Author's Notes: Here's the second chapter. I would have finished and uploaded it sooner, but circumstances got in the way. Oh well, here it is. I've decided to try to keep the format pretty true to what the first chapter was like, instead of changing it.

Chapter Two: Departure

Halo activation structure
Ninth Age of reclamation
22:55 (human time)

"Well then, the situation is really FUBAR now." Sergeant Johnson replied "If that city's nothing but a Flood farm, then we have no way to get to Earth. Our Pelicans and your Phantoms can't make that kind of trip."

Keyes chimed in, "But just because there are Flood at High Charity, doesn't mean we can't try to find a slip-space ship there. I'm sure there's at least one ship there we can find."

The two humans and the covenant rebels sat in a circle on the shore only about half a mile away from where they just were. Surrounding their circle were Phantoms that had been brought here from all over the area. The Phantoms were prepared to leave, once they reached a decision it would take less than a minute to get going. Some of them were in the cockpits of the Phantoms, leaving their audio surveillance and transmission system on. This meant that they would be able to hear the discussion going on outside. They also did the good dead of broadcasting everything going on to the others were patrolling the area in Banshees, making sure that they weren't about to be ambushed by any stray Brutes. Of course, the ones being forced on patrol duty were Grunts.

343 Spark chimed in for the first time since when he was explaining the Ark to Keyes.

"Excuse me, but are you suggesting entering this city "High Charity" that is overrun by infected Flood hosts?"

"I'd hate to sound scared Keyes, but going into a city that's brimming with Flood is one of the worst ideas I've ever heard of." the Sergeant remarked. The Arbiter and the people who had barely escaped High Charity when the Flood outbreak occurred nodded in agreement.

"I don't think we really have a choice. If we're going to stop the Prophet of Truth from reaching the Ark, we need to get their fast. If he really left for Earth in a ship 25 minutes ago, then he's already reached Earth a while ago." Everyone else still looked unsure about the plan. Keyes rolled her eyes and began making a chart in the sand with her finger as she talked.

"I've got a plan I think you all will like. We go into our Phantoms, and scan the area without touching down. That way we'll locate a ship without risk. Then when we do find it, a small task squad of about 15 people will infiltrate the ship, make sure it's clear, and launch the ship. Everyone else in their Phantoms will make sure any Flood outside the ship don't make their way in. When the ship is cleared and is preparing to enter slip-space, everyone will get in close enough to enter the field range and enter slip-space too."

It sounded like a good plan, it sounded like a damn good plan. It was a low risk mission, and they had no alternative in the first place. Johnson and the Arbiter began to line up everyone there to see who would be part of the task squad. The Grunts, to their relief, were excluded from this. The Arbiter and Johnson volunteered themselves automatically, and four more Elites did as well.

"All right, I'm thinking the remaining 9 in the group should all be Lekgolo, since they're so heavily armored, and resistant to Flood. And if we could get some invisibility shields for our armor if there is any that would be good too."

None of the Hunters complained about being one of 9 in the group, but when they tried to get one to go without its mate, it refused. So the Arbiter bumped up the number to 10 to have 5 pairs. Invisibility shields were sparse, and the Arbiter had to settle for using the primitive invisibility system he had on his armor now. Then they were off, approximately 45 persons total, 5 per craft.

Keyes, Johnson, the Arbiter, and a pair of Hunters led the way. The estimated time of arrival was exactly fourteen human minutes according to a Grunt in another ship. So they would get there at 23:20. Next to the Arbiter lay his weapons, a sword used by the zealots and a plasma rifle. The sergeant himself had a battle rifle and a rocket launcher. Currently he was keeping himself busy with it by loading the rockets into it.

"When I fire this at those parasitic bastards, they won't know what hit them" the sergeant remarked with a grin. "You know, if you had told me yesterday when at was at Earth that this is where I'd be, I wouldn't have believed you."

"I feel the same way. In fact, I thought I was going to be executed yesterday. Now I am in the honored position of Arbiter, and I'm trying to stop the last Prophet from finally achieving what the covenant has worked for since its founding ages ago."

A siren sounded in the cockpit, and the two of them rushed over to Keyes to see what was wrong.

A large ship that was bulky and black was leaving High Charity. The telltale energy field growing around it showed that it was about to make a slip-space jump. Right behind it was a smaller, purple ship firing at it while making evasive maneuvers. The larger ship seemed to be taking no damage from the fire, in spite of the fact that it didn't have any defensive force fields around it.

"There's a covenant ship large enough to enter slip-space leaving High Charity right now. In fact, it's about to enter slip-space. There's a smaller ship tailing it as well. I can't recognize either of the ships. The small one is real close, it'll enter slip-space with it."

A transmission crackled from one of the other Phantoms, and the voice of one of the Grunts that had escaped from High Charity came online.

"I-I recognize that ship, it belongs to the Space Pirates!"

The sound of lots of people talking at once came on the broadcast, and everyone wanted to know what they should do. Overzealous Elites would yell about blasting them back to the city, while sometimes a Grunt would get hold of the broadcast and make nonsensical, panicky screaming. Keyes stood up in frustration, and yelled onto the broadcast.

"ALRIGHT, EVERYONE BE QUIET! We are going to get in close to the field range, that ship is about to enter slip-space. I don't know for sure if it's headed for Earth, but it looks like a sure bet. I will contact that smaller ship and try to see if it's friend or foe. If it's foe, we'll all open fire on both the second we leave slip-space. OKAY?"

Everyone murmured assents of agreement, and Keyes switched the transmission to the small ship ahead of her.

