Ivanoff Research Station, Gamma Halo

Sometime after The Didact's Covenant Remnant troops invade the facility...


Mona Hannel was a Security Officer, and a damned good one at that too. A position as an officer was quite the respectable status within the ONI personnel assigned to Ivanoff Station, with its wealth of valuable knowledge and paragon staff. The Caucasian woman was in her late twenties, in excellent heath with superb physical and mental conditions. Her medium length hair was frosty bronze and wavy, complimenting her fair skin and rounded, almond-shaped eyes. Mona's face was quite attractive: a strong and straight nose, a full pair of pinkish and pleasant lips, not a trace of hard creases on her smooth and spotless skin, slightly dense eyebrows along with long eye-lashes, friendly light-brown irises, and a broad but softly elegant jawline and high cheekbones. She was slightly shorter than average for her age, but possessed a slim and well sculpted figure. Mona's personality was sharp, her reliable leadership persona was almost always seemed to be clearly apparent in whatever situation she was placed in, and she valued proper morals and responsibilities above all else. Mona was presently outfitted in her black combat uniform, her helmet absent from her head and an M7 SMG in her hands. The nozzle was still hot from expelling an entire magazine of spent shells at Covenant Remnant invaders, and that was when she had lost her helmet to a ferocious explosion from a fuel rod cannon.

Ellen Rutherford was a typical xenoarcheologist infatuated with the material and theories she had researched both before and after becoming a part of Ivanoff Station. The woman was in her mid-thirties, her body was tall and curvy with slender contours to her figure. Her skin was a fair olive shade with blushes of rosy red, and her hair was a pale black color. Ellen's face was a bit rounded in shape, with wide cheekbones and a very light pepper of freckles on the thin bridge of her small nose. These freckles gave her face a beautiful charm, as well as the miniature beauty mark located on the woman's lower-left cheek. Her eyebrows were not solidly shaped like Mona's own narrow pair, they were more like wide paisleys, and the shape of her eyes were bold and large. Mona's irises were dark-gray in color, possessing a bright twinkle at the edges. Her hair was long, tied up into a fashionable bun on the back of her head while two long bangs of different lengths hung down either side of her face, respectively. The woman had a wide mouth, her lips were a pinkish tan color and plump as well. Ellen was presently wearing her light-gray and sage green trousers, blue camisole, and lab-coat along with her pair of casual laboratory footwear. She was not trained in handling fire-arms aside from a M6H magnum, which had been barely fired despite all the ample fire-fights occurring throughout the facility.

The two women scrambled around the corner of the corridor, feeling a sharp twinge of anguish as they heard the death cries of their friend behind them. Cooper was a good man, a Security guard who had managed to down three Storm Covenant invaders with a M45D Security shotgun. Unfortunately, his journey ended abruptly despite his heroism. He had activated the command to seal the large doors to the bulkhead Mona, Ellen, and him were traversing past. From the other side of the doors, Cooper had managed to get a few feet past the doorway before a volley of plasma painfully tore into his back. Before the doors could shut, even more bolts of plasma whizzed past Mona and Ellen, but the two women were soon in the clear. Vicious snarls were heard from behind the sealed door, they were announcements of approaching death that were shouted from the maws of a Covenant Remnant squad hunting the humans down.

"By the military crates, there's a malfunctioning door. Gideon and Mallory should be there with a Security detail. They'll help us out!" Mona hastily announced, glancing backwards with slight hints of sadness breaking past her serious face.

Flashy sparks cascaded down onto the the two women as they entered the open room, noting the broken door and its jerky motions as well as the hissing gas escaping from the scorched ceiling vents and walls. The drab gray walls showed signs of plasma damage, and Ellen noticed how wonderful the bright orange lighting under the floor appeared. Two out of the three other doors within the room were sealed, blood droplets and splatters were observed leading to the other open door in the room. Mona noted that the heavy storage crates in the room would provide good cover, and the Covenant Remnant squad chasing her and Ellen would be on them in no time at all. It would be beneficial to quickly take cover and hide.

"What the hell? Where's the Security detail?!" Mona harshly whispered, peeking her head out the corner of her cover. Her eyes were looking to the doorway leading to the corridor, and she detected the faint sounds of heavy and hurried feet against metal flooring.

