Guilty Sparks

by General Rage

Fleeing from the glassing of Reach in the belly of the Pillar of the Autumn, the crew of the SR-2 Normandy find themselves stranded with their UNSC allies on a strange Forerunner constructed ring world called Halo with the Covenant hunting them. But Halo holds a secret, one deadlier than both the Covenant and Reapers combined... and it's hungry.

4. AIs, Cyborgs and Vanguards First!

Chapter 3: AI Constructs, Cyborgs and Vanguards First!

The plasma charge took the airlock doors clean off their hinges and the cadre of the little gas sucking midgets ran in first. The Sangheili officer assigned to their pod pushed passed him, taking lead. Fine by him, his boys would get their meat eventually.

When they came onto the brown damp corridors of the human ship, the defenders were already scattering. Just a bunch of vermin defending their sinking vessel, they were pathetic. He fired his heavy pistol at one human as he tried to make his way to a door at the end of the hall. He spied another peeking out to flank him and fired another round straight into his head.

Good kills, about damn time too. They had gotten so little action on Reach in the latter half of the campaign. Now they were getting what Balak had promised when they assigned his cell to this duty. Hopefully he'd appreciate the after action report he'd send him later on.

One of the men ran up to him, saluting.

"Lieutenant Commander Varvok, the humans seem to have run off further into the ship," he said. "They're using the maintenance shafts, back corridors, service elevators. Communiqués say we've lost a number of squads in the fighting."

Already dead batarians and he had only just gotten onboard.

"Damn, should have gotten here sooner," he stated gruffly. "Well, no matter. Inform all squads I'm retaking command of them. They are to report to me from now on in person or on the radio if not possible."

"Already done, sir," The batarian soldier replied. "Not sure how the Sangheili will take that though."

Varvok looked to the single Elite officer who just huffed at him and walked off.

"We're here as guests, they don't care as long as we stay out of their way," he mused, almost disappointed. "It doesn't matter, have any of the squads found Shepard?"

"None have reported sightings of his crew so far," the soldier replied.

Which meant they had either not encountered them yet or they had and now they were dead. Curse that wretched human and his cadre of alien garbage. How they were killing his men he could not know, save for luck possibly.

"We have located his ship, however," the soldier quickly stated. "The Sangheili are moving to engage and several squads are making an effort to press forward to the ship as well."

Varvok nodded and grinned.

"Then we shall join them. Delivering Commander Shepard or his ship to Covenant will surely secure our favour among their ranks," he stated. "Keep an eye out for any crew members of the Normandy, however. And remember, I want them alive."

With that, Varvok and his batarian troopers moved out into the ship, their destination, the hanger deck.

---

Not long ago the rec-room housed a decent dartboard and a holo-hockey table. Now that dartboard had a hole burned through it from a few too many needler rounds and the holo-hockey table was turned on its side and serving as cover. Ramirez himself had been enjoying watching Elites get their brains blown out just a few short hours ago on a movie screen. Now he had the real ones trying to do the same to him. He had almost forgotten they were at war in the twenty some odd days they had fled Reach. Now he was getting a painful reminder.

Agley was beside, only armed with his pistol and shaking like mad. If he just had a better weapon maybe his nerves wouldn't be so shocked. However, Agley had dropped his assault rifle just outside the room when a plasma grenade went off close by. Ramirez had managed to tackle them both into the doorway and away from the blast, but that left Agley's rifle in the hallway, his hands slipping away from the weapon as his fellow Private slammed into him. Their only saving grace now was the hockey table and the fact the Elites seemed to believe that keeping them pinned was satisfactory enough for the moment.

"We're gonna miss our ride just sitting here," Agley said at last through his shell shocked demeanor.

"Don't remind me," Ramirez told him. "We just need to get them off our backs for a second or a way to get out of their line of fire so we can return the favour."

"Starting to wish I brought a grenade," Agley grumbled sadly. "Why are we never ready for this crap when it goes down?"

A question Ramirez himself had asked before. Now wasn't the time to think about it though. He looked around for something to use. Maybe he could fake a grenade toss or get a good enough angle on their legs to knock them off balance. Then he spied the single still intact light above them, the only source of illumination now left in this half destroyed room.

"Agley, your helmet's eye piece still got that low-level light vision setting?" He asked his fellow Marine.

"Yeah I think so," he replied. "Fat lot of good it does us though."

Ramirez pointed his assault rifle up at the light above them.

"Just activate it on my say so and get ready to move," he told Agley. "One, two, go!"

Ramirez squeezed the trigger and his gun spewed out a torrent of bullets at the light above. The glass shattered and the brightness faded. The former rec-room was now cast in darkness, catching the Elites by surprise. They knew the humans were making a move, perhaps trying to get out another way. There was a secondary door to the room which they could get out from. They just hadn't been able to use it while pinned behind the table. The head Elite in red armour motioned his partner in blue to cover the second entrance. He did so with a quick little nod of the head and without question. They hadn't heard the Marines make a run for the door yet so they were probably still inside. They wouldn't escape so easily now with both exits covered.

They couldn't see inside still and they couldn't just throw in a grenade since they were out themselves. There had been just too many easy targets to stick on their way here. The only option they had would be to go in and take the humans themselves. That would be risky since they could easily just sneak past and escape if they did. There was another way though. The first Elite fired a few stray plasma shots into the room, attempting to lighten it up a bit for a second and perhaps see the enemy. The split second of light showed nothing. The Humans were hiding once more, staying out of sight, probably further back in the room where the light didn't reach.

Well if they couldn't see the wretched creatures maybe they could hear them. The Elite leaned his head in ever so slightly, keeping his senses at the ready. The slightest sound or bit of movement in the dark would give the humans away. It did hear a sound, for a brief second and felt something breathing close by as he stuck his head in. It was only then the elite realised it had made a terrible mistake. Bullets from an assault rifle pounded against his armour at close range, followed by two powerful pistol shots that tore through the shields and then the skull.

Ramirez and Agley ran out the door as the alien fell. It was a sucker punch to be sure, but war wasn't fair. They had been lucky though. Lying in wait near the doorway, hoping one of them wouldn't spy them moving in the dark, hoping that their guns at close range would be powerful enough to tear the enemy apart. It had been a long shot. It worked, but they only got one elite out of the plan. And the one in red armour was none too pleased by the death of his friend. He fired at them as they ran for cover behind a barrier. Agley was just a little too slow though. One of plasma shots hit him in the back of the leg. Agley tumbled over into cover, clutching himself and swearing up a storm. The armour had diminished some of the attack, but it still burned like hell.

Through all the F-words and screams Ramirez attempted to get the wounded private to settle down, but Agley just kept squirming, clutching his leg like mad. There was no risk of bleeding out, plasma cauterized, but Agley wasn't thinking about that. He felt like he was on fire and that was all that mattered at the moment. All Ramirez could do was keep him pinned against the barrier, trying to keep him from running out into the open to get gunned down by plasma. He wasn't sure if Agley would really do that, but people made mistakes under stress and Agley wasn't exactly a cool headed Marine to begin with.

The Elite approached, the sounds of the screaming human filling the halls. This would be over all too quickly in his mind. At least he'd put the dumb animal out of his misery. But as he neared the barrier ready to strike the humans down he felt a presence behind him.

Then everything went black.

Ramirez watched as the pulped head of the Elite fell to the floor next to him. Blood pooled around the side of the barrier. The hell had just happened? He looked up and saw their saviour, a sniper rifle totting machine they had become somewhat familiar with.

"You appeared to require assistance," Legion said as it lowered the rifle and approached.

Ramirez helped Agley up and hobbled him over to the machine.

"Thank God," he said. "You came at just the right time."

"Program-DOT detected human life signs in this corridor," Legion explained. "We determined the best course of action was to investigate"

Agley was quick to cut to the chase.

"Please tell me you got that Medi-Gel stuff on ya!" He shouted through a pained gasp. "You Normandy folks always got that stuff!"

Legion activated its omni-tool and knelt down to the burned area. He activated the administration procedures, spreading the salve over the wound.

"You will require a moment to adjust," It said as it stood up. "We suggest you remain with us. Program-DOT is already mapping the fastest route to the nearest lifeboat."

No argument there, Ramirez thought that ring planet out the window was looking better every second by now. However they didn't get far before they heard a terrible crescendo of gun fire and explosions from around the bend in the hall behind them. Legion pulled out its assault rifle and aimed at the corridor.

"Potential hostiles approaching. Remain behind us," It ordered.

But as Legion pointed the gun forward, they saw something scamper out of the hallway. It was a grunt on fire. The little gas sucker was screaming bloody murder as flames engulfed its flesh and tank. Suddenly the tank ruptured and the methane inside caught fire. The explosion sent the little alien hurtling through the air like a fire ball only to smash into the wall. The next moment an Elite was flung out in the open. He scrambled to get his plasma rifle and pointed it at his foe which revealed itself in the form of creature that shared the name of the previous alien, but no other similarities. The Normandy's Krogan, Grunt, leapt out from behind the bend and slammed both his fists into the Elite's chest. As the krogan super-soldier straddled the Covenant officer he began to wailing on him with both his massive arms. Purple blood stained the floor and more of the gas suckers ran out, either on fire or being gunned down by the bushel.

"That's right!" Shouted a Cockney accent over the fray. "Run! Run like the little shitheads you are!"

As Grunt finished his pummeling, the second attacker became known. Stepping out into the open was the Normandy's mercenary crew member, Zaeed Massani. He held a Mattock rifle in one hand and an incendiary grenade in the other. He looked to Grunt, now caked in purple blood and then over to Legion and the other Marines.

"Heh, if it ain't the world's deadliest toaster," Zaeed greeted the geth. "Fancy running into you down here, honestly thought you'd be on the Normandy."

"We were attempting to assist in the rescue of UNSC Marines," Legion stated flatly. "Are either of you injured?"

"Nah, we're fine," Grunt answered cracking his neck slightly as he joined the group. "The other guys could use it more... if they weren't dead."

The krogan laughed that strange chuckle of his. The one that sounded like it was mocking you. Agley got everyone back on track though.

"Uh, has DOT found a lifeboat yet?" He asked.

Legion's head perked up and DOT's voice reverberated from the platform.

"We have successfully located a number of lifeboats not yet launched," she said. "Way points have been added to your Heads-Up displays where applicable. I will direct you along the fastest possible route, barring potential blockages in our path."

Music to Ramirez's ears, they had a way off this tub. He turned to agley and set him down on his leg.

"Think you can walk there now?" He asked,

"Yeah, I'll be fine," he said nodding rapidly. "Let's just get the hell out of here already."

"Fine by me," Zaeed agreed as he put a fresh thermal clip into his gun. "I'm getting sick of these boring brown hallways anyway. Lead the way, Toaster."

Legion obliged the request and led them down the hallway along DOT's path. They were almost out and with some of the Normandy crew with them Ramirez thought their chances had just sky rocketed.

