Sorry for not updating recently, my Games Design work is beginning to pile up at University, got to get that finished before anything else. Oh well, whilst my machine busies itself, I'll write some more.

This is where I started to really make things up, the original story didn't have a Spartan mission, but I wrote one in because it explains why the 96 of them are actually ON the ship in the first place...

Thanks for the two reviews received so far, I hope I can continue to please!

Chapter four is here!

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Chapter Four: Descent To The Below

1038 HOURS, SEPTEMBER 18TH, 2563 (MILITARY CALENDER)\
PELICAN: TYPE IV, approaching REACH DEBRIS CLOUD
SYSTEM: EPSILON ERIDANI, PLANET: REACH

The drop ships comm. link opened with a click, and Louise's voice piped through the internal speaker system. "We're nearing the cloud; we'll take up position on the other side of the Trafalgar's hull and wait for you to signal us." As Jessica levelled the ship out, gliding slowly down towards the wrecked hull. With a faint, dull clunk the magnetic clamps descended down, locking the ship in place. The dust in front of the viewscreen parted, as the second drop-ship slid through, passing the dead ship, floating in orbit around a dead world. Jessica looked around her, the debris spreading about almost randomly. A covenant destroyer, killed by a heavy MAC round, fired from an orbital station during the battle, floated ominously nearby, slowly turning on its axel end over end. "This whole place is a graveyard. This doesn't feel right." She muttered under her breath. "Something always goes wrong at grave worlds." Louise had to agree, a few of the Spartan zero-G training missions had been to secure ships from debris fields, like the ones around Biko, an outer colony, one of the first to be glassed by the Covenant. Half of the teams had been sweeping the wrecked USNC ships, looking for supplies and munitions to be salvaged, whilst the rest were boarding what few downed Covenant vessels there were, looking to acquire engine schematics and other technological blueprints, after which they would destroy the ships to hide the scavenge. They hadn't counted on a nest of Yanme'e, the drones had swarmed out in overwhelming numbers. The Spartans held their ground however, bringing down the darting insects with short controlled bursts, picking them off one by one. There were injuries however, Peter, a member of Red team, was caught by a series of needle strikes, causing his left side to explode in a shower of purple light and crystal fragments. Thanks to the abilities of White team, he made it long enough to be taken to the medical deck on the Spear of Fire. Louise could still picture him, a look of surprise mingled with shock, as the needles struck him, then sheer terror as he realised what was about to happen. Shaking the image from her mind, she ordered her team to check their gear again.

Sarah slipped the drop ship gracefully through the dust cloud, sliding past a wrecked UNSC frigate and cruiser, followed by a pair of Covenant frigates. Whistling, in a slow expressive note, Ricky exclaimed "This must have been one hell of a fight, just look at how many hulks there are!" Michael joined him at the viewscreen, remembering what they had been taught in the class room. "There are nearly two hundred Covenant capitals, and a hundred and fifty two USNC ships here." he said, "Not to mention who knows how many Long Sword and Seraph fighters as well as the Reach orbital stations and all the pieces they broke up into." Sarah ignored the conversation going on over her head, and continued to guide the ship towards the planet. "We'll be down in about 10 minutes, running silent." Nodding, Michael stepped into the rear compartment, and checked his weapons, Ricky following suit. Ten minutes passed in silence, and stayed that way until they heard the landing gear lower, and touch down upon the glass-like surface. A few seconds later the engines died, and the cockpit hatch opened, Sarah walking through to the rear, grabbing her gear. Around the Spartans, the air began to thin as it was let out of the rear bay, and the rear hatch lowered, giving them their first close-up glance at the world they had landed on. To the west of them, miles high spires of rock, stabbing upwards into space, the inner core of the planet, having been breached by the Covenant assault, fired plumes of molten rock upwards at incredible velocities as the atmosphere was stripped away around it, exposing it to the freezing temperatures of space. Sarah had set them down upon a flat plain, the near smooth surface only disturbed by the last bubbles and bumps to form before the then liquid finally cooled, after being scolded by Covenant plasma. "The target facility is about four miles that way. I didn't want to risk them seeing the ship land" Sarah said as she stepped out of the drop ship. She jumped from the ramp, falling down onto the glass silently, "No atmosphere, but the world is still spinning, giving it gravity." She added, bemused. The rest of the infiltration team followed suit. "Which way is the facility?" Michael asked her, to which she responded by pointing towards the horizon, along the plain, "then we move, double time for the first two miles." No sooner had he uttered the words, and then the team set off across the ground across the glass like ghosts.

