HAY GUYZ! Just letting you know that yes, I am alive. And yes, this story is continuing.

It's just that I have been working through a writer's block, which happens to be the cause of death for most of my stories.

But fear not! I have found enough inspiration to fight it off! And thus, I deliver the first chapter.

Congratulations to Gaboomviper. He gets a cookie.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bungie or Lucasarts. They belong to their respective owners.

0313 HOURS, MAY 25, 2553 (MILITARY CALENDAR)
ABOARD UNNAMED UNSC STEALTH CORVETTE (COVENANT DESIGN)
UNKNOWN STAR SYSTEM

Lieutenant Robin Peck had been reading for the past three hours since leaving the portal. There wasn't much else to do when you're alone aboard a ship travelling at 9.12 light years per day. Be that as it may, the young Lieutenant still wasn't used to the lighting on the Covenant ship. He noted what page he was on, and closed his book. "How long until we arrive?" He wondered, rubbing his eyes.

"Speak of the devil." A feminine voice replied back from the ship's speakers. "We're here, Robin." It added, as the ship dropped out of slipspace. "Engaging active camoflage. Any ship should only get a sensor blip."

"'Should' is a very dangerous word, Tikal." Robin said. "Go dark. Minimal systems"

0313 HOURS, NELONA 1, 172 (GALACTIC STANDARD CALENDAR)
ABOARD THE INDOMINABLE
ORBITING MANAAN

The captain of the Indominable stood, looking out of the bridge of his Star Destroyer. Even after all these years, the power and use of these ships has never been lost to the military. But his thoughts were far away from that fact at the moment. How was he going to explain the existence of unknown ships that could hide themselves from sensors and still remain visible? What's more, one of his masters would contact him at any moment demanding an answer to that very question.

"Sir, I...had something." The Ensign's report broke the Captain's train of thought, causing him to look over at him.

"'Had,' Ensign?" The Captain asked.

"Our sensors registered a ship, but only for a second." The Ensign elaborated.

"We can't afford any more mistakes." The Captain declared. "Deploy a squadron to the last known coordinates. It could be that our guests have returned."

"Warning. I've detected multiple ships on approach. I guess they're a little jumpy." Tikal reported.

"What kind of ships?" Robin asked.

"It's those fighters from before." Tikal replied. "The ones that attacked the Thunderchild."

Robin thought for a second. If this were a human ship, his next idea wouldn't work, but thankfully, Covenant ships had better management of ship power systems. "Minimal thrust." Robin ordered. "Ventral evasion. We need to get out of the way."

"Aye, answering minimal thrust." Tikal replied.

The Covenant stealth corvette began moving slowly downwards, just as the squadron of fighters came into visual range.

"I've hacked into their battlenet." Tikal reported. "If they sneeze, we'll hear it."

"Maintain visual scanning." Crackled the comm.

Robin looked up in surprise. "Can they hear us?" He asked.

"No, sir. We just have ears." Tikal replied.

"And are you translating their transmissions?"

"No, sir. They're speaking English."

The comm crackled again. "Squad 25, this is the Indominable. You should be at the target coordinates now."

"Confirmed, Indominable. Starting patrol."

"Let's hope they don't find anything." Tikal said.

Robin said nothing, as he stared at the sensor screens. Several tense moments passed, feeling like an eternity to Robin. He kept glancing at the tracker, seeing the red dots move closer toward his yellow dot, and then looking up at the viewscreen, seeing the fighters fall into and out of his targeting reticle. The entire time, his hand had a death grip on the weapons joystick, his finger hovering over the trigger.

He was on the verge of laying down volleys of plasma fire, when the comm crackled again. "All clear. Situation normal."

"Squad 25, Confirm all clear."

"Everything looks fine, Indominable. There's nothing out here, not even a Mynock."

"Very well. Come on home."

Robin watched the fighters turn back to their ship, and his hand eased off the joystick. From the speakers, Tikal seemed to let out a held breath. "Looks like we're good to go."

