A/N: Sorry for not updating in... well, forever. So I made it much longer than usual. I have no excuses for not updating other than laziness and a ten day vacation, so I apologize to you all. Anyway, back to the matter at hand. Read the fic, enjoy it, and don't send me death threats telling me to write more (I've actually gotten one, I'll let it go this time), as they're illegal, and it makes me want to not write this as much. So here you go.

Chapter 13: Preparations

After the Admiral had briefed both Spec Ops teams, they were sent down to the Humans encampment. The Spartans arrived at Alpha base, and Grau Falk arrived at Charlie base. He also sent down a few teams of Advisors to tell the marines of the threats they might be engaging.

A team of 5 Advisors were sent to each base, even the MASH bases. Each team was made up of 3 ONI Specialists and a specially made AI. They were able to make AIs more easily now that they had access to The Reclaiming Glory's stockpile of recourses, even if Human access was rather limited.

Lieutenant Dreinir was getting setting everything up along with his fellow ONI operatives. Of course Dreinir's actual rank was far greater than any actual Lieutenant would have, it was ONI's typical way of getting every operative incorporated with the Marine Corps. He mentally reviewed his schedule again. He had to brief over 500 marines, in just 3 days. A briefing typically lasted two hours long, with video clips and slide shots taken by the AI Cortana, while she was at Installation 04.

About 20 minutes later, after he and his team had gotten everything set up, and after he had a brief meal, he got ready and went to the podium he was supposed to stand at. As the first briefing began, the Marines filed into the mess hall and took up seats or standing positions. He began.

"Now, as you all know, this briefing was called to inform you of a new enemy. This enemy..." he paused to create a greater effect, " is called the Flood. They are grotesque creatures, with many different and startling abilities. The types of Flood are as follows," the slide show currently had a picture of a bunch of Infection Forms. "These little bastards you see here are called infection forms. While they are extremely weak alone, they are a major threat to you, especially when they are in hordes."

"They are gaseous creatures, that will pop with the slightest amount of force you exert on them. And when they are group, if you were to shoot one, it would explode, and usually make a chain reaction, causing other nearby infection forms to explode. Although, this makes them far from easy targets. If they get to close to you, you better shoot them down. Because if they get close enough where they're able to leap up. onto your back, they will drive a penetrator down your neck, and turn you into something that looks like this."

That's when the slide show turned to the next picture, of a mutilated man, still wearing combat boots, his fatigues, although his shirt was missing, he still had arm sleeves. Where his chest should have been, all you could see were a few hanging organs, the spinal cord, and bits of his entrails. The skin was tinged green, and his head was thrown back into a position of which was not natural. You could still see the pained expression on the marines lifeless face, and even bits of hair. There were little antennae like things coming out of his upper chest and neck, and one of the arms was elongated, to twice it's normal length, with tentacle-like whips protruding where the fingers should be. The other arm was still fine, and was wielding an MA5B assault rifle.

The Lieutenant paused for a few moments to let it sink into the Marines shocked expressions. A few even had to go outside and vomit.

"This... thing, that you see here, was once like you and I, a normal, functional, human being. But, the Flood, provided the infection forms get to you, will turn you into this kind of form. These are called Combat Forms, and they have superhuman strength, they can operate and wield weapons, manned positions, hell, even vehicles, if they get their filthy hands on them."

"The only guaranteed thing that will kill these bastards is killing the infection form inside it. That's right," the Lieutenant said, as he saw the expressions of disbelief and fear on the faces of the marines, "those infection forms will deflate themselves enough to get inside your chest cavity, and that's how you become like this man once was."

"Otherwise, even if you blow an arm off of the thing, more tentacles will grow out of it. However, if you destroy all of it's limbs, it is then deemed ineffective in combat by higher officials, although we've never actually documented this being done. Now, if you kill the infection form inside of a combat form, and it falls to the ground, make sure that you destroy it's entire midsection, because another infection form can burrow into the chest cavity of the Flood's fallen warriors, and reanimate them. That is why are issuing M7075 Defoliant Projectors, or Flamethrowers, to every single platoon. These things are by far, the most effective thing to use against them, next to the shotgun."

