answers to reviewers questions or statements:
DannyPhantom619: In a way, though Brutes are one of the few species of the Covenant that can not only match a Spartan blow for blow, they can even overpower them. Master Chief was nearly strangled by one in the novel First Strike and Atriox himself casually overpowered three of them at once, the very same three who took on a whole squad of Elites in the previous Halo Wars game. Brutes on the whole seem to be among one of the worse species to face given their savagery and their habit of eating people alive 0_0.
BlueGh0st: Parker luck at work there and it's only going to get slightly worse.
Disclaimer: I don't own any Marvel or Halo characters seen, mentioned or used.
Brutes were the absolute worse to fight in Peter's opinion.
Elites, while very difficult, were somewhat predictable in how they operate so at the very least you have a even chance of facing one and winning. Grunts, unless they outnumbered you five to one, they usually up and ran for the hills unless there was an Elite there to keep them properly terrified/motivated. Jackals, a pain but unless in large numbers or weren't using long range weaponry were also easily dealt with. Hunters are given a wide berth unless you have heavy weapons or you outnumber them ten to one and Drones, just draw them in somewhere that'll limit their aerial mobility and they were easy pickings...
But Brutes, Brutes were as unpredictable as they came.
They fought literally everyone over anything, and unlike most of the Covenant, had no qualms using some truly detestable methods to kill humans. On one occasion, Peter witnessed a Brute use a dismembered Marine's torso as a blunt weapon to beat another Marine to death, than eat him!
'And their weapons absolutely suck ass' Peter thought as he and Jun had taken cover in a small, cramped storage room, their weapons aimed at the lone doorway in and out of the space, fingers on the triggers.
The floor and ceiling in the immediate area around the doorway was covered in vicious looking spikes, fired from the Brute's infamous Type-25 Carbines, or more aptly named, Spiker. The image it painted reminded Peter of some sort of scene out of a horror film, though given the state of people's bodies he's seen after a unfortunate encounter with the dreaded weapon, it wouldn't be far off to call it as such.
"We need to move" Jun said after a few minutes of total silence between the two Spartans, his gaze focused squarely on the doorway "Eventually those Brutes are gonna realize we're trapped and just storm the room and literally rip us apart"
"Yeah well... tell them that" Peter nodded towards the doorway.
"I tried, but all I got in reply was 'Raahhh'" Jun said in a dry voice with a hint of even drier humor.
Peter made a 'hmph' sound at this before he returned his attention to the area in front of him. Jun wasn't wrong though, they needed to get the hell out of the room, and away from the station, before the Brutes decide to hell with it and just buddy rush them. They were both low on ammo, so a straight up firefight was out of the question, though neither Spartan was particularly interested in such a thing with Brutes. Their Spikers would tear through their shields in seconds and than their armor and flesh in half the time.
"You have any flashbangs on you?" Jun said as he slowly lowered his sniper rifle, keeping it propped up in it's bipod, before he begun to dig through his gear for anything that could help him and Peter out of this mess.
"No" Peter shook his head as he kept the two of them covered with his weapon "I have a signal grenade though, that might help at least cover our scent"
"That'll do" Jun said as he set his two flashbangs on the ground before him before he reached over and retrieved Peter's signal grenade "I'll set a flashbang off than follow with this and use my second one if it looks like we're getting pinned. If we're lucky, the Brutes will be disorientated enough that we can make a break for the hills outside the station"
"And if we're unlucky?" Peter asked in a hesitant voice.
"Than we get riddled with spikes and needler rounds and promptly eaten afterwards" Jun said with a shrug.
"I hate how calm you are about this" Peter sighed.
"We're Threes', B-312, our survival was never guaranteed on any mission we were sent on" Jun said in a grim tone as he slipped one of the flashbangs to his armor's belt while he used the thumb of his other hand to dislodge the grenade's pin "Get ready to run like hell Spartan"
"I'll make 87 look like a turtle in comparison" Peter snorted as he rose to a crouch and he and Jun slowly approached the doorway.
The two sat there for several seconds and waited for any signs of movement from the Brutes outside before Jun tossed the flashbang out into the hall. The grenade skipped across the hall and bounced off a wall before skirting to a stop a few meters away and exploded in a bright flash. The result was almost instant as the flashbang happened to go off right in front of three cloaked brutes, causing a slight distortion in the air as the massive aliens stumbled back in surprise, growling and roaring in surprised rage at being blinded. Peter fired off two shots from his sniper rifle at where he figured their heads were while Jun tossed the signal grenade out into the hall and slapped Peter on the shoulder.