"Yeah." Robin replied. "Bring us down to the planet's surface. I'm gonna get my armor."

"Aye, sir." Tikal replied.

The ship shook. "Slowly." Robin said intensely. "We can't risk detection this early in the mission."

"Aye sir, sorry sir"

"Captain, The squad reports nothing detected." The Ensign reported.

The captain nodded, when another Ensign spoke up. "Captain, Darth Maladi is issuing a priority transmission to our ship."

The captain was shaken by this news. He had earlier sent a report which contained all the information salvaged from the spy drone. He had expected one of his superiors to contact him. But a Sith Lord was unexpected. And where the Sith were curious, that meant bad things for the center of attention.

"Patch it through to my quarters. I shall recieve it there." The captain immediately left the bridge, making for his quarters with all speed.

The captain stood at attention before a holographic projection of a hooded figure, with a feminine body structure. "Lady Maladi." The captain began. "You honor me with your-"

"Dispense with the pleasantries, Captain." Maladi ordered. "Is everything you said in your report true?"

"Yes, Madam." The captain said quickly. "We have the drone aboard right now, in the droid station."

"And why didn't you follow them?" Maladi demanded, her tone growing slightly in anger.

"Milady, the ship entered hyperspace without navicoordinates! It's the only way it could've jumped away so quickly!" The captain said this in a tone that sounded as if he was pleading for his life.

Maladi's holographic image stared intently at the captain. "Has there been any other disturbances."

"No, Madam." The captain said.

But Maladi wasn't convinced. "But?" She asked.

"But..." The captain gulped. "There was a sensor error that gave a false reading of a ship in the area. We investigated it, but nothing was there."

"Very well." Maladi said. "I will oversee this matter personally. I expect you to show me the drone when I arrive."

"You're coming here?!" The captain asked in horror. "Then we shall prepare for your arrival immediately." He said, his tone now filled with joy.

"Very good." Darth Maladi replied. "I will be there soon." Her hologram flickered out.

For a moment, the captain simply stood there, fearful of Maladi's visit. Then he snapped back to work, knowing that her visit must have no mistakes. He knew his very life depended on it. He summoned his second-in-command. "Yes captain?"

"Inform the crew." The captain ordered. "A sith lord is coming."

The second was suddenly very visibly shaken. "Yes, sir." He said, immediately.

"And initiate a curfew on the planet below." The captain said. "We may have been infiltrated."

Robin strapped the gauntlet down on his SPI armor, and went over to a red square painted on the deck. "Preparing to power up." Robin said, as he slid his helmet over his head. The armor seemed to come to life, as the HUD came online in the helmet. "We got juice." Robin said. "Motion tracker green. Tikal, let's test the joints."

"Aye, sir." Tikal responded, as four red lights appeared on the wall in front of him. "You know the drill, sir. Look at each light, and the calibration information of the armor will be sent to me." The test was quickly completed. "Joint calibration complete. Everything checks out."

"Let's move to active camoflage." Robin said.

"Aye, sir." Tikal replied, as Robin tapped a couple buttons on a miniature device attached to his forearm. Suddenly, Robin disappeared. "Photo-reactive panels online. No polarization errors."

Robin suddenly reappeared. "Looks like I'm good to go."

"No shield test, sir?" Tikal asked.

"SPI armor was designed to be cheap, Tikal." Robin said, matter-of-factly. "There are no shields on this armor."

"I see, sir." Tikal said. "It looks like a MJOLNIR variant, though." She noted.

"That may be because they were originally made for Spartan IIIs. They didn't start mass producing these things until that project was rumored to begin."

"That's not in my databases, sir." Tikal replied, confusion in her voice.

Robin smiled. "Don't like that wouldn't be. ONI can't even trust itself, sometimes." He entered the bridge of the ship. "How long until landfall?"

"E.T.A. two minutes, sir." Tikal replied.

