Prologue.

2022 hours, August 30 2552

Epsilon Eridani System.

'Thud.'

As his Mjolnir armor collided with titanium plating, the Spartan awoke from his uneasy slumber. James had long since given in to the fact that this system would take his life. He had less then 6 hours of oxygen left and was free floating in a system now overrun by the enemy. Even a Spartan could not fight his way out of this battle. As the Spartan floated, awaiting his death, he had drifted into an uneasy slumber, thinking of his training, his fellow Spartans and his now glassed home planet of reach. He would have killed to be doing another one of CPO Mendez's training exercises again. He was remembering the moment he had been swept into space, the tumbling action he had been sent into, the brief flashes and transmissions from John as his head collided with something and he found himself awake, staring into the black rift that was the Eridani System.

He used the object to spin himself around and found it was a piece of debris, a large titanium shard. But it was what was behind the debris that scared him. A small group of phantoms, 3 or 4 large, slowly came into view through gaps in the field of light debris. James powered down all systems of his Mjolnir armor except for life support and hid in the debris. With any luck the covenant would pass through without noticing him. It was a strange sight seeing a group of phantoms fly past and make no noise. He had never encountered one outside of an atmosphere before and it was eerie. 4 large ships flew past and not a single sound was heard. As they flew past, James let out the breath that he was holding. With his primary threat gone, he scanned the debris field he was in. He had to find more air. Fast.

After restoring power to his more vital systems, James aimed up and pushed off from the titanium shard he had clung to and floated slowly towards another large piece of A-Class titanium plating. From there he progressively floated closer towards his target, the shell of a Destroyer, torn in half by the powerful plasma weapons, he hoped he had picked the correct half of the ship. If he could not find oxygen supplies he was royally screwed. As he moved towards the rear of the ship he could see the word "Minotaur." He quickly remembered it as the ship that had been torn apart by the new covenant plasma beam. As the Spartan floated closer and closer to the hull he saw the extent of the damage. The laser had cut through the destroyer like a hot knife through butter, splitting the ship from top to bottom down the middle. James made contact with the ship and slowly crept along its outer plating towards the extent of the damage. As he got closer to the split, he noticed that the armor was melted and disfigured. Whatever the weapon that did it was, it was powerful, too powerful for any UNSC ships to withstand.

James made his way to where the weapon had struck and saw the devastation up close. Corridors, cryo-bays and hangars had all been cut clean in half by the sheer heat of the laser. The Spartan climbed in and found himself in a corridor. He was amazed to see that the backup power generators were still working and further down the corridor where the lights were not melted, the ship was dimly lit. He made his way to the end of the corridor and found himself at a sealed door. He punched in an opening sequence into the controls, the door did not budge. He spent another 15 minutes trying every sequence he could think of until he gave up and slumped to the floor. The ship was shut down tight. James jumped as he heard a male voice behind him. 'Need a hand?'

James pushed off from the wall and put himself into a roll as he unholstered his pistol. As he made it to the opposite wall he paused, his M6D directly pointed at the location of where the voice had sounded. The corridor was blank. He saw a flicker in the corner of his vision and turned to see the holographic image of the ships AI on a small pedestal next to the door controls.

'Greetings Spartan,' it said. 'Please wait while I depressurise the adjacent corridor.' James heard a sucking sound from behind the door and it opened. 'Right this way said the AI. I am Preston, the onboard AI for the Minotaur, and you are?' asked the AI curiously. 'Uh, James,' replied the Spartan. The door behind him closed and the AI depressurized the corridor. 'Finally, solid ground,' thought James.

'Where are you taking me?' he asked.

'To meet the others,' replied Preston.

'The others?' the Spartan replied inquisitively.

'The other survivors. The Minotaurs secondary systems are still online. There are several personnel surviving in this half of the ship. They are stationed in Pelican bay 12 and the adjacent armouries. These sections still have adequate supplies and oxygen to contain our small group of survivors.'