"LET'S GO!" he yelled before he and Peter rushed out into the hall as the grenade ahead of them exploded into a cloud of green smoke that began to quickly fill up the hall.
The two Spartans didn't even bother to try and fire off any rounds at whatever Brutes they saw through the haze, all that mattered to either was getting the hell out of the station as fast as possible. Thankfully the smoke from the signal grenade seemed to work as both Spartans could hear the Brutes yell in frustration through the smoke as they tired to find the two Spartans with only three of their five acute senses. Spiker and Needler rounds flew wildly around the Spartans, some bouncing off their shields, some off the walls and floors, as the Brutes attempted to nip one of the humans.
Luck seemed to be on the two Spartans side however as the two were able to quickly make it to the outskirts of the pump station before the Brutes' weapons fire began to grow more accurate and score more direct hits on their shields an armor. Thankfully, the pair were outside of the Brutes' Spiker's effective rang, forcing them to rely on the Brutes that were armed with Needle Rifles to score any hits. The two ended up reaching a road that led to a nearby gate, but the doors were sealed, and the only option the two Spartans had left was what appeared to be some sort of dirt path that led to what looked to be a dried up riverbed.
"Come on, we can_ GAH!" Jun yelled as he was suddenly knocked down by several stray needle rounds, the pink projectiles exploded in a small shower of pink energy that washed over the marksman's upper body, causing Jun's shields to flare before flickering off and leaving scorch marks on the armor's surface
Peter reached down and grabbed Jun's armor by the scruff of the torso piece and pulled the Spartan down into the riverbed while Jun fired off three shots with his sniper rifle at the pursuing Brutes. The Riverbed was filled with old dried up looking weeds, bushes and grass, the latter which crunched under the weight of the two fully armored Spartans.
"We need to find somewhere to-" Peter began before the area was suddenly encased in a ominous blue glow.
Peter froze as he felt a tingling at the base of his skull begin to throb just as he looked up to see an approaching blue ball of plasma. without another word, Peter threw Jun as far as he could before he himself dived for cover behind a small cropping eroded stones that once sat at the bottom of a raging river decades earlier. When the ball of plasma struck, it didn't create a loud ear shattering explosion like a round fired from a tank would, rather it was a eerie 'HSSSSSHHHH' sound, sorta like the sound of a wave breaking against a cliffside. The immediate area around the plasma ball's impact was engulfed in blue and purple flames with wisps of white on the ends, as the flames began to die down, a deep, smoldering crater was left in it's wake, deep enough for a Warthog to be buried in, minus the turret.
Peter's HUD flashed with temperature warnings from the heat the plasma explosion created along with his armor's shielding system and a few other nonessential systems more or less died from the electromagnetic pulse the plasma gave off when it struck. Petr quickly silenced the alarms so he could concentrate and noticed that the entire river bed was now covered in a combination of smoke from the burning dry foliage and dust that was kicked up from the explosion. He could also hear several Brutes approaching, as well as several blips on his motion tracker.
'Crap' Peter thought as he drew his knife and quickly crawled away from his cover to somewhere that provided better cover and concealment 'Ugh, where's a Spartan sized hole when you need it?'
"Six, find cover and go dark, now!" Jun's voice echoed through the Peter's helmet speakers before shutting off, likely Jun switching off his armor's communication systems.
Peter stopped moving and quickly began to shut down his armor's still operating systems, which wasn't much, though it meant that he was able to 'go dark' quicker. The down side to doing this was now that Peter was physically carrying the armor's full weight, and even with his enhanced strength, it was a bit of a strain. Seeing the smoke and dust was beginning to clear up, and the faint blue light from the plasma fires was finally dying, Peter quickly found a small mound to hide next to and after making sure to throw some dirt and dried branches with equally dried leaves on his armored form before taking a prone position, his knife at the ready, and waited.
With all of his armor systems shut off or inop, Peter was left lying in total darkness, even his enhanced eyesight was a bit strained from the total blackout he was in, though he concluded it was partly his dirtied faceplate's fault. A number of Brutes could be heard barking and growling to one another a few dozen meters away, back towards the pump station and along the edges of the river bed.
