April 13th 2543

Zach sat in the bay of a Pelican, looking upon the snowy mountain peaks below him. He looked at the Spartans sitting next to and across from him. Fred, ready as any, with his sniper rifle in hand. Alison, assault rifle loaded, and Vivian, shotgun on her back and explosives in her grip. They were all ready for what was to come next. The pilot sounded in Zach's helmet "One minute, Commander". The other Spartans heard the pilot as well. Only a short time later the Pelican angled it's nose downwards and began a low swoop over the landscape below. "The ONI tower is only a short distance away sir" said the pilot. Zach was visibly annoyed at the pilot's nervousness and would be sure to request a replacement as soon as possible. The nose of the Pelican came up at a thirty degree angle as they passed over the ONI tower. Below them, Zach could see UNSC and Covenant air vehicles engaged in heavy combat. "At least we're holding our own in the air" he thought.

The four Spartans jumped out, and landed heavily on the roof of the building. Vivian immediately found vent 17-C and planted a small explosive charge. She didn't bother to look away as she detonated the charge, and stepped back so Fred could enter the now open vent. Fred scanned the pitch black chasm below with his night vision filter. "Clear" he said, and disappeared into the darkness. Alison looked after him, and also lowered herself into the shadow below them. She landed on a hard, but not unexpected floor. She flipped on the flashlight at the end of her rifle and studied the metallic floor she stood on. Two clangs behind her told Alison that Zach and Viv had followed them. Vivian made two quick taps on the floor below her to signal she had found the position to place the second set of explosives. The other three Spartans stepped back as she applied the charge, but true to her craft, Vivian stood less than a foot away as the explosive went off. As the metal was blown away, light from the room below flooded the dark corridor. Vivian jumped through first, and the rest of them followed in suit.

Inside what had first appeared like a room, were vanilla white walls, floor and ceiling. Though the Spartans already knew it, the room was the inside of an elevator. On the double doors ahead, there was a symbol of a pyramid with a globe upon it. Vivian pressed a few keys on the control panel and shook her head. Sabre team was used to her silence and they realized that this meant it was of no use. Vivian gripped one of the double doors, and Zach took hold of the other. Fred and Alice took firing positions on the back wall. As Zach and Viv pulled the doors open gunfire flew into the elevator. The Spartans immediately took cover on either side of the half open doors. Zach called out, "Friendly!" then stepped into the doorway. This time, he was able to step into the room without hostility. An ODST was there to salute him with a smile "Sergeant Barnes sir, damn are we glad to see you!" Zach smiled behind his silver colored visor. There were two views of Spartans in the UNSC. Some saw them as heroes. Others saw them as un-human, alien, and no different from the Covenant. Fortunately, Sergeant Henry Barnes believed former. Zach spoke without giving a hint of his emotions

"What's the situation Sergeant?" Barnes responded solemnly "Well, sir this here is all that's left." He motioned towards a group of two other ODST's, and three marines. "How many men were originally assigned to defend this area?" Barnes looked troubled by this question, as though he knew the answer, but couldn't bring himself to speak it aloud. After a few second hesitation he said "Around two hundred, sir." Behind him, Fred's knees wavered. Fred always did understand the non-Spartans. Zach too felt grief, even if it was not as great as Fred's. They may not have been Spartans, but a large amount of men and women had died protecting this place. This only made Sabre's current mission harder to bear. "Sir, the Covies are holding every floor except this one sir, but the largest of their forces are trapped on floor seven.

"Trapped, Sergeant?" it was Vivian who spoke this time, obviously excited at Covenant soldiers to hunt who had no way of escape. "Yes, ma'am, we brought the elevator up here and disabled it, then we destroyed the stairs with C-12." All three of the other Spartans knew Vivian was smiling sadistically beneath her helmet, with that predatory gaze in her eyes. Zach spoke to the man again, "Did you say they were massed on floor seven?" "Yes sir we can confirm that most of the Covies are on floor seven, the security cameras showed over fifty of them before they were destroyed, so unless they've all jumped out the windows, it's safe to say that they're still there. Sir, are you our evac?" The Spartan shifted his foot position "No, sergeant, but another Pelican will be on it's way to pick you up in approximately two hours". This statement visibly heightened the mood of the soldiers. Zach asked "Is that some left over C-12?" He indicated to the large crate in the corner of the small room. "Yes sir, you're welcome to it". Zach spoke to Sabre team now "Viv, Fred get that crate in the elevator. Alison, see what you can do about that control panel." Three green acknowledgement lights winked, and the Spartans set to their work.

Rtas Verumee studied the alien runes on the wall in front of him. As he had seen similar ones on his way up, he assumed they were some sort of simple numbering system, each denoting what level of the structure they currently inhabited. The rune he gazed upon now had interested in him for some time now. While several Yan'me worked a few strides away from him, attempting to repair the primitive, gravity lift like device. The closest resemblance he could place to it was that of an elevator, and an unsophisticated, primitive one at that. The current rune Rtas was studying was composed of to lines conjoined, one vertical and slightly curved and the other horizontal, laying on top of the previous line.

The vertical line extended from the far right of the vertical one, and curved slightly to the right at what was close to double the length of the top segment. Before he could delve into the aliens' primitive language further, Rtas was startled by Yan'me fleeing from the entrance to human device. He heard a high pitched noise come from the doors that covered the mechanism. A bright blue light shone above the doors in a similar fashion of the rune on the wall. Rtas understood this meant the device was now on this level. He signaled to his four nearby black armored Sangheili to activate their cloak, and they took up firing positions next to the doors. When they opened, the Sangheili sprung into the elevator, ready to slaughter the weak alien warriors, but there proved to be none. In fact the only thing inside the chamber was a large crate that came up to Rtas's waist.