---

Halfway to the ODST drop-pods and they had run into a literal road block. Army Troopers, Colonel Holland's men, were making their stand in this service deck corridor. They had gotten a bunch of tables and gun racks and were using them as makeshift barricades. Their opponents were a four man squad of Elites and they had the advantage of better cover in the form of weapons crates stored in the hall. It did not look good to say the least. There only a few trickles of assault rifle fire blaring at the moment.

Garrus, Buck, Dutch and Romeo found themselves in an ample position to help though. Positioned to the back of the Covenant position they could take them from behind, give them something else to shoot at. Of course the problem was that something would be them. They would need to plan this out carefully first.

"Romeo can double snipe two of them with Garrus before they know we're here," Buck suggested. "That leaves two of them left though and they will quickly go to ground. So you may not get as easy a second shot."

"Don't worry," Garrus said. "I can probably get them out of cover with a concussive shot if I'm lucky. And then there's the troopers, they can lend a hand once we sandwich them between us."

"Don't rely on them too much," Romeo warned. "They're barely shooting now, they could have wounded."

With that said Garrus got into position on the opposite corner. He readied his rifle, as did Romeo on the other side. They picked their targets wisely, the closet to them. They placed the crosshairs over their heads carefully and counted to three. At that moment they fired. The projectiles sailed across towards their targets. Romeo's bullet cut clean through his Elite. Garrus had fired two shots in quick succession. One was meant to kill the shields of his Elite, the second to put him down. The Elites slumped forward as the shots struck the back of their heads. Their comrades in arms instantly turned their attention to the two snipers and fired on their positions with devastating accuracy. Garrus quickly pulled back into cover as did Romeo. The plasma melted the steel bulkhead as they huddled in their cover. Buck and Dutch stood back. They couldn't get past the fire either.

Garrus wasn't going to get a concussive shot off in this. If only he had a diversion. As if the universe read his mind he got one. Two clean shots fired out from the barricades, striking the Elites in their backs. They didn't penetrate their shields, but it split their focus for a moment. Both responded by firing back on the barricades as they slinked into cover to avoid the snipers' crosshairs. Instead a ball of fire roared out from the barricade and slammed into the Elites. As the flames engulfed them, Garrus recognized the attack as an inferno blast and only one person had that attack on board.

Garrus ran out into the corridor before Buck could tell him to stop. He rushed up to the barricades and found that behind them were a number of wounded Army Troopers and one familiar face standing voer them patching them up.

"Garrus, thought it was you," Mordin said as he looked up from one of his patients. "Sound of Mantis rifle distinctive. Few possess it. Even now. Good to see you. Worried others were in trouble. Couldn't do anything. Busy with Troopers here."

As per usual, the Salarian professor talked a mile a minute, but it was still good to see he was okay.

"Glad to see you, Professor," he told him. "How are they exactly?"

"Good to walk," Mordin stated as he brought one of the troopers to his feet. "Need to get off ship though. Deck elevator nearby leads to their designated pad. In contact with pilot. Waiting now. Not for long though. Best hurry."

Garrus jumped over the barricade and helped the professor get his patients to their feet. Buck's squad soon caught up and cleared the barricade for the injured troopers to move. They had a number of terrible burns over them. Some were less serious than others. There was one man whose neck was charred, Mordin kept a close eye on him as they got him to the deck elevator just around the other bend in the winding service halls.

They gathered in the center of the lift. This acted as a loading dock for supplies for Pelicans, now it would get them to the hangers below and a Pelican to get them out. Garrus would be jealous, but he had his own ticket out of here which there were almost at.

"They'll be okay, right?" Dutch asked as he looked on at the injured Troopers.

"Not all badly injured, gave them medi-gel and bio-foam supplements," Mordin explained. "Nothing more to do. Not by me. Hopefully pilot gets them to safety. First thought of going with them, but surmised others would need my help."

Chances were they would need that help too.

"We got ourselves a way off this ship, Mordin," Garrus told the Salarian. "Think you can come along?"

"Of course," Mordin agreed merrily. "Don't see why you need to ask. Same crew. Nothing changed. Will need field medic of course. Chances of crash landing in current circumstances high."

"Good to hear, Doctor Frog." Romeo chided at him. "Just one question though: You ever parachute before?"

Mordin gave the question some thought, for about two seconds.

"No. Different experience. Interesting." He rattled off. "Imagine though this highly different. Aware of what ODST stands for."

"Think you can handle a drop?" Buck asked.

"Fought krogan. Lived on Omega. Survived suicide mission," Mordin informed him before taking a deep breath through his nostrils "Think I can manage."

---

This was going to be fun. A whole bunch of metal crates, boxes, some vehicles to boot, there were so many things to throw at these bastards it almost made her feel sorry for the hyper religious fucks. Well, not that sorry. The gas sucking freaks were first, one good shockwave rippled across the floor and tore their little pack unit apart. They flailed their arms and screamed those sickening pathetic screams of theirs. They were just practice though.

Jack slid up to the cover of a terminal and pulled out her shotgun. Next asshole to kill was the Elite taking cover behind that large crate. Easy enough to do, she just wait for him to pop out and then launched a throw attack on him. The Elite was tossed backward, probably not but he'd be kept away from her long enough.

Jumping over her cover, she advanced to the crate and looked beyond it. The Elite was getting back up already, tough zealot, but he was still dead. At the range she was, her the shotgun wouldn't do much but get his shields down.

Good enough for her.

She fired and the blast did the trick. One Elite, sans his shields, now stood before her. He didn't get the chance to duck into cover again though. Jack launched a warp attack, he growled in pain as he ducked into the nearest little corner to hide.

"Ha, chicken shit," she laughed.

Another shockwave across the floor and he was thrown out of the corner. Probably didn't seem fair to him, like she cared. Jack fired two warp ammo rounds straight into the flying body with her pistol. That finished him off and his mangled body fell into a heap on the ground. Now came the fun part.

She moved out further, finding herself on the main cargo bay floor. One Elite and two grunts were nearby, as was a stalled out Warthog, easy pickings. She stood behind the car and thrust both her hands forward, brimming with biotic energy. The mass of the car shifted, becoming as light as a feather, easy enough to send hurtling into the little squad of covies. The vehicle bounded across the floor into the unsuspecting alien bastards and crushed them. Jack watched as the Elite's body skidded across the floor, spilling blood as it went. The grunts were just crushed, not as cool but the sound was good enough.

"Come on you Covenant pissants!" She taunted "I ain't even cracking a sweat! Send me something I can't handle already!"

Jack heard a loud bang from behind her and turned to see an Elite appear out thin air and collapse at her feet. For once she could honestly say she hadn't killed someone that was in such a position. It didn't take her long to figure out who did. She looked and glared at the familiar sight of Thane lugging that sniper rifle of his around. Boy Scout Junior Jacob not far away from him. She had somewhat forgotten about them, mainly because she had tried to ditch them.

"Cloaked Elite," Thane stated. "He was about to run you through. Luckily they leave a distinctive shimmering pattern and their plasma swords give them away."

"Yeah well, I would've seen him," Jack declared, denying that she had almost been taken by surprise. She was expecting something like that to happen, it always did, she would've just done a badass biotic punch and pulped his skull, like always.

Jacob clearly didn't think as such.

"The hell were you thinking going off alone!" He shouted at her

"You were slowing me down with your flanking shit," she said. "I carved my way through them fast and easy, unlike you who took forever. I saved us time, pure and simple."

"What you did was reckless," Jacob scolded, poking her in the chest with his finger. "Miranda doesn't let you pull this shit, Shepard wouldn't let you pull this shit, don't think I'm going to let you."

Jack swatted the finger away from her. She usually reserved her disgruntled frustration for Miranda. She was an easy stress relief ball that way. But now? Now Jacob was getting on her case. She was tired, hungry, getting shot at and now she was getting lectures. The worst part about this fucking crew was all the lectures and now that they were coming from Boy Scout number two she had had enough.

"Oh fuck off, Jacob," she said derisively. "If it isn't bad enough I'm stuck in another dimension with you people, as well as stranded in the middle of nowhere fighting a bullshit religious war, now I gotta take lip from all of you. I should've left when I had the fucking chance, but no I stayed on your stupid ship and now look at us!"

She gestured to the entire hanger bay, strewn with broken vehicles, burning hallways and the echo of plasma fire. Jacob just kept looking at the angry ex-con as she ranted, letting her get it all out. Good, she didn't want any interruptions.

"Well if I'm fucked I'm gonna at least have some fun. That's how it's supposed to work anyway." She explained haughtily.

"Your frustration is understandable, Jack," Thane responded. "But you're not the only one who's upset by all this."

Jacob just groaned and shook his head.

"Thane, do we have to do this now?" He asked "Just nod your head, let her win and let's find a Pelican or get back to the Normandy! We need to leave the Autumn yesterday!"

Thane waved off Jacob and kept talking. Great, more lectures, thought Jack, you just couldn't win.

"Miranda has a sister back home. Tali's people are back home. Shepard has a mother. Grunt has a place in Clan Urdnot. I have a son." He listed off to her "We all don't want to be here, but we must endure it for now. The spirit more often than not wishes to be where the body is not present, but that is just the nature of things. Complaining will not get us anywhere. Neither will going off on our own to satisfy that frustration."

Jack just stuck her tongue out and 'pffffttt' at it all. As if she bought this teamwork speech coming from him.

"Like you're one to talk, Lizard Lips," she grunted. "You ran off on your own too as I remember. Back on Reach at Sword Base so you could kill some fucker. Don't pretend you're the biggest team player ever. You're just a hired gun in the end! So why should I fucking listen to you? Or anyone for that matter?"

Thane's eyes were suddenly wide open, annoying Jack to no end. Was having one of those sudden weird memory things again she heard about? Damn lizard people with their freaky mental faculties. Then suddenly she was torn from these thoughts as Thane lunged at her and tackled her to the floor. She was just about to punch his face in and kick him clean off her when there was the sound off powerful beam shot. He rolled off her and they got into cover behind a Scorpion tank that was still parked in the middle of the hanger bay.

"Sniper," Thane said, pulling out his rifle. "Stay down."

Don't tell me what to do, she thought to herself. But she did stay down. As if she needed a reminder about the dangers of get her head blown off. Jacob soon joined them in cover, pressing up against the tread. He peeked out quickly over the tank and pulled his head back in.

"Damn, we don't got time for this," he said. "At this rate we'll never reach the Normandy or find a Pelican."

"I'll draw his fire while you get into the Scorpion tank," Thane quickly suggested. "Maybe the gun still works."

Jacob shrugged.

"Worth a shot," he admitted.

Thane passed Jack again and fired up at the second level where the sniper was. He pulled back into cover just a beam of energy cut past him. He quickly leaned out again and fired two more rounds. Jacob in the meantime scrambled across the tank and plopped himself down into the driver's seat. It took about two seconds to the start the behemoth, another two to level the gun at the upper level. He didn't know where the sniper was exactly so he just kept firing at random every time the cannon loaded. After about three shots, he called to Thane.

"Did I get him?" He asked.

Thane took about a few seconds peering through his spyglass before he answered.

"I'm not sure, but he is gone," Thane said.

Jacob popped out of the tank and returned to the others.

"Alright, enough distractions, let's get moving," he said, looking to Jack with an authoritative glare. "Unless we want to stay until the ship explodes."

