*Kig-Yar= Jackals/ Unngoy=Grunts/ Sangheili=Elites/ Mgalekgolo=Hunters

Chapter 3: Splitting the Squad

Date: August 14th 2552

Time: 07:30 hours

Planet: Reach

Location: ONI Tower Base, South Gate

Mission: Establish contact with ONI high command

The early morning sun glinted off of the Covenant machinery as the alien warriors milled about the area before the large gates. There was a large, wide, straight road leading away from the gates and the road itself was lined with large, partially destroyed buildings.

The was a large guard house on the right side of the gate and a long, plasma scorched, garage on the left side. The gates had been destroyed, smashed aside and burned to ash by the Covenant armada and they had placed four long, purple barriers across the gaping hole.

There was a squad of three Jackals, with Energy Beams, on the flat roof of the garage and a large group of Engineers were inspecting the Warthogs within it. A squad of four blue Elites guarded the entrance to the garage while another two squads of four blue Elites guarded the smashed gates.

There were four squads of five Grunts moving crates by the side of the road and there were two maroon colored Elites inspecting the guard house. A pair of massive Hunters were patrolling the side of the road that lead away from the gates, they were accompanied by three blue Elites.

A large Covenant Phantom suddenly appeared out of the sun and glided into the middle of the road.

"Well, well, well," Specter muttered, from his position on the third floor of a building on the same side as the guard house "what have we got here?"

Specter had been observing the Covenant force from his position by the destroyed window of a large three story building for three hours. He had originally been standing up but after about twenty minutes his legs began to tire and so he began to kneel. After an hour of kneeling he decided to move into a prone position, which lead up to his current situation.

He brought the scope of his Sniper Rifle, which he had taken from a dead marine after his own one had been blown to pieces, up to his visor covered eye. He zoomed in on the shimmering blue gravity field that had been deployed by the Phantom and watched as three Zealot class Elites dropped onto the road.

"Well hello ugly." Specter muttered, watching as the two maroon Elites came running over to greet them.

Voro' Chonchiyo and Rha' Chonchiyo, two high ranking, maroon colored Sangheili warrios, jogged over to greet the new arrivals.

"Greetings my superiors." Voro said to the lead Zealot, in the language of the Covenant.

"Report." he replied in a blunt tone.

Voro stifled his anger.

"How can he be so disregarding!" Voro thought.

"My deepest apologies sir, but the humans have pushed us back. We lost the courtyard." he reported.

"Raaagh!" cried the Zealot, unsheathing his Energy Dagger and swiping it across Voro's cheek "You pathetic whelp! How could you let this happen."

"It wasn't our fault!" Rha cried, jumping in to defend his younger brother "We had the humans cornered and were about to achieve victory when a group of demons appeared!"

"You impudent whelp!" the Zealot screamed, back handing Rha across the face and knocking him on his back "How dare you address a superior in that manner! Get your forces back there and crush the human filth."

"But what of the demons?" Voro asked.

"You think I care about your pathetic life?! Eliminate those humans or I will personally ensure that you never embark on the great journey!"

"Which might turn out to be a mixed blessing." Rha thought, over the years he and his brother had been having more and more doubts about this supposed 'great journey' and if it was ever going to happen.

"Yes my lord." he replied.

"Ouch!" Specter exclaimed as he saw the lead Zealot cut one of the maroon Elite's cheek "That's gotta sting."

He shifted his gaze away from the five Elites towards the garage where two Phantoms where dropping off a pair of Wraiths.

He returned his gaze to the Elites and saw that the Zealots were being sucked back up into the belly of their Phantom. The Phantom turned around and flew out over the gates, while the two maroon Elites began to yell orders.

Every single Covenant warrior on the road and it's surrounding area organized themselves into small squads. They were marched in the opposite direction of the gates by the maroon Elites, followed closely by the two Wraiths. The only Covenant forces left were the squad of Jackals, a group of five Grunts and two blue Elites.

"Uh-oh," Specter said, replacing his Sniper Rifle with his DMR "I better radio ahead, let Spirit know he's got some guests on the way."

He pushed himself into a crouching position, making sure to stay away from the prying eyes of the Jackal lookouts and made his way through the rubble strewn building.

"Hey Spirit." he whispered into his helmet radio as he jumped from the blown out wall of one building through the window of another.

"Specter," Spirit replied "what did you find?"

"You've got a Covenant attack force headed your way," Specter replied, vaulting the railing of a staircase and landing silently on the buildings ground floor "composed of Grunts, Elites, a few Jackals and two Wraiths."

Specter whistled over the radio.

"Alright thanks, get back here on the double. Spooks almost got the radio operational." he said.

"On it." Specter replied, ducking behind a blood stained wall as a blue Elite, whom was patrolling the area, walked past.

Specter, not wanting to waste any time, pulled his knife from its chest sheath and silently approached the Elite.

"Heads up." he thought.

He covered the Elites strange mouth, as best as he could, with his left hand and slipped his knife into its neck. The Elite let out a short gurgle, somewhat muffled by the Mjolnir clad hand and fell to the floor, a small river of purple blood leaking from its neck.

Specter wiped his knife on his left shoulder pad and re-sheathed it. He retrieved his DMR from where he had placed it and continued on.

"You almost done?" Phantom asked for the millionth time.

"I told you before," Spook sighed, for the millionth time "you can't rush these things. I swear," she continued, looking over towards Simon, who's shin had been filled with bio-foam "the things they expect you to do."

"Tell me about it." Simon replied, handing Spook a tool.

Spook had removed her helmet several hours earlier, revealing a young, pretty but battle worn face with a scar down her right cheek and shoulder length brown hair that was tied back in a ponytail. The pony tail was squashed into the helmet when it was equipped for those who were wondering.

"Hey, you said that you could have this hunk of junk operational in no time!" Phantom said, smiling and helmet less.

"Yeah, and that was before I saw the damn thing!" Spook replied, letting out a small laugh.

Spook and Phantom had lugged the tall, thin radio tower out of the ramp below the catwalks main platform. It had taken quite a beating and it had taken both Spook and Simon, both talented field mechanics, several hours to get it in its current state.

"Hey Phantom," Simon said, grinning good naturedly "why don't you go see if Entity needs any help, you know, bitch to him."

"Ah ha ha," Phantom mocked "funny, I thought you guys were supposed to show respect to your superiors."

"Just the ones that scare us." Simon replied.

"Fine." Phantom replied, chuckling and pushing himself off of the low wall he was sitting on.

Spook and Phantom had dragged the radio tower into the center of the courtyard, inside of the low circular wall, while the various other marines, including Taylor and Greaves, had piled the covenant bodies out of the way.

Phantom scooped up his helmet and walked over towards Entity and Spirit, passing by Poltergeist and Bright as he went.

"Hey Polt, Bright." he nodded, stopping to talk to them "How you feeling?"

"Sleepy," Bright replied "Polt here gave me some drugs and now everything is starting to wobble, hey Phan...Tom! Do you know that your..." she swayed and Poltergeist caught her.

"Okay," Poltergeist said, sitting Bright down "that's enough movement for you private."

Poltergeist lay a now sleeping Bright against the wall and turned to face Phantom.

"So whats the news?" she asked, removing her OPERATOR helmet and revealing a face that was a lot like Spook's, only Polt had short black hair that almost reached her shoulders.

"Spook's almost done with the radio," Phantom said, as both he and Poltergeist walked over to Entity and Spirit "and it looks like Spirit just got word from Specter."

"So whats the news?" Polt asked as Spirit turned to face them.

Entity removed his helmet, revealing a young, battle worn face with brown hair. He was large by Spartan standards but he was by no means the largest of the Spartan II's.

"Just got word from Specter," Spirit informed them "we've got a large Covenant attack force headed our way and they've got two Wraiths. Polt and Phantom, tell every squad of marines to take a bubble shield from the pile we salvaged and get them into position, Entity and I will-"

"Hey! I got it working!" Spook yelled, interrupting Spirit mid sentence.

The Spartans jogged over to the radio tower, wirelessly connecting to it with their helmet radios.

"ONI high command, this is Spartan two zero-zero-nine code named Spirit, leader of Ghost squad. Do you copy?" Spirit said, giving Spook a silent thumbs up.

"This is ONI high command, we hear you loud and clear Spirit." came a voice "What is your current situation."

"We're cornered in the main courtyard of Tower Base and request immediate extraction." Spirt said "We have multiple wounded and a large Covenant attack force is closing in on us."

"Uhh, that is a negative on the extraction Spirit," the voice replied "ONI is charging your squad with the retrieval of two high value targets."

"I'll be needing details on these targets."

"One of them is a forerunner artifact that was uncovered by a Covenant dig team to the south east of Tower Base and the other is an ONI officer in an outpost to the south west."

"Confirmed command, we'll get it done."

Spirit clicked his radio off and turned to face his squad.

"All right you heard em," he said, switching in his squad radio "Specter and Phantom, you two retrieve the ONI official while Poltergeist and Entity get that artifact. Spook and I will stay here and hold the courtyard."

"There are some undamaged Warthogs by the south gate that we can use." Specter said over the radio.

"Do it," Spirit replied "move out."

The Spartans gave him a quick salute and went their separate ways.

"Quiet!" hissed Specter as Poltergeist misplaced her foot, a rare mistake for a Spartan of any kind and sent a small pebble skittering across the floor.

"Hey I'm the medic," she replied, in an annoyed voice "you're the sneaky one. Where just going to kill those Covenant anyway, so I don't see why we have to be quiet now."

"Yeah what gives?" Phantom whispered "I thought we were going to kill those guys not spend five hours sneaking by them."

