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.

6. Reunion Tour

Chapter 5: Reunion Tour

The darkness surrounded them as they hobbled along the metal floor. How deep exactly were they in the bowels of The Ring? Why did they have to patrol? Why didn't they just go up to the surface? They would've asked these questions, but they didn't want to be punished for it. So the little band of unggoys just did what they were told. At least the sangheili weren't ordering them to stay in one place. They were allowed to walk around and actually put some distance between themselves and the kig-yar who relentlessly bullied them. In any case, the best part of any of this was that they didn't have to fight.

So they patrolled back and forth between both sides of the raised metal road. It wasn't a very difficult assignment. They didn't have much reason to complain. They just had to watch an archway that stretched up to the ceiling for some reason. The only downside was the lack of any sun and the pervasive dark. They didn't like the dark all that much. Too many things could sneak up on you in the dark. They tried to stay as close to what little ambient light that was nearby, hoping it would alert them to danger. Then again, what danger? They had been down here for most of the morning and nothing had happened. As they made their way towards the arch along their patrol vector they expected nothing new to happen.

Then they heard the terrible growling sound of an engine. The third unggoy at the back of the little patrol turned around just in time to see a light illuminating the darkness. It turned out they were headlights aimed straight for him. The terrible strike of the Warthog's bumper against his skull killed him instantly and his two fellows scampered to get out of the way. One dove to the side, only for a dozen some odd bullets to cut him down as he fell. The third and final unggoy was struck by the back bumper as the Warthog made a hard right turn in the middle of its dash. He was flung several feet before sliding against the metal road, blood trailing from his broken body, joining his comrade in the eternal darkness that fell over him.

Their deaths warned the Covenant on the other side of the road that the enemy had arrived at last and they all sprang into action. Kig-yar ran up to their positions among a pair of large metal cubes sticking out the ground. The unggoy scampered forward, shooting at the human vehicle even as the Marine gunner unloaded thousands of rounds per minute on them. The Warthog continued to move to give the gunner a better angle against the incoming targets, but the passenger in the front seat had jumped out to press forward. His submachine gun rattled as he added his own bullets to the barrage. The unggoy fell before his counter-charge and the machine gun on the back of the Warthog turned to the kig-yar. It pelted their position, forcing them to crouch down and hold out against the ceaseless attack.

It was then a new sound filled the air, one that similar to the sound of their vehicles. With a sense of hope, the kig-yar looked towards the tunnel entrance. His wish went ungranted as flying out of the dark came something that hovered much like their ghosts or wraiths but bore no resemblance to any of them. The sleek white pointed hovering craft fired a destructive salvo of missiles on their little position. There was nothing their shields could do against that kind of firepower. They could only run, but they weren't nearly fast enough for it to matter.

As the explosions devastated the forward defenders, the two vehicles rolled up to the mess of machinery and pillars that served to protect those who remained. A single sangheili tried to direct their defences, but it seemed useless. No sense in dying whimpering though, at least in his mind it seemed, as he ordered his Covenant brothers to die standing against the infidels.

The Warthog's passenger, clad in full dark body armour grabbed onto the four-wheeled vehicle as it passed by him. He propped himself up in the seat and fired on the enemy as they drove forward. He caught a kig-yar in his head as he tried to retreat. The hovercraft in the meantime bombarded the area with a never-ending hail of missiles from its turret. One after the other, the Covenant troopers were blown from their hiding places as the explosions ripped through their ranks. Those who tried to flee were cut down by the Warthog's chain gun.

The sangheili officer managed to escape the missiles, making his way alongside the invading vehicles. He fired his plasma rifle at the Warthog, intending to land a lucky shot on the driver as he hid behind a pillar. It only got the attention of the driver who immediately turned towards the Covie and floored it. The sangheili backed towards the ramp that he thought would get him out of harm's way, but like the kig-yar he just wasn't fast enough. The Warthog crushed him between the bumper and the back wall.

As the elite fell dead against the hood, the Warthog backed away to let his body drop to the floor. The Master Chief stepped out of the driver's seat to observe the area. He looked back towards the giant arch-way and the massive gap between them and the other side of this underground tunnel. Unless the Warthog suddenly sprouted wings they were cut off from the other lifeboats.

"That got pretty messy." Sergeant Buck said as he stepped out of the Hog and joined the Chief by his side. "Still don't see a switch for the bridge though. If there is one."

Chief looked to the ramp and pointed to it with a simple nod.

"They wouldn't make a dead end tunnel." He reasoned. "It's probably up there."

The Hammerhead pulled up behind the Warthog as the Spartan eyed the ramp.

"Need me to step out and help you clear it just in case?" Shepard asked over the comm.

The Master Chief just shook his head.

"No need, I can handle it." He assured.

The Spartan stepped up to the edge of the ramp and eyed the top readily. He suddenly pulled a grenade from his belt and flung up the slope to the top. It hit against the back wall and curved around the corner. The resulting explosion sent a single elite flying out of cover and crumbling down the incline to the ground floor below.

"Get the vehicles ready to cross." Chief told the others. "I'll be back shortly."

The Spartan pressed onward without saying much else, although he could just hear Buck whisper something to Shepard and his squad within the Hammerhead.

"Damn, that one is stone cold." He heard the ODST say.

Considering Buck was a Drop Trooper, Chief had expected something more derogatory. He supposed, given all the ODSTs he had met, the good Sergeant was the least confrontational. Almost downright friendly even, one could argue. That still didn't change much though. Buck still had the same impression of him as most ODSTs did. Chief could see it in the man's eyes and hear it in his voice. The mixture of fear and respect was undeniable. That last sentence from him confirmed it.

Cortana, almost sensing his thoughts it seemed, spoke up as they walked up the ramp and accompanying corridor.

"You know, it wouldn't hurt to say 'please' once in awhile," she told him, "maybe they wouldn't talk behind your back."

"It won't help us find the survivors either," Chief added quickly, "besides, they can think what they want. It doesn't affect anything."

"Are you sure about that?" The AI asked, sounding unconvinced by the Spartan's answer.

Chief didn't answer and just rounded the corner. He appreciated her concern, but he had been dealing with ODSTs for most of his natural life. He had just come to expect it now. It didn't change who he was or what he did if another soldier thought less of him. Cortana continued to talk regardless, although switching topics, thankfully.

"Well this does help," she said. "The Covenant Battlenet is awash with reports of lifeboats. No coordinates, they're only giving landmark approximations. Doesn't matter, I should be able to zero in on the beacons anyway."

"Don't see how that helps us." Chief informed her.

"Didn't get to that part yet," Cortana replied, annoyed at his interruption. "The assault teams keep asking for more reinforcements to deal with the lifeboats in their vicinity, but they keep getting turned down and told to use what they already have. Seems the Covenant are spread a little thin on this hunt. That should make rescuing the survivors easier and give them more time to hold out till we get there."

It was good to know they had more time, but that still meant they had to get there. At the end of the corridor they found their means to accomplish that. There was a strange holographic panel at the edge of the metal path overlooking the gap and the corresponding arch-ways.

"Also, from the sound of things a lot more people made it off the Autumn than I predicted. The Captain really gave them hell." Cortana continued to explain as Chief looked over at the gap. "If we can find Keyes and the other survivors we should be able to coordinate an effective resistance."

"And hold out until we're rescued I assume?" Chief asked.

"Or at least until we find out what is so important about this Ring," Cortana clarified. "If we're really lucky we could even hijack one of their ships and use it to escape. But that's more of a long term goal at the moment."

Chief looked the panel over, but he couldn't make heads or tails of it. It obviously wasn't Covenant, that much he had already figured out, but it didn't help him decipher what they meant. Luckily, Cortana was eager to help.

"That symbol," Cortana pointed out, highlighting it on his HUD, "the middle circle."

He wasn't sure how exactly she had figured that out, something to ask later. Chief pressed the symbol and a high pitched tune sounded. Below, he saw two pairs of prongs appear from out of the walls of the space. They began reach out towards each other across the gap. When they stopped, a few feet from touching, an energy bridge formed between the halves, spanning the crevice and allowing them to reach the other tunnel.

"Huh, Solidified Light technology," Cortana observed. "Impressive."

"Does that mean we can cross it?" Master Chief asked her.

"More than likely, just don't put your face up against it," she warned him.

Chief took her word for it. The idea of light becoming solid was a little out there to be sure, but no more than inter-diemensional visitors.

"One more thing," Cortana added as Chief began to walk down. "I just found something over the Battlenet. One of the Covenant Assault Commanders has confirmed the presence of a Normandy Crewmember at one of the lifeboats, could be in our search area."

"Who is it?" Chief asked her.

"She wears a headscarf, is armed with a shotgun and a calls upon little attack drone she zaps bad guys with." Cortana replied.

She didn't need to say anymore, Chief knew exactly who that was.

"Tell the Commander." Chief ordered her. "Knowing how bad the Covenant hates the Normandy, we need to get there fast."

---

Tali had lost count of how many Covenant she had killed today by now. That was becoming a regular thing though. It was seldom simple to just count how many of their number they had sent against them. It was easier just to count the waves they came in. So far they had made it through three. At least they were few and far between each other for the moment. It gave them a bit of a rest-bit after each encounter. This was the fourth wave they were fighting now and Tali already hated it.

