Outside New Addie, Providence

November 27, 2557

"Contacts." Ross Pine's fist rose just slightly above his prone form. He lay on a hill right in front of a nature park, which had its former beautiful state marred and turned into a miniature Covenant outpost. "Fifteen meters directly ahead. Two brutes and six grunts."

Far to their left, a pair of ghost scout vehicles lay beside plasma fuel cells and a Covenant communications center. At the parks center, the molten slag in the center told them that a playground had once stood there. More containers were clustered around the area, signifying a supply drop point.

Hades had put in a half-decent connection with Tyrant, since Bowman had been trying for nearly an hour to be in a conversation with the commanding Spartan.

"Eon Lead." He gave a curt nod from his point. On the HUD, the screen of the other end was in the corner of Bowman's helmet.

"Tyrant. Hades finally managed to get us a solid link. Although I don't know exactly how long he will be able to maintain it."

"I'll inform you if even the slightest goes wrong." The AI cheekily said before he stepped off himself.

"I see the two of you just outside New Addie. Where are Fowler and Austal?"

"I've sent them to rescue the Kuching. She was heavily damaged after our initial battle."

Tyrant nodded, "You're going to have to brief them with everything I'm about to tell you now. I've been swapping intel with Naval Intelligence, the UNSC Security Council and their Defense Sectors as well as experts on the Covenant society. The Council of Chieftains is a radical jiralhanae-centric group formed at the southern section of Doisac. In case you had no idea, it is their homeworld."

"Learn something new every day."

"Yes. The southern hemisphere is the more war-worn area. They've been like that for decades, even after being absorbed into the Covenant empire. The Council of Chieftains controls one of the largest factions there and as of current knowledge, are the only ones with space-faring capabilities. AKA, the only group with powerful warships."

"Their primary motive seems to be expansion, but they are targeting human colonies."

"So that explains why they won't bother glassing the place." Bowman said, knowing the bombardment too well. "They also have much of their life revolving around the war. Makes more sense to invade a future home as part of a lifestyle."

"They are led by a single Prophet, confirmed by ONI. He is known as the Prophet of Clairvoyance, one of the late Prophet of Truth's biggest supporters in brute dominant military. He fled into hiding before us or the elites could get ahold of him and hasn't resurfaced since."

"The Prophet a HVT?"

"We're pending on that, but our best files still have very little information on what he looks like."

Pine looked over, "Can't be that hard. Gold headdress, robes, sits all day on a lazy floating chair and has a voice to make even the most bloodthirsty chieftain halt in his tracks."

"If we're dealing with a Prophet here, he's going to have a serious security detail."

"Indeed. I can't fully process the whole picture now, so I'm going to send all of you to help to deal with the enemy forces. Until the desk guys get their heads straight and the politicians stop arguing, we need to minimize non-combatant casualties and get everyone to safety."

"Understood."

"Now-" Tyrant turned to a person offscreen and pressed a button. His lips moved as he spoke, but no sound had come out due to him muting. His expression turned from puzzlement to a more hardened one as the other person was most likely speaking to him.

He unmuted it, "Eon, I have some bad news. For both of you. Ross, your house was robbed this morning. Thankfully, your wife is still in the hospital."

He paused, looking over from the sniper rifle to exchange a look with Bowman, his wife had given birth to their son just days ago, "Anything gone?"

"Your wife has confirmed many décor items are missing from discussions with NAPD, but no significant house damage whatsoever. Police are doing everything they can to find the perpetrator, but they've had little success."

"You have bad news for me too?" Eon lead asked.

"Yes. Police have notified me as your commander that Sugar has died."

"That's it?" Bowman looked like he was going to chuckle.

"Affirmative. Your ex is blaming you for the death but so far, there is no solid evidence as proof."

"That's because I didn't do it." He let out a scoff, "I probably should have though."

Pine resumed observing the patrols, "Tyrant do you think something's up? Two incidents related to two members of the same team might not be a random coincidence."

"I've already delved into that Spartan Pine. Indeed it is unusual, but the police are taking the necessary actions to prevent any future incidents concerning that."

Bowman spoke up, "I'm not stupid in thinking that the two incidents were done by the same party. They seemed to be after something of value to us as a team. I think it's pretty good to believe that Fowler and Austal are targets too."

"I don't have any legit proof of your theory Captain. We'll keep tabs on that though. I will inform you when I have further details."

"Yes sir." He cut the display.

"Why the hell were you happy when this Sugar died?"

"Because I'm glad he's dead. Little shit was a pain in my ass since day one."

"Isn't that kinda harsh Cap?"

Bowman shook his head, "Not really. Sugar's my ex's dog. He was part of the reason I got a divorce."

"This should be good." Pine quipped.

"Tell me about it. Anyway, when things started to fall apart between me and her, you know, twice in failing to conceive a child she desperately wanted so instead, she adopts this Chihuahua named Sugar. Thing was fuckin nuts, yapping all night and gaining all her attention. Don't get me wrong, I love dogs, even Chihuahuas but Sugar was her son now and she knew I hated it."

"Was it getting special treatment from her?"

"Oh yeah. Well eventually, we signed the divorce forms and went our separate ways. Her with the dog. Made me pretty happy. If she weren't so attached to it, I'd be a little more sympathetic to his death. Now her life is going to come crashing down because she lost the one thing that gave her meaning in life so far."

"Why don't you go back to comfort her?"

"She won't even regard me." Bowman looked back over the outpost, "C'mon, let's take this place so that we can get to the city."

