Chapter One: Breaking Even

1604 Hours, February 9, 2558. Qamar Island Ruins, Planet Khan. "The First Tango," Outer Colonies. Prologue to the Dawn of the Prometheans

Just four months ago, I'd thought the Human-Covenant War was over. I'd thought that most of my days in actual combat were done. I'd spent much of the last four years before this living a peaceful life on Earth with my husband Willis and our three kids: seven-year-old Gabe, and four-year-old twins Liam and Olivia, all while helping Earth rebuild from the fighting and eventually becoming CO of the 8th Engineer Battalion. It was what I'd been hoping and longing for throughout all the six long years I'd fought the Covenant during the war: a well-deserved rest and uninterrupted time with my family.

But now, because of human rebels, the religious nutjob sect of the broken Covenant - called the Storm - and some new enemy we'd just discovered today and had yet to name, we were all back at it again.

Funny how the old saying proved true. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Stuck inside the underground ruins of Qamar Island now, in the Outer Colony world of Khan, I brought my gun up at the same time as the spook beside me, Navy Lieutenant Caleb Lloyd, did. In our first glimpse inside the deep chamber of the ruins, we'd just heard a sound that didn't match anything we could account for within our own team. So of course, it had to mean trouble.

"Marines, watch those walls!" I shouted inside the cavernous room. "We don't know where our new mechanical buddies spawned from, or which of these portals could be functioning. Everyone tag a spot and be ready!"

Like I hadn't already had enough on my plate today, what with clearing out the Storm forces on the island once and for all, and the strange and entirely unexpected meet and greet with some sentient, aggressive AI things outside the ruins that we still didn't quite understand, the spook beside me had also informed me that the chamber we were now in contained a series of portals to other worlds. Which ones, nobody knew. How many of the portals were actually active anymore, nobody knew either. It was all stuff that naturally made me curious, as well as awestruck, and I'd already decided I was going to send a thorough report of our findings in this place to HighCom once we were back aboard our ship in orbit, the Suave Affair.

The only problem was, of course, how to get out now if the same enemies we'd faced up top were coming back around again. I figured that started with finding the source of the sudden noise that had just cropped up and eliminating it.

Weapons raised, my Marines and I visually scanned the walls of the circular chamber surrounding us for anything that might suddenly wink into existence from any part of the room. Although we continued to hear the sound, nothing had yet appeared. I turned to Lieutenant Lloyd then, wondering what the hell it could be.

"Cal? You probably know more about this than I do since I just found out these things even existed. Should we have seen something pop up by now?"

"Yes, ma'am," the ONI operative replied, though he continued looking down the sights of his BR85HB nonetheless. "Still don't see anything, Major. Not even with the scanners on my HUD. But the sound hasn't gone away."

I suddenly remembered then that down here, we didn't have radio contact with the surface. Earlier I'd had to send one of my Marines back up himself to call for extra hands. My pulse quickened at the thought. "That only means one thing, Lieutenant. Whatever that noise is, it's not coming from down here. It's coming from up top."

Acting fast, I raced over to the old, crumbling stairs that, as far as I could tell, were our only route to and from the surface. I gestured to my team behind me while I began to run up two steps at a time. "Let's move it, Marines! Back to the top, now!"

If we hadn't all been fit UNSC servicemen and women at the peak of condition, the climb would've been long and arduous; the stairs were ancient, steep, and unforgiving. And there were lots of them. As it was I could feel my leg muscles burning and my lungs expanding and contracting fast by the time we made it to the summit, and my knee joints mildly ached. It wasn't from old age since I was only thirty, but from overuse. I'd been in the infantry throughout most of my nearly eleven-year career in the Marines, and all that physical battering I received on a fairly frequent basis in combat, along with all the constant hauling of gear and supplies on my person, were taking their toll.

Not that I complained, however. I sucked it up as I always did, and instead focused on finding out what the hell was happening when we finally stepped back out into the bright island sunlight.

I found, however, that I didn't even have to open my mouth to speak. The answer was staring me in the face the moment we came up.

Somehow, and from where I had no clue, the mechanical beings we'd fought at the entrance had reappeared in greater number on the surface while we'd been down below exploring the ruins. Earlier we'd fought maybe around half a dozen of them, no more than a handful and mostly just the flying drone versions. Now, it seemed there were more - a lot more. When I looked up, I saw that at least eight of them were the big tall ones that I thought looked vaguely like Elites at first, all surrounded by two drones each as they fought my Marines ahead of us. Besides those, I saw that a new kind had showed up, too - smaller ones that crawled along the ground as fast as roaches, but looked sort of like mechanical dogs.

