Haloed Away

by Shadow Master

(BtVS/Halo/Stargate SG-1) Contrary to what some might think the direct approach is not always the best way to win a fight. Sometimes a more indirect strategy is better. In this case though...the idiot should've just kept things simple.

6. Gremlins and Ghosts

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted materials contained herein. They are the rightful property of their respective creators and/or associated companies. I make no profit from this whatsoever and I have no intent of changing this at any point in the future. I write because I find it fun and because there are people who enjoy reading the stories I tell. Therefore I would greatly appreciate it if no legal action were taken against me. I can assure you that I have nowhere near enough money to make legal action worth it.

Note 1: Positive reviews will be appreciated, constructive criticism will be considered but not necessarily acted upon and purely negative/bashing reviews will be ignored.

Note 2: I willingly concede that PERHAPS I have gone too far in trying to intertwine/insinuate Joyce and Xander into the Halo-verse without their memories. I just didn't see the point in having them regain their former life memories too soon. I know arguments could be made that Joyce and Xander could've kept the uncorking of their memories to themselves but do you really see them putting up with SPARTAN-II training and the augmentation procedures willingly with their teenage/adult minds? I don't. I see them trying to escape ASAP or expose the program and likely getting themselves killed or 're-educated' by whatever means necessary.

In any case I have decided to try to put out the rest of what I've got written for this fan fiction quicker and then get to work on the mission/story arc that'll finally get Xander and Joyce's memories back. It might read as a bit rushed but just understand that this is what a lot of you wanted.

The Merlin's Wings, Leaving the Upper Atmosphere of Jericho VII

Alex's POV

Crouched in the corner of the cargo hold in the darkest shadows they'd been able to find, he waited.

Waited for it to be safe to say anything or move.

"Security cameras neutralized. Same with sensors," Joy said, closing up her portable computer. "Both are running a fifteen minute loop."

"Odds of being discovered?" he asked, wanting to know if they needed to take extra precautions.

"Low. From what I can tell there's no ship A.I., or at least none monitoring the cameras and sensors. Depending on how seriously the captain takes such things, they'll only get suspicious if they send someone down here and someone looking at the camera feed doesn't see anything," she replied, tucking her tool away.

"So we've basically got an unknown amount of time to find places to hide and plant the tracer?" he said, considering what he'd been told. "Joyce, you and I will look for a container the three of us can hide in. Daisy, plant the tracer then join us."

"On it," Daisy said before quietly departing to find the target container.

As for him and Joy they began to carefully examine every other container of sufficient size to hide three SPARTANs but also wasn't close enough to the unloading hatch that they'd be spotted slipping out once they got to where they wanted to go. Hopefully they'd find one with enough free space on the inside that they wouldn't have to take anything out in order to make room, otherwise they'd have to hide somewhere in the cargo hold. If the crew of the ship were competent enough to be trusted by the Insurrectionists, they'd notice if something that was supposed to be in a container was suddenly out of it. It'd make them suspicious enough to investigate leading to possible exposure for his team.

That could not be permitted.

Fortunately enough for them the ship bore a close resemblance in design to a UNSC Charon-class light frigate but was still entirely civilian in design. That should mean similar maintenance hatches and detachable wall plating that they could use to stash the excess cargo so it wouldn't be discovered until much later.

Reading the stickers on each container while Joy looked for the COM pad with the ship's manifest, it took them five minutes to find a likely candidate two thirds of the way to the rear of the cargo hold. Apparently it was an assortment of items that were to be delivered to multiple different worlds and as such they were stacked on either side of the container with a space in between to allow for easy access to each individual item. Thanks to their training their builds were slim enough to easily go down the middle so the only risk would be if the ship stopped to drop off these numerous items before delivering the Insurrectionists their cargo.

However he believed that the risk was small since it only made logical sense to arrange the cargo so that the items due to be dropped at first would be placed closer to the hatch, with the last items to be delivered would be closer to the rear. In that case the container that they were hiding in would be delivered after the target container was unloaded rather than before.

"Tracer's placed in a concealed location on the container and active," Daisy said upon her return. "However in order to make sure it isn't detected the signal is only good for a little over fifty yards."

"Not a problem. As long as we know when it's being moved off the Merlin's Wings that's all that matters," he said, not worried about the range all that much. "Joy and I have managed to find a container to hide in. Come on."

Navigating the narrow corridors between the various containers, they soon arrived at the right container where Joy was already working to bypass the lock so that they could get inside. When the indicator light turned green the door popped open and they made their way inside before pulling the doors as close to closed as possible without risking getting locked in. It wouldn't be readily visible from the doors that led to the rest of the ship so they'd just have to listen very carefully for footsteps and be prepared to neutralize any x-factors that came their way.

"Not enough room to lay down," Daisy noted, the night vision of her helmet letting her see everything with crystal clarity.

"Enough room to sit down but it'd have to be on the floor," Joy said before following her own suggestion. "But I wouldn't try doing it on one of the containers. I doubt they can hold up to our weight."

"We can manage it. Same sleep shifts as before," he said as he sat down on the floor. "Two asleep and one awake, monitoring the signal of the tracer. When it moves, we move. Daisy you've got first watch."

With that he did the best he could do to get comfortable before closing his eyes and sleeping like Chief Mendez had taught them to do back in training. Apparently ever since military black ops had been invented soldiers had been working to figure out a way to sleep in just about any position while being capable of springing into action at a moment's notice. The Chief said that they'd pretty much figured it all out in fifty years and were just putting the last bit of polish on it.

Fortunately the techniques they'd learned had also included numerous abrupt wake ups from the instructors to test how quickly they could go from being asleep to being combat ready.

They didn't stop until every SPARTAN got it under three seconds.

Using the time before he slipped into sleep to review how the next stage of the mission would go, he wondered where the Insurrectionist base would be. Would it be on a known world, a space station or someplace else? He ruled out the first one since building nuclear weapons required nuclear materials and ONI likely had every planet suspected of having an Insurrectionist presence under satellite surveillance. If they detected even a small blip of radiation matching the right materials, they'd have swarmed the location to determine the source.

Call them what you would but the terrorists weren't stupid. They wouldn't risk the UNSC dropping down onto the manufacturing facility responsible for game changing weapons production.

A space station was possible but it would have to be one that was completely under their control or that didn't have a dangerous level of internal foot traffic. Loose lips sunk ships after all and, with ONI's reputation, all it'd take would be a handful of civilians chatting about something suspicious to get them to investigate further. It'd likely be old and independent since most others were either under UNSC control or corporate control.

Neither possibility was on the best of terms with the Insurrectionists at the moment.

As for the third possibility it could be anything from a planet barely capable of supporting human life to a moon base that barely saw any use anymore. The moon base would likely be the ideal location since it assured privacy while also not requiring the smuggling of large amounts of materials to build structures from scratch or power them. There was also the fact that, unless the ONI officer in charge of the overall operation thought of it, the likelihood of satellites making a pass over the moon was small. So long as the Insurrectionists didn't do anything to draw attention to it, a moon base would suit their purposes and probably amuse them since it'd be right under the UNSC's nose.

A moon base wouldn't be very big but it'd have to be large enough for the Merlin's Wings to get inside so that they could open the cargo bay hatch and offload the target container. Taking into account the needed clearance for the ship to get inside without bumping into anything and the possibility that the hanger would also be used for storage, slipping away wouldn't be too hard. It'd have been nice if they could've brought with them civilian clothes that'd help them blend in but ONI hadn't known which ship would be transporting the stolen merchandise. While some might've considered employing generic jumpsuits common to cargo vessels, he hadn't. Outside of locations where a strict dress code was adhered to people tended to add personal touches to their uniforms, to say nothing of patches on the upper arms or on the chest area. Without details like that, Rogue team would be spotted minutes after getting off the Merlin's Wings and be exposed as intruders shortly thereafter.