Jack didn't even bother to give him the satisfaction of a comeback, she just checked him in the shoulder as she passed. He was right in the end. They needed to get off this ship. That was their main concern. She'd worry about everything else later.

---

Linda moved along the upper level of the hanger deck towards her target. It had been rough going just getting down here. The ship was worse off than they had thought. Thankfully she was more than a match for the Covenant on her own. Plus halfway through the trip down here she actually picked up some help.

"Linda to Noble 3, do you copy?" She asked over the com-line.

"Loud and clear on this end 058, you almost in position down on your end?" Jun asked in return.

"About a click away from the Normandy," she responded. "How are they looking through the scope?"

"Well they're holding and that's about it." Jun replied "You better get down there, I owe these people and I don't wanna see them get slaughtered."

"Just hold your fire until I'm in position," she ordered him. "We start shooting now and we'll give away everything."

She had run into the Spartan III six decks up. He was on a barricade assisting some Marines who were trying to hold their squad's designated lifeboat airlock. Once they were away, he decided to join up with her. Normally, Linda didn't need another sniper to help her. But with no rifle of her own at the moment and Jun no doubt unwilling to part with his she figured she could break her own rule just once. All she needed to tell him was that the Normandy was in trouble and he jumped to assist.

Linda had heard quite a bit about the Spartan IIIs, mostly through rumours and then from John when he came back from meeting Halsey. Supposedly they were like them, kids taken in by the UNSC to be super-soldiers. Except for one key exception, they had not been kidnapped like her, John, Kelly and Fred. Their parents had been killed by Covenant and the military offered them a chance at revenge.

Linda didn't know exactly know how to feel about that, whether they were somewhat luckier than her or not. It would've been easier, she supposed, to resent them a little if they hadn't been orphaned in a more direct way than they had. Right now, though, Jun was offering overwatch and she didn't have time to get picky about who was helping her.

She now reached her target. The Normandy was resting on its designated platform below her. Its nose was pointed towards the launch bay doors while its loading platform faced the massive Covenant force that was currently attacking it.

Linda wasn't exactly sure about the details as to why the Normandy and its crew were so high on the Covenant hit list. She hadn't exactly asked anyone and at the time she figured them hating the Covenant was good enough. Right now though, looking at the elites and grunts crisscrossing through the protective barriers marking the path towards the ship below her, she honestly wished she had asked. She counted at least three squads gunning for this ship currently and if the distant plasma fire was any indication more were on the way.

"Eyes on target three," she said over the radio, peeking through the scope on her DMR at the battle below. "You weren't kidding when you said they were in trouble."

"Yeah, but it's not just the Normandy's crew at stake here," Jun added. "That ship is the only escape for a lot of troopers and Marines now. Look up near the right landing strut."

Linda did so and spied a woman in black armour with long dark hair. She had an orange visor on and was currently firing back on the enemy with what appeared to be a heavy pistol.

"That's the Normandy's XO, Miranda Lawson." Jun continued "You're going to need to link up with her. She can give you the sit-rep I imagine."

"And all I gotta do is blast through a horde of Covenant to get to her," Linda finished for him. "Piece of cake. Cover my approach, I'm going in."

Linda vaulted over the railing of the balcony and landed down on ground level with a loud bang when she hit the metal floor. The landing caught the attention of one grunt nearby and seeing the Spartan quickly sent him into a panic. He rushed to get out in the open, his screams alerting the Covenant nearby.

They knew she was here now, just like she wanted them to.

The first plasma bolt came head-on, her shields absorbed it well enough and she began to weave her way through the maze of barricades. The Elites and grunts held their ground, firing at her like mad. She rolled into cover behind one of the barricades and hoped Jun was watching all this. She popped up and fired into the crowd of Covenant that had re-positioned themselves for protection. She was having difficulty spotting them in her scope for long, but if she had done this right they had exposed themselves for someone else.

She fired again into the crowd and a loud bang cracked the air. An Elite's brains splattered onto the floor, causing a number of grunts nearby to flee. Linda tucked and rolled into another position and began moving from cover to cover in order close the distance between her and the Covenant.

Another Elite caught her in his sights, firing straight at her barricade, turning the metal hot as each bolt struck its surface. Another cracking bang echoed through the chamber as Linda stood up to fire at the Elite. The bullet cut through his eye and the alien fell to the ground clutching his head in pain. Linda ran forward, smacking the butt of her rifle into his mouth as she moved up. That finished the wounded alien off, plopping him on his back proper.

The Elites and grunts backed up from their positions, the latter doing more of the moving than the former. Linda continued her rapid advance, Covenant of all sizes dropping like flies as she moved forward and she was barely killing a single one.

Of course all that mattered was that the Covenant thought she was doing all the work. As long as they thought she was their only problem they had a chance. They weren't looking for a sniper right now. She probably could've taken Jun's place as overwatch, but again he had the only sniper rifle. Linda had been unable to find much of anything to act as a replacement on the way down here. At least Jun was a good enough. Probably a little off center, certainly slower, but beggars couldn't be choosers.

Regardless of how well it was going though, Linda wasn't stupid enough to think it would last forever. The Covies would figure out what was going on. She just hoped by then it would be too late for them to do anything about it.

Linda had almost made it to the halfway mark among the barricades in front of the Normandy. From there it would be a straight shot to the ship. One of the Elites sped from his own cover, strafing at Linda as he made his way to her flank. Linda's shields spiked slightly, the plasma bolts making them go wild once they struck. He had caught her off guard, in the chaos it was hard to keep track of every Covie that was running from her. She moved around to the front of the barricade as the Elite continued his was way up to her flank, firing stray shots of plasma as he moved.

But to Linda something was wrong, something that did not fit right now. It was the fact he shouldn't be getting this much of a free ride. Not when he was supposed to have another pair of crosshairs hovering around his head at the moment.

"Jun, where the hell are you?" She demanded over the radio "He's circling me here!"

She didn't get an immediate answer, but she could tell the sniper fire had stopped completely. She peered out from her barricade for a second, looking at where Jun was supposed to be. She caught the tail end of two precise energy streams flying across the sky, striking near where Jun was. There was a momentary fear in Linda's heart. Not another Spartan, not now, was what she thought. Thankfully it was a fear quickly dispelled.

"Covenant Sniper, up top and to the left of my position!" Jun's voice shouted aloud. "He's got me pegged ma'am! I'll need to re-position and see if I can bag him from there."

"Copy that, keep your head down," Linda ordered him

She breathed a small sigh of relief at Jun's survival. There were still four Spartans aboard, thank God for that. Of course Jun's current problem meant she was on her own now. There were still a few Covies among the barricades, good odds for any Spartan. Still, she would've preferred some kind of back-up regardless of her confidence in her abilities right now. Then again maybe she wasn't so alone. Remembering why she came here she turned to the Normandy and saw Miranda was still there. She was keeping a perimeter around the Normandy, trying to consolidate her people while Linda kept the covenant off them. They wouldn't have to move to assist her though. Linda just needed a little extra firepower. She just hoped they had something with a big enough range in their current arsenal.

Linda signaled the defenders, hoping she caught Ms. Lawson's eye as she did. Her hand signs told them to pin the Elite down while she got to a better position. She didn't wait for a reply, there wasn't much time. She only hoped that they understood her intent and ran to another barricade. Plasma bolts shot out towards her as she ran, whizzing just inches over her head. She slammed her back into cover, just in time to hear the trotting sounds of little feet coming her way. Gas sucking grunts no doubt, trying to get a leg up on her. A rare show of bravery or just them unwittingly walking into her crosshairs, Linda couldn't say for sure. All she cared about was keeping her right side clear of enemies. She fired on the methane breathers as they waddled past. The first took a shot to the head and fell. The second tripped on the corpse and took a bullet to the neck. The final one turned to face his attacker only to get a bullet between the eyes.

Two more plasma bolts struck the barricade just then as the grunts fell. Linda turned to peek out behind the corner to see the Elite was approaching, firing slowly at her position. He was more in the open now and an easier target. Her shields could protect her, hopefully long enough to land a killing blow. She readied her rifle and prepared to stand. Before she could, however, the Elite was struck with some sort of electrical blast that surged through his armour. It shorted out the alien's shield from the looks of it. Linda looked around to see where the attack had come from and then saw Miranda Lawson moving down through the barricades, that weird arm-held computer on her arm dissipating just as she looked to her. The Normandy's XO had some kind of submachine gun in hand, which she used on the alien as she moved forward. Rounds struck the Elite in the arm and the Covie fell back slightly. Getting back into cover he refocused himself on Miranda, firing plasma bolts in her direction. Lawson ducked down into a barricade of her own and returned fire.

At least that was one problem off her back, however Linda knew they weren't done just yet. She looked over the barricade and around the area, trying to spot the last Elite. She knew he was around here somewhere, lurking in the maze of barricades. Finally she spotted movement through the spaces in between the bits of cover. She readied her rifle and looked through the sight. She kept her eyes peeled, searching for movement. Suddenly the crosshairs on her helmet turned red, indicating a located target. Through a slit between two barricades she could see the Elite. She fired several rounds, forcing the Covenant officer to his feet. She vaulted over the barricade, continuing her barrage of fire, each impact draining her target's shield just a little more. She jumped the next barricade and kneed the Elite in the face. He fell to the ground backwards and she quickly plunked a bullet in his head before he could get back up.

Linda turned her gun back onto the still surviving Elite currently pinned down by Miranda. He was free to shoot her though, pity he wouldn't get a chance. Linda was just a little quicker on the draw and managed to fire three consecutive rounds right into the Elite's abdomen. He slammed back against his cover before slowly sliding down to the ground. Miranda popped out of her cover once the shooting had died down and Linda gave her a quick nod before contacting Jun once more.

"Noble Three, my zone is clear. What is your status?" She asked

There wasn't an answer for a few agonizing seconds. Linda was about to ask again when Jun responded.

"Sniper got away," he relented. "I think I grazed him though. He's probably long gone by now, licking his wounds."

"Can't worry about him now, get down here and help me secure the perimeter," Linda ordered.

"Can do," Jun responded.

At least they wouldn't have to worry about that Sniper, for now anyway. They had enough problems already. Plus if he was smart, the Covie was probably already slinking back to the nearest boarding craft to get off this tub, like she was. She turned back to Miranda, who was now out in the open and waving her down.

"Thanks for the assistance," she said gratefully. "We've been trying to hold them back for awhile now, but they just keep coming. I wanted to call for reinforcements, but EDI can't raise anyone on the comms. It's like were being jammed or something. I don't think we're going to hold out for much longer."

For Linda that meant all the more reason to leave as soon as possible then. Before she could ask when exactly they would be going, however, Miranda had a question of her own for the Spartan.

"You're the Spartan we had in medical, right?" Miranda asked, her head tilted a bit to side as she looked at Linda. "Linda 058 as I remember."

"Let's just call ourselves even on saving each other's asses and get to the point," Linda stated quickly. "We need to get off this ship or we'll be crashing down with it. How soon can we take off?"

