Author's Note: It's chapter 6 of my monopoly on this crossover section! So in my reviews I've seen a few people occasionally say along the lines "I hope we see the UNSC come in via (insert ship) and helps." Now I'm all for those types of scenarios and comments like that have appeared in all three of my currently written stories. I'm going to break it straight to you guys. The UNSC is not coming, and it never will. Also, I do apologize for how long this took with finals and the holidays and all that, but here's your New Year's Eve present!

Disclaimer: I don't own Halo or The Last of Us as they belong to Microsoft/343 Industries and Naughty Dog.

"Quotes."

"Radio Messages, Thoughts, and/or Reading"


Boston T.V. Station - Converted Communications Tower

August 5th, 1504 Hours, 2033

Bodies of those who died during the operation were laid out and being zipped up in body bags to be taken back to the Quarantine Zone. Daisy sighed, seven of those men were her own and losing them in what should have been a simple search and destroy mission left yet another weight on her already questionable life. She watched as two trucks were loaded with the bodies and drove away before turning her attention to the infected bodies being stacked for burning.

The mission to secure the T.V. turned communications station was, by all means, an outstanding success. A grand total of thirty one out of six hundred four were lost, the lion's share from Charlie Company who had the sole task of clearing the second floor. It wasn't pretty and they met serious resistance, but after reinforcements from Kingser's Delta Company, they were able to clear the floor.

Technical and Mechanical Engineers had been working in tandem for nearly a half hour to get power back to the station. A team was sent down to the generator room where it was found out that the generator was clogged with the hive - mucus shit before they were chased out by another group of infected. It was deemed a loss and so a new one was ordered from the zone.

Floodlights had been installed throughout the station in order to provide temporary light for the squads patrolling within the building. A perimeter built by the ever important Combat Engineers had been set up around the area and hit squads had been sent throughout the surrounding area to clear it within a three - quarter mile radius.

Daisy herself was sitting halfway within a HUMMWV listening to Major Haxor. He had called every officer in his Battalion to a post - op debriefing so he could get a full, and better, idea over everything that occurred. So far, he was not too disappointed with the progress to casualty reports.

"Now we just sit and wait for orders from Major Collins. Have your men ready to stay overnight because he's having a spare generator built and sent over to us so our technicians can get power to this place. Once that's done, a more permanent force is going to be based here. Any questions, comments, concerns?" He asked.

A few of Daisy's fellow Jr. CO's looked at each other, but none raised their hands or spoke up.

"None? Ok, you're dismissed. Good work, all of you."

Instead of immediately getting up, Daisy swung her body fully into the HUMMWV and leaned back onto the rough chair, letting the A.C. Blow onto her sweaty face. Taking a minute to cool off, she wiped her brow and let the luxuries of rank take over. After a minute or two, she sat up and pulled herself out of the armored vehicle, now refreshed with a slight chill running throughout her body.

"Lieutenant!" Someone called out to her.

Turning to the origins of the call, Staff Sergeant Butcher was jogging over to her. "Sergeant Butcher, good to see you lived through this operation." Daisy smiled at him.

"Likewise. Although I didn't doubt for a second you'd get through, being SpecOps and all." Butcher said, finally arriving next to her.

"But I expect you have something to relay to me other than words of encouragement?" Daisy inquired.

"Aye. The story of you going toe to toe with a bloater is making quite the impression on the rest of the Battalion. Personally, I think we can start calling you ma'am because you have no idea how many of those things have killed our men. Anyways, Captain Kingser was quite impressed at the level of bravery and strength you displayed to fight it in hand to hand combat so she wants you to be the leader of a task force to clear out the basement so engineers can safely remove the old generator."

"Done. Who am I with and when are we moving out?"

"You would have to ask the Captain, ma'am. Follow me." Butcher said, turning on his heels.

Nodding, Daisy followed him and, after a minute of shuffling through the busy perimeter, found themselves in the sights of Kingser. Walking up to her superior, Daisy flashed a short salute that Kingser reciprocated. "Good to see you again Lieutenant, sorry it's on such short notice."

