A Commander of a UNSC vessel/vehicle/field unit/aircraft can be mutinied legally for the following reasons (Note that that each of the following is ranked with the top being the most important going down to the bottom being the least important.);

Earth and Her Colonies
 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
 the Cole Protocol
 the Geneva Conventions
 the current LOAC
 the Mortal Dictata
 standing orders
 current mission (high to low level primary objectives)
 high-level secondary objectives

One is allowed to ignore any of these so long as it is to protect the ones above in importance i.e. one can ignore his or her high level secondary objectives if it would cause them to fail at their mission, or a captain can kill their entire crew by overloading the reactors and detonation all on board weapons to make sure that the Covenant won't get their hands on sensitive information like navigation cores (effectively protecting the Cole Protocol and Earth and its Colonies over their mission or even LOAC)

UEG-DPKO-489-221 (Structure of the UNSCDF) Section 64, Sub-section 4, Paragraphs 1-3

C14: Mutiny

The Spirit of Fire and the Infinity hammered MAC rounds into the gravity well when Cutter turned around to face the four of his Spartan-II's. They came to a crisp salute, which Cutter returned in turn. "Spartan Red team, reporting for debrief sir."

Waving the four in, Cutter addressed them. "One-one-seven care to plug in your AI, we'll have Del Rio on in a minute." The Chief did so, Cortana figuratively stretching her legs in the Spirits large computational network. The holograms of the now three resident AI appeared in the central holotable that was retrofitted from the Dawn.

"Someone's been busy while we were gone, retrofitting some of the Dawn's newer and unused equipment. And yes, as the senior officer of the dawn, I will retrospectively allow you to use everything from the kitchen sink to the slipspace drive." Cortana looked, crossing her arms.

"And here I thought I was unlucky to be stuck with one sass fuelled AI." The captain muttered to himself as he looked towards SIGCOMM. "Chief Signal Officer Ibbotson. Start link up with the Infinity." Turning his head to the Chief Engineering Officer. "Chief Petty Prescott, how's that salvaged Slipspace drive coming on?"

"We are just doing some last minute diagnostics, sir. It's a good thing that these Phoenix-class colony ships are so adaptive, otherwise, this dive would have been even more of a headache to install. If this were any other ship, this would've taken at least a fortnight. We're lucky that it spews lots of radiation, so it was stuck in the most protected part of the ship."

"Thanks, Cheng."

"Sir. I've got Del Rio on the line."

"Put it up Chief."

"Sir." Ibbotson pressed enter and Del Rio's face appeared on the main screen.

"Captain Del Rio."

"Captain Cutter. According to my sources, you're Spartans were very efficient in removing the hostile anti-air assets in the area."

"They were sir. But according to a detailed report from the operation's leading AI, Cortana, we have a much larger threat on our hands."

"Oh? Pray tell."

Cortana spoke up. "We need to follow the Didact. The Spirit and the Infinity are meaningless if we don't neutralise him."

Del Rio scoffed. "One Alien is hardly is hardly our concern." The crew could see Lasky behind the Captain shift somewhat uncomfortably.

"Sir. This is a Forerunner we are talking about. The alien species that wiped out all of life in the galaxy, these guys aren't to be messed with."

"Fine, but we'll all go to Earth and protect it from there."

Cortana's fuse was shortening. "Sir, this is no simple matter of shooting it with MAC's like any old Covenant ship. This is more of a, stick a Nova on the inside and run, job. You want to stop him before he even get's a hold of that ship. Because if he gets a hold of that vessel then it doesn't even matter how many ships you put between him and Earth, you'll just end up giving him more ammunition."

"I have no time to listen to a half rampant AI."

"You cannot leave this planet, or you'll doom your entire species to total annihilation. Do you want that to rest on your shoulders!" She screamed, her hologram going fuzzy. Serina and Smithy tried their hardest in regards to damage control as she surged the system.

"Thank you for proving my point Cortana." He turned to look at Cutter. "Cutter, as the commander of all UNSC force on Requiem, I am ordering you to aid myself with the protection of Earth. Am I clear."

"You're clear, but I decline that order. As the last remaining member of the Harvest Reclamation Fleet, I have the effective rank of Commodore, or officer grade five and a half. Therefore, Captain, you have no control over this vessel and its assets due to rank, fleet and given standing orders."

"So this is a mutiny?"

"Hardly, just following Acquisition of Command Procedure Section Five Sub-Section Two Paragraph Five."

"That's how you want to play it?

"He's right sir." Lasky said.

He turned to his XO and back at Cutter. "I'll see you in court." He violently shut off the broadcast.

"The hell was that Commander?" He said bitterly to his Executive Officer.

"Making sure you didn't break regulation, sir." He justified.

He looked the commander right in the eye. "That regulation you are speaking about hasn't existed for twenty years."

