Hey, Chap 3 is a go. Hope everyone had a good holiday (and if you don't celebrate, a good day regardless!)

Song(s) for this chapter is Street Fighter (War) by Sick Puppies, and Fade Into Darkness by Avicii (thanks TheFlamingBlade)

A million thanks for reading! ~Jaz


"The enemy has captured Captain Keyes, and are holding him aboard one of their cruisers, the Truth and Reconciliation. The ship is currently holding position approximately three hundred meters above the other end of this plateau."

"So how do we get inside the ship if it's in the air? The Corps issued me a rifle, not wings."

"There's a Gravity Lift that ferries troops and supplies between the ship and the surface. That's our ticket in."

"Now would be a good time for battle music, don't you think Chief?"

The man in question rolled his eyes, of course Cortana would use any excuse to play with his speakers. She had been playing nice slow melodies for the last few hours, and while it was nice and very calming, given their current situation she felt like they could use a change in atmosphere.

"Your timing is perfect as always..." Chief wouldn't lie, he was starting to like Cortana's addiction to music. Aside from the event in the pelican a few weeks ago he normally found her music very useful.

"No dance mixes right?" Cortana asked while cycling through her playlist, he could practically feel her smirking at him.

"Not now." As long as he never sees those marines again he wouldn't mind her teasing.

Cortana sent him a burst of warmth and switched to his external speakers to address the crowd of soldiers and Parker waiting for the pelican to land.

"Once we get inside the ship, I should be able to lock on to the tracking signal from Captain Keyes' neural implants." All business, none of the playful tones she used with him, he thought to himself as he listened to the chatter.

"So what's up for today, Cortana?" Chief asked, all while checking his sniper rifle's ammo. He was hoping something a little more... loud, then before.

As the beat for the song started up, John couldn't help but give a slight grin inside his helmet.

"Hit it Marines, go go go! The Corps ain't payin' us by the hour!" Sergeant Parker blared at his Marines, oblivious to the music playing in Chief's helmet.

Let's do this!

"Well... this certainly isn't sniping music." Cortana ignored John's remark and addressed the rest of the marines. While she talked, Chief lined up his shots while creeping forward.

"Stick to the higher ground on the right. We should be able to recon the Covenant position without being spotted-

Faking falls, Stop and stall, take it all. Fact is I'm taking mine, I'm taking mine...

-I'm detecting Covenant Stationary Guns near the next pass. I recommend using your Sniper Rifle to take out the gunners while I call for Marine support." Cortana was unfazed by the music, but the volume was enough to drown out some of her words from John.

Time is up out of luck, Should've stood up when you had the time, But you're out of time...

"Get ready to move in to support us, Sergeant. John-117 is going to covertly take out as many of the Covenant as he can. Don't open fire until you hear the enemy return fire on us. That should let us keep the element of surprise."

Let's do this fight, fight, fight. Lock and load, Rock and roll...

8 Shoots, more than enough for the covenant he was counting in his view.

Bitch it's all over , you're going down. You're going down...

Stationary gunner first, and with a quick shot he was down.

Get ready to settle the score, and get ready to face the floor...

Swinging the rifle around to his next target, Chief buried a bullet into the back of a sitting grunt's head.

Cause it's time to remember it, War...

Chief tilts his rifle as he takes out a grunt that had just looked up at the sound of the sniper, and scans for the jackal he had seen moving near a large boulder.

This is war, and it's on tonight. So get up and fight, get up and fight...

Reloading quickly, Chief spotted the jackal in between to rocks, and before he was even finished reloading had his crosshairs on its head. One shot and it was down.

You had all your life, to run and hide. Now step up, now step up...

A elite and a jackal had come into view and Chief decided on taking the jackal first. A shot to its back while it turned was all that was needed.

Let's do this...

The elite seemed surprised, and pulled out its gun before Chief could drop its shields.

Sat around , Going down

Shooting at its stomach, Chief rolled out of the elite's line of sight, and before coming to a stop he lined up a shot with it's head and fired.

How about a little reaction, man, you can barely stand...