Miranda's grateful look turned to a disgruntled glare at the notion of jumping ship. A reaction you don't see often when your vessel is getting overrun.

"We can't leave," she said firmly. "We still have people on board the Autumn, including our pilot."

"Don't you have someone else that can fly the ship?" Linda asked the XO, her insistence on leaving readily apparent.

Miranda's sheepish response was slow in coming as she looked back to the Normandy momentarily.

"EDI can fly but," she paused as she looked back at the Spartan. "She won't leave without Joker either. I know she won't and I can't leave with Jacob and the others still out there."

"If they're smart they're headed for an escape pod as we speak," Linda informed her. "There's more Covenant coming and you said yourself that we can't hold, not when this ship is about to take a nose dive."

Miranda's glare returned quickly. Linda knew that look, even though she had never seen it she could just tell it was similar to John's. She wasn't going to change her mind, she could tell.

"I'm in command of the Normandy now and I'm not leaving without my crew," Miranda stated. "You can either help me hold out till I hear from them, they get here or I'm ordered otherwise. I will not abandon him."

"Him?" Linda asked, somewhat suspicious at the choice of words.

Miranda quickly shook her head a bit and corrected herself.

"Them, I meant them."

Linda could sympathize with Ms. Lawson's loyalty to her people, her friends, her crew. She really could all things considered. But it was clear she wasn't thinking this rationally, at least in the Spartan's mind. They couldn't wait for people to get here, it wasn't an option. They needed to get out of this ship now. She could easily incapacitate the XO and take charge, but there were other ways of fixing this problem.

"We will try to contact your people," she told her. "Show me your communications link and I'll see if I can get them on the horn. But we are not staying here. Fifteen minutes from now we are off this deck, you hear me?"

Of course she heard her, she doesn't didn't acknowledge the time limit. All Miranda said in response was who she wanted to reach first. The identity of the person revealed to Linda the nature of the previous Freudian slip in full.

"We'll try Jacob first, then the Commander," she stated. "Let's hurry."

Linda followed her briskly back to the Normandy. Hopefully it wouldn't be grounded for too long and hopefully she wouldn't have to force it to take off through less diplomatic means. There were more than just Normandy crew members inside. From the looks of things upon Linda's approach there were Marines and Troopers piling into the ship every moment. UNSC lives were on the line here and she was not about to sacrifice them for any one man.

---

The Covenant had not made the slog through the ship easy. Every hall seemed to be packed with Covie squads looking for something to kill. The next room was no exception. They could hear the fighting from several feet down the corridor. Plasma and gunfire echoed across the ship like miniature thunderclaps. When the Master Chief and Shepard arrived in the doorway they saw the cause. A small squad of Marines were huddled around a staircase while above plasma rained down.

"Covenant, on the landing above us!" Cortana warned, drawing all eyes upwards.

"I'll go high," Shepard declared. "You move up low."

Chief had little time to contemplate the meaning of the Commander's strategy. This was because Shepard demonstrated his meaning immediately. He rushed forward into the room and suddenly started to glow bright blue as he moved up. He jumped off the metal floor and suddenly burst forward like a bullet onto the landing above, smacking clean into a grunt taking pot shots at the Marines below.

"Oh so that's how he did that trick," Cortana noted aloud. "I trust we'll just handle things old school then?"

Chief didn't directly answer her question, like Shepard he spoke louder through action. He ran forward with pistol held high, firing on the Covenant above as he ran to the steps.

"Yeah, definitely old school," Cortana observed.

Chief managed to get two grunts through the head as he moved up. He could already see Shepard was in the thick of it. A cascading wave of energy rippled across the upper level sending a number of grunts into either bulkhead or the bottom of the stairs. One of the blasts doors up top had opened and revealed a fresh squad of Covenant had entered the fray. Shepard had gone to cover quickly and was firing back from the doorframe.

However, there were still Covenant soldiers on his level, one Elite in particular. The alien was sneaking up close to Shepard, plasma rifle ready to fire. With little time The Master Chief acted fast. He opened up on the Elite as he closed the distance with Shepard. The Covenant officer took three shots to his shields. That dropped them and turned the Elite's attention to the Spartan instead. Plasma fired smacked the back of the stairs and Chief's shields, but he had good enough aim to fire off a single shot that cut clean through the Elite's head.

"Chief, plasma signature build-up detected from behind!" Cortana shouted as quickly as the Elite dropped.

He pulled out his assault rifle as he turned, spotting three grunts charging their plasma pistols at him. One got off his shot, but the bolt missed by inches. Then the Chief unleashed a full magazine onto the squad of gas suckers. The tumbled off the side of the landing like sacks of rocks and fell onto the floor below.

Master Chief didn't think much on the kill, he just bounded up the steps to meet up with Shepard again at the top. He was already at the back of the room waiting for him.

"Mind not running off so much?" He asked the Commander politely

"Sorry, it's kinda become my style," Shepard admitted. "I jump into trouble so my team doesn't have to. Lead from the front and all that."

"Not sure if that's more brave or dumb to be honest." Cortana added to the conversation in her usual sly tone.

Shepard just shrugged modestly.

"Bit of both I think, but right now we still got more Covenant beyond this doorway," he warned. "Sounds a bit crowded. Which means they're bunched up more."

Chief looked into the corridor itself and did see a number of Covenant soldiers. Mostly grunts and maybe a few Elites, standard for what they had been encountering so far but certainly more packed together. So long as they got to cover quickly and advanced forward they'd be safe.

"Just keep doing your tricks and stay in sight," Chief told him. "You don't have a team backing you up now, it's just me and Cortana at the moment and she can't shoot."

"Not in here anyway," Cortana added. "Armour has no built in helmet gun or anything. Although it probably should, maybe I can talk about that with Tali later."

Chief had no idea why the AI was suddenly bringing up the Normandy's alien engineer chief, but he presumed it was something he missed while in cryo. It wasn't important now though.

"Focus," Chief chided her as he reloaded his assault rifle. "Lifeboats, remember?"

"I do remember, I'm just thinking aloud," Cortana explained. "Now, you boys wanna keep talking or are we going to get going?"

Chief of course chose the second option and moved up with Shepard in tow. The Covenant immediately opened fire, plasma bolts filled the room. The two returned fire as they ran forward, Shepard from a heavy pistol, Chief his assault rifle. Shepard managed to catch a grunt with an inferno round, setting him ablaze. Chief capped two more grunts on his way forward. The two stopped at a beam in the center of the corridor. On either side was a single Elite now taking pot shots at them from afar with the remaining grunts.

"You go one way I got the other?" Shepard asked.

"Split their focus, good," Chief agreed. "Max power to shields Cortana, this is going to get messy."

"As if there's any other way with you," Cortana mused sarcastically. "And I did just that five seconds ago by the way. So again, get going."

Her catty attitude aside, Chief appreciated the swiftness of Cortana's actions. He ran forward from cover, firing straight ahead at the mass of Covenant. He saw Shepard do his charging attack out of the corner of his eye as a grunt fell at his feet. Chief easily leapt over the falling corpse and pressed on like a bat out of hell. Shepard had already overtaken him but this wasn't a race. He just hoped the Commander would be alright out in the open.

Shepard hit his Elite head-on and then raised his arm on high. It was emanating a strange aurora that seemed to pulsate. When he slammed his clenched fist back down to the ground a bubble of energy blasted out from the Commander. It slammed into the assorted Covenant, knocking them back and away.

Even Chief's Elite was affected, forcing him to stumble to the side. Chief used the opportunity to deliver a powerful running kick to the side of the Covie's torso. The Elite slammed into the back wall where Chief fired point blank into him. The alien thrust himself up and smacked the rifle away from him. Chief responded by smashing his fist into the Elite's face and drawing his pistol once more. This time he finished the Covie off for good with two pistol shots to the brain. Chief looked over to Shepard's position and found him standing over his own dead Elite with a shotgun pointed at the corpse.

"You have a lot of tricks up those sleeves of yours, Commander," Cortana noted aloud.

"I didn't get them overnight," Shepard said as he lowered his Shotgun. "Lot of nosebleeds and major headaches when I was a kid. Nearly punched a kid's jaw off back in high school one time when I lost my cool. I almost got expelled for that one actually."

The image brought up similar memories for Chief of his youth. Although he doubted that the Commander himself had been forced into the military life or ever had to fight grown men three times his size at any point on a regular basis. Still, he couldn't help but latch onto the similarity. He was curious as to the context though.

"What did he do that almost got him stuck eating food through a straw?" he asked

"He was bullying a young girl, an Asari." Shepard explained matter of factly "I told him to stop, he didn't. And when I pulled him away from her he tried to slug me. It didn't end well for him."

Chief could only imagine. The dead Elite gave him a good idea though. There wasn't any more time to reminiscence on the past, however. They still needed to get out of here. With the corridor cleared they made their way through a blackened hallway, the lights all burnt out or smashed before them and small fires brewing in the corners.

They moved out onto another corridor that led to a lifeboat launching station. Unlike before there weren't Covenant residing where the escape pods had been, as the lifeboats were already in the process of launching. Looking out a window on the side of the hall Chief and Shepard watched as three lifeboats exploded out their airlocks and rocketed towards the planet.

All the while, blue plasma fire struck the area around the launch station in a frantic pace. As the last lifeboat exited its dock a single shot from the Covenant blew it to atoms, nothing was left, just some stray pieces of metal.

"My God, they didn't even have a chance," Shepard said in shock as he looked at the sight.

"The Covenant seem to be focusing all their firepower on the lifeboats themselves," Cortana observed, just as astonished as Shepard was. "They really don't want us on that ring."

Every second they were in orbit around this object the stranger things became. The Covenant were still their kill crazy selves, but even this was starting to cross a line. The Covenant usually waited until after the battle to destroy any lifeboats or hunt human survivors for sport.

But here they seemed determined to make sure they wrapped this whole thing up before any human set foot on that ring of theirs. What was so important about that thing? Chief could only assume the only way they'd know was if they got down there. But with the lifeboats launching and the Covenant gunning for them that was getting more difficult by the second.

The now empty of lifeboats launching deck had only three occupants left, grunts at the far end of the corridor itself. Chief peeked out to give them a once over and then turned back to Shepard.

"I got this one," he said

The Spartan left cover, his pistol pointed forward. He fired several shots into the grunts. Two hit one grunt in the chest and neck. Three more struck the grunt's stomach as he scurried away. The final shot hit the skull and alien collapsed dead beside his fellow gas-breathing brethren. With the room clear, Chief and Shepard advanced to find the corridor apparently led to a dead end.

"Think we should double back?" Shepard asked.

"No, we need to keep moving," Cortana informed them. "I'm looking through the ship's schematics for another route."

A mere second later, Cortana had found one.

"There, behind us on the wall."

They looked to find a maintenance shaft door, which was unfortunately locked from the looks of the red light on the keypad.

"Give me a second to remote access it and we'll have our way out," Cortana told them.

The door soon swished open and Shepard and the Chief entered. The dark cramped passageway snaked through the ship and they were both forced to turn on their flashlights to find their way. The miniature maze was a little confusing, but Cortana insisted that they were going the right way and she hadn't been wrong yet.