Every assault was like clockwork. First the Covenant landed, either around the bend or directly in front of their position. Then they charged forward, jackals in front, their shields protecting the advance, grunts dispersed throughout to act as bullet sponges while the elites stayed to the rear and moved up slowly. Normally their predictability would be an advantage, but they had numbers and their ever present secret weapons. The new flamethrower husks were sparse now, but they hobbled along with the initial assault nonetheless. The Covenant kept a wide berth from them. They had good reason to, as they were the first things everyone shot. A regular grunt getting to the rocks was better than one with a mouthful of fire.

The charge usually ended with a few scattered bodies of Covenant on the field and the team pulling back to the safety of the narrow turns within the rocks. This was where things got messy. The Covenant raced through the cracks in the rock, trying to keep their eyes on every corner and path. They couldn't, of course, no one could and that made flanking easy. It also meant they were up close and personal with the enemy, always a potential risk with that.

Tali had Chitikka deployed, the little drone managed to ease some of the pressure. A jackal took an electrical blast to the left side of his face, critically injuring him. Tali stepped over him and planted a bullet from her pistol into his head as she backed up. There were a group of grunts coming up along the same path now. She fired two more shots as she ducked behind one of the rocks. She only managed to graze one of the grunts, but it gave them reason to pause.

"What I wouldn't give for biotics right now." She snarled to herself.

The delay was all the quarian would need though. As the grunts began charging their plasma pistols once more, a flashbang grenade flew into their line of sight, bounced off the side of the rocks and then went off just inches away from the lead grunt's face. As the blinding light once again gave the grunts pause, Dutch ran into the line of fire. His assault rifle rattled loudly as the ODST held down the trigger. The subsequent shower of bullets dropped the little aliens before they had realised what was happening.

"You alright?" Dutch asked Tali as he backed up to her position.

Tali just quickly nodded once as she found it hard to say much over gunfire from both sides. It was so deafening by this point she could barely hear her thoughts anymore. She still managed to inconceivably hear everyone else though, like Kasumi, who had followed after Dutch towards her position.

"Nice throw with the flashbang, huh, Tali?" she asked, shouting over renewed plasma fire, her pistol pointed down the slope.

"I didn't really see it to be honest!" Tali shouted back. "I was trying not to get blinded by it too after all!"

"Point taken!" Kasumi shouted back. A second after she responded, a plasma bolt whizzed by her shoulder. "Speaking of not being seen..."

Kasumi vanished from sight once more, activating her cloak. Dutch had already pulled back up the hill and had plopped himself beside Tali within her cover.

"Fall back to the top!" Tali shouted over a relentless stream of plasma that fell upon their rocky cover. "We need to put some distance between them and us!"

"I'm right with you, Tali!" Dutch complied.

The two dashed from cover, Dutch covering their retreat as best he could. Tali wasn't worried too much about Kasumi, she could handle herself so long as she remained cloaked and careful. Already the rest of their small defence force had joined in the fall back action. Suffice to say, this wave was getting a lot further than the last few. Whether they just had more guys this time or they were refining their strategy, it was still too early to tell.

Tali could see two Marines out of the corner of her eye, running up the path next to them through a gap in the rocks. They were firing down the incline as they slowly walked backwards up the hill. Following after them was a single jackal, his shield held firmly in front of him. Bullets slammed into the protective layer of energy and the blue disk-shaped piece of protection shuddered with every shot. He fired back a few shots from the safety of his shield in rapid succession.

Moments after the jackal came into view, however, Kasumi appeared behind the shield carrying alien. She stabbed her omni-blade into the jackal's back. As the alien went limp, she grabbed his shield hand and motioned it back down the slope, protecting herself as plasma fire sped towards her. She stayed there, with the dead jackal still attached to the shield, until the Marines had pulled back enough and then disappeared again. As Tali predicted, Kas could handle herself.

Both Tali and Dutch reached the top of the hill where almost everyone was. They had taken up defensive positions as the Covenant began their final approach. It was not looking good. At least none of the fire-breathing grunt husks had made it to the rocks. They had that much to be thankful for.

"We need a bigger deterrent than a few grenades and bullets at this point." Tali realised as she loaded another magazine into her UNSC Pistol.

"I got something in the pod," Dutch admitted, "but it's not really for infantry."

"Does it make things dead fast?" Tali asked in response.

With that, Dutch ran over to the pod, dug into one of its side hatches and lugged out a Spartan Laser (or, as it was more traditionally called by the military, a Galilean). Tali remembered that Dutch had used the weapon on Reach. She also remembered the tremendous recoil on the beast of a weapon when she had used it briefly. From look of it, this was the very same gun.

"Had it recharged on the Autumn." Dutch explained. "You know the drill though. Once the battery is done it becomes a fancy looking club."

Tali remembered, the laser could be recharged but the system was too impractical to bring into the field. She had been trying to come up with a way to fix that with Jacob, but that was still in the planning stages. That was the price of having one too many responsibilities on two ships. Once they had fired all their shots, that would be it. They needed to think about what they wanted to shoot with it carefully.

"Well, worst comes to worst we can bash a few grunt skulls in before they overrun us." Tali shrugged.

She shuddered in her mind at that moment, feeling like she had sounded a bit too much like a certain tank-born krogan just then.

Dutch shoved himself into the rock face and peered down the slope. He could spot one of the architects of their troubles, an elite moving up with his grunt cohorts. Clad in blue, the Covenant Commander fired on Dutch's position and forced him back into cover.

"Alright, this should send his little friends running." Dutch said as he pressed down on the trigger.

The weapon glowed red as it began to charge up. Before it reached the apex of its power Dutch stepped out from cover and aimed square at the elite's head. Just when the crosshairs on Dutch's HUD also turned red, the gun fired. The shot rocketed straight down the path and slammed into the elite. The blast tore apart the alien and a number of the grunts surrounding him. What was left of the elite's squad quickly retreated at the sight of their leader blown away with such ease.

"Well so long as they don't know we can only do that like four more times we should be good." Dutch said looking back to Tali.

The quarian was unable to congratulate the Drop Trooper. They had another problem come to light at that moment. One of the Marines across from their position screamed aloud as he was thrown from his cover. He gripped his arm as he lay on the ground. An elite began to walk out from where he had been thrown, plasma rifle in hand. Tali aimed at the enemy alien, ready to fire with Dutch. That was when more gun fire could be heard coming from the path the elite had walked up. It was pistol fire, cleaning up what was left of the grunts down below. The elite turned back to the path and fired down it, but he only managed to get off a few shots before a plasma sword sliced into his head.

As the elite collapsed to the ground, Kat retracted the plasma sword carried in her robotic arm. In her other hand she held her pistol. She walked carefully over the dead elite and towards Tali.

"Glad to see you got some use out of the sword." Tali told the Spartan.

"Never waste an asset." Kat replied, before she switched the subject. "Kasumi is cleaning up what's left of the grunts. This wave is done."

But there would be another one. That went without saying. Every time they fended off an assault they almost tried to hope that it would be the last one, that the Covenant would get bored, tired of the costly attempts to overrun them and just leave. Tali knew better, they all did by this point. That little fantasy just wasn't happening. The Covenant wanted them all dead and even if it took a thousand men to do it they'd see that design carried out.

They couldn't keep this up forever. They were running low on ammo and taking more injuries than they could sustain. Relief would have to come soon or there would be no one left to save among these rocks.

---

It had seemed like hours since they had left the Autumn. It hadn't, but you got bored quickly when you weren't pulping heads or the like. At least Thane and Jacob had seen fit to leave her alone for now. They were too busy trying to cut through that static that had clogged the airwaves. Every couple of minutes they tried a new frequency. Every time they got nothing. Jacob seemed more worried than Thane, probably because Miranda was on the Normandy and he couldn't seem to reach her.

Jack doubted Miranda was dead. As if the Cheerleader would keep the Normandy aboard a crashing ship. She was a bitch, that didn't mean she was stupid. She got out, Jack was sure of it. It was obvious the static was something else, especially since they couldn't contact anyone. Jack just hoped they got someone on the horn so they could land and actually do something. This Pelican was cramped as hell and she needed to stretch already.

She didn't bother to look out the cockpit window all that much, just more cliffs and rock ledges and that strange looking skyline. She wasn't very interested in it. Sure, it was a freaky alien planet, but all she cared about was finding some Covenant to kill. It was their fault she was stuck in this stupid flying bucket. She needed to vent, preferably by using other people's heads as punching bags.

For now she was stuck sulking in a corner waiting for something to actually get done. Thane kept looking back at her every now and again. She made sure not to acknowledge his glances. So long as he didn't ask her to help, she was fine. Besides, what could she do that they hadn't already tried? She wasn't the quarian or the thief. She didn't know shit about communications systems and all that other tech crap. Thane seemed to respect her silent desire for a semblance of privacy, as he never once spoke up to her.

She would've remained quiet, had it not been for the predictable grunt of their annoyed pilot who was at his wits end by now.

"Damn it." Jacob grumbled at the controls once more. "Static again."

"How shocking." Jack finally chided in with a bit of sarcasm. "What else is new?"

"Not helping, Jack." Jacob told giving her a quick glare.

She probably should've just kept her mouth shut and continue to ignore Jacob. But that proved impossible, even for her. She was so bored at this point, even though she wanted to be left alone, she couldn't help but to jump in on things just a bit.

"Just land the stupid thing already." She growled back. "Shouldn't we be out of gas already or something?"

