The return of the forgotten empire

by revan1801

What if a small portion of the Prehistoric Human Empire fled from the wars against the Flood and the Forerunners and somehow survived the firing of the Halo Arrays.Now they are back more deadly and bloodthirsty than ever. They want their lost honor and fallen worlds back and not even humanity itself shall stand in their way.

9. Behind enemy lines

A/N: Hallo everyone and merry Christmas to you all. So I finally got my 2 tons lazy ass out of the chair and got some work done on this story (I have been at it ever since the last chapter but we don't tell that to anyone ;) ) Aaaanyway I hope this chapter isn't too long. I have been playing with the idea of breaking it up into smaller ones but couldn't really find good places without making them too short. Hope you all enjoy it and please leave a comment… I like comments XD

Behind enemy lines

The 05/10/2581 Onboard the UNSC Infinity

The Chief and his wife, Julia griffin, walked down the hallway towards one of the many conference rooms on the UNSC Infinity to meet Fleet Admiral Thomas Lasky. They found the room and entered. The room wasn't that large and only Lasky was in it. He was facing the monitors that decorated one of the four walls. The monitors showed the UNSC Security Council. Lasky and Admiral Serin Osman, the Commander –in-Chief of ONI, were in a heated debate about how ONI's Section One and Three got infiltrated by the imperials, the imperials getting access to crucial data about the Spartan programs and all their troop movements. Osman's Answers seemed calm and collected but Chief, as a follow Spartan-II, knew that she would have jumped through the monitor and bitten Lasky's head off had he not been hundreds of kilometers above Earth, fleet admiral and a member of the UNSC Security Council.

"…We're talking about at nearly a dozen ONI agents suddenly disappearing without any traces of them over a few weeks, how could you or any of your subordinates not have looked into that?" Lasky asked the ONI chief sharply. "And that's not taking into account that they managed to break into a top secret high security prison that housed a single prisoner, the prince of our new enemy, the imperials, I might add, and they got away with him while your men acted like a bunch of headless chickens!" The Chief raised an eyebrow in awe. He was impressed that Lasky dared talk like that to Osman after all what Lasky had told him about that woman. Osman was about to come up with a counter answer when the General of the Air Forces interrupted her.

"It looks like you have visitors Fleet Admiral Lasky. We'll take this talk on a later date." The other member of the council, except Lasky and Osman, nodded their heads in agreement. The meeting would be taken up on a later date. The council members turned off the monitors from their end, the last one to do so was Osman who gave Lasky a long piercing glance that told him that their fight had just begun before she too turned off her monitor. Lasky breathed out heavily and full of relief before turning off his own and turned to greet his guests.

"Chief!" Lasky smiled. "Good to see you again old friend." He beaconed for them to sit down at a nearby table and the two Spartans accepted.

"It's also nice to see you again Julia." Lasky smiled at Julia while he took a seat on the other side of the table from the two Spartans. "I must say, you become more and more beautiful every time I see you."

Julia gave a light laugh. "As charming as ever I see… now you had something that you wanted to show us." Lasky nodded his head and grabbed five holopads from the table and spread them out before the Spartans. The Chief took one of them. It was data about five Spartan-IVs. The one Chief held was about one named Lucas Esbjörnsson. According to his journal his augmentations didn't go quite as planned because of some malfunctioning equipment. The poor guy grew to nearly 3 meters in height and was in such pain that it was a miracle that was able to fight after years of coma. He had to take a special mixture of medicines to keep his body from breaking itself down on a weekly basic. The others on the list were more normal Spartan-IVs with a quite a few rough battles on their resume.

"These Spartans are from our daughter's team." Julia realized and looked up at Lasky. "Why?"

"They want their comrade back and have volunteered to help you on your crazy rescue mission to get your daughter back." Chief dropped the pad in his hand unto the table.

"So you'll back us up with weapons and other supplies?" Lasky shook his head.

"No I can't… Osman have convinced the Security Council not to take any aggressive actions towards the new enemy since they are targeting the loyalist worlds at the moment… My hands are tied behind my back."

The two Spartans looked down, depressed that they couldn't do anything to get their daughter back anyway… legally at least.

"However" Said Lasky with joy in his voice, making the two Spartans looked back up at him. "I'm sending you two and the rest of Reach team to be bodyguards for Thel Vadam's son, Rak Vadam." Julia raised an eyebrow and looked confused at the fleet admiral.

"And how is that going to help us get our daughter back in any way?" The question made Lasky smile wide.

"You're, officially by the UNSC and the UEG at least, going to protect Rak from harm and follow him where ever he wants to go, something about building political trust and all that. Rak will then, without the rest of the Security Council knowing, go on a rescue mission to get your daughter back home… seems like that Rak guy have taken a liking in young Cortana after all that happened on Growth." The two Spartans brightened up at the good news.

"So when are we going to meet this Rak Vadam who has a good eye on our daughter?" Julia asked, the Chief send her a sideways glance that told her not to go there. She simply replied with an innocent look on her face that bordered teasing. Lasky shook his head a few times at the small act between the two and coughed into his hand, reminding them that he was still there.

"Anyway… Reach Team is down in the Spartan garrison bay, I took the liberty to have a set of MJONIR (GEN2) power armor made for both of you… I made sure that that your armor looks like the mark VI from before the end of the Human-Covenant war Chief."

The two Spartans thanked Lasky for all his help and walked out of the room and headed for the Spartan garrison bay to get armored up.

Lasky sighed for himself before called Roland. A small figure of Rolands avatar appeared on the table and saluted to the fleet admiral.

"You called sir."

"Yes, bring the ship into slipspace… we're heading to Sanghelios."

"As you will sir, beginning preparations for slipspace jump."

_Ω_

45 minutes later

The Chief could feel how the massive warship shook a little when it entered the slipspace portal. Chief and Julia, now dressed in the iconic scaled under-suit of the Spartan-IVs, had just entered the Spartan garrison bay and had a great view over the many hundreds of Spartans, scientists and technicians that went about their jobs from the control tower at one of the ends of the large hall. The couple stepped onto a lift and descended to the level where the bays with their new armors waited for them. The Spartans quickly got into each of their work bays and a small army of scientists manned the machines. Piece by piece the armors attached themselves around the arms and legs of the Spartans before attaching the pieces on their chests, backs finally the helmets went down over their heads and sealing the suits of power armor completely. The Chief stepped out from the work bay, his wife following mere seconds later, and saw a team of Spartans heading their way, one of them the biggest man Chief had ever seen in his life. The team of Spartans stopped a few feet from the Spartan couple and saluted them.

"Reach Team at your service!" One of them called out and took a step forward before taking off his helmet. "I'm Lieutenant Colonel Tay Adams and this is my team. We… fought alongside with your daughter, Cortana. When we heard that she had been abducted by the imperials we fought against on Growth and that you two were going after them we decided to come with you." The chief nodded and shook tay's hand.

"I'm glad to finally meet you." Chief looked at the other Spartans. "Cortana have spoken highly of you and your skills."

"Of course she has." Said Ashley Bush, she folded her hand behind her head. "We're Reach Team after all, some of the best Spartans you'll ever find." She boasted.

"Well that's good to hear that we're backed up by someone of caliber." Julia said to Ashley with smile under her helmet before turning back to Tay again. "You said that your team had fought these guys before right?"

Tay Nodded. "Yes… well one of them if the report is anything to go by. It was the guy they broke out of prison a few days before they came after Cortana, His name is Siflion and is the prince of the imperials if you were wondering but Duke can tell everything we know about him and his kind when we have shown you your cabins."

