FORERUNNER ANCILLARY GOVERNMENT COMPLEX – 5 HOURS TO EXFILTRATION

"We've got a problem".

Those were the first words from Cassandra's virtual lips, appearing as a hologram, the moment she was recovered to the Minh's TACPAD.

"What? I don't understand, just what have you been doing in there?" replied Tom. Cassandra could understand his frustration – the journey through the spire had been uneventful, but the Covenant were crawling all over the city and as team leader, his only desire was to find a way out and to reach the rendezvous in time. It would be a lot more difficult in any case, given that their Pelican was no longer anything but a pile of slag and crumpled metal, lying on the edge of a forest at least twenty kilometres away. Now though, Cassandra was nervous. For the first time, she faced a dilemma. She knew she couldn't tell the team about the Forerunners. She didn't have time, and they would have too many questions that she couldn't answer, particularly about the city itself. Ultimately, she chose to give a vague answer, explaining what she needed to without elaborating. If the SPARTANs wanted to know more, then tough. She was ONI, she couldn't just be giving out classified intelligence without a care. And there was no need for them to know more anyway. Just enough to keep them alive, and that would be enough.

"I can't tell the whole story, but we need to level this city. There are too many secrets for the Covenant to find out."

Tom was incredulous. "What secrets? What are you talking about?"

"They have no idea what lies under their feet. There is data here too valuable for them to recover, even for ONI to find. We have no choice, we have to wipe this place off the map."

While talking to 692 Redeeming Grace, Cassandra had come up with an idea. She had managed to infiltrate the Covenant Battlenet and the city's systems, enough to learn more about the Covenant leadership overseeing the excavation. The main officer in charge was a particularly zealous and overbearing Sangheili shipmaster called Jdan 'Nolumee. He had an unfortunate habit of jumping the gun, including glassing key sites on conquered worlds before ever receiving an order to do so. That was also why no Huragok had been present here – they were due to arrive that same day, just hours away, on a flagship belonging to a Lesser Prophet, the Minister of Contemplation. The Minister was meant to be monitoring Jdan on the excavation of the city, but he had been delayed, and an impatient Jdan had begun digging already. Cassandra knew that she could stop the Covenant's interest in the city if she could simply give Jdan cause to glass the place. Easier said than done. And there was no guarantee that they would leave the planet alone. ONI would need to send another team after her to make sure, and that would tie up even more resources and give the Covenant more reason to examine the area. But she couldn't think of anything else.

"There is too much at stake, if the Covenant find out what this planet is hiding then the war will be over within months."

"What about ONI?"

"Even them! Tom, we have no other option. There's no time to get ONI here, every second we delay gives the Covenant more time to search the city." Cassandra could see Tom's mind working as he pondered her words. Beside him, the other SPARTANs waited to see what he would decide. Though they worked as a team, Tom was still the leader, after all.

Eventually he came to a conclusion. "What do we need to do?"

Cassandra could barely hide her relief. "Split up. We only have a few hours to the rendezvous, and it'll take at least an hour in a decent speed craft to get to low orbit. Adam and Lucy can find a transport, they'll have my subroutine guiding them through the city to a landing platform about two kilometres away. Tom, you and Minh need to take me in the TACPAD to a power plant below the city."

"What do you mean splitting up? We're in a hostile environment, I'm not breaking my team apart to chase after your whims."

"This isn't a whim," Cassandra replied. "Five hours is our deadline, even this plan is cutting it close. The city runs on a power grid that's still active, there are fusion plants below this building and several others across the map. This spire has a gravity lift right down the centre that allows access to the fusion plants. I can't access them from here since they run on a separate system, but if I can get inside the network I can trigger an overload in the reactors. If I set it on a timer we can be halfway out of atmosphere when the chain reaction begins. It should sink the whole city and any Covenant still in it."

Tom could see the sense in the plan, and it was clear to him that whatever his misgivings, Cassandra must know something vital that the Covenant couldn't find out. But he still had issues with the idea. "Why that split anyway? Adam can go with Minh, surely the big guns would help down there?"

