CHAPTER 7: OPERATION ENEMY CONTACT

2046 Hours, August 11, 2557 (Military Calendar) / Unknown System, Planet Remnant, Continent of Sanas

The Master Chief quietly snapped a man's neck with one swift motion. The hostile didn't even know he was dead and he never would as he began to fall only to be caught and carefully dropped to the ground so as not to cause any more noise. Then the body was quietly hoisted over the shoulder and relocated to a secluded location. Once that was disposed of, the super soldier resumed his trailing.

He had been engaging with more bandits as he followed their obvious trail. Whoever they were being led by clearly had no sense of stealth whatsoever. All of the Spartan-II's in their earliest years of training were superior to these men in that regard. That just made his job all the easier. The less of a fight that the enemy put up, the lesser the chances of civilian casualties.

Based on the tracks that he was currently following, there were many individuals going in the same general direction. He counted at least seven unique footprints in the dirt. With all the damage that the village had sustained, the number of hostiles leaving felt incorrect. There had to have been more. These men were far from professional soldiers who could hold their ground against countless waves of enemies.

Spartan 117 held his MA5D carefully at the ready, his trigger finger ready to move into action. Isolating any doubt and hesitation in his mind, he focused solely on everything going on around him.

The night had fallen and what light there was could be attributed to the shattered moon above his head. This did little to hamper his visibility; his eyes were more than sufficient for him to see detail at night. He also had MJOLNIR's night vision mode for additional support as well as headlights on his helmet. However, for the sake of maintaining his stealth-like approach, he opted to not use his external lights.

John kept a constant watch on his footsteps, making sure his level of audible sound was kept to a minimum. While doing this, he listened to every single sound he heard. Having trained in the forests of Reach, he had gained a sort of understanding about what was natural to a forest and what was not. It wasn't something he could easily explain in words. It was merely a learned and practiced skill.

He halted in his tracks. He could hear some voices, all male from the sounds of it, but after concentrating for a second more, he could hear some moans and groans, and those were definitely female. It sounded just like what he had been informed about; these bandits were taking all female civilians with them.

He didn't know much about people who lived outside of the military, but he knew enough to realize what this situation was. The Insurrectionists had proven on more than one occasion that they were willing to go to great lengths to achieve their goals, big or small.

He would not allow it.

The Chief carefully moved a branch with leaves out of his field of vision. He was now on high alert. He was alone for this one, so he couldn't make a mistake. If he failed, innocents were going to get caught up in something that they couldn't properly defend against.

The voices were getting closer.

The war veteran checked that his magazine was full, then reloaded the clip into the rifle and pulled the charging handle. The counter read thirty-two rounds. He reached for his M6D pistol to do the same thing, but then remembered that he had given it to Ruby.

In hindsight, it was not a good idea to hand his sidearm to a mentally unstable fifteen year old girl. Now he didn't have a precision weapon, which would make hostage rescue far more difficult. His best chance of freeing the villagers rested solely on his ability to take out the enemy quickly and remaining unseen. He couldn't risk a frontal assault nor could he engage in a firefight. Both those scenarios would definitely end in needless casualties. A weapon built for accuracy would have reduced risk significantly.

But when he thought about how the silver-eyed girl looked, he couldn't help but feel a twinge of sympathy for the fledgling huntress. He had seen that look on the faces of many young soldiers just entering the Human-Covenant War. It was that look of shock that was experienced for the first time when taking life or seeing a squadmate get killed firsthand. It was an experience that never left anyone once it had been seen.

It didn't matter now. He would have to make do with his MA5D. He would need to keep his fire in bursts of two to three rounds.

John steeled his nerves and advanced, keeping an eye on his surroundings to keep track of the physical trail left behind all the while listening for the voices that were growing closer.

"Where the fuck are the other?" One voice.

"Taking their sweet time, apparently. Those guys were REALLY eager!" A second voice.

