Infinite Choices

by Monarch Actual

With the Human Covenant War in the rear view mirror, Morgan Bailey is convinced by a pair of old friends that her stint as a Spartan isn't quite done. Stepping aboard the UNSC Infinity will set in motion more than she signed up for and threaten to undo years of change in a woman that got out alive once. Sequel to The Flame of Nobility, and a novelization of Halo 4.

5. Chapter 5: Rough Riders

It's been a while since my last upload. I'm not dead, I'm not leaving the story unfinished, I promise. Last year was a bit... well, we all know how last year went. The muse left and I kinda lost the way on where I was going. But, here we are! I won't promise when my next upload will come, but it will, one day. Thanks for sticking with me after so much radio silence.

---

What is fate, but a collection of hourglasses full of enough sand to fill the beach a thousand times over?

---

Morgan's battle rifle clacked as she pulled the bolt back and let it catch a round, pushing forward and shoving it out of the magazine. The round slid into the chamber and the bolt closed on it with one last flicker of brass in the overhead lighting of Hangar 20B-H. Her weapon was full and she was ready to step back out onto the field. Her team was with her, their usual loadouts plus more ready as they waited.

In front of them, a Mammoth Super Heavy Siege vehicle was letting down its rear gate, exposing its interior, full of techs and the computer banks and machinery needed to move such a monster. Boxes of weapons and ammo were being shuttled onboard as well and pushed into slots on weapon racks. Even a pair of Warthogs were being loaded inside, one armed with a chaingun, as was normal, and the other with a heavy gauss cannon.

Each person on her team was carrying two primary weapons, most of them with their normal primary, modified or otherwise, and a secondary that complemented it. They were loaded down with extra ammo and extra pouches had been attached to spots on their armor. Sidearms were carried as well, but those were looking more and more like last resorts or emergency measures if both weapons ran dry during a heavy spot in a fight.

They had been briefed already, and would be mounting up for a six hour drive, rolling out of the long gangplanks Infinity had for her Mammoth hangars before she lifted off the ground again and took to the skies. The engineering and maintenance crews had done their best, and it showed. All of the ship's systems were back online and running, but they weren't certain of her ventral armor after the impact. If anything got beneath them, they might have a weak spot.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a glint of green, and turned further towards it. The Master Chief was loaded up as well, an MA5C in his hands and the stock of a SAW peeking over his shoulder.

Prepping the battle rifle in her hands, she was for once without a shotgun, something almost unheard of. A Spartan Laser was hooked to her back, the weight more than noticeable when she was rarely seen with anything more than small arms. Glancing up to August, she jerked her head towards the Mammoth. He nodded without a word and held his hand up to the team, waiting for them all to look before he moved his wrist in a circle and pointed to the interior. They all started moving at that signal and left their commander alone.

The Chief stopped short, looking at her as she laid eyes on him again. "Commander."

She felt a hint of a frown. "Chief. You ready for this?"

"Yes, ma'am. Always."

She nodded slowly. "Good." They had both been at the briefing, one of the rooms next to the bridge having housed Fireteam Crown and the Chief, as well as multiple Marines that would be embarked inside the Mammoth, the crew, and air crews that might be used in the fight. He had heard it all, so she didn't have to rehash it. "You have a plan to catch the Didact yet?"

He slowly shook his head. It seemed he was going to have to make it up on the fly as he went. They were all good at that, but she thought he might be the best. "Fair enough. Let's load up then."

Without another word, she turned and headed up the ramp into the Mammoth, moving up the stairs from the well deck to the command deck, where Lasky was already waiting for her, along with multiple technicians. "I see you didn't get enough of your trip through the jungle with us, Commander."

Lasky looked back at her, giving her a half smile. "It gets boring on the ship."

She returned it through her visor, knowing he wouldn't see it anyway. "You can say that again, but it's probably a good idea to learn to love the boring."

Lasky seemed to mull it over, before nodding slowly. "I think I'll take that to heart next time, but until then, I'd like to get some air. Bridge gets a little stuffy."

"Nobody said you had to stay on the bridge, just the ship, and you have five whole kilometers to explore."

Lasky gave her a look that was almost a warning, and she took the hint. He spoke up afterwards. "Either way, we've got a long drive ahead of us. Ship's sending drones to the coordinates to get an eye on the area and initial scans. When we get in range, the Mammoth will ping the place and get more detail overlaid onto it."

"Sounds good to me. How do you wanna do rotations?"

"We've got enough crew onboard for a three on, three off skeleton, and fill the crew for operations. Enough Marines to guard the place and man weapons on top that aren't remote controlled. Spartans should be free to move around as needed. In terms of command, myself and Chief Warrant Officer Harrison can keep ourselves ready until something happens. You and your team can just stay on the ready, figure out who's gonna do what. There are enough of you to fully fill the two Hogs and you can stock some of the ammo and weapons that aren't being used into them if you want."

"Will do. Anything else?"

"Negative. You're free to do whatever. I'll be here if you need me."

Lasky turned away from her, attempting to ready the Mammoth for departure. Morgan took that as her cue to return to her team and the Master Chief. They were all on the bottom deck, either helping to fit weapons into racks or putting extra materials into the Warthogs. They set about prepping for their own deployments when the bullets started flying. They would react to contact as fast, mobile escorts able to deal with anything that got within the Mammoth's perimeter and go on foot if need be.

Twenty minutes passed before a red light on the ceiling of the lower deck flashed green, and the Mammoth's powerplant flooded the big vehicle's veins with energy, pushing it forward and down the heavily reinforced gang plank. Trees were in the way when the Mammoth rolled onto solid ground, but they didn't matter much. The sound of cracking and shuddering in the hull was all that came from outside as the Mammoth pushed through the dense jungle without a problem, growling as it forced its way through to its destination.

All that was left to do now was to wait, and hope that their job would be without too many issues.

---

Morgan had settled in for the ride, little else to do in the six hour trip aside from check and recheck her weapons again. Outside, the environment and their surroundings changed over time. The Mammoth had rolled through the jungle that Infinity had been brought down in and passed out of its humid embrace within the first hour, giving way to open plains that had rolled underneath the massive wheels like gentle waves. There had been wildlife in the area, but none of it looked familiar to her, and it all seemed to be skittish at the sight of the siege vehicle.

The plains had ceased their rolling at some point when she hadn't been paying attention, and had switched over to a rocky highland, and the Mammoth had pushed through a large break in what could have been a mountain anywhere else, but it seemed almost like the path had been made for just such an occasion.

Finally, they had come to a series of canyons, sun baked rocks and deep crevices, sheer cliffs and distant lakes below in artificially eroded lands. It was all almost natural in its own way, and if Morgan had set her eyes on it anywhere else, without knowing she was in an artificial world, she might have thought that it was just as normal as everything else. Then again, the Forerunners were good at the whole artificial planets and land masses thing.

Stepping back up to the bridge, Lasky was in place again, having taken the second shift from Chief Harrison so he could be ready to go as soon as they entered contact. He was still distracted with looking over the sensor readbacks, the Mammoth's sensors having picked up their targets from a range of twenty miles not long ago. They were getting closer, and their job was about to start.

With a thought, her armor sent the ready signal to Crown and the Chief, who had essentially become Crown Six, something that wasn't lost on her when she had slotted him into the team's roster. "What's our status?"

Lasky turned for just a moment, getting a look at her before he gestured her forward toward the small holo projector that worked as the Mammoth's situational awareness display and briefing table. "Initial scans got some of the place right, but there's a lot going on here. Sheer cliffs, landslides, and impassable terrain to the Warthogs. We'll need the Mammoth to make it through the gauntlet."

She looked over the display herself, her arms crossing as she stood next to Lasky, spotting the Chief coming up out of the corner of her eye. "And targets?"

"We've got three airspace denial assets to blow before we can get to the gravity well generator. Large scale particle cannons in the area will blow a hole in the Infinity with her shields down the way they are now. Final readiness report says we aren't going to get shields online any time soon, so this is a must." Swiping the display, it expanded, but decentered and showed three Pelican dropships coming in from the south, following one of the canyons at Nap-of-Earth flight to stay hidden. "Dropships armed with designator pods are coming to provide long range targeting information for the Mammoth's mini-MAC, callsigns Trident One One, Trident Two One, Trident Three One."

Morgan pointed to the Pelicans. "What if they can't get eyes on?"

"If the birds go down or bug off, we have short range laser designators that can do the job, but we'll have to get closer to our targets and that might not always be viable given the terrain."

