Part 2

Halo: Branded as Traitors

By: Natination

Nate appeared on the UNSC Peacemaker as it tore though space heading to a somewhat nearby outpost. The mood was low aboard as every heard about how the two Spartans "died" trying to destroy the halo. On his way though his dull and boring patrol route, a marine found Nate lying on the floor and reported that a Spartan had appeared on deck. Nate was too weak but he did think up a wise crack "I decided to drop in" As lights flashed by him he thought he was probably on his way to surgery. At Least it wasn't the light at the end of the tunnel. Nate didn't want to die... just yet. He wanted to know where he was going when he fell into a deep sleep.

3 days later

"Welcome back sir." A doctor said. "We're almost done docking with Alpha Centuri outpost. There is going to be a briefing on what happened at halo. Some of the remaining top brass is there. The rest fled to earth."

"So when is the meeting?" Nate asked.

"Can you walk?" The doctor asked.

"Yeah." Nate said.

"Well right now, they exspcally wanted to talk to you." the Doctor said. "particually about what the admiral was doing."

Nate got up and found himself in his uniform. The doctor seemed to notice that nate was wondering why.

"Your armor is basically destoryed spartan, sorry, nothing we can do, perhaps the commitee has bought parts from earth for you to build a new one." The doctor said. "The remaining chunks of your armor is in your locker."

"Ah.. ok." Nate said.

"Can you find your way?" the Doctor asked.

"Yeah I can." Nate said. "I know the shortest route."

It only took a small jog for the spartan to reach the entrance tunnel to the outpost. Walking down it as marines and other supplies were marched onboard. It seemed no one was in a happy mood. Nate was particually in rough shape too. Master Chief, the others, and now sam gone meant that he would be the only spartan left in the UNSC. That wasn't a particually cheerful thought.

As he walked towards the conferance room for high officers, he found 4 marines there ready to shoot to kill. They checked his identiy twice before he was able to walk though the door. The briefing room was lit (strangely) with 3 officers and seavral aides around a horseshoe like table. There was about 13 chairs for the officers of the Peacemaker. All but one was filled currently.

"Spartan take a seat." the Officer said harshly. "Your late, but due to the fact that you were apparently shot at close range with a shotgun three times, i'm sirprised your even awake let alone alive."

Nate didnt say a word as he took his seat, he noticed all the officers were nervously seated like uponing here if they were to live or die.

"According to the mission record you met resistence on the ring that wasn't covenant. the officer stated directly at Nate. "The Xenomorphs their called by the covenant and data gathered from patton."

"Yes sir, we lost 4 men to them and two warthogs when we were exploring parts of the ring." Nate said. "We encountered bodies near the control room, possibly thousands of them. Due to the acidic nature of their blood, it was impossible at the time to transport thebodies for further study without risking sereve damage to the ship."

"How?" The officer stated.

"Sir?" Nate stated.

"How come it was so dangerous?" The officer said again.

"The Acidic blood ate though metal that was so much stronger then our ship, i highly doubt we could even get very far even without slipspace." Nate said.

"Couldn't you trap or capture one of them alive?" Another officer siad. "It would have been nice to have something to study."

"Sir, the only thing you can do to the Xenomorph is kill it, and on a ship, hope to hell that the acid doesn't reach the outer hull... Sir." Nate said.

"You could have devised a way to capture them without spilling their blood." One officer said.

"Sir, these are very vicous and extremely smart creatures, i highly doubt we would be able to contain them for long." Nate said. the Warrent officers seemed to be ressured that the spartan was explaining why they did what they did. "If they got out and mulitiplied, we would have lost the peacemaker and any ship that came within contact with what was left of us."

"Well it was a minor loss considering about halo. Now Tell me WHY you disobeyed direct orders and destoryed halo?" The officer said. It was pretty plain he dispised all the spartans as a whole. He was trying to find every nick or pick to nail the spartan and kill him or something.

"Sir, The admiral was about to activate halo on a local basis, which would have destoryed everything within its 220 light year, including this outpost, Reach, and any ship that isn't in slipspace." Nate explained. "He also failed to relize that activating halo also meant his death as well. From what patton told me at the time when he went into a forerunner data core and from the battle field, halo was meant to hold the Xenomorphs and this... flood. We did not engage any flood though while on the ring though."

"Logically." The officer admitted sourly, he was apparently going to wash his mouth out with soup afterwhat he was about to say."And putting in how much total damage would have been done, it was a wise choice to make."

The Debriefing continued on as They tried to pick off any detail and find any fault in Nate and Sam's choice to destory halo. They even seemed a bit glad something had happened to Sam, as if it was one less problem for them to deal with. By the end and orders had been given, the Peacemaker was at minimal strength. 20 bridge crew members, 50 mataince personell, 200 marines fresh out of boot. They were left with 40 pelicans with 6 scorpain tanks and 30 warthogs. The fuel was too much to all take off so they decided to keep most of it in there. The longsword pilots were almost all transfered except for 60 and their fightercraft plus a few extras.

Stationed on Alpha Centuri, it was a massive installation. Guarded by it's own three MAC guns, it was going to be hard to take out. 2 cruisers that Master Chief and the rest of the spartans were stationed here outfitted with MAC cannons and a few missile tubes. There were a small fleet of escort ships and smaller craft going about their duty.

just out of reach of sensor's, 4 capital ships each with a escort of a frigate and destoryer exited out of slipspace in perfect formation. A carrier with 3 destoryers exited just behind them. This human stronghold would not surivie against this onslaught.