Author's Note: Sorry it's been so long! School starting up again and all of that attendant chaos played havoc with the free time I had for writing. Well, and this is the longest chapter yet, but not by much, so that's not really an excuse...
Thanks to everyone who has been reading and reviewing this, and I hope you all enjoy this next chapter! Let me know what you think!
Disclaimer: I do not own Nanoha or Halo.
The quiet was almost tangible in the loading bay of the Covenant battlecruiser. Stacks of bluish-purple boxes were scattered everywhere, leaving plenty of hiding places for enemies. And yet, as the Marines scattered outward into the bay, no immediate threat presented itself.
The Master Chief scanned the room warily. "Cortana, which way?" he asked.
"The signal from the Captain's CNI is still weak, but…" she began, as the Master Chief's eyes swept across the room again. As they passed by one of the doors along the perimeter, she continued, "That door should take us in the general direction we want."
Taking a step forward, the Chief gestured for the Marines to fall in behind. Chrono slid into position on the Chief's right flank, and Nanoha did the same on his left after a quick mental prompting from Chrono. Fate fell in behind them, leaving the Marines to cover the rear.
Cautiously, the phalanx approached the chosen door. No Covenant troops jumped out of hiding, and the only contacts on the Chief's motion tracker were faint blurs, almost out of range.
"Where is ever-" one of the Marines started to whisper.
As if cued by the voice, a side door off to the left slid open with a soft hum. A blue-armored Elite took one step through the door before noticing the crowd of enemies present in the loading bay.
Nanoha, as the guard on the left flank and the first one to notice the enemy, responded swiftly and effectively. Before the Elite had even noticed the invaders, Raising Heart was already preparing a response. "Axel Shooter," it intoned.
"Shoot!" Nanoha called out loudly, leveling Raising Heart at the Elite just as it realized what it had walked in on. A volley of pink bolts of energy shot out from Raising Heart, curving and twisting to land a series of hits across the Elite's shields.
Twelve direct hits later, the Elite hit the deck with a crash, overwhelmed by the barrage. However, as the last echoes of Nanoha's shout faded off the walls, three other doors in the loading bay slid open, discharging a massive wave of Covenant troops.
"Move, move, move!" the Master Chief yelled, waving the Marines forward as he tossed a grenade behind them toward the oncoming enemies. Covenant troops scattered for cover as the fragmentation grenade clanked into their midst.
The Marines charged forward for the door, leaving the Chief to deal with the crowd of enemies now filling the loading bay. Just as the grenade exploded, the Chief took his assault rifle and sprayed fire across the oncoming enemies, making for the nearest cover he could find. Several Grunts dropped, and an Elite's shield flared as the rifle fire bounced off it.
An answering wave of plasma fire barely missed the Chief's retreating form as he took cover behind a pile of boxes. He put his back to the pile, began to reload his rifle, and then nearly did a double take to find that Nanoha and Fate had followed him.
"What happened to 'move'?" he demanded softly.
"We'll help you hold them off," Fate replied quietly. "Chrono can handle the advance by himself." As she finished speaking, the door that Chrono and the squad of marines had taken out of the bay slid closed. A guttural-sounding alien yell echoed through the room.
"Um, Fate," Nanoha whispered urgently from near the edge of their hiding place. "They're not coming after us."
The Chief leaned over and out of cover, looking to confirm that fact for himself. With a Jackal out in the open a short distance away, he fired off a burst from his assault rifle. As he fired, though, he was forced to duck back behind the pile of crates as an answering volley came back from the edges of every possible piece of cover in his field of vision.
"A standoff," he cursed. "Their commander's playing it safe."
"What do we do?" Nanoha asked worriedly.
"My armor can take a few hits, so I'll distract them, and-"
Fate interrupted the plan with an alternative suggestion. "Is their commander going to expect one of us coming over the top?
