"Shit…" I groaned, trying to get up, my hands jingled a little as I tried to move, "My head…" I blinked.

"Sir?" said a dry and irritable voice, "he's awake."

I saw Alex approach and went to hold up my hands but they clinked again and I realised the cold, hard truth. "You locked me up!" I said, wriggling about, "what the hell?"

"You disobeyed a direct order, ensign. What did you expect?" Kohli spat, kneeling besides

"How about a 'thank you'? We're alive because of me." I raved, "Goddamn it, let me out, Sir!"

"Grey team, take Mister Van Graff to the hangar, we're going on a spacewalk."

"We?" Kohli coughed, "Sir, you can't go out there, we need you."

Captain Harper shook his head as I was yanked upright by a giant hand. "This is a test for you as well Hannah, besides, I'm not going to give up on this one just because he's a selfish idiot that cannot obey orders."

I wanted to say something but I couldn't, the SPARTAN threw me over his shoulder with so much force that the wind rushed from my lungs and I spluttered about like some kind of beached fish. They continued to talk as I was abducted, kicking uselessly at the SPARTANs as they walked through the ship.

When we passed an airlock, my protests were finally stopped. I could see through the window that a portion of the ship had been torn away on the other side, the jet black of slip space was a giant and unknowable void that seemed to taunt my insignificance.

"Need a closer look?" one of them jibed, "or you good?"

"I…" my throat was dry, "I'm good."

We continued to the hangar, at some point I was placed back on my feet and was pushed firmly in the back as we walked past the crew of the lower decks. They looked battered and bruised, some had burns, others bled from the nose or the eyes. It was the first time I'd ever seen something like this up close and I'll tell you, as a man with an iron stomach, it was hard to keep lunch where it was supposed to be.

"I'll go get the kit. You watch the boy." said the woman.

"Boy? I'm thirty!" I said, mouth wider than a bobcat.

The one that carried me sat down on a crate of tools, "Adriana calls things as she sees them." he shrugged, "you act like a boy and she'll call you one."

I scowled, "I thought SPARTANs kept to themselves."

"We do. We're not here, understood?"

I rolled my eyes, "yeah, yeah, I know the drill. Crystal clear."

"Good. I'm Jai, that's Mike, and you've already met the lovely Adriana" he said, removing his helmet and grinning at Adriana as she returned.

"Shut up, Jai" she said, thrusting a vac suit into my hands, "Here. You know how to put it on, right?"

I saw an opportunity and reverted to type. I don't know if it were to save face or what but I wasn't exactly interested in saving what little face I had left, "I don't know a damn thing, darling, but a SPARTAN could sure show me how. If you don't mind getting hands-on" I said, adding a wink into the dark visor in front of me, hoping, like a moron, that I'd managed to fluster a SPARTAN.

She said nothing, just stared back into my damned soul before moving quicker than a whip and putting me straight on my ass. The others laughed as she glanced to her friend, "He needs help with his suit. Make sure its extra hands-on will you, Mike?"

My eyes bulged as Mike lifted me up and bundled me into the suit. I thrashed and struggled in vain until he hit a button and the suit sealed itself with a sucking noise. "Y'all are supposed to be awkward as sin, why are you so…"

"Normal?" Mike asked, grinning down at me. "We're…"

"The ones that ONI couldn't tame." came another voice.

I turned to see the Captain and Commander Kohli standing no more than ten metres from us. The captain was resplendent in his out Vac-Suit, somehow managing to make even the most mundane of technology look gallant. "It's good to finally meet you, Gray Team." he said, stepping forward and offering his hand to Jai.

Jai took it with a grin, "Likewise, Captain Harper. I wish I knew you by more than reputation, although I have met others in the family, if you're anything like them, you'll get us all back safe."

"My family has a reputation, it seems. You know the Admiral?"

"And Parangosky's latest protege" he said with a wink. "Simmed some training sessions with her and Serin a couple years back, she almost matched my scores from basic."

I watched curiously, they were obviously talking about the sister, Madeleine. Captain Harper didn't give much away but looking at him closely did bring my attention to Hannah, who stood in a sort of half grimace beside him. Her face was twisted, a look of concentration, rage, and recognition as she caught me stealing a look at her. It was enough to make me look away and down at my wrists, which had been freed during my traumatising experience with Mike.

She didn't say nothing though, not like I expected her to, she almost forgot me instantly, actually. She gazed back at the SPARTAN, who reminisced with the captain for a little while before getting serious again, his demeanour changing like the wind.

"Alright, check Ollie's suit and let's got see what we can do about that cable." Alex said as I was hoisted to my feet.

"If ya'll are gonna space me, just make it quick and put a .45 in my head."

"Hmph, very dramatic this one." Jai said, glancing briefly at Kohli as she stared at him, backing away almost comically until the bay doors slid shut in front of her.

"Yeah. Best damn pilot that ever helmed one of my ships though. This is Aurelian Van Graff, the rogue who showed my grandfather up a few years ago."

Mike offered me a hand and I just sorta stared at it. "Why would you shake my hand?" I asked, "I hate ONI"

Alex laughed as he met Jai's eyes, "so do we. That's why we're in the ass end of nowhere with convicts for evac." Jai remarked, shrugging his shoulders as if such a comment didn't matter.

