As with last chapter, this chapter contains several tie-ins with my other story, Missing in Action. Also: the first part of this chapter is mostly new material though it does take clues from chapter 20 of the original version, while the second half is mostly transported unchanged from chapter 27.

Chapter 14: Welcome Back to the War

Newington, Thracia Province, Actium
May 6, 2545
1530

Tariq

"INCOMING!"

Without hesitation, Tariq grabbed hold of the ammunition specialist, and hauled him into the tank with him. And not a moment too soon.

KABOOM!

Tariq flinched as the plasma mortar slammed into the Warthog, blowing it to kingdom come. Fortunately no one was inside it at the time, but it just went to show how close the Covenant mortars were getting.

"Son of a… that was fucking close!" he heard the specialist swearing. "Thank you!"

"Dude, you better get the fuck out of here," Tariq warned. "We're sitting ducks out here!"

"Way ahead of you, Sarnt!" the specialist was already wriggling his way out of the hatch. "Good luck!"

Tariq didn't bother dignifying that comment with a response as he hurriedly checked to make sure all the shells he and specialist had been loading into the tank were all secure and in place. Making sure he had a full belt of ammo loaded into his coax, Tariq tossed himself back into his seat and grabbed his mic.

"Sir, ammo is locked and loaded," he announced, just as he heard a hatch open and he looked further into the tank to see Koroma frantically scrambling back inside through the driver's hatch.

"Fuel tanks topped off and ready!" he breathlessly called out.

"Fuel is topped off, sir," Tariq repeated over the radio for Buckley's benefit. "Tank is all ready to go!"

"Copy that," Buckley replied. "The rest of the platoon is reporting the same thing. Move it out, Sergeant, but don't forget to swing by the CP and pick me up!"

"Copy! We're on the move!" Tariq dropped his mic. "Driver, move it out! To the CP! Let's go, double time it!"

In response, Koroma threw the tank into gear and slammed on the accelerator. There was a loud shriek as the tank lurched forward, nearly catching Tariq by surprise, but he was able to quickly stabilize himself.

"2-1 to 2-4: we're moving out, but we're gonna stop by the CP to pick up 2-6 first, over," Tariq rattled off into the radio.

"Copy that, 2-1. 2-4 is taking the rest of the platoon and headed for our position on the front. As soon as you have 2-6, join us there, over."

"Wilco, out!" Tariq lowered his radio and glanced through his periscopes. "Come on, Driver, you're driving like you're a fucking grandpa. Hurry it up!"

They headed in the direction of the company command post, but before they could even travel more than a few dozen meters, there was a loud shriek overhead, followed by an explosion from somewhere behind them, and Tariq glanced back to see the parking lot they had just been sitting in had just been obliterated by a plasma mortar.

"Fuck me," he growled.

"These plasma mortars are getting out of control, Sergeant!" Koroma yelled from his spot at the front of the tank. "How come we don't have any counter battery!?"

"We gotta find the damn mortars first and for that, you can blame the damn Navy!" Tariq retorted. "As soon as that fucking cruiser settled over the city, we lost all our air support. Then, I guess because they figured we weren't using them at the moment, the Navy proceeded to strip away all ground-based fighter jets, so even though that cruiser is now gone, none of our surveillance planes and rotary aircraft can get back into the air because they have no cover! We're fighting blind until we wrestle air superiority back!"

"Fuck!"

"You can say that again," Tariq muttered under his breath as they pulled up next to the building their forward support company had commandeered to use as their command post. Looking around, Tariq at first couldn't see Buckley, but then he emerged from around a pile of sandbags and began running towards the tank at a dead sprint. "Driver, halt!"

As the tank rumbled to a halt, Tariq hurriedly climbed out of his seat to pop open the commander's hatch. Almost immediately afterwards, Buckley dove headfirst into the tank, dust and smoke trailing him as another mortar detonated nearby.

"Motherfuckers!" Buckley growled as he slammed his hatch shut. "Alright, I'm in!"

"Driver, move it out!" Tariq immediately commanded. "To the front!"

