Anije

Unknown location, heading to New Legaspi, Mars

August 8, 2558

With no alarms raised this far into the mission, the four Blades began to question if it was intentional that they hadn't been discovered yet or nobody really knew what they were there.

Laura McGarrett held her breath as a pair of human crew members of the Anije walked down the hallway, turning left to another of the nexus of tunnels around the enormous ship's hold. They had not seen what she had been holding yet, due to the chamber being dark. If something had little light in there, they were probably hiding something.

Joining the team after a hostage crisis that the secret group had made their elaborate and awe inspired entrance, Laura had also been into ONI like the commander and several of the current Blades. Although not as decorated, she knew how to hold her own and more than earned the respect of the three sangheili that she was leading.

"Grapple check." Since jetpacks were expensive and noisy, she had chosen to grapple once they were inside the gravitational zone again. All the elites had been trained in scaling without using their jetpacks, which one, a former ranger had to adjust to. The elite wielding a carbine produced a long cylindrical device from his belt and measured the top catwalk.

"Seventy two feet." She nodded and he squeezed the trigger, launching the hook over the railing. His partner handed over the cable, securing the line; she was the first one up, using her feet to quickly scale the wall. Rak was right behind her, followed by the other two warriors.

The main hold of the Anije appeared deserted with no sentries posted at any main areas. A large object was covered in one of the dock's two holds. The other hold was cluttered with parts and what seemed to be a half assembled set of engines. As they approached, the material felt like stitched plastic fibers. Laura poked it with her gloved hand, it did not give, more of a solid feeling.

One of the sangheili ignited an energy dagger on his wrist and approached the fabric, about to cut it open. Laura held up a hand when the blade was about to kiss the flammable covering. Wordlessly she used her hands to indicate different instructions.

Two of the elites nodded and had headed off to collect the manifest as well as any records of the navigation logs. She and the sangheili sniper Rak infiltrated the higher hold onto the highest catwalk for monitoring the enormous hold.

The ledge was higher than Laura's jumping skill, so Rak stood underneath as he gave her a boost up. He was much heavier than she expected when leaning down and pulling him up. When he scrambled the rest of the way, her left arm was sore. She hoped that it wouldn't deter her aim.

"We've got contacts." Rak motioned forward to a pair of skirmishers at a T-shaped part of the giant catwalk. They were at the intersection of where they needed to go for observation.

With his confirmation, she let out a single shot from her sniper rifle. With a fat suppressor fixed on the end, it was barely audible when it buried itself in the back of the pirate's neck. His partner's armor shattered when a second bullet went through the back of his skull.

"Clear." Both Blades members stashed the bodies on top of one side where only someone passing above would be able to see them.

"This looks like an optimal observation point." Rak gestured to the catwalk.

"That's what I had thought." Laura set herself on the ground with Rak beside her. She had set a small drone at the catwalks end to watch for patrols coming their way and to take necessary action. They trained their scopes across what could be seen from the hold. Currently, a ship that was obscured flashed with ghostly shadows on the wall. Someone was working on it.

For nearly two hours the snipers observed patrols, formations and anything out of the ordinary. Judging from the other team's report, the entire bridge crew was humans while all the militia guards were skirmishers. They had slipped easily using their camo to retrieve the ship's voyage plan and en route back to their observation point.

Rak's signal winked yellow. There was a contact.

To their right was a pair of skirmishers on patrol, lazily walking with plasma rifles drawn. Neither of them seemed to be expecting anything, but both snipers were on high alert.

Laura's hand touched the M6S pistol in her holster, the outline of the pirates was vague and there was too much light for use of the VISR that came from the ceiling lights. Checking her time, it was nearly six in the morning, however there was no way from the absence of daylight. However the patrol was probably one that occurred twice every hour. Both of them, skirmishers by the posture and movements had large bulky armor that was painted white, hiding their paces in a silvery domed helmet. Their equipment screamed military, so she had to guess that they were mercenaries paid to guard whatever they were hiding.

Laura and Rak ducked into an adjacent catwalk with crates and remained still until they passed. She noticed the same symbol on one of the skirmisher's shoulder guards that the team was trying to decipher.

"We have a visual on the ship being uncovered." One of the sangheili whispered into the channel.

"Pipe it through to me and the ship."

A moment later, a second smaller screen appeared on her HUD as the elite observed through his recorders. Groups of skirmishers with jetpacks were now scrambling over the fabric, removing the sides. The ship underneath was something never seen before.