"UNSC vehicles use fuel cells, Jack." Thane reminded her. "They don't run out of gas."

Damn it, she thought, this universe really was conspiring to keep her bored as hell. At least she knew it wasn't paranoia anymore.

"Well we're not getting anywhere flying up here anyway." She answered, throwing her arm out in front of her. "I say we hit the ground, find shelter and wait it out for Shepard or the Cheerleader to locate us. They probably already figured out how to find us even with the static by now."

"Maybe, but we're safer up here." Jacob informed her. "The Covenant are definitely crawling all over the surface by now. We go down there we get caught in a firefight. At least up here we can stay out of their reach."

To Jack, a firefight would be a welcome change at this point. Besides, they weren't completely safe and Jacob should know that.

"What about Banshees?" She asked. "What about their big ass fleet? What about the damn plasma rockets they fire off from their shoulders?"

"Fuel rod cannons." Thane corrected her.

Jack just shot him a glare once more. He knew what she meant, like he needed to correct her. Jacob had an answer for her regardless of the proper name for the said cannons.

"We're well out of range of anything like the fuel rod cannon." He assured. "As for Banshees, I'm confident I can outmanoeuvre them easy. This thing isn't unarmed after all, its' got a chain gun in the nose and everything."

"So what?" Jack asked in frustration. "We just stay up here for the next several hours calling to nobody over white noise about where we can meet up? That will take forever!"

"I'm sure we'll pick up something." Jacob assured. "We just gotta bypass the communication static somehow."

Good luck with that, Jack thought. Unless they could magically pop the AI, the thief, the salarian or the quarian into this floating tub they were fresh out of luck on that end. Jack just sighed and prepared to sleep this whole load of bullshit off. But then, almost as if to screw with her, Jacob's prediction proved right the second she laid her head down on the seat next to her. He spoke suddenly with great delight pointing at the control console.

"I'm picking up some kind of beacon signal nearby." He exclaimed. "Well, not nearby but certainly close."

A few moments later, Jacob managed to zero in on the frequency and just as the radio lit up with a sound. At first it was a muffled voice through the static, and then it became clearer.

"...peat, Pelican do you copy?" a voice came through the airwaves. "We require immediate pick-up. We have wounded"

Everyone onboard the Pelican instantly recognized the calm and collected voice of Samara. Her unmistakably unshakable cool tone was apparent even over a crackling radio signal. Thankfully Jacob didn't seem interested in gloating over his persistence being proved right. Miranda most certainly would have. It was one of the few things that made Jack happy about being stuck with her current two companions.

"Samara, its Jacob, we read you. Barely, but we can hear you. Are you alright?"

"I am well, Jacob." Samara replied instantly. "We just spotted you flying in the distance from our position. It is good to finally hear someone at last. It has been a trying day."

The asari's voice was slightly distorted by lingering static in background, but she was understandable. That much anyone could appreciate. A few quick questions followed. Jacob and Samara discussed the static and confirmed that they both had encountered it. That was suspicious and reeked of it being a problem created by the Covenant, but that was of little concern now.

"We need to hook up as soon as possible and see about finding the others." Jacob continued. "Can you pinpoint your position for me?"

"We are near a structure embedded in the side of a cliff edge." Samara explained. "I can only assume you are nearby if we are able to contact each other regardless of static."

Jacob scanned the area below his Pelican a bit before he spotted something that matched Samara's description in the distance. It was difficult to make out, but once the building sent off a flare of blue light clear into the sky, it wasn't hard to see where they needed to go.

"I see it, Sam." Jacob assured. "Hang tight we'll be there in two shakes. Starting our descent now."

Jack sighed at the prospect of being stuck in some stupid old alien building waiting for pick up, but she supposed it was better than being stuck in a damn Pelican. Still, she knew Jacob and Samara would prefer they stick to the structure, hunker down, wait it out. Honestly, all she wanted to do was kill assholes. That was why they made her join the crew, why didn't anybody just give her the chance to do it?

At that moment there was a terrible explosion and the Pelican violently jolted to the side. Jack smacked against the wall and fell to the floor. Fire spewed out of the sides of the craft as warning lights and sounds blared in her ears. She scrambled to sit up as the ship shook violently. She saw Thane taking the co-pilot controls of the aircraft with Jacob. She tried to make her way over to the cockpit as best she could with the whole Pelican falling straight out of the sky.

"The hell happened?" she asked as she forced herself to stand on the shaking floor.

"Something hit us when we got too low!" Jacob shouted, clutching the controls. "I think it got one of our thrusters."

"I thought you said we were safe from plasma cannons!" Jack chastised.

"Not the time, Jack!" Jacob answered back through gritting teeth. "Berate me about how wrong I was later!"

Jacob and Thane tried to pull up, but the Pelican was already dipping down from the skies above. The ground got closer with every passing second, they were going down, and hard. All they could hope for was that they made a decent enough crash landing and didn't get their body parts strewn across the woodlands below. Jacob made a sharp turn for a clearing and kept the nose of the Pelican up.

"Hold on!" He said instinctively.

Jack rushed to a seat nearby and clutched down on it hard. The ground was only seconds away now. Without even realising it, she shut her eyes as they hit, the force of the impact thrusting her back into the wall once more. She could hear metal being torn from the aircraft and dirt being shoved aside as the vehicle hit the ground hard.

Careful what you wish for, they always said.

---

Zek smiled a bit as he lowered the rocket launcher. He laughed at the smoke in the distance before handing the heavy weapon off to his subordinate, Retz. To Varvok it was a solid indication that the demonstration had gone over well in the kig-yar's eyes.

"It's definitely more accurate than the fuel rod cannon." Zek noted. "Lighter too. I can see why the humans prefer rockets now, less arcing."

"I wish there were more in the Covenant willing to test our weapons." Varvok said looking down on the bird-like alien. "They don't seem very trusting of anything that isn't made based off of Forerunner technology."

Zek just shrugged at the whole notion.

"Eh, same old crap. It looks too much like human technology to them, even when it's based off that Mass Effect stuff they claim the Forerunners made." The kig-yar said with disdain in his voice. "If they actually wanted to win this war tomorrow we'd have improved our weapons by now. Instead they just want us to find lost tech to repurpose. Bunch of idiots."

"Your plasma guns are still impressive regardless." Varvok informed him. "We're still working on perfecting energy-based weapons tech back in my universe."

"Yeah, but it limits our arsenal." Zek countered. "Kig-yar can only carry small-arms weapons, no heavy stuff because none of it is built for us. You ever try lugging a giant shoulder mounted fuel rod launcher with you when you have hollow frail bones?"

Varvok honestly couldn't say he had. When he provided no answer, Zek quickly changed the subject back to the matter at hand. He looked back to the trail of smoke rising up from the treeline.

"We better make sure they're all dead." He said.

"I find it hard to believe anyone could survive that." Varvok suggested.

"Hey, you wanna get yelled at by the Supreme Commander and his shadow, fine." Zek replied haughtily. "But I am not going back in the brig after only 72 hours of freedom cause I didn't confirm a kill. Besides, I wanna add to my notches."

He supposed Zek had a point. He couldn't just assume, even Balak would want him to be sure. And he was trying to get on Thel's good side after all. It was just that they had other obligations to see to at the moment.

"We need to track down the escape pod beacons before the humans dig in too much." Varvok reminded him. "Do we really have time for a detour?"

Zek just smirked at the question.

"Well there is a beacon in the general direction they crashed anyway." Zek informed him. "We might as well take a look on our way. Besides, aren't you forgetting our ace in the hole?"

Zek pointed back to one of his men. He was wearing a box-shaped metallic device strapped to his back with an antenna and small radar dish attached to its top.

"How could I forget?" Varvok replied. "They're batarian after all."

"Point is as long as they're broadcasting, the humans can't call for back-up." Zek assured. "We got time. They're helpless and they have nowhere to go. We can take one little detour just to confirm we killed them. We don't have to just rush to the beacon and tire ourselves out over a fear of rescue ships which will never come. No sense in busting our tail feathers more than we have to."

Zek began to move out with his men and Varvok followed. He supposed that, once again, his companion had a point. They could take their time, for now at least. But there was always the chance that the humans could figure a way around the scrambler. Especially with Shepard involved. Balak had warned him how crafty he was and how insidiously cunning the people around him could be when faced with a particularly difficult problem.

---

The scene had played out above them just moments ago and few could believe they had seen it with their own eyes. The Pelican they hoped would be their salvation was now grounded, several miles away from their current position. To Kowalski it was just more evidence this day was going to keep getting worse before it got better. To Agley it was his cue to go into another a nervous breakdown.

"Oh that's just great, that's just beautiful." He groaned. "What are we supposed to do now, huh?"

"Stop whining and be productive for once, maybe?" Ellingham suggested in a deadpan voice as he stared Agley down.

Agley just ignored him, stumbling off to moan to himself. Kowalski normally would've told him to suck it up, but to be honest, a part of him wanted to join the nervous Marine Private and just give up. The people who were supposed to be rescuing them, now needed to be rescued themselves. Irony sucked when you were in the military.

"Samara, can you and Legion get them back on the horn?" Sergeant Taylor asked the two.

Samara was already shaking her head before Taylor could finish asking the question. Legion was right behind her, its head plates clicking away at a frightening pace.