The entire tank suddenly and violently shook as a plasma mortar slammed into the building next to them, causing the entire front face to explode outwards and shower the vehicle with debris.

"Fucking, fuck, fucks!" Tariq snarled.

"Very eloquent, Sergeant Helmand," he heard Buckley amusedly say above him.

"With all due respect, sir, shut the fuck up," Tariq retorted, far too stressed by the situation to even care about trying to recover his sense of humor. Fortunately, Buckley wasn't offended.

"Hey, at least it could be worse!" Buckley announced with false cheer. "Instead of being bombarded, we could be under heavy attack right now."

"I would rather the Covenant have the balls to hit us head on right now, sir, because then I could at least have something to shoot back at!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Tariq could see Buckley tilting his head in acknowledgement of the validity of his statement, but didn't reply as he had grabbed his radio.

"Cataphract, this is 2-1: my platoon is fueled up and loaded," Buckley declared. "We're moving back to the front, over."

"Copy that, 2-1. As soon as you're in place, let me know so I can pull Cataphract-3 back and let them resupply."

"Roger that, Cataphract. Interrogative: any sign of Covenant advance?"

"Negative, no ground troops, just IDF. According to intel from DIVHQ, Covenant have halted their advance south, and turned the weight of their attack to Byzas itself, though that could potentially change at any second, over."

"Understood. Thank you. Cataphract-2, out."

"I thought we were cut off from division headquarters?" Tariq inquired as soon as he heard Buckley lower his radio.

"Well, with the bulk of the Covenant Army sitting between us and the rest of the 53rd, we are physically cut off, but we still have sporadic comms. See how long that last, though. Driver, take a right here!"

Tariq twitched as Koroma jammed the tank to a stop in their assigned position behind a solid looking apartment complex at the top of a small hill. Ignoring as yet another mortar went off nearby, he checked his scopes and his periscopes to make sure he had good, clean fields of fire, then glanced over the town of Newington.

Fighting had been on and off for the last five hours, as neither the UNSC nor the Covenant had had the strength or numbers for sustained combat. Once the Covenant realized the UNSC was dug in pretty tight, they had mostly reduced their offensive to probing attacks, indirect fire missions, and sniper fire. As a result, the town of Newington had remained mostly intact. Unlike Byzas…

Looking off towards the horizon, Tariq could almost make out the skyscrapers that consisted the majority of downtown Byzas. Even from this distance, the giant cloud of smoke sat like a blight over the city from all the buildings and vehicles undoubtedly burning, and every now and then, Tariq could make out the flash of yet another explosion. From the sporadic reports they were picking from their sister brigades deployed in the city, fighting was fierce and unrelenting. In some ways, Tariq sympathized with his 1st and 4th Brigade brothers and sisters. At the same time, he couldn't help but be glad it wasn't his ass in the fire; urban combat in a tank sucked, no matter how you looked at it.

"Cataphract, 2-1: be advised, we are in position on the MLR, over." Without waiting for a response, Buckley lowered his radio and called out, "Alright guys, keep a sharp eye out for infiltrators! I'm going up top – see if I can't spot where this damn indirect is coming from and get them to stop!"

"Try not to get your head blown off, LT!" Tariq called out.

"Come on, Sarnt," Buckley joked. "My face is too pretty for the Covenant to shoot!"

Just as Buckley said that, another mortar went off nearby, and Tariq heard the distinct sound of shrapnel bouncing off the top of Buckley's hatch. He gave Buckley a pointed look.

"Alright, I'll be careful," Buckley sheepishly replied. "Stay sharp!"

With that, the top half of his body disappeared out of the hatch.

Easing himself back into his seat, Tariq took a deep breath and let it out slowly in attempt to calm himself down. When that didn't work, he grabbed a pinch of chewing tobacco and shoved it into his mouth, immediately feeling the rush of nicotine through his veins.

"You know, that stuff will probably kill you one day," he heard Koroma suddenly comment, and he let out a loud derisive snort.

"Kid, around here, I'll be lucky if I survive long enough for my smoking and boozing to kill me," he bluntly noted.