Peter's head moved as slow as possible to avoid detection in an effort to observe any approaching Brute patrols... and saw just one coming his way.
'Craaaaaaaaaap' Peter thought with worry as he felt a slight tingling at the base of his skull as the trio of Brutes made their way down the river bed, each armed with a Spiker, though the center brute had two, one for each massive hand.
The Spartan remained perfectly still, his heart beating a lightyear a minute as he watched the partially shadowed forms of the Brutes silently wandering the river bed, almost silently sniffing the air for his scent which was hopefully covered by the smell of burning brush still in the air. It always surprised Peter just how quiet the eight foot tall beasts could move even when they were fully armored and carried massive weapons like their Gravity Hammers or Brute Shots. Though, he supposed their fur helped muffle any sounds their armor could make as they moved.
'And acts as a sort of thin layer of armor in the event their tech or metal ones fail' Peter thought as he held his knife with a grip that nothing in the universe could tear it from.
He might be able to kill one of the Brutes with a well placed strike to the face or throat, but given the durability of a Brute's hide and fur, it'll take a few strikes to make any real notable damage with a blade as small as Peter's. And while Peter's busy stabbing one, the other two can either just unload their Spikers on the pair and kill them both, or simply grab Peter and proceed to maul him to death.
Either way, Peter was screwed if he was seen.
'Come on universe, do me a solid for once... do me a solid...' Peter thought as the Brutes drew closer and closer to his prone form.
Peter really hoped to God, and whoever the Covenant worships, that the Brutes didn't have any sort of night vision to accompany their already acute sense of smell and hearing. Because if they did, all one of them had to do was literally look down and they'll see Peter lying helpless before them. Peter's heart skipped a few beats as he watched as one of the Brute's feet struck the ground, only inches away from his head, kicking some of the dust into his visor. Thankfully the Brute didn't seem to notice as he looked around the darkened area for a long, long moment before it sniffed, barked something in it's harsh language, and gestured for the other two to follow him somewhere else.
Peter didn't release his breath until he could no longer hear the Brute's grunts and growling, and he didn't move until he began to switch back on his armor's still operating systems and his motion tracker showed he was clear for over a hundred meters in any direction. Then very slowly the Spartan carefully emerged from the indent in the ground he was in and took a slow look around for any signs of the Covenant's hunters before he noticed movement a few meters away on his left. Peter's head snapped towards the disturbance and reached for his sidearm before he was greeted to the sight of Jun slowly crawling out from underneath the roots of some sort of bush, his bulk shaking the thin branches slightly as he cleared himself from the plant.
How in the hell did he get ahead of him and find cover already?
"That... was far too close for my liking" Jun said in a quiet voice as he pulled his sniper rifle out from underneath the bush and hoisted it on his armor's back magnetic clamp and drew a M6C/SOCOM from a holster he had on the small of his back.
"Tell me about it" Peter said with a nod as he sheathed his knife and drew his M6G out and checked it over "Thing needs to buy something for that odor his feet were giving off. I'm pretty sure he's got a fungus growing between his toes"
"How lovely... come on, let's get the hell out of here before more show up that know to look down for a change" Jun said with a snort as he signaled for Peter to follow him up the riverbed, putting more and more distance between them and their Brute trackers.
"Where do you think this leads to?" Peter asked quietly as he covered the pair's six while Jun handled their front.
"No idea, hopefully somewhere we can catch our breath. I'm almost out of ammo and from what I can see, you only have your side arm with you and a knife" Jun said as he kept an eye on the dry river bed's 'shoreline', right now he and Peter were in a perfect kill zone for even the most inaccurate Grunts.
"Should've grabbed a rifle from one of those militia guys when I had the chance" Peter mentally groaned at passing up the opportunity to have a second primary weapon with him.
"Worse comes to worse, we'll find you a Covie's weapon to use" Jun said as he slowed his pace and fell into a kneeling position that Peter quickly followed.
"What is it?" Peter asked after a moment of silence between he pair "More Brutes?"
"No... I've lost contact with Kat..." Jun said with a frown in his voice as he tried a few other channels to see if he might re-establish contact with their fellow Spartan back at the FOB. It seems the Plasma explosion from earlier had caused more damage to his armor's systems than he originally assumed, or perhaps it was the energy blast from the Needler rounds he took moments before that "Hmph, looks like we're gonna be on our own for now"
"Great" Peter said with an eye roll.
