1500 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar) /

Epsilon Eridani System, Reach UNSC Military Complex,

planet Reach

"Master Chief, report in. Respond."

"This is Fred, leader of red team, Daniel zero four seven is presumably dead. Marked as MIA until proven otherwise. If you are out there Daniel, we could use the help."

"Shit! The Covenant have taken over! Fall back! There is no hop-"

"This is Admiral ...comb. Anybody out there?"

"Orbital MAC guns are offline, Reach is lost. Abort. Abort."

-

"Daniel. Wake up. Covenant patrol dead ahead."

Daniel's eyes flickered open. His head was pounding, a constant thump was resounding throughout his body. He turned his head; six Grunts, three Jackals, two Elites and four Engineers. His eyes darted down to his Assault rifle, eighteen rounds left.

Daniel got up as slowly as he could and then blasted off in the opposite direction. He had been running for the last day. His radio was broken, he could hear everyone else but they couldn't hear him. Luck wasn't on his side, but then again, when has it ever been?

A small cave came into Daniel's vision. Pushing as hard as he could he continued to run. He needed a place to think. Why hadn't the Covenant just glassed the planet like they always did. They started but they hadn't finished the job. He wondered if there were any UNSC ships still battling it out or perhaps there was a ship he could use that was still here on Reach.

He reached the cave, had it not been for his already heightened visuals it might have been hard to see inside. He looked around, the cave ended about fifteen meters deep. At least it was quiet.

"Déjà, scan Reach for any UNSC ships that are still usable."

"There are three actually."

Daniel smiled, perhaps there was a way to get off this planet. Daniel and his team had already failed their mission to protect the generators for the MAC cannons so now he was to rejoin with John and hopefully the rest of the Spartans to finish their original mission. Find the Covenant home world.

However Reach was lost. Does this mean Humanity as he knew it would be done for within weeks? This made his mission all the more important. He had to regroup with the remaining Spartans. He had to hijack a Covenant ship and pilot it back to the Covenants home world. He had to –

"Sorry to interrupt your inner thoughts, but I wanted to let you know time is of the essence. There is now only two UNSC ships available for use."

"Where is the third?" Daniel asked as he grabbed his MA5B.

"The Covenant are using it as scrap metal… I am not sure for what however… Here are the coordinates to the closest flyable ship."

A NAV mark appeared on his HUD, only two hundred and fifty miles to go, a whole Covenant army to avoid and to hope that the Shaw-Fujikawa system was still intact on said ship. Well luck was on his side.

Daniel began his trek through the forest. Sprinting, stopping, checking radar, waiting for a minute then resuming his sprint. This went on for a good two hours unnoticed.

"Enemy movement up ahead." Déjà decided to speak for the first time in some time.

"Acknowledged."

Stopping behind a tree, he risked poking his head out to see what was coming. At first he didn't recognize it, but then it was obvious.

"Hunters. Fascinating. The fact that these two wear different armor from the rest prove the ranking system within the Hunter race as well."

Although Déjà was talking, it fell on deaf ears. Daniel looked at the two creatures, looked down at his gun and sighed. He would have to make a run for it, his current ammo situation wasn't getting any better. Nodding mentally to himself he-

An explosion. Followed by another.

Somehow he had been spotted, the two silver Hunters fired their cannons toward him. The trees around Daniel exploded into millions of splinters. His hair stood on end as waves of heat blasted around him. Silently cursing to himself, he ran tree to tree, only for the same action to happen.

Out running the two was his only option, but they were flanking him. Hunters were known for their brutality and their stupidity at times. Rushing in one after another, while it proved to work against most marines, the Spartans had shown them a thing or two.

Daniel waited three heartbeats then exploded into a mad sprint, straight through the Hunters. He had to get to that ship, no matter what. He turned his head once, the Hunters were giving chase. They weren't catching up, but they were a hell of a lot faster then most Hunters.

-

"I have killed three demons. I wanted to make it four!" Igadi complained as they gave chase towards the escaping human.