The Chief looked up, at the pile of boxes behind him. A quick glance at the large, smooth metal crates and the haphazard nature of the pile was all it took. "We'd make so much noise in climbing up there that he'd have to be deaf not to-"
He fell silent in shock as Fate silently lifted up off the ground, apparently for no reason at all. She hovered up to the highest crate in the pile, hiding behind it as she offered a smile to the green-armored form below.
"Okay, that?" Cortana cut in. "That is impossible."
Shaking his head as if to clear it, the Chief inched his way over to one edge of the pile, gesturing for Nanoha to do the same on the other side. "Questions later," he reminded Cortana privately, before waving Fate forward.
The enemies filling the rest of the loading bay were indeed prepared for an assault around the corners of the pile. However, there was a long moment of surprised shock when a black-garbed, blond-haired girl seemingly appeared out of nowhere above it.
That moment was all Fate needed. "Plasma Lancer… Fire!" she commanded, releasing eight bolts of energy onto the unprepared enemies below. Several Grunts and Jackals fell victim to the attack, but the one bolt aimed for an Elite merely spattered off its shield.
As every gun in the room traversed upward to combat this new threat, though, the Master Chief burst around his corner of the pile, bursts of fire spraying from his rifle. The distracted Covenant troops found themselves unable to respond nearly fast enough to the Chief's charge, and yet more of the line troops fell.
The Chief ducked behind another crate to reload his rifle. As he did so, Cortana worriedly pointed out, "Chief, there are still plenty of Elites-"
Her warning was interrupted by a shout from across the room. Nanoha was still standing behind the original pile of boxes, pointing her staff at the pile. A sphere of pinkish energy vibrated in front of her.
"Divine… Buster!" she called out.
That sphere resolved itself into a devastating beam of light. The attack tore entirely through the pile in front of Nanoha, zeroing in on one of the larger groups of enemies. As it hit the crate covering that group, the weakened beam simply produced an explosion, pieces of crate flying in every direction. The pile of crates in front of Nanoha collapsed in the same moment.
The Master Chief tore out of cover again, taking advantage of the havoc to further reduce the enemy numbers. Most of Nanoha's attack had seemingly been expended on the crate covering the enemies, but a glance at the remains of that crate revealed a scattering of small blue objects, lying scattered at the feet of the stunned enemies.
"Get down!" the Chief yelled reflexively as he tossed another grenade of his own. Fate shot downward, taking refuge with Nanoha behind a large magic circle the latter girl had summoned, as the fragmentation grenade exploded and set off the mass of plasma grenades.
A roiling storm of blue fire filled the room. The Chief dove behind cover again as his shields died instantly before the wave of heat. Nanoha grunted in surprise as the blast wave slammed into her shield, straining to hold the shield intact.
Once the dust had settled, the Chief peered back out into the remains of the loading bay. A massive black scar filled the center of the room, the result of several plasma grenades going off in rapid succession. The two girls he had fought with stood at the edge of the ring of devastation, breathing a little heavily but apparently uninjured. Of the enemies, very little remained.
"All right," the Chief prompted, heading for the same exit that the Marines had taken earlier. "Let's get moving before more of them arrive." As Nanoha and Fate silently fell in behind him, he continued over his radio, "Marines, what's your status?"
Just as they reached the door, one of the Marines responded, "Chief, we're pinned down in the corridor just beyond that door-"
The door slid open silently, a moment before an alien roar echoed through the hallway beyond. Metal rang on metal as a massive form, a Hunter, dropped to the deck.
The Marines were clustered at the nearer end of the slightly sloping hall, staring down to where the Hunter had just collapsed. Chrono leaned on his device, clutching his side in apparent pain, just beyond that. A second unmoving Hunter was lying on the deck farther down the hall.
"Chrono!" Fate called, concern apparent in her voice as she dashed out to join him. Nanoha followed almost as quickly.
The Chief looked to the Marines, making a quick headcount. "What happened?" he asked evenly.
"Those Hunters hit us right after the door closed," the squad's sergeant replied. "I thought we were toast, without any cover… But that kid somehow managed to take them down!"