Ellen ran to the other open doorway and looked inside. The walls dad white paneling with black dials, and there were even more smears of blood on the gray flooring. Ellen gasped in surprise, horrified, when she beheld the sight awaiting for her in the corridor. Nearest to the transparent windows was a corpse, a scientist riddled with terribly brutal burn marks from plasma weapons. The smell was unsettling, and the face was all but unrecognizable due to the sheer amount of plasma damage. Ellen suspected that this was Gideon, as the corpse's body seemed to match up with Gideon's characteristics. It was rumored that a Storm Rifle could tear through thick metal doors, the effects of the plasma weapon upon a fleshy body were dreadful to ponder over, yet there Gideon was, proof of the brutality of this weapon.

Ellen looked behind her to the empty display shelving, and rushed forwards when she caught sight of a wounded human being. It was another scientist, a short and dark-skinned woman with graying streaks to her curly head of short black hair. It was Mallory, clutching her bloody belly and leaning forwards, wheezing slowly.

"Wh-what happened here, Mallory?" Ellen asked with a trembling voice. Mallory coughed and looked up, her dark-brown eyes rheumy and face expressing anguish.

"They just left us. Our Security detail, they just...ran!" she whispered, her voice soft and weak and full of heart-breaking emotion.

Before Ellen could respond, the life left Mallory's body and she relaxed, her hand falling onto her lap and muscles going limp. Ellen jumped away from Mallory's corpse and fought back tears. She sniffed and shook her head from side to side, her lips tightly closed and eyes firmly shut. With a wet sigh, Ellen quickly hurried to Mona and crouched down behind a large white storage crate. She had passed by a command console, something that could record audio-logs or control the doors as well as do a variety of other functions. Disappointingly, the plasma damage done to it had rendered it useless...the room was widely susceptible to an overwhelming invasion. Under the blinding ceiling lights, the two women fretted over their situation. Any moment now, the Covenant Remnant would dart past the Maintenance Tunnels and disabled Security Monitor station located directly in front of the open doorway.

"They'll track us down here for sure! We're so dead." Ellen cried, her body trembling in fear as she pulled her knees up to her chest and leaned against her folded legs. Mona on the other hand clicked her tongue and let out a heavy sigh. She then put a hand to Ellen's head and looked boldly into Ellen's watery eyes.

"Keep it together. We've all lost people, but that doesn't mean we have to join them. You do anything to stay alive, ma'am. We'll hold off here until back-up arrives, it's not like other Security Teams aren't patrolling the area for survivors to rescue! Check your weapon and get ready. We'll attack on my cue when the enemy gets near. Also, if you see any opening at all, take it and head for the Maintenance Tunnels! I'll cover you if you run." Mona bravely declared, her voice was feminine and gentle but also straightforward, very much like that of a collected and passionate soldier whose objectives was absolutely clear to them.

With that being said, she two women spread themselves out within the room and prepared for a fire-fight. Within the room was a sturdy M395 DMR, its magazine about half empty, spent shells scattered around its resting place. Mona placed her SMG onto the ground and double-checked the ammo for her DMR, sliding the magazine in with a smooth click and pulling down the rifle's bolt. Mona was annoyed that her helmet was gone, she could have been on the radio contacting other Security officers. That was, if the Covenant Remnant wasn't jamming communications.

Speaking of the Covenant Remnant, the small team tracking Mona and Ellen was composed of two Kig-Yar Rangers and several Unggoy, all in EVA suits. Some of the Grunts had fallen from Gideon's shotgun and Mona's SMG, but the Jackals were still in fine health and fuming. Both Jackals were around the same height, and had the around the same limber, muscular build. The two Jackals were outfitted in form-fitting suits colored dark-gray and silver. The tight suits possessed small tubes, blue lights and thin padding which contoured and clung comfortably against the naked Kig-Yar bodies underneath, from the three toes to the three fingers and throat. The armor and EVA helmets that the Jackal Rangers wore was of a medium weight and decent quality, colored bright blue with a shade of azure as well as light gray. There were jets attached to the backs' of the two Jackals, located directly above the prominent tailbones of the alien creatures. These jets were used for zero-gravity environments, for traversing vertical areas quickly as well as a variety of other uses such as tools for ambushes or boosts to mobility.