Koroma didn't seem to have a response to that as he remained quiet for a few moments, and Tariq took the opportunity to stare at his screens, watching as plasma mortar after plasma rise up from somewhere in the distance, lazily arch through the air, before crashing back down to the ground somewhere nearby.

"Man, if the Covenant aren't attacking, you think now would be a good time for us to go on the offensive," Koroma abruptly noted.

Tariq immediately let out an aggravated sigh.

"Dude, if I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times already: we can't go on the offensive because we've got less than twenty-five hundred combat troops trying to cover an MLR that's about a hundred fifty kilometers in length. We've got no defense in depth, barely enough ammo to throw back a Covenant attack larger than regimental size, and won't until reinforcements from the south arrive in a couple of hours!" Tariq snarled. "Why the fuck do you want to attack the Covenant so badly!?"

For the moment, there was nothing but silence from Koroma, and Tariq took that moment to check his scopes again. Then, in a quiet voice, Koroma finally said, "The Covenant glassed my homeworld."

"Join the fucking club," Tariq bitterly retorted. "You aren't the only one around here who's lost their home planet; hell, the fucking 337th used to be a New Constantinople regiment until the fucking Covenant glassed that colony back in 37. But you don't see those guys bitching and moaning."

There was a noticeable pause, before Koroma hesitantly asked, "Is that where you're from? New Constantinople?"

Tariq rolled his eyes. "The fuck is it to you!?"

He could see Koroma raising his hands in a placating gesture. "I'm just trying to learn a bit more about my teammates, is all. I mean no offense."

"Don't!" Tariq aggressively warned. "No one gives a shit about you, or your shitty questions- "

It started with a tremor. At first, Tariq thought he was just getting agitated so he took another deep breath but when the tremors started turning into full blown shaking, Tariq suddenly realized it wasn't him, but the ground.

"What the – "

Tariq glanced through his scope in time to see one of the skyscrapers in the distance abruptly collapse as the ground beneath it suddenly gave way. Seconds later, Tariq heard it: the full throated roar of an explosion. He and Koroma exchanged a startled look as the radio exploded with chatter.

"The hell was that…?"

"Holy shit!" Buckley exclaimed as he ducked back inside, his hand pressing his radio against his ear. "Division just blew up the entire Byzas subway system!"

Tariq gaped at him. "Why the fuck- "

"CONTACT FRONT!" Koroma screamed.

Tariq jerked as Koroma jammed the tank into gear, reversing the tank behind the building as a fuel rod cannon streaked through the open space they were just occupying. He grabbed his controls and looked around wildly just as Buckley screamed, "Covenant Assault Wraith! Coming up the MSR! Gunner, load up two rounds of HEAT and make ready!"

Tariq hurriedly flicked off the safety while making sure he had the appropriate shells loaded. "Gun ready!"

"Standby! Driver, forward!"

Tariq pivoted his turret around as the tank cleared the apartment building, and watched as his crosshairs flashed red.

"FIRE!"

"ON THE WAY!"

The tank shook as both barrels recoiled, and Tariq had just barely enough times to see two small holes outlined by orange molten metal appear in the Wraith's hull before the Covenant vanished in a bright blue explosion.

"Target destroyed! Shift fire right!"

Tariq impatiently tapped his foot against the ground as he waited for his autoloaders to finish, but even as the Covenant began returning fire, a single thought continued to float through Tariq's brain:

What the hell was going on in the city?

XXXXX

Covenant designated Landing Zone: Deliverance
Forerunner Designated World: MS 222-53 a
9th Age of Reclamation
6th Cycle of the Planet's Rotation

Zek

Concrete and glass. That's all Zek saw, no matter which way he looked. It almost a nightmare, really. As a poor Ruuhtian that had grown up on the outskirts of Tilu City, Zek was used to the sight of massive sprawling cities and towering buildings. But the humans seemed to take it to new heights.

Dull gray and tinted glass, as far as the eye could. Not even a hint of turquoise. And the weather? Ice and snow covered the ground, making travel somewhat of a treacherous chore. Whenever the wind blew, it cut right through Zek's armor and uniform, chilling him to the bone despite his best efforts. And the skies were dark and overcast, as if the Sky Mother couldn't bear to see what sort of damage these humans had done to her beautiful world.