"No problem ma'am. I've done back to back missions before, this isn't anything new. I think I can guess the objective, but who am I leading down there?"

"You'll be heading down with Sergeant Butcher's squad actually since you two seem to be well acquainted with each other. Your objective is, as you could've guessed, to clear out the infection. Two flame units will be accompanying you to clear out hive material as you progress and..." Kingser paused to think for a moment. "Actually Lieutenant, how well versed are you in using shotguns?"

"They wouldn't be my first weapon of choice, but in any case I'm qualified and have a good amount of experience with them. I suppose you want me to bring one in case we need the heavier firepower ma'am?"

"I was thinking about giving it to one of Butcher's men, but seeing how many enlisted died using it, I was thinking that giving it to you might be the smarter option. Breachers brought a few spares in case they lost some during the assault; they should have some laying in a weapon rack in the lobby of the station. Any questions?"" Kingser assessed.

"None ma'am."

"Good, grab your gear and some ammo, then meet up with Butcher's squad by the basement. Sergeant, get your squad ready to move. Fresh filters, replenish ammo, the whole 9 yards. Dismissed, clear that basement."

The two saluted their greater superior officer before parting ways. Upon entering the T.V. station lobby, a few pallets of ammo and weapon racks sat behind a Marine at a foldable table. Laying eyes on her, he quickly stood up and saluted her.

Daisy waved him off, her more casual nature starting to spread like a plague. "Good afternoon Marine. I was told by my Captain that you have a few shotguns laying around."

"The Captain heard right ma'am." The Marine said, walking behind a pallet and returning with a M1014.

Taking the semi - auto weapon from his hands, she looked it over once or twice before pulling back the bolt to see the chamber clear. "How many shells do you normally hand out per user?"

"About 50 ma'am, why?"

"I'll take 72, including the initial magazine."

"Going somewhere hardy?" He inquired.

"The basement."

"A fan of horror movies?" He joked, getting a dry reaction from Daisy. "Alright, hand over your M4, you'll want to make room on your vest for the shell carriers."

Slinging her M4 over her shoulder and taking off the velcro attached magazine holsters, she placed them on the table while he fetched two large pouches of 12 gauge buckshot containing thirty two each with eight shells loose on the table. Picking up one of the shells, she pulled back the bolt and loaded it into the chamber then grabbed the other seven and stuffed them into the magazine tube. Slapping on the two pouches of shells, thanked the Marine and headed for the back of the station to meet up with Butcher and the two flamers.

The first to notice her was, unfortunately, Private First Class Park's who whistled at her approach. "Looking even better in full gear ma'am, I dig it."

"Park's, put a fucking sock in it." Butcher ordered the younger man.

"Will do boss." Park's responded, shutting his mouth and blowing up his cheeks.

"It's good to see you again ma'am. Sarge brought us up to speed so don't worry about explaining anything." Rose said.

"Good to hear you're an actual leader Butcher." Daisy remarked.

"I try." Butcher replied.

A salute motioned itself into her peripheral vision. "Afternoon ma'am." Hammers' voice followed.

"Ma'am, allow me to introduce Corporal Thompson and Sergeant Rebecca. They'll be the ones accompanying our slash and burn operation." Butcher informed her.

The pair gripped their flamethrowers by the hand guards and saluted Daisy who just nodded at them in return. "You two ready for whatever god awful shit could be down there?"

"Affirmative ma'am./As best we can be." The two of them replied through their SC(u)BA gear.

"Then let's pay the guards' toll and head down. I'll take point, Butcher you watch my back while Rose hugs yours. I want Rebecca and Thompson to be covered by Park's and Hammers bringing up the rear, understood?"

Another round of confirmations hit her ears. Leading the group to the basement door guarded by two Marines, they saluted her and one put his hand on the door. As the door opened, Daisy made sure her mask was sealed, braced her shotgun against her shoulder, and clicked on its tactical light. Taking a deep breath, slowly descended down the soft, wet steps and swept her shotgun around the room.