Nodding, the Chief gestured the squad forward. The conversation between Nanoha, Fate, and Chrono came to a halt as the Marines walked up.
"You able to keep going?" the Chief asked Chrono neutrally.
"I'm just fine," Chrono shot back confidently, standing up straight with only a slight wince.
"All right then, let's go," the Chief ordered. "The Captain's waiting for us, and we can't afford to stand around."
As yet another corner presented a squad of Grunts, the Chief sighed heavily. Without even thinking about it, he brought his assault rifle around and dropped three of them with one sustained burst of fire. A spark of blue light tore past him and slammed into the remaining enemies, ending the threat before even one of them managed to return fire.
Glancing back, he took stock of the squad behind him. While Nanoha and Fate didn't look all that tired, Chrono was lowering his staff, breathing heavily. He used his staff as a crutch for the briefest moment before straightening up again.
None of the Marines looked to be any better off. The group was smaller than it had been at first, several of the Marines having been taken down by enemy fire, and the ones that remained standing were being run into the ground. With one smaller vehicle bay and three levels of a massive hangar behind them, it came as little surprise that ammunition and spirit were starting to flag.
"Cortana, are we close?" he asked.
"The Captain's signal has been getting stronger and stronger," she replied. "He can't be much farther away. Take the next left."
Turning left at the next intersection put the Chief and his squad in front of a small door, which slid open as the Chief approached it. The room beyond, while not quite as large and cavernous as the hangar behind them, was certainly a very large room. It was dominated by a raised platform in the center, surrounded by a trench ringing the platform. Screens filled the room, which clearly served as a bridge of some kind.
Of course, the most obvious indicator of that was the gold-armored Elite commander on the raised platform, or the numerous lesser Elites and Grunts filling the room. All of whom looked quite pleased at the Master Chief's intrusion.
"You failed to mention that the next left led to the bridge!" the Chief rebuked Cortana as he charged forward, assault rifle spraying the nearest Elite with bullets. As that Elite crumpled and fell, Marines poured into the bridge behind him, beginning the battle in earnest.
With a distinct lack of cover in the room, the fight was short and violent. The Chief hurriedly reloaded his assault rifle, then unloaded it on another Elite almost as quickly. Fate blurred into the room, her scythe flashing as it downed one Grunt after another.
Chrono rushed to cover the Marines as some of the enemy return fire began tracking in their direction. He looked up at the raised platform to where the gold-armored Elite was gesturing and yelling at the alien soldiers below.
"We need to do something about that commander!" he called out to no one in particular.
Almost before he had finished speaking, however, some of the energy bolts in another one of Nanoha's attack patterns had redirected themselves. The Elite commander dove to the side, adeptly dodging the first two shots, but a third and a fourth hit him directly. As the commander stood back up, a volley of bullets ended what was left of his shield.
Then the first two bolts from Nanoha's attack circled back around. The gold-armored Elite never even saw the strike coming. The attack hit him on the back of the head, causing him to stumble forward and fall into the trench surrounding the raised platform.
"Nice shot!" one of the Marines yelled as they turned their attention to the lesser Elites in the room. Thanks to the Chief, they found few of those left standing, and in the space of a few seconds the battle came to an end. Silence fell over the bridge as the Marines swept through the room, making sure that there were no more threats present.
"Hold position here," the Chief ordered to the Marines. "I'll be right back with the Captain."
"Fate," Chrono added a moment later, "you should stay here and watch our backs too."
"All right, Chrono," Fate replied easily. "Be careful."
"You too, Fate!" Nanoha called back as she and Chrono rushed after the Master Chief.
Their path took them out of the bridge and through yet another maze of corridors. Nanoha and Chrono took flight to keep up with the Chief, who had started moving at a full run. The first few doors they passed refused to open, but before long they reached one that would.
"No one here…?" Nanoha asked quietly, surveying the cells lining each wall of the room.