The bond brothers, at this point, were toying with the human. They knew damn well they could have obliterated him with one shot, but hunting their prey was something that they lived for. Especially one as feisty as this.

Letting out a chuckle, "I know brother! Make haste! I have a feeling the demon is going straight for human air craft facility. He is trying to flee the planet." Agida fastened his pace with a grunt.

They had been down here fighting these pathetic vermin for the last twelve or so hours. They had skewered, blasted and demolished the opposing forces. The humans were nothing to worry about. The only time they had received some hard opposition was when they encountered a group of demons. The bond brothers had never seen so many together in their life.

But even after losing hundreds of troops, sixteen tanks and fifty three ghosts, they came out on top. Igadi had killed three demons and Agida had only killed one, counting today only.

"Igadi, look!" raising his shield, Agida pointed towards the human building. It was still intact, somewhat. But the greatest thing was…

-

"UNSC Building 232 Air force has three working Pelicans which could get us to the Born To Kill or BTK. There is one problem however."

Daniel frowned at that. A snag,but then again its not like this whole mission hadn't been one snag after another. "What is the problem, Déjà?"

"The building is guarded by a good amount of Covenant foot soldiers, I would say somewhere in the low hundreds. I would like to mention that there seems to be three Wraiths patrolling the perimeter and that our time is limited thanks to the Hunters following us."

"Is there any good news?" Daniel sarcastically asked.

"Perhaps. The chatter on the Covenant frequency is very … quiet. They are probably not expecting anyone to just come running in. If you could utilize stealth then more then likely we could get in and out without having them know we were even there."

"Simple enough."

Daniel disappeared into the nights shadows.

-

Déjà was enjoying her new job. Honestly it was something of pleasure taking down scum, proving how smart she is and helping Daniel out. While there were limited things she could do while in the suit, she played with the remaining toys. First was to listen to the chatter on the com. While that wasn't that exciting, she could get some inside information.

Then came actually running the suit mechanics. Double and triple checking the shields, armor and hell, even his weapon. Although protecting him wasn't that difficult. He was a big boy after all.

Then she had the job of doing all his meaningless tasks that she had already done. Check for ships? Well without using anything but my eyes I see three! Infuriating. Déjà chuckled to herself as she dismissed the thoughts.

"Déjà, I am in the Pelican. I am going to let you drive."

And just like that, Déjà fell out of her comfort and was guided into a new machine. A flying bird. This would have to be quick and silent.

"I don't suppose you can drive this thing stealthy…Can you?" Daniel sarcastically asked.

Déjà let her eyes roll as she took off, hundreds of plasma blew towards them from the ground. Three banshees already on their tail. "Damn." Daniel said.

"I can take out the Covenant air attack, but it will take variable amount of time. We need to get to that ship. I suggest we struggle it out."

Daniel frowned. He knew Déjà was right, he just didn't want to leave the battle. He hated running away. Live to fight another day or die fighting. He would have to choose the first option.

"This is a final call for any more ground side troops. BTK will be slipping into slip space in approximately.."

"This is AI unit Déjà with Spartan zero four seven. BTK respond. We are in the current airspace near you. Roughly two minutes until dock."

Silence.

Daniel crossed his fingers, could the ship even wait two minutes? He stared at the lone ship in front of him, it was hundreds of times bigger then his little pelican. His eyes went right, two banshees were trailing behind them, firing off every now and then.

"Understood. Let it be known that we are jumping in two and a half minutes. So when you land, get somewhere comfortable for the take off."

The voice was that of a mans. Slightly rough, but not to deep. If anything it was the Captain of the ship, it also seemed that the ship had a crew. Daniel wanted to let out a smile but he couldn't, not until they reached their destination.

The pelican rattled as the plasma hit them one last time, the two banshees finally gave in. Pushing the pelican's thrusters past their maximum, they would arrive in a couple of seconds. Daniel shot up, grabbed his things and yanked out Déjà. He was ready to go the second it landed.

