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.

34. And the Horse You Rode In On

Chapter 33: And the Horse You Rode In On

It was clear now how badly things had gotten. The Flood containment had been broken, the Index had been taken, the firing mechanism was in need of extensive repairs, rogue Non-reclaimers were disrupting protocol and now all-out war across his installation had begun in earnest. The infestation was spreading everywhere, pockets of Covenant resisted them but only added to their numbers. They had no proper understanding of even the most basic of containment protocols and yet they sought to hold the Flood back. They were only making it harder for the Sentinels now.

"Sometimes I wish we were given better security parameters," Guilty Spark sighed. "This task would certainly be easier if I had more than just Sentinels at my disposal."

At this point the only option was to locate the Reclaimer and take his construct by force. He'd find another human to activate the ring, again by force if need be. He needed the Index though, it was the only solution to this entire crisis. If he didn't get it back everything he had worked for, sacrificed for, would be in vain.

Thankfully, it wouldn't be long until he located the fugitive Reclaimer. He had taken the liberty of scanning his unique genetic fingerprint. Using Halo's various sensory systems he would be able to pinpoint where he was. The chime on the monitor screen revealed that the tactic had paid off.

"Excellent," he declared with a sense of relief. "Now we need only collect him and-"

This was odd. The designation marker suggested that the Reclaimer was in rapid transit over mountainous seemingly impassable terrain. He was no doubt within a flying craft of some kind, seemingly on course for some direct objective. Where could he possibly be going?

Scanning for the presumed trajectory, Guilty Spark soon located the presumed destination. The crashed human ship, the one who's coming had signalled the beginning of this entire unfortunate series of events. He was going back to where it had all started.

"Why?" Guilty Spark questioned aloud. "The ship is far too heavily damaged to enact a form of escape. Preliminary scans suggest all flight capabilities and primary functions are offline. The only thing still active is-"

He paused as his mind made the realization. No… no, he couldn't, but the truth was there for all to see. He was doing it. The realisation hit Spark like a terrible thunder strike. He wasn't escaping, he was acting on another course of action. One that the Commander Shepard had subtlety suggested to him. They would not light Halo, they would instead bring about its end.

One hundred thousand years of diligent service, one hundred thousand years of protecting the galaxy's future, one hundred thousand years of thinking their sacrifices, his sacrifice, was in vain. And now, a few dozen hours after he had finally made contact and this Relcaimer had decided to blow it up all up!

"Vexation! Insanity! Every breach of assigned protocol imaginable!" Guilty Spark shouted in absolute disgust. "Oh I am not pleased. Not pleased at all! Destroy my installation will they? Well then, we'll see about that."

Guilty Spark's eye glowed bright red with anger, rage that had been seething for thousands of years. He'd end this ridiculous little plan of theirs. And see to it that both the Reclaimer, the mouthy Construct and the Non-Reclaimers themselves would pay dearly for such callous disregard for assigned mission parameters. Protocol would be obeyed.

---

Cortana watched their Banshee's structural integrity alongside their ETA counter diligently. They had been flying non-stop for hours now. The sun was already rising into the sky over the deserted plain they were currently passing over. Cortana found that it was a bit of distraction, forcing her eyes to wander in order to get a better view of it. Despite being an artificial construct, she did appreciate the beauty that this ring had presented them with. The sun's rays seemed to stretch across the entirety of the lower half of Halo, instantly bringing morning to every little corner it touch. It stretched up and across, only stopping when it neared the starry sky at the middle of the ring. She hadn't noticed it before, but one could see the full night sky in the middle of day here. It was both alien and wondrous to behold.

It was easy to forget in that moment how such a magnificent sight hid a terrible truth beneath it. Halo was a marvelous world, but it was also a super weapon of mass death that was hiding an unspeakable evil beneath it at the same time. She wondered if the Forerunners had a sense of irony about them. Cortana had no illusions though, she knew destroying Halo was their only course of action. It still felt a bit sad that this beautiful place was intended to bring such destruction.

She did her best to shake the matter out of her mind, for they had other problems to deal with. She looked to the Master Chief's vitals out of conern. He had been flying all night non-stop. She found that they were completely stable, rather curious, even for a Spartan.

"You know you've been awake for over two days now, right?" She asked him. "You sure you're not even a little tired?"

"I'll sleep when we're finished here, not before," Chief proclaimed.

"Well, at least you're committed," Cortana noted. "Just so long as I don't have to make coffee or something we shouldn't have any problems."

"I've never really had coffee," Chief admitted. "I keep hearing about it though. Am I missing much?"

"I wouldn't know, I'm an AI, remember?" She jovially informed him.

"Oh, right," Chief recalled, sounding only slightly embarrassed. "I guess I should ask Shepard then if I get the chance."

Cortana smiled a bit. Here they were preparing to blow up an ancient Forerunner artificial planet and they were discussing coffee all of a sudden. It was weird what came up in conversation during long isolated flights. Perhaps this was a good thing though. While it helped to keep focused on the task at hand, given everything that was going on perhaps letting the mind wander for a bit couldn't hurt. It wasn't like they could do anything more until they arrived at their destination.

Thing was though, it was a little hard to think of conversational topics with a man who had essentially lived his entire life in constant conflict. That wouldn't stop Cortana from trying though. Besides, she did have a few things on her mind.

"Still trying to wrap my brain around the fact we're apparently helping Jackals," she noted. "Of all the species in the Covenant, I didn't think we'd see any of them defect to our side."

"Why?" Chief asked. "According to the files we have they're essentially mercenaries."

"I suppose what I meant is, I didn't think we'd see any defectors at this stage," Cortana explained. "I have considered the possibility that the Covenant could break apart, but I always thought that would take time. There'd need to be an upheaval or break down in the internal power structure. I always imagined the Jackals themselves would go for whichever side was more economically conveniently. Given what we know of their species they're motivated more by monetary means than anything."

That Jackal, Zek as she recalled, did seem like more of the roguish-type. He hadn't wasted any time in showing his disdain for the religious dogma of his former comrades. Or maybe she should say "employers" considering the use of the word "contract" in that discussion.

"The batarians seem like more of a shock than the Jackals," Chief suggested. "From what Shepard's files suggest they hate humans almost as much as the Covenant. At least Jackals are only motivated by greed, that Lieutenant Commander Varvok's people came here to kill humans, not help them."

"You have a point," Cortana admitted. "According to him though it seemed a bit more complicated than that, personal even. He did say his mentor betrayed him for guns, I guess that stung enough to override his dislike of us. This Balak character seems like a real piece of work though. I checked over his file I downloaded from the Normandy's archive a while ago. Honestly, he really should've seen this coming. Loyalty can blind a person I suppose."

"How long do you expect this alliance they've forged to last anyhow?" Chief asked her plainly.

To be honest, Cortana wasn't sure. She was an infiltration program, she dabbled in strategies and tactics at times, but long-term politics like this were out of her depth a bit. She considered a few possibilities, although it was really all just speculation.

"I suppose Varvok will stay with us longer," she presumed. "Assuming he wants to go home to his own dimension for whatever reason. He'd need help from Shepard and us to make it past whatever forces the Covenant are using to guard the Wormhole. Which from what I understand is unstable so there's that hiccup. The Jackals, not so sure. I'd assume we'd be stuck with them until they can fix their ship up or something, but we're going to inevitably need to share quarters among each other's vessels. Barring unexpected developments, I don't really know. I guess it doesn't matter so long as they don't turn on us."

"We'll keep an eye out for that," Chief assured her. "For now, here's hoping they'll be grateful for the helping hand. It would certainly make things less tense for however long this lasts."

"You're being very practical about this," Cortana noted rather inquisitively. "You sure you don't have any lingering animosity for the Jackals? I'd understand if you did, they're not the most pleasant of aliens."

Chief was silent for a bit. Despite being inside his head, Cortana didn't know what he was thinking. She could gauge, but the Spartan's mind worked differently than her. Technically all organic minds did, but the Master Chief was a bit different even in regards to them. It was difficult even for her to explain to herself. The best way she could describe it would be a mixture of modesty, centered calmness, power and just a hint quaint at points. He was an enigma to be sure.

"I've learned hating the enemy can make things messy," he explained rather directly. "You can hate what they do or what they stand for, but you need to stay professional. My first engagement against the Covenant was with Jackals and I lost a good team-mate in that fight."

There was a moment of silence, about a second and a half to be precise according to Cortana's count.

"Thing was though, it could've just as easily been me," the Spartan eventually continued. "So really, what's the point of holding a grudge because of circumstances of chance? If this alliance helps save UNSC lives, I'll be satisfied. That's all that matters in the end."

It sounded so simple to him. There was no anger, maybe regret over remembering a dead friend, but he never let it bubble up too close to the surface. The emotion was there, but it was buried. He held it back, but he wasn't a blank slate. He just didn't feel the need to dwell on it. Perhaps that came from being the lead Spartan, even when you have so few Spartans left to lead.

"I'm glad to see your priorities are straight," she complimented. "Of course, we're talking about more than just the lives of the Marines and Soldiers stuck here with us. We're not even talking about just humanity. Failure here means galactic wide devastation."

"Which is why we won't fail," Chief declared unwaveringly.

That was another thing to admire about the Master Chief, his determination. In the short time they had been partners, Cortana could reflect on all the firefights they had been. Never once did he ever seem to flinch. That wasn't to say he was never afraid, even with the training and augmentations you couldn't remove fear from someone's mind. He just seemed consistently undaunted, any fear he felt only seemed to push him onward, force him to find a way to succeed.

"Not even the least bit worried?" She asked him.

"We have a good team backing us up and a straightforward plan," he plainly replied. "The only tricky part is getting off world in time and we'll worry about that when it comes to it. Why? You worried?"

He asked that rather dryly, his subtle sense of humour coming to the forefront. An attempt to jab back at her for all the times she tried to prod him no doubt.

"Hey, I've got the easiest job here," Cortana reminded him in an offhanded, but cheery way. "I just have to activate a command code. You're the one who has to slog through who knows what's inside the Autumn by now."

"But you're in my head," He reminded her, sounding a little more animated than his usual tone.

"And what a wonderful vantage point it is to watch you do your work," the AI jovially stated. "For one thing it's very spacious in here. I have a lot more room to move around than I expected."

"Hilarious," Chief responded, rolling his eyes no doubt as Cortana suspected. "I suppose I walked into that one."

"Yes, like you occasionally do to rooms full of enemies wanting to murder you," she added rather playfully. "And by extension me, by the way."

The Spartan just huffed a little. It was a small one, not meant in a derisive way to dismiss her comment. It was more a huff of recognition, probably the closest she'd ever get him to laugh.

"Seriously though, working with you is a bit like what you'd call a roller coaster ride," she tried to explain. "Or at least what I think one is like."

"Never been on one myself either," he admitted. "Spartan R&R usually just means cryo after all."

"My point is it's never dull, even when it is nerve-racking," she pleasantly informed him. "Remember our first training exercise?"

The Chief huffed again.

"How could I forget?" He answered back. "We both almost ended up dead."

"Ackerson's underhanded tactics certainly caught me by surprise," she admitted. "You, however, came up with a plan fairly quickly in response."

"I remember you were a bit concerned about it not working out," the Spartan recalled.

True, but it was the first combat scenario they had been in together. She had looked at his dossier extensively beforehand and did her best to understand what to expect. Being inside his head was a lot different than just reading about it though.

"I was just getting to know you, and after the fact I was impressed regardless," she assured him. "I probably also should've suspected that it was a sign of things to come. We've gotten into a lot of scrapes in the short time we've been partnered together."

"I hope that means you've gotten used to it," Chief seemingly forewarned her.

"Actually, I'm starting to look forward to it," she assured him confidently. "Especially if it means we get to blow this ring up in the Monitor's face."

She instantly recalled how flustered and angry she had made the stupid, crazed AI feel. She supposed she should've instead felt pity for the malfunctioning near-rampant fool. After all, she'd one day pass into rampancy herself. However, she just couldn't help but smirk at the thought of pissing off that annoying little eyeball. Maybe it was the fact he nearly got Tali killed or almost tricked the Chief into activating Halo that earned her ire. She didn't know, but Chief had at least noticed.

"You took a bit more pleasure in stealing the Index away from him as I recall," he noted aloud.

"The little asshole was threatening to purge me," she curtly responded. "Making him squirm in response was rather gratifying after that."

"Can't say I fault you for it," he admitted.

Cortana smiled a bit at the Spartan's response. It was nice to see him break his stoic quiet, showing that he was more than just some walking gun as people like Major Silva believed. There was a human underneath all that armour, it just took some effort to get him to show it more often. She had seen Shepard was able to get him to open up at times and she was pleased to see that she had achieved similar results.

She knew that if this partnership was going to work they'd need to learn to appreciate each other sharing the same head space. While she had only known him a short while, Cortana could say with confidence she respected the Spartan. They certainly were vastly different in many ways, but similar in others. Perhaps those few similarities helped bridge the obvious gaps.

The AI was shaken from her contemplation by sensory warning light and alarm going off. That could only mean trouble.

"Problem?" Chief asked, expecting the answer to be yes no doubt.

"We may have just lost power to the stabilizers and the power cells are starting to fail," she stated, getting directly to the point. "Oh, and smoke is starting pour out of the left propulsion engine. No big deal, we're probably just going to crash."

"Then we better get moving," chief declared, pushing the Banshee to go faster.

"Oh yes, because that's going to keep this thing in the air longer," Cortana stated dryly as she rolled her own eyes.

As she said, working with the Master Chief was most likely akin to a roller coaster. Although she wondered if real roller coasters consistently felt this haphazard and deadly. At least there was one plus side, as an AI she could never feel sick. Although she was starting to fear the Chief was pushing that theory in some respect. The only thing she could was hope this stupid hijacked Covie bird kept working long enough to reach the Autumn. She wouldn't be able to relax once there, but at least she wouldn't have to worry about crashing into the ground below because of her daredevil partner.

Just remember, she thought, they let you pick.

---

The Marines arrived on Truth and Reconciliation not long after Shepard and the others had left. Varvok sent his men back to wherever it was they had come from on the Phantom they had used to get here. The batarian and the Jackal, Zek, then left with Shepard on the Normandy's shuttle. That left Garrus to explain things to everything to the UNSC. Not a job he looked forward to at all, but someone had to do it.

He found that the initial hard part was actually getting a word in with anyone. Silva was quick to jump on deck and begin issuing commands. He had a pretty solid plan on how to take the ship from what little was left of the Covenant Forces and wasted no time in putting it into action. Kat, Linda and Jun were equally difficult to talk for similar reasons, all Garrus was able to them was that Shepard had left for the Autumn. They knew that meant they were running out of time, so in retrospect it wasn't too surprising they went straight into battle mode in order to establish a foothold in the hangar of the Truth and Reconciliation.

There wasn't much to do in regards to that task, between the batarians and Shepard, the Shuttle Bay was already pretty clear. The Elites had pulled back to other areas of the ship to avoid the coming onslaught of human invaders. They wouldn't surrender, but they weren't about to make it easy for the humans to kill them all either. Silva anticipated this though and orders his ODSTs to sweep the ship for remaining Covies. Beyond that he had two objectives for them to complete, seizing the ship's Command Center and taking the Engineering Room. Both were obviously intended to felicitate their swift departure.

Garrus wasn't fooling himself by thinking Silva would be happy to learn he didn't have to worry about that now, at least not when he learned the reasons why. To be fair, the turian didn't expect the Spartans to take it well either. Hell, he wasn't sure if the idea of allying with batarian and his Jackal buddy was a good one himself. However, he didn't thinking leaving Halo with more than likely Flood Infested ship was any better.

Finally, things calmed down enough in the Shuttle Bay that Garrus was finally able to get the key figures to stop issuing orders and listen to him. McKay, Kat, Jun, Linda and Silva all gathered round as he explained Varvok's offer. They all seemed a bit puzzled by the end of it and didn't look entirely convinced. Silva, however, was the only one out of the five who looked absolutely livid.

"Are you out of your goddamn mind?" He immediately asked with an angered visage. "Shepard wants us to team up with the enemy to get off this rock? Why the hell would we do that when we have a perfectly good escape ship right here?"

"It was a perfectly good escape ship until the Flood started overrunning the place," Garrus answered firmly. "Now it's just a potential nest for them. If we get this thing operational and into space with them on it, we'll soon wish we let this ring activate and kill everyone outright. At least then it will be quick."

"A concern I share, Garrus," Kat concurred. "But you're still suggesting something rather unorthodox. Not too long ago both this batarian and Jackal were our enemies. How are we supposed to trust that their story about deserting the Covenant is true?"

Garrus felt that was a reasonable question given the circumstances. At least Kat was being more level-headed about it all than Silva. However, given time to think over the situation, he had come up with his own answer to that concern.

"I'm agreeing with what Cortana said on this one, I don't think the Covenant would sacrifice an entire Special-Ops group made up of their best soldiers just to sell that kind of ruse," he surmised. "That and their story has a lot of surrounding evidence to support it. We know there was an AWOL Corvette and we know the batarians aren't respected by the Covenant. I was a cop once. I've been trained to look at the evidence and given everything I've heard I believe they were telling the truth. Do I think they're doing it because they've turned over a new leaf? No. But I do think they'd prefer to side with us and escape this ring world rather than stay here and end up dead."

"And that's supposed to make me feel better?" Silva asked derisively. "They're desperate enough to come crawling to us for help and we're just going to give it to them? Sorry, Vakarian, but even if they are being honest, us putting our trust in Covie deserters isn't any more comforting a prospect."

"Potentially allowing a dangerous alien organism to escape along with us is even worse," Garrus countered readily. "I don't know how it looked on your way in, Major, but this place was swarming with Flood. I doubt they're all dead. If even one of those little Infection Forms is alive we could risk restarting this whole mess all over again on another world. Maybe even Earth in the worst case scenario."

"We're more than capable of handling a few stray freakish parasites," Silva declared waving his hand about, clearly unmoved by the testimony. "I'd rather take that chance then ally myself with those Covenant bastards, especially if most of them are Jackals. Those ugly little psycho-turkeys are sneaky little shits, ya can't trust them, period."

