead of them in a reverse of their combat action only a little while ago. They pushed through, guns barking as they cut down swarms of infection forms, combat forms and even Covenant who tried to swing for them, firing plasma weapons and needlers.

Elster’s rifle clicked empty. She dropped it and yanked the half-empty one off of a combat form, not bothering to reload. Beside her, Chief, James and Lin continued laying into the bastards, every burst spilling blood onto the white snow. James inquired, “You guys still haven’t answered me. How’d we piss off a Forerunner AI?” as he shot a Sentinel drone out of the sky with his pistol.

Cortana answered with strain, “We refused to fire a weapon of mass extermination…”

“The Ring,” Elster spoke around the same time Lilith did, the latter’s voice ringing loud in the girl’s ears. She continued, “The damn Ring. It’s an alien superweapon of some kind. The Covenant want it to go through their Holy fucking Journey…” before she grit her teeth, throwing the empty rifle the moment she heard a click and nailing a Grunt in the skull.

She grabbed a needler mid-run toward the entrance to the tunnels in the cliff, then rushed through, firing the weapon on full auto. It spat crystalline shards out, each round tracking and impaling a Grunt or the Combat Form that was trying to kill and consume it. The bolts were close enough to supercombine, the thundering lilac explosion rippling through the hallway and touching off a series of daisychained grenades on the belts of other aliens.

As they turned the corner and James set his mind on replying, Elster was ambushed by a gold-clad Zealot in active camouflage. It slammed her against the wall, but Elster managed to swing the side of the half-loaded Needler into its face. It screamed in pain just before Chief kicked it back and dumped seventeen rounds of 7,65x51 into its chest, carving it into an open wound.

He helped Elster up and she nodded, saying, “Thanks, Chief,” before drawing her pistol. James pied the corner while Linda covered their rear, with Liltih quietly mumbling certain things to herself that Elster could hear. She slammed the side of her helmet, causing Lilith to yelp and quietly apologize and, when she got odd looks from the Spartans, she told them, “Helmet feedback…” a lie that she figured she’d regret in a while.

If Lilith was really her finally going through the stages of Persona Degradation, maybe she should’ve let the Spartans know about proper disposal procedures ahead of time…

As they climbed up the ramps, Lilith told Elster, “Look… Hearing them all, y’know, it’s…” and Elster nodded, well aware. She could hear the bastards as well, though that didn’t explain a damn thing about how the hell they were able to speak to her. The only Bioresonant she knew was Ariane and she was on Reach, or part of Reach now , her mind reminded her bitterly. These things were lightyears away from the planet.

They climbed and exited out onto a rock bridge where a platoon of Elites coordinated Grunts to refuel and seemingly rearm three Banshees. The four-person fireteam pushed forward, catching the aliens by surprise. Chief put down one of the Elites, a Major going by the scarlet armor and the mean demeanor, then cut down the Grunts around it.

Linda’s sniper roared loudly, taking the hat off another Elite while the third roared in anger, its jaws spreading like petals. It surged forward, firing its plasma rifle at the Spartans and forcing them all into cover, save James and Elster. The two began pounding the Alien’s shields with bullets, the Replika aiming for the head while her Spartan comrade put rounds center-mass.

The shields flared, flashed and died, followed by a death groan as the .50 caliber SAPHE round punctured through its throat and sent it tumbling back, off the edge of the bridge. Without skipping a beat, the team approached the three Banshees, with Elster commenting, “Three birds… Four of us. What do we do?”

Linda put a hand up to her helmet’s earpiece, then said, “I’ll take a Pelican out of here. Those generators are very likely within confined spaces and it sounds like the Base needs backup.”

“They are,” Cortana confirmed, “I’ll call Foe Hammer.”

“Thanks… Take care of yourselves, Chief,” The Sniper stated. She hummed, drew her own rifle off of her back and tossed it and the ammunition to a surprised Elster. She told the girl, “Don’t waste it,” as more of a friendly jab. The Replika gave a quick nod, then slid the weapon onto her back and the ammo in the rig pouches. 

As the Pelican swung in for landing, James, Chief and Elster boarded their Flyers. The Banshee’s canopy closed over Elster like the lid of a coffin, with Lilith murmuring, “Oh, this is gonna suck…” quietly. Elster scoffed, then shook her head as the alien holographic controls lit up in front of her. She grabbed onto what she thought was the craft’s acceleration and hover functions, then heard the whirr of the antigrav pods on the wings.

She watched a small display flash, before Cortana’s form appeared in front of her. She jokingly asked, “You want a tutorial, Els?”

“Ha,” The Replika let out a dry, singular laugh, before answering, “I… Maybe?” and watched as Cortana inserted a quick translation software into the system, mixed with hints on how to fly this thing. IT was basically a weighted CAS bird, nothing like the Sabre she’d flown with Six to defend Reach… She sighed and shoved that thought to the recesses of her mind, then said, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” The AI replied with a slight smile, though her avatar seemed a bit dimmer than prior. Elster wanted to ask what had happened, but the AI disappeared just as the Waypoint to the first generator appeared on her HUD. Cortana then said over com, “Each team member takes on one generator. Once they’re all clear, I teleport all three of you out.”

“Roger,” Everyone replied in unison.

Elster pushed forward on the acceleration… And felt the bird lurch forward. Lilith called out, “Woah, WOAH, WOAH!” as the display lit up with a forward view, showing the craft dip down toward the ground. Elster scoffed, before pulling on whatever directional dodecahedron the ship ran on and moved upward. She swiveled about, dipping below the rock bridge and then turning high as she hit a booster. Lilith spoke, “Lord in heaven, Elster!”

“Quiet,” The girl replied, focusing hard on flying the ship. The other two Spartans behind her seemed to follow quickly while Foe Hammer picked up Linda. They dived into the Canyon, moving over battles between the Flood and Covenant and banking and dipping in and around the bends. Each split up the moment their turn came, with Elster taking the forwardmost path to the farthest Generator.

She watched platoons of Marines still stranded down there, fighting almost together with the Covenant in cutting down the swarms of Flood as they advanced. She scoffed, switching to the ship’s fuel rod cannon before sweeping in low and firing three rounds of radioactive explosives into a horde of the monsters. 

The Marines cheered while the Elites stared, semi-confused, but continued to fire at the Flood. She wondered if they all realized they were gonna die together, so they might as well try to fight the Flood off together. She swiveled the bird around for another volley, firing both the plasma cannons on the ship’s bow and the fuel rod shots to try and thin the enemy out, give the Humans some chance to flee.

She then turned again as Lilith told her, “... Gotta wonder if there could be more than hatred, right?” as she read her thoughts on the Marines and Elites down there. The Replika hummed in agreement, pulling up and powering the bird’s antigrav thrusters to provide a boost. She aimed for the entrance to the generator room as she listened to the coms. She felt something trailing her, though…

As she touched down on the triangular Forerunner platform that poked out of the sheer rock face, she jumped from the vehicle and drew her rifle. The Waypoint updated to deeper within the mountain itself, which she took as her cue to enter through the alien door, rifle raised as she pushed through. The crackle of plasma fire and thunder of automatic weapons replying filled her ears, though as the door shut behind her, she could swear she heard something else land behind.

Sighing, she focused, pushing through the place and encountering the first Elites, Grunts and a shield wall of Jackals. She primed a fragmentation grenade and long-armed it into the Covenant’s lines, watching the thundering explosion send shrapnel through the backs of the Jackals, staggering a few and allowing her to pick them off with accurate bursts from her rifle.

The Elites turned, plasma rifles hissing as they fired at the girl. Several bolts stitched the ground beside her as she rolled away and into the cover of a smaller side corridor. She felt the heat of three bolts that struck  her shield and caused it to die before she got into cover, mumbling to herself, “Spartans do this on their own daily… How the hell…?”

“Supersoldiers, ‘member?” Lilith teased, “Frag now.”

She nodded, primed the grenade and swiveled low, rolling it between a trio of Elites. The blast staggered them, disabling one’s shields and giving Elster an opening. She poked out and laid into the bastards, tracers latticing across the chest of the unshielded one and spraying its purple blood across the floor before a headshot took its cap off.

The Replika then pushed up while the other two and their Grunts regained their composure. The first to fire back were, ironically, the smaller aliens. Green bolts and pink crystals criss-crossed the hallway, turning it into a small advance of doom just as Elster managed to take cover. A needle struck her shoulder and exploded into microfragments that still glowed in the armor plate.

Lilith appeared again, pointeda t the floor, then at the Elite that was leading the charge. Her Replika counterpart noticed the plasma grenade on the ground and scooped it up. She primed it and, when the Covenant’s weapons all went quiet in sync, she surged forward. Throwing the grenade like she was pitching a baseball, she stuck it to the Elite’s face before pelting the Grunts behind it and its pal with bullets.

“Left!” Lilith cried.

“ RIGHT… ” Roared a voice beside her.

Elster did the smart thing. She ducked and rolled as an energy sword and a tentacle swiped at each-other. She turned around while skidding on the floor, sparks flying as she aimed and shot her rifle in a wide angle, cutting a straight line across the walls and the side of the Elite and monster it had disarmed.