Wandering through Brute infested hills with no way to contact Command in the event things go even more south than it already had, this op was just turning out to be all sorts of fun for him.
Not.
before Peter said anything else, his whole body tensed up and the flaring at the base of his skull returned with a vengeance. In the span of a heartbeat, Peter turned and aimed his pistol at a hulking distortion of air silently moving towards the pair of Spartans from a shadowed crevice in the river bed and fired several rounds a what he assumed was where the head and upper torso was. He was rewarded to a Brute's enraged yell of pain, along with a few splatters of the alien's dark red blood, and the active camouflage that they used briefly flickering out, allowing Peer and Jun to actually see the Brute.
Jun turned and aimed his M6C at the Brute's head and fired a single shot right into it's eyes, causing the Brute's head to snap back before it swayed back and forth for a moment before slumping to the ground with a heavy 'thud'.
No sooner did the Brute's body hit the ground, a literal storm of Spiker rounds erupted from the shadows around the Spartans, striking their unshielded armor, creating brief showers of sparks as the metal was pierced by the alien metal. Peter had to bite down a yelp of pain as he felt one of the spikes strike home in his thigh, managing to land in the spaces between the Mjolnir's armored plates and penetrate the less armored bodysuit underneath and cause a steady stream of blood to begin leaking.
"Dammit" Peter hissed as he and Jun struggled to make it to cover behind a well worn rock.
Some of the Brutes on either side of the river bed were already moving to get a better firing angle on the two Spartans while the rest continued to pepper the two human's cover with a mixture of spikes and needler rounds. Jun blind fired his sidearm in the direction where most of the fire was coming from before he glanced down at Peter's wound and noticed that it was still bleeding.
"How bad is it?" Jun asked before he flinched as a needler round chipped a piece of stone of their cover and have it ricochet off his visor.
"I don't think it hit my Femoral artery, but it definitely pierced some bone" Peter gritted his teeth as he glance down at the bleeding wound and considered his options.
He was unlikely to bleed out, but if he didn't get this spike out of his leg he very well may run the risk of infection. Peter doubted the Brutes kept their weapons and ammo sanitary, likely as a way to cause even more harm to their enemies in the event they were unable to kill them and they got away.
He'll give the big harry apes credit, they were pretty good at screwing you in the long run.
"I got some biofoam that we can apply once we're out of this shit storm" Jun said before he shot out from cover and fired off three rounds, managing to drop a Brute before ducking back into cover and reloaded.
"Is it a bad time to say that one of the systems that's fried in my suit is the biofoam injector?" Peter joked weakly.
"Well I guess it's a good thing I carry a spare cannister for just such occasions" Jun said as he fired off two more shots before he reached down to grab a biofoam cannister off his harness to give to Peter when something unexpected happened...
"WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!" Peter shouted as suddenly several serpentine like creatures suddenly lunged out from the darkness and began to wrap themselves around both Peter and Jun.
It wasn't until Jun activated his helmet's night vision to see what exactly it was that was attacking that he realized that it wasn't some sort of highly aggressive, unusually strong snake... it was in fact, a small swarm of Lekgolo, the worm like creatures that formed into the infamous Mgalekgolo gestalts, Hunters.
"JUN WHAT THE HELL ARE THESE?!" Peter yelled as he ripped one of the worms that had managed to wrap itself around his neck and crushed it's head with his hand before several more of the meter and a half long worms wrapped around that arm.
"THE WORMS THAT MAKE UP HUNTERS!" Jun shouted as he desperately tried to rip the meter long worms off his limbs before he was suddenly struck in the back by a Brute's foot, sending the Spartan face first into the ground where more of the Lekgolo began to cover and restrain him.
The Brute, a minor based on it's armor configuration, chuckled as it watched Jun attempt to move while other members of it's pack began to appear out of the dark. It barked something in their harsh language at the others, causing them to grunt and chuckle in amusement as they watched the Lekgolo worms finally restrain the Spartans. It wasn't overly difficult for them, all they had to do is wrap enough of themselves around their arms and legs and prevent them from being able to bend or twist their limbs in any shape or form. And when it looked like the Spartans were still gonna be able to rise to their feet, one of the Brutes watching would literally kick them back down and laugh.
"Six, we're not... getting... anywhere" Jun said with a grunt after being knocked down for the second time.