"But all orders given, under that time period, still stand until revoked by the correct or authorised channels. So his orders will remain standing until someone that is the same rank as the Fleet Admiral revokes the order, and a person of Naval Rank OF-6 or above gives him the update."

"We have them outgunned and outmanned too, so they should be following our lead."

"For the love of Christ sir. They are our friends and allies, is your ego that important?" He shouted.

"Dismissed Lasky."

"This will get you discharged from the Navy sir, I am-"

"I Said Dismissed, Commander!" Del Rio screamed

Lasky made a quick salute before storming out the bridge and into the hall, shouting. "Hell with this, am in my quarters if you need me to clean up this fucking mess you are about to make." He walked out the bridge, not caring if it was insubordination; he knew he wouldn't get court-martialed for this. He muttered to himself as the door closed behind him.

Ignoring Lasky he turned to the other commander on deck. "Palmer, have your Spartans suited up and ready to board the Spirit of Fire. Lieutenant Commander Daniels, get the IAG to get Pelicans, Long and Broadswords ready for deployment. Lieutenant Commander Marks, get Captain Henderson to ready the marines for immediate deployment."

"Sir are you sure this is a wise idea. They are UNSC troops and we could just have them work with us, it wouldn't be that hard." Lieutenant Commander Blatt, the second mate, said.

"If I wanted your opinion, Mr Blatt, I would have asked for this, I am following, to the letter, the way you should deal with large-scale insubordination or desertion. They are disregarding an order from another Admiral of the Fleet, for the love of God. What gave him the gall to call him by his first name."

Anie made a point. "Fleet Admiral Lord Hood did serve as Captain Cutter's executive officer on the UNSC Roman Blue, sir."

"Does it look like I care?"

The channel closed in front of Cutter. He turned to Smithy. "Prep all troops for an attack."

"Sir?" The AI raised an eyebrow. "I don't follow."

"Smithy, as long as I have been in charge of a crew, I have learned how to read people. That look in his eye was one of anger, distaste and worst of all, stupidity. As a captain of a ship, that is the last thing that anyone needs, a captain that will do something because of hurt pride."

"So you think they will attack?"

"No doubt about it."

"Undoubtedly, and I am sure that he will twist his words into his favour, to make us seem like deserters or rebels." He shook his head in disapproval. "Have all marine teams readied up, non-lethal rounds."

"Non-lethal is about all we still have after the Shield World sir."

"We need certain corridors on the outer layers to be blocked off and/or trapped. Get some of Anders Cryo bombs in there. Also, all firebases and elephants are to be set around the surface surrounding the Spirit, I don't care how you plan to create a clearing, carpet bomb it if need be, we need this area locked down quickly. Scorpions, Grizzlies and Cyclopes' either on the outer deck and have them act as defensive turrets. Get some of the Warthogs into the exposed and ripped areas of the hull and use them as supplementary turrets, tell them all to hard lock to the hull and strap on. Smithy."

"Yes, Sir."

"Get Anders on the line."

The AI gave a salute and a flat screen of light replaced his hologram, the spinning Spirit of Fire logo disappearing and the face of the resident scientist came into view. "Captain. What's going on, you're blocking my view?"

"We are about to be attacked."

"By who."

"The UNSC."

Anders' eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Well, shit." She recomposed herself. "I am not going to ask."

"I need to know, what is the smallest delivery system that we could attach one of you EMP cannons too, and is there any way to maximise its pulse?"

"Well, you could easily attach an X23 NNEMP to the bomb rack of a short sword or the cargo bay of a Pelican dropship. As for output, you could create an EMP that could affect an area about the size of two to three city blocks, but that would undoubtedly down the pelican that carries it… Wait for a second Captain… Calculator…" She rummaged through a pile of notes, memos and trinkets only to come out, covered in dust. "Ah ha." She skimmed a few files through the database before plugging in the numbers. "Good news. We can fire it with an M58 Archer Missile System."

"An archer missile. How many X23's you got?"

"Three."

"So one Archer Pod. Send one down to engineering and tell them how to fit them into the missile. We need to hit them in three areas, the fore, the rear and the midsection of the ship." He was about to shut off the connection. "And, Professor."

"Captain?"

"Get as strong an EMP as possible, work your magic." He closed the channel. "Serina."

"Sir?"

"Tell all units to change to broadcast channel omega."

"Aye, Aye sir." Just try and get me. I can't wait until the day that Lasky replaces you. At least he has something between his ears.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, he turned to the Spartans. "Where should we bug out?"

Cortana perked up. "We'd best go for this position here." She brought up a map of Requiem. "The data I grafted from the Forerunner facility said that there was some sort of slipspace transfer point here. I would advise we get to that position ASAP. We'd have to run and gun, for a lack of a better word."