"It's not as simple as that. There are shields on the reactors, too powerful to break through. Worse than a Covenant cruiser. It doesn't matter what Adam unloads, he won't get through. And if he does, he risks damaging the reactors. We do not want to be here when the city goes to hell."

"And Minh?"

"I need him to get me into the system itself. He's the tech guy, right? He can work through the hardware, load me up and deal with the firewalls. I can deal with pretty much everything in there, but if something goes wrong he's the best one to take over. This city has to fall."

She had clearly thought the plan through, and it seemed pretty smooth. Lucy was the best pilot out of the team, she would be the perfect choice to reach the landing platform. Adam would be a great help too. If the platform was defended properly, as it should be, they could expect Phantoms, Spirits and a few Banshees as air support. During the journey to the spire, he had managed to pick up a fuel rod gun from a fallen Grunt, though Adam had wondered at the time how such a tiny creature could possibly carry such a large weapon. At the site he would just have to improvise if the ammo ran out.

"Alright," Tom said. "Let's head out. Lucy, Adam, as soon as you secure a transport get the hell out of there. Try and make it back here and wait around for us, clear the area if the Covies decide to ambush us. And make damn sure it's a fast ship. The Peregrine can't hang around, we have to make the RV." With that, the team acknowledged their orders and began their tasks.

LUCY AND ADAM – ANCILLARY STREETS

"How much further?" Adam was speaking to Cassandra's subroutine, which had guided them from the spire through the empty streets and passages of the Forerunner city towards the landing platform they were to storm. Two kilometres wasn't a great distance, but the Covenant had stepped up their patrols now that they knew the rough location of the SPARTANs, and Adam expected the target to be heavily defended. As long as they could use cover and cut a path to a dropship, however, it would be fine, as with Lucy's flying skills they would be much safer in the air. But on the ground, they had been forced to use a roundabout route, and although they had narrowly avoided any fighting they still seemed to be moving further away from their destination. The subroutine had needed stealth too, still inside the city monitoring systems, only giving advice through the public speakers when it was certain nobody was in earshot, and for the rest of the journey the pair had relied on their training and instincts.

"We are almost there, less than a hundred metres east of the target,"came the reply. This was a surprise, as Adam could have sworn they had been moving the opposite direction for the past fifteen minutes. Then again, maybe they had simply travelled too far in a circle to avoid the patrols. Either way, the wait was almost over. Now they would have to fight.

As the pair turned a corner by a building shaped like some alien flower, with strange tendrils rising high above them, they could see a circular platform, roughly fifty metres in diameter, raised above the ground by about a hundred metres. Ahead of them was one of seven gravity lifts that ringed the platform, which was tethered by what appeared to be beams of light to the surrounding buildings. As they moved closer, keeping in cover behind ammo crates, they could see the buildings all looked similar to the one they had crept around. They seemed to be storage units of some sort, perhaps used when this place was a working city with regular transit and trade. Adam could see that their approach would be hidden until they actually reached the platform, but it was a double edged sword. Just as they couldn't be seen by the troops on the platform, neither could they see what they would be facing when they ascended. They would be going in blind, and the subroutine Cassandra had left could give no intelligence. She had been left to get them to the landing pad and that was it. When Adam and Lucy arrived, the subroutine was useless. It had self-destructed, purging itself from the system. A necessary act, as Adam remembered the Cole Protocol, and that no trace of a UNSC AI could be found by the Covenant. If only she had stuck around a little longer though.

"Any thoughts?" This was from Lucy, hiding right under the platform, while Adam stood a short distance away examining a gravity lift.

"I was thinking shock and awe?" replied Adam. "We'll only get one chance. Take out as many as we can and get to cover."

"And if there's no cover?"

"We run for it." Not the best tactics, he knew, but then again these were hardly the best circumstances. All either of them could hope for was that there were plenty of Grunts and Jackals, and fewer Elites and Hunters. Something easy to deal with. With this in mind, Adam stepped into the first lift they had seen, while Lucy stepped into another further along the ring. The aim was to flank the enemy and deal as much damage as they could while they had the element of surprise. They would just have to hope it worked.