"Says you... not dying... from... space worms" Peter gritted his teeth as he made to stand again before one of the eel like Lekgolo suddenly brushed against the spike still embedded in his thigh, aggravating the wound and causing the Spartan's leg to buckle and give out, forcing the Spartan back to the ground as more Lekgolo wrapped themselves around him.
Suddenly a loud voice echoed through the river bed, causing several of the Brutes to jump in surprise as a Brute captain suddenly appeared behind the group, his personal cloaking device powering off. The brute growled at the pack as he shouldered his way through until he came to a stop in the middle of the semi circle formed and stared at the two restrained Spartans.
"Captain, the worthless worms found them" one of the Brute hunters said before he was backhanded away by the Captain.
"I see that!" the Captain snarled as he glared at the rest of the pack "They shouldn't have to have been used in the first place!"
A number of the Brutes quietly growled at their superior's rebuke but said nothing to disagree. It was a bit embarrassing they had one of the Mgalekgolo break down into a swarm and aid them in sniffing out the humans, but the sight of two 'Demons' being left so helpless before them by a swarm of worms more than made up for it to some.
Their Captain on the other hand...
The Brute captain barked out a series of orders towards one of his underlings before he turned his attention back to the immobilized Spartans and snarled as he crouched down and ran a clawed finger across Peter's faceplate and spoke in a deep, gravely voice.
"The Commander will want words with you, Demons!"
...
To say things were beginning to grow tense in the UNSC's Forward Operating Base would be an understatement.
Twenty minutes had passed since Kat had lost contact with Recon Team Bravo and the Intelligence specialist had spent every second of those twenty minutes trying to re-establish contact. Carter had already been made aware of the situation, Kat called and told him personally after five minutes, and he already put Jorge and Emile on standby for possible extraction of their two teammates.
"Recon Team Bravo, this Noble Two, report" Kat said for what felt like the hundredth time on what seemed to be the hundredth channel "Recon Team Bravo, this Noble Two, come in"
"Could they be in the Dark Zone?" Natasha asked as she stared at the map where it showed Peter and Jun's armor transmitters.
They had taken shelter in the Pump Station after they were engaged by cloaked Brutes before making what seemed to be a mad dash to a river bed before separating, their signals flickering slightly. Than their armor's signals cut off entirely, something that alarmed both Natasha and Kat and drove the latter to contact Carter before they both flickered back on. Kat attempted to re-establish radio contact with the two Spartans but all she received was static, even their helmet's cameras were inoperable for some reason, forcing the veteran Spartan to watch the two's signals slowly move down the river bed towards the Dark Zone before they stopped.
After that, their armor's signals began to seemingly glitch again.
"Your taking this remarkably well" Kat said after a few moments of silence between the two.
Natasha glanced at Kat with a raised brow "Would you prefer I start losing my composure and panic like some fresh out of the academy officer?"
"No, but I've noticed that a lot of you ONI types start to panic when things don't go your way" Kat stated with a blank stare from underneath her helmet.
"A lot do..." Natasha nodded before returning her attention to the main screen "But not all. Besides, this isn't the first time that I've lost contact with B-312 while he was on a op"
"Did his op consist of him operating in a area occupied with a heavy Covenant presence?" Kat inquired.
"Admittedly, no, but I have faith he'll pull through, even if he will be a few pints short of what he entered said area with" Natasha said with a ghost of a smile on her face before it vanished "Your marksman, Jun was it? Him, I'm not so sure about"
"Jun's a survivor" Kat frowned "He'll make it"
"I hope so" Natasha said as she folded her arms across her chest and continued to stare at the screen that showed the two Spartan's signals before something odd began to occur.
Their signals showed they had risen to an elevation of two hundred feet and were now moving towards the Dark Zone had mach one.
"What the hell...?" Natasha said with a confused frown while Kat's eyes widened at the sight.
Kat quickly switched the screen's feed to a thermal one and stared with wide eyes as a heat signature in the shape of a Phantom's profile.
"RECON TEAM BRAVO, THIS IS NOBLE TWO, COME IN!" Kat yelled one last time into the channel as Carter re-entered the command center and noticed Kat's outburst.
"Noble Two, report, now!" Cater demanded as he quickly made his way towards the two women and glanced at the screen just in time to see Peter and Jun's armor transmitters go offline as they crossed into the Covenant Dark Zone.
