Protecting Assets

July 26, 2544

Meridian, Miridem

Chief Petty Officer Second Class SPARTAN-II Sheila-109 stepped into the small and cluttered office of Doctor Catherine Halsey. Sheila wore her Mark IV powered assault armor from the neck down. Her M Variant "Security" helmet was under one arm, allowing her short hair to breath in the stuffy underground atmosphere. Halsey, the matriarch of the entire Spartan-II program, looked up from her datapad with an air of annoyance. She wore a yellow blouse under a white lab coat that was cut to the middle of her thigh.

"Sheila, I told you not to disturb me," she said quickly.

"Ma'am," Sheila began. The entire room around them suddenly shook and sent books that rested on shelves crashing to the floor. Half-empty cups of coffee clattered to the cement ground and quickly spread; soaking Halsey's shoes. "The Covenant has arrived."

"Damn," Halsey whispered. Sheila barely heard it even with her enhanced hearing from her genetic modifications. It was not the first time she had heard the doctor swear, but it was uncommon enough to make Sheila pause. Halsey took the moment and grabbed a datapad from the desk in front of her, as well as a memory crystal from a drawer below.

The room rocked against its foundation yet again and Sheila stepped back as Halsey jogged by her. Dust fell from the ceiling above and Sheila felt a knot tighten in her stomach. She put her helmet on, waited a moment for it to interface with her neural implant, and followed Halsey down the hallway. She hitched a left and led the lone Spartan through a maze of underground hallways. The Office of Naval Intelligence had gone through great lengths to ensure that this underground facility could withstand heavy bombardment from any enemy. Any enemy but the Covenant.

"Ma'am, we really should be leaving-."

"You can wait," Halsey ordered. While technically a civilian, every Spartan respected her authority and submitted to it as if she were a Vice Admiral. "We have to retrieve something."

"What-" Sheila started. The ground beneath them shook yet again, forcing Sheila to jump forward and keep the doctor from falling to the ground. Clipped onto her back was a standard M45 Tactical Shotgun mounted with a modified Green Dot Sight that allowed her to sync it to her inner MJOLNIR systems and shoot without aiming down the sights while still maintaining accuracy. She also had one M7 Caseless Submachine Gun and an M6D pistol strapped to her thighs. "-can be so important that you're going to almost die to get it?" Sheila asked.

"Our future," was Halsey's only reply. Irritated, Sheila took two large strides forward and scooped the doctor into her arms. Not weighing more than fifty kilos, the doctor might as well have been light as a feather to Sheila's medically enhanced strength.

"You walk too slowly," Sheila murmured and began to jog forward at a pace that made even the fittest of UNSC Marines sprint to keep up. The passageway ahead was fully abandoned, most, if not all, of the ONI personnel supposed to be working down here had abandoned stations twenty minutes ago when the Covenant had first appeared in the system.

"Left," Halsey whispered as she tried to finish typing something into her datapad. "Right," she ordered. Sheila obeyed, quickly turning corners. Sheila's heavy boots sent resounding deep sounds throughout the facility. A woman in a half-ton of armor running at three quarters speed made quite the ruckus. "Second door on the right," Halsey finished. Sheila, without breaking stride, shouldered through the door and came to a stop in a large room that was empty save for many different computer displays and a large central super computer in the middle of the room. "Thank you," Halsey said as she was dropped to the ground. The doctor jogged forward and began furiously typing in commands at the nearest computer monitor.

Sheila turned her head to the left and down, her right hand going up to push against the outside of her helmet. She then looked back up at the doctor, who had bypassed all security measures and was quickly dumping terabytes of files into a memory crystal she had already plugged into an input device. "Doctor, we have less than ten minutes to make it to the escape craft."

"I'll be done in less than three," Halsey quickly replied. She exited the current application, withdrew her memory crystal, and quickly skirted to her left to another nearby computer. She restarted the process, again downloading files to her personal memory carrier.

Sheila moved back out into the hallway, looked both ways, and then stepped back inside. "Ma'am, can I ask just what is so important? And don't just tell me "our future" again, or I'll break the computers and take you up myself."

