Chapter 2: Section Four

Jimaenius had been part of the Trimmean Pack on Diosac. However, during the war he had forced into exile for refusing to join his pack when the Prophets requested that they betrayed the Sangheili. Jimaenius believed the Sangheili were too strong to overthrow and that the Sangheili would survive and make the Jiralhanae pay.

Jimaenius had managed to make his way off-world and got to a planet under the control of New Colonial Alliance. He'd always been a lover of explosives, and had made a name for himself as a mercenary brute with pro-human leanings. Jimaenius believed in unity, after all, packs were unities of Jiralhanae, which nearly every other species no one wanted to be in unity with him, so Jimaenius had learned to live a solidary life, searching for a unity that would accept him.

Jimaenius had supported the idea of the Galactic Alliance, even though most Jiralhanae wanted nothing to do with the Sangheili or humans. So he saved up and managed to make his way to the seat of the Alliance, the Sol System. He was natural distrusted by nearly everyone, but not even a week later, a group of humans calling themselves "ONI Section Four" had given him the opportunity of a lifetime. Jimaenius had almost immediately accepted.

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The Master Chief and the Arbiter were then given a pelican ride to Section Four headquarters, which was on a small island several kilometers north of Britain. From the surface, the island seemed barren and deserted, but following landing they were shown a small elevator that took them several kilometers underground.

They descended for about a minute. The Chief's motion tracker picked up many contacts deep underground. Neither him nor the Arbiter had been given a chance to change out of his armor, but then again, what would he change into?

The elevator doors open. Beneath his helmet, the Chief's eyes widened. Even the Arbiter was surprised. Ahead of them opened a large hollow cave. In the center rested a modified frigate. It was surrounded by scaffolding, but seemed to be in one piece. It was a Paris class, but it seemed to have been upscaled to eight hundred meters in length as opposed to the five hundred meter usual size. Written on the nameplate section of the hull was;

UNSC Spearhead of Dawn

"Like it?" Asked one of the escorts. "It's the first ship Section Four has ever built, Shields, tri-reactors, an SMAC MK II and plasma torpedoes, all in one ship."

"It is certainly impressive compared to your previous frigates." The Arbiter said.

The escort frowned, and then seemed to forget about what was said, and led them down the right side of the room. They then turned into a corridor lit by faint glow strips. They followed the corridor until they were directed into a common room to the right.

"This is your common room, to be used when you and the squad are at HQ. In an hour or so we'll collect you for your first briefing and mission." The escort told them, then turned and closed the door behind him.

The Chief examined the room. There was a pair of large sofas at the left wall. Two holoterminals rested in the center of the room. It was around twenty meters by twenty meters in diameter, with several door that led to rooms with airtight doors. A single window through these doors revealed a set of double beds.

"Why would these doors be airtight?" The Chief wondered aloud.

The Arbiter tapped them to see if they were airtight. "Some species don't breathe this atmosphere… I hope they don't try to pair us with some Unggoy." The Sangheili muttered.

The Chief noticed a hand scanner beside each door. He removed his glove and placed it on a scanner. There was a pause, then beep, and the door slid open in one swift fluid motion. The Chief stepped into the room and examined it. A bunk bed on one side, and an armor holder on the other. The Chief smiled faintly beneath his helmet.

"This may actually work." He whispered to himself.

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Zhab Nin was an oddity amoug the Kig-yar. He was an incredible sniper, but had left the covenant behind to hunt big game amongst the galaxy. Many Kig-yar had frowned upon him. So, he'd assassinated a Kig-yar Queen during her banquet on Eayn, the Kig-yar homeworld. He'd shot her with his modified beam rifle from a high rise building in the City of Ghawet. It had been a shot from almost a kilometer. The Kig-yar left a little sign that he was responsible, and then went into hiding.

He'd then continued his life of hunting, eventually being captured by some other human hunters. He was due to be taken to Eayn to be tried by the Queen's successor, until a group of humans had offered him a chance to be released on one condition. He didn't even need to spend a minute or two considering their offer. "When do I start?" Had been the words he'd said immediately after their offer.

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"The Portal has now been closed for some time. Can you elaborate on why this may be?" The Head of Section One asked, rising slightly from his seat.

If Cortana was not in the presence of some of the most important people in ONI, she would have sighed. This was technically a debriefing, but the brass of ONI was treating it as an interrogation.

"Judging by what spark noted prior to the activation of the replacement Halo, It is reasonable to assume that the Ark has either been destroyed or damaged so badly that it should be impossible to access." Cortana replied.

