A/N: Thanks a lot for reviewing it's been fun writing for u guys I have no idea how long this story's gonna be so I hope it's going to keep up for while, it's great having something to do when I'm bored out of my mind (which seems to be more often than not) I've made a huge mistake and I'm saying it cause I don't want any of u to make the same mistake so never I mean NEVER, start a story if u don't know how to finish it, I started this story with the idea that after first strike they still had several Spartans left and tons of information to get to ONI not to mention the whole Halsey/Kelly incident so I will try my best but u should really think everything before starting, anyway I'm gonna start addressing some of the reviews so ok the first of many:

James Holester: I'll take up on making chapters longer all of them should be close to the length of Chapter 4

Spartan014: This "format change" ur talking about is way too vague but either way I like the way its going now the first two chapters are actually quite different from the second two but I seriously doubt I'll make any drastic changes. Anyway if ur talking about how I keep changing the scenes like 3 times per chapter I'm pretty sure it's gonna stay like that its like trying to fill five glasses with a limited amount of water u want them all to have the same amount at the end so to make sure none falls way too behind from the others u pour little amounts at a time into each glass until u run out, same here I don't want any part of the story to fall behind so I keep changing until in the end they have all met up at some point (If someone else thinks I shouldn't do this put in a review if it bothers too many ppl I'll change it)

Warp Ligia Obscura: exactly what do u mean by spelling and grammar cause I checked and in word there aren't many problems, or do u mean that the message isn't easy to understand cause I've been kind of worried about that anyway I'll try to make the message clearer

Everyone else thanks for reviewing

Sorry to have taken so long but still here it is Chapter 5!

No Sweat

0807 hours, September 9, 2552 (Military Calendar)Aboard UNSC destroyer Envoy, in orbit around Jericho VII, four days earlier, in Slipspace.

"Where the hell are we?" Mitchell heard Lieutenant Anderson ask. Still slightly disoriented he stood up straighter and answered "Slipspace"

"We went in through that last destroyers exit vector" said Lieutenant Beness to herself in an awed voice. "We knew it was possible to follow through a tear in slipspace but no one knew you could go back through them"

"Until now" said Mitchell as he finally got his bearings.

"Wait what exactly happened back there?" asked Anderson it seemed he did not yet fully grasp what they had done and from the looks of it neither did Reynolds.

Baraka sighed softly. "After a ship enters or exits slipstream the tear which they had to rip in subspace to create the portal between the dimensions lingers momentarily. But the energy needed to keep that portal open is quickly depleted. When it is completely finished the tear begins to close." There was a moments silence until she came up with an appropriate example.

"It's sort of like blowing hard into a small puddle of water. If you blow hard enough the water will part enough to show the solid surface beneath once you stop blowing it will quickly rush in to fill the empty space again." Both Lieutenants seemed to have begun comprehending.

"However there seems to be enough time to follow a tear before it closes and now it also seems possible to enter from the exit of it as well."

"Wait" said Reynolds. "So now we're going to follow the path they already made?"

"Not necessarily" she answered. "Of course if we do nothing we will end up wherever it is they started off, but now that we are in Slipspace we can alter our direction as we please" she paused momentarily and placed her hands on her hips. "But of course since I have no idea on which vector we entered it is impossible to tell where we will end up, no matter how much we change course"

She looked over at Mitchell with raised eyebrows. "I do however hope that we will not stay on this course since it seems more than likely that wherever we end up there will be quite a few Covenant"

"Hope no more" said Mitchell without looking at her. "We won't be staying on this course much longer"

"I do, however, hope to know where this course leads." he said with no change in tone. "The power used to make a tear in slipspace is directly proportional to the distance to be traveled correct?" he asked finally looking over at the AI.

"Yes, but it is possible to change the distance while in slipspace" she answered in a curious voice. "And if I choose not to alter that distance it is still possible to change the direction?"

This time it took her a few second before answering "I suppose so"

"Good. And if you knew the time we traveled and the precise course correction we made could you guess where this tear originally started?"

She again paused this time slightly longer. "No" she said flatly. "It is not within my processing matrix to do such calculations, I'm a navigator." Being a 'dumb' AI had some considerable drawbacks Baraka was electronically tied to navigation and asking her almost anything that happened outside a ship was as useful as asking the commanders chair for a glass of water.

"But it is possible… of course the information will have to be sent to ONI headquarters but if the numbers are left unchanged I'm sure they can do the math."

Mitchell smiled. "Good enough" he breathed heavily before continuing. "Lieutenant Beness would you be so kind as to change out course one point five degrees starboard?" She wheeled around in her seat and started typing.