"Nope," the Chief cursed, frustration evident in his tone. "Cortana!"
"We should be right on top of him," the AI reassured him. "His signal hasn't gotten any weaker."
"There's another active door over here!" Chrono called out from out in the hallway. The portal irised open when he took another step forward, and a plasma bolt lashed out, skimming past Chrono's head and spattering against the far wall of the corridor.
The Chief charged out into the corridor, catching up to Chrono in a matter of moments. Simultaneously, the two returned fire, Chrono's precise shot curving through two of the Grunts on the left side of the room while the Chief's assault rifle swept across three more on the right.
Another plasma bolt shot out in reply, bouncing off the Chief's shields. Reflexively, Chrono raised his own defenses as the Chief ducked behind a nearby pillar. The magical shield of force hovering in the air in front of Chrono absorbed another two shots that seemed to have originated from empty air.
Nanoha chose that moment to run up to Chrono's side. She leveled Raising Heart in the general direction of the incoming plasma fire.
"Restrict Lock," it intoned calmly. Bands of pink energy materialized out of thin air, locking themselves around a shimmering patch of air.
With the target thus locked in place and clearly marked, the Chief had no reason to hesitate. The assault rifle sprayed a volley of bullets that nearly tore the unshielded stealth Elite in half. The Elite's body hit the deck with a dull thud as Nanoha's locking spell faded.
"Good to see you, Chief!" a voice called out from one of the cells in the room. The Marines imprisoned in the room eagerly crowded up against the forcefields holding them in, watching as the Chief went over to the room's control terminal. With Cortana's help, it was a simple matter for the Chief to lower the fields, allowing the Marines within to escape.
One of the prisoners, however, walked over to confront the Chief, scooping up one of the discarded weapons on the floor as he did so. "Coming here was reckless, Chief," he rebuked, face stern. It quickly broke into a slight smile, however, as he continued, "Thanks."
"Any time, sir," the Chief quickly responded.
Turning to Nanoha and Chrono, the man continued, "And who are these two?"
Chrono took a single step forward, raising his hand and displaying his ID as he had to the Master Chief before. "Enforcer Chrono Harlaown, Time-Space Administration Bureau," he replied.
"Nanoha Takamachi," Nanoha chimed in. "Nice to meet you!"
One eyebrow went up. "So you're from that Bureau ship that showed up earlier…" Before either of them could respond, he continued with his own introduction. "Captain Jacob Keyes, United Nations Space Command."
Captain Keyes stood taller than either Nanoha or Chrono by a fair margin, looking down on the two with an icy, blue-grayish stare. His uniform was somewhat rumpled and dirty thanks to his time in captivity, but a panel of ribbons and a silvery eagle remained attached to it over his left breast.
"We'll have to save the detailed conversation for later, though," Keyes apologized, turning to the Chief again. "Chief, we have another problem. I overheard the guards talking about this ring world, which they call Halo."
Cortana cut in, projecting her voice through the Chief's speakers. "If what I'm picking up on the Covenant battle net is true, then they believe that Halo is some kind of weapon…"
Chrono interrupted with a heavy sigh. "Lost Logia are always some kind of weapon, aren't they?" he muttered sarcastically. Ignoring the stares he received in response, he turned away slightly, muttering to Nanoha, "I'm going to let the Admiral know about this."
"At any rate, Chief," Keyes continued, dismissing the interruption, "I'll need you and Cortana to find Halo's control room, before the Covenant can."
Chrono chose that moment to interrupt again, with a soft, concerned, "What in the…?"
"Chrono, what's wrong?" Nanoha asked him.
"I can't… the Arthra's not within my range for communication," Chrono replied worriedly.
"What?" Nanoha exclaimed in surprise. "Did something happen to the Arthra?"