"Now, since we have a fleet of ships equipped with armories in space, we have almost unlimited canisters of fuel for the flamethrowers. This, does not, however, mean that you can waste the ammo. There should be about 200 canisters of fuel in the armory in this base in about," he looked at his watch, "30 minutes from now. Your platoon leaders will decide who gets the flamethrowers, as we are limiting each platoon 5 flamethrowers each."

The Lieutenant was getting ready to rest after the briefing finally ended. The other two ONI Specialists that were sitting in chairs before were going to handle the next two briefings. That AI they were given was doing better than he ever could after about an hour through it. So he just let it take over and he answered any questions the Marines had.

While the Spartans were getting used to the Mark VI Armor, Alexandria and Drake were sparring, and Charles was at the firing range, as usual. Though Charles liked the new weapons, namely the MA8B, he was going to always keep his trusty MA5C at hand. He didn't like the B variant of the MA5, mostly because of it's full-auto feature.

With the steady clack-clack-clack of the weapons in the firing range, Charles felt at home, even if it wasn't actual combat. While the three once-lost Spartans felt at relative ease, something sinister was always lurking behind the scenes.

Colonel Ackerson was deep inside the Hive back on Earth. It was Hell getting through all of the security checkpoints, even after the alliance had been made official. Section Two did a brilliant job of making the remaining civilian population believe that the Elites were so weak after the decades long war, that they needed our help. While Ackerson didn't have the full details on what they told the civilians, exactly, he did not really care.

After he went through the 12th security checkpoint, lazily doing fingerprint scans, reading voice profile tests, or using the oral designators, he inwardly sighed and looked at the ODSTs standing guard, ready to blow him apart should he even sneeze. He wished he could have the feeling of the gun on his hands once again. It had been far too long, after 14 years of desk work, backstabbing, and just about any other thing, he just wanted to have the feeling of satisfaction when the first round entered the chamber, ready to fire, and to hear the clacking noise and the beat against his shoulder from his younger days.

But, he had more important things to do, like getting back to his work on his black-ops project. When he finally got to his desk, he found his portable pad beeping on his desk. He sat down and opened the message:

United Nations Space Command ALPHA PRIORITY TRANSMISSION 193741J-91

Encryption Code: Black/

Public Key: Inexistent

From: Vice Admiral Thomas Callard (UNSC Service Number: 37294-09285-TC)

To: Colonel James Ackerson (UNSC Service Number: 38902-93852-JA)

Subject: Black-Ops Project

Classification: Restricted, BGX Directive, Protocol 817-3B

//Start File//

Well, Ackerson, it seems that you've crossed the line, again. I know that you want to keep your project, and I know that you'll do anything to keep it, but threatening the Commander of Allied Forces?! You've got to be kidding me, James. I've covered for you more than once, but this time, you're on your own, more or less, anyway.

Now, because your project has intrigued the guys at Section Zero, they've given you more funding, and have convinced Admiral Hood to let you off. You will definitely not have another mistake like that, James, or you will be tried for treason, and then Section Zero takes over your project. And you know how they operate, far worse than you ever can.

So long for now, James, and tread lightly. They won't cave into your demands as easily, and don't even think about trying it with those Elites.

Callard

//End File//Press ENTER to Acknowledge and Delete all traces of this file//

Great, thought James. Now I have to deal with Section Zero. At least they saved me from a court martial. He then decided to get back to his work.

Captain Jakonavich was doing combat maneuvers with his tank squadron. Jakonavich and his squadron were one of the first to get outfitted with the new tanks, nicknamed, 'Raptors' for their ability to strike quickly and viciously. The tanks excelled highly in controlled tests, with new Titanium-B armor protecting the tank, standard issue ceramic titanium armor on the outside to protect from small arms fire, and every single Raptor tank produced was outfitted with a small shield generator, courtesy of the Reclaiming Glory, which protected the entire crew area inside the tank.

There were also hard points on the tank hulls, and the captain and his squadron had bribed the engineers with anything they could scrounge up to weld extra armor plating anywhere it could be fitted onto, so the tanks would have extra armor to boot.

With the addition of the double barreled cannons, they had a coaxial .50 caliber machine gun, a bow mounted .30 caliber machine gun, and for extra protection, the had another .50 caliber machine gun on top of the turret, in case they were facing large amounts of infantry. It also had one smoke grenade launcher on the left side of the turret, and an EMP grenade launcher mounted on the right side.

