The master chief stood within a shadowy corridor, 3 decks below , what he believed to be, the command and control station. A couple dozen brutes escorting engineers had passed already, and more were on the way. The next group moved far more slowly however, sweeping the area as they went. A jackal shield glared from behind the group's chieften, John knew he could hide from the brutes, but the jackals had far sharper senses. Hold position, risk detection or engage.
Hefting the brute shot to his waist and side stepping out of cover in a single motion the chief fired. The first 4 shots hit the center of the formation, the jackals were not prepared, may didn't have there shields positioned in the right position, many more hadn't activated them. Survivors dived for cover, the brutes standing there ground, seeking the source of the shots. A brute on the right flank saw the chief, berserked and charged. The rest of the brutes reacted, ignoring the remaining jackals attempts to take up position in front of them.
Too late, the chief fired four times again, the berserking brute took the first shot in the neck, and somersaulted backwards into another brute, the second and third rebounded off the hastily formed jackal shield wall and exploded above the heads of the brutes at the rear causing two more to berserk. The last shot hit the chieften, throwing him into the side of the corridor.
The chief began to reload as the jackals prepared to open up, but were prevented when the berserking brutes smashed through there formation. The remaining brutes fired, however most shots went wide due to the inherent clumsiness of the brute shot, skill at arms, and attempting to fire past the berserkers. Shots exploded all around the chief as he finished reloading, his shields draining slightly. Firing, his first shot detonated in between the berserkers, one collapsed immediately, the second howled in anger and pain as it found itself no longer able to stand. The remaining shots hit the broken jackal wall, secondary explosions from worn plasma grenades blew the formation apart, and shrapnel from equipment and weapons tore apart those far enough away to survive the explosion. Discarding the spent brute shot the chief picked up a fallen carbine and finished off the crippled berserker. Making his way towards the lift. before any patrols the noise would attract could arrive, when something grasped his ankle.
Lights and noises emitted from the consoles aboard the Zealous Hammer, as several figures inspected the hollowgram. "Are you sure?" "Of course, before the last reclaimers left they seeded this system so that there ancestors may protect the Ark and use it again, should the situation arise". Earth looked so different to Miranda, untouched, no, not just earth, the system it seemed peaceful, no war, no great dockyards.
An alarm on the communications station sounded "Incoming transmission, unknown encryption scheme". Miranda made her way to the console, and inserted a data chip into the terminal "Its UNSC D-Band". The elite tapped a few more controls before the loud speaker crackled into life. "This is Cortana, I am trapped inside High Charity's systems, Gravemind is not allowin... Why am I receiving a link back from a Covenant vessel?" "Cortana, this is Miranda, we are aboard the Zealous Hammer." The commander thought for a second and added "Of our own free will".
This worried Cortana, however levels of stress within the commander's voice were quite low, for the time, she'd assume the commander was not being forced into this. "Gravemind is attempting to interrogated me, he is somehow probing my subroutines, its getting harder to lie" "Can you exit the system, there are a few elite teams left now heading towards the exits, they can retrieve you on a data crystal" "Negative, my presence, or lack there of, would be noticed, the only reason Gravemind hasn't taken High Charity away is because he is far more interested in me"
Cortana thought, there was something she could do, she simply would rather not, mostly because it showed her what she would become. But if I do nothing I'll never have chance to reach, and hopefully, avoid it. "Commander I have an idea, I can copy myself into High Charity's navigational systems and keep Gravemind occupied with that for a while".
Miranda thought for a second "Do it, Arbiter can any of your elites get to a terminal on there way out?". The Arbiter clicked his mandibles and looked over at his communications officer who began operating his controls again. Turning back the Arbiter simply nodded. "Now what?" Johnson hated being in space almost as much as uncertainty. "Now human, we wait".
Gravemind did not like games, this "Cortana" seemed to do nothing but, it also infuriated him how she kept trying to hide, jumping from system to system. She must realise I'll get her in the end. Something pulsed in the communications, Gravemind listened carefully using the Covenant codes he had assimilated. "All ships fire at will". That was not the plan, there must be something else I can use. Gravemind extended his thoughts into the sensors, ignoring the waves of plasma and searched. Ah... Light surrounded Gravemind as he disappeared.