John reloaded while creeping forward, and without aiming down the sights he took out another grunt who had been panicking.

"Well this is entertaining..." Cortana murmured from inside his helmet. Before he could question her he spotted a grunt standing on the ridge. Reloading, he lined up his shot and counted the next targets.

Bitch slap, slow attack. Man, that was practically suicide, next in line...

Grunt down, and he slowly moved his rifle over to the elite he had spotted.

Go! Fight, fight, fight...

Squeezing off his first shot to get its shields down, he pulled the trigger and was already lining up a shot on the farthest grunt.

Get ready to settle the score, and get ready to face the floor...

Downing him quickly, the Chief saw his marines begin to move towards his position. He jumped down from his sniping perch, and made his way into the kill-zone.

Cause it's time to remember it, War...

"And you say you don't dance." Cortana said with a flicker of humor and satisfaction.

"What-"

"Elite incoming!"

"Got him."

The elite didn't even have time to raise his weapon before Chief had grabbed a fallen plasma pistol and sidestep into cover. Tossing a grenade at the small crowd of enemies, he waited for the rest of the group to get to his position.

This is war, and it's on tonight. So get up and fight, get up and fight...

The Marines and Master Chief made quick work of the group, slowly advancing up the slope to their destination with him taking point. While switching to his newly acquired pistol he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye.

"Elit-" Cortana was cut off by a elite slamming into John, and they both went down hard on the floor.

'Cause we're all about ready to break, and we're all about ready to break . Yeah we're all about ready to break, yeah we're all about ready to break...

Shoving his elbow into the elite's neck, Chief pushed back its snapping jaws and reached for his fallen pistol. Grabbing it, he swung back and rammed the gun into the elite's neck, pulling the trigger to drop its shields.

This is war, And it never ends...

Using the moment of shock to roll to the side, he placed a foot on the elites neck, forcing the elite to stay down as he got to his feet. The elite made a blind grab and latched onto the foot on its neck, and began tug him off balance. Leaning over the eilte, he pressed the gun to the back of the elite's head and fired in time with the last words of the song.

So get up, get up, get up, get up...

As the marines and Parker looked on, Chief discarded the pistol silently and pulled out his rifle. Looking at them, he made a motion for them to continue up the slope, and he glanced back down at the elite.

"You almost gave me a heart attack, you know."

"Is that concern I'm hearing, Cortana?" Kicking the elite's limp hand from his foot, Chief started up the hill after the rest of the team.

"Well, you do like to cut it a little close."

"Just making sure you don't get bored of me."

"Never." Chief felt and heard a bit of affection with her words.

Smirking, he headed up the hill and began to clean up the rest of the covenant the marines were engaging.


"We must be in the brig, these look like holding cells. There are probably multiple detention stations, the Captain must be in one of them. We need to keep looking for him." Cortana said aloud, John just nodded his head and continued walking forward.

"You ever think you'll need rescuing like this someday?" Cortana asked while the Chief sniped a few grunts out of his way.

"Spartans don't need rescuing, we get ourselves out of messes. You on the other hand well..." Chief let his sentence die off with a few shots from his needler into the back of a elite.

"Did you just refer to me as a damsel in distress?" John waited for his shields to recharge while he listened to Cortana fume at him.

"Well if the shoe fits, right?" leaning out, he fired a few more shots at the elite, downing it. He knew Cortana would be glaring a hole through his head if she could, but poking fun at her was one of the few highlights of his missions.

"I'm going to remember that next time you're in Cryo. Maybe leave you in there a extra couple years." Cortana said without venom, and paused the little piano solo they'd been listening to.

"You couldn't go that long without me, you'd go crazy within a week." John stated, while walking down the corridor, he should be finding the Captain soon.

"There's plenty more people to talk to besides you, John. It would be so relaxing, without trying to kill yourself daily." Cortana replied lightly frustrated. She was going over her playlist and couldn't seem to pick a song, John noted. Her irritation was almost funny, he could imagine her pouting at the screen while shifting through songs.