Garrus had expected to come up against resistance, especially with Silva. He clearly still didn't understand the nature of the Flood or the threat they posed. It was infuriating, but still not surprising. Garrus wasn't banking on convincing the Major all that much though. He felt he had a better chance at winning the support of the others. Luckily, he had at least struck a chord with one.

"I don't like the idea of trusting Jackals either, but Garrus raises a good point," Linda stated plainly. "We saw what this Flood can do to a soldier. They breed fast and they hit hard. I don't think we want those things following us back to Earth."

"So we become friends with Covies?" Silva asked back sardonically. "You can't be serious."

"We don't have to become friends," Linda responded ardently. "But if they're offering a way off this ring that minimizes the risk of spreading those parasites then we should be open to the option."

Silva looked at the towering Spartan aghast.

"You gotta be kidding me," he stated. "How many of those Xenos have you put into the ground so far? Hundreds, thousands I bet. Now you seriously want us to consider teaming up with them because you're scared of a few damn creepy crawlies?"

"Those creepy crawlies are a considerable threat," Kat reminded him. "We'd do well to make sure they aren't a potential risk to Earth. If 058 is afraid of them that should tell you something about how dangerous they are. Hell, I'm afraid of them and I don't scare easy."

Silva could only respond with a grunting glare. His face bore the look of utter disgust as he stared Kat down.

"Yeah, so because you Spartans get cold feet I should be worried, huh?" He asked, his derisive tone continuing to grow as he spoke. "Well, my ODSTs aren't going to side with the enemy over you lot getting jumpy because of a bunch of skittering gasbags and walking corpses. You're seriously underestimating my Troopers' ability to handle such a problem."

"And you're underestimating what these things are," Kat replied, raising her voice slightly. "They aren't like the Covenant. They don't breath, they don't tire and they don't die easy. Their sole function is to kill us. They're the second biggest reason we're blowing this ring up, if you recall. I don't doubt what the ODSTs can do, but this isn't a problem either of us can solve just by shooting these things. If this place is infested, as Garrus suggests, we may be about to launch a plague ship into space with us on it. I don't like that prospect."

"Then we'll be careful to scrub the ship as best we can before take-off," Silva suggested rather nonchalantly.

"We may not have that kind of time," Garrus informed him. "The Chief and Shepard are already on their way to the Autumn. We can't waste time fixing up a ship that may have remnant Flood aboard just waiting for us to lift off before revealing themselves. We should take this Varvok guy's offer while we still can."

But Silva was unmoved. He looked to turian with wrath in his eyes, punctuating his glower with a pointed finger as he spoke.

"I'm not putting my people's lives in the hands of the same group of aliens who glassed Reach," He fervently declared. "Deserters or not, I'm not trusting Covies and no loyal human on this tub is going to either. We're sticking to the original plan, we fix this ship up and take off before the place goes boom, end of story!"

"As I recall, that was Shepard's original plan," Jun suddenly piped up in a rather deadpan tone. "And now he's not so keen on it anymore."

"Well Shepard isn't here," Silva viciously informed the Spartan. "I am and I say we stay the course."

The Major was a stubborn bastard that was for sure. Garrus certainly empathised with his lack of trust towards Varvok and this Zek. Truthfully, he wasn't sure about them himself. He was sure about how dangerous the Flood were though. He had seen it, he knew what it could do. They had nearly killed Tali, almost killed him. At least with the batarians and Jackals he knew where they stood, they didn't want to die. The Flood wasn't something else entirely though.

"I believe you humans have a saying," Garrus told the Major. "Better the Devil you know than the one you don't. The Covenant can barely handle these monsters. We shouldn't make the same mistake by assuming we'll have an easier time containing them. These deserters want what we want now, to escape Halo. Isn't that enough?"

"You wanna help them, Vakarian?" Silva asked, sounding rather scornful as he spoke. "Be my guest. Take your shuttle and all your precious fellow Xenos and Xeno-Lovers back to your little ship. Me and my boys will secure and repair this ship without you. Just don't expect to come back here when those Covies turn on you, cause I'm not going to have an open door."

"Major," McKay spoke up, astonished by what her Commanding Officer was saying.

Silva walked away, his head held high and his eyes starring unflinchingly forward. Garrus had suspected that this would happen. He was just surprised it took so long for him to storm off. Kat just shook her head at it all. She quickly turned her attention back to Garrus though and the problem they were facing.

"I agree about the Flood being a risk," she reiterated. "But are you positive we can trust this Varvok and Zek? They sound rather unsavory. What if they decide to steal the ship from us as soon we get it?"

"They wouldn't dare," Garrus assured. "Shepard has both of them on the shuttle with him to help when they reach the Autumn. If their crews try anything they'll risk getting their leaders killed. Besides, from the sound of things they don't have enough people to maintain and run two Corvettes at the same time. They need us as much as we need them."

Kat didn't seem all that convinced, but she didn't look like she was about to dismiss the idea entirely. For their part, Linda, Jun and McKay were of the same mind. None of them liked the idea, that was clear, but they recognized the potential danger of the Truth and Reconciliation posed if it was infested.

"I suppose if we could be completely sure that we could at least handle them should they turn on us," McKay suggested. "Or come up with a back-up plan in case they do just that. We need to have some contingencies in place, some assurances we won't be double-crossed."

"I've already sent the Normandy ahead to meet with the Jackal ship and discuss terms as well as their plan," Garrus explained. "Trust me when I say I have the same concerns about them as you do. Right now though, I really don't think we can afford not taking this chance."

"I'd feel a lot more prepared to go through with this personally if we could prove this place is infested," Jun spoke up. "For all we know, the Flood have abandoned this ship and we're clean."

"A possibility," Kat concurred. "However, like Garrus said, can we really afford to be wrong?"

At that moment, a Pelican landed in the Shuttle Bay, not too far away from them all. As it touched down, something was rolled out from within the dropship. At first it looked like some kind of dolly or slab, perhaps and injured Marine? The truth was far more horrifying. Writing and twitching upon the gurney was the infected Private Jenkins, his twisted form gurgling as he was rolled in. Not too far away from the Pelican as the former Marine was brought aboard was Silva. It seemed he was overseeing the transport. Everyone else was dumbfounded, by Kat just looked enraged. She marched over to the Major and immediately garnered his attention.

"What in the hell are you doing?" She demanded to know.

"Not leaving men behind," Silva informed her matter-of-factly. "I thought that was the whole point of the plan."

"You're bringing an infected soldier aboard the escape ship!" Kat shouted at him. "Do you even understand what kind of danger that puts us in?"

The Major was rather put off by Kat's tone and instantly turned his ire towards the Spartan directly.

"Private Jenkins is the only soldier that hasn't been completely lost to this infection," he explained rather harshly. "You're so worried about the dangers of the Flood, Lieutenant Commander? He may very well hold the key to curing it."

"That's a long shot at best," Kat replied ardently. "We don't even know if the ship is infested by the Flood and you're already potentially assuring a possible outbreak!"

"So what am I supposed to do?" Silva asked. "Kill him? Sorry, not happening. Private Jenkins is a Marine and we're not leaving him behind when there's a chance to save him."

Kat looked to the emaciated Jenkins. The Private's body was twitching, pulling feebly at the restraints, gurgling and mouthing words he could no longer speak. The poor Marine gasped with every breath, the growths and tumors covering his body pulsating as he did. He wasn't a Combat Form... yet, but he barely human anymore. His peeling skin and altered flesh was mutating from the inside out.

"At this point the more humane option may be putting him out of his misery," Kat told the Major plainly. "You're putting more lives at risk by not doing it."

"If it comes to that it comes to that," Silva admitted. "But only when I say so. I don't expect a Spartan to have compassion for human lives and I'm not surprised you're so willing to sacrifice a Marine so quickly. It's just what you're built to do, it's why you're weapons and you always will be. You don't feel, you don't have emotions and you don't care."

An incensed Kat glared at Silva for a moment. Then she removed her helmet entirely, revealing her face and forcing the Major to look directly in her eyes. The fury resonating within was unmistakable.

"I lost four good squad mates on Reach, Major," she informed him, barely containing her anger. "If I could, I'd trade places with all four of them right now. You may think they were all automatons who didn't care, but you didn't know them. They gave everything they had to save hundreds, thousands of lives. They did it because it was their job, their mission, their purpose. They died protecting people or at least trying to. They cared and they felt. They were as human as you are and I'll be damned if I let you say otherwise."

Silva said nothing in response. He only glowered back at the Spartan, unmoved by the speech in any sense of the word. Kat only paused for a moment, looking towards Jenkins once more.

"That Marine is suffering and while he's alive he poses a risk to others," she reiterated. "Do you really want to risk more Marines sharing his fate?"

Silva only briefly looked to Jenkins before turning to the Troopers by his gurney.

"Get him down to engineering," he ordered them.

The ODSTs did as ordered and rolled Jenkins away. The desiccated Private clawed fruitlessly at the air, gasping like a fish out of water as he was taken deeper into the ship. Silva, for his part just stared Kat down once more and then left the Shuttle Bay entirely. The Spartan stood where she was, watching the Major leave as the others walked to her side.

"Well this is getting problematic," Jun noted.

"We need to be sure this place isn't contaminated," Kat stated, not missing a beat. "More importantly, we need to put more pressure on Silva somehow. We can't risk the Flood escaping Halo, no matter what."

Kat still didn't like the idea of teaming up with the enemy to get off this ring, but she was starting to warm up to the idea. For one, they seemed more concerned about the Flood than Silva. If nothing else, they were at least on the same page in that regard.

---

Retz stood in the planning room, surrounded by the squad leaders of both the batarians and fellow kig-yar who would be leading the assault. They should've been ready to start by all accounts, but they were waiting on the new allies, the crew of the Normandy. To say things were a bit tense because of that would've been an understatement. These were the guys they had been ordered to kill previously, now they needed to help. He imagined the batarians had a far sourer outlook on the situation. They had signed up to fight humans, specifically Commander Shepard, and now they needed to play nice with him and his companions.

Retz had no animosity for the Normandy's crew himself, but he would be lying if he claimed he didn't see how outlandish and bizarre this whole endeavor seemed. However, it was either get the help of the Normandy or die on this ring. He'd damned if he was going to die here, that was for sure. At least they had convinced them they were now technically on the same side. All that remained now was to secure their trust by showing them they actually had a worthwhile plan for taking the Covenant Corvette.

The Normandy's crew, or at least those who would be committing to the actual assault, arrived soon after their ship made the appointed rendezvous. They were led by a dark skinned human in particularly heavy armor. He was flanked by the krogan to his right. He was a lot taller in person than Retz imagined. Then there was the weird lizard creature that the batarians called a drell. According to Varvok he was an assassin, although Retz wondered if he really needed to be told that. For some reason the hired killer types always dressed in black, he never understood why.

The other three in the entourage were humans. One was the oldest of the bunch, with a ton of scars and scowling thousand yard stare that just looked right into you. He probably had some stories. There was a smaller female in the group with a hood, probably the thief Varvok mentioned. There wasn't much on her, only that she was slippery one. She could prove useful on this mission.

Then there was the bald, tattooed woman wearing a human armored vest. Oh he remembered that one, the scary biotic they helped lock up as bait for Shepard before. It was probably good Varvok wasn't here, that would've made things awkward. Well, more awkward than they currently were given the looks both sides of the table were giving one another.

"It's just like any other business deal," he muttered silently to himself. "Just keep it cool."

The lead human of the group was first to speak up.

"Jacob Taylor, Armoury officer of the Normandy," he greeted.

"First Mate Retz of the Fallen Serpent," the kig-yar replied with as confident a smile he could muster. "Welcome aboard. It's a pleasure to have you."

"That doesn't seem to be the opinion of everyone though," Jacob noted, looking towards one of the batarians.

The four-eyed alien just grunted at the human, but Retz wasn't about to let this get off topic so quickly.

"We can make adjustments to any misgivings we may have, I assure you," he informed the human before eyeing the batarian in question. "We will be accommodating because we need each other, correct?"

The batarian backed off, although he was clearly still searing with hatred beneath the surface. At least Jacob seemed to want to get to business as much as Retz did. Wasting time would get nowhere.

"I trust you were made well aware of our plan before you got here?" Retz asked.

"Pieces of it," Jacob admitted. "I'd rather hear it in full though, particularly in how it pertains to us since we're putting our lives on the line here."

"A reasonable demand," Retz shrugged. "Let's get to it then."

Retz turned on the holotable. A display depicting a three-dimensional image of a Corvette floated before them. The large group gathered around now crowded in to get a better look.

"This is our target, a Heavy Corvette similar to our own," Retz began. "Not nearly as customized and decked out as ours, but suitable enough for our needs. With this ship in our possession we should be able to house your Human comrades for a considerable amount of time. As well as give us a tow to the nearest friendly port in reach of this system for repairs."

"Yeah, you guys do look like you could use it," the hooded human noted. "This place is a wreck right now."

"Considering we had to fight our way out of the middle of the Covenant Blockade it could've been far worse," Retz replied somewhat jovially, doing his best to hide his annoyance of that obvious fact. "I hope that the condition of the ship has at least confirmed our stated intentions for you, Ms…?"

"Goto, Kasumi Goto," the woman answered back graciously. "So, how are we snatching this ship, exactly?"

She sounded eager to know the details, very well no sense in stalling more. Retz advanced the display to show two small representations of Phantoms near the holographic ship.

"The Covie Corvette is currently searching for us," he explained. "It's still a ways off but it is in the general area. We're going to draw it in by activating our distress signal. We're going to try and make it look like it was an accident by deactivating it soon after, but we'll leave it on long enough for them to get a fix."

"Sounds like a bit of a risk," Jacob noted. "They'll be heading straight for your ship and everyone on it."

"Yes, but it will give them an idea of where the ship is and where it isn't," Retz continued. "That latter part is important. While they're approaching, I and several of the boys here will get aboard these two Phantoms. We'll fly out a good distance away in an opposing direction and when the Corvette shows up we'll approach them. I've scrambled the ID on them so they won't know the dropships were registered to the Serpent. When they hail us for confirmation I'm going to say we have wounded sangheili aboard who need medical aid."

"Allowing you to sneak your forces inside their ship," the drell noted. "A clever tactic, but two dropships won't be enough to take the vessel. I assume this is why you need us?"

The lizard caught on pretty quick. The holo-display advanced forward as Retz continued.

"If we're going to get more people aboard we need to disable their anti-air defence systems," he informed them all. "According to Varvok you people have something that can take care of that issue."

"We do have an AI with Cyber-Warfare subroutines," Jacob admitted. "I'm guessing you want her to disable the ship's weapons. That would allow us and any UNSC forces to board the ship after you."

"That's the idea," Retz answered with a grin. "Once the guns are offline the humans can start swarming the ship. I've already marked out airlocks they can use to get inside. The ship is going to be packed with sangheili though, so we need to overwhelm the defenders at every entry point. That's when the attack starts proper. We need to get to the bridge, take it and then fly the ship back to the Serpent. We hook up the tow, we pick-up any of your straggling friends and then boom, we're off this ring before it becomes glorified space junk."

"Simple and straight-forward," Jacob complimented. "It could work. I'm still wondering if there are any specific tasks we'd need to perform once on the ship. I'd like to think you need us for more than just extra muscle."

The human had a point and was very direct about it. He wasn't asking stupid questions thankfully, so Retz was more than happy to answer. He'd probably want to know as much as possible before going on a job similar to this himself.

"To be honest I wasn't sure which members of Shepard's crew I'd be getting so I didn't try to make the plan rely too much on specific skill sets," he conceded to them. "However, I'm open to any ideas you may have yourselves."

"Well, I could go in with you guys on the first wave," Kasumi suggested to him. "If you need someone to help you crack the Corvette's systems I can help. Hell, I can probably help speed things up for EDI in taking out the power to the weapons. Or at the very least make it easier to hold the Shuttle Bay while we wait for reinforcements."

"I could get behind the enemy's lines," the drell proposed. "I'd just need a layout of the ship's ventilation systems and I can sneak past their defences. With any luck, I could remove potential obstacles to our progress and inform you of any of their attempts to counter the assault."

A scout would be good, as would a skilled hacker. Retz was capable in his own right, but it helped to have more expertise regardless.

"That could be useful," he stated firmly. "The rest of you I think could serve in a more direct capacity. The sangheili are tough opponents, as you're no doubt aware. Us kig-yar are considerably more fragile than them so any added assistance you can provide in breaking down their defences would be appreciated. As would limiting their ability to call for help."

"We can see about using EDI to jam them," Jacob considered. "But for that to be permanent we'll need to take over communications. I can focus our primary efforts there with Zaeed."

"You really expecting your former friends to send down reinforcements with the damn monsters running around?" The old merc, who Retz assumed was Zaeed, asked.

"We were never exactly friends," the kig-yar pirate corrected. "And given the nature of our crimes against the Covenant I'd rather not assume they wouldn't try. Sangheili don't like heretics stealing their ships."

The large krogan eyed the display with a furrowed brow and sneering frown.

"Just put me at the front of the action," he declared. "I'll break whatever defence they have."

"Taking over the crew quarters would be one of our key objectives," Retz informed him after a bit of thought. "Most of the heavy weapons would be stored there for safe keeping. You break into there, we have the big guns needed to finish the job."

"Fine," the bald woman stated grumpily. "I'll take the crew quarters with Grunt then. I hope you guys intend to help out though. We're not gonna carry you people the whole damn way."

One of the batarian squad leaders just glared at the human, practically growling as he began to speak.

"We are going to be doing the heavy grunt work here, human," he declared angrily. "Varvok put us in charge of securing the ship. This is our mission. If anything, we'll be carrying you people."

"Oh really?" The bald human laughed. "Because from what I understand, we're here because you asshats picked the wrong side and now you're begging us to save your asses. Wasn't that your Commander's sales pitch?"

"Lieutenant Commander Varvok did not beg a human to help us," the batarian squad leader barked back. "He impressed upon your Commander the necessity of an alliance for our shared benefit."

Retz cleared his throat loudly, before things got considerably out of hand. Thankfully, they quieted down pretty quickly.

"We are stuck in the same position, all of us," he reminded them. "I'll admit, it's not ideal for any of us. We've been killing each other for the past few days…"

"Or capturing us and using us as bait," the bald woman snarled.