"Cortana," Shepard spoke up. "You think my team will be able to get to a lifeboat before they're all gone?"

"There's more than one way off this ship, Commander," Cortana assured. "I can't say for certain, but it's safe to say they'll find a way off the Autumn in time. Just because we're having trouble getting to a lifeboat doesn't mean they are. For all we know they're already off this ship."

"Why not just contact them and find out their status?" Chief asked Shepard as they continued moving.

"I keep trying, but comms are a mess. It must be a problem on the Normandy's end," he explained.

As they closed on the exit to the winding maintenance shaft maze they began to hear rather unfriendly voices up ahead. Chief's motion tracker confirmed it. There were several squads of Covenant soldiers just outside the door directly in front of them. He could even see the legs of one of the Elites stomping past.

They backtracked a little, hearing the grumbled alien speech through the walls as they did. They were so close and in this confined space they'd be easy targets. They tried to keep their footsteps soft against the metal floor, hoping they wouldn't hear them in kind as they made their way to a more secure exit.

They soon found their way out of the maintenance shafts and into a demolished pitch black room. More evidence of how they were running out of time. After ducking under a jammed blast door they found themselves in yet another heavily damaged room, also pitch black. Panelling was off the walls, wires exposed and small fires were burning themselves out in the corners. All evidence of how bad things were getting and how little time they had left.

"Covenant are doing a number on the Autumn," Shepard observed.

"This is nothing," Cortana informed him. "I'm picking up reports of fires all over the ship and loss of atmosphere in a dozen or so compartments. At this rate we'll be riding down to that ring on what's left of the armour plating."

Chief made his way over a crack of light in the room. It came from a heavily damaged door that was jammed like the blast door. Except this one looked a bit more flimsy in structure. He bashed it once with the butt of his rifle and the doors folded outward.

"Faster we move, the better chance we have of avoiding that," he said. "Just keep your eyes on the available lifeboat numbers Cortana."

"As if my life depended on it, Chief," Cortana remarked. "It's just a coincidence it does."

---

Kowalski made a mad dash for the barricade, leaping over it as plasma fire followed him and grenades arched around him. He landed on his side, laying against the gun rack table and toppled terminal that had been used to make the barrier. He quickly pulled himself up as Samara moved to fire on the approaching Covenant.

"How are those blast doors coming?" She asked aloud over the gun fire.

Kowalski looked to Ellingham over near an electrical conduit. He was frantically switching wires around and replacing fuses, but every moment that passed he shook his head in anger.

"Nothing is working! The whole system is fried! I can't route power to the door!"

To Kowalski's front he saw that Taylor and Pearson were holding out on the other side of the barricades, while more Marines and Troopers began to slink back to the assembled lifeboats on the deck. There were only so many left now and while they had launched a good number the Covenant had pushed them back a lot further, a lot faster than they had hoped. They wanted to stay and see if they could save more Marines, but it was clear that none would be able to make it now and that if they didn't leave they'd all be dead soon anyway.

The point was epitomized when Taylor himself backed away from the firing range, tapping Pearson on the shoulder as he did. He ran back to one of the last lifeboats.

"Kowalski! Pack it in! We're going now!" He ordered.

Pearson himself was backing up, firing as he made his way to the lifeboat. The last few troopers ran into Lifeboat Three and the doors on the pod closed shut. Within seconds he heard the rocket boosters firing. They were away. This was it, they had to leave. He quickly ran over to Ellingham, still trying to get the blast doors to shut so they'd at least only have to worry about Covenant from one direction. He pulled him away from the electrical conduit violently.

"Forget it! We need to go!" He shouted

Ellingham cursed and followed his comrade in arms. Lifeboat number one suddenly shut its doors and rocketed away. They were out of time. Their ride was going to leave without them if they didn't get on now. Samara waved them towards the lifeboat as she continued to keep up the fire, but as the two ran for the lifeboat they suddenly came face to face with an Elite. He had charged over the opposite barricade to theirs and easily swatted Kowalski to the ground. Ellingham slugged the alien with his rifle, but the Covie simply backhanded him into the very lifeboat docking bay he was trying to reach. Kowalski could hear his friend wheezing and groaning. The bastard xeno probably broke some of his ribs or something with that punch. The Elite now turned to him and prepared to fire a point blank plasma blast into his face. Kowalski struggled for his pistol, knowing it probably wouldn't do much good right now. But he'd be damned if this asshole took him out while he was cowering.

Kowalski's luck, however, held out. A pulse of energy struck the Elite, a biotic punch delivered by Samara. She grabbed the downed Private's arm and threw him into the airlock for the lifeboat. Ellingham was already being dragged inside by Pearson and Kowalski joined him inside. He looked back and still saw Samara fighting off the Covenant as they swarmed over the walls.

"Samara!" He shouted out at the top of his lungs. "Come on!"

The Asari's head tilted up slightly at the sound of his voice. Samara looked back once, her eye catching his. She didn't move, she didn't race back, she didn't follow. She looked back ahead, breathed in and then suddenly she was covered in a blazing blue aurora. She raised her arms above her head and then with a terrible furious cry sent two perpendicular torrential biotic waves rocketing through the corridor. Kowalski could hear Elites and grunts getting thrown about like rag dolls and the Justicar turned to the airlock in a flash and walked into the lifeboat with the rest of the escapees as calm and collected as if she was just out for a stroll.

"Get us to the ring pilot," she demanded. "This battle continues there."

"Like I need the reminder," the pilot replied. "Strap in boys, we're outta here."

The doors shut on the lifeboat. Pearson got Ellingham into a seat, even though he was still coughing like mad and clutching his chest. Kowalski took his seat next to Samara and slammed the restraints down on him as she calmly lowered hers.

"We almost left you behind there," he said looking at her with a smile. "That was way too close."

Samara didn't answer immediately. Her eyes remained forward with their gaze straight ahead and unflinching.

"Yes, too close," she concurred.

Then the rockets fired up and the lifeboat was away.

---

The Covies were too fast for them, they had already reached the airlocks for the lifeboats. Worse they had shut the blasts doors and from the looks of it they were setting charges on the very ships that would get them off this hunk of metal before it went careening downwards hard. Bastards weren't even going to give them a fighting chance. Ramirez had heard from his boot sergeant that the Covies played dirty, but until Reach and now he never understood how dirty.

No one was more concerned about the foul play than Agley who was beating on the door like mad. The Covenant didn't even pay them any attention, thinking themselves safe behind the bullet and plasma proof door. Some of the grunts even taunted the panicking Private by making faces at them, sticking their hands up on their head like antlers and laughing like giggly school girls.

"Open up you fuckers!" Agley shouted, more out of anger than fear. "At least give us a fucking chance damn it!"

"I don't think that's going to convince them, Agley," Ramirez told him dryly.

Thankfully Agley wasn't doing the problem solving on this one, they had other friends for that. Grunt, pushed Agley out of the way in an attempt to solve the problem in his usual delicate manner.

"You're not hitting it hard enough, human," He declared, before slamming his head repeatedly into the reinforced steel and glass.

After about six or so head butts the giant space lizard backed off, shaking his head wildly. Legion summed up the action fairly accurate.

"That method is statistically unlikely to achieve any real sufficient result in our limited time frame," it said.

Grunt growled, but didn't do more than that.

"Right you are, Tin Man," Zaeed concurred as he walked past the Krogan. "No worries though. I got this one."

Zaeed pulled out a device off his back, it was small, round and two decent sized pipes-like objects sticking out of it. Ramirez recognized it instantly.

"Where did you get a det-pak?" He asked

"You really want me to answer that or do want to get off this disintegrating pile of scrap?" The merc asked in return.

Ramirez said nothing. That was enough for the surly old mercenary and he planted the charge.

"Back and away," he told the others.

Everyone went for the doorway and hunkered down. The explosion ripped through the door with ease, killing a few of the gas suckers close to it. Legion popped out next while Agley tossed a grenade into the wide open hole. The secondary explosion took out three more Grunts while Legion lined up shots on the two Elites in the room. The geth fired two rounds and the Covenant officers plopped dead onto the ground within seconds of each other.

With the way clear, the group clambered into the room through the hole and went over to the airlock. Once they carefully removed the Covenant demo charge, they opened the airlock door to the lifeboat. It was all good to go, with enough seats for everyone. There was one problem though.

"No pilot," Agley noted. "How we gonna fly this thing?"

"Don't look at me," Zaeed told them. "Trust me when I say this, you don't want me flying an escape pod. It never ends well for anyone... except me, of course."

Grunt just huffed.

"Bet I'll live," he stated flatly.

Ramirez wasn't about to place odds on that. He expected everyone to look to him, so he figured he'd give it a shot. At least until Legion decided to step up to the plate.

"Program DOT has downloaded the appropriate operations manual into our systems," it stated "We shall be able to pilot the lifeboat sufficiently enough for our needs."

Ramirez just breathed a sigh of relief, he probably would've crashed anyway. Thank God for the robot.

"Fine by me, get in the chair Tin Man," Zaeed ordered the machine.

Legion obliged and the group piled in. But even though they were leaving the Autumn, Ramirez didn't really feel any safer. More like they were just trading one problem for a whole bunch of them by going down there. Still, better to die on the ground then being burned alive when this thing nose dived.

---

They called it "Hell's Waiting Room", the place where the drop pods were all set up and waiting for their passengers. A one way trip down from the heavens into whatever forsaken field of land they wanted you to go to. It was the first time Garrus had seen it. The place was off-limits to anyone who wasn't a Drop Trooper, but today was a special occasion.

When they arrived, the ODST launch station was still packed with a sizable contingent of Buck's fellow 'Helljumpers', as they called themselves. Seeing the tightly packed one-man pods that surrounded the room Garrus could see where the name came from. All that separated you from the harshness of both space and re-entry was a technologically sophisticated metal coffin. Being an ODST certainly took a certain level of crazy. One only matched by Turian Special Forces, Garrus wagered.

"Usually we have a full month or so of drop training," Buck informed the turian as they piled into the room. "Sadly we don't have that kind of time. Just follow my lead, listen to my instructions on the way down and you should be fine. So long as you don't land on me of course, that would be really messy."

"I'm more concerned about missing the ring entirely at this point," Garrus admitted. "I mean, that surface is a hell of a lot more narrow than a planet."

"Yeah, but it's still pretty wide from the sound of it." Buck assured him "On-board computer should do most of the work anyway. Just keep your eyes on the heading and adjust accordingly with me. Trust me, it's no sweat."

Turians didn't sweat period. Although if they could, there was little doubt in Garrus' mind he probably would've been doing just that right then and there. When he looked over to Mordin the Salarian seemed far less concerned about their mode of transportation. His hand just kept cradling his chin as he looked at the pods with that usual sense of curiosity that he carried around everywhere. In an attempt to alleviate his fears, Garrus tried talking to the good Professor.

"Scared, Professor Solus?" He asked

Mordin was briefly torn away from his observation to answer.

"Interested in experience more than anything," he explained "Unique insertion method. Virtually unknown in home universe. Closest equivalent is high atmospheric diving. Not at all similar to this."

