Disclaimer: I can't believe that this still has to be said, but Halo is all Bungie's. Any attempts to sue the author will net you at most one of my doomsday devices (Go ahead and take, I have more!).

Scared Straight

"Even though Spearhead didn't need a tech specialist, I decided that Spearhead would give her a place where she would finally belong to spiritually or would set her straight. So I temporarily reassigned her." - Colonel George Yang, referring to Katherine-320

1500 Hours, October 21st, 2552 (Military Calendar) / UNS Pillar of Autumn, Battle Group Stanforth, Interstellar Space, Sector 197.

The doors to Cargo Bay Five opened to admit Colonel Yang who was struggling with a very heavy looking rectangular metal case. Inside, both Noble and Spearhead Teams came to attention. The flagship team was donned in their armor with sidearms secured in their holsters while Spearhead and Kat was content in their fatigues.

"At ease." Colonel said before plopping the massive case onto the floor. The eleven Spartans loosened up their stance. Yang's gaze fell on Six. "How are you today, son?"

That last statement drew a slight chuckle from the Nobles. Everyone knew 312's unique circumstances upon entry into the Spartan program and it had become somewhat of a running gag among the IVs. Though Six had never broken protocol and call Yang "dad", Yang took every opportunity to abuse his higher rank to call him "son".

"Ready for anything, Sir." Six responded.

"That, I'm sure. What about you, Carter? Has he been giving you any trouble?"

"No, sir." The Noble CO replied.

Yang smiled before turning his attention onto Nicole.

"I'm impressed Nicole. This is the longest your team has ever went before being thrown in hack. And I didn't know that there was a Spartan equivalent of 'a captain must go down with her ship'."

Spartan-458 almost squirmed before that question. "I, uh, don't know how to respond to that, sir?"

"Hehehe. Don't worry. You're not suppose to."

"So how much longer before you gonna let us out, Colonel." Richard asked.

"Sorry, Richard, but not this time." Yang responded."You know I don't mess with other people's chain of command in the field."

"But. But. But my stash needs me!" Steven pleaded. Yang simply shook his head before turning to Wa. The massive shock trooper dipped his head in respect.

"You know that this probably could have all been avoided if you had just said more that just 'stay the fuck out of my way'?"

Wa simply rumbled and turned away.

"Moving on, then." Yang continued. "So what have you guys been doing in here?"

"This!" Jonathan shouted as he raised a needle point with detonation cord stringing down around him.

"They've been mostly reminiscing with some old war stories" Six offered. "But I can't really make heads or tails of what they were saying."

"Oh, you mean like that time on Lusitania when we..." Jonathan began.

"...Yeah and we did that flour bomb thing with that Hunter and the wraith..." Richard continued in between his chuckles.

"...And I had that antique Carl Gustav..." Steven struggled out beyond his cackles.

"... and we gave a whole new meaning of..." Nicole interjected as she was split between laughing and trying to look embarrassed.

"...The shit has hit the fan!" Nicole, Steven, Jonathan, and Richard said all together at once before breaking down into side-splitting laughter even as Wa had the slightest curl on his lips while the Nobles looked on with utter confusion.

After a couple more minutes of that, Six spoke up. "Well, if we're still doing story time, maybe you can tell me one that I want to hear."

"Okay, ask away." Nicole offered.

Six looked over at Kat. "You mentioned before that you were part of Spearhead team once."

At that, the Colonel broke into a fond chuckle. "Ah, yes. That one was my doing, but I'll let Kat herself tell you this one, Son."

Six looked over to Kat again, who had her face buried in her hands. "Did you noticed, Six, that Spearhead has only five members while all the other Spartan teams has six?" Six nodded before Kat continued.

"There's a reason for that. There's no situation that Spearhead is ever involved in where the team needs a tech specialists. Nothing worthwhile ever survives them coming within a hundred meters of it in combat. If there's anything in their way that would normally be spliced or hacked open, they just smash, burn, or blow their way through."

"That's right!" Steven added. "Spearhead Team! Covenant forces occupying your city? Send in Spearhead. Caution: no guarantee the city will still be standing!"

"Isn't that the truth." Kat said. "Onto why I was put on the team."

"As I said, that was my doing." Yang took over. "Kat is quite the model Spartan now, but she wasn't always that way. There was a time when was willing to take some excessive risks on a regular basis. Carter and I had a talk about it and I decided to teach her a lesson. Even though Spearhead didn't need a tech specialist, I decided that Spearhead would give her a place where she would finally belong to spiritually or would set her straight. So I temporarily reassigned her."