"What the fuck! Fine, if those horndogs want to fuck while getting burned alive, fine by me." The first voice again.

"Weren't Taylor and Jackson behind us? I haven't seen them." A third one.

"They just went out for a quick patrol. They'll be back in a few minutes." Four voices.

"Whatever. Once they get back, we're pulling out. I'm not about to fuck up what we've got here." The first voice answered. "We'll sell off most of em and keep a few around."

"I don't want to go!" A female voice.

"Shut up!" The first voice roared. "Bitches don't get to talk back!"

Because of all the chatter, these guys were practically giving away their location. Additionally, the light that they were giving off weren't doing much to conceal their presence. Now that he was fast-approaching where all the commotion was coming from, he could clearly distinguish between moonlight and artificial light.

The Master Chief honed in on the location. Once he found himself about fifty meters from the situation, he carefully got down on the ground into a prone position and began to crawl the rest of the way there, doing everything in his ability to become one with the forest. Thankfully, the color of his suit would help him camouflage with the rest of the greenery of the forest. The darkness would be of some assistance as well.

His helmeted head saw something that definitely marked human activity. It was a roughly-pitched tent that was about fifteen meters from his position. Craning his head to get a better look around, he realized that this was an entire encampment. There had to be at least ten mid-sized tents. There was no method to how they were placed. It was as if they had been set up haphazardly without a care in the universe.

Aiming his rifle, he scanned the area in his current still position. He could see many men that were heavily armed. He counted nine visible targets. Some were armed with guns while others had melee weapons ranging from clubs to swords and daggers. There was absolutely no sense of consistency among these combatants. They just looked like random people thrown together. Their sense of protocol and communication was highly unprofessional and far too casual.

Sierra 117 got into a crouch position and gently moved to scout the entirety of the perimeter. His initial count of tents was consistent. There were ten in total, each looking to house anywhere between four to eight individuals. His initial count of nine tangos was increased to thirty-one and judging from the conversations he was hearing, there were more, but they all either in the village on the way back, in which they were already most likely dead by the spartan's hand.

Eventually, the MJOLNIR-clad man found exactly what he was looking for. From a slightly-higher vantage point, he could see the center of the camp where hostages were being held. He could now confirm that they were all civilians and all females of varying ages. Their expressions varied in emotional visibility, but they all shared a look of fear. All of them were clustered together so as to keep some distance between themselves and the men forming a circle around them.

John began to formulate a plan. He needed to create an opening which would allow him to draw as many of them out as possible. The trouble was that no matter how many he could eliminate, eventually someone would notice that their numbers were dwindling mysteriously. When he ran some scenarios through his head, he came back to the first conclusion that he had reached.

At this time, his best course of action was to covertly kill as many as possible until the rest of the camp became alert. That would be when he would ambush the rest of their ranks. This plan relied upon two halfs, one logical and one a gamble, not ideal no matter the perspective.

The Master Chief did a final weapons check.

Although he wasn't one to rely on luck to win his battles for him, he couldn't help but hope that his luck wouldn't let him down this time.

Halo - - - RWBY

2107 Hours

Ruby ran in the direction that she had last seen the Master Chief run off to. Along the way, there were some villagers that she crossed paths with. When she asked about the whereabouts of a man in green armor, they pointed her towards the woods. From there, she simply just went on a straight path.

This was a stupid idea all around. She was barely dressed as she was, she had only a single pistol to protect herself, and her moral state was unstable.

But no matter what sort of reason there was not to go and find him, she wanted to find him.

No, she needed to find him.

Ruby didn't understand her savior well. She didn't know his real name. She didn't know what his hobbies were. She didn't know anything about his background. She didn't know anything personal about him at all. The things she knew was this: he was a soldier, he lived and breathed the military, and he was always serious.