Better to try and slip off as they were and exit the moon base's hanger as swiftly as they could.

Once that was done they could look about for more effective disguises and use them to follow the container with the stolen items to where they'd be utilized.

After that they would listen, they would look and once they had a grasp of the situation in the base they would act.

The objectives for the mission were to neutralize all methods of escape, defeat the Insurrectionists in the moon base by whatever means necessary and then activate the beacon that'd bring in reinforcements. Naturally standing orders regarding the secrecy of the SPARTAN II program and his team would be in play, meaning cutting all means of communication would also be necessary.

Shouldn't be too hard. We can get it done as we take care of the escape routes, he thought as sleep began to take him. Take out the transmission hardware and any distress calls they send out won't have anywhere to go.

His last though was of how the Chief liked to throw little surprises into his training missions.

He'd be ready.

The Merlin's Wings, Thirty Hours Later

Daisy's POV

"It's moving," she said as the dot on the receiver's screen began to move.

"Wait thirty seconds then we slip out," Alex said as he and Joy began to pick up their gear and strap it on.

Following their example she picked up what gear she'd taken off during the long voyage and put it back on but fortunately it wasn't very much. With no way of knowing when they'd arrive at their destination she'd only taken off the bare minimum while making sure that she'd be ready for a fight the second the door to the container they were in opened. Thirty seconds later she was ready to go and, with Xander taking the lead, they opened the container doors and slipped out to find the initial assessment about the order of delivery was true. Everything to the back of the cargo bay was to be delivered last while everything to be delivered sooner was closer to the hatch. Thanking whatever gods might be listening that the door to their container had been well oiled, they managed to get out without making a sound and no crew member had a direct line of sight to them.

Following Joy, who was following Alex, they made their way to the side before arriving at a hatch that the team leader went to work on. Circumventing the lock was hardly a challenge since this was a civilian craft and, once the hatch, presumably for accessing the landing gear, was open, Alex dropped down first. After a few seconds his icon on her helmet's HUD blinked, signaling the all clear and prompting Joy to drop next, leaving her to pick up the rear.

The drop wasn't all that great and the bulk of the landing gear proved to be enough to conceal them from the other occupants of the hanger they'd arrived in. There weren't a lot of people, certainly not enough to make detection certain, but they would still have to exercise caution while following the marked container. It would be ideal if they had reached the ultimate destination of the target items but there was also the possibility that they was just a temporary stop where it'd be transferred to another ship for the remainder of its journey. If that was so then it was even more important that they not lose sight of it.

Keeping their footfalls silent and using whatever cover they could, they followed the moving blip on her receiver, only stopping to hide from eyes both organic and electronic. Along the way they managed to come across a storage room where uniforms of a sort were stored and, as though the gods she'd been thanking earlier had decided to give a bonus, the container also stopped. Quickly slipping on the uniforms while removing the name tags, they stuffed their helmets into their equipment sacks and pulled on whatever worker helmets or caps had been in the room. She adjusted hers to make it harder for cameras affixed to the walls to get a clear look at her face and the others did likewise, or the best they could with what headgear that they had to work with.

A second after they finished the blip on the receiver resumed moving and they exited the storage room, casually walking down the hallways, trying not to draw attention. Anytime they heard someone coming from ahead they adjusted our gaze or started talking like they'd heard some of their instructors talking during drills. Nothing that would out them as UNSC but something more common to civilians and it seemed to do the trick.

Unless they came across someone who knew the faces and attributes of every person in the compound, they should have little trouble getting to where they needed to go.

It was about twenty minutes later that they reached their first hurdle that couldn't simply be walked past without raising nine different kinds of trouble.

At the end of a long hallway was a door and on either side were two guards armed with MA5B rifles, both of whom looked ready to use them at the first sign of hostiles. This raised the probability that they had indeed found an Insurrectionist compound since the weapon was not exactly easy to come by for civilians. Without breaking stride they veered away from the guarded door down a hallway to the left and didn't stop until they were too far away for the guards to hear their footsteps. There were no convenient rooms for them to slip into to talk and, even if there were, there was a chance they'd be occupied by terrorists.

"What's the reading on the tracer?" Alex asked while Joy kept watch up and down the hallway.

"It's come to a stop. Judging from its position, it's definitely in the room those two men are guarding," she replied, looking at her receiver to confirm what she was saying.

"Then we wait ten minutes. If it doesn't move by then we'll know it's at its final destination. We find an access port Joy can use and get a map of the place and nothing but. Once we have that, we can figure out a way to block all outgoing transmissions and departures before moving in on the room."

"No explosions," Joy said, firmly looking Alex in the eye.

She rolled her eyes a bit at this since it had been a favored tactic of their team leader during matches with the instructors to employ explosives either as distractions or to accomplish the objective. Not real explosives, of course, but rather ones that were all noise but no real damage. Unless the Chief specifically stipulated that no explosives were to be used, Alex usually made sure he had some on him when the matches started.

"No explosions," Alex agreed, sounding irritated that Joy thought he was that fond of the deadly tool.

With a loose plan in mind they continued on their way looking for any port that Joy's computer could hook into. While they could try a wireless access, that would likely raise flags in the compound's security system unless certain checks came back green. Using a computer or a port that was already a part of the network would draw less scrutiny. They got their option a moment later when a woman in a lab coat left a room that, judging by the brief glimpse she'd gotten, was an office of some kind.

Waiting until the woman was out of hearing distance, Joy casually opened the door before they all filed in. Immediately she spotted a camera and, given their current clothing, it was likely that they stood out even with the uniforms they'd acquired. She might not be as familiar with the world of adults as most civilians no doubt were but workers didn't get to see the inside of office rooms unless the assigned occupant was there. On a whim she dropped her bag and the receiver and immediately got as close as she could to Alex subtly guiding him to a spot that would block the camera's direct line of sight to the woman's computer. Placing her arms on him like she'd seem a woman at the base do with one of the ODSTs, she did her best to look natural before putting her mouth close to his ear.

"Camera. Upper left corner," she whispered as quietly as she could. "We block. Joy neutralizes."

This seemed to dispel any reluctance from Alex, who'd likely been confused by her actions, and together they did the best they could to act as two civilians would. Joy, thankfully, either had excellent hearing or had managed to figure out her true intentions without spoken words. She leaned back on the office woman's desk, appearing for the world like she was just going to sit back and watch the show, but this was a deception. With the arm that was blocked by her and Alex the third member of their team carefully worked to deal with the cameras first by hooking her computer into the office computer. Once that was done she watched as her teammate tapped certain buttons on it but instead of lighting up like she'd seen before it only dimly came to life.

That was about as much as she could observe before her efforts to deceive anyone watching through the cameras required her complete attention. She'd only briefly seen what the man and the woman had been up to on the base since she'd messed up and gotten noticed, so now she had to make things up as she went. From what she'd seen it'd been a lot of kissing and rubbing so she went with that hoping that between her and Alex they'd be able to look believable enough.

It was weird.

She'd seen her mommy and daddy kiss like this when they thought that she wasn't looking but had never tried to copy it like some of her friends had during her birthday parties. As a result her kisses were clumsy but, after a few tries, the two of them managed to coordinate their actions to appear more smooth.

As for the rubbing, she didn't know where she should rub or how precisely to rub like any observers would expect, so she stuck to what she'd seen the woman do on the base.

It took Joy only five minutes to hack into the system and neutralize the camera.

"There. I stuck it with a three minute loop," Joy said, dropping her spectator façade before turning to face the office computer directly. "Fortunately they don't time stamp their video feeds so we won't have to worry about anyone noticing the clock resetting repeatedly."

"Good. Get the map and print out three copies," Alex said, backing away from her, sounding a little off but still professional.