Westbrook & Associates Photography, New Alexandria

"Thank you so much for coming in today." Erika shook Ivey's hand. "I'm looking forward to having you on our team."

"Looking forward to it." He gave a soft grin, "What is my first assignment?"

"You're working with Gabrielle Addison. Really great worker here. She's a little rough around the edges when it comes to sticky situations, but since I know you've got some self-defense and weapons training we've been able to do projects in hot zones like my new Providence assignment."

"Isn't sending media correspondents into a warzone a bad idea?"

Erika nodded, "It's been met with a lot of hell from the UNSC Admiral in charge of the invasion. He's insisting that once they're on the ground, he can't guarantee their safety, but the press wants answers, we have a big contract with the outlet and the pay for this one has been one of the biggest I've seen in years."

Ivey lowered his head, "I'm not sure it's going to be what they want."

"You'll both be fine. I'll brief the two of you before you head out beforehand."

Outside New Addie, Providence

"Lead moving."

Bowman was now crouched behind a crate of plasma rifles and peered out.

From his position, the scouts had trailed off and the outpost's comms area had minimal personnel.

"Eon Lead, I've got you covered."

"Eon, status?" That was Tyrant.

"Tyrant, we're tapping a Covie comms outpost. Going to listen in."

"Roger that. Austal and Fowler are ready in line. I've got your next op."

Bowman broke cover, his camo shimmering, "Send it to me when I am done."

Latest intelligence from brute experts confirmed that the brute's armor was a contemporary upgrade to the previous power armor seen during the Great Schism. The aesthetics from the chains, tattoo piercings and warlike accessories denoted rank as well as the lower tiered aspects of south Doisac. A large sash was secured around his waist with several ribbonlike streams around. The sash's front side had ornate symbols painted.

Ranks were relatively simple, unchanged from last time the brutes had been a major threat. The new addition of Shaman indicated brute captains who had the ferocity equal to an elite zealot. While not as high ranking as the sangheili, the shaman's armor incorporated face painted in a warlike fashion. He yelled out, a cry that sent chilling fear into his enemies and it also served as a rally signal for attack.

Part of attacking your enemy was to incite fear. That could reduce their capabilities.

Striding up to the brute's back. He thrust the butt of his rifle straight where the spine was. The blow snapped it outright and sent him flying forward. At the same time, Pine's crosshairs had centered on the second brute and a single anti-material shot punched straight through his shields and high density armor. The side of his face exploded and he collapsed to the ground.

Seeing their leaders dead, the grunts abandoned all their hope, flailing their arms and running in erratic directions.

Fear was also present on the other side too.

Bowman's Assault Rifle chattered when he aimed at the cannon fodder. Three of them were cut down by half his magazine and he delivered another blow from the rifle stock to a fourth.

Pine had eliminated the other two while Eon Lead had his fun. Motion tracks showed no hostiles.

"Clear. No sign of enemy forces."

Bowman scanned the area one last time and deactivated his camo. Sprinting up to the comms device, he unplugged Hades' crystal chip from the back of his armor and inserted it into the console's port.

"Uh huh." He nodded, "Okay, I'm in."

"Send the whole traffic back to Tyrant, Brady and UNSC Command."

"Done." With that, Bowman yanked the chip and slid it back into his armor.

"Tyrant, this is Eon Lead. We're feeding you, the admiral and UNSC FLEETCOM a brute communication frequency. It won't be long before they realize we're listening in, but we can still obtain valuable intelligence."

"Roger that." Tyrant affirmed, "You ready for my task?"

"Send it."

"Overhanging New Addie is a Bestowed-class frigate carrying enough plasma to wipe out the entire city. She's parked in the city center, leading the main invasion force. They're establishing a perimeter around New Addie and her sister ships are on standby."

"Then what's the mission?" Pine asked.

"Get aboard the frigate and turn is weapons against their own fleet. Admiral Brady is going to feed you targets once you've taken control. Hopefully that will eliminate additional reinforcements from entering the battlefield."

"Tyrant, with all due respect, I suggest we get the civilians out of there before we commence any offense of our own."

"Captain Bowman, I understand that they may be caught in the crossfire, but there won't be anyone to defend nor anyone doing the defending if we don't let the enemy regroup."

Bowman tensed at Tyrant's words. Pine already knew that he wasn't going to back down, but neither was Bowman.

To his fortune, Hades jumped in on the conversation as well, "Tyrant, he has a point. The comms traffic says that the brutes are forcing a perimeter around New Addie. I fear what the purpose is."

"What purpose would that be?" Pine asked.

"You know how these brutes seem to have a modern military but their behavior is like in the primitive stage? They've gone back to that stage. You know what that means? By nightfall, the brutes will organize hunting parties and hunt anyone trapped inside the city for sport."

"Shit." Tyrant swore under his breath, "That is bad."

"Okay." Bowman stood up, "This is what we're going to do. Tyrant, get me what coverage you can of the battle raging in the city as well as other Covie deployments. We're performing your original mission to take the frigate. Once we've taken control, I'll stay in control and send the rest of Eon to back up the Marines."

"Roger that Eon." Tyrant said, "Good hunting."

Up next; Eon plans to assault the frigate with time to keep the city from becoming a hunting reservation for bloodthirsty brutes. Bowman and Pine will attack from below. Fowler and Austal will strike from the sky.

I'm heading out of town for a bit next week, but I am bringing a laptop so I will (hopefully) be updating the next chapter by then.

Thanks for reading and reviewing. You give my writing purpose.