Retz just gave an exasperated look towards the human before continuing. So she did recall their part in her capture, or at least the batarians anyway. No matter, she'd get over it. She'd have to if she wanted to live.

"Regardless of our untoward actions against each other in the past, we need each other now," he sternly reiterated. "That Corvette is our one chance at escaping Halo. Given that we now have a very limited time-frame to accomplish said escape, I suggest we all accept that. Our leaders as well as your own have initiated a highly dangerous mission alongside one another in order to destroy this ring. Let's not bicker about the details of who has wronged who and such when greater issues are currently at stake."

"Fair enough," Jacob concurred. "We want off Halo as much as anyone."

Both the tattooed woman and the batarian squad leader backed off. Although the batarian did have one other thing to say.

"This whole plan, if not this alliance, hinges on the UNSC assisting," he noted. "Where are they? Yours was the only ship that arrived."

"They'll be here," Jacob insisted. "We have people who are currently discussing matters with them."

"Well I hope they make up their minds about helping us soon then," Retz informed him. "Because without their assistance, this plan is doomed to fail before it even begins. So for all our sakes, let us hope your fellow humans see reason before your Shipmaster and mine light the fuse on this ring."

"On that, I think we can all agree," Jacob assured him.

---

A shuttle ride to a mission had never felt as awkward as this one did right now. Shepard found himself and his crew sitting with two former enemies just a few feet away from them. It probably wasn't the most insane thing to happen any of them. He had after all woke up from being dead only to realise he now had to work for a Terrorist Group he thought he had destroyed. This still felt weird though. He had allied them with someone who just days before had attempted to kill them. No matter how much he tried, Shepard couldn't shake off the fact it felt a bit uncomfortable.

To his credit, Varvok was doing his best not to make things worse. Given how much he had gone on about how much he disliked humans he was obviously repressing a lot of deep seated anger. He was probably resisting the urge to break out into a rant about the Systems Alliance or whatever. He kept his mouth shut though and only ever asked a few pertinent questions about the mission at hand. If nothing else, he was trying to be professional.

While Varvok was easy to read, given his gruff tone of voice and disquieted posture around humans, his companion was a bit more of an enigma. Zek didn't seem all that unnerved, more excited than anything. He was looking forward to the mission at hand, he had made that fact very clear from the onset. Shepard wondered if that was about the thrill or the fact he just wanted to piss the Covenant off even more.

It could've been both, he couldn't be sure. He didn't know the Covenant races as much as he did the batarians. It wasn't because he hadn't read up on them, he had, it was just he had more opportunities to encounter batarians who actually talked to him in one form or another. Every Jackal he had met up until this point had tried to burn his face off or a put a needle through his skull.

Also, there was the fact the Commander's career had been defined by facing off and killing a whole heap of batarians on a human colony. Shepard imagined that was why Varvok gave him a rather foul look every now and then, if only to offset his obvious repressed disgust without going off on a tirade. Shepard let the batarian get away with the glares. They didn't bother him anyway. He was sure he'd have to deal with some stupid justification for the Skyllian Blitz at some point though. And he'd be ready to fire back an appropriate response when that happened, but for now they had a giant floating space ring to blow up.

In regards to that, they had explained why activating Halo would be bad. To say the least, both of their former adversaries were a bit surprised at the news when it had finally come out. Varvok just seemed to get even angrier at the Covenant while Zek eventually took a weird sort of pleasure in it. Mainly in that it meant the Covenant Leaders were wrong about the ring. It did at least impress upon them both the importance of destroying Halo even further.

"If I had known this ring was capable of such destruction I would've been against this endeavor from the start," Varvok stated adamantly.

"Well at least we get to blow it up now," Zek noted. "That's making up for it I imagine."

Of course, there was a sense that if they were sharing information so freely perhaps Varvok and Zek should do the same. Specifically about certain facts that needed clarification. There was thing in particular that Shepard was interested in.

"So when exactly did the Covenant approach the Hegemony?" He asked.

"A little over a year ago," Varvok replied. "They sent emissaries into Hegemony space on one of their ships to negotiate a possible partnership. When we realised it possessed cloaking technology the Emperor himself demanded that he be allowed to speak with them. The deal was we share resources, we assist them in their war back home with an expeditionary force as well as help them in whatever endeavors they require back where we're from. In return they help us by giving us some of their technology and assist us in returning our people to glory. It was supposed to be mutually beneficial."

"Well, that's worked out splendidly hasn't it?" Miranda chided at him a bit derisively.

Varvok offered no apology, and Shepard honestly didn't expect one. This was about learning what they could, Liara could use the information for one to get a leg up on Balak back home.

"Do you have any idea what Balak is planning?" Shepard asked him next.

"Not entirely," Varvok admitted. "Balak didn't want to tip his hand too much. I may have been in his inner circle, but he's fairly secretive. The less people know about every aspect of his designs the better. You saw it yourself during the Terra Nova Asteroid incident. He didn't tell those slavers he had installed himself with what the full plan was, not until it was too late to turn back. It's the same here, all I know is he intends to hit the Systems Alliance where it hurts, diverting their forces away from his true target. He never told me what that was and he was still trying to figure out his diversion before I left through the Wormhole. All I remember is significant military outposts in the Traverse, all vital in some form or another."

At least it was something that Liara could use. Although there was still no telling when Balak would act upon his grand designs. Balak was rather patient after all, if his undercover work in getting a bunch of slavers to take part in a terrorist attack was anything to go by.

"You're being awfully forward about all this," Miranda noted. "Any reason why?"

"It's clear to me now that the Covenant fully intend to usurp my people and make them just another cog in their war machine like any other race they've absorbed," Varvok admitted. "Their assistance is merely to make us too dependent on them for us to resist when that day comes. A diabolical tactic, one we should've suspected from aliens."

"How funny," Tali remarked sardonically. "The one time you batarians set aside your xenophobia and it threatens to end with your culture being overtaken by aliens. Ironic really, maybe next time you shouldn't make friends with people just because they hate humans as much as you do."

The batarian took a bit of offence to this comment, looking to Tali rather incredulously in response.

"As if your people wouldn't do anything to reclaim the homeworld you lost, quarian," Varvok growled.

"Hmm, let me think," Tali mockingly wondered aloud. "Would my people be stupid enough to decide to trust people like the Covenant? Would we ally with an admittedly ruthless alliance of different alien races who glass planets on a whim, kill people for refusing to believe what they do and would probably force us into servitude just so we could possibly regain our homeworld? Yeah, no, my people can be pretty damn stupid at times, believe me I know, but throwing away our entire culture to become little better than slaves to an oppressive theocratic bunch of genocidal bosh'tets is highly unlikely. It would defeat the entire purpose of getting Rannoch back. My people want respect above all else, not power. There's a difference."

Varvok was seemingly already tired of the argument and just wanted to get back on point.

"All I know is that if Balak's plans succeed now it will force the Hegemony further into the service of the Covenant," he declared. "Breaking that Alliance is more important than regaining what was lost. We will not be servants to the Covenant, I refuse to let that happen."

Shepard supposed he could accept that reasoning. If nothing else, Varvok at least had his head on straight. It was more than he could say for some batarians. He was willing to put aside their differences in favour of saving what was left of his men. A fact that put another question into Shepard's mind.

"I'm assuming you and your men are all that's left of the expeditionary force Balak sent," he postulated.

"Yes," Varvok admitted. "We did have those krogan mercenaries, but they've apparently exhausted themselves entirely so to speak."

"I actually heard about that from a friend of mine," Shepard informed him, remembering the reports Liara had sent him. "Did you know their leader, Kreave, at all?"

"You mean the crazy krogan who seemed to be in love with every footstep you took?" Varvok rhetorically asked in response, sounding distantly annoyed as he did. "I only met him once actually and I honestly did not care for him. He enjoyed the killing way too much. To him this was all one big vacation, didn't treat it like a job at all. He may have been a great strategist, but he was too caught up in dreams of glory half the time."

Yeah, that was Kreave alright. Shepard was honestly just happy he wouldn't be seeing him again. That didn't mean that it was the last they'd see of the Blood Pack though. He already had suspicions that such a thing was inevitable now.

"Do you think their new leader will send more troops here?" He asked. "With you leaving, that will create a space to fill in the terms of your treaty."

"It's honestly up to Balak now," Varvok noted with a sigh. "He hired the Blood Pack in the first place. I imagine it would take time though to sort out the details and he's too busy with other things to worry about that for now. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what he'll do when he finds out what I've done."

"But he was your mentor," Tali recalled, a bit befuddled at the statement. "You must have some idea how he'd respond."

"Only in the sense he'll declare me a traitor," Varvok elaborated. "Depending on his current situation and how important he thinks it is, how he responds is hard to predict. He can do anything between hiring assassins to locate me or sending in a whole battalion through to hunt down me and my men. For now, I can only wait to see what he does."

Shepard decided to let it drop there, he didn't want to prod Varvok too much. This alliance was already shake at best and he imagined the batarian didn't want to share too much. They were already half way to the Autumn, that was really where there focus should be. Shepard only wanted to ask now, just in case there wasn't a later. No one had any illusions that this was going to be simple after all.

Not long after the questioning ended, Zek filled the void of silence with his own discussion. He had been eying Mordin's head for a bit, specifically the fact it appeared to be missing something. The fact he had been staring wasn't lost on the salarian, who simply stared back.

"What happened to the other head thingy?" He asked.

"Cranial horn damaged," Mordin explained briskly. "Long time ago. Barely think of it."

"Bet there's a story there," The Jackal snickered. "Scar stories are always fun."

"Do not find mutilation fun," Mordin bluntly stated. "Do not wish to speak of events. Please, stop staring."

Zek just put up his hands and went back to eyeing the other members of the crew. Specifically Tali and her suit.

"Ugh, what?" She asked, annoyed by his glaring.

"Four Eyes says you guys never take those off for some reason," he stated.

"We do, just not in non-sterile places," she informed him. "And before you ask, no, we do not look like weird bug people or cybernetic half-machine people or whatever your batarian friend suggested."

Varvok just huffed slightly.

"I didn't make any suggestions," he haughtily spoke up. "I really don't care how ugly your kind looks."

Zek, fortunately, or unfortunately it depended on how you looked at it, brought the quarian's attention back to him with his true question before she could rebut Varvok's remarks.

"How do you go?" He asked.

"Excuse me?" Tali responded, not liking what he was implying.

"You know, go," Zek elaborated. "Bleed the razorfin, leak the chorka, launch the torpedoes, drop the brown egg, go. I'm trying to be polite here."

Tali groaned in disgust, placing her hands over her faceplate.

"Keelah," she growled inwardly. "We have a waste system that collects it if you must know. We discard it as soon we're done. It works like tossing garbage out an airlock on a ship. Are you satisfied now?"

Zek just shrugged slightly, turning towards Legion next.

"So, what that thing's story?" He asked inquisitively.

"This platform was designed to allow us to explore beyond the collective consciousness of the Consensus in order to-"

The Jackal suddenly shook his head.

"No, no, I mean the hole," Zek insisted asked once more. "What's up with the hole?"

Legion looked down slightly at the aforementioned gap in his torso.

"We were damaged during our travels and endeavoured to make repairs," the Geth explained.

"So why does it look like you raided his armoury to do it?" Zek asked, pointing a thumb to Shepard.

Shepard looked to his armour himself and then to Legion. He fully expected Zek to be as disspaointed with the answer as he was when he asked it original. Sure enough, the Geth's head flaps just rustled about for a moment before he inevitably gave an answer.

"There was a hole," they eventually stated.

"Well that's a really crappy and vague answer," Zek declared, sounding rather annoyed.

"Forget it," Tali told Zek in a rather defensive tone. "We all tried asking that question and that's the only answer we ever got. It's obviously personal so be respectful and just drop it."

Zek leaned back against the wall of the shuttle with a grunt.

"Why all the probing personal questions, exactly?" Miranda asked suddenly with a perched eyebrow.

"I'm trying to get a feel for the people I'm working with," Zek explained. "Is that so wrong?"

"And your chosen way of doing that is asking about missing body parts and how they go to the bathroom." Miranda noted with a disgruntled look. "Honestly, one would think you'd have more prudent questions than that."

"If you mean about the mission we're on, I think you explained it all well enough," the Jackal replied. "We activate that crashed ship's self-destruct and get the hell out before it all goes boom. Really, what else is there to go over?"

In Miranda's mind, much. They had asked Varvok a ton of questions, why not ask the same of his Jackal friend?

"For one thing, you could tell us about what we might expect at the Autumn," she keenly noted. "The Covenant took over the site as I recall."

"Hey, if you wanna know strategy, the inner workings of the society, my personal opinion on the races, I'm your man," Zek explained rather dispassionately. "That kind of stuff I can go on for hours. But I got nothing on any specifics. I'm not as high-up on the ladder as you might think. I'm a kig-yar, we're not thought of that highly you know. I'm low level, Varvok had a more direct association with the leadership by virtue of his position."

"So how'd you two end up working together then?" Miranda asked, looking between the two of them inquisitively.

Zek looked over to Varvok for a brief a moment before giving his answer.

"Eh, convenience I guess," he admitted. "We ended up seeing the Supreme Commander round the same time after your ship crashed. Him because he was getting pissed on for capturing your pilot and me because I, well, I took pot shots at some of you guys. That other guy who stayed on the Truth and Reconciliation I think."

Everyone's gaze now shot directly at the Jackal.

"You were the bosh'tet who shot at Garrus back on the Autumn?" Tali shouted aloud.

"And that Armoured Human if I remember," he added, before suddenly pointing to Miranda. "Oh and I think I saw her there too, I guess."

"Well, this is certainly an unexpected surprise," Miranda grumbled, slightly perturbed by the information.

Varvok sighed despondently at how casually Zek had admitted to that, but the Jackal just seemed to brush it off.

"Hey, you people later took shots at me on that island, okay," He shot back in very rushed and hurried manner. "That's sufficient payback. So let's just admit we all played a role in trying to kill each other and move past that. No excuses, I apologise. If I could go back then with what I know now I wouldn't have done it. How's that? We good?"

Everyone reluctantly let the subject drop, they supposed this wasn't the time or place to make a big deal about who shot at who. Besides, they knew Varvok had tried to kill them from the get go and they still agreed to this alliance. They could hardly back out now over this.

"Fine, Zek, we're good," Shepard answered at last.

"Great, now we can get back to doing what's important," the kig-yar declared before a wide joyful smile stretched across his face. "Blowing up this stupid fake planet in front of the entire Fleet of Particular Justice for giggles. Heh, heh, gonna be a good day."

Miranda groaned beneath her breath.

"Yes, as you've mentioned, several times in fact," she stated somewhat annoyed.

"Why exactly are you so excited about this?" Tali asked earnestly. "You do realise how dangerous and serious this is."

"Yeah, yeah, you've made a good point about it," Zek assured her. "You can't fault me for taking a little joy in it though."

"Then at least help us understand," Shepard was quick to add. "Why do you want to blow up Halo so much?"

Zek pulled himself off the wall, his expression finally turning slightly serious for once.

"The Covenant has been looking for Halo for longer than anyone can remember," he explained. "It's been the big thing that's united their stupid little cult for eons now. For years after I got forced into working for them, I had to listen to their bullshit about how finding this place was going to bring about a new dawn. That it was some leftover gift from the Gods that was gonna save everyone. I had to put up with hearing that every day and every time I told them off about how stupid it was I got punished for it. I always avoided getting killed for it because I did what they told me to do and never went too far. Now you confirm what I always knew, that these fabled rings aren't here to save anyone and the Forerunners weren't Gods. That's somewhat satisfying, but not enough."

"And blowing it up would be?" Miranda asked.

"It would be closure," Zek declared adamantly. "Finality to all the years I had to suck it up and listen to those stupid longnecks and their dumb warrior cult patsies. This ring represents all those lost years of freedom they stole from me. So when we blow it up right in the Supreme Commander's face, I'm gonna try real hard not to laugh so I can take in every second of the destruction. So I can picture the exact moment when their stupid dream is taken away like they did to mine. That will make me happier than I've ever been in my entire life."

Shepard just nodded, he supposed he couldn't fault Zek for taking some pleasure in this if he wanted to. He did, however, have something to add.

"So long as you don't forget the lives at stake," Shepard warned. "Not just ours and the UNSC personnel. Your men are out there too. Blowing up Halo risks their lives as much as ours. There is a chance they might not make it."

"If everything goes as planned they will," the Jackal declared. "Retz can pull this off, I know he can. So long as you get those humans to do their part."

"They will, I'm sure of it," Shepard assured him.

Shepard did not want this to become another Reach. They fled that planet, leaving untold thousands to die in the cataclysm to come. The thought of doing it again burned in the back of Shepard's mind. He wanted a win, he wanted to get them all out of this. Surviving Reach only to die here just didn't seem fair. Enough good Soldiers and Marines had suffered that fate already, he just wanted this one to go right.

"We're going to get everyone we can off this planet before it blows," Shepard promised Varvok and Zek. "Your people included. Garrus and the others will help them get it done. None of us wants to leave our people behind. But we need to just trust they can do that and focus on our task. It's the only thing we can do."

"Agreed," Zek concurred. "One step at a time I say. We meet up with your big armored friend first and then blow this place. Hell, we're basically just back-up anyway. How hard can it be to flick a self-destruct switch, right?"

Shepard could probably tell him all the time when it turned out flicking switch ended up being a lot harder than one thought. Then again, so would convincing UNSC Marines to help ex-Covies take over a hostile Corvette. That one was on Garrus now though and Shepard could only hope he was having some kind of luck.

---

Garrus hadn't stood still while the others scoured the ship for Flood remnants. If they wanted to steal a second ship with the Jackals and batarians, he needed to start gathering up men now. Waiting would only mean they wouldn't have enough time to pull it off.

Silva certainly wasn't waiting either, he was on his own schedule and he was keeping to it. According to him, Covenant resistance aboard the Truth and Reconciliation was all but over. The Command Deck was now in UNSC hands and engineers were already working to get the ship back in order. The Major seemed almost celebratory, jovial even as he announced the success over the radio. Whatever anger or distaste he had felt before about the proposed alliance with the Covenant Deserters had seemingly evaporated. Garrus wasn't entirely sure why, but he doubted it was simply because he had taken the Battlecruiser.