"Legion is trying to raise them, but the crash could have damaged their communications equipment." She explained. "Moreover the static has returned. We cannot contact their Normandy comm-links."

"Then we need to get to the crash site before the Covenant swarm it." Taylor decreed. "They won't last five minutes out there in the open otherwise."

Almost immediately, Grunt jumped to his feet and bashed his fists together.

"Ha, ha, finally, I get to kill something." He chuckled.

Few others were as enthusiastic. There were a dozen reasons one could name as to why it was a bad idea. The length of the trek, the inherent danger, their low supplies, it seemed suicidal. But out of all of them, it was Pearson who spoke up with the gravest concern of them all.

"Sir, shouldn't we stay with the beacon?" Pearson asked. "What if pick up comes to rescue us while we're trying to rescue them?"

It was a complication, but Marines were nothing if not excellent problem solvers.

"It'll be faster getting there with a small squad anyway." Taylor relented. "I'll take a team to secure the crash site. Pearson, you stay here with the rest of the unit until we get back. Keep working on getting in touch with command."

Pearson just nodded while volunteers stepped up for the rescue mission. Grunt was the obvious first person to step up to the plate, followed by Ramirez, Ellingham, Samara and Kowalski. Legion could not come. It had to stay behind to keep the beacon signal boosted. Zaeed opted to stay as well and hold down the fort. And of course, Agley was in no mood to leave the structure that offered security and safety.

There were a handful of other Marines who joined as well. It was a decent enough sized squad, more than capable of handling the Covenant in the woods. The question now was could they reach the Pelican in time. Kowalski at least hoped they could. The Normandy crew had been their acting cavalry since they showed up. In his case, Samara had saved his bacon more times than he could count. This was a chance to repay the favour by saving some of her friends. Something had to go right today for once, it just had to.

---

Linda was moderately impressed by the Normandy's array of sniper rifles in its armoury. Anti-Shield, anti-flesh, anti-armour, they had all kinds of ammo mods for these "thermal clips" of theirs. She was looking forward to trying a few out. Scopes weren't bad, if a bit lacking in the functions side of things. Miranda said there were mods to fix that, but Linda presumed they wouldn't be out in the field that long so she opted against packing what could be baggage in the end. In any case, if things did go that way, Jun had the traditional Sniper Rifle. They could just trade if it got bad.

"We've pinpointed a lot of distress beacons in the area so far." Miranda informed the two Spartans as they got ready. "We'll have another shuttle on stand-by to get them out as you find them. We can also move into evac position if necessary. We should be done relatively quickly."

Linda checked the scope on her new rifle, a Viper as they called it. Seemed like a decent enough gun. From the specs she could tell it had less recoil and a high damage output. It would do for now.

"Just tell your Doctor to have the beds ready." Linda informed her. "There are going to be wounded."

Miranda merely nodded, before Linda continued with a different line of query.

"Why exactly is your armoury on this deck and not in the shuttle bay with ready access?" she asked the Normandy's XO.

Miranda just shrugged a little.

"I didn't design the ship." She explained. "You'd have to bring that up with the people in the other dimension."

"Just consider fixing it if you ever need a refit." Linda suggested as she strapped the rifle to her back.

Jun was ready as well and they made their way for the door. As they did, they were interrupted by the voice of EDI from her little pedestal in the corner.

"I do hope you will spend a considerable amount of time searching for our missing crew members." She announced, her voice radiating with an aura of displeasure. "I would hate to see us leave them prematurely."

Miranda shook her head with a sigh.

"EDI, relax, we will find Joker." She promised the AI. "We will bring him back. We aren't going to leave him out there alone."

"Based on the current evidence and observations I have made, that has yet to be verified as a factual statement." EDI chastised slightly.

Miranda tried to plead her case once more, but EDI logged off. She had been like that since they left the Autumn, confrontational and seemingly disgusted. It was hard to tell if she was actually feeling an emotion or just displeased with how her organic peers had conducted themselves in regards to her friend. Linda couldn't be sure, she barely knew EDI enough to make a guess. But she knew one other Spartan nearby who might have an idea.

"That AI always like this when she doesn't get her way?" she asked Jun.

"She and Joker practically run the ship together." Jun explained. "I think she's just angered we ordered her to leave without her pilot."

"Try not to be too judgemental." Miranda added quickly. "I've always had my own reservations about EDI now and again, but she is fiercely loyal to this crew. She just doesn't know how to express her new found freedom sometimes."

Linda was still a bit put off by that revelation from earlier.

"AIs may be accepted fact here and legal, but we have rules with them." Linda warned Miranda. "More importantly, they understand you can express your displeasure with an order once and then you have to follow it, like any good soldier does."

"We don't see her as a soldier, she's just the ship." Miranda explained stoically. "I'm not trying to excuse her, but I think this is the first major loss she's had to suffer and she's struggling with it. I'm sure once we find Joker it will be okay... if he's alive of course."

Linda could see the dark haired woman quickly banish the thought from her mind as it came up. The chances of Joker being alive at this point were minimal, but it was best not to subsist on 'what-ifs' right now. They'd find him or they wouldn't, simple as that. At least it was to Linda.

Linda continued her walk with Jun to the elevator, trying to put the AI out of her head. She hoped John was having more luck with that little blue woman now stuck in his helmet. She could empathize with EDI's anger. She had felt the same way when she learned they left pretty much everyone she had ever known back on Reach. But they were dead and there were other people they needed to save right now. Perhaps she was just expecting too much of an AI from a universe that apparently had no idea how to control them properly.

She stepped into the elevator with Jun.

"Have the Normandy ready for pick up on a moment's notice, Lawson." She ordered. "The second we find Marines we're calling in a shuttle to get them out."

Miranda once again nodded in agreement as the elevator doors closed. One thing was sure in her mind, every Marine they found was coming back aboard this frigate. No one left behind, that was the old saying. They'd hold true to that.

---

When they exited the tunnel at last, they were greeted with the amazing sight of a wide open valley stretching out before them. Clear blue streams, luscious pines, bright green grass and tremendous rock faces surrounded them as their vehicles pushed out towards the first beacon. They were in a hurry to get there, especially Shepard, who was pushing the Hammerhead's engines till they burned red. He had a crewmate in trouble at that lifeboat and was intent on reaching her.

"Expect trouble, people." Shepard warned over the comm. "The Covenant knows Tali is among this lifeboat's survivors. They will be throwing everything at her."

It wasn't that farfetched a concern. According to Shepard, the Covenant had it in for anyone who resided aboard the Normandy. That made Tali a prime target. The rescue would be difficult in that case. The Master Chief was more than ready for a fight though. Pushing the pedal to the metal, trying to keep the Hog in pace with the Hammerhead, they closed in on the beacon signal. Sergeant Buck was already readying his SMG.

"Covies are probably all over them by now, so watch your shots." The ODST cautioned.

They rounded the bend and saw a large rocky hillside. The Marines had seemingly dug themselves into the rocks as a makeshift fortress. The Covenant were already on the assault from the looks of it. The two sides exchanged plasma and bullets between them and more dropships soon came forward to reinforce the Covenant. Shepard was already gunning towards the battle, and Chief followed after him.

"Eat this, Covies!" The Warthog's gunner cried out as they raced into battle, firing his machine gun like mad.

The Warthog rammed straight into the back of an unsuspecting grunt, crushing him beneath the tires with a sickening crunch. The Hammerhead was launching a barrage of missiles upon the Covenant lines and running down any unfortunate Covies that got in the way. One of the said Covenant in the Hammerhead's path looked to be some kind of grunt. He was huddled over himself and plodding forward along the ground at a slow pace. As Chief stared over at the alien, still keeping his foot pressed down hard on the pedal. As he did he noticed the strange blackish charcoal skin with red lines.

That was no normal grunt.

"Commander, look out!" Chief called out over the radio.

Too late, the Hammerhead hit the grunt and it suddenly exploded into a tower of flames. The Hammerhead was knocked to the side, a fire burning across its front armour and then spreading to one of its hover skids. All the Hammerhead was doing now was tilling soil, as one side dipped towards the ground. The vehicle came to a stop, its turret still moving at a frantic pace, firing at anything that looked hostile.

"Damn it, whatever we hit killed propulsion! Garrus, stay on the gun!" Shepard ordered. "Me and Mordin will head out and secure the area! Keep the Covenant off the Marines!"

"How come we always get grievously damaged whenever you drive us into a fight?" Was all Garrus said in return.

Chief slid the warthog to a stop close to the Hammerhead. The Gunner kept firing as he and Buck jumped out and into the battle waging around them. The first sight they saw was another group of those strange looking grunts, fire and molten metal dripping from their mouths.

"Those ain't your regular Gas Suckers." Buck stated.

One of the creatures spat a ball of fire at the two, forcing them to break apart. Chief rolled into a firing position and unloaded his assault rifle into the freakish looking grunt. A second later it exploded into a plume of fire that shot up into the sky.

"Well that's a new one." Cortana commented. "I don't think I need to suggest keeping a good distance away from them."

"I figured that out for myself actually." Chief replied.

He fired again into one of the strange grunts while they tried to spit their fiery globs at him. As he did, a blast of flame struck one of the creatures from the side, causing him to erupt alongside the other. As two more infernal towers arose from their corpses, Mordin and Shepard joined Chief by his side.

"That's what you ran over if you're still wondering." The Spartan told the Commander.