Based on those things alone, that wasn't really much for her to latch onto. If not for his unique weapons and armor as well as his refusal to divulge any information pertaining to himself, she might have simply moved on and not given him much more thought. As things were, she would have been content to simply let her obsession with all things related to fighting do its thing. Then she tagged along with him to retrieve her weapon and maybe compare nots as to what sort of weapons worked.

Then all of this had to happen and now she felt afraid to pick up a weapon for fear that the next time would be the last time for sure.

But if he could push through this madness like it was nothing, why couldn't she?

Ruby had put in so much effort strengthening her body and her mind. Years of constant work had led her to being the scythe-wielder that she was today. She had been at the top of her class at Signal Academy when it came to being a Grimm hunter. She even put in the extra effort to be the best role model that she could be for those that wanted to aspire to be like her.

So why wasn't it enough?

She had to find him. She had to know why he could fight on and why she couldn't.

She needed to know what she had done wrong.

Her next mistake was that she couldn't see much of anything. The darkness of night surrounded her and she didn't have anything close to a light source. Not even her busted scroll would do the trick. So here she was, fumbling near-blind in the dark with only the moonlight above giving her anything to look at. At best, she could see the outlines of stuff. Maybe there was a forest in front of her, but she didn't know for sure.

Along the way, she felt something hitting her boots, but in the dark, she paid no mind to any of it, only losing her footing for a brief moment before resuming her pace, but she did detect a faint smell in the air. It almost smelled like metal, but it wasn't a highly distinctive smell, just something she noticed offhand.

Then she remembered that the Chief had gone off with the intent to kill.

"Oh, gods." Ruby felt herself growing a little nauseous. "I don't want to see blood today. Please have no blood today."

That was a stupid thing to ask for considering that she was heading into a kill zone willingly and knowingly, all for the sake of trying to search for the one person that could help her figure out what she was doing.

Or something to that tune.

Ruby forcefully ignored her sense of smell. She just had to pretend that she hadn't come across anything horrendous and it would be okay. She just needed to keep moving and do whatever it took to find the Master Chief.

That's when she heard the distinct sound of gunfire. It was unlike anything she had ever heard and she had heard many different types of guns. Pistols, submachine guns, machine guns, rifles, everything and anything. The sound she was hearing was nothing like the things that she had heard before.

That had to be where he was.

The sound was distant, but it was clear and crisp. Additionally, the fire was repeated. It sounded like controlled bursts as well. There was also the sound of screaming and crying. Whoever he was fighting didn't sound like they were having a fun time.

Ruby did her best to triangulate where all the noise was coming from, which became easier as more layers piled atop each other. Once she found the general direction, she could then see a faint light in the distance. That had to be it.

The silver-eyed girl then realized that she was shaking all over. Her hands clutching the pistol were absolutely shaking, creating a light metallic reverberance. Not only that, she felt sweat that she had no recollection of. It almost felt like she had just gone swimming, then came out and only roughly dried herself.

She felt herself backing up, with the back of her right foot hitting something, most likely a tree given that it remained steady in spite of her hitting it somewhat forcefully. Her breathing shifted from being steady to being erratic.

Nononono! Ruby mentally chided herself. Not here! Not now!

She bent down to the ground and forced her mouth closed and held her breath. She had no idea what this was supposed to do for her, but she did it on instinct. Closing her eyes, she saw black, nothingness. That brought a small sense of relief into her systems and she felt her thoughts drift away from the bad stuff.

After taking another minute, she unsteadily got back on her feet and held her weapon in ready position. She didn't need to think, just do.

She ran into the forest. If she came across an obstacle, she found a way around. If she felt tired, she just pushed further. If she felt her thoughts drifting, she pushed her body harder so she could feel the pain in her muscles.

Don't think. Just do.

The light source was getting brighter, but the sounds were quieter.

She was almost there. Just a little further and she would find him.

When Ruby eyes first sighted a bright torch, she shielded her vision. It was too bright for her after running in near total darkness. She took yet another half a minute to slowly adjust to the light source. She carefully removed her arm and took a good look around.