"This is captain Miranda Keyes, are you friend or foe? I repeat, are you friend or foe?" The startled response she got back was the last person she or Sergeant Johnson had expected to hear from.

"Keyes, is that really you?" Cortana asked.

Empty city
2-19 20X9(Cosmic Year)
19.21Hours

Some of the Flood didn't pay much attention to her; they had targets of their own they were trying to kill. Probably five opened fire on her when she walked in, a few bullets hit her, but all of shots from a plasma weapon were a little slow and she dodged those with her space jumping. The Space Pirates however, knew her well. In between bursts of fire, the cries of "The Hunter!" They all retreated back to the ship while firing at Samus instead of the Flood. They were the exact same Pirates she had to fight in the Biological Space Labs. Their impressive leaps got them to their ship quickly. The strange parasitic monsters fighting the Pirates (who Samus didn't know as the Flood yet), followed them into the ship to the best of their ability. As the latch started to close, crowds of them piled into the ship.

Then an abomination that looked like the worst of these monsters came lumbering at quick but clumsy pace. Its gigantic mouth was its only visible feature, because everything else was covered by a mass of tentacles. Twelve tentacles shot out and grasped onto the closing latch, trying to break it open. Samus charged up a super ice missile and fired it at the beast. At the missile hit, a blast of extremely cold energy surrounded everything within ten feet.

The Flood that had been trying to get in the ship turned around angrily and started attacking Samus. Most of them charged her, while some of them shot their weapons at her. Samus ran head on with the impending crowd and mowed right through them with her screw attack.

BOOM!

One of the Flood she had been right next to exploded, and she was thrown in the opposite direction. Samus lay on the ground dazed and dizzy. Then her attackers were all on her. She felt her shields going down as each of them melee-attacked her. Five of those tiny squid-looking Flood attached themselves to her, and Samus felt her shields drain even faster.

She quickly went into her Morph-ball and planted the last Power Bomb she had. As it exploded, every single Flood around her disintegrated completely, only ashes remained of them. There were plenty of Flood left though. A tentacle from their leader prying the latch grabbed Samus by her arm cannon and flung her at itself. As Samus flew helplessly at the monster and the swarm of tentacles around it, she made a weak attempt to contact Adam. She barely got the word "Adam" out before she was swallowed by the tentacles.

Samus couldn't tell up from down, tentacles obscured her vision. Every single one of them was working to crush her. She tried to pull off her screw attack, but she couldn't move enough for that. Then she tried to go into morph-ball and plant normal bombs, but she couldn't even manage that. She was totally hopeless.

High Charity Ruins
10.21.2552(Military Calendar)
22:50

It had been too late when Cortana noticed Samus. She had been so preoccupied trying to activate In Amber Clad's self-destruction sequence to notice anything when Samus entered the scene. The Space Pirate's cries of "Hunter!" were indistinguishable from the rest of the noise going on. In Amber Clad was too heavily damaged, the detonation system was completely unresponsive. She gave up and switched back to surveying the disaster scene. That was when she saw Samus, caught in the tentacles of the Gravemind. She tried to contact Samus, but the radio waves couldn't get through the tentacles.

Upset, Cortana returned to the surveillance system to see if anyone else was with Samus somewhere on High Charity. There wasn't, but she did see a ship flying throughout the city, calling out "Samus! Samus!" Knowing that this wasn't coincidence, Cortana contacted the ship.

"Hey, your armor-clad friend is in big trouble. Turn northwest and keep going until you find the battle scene. He's trapped in the tentacles of the largest monster there. Hurry though, I think he's dying."

The purple ship, which somewhat resembled an insect, turned 90 degrees to its right and went at a pace so fast it made a computer AI like herself jump. Ships didn't normally go this fast because of how much fuel was expended. Instead ships would make slip-space jumps, which had very little to do with fuel. The ship could probably pursue a covenant ship making a slip-space jump, although the ship didn't go quite that fast. Still, Cortana was very interested to see the technologies behind what made this ship run.

As the ship descended upon the battle scene, it fired not just on the Gravemind, but on all of the other flood as well. The artillery wasn't explosive like human weapons, but it wasn't entirely plasma, though it was like plasma. It resembled the lasers used in the factories that mass produced the weapons out of steel the human army used, and the ones that the covenant robots used. They ship lifted up into the sky as the Gravemind still had its death grip on the latch. With one strong heave it made its way into the ship, and dropped the Hunter from its tentacles.

Samus' suit was badly damaged, but she was still conscious. She still managed the graceful flips she always did before she landed on the ground. She walked over to the monitor where she had communicated with Master Chief last and waited for the ship. As it swooped low over her, Cortana appeared as her usual holographic self.

"What about me?" Cortana asked sarcastically.

A voice from the ship responded, for the first time. "Samus, it's okay. Take her with us."

Samus took Cortana out of the monitor, and let the beam from the ship take her back to the cockpit. She put Cortana into the ship's computer and walked off into her living quarters.

"Adam, I'm exhausted. I'm going to put the suit in the maintenance room, and then I'm going to take a nap. Stay on course with the Space Pirate ship, and wake me up if they do something eventful."

As Samus stepped out of the room, Cortana tried out the new system she was going to work with. It was a little constricting; there was already an AI construct in here taking care of everything. There wasn't much she could do without getting in the way. She contented to watch the ship's monitors as it closely pursued the Space Pirates, while performing evasive maneuvers and sometimes firing off a laser.

Then a few covenant ships appeared on radar, and a transmission came from one of them. It was the voice of Miranda Keyes, which totally took her off guard. Adam was preparing a response for her, when Cortana totally overrided him and sent back her reaction.

"Keyes is that really you?"