"Duke, who's that?" Chief asked as he tilted his head a bit to the side.

"Oh sorry about that, Duke is Cortana's AI. It's his job to keep an eye out for her since she's so young." Tay explained. "Now let us go see him." He gestured for them to follow him down the hall way away from the garrison. Chief stayed behind for a short time until he had some distance between him and everyone else. He turned back to the bay where the armor he now wore had been assembled and grabbed a necklace made of a small chain that he had placed on a box before he had entered the machine. At the end of necklace was an empty AI data crystal chip. He removed his helmet and put on the necklace and laced the helmet back on again. He lifted the chip and ran a thumb over its surface, old memories of who once had resided in the chip ran through his head. Thousands of images of her appeared before his eyes and he was almost certain that he heard her voice at one point. He tightened his grip around the chip.

I'll bring her back, I promise that. He promised to the empty chip and headed down the hallway to where the other had walked away with clenched teeth for in his mind sang Cortanas voice.

Don't make a girl a promise, if you know you can't keep it.

_Ω_

The 05/21/2581 Old Prehistoric human capital system: 400.000 kilometers from Charum Hakkor orbit

Cortana woke up to the sight of a grayish metallic floor around a meter from her face. First she thought she was falling and tried to prepare herself for the impact with the floor but quickly found out that her entire body was fixed in place, her arms locked tightly against her sides, and that she was hovering just a bit more than a meter over the floor in some kind of artificially manipulated gravity field. It wasn't much that she could see with her head fixed towards the floor but she managed to spot a pair of dark armored boots on either side of her.

"Looks like she finally came back from unconsciousness, what bad timing she has." One said. She didn't recognize the voice. "Doesn't really matter now, we'll still proceed as we planned." She recognized this voice as Siflions.

"Understood." Replied whoever Siflion was talking to. She could feel how they pulled down the collar of her T-shirt with their, armored fingers, the clod touch send a small shiver down her spine, and placed a tiny circular metal device on her neck, the cold feeling of the metal making her want to try to shake it off if her body hadn't been locked in place.

"The device is in place, sir… My lord, If I may ask, why would you give something like this to her? It's not like we really need anyone to keep an eye out for her when we get back to New Erde-Tyrene, she would have nowhere to hide." The unknown one questioned.

"That's true assassin but I'm not intending to just lock her up somewhere. There's something very interesting hiding inside her head and I want to find out what that is." Siflion answered in a sharp tone, not wanting to discuss this any further now that she had awoke. "Now activate it and let us get her down from there."

The assassin nodded and the sound of commands being entered on a hologram was heard. Cortana could feel something pierced the skin on her neck shortly after the last command had been entered and slowly and painfully made its way through her flesh and down to her spine. The pain she felt from whatever digging into her neck was nothing compared to what came next when it dug in and latched onto the nerve cells within her spine. The pain was overwhelming, her mind drowning in the pain. She wanted to scream her lungs out but couldn't, only a soundless, scream came out of her mouth. She didn't even feel how her body collided with the floor when the gravity field was turned off and she dropped to the floor like a sack of sand.

She didn't know how long she lay on the floor, it could have been minutes, hour, hell even days. For her it was an eternity of endless pain that nearly drew her to the edge of sanity. But seemingly out of nowhere came a pair of arms and pulled her into a tight hug and as if it was magic the pain rapidly disappeared. As the pain retreated she slowly regained her senses and her vision returned. She looked around from the hard metal, searching for whoever had hugged her only for her eyes to rest on Siflion and the gathered assassins a few feet away from her. Siflion shook his head, as if he could read her mind and answered the unspoken question that must have been clear through her eyes. A quiet warm female laughter sang through the large storage room that they were currently in. It were clearly none of the few female assassins that had laughed as most of them now seemed more interested in their own things than her and she doubted that Siflion had such a feminine laughter. Again Siflion answered her unspoken question by tapping lightly to the side of his head.

It took Cortana a few seconds for her to figure out what he meant by that when it dawned upon her. She touched the small device on the back of her neck. An AI, She thought to herself. The laughter returned much louder this time.

That's correct, young master, though the imperials call us servitors so please use that term from now on. A female voice almost sang in the back of her mind. I'll be keeping an eye on you and help you integrate into the imperial population.

Why would they give me something like you? What would they even archive by giving me you… information? Cortana bombarded the servitor with her questions leaving no room for the servitor to answer the many questions.

Wow wow clam down or would you rather spend your time in a cell for the rest of your life? The servitor asked back jokingly. Of course she wouldn't like that. Good so hold on to your questions and I'll give you information on things I can alright and by the way I'm sorry about your left arm. Cortana made a confused expression and looked at her left arm or what was left of it anyway. Cortana could only stare at the stump as the memory of how she had lost it slowly came back to her. She slowly turned to Siflion with malice and hate in her eyes.

"You… you cut off my arm!" She screamed and sprung to her feet and charged the Sinner who didn't seem to care that he was about to get his teeth knocked out. She focused all her strength into her right fist as she closed the distance between them and when she was within range she stroke with all her might. She almost stripped over her own feet when most of her body suddenly was out of her control and she missed her target with mere inches. As soon as her momentum was over her entire body froze in place.

"Wha-what's happening?" She asked surprised, mostly to herself than anyone else. Out of the corner of her eyes she could see Siflion slowly walking up on her right side, a finger trailing lightly over her frozen outstretched arm until he reached her shoulder and then clapped her on the chin.

"That, my young friend, is the leach that I have put around your neck." He said with a serious voice. "I can't be around all the time to keep an eye out on you and this servitor will make sure that you won't do something stupid one way or another. Do I make myself clear?" He stepped in front of her and stared into her eyes. His stare was sharp and told her that she didn't have any choice in this matter other than to accept his terms. She gave a small, almost invisible, nod.

"Good." The freezing disappeared almost immediately and Cortana regained full control over her body once more. "If you like a great view I would look out of the nearest window if were you." He said casually, as if she hadn't tried to make his head do a 360 degree turn around itself. He turned his back to her and walked towards a large set of doors out of the large storage room, leaving Cortana alone with her servitor.

Wondering what he had meant about a great view she slowly walked over to a window, avoiding getting to close to the few assassins that still were in the room. Her eyes widened as she stared at a massive hexagon shaped structure many hundreds of thousands of kilometers away from the small vessel she was in. The structure must have been at least three thousand kilometers across with a web of countless other hexagons inside it with different sizes ranging from a few meters to nearly filthy kilometer. The familiar colors and darkness of a slipspace portal could be seen within every hexagon. Cortana also noticed the constant stream of vessels entering and exiting the many slipspace portals.

In the back of her head she could feel how the servitor feed her the information on the structure. It was what the imperials called a slipgate. Some kind of slipspace highway that somehow accelerated vessels through slipspace many times higher than they normally would able to alone. Following the streams of space traffic she soon spotted a large green planet that grew bigger by the second, probably the planet that they were heading to. Again the servitor fed her with information, this time however it was both new and ancient information. First she saw images of the mighty cities that once had decorated the planet's surface before and during the Human-Forerunner war. The next images showed deserts covered with large craters, here and there could the ruins of the cities she had seen seconds ago be seen. Cortana felt sorry for the imperials when she understood what had happened here.

The images stopped and the servitor retreated back to the back of her mind as the small freighter prepared for entering the atmosphere of Charum Hakkor.

_Ω_

An hour later Charum Hakkor command center.