Nevertheless, he had to focus on his own problem of acquiring manpower for what he hoped would be the real escape plan. He decided to request help from Samara, who had opted to stay behind when the Normandy went on ahead to meet with the Jackal ship. He wasn't too sure what her thoughts on the situation were exactly, she was at times difficult to read. Garrus was hoping she'd offer extra weight for his argument when appealing to the Marines aboard the ship. She did spend a bit more time with them than most.

Garrus found the asari among the Marines themselves, a small squad of them to be precise. Five Marines named Ellingham, Kowalski, Ramirez, Pearson and Agley. They all looked like they had been through the ringer themselves. Garrus could empathise with that, considering how many messes he and Shepard had stepped in it. Samara was already well aware of the situation at hand, but Garrus still explained it for the benefit of the Marines. He needed to at least make things clear for them so they could make an informed decision, but both options presented weren't exactly desirable as Samara herself stated.

"I must admit that the idea of aligning myself with these deserters is distasteful," she explained to him when he approached her for assistance. "Despite their change in allegiance, my duty as a Justicar is clear. They were part of the Fleet that glassed Reach. They played a role, however small, in the deaths of innocents on that world. The Code calls for the appropriate action to be taken."

"Believe me, I haven't forgotten who they are either," Garrus assured her in response. "That doesn't make Silva right by proxy though. He's potentially putting us all in danger and I don't think it's for the right reasons."

"You're still asking us to make friends with Covies," stated Ellingham. "Covies who deserted maybe, but that doesn't mean they're suddenly the good guys. Making friends with them is a hard pill to swallow for any Marine."

"Yeah, you got your worked cut out for you there, bud," Ramirez informed the turian.

They weren't saying anything he hadn't told himself, but Garrus wasn't about to let his own doubts get in the way of things. He trusted Shepard's instincts on this, that Varvok and Zek were being honest about their intentions. Besides, he had thought up a few others points since his heated discussion with Silva.

"This is a bigger issue than the war with the Covenant now," he informed them. "Silva's brought an infested Marine aboard this ship for one. Not to mention we've all faced the Flood by now and we know what they're capable of combat wise. These things were so voracious, the most powerful alien race in the galaxy decided the only way to stop them was to kill everything and starve them to death. Let's not kid ourselves here, if any of them get beyond this system it will be a disaster. We're better off taking a ship we know isn't infested instead of one that was previously crawling with the bastards. Personally, I don't really care who provides us that ship, so long as we keep the Flood stuck on this ring when it blows."

Garrus' words forced the Marines to think, forced them to re-evaluate their situation. Kowalski in particular seemed deep in thought for about a minute before he finally broke the silence.

"He has a point guys," Kowalski said with a sense of concern. "We saw first-hand what those things could do. They killed Sergeant Taylor, tossed him into a tree like a ragdoll. Do we really wanna chance them getting to Earth?"

"I'll admit, this news about an infected Marine aboard is pretty worrisome," Corporal Pearson added with a cautious tone. "Plus if the Flood were here before, I doubt they're just going to give up on this place. They didn't quit chasing us as I recall."

"Yeah and all this talk about this ship being infested with those things isn't helping my anxiety," Agley stated nervously.

Ellingham, however, still felt uncomfortable about the situation.

"But it's still helping a bunch of Covies," he stated, shaking his head. "I mean, I don't want to escape this deathtrap of a ring with a bunch of killer parasites in tow, but is it any better if we end up having to rely on a bunch of Jackals for help?"

"Well it's not like they're Elites, now that I think of it," Ramirez noted thoughtfully. "If they tried anything we could probably take them. There can't be that many of them if they're asking us for help in taking over a ship, right? So really, we probably have the advantage in numbers when it comes to a fight."

"Still doesn't feel right," Ellingham grumbled, slowly turning towards Samara. "What about you, Sam? You said your Code was pretty clear about this."

The asari nodded dutifully, closing her eyes as she did for a moment as she contemplated. Garrus wondered what conclusion she was about to reach. He could only hope that the Justicar's Code would not interfere with helping the deserters, for her sake and their own.

"In a situation like this, with two equally distressing options," she began to explain profoundly. "A Justicar must rely on her own tuition to best determine the demands of justice. These Jackals and batarians committed heinous crimes. They are guilty and should be punished. However, the Flood represents a greater evil, one that cannot be tempered or resolved as easily as most. To allow their escape would endanger more innocents, something I cannot permit. If this vessel is truly still infested then I must act accordingly and prevent its use as their escape in some fashion."

"Such as, stealing another ship with the help of some less than desirable people?" Garrus asked cautiously.

"If that is the only way to protect the lives of the just men and women we currently serve with, I will," Samara relented. "The Code demands I punish these Jackals and their batarian allies, but I will stay my hand in the interest of protecting the innocent and defeating a far greater evil. It is similar in fashion to how I have prevented myself from following the Code in regards to Jack for example. The Flood is the more pressing danger for the time being, as are the Covenant still in service to the destruction of innocent lives."

Well that was at least one problem off Garrus' back. Samara was willing to go along with this, at least in the short-term. They'd have to cross the bridge of what came after their escape from Halo later though. For now, Ellingham was keen to remind the turian about the remaining problem.

"Say we go along with this, Vakarian," he started. "What about Major Silva? He's pretty dead set on flying off with this tub now. How exactly are we going to persuade him otherwise?"

"You don't have to worry about that," Garrus assured him. "Noble Two has a plan. She's going to go over his head. The Normandy has already rendezvoused with the Jackal ship by now. She's going to radio Joker and ask their help in finding Colonel Holland. We're going to need his forces to pull this thing off anyway."

"Are you certain Holland will agree with the plan?" Samara asked the turian. "He has as much reason to distrust the Jackals as anyone in the UNSC. Even if he does agree, can we be certain he'll convince Silva to follow suit?"

Garrus could only shrug. It was a question he had asked himself already.

"I can't say for sure, Samara," he admitted, shaking his head. "What I do know, is we need to start spreading the word. Inform as many people as you can about the possibility of the Flood infestation. Convince them to start looking for signs they're still here. Linda, McKay and Jun are already on it. They need to know this place is a potential risk and we have a better option on the table. I'm setting up muster stations for anyone willing to help out when the time comes."

"How many Marines and Troopers are you hoping to convince?" Samara questioned him curiously.

"As many as it takes to take overwhelm a still battle-ready and fully manned enemy ship," Garrus answered plainly. "I'm hoping we can get by on some of the good faith we've built up with everyone, but I admit it's going to be an uphill battle regardless."

Kowalski stepped up among his squad.

"We can let people know at least about the Flood potentially stowing away," he informed the turian. "If nothing else, maybe they'll find proof you can use to convince Silva to change his mind."

"That's all I can ask for now," Garrus responded. "Thanks, Private. I just want to make sure we leave Halo the right way and not the fast way. The latter gets a lot more people killed. Just wait for Noble Two to get through to Holland, he'll sort this out. I'm sure of it."

He tried his best to sound confident as he walked off, but truthfully Garrus was concerned about what would happen next. Holland was a reasonable man, but that didn't guarantee he'd agree to this plan. And like Samara said, Silva was a whole other story. He just hoped things went smoothly and Shepard was taking his time with blowing up this damn ring. He had a feeling they'd need the extra seconds.

---

The Pillar of Autumn rested on the cliff edge, brilliantly illuminated by the rising sun. The burnt out husk of ship was a shadow of its former glory, broken and battered beyond all repair. In its wake was the giant trench it had dug when it crashed down. The front tip of its bow hung precariously off the ledge of the cliff. Broken off parts of the ship were scattered around it and scorch marks from the battle that had brought it down were still visible along the hull.

This had been the ship that had brought the Master Chief to this ring in the first place and now it would bring about its end. Chief never expected he would return to the Autumn¸ but now it almost felt fitting. Their mission to this ring had seemingly come full circle.

Of course, it was difficult to ponder this fact while their Banshee was smoking out of every orifice and pieces of it were flying off. This bird was reaching the end of its road and no one seemed more aware of this fact than Cortana herself. While she was panicking about that fact, Chief was doing his best to keep her calm.

"This thing is falling apart!" She screeched aloud as the Banshee wobbled in the air towards its destination.

"It'll hold," Chief assured her calmly as he aimed for the vacant lifeboat bay.

"We're not gonna make it!"

"We'll make it."

"Pull up!" Cortana screamed at him. "Pull up!"

The Banshee's nose suddenly dipped just before they reached the lifeboat bay. It crashed face first into the Autumn's hull, exploding on impact. It left only a skid mark on the already badly burnt metal as the wreckage plummeted to the ground below.

"You did that on purpose, didn't you?" Cortana asked, somewhat aggravated.

Chief did his best not to show a hint of amusement as he pulled himself up into the lifeboat bay. Really, the reason he hadn't jumped until the last second was because he wanted to be close enough to grab onto the bulkhead. The fact it freaked Cortana out a little was just a small bonus, really. Once no longer dangling precariously anymore, Chief stood up in the lifeboat bay with his assault rifle ready. He moved into the desolate ship proper carefully watching every corner as he was unsure at this point what he would find.

"We need to get to the Bridge," Cortana stated, the near death experience already shaken off. "We can activate the self-destruct from there. The Maintenance Access Corridors should provide the fastest route, I'll highlight a few waypoints on your HUD as we go."

Chief followed the hallway towards the first navpoint, noticing not much had changed about the Autumn's interior since the crash. It was certainly more decrepit looking, its dimensions slightly warped and the inside itself darkened from the loss of proper light sources, but it seemed perfectly intact for the most part. Chief supposed they could thank Captain Keyes for that. His manual crash landing was probably the reason so much of the ship had survived in one piece, including the reactor they were here to overload.

He found the door to the Maintenance Access Corridors at the back of the Lifeboat Launch Bay already open. It had probably been stuck that way since the crash. Turning on his rifle's flashlight, Chief scanned the darkened hallway ahead of him. Cortana directed him best she could through the black, eventually finding an opening that led down into a room below. Their forward progress was suddenly halted, however, by something spilling out from the opening itself, Infection Forms.

"Of course they're here," Cortana bemoaned in Chief's ear. "Why wouldn't they be?"

Chief didn't have time to think about why, not with the little monsters swarming towards him. He unleashed a furious barrage from his assault rifle, ripping through the nasty little parasites with ease. Their slimy insides soon coated the walls as the bullets chewed them up. When it was clear, Chief carefully moved towards the opening. He could already hear what was below before he looked, his eyes only confirmed his suspicions. Carrier Forms, waddling around like they owned the place. To be fair, they probably did.

"They must've sensed the Covenant garrison here," Master Chief suggested. "Chances are most of the ship is crawling with them already."

"A sound hypothesis," Cortana concurred. "There may still be Covenant alive though. With any luck, they're keeping the majority of them busy. Regardless, we knew this wasn't going to be that easy, this doesn't alter the plan. We should clear them out and keep moving."

Agreeing with the AI, Master Chief activated one of his grenade and let it drop into the room below. He pulled back from the open just as the grenade's explosion devastated the Carrier Forms below. He waited until the last gasbag had burst before he dropped below. At firs tit seemed like the room was clear, then came a warbling sound from behind.

One of the Carriers was still alive, but not for much longer as it had already started to swell of its own volition. The gas sack suddenly burst as Chief moved to escape it. The blast killed his shields and sent him flying into a support beam. Turning onto his back as fast as possible, he saw the spawn of the Carrier swarming towards him. With his rifle in one hand, Chief fired back, killing the little monsters as they surged forward. But one got through his fire and was about to pounce on him. Without shields he the Spartan was defenceless as the Infection Form tried to dig through the armor to his bare skin.

Then, as if by providence, an electrical burst shot out from the suit as the Infection Form tried to crack the Spartan's shell. The little parasite exploded and Chief shielded his face from getting splattered with its remains. It was only now that he noticed his HUD had be disrupted momentarily before coming back online.

"Sorry, Chief," Cortana apologised, sounding concerned. "I didn't know what else to do. I borrowed what power I could from the armor to fire off an electrical discharge. Are you alright? Your vitals seem stable."

"Yeah," the Spartan assured her as he got back to his feet. "I'm okay. You stopped it just in time. That was quick thinking actually. Thanks."

"Eh, I picked it up from you," she said, in a slightly uncharacteristic bit of modesty. "Your spontaneous bouts of reckless abandon are rubbing off on me."

Chief another lighthearted huff as he stood up. He didn't want to say it aloud, not wishing to give in to the AI's ego, but he was starting to wonder why they hadn't paired Spartans up with AIs sooner. Stepping over what was left of the Flood forms, he made his way forward. He didn't get but a few feet before he dropped back down into safer cover. For he heard another distinctive sound, the hovering whirl and slicing laser shot of a Sentinel. There were three, in fact, all of them backing up into the room while shooting at a group of attacking Flood Forms.

"Sentinels," Cortana grimaced in a whisper. "The hell?"

"Maybe they're responding to the Flood threat," Chief suggested hopefully. "Worried about them fixing the ship."

"The Monitor isn't that stupid," Cortana regretfully informed him. "Anyone can see this ship isn't going anywhere anytime soon. No, he knows we're here and that means more flying robots to deal with soon enough."

He knew she was right, this wasn't a coincidence they were never that lucky. Guilty Spark knew they were here and that was going to lead to some problems. For now though, they just had these three to deal with. Thankfully, the Chief had some they could use, a spare Plasma Rifle that had been stored inside the Banshee. That would certainly wreak havoc with their synthetic foes.

He waited for the fighting to die down. No sense in getting the attention of both sides. Once all the Flood Forms were dead, Chief popped back up and fired a stream of bolts at the nearest Sentinel. It didn't take long for its shields to fail, leaving it defenceless against the plasma based assault. Before long, the robot was nothing but a twisted lump of melting scrap metal. Its friends didn't take too kindly to this, firing back with laser beams and forcing the Spartan back down into cover.

The machines closed in menacingly, their weapons trained on the Spartan's location. As one turned the corner, Chief pounced on it, grappling with it best he could. It tried to zap him, but the Spartan kept the weapon pointed in any direction besides his head. The remaining Sentinel tried as well, but Chief used the Sentinel he had grabbed to block the shot. The laser cut through the captured Sentinel instead. Chief then let go and kicked the dying machine into the attacking one. Both robots collided with one another, the one Chief had grabbed exploded apart. Its friend was still alive, although slightly dazed. Chief quickly used his Plasma Rifle to finish it off before it got its bearings back.

"I think these three were on Flood control," Cortana theorised. "Not actively hunting us. This deck seems to be crawling with the undead bastards after all. Regardless, if Guilty Spark didn't think we were here before he does now."

"This is going to be a problem," the Spartan grumbled.

"All the more reason for us to get to the bridge quickly then," Cortana insisted. "The sooner we start the countdown, the sooner we'll be gone from here."

They continued forward, watching the hallway ahead for potential threats. They were now in another Lifeboat Launch Bay, just as desolate and gloomy as the last one. As they moved forward though, the misery of the decaying ship was offset by a friendly voice over the radio.

"Chief, Cortana," the voice of Commander Shepard came in. "You receiving me?"

"Commander," Chief immediately spoke up. "It's good to hear from you. We're already inside, what's your position?"

"We've landed as near to the bridge as possible," Shepard stated. "We had DOT scan the ship for a decent enough entry point and she found a hole. We sent the shuttle back to the Normandy. They're going to need every ship they have to help get the Marines to the rendezvous with the Deserters in time. So I'm afraid we're on our own. I'm hoping you guys have some ideas about escape transport."

"There should be a few remaining lifeboats that didn't launch," Cortana assured him. "Once I reconnect with the Bridge I should be able to locate one. If not, I do have a back-up plan on stand-by."

Good, for a second Chief wondered if they were on some kind of suicide mission.

"What's the situation in there, Chief?" Shepard asked. "DOT detected a lot of potential Flood Forms in there before we sent the shuttle back."

"She was right," he confirmed. "They're here, but their ownership of the place is being contested. Cortana still suspects Covenant Forces may still be active, but we do know the Sentinels are here. We can't be certain of their numbers, but they're likely to start growing in a bit."

"So you're saying the Monitor knows we're here then?" Shepard asked, slightly concerned by the news.

"He knows me and Cortana are," Chief clarified. "Considering how much he wants us dead though that's more than enough reason for him to throw more of his Sentinels at us."

"Correction, Chief," Cortana suddenly said. "He wants YOU dead. I'm just supposed to be hand delivered to him in your severed head."

The Spartan grumbled slightly. Things were already dreary enough, that mental image was not helping things.

"We'll try to keep our heads down best we can," Shepard suggested. "The longer we stay off the Monitor's radar the better chance we have of pulling this off. Is there a place we can rendezvous with you?"

"The ship's Mess near the bridge," Cortana suggested. "You should already know the way, sir. Our path should take us right through there. You just keep your eyes on those two tag-a-longs, Commander. I believe they're genuine deserters, but that raises different concerns. We don't want them running off mid-mission."

"Considering we're their only ride off this ring now, that shouldn't be too much of a problem," Shepard assured her. "See you in the Mess Hall, Shepard out."

---

Shepard looked to the others as he ended the call. They had suspected the possibility of Flood and Covenant here, but not so much the Sentinels. It wasn't that they were difficult enemies to beat, but their weapons were far the deadliest of the potential hostiles. They'd need to tread careful, lest they wanted their faces burned off.

"This shouldn't be too much of a problem," Miranda said, sounding rather confident. "The Sentinels are just synthetics like any other. We know how to handle those. No offence, Legion."

"We are not offended," Legion assured her. "The hypothesis is sound given previous encounters with the Program-Monitor's forces."

"Let's just get to that hole in the hull as fast as possible," Shepard ordered. "The Master Chief is going to need backup in there soon. I got point, follow my lead."

The team set out along the length of the now defunct Pillar of Autumn. They were so high up that the wind threatened to push them back. It did give them a magnificent view of the sunrise though. Shepard was out in front of the group and Legion at the back. The Geth was keeping its singular eye on Varvok and Zek as they moved forward. Shepard honestly didn't think they'd try anything, but he felt it was than letting them think they were independent of the mission.