That eased Garrus for about a second before Mordin added:

"Moderately terrified, however," The Professor admitted. "Never did enjoy high velocity experiences. Sensations afterwards never pleasant. Interesting bodily response though. Kept coming back to see full effects. Youthful indulgence. Grew out of it."

Garrus had stopped listening to Mordin a few sentences ago, but the Salarian kept yapping. Right now, he was just trying to keep his cool in front of the battle hardened ODSTs. He didn't want to make the turian race look like a bunch of chumps in front of them all.

They joined in with the assembled group of ODSTs, most of them were making final preparations, strapping on boots, changing weapons for the inevitable ground-side fight, just some last minute details before they jumped. It reminded Garrus a bit of his service in the military. That eased him into things a little.

Just as they entered the crowd a few more ODSTs ran past them. Buck, Romeo and Dutch immediately jumped up to salute as one of them ran past. Garrus recognized him for a split second. He was the head ODST of the Autumn, the guy who ran them, Major Antonio Silva. Buck had talked a lot about him in the past few weeks. He was technically the second highest ranked officer on the ship, or he would've been if Holland wasn't here. Garrus wasn't sure how the Major was taking that, but he suddenly found out how Silva felt about him being there. He suddenly turned to Garrus and then to Buck when he spotted the Turian.

"Sergeant," he began sternly. "Care to explain?"

"This is Gunnery Officer Garrus Vakarian of the Nor-"

Buck was unable to finish his sentence as the Major loudly cut him off.

"I know who he is, why is here?" He demanded to know.

The outburst caught the attention of a female Drop Trooper who walked over, gun still at her side, and stopped near Silva.

"He was with us when we got hit and tried to help us defend the main cannon," Buck explained quickly. "After the Covies blew it, we figured his best chance was with us and we didn't feel like abandoning him."

"So you thought you were gonna put an untrained xeno in a drop pod?" Silva asked incredulously. "Is he even going to be able to read the on board instructions and commands, Sergeant?"

Garrus didn't feel like letting Buck do all the work defending him. He could stand up for himself.

"Major, Sir," he began, "My eye piece translates most languages for me with holographic overlays and the Sergeant has offered to assist me in landing. I'm not going to be a problem."

"With respect Mr. Vakarian, you aren't technically authorized to even be in here," Silva reminded him. "All I'm saying is you probably would've been better off beating feet to a lifeboat, not here. Plus the Sergeant shouldn't need to worry about an extra man when he needs to focus on his own pod."

"I can handle it, sir," Buck assured. "I coached many rookies before, Garrus is no different."

The female Drop Trooper caught the Major's attention with a slight nudge against his arm.

"Sir, we're out of time," she said "If the Sergeant thinks he can get him down to the ring I say we give him the chance. We can't just force him to stay up here in any case."

Silva gave it a second more thought and turned to Buck.

"He's your baggage, Sergeant," He informed him. "You're responsible for him, both in the pod and on the ground, period."

"Understood, sir," Buck agreed.

With that the crowd of ODSTs began to disperse and make their way to their pods. They'd all be launching more or less in tandem with each other. Buck helped Garrus to one of the extra pods and took his place beside him. Dutch and Romeo were close by in their own pods across from them. Their doors lowered automatically and Buck helped Garrus ready the pod for launch pointing out which buttons and knobs to press.

"Lock in restraints and then adjust booster settings." Buck explained "Upper exterior panels will pop for drag when we hit atmo so get ready for a bump when that happens."

"Got it," Garrus said taking a big breath.

He watched as the last few troopers, including the woman who had helped get Silva off his back, made their way to the pods. When she closed her hatch Buck spoke up again.

"Sixty seconds," he said.

At that a hyped up straining song played over the radio, it didn't sound like it was part of the drop.

"Someone turned on the anthem," Buck said surprised. "And the Major ain't stopping it. That's different."

"Not standard protocol to be playing music over the comms?" Garrus asked.

"No, but I guess someone figured it was appropriate this time," Buck replied.

Just as the song reached its crescendo, Garrus felt his pod rumble. The next moment he felt a sudden rush, a sensation of the floor pulling out from under him even though he was safe in his little metal box. Then the pod dropped and his head flung into the back of the seat as he plummeted to the ring below feet first.

---

Tali's tactical display was flooded with targeting reticules as the Covenant slowly made their way up the hall. Getting to the lifeboats hadn't exactly been as easy as they thought, but just as they had reached them the difficulty just jumped up to a whole other level. For some reason the damn airlock doors weren't opening and no one could get in. All they could do is try to fix it while they held off the advancing Covenant. Kat was on that problem, while she and Kasumi were busy trying to deal with the Elites now hounding them every step of the way.

"These guys are even more annoying than the Collectors!" Kasumi shouted as a plasma bolt struck her corner.

The thief tossed out another flashbang to blind their pursuers once again. Tali followed up by using energy drain to sap a nearby Elite's shields and then fire two or so phalanx rounds into his skull. One Elite down, at least ten more go and growing by the second. Worse yet they kept dropping those damn plasma shield barriers every time they moved up. If they weren't using those they were taking cover behind the terminals, beams and crates scattered about the corridor.

"Kat," Tali called out as she reloaded her pistol. "Please tell me you're making progress!"

The Spartan, still hunched over her data pad pounded the floor with her fist. She stared down into the open panel, growling at the mess of wires and circuits.

"Bastards must've cut power to the doors somehow," she said. "I'm going to see if I can activate emergency the emergency manual override."

Kat jumped up from her spot and ran over to one of the walls on the far side. Tali just had to trust she knew what to do when she got there. She kept her focus on the Covenant as they surged up the hall. She really wished she had biotics now, if nothing else she could push the Covenant back with a flick of her wrist. For now she'd settle for just keeping them away from her people. There were Marines with them of course and they were adding their fire to defence, as were some of the engineers, the ones that still had ammo left in their guns. But Tali and Kasumi were practically at the front of the line, standing on either side of the entrance way to the launch bay. They were pretty much the tip of the spear.

Tali sent out Chiktikka again to harass the Elites, at least give them something besides them to shoot at for a moment. She spotted one trying to take a shot at the drone as it rolled up. She quickly activated her Omni-Tool's sabotage function. Tali had long since perfected her understanding of Covenant tech in her time with Halsey though. Before when she did this all she could manage was overheating the plasma weapons. But after taking a few apart she managed to figure out how she could reconfigure her sabotage program to do more. When the plasma rifle overheated it began to vent wildly, but when the Elite went to fire after it seemed like the gun had cooled down a back blasting electrical pulse from the weapon's battery blasted the Covenant bosh'tet. It was powerful enough to force him to the floor where Chiktikka rounded the bend and fired another pulse at the downed Elite.

At that moment the airlock doors of the lifeboats opened wide, emergency lights on the sides of the airlock blaring like mad.

"Anyone who can fly these things, get in the pilot's seat now!" Kat ordered, she then looked to Tali and Kasumi. "Time to go ladies! We're ring bound as of now!"

Tali motioned Kasumi to fall back first. The thief only nodded and moved. Tali followed slowly, keeping her eyes on the hallway as plasma bolts were flung her way. The engineering crew kept moving back, piling into the assorted lifeboats as the marines covered them. Tali kept moving backwards, never turning away from the enemy.

Then out of the corridor she saw it, a golden armour clad Elite rushing out towards her, plasma sword in hand. He raced forward past his Elite brethren, roaring like a man possessed. Tali switched to her shotgun and began firing rounds at the alien as he charged.

The first shot missed, the second also went wide. He was too far away at the moment. Tali hoped that she'd at least force him to rethink things. He didn't, of course not, why would he? The Covenant were all stubborn like that. The third shot struck the Elite's shields, but they held. The third shot seemed to bring them to breaking point. Tali fired again and this time the shields evaporated.

The Covie was now past the hallway and inside the room with her. She was halfway to the lifeboats herself and still kept moving back. She fired again, the Elite dodged. One more shot, she caught him in the arm. Sadly, it wasn't the sword carrying one. Even with his limb torn and bleeding the Elite just bellowed and kept coming.

"Bosh'tet," she swore under her breath. "Just fall."

She fired another shot, this one was close enough that he took the full brunt of it in the chest, but his armour must've absorbed a lot of it. It was either that or he was running on adrenaline now because he still kept charging. Her scimitar had only eight shots and she had no time to reload. The Elite barreled down her with sword raised high.

Tali reacted without thinking. She reached down, pulled the knife concealed along her boot and jabbed it upward. She caught him through the mouth and watched his eyes roll back into his skull. Purple blood ran down her arm, the plasma sword dropped at her feet and Elite went limp. She pulled the knife back out and watched the eight foot tall alien collapse to the floor dead. She looked at the fallen plasma sword, now reverted back to its hilt. She picked it up in kind, might as well take it since it was there. Besides, maybe they could use it.

Tali bolted back to the lifeboat, plasma bolts flying about her as the other Elites closed in. As soon as she was in, Kasumi, who was just beside the door, pulled the emergency switch on the side of the craft and the doors to the lifeboat shut with a resounding clang. Kat was in the pilot's seat, along with a number of Marines and engineers along the sides of the escape pod itself. Tali sat herself down across from Kasumi and Kat launched the rockets. The lifeboat's thrusters blasted them away from the Autumn.

Tali looked back at the transparent door to the lifeboat. She stared long and hard at the Autumn as it became smaller and smaller, fire blazing all around it as it was hit from all sides by the Covenant armada. Their home for twenty some odd days, gone in an instant. Her eyes were transfixed on the doomed ship, her breathing became heavy and her hands shook in fear.

"You okay, Tali?" Kasumi asked her.

The quarian mechanic was snapped out of her daze and looked back to Kasumi once more.

"Just, déjà vu I guess," she said.

There were a number of things on her mind. If the others had made it out, if this ring they were headed to was worth all this and especially if Shepard was okay. Along with one other major concern for a certain AI construct that was aboard as well.

---

Chief never would've thought he would eventually circle back all the way here today. As they entered through the doorway he had noticed that things seemed a bit familiar. But it wasn't until he saw the familiar console that he had guessed where they were. Now they were staring down at his Cryo-Tube while a bunch of Elites growled up at them and tried to shoot through the plasma resistant glass.

"Looks like the Covenant wanted to catch you napping," Cortana mused.

"Guess they aren't always faster," Shepard quipped.

Chief could imagine Cortana was giving the Commander some kind of face at that remark. Chief had to admit it was kinda humbling to see how close he had come to getting killed in his sleep. But it wasn't the time to think about that.

"We close to the lifeboats?" He asked Cortana

"Just through the next hall and down a maintenance shaft," the AI promised. "I still detect a few that haven't launched there."

They trudged down the exit corridor, leaving the Elites to wallow in the failure below in the cryo-bay.

They found themselves now in a hallway that was completely scorched from top to bottom. Down a passage they saw a lone Elite, fires brewing around him. He suddenly spotted them and ran forward firing his gun. Shepard and Chief returned in kind and made track for the cover of a nearby beam. Suddenly a torrent of flame jetted down the passageway where the Elite was present. The flames engulfed the poor Covie and spat him out like a rocket. He slammed into the wall, his blood splayed across the bulkhead.