"You want to mount a head on assault against them and die, then be my guest." Specter whispered back, pulling his Sniper Rifle off of his back and replacing it with his DMR.

"Stay focused!" Entity said in a firm but hushed tone.

"Okay," Specter said, zooming in on the Elites "I've got eyes on one of the Elites, the other ones gone behind a Warthog.

The two blue Elites were strolling around and inspecting the Warthogs in the garage, the Jackals were still on the roof of the garage while the Grunts had sat down a small circle and were tossing some strange objects about.

Poltergeist pulled a grenade from her hip and tested its weight.

"I reckon I can get the Grunts with this." she said.

"And I can probably take down the Jackals with my DMR." Entity replied, pulling the DMR off of Specters back.

"Well then, let's do this." Specter replied, pulling the trigger as Entity opened fire and Poltergeist threw her grenade.

There was a loud crack, accompanied by a series of smaller bangs and the blue Elite's head exploded, shattering its shields and splattering the Warthog behind it with purple blood. At the same time two of the Jackals were hit three times each by Entity's DMR, they dropped to the ground while the third one crawled backwards, leaving a large purple stain behind it.

The Grunts jumped to their feet after the first shot and were blown to pieces by Poltergeist's well placed grenade.

Entity placed the DMR on Specters back, pulled an assault rifle off of his own back and vaulted the low wall, created when the wall facing the street had been blown inwards during a previous battle and fell three stories to the tarmac road below.

He rolled as he hit the road and advanced, through the remains of the Grunts and towards the garage, his assault rifle at the ready. He approached the dead Elite and stepped over its headless body. He jumped backwards as the last Elite, whom had been hiding behind the Warthog, jumped out at him.

The Elite swung his plasma sword in a downwards arc, straight towards Entity's right shoulder. Entity leaned backwards, avoiding the deadly blade and, holding his assault rifle across his body, swung the butt of the rifle into the Elite's exposed jaw.

There was a loud smack as the rifle made contact with the Elite's thin lower jaw, which snapped and bent at an awkward angle and the Elite fell sideways, dropping his weapon and knocking himself unconscious on the wheel of the Warthog.

Entity aimed his assault rifle at the Elite's head and then lowered it.

The other Spartans came jogging up to Entity.

"I thought you were actually going to shoot him for a moment there." Specter said.

"Yeah me too." Poltergeist said, kneeling down next to the Elite and inspecting its wounds "he's going to have one hell of a headache."

"I'll tie him up." Phantom said, grabbing the Elite by it's wrists and dragging it out of the garage.

He walked over to one of the many Warthogs, popped its bonnet and removed a long piece of wire or chain from its engine, which he used to bind the Elites arms and wrists.

None of them could bring themselves to kill an unarmed and unconscious enemy. It just seemed so wrong to kill an already defeated and unconscious enemy.

Specter sat down in the drivers seat of the blood splattered Warthog while Phantom dragged the dead Elite out of the way. Poltergeist revved the engine of the Warthog next to Specters and called out.

"Come on Entity!" she said "Let's go get this artifact."

Entity finished heaving two of the purple barriers away from the gate and ran over to Poltergeists Warthog. He climbed up onto the turret position while Phantom mirrored him on Specters Warthog.

They revved the engines on their Warthogs and drove out of the gate, Specters Warthog fishtailed slightly as he turned it towards the gate. They drove out of the compound and came to a fork in the road.

Poltergeist turned her Warthog left and headed towards the desert like region to the south east while Specter turned his right and headed towards the jungle in the south west.

Specter and Phantom had been driving for three hours, they had entered the hot, humid jungle an hour ago and had followed a muddy track deep into the jungle, the purple bloodstains on their chassis slowly being covered by the mud.

Phantom glanced down at the small gps device that he carried and thumped his fist on the top of the Warthog.

"Hey!" he yelled "We should probably pull over, this thing says we're getting close."

"Good idea." Specter replied.

He cut the engine and allowed the Warthog to roll off of the mud track and into the underbrush by the left side of the track. He stepped out of the Warthog, his DMR on his back and his Sniper in his hand and scanned the bright green area around him.

Phantom hopped off of the turret and grabbed his shotgun from the passenger seat, his assault rifle was magnetized to his back.

They ventured out onto the track, got their Mjolnir clad feet covered in mud and decided to follow the track from within the trees. They journeyed through the underbrush, stepping over puddles and pushing aside fern fronds.

Phantom stepped on a twig and immediately put all of his weight on his back foot, stopping himself from cracking the twig in half. He looked over to Specter, whom was several meters ahead and stalking through the jungle like it wasn't even there.

"How the hell does he do that?!" Phantom wondered, watching as Specter avoided stepping on anything that would make a noise without even looking down.

"Oh well." he thought, shrugging his shoulders and struggling to catch up.

They came to a sudden and abrupt stop when they emerged from a behind a wall of ferns onto the top of a small mud cliff. Specter crouched down amongst the green foliage, as did Phantom and they observed the small, two building outpost below them.

The out post had a large square wall, about three heads taller then Phantom, running around it with two, now broken, chain link gates. One on the side facing Phantom and Specter and one set in the left wall.

Specter raised his Sniper Rifle to his eye while Phantom made do with the zoom function on his visor.

The was a large, upside down L shaped building, with a three story tower rising out of the back of it, pressed against the right wall and there was a small rectangular building pressed vertically against the top left wall.

Using his scope, Specter observed a squad of four blue Elites by the front gate dragging the bodies of three marines away from the gate. He Looked towards the front of the L building and noticed a pack of five Brutes arguing over something shiny.

"I've got eyes on a Special Operations squad." Phantom muttered.

Specter shifted his gaze to the back wall of the compound and spied four Special Operations Elites talking amongst themselves.

"That's three enemy squads." Specter murmured, checking the Sniper's ammo.

"How many do you reckon you can take out with that over sized rifle?" Phantom asked.

"Oversized?" Specter said, smiling under his helmet "I reckon I could four of either the blue Elites or the Brutes."

"What about the Spec Ops?" Phantom asked, making sure the barrel of his shot gun was clear.

"I might be able to get one," Specter replied "but as soon as I fire the first shot the other three will scatter."

"Hmm, how about two of the Brutes and two of the Elites?" Phantom said "Might even things out a little."

"Good thinking," Specter said, laying his sights on one of the larger Brutes "you should get down there and ready a grenade or something, those Spec Ops will scatter but the others will be confused and scared."

"You know I'm a Spartan too right? I do know these things." Phantom lectured, raising himself up.

"Just making sure," Specter said, smirking and turning his head towards Phantom "you did take an awful long time to kill those Brutes back at Tower Base."

Phantom chuckled, shook his helmet clad head and moved off into the foliage.

Specter waited, lying in the mud and the dirt at the top of the hill, for seven and a half minutes, he was timing Phantom with his HUD clock. He finally saw Phantom emerge silently from the ferns by the left so of the compounds wall.

Specter watched as Phantom made his way along the left wall until he was hiding just around the corner from the squad of blue Elites. He looked up to Specters position and gave a thumbs up.

Specter sighed, wishing for the millionth time that he had his old mark V, green, Mjolnir armor. He felt incredibly exposed up here with his dark colored armor and the fact that Phantom had just looked directly at him made him feel like he was sticking out like a sore thumb.

"Well at least it will come in handy for night ops." Specter thought.

He leveled his small, circular sights on the head of a particularly large Brute that had just head butted a smaller one. He pulled the trigger and the Brutes head was blown apart by a high caliber bullet, spraying purple blood everywhere. He quickly shifted his sights to a second Brute and pulled the trigger again, the Brutes head exploded in much the same fashion as the first.

As soon as he had finished with the Brutes he switched his gaze to the now terrified Elites. He fired with uncanny accuracy, felling two Elites that were running for cover.

As soon as Phantom heard the first two shots he pulled a grenade from his chest armor. He peeked around the corner of the wall in time to see two Elites tumble to the ground, blood pouring out of the massive holes in their heads.

He pulled the pin and threw his grenade, underhand, at the group of startled, bloodstained and angry Brutes, which had now been joined by the two surviving Elites.

It detonated in their midst, shattering the Elites shields and blowing the Brutes apart in an explosion of limbs, blood and gore. One of the Elites arms was torn from its body by the explosion while the other Elite was hurled against the wall of the L shaped building.

Phantom quickly switched his shotgun for the assault rifle on his back and charged around the corner. He sprinted towards the Spec Op Elites at the back of the compound, firing while he went, as Specter finished off the surviving Elite with a quick shot from his Sniper.

Phantom emptied his entire clip, sending thirty two rounds streaming towards the four Elites. One of the Elites was hit, at various pints across its body, seven times, it's shield shimmering a bright orange and threatening to break. The other bullets impacted harmlessly in the dirt and compound wall, a few stray ones bounced off of the other Elites shields.

The Elites panicked, activated their camo and sprinted for a door to their right, ducking and yelling as Specter fired three hasty shots after them. They dived inside the door, slamming it behind them, as Phantom reached it. He reloaded his rifle and grunted in frustration.

"Dammit!" he yelled, banging his fist against the door.

"Whoa calm down dude," Specter said, appearing beside Phantom "or were you planning on punching your way through that steel door."

"How the hell did you get down here so fast?!" Phantom exclaimed, whirling around to face Specter.

"I just slid down the hill," Specter laughed, pushing Phantoms gun muzzle down "it's not like I had to be stealthy or anything."

"Well," Phantom replied, switching his assault rifle for his shotgun and walking towards the front of the L building "I guess we better find this ONI spook."