She frowned slightly, keying her headset mic. "August, grab two laser designators. One for you, one for me. Hang on to it until I come down there. Will brief in a few."

"Yes ma'am."

Looking back to Lasky, she went on. "Understood. Anything else?"

"Captain's gonna be briefing in just a minute. Hang tight and he should be-"

Lasky was cut off by the sound of an incoming hail. One of the techs called it out. "Commander, Infinity Actual, channel One Zero Five, Zero Zero Zero."

Lasky started hitting a few switches on the holo table. "I copy, put it through."

A moment passed before a small hologram of Del Rio appeared on the table, looking as arrogant as usual and with his hands behind his back, one hand holding the other as he was known to do. "Infinity to Mastodon. How copy?"

The Commander took the initiative, being the field commander of the Mammoth. "Mastodon is reading you five by five, Captain. Standing by to receive brief."

"Multiple targets in your AO. Mammoth scans sent back to Infinity have helped us define their kill zone and Monsoon has listed those particle cannons as priority one. Estimates indicate a direct hit could leave the ship a mobility kill that we won't be able to fix. Needless to say, that means your job must be done." The small figure gestured as the Mammoth's systems synced with Infinity's via data link, and the holographic representation of the area moved in time with the one on the ship. "Trident flight will be designating with guidance lasers and providing coordinates for the mini-MAC. Jamming has been encountered in the area, so electronic interference is expected, and possible thermal as well. Be prepared to engage with handheld designators as a last resort."

The Master Chief spoke up. "Captain, what's the threat assessment for our operational area?"

Del Rio frowned, looking over the Spartan for a moment before he went on. "Recon was not dispatched. Our intention is to blow through, destroy the particle cannons, and get the ship ready for departure. Recon would only give us another moving part to compromise our movements and possibly get entrenched, and the violence of action does not allow us to take any more time than needed."

The Master Chief didn't respond, and Del Rio went on. "Unless there are any other questions, we're on a time table. I expect mission complete in the next hour and a half. The Mammoth shouldn't suffer any problems dealing with this assignment. Del Rio out."

With that, the small man on the table disappeared, and Morgan looked to Lasky. The older man's visage was slightly miffed, but he didn't say anything out of line, and neither did Morgan. The radio buzzed again a moment later, on the same channel, and Sarah Palmer's voice came through.

"Mastodon, Spartan Sarah Palmer. I'll be your operator for this mission."

Morgan was the one to respond this time. "We hear you, Palmer."

"I'll handle coordination between the Pelicans and the Mammoth with the ship's sensors, keep them on target and keep you advised of any changes we pick up. We're a hundred miles to your north, but be advised, signals coming from the area are leading back towards a hard point to your southwest that seems to be controlling the particle cannons, a tower of some sort, considered possible secondary target if allowed. Command wants you to clear the way, hit the target, and the Infinity will provide stand off fireon the gravity well generator once the cannons are knocked out."

Morgan nodded to the Chief, and he moved downstairs back to the well deck without another word. "Copy all, Palmer. Crown will be riding escort. You'll be talking with Lasky more than me this op."

"Yes, ma'am. Don't be a stranger."

"Never by choice, Palmer."

With that, Morgan stepped away from the holotable, and heard Lasky and Palmer start going back and forth as she went down to the well deck where the two hogs were sitting ready. August and Castille were in the front vehicle, with the Master Chief up on the rear pedestal that held the LAAG. The second vehicle had Hammonds and Wright, the gauss cannon empty and waiting for her to hop onboard.

Climbing up into place on the back of the vehicle and grabbing onto the handles, her thumbs reaching for the firing studs, and she settled into place. The front ramp started to hiss open and the Mammoth rocked on its monstrous suspension, before coming to a halt. The front Warthog eased forward, engine growling in the interior, the sound bouncing off of the walls as it pushed forward and out into the sunlight. The second Hog followed close behind, Wright adjusting the shifter to his right expertly and sticking to the trail the other Hog had made.

"Hog One, Hog Two, take left and right, stick close to Mastodon until we're contacted. Guns up, I'm expecting company."

Her orders received, the two Hogs maneuvered as if it had been scripted. Getting a look at the area now, Morgan could see the sheer cliff face rising to her right, and a nasty drop off on the left that opened up to a fall that ended several hundred meters below. They would be riding the wall this time. There was plenty of space for the Warthogs and Mammoth to maneuver, enough for three Mammoths to ride abreast with some breathing room, but anything could happen. Their first target would be hidden behind a bend to the right in front of them, two hundred meters ahead.

Overhead, three Pelicans hovered into view, their voices filtering in on the command channel.

"Mastodon, Trident flight on station, prepped to paint a picture on your targets." The male voice on the other end was cool and collected, the three Pelicans having popped up where the left cliff dropped off. They were on level with the Mammoth, not wanting to fly too high.

Lasky responded, the Mammoth setting off again, the huge wheels crushing stones underneath. "Mastodon copies. Standby for additional tasking. First target, 800 meters south."

"Trident copies."

Morgan gave the order to advance a hundred meters from the Mammoth, to keep them in sight of the Mammoth's onboard defenses and to have ample time to prevent enemy ground vehicles from getting too close and getting underneath the defensive guns.

The Warthogs roared and fishtailed for a moment before catching traction and pushing forward, their guns swiveling and their passengers propped up on top of their seats, weapons ready as eyes peered through scopes and sights.

The small force was merely seven vehicles, with three of them being normal Pelicans, but they had the firepower of a force many times their size in the Mammoth's mini-MAC. It rolled forward behind the Warthogs with all the angry fury of the MACs that had been placed onboard ships for so many years now, and the firing of it on the first target would more than measure up to the trumpet of the ancient animal the vehicle was named after.

The Warthogs rounded the first corner, and Morgan's green eyes spotted their first target. A single sphere orbited by three curved prongs floated quietly, the red firing device in its core glowing an angry red in the mid day sun.

To their left, the Pelicans of Trident flight hovered into place, one of them going nose on to get a shot at the particle cannon ready for the Mammoth, still coming around the corner at a decent clip.

Comms chatter in her ear again. "Trident One One, target acquired, painting first particle cannon. Jamming interference preventing accurate coordinate lock.

Palmer's voice came through, filled with warning. "Trident One One, drop altitude, you're in the kill zone."

"Just a moment more, almost acquired…" The Pelican continued to hover in place, trying its hardest to paint the target, but it couldn't handle the jamming.

"Energy build up detected! Trident flight, drop altitude, now!"

Palmer's warning was too late, and the red eye in the center of the cannon lit up with energy, the three prongs around it acting as focusing arms. The shot left the cannon's core and crossed the distance to the flight of Pelicans in an instant. Light speed wasn't even a consideration when you were within spitting distance of a miniature sun.

Two Pelicans were vaporized the same instant the cannon had fired, gone without a trace, as if they had never existed. The third Pelican was nearly torn in half, the right wing and rear stabilizer gone completely, leaving behind blistered metal that had been melted down, white hot remnants showing their base.

Mortally wounded, the Pelican started to fall like a rock, spinning like a top as the pilot's first instinct was to throttle up and try to escape another shot. All it did was spin the ship faster, dropping towards the ground despite the pilot's best efforts.

"Mayday, mayday, mayday! Trident Three One is going in hard!"

The pilot called out for help, and the six Spartans and Mastodon watched as it went in behind a series of rocks, followed by the sound of it impacting. Metal was torn again, echoing off of the canyon.

Morgan ignored Lasky's status update to Palmer in her ear, the call of a Pelican down coming second to her own instincts. "Mastodon, Crown is going to grab survivors and recover anything or anyone that survived the crash.

Harrison responded this time, with Lasky still busy. "Mastodon copies, holding position until designators are ready to provide coordinates."

Behind them, the Mammoth halted, rocking on its suspension again as more Marines rushed onto the top of the siege vehicle, manning all of the turrets and watching the skies and ground while Fireteam Crown's hogs rocketed off towards the Pelican's crash site, inky black smoke rising into the sky already.

Her legs bent and straightened with each bump in the road as the Warthogs accelerated, shocks absorbing the heavy vehicle's kinetic energy and the engines roaring loudly. In her peripheral, she saw Hog One's passenger, Castille, waving at Hog Two. Morgan glanced over, only to see Castille start waving to the right. Following the gesture, Morgan spotted a break in the cliffside. Castille's voice came over the radio, loud and clear. "Hog One breaking right, scans from Mastodon show this is where Trident went down. Follow us in."

