She sat across from the rebel leader who glared coolly at her with his feet on the metal table in between them. Behind her stood two rebels equipped with the outdated MA37 assault rifle, though she supposed she couldn't judge them for their antique weaponry; this particular Insurrection offshoot hadn't been heard from since before Reach had fallen. And that's why she was here. Four years after the events on the Ark the UNSC was still struggling to rebuild their former colonial empire, revisiting former colony planets and salvaging what they could. Mostly, they found glassed wastelands left in the Covenant's wake. Occasionally they would find planets that had managed by a miracle to remain off of the radar of the Covenant or, even more rarely, planets that had fought off the alien assault.

This planet was no such case. Sargasso had been attacked, seized, and subsequently abandoned by the Covenant. The only reason that the Insurrection was here was that they'd managed to get back to the former resort world before the UNSC could. They had already established a handful of settlements on the habitable parts of the planet and were working to rebuild the planet's former glory. Taking the planet from the UNSC was just the icing on the cake.

She was currently being held in what she could only assume what the rebel command building in a small room with one door and no windows. It was obviously meant to be their version of an interrogation chamber, which she found to be a bit absurd. They were treating her like a combatant or some kind of criminal! She was here on legitimate reasons: the discussion of colony reabsorption with this settlement's governor, a man named Arthur Guillorine. She had landed at the designated landing zone but she and her entourage had been immediately apprehended by the rebel soldiers.

"So I take it you're not going to listen to our proposal?" she asked the leader finally, a short man in what looked like repurposed ODST armor. The scars on his face told of a life of combat and his uniform, despite being obviously quite old, was still in decent shape. A former Marine, perhaps?

"Yeah right," the man scoffed, spitting something dark into one of the two cups placed before him, "I simply want to know what the hell the UNSC thinks they're doing putting troops on the ground- my ground."

"I've told you before, we're not soldiers," she protested, shaking her head in exasperation. Why did rebels have to be so hard headed?

"Two targets, 237 and 239 meters, South entrance." "… They're down."

"We're ambassadors from the UEG here to discuss terms for the reabsorption of Sargasso back into the Colonies. There was absolutely no reason to take me and my friends hostage like this."

The leader laughed at that. "Well, that's not going to happen, darling. But I'm going to have to ask you to go into details on your little landing party."

"Roger that. Twins, move up."

"Fine," she closed her eyes as she sighed, leaning back as far as her restrictions would allow, "What would you like to know?"

The rebel leader took his feet off of the table and sat a little straighter. "Well, I certainly wasn't expecting such complacency. It's a nice change for dealing with UNSC lapdogs. Let's start with your name and rank, if you would."

"Ghost, we're in position. Orders?"

"I'm Sarissa O'Bannon, civilian contractor working with the UNSC for negotiation purposes," she ignored his comment, recognizing it for the bait it was. "My 'landing party', as you called it, came here with the purpose of speaking to this settlements governor. I take it you aren't him."

"God no," the rebel laughed again, some genuine amusement in it this time, "I'd never want Arthur's job. Too much paperwork."

"So what, you're the primary military leader around here?"

At a nod from the leader one of the rebels behind Sarissa kicked out her chair from under her and she let out a gasp of pain at the sudden strain the handcuffs put on her wrists as she fell. "Don't misunderstand your situation right now, Ms. O'Bannon," the leader scolded her as she got off of the floor and glared at him, "You're my prisoner and I ask the questions. Now, I don't like hitting a lady, but Arthur doesn't even know you exist. There'll be no repercussions for my actions if you piss me off, understand?"

"Hide the bodies, standby. Zero?"

"Yes," she hissed out as one of her rebel jailors set back up her chair. She was liking this guy less and less the more time she spent with him.

"Great! So, where did your ship come from? The UNSC warship in orbit?"

"It's a simple Charon-class Frigate, hardly a warship. But yes, we did depart from the Prophet's Regret in order to land outside your settlement," Sarissa took note of the increased interest the leader showed at the mention of the Frigate's name. Had he heard of it somewhere before? "However, as I said before, we have no connection with the UNSC. I can't tell you much about the ship or her crew; nothing at all, really."

"If only I believed that," the leader sneered. Sarissa closed her eyes again, if only to prevent her from glaring at her captor again. Just how long would she be forced to deal with this guy?

I've found them, Ghost. Most are in cages near the mess hall. One is in the command building, 150 meters to the east."

"Regardless, I'm familiar enough with the specs of a run-of-the-mill Frigate. Let's move on to your entourage."

"What do you mean? We came unarmed; we didn't even bring any Marines with us as bodyguards."

"Yes, as a show of good faith, right?" Sarissa nodded hesitantly. There was another nod from the leader and then the back of her head exploded in pain and her head bounced off of the table. One of the guards had punched her! "Let's also keep the bullshit to a minimum, okay, Ms. O'Bannon? No way in hell would the UNSC send six civilians down to an Insurrectionist settlement without an escort of some sort. We searched your Pelican: nothing. So, where is your backup?"

Sarissa coughed as she struggled to sit back up. She felt dizzy and couldn't seem to focus on the rebel in front of her. 'So that's what being punched feels like, huh? She thought with a rueful smile, Hurts like hell.

"I'll take the solo. Twins, go free the group. Get that data back to the Pelican, Zero."

"Oh? And what are you smiling about?"

Sarissa shook her head to get her red hair out of the way, her green eyes glaring daggers at the smirking Insurrectionist. "You won't get any information out of me because there isn't any to get. My only purpose on this planet is peaceful negotiation with this settlement's leader!"

