Chapter 13: Tigres and Heretics

Millions of stars suddenly replaced the total blackness of the space outside of the hangar. Will put the last of the gear they were taking into a Hawk and walked over to the airlock doors. Off to his right was a large blue and green planet that looked remarkably like Earth. A few small freighters moved back in forth between larger ships that would move about the different planet systems. On the dark side of the planet, a few large groups of lights were clearly seen through the cloud layer.
"It's pretty settled for an Outer Rim world, don't you think?" Will asked one of the pilots who had walked behind him.
"It was never attacked by the Covenant so it's been chugging along since it was started, but you better get aboard, we'll be leaving in a few minutes." Will nodded and walked back towards the Hawk, sitting down in one of the seats in the rear. The other Spartans were already on board along with all of the gear that they were taking to their final destination.
"You'll be going to the UNSC Tigre, a heavy cruiser, brand new as a matter of fact. Though not the official flagship of the battle group, that honor belongs to the UNSC Zealous, an assault carrier, it's got the most guns of any ship in nearby." The two side doors on the Hawk closed shut and the rear ramp rose up and locked into place against the passenger compartment's ceiling. A loud roar reverberated through the metal of the ship but quickly fell off as the hangar depressurized and they took a sharp right after leaving the frigate they had ridden on from space. Will looked through one of the view ports and was confused at what he saw. It suddenly dawned on him that the small dots he was staring at were actually ships.
"My god…look at them all…" a few of the other Spartans near him looked out the window and saw what he was seeing. Hundreds of ships were arranged in a loose band around the planet. Smaller pickets of Longswords moved between them, looking like small clouds of glitter. Interspersed throughout the band were much larger ships, some of the largest he had ever seen.
"They must be assault carriers," someone commented behind him. Almost as if on cue, one of the behemoths powered up it's engines, all four of them, and started to maneuver around it's nearby allies. Suddenly though, all of the ships started to pan away and the colony came into view. Most of the other Spartans sat back down, as did Will. One last look afforded him a view of their frigate sliding into position among the battle group. After about another minute of riding in the Hawk, a large grey hulk began to slide past the view ports. Before anyone even had a chance to react and get up to look, the drop ship swooped into the hangar bay and landed. The roar of the engines quickly and then abruptly shut off. All three doors opened up and navy personnel started unpacking the gear that had come along. Getting out, Will was amazed at the architectural changes that had happened during his absence. Instead of the dimly lit hangars that seemed stunted, the Tigre's was at least ten decks high and was brightly lit. Most of the docking pads were empty but a few, most notably near the ceiling, were occupied by Longswords and Daggers. Made of a dimmer version of the white metal that had become standard, the hangar looked almost like it could double as a hospital if it needed to. Looking back, instead of seeing large blast doors, there was nothing to separate them from the blackness of space, or so he thought. Upon closer inspection he noticed the tell tale distortion of an energy field and concluded that two of them worked in tandem to create an airlock. As he looked back, the other Spartans were carrying their gear towards another Hawk that had been waiting in the hangar.
"Are you going to grab your gear or should I carry it for you?" Chris asked jokingly.
"If you insist…" he said as he grabbed his different sacks. They moved away from the landing zone as the Hawk powered it's engines back up and lifted off. After a few moments of waiting around, someone emerged from a door near them and made his way to the Spartans. As he came closer, Will could see that the man was not the usual young plucky soldier who always greeted them but an older man who might've seen the very end of the war with the Covenant. Thick lines cut across his face in patterns and his eyes were in almost a permanent squint and his short cut brown hair was losing a battle against the grey hair around the sides of his head. Even more remarkably, the man was one of the tallest non-Spartans that Will had ever seen.
"I'm Master Chief Petty Officer Carmich. The Captain has already arranged for your quartering to be near the hangar. All of the weapons you'll need are stored in special lockers in your quarters as well as ammo. You have one Hawk and two Daggers designated for your team that will also be given priority for evacuation in case of emergency." It was a welcome relief to have someone who was straight to the point and wasn't interested in trying to become friends with the Spartans.
"Thank-you," Will responded, at least trying to be courteous to the master chief (not John, in case anyone gets confused with the similar ranks). The master chief turned around and headed back towards the door he came from as the Spartans grabbed their bags and followed behind him. In a sudden contrast to the huge hangar they were just in, the normal sized passageways were darker and more claustrophobic. Unlike the halls at the UNSC HighComm buildings, the new metal was only exposed on the walls to provide lighting while the rest of the architecture was painted a dark, almost black, color. These contrasts produced mixed feelings in Will as he slowly began to yearn for the olive drab colors of the ships now sitting in scrap yards or hacked into pieces for soda cans or cars. They followed the master chief through a dizzying assortment of hallways before arriving at what appeared to be a pair of officer's quarters.
"These are ours?" Chris asked as they walked into the plush room. Mahogany wood had been placed on the walls and a soft carpeting had been laid on the ground. Instead of a single bed installed, four twins had been arranged in the quarters, cutting down the amount of space they had available to them. In the female's room, though, two larger beds were positioned at the rear of the quarters and most of the amenities, namely a large granite table in the center, were still present.
"Neither one is occupied and we've got more of these than there are officers so they wouldn't have been used anyways. Also, a little request from General Johnson goes a long way." Will was unsure if his comment was a joke or disdain for the General. "Put your stuff away but be quick, the captain would like a few words with you ASAP." The Spartans set their gear down near the lockers at the front of the room and exited. Moving through the labyrinth of halls again, they finally arrived at a large elevator and bent down as they forced their bulk into it. While they waited for the doors to close, a few people slammed into the cyborgs and looked up, startled at the hulks of metal standing patiently in the tight space. Eventually, it shut the doors and groaned as it brought the soldiers to the command level. First out was the master chief who hurried through the hallways, following the blue stars painted on the deck. The Spartans were shocked as the entered the radically different bridge layout. Instead of walking through a tight, cramped area to get to the main view port, the walls had been brought down and a large hologram of the ship and it's surroundings dominated the center of the room. Like before, stations were arranged all along the room but they were no longer in recessed cubbies but were now stand alone consoles that allowed for better communication between the command crew. Even more surprising was the addition of a second level. The vaulted bridge now housed a new level that jutted out just over the entrance to the bridge. Will looked up at it and saw the room was bathed in a blue light from a floating UNSC insignia over a large table and rows of table. As he walked forward, a shimmer went across the front of it, confirming the presence of glass that could electrolyze to prevent others from looking in on a meeting going on. (Like the doors in Chaos Theory mission in the security company's HQ). The group of soldiers moved to the captain who was reading a message on his personal data pad. They stood rigid behind him as his eyes traveled over the last few sentences. Setting it down on a flat surface to his right, he turned around and saluted them, receiving eight in return.
"Thank-you master chief, that will be all."
"Aye sir." He saluted and about-faced, leaving the bridge.
"Welcome aboard the Tigre, I've been briefed on what the General was allowed to say, so I'm up to speed on what's going on in regards to your situation."
"We'll most likely be waiting for our call so we won't be impeding on your crew," Will said.
"Don't worry about it, for now at least. Most of them are on the surface right now, very beautiful planet, I'll talk to Johnson and see if he can give you a few days of leave." Will didn't expect anything to come of it, but thanked him anyways. "Oh, before I forget, a software update was sent out to us for your suits. It was sent to the medical bay for some reason, so you should head down there. Dismissed." The Spartans saluted and then left the bridge. An awkward sight in the hallway, seven heavily armored soldiers wandering aimlessly through a leviathan of a ship, they eventually reached the medical bay to a slightly confused technician.
"Lemme check on that…" she said as her hands glided over a holographic keyboard, "Huh, apparently we did receive it. You can just wait here while I grab some fiber optic cables." She stood up and walked over to a small desk in the room they were in. Pulling out the long, almost invisible cord, she hooked it into the computer and took Will's helmet. A small bar went across the screen as the program was downloaded onto the Mk VII, the screen flicked to a new bar as the program was then installed. Each one of the Spartans then moved forward and did the same until they had all upgraded.