"Okay. It looks like we're on a moon base orbiting Tribute in the Epsilon Eridani system," Joy said once the map was on the screen. "If we want to cut outgoing communications… we can do it here from the central control hub. All communications are routed through it. I'll take that. With some of the programs I've loaded into my computer it shouldn't take me more than five minutes to bring it all down."

"Aside from the hanger bay we dropped in to, it looks like there are two other smaller hangers, likely holding one SKT-13 shuttlecraft apiece," Alex said, examining the map on the screen. "This is still an official base so appearances would have to be maintained with shuttle traffic to and from it. So long as no one from outside this Insurrectionist cell comes here, everything would be business as usual to anyone watching. I'll sabotage the hanger doors to keep them from opening. Can you access the flight schedule for those hangers?"

"No. Simple things like a map I can do without tripping any security flags but bringing up flight schedules would definitely trigger something." Joy said with a shake of her head.

"Then we'll have to hope that no one's going anywhere anytime soon," Alex said, sounding disappointed but not discouraged.

"I'll go with Joy. Shutting down communications is vital," she said, deciding on where best her talents could be used.

"No. There's a vent over there big enough for you to squeeze through," Alex said, pointing to the spot on the wall. "Navigate the vents and try to get to one that'll give you a view of the room being guarded. Listen to what they say. We need to know how close they are to finishing their work and any advance intel would be useful when we breach the room."

She didn't relish having to squeeze through so small a space but she'd received her orders and she trusted Alex. He'd come for her when she'd tried to return home and convinced her that she could belong amongst her fellow SPARTANs. She would do as he asked unless something significant made doing so unwise.

"We each know what we have to do," Alex said, looking at Joy and then at her. "By my estimate we can get each of our tasks done within twenty minutes and then meet back here to breach the room. If one of us doesn't come back we'll wait five minutes before assuming there's trouble and proceeding with the breaching. The only thing that matters is the neutralization of the Insurrectionist's ability to utilize the nukes they've made. Understand?"

She nodded and Joy followed suit.

With Alex's nod he and Joy left the room, leaving her to unscrew the vent cover and proceed with her side of things. As she went to work on the first screw she had to wonder why the place had vents big enough for even a woman of her size to squeeze through with any ease. She could only presume that it had something to do with the necessary flow of air through the complex in order to meet the needs of the people occupying it. In any case, once the vent cover was off, she shed the uniform so that all she had on was her original black SPARTAN uniform. After a moment's consideration she chose not to put her HUD equipped helmet back on out of concern that it'd only make her job harder. Gripping the edges of the vent she pulled herself into then pulled herself deeper into the metal tunnel, glad that it looked like it'd been built with materials made to last a long time. As a result it was sturdy enough to carry even her enhanced weight without threatening to bend or break.

Best not get used to it, she thought as she crawled along using her mental map to guide her. I doubt future mission locations are going to be as accommodating.

SPARTAN Zero-Seven-Zero aka Joy's POV

She did not have time for excess thoughts or emotions.

She had her task.

Using her photographic memory, something that'd been proven conclusively by Doctor Halsey and Deja, she navigated the corridors towards the central control hub. She kept her pace swift but not so much that it'd catch the curiosity of any who she passed along the way. Given her destination's importance to the overall complex, it'd likely have security both electronic and human, meaning she'd have to work quickly if she wanted to subdue both before a general alarm could be raised.

Fortunately part of her loadout before departing reach contained a tool that'd help: two palm-sized tranquilizer pistols armed with two shots apiece.

Turning the final corner she soon spotted the entrance and, like she'd expected, there were two guards stationed outside. She saw when they registered her presence but stayed on course, not changing pace. She knew that she'd need to get as close to them as she could in order to circumvent the lock and open the door swiftly enough to neutralize the room's occupants. Keeping her composure cool and professional, she waited until it looked like one of the guards was about to tell her that the central control hub was for authorized personnel only.

Then, with quick efficiency, she took the tranquilizer pistols out of the uniform's pockets, aimed for the exposed necks and fired.

Both men had only time enough to look shocked before the chemical did its job, causing them to drop to the floor. Knowing her cover was now blown she broke into full sprint, reaching the door in seconds and immediately she took the card key from one of the unconscious guards, swiping it through the reader. The light on the security panel went from red to green and the door slid open, revealing the interior of the room along with its six occupants. Using the two remaining darts she targeted one occupant that was close what looked like the transmission device for the complex's internal com-system and another occupant close to an alarm button. Pulling the triggers she didn't wait for the projectiles to hit their targets before she dropped the pistols and engaged the closest of the remaining four people. This one was standing so she struck out at his throat to prevent any yelling but not do enough to possibly cause suffocation. Once she was sure the first blow had done its job she threw a right cross to the jaw, rendering the man unconscious.

Moving onto the next person, who looked to be trying to escape, she immediately dropped and executed a leg sweep that took the runner's legs out from under him. Recovering quicker than her target, she was soon beside him, allowing her to grab him by the head before slamming it into the floor, making him as unconscious as the first one.

By this time the second last occupant was moving towards the emergency button, no doubt in an effort to alert everyone in the base to an intruder in the central control hub. Picking up what looked to be some sort of desk decoration she threw it with precision at the woman's head, causing it to shatter on impact and inciting a stumble. Crossing the distance she grabbed the arm that looked to be determined to reach the emergency button, pulled it away from its desired destination and then was used to swing the woman's face into a part of the wall deeper in the room. Releasing the arm confirmed that the impact had knocked the woman out, leaving only one occupant left to deal with before she could begin her task.

"I surrender!" the man exclaimed, arms raised in surrender and with no small amount of fear on his face. "Please don't kill me!"

"That depends entirely on you," she said as she approached the man at a speed that would still seem threatening but not give the impression of impending harm.

"What do you want?" he asked, almost shaking with fear.

"To shut down all outgoing transmissions. Make it impossible for anyone to send a signal out to anyone."

While it would make things easier for her to convince the man to do her work for her, she could not be certain that he wouldn't betray her somehow. According to the ONI reports on the Insurrectionists as a whole, they were often fanatical in their desire to gain independence from the inner colonies and the UEG. The degree of fanaticism varied from person to person but this was not a situation that she could risk the man choosing to be a hero by slipping out a warning. Still, as he slid the chair he'd been sitting on to a specific terminal, she was at least pleased that she now knew where to focus her efforts.

As soon as she was close enough she immediately put him in a chokehold designed to make it impossible for him to even whisper and would also swiftly render him unconscious. The man struggled for a bit but this only hastened the exhaustion of what breath he'd had in his lungs and what strength had been in his body. Once she was certain he was out she carefully laid him on the ground before going to the necessary console. Connecting her computer to it via one of the ports, she immediately began to efficiently use both her manual hacking abilities as well as a few programs stored on the hard drive to access the communications systems.

One by one she introduced blockages to the various pathways that she'd designed herself that would reject any commands by the terrorists and lock out their passcodes. The pathways that had been part of the base's initial construction were the easiest to neutralize but she could see that the Insurrectionists had added a couple of their own that were a little more complex. Still, she'd designed the blockage programs so that they'd be capable of keeping Deja at bay for at least an hour so she doubted that anyone in the base would be able to get past them sooner. By that time there'd be UNSC ships surrounding the exterior of the base and UNSC troops inside securing everything of value or dangerous.

Done, she thought as she confirmed that the last of the blockage programs were in place. Not a peep's getting off this base without my authorization.

With her task done she moved about the room, using whatever seemed handy to bind the unconscious occupants before bringing the guards outside into the room and doing the same. Checking her watch, she found that the entire encounter, from the first darts to just now, was fifteen and a half minutes. Given that she couldn't hear the sound of boots on floor approaching, she could only presume that no one had passed through the corridor outside and spotted the unconscious guards. Once she was outside the room she popped the outer casing of the security panel before tweaking the wire configuration to deny future access.

She didn't believe that they could undo her work even if they did get inside but the time they spent trying to regain access to the central control hub room meant more resources away from their target room.