Bodies.

Many bodies.

Blood pools all around.

Shell casings.

Weapons scattered.

For a moment, the fifteen year old girl didn't register the sight of death in front of her. She figured it must be her mind playing tricks on her. She closed her eyes tightly, whispering to herself in the process.

"It's fine. Everything's fine." Ruby said the words. "I'll open my eyes and everything'll be fine."

Her eyelids reopened.

Still bodies.

Still many bodies.

Still pools of blood.

Still shell casings.

Still weapons scattered.

This time, she didn't deny the sight in front of her and in response, she felt something coming up her throat. She fell on all four and vomited the contents of her stomach. The burning sensation distracted her for all of a minute. Once that was done, she lifted her head again only to see the same horrible sight.

I've got to get out of here. Ruby felt her mind going into flight mode. Just go somewhere, anywhere. Just don't stay here!

So the fledgling huntress kept her head up and desperately attempted to avoid looking at anything below. That plan worked for no less than a few seconds as she sprinted into another section of this camp.

She saw him.

A tall figure in futuristic armor surveying all of the damage all around. In front of him were women and girls of differing races, ages, and physical looks gathered, all of them trying to cuddle together for safety.

"Chief." Ruby's voice felt hoarse.

His helmeted head turned to her, his rifle aimed at her head for less than a second before it was lowered.

"What are you doing here?" The man's voice was even. "I told you to stay back and help the villagers."

"I… wanted to help." Ruby gathered her thoughts, pushing past the shocking sight she had only just seen. "I can help."

"You are not needed." The Master Chief disagreed. "There is nothing left for you to do here."

"Yes, but-" Ruby began.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted movement. What should have been a dead man suddenly had lifted up his head and one arm.

There was a giant fire crystal in his hand.

If this were a different time, maybe she would have done just enough to incapacitate.

But fear combined with frayed nerves, adrenaline, and her training had her raise her borrowed pistol.

She felt her finger pull the trigger.

She heard a powerful sound.

She momentarily saw a round fly.

Ruby did this, then a bit of her mind came back to her.

What did she just do?

RWBY - - - Halo

2121 Hours

The Master Chief saw Ruby fire his M6D magnum with a proper grip and accuracy that was most definitely the product of practice. Also, her reaction time was fast as well. His motion tracker had seen movement and he would have done something but she beat him to the punch.

Once his mind comprehended those observations, he quickly swerved his entire body around to see what her single shot had hit.

One of the bandits, who he thought was dead from three shots to the abdomen, had somehow gotten back up and in his hand held what he identified to be a crystal of a red color. From his basic understanding of this world, he identified the object as a fire crystal. He didn't know much about the properties of the item, but he could make a guess: a final suicide attack to take them all out.

The spartan held his assault rifle and pointed it outward, searching for any remaining hostiles. Since he had forgotten to confirm that all the targets that he shot were dead, he wouldn't be making that mistake a second time.

His motion sensor then pinged more movement on his seven o'clock. A dull roar followed.

The Grimm.

"The Grimm are coming." The Master Chief turned to all the former captives. "I'm told that your village has a fallout shelter. Go there at once. Don't stop for anything at all."

"Yes, sir." One of the women stood up, looking calm. "You all heard the man! We need to go now!"

Because there were quite a few civilians, it took some time for all of them to compose themselves before they started moving in the general direction of their destination. All the while, the super soldier kept his MA5D aimed at his new 12 o'clock. They didn't have much time before enemy contact.

He momentarily glanced to check on Ruby. She stood with her head drooped and his M6D held loosely in her right hand.

"Ruby." John couldn't deal with this right now. "You came to help me. You should have known this could have happened, so snap out of it."

The girl was responsive as she glanced at him and then her eyes began sweeping the area, but she was far from ready to do anything other than be dead weight.