TOM AND MINH – FORERUNNER FUSION PLANTS

If the progress faced on the surface by Lucy and Adam had been slow, it was nothing compared to the trek underground. Though they had made good time, the lift down had been the fastest part of the journey, taking Tom and Minh roughly a kilometre underneath the city to a set of tunnels. The passages had been carved out of a strange combination of stone and some metal that neither could identify, and glyphs had been inscribed all over the walls. Minh recognised some of them as being similar to those he had witnessed on Covenant vehicles, that he had previously thought of as markers to identify each like a registration plate, but now realised meant something else entirely. He couldn't begin to decipher what they truly meant, but it was of no concern to him anyway. The sooner he could get off this godforsaken rock the better.

The tunnels soon devolved into a labyrinth that were so easy to get lost in. Perhaps the glyphs were markers to help guide a path? But with no way of reading them, Tom and Minh would have been helplessly lost if not for the guidance of Cassandra, who pointed out each way through with ease. Soon enough, they found their way into a wide open space, a chasm that extended deep under the planet. It was so far down that Minh couldn't even begin to see the bottom, and so wide and tall that he felt the city above them could have fitted within easily enough. Spanning the gap was a series of catwalks and platforms that were suspended to the walls above by the same beams of light Adam had seen at the landing pad. Every few hundred metres was a larger platform supporting a massive construct that Minh couldn't begin to describe. At the heart of each construct was a glowing blue ball of what seemed to be plasma, each ball flashing white briefly at odd intervals before returning to their blue hue again. These must be the fusion reactors they had come to destroy. As he looked at the spectacle before him, he could hear Cassandra's voice in his helmet.

"We're here. Get over to the nearest reactor and plug me in. Chances are you won't need to do anything else, but keep an eye out for Covenant. If they've guessed what we plan to do..." She didn't need to say any more. As Tom took up a defensive position around the corner of the closest walkway, using the hard light as a transparent shield, Minh hurried forward to a reactor and located a port similar to those he had seen on the terminals back in the library building. Plugging the TACPAD in, he waited for confirmation from Cassandra that she had managed to access the systems and begin the reactor overload that would send the city to the deep.

Behind him, Tom cocked his rifle and took aim. The Covenant had arrived.

LUCY AND ADAM – LANDING PLATFORM

Rising through the gravity fields Lucy anticipated the coming fight. If there was no cover to be found then she and Adam would be like sitting ducks, but nevertheless they would go out with a bang. They had restocked their weapons and ammo before leaving the spire, Adam taking his fuel rod gun with a standard assault rifle strapped to his back, while Lucy opted for a Covenant Carbine instead of the heavy weaponry. Packing a powerful punch, it would be the best way of dealing with any Elites and their shields. To cap it all they had each taken a handful of plasma and frag grenades too. As they crested the rim of the platform, they could see just what foes they had to fight. No Hunters, fortunately, nor Grunts, but there were plenty of Jackals with energy shields, along with a squad of Elites guiding them. They seemed to be loading ammo crates and weapons onto the transports waiting on the far edge. Two Spirit dropships and a group of Banshees, currently unmanned, with two Phantoms – one on each side. The Phantoms were the targets, being much quicker than any other craft there, able to reach escape velocity, and having the capability of space flight without suffocating its passengers. The crates nearest to them were enough cover that the Covenant hadn't yet noticed them, but it was only a matter of time. Taking direct aim at an Elite with gold armour, clearly the leader of the squad, Lucy fired two rounds straight at its head. The first round ricocheted and spun away into the distance, but was enough to damage the Elite's shields. The second caused them to fail completely and went straight through armour and flesh, purple blood splashing across the metal of the nearest Banshee. At the same moment, Adam fired a fuel rod blast at the left prong of the nearest Spirit, hitting a crate that had already been loaded. The crate must have been filled with grenades or some other combustible device, as the single shot caused an explosion powerful enough to rip the prong off the rest of the dropship and blow the Banshees clear off the platform. Half of the Jackals, as well as two of the five remaining Elites, were engulfed, cutting the opposing force in one swift assault. Using the cover provided by the remaining crates, though knowing the risks of another grenade explosion, Adam and Lucy made their way forward, keeping to the flanks in an attempt to deal with the Jackals and their energy shields. Though individually they weren't much of a threat, when grouped together and with Elites supporting them Jackals could prove very dangerous. This time, however, the pincer was enough to give the SPARTANs the edge, with the Jackals only able to defend from one side it was easy for the pair to mop up any remaining resistance. Lucy showed herself to be lethally accurate with the carbine, taking out the remaining Elites with ease. The battle was quick, and by the end of it Adam and Lucy found themselves standing next to a Phantom.