"How the hell did dirt get into my helmet?!" Entity grunted, shaking his head in an attempt to clear it.

"I know what you mean," Poltergeist replied, peeking around the corner of the rock they were hiding behind "remember when the Covenant first appeared and we were sent off into the desert to fight them?"

"Oh god that was hell," Entity said "that campaign is the reason I can't stand beaches anymore."

"When have you ever been to a beach?" Poltergeist asked, using her HUD's zoom function to observe the large, dug-out, hole in the ground ten meters below them "I mean it's not like we get holidays or anything."

"Well then it's the reason why I won't like beaches," Entity chuckled "once we're done with this damn war."

There was a moment of silence as they crouched behind the large, cream colored rock. The rock was sitting in the edge of a ten meter high cliff and the large, circular, dig site lay thirty meters from the base of the cliff.

"What do you thinks going to happen to us after this war is over?" Poltergeist asked "I mean that's why they made us, to fight wars."

"We'll probably be used as 'peacekeepers'." Entity replied, emphasizing the peacekeepers.

"Ah," Poltergeist said "that means fighting more rebels."

"Well it'll make a nice change from these bloodthirsty split mouths," Entity said, taking a certain interest in some new arrivals at the dig site "speaking of which, what have we here?"

He adjusted his position, leaning out from behind the rock a little further and fixed his zoom function on the west side of the Covenant dig site. There were four large, purple metal spikes poking out of the dirt around the dig site, forming a large square.

Inside the center of the dig site there was a small rectangular object with three engineers surrounding it. There were four squads of four Ultra class Elites and a large Covenant Phantom had just dropped off three Zealot class Elites.

The squads of Ultra Elites were stationed at the gaps between the purple protrusions.

"That's a lot of Elites." Entity muttered.

"Yeah," Poltergeist replied "I count twenty-one in total."

"Here take these." Entity said, pulling two, bright orange grenades from his waist.

"Thanks," Poltergeist replied, taking the grenades "they incendiary?"

"No," Entity said, opening the loading chamber of his grenade launcher "high powered and packed with shrapnel. One of these should be enough to take out an entire squad of Ultras."

"Nice." Poltergeist said, popping one into her grenade launcher.

"I'll take the right squad." Entity said, tagging the squad of Ultras by the right side of the dig site with his HUD.

"I'll take the furthest one away." Poltergeist said, not bothering to highlight her targets.

Neither of them bothered to suggest firing at the Zealots, they both knew how strong their shields were. They brought their guns to bear on their respective targets. After the firefight at the courtyard they had managed to scavenge two grenade launchers from some dead marines.

They pulled the triggers of their launchers in unison and sent two, orange colored grenades whistling through the air. Entity had fired his grenade high into the air so that it would land at the same time as Poltergeists.

Poltergeists grenade struck one of the Elites in the center of its chest and detonated. The unlucky Elite was vaporized as the grenade detonated in a brilliant explosion of bright orange fire and deadly shrapnel. The three other Ultras barely had time to yell before their shields were shattered and their bodies were peppered with razor sharp shrapnel. They fell to the ground, leaking blood and missing limbs while the Elites by the right side of the dig site suffered a similar fate and fell to the ground, two of them burned beyond recognition.

The surviving Elites ducked and dived for cover, readying their weapons and searching frantically for their hidden attackers. They yelled at each other and swiveled their heads.

Entity loaded another orange grenade into his launcher and jumped out from behind his rock. He stepped off the edge of the cliff and slid down to the base, with a torrent of dust and small rocks following him. He fired his launcher when he was halfway down the cliff face, blowing one Ultra apart in a hail of blood and sending another one flying.

Two Ultras ran out from behind the purple protrusion on the lower left and fired their plasma repeaters at Entity's fast moving form. Poltergeist, whom had loaded her last orange grenade, fired at the two strafing Elites.

The two Elites stopped in their tracks as they saw the orange grenade spinning towards them and they hopped away from each other, the grenade detonating in the vacant space between them.

The Elite on the right grunted as he was covered in a shower of dirt, thrown up by the nearby explosion and yelled in surprise as Entity sent a normal grenade into its chest. The Elites shield flared a bright blue, shattered and the Elite was thrown backwards. The Elite rolled backwards as it landed, popped up onto its feet and exploded as Poltergeist sent another grenade into its unshielded chest.

The Elite on the left sprinted for the purple protrusion on the right side of the dig site while his five remaining Elite comrades stayed hidden and confused behind the protrusions of the left side of the dig site.

Her last grenade spent, Poltergeist dropped her grenade launcher, pulled her assault rifle off of her back and slid down the cliff face. Entity sprinted towards one of the large rocks surrounding the dig site, firing his assault rifle at the sprinting Elite while he did so.

Nine if his bullets hit the Elite's lower legs and it crashed to the ground while the rest of Entity's bullets missed it completely, whistling over its head as it crashed to the ground.

Poltergeist reached the bottom of the cliff, saw the Elite fall as Entity's bullets slammed into its legs and raised her assault rifle to eye level. She ran forward and fired at the prone Elite. Her bullets slammed into its side, causing it to stumble again. The Elites shield flared a bright blue, gave out and allowed Poltergeists bullets to shred its chest, splattering purple blood everywhere.

Poltergeist's gun clicked empty and she swore, a rather nasty curse, as she saw the five remaining Elites, whom had now been organized by the three Zealots, charged, and in some cases hopped, out from behind their cover.

They saw Poltergeist standing out in the open, raised their plasma repeaters and fired, sending hundreds of deadly, blue, plasma bolts streaming towards Poltergeist's shocked form.

She swore again, this curse even nastier then the last and spun to her right, holding her rifle in her left hand and drawing her pistol in her right and firing it as she went. Her pistol bullets were all tipped in an incredibly hard metal alloy, courtesy of Specter's cannibalization of his own sniper bullets.

Poltergeist fired off five of these hard tipped bullets before she completed her spin, ending up behind a large, soon to be slightly black, rock. The five bullets hit one of the closest Ultra Elites, three of them hit it's chest, shattering it's blue shield while the other two slammed into the exposed flesh of his chest and shoulder, spraying purple blood over the Elites comrades.

The four surviving Ultras, and their three Zealot overlords, continued to fire at Poltergeist's, now very black, rock. She tried to swear, couldn't think of an appropriately nasty curse word and decided against it, resolving to radio Entity instead.

"Hey Ent," she radioed, slightly out of breath from her recent, near death, encounter "I'm pinned down by these Elite bastards, anything you can do would be real appreciated."

"I'm on it," Entity grunted in reply "stay there, you've got them nicely distracted."

"Oh don't you worry," Poltergeist replied "I'll stay here as long as I need too."

A dribble of molten rock slid down the rock next to Poltergeist.

"Or at least until they melt my rock." she added, laughing nervously.

Entity reloaded his assault rifle and made his way around the left side of the dig site. He went unnoticed by the Elites, whom were distracted by Poltergeist and Entity son ended up on the far side of the dig site, facing the Elite's backs.

He pulled a normal grenade from his waist and flicked the pin out. He lobbed it at a group of three Elites, which were to the left of the dig site. It landed in the middle of them and detonated, shattering their shields and throwing them on their backs.

Entity raised his gun to eye level, pointed it at the downed Ultras and loosed his entire clip towards them. The Elites were in the middle of struggling to their feet when they were hit by Entity's bullets. Large holes were torn in their unshielded bodies and they fell back to the ground, rivers of blood pouring out of their bodies.

The two Ultras on the right of the now dead ones stopped firing and glanced back wards in confusion. The Zealots yelled insults and commands at the remaining Ultras.

The Ultras, after receiving their harsh orders, resumed firing at Poltergeist's half melted rock while the Zealots drew their own weapons and advanced towards Entity's position.

Poltergeist pulled a fresh clip from her waist and was about to load it when an activated plasma grenade soared over the rock and landed at her feet. She sprinted to her left and the grenade exploded. The shockwave caught Poltergeist in the back, lifted her off her feet and slammed her to the ground.

"Oomph!" she cried, as the air was knocked from her lungs.

Her helmet bounced off of a rock as she landed, shattering one of the lenses on her OPERATOR helmet and making her see stars. She groaned and pushed herself into her hands and knees.

She shook her head, trying to clear the buzzing within it and spied her assault rifle on the ground before her.

"Poltergeist!" shouted Entity, over the radio.

"I'm here," she replied, realizing that his voice had been the buzzing sound "Im a bit shook up, but I'm alive."

She scooped up her assault rifle, reached for an ammo clip and found that the explosion had knocked them from her waist.

"Crap," Entity said "I've got Zealots incoming, your on your own with those two Ultras."

"Roger that Ent," Poltergeist replied "give em hell."

She placed her assault rifle on her back, waiting for it to magnetize into place. She pulled her only remaining weapon, her pistol, from her thigh and made her way through the maze of rocks.

She came to a stop behind a rock on the right of her previous cover and peeked out from behind it.

The two Ultras had stopped firing and were cautiously advancing towards the molten rock. She pulled her head back behind her rock and waited.

The two Ultras approached the melted rock, their weapons at the ready. They were nervous. Anyone could see that. The way they moved, the way jerked their heads at the slightest sound all gave the impression of them being terrified.

And who could blame them? They were dealing with the cursed demons! The very beings who had fought off thousands off covenant troops singlehanded. There was even a rumor going around that they couldn't be killed.

The Ultras pushed their doubts to the back of their minds and dashed around of the corner of the rock. Straight into the muzzle of a sage colored demon's pistol.

Bang!

Bang!