"I don't know!" Chrono shot back. "For them to disappear on us without the slightest bit of warning… I mean, her communications system was damaged, but I didn't think it was that far gone, and surely the Admiral would have gotten in touch personally if something else had gone wrong…"
The Marines, the Chief, and Captain Keyes looked askance at Chrono and Nanoha as the two of them fretted over the fate of their ship. Just as Keyes opened his mouth to interrupt their discussion, however, Nanoha suddenly looked up as if listening to something. Her eyes widened in surprise.
"Fate's under attack!" she reported urgently.
The implications of that were not lost on the Chief. "Captain, the rest of my squad-" the Chief began.
"Marines, move out!" Keyes ordered, figuring out the situation quickly enough. Needing no further encouragement, the Chief left the brig at a run, with Nanoha, Chrono, Captain Keyes, and the Marines close behind.
A scream echoed through the Covenant cruiser's bridge. One of the Marines near the door dropped, the glowing tips of a Covenant energy sword having practically sprouted from his chest. The menacing blade hung in the air, apparently being carried by no one at all. A strange distortion, almost like a heat haze, crawled through the air as the blade advanced on another one of the Marines.
It was intercepted by a flash of golden-yellow light, as Fate flew across the room to cut off the advancing enemy. Fate's scythe blade came down and across the sword, knocking it aside with a spray of sparks. Before the surprised Elite could react to this new enemy's sudden appearance, the scythe came back around for a second and then a third blow, Bardiche carving broad lines through the space where the sword-wielding foe was likely to be.
Fate's instincts proved to be spot-on, as the second of her strikes disabled the Elite's stealth generator. In front of her and the entire squad of Marines, the sword-wielding Elite faded into view as it staggered back a step, stunned by the speed with which Fate had attacked. That stun proved to be fatal, as three of the surrounding Marines opened up with their assault rifles on the unshielded foe.
As a storm of bullets cut him down, Fate hurriedly glanced around, taking stock of the situation. The blue glow of another sword bounced along near one of the walls of the bridge, advancing on an unsuspecting Marine. To make matters worse, several Grunts appeared in the now unguarded doorway to the bridge, opening fire with their plasma pistols.
"Go deal with the Elite!" one of the Marines encouraged her. "We'll take the-" His voice scaled up into a scream as a plasma bolt took him in the arm. As his gun clattered to the deck, the vastly-reduced squad of Marines began to congregate in front of the ramp to the bridge platform, opening fire on the Grunts piling up at the door.
"We're under attack over here!" Fate hurriedly warned Nanoha. "It doesn't look good!" Lacking cover, the Marines were only barely holding off the Grunts trying to storm into the bridge, and the sword-wielding stealth Elite was picking them off one by one as they tried to gather.
Coming to a decision, Fate held her device out in front of her. "Bardiche!" she called out decisively.
"Zanbar Form," it replied. It shifted from its usual axe-like form into something almost resembling a trident, shorter than any of its other modes. After a moment's pause, though, a brilliant yellow blade of energy extended from what was now clearly a hilt, forming a broad sword almost half as tall as Fate was.
Leaping forward, she shot towards the remaining stealth Elite and swung the sword around, attacking with her usual speed despite the large, heavy appearance of her weapon. Her attack slammed into the hovering Covenant sword, almost knocking it entirely out of its owner's hand with the force of the blow.
However, as Fate struck again with her blade, trying to end the battle quickly, the distortion in front of her shifted. The Covenant energy sword dipped slightly as its owner ducked, taking advantage of his stealth to evade what could have otherwise been a finishing blow.
As the Elite regained his balance, he struck out with his own sword, forcing Fate onto the defensive. Blue and yellow sparks flew as the two blades clashed, neither side able to score a decisive hit.
The stealth Elite disengaged and began to move, sword hovering in a ready position as it traced the start of a circle around Fate. Wary of the consequences of a missed strike, Fate merely watched, turning herself to keep the blade within view.
The Marines' battle, however, was not going nearly as well. As the sword-wielding Elite put his back to the rest of the battle, Fate gasped to see how few of them were left standing. A volley of pinkish spikes went flying into the group of Marines in the next instant. Another yell accompanied a shiver in the air and the restrained crack of a small explosion.