"You keep saying that," the leader frowned at her as he crossed his arms, "but I just can't believe it. You arrived without even a warning, landing not even a kilometer away from this camp. That's ballsy behavior for someone who just wants 'peaceful negotiation'."

"What do you mean? The Prophet's Regret sent a transmission before we even left the ship," Sarissa was genuinely confused; the Captain had told her that everything was in order for her to complete her job, yet everything had turned out so wrong.

"See, there's that bullshit thing I talked- wait," the leader's brown eyes widened as he had a sudden realization. "You didn't know."

"That's what I've been telling you!" she yelled, unable to contain her anger any longer. She flinched as she heard the rebels behind her step closer again, but a raised hand from the rebel leader stopped them before they punished her.

"This is Ghost, in position. Everyone get ready to go loud. They in place, Zero?" "Ready for your command, boss."

"Listen to me carefully, woman," the leader was standing now, looming over her seated figure. "When the UNSC sent you down in that Pelican, what did they tell you about it?"

The rebel looked angry but Sarissa thought she could sense an underlying emotion… anxiety? "Just that it had been repurposed on a previous mission for supply transport so there wasn't as many seats as there usually are."

"That's it? What the fuck are they planning…" the rebel leader started pacing around the room, muttering to himself. Sarissa stared at this strange new behavior and could almost feel the unease of the two rebels behind her.

"Um, Jon?" one of them hesitantly asked, "What are you thinking?"

The rebel leader, Jon, apparently, whipped around to face the rebel and Sarissa heard the guard take an involuntary step back at the intense look in Jon's eyes. "The UNSC sends a Pelican just outside of an Insurrectionist base with minimum crew and a handful of passengers with absolutely no weapons or other form of protection. The Pelican is modified to allow for extra cargo to be carried, but we find nothing and our scanners say that the Frigate hasn't launched any more birds or drop pods," Jon turned his intense gaze back to Sarissa, "The UNSC knows you've been captured, Ms. O'Bannon, yet they haven't sent reinforcements. We haven't even heard so much as a peep from them in regards to your capture."

Jon closed his eyes as he pondered the problem and Sarissa found herself holding her breath as she tried to follow his train of thought. "So," she began, "if they haven't bothered to send someone to rescue us, then what does that mean?"

The rebel's eyes flew open and he let out an involuntary gasp. "They're already here!"

"Light 'em up."

Suddenly the building shook as a tremendous explosion erupted nearby. No, not an explosion, multiple explosions. Sarissa curled her body inwards as the detonations continued, the force of it all shaking dust from the ceiling. She could hear the rebels yelling something, could see Jon's mouth moving as he tried to give orders, but the sounds he made were made unintelligible when compared to whatever bombs were currently going off.

And then there was blissful silence.

As quickly as the explosions had appeared they were gone, leaving Sarissa and the rebels stunned. Jon was the first to recover and quickly pulled out a small holo-phone, mashing a few buttons and yelling into it, "Richardson, what the fuck just happened out there?! Richardson?! Dammit!" he threw the apparently malfunctioning device on the ground, glaring at it for a moment before they heard gunfire echoing from outside of the building.

There was uncontrolled panic fire of automatic weapons interjected occasionally by small bursts of fire and screams as people fell to them. The rebel leader gritted his teeth as he glared madly at Sarissa and she found herself wishing she was anywhere but near him. He probably blamed her for whatever the hell was happening right now.

He stared at her for a moment longer before gesturing to the two rebels behind her, "You two, train your weapons on the door. They're undoubtedly here for our prisoners which means it won't be long before they come here for her. We won't let them have her!" he snarled as he stalked over to her, pulling out his magnum and shooting the chain connecting her handcuffs to the table. As soon as she was free he grabbed her blouse and put his arm around her neck, setting her body in between himself and the door. 'What a way to go,' she couldn't help but think to herself, 'used as a human shield in a shootout between rebels and the UNSC. Technically what I signed up for, but hardly fair play.'

The rebels overturned the steel table and set it up as quick cover, the two with assault rifles kneeling down with their weapons pointed at the wooden door. And then they waited. The seconds seemed to crawl by at a snail's pace, serving only to intensify the tension in the room. After a full minute had passed she felt moisture hit the top of her head as Jon began to mumble profanities to himself. While she refused to allow herself to lose composure in such a way she couldn't help but agree with his sentiments: the waiting and uncertainness was worse than anything the rebels could've done to her.

And then she heard it. A rhythmic tapping, accompanied by a faint whine. It was getting louder, closer, and it wasn't long before she heard Jon cease his cursing as he heard it too. It was clearer now and it suddenly hit her that it was the sound of someone running, and towards them at that. But it didn't sound like they were running towards the door; no, it sounded more like they were running towards… the wall?

As soon as she formed the thought the wall to her left exploded in a shower of dust and debris and the room's occupants all let out small shouts of surprise as the force of it all knocked them from their feet and to the ground. Sarissa was thrown from Jon's grip and landed on her side, unable to move as her head rang once again but clearly able to see the figure that stood where the wall had once been.

It was huge, standing easily seven feet tall and seeming to leer over the prone humans. It was as black as charcoal, with orange tribal markings spread throughout its body. And its face… its mouth was entirely black, but in the space where its eyes should have been was a vast, white void. It relayed no emotion nor any indication of the figure's intentions. It was eerie in a way that was beyond words. And for a moment, Sarissa forgot her situation and just stared at the entity, fear robbing her of her senses as it swung its eyeless gaze around the room before settling on her.

Just what was it going to do now?