(A.N: Sorry that I've neglected uploading the next chapter. Been quite busy in real life. Thank you guys for your patience.)

Chapter 6

Time: 11:45

Current location: Training Room

(P.O.V: Kará)

I pondered on as far as the escape plan and I looked for Jen to discuss more on it. She was in the middle of her round of target session practice with a team. Her score 185/200 targets hit: the course was a virtual reality simulator of entering a fortified base under human control.

It usually was controlled by their footpad marines, some shock troopers ODSTs, but knowing everyone's anger against Scotty probably made the level of the simulator higher, defended by all of those and now including SPARTANS.

Surprisingly enough, no member of her team was lost yet, the SPARTANS must be last. If they were to be "killed" by a bullet, explosive, melee attack, or friendly fire, they're paralyzed by the attack, but long enough for the simulation to be over with. I looked on and saw the team of SPARTANS, but not was able to help her in anyway, The SPARTANS were different on each one. I began watching and listening very intently, as this can prove how they can handle themselves.

"Okay, something is not right, the simulator is faulting because there is not an enemy to be found," snorted an elite major,

"Maybe enemies run scared," said a grunt looking around.

"No, there has to be some, the system has never failed us now," Jen said scanning every corner closely, but still no movement.

"Let's just call it a day, without a doubt this system has made a flaw," said a Jiralhanae minor, "Come on let's ghh.." soon his sentence was ended quickly as a sniper rifle shot rang and hit him between the eyes. Immediately after that, more sniper fire followed quickly, which killed 5 grunts, 2 jackals, and another brute minor, knocking their team down to 31/40.

Everyone jumped into cover, some blind firing as well.

"Do you think the system is messed up now?" Jen asked in a smartass way, sort of smiling.

"Alright, you were right, let us focus on the situation at hand," the major yelled as sniper fire echoed.

Jen tried to pinpoint a few of the snipers, but they were more elusive than she thought. "We have to kill the snipers if we want to stand a chance," she said to the elite general next to her, and he nodded in agreement,

"We have four hunters, they can draw the fire, while a few of us snipe the SPARTANS," she said to the General, which he shouted at the hunters to follow the plan.

They soon went out into the pathway towards the second floor snipers.

Jen found three other jackals and two elite rangers to aid her, and half of them had the focus rifle the others had needle rifles.

One of the elite rangers found 2 of the SPARTAN snipers and soon fired upon them, which the others and Jen followed in sync, killing them eventually. 187/200.

"All of that fire just for 2 kills," groaned a sniper jackal.

"Well they're hyper elite soldiers, with tremendous shielding and strength," Jen clarified.

But they hadn't killed all the SPARTAN snipers, as another took his shot, killing a ranger with one shot in the head, killing his shields instantly. 30/40.

They soon ran back into cover. Luckily, the hunters were close to the sniper, and with their sheer force was able to overpower the SPARTAN. 188/200.

"All the ones left are SPARTANs," Jen sighed, knowing this would be difficult.

Out of the two hallways came 4 SPARTANS with M247H Heavy Machine Gun turrets detached from their fixed position and 2 explosive specialists SPARTANS. The turret fodders started to mow down everything in their path, taking out 2 of the hunters while the explosives worked on the other hunters. 28/40.

"Major, we need the grunt fodders and Jiralhanae minors to back up the last hunters or we will be dead without their protection," Jen shouted.

She peeked around the corner as she tried to find a vantage point to have her snipers cover the hunters. She spotted a second floor balcony across the leeway, and it had a vantage point that would be desired to counter this battle. She told her idea to the remaining snipers and they followed her behind the hunters and jumped to the second floor. She and the rest of her team began open firing of the explosive SPARTANS, quickly killing them with the joint fire of the fodders. 190/200.

"Now aim for the machine gunners," she commanded. They were able to take out 2 of the turrets gunners.192/200. Suddenly a M12G1 Light Anti-Armor Vehicle Shot through the Hunters' armor and killed them with one shot from the cannon. The passenger started to mow down the grunt fodders with his assault rifle, while the driver ran over the brutes with ease. 20/40. Then the machine gunners turned towards them when two Spec Op elites were able to manage to get close to the SPARTANS and assassinate them with their energy daggers. 194/200.

Soon they were able to bring the rest of the team close to open fire on the Warthog. A loud humming sound came in the air as a Pelican came in firing on the Spec Ops elites and the Major, with 2 bursts of rounds. 17/40. But the Pelican had even a bigger surprise as it dropped off a M808B Main Battle Tank.

"Well fuck me, the system is really wanting us to fail now," Jen sighed with a slight chuckle.

"Well if we can down the Pelican, it with the Chieftain brute and me with the Fodder Cannon, we can definitely kill the rest of the ground units," the General said over comm.