Shepard grimaced at the strange grunts.

"Great, new husks to deal with it.|" He growled. "Just when I was getting used to new ones."

Chief was a bit confused.

"Husks?" he asked.

"Former living organic tissue repurposed into an artificial life form whose only purpose is to kill." Cortana explained quickly. "In this particular case, it's a grunt that can now shoot fire. It's all in the intel files the Normandy provided us. You should really consider reading them for yourself when we get the time."

He would, but right now, Chief had Marines to save.

"Short and simple version for now, Cortana." He asked.

"Robot Zombies, make'em dead." The AI replied in a slightly mocking tone.

The machine gunner on the Hog was doing a pretty good job of that already, raking the treeline where the husks were crawling out from. As for the rest of the Covenant, they were close to the rocks, some of them already within the defence perimeter the Marines had set up. They were the more immediate threat to the survivors. He ran up to the rocks, Shepard and the others at his side.

This time they encountered regular grunts, good, they wouldn't explode like their mutilated friends. Between the four of them the two little gas suckers were not much of a challenge. Chief gave them credit though, they stood their ground. Their plasma shots only bounced off his shields though, so it wasn't much of a fight in the end.

Entering the rocks they found a few more grunts surrounding a single elite. The Covenant Commander was preoccupied with pinning down a group of Marines. Chief fired a burst from his assault rifle. It didn't penetrate the alien's own shields, but it turned his attention onto them instead. Angered, the elite directed his surrounding minions to engage them. They had little choice but to obey. Mordin was the first to land a hit, using his pistol to plant a round square between the eyes of one grunt before paralyzing another with a neural shock. Buck raked the Covie with a burst from his sub-machinegun before taking out the third grunt right beside him. The fourth landed at least a shot on Chief before he fired his assault rifle into the little alien's head.

The elite had hoped to use the momentary distraction to fire on the small squad of would-be rescuers, evident by how he was now aiming at their position, firing over the heads of his dying minions. Instead his gun suddenly overheated. Blue steam poured from his gun. Chief could see the cause, pointing an omni-tool from behind the Covie was Tali. She had sabotaged the gun, overheating it from a distance.

Chief made a mental note to get one of those for himself if he could.

The elite wouldn't wait for the weapon to cool. He tossed it aside instead and pulled out two dual plasma pistols from his belt. He fired them at the squad, forcing it to scatter. Shepard rolled to the side and let out a powerful throw attack that forced the elite to stumble across the ground. As the elite growled and regained his footing, his shields suddenly vanished. The glow that surrounded his suit dissipated. Chief once again saw Tali'Zorah among the Marines' position, fiddling with her omni-tool.

Now was his chance, he fired a quick burst into the elite's hip to wound him. The elite growled and turned towards the Spartan to fire a barrage of plasma. Chief took the hits, letting his shields go into the red. He closed the distance with the elite and delivered a crushing punch to the side of his head. Then at point blank range, he fired the last bullets in his assault rifle's magazine into the Covie's heart. The elite fell limp to the ground, dead.

"Always have to go for the dramatic kill, don't you?" Cortana commented.

"Easiest to make sure an elite stays down is to get up close." Chief explained to her.

"Oh sure, that's why you had to shoot him twice and punch him in between." Cortana replied back, not really buying his explanation.

Garrus came over the radio to inform Shepard that what was left of the Covenant outside had been dealt with. Between him and the Warthog gunner, it hadn't been much of problem. With the siege lifted for the moment, Tali rushed down to meet them, some of the Marines and Engineering crew followed after her.

"Shepard, thank the Ancestors." She greeted her Commander, her relief readily apparent to all. "I knew you'd find us."

Shepard just smiled broadly back at the quarian, Chief noticed a distinct little glint in his eye as he did.

"It's good to see you too, Tali." He said happily. "But really you should thank Cortana. She's the one that pinpointed your pod and told us you were here."

Tali's attention suddenly shifted away from Shepard and towards the Master Chief. She walked slowly up to him, looking him in the face. Although Chief could tell she wasn't really looking at him to be exact.

"Cortana?" she said astonished. "Are you in there?"

"Of course I am Tali." Cortana replied, sounding a bit confused. "I mean, I am his partner now."

Tali quickly composed herself, losing her strange bewildering look before standing up proper.

"Yes, right, I forgot. Apologies, Chief, it's good to see you got off the Autumn as well" She said graciously.

"Same here, Tali'Zorah." He said back to her. He looked back to the Marines that had gathered behind her. "Is there anyone else?"

"We have wounded up in our position," Tali said motioning up towards the top of the hill, "and a few others."

One by one those said others revealed themselves. One did so in a rather literal manner by appearing out of thin air right beside Commander Shepard. She was a thinly framed Japanese woman wearing a hood over her head. Chief recognized her as Kasumi, one of the Normandy crew.

"Sup?" She asked Shepard with nod of her head and a cheeky grin.

Buck jumped back a bit at Kasumi's sudden appearance. Shepard stayed where he was, obviously familiar enough with the girl's antics to not be surprised by them.

"How come you people have all the cool toys?" Buck asked Shepard once he recovered from the shock. "I mean, we don't have cloaking suits. That I know of."

"Don't be too jealous." Kasumi told him. "You got that awesome laser bazooka for one. Just ask your friend."

Kasumi pointed behind Buck towards someone else descending the slop. He was a larger man wearing yellowish ODST armour and packing an assault rifle.

"Dutch!" Buck said, his face lighting up at the appearance of his fellow trooper. "Damn is it good to see you."

"Likewise, sir." Dutch nodded as he approached. "Been through a hell of a fight without ya, glad you could make it though. Rome with you?"

"No, just Garrus back in the Hammerhead and Mordin here." Buck replied, looking a bit more downtrodden. "I was hoping he was with you to be honest."

The last person to descend from the slope was someone Chief did not expect. For it was another Spartan, clad in light blue armour and sporting a metallic cybernetic arm. He could tell she was a girl, it was easy for him, and that she wasn't a Spartan II. Not big enough. She marched over to him, a plasma sword in one of her hands.

"Spartan-117, also known as the Master Chief." She announced suddenly. "I didn't think you'd be saving us."

Buck looked at the two Spartans curiously.

"You two know each other?" he asked.

"Not personally." The Spartan III admitted. "But every Spartan knows who the Master Chief is. Especially when you work with a II for a long time."

Chief's attention was immediately hooked. She knew one of his line of Spartans? That could only mean one thing. She was quick to confirm it.

"Jorge used any opportunity he could to talk about you." She told him. "I'm Lieutenant Commander Katherine-B320, or Kat for short. Pleasure to finally meet you, Master Chief Petty Officer 117."

Jorge, he remembered Jorge. He was the only member of his little group of seventy-five recruits who never had to be stolen from his home planet, just his family. He was the least traumatised of all of them from day one, next to him of course. Also he was probably the biggest kid there. Even before the operation and the procedures. Chief doubted he had ever been small.

"If you knew Jorge you must be from Noble Team." He said. "I heard about you, mostly rumours though."

"Formerly Noble." Kat corrected him. "Not many left of us now."

Chief knew the feeling and his thoughts grew heavy with the memory of his friends. At the moment though, Jorge remained at the forefront.

"I heard about Jorge dying, although not the exact circumstances." Chief explained, his voice sounding deeper and more sorrowful now. "I'm sorry, ma'am. He was a good soldier."

Kat shook her head at him, her eyes towards the ground.

"I should be saying sorry to you." She told him respectfully. "You knew him longer."

With that, the two Spartans closed out their short conversation and returned to the group. No sense mourning now, they still had a job to do.

"So what's our next move?" Dutch asked.

"Pelican will come to pick us up eventually, but we need to hold until it arrives." Shepard answered.

"Covenant unlikely to capitulate now." Mordin interjected. "Excess amount of bodies on battlefield suggest ongoing siege. Psychological profile of Covenant military structure will not accept losses without a formal result. Will make extraction... problematic."

Tali was quick to confirm that assumption.

"They've been at us almost from the point we crashed down." She explained to Shepard. "Until you showed up, between the Covenant and those new fire spewing husks, I thought we were on our last legs."

"We brought extra firepower, Tali." Shepard assured. "We're gonna get you and everyone else out of here. I promise."

They had every reason to be confident. The Hammerhead, while damaged, still had a working turret. The Warthog was operational and had its machinegun to boot. Still, Chief wasn't about to sit on his laurels and just allow the Covenant to keep marching up to this little rock fortress. They had the numbers now, time to take the fight to them.

"Foe Hammer knows to check this area for lifeboat beacons." Cortana assured. "I can't contact her because of the static so it will take a little longer for her to get here than usual. We just need to hold out until she can reach us."

"Where do the Covenant land most of the time?" Chief asked Tali quickly.

"On the other side of the rocks or behind the treeline mostly." She answered. "Think you can pin down?"

With the right weapon he could. Chief scanned the crowd and saw a Marine with a sniper rifle in hand. He stepped over to him, offering his assault rifle in exchange. The Marine was happy to oblige and handed it over along with his ammo. There was enough to make a substantial dent in any attacking Covenant force. He'd have to make every shot count though.

"Let's fan out along the potential landing sites." Shepard suggested. "Mordin, you see to the wounded while we get in position."