In short, Zek couldn't understand how these humans could tolerate living in this cold, desolate place.

"I don't know: I kind of like it."

Zek reflexively jumped at the sound of Rezan's voice. Zek hadn't realized he had spoken that last part out loud.

"You like it?" Zek echoed once he was able to recover his wits. "You're telling me you like all this? How?"

He could see Rezan tilting his head in a shrug. "I don't know. I guess there's a certain ruthless practicality to the way this city is built." He gestured at the roads. "See how the roads are all laid out in a grid-like pattern?"

"But that's so dull," Zek protested. "Where's the aesthetic appeal?"

"Function over looks," Rezan reminded him. "As long as it works, who cares what it looks like?"

"Yes, but the humans live here, don't they?" Zek retorted. "Why wouldn't a living being try to make the place they live in more visually appealing? Who would want to life like that?"

"I wouldn't mind," Rezan admitted.

"You would, would you?" Zek noted, narrowing his eyes. "Are you sure you're a Ruuhtian and not a T'vaoan?"

Rezan whirled on him. "You take that back!" he hissed, though without any real heat in his voice. Zek bared his teeth in amusement and shook his head, causing Rezan to turn away in a huff.

Zek quickly casted around, trying to think of something to say in order to continue this moment of levity, but unfortunately nothing came to mind and the moment was lost, and Zek was left with trying not to think about the one subject he couldn't help but think about: his and Rezan's survival from the Hammer of Justice.

In truth, there wasn't much for Zek to think about. As soon as he saw that Unggoy reaching for the bomb the Demons had left behind, instinct had taken over. He remembered grabbing Rezan with a strength he hadn't known he had possessed and dragging him over to the escape pods, all the while thanking the gods he and Rezan had been manning Security Station Salvation that day as Salvation was perhaps the only security station on the ship that was positioned right next to an escape pod.

As the ship began to rumble, Zek remembered throwing Rezan into the escape pod and hurtling himself in afterwards, hitting the button to close the door with his foot as he did. As flames began enveloping the corridor, Zek remembered punching the launch button so hard, he had actually cracked it. After that though, everything was one giant blur.

Zek vaguely remembered watching as the Hammer simply disintegrated behind them. He vaguely remembered watching as the rest of the fleet began to make a retreat. He vaguely remembered making sure to reset the autopilot so that it would take them to the landing zone instead of anywhere else on the planet, where they would hopefully have been rescued by friendly forces. And then, after that, Zek couldn't remember anything else. He couldn't remember entering the planet's atmosphere. He couldn't remember the landing. And most importantly, he couldn't remember getting knocked out.

Unfortunately, what Zek could remember, with absolute clarity, was the feeling of terror he had when he and Rezan first spotted the Demons, lurking in the corridors of their ship. He remembered the growing sense of dread as he watched as the Demons butchered their way through the ship on their way to their objective.

But most importantly, Zek remembered the growing sense of dread as he realized that nothing; security teams, bulkhead doors, even Kamet himself; could stop the Demons from going wherever they wanted. The only consolation Zek had was the fact that because that stupid Unggoy had accidentally set the Demons' bomb off early, there was no way the Demons could have made it off the Hammer before the ship was destroyed.

Still, despite knowing the Demons were dead, Zek was sure he was going to have many a sleepless night in the coming months ahead, forever haunted by the sight of the Demons cutting through his comrades like they were nothing more than insects to be crushed underfoot.

Zek felt a shiver go down his spine, and it had nothing to do with the cold. He nervously glanced over his shoulder, as if a Demon would suddenly leap out from the nearby building.

"What is it Zek, did you see something?"

Zek quickly shook his head to assure Rezan. "No; it was but a figment of my imagination," he admitted.

Rezan visibly relaxed. "Yes, this area is not very safe. Come on: we're very near the firebase. Hopefully things will be better once we are around our comrades."

Zek nodded in agreement.