Time to get back to the others. She straightened her appropriated uniform so it didn't look like she'd just attacked multiple people.

Given that she hadn't heard any explosions, she could take some solace in the fact that Alex had resisted his habit of using explosives to neutralize the hangers. Personally she figured that if he could somehow lock the mechanisms that opened and closed the doors then no ships would be able to leave unless armed with weapons capable of blasting a hole in them.

Such a move would be reckless and dangerous so it was unlikely that the Insurrectionists would try it unless forced to by some future development.

Hopefully by then it'd be too late.

SPARTAN Alex-Zero-Six-Nine's POV

Well, that was almost no fun at all, he thought as he made his way back to the office near the target room. They really should take better care of those doors.

He'd managed to make it to the hangers easily enough and, when he'd arrived at the first one, a plan for neutralizing the door had already been decided. Getting anywhere near the controls would be impossible since there were people stationed there permanently and they likely knew who'd be taking over for them at the end of their shift. That only left for him to do was targeting the door mechanisms themselves and doing something to keep them from working right. So he'd picked up a tool box that was just sitting there and made it look like he was just your everyday maintenance guy coming by to check up on things. Fortunately, in order to sabotage anything, you needed to have at least a basic idea of how it worked, so the one time a local asked him what he was doing he was able to piece together a believable explanation. Either he'd been a good actor or the man just wasn't that interested in looking for trouble but in either case he'd managed to successfully loosen a few bolts and squeeze some rails. One by one he he'd done the same to the other hanger doors, making it so that if anyone tried to open them the mechanisms would either fall apart or do more damage to due to the strain of opposing forces.

It was subtle enough that Joy would probably be impressed with him.

Best of all he'd done it in such a way that it'd either be mistaken as natural wear and tear or just be written off as sloppy maintenance.

True there was a small possibility of someone being sharp enough to figure out that it was sabotage but hopefully by then such a revelation wouldn't do the Insurrectionists any good.

Turning a corner, he was pleased to see that Joy was waiting outside the office for him and had a smile on her face that looked like what one of the women at the base had worn when looking at her boyfriend. Unlike some of the others, he didn't let anything slip past him on the base, including the various interactions of the staff, so he knew that a boyfriend and a girlfriend were phase one on the path to becoming a mommy and daddy. However, thanks to his empathic ability, he knew there was no correlating emotion in effect in her mind, so he didn't think any more of it than he had Daisy's actions earlier.

Fortunately he didn't think that he'd need to master the skills of 'making out' since it was more likely that the direct approach would be the way to go on future missions.

"Report, you two," he said once the door was closed.

"Communications are down and it'll take at least an hour for them to get them back up," Joy reported with a quick but crisp salute.

"Confirmed that they're making nukes in the room. Everything's done in the one room rather than spread out over the entire base," Daisy reported, mimicking Joy in that regard. "Strange thing is that it sounded like making the nukes was only the first step in what needed to be done here. The scientist inside said they'd be waiting until the last two nukes were made before putting the armor into place. That doesn't match any nuclear weapon configuration that I'm familiar with."

"Or me. The Insurrectionists are up to something new," he said, unable to come up with a logical explanation for what Daisy had overheard.

"What about the hanger doors?" Joy asked, sounding like she wanted to know if he'd stuck with her no explosives rule.

"Tampered with the opening mechanisms so that they wouldn't work right without repairs," he replied, not letting himself sound affected one way or another. "No one is going anywhere."

"Then the stealth portion of the mission is over with?" she asked even though she already knew the answer.

"Yes. Gear up and get ready for breaching," he replied as he removed civilian clothing and accessories he'd been wearing before going over to his bag and putting the HUD helmet on.

It didn't take long for them to be ready and, with a quick check of their MA2B assault rifles, they were ready for the loud part of the mission. Each rifle had been fitted with a suppressor so they wouldn't wake up the entire base when used but that didn't mean much since, if the guards opened fire or someone in the room made a commotion, it'd wake everyone up anyway.

Still, every second of no one being the wiser was worth acquiring.

He took the lead as they left the room, heading for the guarded door at a brisk pace without crossing into each other's line of fire. Bringing his rifle up so he could look down the sight, he turned the corner and lined up the crosshairs with the head of the first guard. The man couldn't even raise his weapon to fire before a round was put through his head and the other one followed suit thanks to Joy's good marksmanship.

Taking up a defensive position in front of the door with Daisy, he knew Joy was going to work on the security lock while they stood ready to discourage any newcomers.

"Lock disabled. Door primed," Joy said, stepping away from the door.

"Do it" he said as he aimed the business end of his MA2B at the door.

With a single slap the door opened and they followed standard breaching procedure: he went to the left, Daisy to the right and Joy covered the center. Only two of the room's occupants tried to fight back but quick bursts from Joy and Daisy's rifles solved that problem and provided a visual example to discourage the remaining three.

"Hands above your head! Now!" he ordered as the team focused their weapons on the surviving group of three.

Of the three only one hesitated to raise his arms but closer proximity to the MA2B's muzzle got him on the right track.

"We clear?" he asked Daisy, who was sweeping the room for any potential threats.

"Clear," Daisy said before returning to cover their three captives.

"The three of you have same amount of minutes to explain what you're doing here and everything you know about potential targets," he said in a command tone of voice towards the captives. "After that I won't be asking politely."

Fear warred on the faces of the captives, fear of the people right in front of them and fear of the people they answered to in the Insurrectionist chain of command, with neither side gaining decisive dominance. Were they here under duress or were they 'true believers'? If it was the former then there was a chance that he could win their cooperation with promises of protection and leniency in the courts. If it was the latter, he'd have to watch for attempts at suicide in order to keep what they knew out of enemy hands.

Eventually three minutes ticked by and none of the trio had spoken, much less provided an answer.

It was time for plan B.

"Sierra-zero-seven-zero? Access their computers and look over the files," he ordered Joy without giving away anything valuable, like her name. "Prioritize starting with the most recent updates and moving back. Find me some answers."

"Right away, Sierra-zero-six-nine," Joyce said, clicking the safety on her rifle before slinging it over her shoulder.

As Joy moved towards the largest computer setup in the room Daisy shifted her position to allow for a more complete coverage of the captives while he moved to cover the door. While he didn't expect security forces to be advancing on the room this soon, he'd bet good money that it'd happen in the next twenty minutes. Between the shutting down of the communications and the sabotaging of the hanger doors, the Insurrectionists would have to be idiots not to realize that the enemy had infiltrated their base. That would lead them to converge on key rooms in the base and this would definitely be one of them.

"Looks like they were working on a nuclear weapon but not a conventional nuke. Not by a long shot," Joy said while she continued to work on the computer. "The weapon called for six nukes to be contained within a lithium triteride casing. They haven't come up with a name for the weapon yet but their projections of its destructive force indicate it'll be capable of destruction on a state-wide level, maybe more. That's what the lithium triteride is for, to focus the energy of the blast back in on itself, thus multiplying its destructive force."

"With that much firepower they could obliterate several colonies with just a few of these new weapons. Maybe even make them bold enough to strike deep into the inner colonies," he said with concern about the potential damage that could be done. "Any idea on how close they are to finishing a prototype?"

"Like Sierra-zero-two-three said, the files indicate that they're still waiting on what they need to build the final two nukes. Once that's done all they'll need is to assemble it all and they'll have one ready for testing," Joy replied without looking away from her work. "In fact what they have so far is right in that clean room over there."

Glancing in the direction his teammate had indicated, he did spot the clean room but, while functional, it had been sloppily put together, making seeing inside difficult. What he could make out indicated a size roughly comparable to a Warthog's tire in diameter but it was shaped more like a hexagon.

Made sense if there were supposed to be six nukes involved.

"Anything in the files about an estimated time to completion?" he asked, wanting to know what sort of timetable they were working with.