Poltergeist lowered her pistol as the Ultras fell to the ground, leaking brain fluid from the holes in their heads. The Elites had never had a chance. Not at close range with pistol-sniper hybrid bullets.

Poltergeist slid her clip out of the butt of the pistol and checked its ammo. One bullet left. She would have to make it count.

"Shit!" Entity yelled, his voice broadcasting over the helmet radio.

Entity's swear was followed by a loud crash which was in turn followed by the guttural laugh of an Elite Zealot.

Poltergeist slammed her clip back into the pistol and sprinted over to Entity's position, which was highlighted in her helmet's HUD.

Bang!

Bang!

Entity heard Poltergeist's shots as one of the Zealots rounded the rock in front of him. He fired his assault rifle, catching the Zealot in the chest and turning its shields a dull bluey-white.

"This is not working." Entity thought, as the Zealot laughed and charged him, gripping a plasma sword in its right hand.

Entity hurled his assault rifle at the Zealot and ran to meet it head on. The Zealot flicked its sword in an upward arc, slicing the assault rifle in half. Entity ducked under the Zealots sword, which was still raised from slicing the assault rifle.

He grasped the Zealot around its waist, the force of which winded it and knocked the sword from its grasp. Ignoring the punches that it rained down on his back, Entity heaved the Zealot off of its feet and slammed it down onto the ground, it's shield giving out in the process.

The Zealot cried out and Entity punched it in the mouth, breaking its lower jaws. He was about to punch it again when he saw, from the corner of his eye, another Zealot charging him from his right side.

He swiveled his torso towards the incoming Zealot, keeping the first one pinned to the ground at the same time. The Zealot hopped to a stop in front of Entity and thrust it's sword towards him.

Entity leaned backwards, avoiding the deadly jab and grasped the Elites wrist with his left hand.

"Nice stick." he grunted, as he pulled the Zealot towards him, bringing up his left elbow and slamming it into its head.

The Zealot yelled, dropped its sword and grasped Entity's throat while the Zealot beneath Entity thrust it's hips skywards and rolled to its left.

Entity was left with a Zealot holding his throat and a Zealot behind him. He assessed his options in a heartbeat and realized that he still had a hold on the second Zealot's wrist.

He hauled it towards him, intending to kick the Zealot over his head and send it flying into the other one. But the Zealot was ready for him and instead of being kicked in the stomach it did something else.

The Zealot stumbled forwards and miraculously regained its balance in time to avoid Entity's kick. It sidestepped his legs and grasped the collar of his GREANDIER chest piece with its free hand.

The Zealot picked Entity up, actually picked him up and threw him against a nearby rock.

"Shit!" Entity yelled, as he sailed through the air.

Entity slid to the bottom of the rock and looked up in time to see the Zealot charge him. It threw a punch, catching Entity in the face and spinning him sideways. The Zealot straddled him and activated it's plasma daggers.

It thrust it's right wrist, and it's deadly dagger, towards Entity's face. Entity made a desperate grab and secured his fingers around the Zealot's wrist, a second before the dagger could make contact.

The two formidable warriors wrestled for control, the Zealot put all of its weight and muscle behind its wrist while Entity desperately tried to push it back. But with the combined strength of its weight and muscles, the Zealot was winning.

The dagger inched towards Entity's face and he grunted with the effort of trying to stop it. His muscles were screaming at him to stop and his breath was coming in short gasps, courtesy of the alien squashing his midsection.

Something sped past the injured Zealot, angling towards Entity. His strength finally gave out and the dagger plunged towards Entity's face, the Zealot yelling with triumph.

Poltergeists foot suddenly appeared. It slammed into the side of the celebrating Zealot's head, knocking it and it's dagger side ways. The dagger scraped across Entity's visor, drawing a deep scratch across it surface.

The Zealot's head struck a rock and was sandwiched between the rock face and Poltergeist's boot. There was a sickening crunch and the Zealot slid to the ground. Dead.

As soon as Poltergeist's foot touched the ground she spun around, raising her pistol as she turned. She fired it, point blank, into the shoulder of the injured Zealot which had been approaching them with it's retrieved plasma sword.

Poltergeist's last remaining bullet pierced both the flesh and the shield of the Zealots right shoulder. It shattered the ball of bone in the Zealot's shoulder socket and threw the Zealot backwards, rendering its right arm useless.

She turned towards Entity and offered him her hand.

"There you go," she smiled, holstering her pistol "I saved your life in under ten seco-"

The third Zealot came flying out of the maze of rocks. It slammed into Poltergeist and pushed her up against one of the surrounding rocks.

"Oh no you don't!" Entity thought, scrambling to his feet.

He charged towards the Zealot as Poltergeist slipped out from under it's grasp. She stepped to the side as Entity slammed his shoulder into the Zealots spine.

Snap!

The Zealot went limp as Entity crushed it between himself and the rock.

"There you go," he replied, walking over to the injured Zealot "I saved your life in under five seconds."

"Yeah, yeah," Poltergeist grumbled, walking over to join him "is it alive?"

Entity dropped the Zealot's head, which he had been examining and shook his own one.

"Nope," he said, standing up "he lost way too much blood form that shoulder wound."

"Come on," Poltergeist said "let's go get that artifact."

The two battle damaged MJOLNIR suits jogged to the center of the dig-site, the sage colored one reloading it's pistol as it went.

They reached the center and Poltergeist jumped into the crater. She rummaged around inside it for a moment while Entity kept watch. Entity examined the crater's surroundings and realized something.

"This isn't a dig site." he informed Poltergeist.

What the two Spartan's had mistaken for a hole dug by the covenant was actually the crater left by a Wraith's plasma shell.

"And this isn't Forerunner tech." Poltergeist replied, handing a glowing purple cylinder up to Entity.

"What the hell is that?" Entity asked, turning it over in his hands.

"No idea," said Poltergeist "but it's gotta be pretty damn important if ONI lied to us about it."

"Give me a break," Entity laughed, as they walked back towards their Warthog "ONI would lie to us if it wasn't important."

"Are the troops ready?" Rha asked, double checking his shields.

"Ready and awaiting your orders brother." Voro asked.

"Good," Rha replied "Get the surviving Mgalekgolo to go in first. Have them arranged au by side and order the Kig-Yar squads to form up in lines beside them."

"A shield wall," Voro mused, seeing what his brother had in mind "interesting, I'll tell our Sangheili to lead the surviving Unngoy squads behind it."

"We have two remaining Wraiths correct?" Rha asked, waiting for Voro to confirm it "have them stay out of site of the courtyard and pick out a squad to act as spotters for them. And make sure they don't enter the courtyard!" he added "We don't need another Vhar."

Vhar was the name of the Elite that had driven his Wraith into the courtyard during the first assault.

Bright was feeling down. Not because of the spikes that had pierced her back, but because everyone seemed to have something to do except her. All she could do was stumble around and fall over.

Simon and Spook we're trying to repair the radio after it had broke again and Spirit was busy ordering Greaves and the marines around.

"You okay Bright?" Taylor asked, leaning against the railing next to her.

They were on the platform by the loading doors, looking out onto the courtyard below.

"Yeah," she sighed "just feeling a bit useless, you know."

"Hmm," he replied, staring off into the distance "that might be about to change."

Bright followed his gaze and saw that there was a large wall of flickering light approaching the gate. The gate was wide enough to allow three human tanks to pass through side by side and it would easily allow whatever was approaching them to pass through it with ease.

Bright peered towards the light and let out a small gasp. It was a wall of covenant shields, with two large, dark blue and solid shields in its center.

"Covenant!" shouted Taylor.

He turned to Bright.

"Can you fight?" he asked.

"Yes sir!" Bright replied, straightening up and wincing slightly.

"Then follow me."

Bright followed Taylor, wincing slightly, as he made his way down the left walkway.

"Battle stations!" Spirit yelled out, as the courtyard erupted into a hive of activity.

Bright reached the bottom of the left ramp, struggling not to be swept away by the marines and ran to catch up with Taylor. She saw him taking cover behind a burnt out warthog with the rest of her squad.

"Bright?!" Greaves exclaimed, pulling on his helmet "Are you sure your good to fight?"

"Ready and waiting sir!" Bright replied, eager to be of help.

She pulled on her own helmet as the covenant opened fire. They were still quite far away and their shots were wide and off target.

"Remember what I told you!" Spirit yelled "Only use the dome shield when the Wraith's fire!"

After Specter had spotted the two Wraiths arriving Spirit had ordered the marines to scavenge the covenant corpses for any dome shields. The marines were instructed t turn the shield on when a Wraith fired at them and switch it off, to conserve its power, after the danger had passed.

Bright peeked around the corner of the Warthog and was surprised to see that the wall of shields had advanced almost to the gate.

An Elite near the back of the shield wall yelled and the Covenant opened fire. Hundreds of bolts of plasma flew towards the human forces, fired through the openings between the shields.

The plasma slammed into makeshift barricades, melted metal and felled several marines.

The Marines replied in kind, days of fear, anger and the loss of many friends lending to the ferocity of their assault. Bullets sped towards the shields. Most of the bullets bounced off the shields, ricocheting into the surrounding area, but there were some that made it through the gaps.

Gaps opened up in the shield wall as Jackals had holes torn in them and Bright saw that there were more Covenant warriors behind them.

The wall suddenly split into five parts. Two squads of Jackals on the left, two on the right and the Hunter's in the middle.

The two Jackal squads on the left burst through the gate, closely followed by three Elites and eleven Grunts, and dashed towards a group of debris on the left side of the courtyard, quickly eliminating the five marines that were using it as cover.

