Cassy stood in front of the doors to the Spartan bay studying the eagle engraved on its surface. She took a deep breath when the sound of footsteps reached her ears. A hand gently landed on her shoulder. She turned around to see Mark standing there. No words were exchanged before he pulled her into a hug. "I saw dads message." He said quietly. She simply squeezed harder to let him know she had as well. They pulled away from each other and Mark gave her a pat on the head. "We will get him back." He said with a smile.
The sound of more footsteps drew the attention of the siblings. The rest of Fireteam Eclipse walked up to the them. Their faces were a mixture of emotions about Casey's strange request to have them meet here. "Why are we on the freaks floor?" Kieth said with some annoyance in his tone. Cassy frowned and simply turned and knocked once on the metal door. The door was replaced with the towering figure of Vapor in fatigues and body suit. He glanced at the siblings and then at the rest of the fireteam before giving her a short nod and stepping to the side. She motioned to her team to follow her inside. Ranger looked up from his dismantled weapons to acknowledge them and went back to what he was doing.
Once everyone had found a place to sit or stand in the large room they waited on Cassy. She looked at them before taking a deep breath and asking, " I said I would give you answers. Ask away." Keith wasted no time. " Why the hell were you calling one of these freaks dad?!" Ranger stiffened and Vapors emerald green eyes hardened at the term but before Cassy could say anything Mark stepped forward. " Cause he is our father. Not our birth father but our adoptive one. Our parents were killed during a covenant invasion and he took us in when we were kids. He taught us and trained us." Kieth opened his mouth but Mark cut him off. "Before you say what I think you are going to say know this. They have saved me and her more than I can count and includes you. So I say you take a bite of that humble pie and fix yourself before I do." Kieth glared at Mark before wisely deciding to not fight against his superior.
Hawk simply raised his hand and said "why did you want us to meet here?" Cassy let out a small smile. "Cause we are going back, we don't leave people behind." Hawk nodded in agreement, satisfied with her answer. "That is correct, no man left behind." A voice echoed behind the group. They turned quickly to see Captain Hendrix walking toward the group. In the blink of an eye they were all at attention. He walked towards the center of the group. "At ease." They relaxed a bit from their rigid stance. He looked at each of them till his eyes landed on the siblings. "Now, I am a firm believer in making sure every one of my troops return back to my ship. We left a man down there, and not only that but a Spartan. I can only give you a small window to retrieve either him or his remains. We are ordered back to reach and we will leave here in 6 hours." He walked up to Cassy "I am willing to give you this chance because of certain circumstances we are in. Ronas picked up a weak signal from the planet about an hour ago." As if right on cue a six note tune played over the rooms intercom. "Ranger came to a standing position and Vapor raised his eyebrows upon hearing the tune. "You have you orders Sergeant." Cassy's eyes widened "Sir, I..uh." The Captain gave a small smile. " The promotion was long over due." Cassy immediately saluted and said "Thank you Sir." The Captain saluted her back and nodded to the rest of them before stepping out of the Spartan bay.
In 15 mins Fireteam Eclipse and Shadow squad were assembled by the stealth pelican with enough weaponry to take out what was left of the covenant in the temple ruins. Mark sat next to Vapor in the pelican and noticed that the spartan seemed to be carrying a few extra items on his armor. "What are these?" He said gesturing to some of the items. "Extra Biofoam and tools to remove the armor in case we need to. I don't doubt that the brute he took with him over the edge left him unscathed." He calmly stated. Mark let an expression of worry ghost over his face before returning to a neutral expression.
The stealth pelican held up to its name and got them close to the temple quickly and undetected. They advanced through the forest quietly and cautiously. The rainfall had finally stopped and the stars provided a faint light for them to see. Ranger was a couple yards ahead of the team suddenly raised his fist and the team froze in their places. He motioned for the elite twins to move towards him. Mark watched after a minute the elites nodded and disappeared as they activated their camouflage. Nearly 5 minutes went by before Ranger motioned the team to move forward again. The entrance that they made their escape from nearly 20 hours ago came into view. In the low light the darkness within looked like the void itself. The darkness stirred a sense of unease in Mark. 'There would be more guards after the raid we did. So where are they?' He asked himself.
Ranger must have had the same thoughts "We need to move extremely cautious. Something doesn't seem right." He said to the group. The elites cloaked themselves to scout ahead as the group moved toward the tunnel. The going was slow as they took extra care to avoid making any noise but soon they stood before the open chasm and the destroyed bridge. Rangers helmet light settled on a rifle laying the ground on the other side of the bridge. Without another word Vapor and him started pulling out coils of rope weaved with thin metal cables to lower them down. Vapor turned to the group " I need two watching our exit and two watching the bridge. The rest will go down with us." He said pointing to himself and Ranger. Hawk and Thar'os turned and jogged back down the tunnel they came in from. While Rtyre and Pyro took up positions that would conceal them while they watched the Cavern.
Cassy moved to hook up but Vapor stopped her. "Let us go down first." He said gently. She nodded her head in understanding. The Spartan hooked up to the lines and started dropping down the chasm, falling at a startling speed. Mark and Cassy were hooking onto their lines while Kieth hesitated. "Sarg...I." He spoke hesitantly. Cassy looked at him waiting for him to continue. He let out a loud sigh "I want to apologize." The siblings stared at him in surprise. "I never knew and I realize that I have acted unprofessionally and... I will try to keep a more open mind." He said quickly looking at the ground. The silence in the cavern was unreal. They just stared at each other for a minute. "I appreciate that and I accept your apology." Cassy said sincerely. He looked up and gave a small nod of thanks before hooking up to the line. A green light in their HUD's gave them the all clear to begin their decend.
After a couple of minutes they started to see the bottom. They had to swing around to avoid landing in the pools before detaching from the rope. They shined their helmet mounted lights around looking for Ryker. What they did find was the charred remains of the brute chieftain, broken rocks and blood everywhere. Thankfully most of it was the brutes but there was still a fair amount that was human. "Where is he?" Cassy said with a hint of panic in her voice. Ranger was walking around the chasm walls when he kneeled down. "I found a blood trail." He called out. They quickly moved over to him to see the blood trail leading into a cave in the chasm wall. Vapor raised his shotgun and proceeded into the cave. The rest fell in behind him.