"Get yourself strapped in," said Lucy. "I'll get this bird ready to fly."

"You sure you know what you're doing? Have you ever even flown one of these before?"

Lucy paused briefly. "I'll pick it up."

"You'd better. We die in this thing, I'll bloody kill you."

With this, Lucy quickly made her way to the cockpit, while Adam sat down on one of the strange alien benches that lined the interior of the troop hold. As he pondered the design and wondered if he could even hope to get comfortable sitting on it, he heard something below him. Spinning around with the fuel rod cannon held high, he took in his surroundings. A single shot could probably ignite several of the ammo crates, though surely the Covenant here had been wiped out? Glancing over the closest edge of the platform was enough to prove him wrong. The flower-like buildings that Adam had previously thought were warehouses were in fact nothing of the sort. The Covenant had been using them as barracks, and the sound of the previous fire-fight had attracted the occupants' attention.

"Shit," thought Adam. He yelled into the cockpit as the Covenant swarmed up to his level. "Lucy, get this thing in the air now! We've got Covies on our tail!"

"What? Didn't we just kill them all?"

"I wish! They're coming up the grav lifts now, I can't hold them all off!"

Reacting quickly, Adam unloaded his remaining fuel rods at the most densely packed groups of Covenant that landed on the platform, until the gun was empty. Knowing about the fail-safe that would cause the gun to explode, he threw it with all his might at the nearest pair of Elites as the stepped out of the lift, timing it just right and blowing up another ammo crate as a consolation. Before any of the Covenant could take aim at him, he threw himself behind the rear turret on board the Phantom and began to fire.

In the cockpit, Lucy had been struggling at first, but as she studied the ship's controls she noticed a curious familiarity. She had never flown a Phantom before, though she had certainly piloted her fair share of Ghosts and Banshees on earlier ground ops. Phantom flying wasn't something they taught back at Camp Curahee. Nevertheless, she had a feeling she would be able to pick this up. The added urgency from Adam's call over the team channel simply gave her more resolve.

"Come on, you son of a bitch, help me out here," she whispered, under her breath. Times like this, she thought, Cassandra would be invaluable. But Cassandra was currently a thousand metres below Lucy, guiding the others through an impossible maze to an uncertain end. In front of her now were bizarre glyphs and signs that glowed as she touched them, though otherwise stayed the same. She could see numbers though, a strange set of symbols but easily recognisable as a numeric system, that changed depending on what she touched. Perhaps these comprised the instrument panel? Moving on, Lucy scanned the rest of the panel that rose ahead of her, almost afraid to touch anything else for fear of what it would do. Unlike a Spirit, there were no bay doors to open or close, but there were all sorts of controls needed to control pitch, yaw and roll, and maintain a fixed altitude. Another set of controls would presumably allow weapons access, allowing her to fire the plasma cannons mounted on the dropship's underbelly, while others (she imagined) would fire up the shields that would not only allow them to exit the planet's atmosphere without exposure to empty space, but also protect both Lucy and Adam from the horde of Covenant outside. But without knowing what to touch, she had no idea if she would save them both, or fire the cannons and damage the ship. A plasma explosion of such strength so close to the platform would probably be enough to ground the craft, assuming Adam and Lucy weren't killed by proximity to the blast themselves.