"Well that would just be boring. Plus, none of them are your Spartan, right?" Picking a song from his playlist, he put it to play and started off down the hall while Cortana huffed.

"Right, none of them are my Spartan." Cortana let a bit of her possessiveness leak into her words, and strangely John didn't find that he minded.

Looking up there's always sky, Rest your head I'll take you high...

"It's the Chief!"

"Chief! Chief! Let me out, man!"

We won't fade into darkness, won't let you fade into darkness

"Looks like we found 'em, easier then I would have thought."

"Watch out Chief, the Covenant guards are using some sort of stealth armor." Captain Keys called out from his cell, and Chief couldn't help but roll his eyes at that.

"You always have to say something..."

Why worry now, You'll be safe...

"Understood." Shifting into a crouch, he quickly disengaged the visible enemies, all the while looking for these 'cloaked' guards.

Hold my hand, just in case, And we won't fade into darkness...

Seeing the blue of a energy sword and nothing else, Chief fired and lucky saw the shimmed of a shield dropping. moving behind a pillar, the last words from the song gave the Chief a idea.

"Can you kill the lights?"

Fade into darkness, no we won't fade into darkness

"Yes...Why?"

"Just trust me, you'll like this."

Fade into darkness, fade into darkness...

"Trying to kill yourself twice in one day? Overachiever." Cutting the lights as asked, Cortana gave chief the all clear and he stepped out into the now dark room. She keep a very close eye on his radar, he noted with a small huff of laughter.

"Master Chief?" Keyes's voice and the voices of the marines called out questioningly.

Fade into darkness, fade into darkness, fade into darkness...

The blue of the energy swords lit up the points of the room they were in, there was only two, reflecting off the elites holding them.

Stepping out Chief rushed the closest elite and blocked its swing with his rifle. grabbing hold of where he thought its arm was, he twisted its arm so its own sword jammed into its neck. It went limp and dropped its weapon, allowing chief to pick it up and hold the body as cover. Twisting its body around, he used it to block a hit from the other elite, its sword lodged into its fallen comrades body.

Using the body as a grip, Chief pulled the body down and towards him, with a quick swipe upwards with the sword he was holding he sliced clean into the second elite. Its blood splattered on his armor as it fell to the floor, the elite's body coming into view as its camo died. John jabbed to sword into its neck once for good measure, then stood and looked around.

"Clever...fighting in the dark, a new way to give me a heart attack." Cortana remarked as she brought the lights back online.

And we won't fade into darkness, Fade into darkness. No we won't fade into darkness...

"Well I might have had some help on this one. I'm sure I'll find a few more ways." Chief answered lightly, he couldn't keep the smugness out of his voice however.

"Good work, Chief." Keyes stated, grabbing John and Cortana's Attention. Chief nodded to him, and the enthusiastic marines in their cells.

This world can seem cold and gray, but you and I are here today...

"That was amazing, sir, you really kicked the shi—"

"Stow it, Corporal! Chief, open these cells, and let's get the hell out of here. The power control's along the back wall, although I am impressed Chief, didn't think we were getting out of here."

And we won't fade into darkness, fade into darkness...

"Well, John is my Spartan." Cortana answered coyly with Chief's speakers while he went to the controls. John titled his head at Cortana's statement, and after hitting the controls he tapped the back of his helmet.

Nothing to fear but fear itself, we'll be ok just keep the faith...

"When did you start calling me John?" He asked out of curiosity. Not that he minded, but no one used his actually name with him. Cortana was probably one of the few people who knew it, or knew him enough to call him by it.

And we won't fade into darkness...

"When you became my Spartan...that alright?"

Listening to the ending of the song, John didn't answer right away, but he put the song on repeat, and hummed to himself for a second.

"As long as I'm your Spartan I'll never mind." John moved to join Keyes, but Cortana's sense of relief was almost crushing.

"So I'll never be bored again then, huh John?" He laughed silently to himself while he approached Keyes, who was waiting for him.

"As long as you keep letting me find ways give you heart attacks."

Cortana's following laugh echoed off the walls of his helmet, and accented the music nicely.