Thankfully, course corrections didn't need the Shaw-Fujikawa slipspace generators which needed another hour and a half before they would cool off enough to re-use. Normally one point five degrees is nothing but when put to such massive scales the difference would be in several million kilometers.

The engines silently whirred to life and an imperceptible life saving, change in course took place.

1857 hours, September 13, 2552 (Military Calendar)Aboard UNSC vessel Gettysburg, in Slipspace.

"E mc2­" The chief spoke absentmindedly in a voice that not even his Spartans could hear. "What?" he heard the distant voice of Cortana ask.

"E mc2­" he said in a slightly louder voice. "Energy equals mass times the speed of light to the second power" he said thoughtfully. "What the hell are you getting at?" asked Johnson.

"Einstein believed that if you got any type of matter to move fast enough it would begin to fall apart. At one point the pieces would be so small they would reach molecular levels. Once it was down to its very atoms they to would be ripped apart and release the very heart of all matter." He looked determinedly at Cortana until understanding dawned on her. Her eyes widened and the Chief smiled an imperceptible smile under his reflective visor.

"Pure energy" she said in a hushed whisper.

"It's never been proved" said Will and Fred nodded in agreement. "It's never been disproved either" said Linda. "It's a long shot but it's our best shot."

"No…" Cortana held up a lavender hand and shook her head, several figures rippled through her 'body' and she looked up "Our only shot"

"Wait" said Fred. "But even if it is possible how the hell are we supposed to harness that energy?" he asked

"Well if it is pure energy any type of adapter such as an electrical outlet, a battery or even the ships reactors, should be able to convert it into a highly efficient energy source: heat, voltage, nuclear energy, whatever." She answered matter-of-factly.

"But for it to reach the ships power grids it must be made in the in the power supply storage since we obviously we have no way of transporting it" Linda said thoughtfully. "Which means—"

John interrupted "Which means we'd have to shut down the ships power long enough to get in there."

Everyone paused at this. Shutting the power would leave them with no lights, the artificial gravity would fail, air would stop being pumped into the compartments and not to mention, Cortana would be shut down.

When, and more importantly if, the power came back on it would take several hours to get everything back to proper working order. The ship would continue through slipspace but, within a matter of minutes, carrying a dead crew.

"Well…" Cortana's voice trailing away "Not necessarily" she said slowly and carefully.

"All ships have two power supplies that meet at the reactor. It was originally made in—" "Focus" interrupted Johnson.

"Well, it was made in case one side of the ship got heavily damaged so there's one on the starboard side and one on the port side so a crippled ship could still have enough power to make it to a safe location." She paused before continuing.

"We could disable one of them let it cool a few minutes and toss in just about anything, before attempting to reach approximately…" her voice trailed away again and a fresh wave of figures flashed through her "Two hundred ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and twenty kilometers…per second" she paused for the effect and smiled. "No sweat"

"I though you said acceleration didn't matter in slipspace" said Will.

"It doesn't" she answered. "By accelerating we will make no progress but we will still accelerate. In slipspace we travel at slightly lower-than-light speed, at around Mach one-point-eight million, compared to the Mach two-point-seven million needed" she looked at each of them in turn as she talked and stopped at John.

"Is there enough energy in one of the power supplies to give us enough time to finish this?" asked Johnson.

"No… but I can transfer some of the energy in one tank to the other and reverse a few energy flows to give you a considerable amount of time, but I can't promise anything" she said as though there was nothing to lose.

"So once the system is down we should be able to toss in anything into the power supply right?" asked Fred dubiously.

"Yes… and no" answered Cortana. She looked around at everyone and sighed. "We could but I don't think we should. If Einstein's theory is correct then not only will the matter we put into supply room but the whole ship would start breaking down into atoms."

"So it would be better to put in many small things than a few large things. That way everything will be transformed much faster, otherwise this whole ship would be turned into energy" she said.

"Of course the only problem would be finding enough energy to actually get us to go fast enough to make that transformation"


A/N: hey guys again sorry it took so long but hope you enjoyed it, just for arguments sake all those numbers mentioned Einstein's theory and the description of slipspace in the first part are entirely (or at least mostly) factual. I know this Chapter is short but I'm blank, still nothing on the Kelly/Halsey incident. By next Chapter I'll continue the Covenant point of view and I also hope to soon introduce the Prophet of Truth's point of view.

PS. I changed my narrating style I think its way better, tell me what u think!

PPS. Guys come on I just checked hits for the first time and I just noticed that practically NO ONE reviews I enabled anonymous reviewers so really theres no excuse please it wont take two minutes of ur time just review