There was nothing for it. She would have to take a chance. She reached out and tapped on thin air, just in front of a glyph that looked promising, a green circle with a pair of horizontal bars running through it. As she pressed it, a humming sound rose up around her. Lucy recognised it well, it was the sound she had heard Phantoms make when they had flown overhead on her other missions. The symbol itself disappeared, only to be replaced by a set of new symbols that looked closer to the buttons she had learned to use in a Pelican. Universal signs used for steering and generally piloting ships like these.

"Adam? You still with me?"

"I read you loud and clear, what's up? You getting anywhere? I can't keep these guys off our backs forever!"

"I think I've got something. I finally found the 'on' switch."

"Great, now get us in the air!"

"I'm trying but it looks like the controls are locked. I need to bypass the systems. Can you hold out for a moment longer?"

Lucy could hear Adam sigh in her helmet speakers. "Not for much longer, no. They're like a flood."

"Just bear with me. Anything you can do to keep them away. Lucy out."

In the rear of the Phantom, Adam closed the connection and continued to focus on the swarm in front of him. Most of the Covenant had resigned themselves to hiding in cover, taking potshots, but although there was a shield on the turret providing him with limited protection, its power was rapidly failing. One well-aimed super-charged plasma shot had actually brought them down for a few seconds, forcing Adam to duck down and switch to his assault rifle until the turret shield was restored. He needed a new approach, and fast. Thinking quickly, he spotted the hard light beams that anchored the platform to the surrounding buildings. Each beam was generated by a device high on the walls of the warehouses, the flower-halls, surrounding the platform. Each device looked almost like a cone with a flat top, made of some metal and inscribed with the same glyphs Adam had seen elsewhere in the city. He wondered if they were vulnerable to plasma fire.

It would be risky, he knew, and he would need to time it just right to avoid the potshots from the hiding Covenant, as well as the heavy fire raining down by suicidal Grunts and their Needlers (most of which had deflected off the turret shield). Adam planned to shoot the hard light generators and hopefully destabilise the platform. If he could shake off a few of the Covenant then it would buy Lucy a little more time to bypass the Phantom security. Provided the entire platform didn't come crashing down, of course.

He had to try it, though. Waiting for a lull in the hail of plasma, Adam aimed his turret at the furthest generator, angled above and directly ahead of him. Firing continuously, it took a few seconds, but soon there was a small ball of bright white fire and the beam coming from the generator suddenly disappeared. At the same moment, the platform lurched forward and shook, unable to withstand its previous stability with one of its supports gone. Several unfortunate Jackals and an Elite, standing too close to the edge, fell a hundred metres to their deaths. Over the team channel, Adam could hear Lucy cry out.

"What the hell was that? Were we hit?"

"I took out one of the support beams," Adam replied. "Shook them up a bit."

"Are you insane? I haven't got this thing working yet, if the platform falls we'll be going with it!"

"If it doesn't fall and you don't hurry we'll both be dead anyway. How close are you to finishing? I can probably take out another beam safely, any more and the platform won't hold."

"You'd better be damn sure, Adam. I'm nearly done, but the Covie bastards had it pretty well sealed. I thought they weren't meant to be this clever with computers?"

"Leave it for the spooks, Luce. ONI can handle that, let's just get the hell out of here. Alive."

Closing the channel, Adam took aim while he had the chance and began to fire on the next generator going clockwise. Again, a few more seconds of heavy fire and the beam disappeared, causing the platform to lurch again and sending even more Covenant, those who couldn't find a hand-hold, to plummet to the ground below. This time, however, he had made a severe miscalculation. Firing on any other generator would have provided a bit more stability, but with two adjacent support beams gone, the remaining beams couldn't hold the weight as evenly. Adam had been wrong. Instead of remaining relatively stable, the platform was beginning to break apart under the strain. If Lucy couldn't get the Phantom airborne soon, they would both fall just as the multitude of Covenant already had, and there would be no getting off Meridian at all.