20 minutes later, they slowed to a walking pace, crouching down and hugging the now hilly landscape. They rose to the crest to get a look at the facility. The standard modular design of all UNSC bases was instantly recognisable. The main section of the complex was the most obvious, but with the binoculars built into their helmets they could pick out all the little details. At the back of the base, the Spartans could see the smoke stack of the power plant, the hydrogen powered construction pumping out energy for the rest of the facility, and to the east of that, stood the barracks, the barn like building housing any number of marines from 10 to 100. Michael took note that all of the buildings where connected via a series of air tight corridors, built in straight lines, from transparent glass, similar to that used in space station construction, giving view ports out onto the surrounding space. If my team got stuck in one of them, Michael noted, anyone looking out of a window could see us. He concentrated on the main complex itself, and noticed a number of guards pacing around the perimeter. They were wearing standard UNSC EVA gear, but their weapons were of the most interest, "Heavy concussion rifles?" Ricky said over the secure channel, raising his hand to add to his question, "They won't leave much of a mark on us." Sarah focused on the rifle herself, analysing it. "Actually," she informed him, "these have been modified, overcharged. They can only get three or four shots off with them, but the shots will hurt like being punched at four hundred feet per second." Payne wasn't looking at the rifles, or the facility, his eyes scanning the surroundings for a viable entry path. "The good news is," he said, "is that they won't be able to hear us coming whilst EVA. The bad news is that the glass valley makes for poor cover. And the only path in takes us right to those guards." Michael thought for a moment, than made up his mind, "Sarah, Payne. Use your camo to get as to those two as you can, take them out quickly and quietly. Make sure, that if they are broadcasting continuous reports, that you loop a sample to keep their perimeter secure." With that, the two members of purple team seemingly vanished into thin air, until they started moving. The twin, shimmering twinkles of movement, visible only to a Spartan, set out along the valley, keeping low on approach towards the oblivious guards. Within twenty feet of the guards, they paused, waiting as Sarah looped their reports. When she had finished they pounced, Payne shattered his targets radio, while tearing the breathing tank from the guards back. Sarah flattened her hand, smacking the base against the second guard's throat, crushing his wind pipe and breaking his neck, he fell to the ground instantly and Sarah leant over to access his radio. Uploading the interval repeating message, she signalled for the rest of the team. Within minutes, the squad had reunited at the maintenance airlock the guards had been protecting. Sarah was busy with her gauntlet AI, simply called Quis, who was a highly advanced infiltration operative, able to break any and all codes given to it. However, it was so specialised that it could not perform any other functions, like Bentus and Hammer. Together with Quis, there was nowhere that Sarah couldn't get into. Whilst the others stood guard over her, Sarah aided by Quis, cracked the security, blocking the opening sensor, and slid the door open long enough for the team to slip inside.

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1041 HOURS, SEPTEMBER 18TH, 2563 (MILITARY CALENDER)\
USNC SUPER CARRIER - SPEAR OF FIRE – BRIDGE
TARGET SYSTEM: EPSILON ERIDANI, PLANET: REACH

"Bentus, have you found it?" Heart asked the AI, rotating to face him "If we don't find it soon, there could be problems." The AI responded with a single raised eyebrow, followed by a sigh, "You forget Admiral, I know the specs of it, I know what it can do." He looked at the sensor screen, "It must be hiding in the debris, using the wrecks to hide itself." Heart ignored the disrespect of the AI's response, she knew him well enough to know that it was simply a sign of frustration; he liked knowing where everything was, and didn't like not being able to find something. She turned back to her console the small screen protruding from the right armrest. She scrolled down on the screen, showing crew lists and repair reports for another UNSC vessel, The Bloodied Tomahawk. The small vessel had gone missing 3 months ago, the last reports that the "damn ONI spooks" had given was that it had been in mid-report, having found another Forerunner Relic, but had been cut off mid-transmission. Reading through the ship specs, Heart was able to confirm that it was one of the newer ONI stealth cruisers. Capable of remaining hidden for days, the black ship was near perfect for spying on nearly anything, or rather, anyone. Trying to find something, that was designed to remain hidden from all but the most stringent scrutiny, was like trying to find one of the five hidden Halo arrays around the galaxy, by randomly pointing your ship's nose, and jumping somewhere in that general area, the admiral mused to herself. Bentus, his growing frustration showing as his code spiralled around him like a small tornado, furiously set scan after scan in motion, determined to find the Tomahawk. He was surprised when he received a message, LEAVE WELL ENOUGH ALONE BENTUS. He froze, the message blindsided him, his scans dropping off in intensity. The message had been broadcast to the Spear, but he couldn't tell from where, it was as if the graveyard of ships around him were talking to him. He stopped trying to scan for power emitting generators; the debris was obviously helping mask the signature, so he tried something new. He calculated all of the angles of all the UNSC ships in the field, and began to trace a direct line back along the formation, bouncing off each ship's communication array. Most of the ships were too damaged, their arrays destroyed, but enough were left to form a network of beacons. Through a number of possible combinations, Bentus sent the same reply over and over again along each route, bouncing off arrays and comm. towers, each with different encryption trackers, designed to return to sender when the message was opened; HUSHED CASKETS NEVER REMAIN SEALED. Within seconds a return was made, the second message was received by an active array. He traced the route, exclaiming, "Ma'am, I've found it, situated point 1.5 degrees south of Reach's Equator, in what remains of the Margress seabed," The sensors went wild, as energy flares lit up the screens, "They know they've been rumbled, their getting ready to take off." Heart sat up in her chair, pressing an icon on her command console, "All hands, battle stations, fire teams on stand-by at all airlocks and boarding craft, all fighter pilots to your ships." The bridge dimmed blue, a passive light designed to focus the crew on their consoles, "All consoles sound off." One by one the bridge crew confirmed their readiness for whatever was coming. "Weapons systems, online, MAC and Archer missiles ready and awaiting your orders ma'am" Lieutenant Jennifer Rodez responded. "Flight and Navigation systems at peak operations admiral." informed Lieutenant Commander Jonathan West. "All hands report ready and standing-by admiral," Commander Jamie Tarrack replied. "The ship is combat ready Ma'am" came Hammers cold voice, "We will in range of a warning sho-." Bentus' raised voice cut her off, "Damn spooks make their ships fast, she's already left the planet surface," he raised his eyebrows, "and she isn't running. She's coming in, building up to attack speed." Heart watched as a seemingly empty vista of planet surface seemed to move and slide through space, but with what Bentus was saying, she knew that it was the Tomahawk, in full flight running with weapons hot. If that old git wants a fight, she thought, let's see how much damage his cruiser can take before it sheers in half. "Target the incoming ship, archers one through five," she paused as the command was entered into the system, "Fire!"