"Surprised this thing is intact after the pummeling it took," Zek noted as they raced along. "Great craftsman at least. Bit bulky for my taste though."

"Don't get too attached to it," Shepard forewarned. "It won't be in one piece for much longer."

"Bit of a shame really," Zek sighed. "Would've been a really cool looking Pirate flagship."

---

While everyone else was busy strategizing and most likely giving nasty looks to one another, Joker just stuck to his domain in the Normandy's pilot seat. He really did not want to think about all the drama involved in this situation. It wasn't that he felt that they should forget about the little tidbit that these guys used to be their enemies, he just didn't want to think about right now. Once they were off Halo sure he'd love to complain about it, but right now he just wanted to be as far away from this ring as possible.

He had to admit though, of all the aliens he thought they'd be teaming up with batarians weren't among them. He had nothing against the four-eyed jerks, well no more than anyone else did, but he didn't think they could swallow their pride deep enough to seek out humans for assistance. To him that proved they were desperate or at least scared more of the creepy zombie things scurrying about Halo. Nothing like fear to bring folks together.

He hadn't forgotten though that these were the same assholes who captured him and Jack. He wasn't about to forgive them though for the whole "using him as bait" thing. Or for the fact they stuck him in the same room as Jack. He wasn't entirely sure which he was angrier at more, Jack was kinda scary when she was locked up after all. Joker somewhat wished Shepard had tried to discuss this with everyone at first, but that was why he was the Commander. He had to make the quick on the spot decisions. He just tried to work with however the chips fell. If Shepard said they were helping out the freaky aliens who had been trying to kill them, fine. Joker would just sleep with a bigger gun. Or he'd have Tali install a turret EDI could use to shoot them if things got hairy, whichever one was easier.

"Jeff," EDI suddenly spoke up as if she sensed he was thinking of her. "We are receiving a transmission."

"Please tell me it's from Shepard," he began before quickly correcting himself. "No wait, don't tell me it's from him. If it is from him it's likely about how he and the Master Chief are about to blow the ring up in five minutes and we need to book it."

"It is not from Shepard," EDI assured him. "It is being transmitted over a secure line. I have identified the signal as Noble 2's personal omni-tool."

Oh, well that was good. Or maybe it was bad, if Kat contacting them it probably meant things weren't going over well with Major Silva. Super, why couldn't things ever be simple? They wanted to live, the batarians and their Jackal buddies wanted live. That was common ground, couldn't they just come to an agreement based on that? Joker quickly had EDI get the Spartan on the line to see how deep the damage was and what exactly she needed them to do about it.

"Hey Kat, so how deep are we in the crapper currently?" He asked rather cynically.

"That depends largely on what happens next," she explained rather plainly. "We need to get in touch with Holland. Silva is being stubborn and I fear he's not willing to listen period. Not to me at least."

"EDI has been trying to reach him but the Colonel has really gone to ground," Joker informed her. "I'm guessing he's hid himself somewhere that the Covenant can't locate and the Flood haven't reached yet. So far though we got nothing."

"No offence to EDI, but if that's the case we may need a bit more help," Kat replied. "I need you to get the Jackals on the line. I'm going to need their assistance."

Joker complied preparing to open a channel to connect Kat's transmission with the Jackal ship.

"You sure they'll be able to help us find him?" He asked the Spartan as he worked.

"If they want human troops to help them take that ship, they have to," Kat answered simply.

It took a few seconds to contact the Jackal ship, specifically the person currently in charge of it all.

"Normandy to Fallen Serpent," Joker began. "I have a message for your Captain or Shipmaster, whatever you guys call yourselves. It's really important, trust me on that."

A moment later, Joker's call was answered.

"We're a little busy here, Normandy," responded the head Jackal, Retz Joker believed he was called. "Mind telling me what's so important?"

"It's not me who wants to talk," Joker replied rather curtly, before activating a few commands on his dash. "Alright, Noble 2, have at'em."

Joker decided to just sit back and listen to things play out. He figured he needed some entertainment while he waited for the mission to get underway.

"Fallen Serpent, I am Lieutenant Commander Catherine-B320, you may call me Noble 2," Kat began. "I require your assistance in locating some of our people."

"Really? In case you're not aware, I'm in the middle of planning an assault on a Covie Corvette that is hunting us," Retz informed her rather sardonically. "I can't exactly take time out to locate every little soldier that's gone missing."

"Then I'm afraid you won't be getting human assistance," Kat sternly declared. "My direct superior is among those missing soldiers. He is the only one capable of authorizing this Alliance and sending you troops. Help me or we're both stuck here."

There was an audible sigh from the Jackal, joker couldn't tell if it was more annoyed or just simply a sign of resignation.

"Fine, but what makes you think I can help you find these people?" He asked the Spartan.

"You found Shepard didn't you?" Kat questioned. "I have UNSC Army Communication codes along with the most likely places to scan for Army Radio Signals. I'd use them, but I can't scan for transmissions with this equipment. The Normandy has been trying to pick up their signal and they should've been able to find them by now."

"Have you considered the possibility that they're dead?" Retz asked, sounding rather bored.

As much as he hated to admit it, Joker wondered if the ex-Covie had a point. Holland should've reached them by now. Either he was dead or there was something else involved. He was hoping for the latter and apparently so was Kat.

"We'd still be able to pick up a distress signal or transmission or something from them if they were," Kat explained. "I think they might be encountering some sort of interference. I'm not sure what. I think if you can use your ship's scanners to boost the search effort you can locate them."

"And you're just willing to hand me over this code of yours?" Retz asked suspiciously. "What's the catch?"

"The only catch is that you can't talk to him when you find him, I trust you can understand why. I'm already taking a considerable risk speaking to you," Kat explained rather bitingly. "I'm not doing this because I want to, it's simply the only way. I am trusting you to erase this code from your systems when you're done. If not, I will have EDI do it and she will be able to, trust me on that. And if she is forced to do it I promise you that it will greatly impact our alliance, in more ways than one. Likely making you and the rest of your crew sit out the voyage home in your own brig."

Joker's head shot back slightly. Noble 2 played hardball when asking for a favour. He wasn't sure how Retz would react. He'd been used to Shepard's diplomatic approach for so long that the more forceful intimidating way of doing things was a bit alien to him. It seemed to work for Kat though, as the Jackal's response made clear.

"Fine, fine," Retz grumbled in a rather annoyed tone. "Send the code and I'll have the boys search for this Holland of yours. You're lucky I need your soldiers human, I'm not usually this accommodating."

"Neither am I, but we're working together, so this is a day for peculiar firsts," Kat informed him. "I'm transmitting the code now. Holland left the Control Room heading south as I understand. Find our people and you'll have your army."

Once the code was received, Retz cut transmission. That left Joker to talk things out with Kat alone.

"You were pretty aggressive with him, huh?" He asked her.

"We need to be," she answered plainly. "We can't let them assume we're the helpless party in this. And I'll be damned if I ever am forced to be polite to a Jackal of all things."

"I get it, you're not comfortable working with the Covenant," joker assured her.

"It's more than that," she informed him, a grave tone in her voice. "The Covenant has killed my family twice over now. Once on my home planet of New Harmony and again on Reach. I'm not about to forgive them. I'm not going along with this because I think an alliance is a good idea. I just know the alternatives are letting the Flood escape or sitting here and watching good men die when we can save them. With any luck, Holland will feel the same."

Joker wasn't sure what to say to that. He supposed he couldn't fault Kat for not liking the idea, but at least she was being practical about it. Better than what he expected of most of the UNSC to feel about this situation.

It was a few minutes before Retz returned with anything in regards to information, but he eventually contacted the Normandy with news.

"Okay, we've done a sweep similar to one we used to find Shepard," he explained. "We had to scan several frequencies, but we think we have something. There's a faint static signal emanating from a plateau several miles away from the Control Room. Far range scanners suggest there's a large structure there. It could be what's causing all the interference. We think it may be a match for your code, but we need to be sure. I'm going to need that AI of yours, EDI to help lock-on to the signal."

"Good," Kat stated briefly. "Joker, EDI, make it happen."

The pilot and AI did as they were told, zeroing in on the signal itself. After clearing up the static a bit, a voice seemed to appear from the fog of the jumbled transmission. Before long, the words became clearer and suddenly…

"This is Colonel Holland, UNSC Army, does anyone receive me over?"

Joker, breathing a jubilant sigh of relief, quickly connected Kat to the transmission line and the Spartan wasted in no time in talking.

"Colonel, Noble 2 reporting," she stated urgently. "We read you. What is your status, sir?"

"About damn time," he growled. "I've been trying to boost this damn signal or find a way to turn this blasted pulsating tower off. It's good to hear your voice, Noble 2. I was starting to worry we lost you. Did Commander Shepard hook up with you yet?"

"Yes sir," Kat assured him. "I've been briefed on the situation. Commander Shepard and the Master Chief are enroute to the Autumn as we speak. They're probably already there, which means we don't have much time."

"Understood, I trust you've already secured the Truth and Reconciliation then," he presumed. "Where is it, we can fly out to meet you immediately."

Oh boy, thought Joker, here it comes. What happened next was going to determine how this whole mess was going to proceed. Needless to say, Joker was a bit concerned for the outcome.

"That's the thing, sir," Kat began. "I'm not so sure the Truth and Reconciliation is our best bet. Considering recent information, I believe we'd be better served through other, less orthodox means."

"Such as?" Holland asked curiously.

"I'll try to explain this as best I can," she stated. "It's a bit of a complicated matter."

---

Linda could feel the tension swirling in the air as they walked towards engineering. Word about their heated argument with Major Silva had spread pretty fast throughout the ranks. Six times now, someone had stopped both her and McKay to ask if the rumours were true, if the Flood were potentially still aboard the Truth and Reconciliation?

"Those things nearly killed us in the woods," one stated when McKay replied that it was a possibility. "Saw one guy get overrun by those little gasbag bastards."

There was little McKay could say in response to ease his concerns. They couldn't say for sure if the ship was infested, only that it was a possibility. That made the Marine, and those who asked them similar questions, uneasy. At one point, one Marine even led McKay away from Linda to speak in private. Probably didn't want too many people to hear about whatever she wanted to say. McKay returned moments later and Linda didn't press her on the details.

Those who didn't ask as they passed by still showed signs of clear discomfort. They were eyeing air ducts, looking about rather worriedly or constantly staying in pairs. However, whether they remained silent or not, none seemed willing to outwardly question Silva's judgement. That didn't mean they were complacent though, just that they weren't prepared to go against their Commanding Officer. The problem was clear, they needed to change the Major's mind or convince Holland to change it for him.

However, when Silva contacted McKay over her radio his jubilant tone indicated his mind was far from being altered. In fact, he seemed more eager to get the Battlecruiser up into the air than ever.

"All pockets of Covenant Resistance have been cleared out, way ahead of schedule in fact," he informed the Lieutenant. "Any Covies left are all too scared to fight. It seems like every single Elite in this tub is too full of holes to keep them fighting. Fine by me, Grunts and Jackals are a bit easier to handle than Elites anyway."

Linda wanted to suggest that Silva probably owed the end of Covenant Resistance to the actions of Master Chief and Shepard. They had cleared out the majority of the Covenant Spec-Ops Forces that had come here. Shepard had also stayed behind with those batarians to cut a few more of the Elites down, as Garrus had reported. However, Linda knew her comment would fall on deaf ears, so she remained silent. Better to let Silva have his moment of triumph than to make him even more opposed to them.

"That is good news, sir, but I..." McKay tried to begin, but Silva was too elated to pause for long.

"But we don't just have the cannon fodder as prisoners," He declared. "We caught ourselves a real prize! A Covenant Prophet! Can you believe it?"

That got Linda's attention. A Prophet? Here? It was somewhat surprising to say the least. She had long written off the proposed mission the folks in charge had given her and the others. Operation: Red Flag was dead in the water before it began, mostly because the Covenant hit Reach before it could launch. Now, they had stumbled onto their original target by mere accident, a Prophet.

"Who is he?" Linda asked over the comm. "Why was he aboard this ship?"

"Apparently he's been going between ships this whole time," Silva explained, sounding somewhat smug as he did. "Dumbass got stuck aboard when the ship was disabled. He kept shouting at us like a bitch too. He went on about how our hands were filthy and that we shouldn't touch him as we tossed him into a secure room. 'I am the Prophet of Stewardship' he kept crying. 'I demand respect! Touch me and I shall order my underlings to flay you alive!' What a dipshit, huh?"

He sounded pretty mouthy and quick to throw around titles for someone who was a steward as his name suggested. Linda wondered who he answered to and if said Covie was even still alive in all this mess. Either way, it was a pretty good prize, she had to admit. Although she doubted he was as big a player he seemed to think he was. The Covenant would have probably risked another squad of Spec-Ops to save him otherwise. Perhaps they were hurting more than they thought. More likely though, they just weren't willing to risk the Flood to save one lowly loudmouth, if they even knew he was on this ship at all.

"That is some pretty good news, sir," McKay congratulated him. "Perhaps we should move him to a more secure area though. I could have a Pelican deliver him to the Normandy and-"

"Don't be ridiculous, this place is secure enough," Silva steadfastly replied. "Besides, there's no sense in us sharing the credit for this with the good Commander, especially when he's making deals with the enemy alongside that Freak."

That almost got Linda to speak up in anger. Silva had practically declared John a traitor, the very thought of which disgusted her. She admitted that John going along with the idea to help some Jackal Deserters flee Halo was odd, but given the circumstances she didn't question the why of it.

After all the training they had endured, the battles they had seen and planets they had been to, she couldn't doubt his judgement. She had seen the Flood firsthand herself and knew of the danger Halo now posed. It made sense, at least in the short-term, to gather what allies they could to help them put both threats down. They had been trained to kill insurrectionists at first. When the Covenant emerged, they put what they had been initially taught about the rebels aside. They had to, the new enemy had forced their hand.

In her eyes, the present situation was no different. If these Covie Deserters were genuine and wanted to cooperate to stop the Flood then who was she, or anyone, to deny the assistance? And if John was willing to go along with it, then she trusted his judgement first before anyone else. In the end, they were created to defend Humanity from all threats. If they ignored one because they were prejudiced against another, then they would be ignoring that very purpose itself.

But Silva clearly had other things on his mind.

"This prisoner is our claim," he informed McKay joyously. "This ship has enough tech and weapons on it to keep the Naval Intelligence boys busy for years. Plus there's the potential cure for this Flood they can find through Private Jenkins. Not to mention what the PR boon of bringing a Prophet back is going to do for us. I'm telling you, Lieutenant, when we pull back into Sol, they're going to trample over one another just to get us medals. There's gonna be parades, press interviews, the works! Hell, Lord Hood himself might just slap the Colonial Cross on us."

"Sir, I think we're getting a bit ahead of ourselves on that one," said McKay hesitantly.

"Don't be silly," Silva told her, brushing off her words with a slight laugh. "We've done what no Spartan has managed, capture a Prophet alive. He might be a minor on the food chain or whatever, but it doesn't matter. This is going to prove to everyone what it's going to take to win this war and that the ODSTs are going to be the ones to do it. I told you, McKay, we just had to stick together. Now, we're going to be in the history books. Let me know how the Engineering Teams are faring. I want us to leave as soon as possible."

McKay tried to speak again, but Silva had already left the airwaves. The Lieutenant could only sigh at the whole thing.

"What in the hell was all of that?" She asked seemingly no one.

"It sounded to me like the good Major is a bit blinded by his success," Linda answered, although she suspected McKay already knew that was the case. "He doesn't even seem to remember there are three Spartans on this ship right now."

"I'm sorry about that," McKay apologised insistently. "I don't understand what's gotten into him. I've served with him for years. He knows how highly I, everyone, thinks of him. But, now all of a sudden he only seems to care about proving himself to everyone. I just... I don't understand where this came from."

"All I care about right now is if his pride is putting us and Earth at risk," Linda informed the Lieutenant. "You're not the one who needs to apologise, McKay, rest assured of that if nothing else."

McKay let go of her frustrations in grunting growl and quickened her pace.

"Let's just get to the Engine Room and figure out how repairs are going," she stated. "I really hope Noble 2 has gotten Holland on the line."

"Me too," Linda agreed.

As they entered engine room they found an unexpected sight among the technicians strewn about the area. Standing off to one side and looking distantly ahead of himself was Sergeant Johnson. The usually boisterous and bold Marine Non-Com looked unusually placid and aloof. They weren't sure what he was staring at originally, but as they approached they realised what it was. A few feet away was Private Jenkins, strapped to an iron slab and moaning incessantly. Johnson noticed them as they approached, but only looked over his shoulder briefly before looking back to his former squad mate.

"Poor kid," he said, shaking his head as he looked on. "If I had known he was still alive I..."

He paused, unable to finish his thought. Linda put a hand on the Sergeant's shoulder.

"There was nothing you could've done, Johnson," she said stoically. "Those things took you completely by surprise and you yourself barely got out. He was probably already infected by then anyway."

"Doesn't make me feel any better," Johnson grumbled in response.

Jenkins now clawed fruitlessly at his restraints, moaning slightly louder as he struggled to get free. Johnson took off his cap, shaking his head as he did.

"He was... too damned scared to fire his gun," he stated wiping his brow. "I... I tried to shoot the bastards around him, but... there were so many swarming the area and I couldn't cover everyone. Damn, I should suggested that we abort when we saw them mangled Covie bodies, get more support, wait for second squad, something."

"None of us were prepared to fight these things, Sergeant," McKay was quick to insist. "We've been trained to fight aliens, not monsters."

"Yeah, I know," Johnson assured her. "I just hate seeing one of my people like this. This ain't no way for a Marine to end up, for anyone to end up, a shell of what you used to be."

Johnson placed the cap back on his head and turned directly towards the McKay and Linda now, his slight show of grief replaced by a look of disgust.

"Why are we letting him suffer like this?" He asked them, contained fury beneath his breath.

"Silva believes we can use him to find a cure," McKay tried to explain.

