As Nobles 5 and 6 walked into the room, Kat, Jun and Emile were standing in the corner, and Dr. Halsey was already conversing with Carter. "...I do not need a report of events that occur on my own doorstep. What I do need is a detailed account of your previous engagement... Jorge. It's been too long." "Ma'am", Jorge replied in a formal, respectful tone. "What have you done with my armor?", she asked. Noble 6 turned to look at him. "Just some, uh, additions I've made", Jorge stated. "Indeed", Halsey replied, and by the sound of her voice, 6 could tell that Halsey was happy to see Jorge. Halsey resumed talking to Carter. "Visegrad Relay; it's data center was home to one of my xenoarchaeologists, Professor Laszlo Sorvad; perhaps you could shed some light on his death?"
"If he was a civilian male in his mid-60's, then he died with a Covenant energy sword through his abdomen", Carter flatly answered. "Elites then," Halsey stated. Jorge then spoke up, but was cut off. "They engaged us as well. It was, uh, just after we found your scientist's daughter, ma'am, she was hiding in the-". "Irrelevant", Halsey interjected, "The Elites, tell me more about them." "Three. Zealot-class. One got by us, the leader, from the looks of it." Halsey was thrown off guard by this. Elite Zealots were never to be underestimated. "Zealots. You're certain?" "Armor configuration matched", Jorge replied. "Shield strength too", 6 chimed in, remembering how difficult it was to kill the Zealots.
"I gave the order not to pursue", Carter interrupted, "Our primary objective was to get the station back online-" "Your primary objective? Commander, are you a puppet or a SPARTAN?", Halsey snapped. "Ma'am?", Carter asked in confusion. "There are those at ONI, myself included", Halsey explained, "That believe the Covenant deploy Elite advance teams to hunt down artifacts of value to their religion. Survivor accounts suggest such teams as small, nimble and almost always Zealot-class. No doubt they came to the station for the abundance of ONI excavation data stored there. And you let them get away."
"Data retrieval was not a command directive," Carter replied, "Even had we known, we had other, more important matters to attend to." "Like warning the planet", Kat commented. Halsey stared at her for a brief moment before continuing. "Professor Sorvad's final entry in his field notes made reference to a 'latchkey' discovery. 'Latchkey'... not a word he would use lightly. So let's hope that the data module your Lieutenant Commander stole contains it", Halsey growled at Kat. Carter turned to confront Kat.
"Before you ask," Halsey continued, "I was alerted the moment you attempted to access it's contents, as I am with any unauthorized tap. I could send you to the brig for interfering with my work!" "Maybe you'd like to join her," Carter commented. "I'm sorry?" Halsey questioned. "We're currently under planetary directive Winter Contingency; I'm sure you know the punishment for civilian interference with a SPARTAN deployment." "Are you threatening me, Commander?", Halsey asked, quietly-yet-angrily. "Just making a reading suggestion ma'am." Carter started to head out the door. "Let's move, Noble Team," he ordered.
On his way out, Jorge turned to look at Halsey. "Ma'am?", he asked. "That...will be all, Jorge," she replied.
August 11, 2552
The Viery Territory at night was one of the darkest and spookiest areas on Reach. This region was known for a lot of things, including farms, hydroelectric plants and mines. Two weeks ago, this area had a sizable population, but when the Covenant had arrived, contact was lost. The UNSC had deployed UAVs to try and see what the Covenant were hiding, but they never received feedback for some reason, which made everyone suspicious and nervous.
A Covenant Phantom slowly patrolled the area. It's usual chin-mounted cannon was replaced with a searchlight. As the Phantom passed along a small ledge, the searchlight scanned the cliff for signs of movement, but there were no hostiles, so the dropship moved on.
Unknown by the patrol, there actually were hostiles. After the Covenant craft moved out of sight, SPARTAN Jun-A266 stood up, his blackish silhouette standing out in the moonlight. He gave a nod, and another SPARTAN stood up, Noble 6. Noble 6 carefully walked across the narrow ledge to Jun's position, carefully watching his footing. Looking down, 6 could see that if he made one wrong move, he would have at least a 160-foot fall to his death in the river below. When 6 had crossed the cliff face to his fellow SPARTAN's position, Jun contacted Kat, who was leading the operation. "Recon Team Bravo reporting in, 3 and 6 in position. It's starting to get crowded up here, Kat." "Then we're closing in," she replied, "Report any Covenant structures or devices; direct action may be necessary."
Because the UNSC's electronic surveillance systems couldn't break through the Covenant "dark zone", the UNSC assembled a few small, elite reconnaissance teams to go where electronics couldn't: directly into the dark zone to see just what the Covenant were up to and why it was so well defended. Because Carter was busy with UNSC Command, Kat was in charge of the recon operation, codenamed Operation: NIGHTFALL.
When Jun and 6 were at the top of the ledge, overlooking a large expanse of cliffside, Jun commented on how "when Kat runs an op, direct action is always necessary", before handing 6 something. "Here, you may need these," Jun explained, "high-velocity, armor-piercing. They'll take the hat off an Elite at 2,000 yards. And they ain't cheap." In order to give 6 cover and to scout the area ahead, Jun climbed up onto a boulder. "I'll be in touch", he muttered to 6, and when Jun was out of sight, 6 hopped down, sliding down to the large cliffside.
As Kat and Jun discussed about the dark zone, 6 walked across a narrow cliffside pathway, but when he saw a large, moving shadow, he ducked behind a rock. It was an Elite Officer, who was serving as a lookout. Nearby, the Grunt squad under it's command were sleeping like logs. Luckily, the Elite hadn't spotted Noble 6, so 6 pulled out his knife, sneaking up on the unwary saurian. Just as the Elite began to sense 6, lightening struck, and in the bright, sudden light, the last thing the Elite saw was a knife go through it's eye.
"Not bad...", Jun commented to 6 over comms.
