Message from the Author:

Hello,

This might have took a little longer to publish than the last one. I'm a college student, so naturally, I might not be able to write this all the time because of Tests, Assignments, Projects, muse-failures, etc. I will try to get these out on Fridays or at the very least on the weekends.

Please leave a review, let me know how I'm doing and what your opinions are, it helps a lot.

-ReaperSlayer

Agent Gilroy

UNSC Tokyo Rules

A little office room within the Tokyo Rules was occupied by the enigmatic Agent Gilroy. The room was more functional than luxurious, small space, barely enough room to fit a chair, desk, and another seat for any visitors. Piping occupied the ceiling, and a small, dim light fixture, barely supplemented proper lighting. There was a terminal and a few nick-knacks that Agent Gilroy brought with him, but other than that, the room was mostly boring and dreary.

Despite these poor accommodations, Agent Gilroy was as cheery and happy as he usually was. He whistled a tune that sounded like some strange combination between 'Yankee Doodle' and 'Take me to the Ballpark'. He sat back with he is feet propped up on the desk, his head and feet barely fitting within the confined space. The door facing Gilroy opened and the young ONI woman from earlier entered.

"Ah! Ms. Zao! Come in. What do you have for me?" He smiled eerily, and put his feet down.

"We've got a problem: the Delta Halo installation is reporting that their Activation Index was taken a few weeks ago."

"A few weeks ago? What took them so long to report?" His face straightened to a worried expression.

"They lost their communications equipment in the raid and had to send a ship to relay the message to a faster channel."

Gilroy's expression changed, becoming more serious. The woman felt uncomfortable, although she understood the seriousness of the situation, it was still daunting to see the ever happy Gilroy look serious.

"Did Nihai leave already?"

"Yes, he caught a civilian shuttle."

Gilroy's expression became slightly relieved, and the agent leaned back on his chair.

"What else did they tell you?"

Victor Avdeyev

UNSC Research station over Installation 05

A week ago

Two small explosions rocked the cylindrical space station orbiting close to Delta Halo. Klaxons blared as scientists rushed to safety and emergency personnel dashed to their stations. Victor Avdeyev, a Russian male, clad in black armor and an ODST helmet, rushed with two teams in similar armor. On their shoulders was a symbol of a red skull, detached from its jaw, encompassed in a red circle.

"What was that, Ajax?" the Russian asked over his communicator.

"They found a way around our jamming signals, we had to destroy their communications array before they got a message out." A reply from Victor's ship, the Ajax.

"Did they get one out?"

"Negative, but they might try to signal them another way."

"Alright, keep an eye out for that fleet, we don't know when they will realize that the beacon was a fake."

"Roger that."

'It's a good thing we got that covie tech, or we may not have been able to make a jump this close to the station.' Victor thought.

"This is Gamma One, we don't have resistance now, but they're beginning to regroup for a second attack." The leader of Gamma team, referring to the station's defense personnel, was in one of the station's hangars, where Victor and his men landed.

"Alright, make sure you got everything ready before they attack again. If it gets too hot, pull out."

"Don't worry about it, Capt'em."

The two teams turned a corner and took positions next to a large door marked, 'High Priority Storage'. Echo team's specialist took off his bag and removed a large, half-spherical object. He planted it onto the door, the flat side of the half-sphere snapped on with magnets. He removed a remote from it and pressed some keys which primed the explosives within. Once everyone was in positon, the specialist squeezed the remote's trigger. The half-sphere blasted towards the door, ripping it open and thrusting the rest of the half-sphere breaching charge backward. In the brief milliseconds it was still in the air, the half-sphere shot out a series of small reflective orbs. The orbs, about a dozen or so, flew out into the newly created opening. They burst open as they entered, creating a bright series of flashes that blinded everyone behind the door.

Alpha team's men were the first to charge in. Victor charged after, taking aim with his M7S submachine gun, at a pair of marines who flanked the entrance. He squeezed the trigger and sprayed a burst of rounds into the two men. The burst cut across both of their chests, spraying little splats of blood around from their wounds. Victor then turned to another marine who had took aim at him. He sprayed another burst which struck the marine's left shoulder. The marine was pushed back slightly by the impact of the rounds, but was still able to squeeze the trigger on his assault rifle. The rounds just barely missed Victor, impacting the back wall. Victor pulled the trigger again releasing another burst which shot up the marine's chest going from his left breast up to his cheek bone causing the marine fall.

The chaos of battle finished quickly as Victor's men were brutally efficient. Only one of Alpha's members were injured. Treating the injured Alpha member, Alpha team stayed behind and made sure that the way was clear to leave. Echo team went ahead of Victor and entered the storage room. The room was rectangular, with rows of large glass tubes, holding a myriad of objects collected from Delta Halo. The artifacts varied between forerunner and flood in material, there was even a few covenant artifacts that seemed highly unique. Among the last in the rows was the Activation Index.

Agent Gilroy

Now

"Wait, Wait, Wait! You said they jumped, as in slipspace jumped, in front of the space station!?"

"Uhm… yes, that's what they reported. The fleet moved to investigate a distress signal. When they came back the station was attacked and it's communications equipment destroyed." The woman said nervously.

Gilroy analyzed the odd occurrence. The only people who can do a jump like that are the covenant and The UNSC Infinity. That means we may have less time than we thought we did.

"Order the 7th fleet to rally outside the Veshal system, make sure they are armed to engage the covenant."