A large mercury like orb rose into the air, small droplets of the unknown substance falling back into the large puddle it hovered over. A few smaller orbs rose up and began to circle to largest one.
"This is Thandon, a Human military planet. Located in the Mazertan Prime system which itself is quite removed from nearby systems. This will be our new target." Forerunners moved in and out of the dim light as they watched John pace around the pool of liquid. His heavy boots echoed in the large hall and the elder creatures stepped aside as he came by. "As most of you know, the Humans have placed almost their entire fleet in the Outer Rim to counter our incursions. Therefore, you will be engaged by the UNSC Navy proper and no more individual cruisers or raggedy ass fleets."
"The Covenant couldn't even withstand our might, why should these inferior Humans be any different?" One of the Forerunners said, uncrossing his gauntleted arms. Blue and white lights on his armor moved in the darkness as he followed the Master Chief in his pacing.
"We have ingenuity. We think out of the box. The Covenant were fools, blinded by glory and religion. They will find our weakness, whatever it may be, and exploit it until we do something about it. But back to my point…the entire navy is, essentially, stretched to it's limits," the orbs changed to show the fleet in it's current positions, different portions taking on hues of colors to represent specific things. "By attacking at Thandon," he said, pointing at the orb that represented the planet, "they will rush to defend it, weakening the rest of the defenses. Not by much, of course, but they will be weakened. Then, we attack somewhere else…Testarossa. Again, they will pull their resources to defend that planet." Looking at the groups of fine droplets that formed around the two planets, one couldn't help but notice the weakened lanes it created. "From there, it is a straight shot to Earth. There is no need for an extermination planet by planet, system by system. If Earth falls, the Inner Colonies will die. If they die, the Outer Rim will starve to death."
"Our fleets will be stretched thin as well, launching to large scale assaults with a third even larger than both combined. You are leaving a very small margin for error here. Neither of us has the element of surprise, we both know where our home worlds lie and we do not have the luxury of hundreds of colonies as well." The Forerunner commanders looked over at the one who had spoken. He was a younger officer, distinguished in his prior military service.
"You are already doubting?" John said, almost laughing. "If you wish to eliminate planets one at a time, then be my guest, take your ships…I'm sorry, ship and do it on your own. But! In the meantime, the rest of our fleets will be preparing to end this…it's not even a war…this skirmish in a matter of days." The Forerunner contorted his face in a look of disgust but said nothing. A few of the officers near him ever so subtly moved away from him, making it known that they didn't share in his beliefs. "That's what I though…" John turned around and left the room, the echoes from his footsteps the only sound.

"How did everything go?" Kelly asked him. She got up out of her chair and moved over to him. Off in the distance the sounds of a fighter squadron meandered it's way through the city, finally reaching their ears.
"There is one, he's dangerous. No one follows him but I do not believe I can have him doubting my every move for much longer without some of them seeing it as either a sign of weakness on my part or a sign of strength on his." She put her hands on him and let him sit down on the bed. Leaning forward and looking into his eyes she spoke.
"He's getting to you isn't he?"
"How can he not? My authority is being challenged by him…"
"Once everything begins to fall into place no one will take him serious. You know that as well as anyone."

A/N: The spelling of Tiger as: Tigre, is intentional, it's the name of a British ship that fought in the Battle of Trafalgar, as many know, that was the name of the UNSC's flagship that was destroyed at Reach. Zealous is also the name of a ship that participated in the battle.