She watched the Elite fall while the monster staggered, then went bug-eyed as she saw it. A hulking monster clad in armor thick enough to withstand the volley of bullets, the alien limbs poking out of the plate visibly twisted, humanlike, but biomechanical. The tentacles that wrapped around its stubby arms glowed with radiation. 

“... Fuck me,” Lilith whispered.

Elster tensed, watching the monster stomp forward, its five-eyed mask sliding open to reveal a most horrific, twisted humanoid face. From within, the infection form poked out, gripping tightly to the spine of the biomechanical horror as her bulging eyes flowed with blood. The girl staggered back, then shook her head and aimed her rifle.

The mask shut just as the first burst left, bullets ricocheting off of the thick plate. She jumped back as the creature swung its heavy arm down, denting the alien alloy floor. Elster jumped back and cried out, “A Mynah!” before ducking under another swing. She fired again, shots penetrating through the cracks and spewing corrupted, almost black oxidant onto the floor. 

The creature surged forward, surprisingly agile for what it was supposed to be. It cocked its fist back, then sent it forward, tentacles lancing toward the girl to try and grab her. Lilith told her, “You saw where the infection form is! Question is how the FUCK did it get here?!”

“Same way Rita must’ve!” Elster replied as she backed off, firing her rifle, “Bioresonant waves…”

“Meaning these things are slowly getting the ability to read our fucking mind… Or they have a Bioresonant unit in their ranks already,”  Lilith scoffed. She felt the thought in the back of Elster’s mind resurface, then shook her head, “Much as I’d love for you to get another reason to hate these things, Elster, no… She burned with the planet.”

“Yeah,” Growled the Replika. She ducked underneath a swing, then felt the air get knocked out of her robotic lungs as she flew back into a wall, courtesy of a kick from the Corrupted Mynah. It stumbled forward, opening its mask again and roaring in anger as multiple pustules grew and exploded from her face, deploying dozens of Infection Forms.

The Replika grabbed her rifle, aimed and fired toward the infection forms first. She watched them burst, mumbling, “Guess this confirms we can be infected, as horrific as that is,” before she scrambled to her feet and moved to dodge a tentacle that swung out from the chest of the infected Mynah. She stumbled back, feeling it stab into her armor plate as her shield flared.

She struggled, removing the tentacle by using the still-sharp side of her broken machete. She stumbled back, primed a plasma grenade, then aimed for the face of the Mynah. The bomb stuck to the plate and exploded, plasma searing away the lead-lined titanium armor of the beast and revealing the facade whose flesh boiled away, revealing more Flood infection poking through it.

She scoffed, drawing her pistol and firing toward the face. The monster lifted its arm, deflecting the fifty-cal pistol rounds or shattering them on the plate. It then charged its fellow Replika as she reloaded, grabbing her by the throat and pinning her against the wall, shield breaking as its face extended out again, a broken amalgamation of Replika and Flesh.

Elster grit her teeth, feeling the pressure on her throat. She folded her legs and kicked the chest. Thick as the plate was, it still took a hit that caused the Mynah to loosen its grip just enough for Elster to pull her pistol up over its hand and put three slugs into the face. The monster stumbled back, tumbled over and fell backward, hitting the floor with a loud, metallic CLANG while the Replika climbed on top of it, put the barrel of her rifle into its mouth and opened fire, screaming until the ammunition ran dry and the insides of the suit were turned to paste.

Breathing heavily as the ammo counter of the rifle flashed red repeatedly, Elster let go of the trigger and mumbled, “... And stay down,” before dropping a grenade into the suit to make sure that would be the case. She jumped off and moved toward the blue glow of the Generator in the center of the room, radioing, “Cortana. Generator in sight. What do I need to do?”

“ Stand close to it. I’ll use your shields to overcharge it… Give us a nice window for a teleport, ” The AI replied. She then asked, “ You sound a bit out of breath. Something go bad ?”

“... A Replika,” She whispered, “A Mynah unit. Heavy armor. She was infected…”

“... Oh… ” Cortana sounded a lot more surprised than even Elster at that revelation. She spoke, “ She appeared here like Rita. Had the bad luck of running into the Flood first instead of you… ”

“Yeah,” Elster replied, “Now, c’mon… I want out of this snowy hellscape-”

“ELSTER, LOOK OUT!” Lilith’s voice echoed like a hammerblow on steel. Elster gasped, feeling a cold chill run up her spine. Turning and aiming her rifle, she felt the hoofed foot of an Elite slam into her chest, her rifle falling to the wayside as four alien fingers wrapped around her throat. She felt the sharp edge of an energy sword strike…

… It boiled away her visor on the right side, then a searing pain filtered through her artificial optical nerve before the eye failed. She grabbed the Elite’s hand as she screamed in pain, com still on. It was a terrifying, blood-curdling scream that sent an echo into what felt like the novosphere of bioresonance. 

… To the point she felt someone caress that wound…

She gasped and almost instinctively brought her legs up to her chest. She did the exact same move she’d done on the Corrupted Mynah on the alien, kicking it in the chest and sending it staggering back with its shields flaring. She grabbed onto the side of her helmet, feeling the oxidant bleeding through it, then growled.

Grabbing her rifle off the ground, she opened fire, screaming, not in anguish or pain, but furiously at the Elite as she pelted it with automatic weapons fire. Its shield flared, but it managed to move out of the way, sheathing its energy sword and activating the active camouflage built into its black special ops armor. 

Elster grit her teeth, panting as her vision glitched, the corner of her left eye turning blurry. She fell to her knees, dry-heaving and dropping her rifle before removing her helmet and looking at it. A deep gash in the opaque glass, on the right side. The glass was melting around the point where the blade had pierced… And Elster could see her reflection.

Lilith knelt beside her, her own right eye bandaged, as she cracked a smirk and said, “Guess you’re even more like me now, eh?” 

The Replika  breathed, mumbling, “There goes my ability to space walk,” before she slid the damaged helm back on. She felt the shields flicker and recharge, then radioed, “Cortana…” and swallowed empty, “Elite just ambushed me. Took severe damage to my right optical sensor. I’m gonna need that teleport ASAP…”

“ ... Already on it, Els, ” The girl replied, sounding apologetic. Lilith gave a thumbs up to Elster, who turned toward her and nodded just before the figure of her Old Self disappeared. She watched the golden rings of the teleporter system envelop her as her shield flared and the generator exploded behind her, then felt herself shift, lingering questions about the Mynah and all else hovering in her head, weird thoughts.

God damn…

Chapter Text

Where…?

Elster felt herself land hard , her armor clanging against the grates of some unknown location. She rolled, then sprung up to her feet and drew her assault rifle, demanding, “Cortana!? Chief! James! Linda!” as she scanned her surroundings. Metal corridors, reinforcements of steel and concrete, a grated floor. She mumbled, “What the hell…?” as her mind recognized the location somewhat.

She shouldered her MA5, turning the flashlight on and looking around the halls. Recognizable symbols danced in the corners of her eye. Smears of blood and oxidant mixed on the walls and dripped audibly through the grated floor onto the level below. She was in a metal corridor of some kind, one with a very familiar, fairly brutalist architectural style.

She whispered, “Lilith…? You there?” and her voice bounced off the metal, echoing quietly across the hallway itself. Her helmet’s Heads-Up Display was flickering and failing due to the gash left by the Elite’s energy blade. She could barely see her motion tracker and the helmet itself functioned as little more than a paperweight now.

She sighed and took it off, setting it aside and looking for some sign of life in her surroundings. She then paused, hearing heavy footfalls on the metal behind her and turned on her heels, aiming her rifle. She paused, however, as she saw Lilith emerge, arms raised. She said to Elster, “Easy. Easy. You alright, Els?”

“... Where are we?” She asked, lowering her rifle.

Lilith shrugged, then said, “I sort of recognize this place,” as she looked around. Metal automatic doors had been built into the walls, facing each-other. Four doors, two the left, two on the right. A fifth and sixth door stood at each end of the Hallway, facing each-other, though the one to her immediate North seemed to be stained by blood and heavily damaged.

The Replika walked over toward one of the doors and punched the button to open it, only to get an error flash on the door’s screen. It was jammed. She sighed deeply, walked over to try another door, then another, then another. Five doors, all of them locked. Lilith, meanwhile, crossed her arms, visibly shivering. 

Elster raised a brow and walked over toward her, asking, “You can feel cold?”

“Yeah,” She nodded, “Something about this place feels… Different. Like it’s home.”

She visibly paused next, looking at one of the pillars. She looked at Elster as the girl was about to try the final door, then whistled and pointed. She said, “Check the sign,” her voice surprisingly low, terrified. Elster turned, aimed the rifle’s flashlight beam at the wall, then visibly paused, her one good eye widening.

“... Sierpinski S-23,” She whispered, as her one good eye went wide, “Isn’t that a mining colony-”

“On Leng, yeah. Farthest rock from both Vineta and Buyan,” Lilith nodded, voice low, “Also very likely a penal colony…” and she walked over to Elster, fearfully telling her “We are home…” before doing the most surprising thing:Putting a hand on Elster’s shoulder. A hand she felt. A hand that had weight and tactile sense behind it.

