[Rex's Notes: I have no idea how long it's been. I think close to four years. And I'm still getting reviews. I started this when I was a freshman in high school and I'm now a freshman in college. I'll probably go back and rewrite some of the chapters. Anyway, here goes nothing!

Code Name: Shadow Wolf

By Rex J. Nibcore

Chapter 4:

When the Bough Breaks

"All clear so far," Makayla whispered over a secure channel.

A blue acknowledgement light winked on in her head set. The Master Chief spoke very little if he could help it when it came to missions. He preferred to let his actions speak for him.

SPARTAN-116's armor seemed to easily blend in with the strange purple metal that made up most of the Covenant's ships. The sound of metal on metal became louder and louder. Her stomach became queasy and she felt light-headed. Suddenly, memories were flashing back to her.

Makayla moved slowly down the corridor of a Covenant ship. Originally, she had been assigned to take a Covenant ship, but after she failed to make contact a few days later they passed the mission onto Master Chief and the other Spartans. She had been confident… Too confident.

"This is too easy," she muttered to herself as she took out a dozen Grunts with a fragmentation grenade. Her shields had taken a bit of a hit from the explosion that occurred, but she didn't worry about it. Two Jackals had run to the aid of their fallen comrads. Their energy shields were in place and she would have to find just the right angle for her shot to do any damage.

Suddenly, her shield monitor turned red as she felt something hit the back of her head. She felt the blunt end of a plasma rifle hit the back of her neck before her vision became black.

The sound of armor piercing bullets leaving an assault rifle and tearing through armor and flesh woke the woman from her memory. She took a deep breath. A concerned voice came over the intercom, "You okay?"
"Yeah."

"You want me to lead?"

"No."

"All right…"
Closing her eyes for a second, she forced herself to relax. Figuring she had gained her focus, she moved farther down the hall. 'I can do this. This is just like every other mission I've been on. Sneak in, get information, and get out.'
A spray of bullets swept past her, some hitting her energy shield and bounced off. When she opened her eyes she found three Elites lying dead on the floor with slugs embedded in their heads.
The Master Chief walked quickly past her.
"What are you…"
"I'm taking over," he said simply, in a gruff voice.
Makayla suddenly felt like a total failure. Twice she would have been dead at the hands of the enemy. It was as if she had suddenly become a helpless civilian. It scared her more than anything else had in her life. Having been adopted into the program had been the best thing to have ever happened to her. It meant she belonged somewhere. And a civilian life...

'Ok. Get it together 116! You were trained for this sort of thing!'

Taking a deep breath, she cleared her mind so that she only heard the hum of the space craft, the clink of metal against metal, the beat of her heart... It was beating fast... Way to fast...Almost as it had when John had kissed her.

A Grunt turned the corner and came in straight view of the two Spartans. Letting out one of its shrill cries it began to run away, "INTRUDERS! INTRU…" There was a thump as an armor piercing round drilled through its head, tearing the nitrogen breathing mask on its way out.

More Grunts quickly appeared, obviously surprised by the sound of their comrade's cries. Two Jackals joined them, holding their shields up, ready to be fired upon. With six total Grunts, the small aliens seemed much more confident. "Attack!" one yelled, before charging.

The front most Spartan unloaded his assault rifle on the Grunts while the one in back of him pulled out her standard issue pistol and used the scope to shoot through the hole in the front of the Jackal's shields. The Grunts were mowed down in a stunning blaze of fire while after two pops; one of the Jackals was down. Before the second was even able to shoot after moving the shield it held, it received a bullet to the brain.

Makayla let out a sigh, smiling softly. It was like it was all coming back. She was getting into her zone. The Master Chief simply began to collect the weapons and any extra ammo he could from one of the Needlers.

"Get down!" Makayla screamed, knocking her fellow soldier to the ground as a blast from a laser cannon flew over them, causing their shields to flicker and go out.

"What the…" he grunted, noticing his shields go out.

"Hunters," she said simply, getting up and strafing to her left, aiming for the exposed florescent orange skin.

John raised an eyebrow at her sudden change. It seemed as if she had someone how slipped into another persona. She was paying attention more so than he even was. He wasn't sure if that was even possible, but then again he had been keeping an eye on her, though he'd have never told her that. Makayla had just been so fragile when he found her. Of course, she tried to act tough most of the time when she was able to keep it up, but she wasn't very good at acting. Now... Now she was gliding seamlessly into a military mindset. It was a mindset of pure destruction of the enemy that had caused her so many problems.

"Keep their attention while I take them out," she said simply, rolling out of the way of a blast that melted part of one of the corridor's wall.

Her complete focus was on the soft exposed flesh of the Hunter's side. Grabbing one of the dead Grunt's Needlers she fired at the area before her HUD could even form a crosshair for the weapon. It took a few minutes before the purple needles exploded. A roar of pain erupted from the Hunter who had been wounded.

The other hunter had his back turned towards her and was trying to charge its laser cannon while shielding itself from the male Spartan's spray of bullets. Without thinking, Makayla emptied the remaining cartridge of needles into the back being sure to fire them along the creature's spinal cord. Backing away, she waited for the explosion and was rewarded with a spray of bright orange carnage. Another cry of pain was heard from the remaining Hunter upon loosing its partner. It was all the time the Master Chief needed to send him to join his companion.

The laser cannon discharged as it hit the ground and somehow hit the same place where the armor plated walls had been melted slightly. Now it was a fairly good sized gap which a pair of low ranked Grunts were peering through with mild curiosity That same curiosity quickly turned to terror at the sight of the two enemy soldiers in their midst. "Run away!" one screamed, waddling away quickly from the hole while the other stood frozen in terror only to have its head smashed in with the butt of a gun which sent a sickening crack through the hall.

"Nooo!" screamed the Grunt, stopping a second to mourn before continuing its half-run, half-waddle down the corridor. An Elite looked at it curiously as it came around the bend, moving it's mandibles in what could be considered slight confusion. Shrugging it off, it moved down the hall to be greeted with armor piercing bullets through the helmet. The last thought it had before the bullets struck was maybe the Grunts weren't so stupid for running away.

Picking up only full ammo cartridges and reloading her weapon to max capacity, she noticed the spray of orange blood on her right gauntlet. She didn't seem to care in the least and just continued to reload the Needler. The weapon was slow but she felt if she could hold out long enough the results were devastating. The Master Chief on the other hand seemed to prefer quick fire weapons that caused damage quickly. Both had their advantages and disadvantages.

"Let's go," he said, looking both ways through the hole in the wall and taking a right.

"You're going the wrong way."

Cortana let out an annoyed sound over the encrypted channel. "I think I know where the nearest station is."

"Trust me," she said simply, turning along the corridor and walking quickly, keeping an eye out. It seemed surprisingly quiet considering the fact that a wall had been melted and Grunts had been screaming just a bit before.

They reached one of the stations they were looking for, passing a few builders who seemed to totally ignore them as they worked to fix some equipment.

"All right, plug me in Chief," Cortana said simply, sounding annoyed that the other woman had been right.

Without a word, the Master Chief pulled Cortana out. He felt a bit strange without her there while he was in his suit. Placing her into the terminal, she began her work. The firewalls were nothing as she quickly sifted and squeezed through, reading everything quickly and discarding information she found no need for. However, she did steal some plans for the ship and tucked them away carefully.

"We have a problem," she said, sounding horrified.

"What is it?"

"They found the location of Earth," she said simply.

[Rex' Notes: Sorry it's short. I'm probably going to end this story shorter than it originally would be. I've just moved onto original fiction with my own characters and worlds. I will go where I planned to with the end of the story like I figure though.