Despite having landed in what was supposed to be friendly controlled territory, the area was far from safe, as Zek and Rezan had learned when they first emerged from the escape pod and something shot at them. Not being armed themselves, they had been forced to hide until whatever took a shot at them got bored and left. Afterwards, Zek and Rezan had been left wondering what to do.

Fortunately, Rezan had had the good sense to grab a communicator before they had abandoned the ship and as a result, they were able to learn there was actually a friendly firebase not too far away from where they had landed. It had been set up in one of the human structures, a building that was dedicated to the human's past. What did the humans call them? Not a shrine but a... museum. That's right.

Zek could only hope that not only would the base have plenty of guards and defenses, it would at least be warm so he could finally get out this cursed cold.

"Come Zek! It should just be around this corner!" Rezan shouted, and Zek couldn't help but pick up his pace. Just a few more steps and Zek could finally feel safe again -

Zek skittered to an abrupt halt at the sight that laid in front of them.

"No..."

"What in seven hells has occurred here!?"

Right in front of them was a human building that had been completely destroyed, sitting in the exact place the firebase should have been. Two Type-44 troop carriers were parked on the ground nearby with their doors open, and all sorts of Covenant warriors were running to and from the ships and the wreckage. As Zek and Rezan got closer, they could see the warriors were digging through the rubble of the building. Already they had extracted a number of trapped warriors from within, but even then, Zek could see several dozen bodies of Kig-Yar and Unggoy sticking out from the rocks.

"Gods..." Rezan whispered. "What has happened here?"

"I don't know, but let us find out," Zek said, pointing at a fellow Ruuhtian sitting on a gravity stool nearby.

"Brother!" Zek called out, causing the Ruuhtian to turn in their direction. As he did, Zek faltered as he realized the Ruuhtian was completely covered in dust, and was bleeding from several wounds, the most devastating of which was his left arm: from the elbow down, it was completely missing.

Realizing he was staring, Zek quickly gathered his thoughts.

"Brother, what has happened here?" Zek asked.

The Ruuhtian dipped his head, allowed some blood to drip out from his mouth.

"The thrice damned humans were able to infiltrate our bases before our defenses were fully established," the Ruuhtian gravely growled. "And were thus able to drop bombs with impunity on us. They were able to destroy much of the base before many of our brethren even knew we were under attack. Curse those cowardly humans!"

"How many dead and wounded are there?" Rezan asked, sounding shocked.

"I do not know," the Ruuhtian replied. "But I do know my entire Lance was destroyed, including by blood brother, who was killed by falling debris right next to me!" The Ruuhtian's head snapped back, and Zek could see how much in mourning this Ruuhtian was. "Sky Mother knows, I tried to save him, but there was nothing I could do! One moment, he was there, the next, nothing! There was nothing I could do!"

The Ruuhtian started warbling, and Zek cautiously reached out to awkwardly rub the Ruuhtian on the back, making sure not to aggravate any of his wounds. Zek suddenly remembered he had some khat in his armor pouch, and he hastily pulled it out to give to the Ruuhtian.

"Here Brother," Zek said, "take this. You have earned it."

"Many thanks Brother," the Ruuhtian mournfully said as he took the offered khat and threw some into his mouth.

"ALL WOUNDED, BEGIN BOARDING NOW!"

Zek and Rezan hastily moved out of the way as the Ruuhtian struggled to climb to his feet.

"Brother, do you require assistance?" Rezan hurriedly asked as he and Zek watched the Ruuhtian awkwardly start to make his way towards one of the ships.

"Nay Brother, it is not my injuries that stay my feet, but that of my failure to protect my blood brother," the Ruuhtian sadly said. "For this great journey, I must make on my own."

Zek nodded in understanding and stood back as to not be in his way.

"Wait Brother!" Rezan called out. "Your weapons!"

He pointed at the spot next to where the Ruuhtian had sat. There, laying on the ground, was a single Type-51 carbine and Type-25 plasma pistol.

"Take them," the Ruuhtian said without looking back. "For I shall not be needing them where I am heading. Take care Brothers. May the Sky Mother and all the Gods above watch over you."