Wright responded quickly, easing off the gas for only a moment to let Hog One take the lead, and fell in behind them without a word. Ahead, the break in the cliffside turned to the right, and they slowed to take the turn, before another to the left opened up into a rocky clearing, with Trident's only survivor bent out of shape and laying in a heap of metal and, at this point, open flames.

The right side was still red hot, and the bird had gone in tail first, most of the rear section ripped off and scattered across the clearing. The main body, from the troop bay forward, was crumpled and deformed. The nose had been crushed, the ballistic glass coating the ground all around the bird in glittering shards as Hog One led the way.

They split, each hog choosing the left or right side as they accelerated again. "Castille, when we get to the bird, you're point. Get the survivors out. Hammonds, take the gauss."

Green status lights replied without another word, and Hog One slid into place, rocks and dust kicked up as Castille threw herself from the vehicle before it stopped moving, legs already kicking as she hit the ground at a run and barreled forward. Morgan followed close behind as Wright threw the Warthog into a powerslide that had it stop with the front grille facing back the way they'd come. Hammonds slung himself up onto the gun and Morgan pushed for the Pelican.

When she made it into the troop bay, a fire had already broken out along the port side ceiling, where several wires hung sparking and more smoke poured out of a conduit housing. It was small for now, but it would only grow, and the fuel tanks would be going up soon, with the ammunition ready to pop off at any moment.

"Castille!"

"Cockpit! One survivor, status red!"

Morgan moved forward, seeing Castille was already at work on the pilot in the front half of the cockpit, the bubble canopies revealing the sky. The copilot was slumped against their station, and when Morgan pulled the body up to look at it, she could see where the impact had smashed their head against the console, leaving a dent in their helmet, a broken console, and more than a few issues where the controls had acted against the pilot. Frowning, she tore their tags from their neck and pocketed them. Castille was already on her way out.

The pilot, a man who now sported a limp and unnatural looking arm, was being carried along by the medical Spartan. Morgan trusted Castille to get the man stabilized, and called in the pilot's status. "Mastodon, Crown Actual, pilot recovered, copilot KIA. Sending Hog One to return with the casualty."

"Mastodon copies. Moving forward to the break. Be advised, radar reports multiple dropship level craft inbound from further along the route, including a few Banshee escorts."

Harrison's call back to her was punctuated by multiple rockets from the MLRS batteries on top of Mastodon firing at the incoming bogies, screaming through the air and impacting against at least one of the enemy fliers. That would complicate things.

Castille was already loading the pilot into the front seat of Hog One, strapping him in and forcing herself into the small amount of space behind the seat. Only her leg and part of her lower body could fit. If there was a rollover, she'd be toast, but there was no other real way to put another person onto a gunned Hog like this.

Loading back up, taking the passenger seat, Morgan readied her battle rifle. Hog One had started rolling, with Hog Two following like a shadow. The whine of plasma fire filled the air, along with the chatter of rotary guns and the crack of gauss cannons on Mastodon's roof, before a somewhat distant explosion sounded.

Exiting the small area that Trident Three One had gone down in, the two Warthogs spotted Mastodon, having closed the distance and come to a halt to wait on the Hogs, mini-MAC primed and ready. Hog One rolled into the bay, and Hog Two followed, the Spartans disembarking and making for the roof quickly. Before Morgan could run up the stairs behind them, August grabbed the two designators that had been picked out before, tossing one to her and sliding the other onto his hip. Castille remained behind as more medics pushed down from the upper decks to work on Three One's pilot.

But that was out of her hands, and she and August climbed the stairs quickly until they exited back out into the sunlight and Morgan grabbed the designator in both hands, pointing it at the particle cannon as her comms lit up. "Mastodon, designator live. Fire when ready!" Calling out to her squad, she braced them. "Mastodon is firing, grit your teeth!"

One of the techs in charge of the MAC responded. "Mastodon copies. Target acquired, coordinates entered. Charging. Charging. Charging." A moment's pause. "Shot, over."

Behind her, the mini-MAC cracked, sending a MAC round out at many times the speed of sound, the heavy slug traversing the distance between the end of the barrel and the particle cannon in a fraction of an instant, little more than a bright white spear that penetrated the particle cannon and went out the other side with an ear piercing whine, tumbling through the air with the vast majority of its energy having been expended piercing through the cannon.

The hole that had been cored through the cannon was left empty for only a moment, explosions filling it with red and orange, secondary explosions rippling through the body and causing the cannon to start falling from where it had been hung who knew how many thousands of years ago, plummeting into the canyon below and smashing against the rocks out of sight.

All the while, the rest of Crown had been engaging enemy forces that had rolled up on them. Banshees filled the air, Ghosts and even a pair of Wraiths were on the field as well. Ghosts were slapped by Gauss rounds, Banshees pulled from the air by rotary cannon fire punching holes through them, and the Wraiths were bracketed by MLRS systems, rockets swarming for the sleek looking mortar vehicles before impacting and doing heavy damage.

The tide didn't ease up, even as Mastodon started rolling forward again, the Mammoth's defenses doing more than enough to keep the enemy at bay. Not like the Covenant really had much in the way of dealing with the nearly 500 ton siege vehicle outside of actual naval assets.

They pushed through the contact at speed, Lasky keeping the interior running smoothly while Crown and the Marines that had been dispatched roamed the top decks and returned fire, plasma fire and tracer rounds crisscrossing the open air between the two forces, with missiles and accelerator rounds entering the mix as often as they could.

To the left of the Mammoth, a Phantom suddenly peeked over the edge of the canyon. One of the MLRS systems on the port side of the roof was looking towards it, but had to adjust its aim just a bit. It still took too long, and fire from the Phantom's door gunner started to rake the platform, ripping the Marine on the MLRS turret nearly in half as it quickly closed the distance and a group of Elites jumped from the interior, landing on the roof.

Morgan watched as the nearest member of Crown, August, did something that she hadn't expected the big man to do. His weapon, of little use with a shielded Elite landing in such close proximity to him, was dropped to the ground, the teal armored Spartan closing the near-arms-length in an instant.

The Elite, in the process of raising its own plasma rifle in one hand while trying to struggle back away from the Spartan, was too slow. Three globs of plasma fire splattered across August's shields, the golden lattice activating and draining quickly, on the verge of breaking. August pulled back one massive arm and turned his body at the waist, before the speed at which his coiled form whipped back around turned his upper body into what was more or less a blur, even to Morgan's enhanced eyes.

The armored gauntlet impacted against the Elite's chest plate and punched through the shields, the armor, and then bare skin underneath, penetrating enough to go most of the way through the Elite and stopping against the inside of the backplate. The plasma rifle, clad in a shaky alien grip, was ripped free by her number two, and even before his arm was pulled out of the Elite's chest, the plasma rifle was turned on another Elite that had been engaged by one of the Marines with an assault rifle. Dropping the second alien's shields, August pulled himself away from his first target and threw the plasma rifle at his second target, venting heat as his light machine gun was grabbed from the ground. By the time he was back looking down his sights, the Marine had finished the job, the two exchanging nods.

Crown and the rest of the Marines were mopping up their own fights, and one of the MLRS turrets finally managed to get on target again, sending a swarm of rockets into the interior of the Phantom and causing a series of explosions that sent the craft into a flat spin, smoke trailing from the troop bay as it dropped back off to the left, disappearing over the edge of the cliff with another distant explosion.

With the roof of the Mammoth cleared, and the rest of the combatants on the ground at range, Morgan felt herself take a breath. The fight hadn't been all that long, and the enemy ground forces were being mopped up without much in the way of resistance. If that was all they had to deal with, there wouldn't be any problems. The armor was too heavy for anything to breach the Mammoth, and very little would be able to deal with the Spartans of Fireteam Crown, the Mammoth's infantry detachment, and the Master Chief himself.

Lowering her weapon, she looked ahead, seeing a Wraith take a salvo of missiles to the face and detonate in a flash of blue, the sound reaching her a moment later. She turned to move back down into the Mammoth, the bright light from outside dimming and disappearing as she entered the dimly lit interior of the siege vehicle.

Lasky was near the handful of Marines driving the big vehicle, and he turned to look at her as she entered again. "Good job out there, Commander."

She closed the gap, her weapon moving to her back. "Distance to the second particle cannon?"

A glance at one of the stations, where the tech manning it gave his answer. "A mile and a half, around another bend in the rock, Commander."

She nodded in understanding. "We'll stay ready. I'm not sure the assault force is necessary for the time being, short of another downed bird or a blockage in the path."