The Replika blinked, then poked Lilith in the stomach. The girl let out a light yelp, then gasped and looked at Elster. She was real. Or at least physically present. She swore, “What in the actual fuck…?” as she took a step back. She looked at herself, then at Elster and started, “Okay… So we have a location I remember and I’m now tangible… Meaning…”

“Meaning something Bioresonant is related to this,” Elster whispered, looking around.  Both she and Lilith felt a chill shoot up their spines as they heard distant groans. One would normally chalk it up to metal at first, but Elster was an engineer Replika who’d spent the better part of a few years on board an exploration ship before she and Ari were transported to Reach by unknown means.

Those groans were recognizably not normal ones, but she wanted to ignore them as she figured out their predicament. She asked Lilith, “Do you think you might recognize this place because of Alina?” and that got Lilith to stare at her like she’d invoked the devil. Both women missed the same eye on the same side.

“Probably… She did mention she might get sent to it when she was still treating me for my injuries instead of working active-duty-” She spoke, but got cut off by more groans before asking, “Are we seriously going to ignore that…?” and pointing panickedly at the door. The Replika shook her head, then showed her to be quiet.

So, a Bioresonant event led to their teleport somehow sending them to the farthest edges of the Eusan Solar System, on a penal colony that might or might not have had something to do with Alina Seo, Lilith’s girlfriend and former comrade in the Vinetan 5th. Elster aimed her rifle toward the South door, the one the muffled, alien groaning was slowly approaching.

Lilith, meanwhile, looked down through the grating at the level below. She took a step back as her eye shot wide. A figure skittered past the few working lights down there, then another, then a dozen more. They looked odd, almost disfigured, alien. She whispered, “Elster, try that fucking door already,” before pressing her back against the wall.

The thumps of footsteps filled the air, followed by the clip-claps of skittering monsters familiar to both of them and the hisses and roars of deadly abominations. The southern door began to buck, fists slamming into it and causing loud clangs to echo. Lilith whispered harshly, “Elster…!” only to gasp as she got grabbed by the hand.

The door hissed open and the two women fell back inside, the Replika aiming her rifle as she hit the button again. The door slid shut, a scarlet safety door with multiple white warning markings on it, stripes and the central control panel. She slammed the butt of the rifle into the control panel, hearing the locks automatically engage as sparks flew from it.

Lilith sighed, leaning against the wall as the crushing weight of Bioresonant nightmares crashed against their minds. The southern door buckled and crashed against the walls as swarms of monsters sped past the door where Elster and Lilith were hiding. Both of them showed the other to be quiet in an almost mirrored image, while Elster cradled her MA5 close and checked her pouches.

Five magazines with the one in the rifle. She didn’t have enough ammo to engage. And if this was really Sierpinski, if this was really one of the farthest reaches of their home lands, then she wouldn’t get a way to refill her ammo regardless. She sighed deeply, rubbing her good eye while listening to the monsters scramble away, voices and screams and nightmarish howls fading away as they broke through the North door. A flash played across Elster’s vision, shows of something approaching… Vineta…? Maybe?

Moments later, both women breathed sighs of relief, Lilith sliding down the wall and staring up at the ceiling while Elster looked around. They were in some sort of office room. A few cabinets stood on a wall below a poster regarding recording data and, ironically enough, an active and working camera that was tracking them. To her right, more cabinets, a small desk with scattered papers and a flickering lamp and, in an alcove to the left, a corkboard with pinned notices sitting above a desk with more papers that were neatly stacked and…

… A faint red glow that emanated from the screen, now washing over the entire room. Elster spoke, “... Lilith? Are you seeing this?” as she lowered her rifle. Lilith gazed upon her future/Replika version with some alarm and a certain degree of confusion, to which the Replika told her, “... There’s a screen that’s on. And it’s glowing red,” as she felt the pull of the device.

Lilith paused, then saw that faint glow, too… Like an arm reaching out, holding out a white flower. She jumped and barked, “ELSTER, WAIT-”

… But it was too late. 

A flash of red overtook their vision, both of them. Replika and her Gestalt pattern. They felt the hand wrap around them, envelop them. A Red Eye stared at them, a phantom of old times and a presence of new. Elster heard the Numbers again, playing in the back of her mind and radio transceiver like ghostly mayday calls. Drei, neun, vier, acht… Ein, Ein, Sieben?

One-One-Seven? 

Elster snapped back to reality, stumbling forward in front of a chunk of steel. He hands touched the metal as she began to breathe heavily, palms pressed against it. Looking up, she saw wires flowing out from the ceiling, then shook her head and moved her hand to rub her eyes, only to feel and see her helmet was back on her head.

“The f…” She whispered, then asked, “Lilith? You still there?”

A heavy sigh echoed in her mind, with Itou replying, “I’m here, Els. Just as I was getting used to having a body again, too,” then she chuckled bitterly. She appeared beside Elster, looking a bit worse for wear, a bandage wrapped around her gut. She smiled wryly at the Replika, then told her, “You really oughta stop touching weird things.”

Elster breathed a sigh of relief, then mumbled, “Be thankful we didn’t get touched by the Flood while you were physical again,” before pausing as she felt something gripped in her left hand. She looked at it and opened the hand, eyes locking onto a small white petal. She whispered, “The Flood… On Sierpinski. Do you think…?”

“We already established something Bioresonance-related is doing these things,” Lilith replied, then put her hands on her hips and told her, “Which means that that appeared in your hand for the same reason we got shipped over to S-23,” before tilting her head toward the petal. She shrugged, paused as she felt something, then said, “Incoming,” and disappeared.

Elster heard footsteps approaching the little hallway chunk they were in. She drew her rifle and aimed toward one of the two exits, only now noticing that she was in the midpoint between a jungle and desert biome on the Ring itself. She shifted uneasily, aiming, then paused as she heard the sand crunching under the man’s boots. 

She gasped as she saw the friendly IFF tag pop up on her broken HUD. Lilith whispered, “No fucking way,” though her voice was filled with a mix of disbelief and incredible joy. The dark-skinned man that crossed the wall and aimed his shotgun up at her paused, eyes widening. Elster lowered her rifle, standing up and removing her helmet.

“Johnson…?” She whispered.

He grinned with a full set of pearly whites, “Elster. Son of a bitch, girl, you scared the hell outta me,” before he lowered his shotgun. He took a second to register her damaged eye, then said, “Christ. You look even worse than before. The hell happened to your eye?” while he approached. She took a step back, causing the man to furrow his brows.

“How? We…” She caught herself, then looked him in the eye, “I saw you be attacked by the Flood,” Her voice was low. She tapped him on the chest, causing him to take a slight step back. He shrugged, while Elster shook her head, mumbling, “This makes no sense. They don’t leave bodies behind. They turn them all…”

“Not me,” He shrugged, “The walking freakshows passed me over like I was spoiled. Just my damn luck, too,” then he sighed. He looked at Elster and said, “C’mon. We got a small camp set up here. Whole bunch’a survivors hiding from the Covvies with us,” as he tilted his head toward the way out She sighed, then nodded and followed him out.

Walking out into the burning sun, Elster saw Threshold, the gas giant they were orbiting, come fully into view in the sky of the ring. Dead ahead, the jungle grew thicker, with more friendly IFF Pings already appearing on her Heads-Up Display. As they walked, she froze and realized, “Oh, shit…” then put her hand to her com and said, “BLUE ACTUAL, this is Four, I’m alive. Bad jump… Do you copy?” and she paused, only hearing static. She tried again, “BLUE ACTUAL, this is FOUR. Chief, Cortana, please, answer…”

“We tried, too,” Johnson shook his head, “If I know the Chief, though, that crazy fool and his team are already on their way to blow this place to Hell, Flood, Covvies and all.”

“You got any idea where they could be? Cortana’s teleport failed to get me in the same place with them,” The Replika asked as she followed Johnson into the shrubs, her mind wandering as she figured that whatever Bioresonant bull had hit them had also changed her jump coords. They pushed past the alien wildlife and flora that was living nearby them, Elster keeping her rifle close, but on safe. She noticed more flickers in her HUD and paused as she heard Lilith humming a familiar classical tune.

Johnson shook his head and said, “Nope. Been tryin’ to reach’em for the better part of a few days now, but I ain’t gettin’ anything but static. Same for the others,” then he waded through a bit of mud and told her, “But I got somethin’ better. I got us a way off this rock, courtesy of a nice pilot and her lil’ posse.”

Elster blinked. Foe Hammer was nowhere near them. Hell, she could see the old biome where Alpha Base had been set up through the canopy. She whispered to herself, “Guess that means the Blues are gonna have to handle that fight on their own,” just as she and Johnson walked into a small clearing in the Jungle. 

A Pelican was landed, one of its engines taken apart and being repaired through the use of whatever parts could be scavenged. Three other people were there, each of them tending to a part of the Pelican’s flight system, though one of them wore a weirdly familiar uniform, including the half-and-half black and white pyramid of the Office of Naval Intelligence plastered onto his shoulder.

Elster furrowed her brows while Lilith commented, “Did not expect a Spook of all things to be out here…” then walked to join the group. One of them had sweat beads running down her brow. She wore a standard 23rd Naval Air Squadron jumpsuit and had her piloting helmet on her head, though it was damaged and served as more or less a hat for shade now.