The small freighter soared through the air of Charum Hakkor at great speed only a few meters over the treetops of the large trees that covered most of the surrounding area. The sea of wildlife came to a sudden stop and transformed into barren plains that stretched another 400-500 meters before turning into an ever expanding city of metal and glass towers. The small vessel quickly reached the city and dodged in and out of the large skyscrapers that were in its path. Countless droids of all sizes swarmed the air and streets as the city was being constructed and prepared for the increasing population on the planet. As the small vessel flew deeper and deeper into the city the droids were slowly replaced with military and civilian vessels, they had entered the populated part of the massive city. At the very heart of the city was a large fortress been built, that was where they were going. The fortress was massive in scale. Its walls almost as high as the towering building around it and hundreds of war droids patrolled from the air, searching for any potential dangers that would threaten the military heart on the planet. Such a patrol intercepted the small freighter when it was nearing the walls.

Four Terror Majors surrounded the small vessel a circled it as if it was a wounded prey. Cortana could see the Terrors out of the few windows. They looked a lot like an octopus with an oversized head that made up most of the machine, its head nearly as large as a warthog, and six long tentacles with claws at the ends that flowed behind them. She could feel as information and images from the servitor flowed into her mind, telling her everything she needed to know about the Terror series war droids.

According to the information that she received there four class of terror droid, the minor, major, ultra and forth named Bio Terror trooper. The minor and major were essentially the same, only the size different and the major was also equipped with an powerful energy beam canon that more or less worked like the Spartan Laser. The ultra was massive, only a bit smaller than a Covenant Scarab, can't fly and carries a dozen terror minors and a dozen bio terror troopers for protection and giant energy beam canon that pretty much could level a city block in one shot. And finally the bio terror trooper, an organic supercomputer placed in a humanoid-like metal body. The bio terror trooper looked, from the images, like it was as tall as an average Spartan-IV, its right lower arm was replaced with an energy gun and its left arm ended in a claw like that of a Terror Minor.

While the large amount of information was flooding into her mind the crew uploaded a security code to the patrol to get past it and unto a landing pad somewhere behind the massive wall. A few second went by before the four Terror Majors broke off their circling around the small freighter and proceeded with their patrolling. The freighter started moving forward again and flew in between the tall towers that were spread around behind the wall. Soon after the vessel landed barely large enough landing pad and the hatch was opened to allow its passengers to exit.

Siflion was the first to walk down the tiny ramp, closely followed by Cortana who couldn't really do anything else because the servitor inside her head would strike her mind painfully if she didn't follow Siflion. Siflion and Cortana entered the fortress through a door at the end of a walkway linked to the landing pad. What followed after they entered the fortress was a walk through countless hallways, rooms and corridors that Cortana soon gave up on memorizing and instead followed behind Siflion and asked the servitor a few questions.

Hey AI. She called out inside her mind, trying to get the attention of the servitor.

I'm a servitor. Please refer to me as such. It told her, it sounded rather offended or annoyed.

Yea yea sorry… Anyway can you tell me a bit about Siflion? All I know about is that he's a prince of some kind. She asked as they rounded a corner and walked down the long hallway. The servitor chuckled a bit before answering her question.

Haha… No, Siflion isn't prince of the Empire anymore. Cortana raised an eyebrow at that. Siflion had told them that he was prince so why did this AI… servitor tell that he wasn't?

Why not? He told us that he was a prince your empire.

He's prince by birth but no longer by title. He was stripped of that title when he joined the Sinners. The servitor explained. Cortana still didn't understand why being a Sinner was such a bad thing that Siflion had his title taken from him. When she asked the servitor about it, it simply laughed a little.

Oh you must have very little knowledge of what the Sinners really are and why they're even called that. Cortana just rolled her eyes at the servitors comment and mentally pressed it for an answer.

The Sinners, to put in terms that you would know of, would the imperial version of what you call Spartans. They're the most powerful unit ever created by the Empire and more than 85.000 years ago they were a large branch of the imperial military numbering in the hundreds of thousands. Images of what seem like endless rows of soldiers dressed in almost the same armor as Siflion appeared before her eyes, all radiating with an air of dread and fear. She could feel how her heart started pumping faster as she stared at the ocean of super soldiers, each of them stronger and more experienced than most Spartans would ever be. The images changed, showing her great cities of beauty and overwhelming power on countless worlds.

The Empire entered a golden age of technology and wealth. However at the peak of this golden age, almost 78.000 years ago, a great darkness spread across the outer worlds of the Empire. They wanted independence from the crown. Riots spread like wildfire across the worlds and before anyone at the core worlds could come up with a countermeasure it had developed into open rebellion. The images of the beautiful cities turned into burning ruins as energy fire rose from the ground up into the smoke clouds that covered the skies.

The Sinners were sent to handle the rebellion but not long after most of them had send their forces a massage came back that most of them had turned traitors and joined the rebels, only 3 hundred still remained loyal to the crown and their brethren. Screens of battlefields where imperial loyalist and rebels battled it out flashed through Cortanas head. The rebel Sinners easily overpowered the countless waves of loyalist soldiers, Billions died a pointless death at their hands and worlds were reduced to smoldering dirt balls where any kind of life no longer could survive.

The rebels kept pushing towards the core worlds and the imperial throne world of New Erde-Tyrene. At this point Tyral Talma, the emperor at the time and an ancestor of Siflion, had had enough of this rebellion and gathered all his Praetorian Guards and marched towards the rebels. Other screens of battle appeared before her eyes. This time there were thousands of white and blue armored soldiers led by a single black figure with what looked like a crown on its head. The loyalist forces clashed with the rebel Sinners and it quickly evolved into a giant mess of confusion with explosions everywhere and fighters cutting through the air and engaging in wild and deadly dogfights.

The rebels finally received a devastating blow when they lost the majority of their Sinners against the Praetorian Guard and were pushed back. A few decades later the last remaining rebel Sinners were hunted down and executed along with any rebels that the loyalists could get their hands on. The images ended and Cortana first now realized that she had been so absorbed by the images and the story that she hadn't noticed that she and Siflion had entered a large hexagon formed chamber filled with hovering holo screens that showed all kinds of military information, everything from ship movements and supply lines to battle reports and live footage of battles happening millions of light years away.

Cortana spotted a holo screen of a live battle while they moved deeper into the large chamber. It showed how a force of imperials fought against the loyalists on what seemed like a covenant space station of some sort and taking the dead bodies of Brutes and Jackals laying on the ground it was pretty clear who had the upper hand in the fight.

"Aldu! Look who has come home from captivity!" Siflion suddenly shouted out loud while he walked towards a large concentration of holo screens. Cortana caught something moving behind the screens and slowly the screens parted and made way for a black armored man, which Cortana guessed was Aldu. Aldu smiled at the approaching Sinner and prepared to embrace his old friend. Aldu, however, was not met with a hug from his friend but his left fist square in the face. The force behind the punch was so great that it send Aldu off the ground and a few feet back before he landed on the metal floor with a loud thud, blood streaming down from his broken nose.

"Lord of Admirals or not, that's what you get for assigning me and my squad to a ship whose captain is an ass and leave us for dead." Siflion stood over Aldu with murder in his eyes as he started stomping on the downed Commander-In-Chief who screamed in pain each time he got stomped on. A few meters away stood Cortana and watched the one sided beating and didn't know what to make of either herself or the rather comical situation that reminded her of at least half a dozen animes she had watched before she had joined the military. In the end she decided to ask the servitor who is Aldu really was.

He's the Lord of Admirals and the Commander-In-Chief of the imperial military. He's wearing Triarii armor, an armor only given to the highest ranks of the military. Your military's ranks would be from Brigadier General to your head of military. He is also the head of the Tasmor family, one of the three great families. Cortana slightly raised an eyebrow, not knowning anything about the families. She didn't have to ask the servitor before it explained.

