Battle: Actium

by Ian Otter

Before the Fall of Reach, the Battle of Actium was one of the bloodiest land battles of the Human-Covenant War. Experience the fighting through the eyes of those who fought, and died, in her defense. (Companion piece to my other story, Missing in Action) (Abandoned.)

19. Chapter 19

Author's Note:

The chapter this week is going to be a little different from all the other chapters so far. I know, I say that all the time, but this time I actually mean it. As was kind of hinted at, at the end of chapter 18, this week's chapter will take place from the perspective of a Spartan.

I'll be honest, I generally don't like writing about Spartans, mostly because I think it's been covered really well, not just in the games, the official novels, and just about every piece of media concerning the Halo universe, but also in fanfiction itself. Don't get me wrong, it is to be expect because the Spartans are essentially the center of the Halo universe, and the games are awesome because of that, I just don't personally care to write about them myself, mainly because I don't think there's much to add anymore; every idea or concept I would personally want to see in a story about Spartans has already been done by writers and artist far more talented than I.

With that being said, I noticed past-me had setup an opportunity in this story to have a chapter from the perspective of a Spartan, so I decided to take it and try my hand at depicting how I envision Spartans in action to be. Compared to their forms in other media, my Spartans are a little understated, but I hope they still appear as the cold, efficient, killing machines like they are in the games.

Oh, and part of the chapter takes place from the perspective of the Covenant, specifically a Covenant Jackal. The reasons for the Covenant perspective is twofold: I thought it would be fun to try and depict events unfolding from the eyes of the enemy and also, I feel like for Spartans, you always need a contrast to emphasis just how good the Spartans are. The only way to achieve that contrast, especially in the scenario I had set up, was from a Covenant perspective.

---

Chapter 19

Covenant Battlecruiser "1-Delta"
May 6, 2545
1130

Argon Team

EXECUTE.

The holographic word flashed across her HUD for about half a second before disappearing just as quickly as it had appeared, but Petty Officer Second Class Maria-062 barely gave it any heed as she was more concerned about the heavy footsteps approaching her team's position. Covenant patrol. Four Grunts and an Elite, probably a Minor. Based on how loudly the Grunts were squabbling, it was most likely a random patrol, but one that still needed to be dealt with quickly, and quietly.

Maria glanced back at her team stacked up behind her and hurriedly, using hand signals only, informed them of her plan. Two green lights in her visor lit up, indicating her team had acknowledged and received, and Maria turned back, her muscles tense and ready for action. She would be the one to open the action and for maximum surprise, timing would be key. She waited. And listened.

Thump. Thump. THUMP.

The sound of the Elite's footsteps grew louder and louder as he got closer to their position. Maria held her breath.

Now.

Without a moment of hesitation, she launched herself around the corner and emerged right in front of an Elite Minor who was now an arm's length away. Before the astonished creature could react, Maria lashed out, driving her fist right into his throat.

Her fist slammed into his personal shield, causing them flare and absorbing much of the damage, but the blow was still enough to send the Elite staggering. As he stumbled back, reflexively gripping his neck, he tried to draw his plasma rifle from his right thigh, but Maria deftly blocked it with her hand then followed up with a fierce elbow strike to the Elite's head.

His weakened shields instantly gave way and the Elite took the full force of the impact to the side of his helmet, which crumbled under the vicious blow. His head snapped to the side and Maria quickly surged forward, firmly grabbing his head with both hands and yanking him down while at the same time, bringing her right knee straight up.

There was a loud crack as the Elite's face met her knee and, upon feeling the Elite go limp, she roughly threw him to the ground. By the time he hit the floor, she had already drawn her suppressed pistol and proceeded to calmly shoot him once in the back of the head.

Ignoring the purple blood that was beginning to pool on the deck, Maria whirled around with her sidearm at the ready, finger hovering near the trigger, but then paused when she noticed her team had already dealt with the rest of the Covenant patrol. Four Grunts laid prone on the ground. Standing over them was the rest of her team, consisting of Spartans Kai A-019 and Zalmir B-170.

Lowering her sidearm, Maria and her team stood there, still as a statue, waiting to see if their little incursion had been detected, but when no alarms started sounding and no guards manifested, they allowed themselves to relax.

Gesturing for her team to move out of the way, Maria proceeded to methodically plant a single round into the backs of all the Grunts' heads, to make sure they really were dead. It didn't make for the cleanest of stealth missions, leaving all sorts of bodies behind, but their presence aboard this vessel wouldn't remain undetected for long and Maria would rather not leave any patrols that could potentially ambush them from behind.

Quickly swapping the partially used magazine from her pistol and replacing it with a fresh one, Maria holstered her weapon before silently dropping down to one knee and carefully extracting a plasma pistol from one of the dead Grunts. She stuck the confiscated weapon to the magnetic strip on her other thigh in a position where she could easily and rapidly pull it out. With only three of them on a ship of this magnitude, Maria knew she was going to need a weapon that could quickly disable the shields of any Elites she came across.

Task complete, Maria stood back up and quickly ducked back around the corner to retrieve the package. Consisting of a single Fury tactical nuclear weapon, the nuke would be what her team would use to destroy this ship, so ensuring the package survived unharmed was crucial. Even more so than, dare she say it, the lives of her team.

Strapping the warhead to her back next to her assault rifle and drop shield and securing it, Maria glanced at her team. Being the highly trained professionals that they were, neither of them were looking at her but were instead, watching both ends of the corridor, scanning for threats. Despite their seemingly lack of attention, Maria knew they would still be listening.

"We move," she silently informed them over their designated TEAMCOM channel. "We need to isolate this ship from the rest of this fleet, and we'll accomplish that by destroying their communications array. Kai, you have point. 170, cover our six."

Two green acknowledgement lights lit up on her HUD and Maria glanced over her shoulder to see B-170 lifting his SAW ever so slightly, the only hint of his nervousness.

Good. Apprehension was to be expected, even for a Spartan, from someone who was entering a real life combat situation for the first time, but it looked like 170 had a lock on things. Maria nodded in approval before refocusing. Hefting her own weapon, she gestured with her hand.

"Move out."

XXXXX

UNSC Moonlight Sonata

Lieutenant Commander Luzader

"…The timing of our attack is absolutely critical," Admiral Spaatz was saying over the radio. "Too early, and we run the risk of the fleet getting damaged by the overpressure wave from the explosion. Too late, and the Covenant will have ample time to reactive their shields. While we are of course able to penetrate the Covenant's regular shields, the time it would take to do so will result in higher casualties among the fleet, casualties I'd rather avoid."

Luzader watched as Volkov slowly nod his head. "Of course sir. Understood."

"Which is why I need to know the exact moment your team has extracted from the target vessel, is onboard your ship, and en route to the minimal safe distance from the explosion," Spaatz continued as if Volkov hadn't said a word. "I trust you're monitoring your team's progress?"

Volkov subtly glanced in Luzader's direction, who in turn glanced in his communication's officer's direction, who nodded. "Naturally sir. Though, I should warn you sir, at this current moment, due to my team's need to maintain stealth, we are radio silent with them. Though that will lift the moment Target 1-Delta has been isolated from the rest of the fleet."

Spaatz grunted in acknowledgement. "Fine. That's fine. Inform me the moment you're able to reestablish contact."

"Of course sir."

Volkov moved to end the video call, but paused when Spaatz held up his hand. "Was there something else sir?"

"Yes. As soon as your team has extracted, and you're free of the blast zone, report directly back to me. No one else. If this operation is successful, I have no doubt there will be other assignments that will require your team's assistance."

Luzader could see Volkov frowning ever so slightly. "Sir, with all due respect, that's not exactly our purposes for being…" Volkov began.

"Major, your purpose is to win this war, is it not?"

Volkov stiffened. "Yes sir."

"Well, just in case you haven't noticed, the war is here, in this system, right now. And I intend to win, using whatever assets I have available to me. You, Lieutenant Commander Luzader, his ship, your team, and whatever support personnel you have, have all become part of those assets. And I will use you as I see fit. So, whatever your original purpose for being in this system was, is now irrelevant. You're under my command. Is that clear Major?"

Volkov hesitated. "Yes sir," he finally said. "However, I will have to inform my commanders. And they'll no doubtedly be in contact with you sir."

"Oh trust me Major, they'll be hearing from me first," Spaatz dryly replied. "Spaatz, out."

Spaatz's image abruptly disappeared from Luzader's bridge, allowing him to finally relax.

"Man," Luzader commented as he strapped himself back into his command chair. "Spaatz really doesn't like special operations, doesn't he?"

"Well, you know just as well as I do, some staff officers think that just because they wear a couple of stars on their lapels, they're entitled to know about every single detail about every single operation in existence, and get pissed off when they realize they don't have as much authority as they think they do," Volkov replied with a grunt as he stashed the communications equipment away and extended the extra seat. "Command will set him straight though. In the meantime, where are we with Argon Team?"

"Last communique we had with them, Spartan-062 indicated they had successfully eliminated a Covenant patrol without detection, and were headed directly for the ship's communications relay," Luzader reported. He handed Volkov a data pad containing the transcript of all the radio transmissions they had with Argon Team. There wasn't much on it; Luzader had noticed even under the best of times, Spartans weren't exactly the most sociable types but on a mission? Luzader had worked with some computers that were more talkative than them.

"Provided they don't run into any more patrols, I predict we should be hearing from them again in the next several minutes or so," Luzader continued.