The other commander seemed to agree. "We'll stay buttoned up then." Lasky moved closer to the tech that had spoken, taking an eyeful of the display. "Estimate another half hour before we have visual on the third cannon. Infinity will be staying hidden over the horizon until it's offline, then she'll lob a missile for the jamming platform."

"Got it. Call us if you need us."

"Set on speed dial, Spartan."

With that, she left Lasky behind, traversing the stairs back to the top, where her Spartans and the Marines waited, watching the skies and the path ahead for any more unwanted guests. It wasn't quiet. Weapons were still spitting payloads at enemy forces. Wayward Banshees were brought down by accurate fire, Ghosts were pulverized, Wraiths lobbed inaccurate shots that only drew more attention than they could handle.

Turning another bend, a cave yawned open in front of them, curving along the wall to the right. The techs inside would know just how far it went with the Mammoth's sensors, but the sentinels on top would be left keeping watch the duration of the journey.

Morgan looked over all of them. Castille had made her way up since Morgan had gone down, and now she was attending to the body of the Marine that had been shot off of the MLRS turret. He was dead, of course, killed before he even hit the ground, but they still had to deal with his remains. His tags were taken, ammo and weapon followed, and then he was taken downstairs by a pair of Marines, confident that a Spartan would be able to replace the two of them with ease.

Something more important was on her mind, however, and her eyes set themselves on the olive drab armor that had replaced the battered Mark VI she had seen all those years ago.

Green eyes roved over the newer GEN2 design, more angular, almost alien compared to the older model that had been replaced. Cleaner, more pristine, not bearing the scars of who knew how many battles and near misses.

Her musings didn't last long, as the golden visor that concealed the wearer inside turned on her, and she saw her reflection in it. Neither spoke for a few moments, all quiet except for the rumble of the Mammoth's engines reverberating off of the cave's interior walls and the wayward chatting of a few of the Marines.

She took the initiative, wanting to speak with him while she had the chance. They were both busy, and the situation they were in didn't leave much time to relax and talk about all the missing years between them. Her mouth opened as she heard the comm channel activate, but she didn't get anything out.

"We have asked you to give up your family, your childhood, your future."

The voice that answered wasn't John's, filled with artificial modulation and the signs of corruption, one that sent another chill up Morgan's spine. Her eyes, tuned to the subtle movements of a Spartan in armor, saw him tense up, almost stiffening as if it had startled him, and the comm channel cut immediately.

What the hell?

Her thoughts ran wild with the implication that had come from that single sentence that Cortana had spoken. His response was different. She knew about what was going on, he wasn't hiding it from her. Instead, he was trying to figure it out himself. She had no doubt that Cortana was trying to hide the full extent of it from him, to try and make it seem like she could go a little further.

Cortana had always been stubborn, a wild card even in the best of scenarios. From what little time Morgan had spent with Doctor Halsey on Reach, before the end, she had an inkling of where that side came from.

But if she was having outbursts, interjecting with things that didn't have any relevance or make sense, then it was hard to tell just how deep into the degenerative effects of rampancy she was. For all Morgan knew, they could have anywhere from a month to just an hour.

Cortana was old, by the limits of the UNSC's smart AIs, and she had spent five years in the dark, alone, doing nothing but thinking and watching over the sleeping Master Chief. It would drive even the most mentally stable Humans insane. Cortana's status as an AI did little for her, given she was created by taking a Human brain and essentially copying it over to an artificial intelligence form. It was why she was similar to Halsey in many ways.

None of that did them any favors here, and Morgan frowned. She forced the channel back open again. "Chief, what's going on in there?"

When he responded, several seconds later, there was a small amount of static in the connection, impossible given they were right next to each other. The signal shouldn't have been degraded at all, but it was, and she had some idea as to why. "Cortana's getting worse."

"I had assumed as much. There's interference on your side of the channel."

"I know."

Her frown deepened, and she moved closer. A glance over her shoulder at the rapidly approaching exit to the cave, and she looked back to the Chief. "Can you keep going with her in your armor?"

"Affirmative."

"Don't lie to me. If she starts causing issues, then I'll have to remove her chip until we can get back to Earth."

"No."

The response was hard, and she flinched slightly. The Chief was refusing to remove her, even though she was already causing some issues with the armor, and very likely, could cause issues with him, given her interface with the armor used some of his own neural interface. "You know I wouldn't do it if there were other ways."

He was silent for a moment, and then he was cast in the bright sunlight again, glinting off of his visor. "I know."

It was going to be difficult. Not only because of their connection, but because of her own biases and Cortana's degrading personality. "When we get back to the ship…" She was slow at first, but forced some steel into her voice. "We're going to figure out how to deal with this, as soon as we get the chance."

Another pause, but no words came, only the minute nod of his helmet. He understood, and he would do as she asked, even if he hated the thought of it.

That left nothing more for them to say, and Morgan turned away, the sunlight hitting her own visor as they rolled fully around the bend. From here, she could see the area immediately ahead was blocked by a pair of waterfalls, deep enough that, even had the assault force still been on the ground, they would be forced to come back inside. Warthogs wouldn't be able to fjord that, and the force of the flowing water would be too much even if they could.

She frowned and moved to the front of the Mammoth's top deck as it rolled through the first small river that came down from above and flowed off the side and down into the canyons below. The Marines continued to chatter, some of them talking about how pretty things would look if they weren't so worried about being stuck here. The Spartans kept quiet, constantly looking around, keeping an eye out for targets. Even the Master Chief, fresh from the conversation they had just had, was back to business as usual, as if it had never happened.

Her radio crackled. "Security force, Mastodon is half a klick from target two. Sensors reading it should be just… there."

On her HUD, another icon appeared, mixing with the information her suit was already feeding her. Behind a rock pillar that climbed into the sky, and in front of another cliff face in the distance, the second particle cannon peeked out from behind where it had been covered.

She keyed the mic. "Eyes on, Mastodon. Preparing laze."

"Copy. Mini-MAC charging."

Pulling the designator from her hip, she pointed it at the particle cannon and held down the trigger until it pinged, indicating a good laze. "Laze up. Ready on you, Mastodon."

"Standby... Shot, over."

Just as it had done before, the mini-MAC cracked loudly, the shot going out and traversing to the particle cannon before any of them even registered it. Once again, it cored the particle cannon, and their second target was downed as if it had been trivial.

"Good kill, second target is down."

"Continuing forward toward next target."

"Crown copies."

She clicked off the channel and the Mammoth grumbled again, as if angry that it was being told to keep moving after it had been in motion for so long, unused to such travel with the limited use Mammoths saw.

She stood there, her visor playing across the area as her Spartans continued to roam like wolves, prowling over the upper deck. The second of three particle cannons was down, and soon they would take the third, freeing Infinity from the ties of this place. Free to hunt down the Didact and end yet another threat to Humanity.

Despite all of that, though, she worried. She hadn't expected this when she signed up again. She had expected a standard tour, dealing with pirates here and there, training some of the best Humanity had to offer to be even better. She had gotten more than she'd bargained for.

Did she regret it?

No. Of course not. She knew that if she had said no to Greer, things right now would likely be going the same, but somehow different. The Chief would have come back and had to deal with Cortana's rampancy on his own, unable to trust anybody else. If nothing else, she was thankful that she was able to try and help in some way, even if it meant she might have to lie to Del Rio and Lasky to do so.

Still, it bothered her on some level. That she had even managed to stumble upon them in the first place. What were the odds? So low as to be impossible, and then some. A glance over her shoulder at him again, for only a moment, and then she was back to watching their path.

Was it fate? Destiny? That same seeming act of God that had kept her alive through Reach and returning to Earth? Who knew. She sure as hell didn't.

Beneath her feet, the Mammoth rocked as it hit a large bump in the path, breaking her from her big vehicle rounded another bend in the path, and as it pulled around fully, it stopped, rocking back and forth on its suspension. A call from Lasky was imminent.

"Assault force, massive rockslide in the way. Mammoth won't go too much further without clearing it away, and it'll take too long. Mammoth's TACREP is saying there's a structure nearby that's feeding the particle cannons with information, through a small break in the cliff face. Estimate that's where we need to go from here. Spartans, disembark and check it out. Mastodon will remain here and try to clear some of this away."

Morgan looked around at her Spartans, all of them already moving for the stairs. "Crown Actual concurs. Moving to bottom deck and disembarking, sans Warthogs."

"Mastodon copies, good hunting."

She followed in the wake of the other heavily armed and armored Spartans, moving down into the bottom deck and through a smaller door in the sides, dropping to the dusty ground below and watching the small door seal up behind her, the last to disembark.