"Change of plan, get the Firebases to stall the Infinity. Put a full burn to that portal position as soon as all of our troops are in position." Cutter leaned over the holotable in front of him. "How many nukes do we have left?"

"Sir?" Serina questioned. "You can't be serious."

"Answer the question Serina."

"We have six MFDD's left, as well as eight requisitioned HAVOK's from the Dawn."

"Okay. Remove the fusion elements of the MFDD and detonate it in an archer swarm two kilometres behind the Infinity, when I say 'Schadenfreude'. A small fissile detonation will provide enough of a blast to cause the Infinity to have to spend time readjusting its position and stabilise its flight path. But given the fact that most of the aircraft will be between the Infinity and us, they will be saved from the worst of it. At most they'd get an irrelevant dose of radiation since all aircraft are rated for space operations so are protected from EMP's and radiation."

"On it sir."

"Good." He turned to his Spartans. "It'll likely be thirty minutes until anything concrete happens. Take a breather. You've been on the go for the past couple days. You Spartans may be unstoppable, but even God took a day off. And if you really want to be productive, go see O'Neil down in the Infirmary. Dismissed."

"Sir." They saluted, moving back to the back out of the bridge. Once the doors closed Cutter looked at Cortana. "What is it that was so important I had to dismiss my Spartans?

"It's to do with them. I think… I can't believe I'm saying this… John, the Master Chief, is emotionally compromised. He endangered not only himself but also the rest of red team for me. Running into Forerunner technology just on the off chance that I could be rescued. That could have been operated by the Didact for all he knows. But he just did it anyway."

Sitting back into his chair, Cutter scratched his chin. "This is an interesting development. What do you think caused him to do this?"

"I don't know, he was always so level-headed, I think being on full alert from the fall of reach in fifty-two, to now this battle on Requiem, in fifty-five, he's been on a non-stop battle mode for over half a decade, if you include the Cryo-sleep. I've spent over half my life with him; I kept watch over him for four years as he slept. He see's me as a friend, and thinks that he owes me his life. He literally fought through a whole horde of Food to save me, with only an Elite to help him. Now he want's me to get to Earth, to Halsey, to see if I can be fixed of my Rampancy."

"I see." He took off his cap and ruffled his hair. "But I'm no-psychologist, I'd only suggest that you take a good look at yourself, and try to keep calm. Now was there something else?"

"Yes. After their interaction with the Librarian, Red Team has changed somewhat."

The doors of the bridge opened to a very angry Lasky.

"Lasky, I dismissed you a minute a…" He stopped as he heard the click of a pistol being cocked.

"Don't make me do this sir." Lasky said, his pistol not shaking as it pointed at the captain's forehead. "Under article 35-1 A of the Cole Protocol, I have the right start a mutiny if it would put humanity at risk. We are at war with a fucking Forerunner and I deem you unfit for duty due to you are planning to attack a member of the UNSC that is following orders and who wounded your pride. If what they have gone through is true, they have more experience than us in dealing with Forerunner shield worlds, therefore I deem them more suited for leading UNSC missions instead of either you or me. So I am ordering you understanding orders, to stand down captain."

"You son of a bitch, which guard gave that to you."

"Doesn't matter stand down."

Daniels looked up at his two commanders. "Sir, shall I launch?"

The no and yes of the XO and CO blended together. "Launch them Lieutenant Commander."

"If you launch them I will shoot the captain."

"Follow my order, commander!" Del Rio shouted. The recently promoted officer reluctantly bent over the microphone.

"Begin Ariel Superiority against target UNSC-Bravo." He said shaking.

Lasky pulled the trigger, only to have it click, his eyes widened as the captain tackled the mutineer to the floor and the shout at Palmer. "Arrest this man commander."

"Sir, you can't be serious." She said, walking towards the two.

"Deadly. Throw him in the brig." He said as the struggling Lasky squirmed underneath managing to roll off and attempted to pistol whip the Captain a before his wrist got caught by a gauntlet-clad arm of the Palmer.

"Tom, please." She said. She seldom used his first name, especially when on duty and especially on the bridge. Her eyes looked into his, telling him all he needed to know. Sighing, he relaxed his body and reluctantly stood up. "Thank you."

"Captain. I will warn you one more time, if you do this, you will regret it." He said, his eyes staring into his CO's as long as he could before Palmer personally walked him down to the corridor. Tom looked at the hologram of Anie, the AI who gave him the pistol in the first place. He stared at her and shook his head. He couldn't blame her if he tried if she gave him an armed weapon to kill the Captain. She could have seen a decommissioning for aiding the mutiny of a commanding officer; laws about these sorts of things were vague for a reason.

"Tom," Sarah started, "I am so sorry, but if the captain is not going to listen we need to find another way around this."

"Any ideas?" He asked though the slow creeping smile rising up the side of her face said it all.