Great, I thought to myself. Now we've got AI Fido in the mix, too.

Beside me, my aide, Staff Sergeant Joshua Porter, brought his SAW to bear as he spoke to me. "Ma'am, I'd respectfully suggest you proceed with caution. Whatever perimeter we had set up before is clearly not holding up."

I snorted. "I can see that, Josh. But thanks." Turning behind me, I saw my husband's much younger brother, Matthew Hawk, bring up his assault rifle as well, rearing to get into the skirmish. I held up my hand at him and he lowered his weapon with a questioning look.

"Wait a sec, kiddo," I said. "I need to find out what the hell happened before we just go rushing in."

Much as I was itching to jump into the fray myself, I knew it wouldn't be wise. Already in the few months we'd spent here on Khan, we'd lost not only the UNSC outpost we'd been sent to help bolster, but also its CO, Colonel Dwight. And in the subsequent fighting against the Storm on the mainland, we'd even lost my best friend and joint commander on this mission, Major Oliver Hayden. His death had occurred just scant weeks ago, so the loss was still at the forefront of my mind and still hurt like hell, but most of the time I managed to clamp down on my feelings and focus on the task at hand.

What that all meant presently, however, was that I was now the senior ranking officer on the ground. If something happened to me now, we'd be cooked, as all that was left down the chain of command were the two battalions' captains. Already one of them was in charge of what used to be Hayden's unit, and my own XO was doing much of the leg work for my own since I currently had my hands full trying to direct both, as well as the vehicles, armor, and air support we'd brought with us to the island.

So basically, I needed to make sure I didn't bite the dust anytime soon. And not just for my family's sake, but for my Marines as well.

Unconsciously, I let out a sigh. Long day didn't even begin to cover it. It was more like a long several weeks.

Opening a COM channel to my XO, who I knew was one of the Marines busily engaged in the fighting now, I said, "Harris, this is Major Cooper. Where the hell did more of those bastards come from?"

"No clue, Major!" Captain Shawn Harris responded promptly. He sounded out of breath. "I know you thought there was a chance they came from those ruins, ma'am, but there must've been more up top that we hadn't seen. These ones came out from behind the old buildings, not inside."

Fuck, I thought. To Harris, I replied, "How is that possible, Captain? I've got Kilo Squadron flying above you with eyes on. They didn't spot them? Didn't they warn you they were on approach?"

"Yes, ma'am, they did. Talon sent out the warning, but by the time the flyboys saw them come out of whatever damned hole they'd been hiding in, it was too late. They were already swarming our position. Fighting hard, too, Major. This won't be easy to get out of. These bastards are tougher to take out than the Covies and Storm ever were."

"Don't I know it," I murmured. Before we'd entered the ruins, just one of those tall robots had leapt clear over a whole squad of Marines to land in front of the 'Hog we'd brought with us, eliminating all three of the Marines inside within seconds. If this new enemy had been going for a grand initial meeting, I couldn't think of anything more spectacular than that. Or frightening. I knew that despite all we'd brought with us to Qamar, we'd certainly have our hands full if more of these mechanical beings continued to show up.

"Was that all, ma'am?" Harris asked.

"Just one more thing, Shawn. Have you seen anymore enter the fight since it began?"

"That's a negative, Major. But they've been keeping me pretty busy as well, ma'am, so it's possible I may have missed a few. But I get the feeling that this may have been all that were left hiding out in the back. Don't know what might've caught their attention, though, to force them out."

"Got it. Standby for more orders soon, Captain. Cooper out."

Even as I cut the connection, I could think of two things that may have lured the rest of them out: the approach of the remainder of my engineer battalion, and the small team I'd chosen to take with me to explore inside the ruins. Either one of those things may have triggered the possible backlash - probably both.

I supposed though that the "why" didn't matter so much anymore. Now, we were just faced with the task of dealing with it.

Turning to face my aide, I said, "All right, Josh. Now's the time. Let's get in there and help."

I could hear the staff sergeant beginning to protest behind me, but I didn't stick around to hear what his objection was this time. And apparently neither did the Marines with us. Rather than await their squad leader they instead charged headlong into the fray with me, weapons up and ready to take on whatever came at us first.