Stopping at the base of the steps, her tac - light and augmented vision allowed her to see the hive spores and mucus everywhere. The door was promptly shut behind them as Hammers took a step on the staircase.

"Comms check." Daisy said.

"Butcher, loud and clear."

"Rose, you're good."

"Thompson, I'm good to go."

"Rebecca, five - by - five."

"Park's, I hear you."

"Hammers, ditto."

Nodding to herself, Daisy's first step on the concrete basement felt soft and mushy. "Remember, we hit them hard and fast. Light's on, fingers on your triggers, and radio's only. Flamers, when we walk to the next room and you light up the last one." She ordered. Their footsteps soon followed hers as their boots squelched against the ground. The low hiss from Thompson and Rebecca's nozzles and squishing of the floor filled the otherwise quiet room.

"Keep your eyes on the walls, sometimes they like to play hide and seek." Butcher informed.

Keeping a slow pace, while Daisy moved straight through the room, Butcher and Rose were her eyes to the left and right while Thompson and Rebecca watched the ceiling and Park's and Hammers kept an eye out for any vents or other aberrations. Reaching the other side of the transformed room, Daisy extended a hand out into the dim corridor and snapped her fingers a few times.

Groans, growls, and a myriad of other inhuman sounds echoed throughout the walls. Butcher and Rose stepped to Daisy's side and readied their M4's for whatever shit show was about to come. As if on cue, a group of fifteen or so infected walked into view glancing at what could have possibly made the noise.

Daisy didn't waste time. Pulling the trigger, the first round of 12 gauge buckshot roared out of the barrel and ripped apart the nearest infecteds head, sending blood, brain matter, and fungal chunks everywhere. The horde began its mad dash towards the squad, but whoever designed this place was smart. The corridor meant there was only one way in, one way out, creating a funnel that allowed Daisy, Butcher, and Rose to fire round after round tearing blood from flesh and flesh from bone.

As soon as her shotgun clicked with no results, Daisy opened one of her shell pouches and grabbed five shells. Resting the gun between her chest and arm, she pulled the bolt back and slammed a shell in before lining up the other four and sliding them in the magazine tube. Reaching in and grabbing the other three shells, a muted thud slammed into the wall.

In response, Park and Hammer snapped their M4's at the source of the sound. Another thud was heard as the concrete began to crack and material fell to the floor. Daisy glanced at the wall, hearing it even over the gunfire. Quickly loading the remaining shells, the wall finally burst open, concealing anything that was on the other side. It didn't take a genius to know that whatever it was, it wasn't on their side.

Daisy was the first to shoot through the hole, followed by Park's and Hammer while Butcher and Rose kept whittling down the main horde. Thompson and Rebecca took a few steps back, not wanting to use their flamethrowers in such a confined space with friendlies in the way. As the dust settled, another bloater stumbled through the wall, revealing itself having been unaffected by Daisy's shotgun; but this one had one extra feature.

"Stay away from the pulsation's on its body! They release dense clouds of spores that can overpower our filters!" Hammer's warned.

"Noted, then we need to burn it." Daisy replied calmly, slamming another shell down the barrel. The impact of the fifth 12 gauge round jerked the bloater's body, but otherwise the effect remained the same.

Loading another shell from the magazine tube, the bolt carrier stopped halfway as two shells pushed into each other, jamming the weapon. Cursing herself, she dropped the shotgun and pulled out her Beretta. "Like this will do much." She thought.

"Thompson, Hammer, with me; the rest of you, advance, cover us, and clear the corridor. Butcher, you're in command." Daisy ordered.

"Havoc squad you heard the lady, let's move!" Butcher ordered, taking a step forward.

"Hammer's, get its attention. We need to immobilize it so we can burn it without issue."

"Aye ma'am." Hammer responded. "Over here you ugly fuck! Yeah that's right, how's it feel!?" He taunted the bloater, firing several rounds at its head and pulling it off of Daisy.