"Does that look curable to you?" Johnson asked, pointing with his thumb behind him at Jenkins. The poor desiccated Private was still writhing about, his arms twitching as he clutched at the slab. "Jenkins doesn't need more needles and doctors poking him. He needs rest and the only way he's getting that is if he's given the only dignity he has left. He needs to go out like a Marine, not some bloated tumor covered corpse. He doesn't deserve to be treated like some damn science experiment."

Linda agreed and she suspected Noble 2 felt the same about the situation. Jenkins had suffered enough, why put him through more pain for the slim chance at finding a cure through him? The Flood turned people into flesh puppets and forced them to attack what had once been their friends. Any cure for a parasite that insidious would probably be fatal anyway. Why prolong the suffering of Jenkins any further when they could resolve this here and now? The fact was though that it wasn't up to her or Johnson.

"Major Silva has given his orders on the subject," Linda informed the Sergeant gravely. "There's nothing any of us can do unless someone higher than him countermands the order."

Johnson's face scrunched up into a scowl. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his cigar, firmly planting it between his teeth. He pushed past the two women and made his way for the door.

"Hell if I'm gonna wait for that," he declared. "I'll talk to Silva myself. Remind him that we don't treat our own like guinea pigs."

"I'm not sure he'll listen," Linda warned.

"Oh he'll listen," Johnson declared adamantly. "Those ugly parasite bastards killed my squad and turned them into monsters. I'm not about to let them have Jenkins."

Johnson kept walking towards the door, but his march was interrupted by Jenkins himself. His moans turned to sudden panicked screams and wails. A few technicians rushed over to see what was happening. Johnson himself turned around and made a beeline straight for his infected squad mate. Linda did not move, in fact she stopped McKay from rushing towards Jenkins by grabbing her shoulder. The Lieutenant probably would've asked why, but the Spartan raised her free hand as she looked about.

"I hear something," she whispered to the Drop Trooper.

Over Jenkins screams, Linda thought she heard something banging hard against metal. She felt slight vibrations in the floor as well. Tracing both the sound and tremors, she looked towards a steel grate. As her eyes fell upon it, the grate started to bulge outward slightly as something repeatedly slammed into it.

"Oh crap," said McKay as she spotted the grate herself.

Linda went for her gun and called to Johnson just as the grate burst open and a dozen or so Infection Forms poured out from the floor. Why they had revealed themselves, no one could say. Perhaps the amount of potential hosts in the room was simply too irresistible for them. Maybe they had sensed Jenkins and were lured out by him. Or perhaps they had just gotten tired of waiting. Who could say with the Flood?

Regardless of the reasoning, Linda wasted no time in firing on the freakish abominations. Her pistol lit up the skittering monsters alongside McKay's assault rifle. Sergeant Johnson let his shotgun pop the little gasbags as the tech-heads used their own pistols on the miniature swarm. The Infection Forms were quickly dealt with in this manner, the skirmish lasting less than a minute. That didn't make Johnson or McKay complacent. Johnson quickly tossed a grenade down the open duct and backed away, hoping the blast would kill anything else down below.

"Get that vent sealed, now!" McKay ordered.

"You heard the lady," Johnson shouted at the techs as he waved the tech over. "Block off this hole!"

The engineers quickly set to work, but the vent was the least of their problems. McKay quickly got back on the radio to call up Silva. He needed to know, they had confirmation the Flood were still aboard. They could use this infested Covie ship to flee. He had to see that now. When Silva answered she immediately informed the Major of what had just happened.

"We just encountered a small crop of Infection Forms, sir," she frantically declared. "The little bastards are in the ducts. I recommend we abort the original escape plan. We cannot let this ship launch and we don't have time to scour the place!"

"Lieutenant, please, remain calm," Silva said rather casually. "We can handle a few of those creatures. There's no sense in flying off the handle over this. We'll seal the vents, eject them into space when we reach orbit."

"But sir, if some of them escape the vents and hide-"

"Then we'll have extra specimens to take back to Earth," Silva informed her rather coolly. "That will give our scientists even more to work with."

McKay looked aghast at Silva's words, utter disbelief blanketing her face.

"You... you can't be serious, sir," she said, trying to get a hold of the situation. "These things are... they're-"

"Live specimens would be enormously valuable to the eggheads back home, Lieutenant," he authoritatively declared. "We can find a cure for this thing easier that way. All we need to do is keep them alive until we get back to Earth, but we need to keep them alive."

"But-"

"That's an order, Lieutenant," Silva commanded. "Seal the vents, nothing else. We'll organize a search for the Flood Forms left when we're in orbit and safely away from Halo before it blows. Until then, we head forward with the plan. I'm already running through lift-off specs now, it shouldn't be more than an hour now. Silva, out."

McKay was dumbfounded, unable to move for what seemed like a whole minute. Linda could only cross her arms in disappointment. She wasn't surprised to see this happen. She had, in fact, been dreading it. Silva would not see reason. The Flood just weren't a big enough threat in his mind.

"He wants to bring them back," McKay finally spoke out of shock. "He actually wants to try and bring these things back!"

"We're not going to let that happen," Linda assured her. "We still have a way out of this, Colonel Holland."

"And if that fails," McKay questioned, her voice growing ever dire as she spoke. "What if she can't convince him? Silva is going to launch this ship one way or another it seems. Maybe we shouldn't take the chance."

Linda cocked her head at the Drop Trooper.

"What are you saying?" She asked.

McKay looked about and moved closer to the Spartan.

"There's some exposed conduits one of the Marines showed me a while ago," she explained. "If... they were damaged while we were in the air the engines would lose their connection to the Control Room and..."

Linda stopped her right there. She knew what she was suggesting, but they didn't have to go that route just yet.

"Right now that's a last resort situation," she told the Lieutenant. "We need to wait and trust that Kat can get Holland on the line before we do anything rash."

"So we should just wait, then?" McKay asked with a scowl. "For all we know, Holland might end up agreeing with Silva. At the very least he might think an alliance with Covie Deserters is worse than the Flood escaping."

"We need to trust Noble 2, she knows him better than us," Linda tried to reassure her. "If she thinks she can convince him then we might just be able to pull this out of the fire. For now, we need to let people know about Silva's plans. I'll contact Kat, let her know. Garrus too, he can help spread the word. You inform Johnson, he can pass it along himself. Word of mouth or private channels only, we can't risk Silva hearing about it."

McKay let out a disgruntled sigh, but eventually nodded her head. The Marines were already worried about the Flood aboard this ship, if they knew about Silva's plans they'd probably be more open to the alternative. Right now, all their hopes were edging on Holland taking their side.

---

"This is complicated, Lieutenant Commander," Holland stated rather harshly as Kat wrapped up her explanation. "In fact I'd dare say that such a word is a gross understatement in regards to this situation."

Joker kept quiet best he could. This was not nearly as entertaining as he had hoped. It was more nail biting than anything else. He really, really did not want Holland to go the other way on this. If he did, they were essentially screwed. They'd have no leg to stand on and no Army Troopers to count on. That would not make things easy.

"I wouldn't be agreeing with the Commander's decision to make an alliance if I thought there was another way," Kat assured the Colonel. "I'm not saying we should trust the Jackals or batarians, but in regards to this situation we have to at least accept the opportunity they're presenting."

"Would this Corvette be able to hold everyone though?" Holland asked.

"It's a pretty decent sized ship, sir," Kat reminded him. "Between it and the Normandy, as well as the ship belonging to the Deserters, it should be able to hold our remaining forces."

Joker could hear Holland's thoughtful sighs as he considered the situation. Admittedly, Joker could understand what he was going through. He did not want to be in the kind of situation that Holland currently was in. This kind of stuff could make or break a military career. Joker just wanted to be able to fly, he left the big important stuff up to folks like Shepard. People he knew he could trust, people he knew he could follow. Right now, he just hoped Holland was as practical about this as Kat was.

"And Silva," Holland asked next. "He intends to bring an infected Marine back to Earth for experimentation?"

"Yes, sir, against my advice I assure you," Kat informed him astutely. "Sir, I've seen these things in action. I can even have Joker send you Professor Solus' lab report on them. Everything suggests these things are beyond our capability to contain properly. According to Shepard, the Forerunners made the mistake of leaving some of these things alive in the hopes of finding a cure. I say we correct that now before it gets worse."

"If they're even aboard that ship to begin with. We're still talking about allying ourselves with Covenant," Holland reminded her. "Deserters they may be, but have you considered risks, Lieutenant Commander?"

"I have," Kat stated assertively. "They pale in comparison to that of the Flood escaping. In my opinion we should leave every trace of them behind to die here. Silva is putting us all in jeopardy, sir. I implore you to talk him down."

Holland didn't answer for a moment, but his voice did come back with a grave sense of concern.

"I see your point, Noble 2," he relented. "However, I need to go over the situation with my officers. We're short on time, so I'll make sure we're quick. We'll come up with resolution and-""

"Wait, sir," Kat suddenly cut him off. "I've just gotten a message from Spartan 058. You may want to hear this."

Joker wasn't sure what that message was, but from way the Kat was talking… it didn't sound like it was anything good.

---

Shepard's team eventually made it within eyesight of their entry point, a large hole blown into the top of the ship. Probably by a plasma torpedo from the look of it. Instead of heading out to jump down into it immediately though, Shepard hesitated. It just felt too easy.

Sure enough, moments later, a singular Sentinel appeared from below. It began hovering about, scanning the area with its big red laser-armed eye. The team huddled deeper into the cover among the sensory and electronic equipment nearby.

"Probably a scout," Tali suggested. "It's mapping the ship. Most likely it's taking account of potential entry points the Flood could get into."

"Guilty Spark's containment protocol is still in effect then," Shepard observed inquisitively. "Even after all of this he's still sticking to that hundred thousand year old plan of his."

"Well he's certainly methodical about it," Varvok noted before turning to Shepard. "You said on the shuttle that he's gone insane, but he's still has control over these synthetics. How exactly is he able maintain order among all these machines if his mind is cracked?"

"The protocol directs him and the Sentinels," Tali explained briskly. "As long as it's active and as long as he doesn't become conflicted regarding it, he'll continue to function as always. It's probably the only thing keeping his matrix from fracturing. It's a funny paradox, the thing that makes him crazy is keeping him from deteriorating further."

"Let's just focus on removing that scout of his before it gives us away," Miranda insisted.

Miranda's point was well heard. Thankfully, there was only one Sentinel. They could kill it easily, but they'd have to be careful going about it. They needed to dispatch the machine in a way that wouldn't look suspicious in case the Monitor was watching right now. They couldn't wait for it to move on either, especially if it headed back down the hole they intended to use as an entrance.

The answer to their dilemma came in the form of something that was usually unwelcome at this point, Flood. Three Combat Forms had somehow managed to get to the top of the Autumn. Perhaps they had scaled it, more likely they had come up through another hole in the hull. Regardless, the Sentinel reacted to the interlopers as it always did. Lasers began torching at the walking corpses, who fired back at the little flying robot with their own weapons. This Sentinel had a better sense of self-preservation it seemed though, as it endeavored to stay away from the incoming fire best it could. Within a few moments, it had already killed one of the Combat Forms with precision laser strikes.

"This might be our chance," Shepard quickly realised. "If we kill it now, Guilty Spark might think it was the Flood, not us."

"We're going to need to take care of that shield it has though," Zek noted. "Not to mention we'll need a powerful enough shot to take it out in one blow at the right time."

"Our rifle is more than adequate," Legion declared. "We can terminate it."

"Alright, get in position," He ordered the geth with a nod. "Tali, Miranda, hit him with overload and energy drain at the same time, that should increase Legion's chance. Wait for my signal, we need to make it look like the Flood scored a lucky hit."

"Well better make it fast," Miranda told him. "It's polishing them off pretty quickly."

Indeed it was, the Sentinel had already cut off the arm of one Combat Form with ease. The Flood were dangerous in number, but the smaller those numbers then the easier they were to handle. However, that was only if the Sentinel kept solely focused on the Flood by themselves. Which gave Legion enough time to get into position and get his crosshairs on target. As the second Flood Form fell dead, Shepard had Miranda and Tali begin the attack.

Activating their omni-tools and hitting the commands, Tali and Miranda's shared tech attack severely damaged the Sentinel. Its shield disappeared and it began to spark and shake about as its power was drained. As an added bonus, the final Combat Form fired a shot at the machine at the same time that made it look like he had caused the damage. As the walking corpse charged at the wounded machine to kill it, Legion fired its Widow rifle. The shot hit the Sentinel's laser core, causing it to explode. The Combat Form, mere centimetres away, was hit by the small explosion. He slammed into the Sentinel's twisted metal body and both plummeted back down into the hole below. There was a loud crash a few moments later.

Rushing over to the hole, the team looked down to see the Sentinel's body had fallen onto another Combat Form meandering about below. Meanwhile the other Combat Form was strewn about in pieces nearby. It was not a particularly pleasant looking scene.

"Well, at least it's dead," Varvok noted.

"Best move in now," Mordin advised. "Monitor likely to send more Sentinels to investigate further. Should be gone before arrival."

It wasn't too big a drop, but it was still a decent height. Shepard went in first, his feet splashing into what was left of the crushed Combat Form. As he shook the disgusting goo off his boots, the others followed suit. They dropped in behind and around the dead Sentinel and Flood remains.

Shepard took a look around the area, trying to figure out exactly where they were. It appeared to be just a regular corridor, but that was beside the point. Eventually he found what he was looking for, a directional arrows painted on the walls. He had spent enough time on the ship in Slipspace to know where the Mess and how quickly they could get to it from anywhere in the ship.

"Crew Quarters are this way," he said, pointing his gun at the sign. "We can cut through there to the Mess Hall. We follow the colour-coded arrows and we'll be there in no time."

"Hmm, convenient," Zek observed thoughtfully. "You can get lost so easy in Covenant ships. Honestly, it's a wonder we're able to locate any room at times without activating a terminal or something. I appreciate the sense of simplicity."

"Your admiration is noted," Miranda grumbled at the Jackal. "Can we get moving?"

They followed the directional arrows towards their destination. They didn't get all that far though before they heard something coming down an adjacent hallway. Shepard motioned the others to get out of sight and they all hid behind nearby support columns along the walls. Through the doorway in front of them they watched as a far greater pack of Flood rushed past, seemingly fixated on a destination of their own. Unfortunately, given the directions on the walls, it appeared to be the same as theirs.

"That's a lot of Flood heading to the crew quarters," Tali noted.

"These things always act with purpose," Shepard reminded them all. "They're not entirely mindless. So if they're headed there we can assume it's for a reason."

"They're probably trying to squeeze out whatever pockets of Covie resistance are left," Varvok suggested. "Only reason I can think that they'd be headed anywhere in such hurry."

They were about to follow suit, when apparently some stragglers from the horde came into view. One was a Carrier Form, but four others were Combat Forms, two bearing different weapons than the norm. One was a Vindicator Assault Rifle and the other an M-3 Predator.

"Looks like the Flood found some of the Marines we gave weapons to," Miranda observed. "Any luck that they can't operate them?"

"Unlikely," Mordin responded whispering. "Taught Marines how to use them. Parasite likely assimilated knowledge. Same as any weapon to it now."

"He's right," Varvok grimaced. "When my men were turned they were able to use their regular weapons too. They're as ready to use them as any gun."

"Maybe, but that gives us an advantage," Tali insisted silently. "I can't use sabotage on any Flood with UNSC guns and I had to modify it to keep it effective against Plasma Weapons. These things are carrying our universes' guns though, which makes them vulnerable to all their weaknesses."

Shepard smiled sinisterly at Tali's statement and looked to the Combat Forms as the milled about the doorway.

"Alright then," he stated. "Hit the Carrier first. Tali, get ready to use sabotage on the one with the rifle. Let's finish them off before they even know what hit them."

Zek answered the call to take out the Carrier, lifting up his Needler Rifle and aiming at the giant walking gas sack.

"Choke on this you ugly mother-"

Zek's shot drowned out his curse, as did the explosion of pink mixed with gas. One Combat Form was killed by the explosion, the other three forced to the ground. As they recovered, Tali hit the one with the Vindicator with the sabotage function. As it levelled the weapon to fire the gun backfired in its face, blowing off its arm and part of its torso.

"Got him," Tali declared, bringing out her shotgun to continue the attack.

Varvok opened up on the Infection forms that spilled out of the Carrier's remains, making sure to keep them at bay. Miranda unloaded her pistol into one Combat Form as Mordin set fire to it with Incineration. Tali had already finished the Combat Form she had wounded when Shepard and Legion gunned down the third. The fight was over relatively quickly.

"Be on the lookout for any Flood armed with our guns," Shepard advised. "Tali can sabotage them for us. Be careful though, if they know how to use these things they may know how to activate the Mods we pre-programmed into them. Let's keeping moving to the Crew Quarters, see what kind of fight we're walking into."

"Knowing our luck, it will be a bad one," Tali morosely commented.

---

Master Chief stomped on the body of the Combat Form one last time, finally relinquishing its hold on his foot. These things were never dead until you made sure they were. At least now he had the dead creature's shotgun. That would come in handy against its fellow monstrosities.

As he hefted the gun into his arms, he suddenly thought of something that had been in the back of his mind since Cortana had mentioned the lifeboat escape plan.

"You don't think any of these things are smart enough to find and pilot a lifeboat," he asked the AI.

"I'd rather not think about that right now," she replied rather briskly. "Let's just say that's another reason we need to destroy this ring quickly."

As they walked around the corner they came towards a locked door. Although it didn't look like it would be locked for long as the metal started to buckle against repeated hits from the other side. The Flood were trying to break it down. They were either just trying to make more pathways through the ship or, and this was a more terrifying prospect, they had actually sensed where Chief was. Perhaps Cortana had a point about not thinking too much about this stuff.

"They really hate being locked out," Cortana noted nervously.

The Master Chief armed one of his plasma grenades and tossed it at the foot of the door.

"They'll hate that more," he stated simply.

As the doors flung open, the Plasma Grenade went off. A blue blast of flame engulfed the first few Combat Forms near the door and sent the others hurtling backwards into the hallways they had come from. Chief wasted no time in racing forward, shotgun in hand prepared to dispatch the undead abominations.