The three great families of the Empire are the families of the two admirals and the, at the time, still unofficial Lords of Admirals that were appointed to lead the survivors of the Forerunner-Human war into exile, the Talmas, the Tasmors and the Valdemas. You have already met members of the Talma and Tasmor family.

The two imperials had finally finished their childish fighting and were now talking among themselves. What they were talking about was a mystery to Cortana. They talked in low voices so she couldn't listen in on what they said. Siflion turned to her and beckoned her to come closer with a motion of his hand. She walked up besides Siflion, not really because she wanted to but because the servitor in her head threatened to take over her body if she didn't comply.

"So this she is what you went through all that trouble for?" Asked Aldu while he sent Siflion a small smirk before he turned back to Cortana and inspected her from top to toe with mild curiosity.

"Hm, she looks well trained… a soldier maybe. What's so special about her?" Aldu turned once more to Siflion who only lifted his hand so it hovered in the air and spread out his fingers. Aldu placed his own hand beneath Siflions and a few sparks of lightning appeared between the two armored hands. Aldu hummed to himself when the small sparks died out. His eye widened suddenly as he stared at first Siflion and at Cortana and then back again.

"I-is it true?" Whispered Aldu so Cortana barely could hear it, Siflion nodded his head to confirm what Aldus question much to Cortanas annoyance. She didn't have any idea what just happened but she didn't have to wait long before the servitor gave her an answer. Apparently Siflion had transferred some data to Aldu via those sparks somehow.

Aldu quickly straightened himself and cleared his throat before he walked a few meters away from the Sinner and Spartan, summoning at least a dozen holograms around him. "I must say that what's inside of her is extremely interesting but we don't know why or even how it got inside her in the first place."

"W-what's inside me? Is it that Forerunner thing inside my head you told me about?" Cortana Looked between the two imperials but none of them said anything.

"Yes it's about that thing in your head. We want to study it and if possible get it out for further study later." Siflion answered after a few minutes of silence.

"To do that we need to get you to a research facility back in the homeland." Continued Aldu still with his back turned to the others. "I'll get you on a vessel back to New Erde-Tyrene. Your sister has returned too by the way, something about a ball with the noble houses to celebrate our return to the galaxy."

Siflion nodded his thanks when Aldu had uploaded the coordinates to the vessel that would take them to New Erde-Tyrene. He beckoned to Cortana to follow him and she quickly complied, leaving the Lord of Admirals alone once more with his holograms. He, however, had lost interest in the reports and glanced at the doors that had closed itself behind the Sinner and Spartan before heading for another set of doors to get back to his personal chambers. Why would she have Precursors tech in her head? And who put it there?

_Ω_

The vessel that Siflion and Cortana were given was a large colony ship that was going back to imperial space to pick up more people that wanted to settle on the newly colonized worlds in the nearby systems around the old capital system.

The vessel had left Charum Hakkors atmosphere a few hours ago and were now heading for one of the smaller hexagons in the giant slipgate. It took an additional ten hours before the vessel finally touched the pitch black surface of the slipspace rift and was sucked in and launched through slipspace at insane speed to their first destination, the border of imperial space.

_Ω_

The 06/27/2581 Urs system, above Sanghelios

The UNSC Infinity emerged from its slipspace rift not far from the homeworld of the Sangheili race and prime capital of the Covenant Separatists. Not far from where the Infinity had appeared rested the five Forerunner Fortress-class vessels. It was still up for debate what would happen to the five massive warships. So far each race of the separatists and humans had agreed upon giving a ship to each member race with a minimum crew of humans to operate the ships systems while the separatists handled everything else necessary for the ships to be ready for battle. The infinity made its way over one of the Fortress-class vessels, its crew and passengers looking out of any window or opening to see the monster of a ship with energy canons the size of houses.

Chief heard his wife whistle at the sight of the many guns in all sizes. She had an almost a sadistic gleeful look on her face that told him that she wanted nothing more than to try a pull the trigger on one of those guns and see something go boom. Chief was about to tell her something when a call over his helmets radio ordered them to go to one of Infinity's many hangers to meet up with Lasky.

A few minutes later the pair of Spartans stepped into the small hanger where Lasky, Reach Team, a squad of marines and a bunch of diplomats stood in front of a Pelican dropship. The ship was currently getting prepared for takeoff.

Lasky waved at the Spartans as soon as he spotted them "Chief, Julia good you came. We're about to head for the planet surface and you're going to meet with Rak when we arrive." The two Spartans both nodded and stepped into the Pelican with the rest of the gathered humans following suit.

A few minutes later the pelican broke through the thin layer of clouds that covered most of the surrounding landscape. Underneath the dropship were thick forest and wildlife taking up almost all land as all as the eye could see in all directions only a scattered few lakes or small rivers cut through the wildlife. As the Pelican sped past over the treetop a large city like castle appeared on a mountainside. The dense forest around the keep had been cut down to make room for fields of crops, something very new for the modern Sangheilies.

"Everyone get ready for touch down I got Vadam keep in sight." The pilot announced as he slowed the craft to a more respectable speed. Two banshees suddenly appeared from beneath the treetops and quickly traveled the distance to the human dropship and fell in on either side of the craft, escorting it the rest of the way to Vadam keep. The Pelican finally touched down on a cleared area within the city near the outer wall and its passengers were finally allowed out into the open air of Sanghelios, the two banshees flew by overhead before heading back to their positions within the forest. The light from the three suns shone down through the cloud cover and bathed the old city in gentle light. At least half a dozen Unggoies ran over to the craft to polish and refuel it. A Sangheili Major walked up to the humans and gave them a short bow, much to it distaste but the humans didn't notice it.

"Welcome humans to the capital of Vadam. My master and lord, Thel Vadam, have been expecting you." The major straightened himself to his full high and beckoned for the gathered humans to follow him. "If you would follow me." The Major began to walk away from the human craft towards the city's main street that lead up to the castle resting higher up the mountainside.

The castle was rather big compared to the rest of the city with high stone walls surrounding it. Guard towers of the same material popped up here and there on the walls with Sangheili guards armed with either Covenant carbines or beam rifles, all of them keeping a vigilant eye out for any threat towards the castle. The group of humans especially got a few sharp glances before some of the guards returned their watchful eyes to the city and the sky. The metal gate opened up as the humans neared it and allowed they access to an enormous courtyard split in half by the cobblestone road they walked on. On either side of the road were sparing fields where numerous young Sangheili warriors were sparing against each other or firing ranges where the sounds of plasma weaponry could be heard. The major that had guided them turned around to face the group of humans a few feet away from the first steps up to the main building.

"Wait here." He ordered and walked up the steps and through the thick double doors into the building, the doors being closed behind him. Minutes flew by without anything happening and the humans were beginning to notice the increasing looks from the Sangheilies swordsmen and their overseers. Some Sangheilies had looks of mild curiosity while others had… less than friendly expressions. Feeling the tense air the marines slowly tightened their grips on their rifles as they looked nervously between the many Sangheilies mostly armed with energy swords that surrounded them.

The double doors were suddenly flung wide open and Thel Vadam himself and a small escort of guards and councilors stepped out to greet their new guests. Thel wore a golden heavy looking, even by Sangheili standards, armor with a single large pauldron resting on his right shoulder and an energy sword at his waist, ready to take on any assailants that would try to end his life. Thel quickly spotted Lasky in his white uniform and the Spartans that stood at least head and shoulders above the rest of the humans, his eyes stooping for a brief moment on Chief.