In the momentary clear, Daisy quickly looked on the ground before spotting a long piece of rebar jutting out of the destroyed wall. "Sorry Collins." She thought. Grabbing it, she broke it off and swung it at the bloater's knee with a sickening crunch. As it fell to the floor, she raised the rebar above her head and brought it down, impaling the spine of the obese infected and pinning it to the floor.

"Fry its cocooned ass." She ordered Thompson.

Stepping forward, the man brought the sizzling nozzle of his flamethrower down and squeezed the trigger. Several thousand degree flames spewed out and set the state - puft marshmallow man ablaze. It flailed in pain and howled ferociously at the three of them for a few seconds before cooking into a charred s'more.

Hammer hunched over to quickly catch a breath. "Holy hell ma'am. I don't know how you managed to do. . . that, but it's certainly one way to kill those things."

"Worry about that later Lance Corporal. Butcher, how's the advance coming along?" Daisy asked, looking down the tunnel and seeing their lights in the distance. Gunshots echoed through the corridor as she grabbed her displaced shotgun.

"Park is down, it was a damn ambush! They came out of the damn wall, we're falling back to you! Rebecca light th —- AGH fuck!" A cry came from him.

Slamming her fist into the receiver of the shotgun to try and clear the jam which only worsened it by denting the weapon. Huffing, she threw it over her shoulder and gripped her pistol tightly. "Captain, we've suffered some casualties who we're sending back up, be ready. Butcher, if you can hear me fall back. Hammer, Thompson, and I are coming to you." Breaking into a jog to not leave the two men behind, the three of them made off to save their squad.


Rose shifted her carbine in his direction and pulled the trigger only to feel a distinctive click. "Shit!" She thought. Flicking her carbine, she ejected the empty magazine and loaded another, only counting two left. Sending the bolt forward, she heard a cry of pain from Butcher who she saw was laying on the floor with blood soaking his leg. Raising her freshly loaded weapon, she pulled the trigger twice, double tapping the stalker that wounded her squad leader.

Grabbing his collar, she hoisted him up and began dragging him across the floor. Holding her carbine by the grip and balancing it under her arm, she slowly fired as she dragged her wounded squad leader back before Rebecca squeezed the nozzle on her flamethrower, lighting up the corridor in bright orange flame. Through her comms, she could hear the pained grunting of Butcher as he slid on the ground causing her adrenaline to spike even higher than it already was.

The empty click as she pulled the trigger again made her swear internally. Letting her now empty weapon hang by its sling, she wrapped her now two free arms around Butcher's, lifted him to his feet, and helped him move as he hobbled one his one good leg. After a few moments, between the sounds of sizzling flesh and screams, several heavy boots echoed throughout the corridor. A few yards away from her, she could see the lights from the rest of her squad grow smaller in size. Once they finally crossed paths, Rose let out a sigh she didn't know she had been holding as the sound of gunfire and another flamethrower bombarded her ears from behind as she continued dragging Butcher back to the stairs.

Daisy held her pistol in one hand and a piece of rebar in the other. Focusing her attention on the infected that weren't currently being roasted alive, her sights snapped from target to target delivering one hundred percent accuracy one hundred percent of the time. Once her sixteen round magazine ran dry and Hammer kept his sights on other targets, she swung the rebar caving in the skulls and obliterating anything inhuman. Taking a moment, she let the rebar rest on her knee, she ejected the magazine and loaded one of her two spares before pulling back the slide.

As she stood back up, another infected lunged at her that Hammer shot, but only managed to graze. Unfazed by this, she kicked its knee with such force that a sickening crunch echoed through the corridor to Rose and Butcher before she grabbed the rebar and brought it down onto the top of its head. Another trigger pull sent a fresh round sailing through another infected skull.

"Rose, status report?!" She cried out through her comms.

"Almost to the door ma'am, Jeremy's unconscious but breathing, if just barely. He's lost a lot of blood ma'am."

"Alright, make your way back to us as soon as he's topside. We still have a job to do and enough manpower to do it. The captain's counting on us."

"Yes ma'am. Just make sure I can make it back."