"No but from the looks of the containers and the equipment in the room, I'd put final assembly within the next week. Maybe sooner," Joy replied tapping at the keyboard.

"Then it's time to call in support," he said before reaching into his equipment pack to extract the beacon they'd been issued. Flipping it on he punched in the activation code, causing it to go live.

"Don't know when they'll get here but it should be soon," he said, resuming his defensive posture near the door. "Until then we hold this position."

"I'm copying as many of the files as we can to an external hard drive," Joy said as she retrieved the specified item from her pack. "If they can't get to us through the door, they might try to blank slate the database."

He didn't say anything to this since he figured that it was a good move. While he didn't have any doubt that a UNSC ship full of troopers would be able seize the base, there was some doubt about whether or not they be able to do so before critical intel was destroyed. Better to make copies that ONI could examine later than lose everything.

"Zero-Two-Three, we're going to restrain the prisoners and stash them in the back of the room," he said, lowering his rifle and turning towards Daisy. "If a firefight breaks out I'd rather they not get hurt or get in the way."

A nod of confirmation was what he got before the two of them herded the captives to the rear of the room before Daisy shouldered her weapon and took out a handful of zip-tie restraints. One by one the trio had their arms and legs tied at every major joint, making it impossible for the scientists to move in any way other than wiggling on the floor. He would've called it overkill considering the prisoners were non-coms but he wouldn't oppose a little extra caution.

With nothing to keep covered the two of them took positions on either side of the door, waiting the first sign that they were about to receive some company. Mentally tallying their ammunition, he was confident that they could kill two thirds of the people in the base before running out. With the hanger doors locked in place, the Insurrectionists wouldn't be able to get reinforced that way, leaving only pressure doors for moonwalking but that would only provide a nice bottleneck for his team.

The greatest advantage the Insurrectionists had was the fact that no one had known what this moon base was being used for up until now. Now that its location had been compromised with enemy forces already on the inside, they'd be safer initiating the facility's self-destruct but they wouldn't.

Not with all the project data and materials present.

They would at least make a determined effort at reclaiming the facility before going with the option of last resort.

Let's see how determined they can be, he thought as he heard the sound of booted feet coming closer.

Looking to Daisy, he directed her gaze to the button that'd open the door before holding up five fingers, counting down before making a fist. On that signal the door was opened and the two of them took aim down range, opening fire on the approaching security forces.

In a battle of wills, no one could outlast a SPARTAN.

SPARTAN-Zero-Two-Three aka Daisy's POV

"Think they've given up yet?" she asked as she slapped a new mag into her rifle.

"Not just yet. We've only fended off three waves so far," Alex replied, keeping eyes locked on the hallway outside the room. "I'm betting on at least one more before they decide to change tactics."

"Like what?" she asked, taking aim down the hallway, looking for any sign of trouble.

"Gas grenades. Cutting the lights for night vision combat. Using a power surge to blow the electronics in the room and distract us while a team rushes the door," he replied, rattling off a few possibilities. "Depends on who's in charge and what they have to work with."

Considering that this was supposed to be a secret base for what was obviously supposed to be an important project, she anticipated a small security force with perhaps one or two senior operatives. Add to that minimal armaments and this location would be depending on reinforcements if it were ever found or an effective means of pacification. However, with the hanger doors not working and limited means of entry from the moon's surface, the three of them could feasibly hold the base for quite a while.

Much longer than the UNSC forces homing in on the beacon would need.

"We've got trouble!" Joy said as her pattern of typing changed. "An outside source is trying to access the base network and they'll succeed in less than three minutes unless I can come up with some inspired programming."

"Is the attack human or artificial?" Alex asked without looking away from the door.

"From the speed of the commands and adaptability of their coding, I'd say A.I. Possibly more than one," Joy replied, multi-tasking on two fronts.

"Looks like Insurrectionist reinforcements were closer than I thought they were," Alex said with annoyance at the unwelcome development.

"Ships?" she asked, remembering that Joy had classified the threat as an external hack to the network.

"Most likely," he replied, his eyes hinting at a racing mind. "At least two since I've never heard of more than one A.I. per ship before."

From what she'd read of the intel on the Insurrectionist, they mostly used retrofitted and armed civilian ships in their fleet, with a few stolen UNSC craft thrown in when enough sleeper agents were aboard one to steal it. The worst case scenario would be two stolen UNSC destroyers with compromised A.I.s helping with ship operations, allowing for a skeleton crew. In that case they'd have enough room for quite a few troops, as well as boarding craft that could punch through the hanger doors, overwhelming them in one push. If their UNSC reinforcements were close enough they might also choose to bombard the base from a distance to destroy all evidence of what'd been going on there. If destroying the base wasn't an option, they could very well manage to hold off the UNSC reinforcements until their landing parties could secure vital assets. Once the assets were on their ships, they could mop up and then bug out.

All in all she would say that their ability to hold the base and successfully deliver the intel to the UNSC was tenuous at best.

"Stop repelling them," Alex ordered, turning away from the door. "Let them in and then open a com-channel."

"What for?" Joy asked, sounding puzzled by the orders.

"To find out what we're up against and buy some time," he replied, getting behind Joy near the terminal.

With a nod Joy stopped her counter hacking efforts and worked to open a line to the outside force. It didn't take long for the screen to change it a vid-window showing the face of a woman in her late forties, with brown hair along with flecks of grey. Clad in a uniform that bore a resemblance to that of a UNSC officer, the coloring was more indicative of the URF and was sealed in place by a patch depicting a crimson clenched fist.

"This is Lieutenant General Irene Henderson of the United Rebel Front to UNSC forces," Lt. General Henderson said in an angry yet commanding tone. "You are ordered to surrender immediately. Do so and I will guarantee your safety and fair treatment. Refuse and I will take back the base by force."

Not one to waste time on small talk is she? she thought, having predicted that the terrorist would be a bit more long winded and threatening.

"I think you might have a harder time of that then you think, Lt. General," Alex said from his position in front of the terminal. "The hanger doors are locked and the airlocks are strategically unsound for gaining entry. Besides that I doubt your arrival here is expected and that means you've got a limited window to do anything before UNSC ships arrive with questions. Do you really think you can retake this base before they arrive?"

"I think you'll find that Tribute Control is remarkably blind at the moment, young man," Lt. General Henderson said, sounding confident of that fact. "We have people everywhere and those that are not one of us can be bought. We have all the time in the world to take back what is ours."

She had to frown at that news but still wasn't convinced that all was lost.

They still had their beacon after all.

"Maybe. Maybe not," Alex said, not showing a bit of weakness. "You're not the only one with an ace up the sleeve."

"If you're referring to your beacon then you made a serious miscalculation in where you chose to activate it," Lt. General Henderson said, sounding determined to win the conversation as well as the conflict. "The lab was specially shielded in order to keep any stray radiation or energy from popping up on ship sensors. It's easily capable of cutting the range of your beacon's signal in half. Any aid you were expecting will not be coming."

That was not good.

"Even if they did come, I think they would find themselves more than a little outmatched," Lt. General said with a smug smile on her face. "I suggest you access the exterior cameras of the moon base."

Alex looked to Joy and nodded.

A few command strokes later a second vid-window appeared with the feed split into four squares showing the view outside the base.

What they saw didn't seem possible.

Three UNSC destroyers bearing the crimson fist of the United Rebel Front, four civilian ships roughly two thirds the size of the destroyers but outfitted with both armor as well as weapons and finally a squadron of fighter craft. This did not fit neatly with the latest intel on the URF but it did confirm that this project that they'd found was of serious importance to warrant such a force.

"As you can see, any ships that might've been drawn in by your beacon would've been outmanned and outgunned upon arrival. I urge you, soldier, to consider the realities of the situation," Lt. General Henderson said with the authority of her command. "I have more than enough soldiers to overwhelm you, you have no means by which you can alert your superiors and even if you somehow informed them of the situation, they would not be able to match my ships in number. Your only hope for survival is surrender."