Fortunately, it seemed that miracles could occur. As the platform broke apart, Adam heard a voice in his ear - "Done it!" and felt the Phantom lift off, rising slowly at first but picking up speed. Looking down, he could see the remaining hard light beams give way, the generators straining to take the load before bursting in shards of metal, and finally giving up as the platform fell to the plaza below. One by one, the gravity lifts failed and shut down, as the remaining Covenant waiting to ascend and attack ran for their lives for fear of being crushed under a twisted heap of alien metal. A few Hunters emerging from the barracks fired beams of plasma towards the sky, hoping to hit Adam or the Phantom, but missed as they too were killed by the landing pad's bulk. A final two-fingered salute to the dead, and Adam breathed a sigh of relief as the Phantom sped away towards the spire.

TOM AND MINH – FORERUNNER FUSION PLANTS

Minh heard the sound of Tom's rifle before he heard the hum of the plasma behind him. Turning rapidly around, he just made it into cover behind a pillar of hard light before a bolt of green flashed past his right ear, barely missing him. The sensors in his helmet warned him of the severe drop in his shields and the higher radiation levels, automatically injecting anti-radiation drugs into his system to protect him against the worst effects. Next to him, Tom took aim and fired a burst from his assault rifle at the closest Covenant, the Jackal that had just fired.

"Where did they come from?" called Minh, hoping either Tom or Cassandra would have an answer. "Were they behind us in the tunnels the whole time?"

"I think they were down there already," replied Cassandra from the reactor terminal. "We were lucky to avoid them, or maybe they wanted to ambush us down here. There's no surveillance in the tunnels."

Continuing her work, Cassandra fell silent. The Covenant, meanwhile, continued to spill from the cavern entrance, mostly Jackals and Grunts but with a few Elites guiding them from the rear. This struck Minh as odd. Normally Elites were at the front of the pack, leading by example and pushing the lower races to hold the line. Why were they suddenly so keen to stay back? He would never know the truth, that the shipmaster of this fleet had ordered them to stay back himself. Another sign of cowardice Jdan would need to pay for.

As the onslaught continued and plasma flew past them, Tom and Minh kept up a hail of bullets from their assault rifles. The distinct lack of fighting earlier had been great for conserving ammo, but they were both running low now, and soon they were forced to switch to the Needlers they had purloined from dead Grunts before reaching the spire. Once those were empty they would rely on their side-arms, Magnum pistols with 2x scopes, and the healthy supply of plasma grenades they had picked up. Radiation warnings were sounding in their ears, but still the Covenant came, bodies slowly piling on the catwalk and near the tunnel mouth. After a short while, the mass of bodies began to falter, then finally no more came through. It wasn't quite the end, however. Listening carefully for signs of movement, Minh heard a series of heavy thudding footsteps that he could have sworn he recognised. Before he could place the sound, though, the source came into view.

A pair of Mgalekgolo, or Hunters, made their way onto the main catwalk, each carrying a heavy assault cannon fused to their arms. Forced to think quickly, Minh dived to the left while Tom leaped right, narrowly avoiding the stream of fire from the bond brothers in the centre. As quickly as the shots had come, they ended, while the cannons were forced to recharge after overheating. This gave the SPARTANs a brief moment to rally and call to Cassandra for aid.

"Sorry, I can't help you," was her reply. "I'm a little busy right now!" Despairing and without tactics to deal with Hunters on such a limited style of terrain, Tom and Minh felt helpless. They had never had such thoughts as SPARTANs, not since they escaped the burning of their home worlds before being approached by the navy men to fight the Covenant and have their revenge. But just as a miracle had come for Adam and Lucy, so too would a miracle occur to help Tom and Minh from their situation.

"Hold on guys," Cassandra called from the terminal. "I've just had word from Lucy. They managed to steal a Phantom but they're being tailed by Covenant air support. She managed to work out the comms, it seems."

"That's great," replied Tom, "but how does it help us?"