One Kig-Yar, who appeared to be superior in rank to the other, wielded a Covenant Carbine. The other Kig-Yar was a front-line soldier, equipped with an energy shield projector onto the top of his left wrist and a Plasma Pistol. The two Storm Sangheili who had been previously leading the unit had been slain earlier, and now that the Kig-Yar were in charge, their ambitions were free to run wild. Originally the two Kig-Yar had serves as infantry, one being a brutal Storm Heavy while the other was a Storm Sniper. Through time and dedication, the Kig-Yar had ranked up together and were placed into a Ranger squad. A great amount of time had passed for these two Storm Jackals, there had been almost no conflict for close to three years. In this time, the two Jackals were prone to fits of emotional stress and anxiety, particularly aggravated instances regarding the lack of sexual alleviation. As soldiers, they were trained to strictly follow orders and behave as robotic troops: a legion of united death that would never surrender. However, sexual frustration was quite the psychological tormentor. When orders arrived to invade a human facility, the two Kig-Yar were secretly excited. Humans meant females, and females meant relief. Of course the inter-species aspect of the fantasies was disturbing, but the Jackals figured that beggars couldn't be choosers. If the moment ever arrived, the two Jackals would let their emotions dictate their actions, and it seemed that fate was on their side.

The Kig-Yar squad leader managed to open the sealed bulk-head door using the command console Gideon had previously accessed. The Storm Covenant swarmed forwards in an organized fashion, weapons raised. With his rifle's barrel pointed directly ahead of him, the Kig-Yar leader crept to a military crate and took cover, looking behind him to examine the shotgun near-by. The Covenant Remnant was surprisingly willing to make use of human weaponry or ordinance. However, the Kig-Yar left the rifle alone and walked past Gideon's corpse and the crate, motioning for his Grunt underlings to sweep the corridor ahead. Behind them was the other Jackal, who's bright blue energy shield managed to form a solid umbrella of protection around most of his entire body. His cautious steps forwards were not sluggish, but brief and bold. When one Unggoy planted his large foot down at the front of the open doorway, his helmeted head seemed to explode as a lightning quick bullet pierced his armor and skull. Mona smiled, proud of her decisive headshot. However, her victory was short-lived as the other Grunts swarmed forwards. Keeping her calm edge, Mona squeezed the trigger over and over as she fired onto the small group. Wounding a couple and killing another, the woman finally ran out of ammo for her DMR and tossed the heavy rifle aside. The Grunts seethed at her and rapidly fired off a volley of plasma bolts. Mona's cover was battered by the suppressing fire, she was too afraid to retaliate. Surprisingly, Ellen swiftly stood up from her cover, held her magnum with both hands, shut one eye and leaned forwards after assuming a professional firing stance, and pulled at her trigger.

One by one, the Grunts cried out in despair and death as the insides of their fragmented skulls were torn apart by piping hot bullets. Ellen's shoulder had been grazed by a plasma bolt, and the itchy sensation at her joint was becoming to painfully sear. She realized that her lab-coat was absorbing the radioactive energy, and she took the coat off and threw it to the floor. there was a faint red welt on her shoulder, but after a few moments it seemed to lose color as well as diminish in pain. The Jackals suddenly appeared, taking cover at each side of the doorway's frame. Ellen quickly crouched down to her cover, panicking as she noticed how low the capacity of her single magazine of ammunition was. Mona on the other hand was smiling in an encouraging manner, nodding to the woman before she brought her SMG up to her chest, and then blind-fired it over her cover in a brief spray. The recoil was not so bad, but it did harm her blind accuracy even further. The best it did was provide more time for Ellen to situate herself safely behind her own cover.

With his Carbine lowered and body compact against his cover, the Jackal looked to his comrade from behind his face-mask and nodded. Slowly, the shield Jackal strafed to the center of the doorway while firing his Plasma Pistol in rapid shots. The Jackal carrying the Carbine slipped out of cover and raised his rifle, tucking its stock between his shoulder and the side of his chest and leaning in to peer down the scope. Four powerful bolts of green plasma energy were expelled out from the Carbine's barrel, smashing themselves against the far wall and Mona's cover.

"Damn it. We're pinned down. The shield bastard can draw our fire and defend his ally, while the sniper can just pick us off if we try to get fire superiority." Mona complained, sliding her body across the floor to the other end of the room. Ellen had calmed down, but her wide-eyed expression surrendered the emotional panic clouding her mind.

"Professor, stay with me now! We need a plan, so any ideas?!" Mona encouraged, tilting her head and staring right at the xenoarcheologist.