Volkov grunted in agreement as he quickly read through the data pad. It took him a few moments to realize Luzader was still staring at him with an expectant look on his face. "What."

"You think they can pull this off?" Luzader couldn't help but ask. "This operation? Three operatives versus and an entire ship? Almost an impossible mission, you think."

Volkov snorted. "They're Spartans. To them, there's no such thing as an 'impossible' mission, only a mission with slightly more challenging obstacles."

"I realize that. And if we were talking about a team of II's, I would have agreed wholeheartedly. But these are III's we're talking about. And one of them was assigned to the team a couple of days ago. I mean, part of the reason why we're even in this system right now was for them to undergo integration training. That's going to be a huge obstacle for them, overcoming the fact they've never worked together before in the past."

"They are Spartans," Volkov repeated. "Flexibility is their strong suite. Plus, Spartan-062 is in change. Maria has been fighting in this war longer than either you or I have. She knows what she's doing, and she'll know how to make everyone else fall in line."

"Yes, but Spartan-062 is not exactly known for her leadership ability," Luzader pressed. "She's not exactly Spartan-104. Or Spartan-051. Or, hell, 117."

Volkov looked up from the data pad with a curious expression on his face. "You seem to know a lot about the Spartan program. More than what a mere captain of a Prowler should know," he said, the warning clear and evident in his voice.

Luzader waved his hands dismissively. "I work for a military intelligence agency," he pointed out. "Gathering intelligence and rooting out secrets is kind of what we do for a living. I'd honestly be more concerned if I encountered a captain who didn't know these things. Shows he's not paying attention."

Luzader watched as Volkov raised an eyebrow, but gave no other indication of what he was thinking.

"At any case," he suddenly said. "I don't think you should worry about what our Spartans are doing Commander. If anything, I'd worry for the Covenant."

"Because they have no idea what's coming."

XXXXX

Covenant Battlecruiser Hammer of Justice

Zek

Kig-Yar Minor Zek's head snapped up as a warning suddenly flashed across his screen. "What the hell was that?"

His fellow security technician, another Kig-Yar by the name of Rezan, barely looked up.

"It's just bottarga(1) with a bit of garum(2) spread on top," he distractedly replied. "Are you telling me you Ruuhtians don't have that?"

Zek shot Rezan a confused look. "What?"

Rezan lifted a small can of what looked and smelled like some sort of heavily fermented meat. "Bottarga," Rezan replied, pointing at the can. "You've never had it before?"

"What? No! I mean, I have but... that's not what I'm taking about!" Zek snapped somewhat impatiently. "That alert message. Did you see that?"

"No," Rezan said around a mouthful of food. "What'd it say?"

"'External communications lost,'" Zek read out loud.

"What? That's not possible," Rezan exclaimed, causing speckles of food to spray out of his mouth and coat his display.

Zek momentarily frowned in disgust. He distracted himself by tapping a few buttons on his display.

"Are you sure it's not a computer error?" he heard Rezan asking from over his shoulder.

"That's what I'm looking for now," Zek noted as he tapped a couple of buttons and waited. "System is not registering anything. Is that even possible? Shouldn't I be getting at least an error message?"

"I don't know," Rezan admitted. "Maybe you should ask one of the Unggoy for assistance. Communications is, after all, their responsibility."

Zek didn't bother dignifying that suggestion with a response. He'd sooner be branded a heretic than ask an Unggoy for aid.

He tapped a few more buttons to see if anything else showed up, but nothing happened. After a few moments of fruitless activity, he sat back in his chair and drummed his fingers against his station, thinking.

Coming to a decision, he grabbed his radio.

"What are you doing?" Rezan asked.

"I'm reporting this," Zek grimly reported.

Rezan instantly paled.

"Oh no," Zek heard him say as he hastily began cleaning off his station. Zek couldn't blame him: their commanding Sangheili could be rather terrifying.

Unfortunately, due to the way Sangheili culture worked, any warrior who was not involved in frontline combat against the heretics was considered of lesser status. However, because of the way the Covenant military structure worked, lesser races such as the Kig-Yar and Unggoy weren't allowed to operate such advanced equipment without a Sangheili officer. As such, most Sangheili assigned to a rear echelon support position saw it as punishment for unspecified crimes, and Zek's supervisor, a Sangheili Major by the name of Bal'Kamet, was no exception. With a temper hotter than Eayn's(3) sun, Kamet did everything in his power to make sure his underlings were as miserable as he was. As a result, Zek did his best to avoid the creature but in this situation, it was unavoidable: the punishment for his failure to report this incident would be much more severe.

As Zek waited for the line to connect, he took a moment to compose himself.

"What."

Kamet's blunt voice instantly came through the airwaves and Zek couldn't help but wince at the shear heat in Kamet's voice already, despite not having done anything.

Zek did his best to keep calm and tone respectful as he said, "Sire Kamet? This is Security Station Salvation: we have a situation that requires your immediate attention."

"I'll be right there," Kamet grumbled after a long pause and just as Zek was about to put down the radio he heard Kamet add, "And Kig-Yar? This had better be good."

The line went dead and Zek nervously swallowed. He exchanged an apprehensive look with Rezan as the sound of heavy footsteps approached them, with both of them snapping to attention as soon as Kamet rounded the corner.

"What do you want!?" Kamet demanded.

"Sire, I regret to inform you all external communications has been lost. We no longer have any contact with the rest of the fleet," Zek reported, trying his best to remain calm. He never enjoyed being the bearer of bad news.

Unfortunately, Zek wasn't entirely successful in that regard, and rather than the calm, collected voice he'd been hoping to achieve, what came out instead was a long jumble of words.

It took a moment for Kamet to comprehend what he was being told, but when he did, Zek could see his eyes narrowing behind his helmet, a classic sign of aggravation, and Zek mentally braced himself.

"That... is impossible," Kamet growled. "What did you incompetent Kig-Yar do!?"

"Nothing! We did nothing!" Rezan immediately and defensively protested.

Zek inwardly cringed. Now that was the wrong thing to say.

Sure enough, Zek could see Rezan shrinking as Kamet immediately turned his ire towards him.

"This ship," Kamet menacingly growled, "was built using the Ancestor's designs and blessed by the Hierarchs themselves. Are you suggesting it would suddenly and abruptly cease to function!?"

Zek could see Rezan's throat bobbing as he nervously swallowed.

"N... no sire!" Rezan managed to stammer.

"Then clearly this is the result of something you fools did! Pull up the security feeds! We shall see what has happened!"

It took Zek a few moments to realize Kamet was addressing him, and he hastily moved to obey.

Tapping a buttons, a holographic screen appeared, depicting the corridor just outside of the communications array. The entire corridor was filled with light gray smoke that seemed to waft from the area of the array itself, which caused Zek to frown. Had there been a fire? But how? Everything in that room was fireproof.

"What is the meaning of this!?" Kamet abruptly barked, causing Zek to jump.

Zek started to turn towards Kamet, but before he could say anything, movement on the screen caught his attention. The smoke was shifting and revealing -

Bulky green armor. An alien figure shaped like a human, but with the build and physique of a Sangheili. Carrying enough firepower to put most Mgalekgolo to shame. And finally, wearing, a dome-like helmet with a solid gold visor.

Zek could feel the saliva in his mouth dry up as he realized exactly what he was looking at.

"Demon..." he heard Rezan whisper in fearful, but almost reverent voice, and Zek couldn't blame him.

He had heard the stories. Everyone had. Of the gold faces, green skinned Demons that emerged from the dark void to take what they wanted, and not even the Covenant Empire's best warriors could stop them.

"Mothers save us," Rezan whispered again and through the corner of his eye, Zek could see Rezan making a number of hand gestures which he recognized as old Kig-Yar hand symbols for warding off evil spirits.

For his part, all Zek could do was simply sit there, frozen with fear at what he was seeing.

They watched as the Demon stalk through the corridor, like a jörmungandr(4) hunting its prey. It moved silently and swiftly down the corridor before, without warning, turned and looked directly at the camera. Zek immediately and reflexively dove for cover, only to suddenly remember it was impossible for the Demon to have seen him through the screen.

Feeling a bit foolish, Zek picked himself off the deck in time to see the Demon pointing a massive handgun at the camera before microseconds later, the screen went dark.

Numb with shock and fear at what he just seen, Zek took a moment to compose himself before slowly turning around to see how Kamet was reacting.

At first, Kamet was merely standing there, unmoving and as still as a statue. But just as Zek was about to call out his name, he noticed an odd expression creeping across Kamet's face, and it took Zek a couple of seconds to realize what it was: sheer joy. Somehow, that expression alone caused a deeper sense of dread to pass through Zek than if Kamet had been spitting mad.

"We have been boarded," Zek heard Kamet mutter. Before he could ask him to elaborate, Kamet suddenly screamed, "WE HAVE BEEN BOARDED!"

Zek exchanged a nervous look with Rezan at the sound of pure excitement in Kamet's voice. Before he could doing anything, Kamet abruptly slammed his palm onto the desk, causing Zek to jump in fright.

"Kig-Yar, sound the alarm and alert all Security Lances!" Kamet barked and Zek hastily moved to obey. "Have all warriors assemble on me; I shall deal with this incursion myself!"

"WE HAVE BEEN BOARDED!"

XXXXX

Maria holstered her pistol and glanced at the spot where the security camera had been standing. That was sloppy: she should have spotted and disabled that camera long before it had been able to spot her. She could only hope that no one had been monitoring the screens.

EEEEEEEEEEEE!