One of the Combat Forms attempted to rise back to its feet. Master Chief shot him down before he even stood up. He trained the gun on a second of their number as it raced forward, thrashing out with its tendril. Chief blasted the appendage clean off and shot point blank into the creature's stomach as it howled back. A third Combat Form peppered him with Assault Rifle fire, draining his shields, but the Spartan moved forward undaunted. He blasted the abomination's legs out from under him and then fired into the downed creature's back as he walked past. A final Combat Form then lunged from a small alcove, Plasma Rifle in hand and ready to fire. Chief grabbed the gun and pulled it away from him, barely missing the shot meant for his head. He then forced his shotgun into the monster's chest and fired. The Combat Form fell back into the alcove, what remained of its festering guts strewn about the floor.

The Flood threat dealt with, Chief kept moving forward. If his memory served right the mess hall was just up ahead. However, the sound of gunfire revealed that something else was as well. He walked into the adjoining corridor just outside the Mess Hall to find it in the middle of a brawl. Grunts were holding off a swarm of Combat Forms, lashing out at anything that moved. However, they soon encountered a far more dangerous enemy. Not even five seconds after he arrived, Chief watched as the doors to the Mess Hall burst open and charging out into the hall appeared two Hunters.

The giant aliens slammed into the first Combat Forms they saw, squashing them against the opposite wall. When other Flood Forms shot at them or tried to charge them in kind, the Hunters reacted with swift and brutal retaliation. One fired a blast into one of the corners of the hall, killing the Combat Forms in a fiery explosion. The second battered away the Combat Forms with a single swing of its massive arm. After what Chief had witnessed with the Plague Spreader, it was almost welcome to see the classic Hunter was less of nuisance and more efficient at thinning out the abominations. Only almost though, for not long after they arrived did one of the Hunters zero in on the Spartan before him.

It charged at the Master Chief like a mad bull. The Spartan barely managed to roll out of the way as the beastly alien's massive shield arm slashed downward at him. He opened up on the giant Covie, but the Hunter managed to turn quick enough to block the incoming shots. The second Hunter, still behind him, charged up his own weapon ready to fire. Again, Chief rolled to the side, missing the shot by inches as it exploded in the hallway. The blast did blind the other Hunter momentarily though, giving Chief a chance to look for better cover.

He spotted it in the small alcove at the center of the hallway. There was a large pillar there that created an opening too small for a Hunter to fit. With few options, he decided to make a break for it to get out of the middle of the melee. He tried to rush for the opening, but was soon blocked when the Hunter cut across his path and raised his shield arm to attack. The Spartan jumped back as the giant metal fist came crash down and then fired burst of shots from his Assault Rifle. They did little to hurt the monstrous Covie, but one bullet did graze his neck. Well, as much as you could call it a neck since Hunters were giant walking worm colonies. The pain angered the Hunter and forced it to charge at the Spartan. Rolling to the side at the last moment, the Hunter instead slammed into the wall.

The second Hunter targeted him again, firing off three quick blasts, tracking the Spartan as he made a dash for the protective alcove. At the last moment, the Hunter charged forward with reckless abandon. Chief managed to get inside the space behind the pillar and the Hunter slammed into the wall instead of the human super soldier. Angered, he stuck his shield arm inside and tried to pound the Chief flat. The Spartan rolled to the side as the Covie began bashing at the ground nearby. Taking out his shotgun, Chief fired two blasts in the Hunter's direction. The shots hit him under his arm as he raised the shield, forcing the giant to fall back.

He'd be back though, this was only a temporary shelter, room to breathe. Chief needed to think up a plan quick to deal with these two lumbering monsters.

---

The Crew Quarters were in complete chaos. Apparently the Covenant decided to set up a makeshift barracks here when they took over the crash site. It was the only explanation for why there were so many of their dead here now and why the deck had attracted so many Flood. Now the Covenant that were still alive on this deck were basically fighting for their lives against the relentless horde of undead. Their barricades weren't really holding up all that well though and there were being slowly whittled away.

Anyone with the choice to avoid this battle would take it. Unfortunately for Shepard and his team, the Covenant defensive positions were also blocking their path towards the Mess Hall. So to get to Master Chief and Cortana they had to go through both Covies and Flood.

"Nothing can ever just be simple can it," the Commander grumbled. "Ah well, no sense crying about it. We need to come up with a plan."

"I don't really see any other way but straight through," Miranda shrugged.

"We could use the rooms on either side of the corridor for extra cover," Varvok suggested. "We'd just need to be sure to clear out any potential hostiles hiding inside."

"Best case scenario only bad guys we find are cowering unggoy," Zek snickered. "Running and hiding you know, it's about their speed. In fact it's their only speed. Heh, heh."

Shepard eyed the path again, seeing that the Covenant and Flood were still busy with their battle to notice much of anything yet. So before things turned one way or the other, it would be best to get moving now. He had the team split up along each side of the hallway. Instantly, they all ran to the rooms that once housed Marines and Soldiers within. Most of them were vacant, save for a few dead Covies or Flood remains.

While they were inside the rooms, the Covenant deployed two Plasma Turrets to their barricades. A furious barrage of plasma bolts spewed forth, cutting down advancing Flood Forms. That included popping a few Carriers as well.

The Infection Forms that survived the explosion quickly scurried to any nearby rooms out of the range of fire. One charged into the room Tali and Shepard were in. Before either could react, the creature burrowed into the body of a dead Elite and began to turn him. The dead body writhed and lurched about for a moment before finally standing up. It shrieked loudly at the two. Tali shot the creature dead before it had a chance to lash out.

Then they heard more shrieks from outside in the hall.

"Well, that's not a good sound," Tali gulped.

The Flood were now alerted to the presence of interlopers crashing their assault. They turned back down the hallway, heading to where the shotgun sound had come from and any of the nearby rooms adjacent to it. The first Combat Form that peeked its head into the room got it blown off by Shepard, not that it did much of course.

"Whoops, I forgot that doesn't work on them for a second," Shepard nervously chuckled.

His second shot killed the monster as it charged into the room. Not wanting to risk getting corner inside, both Shepard and Tali rushed to the door frame to for the incoming Horde back. The others had already come to the same conclusion, rushing up to cover to fire on the Flood as they headed back down the hall. The creatures returned fire of course, as trying to force the group back into the rooms where they could be cornered.

Tali avoided a stream of gunshots as they collided against her shields. Shepard retaliated with a shockwave attack that knocked a few of the Combat Forms back. As he did, he noticed Miranda and Mordin using warp and neural shock respectively to slow the Flood down a bit. That made the shambling corpses easy targets for Legion, Zek and Varvok a bit further back down the hall.

Needle rounds exploded in conjunction with Ballistic Blades, the explosions of both taking large chunks out of their numbers. Legion's Geth Assault Rifle swept the area with sustained automatic fire, although it took a lot longer to bring one of the Combat Forms down with the weapon. That was why Legion used its Combat Drone in conjunction with its weapon, targeting individual Flood Form that the drone targeted.

As this was going on, Shepard noticed a few of the Combat Forms were armed with Avenger rifles and Predator pistols. He turned to Tali to deliver the news.

"Some of them have our weapons," he informed the quarian. "Target them with sabotage, I'll cover you."

"My pleasure," Tali responded.

While Shepard let loose sustained fire on the Flood Horde, Tali targeted the first Combat Form she could find that was armed with an Avenger Assault Rifle. The sabotage tech attack infected the gun and the blowback that followed tore a hole through the festering corpse's chest.

"For once, I got more options than just emptying shotgun rounds into them," the quarian cheered rather pleased.

The Flood assault didn't last nearly that long though, for the Combat Form had more than just Shepard's team to deal with. The Covenant had been neglected by the infested creatures, but that didn't mean they had neglected the Flood. They kept firing on the monstrosities, intending to use this respite to relive their embattled flank. Their plasma weapons burned straight through the divided attack wave, the Plasma Turrets easily cutting what remained down.

It was an unexpected bit of help from the Covenant, but Shepard wasn't about to complain over it. However, when the Flood were thinned out, the Covies turned their attention onto them. Their Plasma Turret sprayed across the width of the hall, forcing them back into the rooms.

"We need that gun taken out," Shepard declared. "Can anyone get eyes on the gunner?"

"No problem, human," Zek assured him. "I'll keep the turret vacant, you just move up with the others."

"We shall assist in providing additional fire support," Legion added.

Zek took aim first, locating the gunner, a Grunt. He fired two shots from the needler rifle that stabbed right into the little alien's head. Legion followed up by firing his own shot that killed an Elite nearby. The others now bolted from cover, rushing the barricades ahead of them.

Tali activated Chitikka mid-run and let the drone roll ahead of her. The little ball of energy jumped the barricades and zapped at one of the Grunts nearby, forcing him off the barricades. Miranda used an overload to deactivate an Elite's shield before using a throw attack to send the alien flying. Mordin used rapid fire from his submachine gun to take down another Elite's shields before hitting him with a cryoblast, freezing him in place. Legion then took a shot that shattered the frozen Covie's head.

As they reached the barricades, the Covenant rallied to fight back. They were still dealing with Flood attacking from the opposite end of the hallway, so they couldn't bring all their numbers to down on Shepard's team. They still put up one hell of a fight.

They pinned the group down near the first barricade wall, unleashing plasma fire across the whole area. One Elite tried to toss a grenade over at them, but took a hit to the shoulder from Legion's Widow. The grenade dropped to his feet, but the Elite rolled away before it exploded and killed him. He got into cover behind a weapons locker and began firing on Shepard.

"You think they'd be a little tired after holding off zombies for who knows how long," the Commander thought as he kept his head low.

"In my experience Elites only sleep when they're dead," Varvok shouted over to him. "At least we're keeping the Plasma Turret clear."

"I'd prefer that the whole area was clear," Shepard responded insistently. "Think you can take him down?"

"Simple enough," the batarian assured with a nod. "We just need to get him out into the open."

Varvok readied an inferno grenade and called back to his Jackal friend.

"Zek, time to test your marksmanship!"

The Jackal seemed to grin sinisterly and readied his Needler Rifle. Varvok tossed the grenade over and Zek fired on it as it arced towards the Elite. The grenade detonated in mid-air, spraying its fiery contents across the area. The airburst set a few Covies alight and forced the Elite out of hiding. He was still as ready to fight as ever, although his back was pretty much engulfed in fire. It still gave Shepard his opening. With a biotic charge, he slammed into the Elite at full throttle and watched him fly backwards. The others soon stormed the barricade in full.

The last few defenders turned to stand their ground, but there was only one Elite left to coordinate the defence. When Shepard unloaded a blast of incendiary rounds right into him, the remaining Grunts crumbled easily. However, even with the Covies dead, that still left the other secondary Flood assault wave. Shepard quickly took up the second Plasma Turret to unload on their numbers. When Legion grabbed the one that had been pointed at them before and re-positioned it to fire on the Flood on the other side, taking up the gun itself.

However, while they did intend to destroy the Flood entirely, they soon found they didn't have to. Speeding down the hallway towards the Flood from behind came a flight of Sentinels, five in total. They began slicing through the few remaining Combat Forms that Shepard's team hadn't yet killed. Then they saw the Commander himself and fixed their sights on him.

Shepard and Legion turned the turrets on the Sentinels, unloading a barrage of bolts as they flew in. Miranda hit them with an Overload attack, shorting out their shields instantly. That left them open for the others to pepper them unmolested. The Sentinels powered through the shots, targeting the Plasma Turrets first. They lost two of their number to the guns, but both Shepard and Legion were forced to fall back into cover lest they be sliced to ribbons.

One of the Sentinels chased after Tali as it fired her pistol on it. The laser sliced at the ground and the quarian was forced sidestep out of the way at the last second. Tali wasn't sure if her AI hacking app would work against the Sentinels and she didn't want to risk finding out right now.

She opted for the safer approach with energy drain, something she knew worked well enough. The Sentinel lost power as the attack hit it square on, disorienting the machine significantly. Tali then fired her shotgun right into the robot's underside. The machine spun out, crashing towards her and Tali ducked out of the way as it spiraled into a nearby room before exploding.

"Never mess with a mechanist, bosh'tet," She grinned as she looked on the flaming remains.

Zek found himself pinned by one Sentinel, but was readily equipped to handle it. He had a plasma pistol as his sidearm, ready to go. This thing shorted out vehicles when fully charged, it should work for these flying tin cans. He just needed a distraction to get it off his back.

"Hey, one-horned frog," he called over to Mordin. "Mind giving me a hand here?"

"Proper title is Professor," he stated, sounding somewhat annoyed.

Regardless, the salarian fired on the offending Sentinel with his submachine gun, catching the machine's attention. As it turned to face Mordin, Zek stepped out of cover with a fully charged Plasma Pistol and fired. The bolt sailed through the air and hit the Sentinel dead on. The broken flaming husk of the machine crashed to the earth seconds later.

Shepard set his sights on the final Sentinel, now properly outnumbered. He had Legion harass it with assault rifle fire, splitting its focus between him and the geth. Shepard then unloaded his shotgun at the machine, hitting it in the side twice before what he supposed was the closest approximation to its head exploded. The withered broken husk of the Sentinel now lying at Shepard's feet, the team regrouped around him.

"Spark probably knows we're here now," Shepard warned.

"Fine, then he'll know exactly who blew up his damn ring," Miranda stated firmly.

"We should keep moving to the Mess Hall," Tali advised. "Chief and Cortana are still waiting on us and I we don't want to be here when the Monitor sends in reinforcements."

The team moved towards a connecting corridor, one that would lead them to the Mess Hall. Shepard just hoped the Master Chief and Cortana weren't in too much trouble without them.

---

The Hunters circled around the Spartan's hiding spot, content to wait him out. They still had a few straggling Combat forms to finish off anyway. Chief only need a few seconds to come up with a proper plan to deal with them though. First, he tossed out one of his frag grenades in the direction of one of the Hunters. The blast was not meant to kill, it took more than a single grenade to do that. He just wanted to make sure the giant was out of sorts for a moment. He then made a run for the Covie's flank, firing his shotgun as he went.

The Hunter, although slightly disoriented by the explosion's shockwave, fought back though. He swung his arm at where he thought he heard the Spartan coming from. He was off just enough for Chief to slide under the strike. He then rolled around to the other side of the Hunter and fired a shotgun blast right into the open space between the armor.

Horribly injured, the Hunter tried to power up his Assault Cannon for a close-ranged attack. He intended to take the Spartan with him. Chief anticipated this though and he had a surprise for the giant worm colony. He took out a plasma grenade, tossed it towards the Assault Cannon and then dropped to the ground. The blue explosion mingled with the green energy blast, the Hunter stumbled back into a wall as his Cannon was overloaded by the explosion and pieces of his armor flew off. When the giant Covie next looked to his gun, he found it a mangled, twisted mess. Chief then fired the final shot right into the injured Hunter, killing him at last.

The second Hunter bellowed loudly at its kin's demise. It charged towards the Master Chief with all its fury. Usually, this would be the point the Spartan would dodge to the side, but he had something different in mind. He ran at the Hunter instead, much to Cortana's horror.

"Have you lost your mind!?" She shouted in his ear.

Perhaps he had, just a little, but he figured it was faster than trying the old tricks these Hunters were clearly wiser to. As he neared the Hunter, its shield arm barrelling down to bulldoze him over, Chief jumped. He landed his foot on the massive metal plate and hurriedly forced himself onto the Hunter's shoulder. From there he vaulted off, somersaulting in mid-air as he pulled out his shotgun. He pointed it at the Hunter as he descended, his view turned upside-down, but his aim no less accurate. He spotted the big orange patch that showed the opening between the armor and fired off two shots. The Hunter, still in mid run, was unable to avoid the attack and toppled onto his face as his momentum carried his dead weight forward.

Chief was able to land in a crouching position, no worse for wear. Cortana didn't sound nearly as pleased.

"You know, you're really lucky I'm an AI," she informed him. "Do you realise how many heart attacks I should've suffered by now?"

"You're overreacting just a little," Chief told her, brushing the complaint off. "Besides, I thought you were looking forward to these moments?"

"I am not overreacting," Cortana insisted. "Honestly, I've run out of fingers counting all the crazy crap you've done since I got back in your head. I'll admit some of them are fun in the spur of the moment. Others are just a bit too insane for my taste. Like playing Chicken with a damn Hunter, for example."

"I'll try to minimize stuff like that then," Chief attempted to assure her.

"You are so lying, I can just tell," Cortana jabbed back at him.

Master Chief now attempted to head inside the Mess Hall proper, but he only got a few feet close to the door before Plasma Fire erupted out of it. There were more Covenant inside, and they didn't seem keen on budging. In response, Chief lobbed a grenade into the door frame and across the room. He didn't expect it to kill anyone, but it would provide enough of a distraction to at least get inside.

One the grenade went off, Master Chief rushed inside with his Assault Rifle at the ready. A few Grunts were up in front, but they quickly folded and began to run away when they saw the tall armor-covered human super soldier rushing at them. Firing off bursts from his gun, Chief took a few of the little aliens down before they started bobbing and weaving between the tables.

A few plasma bolts to his shields forced his attention elsewhere, as an Elite and his squad of Grunts strafed along the side of the room. Chief ran for cover, firing all the way on the Elite and his team. He managed to take out a few of the Grunts and hit the Elite's shields pretty hard. The eight-foot alien tried to vault the table he was behind to charge the Spartan, only for Chief to keep up the automatic fire and take the alien down before he got too far.

However, as he was running, more Plasma Bolts hit his shields, putting them into the red. Chief ducked dove down behind a table as the Covies at the front of the room sprayed fire down on him. He was pinned.

"Well this is an interesting reversal," Cortana noted. "A few days ago we were defending the Bridge in a similar fashion. And now…"

"Can we not point out the irony of the situation at this moment?" Chief asked him.

Cortana then picked something up on the motion tracker. Yellow dots, friendlies.

"How about we settle for timely arrivals then?" She asked the Spartan.

A biotic shockwave rippled through the room, knocking one Grunt into a nearby wall. The Covenant to the direction the attack had come from, a doorway directly on their right flank. Before long a hail of fire spewed out at them, forcing the Elites and Grunts to take cover. Shepard had arrived, just as planned.