"Ruby." The Master Chief stepped up to her and firmly placed a hand on her shoulder. "If you can't be helpful, then leave. Now."

His grip brought her back to reality. She looked up into his visor. This expression was one that he had seen so many times in soldiers and marines. Whenever the Covenant began to bombard worlds with columns of plasma, everyone knew that the world was doomed. There was no stopping the glassing of a planet's surface once it began.

She was feeling the same thing; the Grimm had nearly ended her life and she hadn't properly sorted out herself.

"I'm fine." Ruby's voice was meek and unassuring. "I okay."

"No you're not." The spartan was growing impatient. "You're getting in the way. Head back to the village."

The sound a tree collapsing to the ground alerted both of them.

"Go." John ordered.

He pushed her behind himself, aiming the barrel of his rifle at the very large black figure with red eyes. An Alpha Beowolf stepped forward. In reply to the challenge set by the veteran, the beast let out a guttural growl, most likely an attempt to intimidate and subdue.

The Chief charged, firing his rifle. Six rounds to the head. All hit the target, but they didn't like that had a massive effect on the Grimm. In response, a limb was swung at him. He sidestepped forward, allowing the strike to graze his side before slamming the butt of the MA5D into its head. His strength was enough to stumble the creature, its entire body lurching backward. The super soldier raised his weapon, waited for half a second, then pulled the trigger again. His shot struck home: the right eye. This produced a more visible result as the beast was now crippled.

He glanced to his back and to his dismay, Ruby was still there, watching him fight. She was out in the open and more of the Grimm could arrive at any moment.

Why couldn't she listen to his instructions?

His motion tracker alerted him to at least a dozen distinct contacts. They were about to be surrounded. They needed to evacuate this place with haste.

Spartan 117 head did an instinctive scanning of his surroundings, checking quickly for anything that might be useful in a fight. That's when his eyes fell to the man Ruby had shot. The red crystal in his hand was still there. Without giving much thought, the armor-clad man grabbed the object and stored it in one of his pouches.

He then grabbed Ruby in his left arm, hoisting her up without difficulty before taking off at a running pace. A forest wasn't an ideal place to be encircled. Too many potential obstacles blocking off any chance of an escape route was not going to bode well for either of them.

There wasn't much point to hiding either, so the only thing to do was just keep going and not stop until they reached relative safety, whatever that could mean at this time.

It looked like a sizable pack had come from out of the woodworks. The emotions present here might be particularly potent if this many were converging on this location.

John recalled the direction which the civilians were fleeing. Then he took note of Grimm locations via his motion sensor. Judging on what he was seeing, they were concentrating on his very position.

At first, that made no sense. If these things were attracted to negative emotions, wouldn't it be more plausible to go after the villagers?

Weren't they emitting many more emotions than he was at this time?

The slight sound of breathing had his head turning down to see Ruby having all but resigned herself to her fate.

That's right. He now understood. Ruby's not fully recovered and she's closest to the Grimm.

The Master Chief halted in his tracks and did a full 360 surveillance of his immediate surroundings. After he confirmed the area to be safe for the moment, he took a knee next to a massive tree. He set her down and she limpy took a seating position with her back against the trunk of the tree.

There was no counting on her to do anything useful, but she wouldn't run and she wouldn't fight. What was he supposed to do with her?

There's only one thing left to do.The war veteran of thirty plus years checked his weapon. We hold the line here.

"I'll engage. Stay here and don't move from this spot." The spartan made sure that she was paying attention by gripping her arm somewhat tightly. "If you see a Grimm, get down and don't move a muscle."

His eyes flickered to his motion tracker for the umpteenth time. There was roughly about a twenty-five meter radius between them and danger. He didn't have any more time left to play babysitter.

"No" Ruby then spoke. "I'll help you. I know I can. Just please don't leave me doing nothing."