Zek and Rezan quietly watched as the Ruuhtian painfully made his way towards the assault boat. As soon as the Ruuhtian disappeared inside, Zek turned and glanced at the weapons he had left behind. After a moment of awkward silence, Zek mentally shrugged before he reached out and grabbed the carbine off the ground. Looking it over, Zek was glad to see that not only was the weapon fully loaded and intact, it also had a number of spare cartridges, all of which Zek immediately pocketed.

"Well," Rezan began as he lifted the pistol. "Now what?"

Zek thought the question over. Now that he was armed, he felt a lot more confident, but he was no leader. And with no Sangheili in sight to give them orders, Zek had no idea what to do.

"I suppose we should help out with the rescue," Zek finally said.

With no other suggestions, Rezan quickly signaled his agreement, and the two of them started to make their way towards the rubble. But as they passed one building that was still intact, they heard a scream of pain coming from within.

Zek and Rezan exchanged looks. It wasn't a scream from any of the Covenant races, of that much he was certain, but other than that, Zek couldn't figure out what it would have come from.

Without saying a word, the two of them turned and entered to the room to see -

- a cursed human. It was clearly one of the human warriors, as the alien was wearing the colors of the human's UNSC, but this one was without its weapons or armor. Surrounding the human were three Unggoy: two Minors and a single Major. The three Unggoy were all armed with sharp metal sticks, probably pulled directly from the wreckage, and were jabbing the human all across its body.

"Stupid human!" one of the Minors yelled, kicking the human hard in the face and causing the human to spit out a large amount of blood.

"Not so tough now, huh!?" the other Minor yelled as he brought his stick down hard on the human's arm. Zek could hear something cracking and the human screamed out loud.

As the human laid there, groaning, the Major gestured for the two Minors to pick the human up.

"This is for my Brothers!" the Major yelled, before driving his stick into the human's leg. The human screamed in pain once more as the Major gave the stick a good twist before yanking it out, and looking more closely, Zek could see half a dozen more cuts like that one spread across its body.

Laughing, the Unggoy forcefully tossed the human to the ground, who started to try to crawl away.

"Look at the worm crawl!" one of the Unggoy jeered.

"In the dirt, like all insects belong!" another one yelled.

Viciously stabbing the human in the foot and pinning it to the ground, the Major grabbed the human by its mane and pulled hard, yanking some of the hair out.

"We should cut off its reproductive organs and shove it down its throat!" the Major yelled, to the cheers of his men.

Watching the abuse go down, Zek couldn't help but give an indifferent shrug. While he wasn't one to advocate creatures playing with their food like that, humans were heretics. Plus, one thing Zek had learned over the seasons was that the key to controlling the Unggoy was to let them have their fun every once in a while.

Zek stared to turn away.

FWOOZ!

At the sound of a plasma pistol discharging, Zek jumped and whirled around, his carbine raised and ready for action. Instead, all he saw was the human lying on the ground, dead, with a single plasma bolt through its head.

Zek glanced at the Unggoy to see which one of them had fired the shot, only to see all three of them were staring at him, with furious looks on their face.

Voi paska.

Very slowly, Zek turned around. Standing behind him was Rezan, his plasma pistol raised, and a look of horror and disgust on his face. It was Rezan who had shot the human.

Great.

"You - !" the Major began, shaking with absolute fury. "Why you shoot my prisoner!?"

Zek glanced at Rezan, who was staring at the Major with a look of absolute disgust on his face.

"Because this," Rezan pointed at the human's rapidly cooling corpse on the ground, "is not the way of a Covenant Warrior! We do not torture our enemies! Kill them, yes, but what we are doing is a mercy! What you ryökäles were doing is the opposite of mercy!"

"They Heretics!" the Major screamed back. "The San'Shyuum say we can do what we want with Heretics, and no big bully like you say otherwise!" The Major's eyes narrowed. "Unless you a heretic."

At that, Zek's head snapped up. He might not have agreed with what Rezan did, but he'd be cursed if he let an Unggoy talk to him like that.

