Chapter II

—Routine—

0027 Hours, October 5, 2550 (Military Calendar) \
UNSC Corvette War Eagle, 16 Cygni star system near
Covenant Platform.

The War Eagle exited Slipspace, approximately seven kilometers from the distant moon. Alex immediately activated the starship's enhanced stealth system, concealing them from radar and motion sensors. At a distance, the orbital platform was an architectural wonder. The central unit of the platform was composed of an organic-like orb, while a pair of shifting rings spun about its exterior. Spokes jutted from the rings that connected to the center unit. However, the platform's exterior paled in comparison to what surrounded it. A trio of CCS-class Battlecruisers patrolled the outer regions, while Destroyers loomed about the interior. Lastly, a colossal Assault Carrier floated motionlessly atop the station.

Dwarfing it all was an enormous, cirrus-cloud striped planet as an asteroid belt orbited the planet. The Spartans of Saber Team exchanged facial expressions. Even though their vessel had a state-of-the-air stealth system, it wouldn't fool a watchful eye. If they were detected, their ship was limited when it came to ship-to-ship combat. The War Eagle only supported four pods of Archer Missiles, a couple of HORNET mines, and a single Shiva-class Nuclear Missile. Overall, an engagement against the superior Covenant vessels would result in a swift demise. They'd have to sneak past their defenses, but how? Jace cautiously guided the small ship toward the Covenant patrol, easing their way closer.

From a strategic standpoint, the Covenant ships had congregated around the platform like defensive pachyderms, leaving considerable gaps in their defenses. The Spartans grew inquisitive. Anything with such an impressive defense force meant something was worth protecting. Also, with recent human activity within the 16 Cygni system, the Covenant was bound to be on their toes. At that, while Jace decreased the War Eagle's acceleration, he gestured to Alex.

"Counter measures?"

Alex replied, "Only if we get caught." She fastened her helmet over her head, adjusting its snug fit. "What did you have in mind?"

Saber-One acknowledged the distant asteriod belt.

"We maneuver straight around it. It's our only vacant entry point to avoid visual detection. We'll use the sun, popping flares to conceal our entry-point. But we'll need a diversion first—a scout drone."

Alex nodded in agreement with an enthusiastic frown. Sending a scout drone in the Covenant's plain sight would greatly give them an edge. For one, the enemy ships would immediately indentify the human craft, observe its actions, then most likely destroy it. There, they'd be able to momentarily slip past the Covenant ships undetected. However, a minuscule scout drone would go unnoticed before a massive alien vessel. The Spartans would need to get their attention, and Alex knew how.

"We engage them using the drone. I'll pull some evasive maneuvers, keeping the drone alive as long as I can before letting them ace it. It should be sufficient."

Jace smirked behind his faceplate. "I like it. Go for it."

Alex stood up from her seat, traveling to the War Eagle's mid-section. She stepped through an automated door, turned right, and entered into the spacecraft's armory. The octagon-shaped armory was a soldier's shopping mall. A ring-like light fixture hung about, shining a white light into the dull compartment. Racks of various weapons surrounded the female Spartan, but only one interested her. She advanced toward the armory's rear, crouched down before an elongated storage case, and popped the latches. A newly manufactured scout drone lay within the onyx foam padding.

Visually, the drone resembled the aged USAF Predator. Measuring just 2.7 meters, a pair of wings branched out from each side, supporting each of their propulsion units, while shark-like fins were attached to the rear. The underside held a camera housed in orb-like casing enabling to rotate a full 360 degrees. As an added bonus, the drone possessed sophisticated stealth systems, allowing it to go unnoticed by tracking equipment. Furthermore, the drone was armed with an eight-shot ANVIL-II Air-to-Surface Missiles. Overall, the drone was an excellent option for scoping out or destroying hostile territory before sending in infantry.

Alex hefted the drone over her right shoulder, then made her way to the engineering sector. She ignored the noisy fusion reactor that powered the shuttle-sized craft and went down into the cargo bay. A lone M12 Warthog occupied the open space and nothing else. Alex came to the left-side of the bay, sliding the drone into a large, tray-like container. Though used to rocket unwanted material into space, the device would have to suffice. She punched a caution-colored key.