"Lasky, you are a sight for sore eyes as always old friend." Thel stepped down from the last step and silently dismissed his swordsmen with a wave of his hand. The Sangheili ruler turned to the Spartans beside Lasky as the many novice swordsmen and their overseers return to their training. "And I can see you have brought an even older friend with you." The Chief gave a short nod as greeting. Thel let out a small snort and nodded back before he beckoned Lasky and the Spartans to follow him inside the castle.

"Come the council meeting is about to begin. Chief, Julia, Reach team and Lasky followed behind Thel as they separated from the rest of the human group, varies Sangheili councilors that had escorted Thel had approached some of the humans and were know in deep talk about different treaties between the Sangheili and the UEG.

The insides of the castle were rather militaristic to say the least. The large hall the double doors led into was built so it could give the defenders maximum advantage against any would-be-attackers that thought of making a frontal charge through the heavy doors. That said it was also clear as day that this was the resident of a powerful lord. Decorations of ancient weapons, painting of old glory and battles took up most of the space on the stone walls. A few castle guards stood watch near a few doorways or in the corners. Thel led them through the large hall and further into the castle that dug deeper into the mountainside.

After almost half an hour of walking later the group came to a hallway with a set of massive purple metal doors at the end. Eight Sangheili Honor Guards all equipped with their trademark energy staves and armor stood at attention with roughly three or four meter between each other and the purple door. They walked past the rows of guards. Thel stopped near the door and looked at the gathered humans.

"Behind these doors are the council chamber and each member is only allowed two guards." Lasky nodded in agreement "Reach team you wait out here. Julia, Chief you're with me." The two Spartans nodded while Reach team nodded too and walked back down the path they had come from.

The door opened up as soon as they came closer and revealed a large well lit circular room with a round table of the same type of metal as the doors taking up more than a fourth of the space in the room. Five chairs in various sizes and shapes were placed around the table. Two chairs were placed closer to each other on the left side of the table, making the chairs otherwise take a corner of the world each. In the right side chair sat an Unggoy dressed in a small but highly decorated robe along with a breath mask covering his mouth, an Unggoy ambassador if Chief had to guess. Near the wall behind the Unggoy ambassador stood two Unggoy ultras as his bodyguards, both armed with heavily modified plasma rifles to fit the unggoies better.

The unggoy ambassador and his two guards turned to inspect the new arrivals. The ultras were rather disinterested in the new arrivals and simply went over who would be the most threatening if things ever came to that. The ambassador however was very interested in Chief. He knew who he was and what he had accomplished during and after the dreadful Human-Covenant war. He knew that he was in the presence of a living legend and a very dangerous killing machine. The ambassador smiled to himself under his mask and turned his wise eyes to Lasky. What's your game Lasky? The Unggoy ambassador thought to himself as Lasky and Thel sat down in their representative chairs around the table. The two Spartans, at Lasky's request, leaned up against the wall furthest from the door, right behind Lasky's chair, and fell silent.

Minutes went by with nothing really happening, some small talk here and there between the representatives but nothing more, when four of a type of Lekgolo that Chief had never seen before entered the room with two Sangheilies, A Spec Ops Officer and a Honor Guard, following close behind. The two Sangheilies moved behind Thel while the four Lekgolo walked towards the two chairs close to each other. The Lekgolo were far lighter, thinner, smaller and more elegant built than the Hunters you would find on the battlefield much to Chiefs surprise. They bodies closely resembled a crude cross between a Hunter and a Sangheili. The first two wore, like the Unggoy ambassador, robes over their armored shells with different symbols and patterns that Chief could only guess what meant all over them. The other two Lekgolo were clearly their bodyguards. They wore armor of the same material like the Hunters and a long razor sharp shield covered most of their left arm while instead of assault cannons on their right arm there were two storm rifles built into it. The two Lekgolo ambassadors sat down while looking at the assembled aliens in the room.

"So… Shall we being the meeting?" One of the Lekgolo asked with what best could be described as a feminine voice. It took the two Spartans of guard that the Lekgolo had spoken. They were so used to the weird noises that the hunters usually made when trying to communicate with others. However it didn't look like it fazed the others much or at all.

Chief had long since lost the sense of time for how long the meeting had went on When he saw the Spec Ops Officer slowly making his way around the table without disturbing the talks and leaned against the wall besides Chief. Julia leaned forward a bit to get a better look at the young officer.

"Greetings, friend of my farther." The officer said with a low voice. "I'm Rak Vadam. I'm the one you're going to 'protect' while I take a few tours around Separatist space."

Chief gave Rak a sideways look and measured him from top to toe. He seemed like a decent warrior compared to those Chief had fought in the war. "I'm John and this is my wife, Julia." He gestured to his wife who gave a short nod. Rak nodded back.

"I have just received a SDV-Class Heavy Corvette with the latest stealth systems and a fine elite Spec Ops crew." Chief nodded, glad to hear that they had a great infiltration ship at their disposal.

"Good to hear. But do you know where to look for Cortana?" Rak's face turned into one of thought as he went over what they knew about the imperials and their movements. After a few minutes of thinking he nodded.

"Yes… Well at least indirectly." He answered. "We know that they're expanding from a specific point near the border of the Orion Arm and intergalactic space and that they're currently focusing most of their military power on the loyalists for the moment so we're going to travel deep into their territories and maybe raid an outpost or something like that and gather some logistics and strategic information on them. They most likely have some logs about that prince of theirs returning or something and by tracking him down we can most likely find Cortana as well." The pair of Spartans nodded in agreement, they really couldn't do much more than that for now.

"I hope you're right, I really do." Said Julia as she turned back to listen in on the meeting. Rak nodded understanding her feeling a little before he grabbed something form his back and presented an energy sword hilt to Chief. "My father wanted you to have this." Chief took the hilt and inspected it. He hadn't much knowledge about how the swords were built but he knew as much that this Sword was a masterpiece.

"My father wanted me to tell you that no great warrior should march to war without a popper weapon at his side." Chief said his thanks and holstered the hilt to waist. This sword could come in handy later.

_Ω_

Cortana found herself wandering the bloody and war torn streets of nightmare once more. As always piles bodies of humans, UEG and imperials alike, and Covenant species were scattered throughout the streets in an unorganized order, making it hard for her not to step on any of the dead bodies. She stopped at the end of the street and looked to the sky. She could see the tower she had visited before in the distance with a blood red sky filled with tick black clouds hiding most of the red sky. Cortana let out a heavy sigh and started making her way towards the tower yet again. As she walked the abandoned streets of the unknown metropolis she slowly felt that something was wrong with the place. Well except of the obvious carnage that surrounded her around every corner in this forsaken city.

She walked on for several minutes, still trying to solve the mystery behind her weird feeling that she was so deep in her own thoughts that she nearly introduced the broken ground to her face when she tripped over something in the middle of the street. With quick reflexes she went into a roll and was just as quickly on her feet again. She turned around to see what she had tripped over. What she had tripped over turned out to be a pair of legs belonging to a dead imperial soldier riddled with holes the size of her fist, it was clear that he had been killed be some kind of high powered energy weapon. However it was not the imperial soldier that made her stay but rather the bodies of a Sangheili warrior and an UNSC marine that lay next to him. Both the Sangheili and the UNSC marine had suffered from the same type of energy weapon as the imperial and by the position that the three of lay next to each other it looked like they had fought together against something. A common enemy perhaps? The Flood? No the Flood was nearly destroyed at the end of the Human-Covenant and what was left had become rather easy to dispose of now. Then an unknown enemy but the Imperials just seemed so advanced… Why would they fight alongside the UNSC and some of the Covenant species? It didn't make any sense. She turned to the large tower that she slowly had headed towards and was now only a few blocks away. "Maybe that thing can answer some of my questions this time instead of biting my head off". She thought to herself as she left the trio of bodies behind and once more headed to the tower.