The inhuman screeching of an alarm quickly put that hope to bed and Maria mentally sighed. Damn. Detection had been inevitable, especially after they had just destroyed the communications array, but she'd hoping to put it off just a bit longer. Oh well.

She turned to her team to gesture at them, but before anything could happen, a nearby door slide open, and a Jackal stepped into the corridor.

"Contact!" Maria yelled in warning, her sidearm instantly appearing in her hands

PFT.

The Jackal's head snapped back, a neat hole right between his eyes but there was already another Jackal coming up behind the first one. The new Jackal reflexively raised his hand to cover his face as blood from the first Jackal splattered all over the place and Maria quickly lowered her pistol a hair and fired two rapid shots into the Jackal's chest. As the Jackal lowered his arms in surprise, Maria put a third round through his left eye while at the same time, drawing one of the plasma grenades from her back.

Activating it, she quickly tossed it through the doorway the two Jackals had emerged from and hastily shot the door controls, causing it to slam shut. She could hear the grenade exploding but at the same time, she also heard the hiss of another door opening up directly behind her and whirled around in time to grab the plasma rifle that was pointed at her head with her free hand and shove it to the side, causing the initial burst to miss.

She immediately retaliated, jamming her pistol into the shooter's stomach, an Elite Minor, and emptied the rest of the magazine, hearing the Elite grunt in pain as his shields were instantly disabled and his lower torso was perforated with bullets, but Elite's didn't die that easily. As the slide on Maria's pistol locked back, the Elite threw a wild left hook with his free hand at her head, one that she was able to quickly duck under, but in doing so, was forced to release her hold on the Elite's rifle.

The Elite immediately kicked at her, shoving her back a little while at the same time, backpedaled, trying to gain some room so he could bring his rifle to bear, but he could only take a couple of steps before running into the corridor wall. In the split second he was distracted, Maria released her pistol, letting it drop to the ground with a clatter, while at the same time, grabbing her combat knife from her belt with her now free hand. Surging forward, she jammed the blade into the Elite's wrist, severing the tendons leading to the hand holding onto the rifle and forcing it to immediately go limp while at the same time, causing the plasma rifle to slip out from his hands. As the rifle fell to the ground, Maria kicked it in midair with enough force the entire thing shattered the moment it hit the bulkhead wall.

Simultaneously, Maria drove her knife forward towards the Elite, right down his forearm, the titanium carbide coated blade easily cutting through skin and flesh like it was butter, splitting the Elite's arm open like a banana and spilling blood and gore all over the place. Maria could hear the Elite screaming in pain but she ignored him as she focused on driving the blade up the Elite's entire arm, only being forced to stop when she reached the much thicker and denser part of the Elite's bicep muscle which her blade had a bit more trouble cutting through.

Undeterred, Maria ripped the knife out, slashing the Elite across his throat with the same motion. A purple line appeared across the Elite's neck for about half a second before abruptly splitting apart, and blood began gushing out from the wound.

A choking noise filled the air as the Elite grabbed at his neck with one hand, while reaching for a plasma grenade on his belt with the other, so Maria hit him once more in the face for good measure, driving her elbow up and into the Elite's chin with enough force she could hear the Elite's skin tearing as his head snapped back. The Elite hit the wall and collapsed to the ground in a boneless heap, sitting in a pool of his own blood, twitching.

With the sound of fighting filling her ears, Maria had no time to rest. She sheathed her knife and threw herself forward, snagging her sidearm off the ground as she rolled passed and quickly reloaded. Coming out of her roll ready to fight once more, she glance around the corridor and immediately took stock: her entire teamwas currently engaged in their own hand to hand battles, which explained why none of them has been in a position to assist her. Kai was currently fighting against another Elite and appeared to be holding his own but Zalmir on the other hand was fighting against two Elites and appeared to be struggling. As she watched, Zalmir ducked under a vicious jab from one of the Elites, only to run right into the other Elite, who slammed his knee into Zalmir's face and sent him staggering backwards, but fortunately he was able to maintain his footing.

Upon seeing that, Maria instantly brought her pistol to bear. The shot was going to be difficult: Zalmir and the Elites were very close to each other and all parties were moving very quickly. Nevertheless, Maria took a deep breath and released it slowly, waiting for her opportunity.

There. Zalmir had just dodged a blow, leaving one of the Elite's heads exposed for a bare moment. Maria didn't hesitate.

PFT PFT.

She fired in rapid succession, planting a hammered pair into the Elite's face, causing him to rear back in surprise at the unexpected shots, temporarily lowering his guard. Zalmir immediately punched him in the face. Stunned, the Elite nevertheless attempted to hit back, but his punch was weak and highly telegraphed, allowing Zalmir to see it coming from a lightyear away.

Sidestepping the blow, Zalmir grabbed a hold of the Elite's outstretched arm and yanked the creature towards himself, using the Elite's own momentum against him. As the off-balanced Elite stumbled towards him, Zalmir twisted around and shoved the Elite right into the other one. The other Elite was just barely able to dodge his friend, but the half second delay he took to recover was just enough time for Zalmir to whip out his SAW and start shooting.

Maria wasn't able to see the results though because at that moment, her pistol was kicked right out from her hands by a Skirmisher that appeared out of nowhere. Rather than try to resist, Maria decided to follow through with the blow and spin around, whipping out her captured plasma pistol from her thigh as she did.

Coming out of the spin, Maria came face to face with another Skirmisher that was charging straight at her with some sort of energy cutlass. Maria didn't hesitate.

FWOOZFWOOZFWOOZ!

Two bolts to the chest and one bolt to the head put that Skirmisher down for good. She started to turn towards the initial Skirmisher, but a glint of something sharp caught her eye and she instinctively ducked as she turned. Moments later, an energy cutlass passed right through the space her head had just been occupying.

Seeing the Skirmisher's feet planted on the ground right in front of her, Maria dropped down even further and swung her arm as she continued her turn. The Skirmisher pitched forward with a look of surprise on his face as his legs were swept out from underneath him, but somehow he was able to throw himself forward into a somersault. Landing on his feet about a meter away, the Skirmisher whirled around to face Maria once more, only to be confronted with a wall of green as Maria full on bull-rushed him, knocking him off his feet once more.

Wrapping her arms around the Skirmisher's waist, Maria full-bodily lifted him up and toppled over backwards, twisting around in mid-air and driving the Skirmisher straight into the ground.

There was a loud crack as all two thousand-ish kilograms of Maria's weight landed right on top of the Skirmisher, leaving him sprawled out on the ground at an odd angle. He didn't stir as Maria hauled herself up to her feet, but just in case that wasn't enough to kill him, Maria went ahead and shot him once in the head with her plasma pistol.

FWOOZ!

Snapping her weapon up, she glanced around to see if her team needed her help, but it was clear they had things under control. As she watched, Kai managed to plant the barrel of his assault shotgun under the chin of the Elite he was fighting against and fired once, blowing the Elite's head clean off. Concurrently, Zalmir was bringing the buttstock of his SAW down hard against the head of his own Elite, caving the creature's skull right in and leaving another rapidly cooling body on the floor. But the Covenant weren't done just yet. The thunderous sound of charging footsteps filled Maria's ears and she turned around to see another Lance of Covenant soldiers rounding the bend from the down corridor, and from how fresh they looked, Maria could tell it was an entirely different group from the one they had been fighting.

Maria silent cursed. They were taking too much time. The longer they wasted here, fighting these guys, the longer the Covenant would have to fortify their defenses. They had to move. Now.

But not before they dealt with these guys...

"COVER UP!" Maria barked, ripping her assault rifle off her back. Flicking the safety off and shouldering her rifle at the same time...

BANGBANGBANG!

The sound of gunfire flooded the corridor as all three Spartans simply opened up with whatever weapons they had at hand. Holes were punched into the bulkheads and brass littered the ground as red hot bullets tore into the advancing Covenant.

Maria fired as rapidly as she could in semi-auto. Out of all the Spartan-IIs and even some of the III's, Maria was admittedly one of the worst shots with a rifle. But against a target less than twenty meters away down a wide open and straight corridor, Maria was essentially Linda at this point.

Covenant soldiers toppled to the floor with single holes drilled into their heads. Elite shields were disabled and their operators' killed before they could do anything. The entire Lance of soldiers was completely decimated before the first brass casing even had a chance to hit the ground.

The gunfire petered off as the last Elite toppled to the ground. Without breaking stride, Maria swapped out her magazine while checking over the corridor for more targets. The still bodies of nearly thirty Covenant soldiers littered the ground. A disappointing start, but nothing could be done about that.

"Argon Team, sound off," Maria ordered as she bent over and retrieved her discarded weapons.

Two green lights on her visor immediately lit up, indicating no one had gotten injured. In the distance, Maria could hear the sound of more footsteps and shouting as more Covenant headed in their direction. It was time to leave.

"To the objective area," Maria barked without preamble. "Double time it. Move."

They took off running.

XXXXX

Zek couldn't help but tremble as the Demons disappeared from his screen. He had managed to locate a working camera that had an angle on the corridor where the Demons had been detected, and had turned it in time to see the entirety of two separate security Lance's get annihilated.

Thirty Covenant warriors. Six Sangheili, eight T'vaoans, four Ruuhtians, and twelve Unggoy. All slaughtered to the last being in less than seven minutes. All before they had been able to put up more than a token resistance. The sight had been both absolutely terrifying and heartbreaking, especially since Zek was pretty sure he knew at least one of the Ruuhtians that had been killed.

No, not killed. Slaughtered. Killed implied he had had a chance.