The Jackals on the right tried to copy their team mates and were torn apart as Spirit, Spook and some very angry marines assaulted them with rifles, grenades and insults.

The three remaining Jackals beat a hasty retreat, one Elite and five grunts were huddled behind them. They had left over a dozen of their team mates behind.

"Incoming!" Someone shouted.

Bright looked skywards, while her squad mates fired at the Covenant on the left and saw two blue bolts arcing towards the courtyard. She was horrified to see that one of them was heading for her.

She scooped the Dome Shield unit off of the ground and fumbled with its controls. She found the activation symbol and pressed it.

She dropped the unit and took and involuntary step back as the golden shield ballooned out from the unit. It enveloped the squad and their cover completely.

"Fuck!" Simon yelled, ducking down behind the Warthog as his bullets rebounded off of the Dome.

The bullets slammed into the chassis of the Warthog.

"Warn me next ti-" he began.

He was cut off as the Wraith's bullet hit the shield. It shook the ground beneath their feet and rattled their teeth. Bright pressed the activation button on the unit and the shield disappeared.

She looked behind her and saw that the squad of marines had failed to activate their shield in time. All that was left were body parts and smoking concrete.

There were six squads of five marines each spread out through the courtyard plus an extra three squads stationed on the catwalk.

There were now four squads of marines spread throughout the courtyard.

Bright poked her head out from behind her cover and fired her SMG towards two Grunts on the left that had strayed beyond the protection of the Jackals shields.

Her bullets found their mark as three marines were obliterated by the combined might of the Hunters. The two Grunts dropped to the ground and one of their Elite overlords yelled his anger, firing his plasma rifle at Bright.

She ducked behind the Warthog and did some quick calculations.

"We have thirty-two marines, four ODST's and two Spartans," she thought, loading her SMG "and they have around about thirty-five warriors, plus tanks and back up. We aren't going to last long."

Spirit sent ten bullets slamming into the unshielded chest of the last surviving Elite on the left and ducked back behind cover. He reloaded his rifle and peeked out from behind his chunk of masonry to see a squad of five Elites and three Jackals sprinting through the gates.

"Dammit!" he yelled "They've got reinforcements."

"I saw," replied Spook "we aren't going to last long with those Wraiths pounding us like that."

As if on cue two more plasma shells rose above the compounds skyline and arced towards a squad of marines by the center of the courtyard. The marines activated their Dome shield. The first shell crashed down around them. The shield held.

The marines deactivated the shield, only to be hit by the second shell. They barely had time to yell before they were blown apart, and burned horrifically, by the roiling ball of blue plasma.

"Dammit!" Spirit yelled "They must have spotters somewhere."

"Even without spotters..." Spook replied, destroying one of the new Elites heads with a well timed shot from her DMR "Even without spotters those Wraiths are gonna pound us."

"Specter, Poltergeist do you copy?" Spirit radioed, Spook had managed to get the long range radio working. Again.

"We hear you loud and clear captain," Poltergeist replied, speaking for the two of them "what do you need?"

"The Covenant Wraiths have us pinned down in the courtyard, we need you to take em out." he replied.

"Can do captain," Poltergeist answered "can you give us coordinates?"

"Spook?" Spirit asked.

Spook activated some complicated functions in her helmet's HUD and it traced the arcs of the last plasma shells, giving her their points of origin.

"Sending them now." she grunted, as a plasma grenade detonated nearby.

"Received," Poltergeist confirmed "moving to engage."

"Roger that Polt," Spirit said, as two marines on the walkway were hit by plasma bolts "happy hunting."

Rha leaned out from behind his Kig-Yar protectors and fired his plasma repeater at two marines that were running across the walkway. His bolts took them in the chest and legs and they fell to the ground, their bodies burned and their hearts stopped.

He ducked back behind the safety of the shields and shook his head. The was no glory in this. No honor in killing desperate, terrified soldiers with superior technology. Those warriors probably had families, friends and-.

Rha banished the dangerous thoughts from his head. Those thoughts led to heresy, and heresy led to death.

He looked to his left, over towards first shield. He had been horrified when the demons had slaughtered over a dozen of his team mates. He was amazed by their ferocity and speed.

"Thank the Prophets there are only two of them." he thought.

Specter, his trigger finger ready and willing, stalked through the battle damaged hallways of the ONI base, occasionally stepping over a burnt or bloodied marine. The hallways were eerily quiet and Specter felt the hairs on the back of his neck raise as he thought about the four Spec Op Elites that could be aiming their guns at him right now.

He glanced over his shoulder to see Phantom trailing after him, his shotgun loaded and ready. They continued through the hallways, their footsteps echoing off of the walls around them.

They located a stairwell and took up to the third floor, the located in Specters helmet began to beep at regular intervals as they neared their quarry.

"You reckon he's still alive?" Phantom asked, speaking to alleviate his own tension.

"How would I know?!" Specter snapped, he was accustomed to sneaking around like this and hated to be distracted during his stealthy activities.

Specter had always been stealthy, he had constantly snuck off from activities or out after curfew during his training on Reach, and he was so accustomed to these kinds of situations that he sometimes forgot how it affected other people.

Being a super soldier was one thing. Trudging through a dark, silent environment and knowing that every moment could be your last was another.

"Sorry," he apologized "I have no idea. Probably not."

Phantom nodded, keeping quiet and following Specter closely. They walked down a corridor and came to a door that was slightly ajar. Their locators were beeping rapidly.

Specter nodded towards Phantom and they burst through the steel door, throwing it back on its hinges. The room was the control center for the whole base, the far wall was covered in windows with a row of computers in front of it. In the center of the room was a dead man in black clothing.

"Check him." Phantom said, turning to cover the door and keeping low in case anyone was looking through the windows.

"Who made you boss?" Specter grumbled as he knelt down beside the corpse, calling up the file ONI had sent them in his HUD.

"Black clothing, so cliche." he continued, rolling the man onto his back and comparing his face with the one in his HUD "yeah it's him."

Phantom glanced over his shoulder, failing to see the transparent blur that passed through the door.

"Search him for any equipment and let's get out of here." he said.

Specter nodded his agreement and turned to observe the body. As he was turning to search the body he caught sight of a small, hand shaped blur moving through the door.

Specter exploded from his crouched position, leaving his DMR on the ground beside the corpse and kicked the door with all his might.

The door slammed closed on the blur with a loud crunch. The blur blurred, accompanied by a yell and an alien hand faded into view.

A Spec Ops Elite materialized next to Phantom and lunged towards him. But Phantom was quicker. Phantom jammed the butt of his rifle into the Elites chin, staggering the creature and sending it reeling.

Specter grabbed the hand, feeling the broken bones grind together, opened the door slightly and hauled the Elite through. The Elite stumbled through the opening, with its head low and Specter brought his right knee up into the aliens face.

The Elite tripped over the corpse and ended up sprawled by the base of the computer banks. Specter whirled to face it, slamming the door closed, as Phantom planted a front kick in the center of his assailants chest, slamming it against the wall and destroying its shields.

Phantoms attacker hit the wall and bounced off of it. The Elite stumbled towards Phantom and he fired his primed shotgun into its chest, obliterating it and spraying himself with purple blood.

Specter drew his combat knife as his Elite charged towards him, it's left wrist swinging unnaturally. It swung it's right wrist, which had a plasma dagger leaping from it, towards Specter. Specter stepped to the left, avoiding the dagger and slipped his knife under the Elites arm and into its rib cage. The alien was dead before it hit the floor.

He resheathed his knife and scooped up his DMR.

"What do you think?" he asked Phantom, whom had finished his Elite a few seconds before Specter "The window or the door?"

"Oh definitely window," Phantom replied as Specter smiled with child like delight "doors to risky, they could have booby trapped the corridor."

Specter slammed the butt of his DMR into the reinforced glass three times. The glass cracked, cracked some more and a large section fell towards the ground. He clambered up onto the top of the computer banks and looked back towards Phantom.

"Well no time like the present." he grinned.

He leaped through the opening and plummeted towards the ground.

"Crazy bastard." Phantom laughed.

Of the entire squad, Specter was definitely the most reckless... And crazy. Phantom was probably the most hot headed, spirit was the thinker, poltergeist was caring but in a fierce way, Entity was more loyal then a dog and Spook was the quickest learner and the most insightful of the squad.

But they were all reckless, and a little crazy at times.

Phantom climbed on top of the computer banks and followed Specter through the window.

They jogged out of the compound and climbed the hill back to their Warthog, eager to escape the menacing compound and the jungle with its invisible eyes.

They reached their Warthog without incident and approached it.

Snap!

Specter and Phantom whirled around to see the two surviving Spec Ops materialize on the muddy road. The Elites charged them. Specter fired his DMR, catching the Elite on the left three times on the head, damaging it's shield while Phantom destroyed the other Elite's shield with a round from his shotgun.

The Elite on the right reached Specter and stabbed its sword towards him while the second Elite swung its sword in a downward arc towards Phantom's head. Both of the Spartans sidestepped the attacks, the sword meant for Phantom cut into the front of the Warthog while the sword meant for Specter missed him completely.

Phantom cocked his shotgun and fired it into the Elite's, who was struggling to free his sword, back. The Elite crumpled to the ground while it's sword dematerialized. Specter fired off four more shots towards his Elite, which had spun to face him. Specter's last bullet caught the Elite in the neck and it dropped to the forest floor.

"I feel much better now that they're dead." Specter sighed, climbing onto the turret.

"I know what you mean." Phantom replied, pressing the Warthogs ignition.