Seeming to have a hybrid of human and Covenant designs, the ship sported a bulbous front appearance with a silver shell that widened at mid-length and narrowed again as it came to the engines. It was approximately a thousand feet long and three hundred wide. The human made engines were built in over a large lip that covered them from any aerial attack from above. She widened out at the middle, with two fifty foot tall and wide hangar bays to complement smaller dropships and boarding craft. Several point defense turrets lined both sides of the hull, but from the view, no longer range offensive weapons were visible.

It wasn't just any pirate vessel; it was one of their motherships.

"Ballista, this is Laura, are you reading?"

"I read you loud and clear." Drew's voice cracked through, "I've seen enough footage to know that they're pretty dark enough. At least we know that the Anije is involved in this piracy conspiracy. The question is that why put your stored mothership here?"

"Because this is where it's assembled." Rak had cut in, "Although the bulk of their ships are assembled somewhere else, they come here to be finalized and ready for launch. That way, if their main base of construction is compromised, all they have to do is move it."

An alarm sounded through the hold. Laura's heart nearly jumped out of her chest, but turned with her pistol aimed down the corridor. Looking outside, she saw a group of massive overhead cranes lower their cables and grasp the massive ship, lifting her off of the structures they had used to keep her off the floor. The cables reeled the ship closer to them, which was the closer of the two massive doors that were on both sides of the drydock.

The two skirmisher guards were now laughing, a low pitched sound and one of them leaned over with his helmet off to let something get spat from his mouth. He rocked back in shock, nearly getting saliva all over his face, letting out a screech.

He had spotted the dead bodies.

Laura and her elites had only a couple of seconds before one of them could raise an alarm. It must have been standard procedure because one of them vanished into the darkness while the other produced light from somewhere on their armor and scanned the area. If one saw something, the other was to alert the others.

"Take him." She whispered, sprinting after the skirmisher. The metal clanked every time her armored foot hit the floor. At 121 pounds, plus the weight of her gear, she was still a good seventy less than what her target was. Unfortunately, the armor seemed to hamper with the skirmisher's impressive running abilities. Her pistol in hand, she fired a shot. It went wild, hitting off of a support column with a metallic ping. He brought his weapon to aim, Laura crouched before he could fire, cycling three more bullets out of the chamber. He stopped running until she was a good ten feet from her. Before she could do anything else, he raised his arms and puffed his chest out in a rebellious gesture. Laura saw a seal in the armor's back plating slide away to reveal safety charges. Upon the user's request, the armor would be vaporized by nearly any explosive. It seemed to be what he was thinking as well, from having a lit plasma grenade onto his body.

Laura shielded her face as the detonation would've blinded anybody. Causing the nearby thin columns to snap and the entire catwalk started to dip down a good fifty feet. The blast had tossed Laura at the end and she gripped the metal floor as best as possible, but it remained slick and she found herself sliding to the edge. With a scream of surprise, she finally gripped a pole that stuck out in front of the catwalk. For a second, she felt her body continue its descent and then felt something jerk her upwards, with a firm grasp on her arm. The rescuer dragged her upward until she lay on the flat portion of the catwalk.

Laura smiled into the face of Rak, who had dashed to her rescue. "Shit, that was close. I thought I was for a second going,"

"For one second, you were."

"The other guard?"

"Sleeping with a nice cut in his head. Saw his companion you were chasing activate his fail safes and was about to turn his on when I got him."

"I think we have enough evidence." Laura allowed the elite to help her to her feet. "Team two, bring the voyage plans to the exfil point and we'll jump the airlock back home." They had stored thruster packs in the emergency airlock for a quick jump off.

The Ballista only had a short window to track the pirate mothership before it vanished into slipspace. Unfortunately, Drew couldn't leave his teammates behind, so he unfortunately had to let it slide. Laura and Rak met up with the two other sangheili and they silently exited the ship, just as quietly as they boarded.

The mothership exited slipspace some time later, approaching an identical drydock approximately three light years away from the Sol System. Just like the Anije, the drydock's innards were obscured from outside eyes. She was heading in the opposite direction, towards the Outer Colonies. The hold would have been airtight save for the circulators that had been bolted to the upper sides of the vessel. This time though, there were no ships inside, even if someone managed a look. The cover was fabric over the lower part of the floor. The filters inside were covering up a raw stench and a deadly secret.

So there was a pirate corvette (mothership) inside the drydock! Good to see that some of the things are starting to come together! So what happened to Vasili? Next chapter will be around him.

Thanks for reading and reviewing everyone! You give my writing purpose!