"I took a look at some footage she patched through of their escape. Adam managed to break the hard light beams supporting the landing platform, killed most of the Covenant on their backs. Try it with the catwalks!"

"I hate to burst your bubble, Cassandra, but we're on the catwalks too, as are the reactors."

"I can send details to your helmet displays. Point out which ones to break, just aim for the generators on the cavern walls."

With this, Minh and Tom saw a set of points highlighted on their heads-up displays, corresponding to points on the wall nearest to them. "Hit those and you should be safe. You'll need to lure the Hunters to the place I marked in red, though." True to her word, the displays also showed one catwalk in particular that was marked in red. It seemed that destroying the generators above would cause this specific path to collapse and fall into the abyss. It was risky, but then, so were the Hunters.

"Minh," cried Tom, "keep firing on the one in front. I'll flank them and play rabbit."

"You sure? Are you fast enough?"

"I'm always fast enough. Just keep up the covering fire until I start to run. I'll get one to charge me, you just be ready to knock out the catwalk as soon as I'm clear."

Running to one side and down another walkway, Tom moved closer to the Hunters, while Minh provided cover. As Tom got closer, Minh switched his aim to the generators marked on his helmet display. A quick burst of needles was enough to get the Hunter pair's attention, with the rear one firing another beam of plasma at Tom while the closer one charged him. Running to avoid the continuous blast, he made it to the catwalk targeted just as Minh began to fire.

"Hurry!" called Minh as he fired round after round with the scoped Magnum at each generator in turn. The catwalk buckled with the loss of support and the combined weight of an adolescent SPARTAN in SPI armour and a fully-armed Hunter. Reaching the end of the catwalk, Tom leaped forward, just about landing safely on another platform as the last generator failed. The walkway finally gave way, and plummeted into the depths of the chasm below, taking the Hunter down with it.

The remaining foe let out a scream of pure rage at the loss of its bond brother, and all self control was lost. Half a colony of Lekgolo had vanished, and the devastation was too much for the remaining creatures to bear. With a snarl, the Hunter charged forward and around the remaining walkways to the SPARTANs, all memory of its assault cannon lost. Minh aimed carefully at the gaps in its armour, while Tom had a perfect position from which to fire at its flanks. The combined force of a hail of Magnum bullets and needle rounds was more than enough to rip the colony apart and stop the Hunter dead in its tracks. With one final roar, it fell to one side over the edge, to join its brother in the darkness.

"Nice one," said Cassandra through the terminal. "Couldn't have done it better myself. If I could carry a gun, I mean."

"Never mind that," said Tom. "How much more is there to do?"

"Oh, the reactor? It's finished."

"What?" Tom was amazed. Surely she could have mentioned it sooner?

"Sorry, you were too busy fighting those things, didn't seem like the right time. Anyway, I set the timer for half an hour before the rendezvous with the Peregrine. That is, two hours from now, by the way. So I suggest we get the hell out of here and link up with the others?"

It didn't seem like it had been so long to Minh, but the tunnels were fairly distant and it made sense that crossing half a city would take such a length of time. Still, he would be glad to get back to the surface. He felt like he'd spent more than enough time underground for one day.

GOVERNMENT COMPLEX – ONE HOUR TO EXFILTRATION

It would be tight. The journey back from the fusion reactors had been a bit quicker, since Tom and Minh had a better idea of the rough layout of the labyrinth, but though they had been running more they still found themselves facing patrols of Covenant determined to deal with the human threat once and for all. Adam and Lucy had been pretty badly tailed for their part, making several circuits of the city in an attempt to deal with the remaining air support while waiting to pick up the others. Though mostly successful, they hadn't been able to deal with every landing pad, nor shaken off their chief pursuers, forcing a deadly scramble for Tom and Minh to jump on board as quickly as possible so Lucy could get the Phantom back in the air and up high again. Too long on the ground and they would be sitting ducks. So it was that they found themselves pursued over the city as they desperately pushed their way out of atmosphere and into a low orbit for the rendezvous with Captain O'Connell. Upon arriving at the Phantom, Minh had wasted no time in plugging the TACPAD into the ship's control panels and giving Cassandra access to the flight systems. She had been pretty useful, but let Lucy handle the actual driving – surprisingly, Lucy was a much better pilot than Cassandra could ever hope to be. She had an almost innate talent for it, and she knew just where to fly to avoid the bursts of plasma coming from the pursuing Banshees and Phantoms below them. Cassandra had certainly helped, though, by unlocking and handily translating the symbols on the hard light panels. With this new knowledge, Lucy had been able to finally access the plasma cannons underneath the dropship, and she had set up the shields to protect the team from the lack of atmosphere once they exited the planet and made it into what was technically considered 'space'. Cassandra, meanwhile, would handle the life support systems and diagnostics to keep the ship running smoothly until they could be picked up.

