Chapter Three

1445 Hours (Earth Time), October 6, 2552 (Military Calendar) , Sol System, Planet Earth.
Deployment +00:15:00 (Spartan-035 Mission Clock)

Rachel stood there, surrounded an all sides be covenant warriors. The black clad elite strolled up to her, kicking away her weapons and taking her equipment. She glared at him through her visor. "You will follow us!" The elite spat.
Rachel knew what was coming next, she could feel her adrenaline spike. Time perceivably slowed, they called it "Spartan Time", the impulses in her nerves moved so quickly that time seemed to slow down. She leapt into the air, arching her back so at the apex of the jump her foot flung upwards into the chin of the elite. Her already enhanced strength, multiplied by her MJOLNIR armor, was sufficient to totally shatter his skull. The ex-Elite flew back to smash into a handful of his comrades. The remaining aliens opened fire, but Rachel was already diving sideways into a roll that brought her to the feet of a pair of Jackals hiding behind their energy shields. As she rose she delivered a savage uppercut to one of them, and followed through with a bone-crushing side kick to the other. Both aliens dropped and lay still. "COVER!" a human voice yelled from somewhere behind her. Rachel dove under a sturdy looking stair case, just as a trio of rockets flew into the group of covenant that were prepared to ice her. Purple alien blood and body parts flew everywhere. There were still a few lucky grunts left, which quickly became unlucky as a group of marines tore them to shreds with their battle rifles. "Sir are you alright?" came a gruff voice from the group.
"That's Ma'am marine, and I'm fine."
"Sorry, Ma'am, Gunnery Sergeant Johns reporting for duty!" Sergeant Johns and his men all snapped off crisp salutes.
Rachel returned the salute and said, "Report sergeant"
"Ma'am most of the city has been overrun by the covenant, there are a few pockets of resistance still fighting, but without reinforcements this city is toast."
"I am your reinforcement's sergeant."
"Ma'am?"
"You heard me Marine, gather your equipment, we're moving out."
"You heard the lady marines, LETS MOVE!"
The marines gathered up spare weapons from the slain covenant and moved out of the building. Stepping outside, Rachel surveyed the destruction. It seemed like half the city was in ruins, fires burned in every sector of the city. But that wasn't what worried Rachel, hovering above the city was a massive Covenant cruiser. A purple hued grav-beam connected the cruiser to the surface. Johns walked up beside Rachel and let out a long, sighing expletive. "It's a mess down there ma'am, if you don't mind me asking, where are we going?"
"First Sergeant, we are going to board that cruiser, second, we are going to stop the covenant from destroying our home, third, we are going to follow them back home and destroy every last one of them."
"Sounds like a plan Ma'am"
Rachel and the marines moved down towards the city proper, looking to kill.

Mogomo Furooti stood uneasily in front of the display, watching the massacre of his ambush party. He turned to one of his officer and said in an enraged tone, "Why was this human allowed to escape? You had plenty of supplies and personnel!"
"There were more than one human! You said there would only be the one!"
"Well I was wrong I…" Mogomo halted in mid sentence as a message alert beeped on his console. He touched the holographic display, and the head of the Prophet Truth sprang from the display. Mogomo and his inferior both dropped to their knees in front of the hologram. Mogomo spoke in a reverent tone " Lord, I thought that you were surveying one of the sacred rings, I had no idea that you would be returning this quickly. Had I known, the proper arrangements would have been made." Mogomo pulled up a display of the Prophet's ship.
"Fear not your unprepared ness, I need no accommodations now. I have come to blow forth the divine wind that will carry us on the Great Journey. I am sending an envoy to your ship to assume command."
"But lord, I don't think that."
"It matters not what you think! The Elites have proven a hindrance to the Great Journey, your kind cannot be allowed to have such a high level of command if you cannot carry out your duties. This whole planet would have been conquered by now, if not for your incompetence."
The specs for the Prophet's ship came up on the display. It was like no other ship Mogomo had ever seen, it was slender and sleek. It was not of Covenant origin, it reminded Mogomo of the holos he had seen of the buildings on Halo.
"Very well, we will await your envoy."
"How very good of you, he will be with you shortly."
The hologram shut down as the link closed. Mogomo's inferior officer turned to him. "Will you allow this to happen to us?"
"Of course not, out 'Lord' is sending one of his Brutes to take over for us. We will allow him to think that he is in command while it is convenient for us, then we will take back what is rightfully ours.
"Yes, we will, we will"