Finally, one of the ODSTs of Major Silva stood guard by the Pelican, cradling an MA5B. He lacked the standard ODST helmet and had apparently had his armor reduced to just the chest plate and rig, his arms bare, falling comet tattoo visible on his shoulder. His IFF tags put him in with the ODSTs, clearly. He also had a bandana wrapped around his right bicep, just below the tattoo.

He noticed Elster, then sneered and asked, “When’d a Swabbie join us?”

“Cut the chatter, Corporal,” Johnson shot back, “Elster’s the engineer that fixed a couple of our Pelicans back in the day. We’re lucky she wound up here at all.”

The pilot, a Flight Lieutenant whose name was etched onto her jumpsuit, looked up. S. Polaski asked her, “You’re that one girl Foe Hammer kept talkin’ about, aren’t you? Elster… I think you fixed my engine’s gimbal before we jumped onto this godforsaken ring,” then turned back to working on the engine the moment Elster gave a nod. The Replika didn’t even need to be asked, approaching the item and taking her helmet off.

The ONI officer eyed her weirdly, but she said, “Took a needle burst to the engine, I see,” when she noticed the crystalline shrapnel, choosing to ignore the Agent for now. He didn’t, however, examining Elster from head to toe, noting each injury, each gash, each blast on her armor and her missing eye. She sighed, letting him watch.

“We were taking off to get away from a platoon of Jackals. One of the bastards thought it’d be funny to put a few rounds from his needle rifle into the engine,” Polaski replied annoyedly, then watched with muted awe as Elster stripped, cleaned and quickly reassembled the engine. Fitting for something like the LSTR-model Replika which maintained the crumbling vessel ONI had presumably taken to Earth.

She gently closed the dark-green case over the engine and said, “All ready,” before lifting it up. It was a heavy piece of machinery, as one would expect out of a jet engine running on what was basically hydrogen. The necessary internal systems to convert the most readily-available gas in the universe into a propulsion-capable fuel without loss of power and with the efficiency most modern UNSC equipment had played in her mind, with Lilith chuckling a little.

Elster clipped the engine back into place, attached it to the gimbal again, then made sure to tighten every nut and bolt while Polaski walked over to the vehicle’s cockpit. Elster told her, “Try it now,” as she moved her hands away from the little joint of the rear engine. She heard the craft’s four thrusters roar and sputter, then come to life, idling. Polaski began to move the stick, feeling slight resistance as the gimbals turned and allowed the craft to shift its trim.

Then, it settled back into its usual. Polaski walked to the back of the bird’s blood tray and gave a thumbs up to Elster, “She’s purring like new, Els. Cheers,” while grinning. 

Johnson gave a pat on the back to the female Replika, then asked her, “How’d ya lose your eye there?”

“Was helping the Blues with something. I got ambushed by an Elite with an Energy Sword,” She replied, turning to face Johnson as the aircraft warmed up. She continued, “Son of a bitch slit my visor and basically gouged my eye out with his energy sword… Was distracted fighting another Replika, though. A hostile one. Flood-infected.”

Johnson paused, eyes widening, then asked, “Was she some bulky one in a big-ass rad suit? Friendly as could be, armed with this gigantic mining laser thing?”

“A mining laser, yes, but she didn’t…” Elster replied, her voice fading. She whispered, “Oh, God, you met her before she was infected, didn’t you?”

Johnson replied with a solemn nod, “She saved my life and Locklear’s.”

“Yeah,” Locklear replied respectfully, “Didn’t know she was one of yours…”

“Not the same model, but a Mynah. Mining and Nuclear Technicians. Basically your standard hazardous environment Replikas, designed to operate in the worst environments where not even Gestalts,” She paused, then corrected herself, “Humans… Would work normally. Not without tons of equipment and supplies to keep them alive.”

“Gotcha,” Johnson replied, then said, “She’s as big a Marine as the rest of us, then,” and clapped a hand on Elster’s shoulder again. The Replika smiled and nodded, then sighed as Lilith continued humming tunes, seemingly trying to calm herself down. 

Locklear added with a backhanded compliment, “If you’ve got half the guts that one had, I’m guessin’ we’re alright,” to which Elster snorted.

“And if you’ve got half the brains the Chief does, we will be,” She shot back, grinning. That got a laugh out of Johnson, a snort out of Polaski and a mild hum of amusement from the ONI agent, while Locklear begrudgingly accepted the reply, boarding the vehicle. Elster followed, eyeing the ODST with some concern.

“He’s wound tight,” Lilith whispered, “Could be a problem.”

Elster agreed, but as long as he kept his gun on the Flood and Covenant, they’d be alright.

“Hey, we got a radio transmission from Alpha Base… It’s an old-ass message, though,” Polaski called out. She activated the aircraft’s PA system while pushing the throttle of the craft forward. Elster and the others prepared to hear the news of just how bad things might’ve gotten there. Though, with Linda, she hoped things were under control back there.

“ ... Is Sierra-058 to surviving personnel, ” Linda’s voice echoed over the com, “ Alpha Base has been evacuated and personnel are currently heading toward the Pillar of Autumn. Blue Team will initiate the starship’s self-destruct sequence and attempt to find evacuation before the Ring detonates. We advise anyone who can hear this transmission to do the same. Cortana will piggyback this message off of the Ring’s internal com system and it will repeat… Safe travels. ”

“Sounds like you were right, Sergeant,” The ONI agent spoke, looking at the man. He looked over at Polaski and said, “Get us off of this ring, Flight Lieutenant. We’ve done our jobs…” to which Polaski looked back at the others. Johnson and Elster exchanged looks of concern, but both of them knew better. If anyone could find a way off this ring, it was gonna be Cortana, Chief and Blue Team.

Johnson looked at an unsure Polaski and said, “Foe Hammer’s got her bird to evac the Chief and Company, Polaski. Get this bird outta range before we go to hell with the Hula-Hoop and its little ghostly inhabitants,” to which Polaski nodded, though she was still visibly worried about the rest of those who might’ve survived. The rest of the people inside quickly put on their harnesses as the Pilot powered her bird.

The aircraft took off, then lurched forward and entered supersonic flight. Polaski increased the throttle to afterburners and pitched the nose of the bird up into the faux-sky of the ring, pushing to get them out of the atmosphere and into the open void of space. Threshold was on their right side, while the Ring was below, in front and behind them.

Polaski pulled hard right, moving as fast and as far away from the ring as she could. Elster stared back at it as minutes passed. If Elster knew the Blues, they’d already be on their way to detonating the Autumn’s core. She shifted uneasily in her seat, gripping the harness tightly and looking at the other people around her. She mumbled, “If anyone has tape for my helmet, I want it sealed in case I have to do a Space Wal-”

She cut herself off. A reverberating shockwave somehow fazed the ship, causing it to shatter as a blinding flash of light emerged from the Ring’s outermost edge. Elster gasped, watching the ring fragment, a chunk of it shooting off toward the other side, the exact spot where they had been less than a few minutes ago.

Polaski cried out, “HANG ON!” as she drove the bird to dodge massive fragments that rocketed off the ring just as the chunk torn off by the Cruiser’s explosion slammed into the other side of the ring, ripping in half with the force of what felt like a thousand nuclear bombs and tearing the rest of the ring to pieces.

“Son of a biiiiiiiiitch !” Locklear yelled, gritting his teeth as the Pelican shook and shuddered and debris flew all around them. Elster breathed in, then out, then grit her teeth, having heard Lilith echo Locklear’s exact words in her mind.  She looked back through the thick window that separated them from the void, feeling each shift in gravity as the pilot dodged flying debris.

… Then, all went quiet. Elster felt the chilling touch of Zero Gravity while Johnson barked, “We got radio!? Polaski!” as he undid his harness and floated toward the back window. He watched flecks of alien alloy float about, heat fading as they went from burning white to a dull red and resolidified. He whispered, “Jesus H. Christ and Mother Mary…”

“... Nothin’, Sarge,” The woman replied, “It’s dead out there. Dust and Echoes,” before she slumped into her seat.  She whispered, “God, what the fuck…?” 

Elster put a hand up to her ear and checked coms. Only static replied to her as she felt a metaphorical pit form in her stomach. She whispered, “C’mon, Chief. Give us a sign, dammit,” as she undid her own harness and floated up beside Johnson. The two watched the Ring’s debris begin to settle, spinning bits and larger islands of metal and burned dirt floating around them.

… It was dead quiet.

Chapter Text

Elster gripped onto the crash seat tensely, feeling her own weightlessness and the pangs of fear that would strike even a normal human being. Floating around them and examining the multitude of Debris that hanged around the place, multiple massive Covenant Vessels swept the Soell system in search for survivors, whether human, or more of their own.

One massive vessel, what looked like a heavily modified CSO-class Supercarrier not too different from the Long Night of Solace, floated amidst the ruins of the ring, commanding the ships that swept the area. Polaski’s breaths were deep beside her, while Lilith seemed to be staring with the same muted fear as the rest of them.

Haverson, the ONI Lieutenant, stared at Elster with incredulous interest. Elster was pretty sure she was nothing more than another asset to him, a toy that’d be discarded about the same way every other  that broke was. Johnson, meanwhile… She looked back at the Sergeant, watching the man fight back the urge to light a cigar just in case the faintest wisp of light would be seen through the Pelican’s main viewport or rear bulletproof glass pane and could drag the Covenant’s Combat Air Patrol after them.