"Security Station Salvation, come in."

Kamet's deep voice sounded over the radio and Zek quickly reached out and grabbed the mic.

"This Salvation, go ahead," Zek replied.

"Where are the Demons now?"

Zek hastily checked his security feeds. "Deck Eith Mor. They appear to be heading for the bridge."

"Lock down the blast doors. Slow the Demons down until I can reach them."

Zek glanced at Rezan who immediately went to work and on screen, Zek could see a number of blast doors slamming shut.

"Have all Security Lances prepare defenses outside of the bridge, engineering, as well as all hangers," Kamet continued. "They are to hold to the last. The Demons are to not be allowed to escape."

"As you will Sire," Zek automatically replied. "In the meantime, should I have some Lances join you in your pursuit?"

"No."

Zek paused. He honestly wasn't expecting that answer. "Sire?"

"Do not send me reinforcements," Kamet insisted, "for I shall need none. I will defeat the Demons. I will make the Demons regret ever boarding a ship guarded by Bal'Kamet. And no one will dare take that glory from me!"

Zek exchanged a look with Rezan. That sounded like an absolutely terrible idea. Unfortunately, Zek knew Kamet would not be interested in such opinions and as such, all Zek could do obey.

"Yes Sire," Zek finally said with a bit of reluctance. "Deploying Security Lances."

"Good," Kamet grunted. "Do not fail me Kig-Yar."

The line went dead.

Sharing one last glance of concern with Rezan, Zek switched the channels on his radio and pushed the talk button.

"All Security Lances... "

XXXXX

"...fire in the hole."

The entire corridor shook as Maria thumbed the igniter, sending shards of metal scattering across the floor. Without bothering to wait for the smoke to clear, she whirled around the corner, rifle at the ready. She was immediately confronted with two Grunts struggled to climb to their feet on the other side of the blast door. Two trigger pulls later, and Maria was left trying to figure out the best way to fit through the blast hole.

The breaching charge had blown a nice square shaped hole though the blast door, but one that was only about thirty centimeters by thirty centimeters wide. Nowhere near big enough for her, even if she wasn't wearing her armor. They were going to have to pry the doors open.

"Kai," she called out and out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Kai snapped to attention. "Get the door open."

Kai gave a single nod. Handing his shotgun over to Zalmir, he walked over to the door and braced himself. Grabbing a hold one of side of the hole and, while Maria and Zalmir covered him, he began forcing open the damaged door.

As she watched, Maria took a moment to consider their situation. This was the third blast door they had come across. Clearly the Covenant were doing their best to slow the Spartans down. And while the doors themselves weren't that much of an issue (Argon Team had packed enough explosives to go through all of them, having anticipated this very event,) the time it took to force their way through was of some concern to Maria. So far her team had managed to fend off every Covenant patrol they had come across without much issue, but if the Covenant were to attack in force, well, even Spartans could be taken down with enough numbers and firepower.

The loud screeching of protesting metal filled the air and Maria glanced over her shoulder to see Kai ripping the door open, leaving a gap that was just barely wide enough for them to slip through. Without saying a word, Maria slipped through the gap, with Zalmir coming up close behind her and Kai following up the rear.

The moment Kai released the door though, it released another loud shriek as it slammed shut.

Well. That was the first door to do that and that could potentially prove a problem when they needed to extract.

Unfortunately, there wasn't going to be an extraction unless they could reach their objective first. And to do that, they had to fight through what was essentially the entire ship.

The problem was, due to the need for rapid speed and high mobility, Argon Team needed a nuclear weapon that was easily transported and wouldn't unduly hinder their fighting ability. The Fury tactical nuclear weapon they were carrying fulfilled all of those requirements, but because of its small size, it had a rather lackluster explosive yield. As such, while Maria would have loved to simply place the bomb in any random place aboard this ship and quickly evacuate, there was genuine concern the bomb alone wouldn't be enough to destroy a ship of this magnitude. Which is why they need to place it around something capable of creating secondary explosions like, say, the ship's main reactor.

Of course, locating the reactor was a chore all in itself. Despite this many years into the war, UNSC intelligence into the internal arrangement of Covenant warships was somewhat lacking. As was to be expected, given the UNSC's ability to board an enemy ship, much less capture one intact for study.

Because of that, trying to navigate their way around the ship without any proper maps or signage was difficult. Case in point, this corridor.

Maria slowed her stride just a bit as she regarded the hall in front of her. They were reaching a four way intersection, and she wasn't sure which way she was supposed to turn. She had been navigating through the ship via an energy scanner built into her HUD, heading in the direction of where she was detecting the most energy, however at the moment she was picking up signatures from all directions. As a result, she wasn't sure which corridor she should head down and on a ship of this size, the last thing she wanted to do was accidently take the wrong turn.

Unfortunately there were no signs, or at least none that she could see, so at the moment she was stuck. Yet for some reason, something was telling her the best way to turn was right. So rather than fight the feeling, as soon as she reached the intersection, Maria took that right turn -

- and nearly walked right into an Elite Minor who was waiting there with his plasma rifle drawn and in a low ready position. Damn creature must have been waiting in ambush because Maria had not picked him off on her motion detector!

"RAHH!" the Elite bellowed as he quickly reacted, snapping his rifle up but unfortunately for him, the UNSC had yet to discover a single biological creature that had a faster reaction time than a Spartan.

Maria immediately swung her rifle, batting the Elite's weapon away with the muzzle and forcing open the Elite's guard, which she quickly exploited. Seizing the side of the Elite's head, she rammed it to the corridor wall with enough force to leave a sizable dent. As the Elite went limp, either because he was dead or unconscious, Maria became aware of a veritable firing squad of Covenant soldiers set up a couple of meters further into the corridor. Maria had just enough time to wonder what this Elite was doing so far up and in the line of fire of his comrades when her battle instincts took over and she brought her assault rifle up and started firing into the mass with one hand.

BANGBANGBANG!

The front row consisted of Jackals with their arm shields active, however there were still gaps that allowed Maria's bullets to make it through. At first they didn't fire back, presumably out of fear of hitting their comrade Maria was holding onto, but as soon as one of the Grunts dropped to the floor with blood squirting out from a bullet hole in his neck, the Covenant lost any and all compunctions they may have had and just started shooting.

With absolutely no cover in the corridor, Maria was forced to use the next best thing. Hauling the Elite upright, she hefted his body in front of her, using him as a human shield of sorts while she backpedaled. All sorts of plasma struck the Elite's body, boring holes into his armor and burning his flesh, but aside from a couple of stray shots, Maria was able to avoid getting hit. She felt the bolt on her rifle lock back, so she tucked the weapon under her arm and just focused on backing up around the corner. As soon as she was clear, she released the Elite, now looking more like a lump of roast flesh than an actual body.

"Contact," she announced, somewhat unnecessarily as she reloaded.

"At least we know we're heading in the right direction," Kai noted.

Maria inclined her head in his direction in agreement as she stashed her rifle back onto her back.

"There are five Jackals in the front row providing cover," she reported, pulling out a plasma grenade and handing it over to Kai before pulling out her plasma pistol. "I'm going to hit the center one with an overcharge shot, disable his shields. 19, nail him. 170, suppressing fire... now."

Zalmir immediately stuck his SAW around the corner and held down the trigger. Fortunately his weapon had a smart-link interface so he wasn't just blindly firing. Maria waited until the return fire had slowed before rounding the corner.

Plasma pistols didn't have gun sights in the traditional sense, but Maria was still able to zero in on the Jackal in question, cowering behind his shield was it was struck by machine fire. With her hand starting to burn from the heat of the overcharge weapon, she released the trigger and hurriedly ducked back as Kai took her place and hurtled the plasma grenade down the hall.

She heard the pop of an energy shield getting disabled followed by the static discharge of a plasma grenade explosion. A piece of scorched metal slid down the hall, coming to a stop in the middle of the intersection, and without another word, Maria hurtled herself around the corner and kicked off the far wall, dolphin diving to the floor and drawing her rifle as she did.

Landing heavily on her stomach, Maria took a second to take stock: Kai's aim had been flawless and he had stuck the Jackal in the center right in the head. The explosion had completely torn the Jackal apart, seriously wounded the Jackals on either side of him as well as the Grunts standing behind him, and knocked the remaining two Jackals off their feet, leaving the entire group exposed.

Shouldering her rifle, Maria started firing.

BANGBANG! BANGBANG!

Her first two rounds were directed at a needler-welding Grunt. The heavy 7.62 rounds smashed into his leg just above the kneecap, tearing the leg clean off and sending the Grunt screaming to the ground.

Her next two rounds were directed at the needler itself. The first round smashed through the weapon housing while the second somehow managed to ignite the entire magazine of blamite, causing it to detonate and throw purple needles in all directions, all of which, upon connecting with living tissue, also exploded.

Ignoring the chaos that was reigning among the Covenant's ranks, Maria continued to methodically eliminate the Covenant soldiers one by one, firing burst after burst at them. Her rifle unexpectedly jammed, but all she did was calmly yank back on the charging like she was on a firing range as opposed to an active firefight, ejecting the dud round and keep on firing.

BANGBANG! BANGBANG!

Maria's next few burst were directed at another Elite Minor, one who was already bleeding from a wound caused by the wild needlers. Her first burst tore his left shin to shreds and forced him to drop down to one knee whereupon Maria shot him in the neck, right about where the jugular vein on a human would have been. Bleeding heavily, the Elite nevertheless jammed a finger into the wound to try and stop the bleeding while at the same time, bring up his plasma rifle with his other hand to shoot back. He managed to fire off a couple of bolts, but Maria's position on the ground made her an extremely small target and as a result, the bolts completely missed.