"Okay, but be careful, the tank and warthog are still out there, one shot from their fire will easily kill you," she warned.

"I know," he said, and he told the chieftain his plan and he agreed.

"Hmm, I need to draw the fire of the land vehicles," she muttered.

"Focus for on the tank, it'll draw the fire of the warthog off the leaders," she barked into the comms to the rest of the allies left, which was composed of a Brute Ultra, 3 grunt minors, 2 elite Ultras, 2 jackal infantry, 2 skirmisher infantry. Everyone followed suit as she opened fire on the battle tank.

"Jiralhanae Ultra, when warthog gets close to the tank, use your gravity hammer, maybe you can kill the passenger SPARTAN along with the driver of the 'hog, we'll cover you," Jen said.

The brute grunted in acknowledgement and gained grounds towards the hog, and the sniper team was focusing more fire on the tank, but the tank turned it's cannon and fired towards the snipers' position, Jen just barely made it out of there with her great jumping skills of her species, only if she could say the same for the other snipers. 13/40.

"Fuck, we need to kill the tank," Jen groaned, "Grunts and jackals, charge your plasma pistols to overcharge the tanks controls, so the elite ultras can board it and kill the pilot along with destroying the tank, others keep the fire focus on the hog so the hammer can be delivered to end that,"

The grunts and jackals followed and they were able to overcharge the tanks system for the elites to board. The elites were on and stuck 2 plasma grenades on it, and remove the pilot, but the hog had a trick up their sleeve as the passenger was able to see this and he swapped to his secondary weapon which was a SPARTAN Laser and he charged it up. The elites didn't notice as one was killing the pilot the other destroying the engine and the laser was charged up and he shot it at the engine on the tank, blowing up the tank, killing the two elites with ease, 11/40. 195/200.

"Jen we need help over here, send some of the infantry over here to aid us in taking down the aircraft," yelled the general into the comm and she ordered the remaining jackals to aid the general and chieftain.

"Now do the same thing with the overcharge on the 'hog and the ultra can probably get close to smash the top of it, but watch out for the laser," said Jen to the others. The remaining grunts and skirmishers were able to overcharge to warthog long enough for the ultra to approach, but the spartan with the laser was charging up again. Jen started firing on the SPARTAN with her needle rifle and was able to cause a supercombine explosion, but the last few shots made it on the laser which caused it to explode, killing the SPARTAN passenger, knocking the shields off the other two, and finally made the warthog severely damaged. 196/200.

The ultra made it to the hog, as he jumped on it the hog was able to move again and he nearly fell off. The brute managed to grab the handhold on the passenger side and hold on. He regained his posture and climbed into the passenger seat, then on top of it to deliver one final blow to it with his hammer, killing himself as the warthog exploded, finally killing the hog driver and gunner.198/200.

The rain of hell wasn't over as the hog was going at top speed and the shell of it managed to fly towards the grunts, killing them as well. 7/40.

The skirmishers were able to manage to jump out of the way before it came close to them.

"Well now we all can go assist the General and Chieftain," she said to the other 2 skirmishers. They were able to run to their position quickly and start firing on the human aircraft, which was smoking.

"I was beginning to think you were not going to show up," the general smirked.

"Yeah well this all that is left of us now, those SPARTANS are really a pain." Jen sighed as she joined the General in firing at the Pelican.

The chaingun was loosely hanging as it was getting ready to break off and Jen noticed it.

"Look General, the gun is ready to break, aim for it and it's a defenseless aircraft that can be taken down easily," she said pointing at the bird.

"We will try to go for it, but we are low on ammo," he said.

"Well I think maybe 3 more shots and it'll break off, then focus on the back engine thrusters," she said.

He followed the plan and took the shots, which actually hit the pelican and broke off. The co-pilot left his seat and went into the cargo bay ready to jump when the pilot gives the signal.

The remaining team took shots at the back thruster, which caused it to catch on fire the blow up, the second thruster on the opposite side soon caught on fire and then blow up, causing it to spin out of control and the pilot gave the signal, which made the gunner jump out and the pilot aimed for the squad down below.

The pelican crashed and killed the chieftain and jackals, but the General, Jen, and the two skirmishers made it out the way. 4/40.

They were coughing as it caused the area to scrounge up dirt and dust in the air. The co-pilot had armor locked to protect himself from the blast and quickly got up to search for the survivors. The SPARTAN co-pilot turned its night vision on and quickly was able to quickshot a skirmisher in the head with his M392 Designated Marksman Rifle then the other. 2/40.

The dust cleared out and Jen saw the SPARTAN ironically looked like Scotty. She was staring as the General and the SPARTAN walked up to each other. Jen knew that the general would want to do this alone as it is an honor challenge.

