I crawled through the small metal shaft with the others, gripping my torch in one hand, and my side arm in the other. "If I'd known I'd melt to death slowly in a metal tube I'd have kept my mouth shut back there." I said, groaning as Mei poked me in the back, "hey, watch it!"

"And if I'd have known you would spend your last moments whining, I'd have shot you myself and saved us all some trouble." Mei said, wiping sweat from her brow.

"I'm not whining, I have a legitimate grievance" I said, wincing as the sounds of battle raged about a metre beyond the reinforced walls of the shaft. The covenant was pressing now, heading towards the bridge at lightning speed as they carved through cadets and instructors alike. "Seriously though, how much further is it?"

"We're here" Brit said, stopping near a small metal door. She revealed a panel and entered a code into the interface. There was a click and a hiss followed by shouting.

"Don't shoot! Friendly!" she said, more alarmed than I'd ever heard her, "We're the bridge team, Captain Harper has ordered us to overclock the drive."

"Yeah? Well, he's crazy if he thinks we can hold them off long enough to fire the damned thing." the marine said cocking his rifle, "we can buy you a few minutes but we will need to expose the core, radiation like that will stop them bastards getting in and messing up the plan."

"Won't that just melt the reactor?" Mei asked.

I shook my head, "the core will vent under stress and as a failsafe to overheating. This room exposes itself to the vacuum, stopping a nuclear detonation."

"Void cooling" Brit said, grinning, "cool right?"

I nodded and bumped her fist, grinning back at her. There was a hiss and a shimmer from the corner of my eye and I froze.

"Ollie!" Drip cried, launching himself forwards.

"Damn it, open fire! -" the marine fell, his throat sliced as Drip tried to unbalance him, gripping his leg. I was rooted to the spot as the others rounded on him, punching, kicking, clawing, and shooting as he bucked, dodged and rolled away.

Drip rounded on him, not letting up as he stumbled forward, clumsily trying to jam a service knife into his armour. He missed and then I moved.

I moved because he'd saved me. I moved because I knew what came next. I roared, charging him down as I fired.

The elite reacted, shifting right. Drip's eyes bulged as he realised, we'd fallen for a feint. He threw himself forwards, grunting as the sword pierced him. The elite paused. Then he shrieked as Drip burst his shield.

I cut the shriek short, firing a single shot into the Elites skull.

"Drip?" I asked, as silence fell, "Drip? Are you…"

"Ollie…" Brit said, rubbing my shoulder, "He's gone."

"He wasn't a coward." I said, as if the thought had only just been realised.

Mei shook her head, "Brit, get that drive sorted, I'll sort this."

Brit walked slowly away, leaving me holding Drip's lifeless body in my hands.

"You caused this, you know." Mei said, standing over me. "You were so preoccupied with yourself that you forgot the danger we're all in. You froze. You let…" she snivelled, trying to control herself.

"Mei…" I whispered, my voice hoarse.

"He was in for cowardice, you know that, right? That was the black mark in his file that earned him a place here. He told me just after you were outed as a pirate, said we should stand by you, believe it or not."

"Why didn't you, then?" Brit spat, her head buried in the drive core's innards.

Mei hugged herself, "actually, that was my fault. I'm here because I was cited for challenging my old C.O. I thought it would be better for our careers if we washed our hands of you. Guess the real coward was me" she laughed through tears and a snotty nose.

"He wasn't a coward." I said, "he was a good man and a friend to the end. I wish I could tell him that." Mei knelt beside me, closing the boy's eyes as the drive made an electronic coughing noise. "And you aren't a coward either, Mei. You did what you thought was right for him, which is more than I ever did."

"I guess there's nothing to do but see this though, now." she shrugged, solemnly.

I wasn't entirely sure; there was a shakiness to my voice and an uneasiness in the air as I laid Drip down and rose to my feet, helping Mei up as well. "Drip gave us a chance to live, Mei, we need to take it."

"You really think that's even possible?"

