Disclaimer: I don't own Halo

Italics: Thoughts

Rookie POV

Making his way towards the control bridge Jason hears a loud thud and sudden gun fire down the left corridor. Rushing over he sees a squad of marines being pushed up a small stairwell by a boarding party of two elites and three jackals. Moving behind two supply crates for cover he spots numerous Grunts dead on the ground as well as two marines.

Still having the element of surprise Jason throws one of his grenades at the bottom of the stairwell causing the three jackals to jump in surprise. It's too late though as the grenade detonates scattering their remains across the room.

Hearing the explosion the elites take notice of Jason and start to focus their fire on his position. Ducking his head he hears plasma landing on the crates as well as behind him.

'I really hope they take this opening. They are not going to fall for this forever.'

Looking down the stair well the remaining marines come out of cover and unload their assault rifles onto the two unsuspecting elites. Noticing their shields drop the elites realize their mistake all too late as they soon drop to the ground after being riddled with bullets.

Coming out of cover, Jason makes sure to check his corners before going up the stairs and running into the marines he had helped. The CO of the group moved over to greet Jason at the top of the stairs.

"Thanks for the help trooper, names Corporal Davis, those damn shields on those bastards are hard to break when getting shot at." He laughed trying to lighten the mood as he noticed his men seemed a bit shaken up.

"Anytime Corporal glad to be of help. Do you know how I can get to the bridge from here?" he asked getting strange looks from some of the men.

Which was fair since every solider, especially an ODST, should be able to find the bridge of their assigned ship. Thing was this wasn't his ship and these things were so damn big that anyone could get lost in these damn things. How the Covenant were able to navigate through these things was a mystery to him.

"Actually trooper we were stationed here as one of the first defenses of the bridge. You just need to follow this hallway till you make it to an intersection and take a left then you've made it."

"Thanks Corporal, oh before I go a good way to get past those shields of theirs is to use their own weapons against them." Giving his advice Jason make his way towards the bridge passing some marines who were setting up a machine gun turret pointed at the end of the hall waiting for enemies.

There weren't many options left other than to hold out and hope for one to present its self. What was really strange was they were not blown out of the sky at the beginning of the fight. While there was the occasional slamming against the hull it was not the same as if they were unloading everything they had to ensure imminent defeat.

This meant that they must have been after something otherwise the ship would be in a worse shape than it already is in. There was only one thing that the Covenant would come on board for and it was the CO.

Cortana POV

She had more than enough information on humanity, and from what she had said before about the forerunners, to give the Covenant the war. This could not happen no matter the cost she could not fall into enemy hands.

Stepping into the bridge orders were being given left and right as men and women were typing away trying to help in any way they could. He spots Cortana talking to an officer giving him an order.

"We need to make sure that we keep this room secure and repel all Covenant forces. I will authorize the use of heavy weaponry near this room, but only under dire situation." Cortana said after dismissing the officer and turning towards Jason.

"What took you so long?" she asked in an annoyed tone.

Jason was about to answer until he was cut off by the AI herself.

"Doesn't matter right now we have bigger problems than your slowness. Right now were waiting on our missile systems to come online. The strange thing is the boarding parties that are showing up onto the ship."

"What do you mean the Covenant have always sent boarding parties to gain any Intel over us that they can. That's why every ship has always had an AI to make sure that they could never reach it. In this case though they are probably after you to learn more about the ring." Jason said.

The more the Covenant learned about the ring the worse that it would be for them. If this was supposed to be a large scale weapon then there must be some short ranged on this thing as well. They have enough things to worry about there is no way they could handle an advance security system on top of it.

"What I mean is that they could have blown us up at any time. Besides they don't need me when they have the activation Index to start the whole damn thing. No this is a personal vendetta against someone here." Cortana said as she brought up a video surveillance of a Zealot with a robotic arm coming out of a boarding pod.

"Why is this one elite important is it just because it's missing an ar… oh shit." Jason said as he put two and two together this Elite was here for him he doomed all of these people to die slowly rather than a quick death from a fiery explosion.

Cortana could tell that Jason was heavily affected by this by the way that his shoulders slumped and how his head move down as if in shame. She then connected to his helmet and whispered gently into his ear.

"It's not your fault."

This caused Jason to move his gaze toward Cortana as he saw a smile on her face that seemed to brighten his mood and put a fire in his stomach that made him think he could take on the entire Covenant.