The Salarian merely nodded and ran off up the hill to do his work. Everyone else got in position for the next assault. By the time they were out in the open Chief could see one of the Covenant dropships heading towards one of the landing sites Tali designated. It was one of the U-shaped ones, probably carrying a squad of eight or so. There was also a Phantom making the rounds overhead. Probably to send in additional reinforcements if need be. Perhaps more of those husks.

Chief positioned himself among the trees overlooking the drop site. It wasn't long before a number of Jackals and grunts were piling out of one side of the ship. The elite in charge circled around to the front of the dropship, exposing himself. He was a prime target, so Chief kept him in the crosshairs. Everyone else had moved towards the rock face, he was the only one with the significantly long range weapon after all. They'd move in on his shot, best to make it count and bring down the elite first.

The elite was readying his little group, getting it into formation for the assault. Grunts first, Jackals second and him at the rear, it was the standard Covenant formation. They seemed to be waiting for something, probably the Phantom to deliver the husks which were missing from the regular attack group. The elite didn't seem all that concerned about being pinpointed as he was out in the open. Perhaps he still thought the humans, regardless of their reinforcements, were content to just remain in their little hole. It didn't matter, it just made this easier.

What made it a little bit harder was the fact the elite kept pacing around at the back of his troops, talking into his ear. Yeah, he was planning something alright. Normally, Chief would just take the shot, but this wasn't a stationary target and elites had hyper quick reflexes. You usually only had one shot before they ducked down, rolled away or got into cover. Luckily, he had extra help.

"Cortana, you think you can give me a little help here?" he asked the AI.

"Well, judging on the distance, the target's height, wind speed and projectile velocity..." Cortana rambled off quickly.

A few seconds later a small dot appeared on the Chief's heads-up display just a few inches off from the elite's head. It followed him around at the precise distance as he paced back and forth.

"Aim there." She told him in a chipper tone.

Chief did as instructed. All the while he hoped that Cortana was still as good as she continued to claim she was. He pressed the trigger, a trail white smoke shot from the rifle and in the next instant the elite's head exploded. As he fell to the ground, his little formation fell into disarray, confusion and general anarchy. The grunts ran wildly in all directions while the jackals frantically looked for where the shot had come from. By now Shepard had signalled the others to charge out of cover and they rushed into the fray to take out the Covies before they reorganized.

That was when the Phantom descended from on high, and opened its belly up. Pouring from inside and down onto the battlefield in heaps were the grunt husks. They were now among the Covenant themselves as well as close to Shepard's team.

"Well this just got complicated." Cortana observed.

Master Chief would now have to be careful with his targets. Fire at one of those husks too close a friendly and they'd get burned. However, the Covenant troops were at just as much risk. He found one of the little husks crawling past two jackals and fired a single shot. The resulting burst of fire rained down on the jackals. As they batted away at the flames, trying to put out their feathers, Shepard tossed out a pull attack that sent them both flying through the air. They were now open targets for Buck to finish off.

Chief surveyed the battle as it unfolded. He was initially worried about not being able offer sufficient fire support, but that quickly faded. Shepard and the others were more than capable of handling themselves. Between the mix of shockwaves from Shepard and Tali's drone, the Covenant barely knew hit them. Kat was no Spartan II, but that didn't make her any less a good soldier. Her accuracy with her pistol was impeccable, catching two Covenant soldiers, a jackal and a grunt, through both of their heads with one shot. Buck and Dutch tried to keep focus on the husks, trying to detonate them before they got too close. All the while the group backed up, no sense advancing into the mouths of walking flamethrowers.

Chief noticed one of the jackals charging his plasma pistol, aiming it at Sergeant Buck. With no shields that was almost a death sentence. He quickly levelled his sights over the bird-like alien and fired. The jackal's head flung back and he fell to the ground. His plasma bolt was sent flying harmlessly into the air. Chief watched the shot go of like a flare into the clouds, catching a glimpse of their next problem. There was another dropship descending from above, closing on his position in the treeline. That meant the others were about to be outflanked.

"Cortana, warn them while I reposition." He told the AI.

"On it, Chief."

While Cortana contacted the others, Chief ran a good distance away from the descending dropship. He slid down the slight incline, grabbing onto a tree's trunk to spin him back around to face the ship. He aimed his sniper rifle at it just as the doors began to open. He spotted two grunts in perfect view. He pinpointed one in his scope, fired and moved to the next in a split second. The two gas suckers tumbled out of the craft and onto the ground below. Their fellows next to them were obviously shaken and leapt from their positions, desperate to find cover. They randomly fired on Master Chief's position, forcing him to take cover behind the tree for the moment.

The Covenant continued to pile out, focusing most of their ire on Chief's position. At least they weren't shooting at Shepard's group. Chief reloaded his Sniper Rifle and got ready to take another shot. He'd have to reposition himself though. They had this tree zeroed in by now, evidenced by the plasma bolts now filling the air around him. The color of blue zipped by his head within the span of a second, which meant there was still at least one elite out there. He'd only get a few seconds to take aim once he left cover, so he had to make it count. He stepped from cover and aimed down the sight, a grunt's head came into view and he fired. The shot killed the alien with ease. Chief took off running while the Covies panicked.

The plasma lashed through the trees, Chief kept running regardless. He needed to get some distance and a better angle on the incline. He crouched down behind one of the trees and saw some of the grunts were advancing forward on his position. Their elite Commander was following close behind. Chief could fire on them, but he had a better idea. He had just led the Covenant straight into the line of fire for the crippled Hammerhead and the Warthog's gunner.

"Vakarian, fire on the treeline." He ordered over the radio.

"But you're in the trees." Garrus hesitantly noted.

"I'll be fine," he assured, "do it."

The turian did as requested and before long missiles were streaming into the trees. The Warthog's gunner added his own fire into the mix and before long the ground was shaking with explosions, the shade illuminated by fire. The grunts died the quickest as the projectiles collided into them. The elite managed to survive. His focus was completely on dodging the various shots from the two vehicles that had now zeroed on him. He should've been dead within seconds, but he was an elite, they were notoriously light on their feet.

"A loss of his left ligament should slow him down." Cortana told the Spartan non-chalantly.

"Just what I was thinking," Chief responded.

He took the sniper in hand, carefully aiming down the sight even with missiles colliding into the ground and the rattling of a machine gun overhead filling the air with noise and the ground with vibrations. For Chief though, all he was focused on was the elite's leg. He wasn't as skilled a sniper as Linda, but he didn't need it, he just knew he could pull off this shot.

The bullet exited the chamber and flew across the battlefield. The elite was running for cover behind a tree, trying to duck into a roll. Before he could, the bullet cut right into his left thigh. The elite wavered for just a second at the pain, just enough for a missile to strike him square in the back. The blast sent him hurtling into a tree, snapping his back in two.

"Cease fire Vakarian, targets are down." Chief informed the Turian.

As he stood up from his position, however, the Spartan heard another two dropships coming in. One of them was the Phantom from before. This time it didn't even wait for the first ship to land to deliver its cargo. It opened its stomach and let a large group of the little fire breathing grunts fall upon the Spartan's position.

"Oh well that's just perfect." Cortana groaned in his ear.

The first of the mutilated creatures landed just feet away from the Master Chief. A sniper rifle was no good in this situation, so he switched to his pistol. He backed away from the creature slightly and fired a single shot. The plume of flame shot out from the monster's back, showering the Spartan with sparks. His shields protected him, but he was not safe. There were more of the husks, behind him and to his side. He rolled away as one spewed forth a stream of fire. Another crawled right up to him and the Spartan kicked it in the face to force it back. He couldn't risk shooting them this close to him, so he began to back up, straight towards the now descending dropship as the undead grunts followed.

"We can probably make a break for it back to the Warthog." Cortana suggested. "They're not that fast and its better than walking into a bunch of plasma guns at our backs."

Chief agreed, although he wondered how badly he'd get burned before they made it. He was about to carry out the plan when he heard explosions from above. The little husks were distracted themselves and looked up to see the Phantom under fire. Garrus was everything the Hammerhead had at the dropship, intending to bring it down.

"I'm taking these little Spitfires out of the equation, Chief!" Garrus shouted over the radio. "Fall back!"

The distraction was just what he needed to increase his odds. Chief ran for it, punting one of the little husks onto its back. As he ran from the treeline, the warthog's gun opened up on the little husks. Chief looked back and fired, catching two as they crawled out from the trees. One of them exploded and the resulting infernal tower went so high it struck the nose of the Phnatom as it tried to close in on the stationary Hammerhead.

As more of the little husks crawled their way out of the trees, their makeshift mothership catching fire as they did, Chief saw Shepard's team joining the fight. They added their fire to the Warthog's own, taking out a number of the little grunt fire spewing monsters before they managed to get too far. The Phantom took off into the sky, trying to escape the Hammerhead's barrage, but Garrus was relentless. The missiles trailed after the Phantom, striking it constantly and repeatedly. Before long its engines were on fire and it began to dip from the sky. It exploded only moments later.

"Ha! Choke on that you bastards! No more spitfires!"

This was far from over though. The other dropship was already unloading troops. They may have lost their supply of husks, but they were no doubt still determined to continue the fight. Shepard, Tali and Kasumi quickly rallied around the Hammerhead with Kat joining them.

"Can you fix a hover booster?" Shepard asked Kat as he covered her with his pistol.

"I can try. Just give me space to work." She responded as she bent down to get to work.