Surprisingly, that didn't take long. I'd only taken a few steps towards the fight when one of the AI dog-looking things must've sensed us coming and broke off its attack toward the larger force of Marines up ahead. Just off to the left of it, a second dog-like machine did the same. Then, moving with amazingly quick speed, they ran right for us instead.

Already holding my DMR to bear in my hands, I took rapid aim at the first and fired, three straight bursts that I thought would nail the little bastard for sure. But their speed served them well, and just as I'd fired my last burst, it ducked under the volley of lead and ran at me fast, trailing sparks from the initial two bursts. Knowing I wouldn't get another good aim in in time, I backpedaled, reaching for my sidearm with my right hand as I held onto my DMR with my left. Even if I managed to get the magnum out of my hip holster now, I knew I wouldn't do it fast enough to avoid getting shot to bits by the robot dog.

Thankfully, that's when Porter sprinted up beside me and let out a long rattle of gunfire from his SAW. Sweeping from left to right on the ground with his rapid-fire weapon, he made quick work of both beasts in no time. Seconds later both mechanical things skidded to a halt in the grassy dirt, their brightly lit eyes going dark and sparks overwhelming their circuits where they'd been hit. It was doggy heaven for the robotic mutts, and a big, heavy sigh of relief for me.

"Thanks," I said to him, realizing only now how hard I was breathing.

I kept thinking that after all the close scrapes I'd been through in my life, I'd somehow become accustomed to them by now and not worry so much about the near-death stuff. Instead, I found I felt more or less the same about it today as I had when I'd first been commissioned as an officer in the Marine Corps at twenty, almost eleven years ago. Death never sounded like a good idea.

And I'd had more than my fair share of close calls over the years. The only-just-healed bullet wounds in my left shoulder and chest were a testament to that, courtesy of some overzealous Jackal snipers that had been harassing Outpost Columbia for profit before it'd gone up in smoke. Good times.

"Are you okay, ma'am?" Porter asked me then in response to my gratitude. I waved him off.

"Fine, Staff. Come on, let's keep going. There's plenty more where that came from."

A quick glance up ahead proved that the sudden skirmish was anything but close to being over. We hadn't quite arrived at the start, and we weren't getting overwhelmed yet, but I had to admit that whatever those mechincal things were - wherever they'd come from - they were certainly putting up a good fight. It wasn't long before I heard my XO's voice over the COM channel again as he hailed me.

"Major! We're burning through bullets fast here! Where's our air support?"

"Can't call them in, Captain! The fighting's too condensed! If they target the enemy, they'd also be hitting us!" I answered.

"Shit! What about our Scorpion, ma'am?"

"Same thing! We're just going to have to tackle this on our own, Harris."

"Understood!"

Now that he'd brought it up, I refrained from setting my sights on a new target just long enough to hail Kilo and our armor, which should've been somewhere behind the engineers bringing up the rear. I didn't want them getting too excited to help, either, although I knew both Marine commanders were smart enough to stay out the fighting if it would hurt friendlies. Just in case, though, I opened up another channel to both.

"First Lieutenant Abel?"

"Yes, ma'am?"

"I want you and your Scorpion to sit tight for now and hold position where you're at. Do not fire at the enemy. I repeat, do not fire. Friendlies are amongst them."

"Got it, Major. Standing by."

"Good. Talon?"

My husband's voice flooded my helmet, full of concern. "What's up, Cooper? I see you guys have your hands full down there, but I don't want to launch anything in case it hits some of you. You're too tightly packed."

"I know," I said. "Just keep an eye out for anymore that might emerge, and be sure to give us a head's up if they do."

"Will do, Major." Then his voice went low. "I'm sorry about before, honey. We were reconning the area when you went in, just like you'd ordered, but we didn't see them in time."

"I understand. Harris filled me in. We'll handle it."

The connection cut fast as I didn't have time to stand there and chitchat. By now the melee was growing more and more chaotic around me. Sparks flew as metal parts and human blood occasionally sprayed into the air, all while bullets and what looked like pulses of orange laser light tore through their intended targets. Marines were dropping quickly, but then again so were most of the mechanical dogs and the drones. What ended up proving harder to go up against were the tall Elite-looking things. Until we better understood their weaknesses -and actually found out what the hell these things were - I was afraid I'd be looking at some very high casualty numbers by the end.