"You watch your mouth, Unggoy," Zek growled in warning, but in a surprising move of defiance for an Unggoy, the Major whirled around on him and sneered.

"What you gonna do 'bout it," the Major taunted. "Heretic?"

Zek punched him, hard across the face, with enough force to knock him to the ground. The other Unggoy let out a squeak of alarm and started to draw their weapons, but before they could, Rezan fired three shots into the ground by their feet.

"Don't," he warned, "even think about it."

In the meantime, Zek had planted his foot into the back of the Major, making sure to dig his claws into the Major's flesh.

"You Unggoy," he began, "need to remember your place in this Covenant."

Reaching down, Zek calmly ripped the Major's mask right off his face and tossed it across the room, causing the pathetic creature to begin gasping out loud in panic as he tried to draw breath, but only finding poisonous oxygen filling his lungs.

Bending over slowly, Zek place his mouth by the Major's ear. "You Unggoy are beneath us. Forever and always. Never forget that," he hissed.

"And you Kig-Yar are beneath us!"

Zek stiffened, and immediately straightened. Strolling into the room was a single Sangheili Evocatus, much to Zek's horror.

The Sangheili casted a critical eye around the room, and Zek hastily moved away from the Unggoy Major still gasping for breath on the ground. Zek could see the Sangheili staring at the corpse of the human lying on the ground, but unfortunately Zek couldn't tell what the Sangheili was thinking.

"Who shot the heretic!?" the Sangheili demanded.

Before Zek could say anything, Rezan took one step forward. "I did, sire."

"But I authorized it," Zek quickly said. He didn't know what Rezan was thinking, volunteering that information like that, but Zek had no intention of allowing Rezan to get himself in trouble.

"No he did not, sire," Rezan immediately said, much to Zek's annoyance. "My actions were undertaken alone and by my own initiative."

"Rezan, shut up," Zek muttered out of the side of his mouth.

"Zek, you shut up. You had nothing to do with this."

"I'll be able to handle this Rezan, but only if you shut up!"

"This is my problem Zek, you need not - "

"SILENCE!" the Sangheili roared, causing Zek to jump in alarm. "You, Kig-Yar," he pointed at Zek, "silence! You, Kig-Yar," he pointed at Rezan, "will explain why you executed that human. And you, Unggoy," the Sangheili abruptly pulled out his plasma rifle and calmly shot the still gasping Unggoy Major once through the back of his head. "Die in silence."

The room was very quiet after that.

Slowly strolling forward until he was standing right in front of Rezan, the Sangheili growled, "Explain. Now."

"The Unggoy were torturing the human sire," Rezan quickly said. "As the Ones Most Holy have often said sire, our Crusade against the humans is but a mercy, to free them from this heretical life their leaders have imposed on them. Torture, sire, is not a mercy."

"So you decided to kill a human," the Sangheili growled, "contrary to my commands that all humans were to be taken alive!? Explain yourself!"

That caught Zek's attention. Since when were they taking human prisoners?

Out of the corner of his eye, Zek could see a look of fear finally appearing on Rezan's face as Rezan finally realized how badly he had screwed up.

"Sire, we... I mean I..." Rezan spurted. "I can only claim ignorance sire. We are not part of the vanguard Legion sire, and thus, we never received your commands."

"And what Legion are you a part of, Kig-Yar?" the Sangheili growled.

"We are part of the Fleet, sire. We were assigned to the Hammer of Justice."

For some reason, that last part seemed to catch the Sangheili's attention.

"Hammer of Justice," the Sangheili echoed. "That was the most Holy ship that was defiled by the Demons, was it not!?"

Zek couldn't prevent the shudder that passed through him at that reminder. "Yes, sire, it was," he reluctantly reported.

"And did you see these Demons?"

Both Zek and Rezan bobbed their heads. "Yes sire, we did."

"Then you will describe them to me, in great detail!"

Zek couldn't help but exchange a look of confusion with Rezan.

"Most Noble One," Zek began. "Please forgive my impudence, but why? The Demons are dead."

"No, they are not."