Mona huffed out a breath and confidently peeked herself out of over for the briefest moment, squeezing the trigger to her devastating SMG and aiming right for the Jackal wielding the Carbine. His own lightning quick reflex took over before Mona could fire, but his shot missed and instead whizzed past the woman's neck with a loud whistle. Several bullets hit his body, but only a few managed to pierce his armor. The Jackal was fine, though, and kept a calm head after looking down to his body for a short moment of time. He grumbled to himself, loathing his moment of inaccuracy and then realizing that the two human women were better off being kept alive. How exactly would his comrade and him go about this, though? Nestling himself back into his cover, the Jackal growled and gestured for his comrade to move in, spitting out orders in the native language of the Kig-Yar.

Feeling courageous, Mona stood up and shrieked in pure anger, holding her SMG close to her body as she fired. Her steadfast rage resulted in the woman remaining standing, despite the dangerous plasma flying towards her in speedy succession. The shield Kig-Yar was startled, but he hunkered down and took the brunt of Mona's SMG fire. After reflecting a few bullets, the shield soon began to waver as the barrage continued, until it eventually gave out. The Jackal seemed to growl in surprise, and shouted at his comrade. Just as the shield depleted, Mona's SMG emptied itself completely. The Jackal raised his Plasma Pistol and aimed right for her reddened face, but Ellen then stood up and emptied the last of her own Magnum's magazine by firing right at the Jackal's front body.

The alien soldier raised his arms and scrambled backwards while letting out a cry of fear and hatred, fearing the crushing power of what that human hand-cannon could do. It was especially lethal if the human aiming the weapon was directing their sights at your head. Rolling acrobatically to cover, the Jackal crouched down behind the military crates and waited for his shield to recover. He leaned his back onto the crate and cursed. With an impatient panic the Jackal tapped at his gauntlet and, realizing how it would need time to recharge, shook his head from side to side, obviously annoyed. He brought a leg up to his body and laid the other onto the ground, and he realized that he had been panting. In response to this exchange, the commanding officer poked himself out of cover and fired away at both Mona and Ellen in hurried shots, trying to alternate between the two women. This alternating threw his accuracy off, and the two human women ducked back into the safety of their cover.

"Ho ho, well shit I'm out." Mona dourly announced, looking down to her pathetic SMG. Ellen shot her a sympathetic glance, but then got an idea.

"Me too, b-but m-maybe Mallory has extra ammunition on her? All the scientists were assigned a personal side-arm, I'm sure she took hers with her!"

"Good idea, go and check. I'll hunker down here and try to keep them busy. Be quick!" Mona replied, a trace of hope hinted in her steady tone of voice. Ellen half-hopped and half-dived to the smaller open doorway while crouching. She fell onto her knees and palms when she got past the rims of the doorway, and moved a stray bang of hair away from the front of her face. There were slight hints of perspiration on the skin of her forehead, which seemed to be reflecting the lights in the small corridor.

Ellen approached Mallory's corpse and hesitated to search the woman, but soon gave in and began to pat the corpse's body and check her lab-coat. Mona yelled, and there seemed to be a scuffle of sorts in the other room, but Ellen paid no attention to this alarming news and continued to search Mallory. Her journey was fruitless, and Ellen backed away from Mallory's warm corpse with a defeated expression on her weary face. She turned around to approach Gideon's body, but was stopped. Turning her head slowly to her left, Ellen's peripheral vision caught sight of a tall Jackal Ranger in the door frame, with his arm out-stretched and a Plasma Pistol pointed right at her temple. Ellen let out a faint whimper, but she dropped her gun and raised her hands, shutting her eyes as her lips quivered in silent fear. She had never been this close to an alien before, much less one who was known for killing humans. Behind the Jackal was the commanding officer, who was currently menacingly shoving Mona towards his comrade. This prompted the woman to go on a tirade,

"Damn shield motherfucker-"

The Jackal raised his Carbine and aimed the rifle point-blank at her face, obviously annoyed at her shrill and hateful speech. Mona clicked her tongue and sighed in quiet exasperation. She put her hands up, but continued to glare at the Jackal's masked head. The commanding Kig-Yar spoke to his comrade in his native tongue, confusing the two human women as the Jackals exchanged speech. From behind their helmets, the soldiers were anonymous and frightening. Every curve to their sculpted musculature, and each piece of armor decorating their bodies unnerved the two women, who were eager to find an opening and run like hell away from these two tenacious aliens. It was humiliating to be defeated by the Covenant, but even more terrifying knowing the war crimes they are glad to commit. In time, both Mona and Ellen would know first-hand how criminal the Storm Covenant could be.