Dozens of Seraphs and about the same number of Phantoms and Spirits swept the place, making Elster glad they were on the dark side of a relatively large chunk of spinning debris and that the Covenant’s eyes weren’t great. Even the Replika, with half her optical sensors missing like right now, could probably see better than these bastards.

The air, however, remained tense. Elster’s gloved hands dug into the crash seat of the Pelican, eyes darting between enemy vessels as her own Heads-Up Display flared, damage sustained to her optical sensors causing minute adjustment necessities to keep her depth perception and balance undamaged, an issue made mildly more annoying by the zero gravity-related issues.

“Making adjustment. Hang on,” Polaski’s words were barely audible. A quiet puff from a directional thruster shifted the ship slightly, ensuring that the Covenant’s CAP missed them due to flying too close to this chunk of rock. Polaski’s only visible console lights had been dimmed down to be almost completely unreadable, but even the Replika could note the trajectory adjustments.

No active sensor scans, just passives. Pings like that made little sense, especially since all the Covenant’s ships would have to do right about now was see them for the entire crew of this vessel to be dead. Locklear tapped his foot impatiently in his seat, grip tight around his own MA5, while Johnson had decided to float over to the door as well. When Elster looked back at the Sergeant, he whispered, “Might as well see death comin’ with my own two eyes, Els.”

She nodded in understanding, shifting her own position just enough for the Sergeant-Major to see. Then, she let out a sigh and rubbed her face, wiping away congealed oxidant from her cheek. Lilith snorted and said, “Yeah, I know that feeling. When blood crusts up on your cheek, it starts to itch like a motherfucker.”

Elster didn’t reply. She wanted to. Hell, she had turned toward Lili to do so, but both of them paused when the console pinged. The group all stood up and looked at Polaski, who bit her lower lip and showed everyone to wait a second. They listened again, waiting for another beep, their hearts in their throats. 

Ping.

Polaski whispered, “... Sensor sweep. UNSC Sensors,” as the console grew ever-so-slightly brighter again. She spoke, “Active, too,” then she paused. She pointed toward a Covenant ship changing course, veering right toward the location of that ping, then said, “Looks like they heard it, too…” while Elster craned her neck up and started looking for any signs of allied movement.

She gasped upon spotting a distant black triangle, then said, “Longsword, just above us. They must’ve pinged us for the Covenant to see them first,” as she activated her mag-boots and took the co-pilot seat beside Polask. She checked for weapons on the Pelican as she activated the WSO station, but found nothing. Even the AT missile pods were empty.

“A single Longsword versus a Covenant Cruiser?” Locklear scoffed as he  looked up through the glass, too, “The fuck is wrong with them? They suicidal?”

Elster, sounding more hopeful then ever, replied, “No. They’re Spartans,” which immediately got a grin from Johnson. She looked at Polaski and said, “This might sound a little insulting to you, Polaski, but how good can you fly?” to which the woman furrowed her brows. Everyone else on the ship immediately realized what Elster was about to ask, with even Lilith audibly thinking a loud ’Oh, fuck’ as she prepared for the worst.

Polaski’s features steeled. She gave a nod to the Replika and said, “I’d say I’m a good pilot.”

“Sergeant, I must protest th-” 

“Quiet,” She replied to the ONI agent, staring him down, “You’re Office of Naval Intelligence. Your Jurisdiction ends when the Military says it does,” which was a bold-faced lie that made the man glare at her. ONI was still part of the Navy’s assets, obviously, but right now, she didn’t want anyone butting in as she said, “... We slingshot around some of the debris, take the heat off the Longsword and show it to follow us so we can RV behind something safer.”

“Suicide run,” Locklear growled.

She replied, “You got a better idea?” as she stood up from the chair. Hearing no reply and seeing the ODST glare at her, she smirked, then looked at Polaski and inquired, “Can you do it?”

The pilot sat in her seat for a moment, swiveling about as the Covenant warship drew closer. She sighed deeply, then nodded and said, “Aye. I can. It’s gonna take one hell of a miracle for the Covenant not to sandblast us out of the sky, though,” before gasping as she heard the console ping. She turned around again, activated it to full brightness and paused. She whispered, “Well, Sarge, looks like whoever’s on board that ‘Sword agrees.”

“Then, let’s do it. Strap in,” She told everyone, sitting down on a crash seat and pulling down a harness. It locked into place with a click as Polaski started the engine cycle sequence. The vehicle began to purr, her frame shaking slightly while the crew put on their own harnesses. Locklear sighed deeply, Johnson slid his cigar between his lips and lit it and Haverson looked nervous as all hell.

Johnson spoke, “Oh, relax, you pansies,” before taking a drag from her cigar, “We’ve been lucky so far with Elster and the Chief. If she thinks this’ll work, I got her back on it,” before his hands wrapped tightly around the harness’s metal frame. Elster chuckled awkwardly, while Lilith seemingly braced herself despite being incorporeal.

Elster raised a brow at that, to which Lilith defended herself by mumbling, “Look, shit gets scary even for Bioresonant Brain Ghosts. Shut up.”

She had to stifle a snort, but then braced herself as the Pelican’s engines roared to life. Polaski looked back and asked, “All strapped in back there!? We got an RV Point, so hang on to your pants! This is gonna be some nasty evasive flying!” as she unlocked the landing gears. They folded up with a muffled hydraulic whirr. When she got the thumbs up from everyone, Polaski breathed, then said, “Alright! Punching it!” 

She slammed the speed lever forward and the Pelican jerked, then began to race forward. The Covenant ship’s plasma lines visibly heated from dull reds to blinding whites as the Pelican pilot began to fly, using her thrusters to bob and weave through debris. She grit her teeth, feeling the centrifugal force simulate nearly seven gees.

The first flashes of light filtered through both of the craft’s windows. Plasma beams and wisps of laser fire flew by the ship’s form as Sheila actively pulled some of the hardest turns to keep them out of harm's way. Debris around them exploded as the projectiles that would’ve taken them out struck. She dodged one blast by ‘diving underneath’ one piece of debris, feeling unconsciousness tug at her as her blood seemed to pour to the back of her body.

Locklear looked at Elster, watching her straight-face this as she held onto the harness. They bounced around with each blast and each twist, turn and roll. He asked, “How the hell aren’t you getting knocked out by the Gees?!” before gagging as he felt acrid bile rise in his throat. This was one FUBAR carnival ride.

Elster grinned at him, looking him in the eye as she said, “The advantages of being a Tin Can! I don’t get whiplashed as easily!” though that shouldn’t have been the case. She did not have an organic brain per se, but there were still other parts of her body linked to stability and the G-Force, including her coolant. Which she felt sloshing around inside her.

Everybody and their mother braced when a blast hit so close to the Pelican, it might as well have swatted the ship. Polaski barked, “Holy shit, the Longsword’s firing back!” as she tracked it with her gaze. They were moving at wildly different angles of attack, but the computer showed the intercept would be at about the same distance.

They ducked beneath another chunk of debris, swept up and swung left to dodge a plasma beam, then rotated clockwise until they could safely burn. More explosions rocked the ship, to the point it felt like it was slowly shaking itself apart with the people inside. Locklear let out a string of expletives so colorful, it made Lilith blush as she ‘held on’ to the same safety harness as Elster.

Johnson remained surprisingly quiet, save maybe a huff and puff as he took drags from his cigar to keep calm, while Haverson held his eyes closed shut, teeth gritted while he used pilots’ breathing exercises to keep himself from losing consciousness. Elster then felt the ship jerk to the left from another blast, then closed her eyes and gasped for the recycled air of the ship as she felt herself slam against the harness.

A few moments later, the lights in the ship seemed to dim, but she levelled out. Elster held her breath like everyone else on board the shuttle, her own fingers digging into her gloved palms. She finally managed to let out that breath she’d been holding, before looking at Polaski. The pilot said, “... We’re safe. I shot around Threshold. Should take the Squids a good second or two…”

“And the Longsword?” Inquired Haverson, though he sounded ragged.

“Right beside us, sir. They’re initiating docking,” She replied, then jumped out of her seat and floated herself forward, grabbing her own M6 out of its holster. As multiple clangs echoed, signalling the umbilical connecting to the ship, the lights flickered. The Replika, ODSTs, ONI agent and Pilot all prepared their weapons just in case.

Johnson took point, aiming his rifle up at the connection point. When the hatch opened, a gauntleted hand grabbed Johnson and yanked him up. Seconds later, Elster heard a metallic thump and rolled her eyes, smiling. She slung her rifle onto her back, told the others, “Wait here,” then climbed up the shaft, too.

She grinned the moment she saw the barrel of a rifle point right at her head. The IFF tag of a certain sniper appeared in front of her as she greeted calmly, “Good evening, Linda,” then her eyes went right. She saw a Marine sitting in the pilot’s chair and another pair of Spartans, as well as Cortana glowing on the pedestal of the ship. She chuckled and added, “James, Chief. Cortana. And-”

“Elster?!” Alex swiveled about in her chair, looking absolutely haggard. She had more wounds on her than when the girl had seen her last, but she was patched up as best as the Spartans could provide, “Holy shit! You-... I told you, sirs! I told you she made it!” 