While she might've had much confidence in her skills and the skills of her teammates, even SPARTANS wouldn't win a direct fight with an enemy force of this size. The entire mission had hinged on them locating the base and then blocking any distress calls before having UNSC support arrive to take custody of it all. While they might've managed the first and the second, the unforeseen shielding of their current position and the size of the URF fleet pretty much put them between a rock and a hard place.

Still, Alex was team leader and she'd follow his lead.

"Very well. We surrender," Alex said surprising the hell out of her considering the surprise victories he'd managed during training with the instructors. "However I must insist on you being present on the first transport down. I trust you to honor your word regarding our safety and treatment. You and NO ONE else."

"If you throw ALL your weapons down the hall so base security can confiscate them then I will agree to your request," Lt. General Henderson said after a few seconds of consideration. "Trust is a two way street, after all."

"Send two people to pick up the weapons," Alex said, giving nothing away. "They'll be there when your people arrive."

"I'll be waiting for confirmation," Henderson said with a nod. "Over and out."

The vid-screen showing the Insurrectionist leader went dark but, just to be on the safe side, Joy closed it before putting up a loose barrier to prevent covert eavesdropping.

"I assume you've got a plan OTHER than surrendering?" Joy asked, turning to look at Alex while sounding like she'd relieve him of command if she didn't like his response.

"I do but we've got to move fast," Alex replied, sounding like anything but a soon to be prisoner of the URF.

No, he sounded like he always did right before he pulled victory from the jaws of defeat.

Shuttle from the URF Destroyer Agamemnon, Lt. General Henderson's POV

"Are you sure this is worth the risk, General?" Colonel Jones, the leader of her ground forces, asked as the pilot guided them to the newly restored hanger of the moon base. "We know nothing about these operatives. We can't trust them!"

"They've complied with my terms thus far, Jones. They've disarmed themselves and base security has put them in restraints," she said, not concerned in the least. "With your men added to the mix it'd be suicide to try anything."

"We only have their word that they've discarded all their weapons," Jones countered, not willing to abandon his position just yet. "Besides that we don't know how long they've been at the base. They could have the entire place rigged to blow!"

"Unlikely. As a recall the Merlin's Wings was scheduled to make a delivery a few hours ago," she said, dismissing the man's paranoia. "It's far more probable that they infiltrated the ship and used it to get into the base. As for them retaining hidden weapons, even if you're right it'd be impossible for them to kill us all before dying themselves. The gaps in their information brought about their defeat."

Still, she would, along with the assigned interrogator, attempt to learn how ONI had learned of Project Surtur and how much they knew. Depending on the amount of leaked information, they might have to shelve the project for the time being until surveillance of the needed resources lightened. The others wouldn't like it but she was confident that she would be able to persuade them of the necessity of patience rather than recklessness. As much as she wanted to free the Outer Colonies of the UEG to create their own future, she was not foolish enough to think that the URF's goals would be achieved in her lifetime.

At present the URF and other similar groups did not possess the resources to fight the UNSC head on but rather they were left with little choice but to use guerilla tactics. Surgical strikes at important people and important locations that were vital to maintaining the Inner Colony's grip on their Outer counterparts. Sadly the resources that were available to both the UNSC and the UEG made replacing both people along with places only a matter of time. That was why she believed that they needed to bide their time until they could openly wage war with the UNSC on equal terms and serve them a bill that they could not pay.

Only then would they give up control of the Outer Colonies.

Looking through the windshield of the shuttle as she watched the newly repaired hanger doors slide aside to admit the craft she was in, she wondered about various things. The first and most obvious would be how the UNSC had learned enough about Project Surtur to dispatch three agents to infiltrate the moon base. All communiqués had been conducted using paper letters written to look like normal correspondence between relatives with a unique cipher to translate into the REAL message. They'd also compartmentalized information between the groups assigned to acquire specific items so that even they wouldn't know what they'd be used for. While it would certainly be nice if the three captured operatives would be able to tell her how the UNSC, or more likely ONI, was able to discover the truth, she very much doubted that the particulars had been told to the agents. At the next URF meeting she would have to propose that a new method of communication be constructed after determining all the flaws of the current one.

Another matter that would need to come under review would be the internal security of their installations. While the final amount of time hadn't been tallied, the intruders should've been detected in under a minute but instead trouble had only been detected with the blocking of communications. They'd likely have to create a program by which facial recognition was conducted regularly on everyone in the base and those whose faces couldn't be clearly seen would be especially scrutinized. Additional security technology would also need to be acquired despite the potential flags it would raise with the UNSC and ONI.

This could NOT happen again.

Feeling the thump of the landing gear touching down, she turned away from the windshield and began to make her way to the side hatch. While it was true that she had not needed to honor the UNSC operative's request for her presence, she did concede that in the hands of any other member of her forces summary execution was a possibility. Not many in the URF could maintain their composure and discipline, given the lives they now led, with more than a few willing to vent their anger or their outright hatred upon any representative of the enemy. However she knew that those three operatives would be more useful as captives than as dead symbols left out in the open for someone to find. They'd already killed dozens of UNSC soldiers and ONI operatives and it hadn't had even a small effect on the position of their superiors. However, if they could work over these three, get even ONE of them to crack, they could gain valuable intelligence about what the enemy knew about the URF.

Perhaps even the identities of spies hidden in their ranks.

A wild thought occurred to her about possibly converting these three to their cause and sending them back to their master with just the right amount of subterfuge to negate suspicion. It didn't last long because she knew that if there was one thing the URF and the UNSC had in common it was that the higher their rank, the harder they were to break. Even if they did succeed in making a believer out of one of them, there'd likely be one too many psychological cracks to allow their superiors to place them someplace useful.

As the hatch opened she could see that the personnel of the moon base had assembled, like a full honor guard receiving their supreme leader. No doubt the base commander was trying to salvage his dismal handling of the intrusion by playing to her ego.

It wouldn't work.

The struggle they were in the midst of against the UNSC and UEG was very real and VERY serious and anyone who didn't act accordingly would either shape up or be shipped out.

Once she cleared the shuttle her eyes fell upon a circle of guards and in the middle were three people, a man and two women, clad in gear she recognized as belonging to ONI black ops. Judging from their sizes and builds, they couldn't have been much older than their early or middle twenties, impressing her a bit that they'd succeeded in getting as far as they had. If her communications officer hadn't noticed the abrupt cessation of information from the moon base, they would likely have never known that anything was wrong.

Looking around she easily spotted the two men who'd been ordered to take custody of the intruders' gear and keep it away from their former owners. While her first inclination would be to question the intruders, she often found it informative to inspect a person's belongings. Even with things that were the same with every ONI operative, humans had a habit of personalizing whatever they kept on their person for an extended period of time.

"This is all their equipment?" she asked the two soldiers even though she already was pretty sure of the answer.

"Yes, sir," the man on the right said, opening the sack the gear was contained in.

Looking inside she saw the usual assortment of tools required for infiltration along with two MA2B assault rifles. She imagined that the other bag contained similar items but, just to be sure, she'd have her people examine everything for any hidden features or compartments. Taking out one of the rifles, she tested its weight, the feel of the hand grips and then popped the magazine to take a look at the rounds inside. On the whole there was nothing really unique about the weapon so she could only presume that this was the trio's first field op since completing their training.

A pity they won't be getting any better, she thought as she put the rifle back in the bag.

Turning to the three, who were following her movements with their eyes, she decided to get their initial discussion underway before having them escorted aboard the shuttle.

"As you requested I have come in person in order to make sure that you are taken into custody unharmed and treated fairly," she said as she approached them but remained out of reach. "I cannot guarantee, however, if you will ever be released in the future, even if all the URF's goals have been achieved. Such is the price of fighting a war."