She brought up an audio log from the Chief's helmet. The Quality was poor, but what was said was comprehensible.

"But a premature firing will destroy the Ark!" 343 Guilty spark's voice said, concerned.

Johnson's voice was dismissive. "Deal with it."

Spark muttered something in comprehensible. Then he fired, and Johnson screamed in pain. Cortana stopped the recording with a snap of her fingers.

"Any other questions?" She asked, sounding calm and collected, while inside she was utterly fed up of this. They were now asking her the same questions they'd asked her an hour or two ago. She was sure ONI was after something, but with her locked out of the buildings systems, she couldn't piece together any logical answers without the evidence.

"The Halos work by destroying all sentient life within the 25,000 light years, am I right?"

"Yes." Cortana replied.

"So why did the Halo destroy or damaged the Ark in the way it did?"

"Unknown. It's possible, that during the firing it shook itself to pieces and those pieces then collided with the Ark, destroying or damaging it, However, we have no evidence of this occurring." Cortana told him.

"Was there really no other way to stop the Flood?" Asked Admiral Margret Parangosky. "The wealth of technology on the Ark could have been a great help to the rebuilding effort. Even the raw materials available on the Ark for constructing Halo would have been a great help in the reconstruction effort on Earth."

"The Flood infestation was too widespread to contain using the Ark's sentinels." Cortana said, and pulled a topography map she'd taken from the Dawn while over the Ark.

She pointed at a mountain range on the map.

"This is an hour before the arrival of the Flood." She noted. She then pulled up one from an hour after the flood arrival.

The mountain range and the surrounding area were covered by High Charity, and the area for one hundred kilometres around had been converted to flood biomass. She highlighted the area under infestation.

"This is the area taken into flood control within an hour. We had no choice in the matter. The flood were too widespread to control, as High Charity still had some anti-ship defences functioning, and we were too focus on Truth to contain the flood when they arrived. The Halo was the only choice." She stated.

There was a pause.

"Are we done?" A women sitting on the far right asked.

There was a collective murmur. Finally, they all agreed.

"Very well." The Admiral said. "Dismissed. Cortana, Captain Tulop here would like to speak with you in her personal quarters following this meeting."

"Very well." Cortana replied, and the debriefing ended.

Cortana waited until her restrictions on the systems were lifted, the split her processes in two, searching through the ONI systems with one half and she headed to Captain Tulop's quarters with the other half.

"Cortana." The Captain said, sitting on a single chair.

"Ma'am." The AI replied.

"Are you here in full, or are you snooping around the ONI systems?"

"Well…" She began.

"I'll take that as a yes. Very well, You've been transferred from ONI Section Three to my Section, Section Four. I'll give you a file with the details."

She rose from her seat and inserted a data storage chip into Cortana's holoterminal. The Captain waited until the upload was complete, which took less than a second, then kicked Cortana out of the holoterminal, leaving her to examine the file in her own chip as the ONI AIs finally caught on and began to chase her around the system. She just barely snuck through and jumped into her own chip, filling it and denying the other AIs access.

"Nice try, boys." She laughed.

She opened the file the captain had given her. It was small compared to most ONI files she had been given. She read through it quickly. I took her a second to absorb the data. ONI Section Four, The Squad, Technology adaptation and The Fate of the Forward unto Dawn.

"Hmm…" She mused. This was very interesting. She looked over the rota for The Squad. She smiled.

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While the Sangheili were known as the best warriors of the Covenant, it was true that there were some warriors in the other races, such as Liyik and Limid, two Unggoy brothers. They had managed to advance to Spec-Ops fuel rod grunts, where they were the only two survivors of a failed covert offensive operation. The two were able to make it back to the phantom and escape, where they were due to be executed for retreating, but somehow managed to overpower their Sangheili executor. The executor was demoted and they were reassigned to another squad, which they were promptly dismissed from when the Sangheili commanders realised that the Unggoy had gone partially insane.

The two, now inseparable, began a trek across the galaxy. They were avoided by nearly all Covenant soldiers but maintained a healthy amongst them all the same. Eventually they were captured by humans following a rampage on a trade port on Frewent, a colony of mixed species, but technically under UNSC control. The two had been confined to a jail cell for seven months, until Section Four had given them an opportunity to escape. They had not been easy to convince, but Section Four had managed it.

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A bit of Backstory for some of the members of the Squad.

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