Johnson, who was pinned to the wall, grinned and said, “You gon’ tell me the Sarge is Flood, too, Chief? Or is she Grade-A Titanium like the rest of us?”

The Spartan stared at Johnson, then at Elster. He pulled back the pistol he had pointed at Johnson’s jaw, spun it around and handed it back while Elster moved to help drag the other survivors aboard the bird. The three Spartans immediately snapped salutes when they saw Haverson’s lieutenant pins and ONI rank.

Elster, however, told them, “Relax…” before she moved up to Alex and high-fived the weak-looking young woman. As Haverson started debriefing the Spartans, she asked, “Where’s the rest of your platoon?” only to see a pang of guilt in the girl’s eyes. Survivor’s Guilt. She sighed deeply, then gave her a pat on the shoulder and looked at Cortana.

The AI gave a wave and a smile, stating, “Sorry for being late… Had to find this ride before we left.”

“Anyone else?” The girl inquired as she sat down in the chair to the left. Cortana’s lips narrowed. She shook her head, looking mildly saddened. Elster looked back, counting the survivors. She sighed deeply, stood up and moved over toward the Chief, stating, “We have to find some form of Slipspace-capable ship, sir.”

“We were just discussing that,” Chief nodded, “Glad to see you’re in one piece… Your eye-” and of course, he was gonna be as blunt as a hammer when it came to addressing her injuries. Even James found that kind of funny, considering the barely-audible snort he failed to suppress.

“Taken by an Elite just before I got thrown to Johnson and Company’s position,” The girl explained in a deadpan. She lifted up her broken helmet, which Chief gently took into his hands and patched up to the best of his abilities, much to Elster’s surprise. Duct tape did the job. She raised a brow and asked, “Sir? Guessing we’re gonna be expecting EVA action?”

“Provided we find a ship out of here? No,” The Spartan replied, then looked at Haverson. 

The Lieutenant seemed to be considering their current situation. He asked, “What kind of weapons does this Longsword have on board?”

“A few Moray mines, sir,” James answered, pointing back toward the rear of the ‘habitable’ area of the Longsword, “Just enough to cause some damage to the Covenant if we array them properly,” and he crossed his arms. Haverson seemed to process the new information while Cortana was making calculations. They’d pass to the other side of Threshold soon enough, meaning the Covenant would have LOS on them.

Cortana spoke, “And the Covenant are probably positioned to intercept us the moment we come out of this slingshot. Anyone have any ideas?”

Chief seemed to take a moment, looking between the Pelican they were still docked with, then the Longsword itself. Cortana paused, catching on to Chief’s thought patterns despite how dim her avatar looked, multiple wisps of light travelling across her body. She grinned and said, “Oh, I like that one, Chief.”

The Spartan nodded and the rest of Blue Team seemed to have caught on, too. While Locklear asked, “Anyone gonna brief the rest of us non-Swabbie or AI freaks?”  Elster had already started rummaging through her robotic brain for schematics on the Moray mine and a ‘manual of arms’ for lack of a better term. 

Cortana spoke, “Transfer all of the equipment still on the Pelican over to the Longsword and turn it into a Fireship.”

Elster (and by extension Lilith) immediately caught on, “We’re dumping the Moray mines into the Pelican and using it as a possible distraction… And if all else fails, a shieldbreaker for the Covenant… What ship are you gonna try and board if the mission is still on?” as she looked between them. The Blues all turned toward her, while Haverson seemed questioning, if not a little pale.

Polaski breathed through gritted teeth, then said, “... The old girl got us off Reach. Got us off that damn Ring…” before she locked eyes with the Chief. She let out a deep, deep sigh, then replied, “Alright. Guess I’m taking the wheel on the Longsword? Haven’t flown one of them since my simulator days, but…”

“If you can fly it like you flew your Pelican,” Cortana spoke casually, “Then we’ll be fine.”

Alex nodded in approval, but remained oddly silent. Cortana told her, “Relax… We’ll get you home,” before she began looking through a multitude of sensor out, in and throughputs to ensure her calculations, slowed as they seemed to be, were running smoothly. She beckoned Elster forward while Alex stood up and went to the back of the fighter. The AI then gently told her, “I’m running on fumes here…”

“... You? A UNSC Smart AI can lose processing power?” The Replika raised a brow. Her question seemed to almost offend Cortana. Not an intended effect, but Elster was ‘feeling’ way too tired to word it any more nicely.

“Not lose it,” Cortana corrected, wagging her finger, “... Overextend it. I’m trying to process, compartmentalize and understand all of the Data I downloaded from Halo before we blew it to hell… It’s slowing me down considerably, as much as I hate to admit it. I might need your brain to run a few calculations with, if you’re cool with it.”

The Replika furrowed her good brow, confused, then asked, “You think you can?”

“Considering the fact you’re using UNSC armor without a hitch and Doctor Halsey filled it with the maintenance manuals for just about every major and minor piece of equipment?” The girl quipped, then grinned, “Just have to hook up a wire to your cortex and we’ll be running maths twice as fast… Provided your processor works well enough.”

“Alright,” Elster shrugged, “If it gets you back to full power for the next few minutes and if it’s enough to get us out of here alive,” and she took her helmet off. Cortana extended a universal plug from a slot nearby her holographic emitter. Those things were usually used to help with a multitude of things, like linking a datapad to the system or allowing the crew to very directly and promptly program their Moray mines or nuclear warheads.

She pulled the wire taut, leaned forward and slotted it into the back of her head. For a second, a chilling breeze filled her artificial mind, slowly warming to a mild feeling of cold. Cortana chuckled and said, “Oh, wow, your architecture is different. And just what I need, even with the more primitive central infrastructure. Roomy.”

“Don’t go about rewriting me,” Elster quipped, “I don’t hate myself nearly enough for that.”

Cortana gave a nod of approval and a look of empathy as Elster felt the connection begin to work. Though the data wasn’t going through her optical sensors, she could see bits and pieces of the calculations being done, as well as small flashes of Halo, of its odd beauty, of the might of its creation and the horrors of its weapon systems.

She gasped, looked at Cortana and got told by her, “Thanks. Calculations are all done-” only to pause. Elster blinked, watching the AI stare at something behind her, then looked back and saw Lilith. Lili, much to her credit, seemingly tried to remain impassive, but with eyes as wide as saucers, she really, really couldn’t.

“... Who or what the hell are you?” Cortana spoke, but her mouth didn’t move. She was talking like Lilith. Inside Elster’s head.

Lilith breathed, then sighed deeply, grumbling, “Nice job, Els. You forgot I was in here,” before she looked at Cortana, eyes sharp and narrowed, and replied, “I’m the Neural Template upon which the Land Survey Technician Replika, or LSTR,” gesturing to the android beside them, “Was based. Lilith Itou’s my name. Nice to meet you.”

“... Elster?” Cortana started.

The girl replied mentally, “I don’t want to get into this… She appeared after we left Reach and hasn’t gone away since, but she’s kept me safe…” which made the AI take a second to reflect. She looked at Lilith, the two entering a short staring contest, before Cortana shrugged, smiled and nodded. Both neural template and living android suddenly looked at her like she was crazy.

Cortana said, “As long as this isn’t Rampancy… Which, going by the fact your neural pathways aren’t overwhelmingly overworked or cross-connected,” and she left a second’s pause, before quipping, “... I guess you’re the first robot to develop Schizophrenia,” which made Lilith burst into laughter and Elster snort and cover her mouth. 

Proud of her success, Cortana disconnected the wire and said to Polaski, “I’ve linked the calculations for the flight onto the Heads-Up Display… Based on all the mathematical equations I’ve just done, we’re gonna be coming up on the far side in thirty seconds with at least one Covenant ship waiting for us, so be ready.”

“Noted,” Polaski spoke, visibly tensing as she gripped the flight controls. She started cycling through the craft’s armaments, finding the massive-caliber machine cannons of the craft and keeping them selected, watching as the gimballed weapons tracked her eyes on the holographic screen ahead. Several waypoints flashed. 

Cortana spoke, “Everyone, grab onto something, lock your mag boots or strap in,” as the audible thunk of  the Pelican decoupling echoed, causing the hull to rumble slightly.  The AI tracked the Pelican as it flew ahead. Sensor pings immediately detected transient contacts that were obscured by Threshold.

The team grit their teeth as Polaski punched the Longsword’s drives to maximum. The engines rumbled, shaking the craft as it swung in hard and fast behind the Pelican. Polaski spoke, “CORTANA?! IS THIS TARGET RIGHT?!” as she finally saw the mark:The Covenant Flagship. Cortana nodded, helping keep the pilot’s flight steady through minute adjustments.

Polaski hadn’t asked it out of fear. In fact, she figured the target was gonna be that. Hell, pretty much everyone on the ship did. The issue was that that was the closest Covenant ship and its weapons were already charging. She saw the plasma turrets on the ship’s ventral side track the Pelican as they heated to dull white.

Cortana spoke, “Detonation sequence is online. Hang as far back as you can, Petty,” as she activated countermeasures. Polaski nodded, cutting the throttle as the other Covenant vessels of the scouting group spun about, prowling toward the ship like hungry sharks. Plasma beams criss-crossed and latticed the darkness, slashing apart debris while Cortana made the Pelican dodge.