In the next instant, the enemy blade thrusted forward, aiming for Fate's midsection. Fate was forced into retreat as she parried first one strike, then the next, backing along the edge of a pit surrounding the central bridge platform. She spared a quick glance to the left, to the small pit next to her, before refocusing on the enemy's aggressive attack. Her blade knocked another thrust aside as she shifted direction and charged forward, circling around the enemy Elite in the blink of an eye.
The hovering sword simply shot forward, as if its owner had dove into the space that Fate had vacated in a hurry. Fate's strike hit empty air again, despite the speed of her attack. In the next moment, the sword dove into the small pit.
Given an excuse, Fate closely examined the pit surrounding the central bridge platform. It resembled a trench more than a pit, running around the entire raised platform in the center of the bridge, and was only a few feet deep. The sword was already moving along the trench, back towards the battle in the open area of the bridge.
As Fate readied her own blade for a strike, though, the enemy weapon suddenly shot up toward her face. She was forced to jerk back to avoid taking the blow, scrambling back a foot or two. When she recovered, the position from barely a few seconds ago had reasserted itself, with the enemy stealth Elite in between her and the struggling Marines.
With one major difference. Suddenly, a new wave of plasma fire came pouring into the fight from the direction of the brig, accompanied by the bark of an assault rifle. The Covenant troops piling into the bridge were blindsided, with most of them going down instantly under the sudden attack. And as if the battle had not already effectively ended, a combination of pink and blue bolts of energy twisted through the melee, finishing off most of the rest of the Covenant foes.
Smiling grimly, Fate attacked, forcing the Elite onto the defensive this time. Faintly, she heard someone yell "Hold fire, if you're not careful you'll hit her!" as the surviving Marines noticed the continuing fight. They began to cautiously advance toward the combatants, weapons held out threateningly.
That was when one of the pink energy bolts shot in and bounced off the sword, knocking it out of line. Fate didn't hesitate for a second. Bardiche shot in, slamming into the stealthed Elite almost before he realized what had hit his energy sword.
As the Elite collapsed to the deck, stealth field fading, Fate straightened up and raised Bardiche. It shifted back to its normal form, the yellow blade vanishing into thin air as the device's main body changed back into an axe.
She sighed heavily and smiled, returning Nanoha's gaze. The Marines stared at her with expressions varying from surprise to admiration as Nanoha smiled back in relief.
That look quickly shifted to shock and surprise. "Fate!" she yelled warningly, suddenly leveling Raising Heart at her friend. A number of the Marines in front were bringing their weapons back up as well.
The apparent warning was clear enough. Fate twisted to the side without even looking around, trying to dive out of the way of whatever her allies had seen behind her.
There was a brief pause, as if the world was waiting for something. But just as Nanoha yelled "Shoot", unleashing another volley of energy bolts in Fate's general direction, her side lit up with pain. She had a moment to contemplate the burning heat that tore into her before she blacked out.
Nanoha screamed wordlessly as the gold-armored Elite that had suddenly jumped up behind Fate buried an energy sword in her friend's right side, just under the shoulder. Time seemed to slow as Fate collapsed forward. Before she had even had time to hit the ground, Nanoha's counterattack had taken out the enemy Elite commander in turn, and the blue-glowing sword vanished as its owner fell alongside Fate.
"Fate!" she screamed again, desperately. Before she even registered the movement, she was kneeling down beside Fate, calling her friend's name over and over again. Her hands grasped Fate's shoulders, and she shook her friend gently as if she just needed to be woken up.
The Master Chief reached down and rested a hand on Nanoha's shoulder. One of the other Marines ran up, pulling out a first aid kit, as the Chief pried Nanoha off of Fate.
"Let the medic work," he ordered calmly as Nanoha uselessly fought back against his grip. "We'll do what we can for her." Looking over Nanoha to the Marine, he continued, "Well?"