The General threw the first punch, and the SPARTAN dodged it and punched the general in the ribs, followed up by a low sweep, knocking the elite down, but the elite fell he quickly gained footing for a tackle onto the SPARTAN. They launched into the ground a few feet away, and the general was on top giving punches to the human, then the SPARTAN kneed the elite in the stomach and pushed him over. The human jumped on top of him, throwing punches into the elite's head and chest. This charade continued on for several minutes and they were both beginning to weaken from loss of energy from the brawl. The elite was on top and the SPARTAN delivered a critical blow to the neck of the elite and he fell over coughing, gasping for air. The SPARTAN drew his combat knife and was charging in on the general when he tried to stop it, but it was too late. The human was too fast and stabbed him in the chest, turning the knife around one of the hearts that the elite had and he pulled it out to do the same to the other. 1/40.

The human was satisfied and he pulled his dagger out, but Jen shot it out of his hand. During this time, she managed to find a good sniping position and fired onto the SPARTAN. He quickly got into cover and tried to scope out the area to find the last enemy. Luckily for Jen is that she was one of the best snipers that the Covenant has to offer. She was able to keep fire on him as he tried to peer around a corner. He pulled the pin on one of his grenades and threw it out, which she shot out of the sky, but he took advantage and ran to a better hiding spot.

"So this is going to be a hide-and-seek game isn't it?" Jen thought and tried to find the human.

He was able to find her position as when he threw the grenade he looked for where the needle came from and spotted her, but she was up high and he had to get close to be able to climb up there. He looked for something to draw her attention away from him and toward something else. He looked around and saw a propane tank and shot it a few times with his DMR and it blew up. This caused Jen's attention to focus on that, then to try to find where he was too. The SPARTAN was crawling towards the tree where she was and she didn't notice it yet.

He started climbing it and quickly, by the time her fast reflexes caught him, he was already next to her and she squawked in frightenment. She jumped off hurriedly and started shooting rapidly as he was taking aim. Each needle crackled off his shielding like nothing and he started firing his DMR, but she managed to block them with her gauntlet shields and continue firing her rifle. She managed to knock his shields off, but now she was backed into a corner of the base between two buildings and they were too high to jump on. She gulped as she knew she had nowhere to go and he soon close in on her.

He came quickly to her position and started shooting his marksman rifle that with each shot she was able to manage to propel it off her shields. She had to think of something, and she knew one trick to help her. She swapped weapons and took her plasma pistol in hand from her holster then started charging it. The SPARTAN was slowly walking towards her, but now he pulled out his pistol and started taking aim,

"Even it too was identical to Scotty's," Jen thought as she remembered seeing it when he first came aboard the Shadow of Justice.

She let loose the EMP charge on him and it knocked of his shield and she swapped weapons, quickly firing the needle rifle at him, knowing he would be vulnerable like this. He ignored the rifle shots and he was a few feet away when his shots became consecutive with hers. She starting thinking that she was going to be dead soon or enough. She aimed for his helmet, thinking a headshot would end this once and for all, but it didn't as he was still coming. She kept trying to end the match, he was at point blank now, when her last shot counted and all the needles in him caused a supercombine explosion, splattering blood and shrapnels of needles all over her body and face. 200/200. She shuddered as it felt so realistic and then it started to fade away as the simulation had ended.

The machine's A.I. announced, "Victory to the Covenant."

The team that was down on the ground had recovered and was beginning to leave. I was waiting for Jen to tell her that Scotty had agreed to it and how I was going to leave with him. I finally felt hope as I knew the oppression was going to soon end for myself. I saw Jen was in a daze, standing in the middle of the field and I hurried to go see her.

"Congratulations on winning the match, you performed well," I yelled and was running towards her, "Jen, is everything alright?" I asked coming to her position as I couldn't see the entirety of the last part of the battle as where I was the "buildings" blocked my way.

I noticed Jen was staring out into the distance and I went to shake her when Jen said, "I'm fine.. It's just that.." Jen looked up, but I knew that by the look on her face it would probably concern me more if she told me what had happen, "Never mind. Anyways, did you talk to the Scotty?" she asked seeming to change topics, quickly.

"Yes, and he agreed to it, though we need to plan it out more," I said.

"Well I heard we are getting new transports for attacking the planet, maybe you two can "steal" one that I can manage to move to the hanger," she suggested, "I think it's a variant on the phantom transport."

"Perhaps, maybe you can 'guard' it and on the escape 'try to shoot us down'," I said quickly trying to form a plan.

"Though you still don't know the style of the execution so it may be difficult,"

"True, but well will soon find that out," I said pondering on an escape plan.

"But what about the actual escape, coming from the main bay to here won't be easy, how are you going to do that with everyone shooting at you?" Jen asked worriedly.

"Do not trouble yourself, leave that part up to me," I smiled and left.