Caves, Jungle


The cave system was a battered battlefield, the fight had lasted more than was thought. The Covenant Storm had been pouring troops to kill the SPARTAN-II and his squad of UNSC Marines. But with enough firepower, they had been dealt with efficiently.

"Cortana to Lasky, LZ is secure. " Cortana informed through the comm channels.

"Copy that Cortana, I'll send in the coordinates." Lasky responded.

"MAYDAY! MAYDAY! CODE RED! HOSTILE ELMENTS INTENTING TO GAIN ENTRANCE TO THE INFINITY BRIDGE!" The voice of a marine ripped through their conversation. "We're outside the hatch! Door's breach! Door's breach!"

The sounds of plasma hitting and melting metal could be heard through the channels. "All units return to the Infinity immediately! That's an order!" Commander Lasky ordered to the remaining units still outside the ship. "Chief, I'm retracting the SPARTAN-IV forces to rally point Alpha Sierra Foxtrot. Do what you can; you are in tactical command of the force. Rendezvous with those men and get back to the ship!"

"Yes sir." The Chief acknowledge.

"Good luck Chief. Lasky out." Lasky then ended communications. A pelican dropship then arrived to pick the Master Chief and the remaining Marines up.

"What about Korra and the others?" Cortana asked the super-soldier.

"They're in safe hands." The Master Chief responded as he got inside the dropship. "They won't be alone."

Meanwhile in the dropship that Korra and company where waiting in.

"Just got word, commander is ordering all SPARTAN units to fall back to rally point Alpha Sierra Foxtrot." The SPARTAN-IV informed them.

"That far back?" The pilot asked.

"Also, the Covenant forces have been dealt with, air space secured." The Spartan informed again. "Looks like you are going in to safety." He said as to the teenagers.

"We would like some answers when we get there." Korra said.

"Talk with any of the officers when you get to the Infinity, I have to hitch a ride to the rally point and meet up with the others." The Spartan said as he jumped out of the Pelican.

"Wait, you never told us your name." Asami said.

"Name's Tom." The Spartan said as he smirked and placed his helmet back on. "Cortez, take them back to the Infinity."

"Will do." The pilot said as he stepped back into the cockpit. The dropship began to hover into the air; Asami looked down at the Spartan who began to jog into the caves. She was intrigued by this Star-Lord…or rather Spartan.

"Alright, once we get to their ship we will head right into the Captain's office and lay it on him." Korra said.

"You sure they'll let us walk right into their boss's room?" Bolin asked.

"If they don't we can take them…right?" Mako added.

"Let's just not get on their bad said okay?" Asami responded. The pelican flew through the skies, following the other pelican dropships that were evacuating wounded and scientists.


UNSC Infinity

The pelican landed inside one of the secured pelican bays. "We're here, safe and sound." Cortez said as he the pelican's engines turned off.

"This...is the Infinity?" Korra asked in awe as they stepped out of the pelican. The docking bay was immense, easily bigger than any throne room on Korra's world. She saw many people around, soldiers running to their dropships, staff maintaining the bay and beeping sounds coming from several devices.

"Are these the people that the Chief was protecting, staff sergeant?" A voice sounded through the Cortez's comms.

"Yes sir." Cortez responded.

"Send them to the bridge ASAP." The captain ordered.

"Aye aye." Cortez acknowledge. "Skipper seems jumpy, follow me to the bridge."

"That was easy." Bolin said as they followed Staff Sergeant Cortez out of the docking bay.

"Just stay cool when we meet their captain, we don't know what he'll ask us." Korra said.

"Noted." Mako said.

In the bridge of the Infinity, Captain Andrew Del Rio was communicating with the on-world forces who had managed to contact the Infinity. "Gunnery Sergeant, tell me your position!" Del Rio said in a loud and commanding voice.

"Too many Covenant….*static*….we barely made it out of the city council chamber…*static*….we are on a city called...*static*….Republican City?" The gunny responded. "Republic City, roger."

"Send me the coordinates." Del Rio said.

"Our…*static*…specialist was shot down half a click from our….*static*….position. Equipment blasted off too." The gunny responded.

"Damn…reunite all ground side forces and any local militia you can find, I need you alive gunnery sergeant." Del Rio said.

"Yes sir, Gunnery Sergeant Buck out." The signal then ended. Del Rio then rubbed the sides of his forehead and then activated his personal comm channels. "Commander Lasky, where the hell are you?"

"Just got out of my pelican sir, I'm heading to the bridge." Lasky answered.

"Okay." Del Rio said as he turned the comm off.