Dutch and Buck made a beeline for the escape pod to act as cover as the Covenant began pouring down out of the woods. They successfully split the focus of the attackers in two, forcing a number of grunts to take shots at them as they tried to move forward. Buck was the more accurate one, plugging a bullet between one jackal's firing hand and sending a burst through his head when the alien recoiled in pain. They retracted behind cover, however, when the dropship took off again, firing plasma down upon their little crashed lifeboat before speeding off into the sky.

"Those ships are assholes both coming and going." Dutch growled. "They remind me of some Christmas Party guests from my youth."

The Warthog's gunner kept up the fire and Garrus launched missiles over their heads on their approach. Shepard let loose a number of shockwaves against the ground, trying to keep them off balance and they charged forward. The Master Chief decided to be more direct. He climbed back into the Warthog, started it up and sped towards the onrushing Covenant. At that moment, Kasumi tossed a flashbang into the alien horde, blinding them. Chief used the moment to run them down.

He got most of them, except for the elite in charge. He dodged to the side. The gunner followed, but the alien managed to stay ahead of the bullets and fire back. Chief drove after the elite, but he was only stalled slightly by the unexpected appearance of Tali's little drone friend. It rolled straight up to the Covenant Officer and shocked him right in the side. It gave the elite pause, just enough time for Chief to push the pedal to the metal and run the Covie down. The elite was sent flying right over the hood of the Warthog, passed the gunner and onto the ground in a heap. The Warthog's gunner fired a few more rounds in the alien's collapsed form, just to be sure.

As the elite fell, Kat stood up suddenly from her position near the Hammerhead.

"Finished," She remarked. "Garrus, give her a test start!"

In the next moment the Hammerhead sprung back to life and began to float off the surface of the ground once more. Somehow Kat had actually managed to get the thing working again. Given that the technology was so unlike regular UNSC vehicles, Chief was impressed.

"Great job, Kat, I knew you could do it." Shepard complimented.

"Thank Tali," the Spartan III responded. "She installed an omni-tool into this new arm of mine. The tools are perfect for making quick battlefield fixes. No need to dig around in my tool belt for one."

Shepard's continued praise would have to wait, as Cortana made them aware of one final obstacle.

"There's another dropship coming in fast and low people." She warned them all. "It's headed to the landing site of the first one again."

"Let them come." Garrus snorted. "We have a working Hammerhead again."

Tali looked a bit more angered than most. Chief wasn't sure if anyone else could tell, but the way her shoulders slumped and her head arched forward were a sign she wasn't happy about the news. He thought he could even hear a bit more angered breathing through her helmet.

"Bosh'tets just never give up." She growled. "Fine, it's time to make them pay for it then."

She turned to Shepard, a fury in her eyes.

"Shepard," she began, "I'll need you and the others to cover me while I get close to the dropship. I have a plan."

Shepard looked rather concerned over her demeanour.

"This wouldn't happen to be one of those risky super dangerous plans would it?" he asked her.

"Maybe," Tali admitted, "I learned some tips on how to pull those off by watching you though."

Shepard just gulped slightly and nodded his head.

"Alright, but the second there's trouble you abort." He ordered her.

"Don't worry, it will only take a few seconds to do." She assured.

The Hammerhead and Warthog moved up first, with Tali in step behind them, but only slightly. Chief traded his driver seat in the Warthog to Buck and made his way back to the small incline that overlooked the area. He had a perfect view of the landing site. Already the dropship was making a landing and the doors opened wide to let the various occupants out as it neared the surface. Chief watched as Tali took off to the left of the field in front of her while the vehicles went straight for the Covenant themselves. Those on foot used the Hammerhead and Hog as cover as they advanced. The Covenant inside were led by two elites from the looks of it. They bounded out of the dropship and charged like mad, determined to reach the rocks. Given all the firepower they had, this was a suicide run.

That wasn't the interesting part of the whole ordeal though. That distinction belonged to Tali who had managed to somehow close the distance between her and the dropship. She had used the Covenant's own single-minded pursuit of the crashed Marines against them. They saw the vehicles as more important than a single quarian from the looks of it. That still didn't explain what she was doing.

"I don't suppose you have any insights." Chief asked Cortana as he kept looking through the scope.

"Not a one, I'm in your head, not hers." She replied simply.

As the dropship began to take off, Tali got close enough to it. The gunner was firing on the Warthog and Hammerhead, forcing them to fall back. Again, the quarian went unnoticed. Chief watched as Tali's hand went to something, clutching it hard in her three fingers. It looked some kind of Covenant satchel charge, he no idea where she had gotten that. It didn't matter, she was throwing it away. Her toss managed to get the charge inside the dropship just as the doors closed on it. Seconds later an explosion rocked the dropship from the inside.

The Covenant turned back in abject horror as they saw the dropship fall from the sky. One of the prongs that made up its U-shape had been ripped clean off and it suddenly crashed back towards the ground it had just left. Flames kicked up around it and Chief watched as Tali ran for cover.

"Wow, she must've been really pissed off." Cortana observed slightly shocked herself.

Chief was impressed more or less, but there were still Covenant on the field. He found the elites among the melee, engaging Shepard of course, who had charged clean into one of them with his biotics. As the other tried to take aim at the Normandy Commander, the Chief put a bullet through the Covie's head. He didn't need to see if Shepard had finished off the other one, he already knew he had. He put his focus on other targets through his scope, but it was clean-up duty. There was nothing to do now, but wait for the Pelican.

---

Jack was more than happy to leave the Pelican behind. She had just been hoping it wouldn't involve being stranded in the middle of a damn evergreen forest looking for help. It didn't help that her leg felt pretty bad. It wasn't broken, but she didn't like how she was having difficulty moving it a bit. Jacob looked to have busted his left arm and surprisingly, Thane was untouched. Just their luck the dying lizard happened to be the guy who walked out of a crashed Pelican unscathed.

"Lucky asshole." She thought to herself.

She took solace in the fact he wasn't gloating. She hated how he kept acting concerned. Every two seconds he kept asking if they needed to take a break. Like hell they were, she wasn't going to be blamed for holding people up. She wasn't some mulling child anymore. She had worse scrapes anyway. She could handle this. She just wanted them to get somewhere they could hold for awhile until they got rescued. The Justicar would be along eventually. She had to, she was compelled to, it was part of her code. At least she thought it was. Sometimes she thought that asari was even crazier than her.

Jacob was pretty much their only hope of finding some place to hide out until Samara came along. It would have to be someplace they could find of course, somewhere not too far from their pelican. Not a lot of choices in an alien forest, admittedly. It was just her luck the goody-two shoes former Alliance Corsair knew what he was doing. He had salvaged the beacon locator tech from the Pelican and with Thane's help plugged it into his omni-tool. It was ugly looking and cumbersome, but with any luck it would help them find another group of survivors they could shack up with.

"I'm still getting a faint signal." Jacob told them all. "Could be the trees blocking the beacon's broadcast. Let's just keep walking. Eventually it should clear up."

Thane suddenly stopped for a moment, he looked back. Jack for a moment thought this had to do with her again, but he was looking behind her into the woods. He then turned to Jacob.

"We're being followed." Thane told him.

"How far behind us?" he asked.

"I can't say for sure, but I can hear their rustling in the underbrush." He explained. "They can't be more than a few hundred yards behind us."

Damn, he was that good, huh? Jack wondered if it was another drell thing, like that super perfect memory they had. It was probably just some assassin thing, she guessed. Whatever, as long as it gave them a good few minutes of warning she'd accept it. It was weird though, seeing Jacob and Thane acting so chummy. They were usually pretty cold to one another. Maybe that was because the only other person they could talk to was her and she didn't want to talk back.

"If we have to make a stand, I'd prefer we find a spot we can actually hold." Jacob told the drell as they continued to walk. "This place is way too out in the open. Plus, we don't exactly have a lot of ammo to fight with."

"We have our biotics, but that probably won't get us very far." Thane added. "I find the Covenant are getting more and more used to our abilities."

Jack just snorted a laugh at Thane's concern.

"Maybe yours Lizard Lips, but I don't need guns to fuck bitches up." She assured. "Let alone these dipshits."

"You'd do well to not underestimate the enemy, Jack." Thane warned. "After all, that had been the Covenant's weakness so far."

Oh please, was he trying to pretend he was Shepard or something? Cause he was really bad at it. Jack rolled her eyes at the cliché little tactical advice.

"Look I was in a cult once." She informed him with an aggressive look. "They were a bunch of fanatical, stupid, crazy idiots who did stupid shit and died in numerous fast and dirty ways. Some of those deaths were caused by me when I finally left. These Covenant are no different, they just got fancier guns and even more retarded agenda. Don't tell me I shouldn't underestimate them, I know what they are and I'm not impressed."

"Glassing countless worlds doesn't impress you?" Jacob asked her curiously.

Oh so that's how he was playing it then. Well she wasn't about to get all weepy over that. Yeah, Reach was terrible, but no way in hell she was going to give Miranda's Ex a win here. She already had a slightly busted leg, that was all he was going to get, nothing more. She refused to let them get psychoanalytical with her. Shepard had tried that, didn't work, she wasn't about to let them in either.

"No, it doesn't." Jack said with a straight face. "You know why? Because anyone with a big enough laser gun can do that. They don't scare me. Not one bit."

"Not even the brutes?" Thane asked.