But before the Elite could try again, Kai stepped around the corner, leveled his shotgun and fired a single ten gauge slug right through the Elite's mouth.

His plasma rifle dropping to the ground, the Elite knelt there, as if his body was trying to decide whether or not he was dead yet. As he stood there swaying, Maria realized she could see the other end of the corridor clear through the hole in the Elite's head, and she quickly held her fire. Moments later, the Elite's body toppled over backwards, landing on the ground with an audible thump.

Finishing off the rest of her magazine by systematically pumping a round into each of the Covenant's bodies to make sure they stayed down, Maria climbed to her feet, reloading as she did.

"Status?" she demanded, shoving a fresh mag into her rifle and letting the empty one fall to the ground.

A single green light representing Kai lit up on her HUD but just as she was about to enquire further, Zalmir suddenly yelled out, "CONTACT REAR!"

Maria whirled around in time to see Zalmir literally sawing a Skirmisher in half with an extended burst. Maria's rifle automatically snapped up and she fired a snap shot at a Jackal standing nearby but the Jackal was able to activate his arm shield in time to deflect the rounds.

Behind the two aliens, Maria could see more Covenant soldier climbing through the blast doors at the end of the corridor they had just come from. Somehow the Covenant had managed to force the damaged devices open, abet, just barely, allowed a steady stream of Covenant soldiers to slip through.

Maria started shooting at them but then -

"Contact twelve!" Kai warned and Maria could hear his shotgun roaring to life.

She glanced over her shoulder to see more Covenant soldiers coming down the hall towards them, though once Kai had opened fire on them, they had immediately dropped down for cover.

Taking that opportunity, Kai ducked back around the corner only to immediately reemerge with a frag grenade in hand.

"Frag out!" he yelled and hurtled the device downrange.

The corridor lit up with an explosion, wounding several Covenant soldiers, but it wasn't enough. Glancing back in Zalmir's direction, Maria could see he was just barely keeping the Covenant on his side pinned down, but his SAW was moments away from running out of ammo and once that happened, the Covenant would be able to seize the initiative and the tables would turn. They had to leave.

"Smoke out!" Maria called as she pulled out a couple smoke grenades and tossed them at her feet.

Instantly the three Spartans were covered in a cloud of black smoke. The Covenant fire immediately slackened as they temporarily lost sight of their target, but it wouldn't take long for them to reacquire it. But Maria had no intention of stick around that long.

"Fall back," she ordered, urging her team to retreat down the corridor the firing squad had been.

Things were getting a little too hot. While she had every confidence in her team's ability to eliminate both groups of Covenant that were attacking them at the moment, doing so would take time, during which more Covenant combat teams would arrive. No, Maria's team needed to figure out a way to get a lead on the Covenant. Gain some time where the Covenant weren't chasing them so they could plant the bomb and leave.

Essentially, they needed some way to temporarily disappear. The smoke helped, but unfortunately it wasn't going to be enough as the smoke would only last a few more seconds. They needed something a bit more permanent. But what?

Stumbling through the thick smoke, Maria activated her thermals to help her navigate. As she did, she happen to notice an outline of something in the corridor wall.

Why, hello.

XXXXX

Zek anxiously watched as on screen, both Lances cautiously advanced on the cloud of smoke. The smoke was so thick, his cameras had trouble penetrating it, but he had enough of them he could cover the smoke from all angles. If the Demons emerged, Zek would know.

"Salvation Station, this is Lance Tilu."

Zek's radio came to life as one of the T'vaoan's in charge of the Security Lances reported in.

"This is Salvation, go ahead," he replied.

"Are the Demons still in the smoke?"

Zek glanced at all the screens he had assembled. He didn't see the Demons emerging from any of them.

"Affirmative," Zek replied in affirmation.

"Have you figure out a way to get rid of the smoke?"

Zek glanced at Rezan, as he was the one supposed to be working on that. Rezan bobbed his head.

"Affirmative," Zek repeated.

"Good. On my command."

A button appeared on his console and Zek hovered his hand over it as he watched both Lances take up firing positions.

"Three…two…one…GO!"

Zek slammed his hand on the button. At once, several fans built into the ceiling came to life. They immediately sucked the smoke away to reveal -

Nothing. There was absolutely nothing. No Demons, not even a hint of them. Only the brass casing from their weapons and a whole ton of bodies to show that they were even there.

Zek stared at his screen, unable to comprehend what he was seeing. How did... what did... where did they go!?

"Ryökäle(5)," he heard the T'vaoan swear over the radio. "Salvation, I thought you said the Demons were in the smoke!"

"They were in the smoke!" Zek insisted.

"Then you are either blind or stupid you vittu(6) because they. Are. Not. THERE!"

"I was watching the cameras the entire time! They did not leave the smoke!" Zek protested.

"Then where are they!?"

"Goddess and the stars above, the stories are true! They really are Demons!" he heard Rezan wail and Zek snapped his beak at him for him to shut up as he quickly reviewed all the security footage he had.

Unfortunately, they all showed the same thing: the Demons disappeared into the smoke and never reemerged.

Zek reached for the radio, but before he could say anything, a high pitch whistling filled his radio, forcing him to rip off his headset in pain.

"What was that!?" he demanded.

"What was what?" Rezan nervously ask.

"That whistling!"

"Whistling? What whistling?"

Zek glared at him. "Are you telling me you didn't hear that whistling over the radio?"

"No..." Rezan slowly replied. "Play it for me?"

In response, Zek hit a switch, allowing the whistling to play out loud over a set of speakers.

"That's not whistling," Rezan slowly said. "That's the Huragok language."

Zek whirled on him in surprise. "And how do you know that?" he demanded.

"I learned a little of it in training," Rezan replied, a bit defensively.

Zek couldn't help but raise his mouth in a condescending sneer. Why would Rezan even want to learn how to speak Huragok? Doing so was a bit like learning how to speak toaster: they weren't exactly the best conversationalist, so aside from being one giant waste of time, what exactly was the point?

"Well then," Zek began, trying to keep the derision out of his voice and failing. "Can you tell those gas bags to shut up? I'm trying to do some actual work here."

"That's not exactly easy," Rezan admitted, "as the language also involves a lot of hand signals. Plus, I'm not sure this one would even listen to me. This one sounds very sad."

"What would those gas bags be sad about? Did they lose a crumb?" Zek sneered with a small laugh at his own joke, but unfortunately Rezan failed to notice.

"No... It's a little hard to understand," Rezan replied, his brow furrowed in concentration, "but I think it's trying to say one of its companions was just shot to death."

"Shot to -"

Realization suddenly struck Zek and he grabbed his radio.

"They're in the maintenance shafts!"

XXXXX

Maria warily kept her rifle trained on the weird floating squid-like thing as she gestured for her team to sneak past. She felt it was safe to say that in the twenty years she'd been fighting the Covenant, she had NEVER seen something like that before, so she wasn't sure how it would react to her killing its friend like that.

Fortunately, the floating squid seemed content to be simply making random gestures in the air with its tentacles, as well as continue to whistle rather obnoxiously.

"What is that?" she heard Zalmir asking as he slipped past her. He must have been really puzzled by what he was seeing to break radio silence like that.

"I have no idea," Maria admitted. "Just keep moving."

He wordlessly nodded and moved down the shaft.

Shooting the squid one last look to make sure it wasn't going to pull out a weapon on her the moment she turned her back, Maria followed. The shaft they were in appeared to be some sort of maintenance shaft, specifically designed for those squids because it was rather small. It was tall enough she could walk through without having to crouch, but it was just narrow enough she need to angle her body ever so slightly. She really couldn't see Elites or Brutes forcing their way here, Jackals and Skirmishers always preferred much wider spaces, Grunts would have lowered the ceiling, and Drones liked things a bit more damp. Which left the squids.

Whatever the case was, Maria was just thankful they were lucky enough the tunnel was emanating enough heat to be picked up on thermals, and that Kai had been able to force the door open without leaving much of a mark. With just a bit more luck, it would be several more minutes before the Covenant realized they were down here, at which point Argon Team would have gained enough of a lead that it wouldn't matter.

Of course, as a soldier, Maria hated relying on luck. John may have been one giant, walking good luck charm, but for everyone else, they had to rely on their wits and their skills to get through the situations they often found themselves. Which is why she decided to throw all caution to the wind and urge her team to move as fast as they could.

"62, I'm picking up readings on multiple energy sources of varying strength," Kai suddenly reported from the front of the team.

Maria considered what he just said. "Lock on to the one with the strongest reading; that should be the main reactor."

A green light winked at her in acknowledgement.

Good. They were almost through this.

XXXXX

"Those fools should have waited for me before engaging!" Kamet snapped over the radio. "If those Demons manage to escape because of those fools' incompetence, I swear by all that is holy, HEADS WILL ROLL!"

Zek did his best to ignore Kamet's ranting as he frantically worked on trying to locate the Demons. Unfortunately, he wasn't having much luck and Kamet wasn't helping things.

"Where are the Demons now?" he heard him suddenly demanded to know over the radio.

Zek hit the talk button. "We're working on it sire, standby," he said a bit irritably, before quickly switching the radio off.