It was true, now that the Elites had been killed the forest had lost all of its menace. The Spartans no longer felt as though their every move was being watched.

The Warthog rumbled into life and Phantom pressed his foot down on the accelerator. The wheels spun, churning the mud below it. The wheels found purchase and the Warthog lurched forwards.

Phantom turned the Warthog towards Tower Base and sped off down the road.

The Warthog flew out from under the jungles canopy. Phantom steered it down the road. Specter turned his head to the right and activated the zoom function on his HUD. He zoomed in on Warthog in the distance and saw that both of its passengers we're safe.

"Looks like Entity and Polt are okay." Specter said, as they sped towards theorist where the roads joined.

"Shit!" Phantom exclaimed, glancing in his rear view mirror, which was tilted at an odd angle "We got Banshees incoming!"

Specter rotated his turret and spied two purple Banshees bearing down on him. He thumbed the activation buttons on his turret and sent hundreds of bullets towards the airborne objects.

The Banshees parted, flying in separate directions and avoiding the stream of bullets and returned in kind.

"Swerve!" Specter abbreviated.

"On it!" Phantom replied, wrenching the steering wheel to the right, then to the left.

The Warthog swerved down the road, dodging most of the plasma bolts, although a few of them impacted against the chassis and bounced off of the Spartan's shields. The Warthog continued to fishtail down the road while Phantom wrestled with the steering wheel.

The Banshees unleashed another salvo of bolts, most of which missed and Specter returned the favor.

Phantom, having regained control of the Warthog, steered it towards the join in the road. They sped through the join, driving onto the main road and drawing parallel with Poltergeists Warthog.

"Incoming!" Specter yelled.

Phantom glanced in the rear view mirror in time to see one of the Banshees launch a green plasma shell towards him. He wrenched the wheel to the right and the Warthog complied.

The green plasma slammed into the road beside them, showering them with sparks as they slammed into Poltergeists Warthog.

"Hey!" Specter shouted "Watch the paint!"

"I'm a bit busy!" Phantom replied.

The Banshee on the left took a sudden interest in Poltergeist's Warthog. It veered to the left and fired at them. Poltergeist swerved, avoiding the bolts and Entity returned fire with their Warthog, landing several shots on the Banshee's left wing.

The Banshee fired again. It hit the Warthog. Seven blue bolts struck the back of the Warthog. A few of them hit the turret and they burned through its metal covering. Specter sent a few rounds towards the Banshee, regaining it's attention and allowing Entity some time to recover.

"Specter, Poltergeist," came Spirit's voice "do you copy?"

Phantom grunted as he steered the Warthog over a pot hole, the resulting bounce threw off Specter's accuracy.

"Shit!" he exclaimed, pulling the aiming reticule back on target.

"We hear you loud and clear captain!" Poltergeist said, over the radio "What do you need?"

Specter didn't bother listening to the rest of the conversation, Poltergeist would fill him in later. He fired the turret, sending hundreds of bullets streaking towards the Banshees.

Several of the armor piercing rounds struck the right wing of the Banshee on the left. The bullets tore great purple chunks out of the machine and it swerved to the left, crashing into it's partner.

Specter aimed the turret at the first Banshee's cockpit and fired. The bullets tore into the dome like structure, igniting several fires and triggering tiny small explosions. Sparks flew from the Banshee's wounds and it exploded, knocking its partner from the sky.

The two Banshee's fell from the sky, trailing smoke, sparks and purple fire.

"Yeah!" Specter exclaimed, turning to look at Phantom.

"Spec, Phantom look out!" Entity yelled.

Specter turned back around to see the two Banshees spinning along the ground towards them.

"Whoa!" he yelled, thumping the top of the Warthog "Faster faster faster!"

Phantom pinned the acceleration pedal to the ground. The ball of purple machinery was spinning towards them, it bounced and rolled over the ground, tearing deep furrows in the road as it went.

The ball of destroyed vehicles chased them down the road for a few more meters before its momentum finally gave out. It rolled to a stop and slowly fell to pieces.

"Whew," Specter muttered "that was a close one."

"Specter, Phantom," Poltergeist radioed, as Specter and Phantom argued over how 'awesome' the recent event was "we've got a new objective."

"We're all ears." Phantom replied, all arguments forgotten.

"Spirit and Spook are pinned down in the courtyard by two Wraiths," Poltergeist continued, sending the two Spartans coordinates via her helmet's HUD "they need us to eliminate them."

Two markers appeared over Tower Base, which was rapidly growing closer, one was to the left while the other was to the right.

"Roger that Polt," Phantom replied "we'll take the one on the left."

They reached the gates and slowed considerably. They carefully drove their Warthogs through the small opening, the rest of the gate was barred by large purple road blocks and picked up speed again once they were through.

"Let's go hunt some tanks." Specter said.

"Crap!" Spook cursed, as her gun clicked empty.

She let the empty clip slide to the ground and pulled a fresh one from one of the many pouches strapped to her chest. She slammed the clip into the rifle and checked her ammo counters.

"I've only got two clips left!" she yelled at Spirit.

Spirit finished emptying his clip into an Elite Minor and stepped back behind the chunk of concrete they were using for cover. The Elite did not survive.

"I'm on my last one now." he replied, sliding his last clip into the rifle "Let's make them count!"

He nodded at Spook and they stepped out from behind their cover, immediately sighting their individual targets.

Spirit chose a squad of orange Grunts, the sunlight reflected off of their armor and hurt Spirits eyes. He pulled the trigger and panned his muzzle from left to right, peppering the four Grunts with bullets.

They yelled, tried to run and fell to ground as Spirit's bullets blew holes in their exposed backs and chests.

His work done, Spirit retreated behind the rock and leant his back against it. Spook joined him, after eliminating two of three Jackal warriors.

Spirit checked his ammo counter while Spook loaded her last clip into her gun.

"I've got thirteen rounds left." Spirit grunted "After that I'm going to have to get up close and personal."

"Last clip." Spook grunted "And I've still got my pistol left."

Phantom and Specter sped through the deserted and destroyed streets of Tower Base. They passed destroyed buildings, burnt bodies and smoking vehicles.

"We're close." Phantom muttered, coming to a stop in front of a long, dark tunnel.

The marker in his HUD had turned a bright orange and the distance counter beneath it read less then a hundred meters.

"Wraith must be hiding out on the landing pad" Specter said, checking turret to make sure it was working.

"I'm gonna try drifting around to it's back. See if you can hit the reactor there." Phantom relied.

Specter nodded his approval and Phantom accelerated forwards. They drove into the tunnel and Phantom turned on the headlights. The tunnel was deserted.

They sped out of the other end, their visors automatically adjusting to the change in light. There was a T-intersection ahead. The - part of the intersection was a large runway, which was littered with destroyed aircraft, and a few surviving ones, that had never left the ground. At the right end of the runway was a large circular area, a landing pad for Hornets and Falcons.

The landing pad was clear of all UNSC vehicles and in their place sat a large, purple Wraith. The Wraith was facing north-east, the direction of the courtyard and every few seconds it would fire a large blue bolt into the sky. The Wraith was surround by three Elites.

Phantom steered the Warthog towards the Wraith. The Elites heard the roar of the Warthogs engine and turned to face it, yelling a warning to the Wraith. The Elites raised their plasma weapons and opened fire while the Wraith turned to face the Warthog.

The Warthog swerved down the road as Phantom jerked the steering wheel left and right. A torrent of bullets leaped from the barrel of the turret as Specter thumbed the fire buttons.

He had aimed for an Elite in the left side of the landing pad and the alien dived to the left, avoiding death by mere inches. Specter panned the turret over to the right, spraying the whole landing pad with bullets.

The Wraith was unaffected, the rounds bouncing off of its heavily armored front while the two other Elites scrambled for cover. They found none. Specter's bullets tore into the Elite closest to the Wraith, suspending its corpse in midair with their force and spraying the Wraith with the aliens blood.

The other Elite was hit nine times, it's shield gave out and three bullets hit its shoulder and leg, crippling the fearsome warrior.

Phantom reached the landing pad and turned right. He pressed the brakes, pinned the accelerator the the floor and yanked the steering wheel to the left. The Warthog lurched backwards, then sped forwards.

It turned sideways and slid around the outskirts of the landing pad, smoke flying off of its rubber tires. The wounded Elite stumbled to its feet, saw the approaching Warthog and limped to the side with all the speed it could muster. It wasn't enough.

The Warthog slammed into the Elite, which died on impact. The corpse tumbled over the top of the Warthog and onto the road.

The Warthog reached the back of the Wraith and Specter opened fire. The turrets rounds tore through the weak armor at the Wraith's back, tearing it to pieces and exposing the purple reactor beneath.

Phantom slammed on the breaks and the Warthog skidded to a stop, allowing Specter more time to hit the reactor.

"Spec hurry it up!" Phantom yelled.

The maroon colored Elite, the one that had escaped death, was clambering to its feet. And it looked angry.

Voro' Chonchiyo was angry. Very angry. And very surprised as well. The demons had come out of nowhere. They had arrived less then a minute ago and already both Jaja' Mantakrea and Sork' Griotohad fallen to their assault.

Voro's weapon was gone, torn to pieces by the demons deadly bullets. He pushed himself to his feet and drew his plasma sword. He located the human vehicle. It had halted behind the Wraith and was slamming round after round into its exposed reactor.

"I must save Garrak!" Voro thought, rushing t save the Wraith's pilot.

He roared at the demons and sprinted towards them, activating his sword as he went. It flared into life, sparks flying from the ground where it touched. One of the demons, the driver, pulled a small weapon from its hip.