A small crimson light throbbed twice, alerting the user an abject had been placed into the tray. A transparent shield sealed over the mouth of the tray, while a section of the hull slid open, exposing the starry darkness of space. There, the drone was gently jettisoned into space. The Spartan doubled-timed it back to the bridge, took a seat, and began pecking a few keys upon a touch-keyboard. Alex waited for the system to sync with the drone. Once it did, she maneuvered her seat a few meters from Jace, taking a pair of joystick-like controls in her hands. A screen displayed the visually standpoint from the drone's on-aboard camera.

"Get ready," she warned Jace.

Alex increased the drone's speed, sailing it toward the Covenant ships. She engaged its stealth system, virtually removing it from Covenant sensors. The drone motioned closer, fifty meters from the nearest ship. Alex cautiously pushed and pulled the controls—the drone reacted to the controls, moving in sync with her movements. A Covenant Battlecruisers loomed beside the drone, dwarfing the man-sized drone. Thirty meters. Saber-Two initiated the drone's weapon systems, arming the ANVIL-II missiles. She aimlessly targeted the starboard-side of the Battlecruiser, mainly focusing on getting its attention.

Unknown to Alex, Jace shot a glare at her as the War Eagle accelerated. He needed to guide the ship into the distant sun's path; otherwise they might've been spotted. A flash of light occurred—the sun's mass expanded. Jace dismissed the natural phenomenon, concentrating heavily on his trajectory. Alex turned to face her superior, gesturing against his peripheral vision. He turned and nodded. The female Headhunter exhaled her reservations and thumbed a bumper-key atop the right control.

A single missile screamed from the underside of the drone, smoke trailing its upside-down arch maneuver. Alex pulled back the drone, banking it left. The ANVIL-II missile detonated against the cruiser's shields. A sliver of platinum light glistened against the bulbous, organic-like hull. The Covenant reacted. A section of the shields dropped as a plasma turret lowered. Jace gunned it, racing toward the sun. He glanced toward his comrade.

"Piss 'em off," he said.

Alex smirked with a nod. She straightened the drone, aimed for the unprotected sector of the cruiser, and fired two missiles at close-range. The plasma turret reacted. A bright, fiery stream of violet plasma streaked across the darkness, striking one of the missiles. The second missile, however, exploded against the turret, damaging it. Bluish flames rolled out from around the turret's bottom, removing its ability to swivel.

The Covenant's attention had been drawn. Multiple sections of the shields dropped, then the turrets came down. But with the drone's stealth system's engaged, the surprised vessel fired aimlessly into empty voids. Alex hit them again, as if the hunted was taunting the hunter. The rest of the Covenant ships began to break formation, lazily moving toward their fellow vessel—a perfect distraction accomplished. Jace didn't hesitate. The moment the War Eagle crossed the sun's path; Saber-One released the ship's counter-measures. Flares sparked and sizzled around the ship's hull. To the array of Covenant ships, it was if the sun's mass expanded, then reduced back.

The flash went largely unnoticed, for the sun of the 16 Cygni star system was infamous for its vibrant and unusually frequent solar flares. Though incredibly spontaneous, the sun also released massive amounts of radiation that rippled thousands of miles throughout the system. Although the system was kept only between ONI operatives, countless black ops operations have gone askew from agents being diagnosed with severe and fatal radiation poisoning. But the Spartans dismissed the radiation. Their SPI armor protected them from abnormal levels of toxins and radiation choked environments. At that moment, the War Eagle passed below the rings around the platform, speeding for the vacant gaps between the destroyers.

"Set the auto-pilot and let them have it," Jace ordered, maneuvering the ship outside the rim of the Covenant platform. "Burn the engines to full power."