Minutes later she stood in front of the entrance to the tower. Everything looked like it had the last time she was here except for the rows of large sliver spears, almost seven meters in length, which lined the entrance on either side. Impaled on each spear were a person she knew, the first two being her parents then all of her teammates and other important persons like Thomas Lasky and Siflion making up the rest of the rows. All of them had agonizing expressions of a painful death on their faces and the closer to the entrance she got the more she felt like they all stared at her with pleading hollow eyes. She almost ran the rest of the way, wanting the stares to go away, into the lobby and to the elevator and pressed the bottom for the top floor. She let out a relieved breath she hadn't noticed she had held back when the doors closed and elevator lifted her up. The doors separated all too soon and revealed the large balcony with creature standing near the edge. She took a deep breath and walked with strong legs out to it. She stopped in front it only with a few meters in between them, its white eyes on its mouthless face looking her up and down. A crack appeared where the mouth should have been and razor sharp fangs covered its now formed mouth "Time is running out…Have you chosen?" It asked with a voice that sound like a thousand others speaking at the same time.

Cortana shook her head and saw the beings face turn into one that closely resembled one of annoyance. "Why not? They're coming and it all depends on your choice!" The angry shout made her ears ring from its sheer volume. Cortana pressed her hands to her ears trying to make the ringing go away.

"W-who is coming?" She called back. "Is it the Imperials?" The dry blood colored being gave her the tiniest of smiles, a smile that send shivers down her spin.

"You would wish it were them." It answered as burn marks and holes started to appear all over its body and dark blood leaked from them. Cortana stood frozen at the sudden grim change. It lifted its hand and pointed at something behind her before it fell over, dead. Cortana slowly turned around to where the blood colored being had pointed and saw a human-like figure in heavy golden armor hover just above the ground. The human-like figure was massive, a bit more than four meters in height, with an extremely long golden spear that closely resembled the sliver spears at the entrance to the tower in its left hand. Its heavy golden armor looked like something a knight from medieval Europe and from its back shoulders was a pair of large energy wings that looked like they were made of fire.

"An Angel?" She thought. She looked it right in the face… Well if it had any face under the golden helmet it wore but she could feel its hateful gaze piercing her very souls as it stared down at her. It lifted its spear and pointed it at straight at her, a built up of powerful burning golden energy gathered on the spearhead. Meanwhile Cortana was frozen in place, her body reacting to her commands. The energy was unleashed in a thick beam. Cortana screamed in terror as the beam of burning energy sped towards her and everything turned white right before it hit her.

The 05/30/2581 outskirts of the Hollow Storm

Cortana woke with a scream that could shatter glass. She nearly dropped from the metal bench that rested on when she jolted up from her bad dream. With fast breaches that almost made her hyperventilate she grabbed her chest where the beam of energy would have burned a hole right through her. To her great relief there were no hole to be felt and she slowly calmed down. When she had calmed down enough she turned to inspect her surroundings, she couldn't remember where she was. A small mess hall greeted her eyes with only a few imperials scattered throughout the many tables, most of them chatting with each other or looking at her. Her cheeks turned a few shades redder when she realized why they were looking at her and turned her eyes at the window next to her table. The complete darkness of slipspace but it was soon replaced by the light from the many stars of our own dimension.

The large colony ship was shot out, like a gob of spit from a mouth, from a slipgate the same size as the one it had entered near Charum Hakkor nine days ago. The momentum died out and the huge ship came to a complete hold in front of the countless black holes that surrounded the small star cluster that was home to the old human empire. The forceful and constant pulls from the black holes could be felt as they shook the ship to its core and tried to pull the ship into their crushing grip that nothing could escape. The ship slowly started its powerful engines and ever so careful headed towards a specific point in the thick wall of black holes. The point it headed too was so small and so seemingly normal to the rest of the wall of holes but the ship kept getting closer and closer to the wall. The ship began to shake more violently, its hull getting ripped and teared but held stubbornly together from the gravitational pulls from the holes as it got closer to them. A pair of large rings closely resembling the Slipgates came into view and the large ship slowly moved towards one of them. The pair of ring was the first of a long chain of rings that secured the only known safe passage through the countless black holes and into star cluster hiding within.

From her seat near a window could Cortana see the countless black holes absorbed anything that got too close to them. She even saw a large asteroid the size of a large cruiser getting sucked in by a nearby hole only for the asteroid to break apart from the intense pressure and turned to dust in mere seconds. The shaking came to a sudden stop making Cortana Look away from the window and to the few crew members and passengers in the small mess hall. They seemed rather unfazed by the shaking stopping so shook of the felling that something would happen. She spotted Siflion making his way over to sit opposite to her. He down in front of and placed a small plate with what Cortana would guess was some kind steak with some weird vegetables to the side. The steak smelled funny but delicious nonetheless. Her stomach protested and demanded food. She hadn't really gotten anything to eat ever since she had been kidnaped and taken prisoner. She looked up at Siflion ho nodded.

"It's for you so just dig in" Cortana took a piece of the steak and lifted it to her nose, sniffing it, and otherwise inspected it with eyes at the best of her abilities. Siflion raised an eyebrow at the display before him.

"It isn't poisonous if that's what you think, see." Siflion took a piece of the steak himself and threw it into his mouth and started chewing on it.

"Well it could have been." Mumbled Cortana as ate the piece of meat and then proceeded with the rest of the meal. The meat had a sweet yet spicy taste and it surprised how good it actually was. She let out a sigh when she was done with the plate of good food and looked up at Siflion. He was looking out of the window, deep in thoughts.

"We'll soon arrive at Fortenchos Gate and from there it'll only be a few days before we're at the capital." He didn't take his eyes from the window and kept looking at the darkness of slipspace that they had entered again. Cortana, who didn't know what Fortenchos Gate were sat and gave him a confused look. For some reason her servitor wouldn't give her any info about the gate. She swore she could feel how the servitor found her irritation very humoristic somewhere in the back of her head.

"So what's so special about this gate?" She asked a bit harsher than she had intended because of the servitor. Siflion glanced at her and smiled. He stood up from his seat and beaconed for her to follow him.

"Come I'll show you."

A few moments later the Sinner and Spartan stepped onto the bridge of the vessel. The bridge was small for a ship this size but most of its systems were controlled by what Siflion called a smart servitor, some kind super AI that made AI's like Roland and Duke look like a computer from the 19th century in comparison. The ship's captain turned around a glared at the two as they made their way to the front windows, the pair ignored him. Right as the stood next to the windows the ship exited slipspace and at least a dozen or so moon sized battle stations greeted them. Swarms of hundreds of thousands if not millions of Terror Majors battle droids floated around the ship as it made its way through the imperial bastion. Canons the size of houses and other heavy artillery pieces were scattered all over the stations surfaces and between the stations patrolled groups of ships in all size. Cortana wouldn't be surprised if the fleet guarding the entrance numbered somewhere between 1000-2000 ships.

"W-what is all this?" Cortana whispered mostly to herself as she saw an 8 kilometer long Wave-Class battleship pass overhead. Siflion chuckled at Cortanas dumbfound face. "This" he swept his arm out "is Fortenchos Gate. The Empires first line of defense against the rest of the galaxy. If anyone managed to take and hold this location then the entire Empire would be in danger."