Her weapon was up, and she looked over their formation. The Chief was in the lead, Hammonds and Wright behind him, August in the middle, and Castille bringing up the rear with her. She closed the distance, tapping Castille on the shoulder as she passed, doing the same with each of the others until she was on the Chief's side, slightly to the rear and the right, her rifle's sights acting as another eye for her.

He led the way through the thin cracks that acted as a path through the cliff face, barely large enough to fit two of them abreast. Weapons were up, barrels acting as an extension of the monolithic squad's bodies. Every nook and shooter's crevice had eyes on within seconds of coming into view, honed eyes picking out possible sniper nests.

Crown's members had all dealt with the worst the war had to offer, knowing how the Covenant worked. They were hardened, veterans all, in their element and equipped with the best that Humanity had after coming out of that dark night that had fallen on their species. They were the shining light, the tip of the spear, and the wrath of a species given form. Tempered, but ready to be unleashed at the first sign of opposition.

Armor that weighed hundreds of pounds, weapons and ammunition, the people inside it all, and there was nothing more than the barest scrape of boots on the dusty ground below. They moved like ghosts, gliding forward in silence, held in perfect formation. Eyes were glued to crosshairs or sights, fingers resting on triggers, hearts beating at a perfectly calm 60 beats per minute.

Morgan's mind was far from those thoughts. The war was behind her, today was more important. A new threat, a return to the old life she thought she'd left, and a ghost from her past back in the flesh with a few new cracks on the surface.

The canyon widened around them, letting them step into a large open area filled with more Forerunner structures that were gleaming steel, pristine despite the dusty environment they had been built into.

Every single building was a sniper waiting to peer out at them and pull the trigger, stop their advance in little more than an instant. Her blood was hot, her instincts were energized, she was ready. So was the rest of Crown, all of them thinking the same thing:

Killing field.

And then hell broke loose. A trio of snipers, scattered around the buildings on the first or second levels, rose from behind cover just as several Forerunner knights warped into view, far closer and ready for a fight.

"Scatter!" The order was given, Morgan's voice hard as stone even while her rifle came up to meet the first knight's screaming skull. The heavy barrel of the rifle pressed against the orange terror, the trigger pulled back, the firing pin slammed forward, and the first round was sent screaming down the barrel and straight into the Knight's 'face'. Two more followed in the same fashion, and Morgan's finger timed her pulls perfectly enough that another burst was hot on the first's heels, and then a third. It was as if the weapon was on automatic. Such heavy rounds in rapid succession blew the Knight's skull apart and brought an end to one of the many fights that had broken out before it even started. The blank gaze given off by the golden visor betrayed nothing, only a reflection of another Forerunner brought down by her hands.

Crown had split like the branches of a river, all of them taking the fight to the enemy and not waiting around for a sniper to take them down. Reinforcements were on their way too, easily picked out by augmented and enhanced ears. Chittering Grunts galloped on stubby arms and legs, Elites prodded and commanded, waving their plasma repeaters and plasma rifles, and Jackal snipers growled and squawked in protest at even the thought of standing and fighting a squad of Demons.

The avian like aliens were the only ones who saw what had come running to deal with their presence. A single Demon could make short work of any of the smaller infantry or armor units in a timely manner without even seeming to take a hit. A squad of them in such a small area? There wasn't enough space for the near-mercenary aliens to properly snipe when every new attempt at peeking had lead ricocheting off of their cover at the first sign of flesh. The Elites and Grunts could be zealous in their cause, but it was nothing more than a paycheck to the birds. This was suicide.

It was obvious that staying here would be a swift death as August went head on against one of the knights. A blade on a skeletal arm was brought down in a cleaving motion, sidestepped effortlessly and broken off by the big Spartan, damn near as big as Jorge had been. It was turned on its previous owner, and with a flourish that seemed almost out of place on such a large fighter, the knight was bisected and fell to the ground.

One of the snipers saw what had happened, sheltered from view by the others, and started to raise their weapon. Just as their sights came up to their eye, they began to acquire their target, and all that was seen was the barrel of August's pistol, up and off of his hip, and pointed in their direction.

The first sniper to fall went down with a new hole in its head, and the Spartans continued to tear through the force that had ambushed them. It was just another day on the job. No panic, no requests for orders. They were each an army all on their own, all the traits of every soldier built into them by experience and training. A reinforced squad sized group of Covenant held together by zeal and little else was just a bump in the road. Even the Forerunner knights, big and advanced as they were, couldn't stop the momentum of even one of them.

Time had slowed in their minds, all of them experiencing that phenomena known as 'Spartan Time'. Two of them had lived in it almost their entire lives. The Master Chief had become more than accustomed to its slowed feel, the oldest Spartan in their group capable of gliding through time without missing a step. Morgan, far from a stranger to it, was just as quick and nimble. She had been out of the fight for too long, but the last deployment to find the Chief had shown she wouldn't be missing any steps. It all came flooding back to her further with every pull of the trigger. The rest, soldiers through and through, had been through Hells of their own without the advancements of Mjolnir and the Spartan augmentations. They'd earned their stripes, living in the mud and the blood of comrades and enemies alike. Now? They were stronger, faster, better than even any Olympian crowned in the past. They had been admitted to the mountaintop home where Gods had lived.

No Human alive would see them as anything other than Gods when the bullets started flying and the screams sounded. Every one of them would have paid an arm and a leg for a Spartan to have been on the field when things had come down to the wire for them. But that was in the past. Now they were the Spartans. They wore the name well.

The Covenant squad disappeared under their withering fire, leaving nothing but the Knights to slow the Spartans' advance. After all, what more could they do than slow them down? Nothing would stop them.

Like most of their fights, it was over quickly. Morgan finally lowered her weapon a few seconds after the echo of the last shot had dissipated into the air. Crown kept moving. The momentum had to be preserved, even if a Spartan could move from a standstill to a sprint without any issues. The basics of warfare couldn't be forgotten or disregarded just because most of them had new armor.

A Forerunner structure rose out of the ground ahead, climbing into the sky a hundred meters. Morgan keyed her mic to the squad. "Structure ahead. Think that's our secondary objective. Crown, standby just outside the facility, make sure nothing gets in and sneaks up on us. August, you know the drill."

As the Chief and Morgan moved for the door, the rest took up their positions and August gave her a thumbs up, setting up his LMG and getting ready for anything. He would keep them covered.

Next, she switched channels back to Infinity. "Infinity, Crown Actual, the Master Chief and I are going internal.

The next transmission lagged a few seconds, and she entered the structure, but nothing came through except garbled gibberish that she couldn't read. "Damn it." Squadcom opened again. "Crown, any of you register Infinity's last?
Castille answered. "Yes ma'am. Proceed inside, coordinates to follow."

A string of coordinates appeared on her HUD, and she forwarded them to the Chief as well. They carried on, deeper into the structure, and came to a locked door. She moved closer, searching for a control panel or a door lock, but nothing was there. She banged on the door, tried to pry it open, nothing. Grunting, she turned back to the Chief. "We're at a standstill now. Any ideas?"

He didn't answer, merely looked at a Sentinel that floated out of a nearby crevice in the wall and hovered its way over. It bypassed both of them, before closing on the door and sending a signal to open it.

Morgan and the Chief shared a look, and she shrugged, following the Sentinel inside as it moved through. They ran into more locked doors, branches in the path that the Sentinel left locked, leading the way through by opening specific doors. Morgan was beginning to think it was guiding them, as the coordinates were getting closer and closer until, finally, a last door opened on an elevator, where the coordinates pointed to. "Here's our spot, I guess. Ready to head up?"

The Chief's voice rumbled through his external speakers. "Could be a trap."

Morgan shrugged. "Sentinel gave me ideas and you were tight lipped. Come on, not like we have any other options."

He didn't answer this time, and they both went through the door and stepped onto the elevator. It was a quick ride up, silent, and ended somewhere near the top of the structure. They both stepped out into a long corridor with a terminal at the end, weapons raised. When nothing appeared and no threats struck out, they lowered their weapons and proceeded through, passing by multiple large structures that could have been anything.

Morgan nodded to the control panel when they closed in on it, and took up a position to watch his back. He moved forward and took Cortana's chip out, slotting it into the terminal. Morgan heard Cortana's voice a moment later. "Alright, something is going on in here… I think the cannons use these arrays for targeting information. Like old SAM networks used to rely on centralized radars. It's all automated though, so give me just a moment, and… there. Last cannon is down."