"Sir!" Cortez said as he entered the bridge and took stance.

"At ease." Del Rio said and Cortez relaxed.

"These are the people." Cortez said as he showed the captain the teens saved from the jungle.

"Teenagers? These are the people that the Master Chief risked his neck to protect?" Del Rio asked, sounding not too pleased.

"Sir, these individuals are unique among their people. Especially this one, sir." Cortez informed as he pointed towards Korra.

"Unique…unique? I'm fighting a goddamn united armada of Covenant troops and rogue AIs and their commander at the same time and you're telling me that these nine year olds can save us from this?!" Del Rio yelled at the pilot.

"Whoa there…he's right." Korra stepped in. "We natives of this world."

"Okay…" Del Rio tried to calm down, he was extremely frustrated with the situation they were right now. "…who are you and what the hell is going on?

"My name is Korra and I'm the Avatar of this world." Korra introduced herself. "And these are my friends."

"Our world was attacked by the beasts you called the Covenant, and we were trying to evacuate the cities." Mako added. "That's when Korra found the Chief."

"What happened?" Del Rio asked.

"I'm not sure but it looked like the skies were falling and that the Chief fell from the sky along with his ship and crashed down into the city…my city." Korra answered. "When we followed the Chief in here…into the center of the planet we accidently unleashed something…"

"Unleashed what?" Del Rio asked again.

"We unleashed the Didact." Asami answered. "An Ancient." As she finished saying that, Lasky stepped inside the bridge.

"I'm here captain." Lasky said as he saluted the captain.

"Commander, how are the main batteries?" Del Rio asked his first officer.

"Still off-line, but the Master Chief has already paved the way into the Infinity and is awaiting orders sir." Lasky informed.

"Good, I will contact him. Take any info you can from them." Del Rio said as he turned around and walked towards his command chair.

"He's a charming dude." Korra said as she crossed her arms.

"Oh you met the captain." Lasky said as he looked at Korra. "I'm Commander Thomas Lasky, second-in-command of this ship."

"I'm Korra." She shook his hand.

"Good to see that not everyone is losing a nerve in here." Bolin said. Lasky looked at Cortez and nodded, telling him that he could return to this pelican now. Cortez saluted him and walked off from the bridge.

"You'll have to forgive the captain for his…renegade personality; we are all in a tight situation right now." Lasky said as he waved his hand in a follow me motion. The others then followed him away from the bridge and into the living quarters.

"Listen…uh…Commander, we want to know exactly the situation with these Covenant and your people, you guys are as human as we are but…why do you come from the stars?" Korra asked Lasky as they walked down the metal corridors of the Infinity. "I mean, look at this place, it's something out of legend…legends that we used to believe."

"To tell you the truth, I have no idea either." Lasky truthfully answered. "Sit down and relax a bit."

"Relax? How can we when our world is being ravaged outside…I mean up there." Mako said, a little anger coming out of his voice.

"We already sent troopers to secure several cities, all we can do now is wait until the Chief and the SPARTANs bring power to main batteries and we can drive the Covenant ships off." Lasky said as he too sat down and rubbed his eyes.

"I take it you are also tired like the rest?" Asami asked the Commander.

"Yeah…my life is full of surprises. The Chief told me about you guys as he cleared the cave from hostiles, real calm under fire and what he didn't tell me, Cortana sent to my arm-tool." Lasky said.

"Did he tell you about our abilities and my status in world?" Korra asked Lasky.

"That he did. I just can't wrap my mind around spirits and out-wordly places that only the Avatar, you, have access." Lasky said. "When I was your age, I almost died…twice. But I never had so much weight on my shoulders like you do."

"I learned how to balance my tasks through time…I have a good teacher and good friends too." Korra said.

Lasky smiled as he saw how connected these kids were to each other, like he was with his squad back in Academy. "Okay, I'm heading back to the bridge and keep the captain from losing any more hair. Make yourselves cozy…well, try to ignore all the chaos going on outside for now. I'll call you once we get the engines working again." He said to them, he smiled and left, the door closing by itself after he left the small room.

"Any ideas how to pass the time?" Mako asked them as he looked out from a nearby window.

"I'm still worried, we can't just sit here." Asami said.

"I know…Tenzin always said to meditate through hard situations like these." Korra said as she sat in an Air-Nomad fashion and relaxed her mind and body.

"Well…they have books." Bolin said as he grabbed one from a nearby shelf.

"Bolin, we can't read their books." Mako said.

"Oh." Bolin said as he placed the book back inside the shelf.