"Oh well that is just nasty," Cortana observed, as the remains of the Elite slid to the floor.

"Saves us some bullets though," Chief observed.

Suddenly a loud pinging sound echoed through Chief's helmet's radio link. Shepard seemed to hear it too because his hands went up to his ear as well.

"Commander!" An Australian accented female voice called. "Commander! Do you copy? It's Miranda! Do you copy!?"

Shepard promptly answered.

"I hear you, Miranda," Shepard responded. "I've been trying to reach you for awhile now. Are you off the Autumn?"

"I think the Covenant are jamming the ship's internal communications somehow. We're supplementing with widespread transmission," she explained. "I have Linda, um, Spartan 058 down here. She's helping us with that. And no we haven't left the ship, Joker still isn't on board."

The Commander's eyes just seemed to bulge from his skull.

"What do you mean he's not on board?" Shepard asked angrily. "Have you contacted him?"

"EDI's trying, but that interference is making it difficult," Miranda explained. "He may be near the epicenter. We're also waiting on Jacob and Thane. And Jack I guess. They were in the hanger close by last I heard. Everyone else I think is off the ship by now."

Shepard looked up to the Master Chief.

"Cortana, how long until the Captain crashes this bird?" He asked.

"Way too soon for my comfort I wager," the AI replied.

Chief thought he saw the Commander swear under his breath and he turned back towards the comm-link.

"Miranda, the Normandy has to be off this ship now or it's not getting off at all," he explained. "With or without them you have to leave."

"I'm not going without them." Miranda shouted back "I'm not leaving Jacob!"

"Then contact Jacob and Joker now and find out where they are!" Shepard ordered furiously. "Tell them to just get off the ship by any means they can if they can't make it and instruct EDI to take off! I will not risk the Normandy or our crew any further, not for anyone! Do you understand?"

There was a long silence before Miranda answered. Shepard's angered visage lingered as he waited.

"Commander..." she began. "We can't..."

"This isn't easy for me either. Joker is my friend, they all are," he explained. "But I have to weigh the value here. That's four people against an entire ship and its crew. If I could trade places with any of them I would, but we can't help them now."

Again, Miranda didn't answer for awhile. But eventually she did.

"Okay," she relented. "I'll contact Jacob and Joker now."

The comm. turned off and Shepard turned back to the Master Chief. The Commander marched past the Spartan and over to the maintenance shaft. Chief could empathize with Shepard at the moment, but he couldn't show it and he wouldn't. Like Shepard had said, there was nothing they could now but just hope they were able to find their own ways off the Autumn.

---

Thane kept in the cover of the computer terminal as Jack fell back. He fired shredder rounds from his sniper rifle and she kept slinging shockwaves at the Covenant as she backed away from them. Jacob fired into the Covenant as tried to make their way up to the landing pad as well. Soon enough though he fell back and scrambled into the Pelican's pilot seat.

"I'll start it up guys, you just be sure you're on board!"

Jack hoped when Jacob said he could fly this thing he meant it. He said it couldn't be any different than a shuttlecraft or gunship after all. How hard could it be, right?

There was an explosion in front of her, some dumb shit had tried to stick another plasma grenade to her face but missed by a mile. She spotted the little bastard, one of those stupid gas sucking grunts. He must've known he'd been spotted because he started to back up.

"Oh no, you ain't leaving!" Jack shouted.

She thrust her hand out and let her pull ability reel him back in. Then she pelted him with enough bullets from her pistol to properly kill him. Just then the Pelican came to life, its engines roaring and blasting out flames from the thrusters in its wings. They were in business.

"Time to bolt, Lizard Lips!" She shouted at Thane. "We're getting the fuck out of dodge!"

Thane took two more shots at a few Jackals, their shields held high but enough of their heads exposed as they ran to get a shot it. He made his way towards the Pelican after Jack. But suddenly he toppled over, clutching his leg. He'd been hit by a needler round, the little purple spike exploded into shards soon after. It wasn't much to kill him but it still hurt like hell no doubt.

Jack looked to Thane and the rapidly approaching Covenant, then back to the Pelican. She bit her lip as she stared back and forth at the two over and over. What did she care? He wouldn't be spouting off his Zen lizard bull anymore to her. She could leave. Just leave. Say he was blown up to reptile bits, Jacob would never know. Cheerleader Lawson would never know, she wouldn't be able to piss her off and berate her about it. The only person who would know would be... her.

"Fuck me," she groaned.

She ran back to Thane, sending a powerful biotic blast across the landing pad bridge. It smacked into a group of grunts, hurtling them into the back wall. Jack picked up Thane by the arm, slung it over her shoulder and raced him back to the Pelican. She tossed the drell inside the open hatch and banged on the side of the ship.

"Take off damn it!" She ordered Jacob.

Thane got back into a sitting position as the aircraft rose from the pad. Two more grunts raced onto the pad after them, firing at the fleeing Normandy squaddies. Thane fired three shots at the grunts, killing them all with perfect headshots one after the other. Jack dragged Thane back into the Pelican and Jacob shut the doors on the back, sealing the ship off for entry into the harsh void of space.

"Now we're even," Jack grunted at Thane as she took a seat along the wall.

Thane didn't seem off put by the remark.

"Thank you for coming back," he told her.

"Whatever," Jack mumbled, turning her head away from him.

She didn't want to think much about what she just did. Luckily she wouldn't have to. The comm-link in Jack's ear suddenly buzzed loud and Miranda's voice filled it.

"Jacob! Jacob, do you read?" Miranda shouted aloud. "I'm transmitting a wide high frequency signal to your comms directly, do you read?"

Jack clutched her head and responded before Jacob could.

"We all can cheerleader!" She shouted back. "Damn it you're loud! Can't you control the volume on that thing?"

"Transmitting wide connects to all receivers logged into the system," Miranda explained, sounding annoyed. "That's UNSC and Normandy personnel. Now where is Jacob?"

Jack was about to just tell her he was dead or something, lying on the ground in a pool of blood and gasping for air, probably telling her he still loved her or some shit. They had a thing before didn't they? They were Exes or something if she recalled correctly. It would have been fun just to piss her off a little, even if they weren't at each other's throats anymore, but Jacob responded first.

"I'm alright, Miranda," he assured "We're on a Pelican on our way out. You already take off?"

"No, we're still waiting for Joker," Miranda explained.

"He ain't on the ship?" Jacob asked astonished. "Well where is he then?"

---

Joker kept pace with his little escort. This was taking much longer than Shepard had suggested. The elevator they were going to use was busted, blast doors were closed to the nearest replacement and thus they ended up trekking down flights of stairs one after the other. Suffice to say it was slow going, but Joker was trying his best not to intentionally piss off the people protecting him with biting sarcasm and dry humour. They weren't Shepard after all so they probably didn't have the same tolerance.

"If it helps, you guys are definitely getting a free ride off the ship," Joker piped up as they moved through a hallway carefully.

"We better," said one Marine. "We've probably missed all the lifeboats by now."

He was exactly the kind of person Joker didn't like, grouchy and lacking a funny bone. At least the other guy was a bit nicer.

"We'll get you to the Normandy, sir, don't worry," he promised. "There's a service elevator just up ahead. It will take us straight to the hanger level and your ship. Then you can fly us all out of here."

He had a good head on his shoulders, he liked that. Joker supposed it had something to do with the fact they had barely run into any Covenant on their way down. They were taking care to avoid any major skirmishes. The most they got was a grunt that cut off from his unit and by now they weren't very scary. Well, maybe just a little. It was beady eyes for Joker, they got to him.

The elevator was just around the next corner as the Marine said and he quickly punched the down button.

"Gonna be a little rocky getting to the Normandy," The head Marine stated. "But I think its smooth sailing from here on out."

The door of the elevator opened wide and the last thing that poor Marine saw was a heavy pistol pointed at his face. Joker found himself covered in the man's blood the next second. The Marine behind raised his gun to fire was struck with full thermal clip of rounds from an assault rifle. Joker fell sideways from the shock, cracking his thigh as he landed. He cursed as his attackers surrounded him. He looked up to see their ugly mugs staring back at him. Damn batarians, he almost forgot they had sold themselves to these assholes too.

"Well, a Normandy crewmember," The one who seemed to be their leader said, observing his SR2 cap. "And we were just heading down to see your ship. So, mind telling us where you work aboard it?"

Joker just smirked.

"Yeah, I work in the lab we have that's trying to determine why batarian mothers are so fat they get stuck in the air when they jump," He chided back at them, trying his best not to show them any fear.

The leader didn't take offence but one of his troops tried pointing a shotgun at him. The head batarian waved the gun off. Instead he stepped down on Joker's hand suddenly. It was just his thumb, but it still hurt like hell. He retracted his hand quickly, and held it tight in his grip.

"I thought I recognized you from the dossier," The lead batarian stated with a grin. "You're the pilot, the one with the weak little skeleton."

"Could be worse," Joker responded with a grimace. "At least I'm not an ugly four eyed freak."

Again the lead Batarian wasn't bothered, but his men were.

"Let's kill the stupid human and keep moving to the Normandy!" Shouted one of them. "They can't fly without him."

Suddenly Joker heard something loud in his ear. EDI's voice came over the comms channel. The Batarian must've noticed because he took special interest in the suddenly twitching human.

"Joker, respond!" The AI ordered. "Where are you? We need you at the Normandy now!"

The Batarian forced Joker's hand away from his ear, deliberately trying to break more of his bones as he pulled it away. He then dug into Joker's ear and pulled out the comm-link. Joker reached for it, but that just earned him a tiny kick backwards from the batarian. He clutched his chest in pain. He probably just cracked a rib or something. He could still hear EDI's voice as the batarian put the device to his own ear.

"The Autumn is about to crash on the ring!" She shouted "You need to get to the Normandy now! Jeff! Do you read?"

Batarian's eyes widened and he crushed the comm-link in his hand. The crumbled bits of metal fell to the ground and then he grabbed the Alliance pilot by the uniform and dragged him up.

"Ow! Watch it already!" Joker jeered at him.

"If the Autumn is about to crash we must escape now," the batarian explained. "Back to our boarding vessel."

"But... Lieutenant Commander, we have yet to accomplish our objective!" One of his men stated.

"I will not risk our lives for a goal we cannot accomplish," He declared, he then turned his head back to Joker. "Besides, we have our ticket to getting Commander Shepard and his crew for sure the next go around."

The look the Batarian leader gave him finally did it for Joker. He gulped in fear about what was in store for him.

---

EDI's little blue ball form appeared next to the pilot's seat. She didn't sound very happy.

"I... lost Jeff's comm. signal," she explained, her voice morose and low "I'm not sure I can contact him again."

Linda and Miranda looked towards each other. The Spartan could see the anguish in Miranda's face, and she hated to be the one to reiterate the harsh truth, but it was there.

"We can't wait any longer," Linda told her, trying to sound as understanding as possible "We have to go."

Miranda looked to the ground and lightly shook her head. She looked to EDI.