Déjà had put the pelican on an automated course, she had successfully predicted Daniel's reaction. Lucky her. The ship dropped down, the hatch doors opened and Daniel exploded out of her in a sprint. If he did the math right he would have about twenty seven seconds to get to the captain on the bridge. Simple.

The run reminded Daniel of the day he, John and Ruchi had raced. Daniel came last that day because he tripped, he rolled his eyes at the thought. Jumping over a table, running through the weaponry and letting go of his bag, passing a confused soldier, another table, around a pillar, up the flight of stairs and a long hallway. He made it to the bridge in twenty five seconds. He stopped to breathe, the ship exploded into a white light.

-

"That's quite the story son." Captain Henry "H". Henry let out a small sigh. It had been him who was on the com channel talking to Déjà. "I especially liked the part" he let out another small chuckle, "where you avoided fighting the Covenant and just sneaked around them all. Anyway, we will be arriving out of slip space within a couple of hours."

"Captain, permission to speak freely?" Daniel questioned.

"Surely. I never cared for the 'keep your thoughts to yourself' rule. Whats on your mind?"

"How did you survive? It seems unlikely. You just happened to be here?"

The Captain let out a laugh, "Well it is pretty simple really. We got lucky. Our Shaw-Fujikawa drive was almost broke so we, uh, commandeered one of the Covenant Engineers. Apparently they work for anyone, they fixed this old girl up, right as rain.

"For whatever reason they didn't fire at us. We didn't fire at them. I don't really know what else to tell you, we got really, really, really lucky."

Daniel nodded. He wanted to twist his head in confusion, why would the Covenant just leave a perfectly fine ship alone. It just didn't make sense. This whole mission hadn't made sense at all. This –

"Sir. They are following us… The Covenant are right behind us…" one of the technicians stated.

"Crap." The Captain walked over to the com, "This is your Captain speaking. Seems like these alien bastards just want some punishment. This is a code red, not a drill. Code red, I repeat, not a drill. Get your shit together and lets go ladies!" He turned back around to Daniel, shrugged and smiled, "Used to be a Sargent for most of them boys down there. Now all I do is fly this old bucket."

"Understood, sir." Daniel responded.

"Good. I suggest taking a nap. I can tell when people need one, it is almost like a sixth sense."

"Understood."

-

Daniel had decided to go into the freezer, also known as a cryo chamber. If he had tried to use one of the marine bunkers he would have either, broken it thanks to his suits weight or been to big for the bed itself.

The freezer, however, was a perfect way to be forced into sleep. There were some set backs. The chamber opened up, his eyes were crusted over and his movements were sloppy. Stepping out of the chamber he shook his head, his hair was starting to grow back. A marine had been there to give him a glass of water, which he had spit out as soon as it hit his tongue. The crap they fed you in the chamber was terrible and tasted like your own throw up.

His eyes finally opened, the artificial light hurt a bit so he squinted. That's when he saw it. Something that should not have been there. Long brown hair, brown eyes, dark skin, roughly as tall as him, pure muscle and completely naked. Had her boobs always been that big? He stared for a minute without even blinking. That's when the chamber opened up and she fell out of it.

Coughing twice, she stood up slowly. The same marine came around and gave her a glass of water, she chugged it down greedily. Her eyes opened then shut again, it was way to bright. The female marine smiled as she started to put her clothes on without looking, but eventually she started to open her eyes. That's when she noticed him.

The Spartan had been staring at her the whole time, she thought she had felt someone watching her. As she slapped on her helmet she turned around, the machine was still staring. "Um, can I help you?"

"Ruchi...?"

00000000000000000

END TRANSMISSION

00000000000000000

Yeah that was pretty evil huh. Finally I am out of the book and we now have a lot of things to play with. Hopefully you all enjoyed this chapter as much as I did. It does feel a bit short but I think this cliffhanger will make you beg for the next chapter. =]

Anyway, as always thank you all for reviewing. I hope the idea I have going for this will make you all love the story even more.