Those words she spoke sounded strangely familiar to him. For a moment, he saw an old memory come back to him. The night sky, Covenant attacking, and him evacuating three cadets off a planet.

John's blue eyes caught sight of Ruby's silver eyes. In all of his years of service, one thing that was consistent no matter who he spoke to was that their eyes told him what was going through their heads. He might not be able to understand every single detail consciously, but on some level, he understood what was going on when staring at someone eye to eye.

"You could die." He warned her. "You do know that."

"You said to never fight alone." She met him with fierce determination. "But you're doing just that, so I want to help you so you don't have to do it alone."

Bold words indeed, but she was positively scared out of her wits. Her posture was tense, her hands were rattling the M6D, and her teeth were chattering.

He could offer her no words to rebuke her, but lowered himself just a little bit further to make clear their difference in height, a sort of augmentation to his testing her willpower and strength.

Not once did she tear her expression from his helmet.

She was afraid.

But it was the right kind of fear.

"If you're going to be useful, then you need to follow my instructions to the letter. There can be no room for mistakes. Am I clear?"

"Crystal." Ruby nodded once.

Halo - - - RWBY

2130 Hours

She mentally reviewed what she needed to do one more time. She honestly wasn't sure if this was a good idea, but she sure as hell wasn't about to concoct a plan in the mental state that she was currently in.

For the first time this night, she felt her mind working properly. She wouldn't say that she was fully clear, but she was doing something and that was better than nothing, right?

She shook her head. She needed to stop distracting herself. The only thing she needed to do was to do her part for the plan.

Ruby silently took a deep breath, held her breath, then exhaled. A slight breeze caught her and she noted that her clothes were still in tatters. The towel that the Chief had provided was being utilized as a makeshift cape, which partially covered her. Aside from the indecency, she couldn't say that she was uncomfortable. It was summer, after all.

The teenage girl held her weapon close to her chest. She had been given two additional magazines and she had a near-full one inside the weapon, but her job wasn't to go running and gunning. She had a much different job. Once she was given the word, she would spring into action.

So she waited.

She could feel sweat clinging to her skin.

She counted a few seconds in her mind.

She tested the weight of the pistol.

She then heard a short whistle, not very loud, but it didn't need to be because it was only supposed to be heard by her ears.

Ruby ran six steps forward, then seemingly fired blindly at her 12 o'clock. It appeared to be nothing more than wasted shots, but in truth, she had been instructed to do exactly that by the Master Chief.

A second after her muzzle produced flashes from the bullets exiting the gun, she heard some dull thumps. She must've at least killed one Grimm in that brief volley. Whether or not her shots landed or not wasn't the goal.

The goal was to draw out all of them into the open space that she now occupied and just as anticipated, red eyes began to appear all around and for an abrupt moment, she felt her blood freeze.

Then she remembered the Chief's parting words before the execution of this maneuver.

Don't think. Just do. It's killed or be killed.

Ruby knew that in this moment, as scared as she was of what she could become thanks to her actions today, she did know that she didn't want to die.

She took another deep breath.

And miraculously, she felt fine.

That was sort of amazing to her.

This challenge that I've instilled on myself for writing so much in a single month is an enormous undertaking, but at the same time, it's very rewarding. When I imagine the scenes that I want to occur in my mind, I just get a little bit more eager each time. When you're updating eight stories a month, or what is equivalent to 40k words a month, you start to wonder just where did you get all this motivation.

Many of you have been discussing how Ruby is in dire need of learning how to become a character who is more serious when it comes to combat and while I do agree with that, I need to make sure that in some respects, Ruby remains who she is at her core. Without that, she's not Ruby anymore.

As for the Chief, he's got a lot of things he needs to sort out, not that it'll happen quickly, but it will happen. He just needs a little bit more time to get coaxed into a more proper mindset.

Thoughts on this chapter? Feedback is appreciated.

Thanks for reading.

"Hitch your wagon to a star."

Ralph Waldo Emerson