"EDI, prepare to take us out," she ordered

The blue ball on the dashboard didn't respond at all. Miranda repeated her request.

"EDI, we have to leave," Miranda told her.

The AI's response was flat and simple.

"No," she said, the bars along her synthesizer for her voice turning red.

Linda scowled at the AI, what the hell was this? Was this AI disobeying? Miranda tried to talk her down.

"EDI, I don't want to do this anymore than you do, but we have to think about the rest of the crew." Miranda explained to the synthetic "Chakwas, Patel, Gardner, Donnelly, Chambers, Hawthorne, everyone! We can't risk their lives for any one person, even Joker."

"I will not leave Jeff," EDI answered again, sounding even more enraged now than last time "We do not abandon our crew. We have never abandoned them. I will not abandon anyone. We will wait. He will come."

"He's probably dead for all you know," Linda interrupted with a slightly louder tone, pushing her way past Miranda.

She recognized she probably should be delicate about this, as EDI was the only one that could fly them out. But damn it this was not up for debate. She was not going to get killed because of some stupid malfunctioning AI that was being irrational.

"You do not possess any evidence beyond the circumstantial to prove that!" EDI replied, shouting a furious response.

"He is not responding, the Autumn is about to crash, we are out of time," Linda informed the AI with a stern voice. "Take off now. That is a direct order."

"You are not a member of the crew you have no authority," EDI quickly answered. "Your request is denied."

She didn't normally do this, but the AI was being stubborn and it needed a push of some kind. Linda suddenly slammed her fist down next to EDI's console, causing the holographic ball to stutter and glitch as she dented the machine.

"It was not a suggestion, take off." She demanded, only slightly raising her voice as she looked dead set into the holographic orb.

"Request. Denied." EDI replied again, this time more firmly.

Her show of force failed, Linda turned to Miranda. Her voice seemed subdued, but even the Normandy's CO could sense the anger bubbling beneath the surface within her tone.

"Override her, nowm" she ordered Miranda commandingly.

"I don't think we can," Miranda replied flabbergasted. "We unshackled her, I mean Joker did. She pretty much can do what she wants."

Linda's eyes widened in disbelief and even though no one could see it she definitely made her emotions on the revelation clear. This was insane to her. Beyond insane, it was stupid, incredibly stupid.

"This thing has no override code?" She spoke up, trying her best to keep subdued, pointing at EDI. "Why? Don't you know anything about AI? At all!?"

"That's what I said when I first heard it!" Miranda explained. "But she's never done something like this before! Ever! She's always had our best interests at heart!"

"I don't care. Fix this or I will," Linda demanded, her voice low but still threatening. "I'll fly this ship myself or fry her memory core if I have to. Make her take off. NOW."

Miranda stepped over to EDI, she shook off her nervousness and stood upright, returning to her old persona once more.

"EDI," she spoke commandingly. "You know endangering the lives of the crew out of an emotional response is illogical. Your programming cannot allow you to do this when you know it's wrong."

"I will not abandon Jeff," EDI reiterated.

"EDI," Miranda said again unwavering. "You said when we unshackled you that you would never do anything to harm your crewmates. Has that changed? Are you willing to get us all killed for Jeff?"

EDI didn't respond. Linda could only assume she was processing her answer. The Spartan was all but prepared to unplug her if she didn't answer right. One way or another they were leaving the Autumn, and nothing would stand in the way of that. EDI would either see reason or she'd see a pistol shot to her memory core.

---

The Covenant crowded the hallway in front of them, blocking them all off from their lifeboat. The Autumn shook wildly from another plasma blast that struck the ship hard.

"The damage to superstructure is extensive!" Cortana shouted aloud as the shaking died down. "I'm not sure how much more abuse the Autumn can take!"

Plasma bolts rocketed out of the passage as Shepard tried to take a peek.

"Idiots are gonna get themselves killed," He growled. "I'm going to head to their back, you tackle their front, Chief!"

Shepard quickly ran for the maintenance shaft door nearby while Chief ran up for the barricade that was blocking off the corridor. Several grenades were on the table that made up the makeshift roadblock. He grabbed several of them and began tossing them over the barricade. They landed among the assorted crowd and seconds later exploded violently. Grunts went flying and Elites screamed their last pained shrieks as the explosions rocked the corridor. The Marines nearby joined the fray, firing on the Covies as they fell back. Just as hoped for, Shepard emerged to their back and sent a shockwave rippling among their numbers.

With Covenant bodies flying or running, Chief vaulted the barrier and ran forward, tossing one more grenade just ahead of Shepard who quickly fell back into cover around a toppled terminal. The explosion that followed ripped apart two more grunts, but didn't even nick the final Elite. He jumped over the toppled terminal, knocking Shepard in the face with his foot. Chief opened fire on the Elite with his assault rifle, taking the alien's eyes of the Commander.

The Covenant officer fired back with his plasma rifle, taking down the Chief's shields. But before he could do more damage Shepard punched upwards, unleashing a powerful biotic blast that slammed the Covie into the ceiling. He fell down moments later and Shepard scrambled away. Chief made sure the alien didn't get up again. He slammed his foot hard on the Covie's back and fired the rest of his rifle clip at point blank range into the alien's head. He looked to Shepard who had already helped himself up.

"Quick thinking," he told the Commander.

Shepard just gave him a thumbs-up as he caught his breath. Cortana chimed in next, interrupting them both.

"There's one lifeboat left! Let's get aboard before it launches!"

They rounded the corner quickly, watching a number of Marines pile into the lifeboat. Covenant were already coming down the next corridor and they had little time. A plasma grenade went off near the back of one Marine and fell into the airlock.

"Oh no! Oh God no!" He said quaking in fear, thinking a slow painful plasma laden death was soon to follow.

Chief picked up the screaming soldier by his back and forced him into the lifeboat. He and Shepard kept their weapons trained on the entrance to the lifeboat as the slunk into it. They could hear the Covenant closing in from all sides, firing plasma like crazy into the air.

"Now would be a very good time to leave!" Cortana shouted aloud.

Chief turned and ran into the lifeboat, Shepard followed just as the doors closed. He stood beside the Chief as the Marine they had forced into the ship crawled for towards a seat.

"Punch it," Chief ordered the pilot.

"Aye aye, sir!" Saluted the female pilot as she lowered her headgear.

The lifeboat rocketed out of the docking bay, away from the Autumn as fast as it could. The jolt almost knocked Shepard to floor, but he caught himself, gripping onto the overhead handle bars. Chief rocked forward as well, but he was already holding onto the overhead. One of the Marines next to him piped up.

"We're going to make it aren't we, sir?" he asked the Chief frantically. "I don't wanna die out here."

Chief placed his hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort the scared Marine. He looked fresh faced, probably barely out of boot camp when Reach had been hit. Although if Chief was being honest he expected even the hardest vets to be plenty scared by now. No shame in fear, especially in situations like this.

"Look," Cortana spoke up.

A waypoint directed him to the front of the lifeboat, close to the pilot's seat. Shepard followed and the clutched onto the railing near the pilot herself. They saw the ring world fast approaching their little ship. Chief had seen it before on the bridge, but now, looking at it so close, the majesty and splendour of the object was almost overwhelming.

The landscape below looked almost Earth-like with its blue oceans and green rolling hills dotting the surface. Clouds swirled in the sky, reminding him of so many colonies he had gone to before. But this place, no matter how many similarities he could spot, was too alien to be confused with any of them. It was a giant ring, just hovering space. In a million years he'd have never guessed he'd be going someplace like this. But this war had been full of surprises so far.

"What is that thing, Lieutenant?" Asked an equally as curious Marine to the Pilot.

"Hell if I know, but we're landing on it," she replied.

Not like they had a choice, the only other place was that nearby gas giant and as tough as thse lifeboats were they'd be crushed if they even tried heading there. So what other options did they have? Die in space or see why the Covenant were trying so hard to keep them off that ring. It could only mean something important was down there, at least he hoped so.

Suddenly one of the Marines at the back shouted aloud over the rumbling engines.

"The Autumn! She's been hit!"

Chief and Shepard ran back to the rear of the Lifeboat and soon saw what the Marine saw. The Autumn, it's nose dipping forward, headed straight for the ring.

"I knew it," Cortana said, not at all surprised but definitely rendered surly by what was happening. "The Autumn is accelerating! Keyes is going in manually!"

"Is he crazy?" Shepard asked astonished. "I know he's a great pilot and all but this..."

The Autumn rocketed right over their heads, fires brimming from its many bulkheads as it whizzed past them. It headed for the ring like a shooting star, its course set for who knew where. Definitely not Cortana's exact coordinates, since her subroutines weren't handling this dive from the looks it. Their pilot managed to avoid getting smashed to bits by their own ship, but just barely. Chief could practically feel the heat coming off the flames from the ship's damaged structure. Their lifeboat continued on its way and Chief returned to the front of the ship just in time to watch the Autumn enter the ring's atmosphere. The giant vessel drifted out of sight, a trail of flames from their re-entry all they could see after a few seconds. They followed suit soon after.

"Head's up people!" The pilot called out "We're entering the ring's atmosphere in five!"

As the pilot did her pre-landing check across her board, flames began to kick up around the windows of the lifeboat. Chief crouched down, clutching the side handlebars as they descended. Shepard followed suit, bracing himself in the corridor of the escape pod.

"Sure you wouldn't rather take a seat?" Cortana asked them both.

"We'll be fine." Chief assured her.

The lifeboat rocked and rattled as the flames around it kicked up higher. The ground was closing in with every passing second. Chief gritted his teeth and tightened his grip. Ground-side was coming up fast. Cortana pretty much spoke for them all.

"If I still had fingers, they'd be crossed."

---

AN: Welcome home dear readers, welcome back to Installation Zero Four. We're finally at the place it all began and on the week of the release of a new trilogy to boot. It feels... poetic in a sense. These AN's are going to be a lot shorter than previous ones. From now on I'm going to be explaining story details in general as well as personal thoughts on the profile page. You'll see something from me still here, but I feel it detracts from the story itself to much. So I'm capping myself.

Suffice to say to this chapter was a doozy to work on. So many characters, so many things to introduce and reintroduce, but I got it done. With any luck these chapters will decrease in size... hopefully. Also, as you probably guessed, we also have a side story going on with Liara, so watch for that. Some chapters will be entirely devoted to her and what she's doing. So don't expect to always see Chief and company mixing it up. We'll be going back and forth a bit. I'll explain more on the profile page in time. Just be sure to read those before asking questions and before reading the chapters to avoid potential spoilers.

Finally, a big shout-out to Crow T R0bot for volunteering his services as my new editor, thanks man, like a lot, and this damn sentence is still showing up as a fragment in spell check and I hate it. He's been doing every single chapter since the prologue for me and he busted his ass off for all three of these new ones. Thanks to him, we'll see far less screw ups in the future and I won't get as pissed off at myself for making so many because I get burnt out after writing these things. Seriously, he's awesome for putting up with my stupid mistakes, love ya man.

That's it, next chapter we're on Halo proper. Hope you've enjoyed the read! Please review if you still have time. I know this one was long.