As James entered the Pelican bay he made a quick assessment. The small group of survivors turned out to be 8 people, 4 marines, 2 engineers, a pilot and a medic. They had the hangar secured nicely, cameras had been set up around the outside of the ship and were being monitored by Preston, marines had been posted in the corridors leading up to the hangar and the remaining entrances had been shut down tight by Preston.

'Welcome aboard sir,' said Pvt Moore, one of the marines on guard at the entrance James had come through. James returned the salute and promptly began asking questions on the groups' dire situation.

'Who's in charge?' he asked the private.

'Major Lansen sir, he's in the armoury.'

As James made his way to the armoury, he noticed the 2 engineers working on a longsword fighter. He wasn't sure what they were doing but it looked like they were preparing an escape vessel for the group. He made his way through the bay into the adjacent armoury and soon found himself face to face to Lansen, who was just leaving the armoury with a crate full of weapons.

'Sir,' saluted Lansen as he quickly dropped the box.

He was a fighter, James could tell. Big arms, tattoos, scars. He had ODST written all over him.

'Major,' James returned the salute.

'Glad to have you aboard sir, we could use the help.'

James nodded as the Major picked up the box of weapons and signalled for James to walk with him.

'When the ship got hit, it split clean down the middle. The bow got hit and pretty much disintegrated, all the command staff were on the bridge. Seems like it's just us left now. We began preparations for escape the moment we left. Probably won't get far in the longsword but we cant just sit around and wait for those squid heads to capture us. Our plan so far is to rig the Pelly to a remote and send that out as a distraction, guns a-blazing. The only patrol in these areas is a group of phantoms and occasionally a seraph or 2. Getting past should be a breeze.'

James nodded again as he took the information in. Didn't sound simple to him but anything would be better then sitting around, waiting for the covies to blow them all up.

James spent the next 3 days there in preparation for their cunning escape, stockpiling weapons and supplies, rigging a few gauss rifles from damaged warthogs to the top of the longsword. If they were chased, this was about as much defence as they had. That and the fact the Petty Officer Thomas was the best pilot on board the Minotaur in its prime.

The patrolling phantoms had increased in the past 2 days and James could not help the feeling that their presence was not unnoticed. The group was now on edge, Preston had made brief sightings of elites in jetpacks around the outside of the hull, at one instance, footsteps were heard from the outside of the hangar door. They had to leave soon. The ships were finally ready and final preparations were being made when the bad news came from Preston. Covie patrol teams had been sent to investigate. They were currently making their way through the ship towards the groups position and the only thing stopping them were the sealed doors. These were little hindrance anyway as the covenant arsenal was vastly superior and it would take them minutes to blow these doors open and move on. Preston had calculated that the patrols would be at the hangar within half an hour. The debate whether to fight the patrols or board the longsword and leave was brought to an abrupt end when Preston announced that a pair of Phantoms were stationed outside the hangar doors. James had son devised a plan and the group had all climbed into the longsword. 2 lotus anti-tank mines had been placed on the nose of the pelican and the pelican was rigged to be remote controlled by Preston, who was now aboard the Longswords mainframe. Preston was watching as the covenant began cutting through the hangar doors. James's plan was soon to take action. The countdown begun until the flood of covenant began swarming into the bay. 15 seconds, James could hear the sounds of 8 other hearts rapidly beating. 10 seconds, he saw Major Lansen grip the MA5B slung over his shoulder. 5 seconds, Thomas's hands gripped tighter on the throttle as she made ready.

Boom! The doors flew open and the plan flew into action as the covenant swarmed in and plasma burns scorched the hulls of both the pelican and the longsword. The engines began to hum as Preston began the plan. Slowly, from the view port of the longsword, the group watched as the large hangar doors began to open. The sound of plasma weapons stopped as the covenant warriors were sucked out of the chamber and into the abyss of space. The Pelican took off, as did the longsword, splitting apart as the longsword made for an escape and the pelican made the diversion. It flew straight at the Phantoms outside. They tried to move but were not quick enough as the pelican collided with one and the lotus mines exploded. The explosion of the Pelican, the mines and the Phantom was enough to engulf the other Phantom and they all blew to pieces.

The longsword jetted off at full speed, leaving the explosion and the UNSC Minotaur long behind.