Elster gripped the crash seat’s armrests tight enough to actually dent the metal. She watched a beam strike the forwardmost engine of the Pelican, causing it to bubble and explode in a flash of fire. Too little, too late, though, as the ship drew close enough for the Morays’ detonation sequence to finish. A burning-white blast rippled across the atmosphere of Threshold and its moon, the blast causing the shields of the Covenant Carrier to weaken.

“BRACE YOURSELVES!” Polaski barked as she saw the shields die. With surprising speed, the woman turned the bird around and powered the engines to maximum burn. They jerked forward, feeling the harnesses nearly choke them, before the loud thunder and echo of metal scratching metal filled their ears. Ahead of them, the open maw of a Covenant hangar, two-tier like on board the Truth and Reconciliation, glowed as its shields re-engaged.

Platoons of Grunts, a phalanx of Jackals and a squad of Elite Minors pushed up toward the landed bird while everyone was regaining their composure. Polaski, being the first to seemingly get her head on straight, flicked on the targeting sight of the cannons and traversed them before squeezing the trigger. Bursts of high-caliber ammo ripped through the Covenant troops ahead, tearing open the floor plates with their impacts and spattering alien blood all across the hull of the ship. She turned her cannon toward a Covenant fighter and laid into it, then said, “We’re landed, sirs!”

“Nice flying,” Alex remarked with a low voice, coughing as she grabbed her rifle.

“Finally, boots on the fucking ground,” Locklear mumbled, racking the bolt of his assault rifle. Elster undid her harness, patted Alex’s shoulder, then drew her own MA5 off her back and slid on her helmet, following the team out. Johnson was last to follow while Polaski grabbed her weapons. The team then piled out of the Longsword, noticing the damage it had sustained in the landing while they scanned the area around.

Cortana said, “Accessing Covenant BattleNet… They’re not very happy with us.”

Chapter Text

Filing out of the bird after its rough landing, the combat personnel of the impromptu task force opened fire on the Covenant presence in the Hangar. A platoon of Grunt menials was cut down by the first bursts, while the Elites, caught with their shields activating, took wounds, but managed to scramble into cover. One of them snarled at the team, firing toward them with his twin plasma rifles to suppress them.

Els dropped to the floor, firing from beneath an overturned Banshee’s canard and watching her counter reach half of the ammo. Sixty rounds went by in a blink when they were engaged in this kind of firefight, she thought to herself. Then, she watched James jump over cover, opening fire toward one of the Elites to keep it behind the pillar of purple nanolaminate it was using as protection.

He primed a grenade and threw it to flush out the dual-wielding elite, taking two plasma bolts into his shield for his trouble as the Sangheili scrambled out of cover. He clotheslined it, throwing it to the floor as the grenade exploded, then drew his combat knife and slit its throat while Chief, Linda, Locklear and Johnson kept the other Elite pinned.

Johnson barked, “LOCKLEAR, ELSTER! WITH ME!” before he jumped over the cover. The girl nodded, scrambling to her feet and following the Marine and ODST to the flank of the Elite. It was waiting for them, clearly, as its plasma rifle swept toward them, a blast catching the Replika in the helmet and causing her shields to flare, nearly snapping her neck with the impact.

She ducked as her shields recharged. Locklear and Johnson fired over her head, laying hell into the Elite and pushing it out of cover, where Chief domed it with his M6 the moment its shields flared and failed. It dropped to the floor, missing the upper half of its head as it landed with a thunk. Chief pushed up with the others and Johnson put a hand on Elster’s shoulder, asking, “You still kickin’, Sarge?”

“Remember me mentioning I don’t get whiplash?” The girl asked jokingly. Johnson grinned, clapped his hand on her shoulder again, then nodded and helped her up as her shields recharged. She whispered, “Thank God and Materials Group for putting shields on HEADHUNTER SPI,” as she stepped forward toward one of the massive doors of the ship.

Cortana spoke over the radio to everyone, “Their BattleNet’s blowing up. A lot of purple prose and religious speak, but I managed to cut through the chatter.”

“They mad?” Locklear asked.

She answered with a snort, “Yes. They’re in a scramble, including coms with their escort Fleet from what I can tell. Trying to figure out how ‘us filthy humans have desecrated their ship with our filthy footsteps’ or something,” before she flicked on a NAV Point. She told Chief, “I got the door. Be advised:We might want to avoid the enemy’s patrols. I’ve logged a ping from a nearby maintenance corridor.”

“We’ll take it,” Chief replied, then chopped a hand forward and said, “Let’s move before they blow up the ship.”

“Right behind you,” Polaski spoke, slamming forward the bolt of her own AR. The door locks ahead rotated and peeled apart, the three sections of the door opening to reveal several stunned Spec-Ops Elites. The Spartan glared, then opened fire, panning the rifle like a camera and drilling several of the Sangheili in black armor before they could react.

The rest of the unit joined in, cutting them apart with deadly accurate automatic fire at close range. The Phalanx of Jackals behind them managed to light up their shields and form up, taking several of the rounds into their shields as the Marines and Spartans took cover by each side of the door. Elster threw a fragmentation grenade toward the Phalanx, forcing the hook-faced aliens to tighten their defenses, meaning none could fire their pistols.

James followed up with Linda, the two of them drawing their pistols the moment the grenade exploded and shooting at the bastards’ hands, staggering several even as a volley of crystalline needles rippled overhead. Each Jackal that exposed itself was then promptly shot in the head by Locklear, Johnson and Polaski, as well as the Spartans.

The team then pushed up, Cortana stating, “Keep following this corridor for two hundred meters, then take a right. You should see a panel that will allow access into the maintenance tunnels… Be aware it might be too tight a fit for Spartans,” before pinging a secondary route on their HUDs. They continued up to the panel, finding and prying it open before Linda slid in first, rifle up.

Elster followed next, then Chief, then James, then the others. They pushed through the dark corridor, past crystalline circuitry that flowed with energy. Cortana pinged the com again, then said, “Chief, stop here. Yank me. I might be able to access the ship’s internal network from that port,” as a small NAV-dot marked the slot. She continued, “I can do more damage from inside the ship’s Net.”

Chief nodded, pulled the Chip out and slotted it in, the self-forming crystal molding to fit into the slot itself. He inquired worriedly, “Cortana?”

”I’m in, but there’s something else in here with me. Keep moving, 200 meters forward, then to the right,” She told them through their direct com system, before adding, “Be Advised:Entrance to the Bridge is too tight to fit even Linda. Recommend you take the alternate route I highlighted and prepare to breach the Bridge from two sides.”

“Roger. Linda, James, on me. Elster, lead the way for the Breach,” The Chief replied. The human component of this unit found a way to let the Spartans pass by them without much issue before they stacked up behind Elster. Chief flicked on his radio next, then spoke, ”Elster, B-Team. Com Check. Do you copy?”

“A-Team, B-Team copies you Five by five,” The girl replied, racking the bolt of her rifle and pushing up with the others. Johnson and Locklear were at the front, with the Sergeant placing a hand on her shoulder as they moved up. They stacked up by the panel and told them, “We’re at our breach point. Cortana, be ready to open the door… Motion Tracker’s picking up a lot of movement on the other side.”

”Copy. We’ll be at our door in two,” Chief answered, gunfire echoing through the com. 

Johnson snorted, “They got stuck with the fun job.”

“It’ll get plenty fun when we breach, Sarge,” The Replika answered, hearing a bit more of Lilith in herself, much to the joy of the Mind Apparition. Locklear snorted and nodded, while Haverson and Polaski brought up the rear. Elster looked around and mumbled, “These Corridors remind me of the kind of stuff Aras would make… Must be for something important.”

“Indeed it is,” Cortana answered, “This light carrier houses a surprisingly small complement of infantry, mostly Elites, Jackals and Grunts. The rest are menial staff… Engineers is what the Covenant lexicon calls them,” then she flicked on a few items of interest on Elster’s HUD, “Careful not to shoot the floating sacs of gas.”

Elster nodded, then looked back as the team stacked up. A minute thirty elapsed before they heard the Chief call out, ”Cortana, B-Team. A-Team is at breach point.”

“Let’s blast these fools,” Johnson grinned. 

Elster tapped the side of her helmet twice, raised her MA5 and waited for the door ahead to crack open. When the seams peeled apart with a hiss, her SmartScope target system immediately turned red. The first Elite of an Honor Guard of some kind turned about, raising his plasma rifle. Johnson lobbed a grenade inside, which was followed by a loud thump and a flash of smoke and shrapnel that staggered the Elite and caused his shields to fail.

Elster pushed up first, emptying half-a-magazine into the creature and spraying its blood across two more of its comrades. The others pushed up behind her, moving to the cover of several consoles lining the walls around a massive raised platform. Chief, Linda and James breached next, rifle fire thundering like a drumbeat as they pushed in.

One Elite, clad in Gold armor and bearing a purple cape, jumped off the platform, engaging his Energy Sword and surging forth toward Chief. Elster aimed toward said Elite and tried to fire, but she was stopped by a volley of needle rounds striking just above her head. She ducked low, rolled forward and aimed, blasting the Elite with seven rounds of 7,62x51 before she had to reload.