"Let your subroutines handle the landing. As soon as we hit the ground, enact Cole protocol, Article one-one through one-three. If they find this ship, let's make sure that's all they find."

"Uhh, sir, what about me?" Tikal asked, a twinge of fear in her voice.

"You're coming with me. Cole protocol, article two."

"Oh." Tikal said. "That's right."

Robin sighed. "I swear, it seems like you don't have half the info you're supposed to, sometimes."

"Sorry, sir." Tikal said, apologetically. "Corners were cut in my production, and as a result, I forget to check some things."

"It's not your fault, Tikal." Robin said. "I blame the contractors"

The Corvette landed on the roof of a great structure, visible only by a small ripple in the air. From the grav lift, a similar ripple of air came down, and landed softly on the roof. Glancing around, it looked as if the roof of each building was the same, and that this structure was the entire city. "Good thing I landed close to the edge." Robin said, as he got a spool of fiber optic cable, and attached it to his helmet. He then lowered the other end over the edge, and rotated the optical piece toward the inside of the window.

Inside the city, he saw something incredible. What looked like human beings were going about their daily lives on this planet, along with various alien races. The most prominent alien race was a gray, fish like species. There were figures in armor, too. White armor, most commonly. (Soldiers, Robin thought.) But there were also people in armor that weren't quite uniform with the others. In fact, it seemed like those figures were private citizens, which meant he'd fit right in, armor or not.

"Tikal, What do you recommend?" Robin asked.

"Personally, I'd try and find some clothes that match those." Tikal said. "It seems like their civvy garments are significantly different from ours. We could probably get away with the SPI, but let's try and be on the safe side."

"Right, so let's go over the objectives one more time." Robin said.

A screen appeared on Robin's HUD. It read the following:

Objective 1: Infiltrate the unknown government.

Objective 2 (Standing): Learn whatever useful information possible.

Objective 3 (Standing): Acquire technology and equipment that may be beneficial to the UNSC.

Objective 4 (Standing): Apply all materials acquired to Cole Protocol, subsection 7.

Objective 5 (Standing): Deliver all materials to UNSC space.

If you are discovered, make every effort to evade capture.

If you are captured, there will be no recovery effort made by the UNSC.

There will be no reinforcements. You are to be completely self sufficient.

Good Luck.

"Yep." Robin said. "Situation Normal. All fucked up." He stood, unplugging the fiber optic cable, and stowing in a compartment built into the armor. "Well, let's get down there."

Robin took out a hook shot, and shot a protruded section of the roof. Then, magnetizing the gun to his armor, he jumped off the side of the structure, and faced the window. His active camoflage kicked in just as he took out a tool from a compartment in his armor, and started cutting the window.

Once the window was cut, Robin tossed it aside, and descended into the city. When he touched the ground, he carefully retracted the cord to his hook shot, so as not to alert anyone. When that was done, he headed into the city streets. Sticking to the shadows, he avoided all crowds whenever possible, while at the same time, listening to local conversations.

"I hear that Cade Skywalker recently escaped the Sith. What do they want with that bounty hunter, anyway"
"Maybe they really want him to do a mission."

"Rumor has it the Fel Empire is preparing a task force to take back some of the Rim worlds from the Sith"
"I hear they plan on allying themselves with the Galactic Alliance. We could be free of the Sith soon"
"Shh! If the soldiers hear you talking like that, they'll accuse you of treason!"

Robin stopped. "It seems like there are at least three factions in this galaxy. We have to be in Sith territory."

"That's a likely assumption, sir. And it would appear they don't honor basic humanoid rights." Tikal replied.

"Well, I guess we can assume an expansionist's stance when dealing with them in negotiations. Which means they'll likely want war, no matter what."

"I disagree, sir. It seems they're bothering with other factions in their galaxy. They may wish to limit their enemies."

"Let's hope so." Robin stated, moving off to another part of the city.

This chapter was longer than I precieved it to be. Oh well. I hope for good responses.