At the moment, he and Rezan were pouring over every single security camera they had access to. Unfortunately, there weren't any cameras inside the maintenance shafts themselves, mainly because the Huragok kept taking them apart. Nothing had ever been done about it because honestly? Who cared what the stupid gas bags were doing down there? As long as they did their jobs properly, they could do whatever they wanted.

But now Zek was beginning to realize how much of a security flaw that was. They had no way of tracking the Demons while they were in the shafts, and could only hope the Demons somehow accidently slipped up and provided some sort of signal, showing their exact location. But if even half the stories about the Demons were true, Zek doubted they would ever make a mistake like that, and could only watch the cameras in the hopes of catching a glimpse of them when they emerged.

"The Shipmaster has demanded an update," Rezan grimly reported.

Zek nervously swallowed. Great. Just what they needed.

"Any chance we could transfer him to Kamet and have him deal with it instead?" Zek hopefully asked.

"Probably," Rezan replied with a scoff. "Shipmasters generally prefer not speaking to 'lesser races' like us."

"Do it then," Zek command without second thought, immediately turning back to his cameras. It was a little hard to focus though, mainly because that same Huragok kept whistling over the radio. Or at least, he assumed it was the same one. He couldn't tell the difference between the stupid things.

"Can't you tell that thing to shut up?" Zek demanded. "What's it even saying anyways?"

Rezan frowned.

"I think it's just saying the same word over and over again," he reported after a moment. "Though I'm not sure what it is. Electricity, I think. Or energy."

"You think?" Zek echoed.

"Hey, I don't see you trying to translate," Rezan said, somewhat defensively. "Like I said, the Huragok language also involves a lot of hand symbols, so without being able to see it, it could be saying, I don't know, power or something."

"Like... the power generator? A reactor?" Zek suggested.

"I don't know. Maybe." Rezan abruptly froze. "Wait... where do those tunnels lead?"

"All over the ship. That's what they're for."

"Does that include the main reactor?"

Zek paused, and then felt like smacking himself. For some reason, he'd gotten it in his head that the Demons were here to capture the ship, which is why he thought they were headed for the bridge. But if they were here to destroy the ship...

"Bring up all the cameras from engineering," Zek commanded as he grabbed his radio. "Major Kamet, we believe the Demons are heading straight for the main reactor."

Zek paused as Rezan brought up a view of the main reactor room.

"There!" he barked, snapping his fingers as, on screen, a hidden door suddenly opened and all three Demons began filing out. "Right there! Major Kamet, Demons spotted in the main reactor room!"

"Lock down the room, do not let anyone in or out, I am on the way!" Kamet immediately yelled back.

"Yes Sire!" Zek glanced at Rezan and nodded. "Do it."

Rezan hit a few buttons and on screen, Zek watched as all the doors to the room slide shut. The Demons didn't appear all that concerned and instead, seemed to be busying themselves doing who knew what. Whatever it was, it had Zek concerned and he quickly picked up his radio again.

"I'm directing all Security Lances to that room," Zek announced.

"NO! No you will not!"

Zek jumped as Kamet's voice suddenly filtered through the radio. Zek must have accidently pressed the talk button when he was talking to himself because Kamet continued.

"You will not call any other Lances to the Demon's location," he insisted. "I will personally deal with all three Demons myself."

And then, in a much softer voice, he added something Zek was pretty sure he wasn't supposed to hear. "And in doing so, I shall reclaim my honor."

The line went dead as Kamet switched his mic off, leaving Zek to stare at the radio in shock.

"What... what is he doing?" Zek demanded to know. "Curse these Sangheili and their incessant need for 'honor!'"

"He can't hope to fight all three Demons himself and win. Zek, he's dooming the entire ship to death!" Rezan pointed out.

Zek nodded his head in agreement, but then again, there wasn't much he could do. He'd been given a direct order, and all he could do was obey. That was his duty, and that was his responsibility.

At the same time, Zek very much did not want to die just yet...

Coming to a decision, Zek reached for the radio...

XXXXX

The sound of something yelling in Sangheili echoed overhead but Maria ignored it in lieu of magnetizing it (the nuke) to the wall and arming it so that if anyone attempted to remove it, it would detonate. Scanning the screen with her wrist mount TACPAD, Maria waited until she heard a chime over her headset, indicating the bomb was now ready and awaiting the detonation signal.

"That's it," she declared. "Let's go."

Her team nodded and headed straight for the nearest door. The doors had slammed shut the moment they had entered the room, but Maria wasn't worried. She still had a few blocks of C-12 left, so getting the door open once more wouldn't be a problem.

But before she could even reach the door, it abruptly slid open, and the Spartans were confront with a single Elite clad in red armor and welding an active energy sword, standing in their way.

The Elite Major took one look at the assembled Spartans and abruptly let out a roar. It was clear what the Elite wanted: one on one combat.

Maria glanced at Kai, and then over to Zalmir, and then without a word all three of them simultaneously raised their weapons and began blasting away -

- only to see all their rounds pass right through the Elite without causing any damage. Maria didn't even bother wasting any time cursing.

"Holographic decoy!" she warned. "Watch your - "

The hairs on the back of her neck tingled and she immediately ducked as an energy sword passed right through the space her head had been occupying moments before.

The Elite Major was standing right behind her. How and when he got behind her without Maria or her team noticing, she didn't know and she didn't care as all she was concerned about was the fact he was right there, right now.

Hitting the Elite with a sidekick and shoving him away to try and obtain some room, Maria spun around, snapping up her rifle at the same time, but the Elite recovered a lot faster than she anticipated. He leapt forward, swinging his sword and Maria was just barely able to dodge but not before the Elite managed to cut through the front end of her rifle, shearing through the gas block and turning her weapon into a bolt action rifle in the process.

Sidestepping the next blow, Maria fired the round she had in the chamber right at the Elite's chest, which was absorbed by his shield, before hurtling the remains of her rifle at his face. In the split second it took for him to dodge, Maria whipped out her pistol but before she could properly bring it to bear, the Elite kicked it out of her hand and then immediately followed it up with a push kick to her face with the same leg. Maria had not anticipated the follow up and took the blow full force to the visor, sending her stumbling backwards and into Zalmir who instinctively caught her.

Sensing an opening, the Elite darted forward, trying to stab Maria through the chest with the twin prongs of his sword, but Maria quickly wrapped one leg around Zalmir's ankle and leaned back, deliberately tripping him and knocking both of them to the ground with her on top and him on the bottom.

The Elite then tried to stab down but Maria swung her legs, hitting the Elite's arm and deflecting his sword to the side with her left leg, while driving the heel of her right foot into the Elite's now-exposed chest, shoving him back a few centimeters. She quickly scrambled to her feet and out of the corner of her eye, she could see Kai stepping to the side for a better angle and bringing his shotgun to bear but before he could fire -

FWOOZ!

A green bolt flew through the open door behind them and slammed in Kai's right pauldron, instantly turning it to slag.

"Contact twelve!" Kai bellowed and Maria half turned to see another Security Lance come charge up the corridor through the door they initially were looking into leaving the room from, screaming and hollering and firing their weapons.

"19, 170, deal with that!" Maria managed to bark out between breaths. "I'll deal with him!"

Two green lights winked at her as gunfire began roaring out from behind her, but Maria hardly noticed as all her attention was on the Elite standing in front of her. He had adopted a defensive stance, with his free arm extended out in front of him and his sword arm bent at the elbow, holding his sword right by his chest. But aside from wearily eyeing her, the Elite made no other motion as Maria reached down and pulled out her combat knife.

Hunching down slightly so she could better protect her vital organs, Maria brought her hands up in a defensive posture and waited. For a moment, both opponents watched each other, willing the other to make the first move.

Conscientious of her limited time, Maria struck first. She abruptly jabbed forward, as if to try and stab the Elite in the chest with her knife, but the Elite responded just as quickly, batting away her blade with his free hand and then stabbing downwards towards her lead leg with his sword. Maria deftly jerked her leg up and out of the way, then delivered a snap kick towards his face which he blocked with the hilt of his sword then he followed with a swift flick of his wrist, swinging his sword in an attempt to slash Maria across the abdomen. Maria in turned jerked back while simultaneously slashing at his face with her knife, but found she didn't quite have the reach and missed entirely. The motion did startle the Elite, causing him to reflexively scoot back and bring his sword back to his chest to try and protect it from further attack, only none came as Maria herself had taken the opportunity to take a step back and assume a defensive stance, having incorrectly predicted the Elite had been planning to immediately counterattack. The two fighters carefully watched each other with just a bit more weariness.

For her part, Maria was mentally reviewing everything that had happened in the last few seconds, trying to spot a weakness. This Elite was hardly the best fighter she had ever encountered, but he was good. And it wasn't as if she was some sort of martial arts grandmaster herself. Every Spartan had received extensive training in just about every form of martial arts humanity had ever created, but Maria's interests had always been in pistols and gunslinging. She was no Fred or Will basically, so if she wanted to survive this, she needed to be extremely careful.

Despite her caution, the Elite's attack came out of nowhere. Perhaps picking up on her slightly distracted state, the Elite decided to be the one to open up the fight this time and launched himself forward in an attempt to skewer Maria with his sword. Maria was just barely able to twist her body out of the way, but it turned out to be a feint as the Elite swung his free hand in a sort of roundhouse punch, slamming his fist into the side of Maria's head with enough force to send her staggering.