_Ω_

The 06/15/2581 Neutral Kig-Yar controlled system

Chief and Julia stepped through the automated door and onto the bridge of Rak Vadams ship, Justices Shadow, and casually walked up besides the young Sangheili who stood near the large circular hologram and commanded his crew around. The member of Reach team had already arrived before them and stood around the hologram and observed it.

"What's the situation?" Asked Chief when they walked up to Rak, Reach team turned their attention on the three. Rak snorted and pointed at the hologram which was displaying the image of a star system. A cluster of large asteroids and a few small ships in an asteroid belt were highlighted with a bright yellow color while a larger fleet outside the belt was colored red. "We just received a transmission from the Kig-Yars that they are under attack by imperial forces and we were supposed to resupply and refuel there. We need those supplies."

"So we're going to engage the imperials and support the Kig-Yar?" Julia looked at Rak who shook his head. "Don't be stupid human. We might have the element of surprise but the imperials would tear us apart moments later. No, we'll make use of our stealth systems and make our way to the asteroids and grab as many supplies as we can and be off before the imperials can truly overwhelm the Kig-Yars positions."

"So what do you need us to do?" Tay asked as he cracked his fingers, already preparing for a fight. Rak smiled at the question. "I'll remain here to oversee the battle outside while you Spartans and my best warriors board the asteroid and retrieve whatever you can. I'll have our Phantom ready for launch as soon as we exit slipspace" The seven Spartans nodded and left the bridge and headed for the hanger near the middle of the ship.

The heavy corvette jumped out of slipspace and quickly activated its stealth systems, making it invisible to most sensors and the naked eye. Not far away the Imperial and the Kig-Yar fleets engaged each other inside the asteroid field. Dogfights between the imperials Wing-class fighters and the Kig-Yars mix of Space Banshees and Seraphs were brutal among the large and small asteroids ever so often an imperial fighter would crash into an asteroid, exploding much to the enjoyment of the Kig-Yars. But despite the advantage the Kig-Yar had in fighting in the asteroid field the imperials proved too much and were slowly but surely cutting down the Kig-Yar forces.

The Corvette carefully made its way through the deadly rocks and the phantom left the ship and flew the short distance between an asteroid base and the ship.

Onboard the Phantom in its dark and cramped troop bay stood Chief, Julia Reach team and 17 Special operation Sangheilies, all of them checking their covenant weapons.

"Be cautious warriors, imperial ground forces have boarded the asteroid base you're on so be quick about your business." Rak warned over the radio. The Phantom touched down inside a small hanger with an energy field to keep the vacuum of space out. The Separatists and Spartans quickly disembarked the transport and rushed into the base. The sound of fighting could be heard further inside the base as Kig-Yars and imperials clashed in furious firefights. The Sangheilies spread out into small teams, leaving the seven Spartan on their own. They pushed forward, the sound of battle getting louder and louder with every step. Julia was about to turn a corner when antimatter fire flew passed her head, only millimeters away from hitting her shield. She quickly pulled back and readied her storm rifle and carefully looked around the corner. The hallway opened up to a large hall with a the middle of it removed so one could see next two floors up and down with imperials and Kig-Yars battling for control over the halls.

The shots had simply been stray shots from a wounded imperial trooper. None of the two combatants took note of the Spartans. Chief, Julia, Alex and Ashley emerged from the hallway and started opening fire at the unsuspected imperials and three or four fell to the sudden rain of fire. Tay, Nikolai and Lucas stayed at the entrance and fired too, killing at least four Imperials more. Chief and the others threw themselves into cover as the imperials returned fire and the walls and floor exploded with tiny explosions from their antimatter based weapons. The Kig-Yars were surprised by the sudden arrival of humans, and Spartans no less, but that didn't stop some of them form taking advantage of the imperials shifting their focus elsewhere. Another imperial trooper dropped dead while three others shields were badly damaged.

"You… Demons! What're you doing here!?" One of the Kig-Yar yelled, a ranger by the look of his armor with his helmet strapped to his back. Chief itched closer to the ranger from behind the cover so he wouldn't get shot.

"Spartan-117"Chief introduced. "We're here to gather supplies and fuel for our ship but you were under attack." The Kig-Yar nodded before he looked over his cover and fired his beam rifle, wounding another imperial. "Names Ixix, for what we know I'm currently the highest ranking officer on this rock and in charge of getting as many civilians out of here as possible." Ixix pointed down a corridor behind them.

"We're pinned here because of the civilians, if we pulled away from this position the civilians would be slaughtered within minutes." Ixix cursed as a volley of Antimatter fire hit them and two kig-yars went up in bloody pieces from an antimatter stick grenade. Another volley of antimatter hit their cover, most of the shots managing to finally piercing the cover. Screams of pain could be heard as a third of the Kig-Yars were either killed outright or greatly wounded. On the other side of the large hall roared the imperials in triumph and charged towards the poor defenders with their hardlight blades high over their heads.

"They're coming!" Yelled Lucas as he fired his energy canon at the incoming imperials how either threw themselves into cover or simply dodged the fire and kept advancing. Lucas dropped his canon and side stepped when an imperial swung his sword at him, aiming for his throat. Lucas clenched his right fist and launched it with all his might into the belly of the imperial trooper. The strong energy shield took most of the punch but it was far from enough to stop it and the fist proceed into the armor, denting and breaking it, and send the trooper off the ground, over the railing and two floors down followed with a loud splat. The now dead imperial troopers' friends came to a complete stop at the display of raw physical power from the Spartan, if it hadn't been because they wore helmets the Spartans would have seen their jaws hit the floor.

Lucas smirked for himself at the imperials hesitance.

"Hastatis imperi! Ne cessaveris auxilia venturus" A pitch black armored imperial yelled further down the hall. The others nodded and advanced once more with renewed spirit. Lucas had to jump back as a trio of what must be Hastatis tried to gang up on him with their hardlight blades drawn. Tay and Julia fired at the trio, one of them dropping dead, to fend them off.

"What the hell did that guy just say anyway!?" Ashley called as she fired her storm rifle at a Hastati, shattering his shield before he dug into cover again.

"It was Latin and he said that reinforcements were coming." Duke answered, using Chiefs communication device to tell everyone. "We should either get out of here or quickly finish these off before more of them shows up." The Spartans all sheered a look before nodding and sprung from their cover.

"Ixix cover us! We'll get rid of the rest of them." Chief shouted back at the Kig-Yar ranger. Ixix nodded and yelled some orders at his remaining men that Chief didn't hear over the sounds of plasma and antimatter fire flying past his head.

The imperials were rather surprised at the Spartans sudden charge but fired at them with all they got. The suppressing fire from the Kig-Yars proved to be a life saver for the Spartans as it preventing many Hastaties from firing their powerful weapons. The first Spartan to reach the imperials was none other than Ashley, Reach teams CQC specialist. Quick on her feet as she was she dodge what fire were thrown at her and with a smooth motion she grabbed hold of the machete and chopped the head off of the first Hastati she could find. Blood splayed everywhere bathing the green with black strips armored female Spartan before she rushed forward again with a bloodthirsty roar. The Hastaties positions were quickly breached not standing a chance against the physically stronger Spartans. The imperials held out for a moment or two more but in the end the Principes, their leader, called for a retreat. The imperials broke off their attack and fled down the corridor opposite to the Kig-Yars position. The Kig-Yar cheered at the sight of the enemy fleeing and came out of their cover to check on their wounded.

Ashley, covered in blood, stopped in front of the entrance to the corridor and watched as the last of the imperials turned a corner further down. She let out a sign and kicked lightly to a Hastati that she judged still could be alive but was proven wrong.