Voro was about to begin evasive maneuvers when the first bullet hit him. It slammed into his head with the force of a charging rhinoceros, his shield saving his life and snapped his head backwards.

He darted to the side avoiding another bullet and was just starting forwarded when two more slammed into his chest.

"Great heavens above this demon is fast!" Voro thought.

He ducked and weaved, ignoring the aching of his chest and neck. He dodged five more bullets, one of them glancing his chest and heard a small click. The demon swore and Voro smiled.

"Out of ammo." he thought, as he reached the Warthog "I will destroy this demon with my bare hands and cry my victory to the gods!"

He leaped towards the Warthog, his right hand raised and firmly clasping a glowing sword. He whipped his arm downwards, descending towards the driver and landed straight on the demons raised foot.

The demons booted-kick crunched into Voro's chest, knocking the air from his lungs and cracking more then a few ribs. The sword spun from Voro's grasp as his body was jerked to a stop.

The demons kick sent Voro flying backwards, he crashed onto the asphalt and didn't get up. He lay sprawled on the landing pad, trying to figure out what had just happened.

Phantom leaned to his left and kicked his right foot out as hard as he could, his hamstrings flaring with pain at the unnatural position. His kick hit the screaming Elite in the chest, hurling him backwards.

"Aghhh!" Phantom yelled, as his hamstrings were stretched to their limit.

"Whoa! That did it!" Specter yelled, as the reactor exploded "Let's get out of here before that thing goes nuclear!"

Phantom pulled the steering wheel to the left and stomped his foot down on the accelerator. The Warthog jumped forwards as tiny detonations appeared along the Wraith's chassis.

They tore down the runway, Specter radioing Spirit to inform him of their success.

Voro stumbled to his feet, his sword lost and his pride damaged. How could he have allowed them to escape?! He was going to be punished for this for sure.

"Garrak!" he thought, suddenly remembering the Wraith's pilot.

He scrambled onto the Wraith's cockpit, avoiding the holes in it's chassis were purple flames leapt through. All around him the chassis was exploding, the detonations were small at first but they were getting larger and larger with each passing second.

He found the hatch, it had been mangled by an earlier explosion and pried it off. Grunting with the effort, he heaved it aside and looked into the small cavity.

Garrak, one of the strike forces higher ranking Sangheili, sat within. The maroon clad warrior was leaking blood from a dozen holes in his back and there was a large metal spike protruding from his left shoulder.

Voro grasped Garrak with both hands and hauled him out of the fiery cockpit. Voro draped Garraks right arm over his shoulders and wrapped his own left arm around Garrak's waist.

He supported the wounded warrior and climbed down from the Wraith, which was about to explode. They hobbled away from the tank as fast as they could. The Wraith exploded, it's shockwave sending the two Sangheili flying.

They crashed to the ground, their ears ringing and tumbled across the asphalt. Voro was on his feet immediately. He rushed over to his prone teammate and rolled him onto his back.

"No!" Garrak whispered, his voice coarse "Kill the demons! There is no honor in helping a warrior to weak to win."

"There is no honor in killing a retreating enemy either!" Voro snapped, annoyed at the warriors disdain for his own life.

He pried the spike from Garrak's shoulder and filled the wound with a canister of bio-gel that he carried. Garrak drifted into unconsciousness.

"Second Wraith come in." Voro grunted, trying to radio the second Wraith and it's guards.

He rolled Garrak onto his front and examined the warriors wounds. Several of the rounds from the human machine had torn through the back of the Wraith and embedded themselves in the Sangheili's back. They wounds themselves weren't a problem, they were shallow and easily fixable, it was the blood leaking out of them that needed attention.

"Second Wraith come in!" he tried again, receiving no reply save for white noise.

"Sons of the Prophets!" he swore, switching his radio to Rha's frequency.

He grasped a small piece of sharp, wreckage from the Wraith and used the pointed end to dig the metal bullets out of Garrak's back. It was gruesome work. He worked with the sound of the crackling flames filling the background.

"Rha come in!" he radioed, digging out a seventh bullet and sealing the hole with bio-gel.

"I read you my brother," Rha replied, his voice talking over the sounds of death and gunfire "what news do you bring?"

"Bad news," Voro said bluntly, filling two more wounds with bio-gel "two demons arrived, they destroyed the Wraith and killed Jaja and Sork. Garrak is injured as well... Badly."

Voro heard Rha swear over the radio. The sound of plasma repeaters being fired filled his headset for a moment before Rha replied.

"What of second Wraith?" he asked, though he already knew the answer.

"I can't reach them," Voro muttered "if the demons hit first Wraith then they definitely hit second Wraith as well."

"Dammit!" Rha swore "Those Wraiths were our only chance." he took a deep breath and continued "Okay, fall back to second Wraith's position. I'll radio the gates and send the Phantom to pick our forces up from there."

"We will be punished for our failure." Voro said glumly, hoisting Garrak up.

"I would rather be punished then dead any day." Rha replied, terminating the connection.

"Perhaps not brother," Voro said, knowing that his brother could not hear him "there are some punishments worse then death."

"I'm out!" Spirit yelled, ducking back behind the rock in time to avoid a hail of blue plasma bolts as Specter and Poltergeist reported the elimination of their targets.

The bolts hit the corner of the rock, sizzling and blackening the surface.

"Me too!" Spook replied, pulling her pistol from her thigh.

Spirit poked his aqua, HAZOP helmet around the corner of their cover and spied his attackers.

The previously devastated group of aliens had been reinforced by three Jackals and four Grunts. Now there were five Grunts huddling behind four Jackal shields, occasionally venturing out to take pot shots at unsuspecting marines.

"Cover me!" Spirit yelled, placing his empty assault rifle on his back and drawing his battle knife.

He waited until he heard a break in the enemies fire. He didn't have to wait long. Spirit exploded out from behind his cover and sped towards the Covenant warriors.

He veered towards the center of the shield wall and shoulder charged it, destroying their protective wall before they even realized he was there.

A bullet whistled past Spirit's head and slammed into the chest of the Jackal on the far right, which had stumbled. It fell to the ground, purple blood pooling around it as its comrades jumped with shock and fright.

Spirit's momentum had carried him straight through the wall of shields. And he didn't intend to stop there. He took another step forwards and snapped his right leg out, catching a small orange Grunt in the head.

The Grunt's neck snapped and the tiny creature did an involuntary backflip, courtesy of Spirit's immensely strong kick.

Spirit spun around and grabbed one of the still reeling Jackals by the back of its neck. He slammed his knife, which was clasped in his right hand, into the creatures lower back. The Jackal was dead before it hit the ground.

Spirit left his knife embedded in the avian alien and dived to his left, towards an Elite corpse, as the four Grunt's regrouped and opened fire. Several green boots slammed into the area where Spirit had been just a second earlier.

He rolled to break his fall and scooped the unused plasma sword off of the Elites corpse. He activated it and had the breath knocked out of him as something slammed into his back.

He stumbled forwards, fell and rolled. He rolled forwards, twisting his body around as he came up into his feet and faced down the Elite that had shoulder charged him.

Rha gave the order to retreat, yelling it into his radio and broadcasting his orders to the whole strike force. Second Shield was pulling out nicely, the Kig-Yar, there were six of them, had formed a strong shield wall and were deflecting nearly every bullet fired at them as they slowly made their way back towards the gate.

Thirteen Unngoy warrior's were huddling behind the wall along with Rha and three other Sangheili minors.

Rha cast his gaze past the two retreating Mgalekgolo and toward First Shield. They were disorganized, their line was broken and something was in their midst. A Grunt flew out of the melee, spinning through the air and crunching into the earth.

The press of bodies parted for a moment and Rha gasped as he saw a blue demon engaging First Shield in hand to hand combat. He grabbed the shoulder of a nearby Sangheili minor.

"Suyok!" he grunted "With me! We're going to kill a demon."

Suyok nodded his head while Rha told the others to continue falling back. Rha dropped his plasma repeater, it was almost spent anyway, as he couldn't risk firing it without hitting his teammates.

Suyok followed his lead and they both drew their plasma swords. Rha waited until there seemed to be a few less bullets whistling through the air and charged out into the open.

Immediately three marines opened fire at him, but he was already gone, moving with unnatural speed towards the safety of the Mgalekgolo shields. Rha leaped behind the hulking, blue behemoths, Suyok not far behind.

He looked over to First Shield and saw the demon slide it's metal dagger into the back of a Kig-Yar.

"Our times up." he thought, as he sprinted towards the demons back, his sword raised above his head.

His feet pounded over the courtyard's scorched and pockmarked surface. He was close to the demon now. He drew back his sword arm and stumbled as three bullets slammed into his right side, knocking the air from his lung and cracking a rib.

His sword arm dropped and he made a desperate lunge forwards, slamming his shoulder into the demons back and sending it flying forwards.

Suyok arrived at Rha's side and pulled him to his feet. The demon was already up and running. Running straight towards them.

Rha and Suyok roared, then charged forwards as one. Suyok stabbed his sword towards the demon while Rha threw his in an overhead cut. The demon spun to the left, quick as a flash and brought his own plasma sword up.

Suyok stumbled forwards as his blade met no resistance and Rha's arm was jarred as his own swing was brought to a sudden halt, blocked by the demon. Rha raised his sword up again and felt and agonizing pain in his left knee as the demon snapped its right leg out in a quick side kick.

The kick buckled Rha's knee and he sunk to the ground as the demon parried several of Suyok's blows, spinning at the end and twirling his blade around him.