Daisy nodded as the intense heat from the flamethrowers began to die down as the pair of operators spewed flames less and less as the final group from this rather unusually large horde fell victim to the military. Checking her Beretta, she counted only three rounds remaining in her current magazine with a fourth in the chamber. "Can't be picky with ammo, not this time." She thought. Taking a deep breath, she looked at the floor covered in blood, bones, and other body parts.

"Fucking shit, this place was damn hotbed for these things. No wonder the Major sent a whole Battalion to deal with this." Hammer's normally calm demeanor breaking through the comms.

"Amen to that, I'm nearly out of fuel." Rebecca commented.

Taking a look at the hole roughly the size of an adult human, her eyes easily adjusted to the even darker room exposed to them. Inside lay a smaller, yet remarkably dense cluster of hives that would no doubt take quite a bit of fuel to burn out. The only good news about it seemed that it's inhabitants were nothing more than piles of remains at her feet.

"Rose, status."

The slamming of a metal door rang throughout the corridor. "Just got the Sergeant topside, I'm making my way back to you now. What's it look like on your end ma'am?"

"Messy. Don't worry, it looks like all hostile in the immediate vicinity is either dead or dying so the area is clear for now. Do you have a sidearm on you at this time?"

"Yes ma'am, why?"

"I'll need whatever magazines you can spare. I'm down to a single one and four rounds in the other with a broken shotgun. We'll hold position until you arrive."

"Understood ma'am, just give me a few minutes."

"You hear me Marines? Hammer, Rebecca, watch the door leading into the generator room. Thompson, burn this shit out." She gestured to the dense hive in the hole in the wall.

Taking a moment to look at all the corpses, she decided to examine them just to pass the time, and possibly find Private Park. Moving each corpse out of the way, she noticed most of them had barely recognizable uniforms with U.S. Military origins. Sighing, she paused for a moment. "Thompson, quit burning that room for a second and help me with the bodies. Most of these infected are members probably from the previous garrison here. We should at least give their bodies a decent end." She softly ordered, picking up a body and lightly tossing it into the burning room.

By the time Rose returned to the rest of the squad, the amount of bodies littering the corridor had reduced, but not drastically so. Looking over her shoulder, Daisy just locked eyes with the female Corporal and motioned her head at the task she and Thompson were currently undertaking. Understanding the significance of it, and under the watch of Rebecca and Hammer, she joined in the small ceremony making the whole ordeal last less than three minutes. Once they reached the end of the packed corpses, they found Private Park's body, his eyes staring at the ceiling frozen in fear as blood oozed out from a large wound in his neck that no doubt was a severed jugular. Placing his body on the top of the relatively large pile, Daisy placed a hand on the dead Marine's shoulder. "Rest easy Marine. You did your duty at whatever the cost, and you paid it in full." She muttered softly.

Stepping out of the hot room, Daisy stood back and watched the burning of men and women who must have suffered terribly long and agonizing transformations as they lost control of their bodies. After taking a moment to gaze into the flames, she looked at her clenched hand and, more specifically, the broken and battered dog tags of the fallen. She remorsed for just a few moments longer, much longer than any Spartan should have, before sending the moment to the back of her head. "Marines, we still have a job to do and I intend on doing it. And Corporal, if you would." Daisy hinted at the young Corporal, extending her hand.

Understanding immediately, Rose grabbed the pair of Beretta magazines she had in a pouch and handed them over to Daisy who simply pocketed them. Daisy's squad took one last look at the dying pile of embers, soot, ash, and bone before bringing their attention onto Daisy. "Let's go." She simply told them, taking the few steps necessary to arrive at the generator door. Peeking through the small slit of glass on the metal door, she

saw nothing. Banging on it to see if anything would show itself in case it somehow missed the firefight, nothing. "Seems like the engineers shut the door to make sure nothing else got to it before us, smart." She thought, pushing it open. A quick scan of the room confirmed it was clear without any signs of struggles.

"Ma'am, from the looks of it everything down here died trying to rip us apart in that corridor." Thompson commented.

"Appears so. Rally on me, we're done here." She said, stepping back into the corridor and switching to the private officer channel. "Captain Kingser, can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear, go ahead Lieutenant."