After Jakonavich saw the fake targets set up for their maneuvers, he ordered for the turret of each tank to swivel and fire at will.

After 4 muffled thumps echoed out from the tanks, they each prepared to fire the other gun. During the firing of their second salvos, the explosions from the first rounds hit their targets. The Captain smiled in satisfaction as the models of Wraiths were hit by the 88mm shells. Then a second set of explosions to make sure that the enemy tanks were down.

The tanks plowed their way through the forest to link up with a squadron of RG tanks for cooperation training. Once they met up with the RG tanks, they communicated through radio traffic. The Elite told them of the next training mission they would be going through. Apparently, Command had set up a fake Covenant base with the help of the RG forces. They were to assault the base, destroy the defenses, breakthrough the outer walls, and destroy everything in sight.

Rali 'Boralanee was a little surprised at the Human tanks. He had never seen a Human tank that looked like that. They also had green and tan camouflage painted on them, and the array of weapons he saw on the tanks partially scared him. He hoped to himself that he would never get on the bad side of another Human tank in his life.

The plan for this training mission was unit cohesion, getting the RG and Human Tankers familiar with each other, so that they could operate with efficiency. The RG tanks would stay behind that human tanks, providing mortar support, and short ranged artillery. The humans, of course, had self-propelled artillery of their own, but it was usually held back for large scaled maneuvers.

While the human tanks sputtered forwards, the low whine of the Wraiths followed behind them. The Human tanks were moving forward in a rough diamond formation, and the RG tankers were following suit in a reversed 'V' formation. They were at a speed that was the rough equivalent of 40 kilometers per hour.

These Humans have more tanks than I previously thought. Maybe they are better in combat too, they definitely look it. Rali wondered. I hope that there are enemy forces here, too. I would certainly not want that power to go to waste if I were the Humans.

In half a unit, they had cleared the distance, and could see the fake enemy base on the horizon. Once they saw the base, the RG tanks tilted their mortar canons, and let loose with three salvos of plasma bombs each. The first shots were to short, and exploded into the grass about 30 meters in front of the base. The second salvo of 6 shots were a bit closer, but still missed. Finally the third salvo of shots hit the outer wall of the base.

The human tanks then opened fire with their cannons. A muffled thump echoed out as the shells left their barrels, then a thunderous boom after they hit the walls and the turrets of the base. Then each human tank fired a second salvo, four more shots, which then collapsed whatever remained of the outer wall.

After the smoke cleared, 'Boralanee could see a hole that went through one of the towers, and the hole continued through metals and alloys until the end of the shells journey, which was in one of the buildings in the main compound.

'Boralanee told his squadron of tanks to open fire again. After 'Boralanee's second salvo, they leveled another part of the base. Then the humans once again opened fire. A customary thump that rumbled the ground beneath them, then an explosion as the shells achieved what they were meant to.

He opened a comm channel to the lead human tank. "Captain, I suggest that we finish this excursion. It is getting late, and my squadron needs rest after a long day."

"Roger that. We'll just fire a few more rounds to break in the barrels and we'll be on our way" was the human Captains' response.

After the Raptors had finished their rounds, they went back through the forest, through the path they came, and were soon out of sight.

Rali told his squadron to get back to base as fast as possible because there were already reports Flood breakouts all over the place. The humans had only one or two Flood breakouts because the RG forces had the unfortunate decision of setting up closer to where the Flood was released.

It took them much longer to get back to base because one of his tanks broke down. Rali cursed the new hover drives that were being tested in his squadron. Out of all of the tank units in the many RG armies, his unit was placed in giving comments and input on the new equipment.

Even though the Huragok were master craftsman, they were not perfect. Rali found this out a long, long time ago in combat. He briefly shook the memory out of his thoughts, and called a squad of Sangheili with a few Huragok engineers to repair the tanks.

After waiting awhile, his troops were placed on guard rotation. Some of his subordinates were getting tired, and therefore their combat efficiency would decrease, tremendously. As a Shadow troop transport arrived, the current set of guards stopped them and asked for identification. They complied, and were approved, then told to move on to their Commanders' tank.

The Sangheili in charge of the engineer squad was wearing dark green armor, signifying he was of either the engineer or science division. "Greetings, commander. Which tank are we to repair?"