Morgan lowered her weapon, looking back to Cortana as she sent out the transmission to Infinity using the array as a signal bounce. "Cortana to Infinity, skies should be safe now." No response. "Infinity!" Another pause. "Wait… something is…" She turned quickly to the Chief. "Something's in here!"

Before John could move, even at Spartan speeds, she was gone, disappearing into the terminal. "Cortana!" The Chief reached out for her chip, grabbing it and slotting it into place again. "We need to move!"

They both started to head back the way they came at a run, before a new light bridge opened to the right. They shared another look, and Morgan knew they were both feeling the apprehension. "Cortana might be trying to guide us."

He didn't say it could be a trap this time, instead leading the way across to the door it led to, before it opened and sent them through another maze of corridors, dropping them out among a small flight of Sentinels that seemed to be waiting for them, all turning to point at a large door that opened as they moved closer. Inside, a bright blue beam stood waiting, and Cortana was inside it. She didn't move, and the Chief led the way once again. When they closed on it, she disappeared, and all of a sudden Morgan felt the pull of something too powerful to resist.

It dragged the Chief in, sweeping his feet from under him. Morgan was sent to the ground, armor scraping across the Forerunner steel deck before she was lifted into the air, and then the world went white as she screamed.

---

Green eyes flashed open, blinded by the sun above. A bright blue sky, far removed from the darkened ceiling of the Forerunner array complex, or the slightly greened skybox that had been what covered the canyon system they had been in last. She was on her back, lying in place in grass that rose up around her.

Morgan's first thought was to open a comm to her team, to get their status, and with GEN 2, it was easy enough. Simply think about it and it would happen. It was second nature now. "Crown, respond." Nothing. "Sierra-117?" Still nothing. She grimaced.

Standing up, she remembered the dream she'd had when she'd nearly been killed during the last few hours of the war. Noble had come to her, ghosts in a mind on the brink of shutting down. Nothing had happened this time to cause a return there, to that village where Noble had settled down to live their lives, figments of her imagination though they were.

But something else about this place was familiar. The grass was halfway up her shins, gently swaying back and forth in a breeze that she couldn't feel on her skin. A frown, and she closed her eyes in what felt like disappointment. The ship's recycled air and being locked into her armor any time she left, she was missing the feel of the wind blowing against her face. An oddity for a Spartan of her generation.

A sigh, and she looked around. Trees lined the side of an open field, boxing it in. They, too, shared the movements of the grass, though more reserved. Three sides, those trees blocked the rest of the world, and she felt more of that faint remembrance seeping into her mind. An old memory, faded as to be something that she thought she'd never truly experienced, that it was just a dream she may have had.

Too much had happened in her life to remember something that hadn't taken place in the last five years. Flickers of war and death pushed deep down inside, her mind's attempt at dealing with trauma that she never really noticed in the first place. Training on Onyx, crushing and yet defining at the same time, some of the few happy moments that had come before the long dark night that the war had been. Finally, the years she'd spent as a civilian. The sun had come out, and stayed out.

So, that meant this was all that was left of her life as a child. A faded memory of the days spent in and around Sapphire Point, a mid-sized city that had been the initial point for colonization. The planet's name was long gone to her, and she didn't care to remember it. Days spent in the city with her mother, a woman whose face was little more than a silhouette to her. All she could bring to mind was the sharp nose, the slender chin, the short, messy hair. It was a face that was covered in the shadow of time.

There was a pang of hurt, when she actually thought about it, and the big woman closed her eyes in an attempt to think harder on it, to force the memory into being, but it never came, and her mother was lost to her again. Opening her eyes again, she turned her back on the field, and she was given over to the view of Sapphire Point, before it had been turned into a graveyard, nothing but glass and bones. Skyscrapers rising into the sky, buildings getting shorter as they fanned out into the city proper, homes and suburbs, perfectly made by colony planners that were building a world's capital.

Her shoulders slumped, and she could feel a yearning for a past that had been wiped away. Fate had seen otherwise for her. She would never have that chance again, to simply be a child.

But instinct would determine things just as much, and her longing was cut short as she sensed a presence. Turning on it in a whirlwind, she was already bringing her fists up in a fighting stance, coiled and ready to pounce on whatever it was that had invaded her mind.

A hairless woman, with wideset eyes and a pair of slits for a nose. Her clothing was unlike anything she'd seen before, and the woman wore an odd headress. Eyes that were black with blue sclera stared back at her. She was unarmed.

That didn't stop Morgan from holding her stance. The woman had a view of possible hurt, but it could have been anything. Morgan wasn't the best judge of expression, after all.

She wasted no time in speaking, though, and Morgan's ears caught her voice. "You've arrived in a place that was never meant to see you, a world where your story ended long ago."

Morgan frowned, narrowing her eyes. "You know it's rude to start speaking in riddles before you've said hello?"

The joke fell flat, and the woman didn't react to it. "There is no need for greeting. You are an anomaly. There were many things that I planned, a thousand lifetimes in the past, but your part to play is no longer in sync."

"Explain." Morgan wasn't about to play 20 questions with a stranger, but she slowly relaxed her pose.

A moment of pause. "I am the remains of the memories of the Forerunner known as The Librarian, or First-Light-Weaves-Living-Song. These memories were intended to assist Humanity on their journey to assuming the Mantle of Responsibility, once held by the Forerunners. But that journey is imperiled, and so is the plan that was set in place by my maker." The Librarian gestured to Morgan. "You were one of those that were accounted for, and you were to play a great part in the plan that was made, the eventualities that it would create. You succeeded in carrying out your part of the plan, but you were meant to have fallen when it was complete."

Morgan felt ice in her veins. Fallen? Did that mean…? Her mouth dried out, and she spoke up despite it. "What was my part to play?"

"Your part, child, was to deliver The Ancilla to The Champion. Fate decided your beginning, but not your end. Now? You stand here before me, much as The Champion does. You were not expected to survive, and so your evolution was not factored into play. You are not safe here."

"Hold on a minute, my evolution? What?"

The Librarian's head twitched, and she glanced off enough to stare into the trees behind Morgan. A series of bells started to ring, those same bells that had haunted Morgan when the trauma had become too much. It was a memory, surfacing from her past. The bells had been here, at Sapphire Point. But the memory was pushed aside as The Librarian went on. "He has found us. There is no time to explain to you, but you must not follow The Champion when he makes his choice. You must protect him, for if you do not, then all is lost."

Before Morgan could go on, the sky flashed, and when things had come back to her, she was flat on her back again. The Master Chief was with her, but he was held suspended in the air, a lattice much like their shields surrounding him, spread out as if he was being held in a massive hand that was squeezing.

But there was no time to react, as he slowly dropped into a kneeling position, standing a moment later as if nothing had happened. Another voice entered her mind though, just as Cortana appeared on a nearby pedestal. "Are you two alright?" She asked, looking them both over with a look of worry. "Both of you just… your vitals were all over the place. Morgan was about to go cardiac, and the Chief… pinged KIA."

Morgan frowned at that. That was never good. "What happened? To both of you?"

John answered first. "Long story, but I know what the Didact is after."

Cortana seemed impatient, worried, as the Chief went for the pedestal and pulled her out of the system. Her voice filtered in through comms now. "I know, The Librarian filled me in on it as well when I got pulled through the system, but she didn't say what she did to you or Morgan."

That got Morgan's attention. "Then we all saw her?"

John looked back at her, giving her a nod. "It seems so. We'll debrief later, but we need to get out of here, now. The Didact knows we're here. Cortana, guide us out."

A route appeared on Morgan's HUD, and the two Spartans made tracks. It didn't take long, but they got a new route out through a portal, separating them from Crown. Almost as soon as they stepped back out into the sunlight, Morgan's comms pinged. It was August.

"Commander, what happened in there? Your vitals are all out of wack and you dropped off the scans for a bit entirely."

"Long story, Two. We're split up. Head back to the Mammoth and embark with them. The Chief and I will carry on from here."

"Negative, Actual. We got retasked when the cannons went down, saddled up with an armored force that managed to punch through. Got a platoon of heavy armor and a couple of Hogs. You're not much more than a detour. We'll come grab you."

"Roger."

She switched gears, pointing to the Chief. "You're lead for the moment. I'll follow you forward."

He nodded, setting off towards the allied units that they could see on their HUD. She called for Infinity next. "Infinity, Crown Actual. What's your status?"

Del Rio's voice came in clear this time. "We're in deep, taking a heavy damn beating."