Halsey smiled and looked into Sheila's green eyes. "Early stages of the next A.I. generation. It might not seem important, but if I don't bring this data with me…we'll be set back by years." The doctor paused and saw something cross Sheila's face and nodded to herself. "You're worried about them, up there."

"Yeah," Sheila nodded back. "Because if they all fail while we're still down here, we're dead."

Halsey stepped over to a computer that she had abandoned a few moments earlier and quickly swept her fingers across the keyboard and began to type in a few commands. A moment later, a camera feed from up on the surface appeared. She motioned for the Spartan to watch, and then returned to her work.

The camera must have been mounted on top of some type of building downtown, for it was pointed downwards at an intersection in the city of Meridian, the capital of the planet Miridem. From the left side of the camera feed, a swarm of Covenant drones flew through the air, wielding deadly plasma pistols and needlers. In the center of the intersection, a handful of police vehicles and two UNSC Warthogs were parked in a haphazard barricade. Ten Meridian police officers opened fire on the drones with a variety of weapons. The Drones seemingly effortlessly dodged the incoming fire and continued to make their way forward. They hailed fire down on the Meridian police force in waves and one by one the police officers fell. The Drones moved on without a celebration and a moment later Sheila saw a half dozen Grunt-mounted Ghosts travel down the street with a heavy Wraith tank trailing them.

"Ma'am, we really need to go," Sheila ordered. She looked away from the camera feed and glanced to the doctor. She had cleared three more computers and was working on another with only one more after it. The Spartan returned to the feed and flipped through a menu to figure out where it had come from. It was from only a few blocks away.

"Almost finished," Halsey replied. Her voice strained, she was obviously nervous of what was going on above.

"No," Sheila said spontaneously. She donned her helmet and marched across the room, grabbed the doctor, and hefted her onto her shoulder. "We're leaving now."

Halsey reached behind her and barely managed to grab the memory crystal as Sheila sprinted out of the room and down a hallway. Underneath her, linoleum tiles kicked up in her wake. They shattered and split into pieces as she sprinted to an exit. Ahead of her, a door opened and a pair of UNSC Marines waved her to a wide elevator. She stepped inside and the doors quickly closed.

"How-?" Sheila began.

"Admiral Mason ordered us down here to make sure you got out of here fine," the first Marine started. On Sheila's display she saw that he was at the rank of Sergeant Major. The other was a corporal. Both held standard MA5B assault rifles in their hands, and both looked like they had gone through hell. Their light body armor was battered, dented, and burned, while the uniforms they wore underneath were frayed and tattered. Both men were covered with dirt and grime, and their eyes were dark. "And you running right at us saved us the time of searching for you. Thanks."

"No problem, Sergeant," Halsey replied. She was deposited onto her own two feet and was running through her memory crystal on her datapad. "Half the files are corrupted, of course," she whispered to herself. "Only able to save a fourth of it…" she thought out loud.

"What's the status on our exfiltration craft?" Sheila asked. She slipped off her M45 shotgun and checked the chamber. A shell pushed out the opening and she quickly caught it and re-deposited it into the open-magazine system. Satisfied, she slipped the shotgun back onto her back and grabbed each of her sidearms to make sure that they were up to the task ahead.

"You guys have a ready ONI ship," the corporal said in an oddly muted tone. Sheila detected a hint of anger, jealousy, or something similar.

"When we get on the surface, we'll have to high tail it to the hangar, and then you guys can get the hell out of here." The sergeant major forced a smile. He had come to terms with his duty, and knew that he wouldn't be getting off the planet in one piece.

The doors opened and Sheila stepped out into a world of war.

The building was supposed to look like some type of abandoned factory. It would have played the part on any other day, but the reinforced outer walls stood defiant against the backdrop of nearby buildings, making it stand out in an obvious way.

A half dozen Marines aimed outwards in a semi-circle in an attempt to make a security line. As the elevator came to a stop, the men sprang into motion and went into pre-decided positions on designated vehicles.