"True. There's another thing that's true about every war but I don't think you're going to like it," the young man said, sounding completely at ease despite the situation he and his team were in.

"Unlike some people I believe knowledge must be accepted regardless of whether or not it is too a person's liking," she said, being honest with her prisoner. "Rejecting the truth can prove to be a tactical error."

"A good point of view to have," the young man said with equal honesty.

"Still, it's a touch hypocritical to speak of the truth but keep your helmets on concealing your identities," she said before looking to three of the guards closest to the prisoners. "Remove their helmets."

The remaining guards arrayed about the hanger brought their weapons up in a sharper at ready position but that was only logical. The ONI operatives had only one chance to force an escape opportunity and that would be to take prisoner the men about to remove their helmets before issuing a demand. That demand most likely would be for the use of the shuttle to make a getaway, even though they had to know that her fleet outside could easily shoot them down before they got very far.

What they didn't realize, though, was that each and every member of the URF was ready to lay down their lives in the name of their cause. In fact it was clearly stated once their trial period concluded that, in a hostage situation, their lives were expendable. Those that accepted this truth were allowed to rise higher in the ranks while those that weren't willing to give up their lives as needed were kept in low value areas. By doing so, even if they were caught, they wouldn't have any useful information to share with their UNSC interrogators and wouldn't harm the URF's efforts in the least.

In short, whether they made it out of the base on the shuttle or got perforated along with their hostages, they were both equally dead.

As she saw the clasps that kept the helmets secure undone and the sides of the headgear gripped, she waited with mild anticipation to see just what these infiltrators looked like.

However not once since she learned of the infiltration did she expect what was revealed next.

Instead of faces that you'd associate with people who were in their twenties, the intruders had faces of youths barely into their teens. It shocked everyone and, oddly enough, the thing to snap them out of it was the beeping everyone knew came from someone's watch that'd been set to give the alert under certain conditions.

"Looks like talking time is over," the brown haired leader of the infiltration team said with a lopsided smile. "Killing time is here."

With a snap the restraints that should've been impossible to break did and, with speed she'd never seen before, the guards between her and the prisoners went from living to dead. She was just about to give the order to open fire while retreating to the shuttle when an impossibly strong hand clamped down on her arm, halting her movement. Then, with a twirl and a twist, her arm and the person gripping it had been forced behind her, with former positioned in such a way that struggling would only hurt more.

After that it was complete chaos as every armed member of the URF in the room tried their luck at shooting the intruders, both the ones surgically subduing one person after another as well as her captor. Naturally, due to her rank, those trying to get a bead on the young man hesitated and whoever had trained him had done their job well. Not once did the infiltrator leave his head exposed so that the agitated men of the URF could feel confident in taking a shot. What didn't seem possible, though, was the fact that sometime after he'd gotten behind her he'd stolen the M6G sidearm she kept holstered and loaded on her hip at all times.

Even while keeping his head from being exposed he was somehow managing to fire off shots, picking off those combatants on the walkways twenty feet off the floor one after another.

She'd never seen anything like it.

In all her years, first with the UNSC and then with the URF, she'd never seen a group this size taken apart so quickly or so efficiently. The men under her and those assigned to the base might as well have been raw recruits for how well they did against their three opponents.

By the time it was done everyone but she and the intruders were dead.

"Status?" the young man restraining her asked his teammates.

"Clear and unharmed," the dirty blonde on the right said once she finished checking corners on her side of the hanger.

"Clear and minor flesh wound. Guy got lucky," the golden blonde said on the left, being extra thorough with her corner checks before turning to face her leader.

"No such thing. Let's move," her captor said before turning her around and pushing her towards the entrance hatch to the shuttle.

"You'll never get away! Even with me aboard they'll never let you get away!" she declared, making it clear that she still had some spirit in her.

"We'll see," her captor said, giving nothing away with the tone of his voice.

Lt. General Henderson's Shuttle, One Minute Later

Alex's POV

"Time!" he demanded even as he set a course for Tribute.

"Two minutes, thirty seconds," Joy said from the co-pilot's chair. "Also the Insurrectionist ships are moving to intercept."

That was anticipated.

When they left the hanger without following any transmission protocols, the people on those ships would've gotten suspicious. They'd attempted to make contact three times but he kept Daisy from responding since the lack of additional info would cause them to hesitate in choosing their next course of action. They'd need that time in order to gain additional distance and increase the odds of getting to their destination.

"Increasing to maximum thrust," he said, having kept it to standard cruising speed since any faster would've only helped the Insurrectionist crew members choose faster. "As soon as we clear the moon I'll chart the fastest course to Casbah."

"You'll never make it there," Henderson said, sounding quite confident. "My ships are faster than this shuttle. You won't even clear the moon before they disable your engines and drag you in."

If they were judging matters strictly based on the performance capabilities and estimated skills of the respective pilots, capture would've been inevitable. As much as he'd been drilled on piloting shuttles and other craft, the ship didn't have his enhanced speed and reflexes so, while he could move quicker than any pilot the Insurrectionists had, the vehicle he was operating wouldn't keep up. With that sort of limit in place, evasion wouldn't get the shuttle very far and speed was something the Insurrectionist ships had the advantage in for this situation.

"T-minus sixty seconds," Joy said even as she fulfilled the duties of co-pilot.

"Engaging in territory seizure evasion tactics," he said as he began to shift directions while still gaining ground towards Tribute.

"Longswords incoming," Daisy said from the sensor console she sat at. "Five total."

Made sense.

The armaments of a Destroyer wouldn't do them much good until they got close enough to use the point defense auto-cannons. Anything more and they'd destroy the shuttle along with everyone on board. However the Longswords had the speed and the correct armaments to disable their shuttle without endangering the people aboard it.

"ETA until they're within weapons range?" he asked Daisy.

"Sixty-five seconds," Daisy replied after a few taps at her console.

That was longer than the countdown Joy was giving him but he still wanted a little more breathing room to work with.

"This ship armed with anything?" he asked willing to take anything at this point.

"Two auto-cannons and a single missile," Daisy replied, not sounding optimistic at the news.

"Yield?" he asked, obviously referring to the missile.

"Not enough to take out five Longswords in one go if that's what you're asking," Daisy replied, anticipating his intent.

"It doesn't have to take them all out. It just has to slow them down," he said before looking over at Joy. "It's on you. Remember the limited arms training we went through and that surprise that let us get a win over Blue Team?"

"Understood," Joy said as she brought the weapons online and changed the setting to manual aiming.

"You're insane. No matter how good you are, you'll never hit anything by aiming manually," Henderson declared incredulously from her position bound to one of the cockpit's chairs. "There's a reason we rely on targeting systems these days."

"You've never seen her shoot," he said with a smile beneath his helmet.

Indeed, the only person who could be called better than Joy when it came to sharpshooting was Linda and it was always a near thing. A few more years of training and experience might just close that gap entirely, if not let his teammate overtake the SPARTAN sniper altogether.

He would not tell Linda that, though. Sometimes when she shot at her targets in training it was to wound, not kill. She liked shooting him. It was best to not give her more reasons to do so and be creative in her shot placement.

Doing what he could to keep up evasion tactics while also provide a steady ship for Joy to fire from, he focused on doing his job and allowed the others to do their job. He felt when the missile fired from the shuttle and mentally calculated how long it would take to reach its target based on the technical specifications that had been part of their education on Reach. He also added in the average speed most Longsword pilots liked to fly at in situations like this, using the whole 'trains leaving stations at different times and at different speeds when will they meet' formula. He had a good idea of where the missile would need to go if it was to achieve the desired effect and he trusted Joy to know as well.

"…Three…Two…One…NOW." Joy said before firing the auto-cannons.

Then, just like the battle with Blue Team, the pilots of the Longswords got the surprise of their lives.