"I think that if I gave up, I'd be pissin' over his memory. " What good is a sacrifice like that if I don't follow through?"

"I guess it couldn't hurt to take as many of them bastards with us," Mei said sheepishly, "they owe us a lot of blood for that boy."

"That they do." I said, placing a large hand on her shoulder, "Brit, You ready? Need to seal this room up and bug out, the fighting's getting real close and I'm not brave enough to fight off a hoard."

Brit stood up, gingerly and walked over to us, "naturally. I'm pretty good at this stuff you know."

"Got any words for Drip?" Mei asked. There wasn't any judgement in her tone or churlishness. Nothing that you would usually find in her words. There was only the recognition that Brit was trying to avoid thinking about him.

"I…" She paused and breathed deeply, "there'll be time to cry later, Drip gave his life so we could save ours, we need to make it count."

I nodded, pulling her close for a hug. Mei joined in. We headed back out of the engine room the way that we had come, sealing each bulkhead and entrance point behind us as we made for the bridge at a half-crawl. Sounds of fighting were leaking through the walls, with decidedly fewer human weapons being fired until we neared the bridge.

When we finally arrived, the scene was desperate. The bridge was in tatters, on lone grunt body had been left in the centre, its body riddled with bullets.

"What's going on?" Liang asked, as Valette jogged over to them.

"Bridge couldn't be locked down, Brettman and the Captain are fixing it now but we're pulling everyone who's injured back here.

"And Grey team?" I asked, "Hannah? Where are they?"

"Making their way back, here, take this" she said pushing a shotgun into Mei's arms. She turned, then drew her pistol and turned back again only to freeze. "Where's Drip?" She asked, her voice firm.

"Gone. Saved our lives." I replied without hesitation, "you take this" she said, pushing the pistol into my hands.

"Where's the Captain?" Someone shouted.

They all turned to me and I looked behind me.

"Ollie, he made you acting Captain." Valette said.

"Then he's either insane or we're that desperate." I replied, jokingly. When no one laughed I cleared my throat and turned to the Ensign who had taken Drips place. "All stations, report your status, where do we stand?"

"Comms are dead, Sir. The dish took a piece of stray debris to the power supply, sheared the damn thing off."

"Damn it, okay, Mei? Can you get us out of here?"

She shook her head, "console is fried. I'm getting nothing from the ops centre downstairs and I'm pretty sure the data banks are somewhere in slip space."

"So, we're blind and I'll need to fly us manually on the other side. That's just great."

Brit stood near her station, "Grey team are aboard, Sir. They say they're ready."

I sucked the air between my teeth. Damn. The pressure was immense as they all looked to me to guide them home.

"Okay, all hands, prepare for slip jump. On my mark!"

The bridge became a flurry of movement as doors were sealed and bracing positions were taken. It seemed wrong but everyone not on the bridge was now in it for themselves.

"Mark!"

Mei fired the drive and gasped.

"Power surge!" She cried, her head snapping towards Valette.

"Fire all remaining PDCs! Carve them in half!" I said, slamming the thrusters on.

What remained of the Song of the East ground and twisted, hurling metallic spew into space as the batteries of canon tore the grapple asunder and continued onwards, raking the covenant ship with fire that tore at the purple bulkheads and split open compartments. I hit the engines forward again, using what power remained to push us through the hole torn in slip space.

"Oh sh-" Valette yelled, "They're spooling up, they gonna fire!"

"The portal will close. Hold fast!" I said, crossing my fingers, "cut power to the cannons, divert it back to tertiary storage."

The PDCs' buzz sawing through the unshielded ship just moments ago fell silent and everyone held their breath as we slipped away, leaving the covenant vessel stranded and alone in unknown space.

The Song of the East, for all its damage, seemed to breathe a sigh of relief as it passed through slip space on its illegal mission back home. I knew, as we waited, that as acting Captain, I'd be held responsible for breaking protocol; strangely, I didn't feel regretful as everyone settled down for the short trip back to earth.