"Should we go after them sir?" She asked Tay as she turned her back on the corridor and looked at the gather Kig-Yars and Spartans. Tay looked up from a dead Hastati he had been examining and shook his head. Chief straightened himself to his full height after Duke had requested to try to hack one of the Hastaties armors.

"No. We need to get a move on and get the supplies We need. Chief Julia and Lucas you three g…" A Loud Scream came from Ashley. Everyone turned towards Ashley with their weapons ready to gun down any imperials but to their surprise it was not Hastaties coming out of the corridor but a thick metallic tentacle with three razor sharp claws at the end. Held in its claws was Ashley. She was slowly being lifted into the air while the owner of the tentacle emerged from the corridor. A large octopus-like machine the size of a Warthog came out into the hall. How no one had heard it closing in on them without any of them noticing was everyone's question. The dark machine with glowing lines of teal stared at Ashley for a short time before it out an ear shattering scream and began to crush the female Spartan. Ashley's power armor began to dent and Ashley screamed in pain as her bones give under for the pressure and break. Alex, the one who recovered from the machines scream first grabbed his Concussion Rifle and Fired at the machine. An energy shield flared as the shots struck it and the machine stopped trying to crush Ashley and looked at the others gathered in the hall until it spotted Nikolay and his explosive rounded rifle and then it screamed again and flung Ashley at him, like she was a sack of stones. Nikolay caught Ashley from the air but the sheer force from the throw made him loose his balance and landed on his rump. Nikolay barely got time to recover before the large machine rushed at him, its six clawed tentacles ready to rip him and Ashley to shreds.

Luckily for them both Chief and Tay came to their rescue just in time and smashed shoulders first into the enraged machine, pushing it away from the two helpless Spartans. The Kig-Yar and the rest of the Spartans opened fire at the machine, its strong shields flaring up but showing no sign of breaking for the time being. It screamed in rage, swinging its tentacle left and right to try and hit its enemies. An unlucky Kig-yar were impaled through the chest and then used as a projectile against its kin. The hall was filled with chaos as the machine tried to kill everyone but mostly only got a Kig-Yar now and then. Its shields started to flare red and let out another loud scream of rage, this time two gatling gun like weapons appeared at the front of its 'face' and beams of concentrated energy were flung at everything and everyone in the hall.

Chief threw himself to the floor as a volley of energy beams raced over him, two more Kig-Yars falling dead with numerous burning hold everywhere on their mutilated bodies. Chief grabbed his last plasma grenade threw it at the machine while it was focused at Tay and Lucas. The grenade was glued to the machine and the sound of the grenade charging up could be heard throughout the hall before it exploded, the shield finally dropping and the metallic layers melting from the intense heat. The machine screamed in pain but it was short lived as everyone still alive fired at it at once, the plasma fire quickly cutting away the layers of metal and into its interior. The Machine dropped to the floor, dead. Everyone slowly rose from their cover Julia checking up on Ashley that had been out cold ever since the machine had started crushing her.

"Should we expect something more horrifying than that thing?" Lucas asked as he gave it half a dozen more shot with his energy canon to be crystal clear that it was truly dead before turning to Julia and the unconscious Ashley. "And how is she? Is she alright?" Julia nodded and with some help from her husband she got the unconscious Spartan up onto her shoulders.

"She's out cold but what I can tell she should be fine. Maybe a few dented ribs at most." Answered Julia While she tried to find a better position for Ashley on her shoulders to maximize whatever comfort she could get for both of them.

"That's good to hear." Tay let out a relived sigh and looked to the Ixix. The Kig-Yar ranger were in the middle of tying a bandage on one of his warriors who had a nasty cut on his right upper arm where one of the machines claws had cut deep into the flesh and muscles, the arm would mostly likely have to be amputated. "Ixix we all need to get out of here before more shows up but our ship still needs supplies." Ixix nodded his head.

"I agreed demon. You can probably find most of what seek that way" Ixix pointed at a corridor opposite of there the Spartans had come from. The Spartans nodded their thanks and headed down the corridor. Ixix and his remaining troops ran down the hallway to there their civilians were, hoping to get out of here alive without more casualties.

Just as Ixix had told them they soon stumbled upon a section of storage room filled with supplies, there were even a few weapons scattered throughout the many storage rooms. The Spartans took what they could carry, mostly stuff like food, medicine and weapons and armor and hightailed back to the Phantom and loaded everything onboard. They had been the last ones to return and the Sangheilies were more than glad to get out of here after many of them had crossed path with imperial troops or their deadly droids.

The phantom took off and traveled the short distance between the Justices Shadow and the asteroid base docking just before a wing of imperial Starfighters engaged it. Plasma fire from the ships canons light up around it as it tried to fend off the fast fighters that tried to break through its energy shield. The fighters soon realized that their attacks were ineffective against the powerful shield the Justices Shadow and pulled back when an imperial Loyalty-Class Light Cruiser made its way through the asteroids and engage the corvette. The separatists fired up the engines at full power, not wanting to try and fight the small cruiser that was nearly as big as them and had at least half a dozen other ships of them same class soon backing it up, and fled. The Justices Shadow rushed as fast as it could through the many asteroids, dodging incoming antimatter fire from the light cruisers frontal heavy canon as it pursued it. Asteroids big and small were blown apart around the corvette, tiny rocks banging into the energy shield. Two squadrons of fighters and a trio of bombers launched from the imperial cruiser and quickly closed the distance between Justices Shadow and the cruiser. The fighter could, like before, do little to the shield but the bombers hit with such impact that it was starting show signs of weakening. The blows from the big antimatter blasts from bombers shook the ship violently, making it hard to stand upright. The corvette finally cleared the field and activated their slipspace drive soon as they could, disappearing from the star system. The light cruiser, now with its pray gone, turned around to rejoin its fleet. Why it didn't pursue, even when they already were figuring out its course, was very simple. They were ordered not to from the high ups.

Meanwhile on the bridge of an imperial Devoted-Class Heavy cruiser, a three kilometer long ship and the flagship of this fleet, stood a rear admiral and studied a hologram of battlefield. His fleet had not destroyed the Kig-Yar entirely. Remnants of their forces were still present and fighting with a great fire to defend their home but nonetheless the imperials had won. The raid had been a great success, of course a few ships had been lost but nothing to critical, and they had completed their real mission here so all there was left to do was call back the fleet and head home to base. Speaking of the real mission a heavily encrypted call came in. Already having the code to the encryption the rear admiral opened for the call. The hologram of the battlefield transformed into the head and shoulders of a Sangheili.

"Greetings admiral, the mission was a success and you have my thanks for you and your fleets assistance in the matter." The Sangheili said. The rear admiral nodded his head in respect.

"It was an honor working with you, my lord." The rear admiral studied the facial expressions of the Sangheili, a question pushing its way out of his mouth. "If I may, my lord, how's it like being one of them?" The Sangheili stared at him for a short moment before the head of the Sangheili fell apart and morphed it a black hooded humans. "Weird and quite difficult." The Black Phoenix Assassin said. "But I'm still learning from this." A Sangheili hand came into view with a tiny cube between the thumb and index finger. The rear admiral could just barely spot what looked like the head of the Sangheili inside the cube the Black Phoenix had before he transformed.

"I'll be out of contact for the coming time but I'll gather as much information about this ship, the Justices Shadow if I'm not mistaken, and its mission." Rear admiral nodded and bid his goodbye. The Black Phoenix hid away the communication device and transformed hishead back into the Sangheilis, the shadow of a creepy smile on his face when he walked out of the small dark room and into a hallway on the Justices Shadow. It was time to gather information.