Back during training Chief Mendez had put them through limited arms training in order to teach them how to make efficient use of scarce resources. Depending on the mission, they wouldn't be able to rely on a full load out or to have an armory close by that they could resupply at. However the mission could not be aborted due to lack of bullets or grenades. So the various teams took turns, one attacking while the other defended, left to their own devices to figure out how best to succeed with whatever they were given. In order to make sure that each subsequent team after the first couldn't just copy what they did, the Chief made sure that each box of resources was different. Sometimes you got two full clips of rifle rounds and a grenade but other times you did not.

When they'd been pitted against John and Blue Team, he knew that no one expected his team to come out on top. It'd been made abundantly clear in training that John's team was the standard, the example to follow, so at most his team was expected to come close.

He wasn't willing to settle for that.

So after peeking to get a look at how Blue Team had spread themselves out to defend their position he hit upon an idea. It was crazy, something Joy made clear to him at the time, but it also held the potential to knock Blue Team on their butts and provide them the opening they needed to win. He'd taken the single grenade and, without removing the pin, thrown it straight down the middle towards the opposing team. Most people would think that this was a waste of a perfectly good grenade but that was where the second part of his plan came into play. At the same time he threw the grenade Joy leaned out of cover with the rifle and took careful aim at the spot the grenade would need to be. Then, with a single shot, she detonated the grenade just as it reached the spot where the explosive force would reach four of the five members of Blue Team. The cover the opposing team was hidden behind was arranged in such a way that a single grenade wouldn't have been able to hit them all if you just threw it like normal.

Using his bit of improvisation the shockwave and the simulated shrapnel would leave lethal levels of paint on some while injuring the others.

The moment the grenade detonated he charged forward, his team following behind him, with Joy using the rifle to keep John, who'd been clear of the blast, from stopping them. Those who'd been hit with a lethal amount of paint wouldn't stop them since they'd been instructed to mimic the results of such a hit. That'd left him and Daisy to split off to deal with those who'd only received injury level damage and neutralize them. With certain limbs and muscle compromised, Fred and Linda hadn't been able to put up much of a fight without violating the terms that Chief Mendez had set. The real challenge had been defeating John, who even though he'd been outnumbered, had managed to hold his own for almost twenty minutes before a complex feint strategy let Joy get the drop on him.

Everyone had been both shocked and impressed by the victory.

Too bad it was the last one they had against Blue Team from that day onward.

Let's see them top this, he thought with a grin as he watched the rounds from the shuttle's auto-cannons detonated the missile... right in the middle of the enemy Longsword formation.

Now some might wonder how this could've come to pass and make people think surely the pilots would've shot it down before reaching them or veered clear of its path. The reason his plan worked all boiled down to two things: Joy hadn't used the targeting system of the shuttle before firing and she hadn't been aiming directly for one of the Longswords. Like most fighter craft, the Longswords had a system in place that let the pilots know when someone had a target lock on them and, with the exception of a few excellent pilots, everyone else relied on its warning. Combined with the missile not heading directly for one of them and the pilots had only slightly steered away from its estimated flight path while maintaining pursuit of the shuttle.

All this he had been counting on and, as a result, none of the pursuers were outside the blast radius of the missile.

"Three Longswords destroyed, two disabled," Daisy reported from her station.

"Time?" he asked Joy one more time even though he was pretty sure it was going to happen soon.

"Two seconds!" Joy replied, revealing the remaining time was a great deal less than he'd thought.

At 'zero' a flash of near blinding light flooded into the cockpit but they had less than a second to comprehend this before a shockwave slammed into the shuttle, knocking them for a loop. Screens flickered violently, a few producing sparks even as some smoke seeped out of gaps in the wall. Doing his best to right the spacecraft and get them clear of the danger zone, his success only came in spurts with impacts on the outer hull knocking the ship off course randomly. It took a full ten seconds before something resembling smooth flying returned but even then he knew that they'd need to get down to Tribute ASAP before the shuttle systems gave out.

However there was one question he wanted answered first.

"What the hell was that?" he asked, looking at Joy and then Daisy. "That was definitely not 'a little distraction'!"

"Trying to access the rear sensors and cameras," Daisy replied, tapping away at her console to get some answers.

When the typing stopped he waited for her to explain but nothing was said.

Turning to look at her, he could only see that her gaze was completely focused on the screen in front of her and when he reached out with his empathic abilities all he felt was numb disbelief.

"Take the controls," he ordered Joy as he got out of his chair and moved to see for himself what'd floored Daisy so completely.

The sensors informed him that of all the ships that'd been part of the Insurrectionist fleet, only the two destroyers remained with the others having been completely destroyed. The destroyers were also seriously damaged if the debris sensor contacts surrounding them were anything to go by, making it unlikely that they'd be able to slipstream out of the system. However it was when he looked to Tribute's moon that he realized what Daisy had been shocked into silence about. Sensor image told him one thing but it was only when he compared to the spotty video feed from the sole functional rear camera that the shuttle had that he appreciated the truth.

A large section of the lunar surface had been blown out into space, leaving a mostly circular crater with jagged edges behind, with bits of melted rock scattered about glowing bright enough to be visible. Anyone who had a decently powerful telescope on Tribute would be able to make out the new crater when it came around and, if they were as familiar with the moon as he was with a gun, they'd spot the change immediately. From what he could see most of the lunar mass that'd been blown into space had been vaporized by the heat of the blast, with the remainder had slammed into the Insurrectionist ships. Combined with the radiation that'd likely reached that far and it was no surprise that the fleet had been reduced to two, with the survivors barely in a condition to keep their crew alive.

Needless to say this was WAY more than he'd been expecting when he'd told Joy to start up the nuclear weapon the scientists had created, set the timer for the estimated amount of time it'd take to get clear of the blast and then seal the doors so that it couldn't be defused. The plan had been to feign surrender, seize the shuttle and the Lt. General, and then get to minimum safe distance before the timer on the weapon hit zero. Since the weapon was nuclear in nature, he'd planned for the EMP it gave off to scramble the systems of the ships long enough for the shuttle to make it eighty percent of the way to Tribute. Once they got that far ahead of pursuit, the probability of the Insurrectionist forces catching up would be small even with the speed difference between the shuttle and the ships. Then they'd make it planetside, where they'd travel to the nearest UNSC facility and make contact with Commander Thompson, who'd briefed them on the mission in the first place.

He'd thought up contingencies for possible obstacles but he'd never even considered this development.

"I thought you said the blast would take out the base and MAYBE some of the surrounding area," he said, turning to look at Joy.

"I read the file the scientists made on projected blast radius and destruction potential. The math looked good," Joy said with a bit of irritation. "If he were still alive I would call into question the man's credentials as a scientist."

He trusted Joy. If she said that the math had pointed to another outcome then it had and the only other possibility was that the scientists involved had made a SERIOUS mistake somewhere. Whether it was the overall theory they were attempting to put into practice or the means by which it was applied in real life, he didn't know. All he did know was that the Insurrectionist prototype had done MUCH more than he'd wanted and there was no way that it'd be easy to cover up.

"I think you should be the one to explain this during the debriefing," Daisy said, coming out of her shock and regaining her military composure.

"It was your plan, after all," Joy said from the copilot's seat.

For a moment he considered protesting since he knew that the reaction of their superiors would hardly be favorable but Joy's point stayed his hand.

It had been his plan and as team leader he had to take responsibility for the consequences.

That was one of the things that the Chief had hammered into them during training whenever a team leader tried to dump the blame for failure on a subordinate. While the subordinate was not completely free of blame, it was the team leader's job to know what those under him could do and how they would react under certain circumstances. If a subordinate did something that caused the team to fail, it was because the team leader failed to perceive the signs that it would happen beforehand and take action to prevent it.

To him, taking responsibility for ones victories also meant you were obligated to take responsibility for your failures.

Anyone who refused to take responsibility for their mistakes could not be trusted or relied upon.

He would never be that sort of person.