"At first, I thought that it would be a great experience." Kat continued. "And we did make a one hell of a body count. But then I came to understand that Spearhead doesn't actually take risk. Risk implies possibility of death. Spearhead goes for what should be the certainty of a horrible painful death, but just kills everything anyway. After being blown up for the hundredth time..."

Kat glared daggers at Jonathan. "... eighty seven of which was his doing! I was beginning to regret joining the team. But that last straw was during that engagement on Arcturus..."

It was getting bad. Really bad. Kat looked out the window with her helmet off on what was a corporate tower. Forty five stories below, the covenant was swarming over the streets. A covenant battlecruiser had surprised the UNDF forces planetside and plopped two whole legions onto the streets. While orbital fire and the longswords had driven the battlecruiser away, the covenant was now firmly entrenched in the city. And with all the civilians and soldiers still around, nukes or orbital saturation bombardment was out of the question.

"Arghhh" Steven groaned behind Kat. His had taken his helmet off to enjoy a stogie even as Jonathan sat next to his brother as he tinkered with an IED. "I can't find my lighter."

"Here, let me get that for ya." Jonathan offered before detonating a small amount of his improvised RDX. The small explosion knocked them both off of their seats and Kat onto her face; Wa stood unmoved, but tense as he observed the battle below that was going on without him. When they rose back up, Steven's face was blackened and his eyebrows burned clean off.

Steven took a very long drag from the now lit cigar. "That'll do. A little more warning next time."

Kat growled as she got back onto her feet. She was really getting tired of these seemingly suicidal frontal assaults and getting blown up by Jonathan. At least with the covenant, even if they were genocidal it was at least nothing personal.

On the other side of the hallway, the elevator dinged and disgorged Nicole and Richard.

"Jonathan, tell me you have something big for this shitstorm." Nicole immediately demanded.

"Oh yes!" Jonathan enthusiastically replied as he brought up a layout of the city over the squad data feed. "The covenant have taken over the city center, but we've managed to keep them boxed in for now. With the river on the north and west side and the park in the south, we can level the entire city center without too much danger to the our guys down there."

"And how are going to do that? We can't call in the big guns this close to our lines." Nicole queried.

"Oh, that's fine. All we have to do is to level one skyscraper in the right direction and the rest will fall like dominoes."

"Yes, that would work." Kat offered. "All we have to do is to level the Edmunson building southwards and the whole city center will go. But we'll have to move fast to get there before the covenant figure out what we're doing."

The team rose from their seats and prepared to leave. But just as Kat was about to put her helmet on, Jonathan spoke up again.

"Oh no need. The one we're in right now works just fine!"

For a moment, Kat's mind all but refused to process what Jonathan had said because of the implications. But when 665 raised a remote detonator, the wide eye realization on her face was painfully obvious. The moment before Jonathan pressed the button, he raised an old fashion chemical photo camera and snapped a picture of Kat's stunned expression.

The explosion rocked the building and was strong enough to knock even Wa to his face. Ever so slowly, the building began to tip.

"RUN!" Nicole shouted.

With a speed they've never demonstrated before, the six Spearheads burst forward though with no real idea of where they're going.

"This! Is! Wrong!" Kat shouted.

"Yeah, we need music!" Richard added.

"I got it!" Steven offered before music flowed from his helmet speakers. Even in this terrified state of mind, Kat could recognize the trumpets at the start of the William Tell Overture.

The six Spartans crashed through the windows, sailing across the streets into another skyscraper only for that building to start collapsing under the impact of the first. This sisyphus-esque process repeated itself again and again to the tune of trumpets and cymbals from Steven's helmet speakers. Eventually, though, the collapse caught up with the Spearheads and building finally came down upon them.

From the rubble came the groans of thousands of dying covenant warriors crushed underneath. But there was one particular spot where instead there was maniacal laughter. The muffled cackles were finally unleashed as Wa shoved the slabs of reinforced concrete off of the team.

"Let's do that again!" Richard proposed between his laughs.

"Implosion? But I thought you said..." Jonathan mocked.

The traumatized Kat, however, was visibly shaking even as Nicole picked herself up. Seeing Kat staring at her calm stance, Spearhead One simply shrugged.

"Meh. Another day in Spearhead."

"I still have that picture with me." Jonathan added. "In fact, let me whip it out right now."

"Don't you dare!" Kat snarled. A firm shake of Nicole's head convinced Jonathan to stop.

"Well, after that," Yang picked up. "... Kat begged me to send her back to Noble. It would have been cruel not to."

"It was cruel to send me to them in the first place!" Kat countered. "But as much as I hate to say it, it did work. I was more careful person after that, a more careful soldier. I owe them for that at least. Once a Spearhead, always a Spearhead."