Johnson followed her with Haverson, the two men dumping a half-magazine of pistol ammo each. The black-clad Special Ops Elite’s shields dropped and the .50 caliber SAPHE rounds punctured the body-suit of his armor, exploding inside the flesh and causing multiple cratering wounds. The alien fell, its weapon clattering to the floor all the way to Elster.

She set aside her empty magazine and put in a fresh one, watching as Chief wrestled the Elite while his Spartans were pinned down by two others. She saw the fight, the Elite’s strike against the Spartan’s back which shattered his shields and destroyed an emitter, then she watched Chief counter-attack, pin the Elite, punch him in the face. He caught sight of Elster as the girl fumbled with her reload mid-stagger.

He staggered, snarled, then attempted to wrench the Spartan’s gun out of his hand. The Spartan headbutted him, sending him doubling over, then kicked him into an open side door. Cortana said, “And stay out!” over the com. The door slammed shut and the thump of a decoupling escape pod filled their ears.

Linda and James mopped up the remaining enemy units, spent casings clinking as they walked through the place and double-tapped the dead Elites. Elster slumped, back against one of the purple walls, then slid down, sighing and removing her helmet. She put a hand up to her damaged optical sensor, feeling still-liquid coolant falling out of it.

“Jesus,” Locklear whispered, then walked up to her and pulled out a biofoam can. She pushed it away, to which the ODST spoke, “Look, I don’t fill that shit up and patch it, you’re gonna be losing a lot more blood than anyone would want you to lose. Don’t know how the hell a machine bleeds, but I’ll be damned if you ain’t pretty good in combat. Now, lemme.”

Elster sighed, rolling her one good eye, then nodded. She felt the needle of the canister touch the wound, shutting off her pain receptor in that area. Then, she paused as she felt the cool, expanding foam fill the cavity of her destroyed optical sensor, followed by Locklear pulling out a self-sealing bandage and putting it in place. He tapped her on the shoulder and said, “There. Good as new.”

“Thanks,” She sighed, feeling the edges of the bandage with her gauntlet. She paused, then gasped and stood up as she saw Chief stumbling a bit. She bolted toward him and said, “Sir, sit down. Your Mark V’s shield generator’s blown and that Elite damn near tore through the gel layer,” as she saw some of the leaking seals.

Chief nodded, stopping while Elster assessed the damage. The gash left by the energy sword was deep. It had ripped up circuits, just as she expected, but it’d also thankfully missed some of the more important items in the back of the armor set:The life support and the fusion reactor’s cells, either of which could’ve caused the death of the man. His luck held up yet again.

She sighed, stepped away and said, “Nothing I can do to fix it. Not with what we have on hand,” before she radioed and asked, “Cortana, we in the clear?” 

“Technically? Yes,” The AI replied warily. She urged them up to the ship’s raised platform, where the team gathered. There, she spoke, “The Bridge is clear, before any of you start. The ship itself contains a lot of Special Ops and I’m seeing a lot of chatter about…” She paused, then flickered a little, her light dimming. She sighed when she saw Chief take a step forward, then told them, “Well, they’re talking about us.”

“Great,” Locklear mumbled, watching as a holographic screen displayed an image of several Covenant ships turning about to face their Flagship.

“What’re they saying?” Elster inquired, staring up at the screen, too.

Slow as Cortana’s processes may be, she noted, “Communication and handshake requests inquiring of this ship’s ‘Fleetmaster’ if the Filth, that being us, has been cleansed. I can come up with an answer if you give me some time, but-” and they staggered as an explosion rippled across the hull, “... I also have Transient contacts all across the ship. Probably Special Ops teams in Camo. I’m detecting cases of sabotage across the ship’s hull. Hold on. I might…”

The doors sealed behind the group, followed by the explosive hisses of decompressions across the ship. The contacts seemed to fade, Cortana sighing deeply in relief and stating, “Okay, that’s… At least one problem dealt with. Provided the Elites don’t have sealed suits, we’ve just cleared the entire ship of crew. Now, to get out of here…”

The crews felt the rumble of the spacecraft’s hull and watched with some anticipation as the Covenant warships powered their weapons, their lateral lines heating from burning reds to almost incandescent white. The transition to Slipspace was much smoother than with the Autumn, however. To the point Elster didn’t even feel her pseudo-stomach in a twist.

“We’re out of harm's way for now,” Cortana spoke in a low tone, seemingly amazed, “This matrix is incredible…”

“Cortana?” Chief asked, staring at the woman. The group then paused, several of them drawing rifles on chittering, sac-like aliens that floated down. Elster immediately recognized the creatures as Engineers, lowering her rifle and waving the others off quickly. She took her helmet off, breathing a sigh of relief.

The AI spoke, “Thanks, Elster. To sum up what we’re looking at, people, these are Engineers. Covenant non-combat personnel and repair units. I called them here specifically to tend to the damage sustained during the fighting,” and indeed, the team watched the alien creatures float down toward damaged consoles and holographic emitters.

Elster breathed in, closing her good eye, then walked away as Haverson started something about where to head next. Or was it Locklear? It didn’t matter. She found herself a nice cubby hole nearby and sat down, the weight of nearly two months of continuous fighting taking a long, deep toll on her mind. 

Lilith sat down beside her, looking a little bit more battered, her hair unkempt, her eye covered by a bloody bandage. She told the girl, “Yeah, I know that feeling…” before staring at the purple wall of the Covvie ship. She told the girl, “Kinda creepy that Cortana could see me, honestly… You’d’ve figured I was genuinely a ghost.”

Elster snorted, then breathed, “Nah… You’d be way more annoying as a ghost. Like Cortana said, robot schizophrenia,” though the voice sounded rough. She coughed, rubbing her throat, then felt the bloodied bandage on her eye and asked Lilith, “Why’re you copying me, by the way…? You look worse for wear.”

“I’m copying you? Bitch, you’re copping my end-of-life style,” The Gestalt template spoke, leaning back against the wall, “Anyways, doesn’t matter much… We’re both near the end of our service, I think. You’re extremely damaged, whether you admit to it or not, and me? I’m stuck in your brain. Luck would have it that you might see your girl up there when we go.”

“Don’t say that,” Elster whispered, “She’s not dead… And I’m not gonna die.”

“Whatever keeps you living for a few more hours,” Lilith replied gruffly, then stood up and walked away, vanishing. The Replika stared at where she had gone, listened for her thoughts, wondered if she’d come back. Nothing for now. She took another deep, but shaky breath, part of her wondering if she was right.

Then, she felt a hand tap her on the shoulder. She looked up to see Alex staring at her, offering her water. The young Marine spoke, “Don’t know if you drink water, but… Y’know,” to which the Replika smiled. She took the canteen and took a hefty swig, feeling the Oxidant in her throat wash away. She coughed, looking at her damaged armor before muttering a quiet ‘thank you’. Alex told her, “No problem… So…” then she sat down, “We’re going back to Reach.”

Elster perked up, looking at her, “Why?”

“Chief’s suggestion… Mission parameter change or something,” She shrugged, then said, “Not looking forward to seeing it, but… Hey,” and stood up, “Maybe the Chief wants some closure. Maybe we all could use some actual closure about the world we kinda left to die, eh?” to which the Replika frowned. She nodded, while Alex gasped and said, “Oh, wait… Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Elster nodded, then grunted and stood up, feeling her artificial muscles and hydraulic systems hurt. She shifted uneasily on her feet, then walked out from the cubby hole toward Chief, watching one of the Engineers tending to his armor. She walked over to him, helmet in hand and rifle on her back, then asked, “Anything I can do, sir?”

“You could help Johnson, Locklear and Polaski retrieve whatever gear we have aboard the Longsword… Take inventory,” He replied calmly, then stopped her before she could stand up by grabbing her wrist. He asked, “Are you okay?” with a surprising tone of voice, like that of a caring father. It reminded her of Jorge…

She quietly shook that thought off, then replied, “A hundred percent, Chief,” She answered, then took a moment’s pause and saw her reflection in his helmet’s visor and chuckled awkwardly, “Okay… Maybe ninety-eight percent, considering the eye,” before she stood up, gave a quick salute and walked off, noticing with a quick glance that Linda and James were clearing the place of corpses and Haverson stood there, observing the Engineers at work.

She walked out down the halls, which’d been repressurized by Cortana, and found the corpses of dead Grunts with their skins turning a paler shade of grey, Elites that had until recently been wading through the place, their weapons still gripped in their hands as they lay dead, choked by the air and Jackals, whose pallid skin seemed to turn a shade purpler than before.

Bastards died choking, Elster thought. Good. Less of a waste of ammo. She waded out to the Hangar and found Locklear and Polaski seemingly flirting while they and Johnson hauled out several important pieces of equipment. She walked over, found multiple ammo boxes, then said to herself, “Hopefully this’ll tide us over until we get to Earth.”

“It oughta,” Johnson replied as he jumped out of the Longsword, “How ya holdin’ up, Elster?” and he saw her shrug. He continued, “We’re goin’ to Reach to get your girl, the other Spartans and the Doc, then we’re buggin’ the hell out back to Earth. Covvie bastards are gonna regret messing with us,” and he pat the girl’s shoulder, smiling as he smoked a fresh cigar.

Elster smiled, though it was embittered by the thought of Reach. Had Noble Survived? Had the Misfits? Had Halsey…? Had Ariane?