Morgan frowned. If the ship was engaged, they were running out of time. "Does Infinity have a shot on the gravity well?"

"Negative, too much air traffic, we'll never be able to get a target lock with things crossing in front of it every other second.

She cursed under her breath, but then remembered the targeting indicator on her hip, and an idea dawned on her. "...Are the missiles in question capable of locking on to the target designator?

A moment passed, and Del Rio came back. "Weapons says yes. Keying the missile for your laser code now. Coordinates for somewhere with line of sight to follow. When they come in, get there, and get ready. Out."

Morgan didn't bother to reply, as two Hogs rolled up with space for each of them. They got into place and August threw the first one into gear, Hammonds following quick behind as she relayed the plan over squadcomm. "Coordinates incoming. We've gotta get to them and get the target designator into play. Everything else is secondary. Once we knock that out, we can get the hell out of here."

Right as she finished, the coordinates came in, attached to a message that she put in to her navigation system and sent out to the rest of Crown. "Alright there it is. Get there and let's finish this."

She didn't have to repeat herself as the Hogs adjusted their heading and they moved back out onto the main route that had been followed. The Scorpions were laying out whatever they had, main cannons and machine gun fire alternating as needed. Not much could deal with a platoon of the UNSC's heavy armor.

It was a blood bath for the opposing side. Covenant troopers were laid low by accurate fire, one of the armor commanders giving orders for the lot of them, barking over the comm like a seasoned NCO. No officer talked like that. At least, not one worth his salt. Forerunner constructs joined the fight as well, Knights being blown apart as if they were little more than a side piece. At one point, one of those big Knights, the ones that Intel had dubbed the Leviathans, made an appearance. It fired one of the big guns that had taken the place of a forearm and it hit one of the tanks dead on.

Immediately, the turret was blown off and fire spewed out of where it had been attached in a hot geyser, more flames pouring out of the engine bay and the driver's hatch. The NCO was quick to give the order to focus fire, and one of the tanks fired without even slowing down. The round went straight through the center of the Leviathan, splitting it in half before it gave off an explosion that left little behind but bits and pieces, the NCO praising whoever had pulled the trigger immediately after.

"Good guns, Juicy. Keep up the advance. We'll try and get our boy out after this, but ain't much left behind when you get ammo racked."

The Scorpions led the way, the Hogs using them as cover, and finally, they came to the top of the hill that would lead to their objective. Morgan was out and moving the moment the Hog stopped, already calling in to the Infinity.

Dropping to a kneel, she held out the target designator, keeping it as steady as she could and pointing it at the gravity well generator. "Infinity, designator is online, targeting information correct. Fire for effect."

"Copy all, Crown. Targeting information received. Shot out."

There wasn't much to do now except wait. Things had quieted down. The Scorpions had turned to watch down the hill, their engines purring and their turrets whining with each minor turn. The fire from the tank that had been destroyed was still crackling, and ammo was cooking off in the hull still. The rest of the Spartans stood ready, and Morgan was completely still, waiting for the shot to come in.

Time passed slowly for them, nearly a full minute going by before, suddenly, a black rod streaked in on a plume of flame, impacting the gravity well generator just as the sonic boom rolled over them. The explosion from hitting it was massive, only increasing as the secondary explosion of the generator itself blew, sending out a heavy overpressure wave that could stagger even a Spartan.

It kept going, and after another dozen secondaries, it seemed to cool off, and the generator went offline. Infinity was quick to confirm.

"Infinity to ground teams, good work. Gravity well generator is offline. Standby for pickup. Infinity out."

Sliding the designator back to her hip, Morgan gave a slow sigh, basking in the light from the gravity well generator's roaring fires. She looked back over her shoulder at the Chief, and though he wasn't looking at her now, he caught her staring and looked back for a moment. She was going to hound him for details when they got back. They both knew it. It was her job, after all.

But as soon as it started, the shared look was over, and the rest of the time passed slowly. Crown spoke among themselves on closed comms, and the Marines that had been their armored support unbuttoned their tanks and got some natural air before they started to talk on their own as well. Several of them started making their way back down the hill to the remains of the tank that had been destroyed. Without thinking much, Morgan sent Castille with them. She knew what they were going after.

Most of the ammo had cooked off by now, and the flames had died down a lot. The Marines stood and watched as Castille stuck her arm into the tank and took the tags from the deceased. They all made it a point to at least grab one of the panels that had been blown off and cover the hatch, thanking the Spartan for her help and taking a moment before returning to their own tanks.

Eventually, the sound of Pelicans came in, enough to carry all of the tanks and the two Hogs back, but one of them would be riding without cargo, given the destruction of one of the tanks. Stepping aboard the empty one, Morgan slid down into one of the seats closest to the door, relaxing a little bit. Hocus wasn't flying any of these birds. Given she had been on rotation in her bird when Morgan had left, her wife was probably asleep by now.

It wasn't new to her, going to sleep at odd times with Amber arriving later or earlier. It was easy to plan her sleep schedule around the other woman's when they were civilians. Spartans didn't require too much sleep, and she'd grown accustomed long ago to four hours being the standard, or sometimes the best she'd get.

Still, she was allowed to complain, wasn't she? She'd earned that much. Granted, she wouldn't say it in front of the others, but she could grumble all she wanted in the privacy of her mind.

The Pelicans loaded up quickly and mag clamped the vehicles before lifting off and setting off back toward Infinity. Be an hour or so trip with cargo underslung. The Mammoth, on the other hand, would have to wait for a time. Several of Infinity's super-heavy lift aircraft would be coming in to pick it up and carry it into the ship when it got closer.

She didn't envy those pilots.

The Mammoth disappeared soon after that thought, though, as the bay door closed and sealed the Spartans of Fireteam Crown inside, secure for the flight back.

---

Touchdown on Infinity led to Crown dispersing, returning to armories to ensure their armor and weapons were ready for another deployment immediately after. Rest came when that job was done. With what Morgan knew of the Didact from her conversation with the Chief on the way back, they had to be ready to move at a moment's notice. She'd already spoken to the Air Boss to keep a second Pelican, and not a transport variant but a gunship variant, sitting alert with the standard rotation. If Crown needed to light out, they'd be able to do it at a moment's notice.

But now, that was in the back of her mind. She stood with the Chief, Del Rio, and Lasky, who had returned on an additional Pelican shortly after Crown had touched down. Palmer was in the corner. Bridge guards had been one thing, but since the bridge incursion, an armed Spartan was always on the bridge proper just in case.

Del Rio went on from what he had been saying, gaze on passing between the lot of them. "Infinity has finished all repairs from when we were dragged onto the ground. We're airtight, and scans from Monsoon have indicated an exit has just opened up to the outside. First order of business is to get the hell out of this place and return to Earth, leave a beacon behind to be found by more dedicated forces."

The Chief spoke up at that. "Sir, what about the Didact?"

Del Rio focused his gaze on the Chief this time. "The Didact remains a secondary concern. As far as our intel indicates, he's a single person without a true vessel. That does not indicate a threat worth sending this entire ship out. If he's as powerful as you say, then we are in his sphere of influence here and are at risk. Should we manage to leave this place, that risk drops significantly."

The Chief went on, more incessant this time. "Captain, I've seen what the Didact is capable of. If he manages to leave this world, then not only Earth, but Humanity is at risk."

The Captain paused for a moment, his eyes narrowing. When he spoke again, his voice was low, slightly warning. The Chief could be seen as being insubordinate at this point. "And your proof of this?"

"I encountered a Forerunner AI of some sort in the array tower, a memory bank designed to guide us. She showed me the Didact's past, why he was locked away."

"A Forerunner AI that may very well be rampant, corrupted, or even a trick by the Didact."

"No, it didn't seem like a trap."

Del Rio frowned, the lines in his face deepening. "And you're basing this off of… what? Instinct?"

Morgan stepped in this time. "No, sir. I saw her too. She… knew things. Knew things about me that she shouldn't have known. Even if the Chief were compromised or tricked in some way, there's no way the Didact could have known about me the way she did."

Del Rio turned his eyes on her this time, almost incredulous as the Chief cut in again. "Sir, I know how this sounds, but I have to ask that you trust me."

The older officer's gaze was back on the Chief, anger seeping into his voice. Not only was one Spartan insubordinate, but two, one being his Spartan Commander. "You're asking that I trust you, an aging Spartan, and a malfunctioning AI? One that you deliberately hid from me? There is no trust to be had, Master Chief."