"B-312 and A-266's signals were just shown rising to an elevation of two hundred feet before they suddenly flew into the Covenant Dark Zone at mach one" Kat said in a strained tone "Thermal shows they were in a Phantom"
"Dammit" Carter growled as he glared at the screen.
"Can we tell if their alive still?" Natasha asked, her voice calm and even despite the unease visible in her eyes.
"No, their vitals' readings were shoddy at best when they encountered the cloaked Brutes, they likely had some sort of jammer with them or nearby at the time. But they went out completely when they shut their armor's systems off, likely an attempt to remain undetected by Covenant patrols" Kat said with a frustrated sigh.
"Since when do Covenant take prisoners'?" Carter asked with a frown underneath his helmet.
"Very rarely, but it happens" Natasha said as she replayed the recording of a Phantom flying into the Dark Zone with Peter and Jun's armor signals "And lately, they've taken to trying to capture Spartans with varying degrees of success"
"How could the Covenant have taken down TWP SPARTANS without possibly killing them?!" Kat asked with disbelief in her tone.
"EMPs'?" Carter suggested "Short out their armor's systems?"
"That might've stopped Jun, but Peter's advance augmentations would've allowed him to still move around with some ease, at least better than perhaps a Two" Natasha said as she bit her lip and folded her arms across her chest "But if they had Jun, they could've coerced Peter into surrendering"
"Goddammit" Kat slapped the screen, cracking the display and causing a few nearby technicians to jump in surprise.
"Easy Kat..." Carter placed a hand on the woman's armored shoulder before he glanced at Natasha "You said something about the Covenant taking Spartans prisoner? How many times has it happened and the times the Covenant did succeed, were they ever able to be retrieved?"
"To my knowledge, it's happened six times before this and every Spartan was killed in either the attempt or in Covenant custody" Natasha said as she turned towards Carter and stared right into his faceplate "It was Headhunter units mostly, though the last incident was an entire fireteam of Spartans, Ebony Team"
"Ebony?" Kat and Carter echoed at the same time with the former continuing "Who was this team's makeup? I don't recognize it as a part of any current active Team in the Two's current Rosters"
"I'm sorry, but that's classified tier one" Natasha said after she casted a quick look around to make sure no one was near the three's conversation "Just brining it up could burn me. Let's just say that Spartan-052's class was the only one made and leave it at that"
Kat and Carter both shared a look with the former opening a private channel to Noble Team's team leader "A second Class of Twos'?"
"We're deal with that later, right now, let's focus on getting our people out of there" Carter said before he switched off the channel and turned his attention to the red headed ONI operative "So, what do you recommend we do?"
"Assuming you don't leave them to die?" Natasha said with a raised brow "Get in there and get them the hell out before their taken off world"
"Command's launching a major offensive tomorrow" Kat stated as he nodded towards the cracked display screen "We were hoping to help better plan the attack with recon from Bravo but I guess that's no longer an option"
"And the UNSC can't afford to et the Covenant continue doing whatever it is their doing in there" Carter nodded in agreement "With the Covenant distracted with the UNSC's forces, me and the rest of Noble Team can locate and extract Three and Six"
"Assuming their still alive" Kat said in a grim tone.
"Either way, we can't allow the Covenant to take their armor off world for study" Carter said as he turned to leave "I'll inform Jorge and Emile. Kat, get your gear ready, we're gonna be going in heavy"
"Understood commander" Kat nodded as she watched Carter exit the command center before she glanced at Natasha and saw she was still staring at the cracked display board, her eyes focused on where the Dark Zone was "Ma'am, is there something-"
"Let your commander know that I'll be joining you tomorrow" Natasha said as she stepped away from th4e screen and made to leave the same way Carter departed.
Kat felt her brow twitch at this "Ma'am, Noble Team is more than capable of-"
"That wasn't a suggestion Lieutenant Commander, that was an order" Natasha said with a hard look on her face, the tone of her voice caused Kat's back to straighten in response "We have two Tier One assets in enemy hands and I'm going to personally make sure that's rectified"
"Yes ma'am" Kat said with a nod as she stepped out for the red head's way and watched her head for the command center's entrance 'Bitch'
Just what she needed on what was already going to be a dicey op, some ONI Spook tagging along because she thinks she can run with Spartans.
...
And done.
Next chapter, The UNSC launches it's counter attack...