Jack looked at him incredulously. She couldn't find a good argument to counter. She couldn't say anything. Even she couldn't lie that blatantly.

"Fuck you, Thane." She said to him with a grunt. "Just shut up and keep listening for the fuck-heads following us."

Suddenly, Jacob's omni-tool began to beep wildly, pointing them off in a direction off the beaten path.

"Another lifeboat, close by!" He said with glee. "Quick, let's get off this road and cover our tracks. With any luck we'll be able to lead them off our trail."

Well, it was a plan and it stopped that conversation cold. A good sign, in Jack's opinion, that things were starting to look up for her.

---

Foe Hammer proved to be a welcomed sight once more. Her Pelican descended from on high in the middle of the small valley while the others looked on. She also told them all she had spotted two other lifeboats in the area, which meant more survivors. This meant, of course, that they had more work to do. As the Pelican picked up the Marines and Crewmen for dust-off, everyone who opted to stay and finish the mission gathered around the crashed Covenant dropship, their vehicles nearby.

"Nice work on taking out the dropship, Tali." Garrus complimented. "At least we won't have to worry about this guy coming back to haunt us."

Tali overlooked her handiwork. The fires had more or less died down around the crashed ship. The doors to its insides lay bare for all to see. The elite pilot hung precariously outside the cockpit window like a ragdoll.

"Well I had to use that satchel charge on something." She shrugged.

"Let's just hope we don't have to do that again in the near future." Shepard added. "Great job regardless. We still have a few problems though. Along with saving those lifeboat survivors we have communications down so we're barely able to contact anyone and then there is the new husks we gotta deal with."

Garrus put one of those concerns to rest.

"With any luck that Phantom was carrying all the spitfires for this area." He suggested. "Blowing it up probably fixed that issue."

Tali looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Spitfires?"

"Yeah, we're still nicknaming them, remember?" Garrus replied, confused at her questioning statement.

"We had taken to calling them Firecrackers to be honest." Kasumi explained.

Garrus' face sunk at the revelation.

"But... I name the husks. I named the Centipede, the Reavers, I decided to call those big Hunter things Titans-"

"Six named the Gremlins." Kat was quick to point out. "I don't think you have a monopoly on giving the husks names."

"Can we all sort this out AFTER we save the Marines?" Cortana asked them all.

Everyone quieted down a bit after that. Shepard smiled a bit. Perhaps he was happy he didn't have to be the one to get people back on track this time. Chief could relate. There had been so many times when his team had gotten distracted with little things.

"Thank you, Cortana." The Commander said with a little nod. "Now then, we need to focus on communications first and foremost. The length of time it's taking us to get into contact with UNSC command and to even call for pick-up is unacceptable. We are not getting swarmed again."

"It could be another Covenant jamming device like on Reach." Kat suggested. "That messed with our comms significantly."

"I don't know," Buck cut in, "this seems less sophisticated. We can pick up the beacons on the lifeboats just fine and if we're close enough to each other we can still talk over the radio. I'm thinking whatever this is it's more localised for a smaller area."

The Sergeant's suggestion suddenly set off Mordin, who had been contemplating silently to himself up until now.

"Device localised. Static blocks all UNSC and Normandy channels. Does not interfere with lower tier tracking systems like beacons. Obviously to insure Covenant do not lose signals either. Need them to track survivors. Not hacking device. Must be form of overloading communication lines. Localised to a particular area of interest. Most likely carried on person. Yes, yes, very rudimentary, not designed for black out but to disrupt organization attempts. Clever, too clever for Covenant, unlikely they would consider strategy to hunt down humans. Suggests other alternative." Mordin finally took a breath, "Possible origin of device not Covenant."

Which left only one other alien species, one they knew was working closely with the Covenant, one they had seen on the Autumn itself.

"Batarians must've shared their tech with the Covenant." Shepard reasoned, not sounding all that surprised. "You have an idea what we're looking for then, Mordin?"

"Yes, but unlikely to locate soon enough." He explained. "Marine survivors will not last long. Waste of time searching valley for singular Covenant wearing device."

"I don't think we'll have to." Tali piped up, a bit of glint her eye as an idea popped in her head.

The quarian turned momentarily towards the dropship, eyeing the large bulbous middle piece at the back of the U-shape that made up the cockpit. She then turned to the Master Chief, stretching out an open palm.

"Chief, I'll need Cortana for a moment." She said.

It was a weird request to be sure. Keyes had entrusted him with Cortana's safety. He trusted Tali, but he wanted to be sure. Almost as if anticipating his next question, Cortana reassured him.

"Go ahead, Chief." She told him. "I think I know what she has in mind."

Carefully, Chief removed Cortana's AI Chip from his helmet and placed her into Cortana's hand. The quarian in turn plugged her into a port on her suit that was connected to her omni-tool. The AI appeared once more on top of the wrist mounted device, albeit much smaller than she had appeared on the Autumn.

"Wow, this thing has almost as much processing power as one of the Autumn's computer hubs." Cortana said as she looked around the little device.

"Several hundred exabytes to be exact," Tali clarified, "it gets the job done. Now then let's get working."

Tali walked on over to the crashed dropship. She scanned her hand over the ship for a few moments before she spotted the panel she was apparently looking for. She pulled it off to reveal a small box-like device beneath. Before long, both she and Cortana were mumbling to themselves techno talk that those around her could barely hear. Several electronic beeps and omni-tool command types rounded out the sounds that came from the two as they worked.

"Any idea what they're saying to each other?" Buck asked Kat, leaning over to whisper his question to her.

"You probably wouldn't get most of it anyway." Kat answered in kind.

Eventually Tali and Cortana seemed to finish their work and they turned back to the group at large. They both seemed rather pleased with themselves. Tali's silvery eyes, visible even through her purple visor, shared an almost strange resemblance to Cortana's own prideful gleam. Chief knew, from that look alone, they were all about to get an ear full of techie talk.

"What exactly did you two do?" Garrus asked, breaking the ice.

"I realised once Mordin pointed out the jamming device was from our universe that it has an exploitable flaw in its systems." Tali began to explain. "Our Migrant Fleet Marines had been experimenting with signal jammers for some of their more covert operations. If the ones the batarians provided to the Covenant work on the same principle then they need to be given a set frequency code. They're non-discriminate otherwise. The jammer blocks everything, unless the user inputs the precise frequency code of their own communications. It tells the device to just ignore that frequency and broadcast the static to everything else."

"That explains why the Covenant Battlenet is still operational when it should be getting whitewashed itself." Cortana continued. "It interferes with the only two communication frequencies it can't recognize, the Normandy's and the UNSC command channels. Effectively it makes long range communication impossible, overloading all our channels with feedback. But the nature of how it keeps itself from doing that to the user's comms makes it highly vulnerable to a little old infiltration trick. If we can disguise our communication channels as something the broadcaster will recognize it will ignore us and our comms will be usable again over long range."

Tali brought up an image on her omni-tool beside Cortana. It showed the same box-like object that she had been working on.

"This was the dropship's internal communications data box." She began to explain. "With Cortana's help I was able to crack it open and take a few lines of code from the systems. Specifically, code I was able to recognize as batarian in origin because it was based on some of their configurations we previously encountered. It had to be the frequency code the batarians gave the Covenant to help omit the battlenet from the static. I was able to copy the code, along with bits of the Covenant systems it was supplementing, and use it to disguise our frequencies to the jamming device, making them appear as if they were Covenant in origin."

"Rendering their little massive snow job broadcast completely ineffective!" said Shepard, sounding incredibly impressed. "Tali, what would we do without you?"

Chief wondered for a second if Tali was blushing under that helmet of hers, she quickly snapped out of it though.

"Most of the credit should go to Cortana. She's more familiar with Covenant systems, I just wrote up the frequency cloaking program." The quarian humbly admitted. "Of course she still needs to use the signal before we can figure out if it works. That requires a UNSC comm-link to be honest."

Chief saw his cue, and stretched out his hand to take back Cortana. Tali pulled her from her omni-tool and placed her gently back into the Spartan's care. It took a few seconds after reinstalling her into his head for Cortana to attempt the feat. Before long though she was warmly bringing some much needed good news.

"I have an established link to command!" She said jubilantly. "They're already setting up shop in an abandoned structure on a Butte a few hundred miles from our current position. I'll see what I can learn from them about our status."

"See if you can establish links to any of the survivors in our area." Shepard added. "Not to mention the Normandy and the rest of our crew. If we can share this frequency cloak we can get command and control up and operational before the Covenant realise we've just rendered their little smokescreen useless. Then we can pick up our people in no time."

"I'll try Commander," Cortana agreed, "in the meantime let's move out to the head of the river. That's the closest lifeboat to us if Foe Hammer's intel is accurate."

Without another word everyone loaded up into the vehicles and set out. They had spent enough time on this as it was. Chief just hoped they weren't too late.

---

AN: I know I said I was going to go with whatever got more votes, which turned out to be Spitfire, but someone else suggested another name during the process. He suggested I call the new husk grunts Firecrackers. Not wanting to look like a jerk by ignoring the vote like some Banana Republic Dictator, I decided I'd go for another round of votes. Do you prefer Firecracker or do you want to stick with Spitfire? Make your choice.

The next chapter will be up in a few days... mostly because I had to split this one. We'll be wrapping up this mission of the game with that update. Looking forward to it. Please review in the meantime.