"So what's the plan?" Jason asked

"We need to get our missile systems online first before we have any chance of a counter attack. However our uninvited guests are currently guarding the terminals near the missile launch pad and they have locked me out of that area." Cortana explained as she was making attempts to get through.

"Alright so I'll take a team and lead them to the pad and stop whatever is interrupting your connection. Then we will rain hell down on these bastards easy enough."

"Except for the fact that we are stretched too thin right now and we can't spare the extra man power. Were barely holding off the Covenant from this room as it is."

Holding back the covenant would already be an impossible task, but now the numbers have thinned from the flood exposure it was a fool's errand especially since they were in close quarters.

'Dammit I can't go there by myself I would never make. I would have to be a Spartan to have even the slightest chance that or a giant hulking armor that could protect me.' Jason thought then it hit him.

"Cortana do we have any cyclops on board the ship if I'm going to do this I'll need to be heavily protected." Jason reasoned.

Cortana started to bring up a tablet and scanned through the files looking through vehicle logs until she finally found what she was looking for.

"Yes we do, but it's a Breaker class so you will have no long range weapons. All it has are plasma cutters and hydraulic rams so you will have to get in close before you can do some damage."

Shit this was not an ideal situation the Breaker class model were used for repairing and dismantling parts of Cruisers. It would be better if he had some type of long range weaponry, but at least the shields the Covenant had wouldn't be a problem. Plasma cutters would slice right through anyone that got in his way.

The bridge started to shake causing Jason to nearly fall over along with anyone standing up. "Dammit let them know I'm heading to the hangar and to keep it secure."

Jason then started to run out of the bridge hoping that he can save all of these lives on this ship.

Voro' Tuyokee POV

Voro stood above five ODST with his energy sword ignited and a snarl on his face. None of these cretins were the one he was looking for. The one that would help him to regain his honor was still somewhere on this ship. Voro turned to the squad that had brought him these pitiful warriors.

"Bring as many of these soldiers to me alive as possible so that I may show them how pitiful their race truly is." He lied with a shout of victory as his brothers did the same.

Watching his brothers go and secure his prize brought a grin upon his face. He would kill every single human on this ship, no, on this ring until he found the one that had dared to take his hand from him. This would be no quick death either he would make sure that it was slow and painful. This human will make sure to witness all of his comrades death so that his mind will shatter like glass than and only then will he be granted death.

Voro's musing was cut off by his brothers once more bringing in more of these soldiers known as ODST. One thing was certain these were no demons, but were also no mere human grunt as they made the battles fun for only a short while. Three ODST were brought down on their knees in front of Voro who once more stood above them with a sickening grin on his face.

Each of these soldiers were panting at an incredible rate no doubt due to just being done with fighting and no doubt screaming as they were brought to him. Knowing that their death were at hand most would have been crying for mercy, but these three much like the others were not.

Growling in anger Voro tells his men to remove their helmets so that he may see the fear in their eyes as they fade from this world. The first helmet is removed and the first thing that Voro notices is that it is a female. She has shoulder length brown hair that was scattered all over her head due to wearing the helmet and blue eyes that glared at Voro with the intensity of one thousand suns. 'Of all the things, to allow a woman into their ranks. The humans must truly be desperate.'

The next helmet comes off and shows a boy. Having killed many humans during his conquests this boy looked much too young to be wearing armor of their elite soldiers. Short spiked blonde hair covered his head as he too was glaring at Voro with piercing green eyes. 'A battlefield is no place for a child this boy will make a good example.'

The last helmet to come off showed a rugged man who looked like he had seen to many fights. A scar in the shape of a single line down his right cheek was what caught Voro attention with this solider. He had faded out black hair that looked as if specks of gray were creeping in. Whether it was from age or stress Voro couldn't tell but regardless this man didn't seem to have much fight left in him. 'Relics should learn to stay in a museum where they belong.'

Staring down the three kneeled warriors Voro ignites his energy sword in his right hand and grips the female neck bringing her up to his face as she grips his arm trying to break his grip.

"My face will be the last thing your pitiful eyes will gaze upon." He says raising the energy sword ready to end her life. Until he starts to hear loud footsteps headed their way. Along with the screams of his men he had posted outside the door.

Suddenly the door is cut in half as a plasma like blade is stabbed through it. Stepping through is a 14ft robot that steps into the room. Then a voice speaks through the robot.

"I heard you were looking for me."

Next Chapter: The Decisive Battle