And that was something I'd just never been able to accept. As supreme ground commander, I was responsible for the well-being of all my Marines - and I wanted to make sure I could bring all I could back home safe. If something could be done to stop this, it was up to me to find it.

I opened up yet another general channel, going off a hunch I had after seeing what had occurred during my first encounter with these things at the entrance to the ruins. Maybe it would work, maybe it wouldn't, but it was time to see.

"Marines, keep up the fire! Target the dogs and the drones first! I repeat, take out those drones! Then pour all the lead you've got into those big tall bastards! Let's do this!"

The cacophony of battle only increased then as the Marines around me quickly switched up the pace to do as I ordered. I started to hear more and more metallic pops and bursts of hot metal as one by one, the dogs and drones were attacked relentlessly and sent into smoking heaps on the ground. Finally, the tide of the fight began to change.

But even as those things started getting destroyed at a faster rate, the big tall ones jumped into a higher gear, too, to compensate. Now, as I stood firing off bursts from my own weapon as well, trying to nail as many of the flying drones as I could, I watched out of the corner of my eye as the Elite-like ones didn't just leap from the fight. They started teleporting away.

Of course, there was no way I could know if that was exactly what they were doing. It was simply the only way I knew how to describe it.

One thing I did know, however, was that they'd only started doing that once most of the drones had been cleared out of the way. Again, I made the connection in my mind to the first fight, and began to see how the two possibly worked in tandem while in combat. I'd try to find out more from our spook Cal once the skirmish was over.

It was only as the last few rounds poured from my Marines' guns and I got a hail from my XO that I felt like things were finally calming down.

"Major, they've retreated! I don't know where they went - couldn't see 'em - but it looks like most are gone for now, ma'am."

"You mean most of the big ones," I corrected.

"Yes, ma'am. We've still got some of the dogs around as stragglers, but we'll get that mopped up. As you can see, the drones are all destroyed."

I nodded to myself, though I knew he couldn't see it. "Right. Excellent work, Harris. Please relay that to the Marines as well."

"On it, Major."

A few minutes later, the last sounds of the fight finally died out. When it was done I was left standing there in a bit of a shock, astonished at just how fast things had begun and then ended. Meanwhile, the effects of the brief skirmish between our forces were all around us: strewn weapons and smoking metal parts and Marine bodies and sparks were all over in small pockets of tragedy. And even through my helmet's filtered systems, I could smell it, too. The carnage against the human corpses, and the smoky smell of oil and burnt ozone from the enemy's broken components and weapons' discharge. The latter was something I'd gotten used to during the Human-Covenant War, and again when we'd fought the Storm here on Khan on the mainland, but this smelled a little different. In the moment, I wondered if these new beings fought with plasma as well, or something different. Another thing to ask Lieutenant Lloyd later.

For now, I knew I had to get the Marines organized again and let our other battalion waiting in the wings, the 904th Infantry, know of what had occurred here. I also had to get our medic to attend to the wounded, and pick out the dogtags of the dead once that was complete. I sighed as I looked over the great mess the skirmish had created at our feet, then paused for a few seconds before opening up a new channel.

It was in that moment that I received a hail from our ship in orbit, the Suave Affair.

"Affair to ground commander, please respond."

Curious, I answered right away. "Affair, this is Major Cooper. Go ahead."

"Cooper, this is Affair actual. Take a pilot and get back up to the ship now, Major. And bring the spook with you. We've had some new developments that you need to be brought up to speed on right away."

I frowned, wondering what that really meant. But I knew if the ship's captain had hailed me over it, it must be big. "Sir, we've just had a skirmish end right this moment - and with a brand-new enemy, no less. The area hasn't been secured yet. Before I head up, I'd like to - "

"Now, Major. Let your XO and other officers handle it."

"Yes, sir."

"Good. I expect you up here in thirty minutes. Affair out."

The line went dead then, and I was left wondering what kind of news the Affair's CO had that involved me - or groundside operations. Rather than dwell on the unknown, however, I got straight to work making sure a new defensive perimeter was set up, that Cal was nearby, and that a pilot was ready to take us back up into space.

Again I felt a pang of regret when I realized that whatever the message was, it probably wasn't going to be pleasant. And almost assuredly, it meant that at least for the foreseeable future, we weren't going home.