Alex set a course for the drone to maneuver in the shape of an obtuse triangle until the engines either overloaded or the Covenant destroyed it. For the hell of it, Alex dispersed the remaining missiles, targeting them to individual vessels. She abandoned the controls, allowing the auto-pilot to take care of the rest.

"There's no way of docking here without them knowing," Alex informed, curious about Jace's entry strategy.

"Then we won't dock," Saber-One replied, gesturing toward the frigate-sized asteroids that orbited around the planet and the platform itself. "That's our LZ."

Alex's brows wrinkled. She highly disagreed. Trying to land on a moving object was difficult enough, but trying to do the same on a jagged, swift moving asteroid was worse. One mistake and the asteroid's spiky exterior could breach the hull, or they could misjudge landing and crash, preventing them from taking off once the mission was possibly completed. Alex expressed her concerns to Jace, informing him of the risk he was about to take was ill-advised. Jace sighed through his external speakers. He glared into her faceplate, as it beaming into her very eyes—a look Alex didn't have to physically see understand.

She replied with an apprehensive grunt, "I trust you." Alex paused, her voice soon elevating with a pinch of doubt. "But if you screw this up—"

"I won't," Jace ensured, aiming for one of the larger asteroids that would soon pass them.

At first glance, the asteroids appeared to orbit the planet with eloquent grace at snail-like speed; but that was for the untrained eye. A closer revealed much more. The asteroids, on average, moved at an impressive eighty to over a hundred KPH. The larger asteroids cruised lazily about, constantly being smacked by the smaller, swifter asteroids. Caution couldn't be thrown to wind. The Spartans would have to land quickly but carefully; otherwise they could be struck by the smaller asteroids that sped by.

So while the Covenant ships fired plasma bolts and streaks at the mindless drone—missing it—Jace ascended the War Eagle just above the asteroid belt, increasing its speed. The specified asteroid filled the aft cameras. Jace raised the Corvette higher, just as the asteroid passed below them. He began his descent, carefully keeping an eye out for stray chunks of celestial rocks barreling their way. A few asteroids, no larger than golf balls, pelted the hull, leaving small indentations.

"There," Alex announced, pointing out a soft plain across the asteroid's surface.

Jace pulsed the thrusters, guiding the War Eagle lower and lower, all the while keeping pace with speeding giant. Jagged, knife-tipped spears of rock extended out above an outcropping, just meters away from the rugged plain. Jace eased to left, accelerated a bit, then descended just enough to extend the craft's landing skids. Hovering a meter off the asteroid, Jace ceased all engine function. The ship dropped onto the surface, its suspension sparking along the skids.

Alex kept herself upright, cutting an icy glare at Jace. The male Spartan released a light, cavalier laugh as he turned to face Alex. "You liked that, didn't you?"

Saber-Two sniggered through her nose, shaking her head. It had been a while since Jace let down his guard to laugh, or at least to vent his anxieties through occasional larking. On a more serious note, however, Alex expressed more of her concerns. "We're basically riding this orbit. What's the ETA before this rock comes back to this position?"

Jace turned his back to Alex, typing an equation that factored in the speed of the orbit, and when it would return before the Covenant platform. The computer concluded its calculation.

"Starting now? Sixty-seven minutes including an additional ten considering the size of this rock," Jace explained.

"That's an hour and seventeen minutes," Alex calculated. "Think we'll have enough time? We're going into this op blind. Nolan didn't actually give us reasonable intel about what we're supposed to be searching for."

Jace stood upright, activating the team's timer starting at 01:16:12.9. They had just over an hour to infiltrate a heavily protected Covenant orbital platform, search out any suspicious intel, detonate a TacNuke, then leave before the asteroid completed its orbit so they could successfully escape. Saber-One concurred with Alex's concerns, but they would have to wait. Time wasn't a luxury, and it was slipping away by every ticking second.

"We'll worry about once we get inside. For now, let's try to concentrate on infiltrating this place first."