Reeling from the blow, Maria did her best to avoid stumbling into the extremely sharp plasma sword, spinning around in a backwards motion and then ducking just as quickly as the Elite slashed his sword diagonally upwards, trying his best to cut her in half. She was then forced to leap off the ground as the Elite abruptly crouched and sliced horizontally with his sword, but then, before Maria could land, the Elite darted forward and slammed his shoulder into her while she was still in mid-air. Maria was thrown backwards, landing heavily on her back a couple meters away, but she was given no time to recover as the Elite let out a triumphant roar and surged forward to attack. Maria quickly rolled to the left as the Elite stabbed his sword into the ground where she had been moments ago, and kept rolling as the Elite dragged his weapon in her direction, the superheated plasma blade easily cutting right through the metal deck like it was made of paper.

Sparks were unexpectedly thrown into the Elite's face as he accidently cut through something electrical and in that split second he was distracted, Maria reversed her rolled and kicked the Elite right in the face. The Elite was sent staggering backwards and Maria leapt to her feet and charged forward for the attack, only to find she must have not hit him as hard as she thought because he essentially recovered instantaneously and Maria was forced to immediately switch gears and return to the defensive.

Turning his blade so it was parallel to the ground, the Elite stabbed forward right at Maria's face but fortunately Maria was able to stick her knife in the open space between the two plasma prongs and run it forward until it hit the hilt and deflect the energy sword to the Elite's left so that his blade arm was crossed his chest, and then pushed with all her strength to keep it pinned there. With his guard down, Maria immediately head-butted him and as his head snapped back from the blow, tried to follow it up with a vicious jab with her free hand, but before the blow could connect, the Elite twisted his sword, putting the metal blade of her knife in contact with the two prongs of plasma, causing it to immediately melt, destroying her weapon and the one thing keeping his arm pinned. He swung his sword horizontally at about neck height as Maria dropped the remains of her knife to the ground, and Maria was just barely able to duck under his blow, but then she found herself in a position where she was able to wrap her arms around the Elite's waist, lift him off the ground, and topple over backwards, much to the Elite's surprise.

Sadly, due to her haste, Maria wasn't quite able to pull off her suplex with absolute perfection and thus instead of landing on the Elite like she intended, both fighters painfully ended up landing on their sides. But, given that she had been expecting the impact, Maria was able to recover first, hitting the Elite in the face with an upper elbow strike and then driving the sole of her right foot into his chest, sending both fighters sliding across the floor away from each other. Both combatants scrambled to their feet at about the same time and the Elite, perhaps hoping to catch Maria off guard, leapt forward to try and skewer her with his sword but because he was still reeling from the blow to the head, he wasn't as fast as he had been and Maria was able to see the strike coming.

Stepping to the side at the last second, Maria stuck out her left arm and managed to clothesline the Elite, catching him in the neck and sending him sprawling to the ground once more. She tried curb stomping his face into the ground but missed as he rolled to the side and hastily retaliated, swinging his sword up and between her legs, trying to bisect her vertically, but Maria was just able to grab a hold of his wrist. Despite the awkwardness of the situation, Maria nevertheless started squeezing with all her might, and the Elite let out a cry of pain, the first noise both of them had made since the dual began, as his vambrace cracked under the pressure and started to dig into his forearm.

His energy sword abruptly disappeared in a flash as the pain from his forearm forced him to release the hilt, and Maria hastily stepped on it and slid it across the floor, out of reach. She could hear a clang noise as it hit a wall somewhere behind her but as she was doing that though, the Elite abruptly punched her with his free hand and, temporarily balanced on one leg as she was, Maria was forced to release her hold on the Elite as she was knocked off her feet.

Landing on her back a couple meters away, Maria was nonetheless able to maintain her momentum by throwing her legs up and over her head, performing a rather awkward back roll. As soon as her feet touched the ground, she charged forward, catching the Elite, who was only just beginning to stagger upright, off guard.

She opened up with a knee strike to his face, one that he was able to block, but that only left him vulnerable to the downward elbow strike she delivered to the back of his head. The blow knocked him towards the ground but Maria quickly grabbed his shoulders and hauled him upright, and the Elite immediately brought his hands up to protect his face but that only left him open to the right upper cut that Maria drove into his stomach. The Elite reflexively dropped his hands to cradle his stomach so Maria hammered the side of his face with her left elbow, sending him stumbling backwards. Before he could get far, Maria jabbed him into the throat with her right hand, crushing his windpipe.

Choking, the Elite nevertheless tried to still fight back, feinting a jab with his left hand, which was followed by a genuine roundhouse punch with his right hand, however Maria was able to easily see through the deception. Snagging his arm out of the air, she threw it into an arm lock, causing the Elite to gasp out in pain. He tried to punch her with his free hand but Maria easily blocked the blow with her left leg, and then kneed him in the face with the same motion.

Taking advantage of the Elite's stunned state, she ducked under his arm while maintaining hold of his wrist, backing up so her back was pressed up against his upper torso, and then abruptly leaned forward while pulling on his arm with all her might. The Elite managed to let out a surprised squawk as he was flipped over Maria's shoulder before landing heavily on his back on the ground.

Not giving a chance for the Elite to recover, Maria hauled him upright so that he was laying on his side before planting her right foot on his neck, pressing down firmly while at the same time, using his arm to pull him upwards.

The Elite immediately tried to punch her with his free hand but because she was standing behind him, there was no easy way for him to reach. Nor did he have any sort of leverage to break free.

As the blood circulation slowly but surely began to be cut off from his brain, the Elite's motions became more and more frantic as he desperately tried to break free, but Maria mercilessly maintained her hold on him, and slowly the Elite's blows grew weaker and weaker. Suddenly the Elite went limp, his free arm landing on the ground with a mute thump.

Maintaining her hold just in case the Elite was faking it, Maria waited a few more seconds before she was convinced he was dead. Letting his body fall to the ground, Maria let out a mute groan of pain. Despite the hydrostatic gel built into her Mjolnir Mark IV suit, she was black and blue all over, while her armor itself was covered in all sorts of dents and grooves from the blows the Elite had been raining on her. Furthermore, her lip had busted open and she could feel blood dripping from her left nostril. Nonetheless, she was still alive and he wasn't.

Walking over and retrieving her pistol from the ground, she casually shot the Elite a couple of times in the head just to make sure he really was dead, wincing slightly at the loud noise: her suppressor had somehow snapped off.

As she unscrewed the now useless device, she suddenly became aware of the general lack of gunfire in the room.

"Team, sound off!"

"Exit route is secured," Kai reported as he walked back into the room, shoving more shells into his shotgun. He was in turned, followed by Zalmir, looking no worse for wear. "No casualties to report."

Maria nodded. "Good. Let's - "

A blast door on the far end of the room slid open.

"Contact, six o'clock!" Maria bellowed, snapping her pistol up and drilling the first Covenant soldier that charged through the doorframe right between the eyes. "Reserve bounding overwatch sequentially by Spartan number! 19, cover!"

"Covering!" Kai bellowed as his shotgun roared to life.

Maria nailed one more Covenant soldier in head before dashing from the room, reloading as she ran. Her team wasn't out of the woods just yet, but they were almost there.

They were almost there.

XXXXX

"...Demons are on Eayn Deck, heading down the main corridor! All Lances, move to intercept!" Zek frantically yelled into the radio. This was impossible! How could the Demons have fought against such numbers, and yet emerge without a scratch!? That wasn't fair!

The computer had been steadily adding up the total number of Covenant martyrs so far and things were looking grim. Dozens upon dozens of Covenant warriors, many of whom had been Zek's friends and comrades, had been killed already and given the Demon's continual presence aboard this vessel, Zek knew those numbers would only grow. How could a simple Ruuhtian defeat such an unstoppable force?

The only consolation Zek had was that Kamet had managed to prevent the Demons from doing whatever they had been planning to do inside the main reactor room. While fighting the head Demon in a one-on-one dual was both reckless and stupid, and had cost Kamet his life, there was no denying Kamet had managed to delay them long enough for more Security Lances to show up and drive them off.

Still, the sooner the Demons were off his ship, the better Zek would sleep tonight.

"Rezan, see if you can't make the Shipmaster think we're sealing off the blast doors, but don't actually do it. I don't even care about trying to kill these Demons: I just want them off my ship. Rezan?"

Zek glanced at Rezan, but he wasn't paying attention. Instead, he was carefully staring at a feed from one of the cameras inside the main reactor room.

"Zek…" he slowly began, "what is that?"

Zek looked up to see what Rezan was staring at. It was a sort of egg shaped weapon, maybe only about the length of his forearm in height at most, with a small blinking red light. Despite the rather innocent look to it, Zek felt the blood in his veins go cold as he knew exactly what that device was.

"That's a bomb," he announced in hush tones as he reflexively climbed to his feet.

A horrified look appeared on Rezan's face. "Voi… paska(7)…"

"Alert the Shipmaster!" Zek snapped, and Rezan jumped into action. "Get everyone out of there! Call up some Huragok immediately and have them – "

A shadow crossed in front of Zek's camera, temporarily distracting him, and he looked up to see one of the Unggoy wander into view, staring at the bomb with a curious look on his face. To Zek's horror, the Unggoy began reaching out his fat stubby hands towards the bomb.

Zek leapt for his radio.

"NO! DON'T TOUCH – "

The Unggoy grabbed the bomb.

XXXXX

"Bounding! Cover!" Maria screamed as the slide on her pistol locked back.

She surged upright and began running down the hall, slapping Zalmir on the shoulder as she ran past. Immediately, his SAW roared to life, preventing the Covenant from effectively returning fire or advancing. In front of her, she could see Kai further down the corridor setting up to cover for Zalmir's retreat.

