The elevator rose to the surface and Jason breathed in a breath of fresh air. Sunshine. Honest sunshine. Despite having only seen it less than an hour ago, it felt like much longer. The elevator brought them to, of all things, a temple.

An honest-to-god temple, made out of bricks.

"Interesting," Enzo murmured, studying the area.

Jason left him to it. For now, they appeared to be alone. Jason planted the rest of the C12 charges they had on them around the elevator and gave the detonator to Faraday, telling him to stay there and keep guard, just in case the Thing Without A Name decided to follow them up. He then set out to follow Enzo and secure the area.

Minutes passed by in quiet solitude. Jason's suspicions were confirmed: they were alone at the base. But it was obvious that the Covenant had been there. They'd converted the site into a makeshift camp. The temple was roughly rectangular and two storied. Jason checked both of them out, and all the little rooms and corridors within. They were all empty, except for the Covenant using some of them for storage. Which was interesting, Jason thought at least. Considering how the Covenant revered and worshiped places like this.

Outside was another story. At one point, the Covenant had obviously occupied the area in bulk. There were hovering towers, some of which had crashed to the ground, defense turrets, stacks of crates and small, makeshift one room, one story buildings. Little more than sheds or shacks. There were also vehicles and-

"Jason, you should come around to the other side of the Temple."

Enzo's voice sounded happy, not ominous. Jason broke into a light jog and hurried around the bulky structure. What he saw made him grin.

"Life just got a whole lot easier," he murmured.

A Phantom dropship hovered silently a few meters in the air, the gravity lift still on and intact. Jason wondered if anyone was inside. If they were, they were in for a seriously unpleasant surprise. Jason went back to relieve Faraday, took the detonator from him and the trio made their way for the Phantom.

"I assume you can fly it," Jason said. Enzo showed his growing understanding of human culture by rolling his eyes. Jason was impressed.

Enzo stepped into the gravity beam and was slowly lifted upwards. Faraday was next, making a similar ascension. Jason began to step into it, then hesitated. He turned and reached into his pocket, facing the temple again. For the hell of it, he pulled out the detonator and, pausing only briefly, pressed the button.

The temple began to come apart at the seams as a series of explosions ripped through it, spewing sprays of debris every which way. Jason stepped back into the beam and allowed it to carry him up, watching the architectural carnage. By the time he came aboard, the other two had secured the interior and Enzo was in the pilot's seat.

"What was that?" Faraday asked.

"I blew the charges," Jason replied. Enzo made a sound, somewhere between a scoff and a chuckle, and began to bring the Phantom away from the site. Jason moved forward to stand in the oddly shaped cockpit, leaning down and hovering just over Enzo's shoulder.

"Where do we go?" the Elite asked. Jason consulted the nav marker, then pointed him in the right direction and got a rough approximation of how long it would take to get there, which was little over an hour.

Hopefully, the Prophet wouldn't relocate too much before then.

Jason took the opportunity to relax. Enzo seemed content enough to be left alone at the controls. Jason went back to see what Faraday was up to. The Lance Corporal was seated among all the purple metal, cleaning his sniper rifle. He glanced up. The man looked too young and haunted, his flesh pallid and taut. He reminded Jason of himself.

"Faraday," Jason said, taking a seat next to him. "How'd you end up on the Ark?" Faraday seemed to consider this before responding.

"Well, I happened to be in Voi when the Flood hit. I had been called back to Earth right after the first Covenant invasion in New Mombasa," he explained.

"I was at both of those places," Jason replied.

Faraday seemed interested. "Really?"

"Yeah. I was...helping ONI procure a target of high importance in New Mombasa, and...well, honestly, doing the same thing in Voi. I barely made it out when the Elites glassed it."

"Me too. I managed to make it to a last chance PZ and when I got onboard, they told me I was going to the Ark. I wasn't really in any position to argue." Faraday fell silent. The Phantom rumbled gently around them for several moments. "What are you doing here?"

"Assassinating Prophets," Jason replied.

Faraday's eyes widened. "Really? Holy shit, that's serious business."

"It seems so. Me and Enzo here have already taken down two...help me take down the last one, and I'll see if I can't get you promoted or a medal or something."

Faraday chuckled. "I'd settle for two weeks vacation and a brothel at this point," he replied grimly. Jason nodded in sympathy. Despite his misgivings about his relationship with Veronica, he was already desperately missing the sex.

Jason decided it was time for a nap, and tried to dream of Veronica naked.

Jason awoke to chaos. It was how he usually awoke, it seemed.

"Get up! We're nearing the target!" Enzo shouted, both over the radio and back into the cargo hold. Jason and Faraday were on their feet in an instant. While Faraday prepped himself for combat, Jason hurried forward.

"What's going on?" He stared out of the view screen and spotted a large, heavily fortified Covenant encampment built around a Forerunner ruin. Desert sands surrounded it on all sides for what appeared to be forever. The base was under heavy attack by waves upon waves of Flood.

"See for yourself," Enzo replied. "Do you have a visual on the bastard Prophet?" Jason scrutinized the area, attempting to match up the nav marker with the environment. He spotted it moving out of the central structure, towards, presumably, the collection of Phantoms and Banshees not too far away.

"There!" he roared. "Bring us down right on top of the bastard, light him up!"

Enzo did as he was told, moving forward over the Flood and Covenant, locked in eternal combat. It looked as if the Flood were winning. Several streams of bullets and plasma bolts shot up after them. Jason couldn't tell who was firing. Then a rocket flew past the view screen, narrowly avoiding hitting the ship.

"Hurry," Jason muttered.

The Phantom was brought in low and fast, screaming over the battlefield and nearly hitting the central structure, which was an enormous thing of burnished silver metal. It was flat on top with ramps leading up the sides. It looked as if a lot of Covenant were preparing to make something of a last stand there.

Plasma fire raked across the Prophet's location as Enzo opened fire. The hovering, llama-looking bastard was almost to a grav lift. Almost to his escape. Jason prayed he didn't make it. The plasma fire burned through a pair of his Brute bodyguards. The survivors turned and immediately began to open fire on the Phantom.

Their shots did little damage, but they kept up their fire. Jason watched in rapt tension as Enzo brought the plasma shots closer and closer to the hovering Prophet, who was almost there. Abruptly, right before the bolts hit their target, the Phantom lurched crazily to one side as something powerful exploded across its hull.

"What was that?!" Jason snapped. Enzo attempted to realign the cannon, but another explosion, this one much more powerful, rippled across the Phantom. All at once, Jason realized the awful truth. They were going down.

They had failed.

Before smashing into the ground, Jason watched the Prophet ascending into the belly of the Phantom, escaping his fate.