'Boralanee then pointed to his right and said, "that one. It has been giving us trouble since day one! I am left wondering why we were picked for experimental equipment. Now, I appreciate the lifting of the ban on altering Forerunner technology, but I really think that new things should be tested out before we are issued it!" Rali ranted on until he was satisfied and calmed down.

"I am sure that your squadron was picked for a reason, however, the High Council works in mysterious ways, my friend."

"Yes" Rali responded, "yes I know it well. It justs infuriates me at times. Well, the tank is over there, please fix it. I do not like the darkness as much as I used to since I came here. And I would rather not be out here for much longer."

"I know what you mean. We will see to it that your tank is fixed as quickly and make sure it is done right. Some of the new technicians are... inexperienced at this." Then the lead engineer walked off with the three Huragok and two other Sangheili.

It took two long units of waiting to get through repairs. When they were finally done, he thanked each of the engineers personally, and when his tankers were rested up and ready, they got back in and took off for their base in the distance.

"Damn, Captain. Where the Hell are we?"

"Don't worry. We just need to clear these forests, then we should be able to get back to base."

The first man laughed. "And just where is base, it's getting dark."

"I said don't worry. Now shut up, and let me figure out what to do." Jakonavich told the other tank commander.

Somehow, even with all of the advanced equipment and proper training they had, they still got off the pathway, and gotten themselves lost. Now 4 tanks were in a tactical column, making their way through a dark and dank forest.

The tankers were extremely surprised when it started raining, and a few of the guys decided to sit on top of the turret until it happened. They cursed and got back in the tank as soon as possible.

Soon they were back in the open fields, but the bases were no where in sight. Jakonavich cursed under his breath after he realized he was lost. They saw a Forerunner building in the distance, but there was so much mist that the building seemed far away.

"Mr. Kazantsev" he said to the driver, "take us to that building" he said as he pointed to the alien structure in front of them.

The Arbiter was watching his view screens. A planet, which the Humans dubbed, 'Arotha' was taking up most of the view. The planet was roughly the size of Threshold, loomed in the distance. It even looked like Threshold, but he knew it was a different planet. The Ring World orbited the planet, though there was no moon on the other side of the ring.

The planet was huge, even if it was as big as Threshold. It could easily contain an enemy fleet, and his suspicions were confirmed when his navigations officer alerted him to enemy Seraphs. Seraphs were only short-ranged craft, so there was definitely an enemy cruiser, or possibly even a carrier.

He had integrated a few Human vessels into his fleet, and the Humans were understandably nervous, with ten ships in the middle of an entire battle group. He told his Comm Officer to open up a channel with one of the vessels.

On the main video channel, a human wearing the insignia of a captain appeared. He appeared to be surprisingly calm. "Captain, I would like you to send 3 stealthed scout drones to the far side of that planet. I have reason to believe there is an enemy fleet hiding in it's shadow."

The Captain replied, "Will do, Arbiter." The Captain turned to someone off screen then. "Lieutenant Fischer, send out three Clarion Spy Drones to the far side of Arotha. I want them running silent so they won't be detected." The Captain turned back to the camera. "Now I guess we'll just have to wait, eh Arbiter?"

"Yes, I suppose we shall. When they collect their data, I want to review it as soon as possible."

"Very well, Arbiter. I'll have the data to you ASAP."

The Arbiter nodded and turned off the view screen.

I know there is a fleet on the other side of that planet. But how do I lure them out? And I wonder if they were smart enough to set up a ground encampment on the Ring World? I suppose Time will be the informer to this situation.

His navigations officer gave word that a battle group of near 70 ships were exiting slip space just behind them.

"Tell all ships to power on shields on charge their weapons. They may be hostile"

The comm officer nodded at the order. When the ships exited slipspace, they registered as 'friendly' when the FoF tags read their transponders. The Arbiter inwardly sighed in relief.

A comm channel opened with the face of Dosu 'Furnumee.

The Arbiter had a look of surprise on his face. When he recovered, he asked his old friend what he was doing here.

"Why, I am here to help, Arbiter. We may have gained the upper hand, but this is one of the Prophets, 'Sacred Rings'", Dosu scoffed. "Would they not protect it with all their might?"

"You have a point there, Fleet Master. Although, we had conquered the Jiralhanae homeworld quite easily compared to what I was expecting."

"I agree, although I think that the Covenant is in chaos, because of recent events, and that is why they have been..." Dosu searched for the right word, "not thinking things through."