"Let's go! Let's go!" the sergeant major ordered. Engines grumbled to life, and the first of the two Mongoose all-terrain-vehicles sprang forward to scout the route the convoy was planning to take. The sergeant jogged to a waiting warthog with a Gauss cannon mounted on the back and waved the doctor and the Spartan towards it. He hopped into the driver's seat, waited for the doctor to get into the passenger's seat, and then gunned the craft forward just as Sheila got behind the turret. They drove in formation, with the mongoose out in front, two warthogs next to each other, and another mongoose to bring up the rear.

The convoy roared out of the hangar and into the deserted industrial district. They drove down the first street in silence, and then turned onto a wider four lane road that opened into a highway within minutes.

"Incoming!" the sergeant yelled.

Sheila looked into the sky and saw a trio of Covenant banshee one-man fliers descending towards them. Sheila recognized the plasma cannons mounted to each side of the fuselage beginning to warm, signaling that they were ready to fire.

The convoy was on the highway, flying by long ago deserted civilian vehicles.

Sheila opened fire with her heavy turrent and the M68 Gauss cannon launched a pair of 25 x 130mm projectiles down range at a speed of just under Mach 40. The first Banshee flier exploded in a cloud of purple and black smoke. The second tried to evade and roll away, but one of her rounds hit its wing and it spiraled to the ground. She adjusted her aim to take out the third, but one of the Marines behind her fired a perfectly aimed jackhammer rocket and the final flier exploded in a brilliant shower of light.

Sheila couldn't help but smile.

"Dropship on our six!" Sheila heard somebody yell. Her heart sank, and she spun the turret around to face the new incoming threat. It wasn't the standard U-Shaped Spirit Covenant drop ship, but one of the Phantom crafts that had only recently surfaced as a threat. The Phantom began to descend after them, slowly dropping lower and lower to the ground to gain speed.

The mongoose trailing the convoy slowed to break off from the convoy and the gunner on the back fired two rockets up at the drop ship. They harmlessly detonated on energy shields that covered the craft. The ship hovered only a few meters above the mongoose for a few long seconds before it dropped back and opened fire. The man on the back attempted to jump off and pull his friend, but both men were burned alive instantaneously.

"They're verifying targets before opening fire," Sheila thought out loud. "They're after something."

"Or someone," Halsey whispered.

"Damn," the sergeant major swore. Without warning, the vehicle swerved from the convoy, dropping down a highway exit and underneath the upper passage. Sheila heard the high-pitched scream of a dying Marine above, but it was cut short as they exited the highway and arrived on a four lane street littered with debris and abandoned vehicles. Behind them, Sheila watched as the drop ship finished with the escaping Marines and changed course to follow them down the road.

The Phantom dodged around light poles, buildings, and any other obstructions on its path after the single remaining warthog.

"Romeo Actual to Command, do you read me?" the sergeant major yelled into his headset. Sheila fired her Gauss cannon repeatedly at the Phantom, even though every single round detonated harmlessly on the ships' shields.

"Command here," a voice on the other end of the communication announced. "We read you loud and clear," he paused. Sheila could hear voices yelling in the background. "Do you have the package?"

"Yes sir," the sergeant major grunted. "We're en route now, but we've got a Covenant drop ship on our six. Our small arms fire cannot, I repeat, cannot pierce their shields. We can try to lead them away-."

"No, continue on to the evacuation point. We'll get everything ready for you," the voice cut the sergeant off.

"Sir yes sir. Romeo Actual out." The sergeant major turned the vehicle onto a side street and Sheila could finally see the edge of town, and with it, the entrance to the other Office of Naval Intelligence facility in the city. It was built into the side of a mountain that loomed over the once bustling metropolis, with six tunnels spread around the mountain that led down deeply into the facilities below.

As the vehicle left the city, the Spartan was able to look up at the sky and see the remaining half dozen evacuation ships heading out toward the atmosphere. They had started evacuations hours ago when the Covenant had entered the system, but civilian populations were just too slow. A battle out in space raged, and through the clouds Sheila could see explosions highlighting who was winning and who was losing. In the atmosphere, human Longsword and Shortsword fighters fought against Covenant Seraph fighters and Phantom drop ships. As she watched, one of the civilian-filled ships exploded and fell back toward the planet. Sheila swore quietly.