Adriana grinned, "we're the SPARTANs that ONI couldn't keep on a leash properly."

"So, we get let off it and go on deep space operations as one dysfunctional unit of familial terror" said Mike, a similar grim plastered on his face.

I smirked, "Sir, if you wanted to teach me discipline then I don't think you're going about it the right way."

"You don't need to learn discipline, Ollie. You showed you were capable of that at the academy. You're in peak physical fitness, attended all your lectures and are calm under fire." He shook his head, "no, your problem is trust. So that's what we'll be learning today."

"Hoorah." Jai whooped, slapping me hard on the shoulder. I winced, resisting the urge to stumble forward or try to throw a punch back as they walked gingerly towards the airlock.

Alex thrust a magnetic plunger into my hands and grinned, "used one of these before?"

"Do I look like I've ever done outer Hull repairs before?"

"Repairs? No, we're going to uncouple the Song from that Corvette."

"With a Mag plunger?"

Alex laughed and raised his own, "no, with two."

"I'm going to die alone in slip space." I said, groaning as I activated the suit. It wheezed at first, helping me adjust to the internal pressure as it slowly took over my breathing. The door behind us sealed as a lower crewman engaged the lock and depressurised the air lock.

Jai stepped to the door and unlocked it, meaning that I now had to contend with the vast reaches of impossible nothingness stretching out before me like an incomprehensible oil spill.

Alex met my eyes and smiled from inside his suit, "lay on, MacDuff."

"You know that signalled the start of a fight, right?" I said, wincing at the memory of a family rendition of MacBeth, in which my father portrayed the titular character as a UNSC Admiral seduced into corruption by Parangosky.

"Yep." he said, hitting the transitional release and venting the atmosphere from the airlock.

I instinctively held my breath, watching as air rushed out into the ominous void that made up slip space. "Ya'll are crazy, you know that, right?"

"Hell yes, we are." Mike said, punching my arm with the force of a small tank.

"Cut that out, Mike, he's delicate." Adriana laughed.

"Alright you two, game faces on. We got the captain and his underling to look after."

"Roger that, Boss" Mike replied, his hulking frame becoming instantly alert and serious.

They stepped out, pushing me forward as I stood at the cusp of the airlock. The boots I wore clanged and clunked as they sealed themselves to the metal plating of the outer hull.

I winced, expecting to fly off to my doom but instead I remained fixed to the ground. In space, down is relative, and ya'll will never know that better than when you walk 90 degrees sunward like it's a disability access ramp. The vast blackness made me feel a little nauseous, in the same way my daddy used get nervous when he first became an actor.

He'd always say that a darkened audience was like the void of space. Now, I finally understood what he'd meant.

"Helluva view, right Cadet?" Mike jeered, "so much to see."

"What are you thinking about?" Adriana asked, her faceplate shimmering with the icy metal of the Song's outer hull.

"Nothing…" I said, remembering my dad for a moment, "I just…"

"Feel small?" The captain offered as we trudged along the sheets of metal and towards the large purple claw that jutted out from the hip of the ship.

"Something like that. Nothing puts a man in his place like an infinite void." I replied, joking.

Jai raised his rifle, scoping in as he scouted ahead. His voice, like the others, came in over the radio, "Doesn't look like they've crossed over just yet. Should give us some more time before they realise what we've done."

In lieu of my thumb, I chewed on my lip. "What will we have done, anyways?"

I could tell Jai was grinning when he replied, I could hear it in his damn voice. "You are going to eject that tether from the hull."

I frowned, "ain't they designed to shatter a ship when they're removed?"

The captain nodded, "it's a… precarious manoeuvre but that's exactly why you're here."

We came to the base of the claw, which stood seven feet taller than the SPARTANs and cast a black shadow over the ground that looked like the open maw of a shark.

"Okay, Van Graff, Captain Harper, take a knee." Jai instructed.

I obeyed, I might like pushing the rules but I ain't one to screw around when I'm not in control of a ship. I take risks, I'm not suicidal. The captain followed suit and winked at me through the visor. I just kind of nodded, wishing this whole experience would be over soon.

Adriana opened up a section of panelling around the base of the claw, revealing a series of hydraulic circuitry.

"Climb on" She said, walking casually up the side of the object, "and take hold of this. Alex, the other side."

I followed suit and squatted, 90degrees upright from the hull of our ship and waited.

"Yank on it and hold it, do not move it back." Mike said as the captain circled the claw and took hold from the other side. "You're going to trust us and you're going to live. If you don't, we all die. Understand?"

I nodded, gripping the wires in my hands and locking the suit into place.

"If you release that, the claw will destroy the ship" He added, patting my helmet.

"That goes for you too, Captain."

"Aye, aye, SPARTAN."

"I can't see any of you from here, how am I supposed to know when to run?" I asked, trying to crane my neck.

"You won't. I'll come and get you." Jai said, resting a heavy Mjolnir-laden hand on my shoulder. "I promise, okay?"

I just breathed deeply and nodded. I couldn't process thoughts into speech and I was thankful for the armour locking, my hands were shaking with adrenaline.

"Good, Adriana, you know what to do, get up there and get this thing off the captain's ship-" His shadow staggered backwards a step. "Shit. Covenant are moving in for boarding, fleet of spirits to the aft!"

I swallowed and froze.

Run!