"Not good, Chief," the Marine replied without even looking up. "She won't die in the next ten minutes, but she needs more attention than I can give her here and now."
The Chief turned around and scanned the room until his eyes fell on Chrono, standing next to Captain Keyes as if to guard him. Chrono met the Chief's gaze with a slow shake of his head. "I still can't establish contact with the Arthra," he explained. His face took on a haunted cast as he continued, "Believe me, if I could find them…"
"Then we're taking her back to Alpha Base with us," the Chief concluded.
"Fate'll be all right then, right?" Nanoha suddenly burst out desperately, the Chief's order having finally broken through her shock. "She's not dead?"
The Chief ignored her, momentarily distracted by a conversation with Cortana. One of the other Marines nearby, however, suddenly asked, "And what about that gold bastard, huh? I thought you took him out, girl! How'd he get back up?"
"I…" Nanoha stuttered, taken by surprise. "I mean… I… I knocked him out…"
"Knocked him out? What the hell do you mean?" the Marine pressured her.
"Hey!" Chrono cut in. "Lay off-"
As Chrono started speaking, though, Raising Heart intervened as well. "I am currently set to a stunning attack mode that will not cause permanent injury," it informed the crowd. Chrono sighed heavily as every Marine within hearing froze in shock.
"Well," Cortana muttered to the Master Chief privately, in the silence that followed. "That's interesting."
Slowly, the Chief walked over to the fallen Elite commander and knelt down, confirming for himself that the enemy was still breathing. Deliberately, he pulled out his pistol and took aim.
Nanoha stared at the Chief, eyes wide in horrified shock. His visor met that gaze evenly, without flinching, as he pulled the trigger. The Elite jerked slightly, then ceased moving entirely, as the crack echoed through the bridge.
"Don't get me wrong, I appreciate you wanting to help," the Master Chief coldly began. "But as I told you before, this is a war, not some school project. Make careless little mistakes in a war zone, like choosing the wrong weapon for the job, and it's not just you that will suffer for it."
Tears began to crawl down Nanoha's face. "I… I didn't…" she sobbed.
"Of course you didn't intend for this to happen," the Chief cut her off. "No one ever does."
As Nanoha struggled to bring herself under control, Captain Keyes stepped forward and cut off the rebuke. "Chief, we don't have time for this now. Where's our ride?"
Crisply, Cortana came back, "Air support is cut off, Captain."
"Then we won't wait for it," Keyes informed her. "Chief, if you and Cortana can get us to one of the Covenant dropships, I can fly it out of here."
"Yes, sir," the Chief responded. Gesturing to the Marines, he led the way out of the bridge, pausing long enough for the medic to pick Fate up and cart her along with them. Captain Keyes glanced back once, ensuring that a grim-looking Chrono and shattered Nanoha were still following, before allowing the squad of Marines to escort him back toward the hangar.
"Nanoha…" Chrono began, somewhat awkwardly.
"I'm fine," she replied, in a hollow-sounding tone that suggested the exact opposite. Almost dazedly, she continued along behind the squad of Marines, letting Chrono cover the rear.
The trip back through the enemy ship passed in a daze. The Master Chief, backed up by the Marines, had little trouble carving through what little resistance remained in the already-cleared route back to the hangar, and before long the entire group was sitting in a captured Covenant dropship as it tore out of the Truth and Reconciliation's hangar.
Up in the ship's cockpit, the Master Chief gazed out over Keyes's shoulder at the darkened vista below.
"Don't you think that was a little harsh?" Cortana suddenly cut into the Chief's thoughts.
Instantly guessing what she was referring to, he responded with a sigh. "Would you still ask me that if it had been the Captain that had been stabbed, or one of the Marines?"
"Well…"
"You and I know how hard it is to see a friend hurt," he reminded her. "But that doesn't mean we can afford to be careless."
Cortana fell silent as the dropship continued on its flight. Darkness veiled the escaping ship as it flew over the plateau below, setting a course back for the only home any of them could reach.