As they approached, she saw a blockade made up of concrete half-walls, twenty Marines in dark BDUs behind heavy turrets and rocket pods, and one Scorpion main battle tank. Two men waved them over to navigate through a small opening, and the Warthog moved under the entrance of the tunnel.

Inside, darkness loomed. Emergency red strobe lights flashed above closed doors. Light blue navigation lights guided their way further down into the tunnel. They had not traveled far before the sounds of battle echoed down after them from the surface above. Screams, gunfire, explosions, and the sounds of organisms dying bounced around the thick cavern walls all around them. Finally, after a minute and a half of driving as fast as the vehicle could drive, the road flattened into an even path that came to a stop before an open pair of sliding blast doors ten meters tall. The Warthog drove through slowly and stopped near the entrance.

A pair of naval officers approached, flanked by a team of four Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. The officers paid Sheila no mind, but the men behind them looked her up and down in disdain.

"Admiral Mason," Halsey observed. "It's nice to see that you didn't flee at the first sign of trouble and you'll see a lady off."

"I'd hardly call you a proper lady," the elderly man said. He had a thick handlebar mustache draped over his upper lip, and an M7 Submachine Gun was clipped to his side. His bald head shined in the low light, in heavy contrast of the dark skinned ONI officer that seemed to blend in with the shadows around him.

The ONI operative, Commander Jelani, gestured to the UNSC Prowler stealth spacecraft behind him. "Doctor Halsey," he said in an accent that gave him a purr to his words. "We need to get you and your research out of here as soon as possible," he was cut off as a huge explosion made the floor beneath them vibrate. The ODSTs looked beyond Sheila at the blast doors and then one looked at Mason, who nodded. The ODST snapped his fingers, and a technician by the doors was ordered to close them.

Sheila followed the officers and doctor toward the ship. While they walked, she observed the men and women around her. Close to thirty Marines and ODSTs nervously waited for the coming battle, while twenty technicians worked fervently to prepare the ship for departure.

"Most of your suggested modifications have been implemented," Jelani told them. "And that's all you'll have. Prowlers do not have many offensive capabilities, Admiral, so we're going to have a squadron of Longswords give you escort until you get out of the atmosphere. Then we'll have the UNSC Dawn's Plight provide extra security until you can jump to slipspace."

Mason shrugged. "That will have to do," He looked at the Doctor, and then the Spartan. "Let's board, ladies," he gestured, and led them up a set of stairs onto a railed catwalk that led to the ship.

"Sir," the leader of the ODST squad approached with his helmet on but visor de-polarized. "Our boys upstairs lost. Covenant forces are making their way down here. Blast doors will be able to hold back their vehicles, but ground troops will be here within the minute."

"Alright," Mason said. "Get your men into firing defensive positions. See if you can rig controlled demolition kits around the entrance-,"

"No time, sir," the ODST replied. Underneath them, the Marines and ODSTs sprang into motion and ran around the hangar. A wounded Marine with a shredded leg limped over to the Warthog that Sheila and Halsey had come in on and got behind the Gauss turret. It was an admirable defensive position.

Mason grabbed Halsey's arm and led her to the entrance to the ship. Just as they crossed the halfway point, the blast doors exploded into the hangar. Sheila looked down and saw a large portion of one of the doors fly at the warthog and sink deep into its chassis.

"Shit," Jelani murmured.

"Take her," Mason ordered. He un-holstered his SMG and stalked to the railing of the catwalk. He looked at Sheila, who nodded in agreement, and together the pair opened fire on the stream of grunts that waltzed through the doors. Sheila stood with her SMG in one hand and Magnum handgun in the other, next to the Admiral and his M7.

A squad of Jackals entered the hangar with their shields leveled to deflect rounds from all the Marines on the ground. Sheila aimed carefully with her handgun and dispatched half of them before her motion tracker picked up two large blips on the radar. She opened her mouth to warn the men below, but it did not matter.

Two large hunters, the closest thing the Covenant had to walking biological tanks, lumbered through the destroyed doors. Their right arms were made up of Fuel Rod Cannons, and they leveled them at Marines scattered in hidden places. Sheila saw men die in droves, and from her angle, she could do nothing about it.