Cortana appeared on the holotable, looking sheepish, fearful even. "I…"

Del Rio gestured to her. "You think I didn't know? Monsoon has kept tabs on her since the moment she entered the system. Records indicate she was supposed to have been decommissioned this year. She's reached the end of her lifespan. Furthermore, all the telltale signs of rampancy are there. I didn't think that it needed to be said that I won't jeopardize the Infinity for hallucinations and malfunctions, but it seems that I have to. Denied, Master Chief." He turned slightly, looking to the nav officer. "Nav, as soon as all hands are aboard and secured, lay in a course for Carinae Station. Comms, prepare a warning beacon, repeating. Make sure nobody else ends up like we did."

In the background, Cortana flickered red, and the area started to glow blue as several displays were brightened to maximum levels. Electricity started to arc over consoles on the holotable, spreading out to the rest of the bridge. "I… will not… allow you to leave. This. Planet!" More electricity shot out, a power surge going through the bridge that charged the room enough for Morgan and the Chief to be covered in the faintest gold lattice. Their shields had been activated. Others were coated in static electricity, and a few of the female crew members with longer hair were witnessing their perfect buns be filled with flyaways and floating strands of hair.

All eyes were on Cortana as she changed completely to red, and after the discharge, she returned to blue, as if she had no idea what had happened, before she started to apologize, to plead with them, even to beg. Del Rio's face went from surprised right back to angry. "Commander Lasky, pursuant to Article 55 of UNSC Regulation 12-145-72, I am ordering you to remove that AI's data chip and retire it for final dispensation."

Morgan's blood froze up at that, and she knew she had to do something. Del Rio wasn't going to be swayed, especially not now, and nothing else could be done. It was all or nothing. Osman's words rang in her ear again, and she intercepted Lasky, who was seemingly stuck between following orders and the off chance that the Chief could be right.

She moved between the Chief and Lasky, her hand going to Cortana's data chip and pulling it out gently, the AI disappearing from the holotable as Morgan's golden visor turned on Del Rio. "Cortana will be dealt with at a later date. If the Didact isn't dealt with, then we are at risk. Infinity is a secondary concern against the risk of Humanity should the Didact escape and regain whatever it is he's trying to find."

Anger went to rage, and Del Rio rounded the table on her. "Commander, your insubordination has gone too far, and you presume too much, attempting to tell me what I can and can't do with my ship."

Morgan was unfazed, merely holding the datachip out to the Master Chief, who took it and slid it into his helmet. "This is no longer your ship, Captain."

His eyes widened, and he realized that he had not one, but two possible Spartans on his bridge that were far out of line, one attempting to go AWOL, the other in an outright mutiny. He glanced over his shoulder at Palmer, backing away from Morgan, and jabbed his finger at her. "Spartan Palmer, arrest her!" Palmer hesitated, looking back and forth between the two. "Arrest her!"

Turning her gaze to the Chief, she gave him his orders. "Master Chief, the gunship sitting alert is yours. Pack it full of the ammo and supplies you'll need. You know you're the only person who can stop him." He met her gaze, and nobody else seemed to move, despite Del Rio seething. "I can't go with you this time, John."

He shared her gaze for a few moments, as if searching for something, before he must have given up and realized it would take more time than he had. "Yes, ma'am."

With that, he turned and went to leave the bridge, but stopped when Del Rio shouted again. "Stop!" John turned to look over his shoulder at Del Rio, not even turning his body, only to see that Del Rio had pulled his sidearm. The magnum looked too large in his hand, and it was shaking slightly. Morgan moved around the table, until she was standing in front of the barrel.

"Master Chief, you're dismissed." It was all she needed to say, and a moment later the door opened and closed again. "Captain Del Rio, short sighted fixation on maintaining Infinity in the face of a possible extinction level threat to Humanity and your attempt at preventing direct action of any sort is in direct violation of ONI Directive 2554-61-B. You are hereby relieved of command of UNSC Infinity and confined to quarters until return to Earth and debrief by Office of Naval Intelligence personnel. Your sidearm, please."

Del Rio's jaw dropped open, and his pistol shook a bit harder. "How dare you-"

Morgan's hand went to the barrel, grabbing it and squeezing. The barrel and the steel frame simply crumpled under her grip, and the weapon became useless in a single swoop. Del Rio released it, almost instinctively, and she held it tightly, before giving another order. "Monsoon, open my personal inbox, most recent communication originating from outside of the ship."

Monsoon's voice answered. "Yes, ma'am. Opening communication now. There is an additional message located inside of the transmission code. Should I open it as well?"

"Open that message in particular."

"Yes, ma'am."

The holotable activated again, displaying the message that had come from the ONI Commander in Chief, Serin Osman. In the message, she was sitting just as she had when Morgan had first opened it, that same unnerving grin on her face. Del Rio's face went white.

"Welcome back, Commander." Her smile grew slightly, and she seemed to wait a moment, as if expecting a response, but it was moot. It was only a recording, after all. "I'm pleased to see that Greer was able to drag you back to the fold. It may seem a little… cold, to do this to you this way, but I like to get my hands dirty from time to time. Surely you understand, hm?"

Morgan frowned behind her helmet as the Admiral went on, knowing that Osman had been put in place for a reason, and it wasn't because she was polite to everybody she met.

"Now, Admiral Greer came to you with the proposition that you take over as Spartan Commander. You know this much. You have the credentials, the prestige, the skill, you're perfect for the job." Her smile dissipated now. "More importantly, you're the only Spartan that fits that role while also having been one of us. Ackerson didn't skimp on the jobs he gave you, and he kept… very meticulous records." Another glint of a smile from the top grinning skull in the UNSC. "The Navy was keen on picking a Captain for Infinity that would prioritize its safety above all else. ONI was… not so keen on that, given they may turn tail too early in certain engagements. We were able to get some concessions with Commander Lasky, of course, but that's not exactly what I'd call an ace in the hole."

Osman sat back in her chair, and it seemed like the entire bridge had frozen in place as the message played out. She relaxed for a moment, but that smile never completely left her face. It was mostly just the corners of her lips being upturned now. Morgan had no doubt the woman slept with a gun under her pillow. "So… from this point forward, you've been not only reinstated into the Navy, and the Spartan Branch appended additionally, but you're hereby asked to remain as an ONI liaison. Of course, this is all just a request from some old friends." Another momentary grin. "I know you've made plenty in your time as a civilian. Surely you won't mind helping some others out, hm? You scratch my back, I scratch yours. Sounds fair, right?"

The grin dropped again, and Osman sat forward, steepling her fingers on her desk. "Should you accept, I ask only that you act in the best interests of Humanity and the UNSC Infinity in tandem. As a woman who's done what she has, I know you'll make the right choice. I look forward to hearing your response as soon as possible."

The message came to a close. Morgan had never gotten the chance to really think about it and send her response. There had been so much double talk and veiled statements in the message that it wasn't like she could just accept right away and call it a day. You didn't want to be associated with ONI unless you knew what you were getting into. That or you were a child super soldier. But she had initially thought on it for a time and never really gotten an answer.

Now? It was proving to be an unexpected blessing. "As I said before, Captain. You are relieved of command and confined to quarters. My authority supersedes yours in an event such as this." Looking to Palmer, all the fight seemed to fade out of Del Rio. "Spartan Palmer, please escort the Captain to his quarters and remain there until relieved by another guard. Post under strength squads to him for the time being in rotating schedules, one hour on, two off. Rotate squads every cycle. Remind them to be vigilant."

Palmer was hesitant, given how everything had just been shaken up so badly, but she followed her orders. "Yes, ma'am."

Palmer escorted Del Rio off the bridge without much fuss after that, the Captain realizing that his goose was cooked. Nobody went up against CINCONI and her wishes except Lord Hood himself, and even then it barely mattered. ONI got what it wanted. Parangosky had trained Osman well.

When the door sealed behind them, she looked to Lasky. "You're in command of Infinity now. I know you'll do the job well, despite what just happened. Can I trust you?"

Lasky hesitated again, likely fearing that he would be given the same treatment. Eventually, he nodded and repeated what Palmer had said. "Yes, ma'am."

"Good. Maintain current position, keep the ship in place. I'll ensure the Master Chief departs safely and then…" She frowned behind her helmet, realizing that she was not only going to be leaving him and Cortana behind again, but she would be actively sending them out. She would give them as much as she could. "Then we'll leave this place, head back to Earth, and hope to God that he can get the job done and we see him again."

With that, she turned from Lasky and headed for the exit to the bridge, the doors opening and sealing behind her, all eyes of the bridge crew watching her retreating back.