"What!?" Zek reflexively spat out, but then cringed at the insubordinate tone in his voice. Fortunately, the Sangheili didn't seem to notice.

"The Demons are here, inside this city," the Sangheili announced. "And I intend to present their heads myself to the High Prophets. Which is why all humans are to be taken alive and intact!" the Sangheili bellowed, glaring at both Rezan and the two remaining Unggoy.

"As you will sire!" Zek reflexively bellowed at the top of his lungs. The Sangheili gave a single nod of approval.

"Gather your weapons my Warriors," he commanded. "We resume our hunt, NOW!"

With that, the Sangheili marched out of the room, leaving Zek stunned. He couldn't figure out what was worse: the fact the Demons somehow had managed to survive the destruction of the Hammer -

- or that he was going to go looking for them.

Zek could only hope this little hunt of the Sangheili wasn't drawing resources away from the real mission.

Author's Note

Covenant Designations:

"Covenant designated Landing Zone: Deliverance"

I think this is pretty self-explanatory, but 'Deliverance' would be the Covenant name for their landing site. Given the naming conventions of Covenant ships, it seems to me the Covenant are big on giving their stuff grandiose and religiously themed names. So, while the UNSC gives their LZs some rather generic designations like "LZ X-Ray" of "LZ Echo," I imagine the Covenant would call them stuff like "Salvation," "Justice," or "Righteousness."

"Forerunner Designated World: MS 222-53 a"

Actium is obviously the name for this planet (which is a canon colony, in case readers didn't know that; in fact, this entire battle is a canon battle, even if the finer details aren't,) but that would be the human name for it and I just don't see the Covenant knowing or even caring about that. Which led me to ask: what would the Covenant call this planet?

As part of developing the backstory of this story, I figured the only reason the Covenant knew about this planet, yet not know it was a human colony, was because they found the location in a Forerunner database. Because of that, I figured the Covenant would simply refer to the planet using the same designation the Forerunners would have given it. Of course, there is no canon Forerunner designation for Actium, so I needed to make it up myself.

The Forerunner designation itself was a bit tricky as there are only three Forerunner planets in canon so far that utilizes a similar naming convention: LP 656-38 e, CE-10-2165-d, and DM-3-1123-b. I'm sure in canon, the Forerunners had an entire system behind their designations (MS would perhaps designate the type of star the system was centered around perhaps, 222-53 might represent the number of astrological bodies located in the system itself or something of that nature, and I know the 'a' represented which planet in the system it was, with 'a' being the closest to the star,) but unless it comes up again, I doubt I'll try and explore too deeply into that sort of thing.

"9th Age of Reclamation"

This is the only canon thing here. The 9th Age of Reclamation is the Covenant designated period that encompasses the entire period of the Human-Covenant War.

"6th Cycle of the Planet's Rotation"

This last part was tricky as I wanted to give a time, but I also wanted to be different and not use "hours" and "minutes." I debated "borrowing" from other sci-fi series (like Farscape, which uses "arn" and "microt" as their designations,) but I decided I didn't like that idea and wanted to create my own.

It's a fairly simplistic system, I think. Using the same idea that hours are based on the time it takes for the Earth to make a full rotation on its axis, I figured the Covenant would do something similar but instead of "hours," they would call them "cycles." I figured one "cycle" would probably be equal to about three hours, and given that I decided a while back that Actium would have 36 hour days (35.5 to exact, but rounded up; yes, this seemed like a good idea at the time; no, it turns out it really wasn't,) that means on the Covenant clock, Actium has twelve "cycles."

Khat: this is actually a real life plant native to the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula that's used as a stimulant drug. Similar to tobacco, khat is normally chewed, but when dried, it can also be smoked as well as used in tea.

Evocatus: this is evidently another name for the Elite rank of "Ultra"

Tie-Ins

As mentioned at the introductory notes, this chapter contains several tie-ins with Missing in Action. In the first half, the destruction of the subway is depicted in chapter 3 whereas the second of this chapter takes place in the direct aftermath of MIA chapter 4.

Those events aren't very important to this story, and serve only to act as a vessel to develop my characters a bit more.