"The basement is clear, those two flame units you sent with us really went out of their way. We unfortunately suffered one K.I.A and W.I.A., speaking of which, is Staff Sergeant Butcher alright?"

"Medical personnel were on standby the moment Corporal Rose hailed us and he was rushed to the field hospital. We're currently waiting for an update on his condition. I'm going to be completely honest with you Lieutenant, considering Havoc Squad's record, they should really join whatever SpecOps you've been put in charge of rebuilding."

"I'll keep that in mind ma'am. We're heading topside, see you in a minute. Spencer Out." Looking back at her remaining squad, motioned for them to get moving as she took the lead back to ground floor.


Infirmary, Boston Quarantine Zone

August 7th, 0846 Hours, 2033

Daisy stood at the side of a now conscious, if bedridden, Staff Sergeant Jeremy Butcher. The man had woken up suffering a severe headache after having gone through an emergency blood transfusion just two days prior.

"The doc said it was pretty bad. Had my femoral artery sliced wide open, I'm glad to just be alive after shit like that. I feel even luckier that the infection doesn't spread through scratching like those traditional zombie flicks you know?" He casually chatted with Daisy.

"Which ones? I wasn't a huge film fan before all this." Daisy asked.

"The Walking Dead, Dawn of the Dead, 28 Days Later, shit like that. You know how the protagonists usually get infected by either being bitten, scratched, or other injuries? I'm just glad we aren't living in that type of apocalypse because otherwise I'd be…" He let out a sigh of relief. "I'd be fucking dead."

"Well you fared better than Private Park. I'm not sure if you read my after action report yet, but he suffered the severing of his jugular." Pulling out his pair of dog tags she kept after adding the rest to her quickly growing collection. "Don't worry, we didn't leave his body in that damn building. We burned it alongside all the others in there which probably wasn't the best option, but considering the circumstances at the time, it's really all we had."

A smirk formed on Butcher's face. "Park, heh, he was a handful; funny at best, asshole at worst. You remember the first day we met? Well considering it was barely a week ago, probably, but remember how he… what's the word… catfished you? Don't remember him by shit like that, even if it was all you knew him by. But you probably didn't just come check up on me and ask how my day has been, didn't you ma'am?"

"Not quite Sergeant, although I'm glad to see that you're ok. I've talked with both Lieutenant Taylor and Major Collin about transferring your squad and a couple other prominent Marines to the 1st Raider Battalion in my reformation of MARSOC. Right now he can't make anything official until he runs it through with whatever's left of HIGHCOM and SOCOM, but unofficially you're now a Marine Raider stationed under 2nd Lieutenant Daisy Ann Spencer. Congratulations, Gunnery Sergeant." She explained.

Butcher's eyes widened in shock. "You mean I'm special forces now?" Daisy simply nodded. "Jesus Christ, and a promotion to boot? This has to be my luckiest day ever."

"Expect it to be your last. Now that I have personnel for MARSOC, you're going to be grilled harder than ever. Whatever it damn well takes Gunny, I'm making you guys the best of the best. All that's needed is my replacement for Delta Company once I have enough men to actually make a functioning command system." Placing a hand on his shoulder, she turned to leave. "My time's running short, I've got to go. Enjoy your rest Butcher, you won't experience anything like it for a while." She warned.

"Ma'am, wait." Butcher called out to her.

Looking back, she raised an eyebrow. "Yes Sergeant?"

"Hoorah to ashes ma'am."

Daisy hesitated for a moment, not feeling like she was ready, or worthy, for such a Marine Corps tradition since Spartans were trained under the Navy.

"Likewise Sergeant, likewise."


Author's Note: Well, the plot thickens. Not even Butcher's Havoc Squad has plot armor, and it's only chapter 6! Also, the ODST's are now in play. Well not ODST's considering they don't exist, but you know what I mean with the Marine Raiders and all that. And yes, I do recognize that this chapter is shorter than the previous few. In google docs it is page 12 which is the minimum limit I strive for if I start running out of content for the chapter that I want to save for the next one.