"Spartan," Mason looked at her. "Get on that ship. You're Halsey's best protection-," his words were suddenly cut off and his eyes searched her faceplate. She took a step back in confusion, and a moment later saw two large red holes begin to form in his chest. He was lifted into the air, and Sheila looked past him at the air shimmering at a height that could only mean one thing.

Sangheili. Elites. The Covenant field generals.

In the span of a second, her eyes flicked down to her motion tracker and saw that Halsey's IFF tags were inside the ship. With any luck, the ship was close to taking off. With only a bit more luck, she only had to stall the Covenant for a minute or two and Halsey would be safe.

It would certainly not be easy. She dropped her SMG and handgun in drew her shotgun without pause. She fired at both the dead Admiral and the Elite behind him. The buckshot tore through the Admiral's torso, spraying both her and the monster in blood, as well as destroying the alien's shield system. It roared in defiance and flicked its wrist and the sword it held, which sent the Admiral crashing limply to the ground. Sheila pumped her shotgun and fired again, taking the Elite's head off in a shower of gore. Behind it, three more Elites turned their active camouflage systems off, allowing them to be seen. Two had energy swords of their own, while the third held a plasma rifle in each ugly hand.

Sheila fired again, took out the closest one's shields, and moved her hand to push in a new shell before the second Elite charged her. She waited until the last second, pivoted her weight onto her other foot, and slammed the butt of her weapon on the back of the Elite's head as it shot by. It collapsed to the ground and roared in agony as Sheila swept her weapon back at the first enemy. It charged her and swung its sword at her, forcing her to step backwards in an attempt to dodge.

For the first time in her life, she was too slow. The sword cut through her armor and brushed against her chest at the same time that her feet fell on the wrong side of the Elite on the ground. She fell backwards and over the railing - her only instinct was to grab the closest thing to her, which happened to be the arm of the attacking Elite. Together, the two fell to the cement floor seven meters below.

She knew she lost consciousness. She did not know, however, how much time that had taken. When she opened her eyes, blood was splattered against the inside of her visor, and she could taste its copper-like compound in her mouth. Her eyes lowered to the motion tracker inside her visor, and saw that her allies, highlighted as yellow circles on the radar, had dwindled down to only a handful of men. The sea of red circles, synonymous with the Covenant forces, dominated her radar. She swore and rolled onto her feet with her shotgun still in hand.

"Demon," a voice called. She looked and saw one of the Elites from the catwalk standing a few meters away. Behind him, the Prowler ship was gone. "You won your battle," the elite said to her in garbled English. It had four jaws that split into an X when enraged, and when it attempted to speak in Sheila's tongue, it struggled. Her eyes looked the Elite up and down, taking in its high-ranking red armor. "The ship is gone." The battle around her died. She could hear the surviving human forces around her speaking quietly on team-band frequencies, asking each other if they should shoot the quiet and content Covenant forces around them.

"My battle is still here," she replied to the Elite.

"Lies," the Elite walked sideways around her, strolling in a circle with its blue-white sword glistening in the low light. "Information fell into our hands about your V.I.P.," the Elite bowed its head and then grunted. "The package."

Sheila looked at the crowd around her. A dozen jackals with plasma pistols, twenty grunts with Needler rifles and plasma pistols, the two hunters with their fuel rod cannons, and four elites with swords and rifles. Even with the handful of humans still spread around the room, they were not good odds for anyone - even a Spartan.

"We will find her," the Elite Major cooed. "We will torture her."

"I don't think so," were the last words Sheila ever said. She blasted her shotgun into the chest of the leading Elite. From that close of a range, its chest imploded under the force of the buckshot, and its dead body was propelled backwards into the line of grunts behind it. The men around her joined their combined fire with hers to take down the alien forces, but Sheila was too slow. As she pumped her arm to bring a new shell into her shotgun, both hunters leveled their cannon arms and fired.

It did not matter if she was genetically enhanced. It did not matter that she was one of the fastest humans ever born. It did not matter that both hunters were taking rounds from human forces on all sides of them.

It did matter, however, that she had managed to give the Prowler just a bit more time to make it to space. Halsey was safe. Her research was safe. Sheila had made a little difference in the time the Prowler had to escape.

And just a little difference was all it took.