"Well, that may be. But, the Prophets may be planning a ploy of some sort. I am keeping my eyes open for anything out of the ordinary for the Prophets to do."

On the screen, Dosu nodded. Then, a Sangheili Major walked up to him and said something that the Arbiter could not hear. After the Major had disappeared off screen, Dosu looked a slightly alarmed.

"What is it?" The Arbiter wanted to know.

"It is a scout ship that we sent ahead of us. It most likely did not register on your scanners because of how far away it is from us, but it has detected an enemy fleet behind the planet. From this report, it appears that they're leaving the cover of the planet and that they are charging towards us! I will get my fleet ready and up to combat alert."

The Arbiter nodded, and did the same. He alerted the Human fleet, and they repeated the actions of the two RG battlegroups. For now, they waited for the enemy ships to get into firing range.

Tranalus was growing extremely irritated at the new Prophets' decision. In fact, when an enslaved Unggoy came into the Command Deck and told him the Seraph patrol he sent out earlier was destroyed, he destroyed the creature, ripping it limb from limb, in a fit of rage. He called for a Huragok to come in shortly after to clean up the mess.

He was craving action, like all of his fellow brethren. He longed to have the smell of Sangheili blood on his hands, to feel the joy of the kill, to kill what has caused The Great Schism through out the Covenant, to kill the vile filth that has conquered his home world. The Traitors have even allied themselves with the pitiful Humans. Tranalus laughed. They shall not get away that easily. We shall give them a fight! Even though we are outnumbered, we shall get reinforcements, if Pride has any common sense.

Though the thought of his homeworld, once glorious, in all of its majesty, now conquered, pillaged, and raped by the Sangheili and Humans made his blood boil, to the point where he could go on a rampage and destroy everything in his path, but he calmed himself with the thought of the Great Journey. The Great Journey and all of its many great promises. And how the Filth that were not bestowed with the gift would burn in Eternal Damnation.

Even the Jiralhanae, as ignorant as they were to their surroundings, knew that after their homeworld was conquered, that they had nothing left except the thought of the Great Journey. Thankfully, they had been able to colonize one other world with the Prophets' help before the Great Schism. This, 'world' was a mere moon, orbiting the Prophets' own home planet. But, unusually, this moon had the capacity to enable the creation of life on its surface. And the Prophets, mainly the Prophet of Truth, decided it would make an excellent first line of defense outpost, to guard their own planet.

His fleet, if you could even call it that, was relatively small, at a strength of only 50 ships. Against normal Human ships, his fleet would be over sized for such an assignment. But the traitorous Sangheili gave them shields, and even plasma tech. The new Hierarchs, the Prophet of Sin was leading, and the Prophet of Pestilence, whose name symbolized everything that the Prophets stood for, and the Prophet of Life. They were also extremely stubborn, and big headed, like all Prophets were.

And this lead to the Prophets disbelief that the Sangheili gave the Humans plasma capabilities or ship-borne shielding. The fools. This is their mistake. If they would just believe something for once, we could have an appropriate sized fleet. He surveyed the scanners, the Humans and the Sangheili were idling about in space. He would make the Prophets believe, and his was the only ship to escape from Lobonikos after the Allied attack. And because they would not believe him, they ordered the Prophet of Pride, a minor Prophet, to survey the battle from his ship.

And Tranalus had the extreme misfortune of the Prophet wanting control of the mission. He had no choice but to accept his demands, unless he wanted to be humiliated and publicly executed. I may very well sacrifice myself and my ship just so we can be rid of these self-proclaimed Prophets. True, they are capable leaders, but they are poor tacticians, by any standards.

Tranalus then decided that it was time. He had fought in many battles, both before and after the Great Schism, and he was extremely capable in the military. Without consulting the Prophet, who was probably in sermon with the lesser races anyway, he ordered that all ships charge their reactors to 50 and divert the rest of their power to the main batteries. Shields would be covered by the auxiliary engines.

After that order, 50 ships came out of the darkness of the planet, and charged towards the Allied ships as fast as they could at half power.

A/U: Not nearly as long as I hoped it could be, especially because of the time I was absent, but I just didn't like what I had after this. Plus, if I added it, it wouldn't really fit in well with the chapter title. I just hope you guys liked this chapter.