Rha growled and leaped forwards, swinging his blade diagonally across his body and activating his left plasma dagger. The demon blocked his attack and was about to launch his own when Rha swung his left wrist towards the demon's chest.

"I have you now!" Rha thought.

But the demo had other plans. It leaped backwards, impossibly fast and swung its sword upwards. The white hot plasma cut into Rha's wrist and he yelled with pain. He swung his own sword at the demons head, but the cursed creature ducked under the blow and slipped around to Rha's back.

Rha's life would have ended then and there had it not been for Suyok. The blue Sangheili dashed forwards, his haste alerting the demon to his presence and swung his blade towards the enhanced humans back.

The human dropped to the ground and rolled under the attack. It came out of it's roll only to realize that it had made a fatal mistake. There was now a Sangheili warrior on either side of it.

"You're finished," Rha growled, attempting to demoralize the warrior and make his victory easier "no warrior can fight on two fronts."

"I look forward to proving you wrong!" the demon retorted, as both Suyok and Rha attacked.

Suyok stabbed his sword forwards while Rha attempted another overhead chop. The demon moved with blinding swiftness. It stepped backwards with its left leg, flicking aside Suyok's blade with its own as it went and snapped its right leg out in a viscous back kick.

The kick caught Rha in the chest, winding him and breaking his cracked ribs. Rha doubled over and hobbled backwards. The demon scooped up a dead Kig-Yar's shield and activated it, raising it in time to deflect Suyok's next blow which shattered the shield.

The demon leaped towards the left, placing its own forces at its back. Rha risked a glance over his shoulder. First Shield had reached the gate, their work was done.

"Suyok we can go, First Shield is safe now." he said in the covenant language.

"What's the matter spilt mouth?" the demon teased, noticing the glance Rha had just made "You running scared?"

Suyok roared his rage and charged forwards.

"No Suyok wait!" Rha yelled.

But it was too late. Rha swore and followed his suicidal teammate. Rha swung his sword at the demon from the right while Suyok chopped at it from the left. The demon parried Suyok by bringing his own sword upwards at a horizontal angle and flecked Rha's attack at the same time by simply moving his shield to intercept.

Rha's sword bounced off the shield and it flared a bright red before shattering. Rha staggered backwards and the demon front kicked Suyok with its right foot. The Sangheili warrior stumbled backwards, swinging his sword wildly whil the demon pressed its attack.

The demons shield reappeared and it swung it away from its body, batting aside Suyok's attack and stabbing it's blade into the warriors chest. The shield disappeared again and the demon pulled its sword from the Sangheilies twitching corpse.

"NOOO!" Rha roared, jumping forwards, ignoring the requests from Second and First Shield which refused to retreat any further without him. They stood at the gates, trading gunfire with the humans.

Rha attacked, launching blow after blow towards the demon which weaved, dodged, blocked and parried every single one with lightening quick swiftness and a smug ease that only served to infuriate Rha further.

Rha, angry and humiliated, put all of his strength behind a massive overhead chop. The demon stepped forwards with its right foot and brought its sword upwards to block. But it was not prepared for the sheer strength behind the blow.

The demons knees buckled, it swayed on the spot. But it did not fall. It stepped forwards, with its left foot this time, and threw its left forearm towards Rha's face.

"Heh, he thinks a simple punch will stop me?!" Rha thought, chuckling at the very idea.

The shield blossomed into existence on the demons fast approaching forearm and Rha's smile was wiped off his face as the hot, plasma shield slammed into his head and upper chest.

Rha's vision swam as his head was snapped backwards by the force of the blow. He stumbled, turning around in his dazed state, the battle still raging around him and would have died were it not for his teammates in First Shield.

They watched with horror as their leader was bested in combat. They saw the demon preparing to finish Rha with a quick thrust of its plasma sword and decided that they had to intervene.

Their solution was simple now that Rha was no longer in front of the demon. They opened fire. The demon was forced backwards by the onslaught of plasma bolts, forced to cower behind its stolen shield or face the bullets that slammed against it.

"Rha!" yelled one of the surviving Sangheili "Get up here! We're pulling out!"

The voice cut through the haze in Rha's head and he scrambled to his feet, ignoring the pain in his stomach and wrist. He grasped a fallen Kig-Yar's shield and held it, activated, against his side as he went.

He stumbled as several marines fired at him. He ran across the courtyard, towards the gate and finally dived at the wall of shields, landing safely behind them.

Rha assessed his strike forces strength. They had successfully retreated from the courtyard, though the humiliation of his defeat still stung. Their only remaining vehicle was the Phantom and that wouldn't arrive for at least five minutes.

It had been drafted into helping a group of high ranking Sangheili in the north. Rha sighed. They had six Sangheili warriors, two of which were severely injured, left including himself and Voro. They had thirteen surviving Unggoy, the two Mgalekgolo and five Kig-Yar.

They were running low on equipment and supplies. They had left most of it by the south gate, but it was too risky returning there now that there were four demons roaming the compound.

Most of the strike force was sifting through the wreckage of Second Wraith and checking it's bullet ridden guards for equipment.

"If we can hold out till that Phantom gets here then we might just make it." he thought.

Poltergeist and Phantom skidded to a halt in front of the cheering marines. They stepped out of their respective Warthogs and observed the relief strewn warriors before them.

"They're happy." Specter laughed, giving Phantom a comradely punch in the shoulder and heading for Spirit.

"Of course they are," Entity said, removing his helmet "they're alive."

The Spartans approached their leader, each one removing their helmet as they went. Specter revealed his short, spiky blonde haired head while Phantom revealed his bald brown head. Entity's extremely short brown hair was coated with sweat and Spirit's black hair wasn't much better.

"So what's the plan?" Spook asked, pulling off her own helmet and revealing her face, which was fiercely beautiful and was the subject of more then a few of the marine's dreams.

"We're getting a signal!" called Poltergeist, from her position over by the radio.

During the covenant's counter attack Spirit had hidden the radio spire in the downwards ramp. Spook had dragged it out again after the covenant had retreated.

"We're about to find out." Spirit said, answering Spook's question.

They walked over to the radio, which was by the rubble in the center of the courtyard. Poltergeist had removed her helmet, revealing a kind face with thin, short black hair that was slicked to her face and neck with sweat.

"It's ONI." she informed them, as they crowded around the small screen attached to the spire.

Spirit reequipped his helmet, pressed a button on below the screen and spoke into his radio, using the spire to boost his signal power.

"This is Ghost Leader, Spartan zero-zero-nine code named Spirit." he said.

"We have you Spirit." said a gravelly voice.

"Ahh shit!" Specter said, glancing away with an expression of disgust on his face, he knew that voice and he was none to find of its master.

"He can hear you!" Spook hissed, punching Specter's shoulder.

"Commander Russel?!" Spirit asked, surprised "I thought you were with the bulk of the UNSC fleet."

"I was," the voice replied, it didn't sound happy "but I've been transferred. And so have you. Prep your squad for evac, a pelican drop ship will be arriving shortly... Assuming you've managed to clear the area captain."

Specter caught Spook's eye and she rolled her eyes while Specter made a rude gesture towards the screen.

"What an asshole!" he mouthed.

She nodded her agreement.

"Pay attention!" Entity hissed, noticing the exchange "And show some respect, he's still a commanding officer!"

The two Spartans obediently shut up.

"That is a negative on the evac sir," Spirit replied, knowing he was in for an argument "not unless you plan on sending more then one pelican."

"And why would I do that?!" came the snarled reply.

"Because there are more then twenty marines stationed here, marines that will die if they stay here." Spirit exclaimed.

"A sad loss." Russel replied "But acceptable. We need Spartans to win this war, not twenty marines!"

"Acceptable?!" cried Specter, Phantom and Spook.

There followed a few short seconds were the three Spartans decided who should speak first.

"How can you say that?!" Phantom asked, horrified at Russel's complete disregard for the marines lives.

"We're not leaving here without these marines!" Specter said.

"That is not an option Spartan!" Russel raged "We don't have the-"

"What about the shipyards?" Spirit asked, intervening and trying to stay neutral.

"What shipyards?!" Russel asked, highly annoyed.

"The Dune Valley shipyards!" Entity realized "There was a ship scheduled to leave for Earth tomorrow."

"That's only a few hours away from Tower Base." Poltergeist said.

"And there were enough vehicles in the motor pool to carry every marine here." Specter said, adding his own information to the, very one sided, argument.

The Spartans had spoken quickly, bombarding Russel with information and not allowing him to speak a single argument.

"We can do it sir." Spirit insisted.

"Fine," Russel growled "we could probably use them were we're going. Our records indicate that that ship is preparing to leave tomorrow. Don't make me regret this!"

"We won't." Spook replied.

"Just out of curiosity," Specter wondered "where are we being sent?"

"Tribute," Russel replied "we've been ordered to assist with the evacuation of civilians."

Russel terminated the link and Spirit gave out several simple orders.

"All right people look sharp!" he shouted "Check your ammo and scavenge what you can. Spook, Phantom I want you to establish a guard roster. Everyone else get some rest!"

Specter sighed gratefully as he lowered himself down against one of the protrusions on the catwalks center platform. Phantom and Spook sat down next to him.

"Rosters done." Phantom grunted, removing his helmet.

"Good." Specter yawned "How's the radio going?"

Phantom and Specter looked at Spook and waited for a reply. They got none.

"Spook you okay?" Phantom asked.

Specter poked her visor.

"She's asleep." he said.

"Good idea." Phantom replied, closing his eyes.

"Yeah." Specter muttered, closing his own eyes as well.

He was asleep before his chin hit his chest.

*Thanks for reading and any reviews would be much appreciated