They were making good time. As long as they kept leapfrogging back down the corridor, they would be able to keep the Covenant at bay long enough for them to –

A loud chime filled Maria's ears and at the instant, time seemed to slow down to two hundredths of a second as just about every neuron inside her brain lit up with activity. Several thoughts immediately ran through her brain:

First, was the realization that the noise was the sound of the Fury tactical nuclear weapon being activated. But how? She hadn't triggered anything yet because they were still at least two hundred meters away from the extraction point!

Two was the understanding that while she was only about three steps away from Zalmir, because she was moving away from him, it would actually take her more time to stop, turn around, and grab him as opposed to simply continuing to charge forward in Kai's direction.

And finally three, was the cold acceptance that one of her teammates was going to die within the next second or so.

The last conscious thought that passed through Maria's head was regret over the fact she would never be able to see what sort of Spartan Zalmir would have become before her reflexes took over and she hurtled herself at Kai, wrapping one arm around his abdomen as she tackled him while at the same time, pulling out her drop shield and throwing it to the ground.

She had just enough time to see the blue shield start to form before everything vanished in a brilliant white flash.

XXXXX

UNSC Moonlight Sonata

Lieutenant Commander Luzader

"Sir, we have confirmed detonation of the bomb!"

Luzader spat out the coffee he'd been drinking. "WHAT!? Did Spartan-062 confirm she and her team were clear of the ship yet!?"

"Negative sir!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Luzader could see Volkov rising to his feet in alarm, but he ignored him in lieu of dashing over to his bridge technician.

"Detachment Argon! Did they get out? Did they get out!?"

"I don't know sir!"

"Radio comms? Transponders? Beacons? Is there anyone way we can pick them up!?"

Luzader's technician threw his hands up in frustration. "The entire area is awashed with both radiation and debris! My sensors can't pick anything up right now!"

"Give me visual of the entire area! Track for any debris that could potentially be the Spartans! NOW!"

A screen appeared in front of Luzader's face showing target 1-Delta as it disintegrated in real-time right before his very eyes. In the distance, he could see the gravity lift that had connected target 1-Echo with the surface of Actium abruptly disappearing as the remainder of the Covenant's fleet began reacting to the unexpected destruction of one of their own from deep within their own ranks. In the bottom right hand corner, Luzader could see a HUD display filling up with blue dots as the UNSC fleet reacted, charging forward straight towards their objective, but as the sublight engines on the Covenant's fleet activated and their ships began breaking away from low orbit, Luzader knew the UNSC Navy would be too late to be able to do much damage.

"Commander, what the fuckwas that? Were my orders not explicit enough? I told you to inform me the exact moment you were about to detonate the bomb!" he heard Admiral Spaatz screaming over the radio, but Luzader ignored him in lieu of visually searching for any signs that Argon Team had made it off the ship alive.

"Come on, come on," he muttered under his breath. "FUCK! Does anybody have anything!?"

Everybody on the bridge shook their heads.

"Wait, sir! I think I got something!" Luzader's radio technician abruptly called out, and Luzader all but sprinted over to her.

"What is it?" Luzader anxiously asked her.

"An Army AA battery just picked up three rapidly moving objects passing through the upper stratosphere right now!"

"The Spartans?"

"Uh… unknown. The Army isn't looking in the right direction."

"Execute a command overwrite and give me control of that search radar," Luzader barked. "Track those objects and give me a trajectory, now!"

The technician's fingers were a blur as she rapidly typed out a few commands on her keyboard, only to mournfully shake her head. "Search radar is mounted on a self-propelled vehicle sir, I can't execute a command overwrite remotely from here."

"Goddammit!" Luzader snapped, driving his fist into the console and causing his technician to jump in fright.

Without saying another word, Luzader grabbed a hold of her screen and began pouring over the data. The Army search radar hadn't actually picked up much, as it had only picked up on the objects as it passed through its narrow search window, but somehow, in his heart, Luzader knew those objects were the Spartans.

The search radar hadn't been able to confirm what those objects were, but it had been able to clock their speed and as Luzader glanced at the numbers, he couldn't help but wince. At the speeds the Spartans had been moving at, even if they had survived the initial explosion, the impact alone would kill them.

His technician suddenly brought her hand to her ear, catching his attention, and Luzader watched as a frown pass over her face.

"Sir, I'm picking up… never mind sir, it's gone."

"What?" Luzader demanded.

"I'm sorry sir, I thought I had just picked up Argon Team's transponders sir, but it disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared. Must have been a glitch or an echo."

"How long was it active for?"

Luzader jumped at the sound of Volkov's voice coming from directly behind him, having not heard him approach in the first place. He glanced over his shoulder to see Volkov standing there, an ashen look on his normally stoic face, staring at the screen with an intense look on his face.

The technician glanced at her screen. "Signal was active for exactly… 14.762 seconds sir."

"That is not is not a glitch, those are the Spartans," Volkov snapped. "Where did the signal originate?"

The technician looked apologetic. "We didn't have enough time to zero in on a location sir."

"Give me an approximate location."

"This is about as specific as I can get it sir," the technician informed them as she tapped a few keys, and a map of the city of Byzas appeared on screen. It began zooming in until only the downtown area was showing.

Luzader felt the blood draining from his face. Not only did the area consist of almost half the city, much of the area had already been washed away in a sea of red dots. That was rapidly become enemy controlled territory. If the Covenant managed to get their hands on the Spartans…

Luzader glanced at Volkov, who had a similar look on his face indicating that, he too, understood the implications. They exchanged a look.

This?

This was not good.

---

Covenant Race Names:

Kig-Yar: Jackal

Ruuhtian: a sub-species of the Jackal race; specifically, they are the ones seen in all of the Bungie games, most notably wielding the brightly colored round energy shields on their arms (in contrast, in the 343 trilogy, they've been mostly replaced by a third Jackal sub-species known as the Ibie'sh)

T'vaoan: Skirmishers (these are actually another Jackal sub-species)

Unggoy: Grunt

Sangheili: Elite

Mgalekgolo: Hunter

Huragok: Engineer

The Spartans

All three members of the Spartan are actually canon Spartans. Sort of.

- Maria-062 is a Spartan II whose first and only appearance is in the Halo Graphic Novel, specifically the Armor Testing story. Taking place just before the events of Halo 2, Maria is responsible for testing the Mjolnir Mark VI armor just before it gets issued to the Master Chief. In the story, it's specifically mentioned she has retired from the service, for reason unknown (although information from other media suggest it may have been because of severe injuries sustained during combat.)

Sidenote: virtually all the Spartan IIs in canon have some sort of "unique trait" about them: Master Chief was luck, Linda was the best shot, Kelly was the fastest, Kurt Ambrose had spidey sense, etc. I figured Maria's unique trait would be that she's a gunslinger. (I was originally going to make her a demo expert, but apparently there's already a Spartan that fits that role: Grace-093 from Halo: First Strike)

- Kai-A019 is a Spartan III from Alpha Company, whose first and only appearance is from the live-action short Birth of a Spartan, which was made for the launch of Halo: Reach. In the short, he appears for all of four seconds, sitting next to Carter-A259 as they're both transported to orbit to receive their augmentations.

- Spartan-B170 is a Spartan III from Bravo Company. Out of all three Spartans that show up in this chapter, there is virtually nothing known about this Spartan, not even his or her name or gender. The only mention of this Spartan comes from extended material only available on titled Transcript of Mendez-Ambrose transmission. In it, Lieutenant Commander Ambrose attempts to have Spartan-B170 and Lucy-B091 (from the novel, Halo: Ghosts of Onyx) deployed on a deep reconnaissance mission just prior to Operation: Torpedo.

For the purpose of this story, I went ahead and made the Spartan a male and named him "Zalmir." Why? Because I wanted a character that had a name that started with "Z." (I'm being completely serious btw.)

Footnotes:

1. Bottarga is the Italian name for a delicacy of salted, cured fish roe, though it's not strictly an Italian only dish; many different countries have similar dishes to this one under different names: in Croatia, it's known as butarga or butarda and in Frances, it's known as boutargue, just to name a few. For more information, check out the Wikipedia page: wiki/Bottarga

2. Garum is a type of fermented fish sauce that was used in Ancient Greek, Rome, and during the Byzantium eras.

3. Eayn: according to Halopedia, Eayn is the name of the Jackal homeworld.

4. Jörmungandr: this is actually from Norse mythology. The Jörmungandr is a giant sea serpent, so large it's able to surround the Earth and grasp its own tail. In the mythology, Jörmungandr is one of Loki's children, alongside Fenrir and Hel, and during Ragnarök, will ultimately be the one to kill Thor (who of course, is the Norse God of Thunder.)

On a more headcanon note, as Jackals have a somewhat avian nature (similar to the dinosaurs,) I thought it would make sense if one of their natural enemies would be snakes, as snakes regularly eat (among other things,) birds. Which is why in that situation, instead of think of a large cat (which a human might,) Zek's first instinct is to compare the Spartan to a snake.

The curses the Skirmishers and Jackals are using are actually Finnish (as in, from Finland.) Why Finnish? Well, because as tvtropes puts it: "As Long as it Sounds Foreign."

A rundown of the curses used and their meaning:

5. Ryökäle: "scoundrel" (this one, according to my research, is only really a curse among the older generation)

6. Vittu: the word translates into "cunt," but from what I've read, in Finnish, the word is used in the same way as the word "fuck" is used in (American) English

7. Voi paska: "oh shit" or "oh crap"