Saber Team entered into the armory, speedily assembling weapons and gear. Jace grabbed hold his usual MA37 assault rifle, stocking up with plenty of clips. A standard sidearm magnetized to his waist, while he loaded up four frag grenades. Lastly, although apprehensive about using the risky equipment, the Spartan picked up a Thruster pack. Jace had only used a T-Pack twice in his career as a Headhunter, and he's regretted both times. But the Spartan wasn't too much concerned about the equipment itself, he was concerned about the environment. T-Packs could be affected by radiation, and with the system's sun giving off enormous quantities of radiation, the pack would fail. There was no other option, though.

With weaponry and gear in two, the Spartans proceeded aft to the cargo bay. Alex shoved a full clip into her Battle Rifle, while Jace secured the T-Pack to his back. Saber-Two quickened her pace, stepping into the bay before Jace. She marched to the sealed hatch, preparing to open it. Saber-One came by her side, priming his assault rifle for combat. She thumbed the dull emerald key. It flashed red as the heavy mechanized hatch began to hiss open. The Spartans held onto the Warthog that was chained to the floor, creating a handhold to withstand the decompression. When the hatch unfolded, vacuum-like suction nearly ripped the Spartans from the Warthog. From the interior of the War Eagle, the asteroid's surface had an eerie appeal. Horror movie-like rock formations hung overhead like boney hands, while the ground was riddled with fissures, abnormal plains, and unexpected tremors.

A few minutes had already ticked down before the Spartans reached the brim of the asteroid, and by the time they'd actually reach the orbital platform, less than an hour would probably remain. By now, the asteroid had orbited just behind where Saber Team had deployed the scout drone, something the Covenant ships merely observed until the human machine's engines burned out. With the drone gassed, the Covenant ships would most likely move in to investigate, and possibly search for the drone's origin. The Spartans couldn't wait anymore. They stepped back a few meters, surged into a rapid sprint, then leaped from the edge of the asteroid. For a moment, the Spartans allowed their forward momentum to guide them closer to the platform. When that ceased, they opted for their T-Packs. Jace keyed his TEAMCOM, contacting Alex.

"Aim for the rings; they'll lead us in."

Saber-Two winked her acknowledgment light once. The Headhunter pair gingerly guided themselves closer to the rotating rings, using just enough thrust to keep them upright. Without warning, a wave of light highlighted the darkness—a solar flare. Jace kept his eyes on the radiation levels. Since the system's sun had recently released an explosive flare, waves of radiation would soon pursue. Though the sun was easily billions of miles away, the great explosion from the sun's surface would propel the radiation three times that of the speed of sound. It would undoubtedly reach the Covenant's platform within a few hours, and if that happened, the Spartans' escape would be severely compromised. The risk would have to be ignored for now. As the Spartans inched their way closer to the one of the rings, the op had taken a turn for the worse. A section of the rings parted open, releasing a single Seraph Fighter. The team acted. Jace accelerated left, dashing from the alien craft's line of sight.

Alex trailed him before propelling herself around Jace. For once, the Spartans wished they still had their original SPI armor. At least they would've been semi-concealed from enemy eyes; but they were highly visible. Saber One and Two could only pray that the complexion of their armor gave them some type of concealment against the starry abyss around them. For a moment, the Seraph appeared to ignore the humanoid pair before the pilots' sights. The Seraph's engines came to life, rotating ninety degrees to expose its starboard side to the Headhunters. A sigh of relief followed when the Seraph departed toward a nearby CCS-class Battlecruiser.

'The hell with this,' Jace mentally exclaimed, pushing his T-Pack to its full acceleration.

Saber-Two pulled alongside, the two of them aiming for the opening where the Seraph had came from. The automated door began to close at snail pace. Saber Team ignored the T-Packs obvious risks, gunning for the open doorway. Close now, the rings were larger and thicker than the Spartans previously projected. The very doorway stretched beyond the measurements of the Seraph that exited it through it. But as the elevator-like doors began to seal together, Jace and Alex slipped through. A heavy slam echoed through their ears, causing them to ring. Saber Team shook off the disorientation, ditched their exhausted T-Packs, brought their weapons to bear, and disappeared into the hollows of the unperceived.