Fred looked down the elevator shaft with his night vision activated. The elevator had reached what his count told him was floor seven, and stopped. He gazed upwards, hoping the cable he was suspended from would hold him on the way down. He looked down again when an enormous explosion rocked the elevator shaft. Fred hoped at least a few of the hostiles had been standing within twenty feet of the machine, because they would all be dead. Fred looked at the other three Spartans, Zach gave the order, and the four super soldiers began to descend into the shaft. Alison reached what was left of the elevator first, and with a quick stroke of her knife, quickly severed the last threads of steel that clung together, the only thing stopping the elevator from dropping another seven stories to the bottom of the building.

It did, and landed with the satisfying sound of bare metal being bent and torn apart. The inner doors had been blown apart in the explosion, so she simply leaned towards the opening that led to floor seven, and unmagnitized the cable that held her waist. The others followed in suit, and soon there were four Spartans clearing a large room. Mostly, the enemy bodies were unrecognizable, unless you specialized in the anatomy of Covenant species, and knew what their organs looked like after being put into a blender. Fred scanned the area to make sure nothing was moving, and was reassured. Zach took point and led them around a corner to a surprised group of two Jackals, who were both killed with a quick shot to the head from his DMR. Sabre team moved like a pack of wolves. They didn't even take the time to check each room thoroughly before moving to the next. If the Covenant had found the data stored on ONI's terminal software in the building, it was a race against time to destroy it. Zach had retrieved intel that due to a mistake in the wiping process, some of the data in this facility had failed to be erased.

It was anyone's guess what data it could be, but it could be anything from the location of Reach, to the battle plans for the defense of the colony, to the proper usage a standard issue security sidearm. But, ONI wasn't taking the chances that any data left behind would be unimportant. When they had walked through three different hallways, Zach stopped at a point in the wall that seemed to be completely seamless. There was however, a small glass-like black tile on the wall. Zach removed his helmet and stared into the tile. A blue light shone, scanning his eye, then as if by some other force, the wall slid apart, revealing a small, dark room with extremely advanced and expensive hardware including terminals and mainframes that held potential secrets that, if the Covenant were to know, the war would be over in the time it took them to travel to the UNSC colonies, plus a week or two. Zach motioned to Alison, and she set to work. She removed a panel from one of the terminals and began working on wires and circuitry. Fred had a vague idea of what she was doing, and as he watched her, his mind brought him back to their classified mission together, four months ago.

Eighteen days. Eighteen days he had had her all to himself. The return trip on their journey through slipspace were what Fred later recalled as almost the happiest time in his entire life.

December 22nd 2542

Fred couldn't believe himself. Here he was, on board a ship with no one except an old pilot who kept to himself, and the love of his life. He had been here for two days already and he was yet to even acknowledge that she was more than his teammate. Fred was showering, thinking about the times when he should have kissed her. 1It was like he was eight years old, and they had yet to share their first kiss. As he turned off the water, he turned and grabbed a towel to dry off with. After he dried his body he pulled the towel to his face, then his hair, which was now partially grey due to genetic side effects of the augmentation, a fact that didn't wholly bother Fred. "I really need to get my hair cut when I-" As he removed the towel from his face, he saw her. Immediately, Fred wrapped the towel around his waist. "Allie I…" Allie he had used her old name. She said nothing, but quickly slowly advanced to him, and brought his face down to hers. Their lips were so close, yet neither of them made the first move. Finally, after what seemed like hours, he gently pulled her to him. In a loving embrace that lasted longer than any they had before, they finally broke apart after what seemed, and actually was, several minutes. They had never gone much further than this. Always someone had interrupted them, or they had to go for training, but not now. Now they had sixteen more days. The heavy snogging then led them to Alison's, where it had become heavy bed snogging. When Fred woke up Alison was still in his arms, half clothed. The next fifteen days were spent exploring each other's minds, bodies, personalities. Everything. Fred and Alison had realized at that point that one universal rule they had been taught all their lives was fundamentally wrong. The UNSC was not the most important thing in this world.

Fred shifted back to the present. Alison was now rapidly typing on the mainframe keyboard. Zach and Viv stood guard, though the entrance to the secret room was closed. As Allie finished with the terminal, Fred was pulled by all the desire he had. Zach spoke without looking at her "How long 'til we're done here Alice?" She was about to speak that she had finished when she saw Fred raise his hand with all fingers stretched. Alison said "About five minutes, I'm almost done her". Fred removed his helmet to show his black hair, with streaks of silver, the scar on his right eye, barely visible. His beautiful green eyes shown with passion. He removed her helmet. Showing her strawberry blonde hair, nearing civilian length, light blue eyes, soft lips. Fred leaned forward to kiss her, and she returned it. After a minute Fred whispered into her ear so softly not even the other Spartans could hear "God, I love you."

She responded "I love you Fred. I just wish we weren't wearing any armor right now". Fred's pale face flushed red. Zach's voice again sounded through the comm. Alice, you done in there?" Fred quickly turned, expecting to see Zach looking right at them. But he wasn't even facing in their direction. Fred remembered the ETA Alice had given Zach and sighed with relief. As he pulled his helmet back on, Fred heard her respond "Yes sir, all cleared up". Sabre team recovered from the bit of romance earlier, and continued the mission. As much as both Fred and Alison wanted to continue their earlier plans, they both knew that in this place, that could get them killed along with their entire team. Sabre team climbed into the elevator shaft securely attached the cables they had used on their way in to their waists, and climbed. Sergeant Barnes was surprised to see them alive as they came up the elevator shaft.