The air support from the Covenant had died off not long after exiting the city. Those that had survived were too few to do any real damage and soon slunk back to the ruins, while the remainder had been wiped out by the cannons Lucy now had firing capabilities for. A few Banshees had managed to rise higher than the Phantom, their pilots pushing them beyond their limits even as Lucy strained to get as much power and performance as she could, but the rest of Team Foxtrot had easily handled them. While Adam maintained control of the rear turret, the side turrets were taken by Tom and Minh. As they continued their progress, Cassandra spoke to the team over the Phantom's communication channel.

"You might want to take a look behind us."

As a single unit, the three SPARTANs in the passenger section looked out and below, towards the city, while a view screen came into sight in the cockpit allowing Lucy to see too. The landscape below them seemed frozen in time, a moment that would last forever. Until they heard a loud booming sound in the distance, the sound of a chain reaction of fusion reactors exploding one after another, collapsing the walls and ceiling of the great cavern below the city. It started slowly, beginning in the centre, as a plaza almost a mile across decorated with paving in the ancient language of the Forerunners collapsed on itself like a sink hole. Around it, the nearest buildings fell, with an effect almost like a wave travelling outwards towards the edges of the city. One by one, entire swathes of land and structure were swallowed up by the planet, until nothing was left save a massive crater where a proud and noble settlement had once stood. The team stood on the Phantom deck watching the destruction unfold, until finally they turned and continued their ascent to the waiting UNSC Prowler above.

ONYX SLIPSPACE BUBBLE – NOVEMBER 17th 2552

Tom's story was finally over. He had amassed something of a crowd during the telling, with the other SPARTANs and Chief Mendez joining them as he recounted to Lucy and Doctor Halsey the events on Meridian just a few years before. Now, with the end of the tale, the others returned to their respective tasks and time-wasters, leaving the three together again, alone around the camp fire.

"I have to thank you, Tom," said Halsey. "I often wondered about the pieces of that puzzle. Never understood. But you've given me some important clues. It's just a shame Meridian was glassed... maybe I'll never find what Cassandra found there now..." She got up and walked away, calling to Mendez (presumably complaining again – they hadn't seen eye to eye ever since arriving in the slipspace bubble).

Tom was puzzled, but chose not to discuss the point any further. Better to leave Halsey to her mysteries and secrets, he thought. He was a soldier, not a spy, and he was tired. Glancing at Lucy, flashing her a brief smile, he got up and slowly walked back into the cave, ready to get some sleep. She watched as he left, returning the smile, but it was one full of a sense of melancholy. Lucy tried to open her mouth, but she was dehydrated. She needed water, and would grab a drink soon, but first there was something she needed to do. She moved her tongue around her mouth, not used to the feeling of trying to say anything, and breathed deeply. In, out, in out. Finally, a single word, drawn out and barely a whisper under her breath. The greatest achievement, she felt, of all her nineteen years of life.

"Tom."

So, we finally come to the end! I have just one more thing, after seven chapters (yes, seven the arc number ;D), I plan a brief epilogue tying up that last little loose end of Jdan'Nolumee, and with that shall be the end of Memories! I hope you've all enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, and look forward to the supplemental material still to come to finally finish Cassandra's tale... ;)