Fireteam Woodlands had now returned to the hills in search of a lookout point to spot on what appeared to be a Covenant outpost in construction. James was looking over Tori's shoulder, but he did not need her sniper rifle to see what she was seeing. There was a covenant base under construction, and it was being guarded by covenant troops and the wraith that got away. But there were two other species that Woodlands had never seen before, and had only been informed of when Infinity departed for Requiem: Promethean Crawlers, and Watchers. "I count at least fifty to sixty tangos in total, not including the wraith, Jack" Tori reported. "Wow! Sixty tangos! Now that's a fair fight!" Robert sarcastically interrupted. "Don't get cocky now" Jack warned, "We're down a man due to Jay's injury". "The biofoam was just applied, so it should wear off in a couple hours, giving us enough time to destroy the unfinished base and get back to Infinity" James reminded everyone. "Will you be OK to stay here without us?" James asked Jay as he handed him his railgun. "Of course. I've survived this long haven't I?". James simply nodded back with a smile. That's when Robert spoke up again, "Hey guys, I have an idea on how we can easily take care of those enemies" he said as he looked toward the last Ghost they had.
…...
It had been the same plan as before: distract the wraith with the ghost, destroy it, and pick off the infantry. Robert very easily distracted the wraith as planned, but the ghost took a lot of damage from it before James destroyed the last wraith. It didn't take long for Woodlands to kill all the Covenant troops, but it was a different story when they started fighting the Prometheans. They were much stronger and smarter than the Covenant, and as it turned out, there were more Prometheans protecting the Covenant base than there were Covenant. By the time the Spartans killed the last Watcher, all that was left were the Spartans, and the Covenant base. Even Robert's Ghost had been destroyed during the firefight. 30 minutes had now passed since everyone was on the hill, and now Woodlands, save for Jay, were entering the small, unfinished base. The base had no roof to it, and there were missing turrets to parts of the structure. But all terminals that were visible were fully operational. "Look for any information you can find on any of these terminals, they could contain some answers for us, like 'why the hell are Prometheans working with the Covenant?' " Jack ordered. While searching the computers, James found information on the base itself: "It's not just a base, it's a position for an Anti-Air Gun" James repeated to the rest of the squad. "That must mean the Covenant were expecting us to come back. But why would they start to build them now?" Tori asked. "I don't know" Jack answered, as he pulled out the Sangheili-written text taken from the previous firefight, "But if we can get back to Infinity soon, we could translate this text, and it could provide some more answers. C'mon, let's blow this base up".
….
"Clear!" Jack called out as he set off the satchels that were placed inside the base. The base was turned into a large ball of flame and large pieces of shrapnel, some of which landed around the Spartans. "Our job here is done. Jay, be ready to-" Jack was interrupted by a loud screeching noise coming from behind. The next thing the Spartans saw were about 5 Promethean Knights, seemingly appearing from thin air. "Contact, contact!" Jack called out as the Spartans dove for cover behind some of the base's shrapnel. "Kill these damn things so we can evac!" Jack cried out as more and more Knights started appearing. "Yes sir" James whispered before completely leaving cover, and started shooting at the Knights with his shotgun. "James, get back to cover, that's an order!" Jack yelled to James. But before he could do so, a Knight jumped on James, knocking him down while showing its bright orange skull. "JAMES!" Jack called out before James blacked out.
Come back next week for episode 4: Infinity.