One Grunt got hit by three successive needle strikes, exploding moments later. Tali had sent Chiktikka into the room to keep up the pressure on the Covies as much as possible. When one of the Elites caught on fire from an Incineration Blast, Chief decided to return to the fray. He opened fire on the Covenant Defenders, killing one of the Elites who had lost his shield to Miranda's overload. The Spartan then vaulted over the table he was hiding behind and made a run on the Covenant position directly.

Shepard charged in as well, with his biotics of course. Hitting one Elite in the back while he was distracted by the Spartan's charge. The rest of the team followed, overwhelming the fledgling Covenant position with sustained and consistent fire. Before long the Covies had been overrun.

"Sorry we were late," Shepard apologised to the Spartan. "We got held up."

"We were managing well enough," Chief assured him. "Still, it's good to see you, sir."

Shepard just nodded at the Spartan. As he did, the rest of the team regrouped around them.

"The Bridge isn't too far now," Cortana informed them. "There are probably a few Covenant standing guard. We best hit them hard and fast if we want to clear them out."

"Alright then," Shepard concurred. "Lead the way. Let's start the countdown and get the hell out of here."

"Try to set it for the longest amount of time possible," Zek suggested. "Our friends are still going to need time to take that Corvette after all."

"Don't worry," Cortana assured the Jackal, somewhat sullen in her tone. "I've taken you into account. So long as they aren't being held up by anything they should be fine."

That was good to hear for all parties involved, the last thing Chief wanted was to leave good men and women to die on this ring. They just needed to give them enough time to get that Corvette.

---

Silva smiled broadly as he looked over the controls of the Truth and Reconciliation's bridge. It was interesting to see how different the ship's Command Platform was from the UNSC. Apparently, Elites didn't mind standing for hours on end. It was probably supposed to make them look more imposing to their subordinates. He supposed, for once, he could relate to that sense of superiority and pride. He had accomplished more than he had originally expected after all.

He had not only captured this Battlecruiser, he had also done what no Spartan had accomplished, the capture of a Prophet. No one could deny the battle prowess of ODSTs any longer, not after this. The Master Chief would get praise for destroying Halo perhaps, but he hadn't captured a Prophet. True, it was only a minor one from the looks of things, but it was still one of their leaders. They could learn much from the ugly xeno. The Flood specimens would prove just as useful. He had no doubt in his mind a cure could be found, either by eliminating them completely or simply making humans immune to it. Who knew? Maybe they could even turn them into a bio-weapon to use on the Covies? But, he was getting ahead of himself. All that would be for ONI to decide, so long as he got what was due to him nothing else mattered.

It was at that moment that the communications channel on the console lit up. He didn't even bother checking for a signal ID as he already knew who it was. Flight checks weren't due to be concluded yet, so it had to be the Lieutenant Commander. That Spartan III was getting on his nerves now. She and the others were blowing this entire Flood issue out of proportion.

They doubted him, like the assholes who tried to fight his promotion to Major because he was too young. Just because the previous Spartans were having a rough time with those things they instantly thought he'd fare no better. His first Commanding Officer didn't think much of him either when he first joined up. Now he was dead from a Covenant ambush he led them into, while he was alive because he led the men out.

He decided to answer the call anyway, if only in the hopes he'd be able to shut her up this time.

"What is it now, Noble Two?" He exasperatedly asked. "I've already explained my position a dozen times."

"To me, yes," She replied rather haughtily. "But not to someone in particular. I'm patching him through to your monitor now."

A mere second later, who should appear on the central screen of the Bridge Console but Colonel Holland himself. He was sporting his usual grizzled, intensely serious expression. His eyes bored into him with an unblinking glare. Silva was quick to salute, overcome with surprise at the Colonel's appearance.

"Colonel Holland," he stated, standing up right immediately. "I... I thought you were dead. We hadn't heard from you in a while."

"Well I assure you that I and my men are still alive and kicking, Major," Holland informed him in a rather deadpan tone. "We've been trying to contact you for a while, but we've had difficulty."

"It's still good to see you're okay, sir," Silva replied dutifully. "I'll have a flight of Pelicans head out to pick you up and deliver you to our position as soon as possible."

But Holland waved his hand dismissively at the suggestion.

"That won't be necessary," he assured Silva. "We have plenty of working Pelicans capable of transport. In fact, where you currently are is of greater concern to me. Noble Two has updated me on the situation most completely. Perhaps you can clarify some elements of it. Major, are you actually intending to take off in a ship that is potentially infested with the Flood?"

Silva was slightly shaken from his stance, but he did his best to hide and remain resolute in his posture. He couldn't show weakness, not to Holland, not ever.

"Sir, I made a command decision based on my current options," he calmly explained. "You were gone and Captain Keyes is reported dead. I had to take matters into my own hands."

"Commendable, but that doesn't make your decision any less brash," Holland replied in a low growl. "From my understanding you actually intend to transport live specimens of this parasitic organism back to Earth, including an infected Marine. Care to explain that reasoning?"

"The potential to find a cure for this is a high priority in my mind," Silva plainly detailed. "Live specimens would be more beneficial. They are a clear potential threat."

"And yet you don't seem to think they're that dangerous given the fact you want to take them back to Earth with us," Holland aggressively stated. "This is most distressing, Major. These creatures pose a grave threat. The observations of Cortana, Master Chief and Noble 2 have made that clear. They cannot be allowed to leave."

Silva's expression turned to a glowering look, staring the Colonel down intensely.

"As I said, sir, I made a Command Decision," he expressed, trying his best to sound authoritative. "Regardless of whether or not we agree, we have no choice now. The Truth and Reconciliation is our only recourse of escape and sterilization at this juncture will take too long. The Master Chief is about to destroy this ring, we have run out of options."

"That's not how I've heard it," Holland countered rather quickly. "According to Noble Two, Commander Shepard and the Master Chief have brokered a deal with a group of Covenant Deserters willing to work with us. They've offered a way off Halo without risk of the Flood coming along for the ride. I consider that an option, Major."

Silva only let out a single laugh at the mention of the idea.

"Sir, I hardly find working with the enemy to be an option," he said, trying to hold back his desire to chuckle further. "I think you'll agree that the Covenant are indeed the greater danger here than a few scurrying little gasbags."

"I don't agree, actually," Holland replied in a monotone voice. "Given the circumstances, I've weighed the potential danger. Covenant Deserters potentially betraying us further down the line, or the risk of the Flood making it to Earth. The former option's worst case scenario sees us all dead, but Earth free from the risk of what has happened on this ring repeating itself there. Given that fact, I believe the safer option is the one where we're the only ones who are at risk."

Silva just stared at the Colonel bug-eyed. Holland was actually thinking about siding with the Covies on this? Was he out of his mind? He had to be joking.

"You can't be serious, sir," he said with a look of shock. "To even think of allying with the enemy-"

"They are currently not our enemy if their story holds true," Holland interrupted. "And I'm not thinking it, I've already done it. I've sent half my men in Pelicans to rendezvous with the Jackal ship. I will be joining them shortly to prepare for the attack on the hostile Covenant Vessel."

Surprise turned to rage as Silva looked at the screen. He balled his fists with anger, his voice practically straining to convey his outrage.

"Are you insane, sir?" He vehemently asked. "Those bastards are the reason we're on this ring in the first place! They burned Reach to glass!"

"A tragedy indeed and I have not forgotten or forgiven," Holland assured. "But I need to consider the lives of my men as well as those on Earth. We need to make it back home to warn the UNSC about the Flood. We need to do it without bringing the infection home. This is our best option to accomplish those goals."

"By relying on a bunch of fucking xenos?" Silva questioned furiously. "Specifically a bunch of Jackals, the sneakiest of their lot I might remind you."

"Commander Shepard and the Master Chief made this potential alliance possible," Holland stated steadfastly. "I have decided to trust their judgement on this matter."

Of course, the Master Chief, because he said it was alright along with Shepard that meant it was okay. Just like it was okay when the Chief killed two of his men or when the Spartans became heroes and made the ODSTs look like chumps. First they replaced them with freaks, now those same freaks were joining up with the damn Covies and everyone was just willing to go along with it!

"So you trust a xeno-lover and that freak over me?" Silva screeched at him. "I took this ship! I secured its tech and weapons! I captured a damn Prophet! The Master Chief and the Commander have decided to throw in with the aliens, our enemies, and you're just okay with that? We can't trust the Covenant, deserters or not. And if Shepard and the Chief do, then they're clearly not thinking straight."

"I think you're the one not thinking," Holland stated loudly. "The Cole Protocol states the safety of Earth and its citizens overrides anything else. That is not restricted to the Covenant. The delivery of a potentially dangerous organism, either intentionally or unintentionally, is to be avoided at all costs. Your decision to use a possibly Flood infested ship to escape Halo is a clear breach of this protocol. A breach I will not allow to compromise the security of the UNSC and humanity itself."

Silva's frown deepened, his glare intensified and his fists closed tighter as Holland continued.

"Take whatever weapons you can carry, transport this captured Prophet off ship and make your way to the rendezvous coordinates provided by the Deserting Covenant forces," he commanded. "Abandon the ship and, if possible, destroy it to prevent the Flood from fleeing with it. That is an order. Do I make myself clear, Major?"

Silva's fury drained, replaced with an expressionless look. He stared at Holland, taking several breaths before he began to speak again. This is what it had come down to it seemed. People not giving him what he had earned, people questioning him and thinking he wasn't fit to lead. Now, the Spartan poster boy had sided with the enemy and he was still in the wrong. The Master Chief would get away with another crime and would be rewarded for it.

That wasn't happening.

"Colonel Holland," Silva spoke commandingly. "Your orders run countermand to the stated mission of the UNSC. I will not follow them."

"Major," Holland growled, gritting his teeth slightly.

"Furthermore, your orders are clearly clouded by your loss of objectivity," Silva continued, even as Holland kept trying to speak over him. "The Master Chief and Commander Shepard had no authority to make alliances with the enemy and I will not abide by their flawed decision making."

"Silva, I'm giving you an order-"

"Therefore, I declare you incompetent to command or lead in this situation," the Major shouted loudly, refusing to hear Holland anymore. "Your order to ally ourselves with the enemy is tantamount to treason and I will have no part in it. Because you are unfit to lead, I am taking full command of this mission."

By now Holland's face was absolutely livid, his eyes practically bulging out of his head.

"Major, you are out of line-"

"And I say we're leaving on this boat and not with the help of a bunch of Jackals and their four-eyed friends!" Silla shouted, still refusing to let the Colonel talk back. "If you and the Master Freak want to get in bed with the enemy alongside the Commander, be my guest! You will find no help from the ODSTs! You have betrayed the UNSC and if you somehow do get off this planet you will answer for it!"

"Major Silva, you will follow my orders or I will be forced to-"

Silva slammed his fist down on the communications button, terminating the signal between him the Colonel. Holland was unable to get another word in edgewise before the screen went dark. Silva didn't miss a beat, he found the ship wide intercom and instantly hit the switch.

"All hands," he declared. "Colonel Holland has betrayed the UNSC and is now working for the Covenant. As of now, I am now in Command of this mission. I want flight checks prepped and ready within the hour, we are leaving this ring immediately. ODSTs, lock down the ship! No one is allowed onto the bridge without my expressed permission! Major Silva, out!"

---

That had gone about as bad as it could have. Silva had decided to commit mutiny. It was probably the only move he felt he had left. Linda wanted to say she was surprised, shocked even. Sadly, she really couldn't. She had a sneaking suspicion that Silva wasn't about to listen to Holland or anyone else at this point. She had just hoped she was wrong.

She wasn't the only one who had anticipated the Major's actions though. The reason she was able to listen to the prior conversation was because Kat had tapped the Colonel's signal into the main communication line. Every Marine had just heard Silva outburst in full and what his plan for the Flood was along with it. From what Linda could see from the few Marines around her, there weren't many who had liked what they heard. Sergeant Johnson in particular was rather incensed.

"The Major has gone nuts," he stated plainly. "A mutiny over the fact he can't bring the Flood to Earth? Is he serious?"

"Apparently so," Linda informed him.

Linda looked to McKay next, who looked rather distraught over the news. Her head low and shaking for a moment, she finally let out an angered scream.

"What in the hell is he thinking?" She asked aloud in frustration. "First potentially endangering Earth and now this! Of all the… I just don't… ARGH!"

"He's not thinking straight, Lieutenant," Linda tried to explain. "Hasn't been for a while now. All he can see now is the Master Chief colluding with the enemy and both Shepard and Holland enabling him."

"It's crazy," McKay shot back. "How exactly is he going to explain this back home? That he left Colonel Holland to die? What happens when the Master Chief and Shepard rendezvous with us? Is he going to lock them up? Put them in forced cryo until we get back home? He's not thinking this through! That's not like him!"

Linda honestly couldn't answer that. She had no idea if Silva was planning that far ahead or if he just thought he'd settle those issues in due time. The discussion about the Major's state of mind would have to wait, however, as Kat contacted them both on the radio.

"Linda, McKay," she began rather quickly. "I'm conferencing you both in. I have Garrus, Jun and Holland on the line with me."

Linda already knew what this was about. She had expected Kat to call sooner though. She had probably been busy covering their signal. They didn't want Silva listening in.

"I was hoping the Major would see reason," Holland grumbled despondently. "Now he's forced our hand. You all have a new mission. Prevent the Truth and Reconciliation's launch and evacuate the ship. Ferry our forces to the rendezvous with the Deserters. With any luck, they should arrive in unison with my own forces to launch a combined assault on the new escape ship."

"I can handle escorting the Marines and anyone else willing to volunteer," Garrus declared. "I just hope I can find enough people willing to go along."

"After being told the alternative is to stay aboard a Flood infested ship I think the chances are we'll get more than enough help," Jun suggested. "No Marine will want to be a part of helping bring these freakish monsters to Earth."

"Maybe, but there may still be some ODSTs loyal to Silva," Kat warned. "They may pose a danger."

McKay instantly show up her hands at the very thought of what they were suggesting.

"Are you saying we need to fight my own people?" She asked, her voiced tinged with shock. "I trained some of those men, fought with them. I… I don't know if I can pull the trigger on them."

"I'm not asking any of you to kill your fellows Marines or Troopers," Holland assured them. "But if they attack you on Silva's orders, I'm giving you permission to defend yourselves. Try not to kill them, but don't let them jeopardize stopping that ship from taking off either."

"And what about Silva?" McKay asked angrily. "What do we do about him?"

Holland just sighed briefly.

"Get to the Control Room and try to shut him down," he explained. "If you can subdue him, do so. But if he leaves you no choice…"

McKay hung her head again, realising Holland was right. If Silva couldn't be reasoned with then they'd have no choice. Linda tried her best to comfort her.

"We'll do our best to make sure it doesn't come to that," she promised. "You don't have to come with us to the Bridge if you don't want to. You can help Garrus and Jun get the Marines off the ship."

But McKay shook her head.

"No, I have to be there," she explained. "He won't listen to Spartans, but maybe he'll listen to me. I gotta try at least, right?"

Linda just nodded. She knew this couldn't be easy for McKay, going against her friend and Commanding Officer. Right now though, that was the only move that would keep the Flood trapped on Halo.

"One last thing," Holland added. "Any Flood Specimens you find must be destroyed. If you fail, we have to minimize as much potential damage from those parasites as possible."

"Understood, sir," Linda agreed.

The Spartan looked to the bound and chained Jenkins on his table. She walked over to him, Johnson briefly at her side.

"I can do it," he told her solemnly. "He was my squad mate. He was my responsibility."

"No, you shouldn't have to kill one of your own men," she assured him. "I'll take care of it, don't worry."

Johnson nodded and slunk off to the side. Linda approached Jenkins now, pistol in hand and aimed it at the infected Private's head. Jenkins just turned to her, eyes bloodshot as hell, brimming with tears. As she placed the gun to his head, she thought she saw him mouth the words "Thank You."

In the next moment, the engine room echoed with the sound of a single shot.

---

The attack on the Bridge began when Chief unloaded his full assault rifle clip into what appeared to be a Spec-Ops Elite standing near the entrance. Shepard headed in next, charging right into a second Elite patrolling the Bridge proper, smashing him into a wall before shooting his down. Varvok, Zek, Tali and Miranda all charged forward onto the Bridge after him. Varvok killed a Grunt as it tried to aim its weapons at him. Zek opened up on a second Grunt, shooting him through the eye socket with a needle. Miranda overloaded an Elite's shields while Tali fired into his head.

The whole team moved up again, with Tali and Legion sending their respective drones forward to assist in the assault. Mordin rushed up to a corner for cover and fired at the Covenant defenders with bursts from his submachine gun. It was mostly just a distraction though, as Chief rushed forward onto the Bridge with Shepard close behind. There were four grunts in a small space between the divider walls on the bridge. Chief quickly dispatched them as he ran, spraying fire across the entire area.

When they got to the front of the bridge a long Elite and Grunt armed with a Fuel Rod Cannon stood in their way. Shepard sent out a shockwave to send the Grunt flying, his Fuel Rod Cannon went off and hit the ceiling. Chief charged the Elite directly, firing as he did. The Elite went to punch the Spartan but was kicked in the stomach instead. The Master Chief then delivered a haymaker across the Covie Officer's face as he tried to get his bearings back. The punch was powerful enough to force the alien's face to slam into the Bridge's control panel, cracking his skull open from the hit. As the Elite tried to get back up, Chief fired a spray of rounds into his back, making sure he stayed down.

The Bridge was now clear.

"Plug me into the console there," Cortana requested.

Chief followed her command diligently, pulling the AI chip out of his interface and placing it into the console. The very same console where Cortana had resided when this whole mess had started. The others gathered around as Cortana reconnected with the ship. Her glowing avatar soon appeared on the holographic display of the console and looked about the room.

"I leave home for a few days and look what happens," she stated cheekily. "This won't take long."

It in fact only took Cortana but a few seconds to accomplish what they came for. Appearing on the large tactical screen of the Main Controls was a clock, counting down from about two or so hours from now.

"There," Cortana proudly stated. "That should be enough time for us to find a lifeboat, the others to secure the Corvette and for both of us to put enough distance between us and Halo's destruction."

Mission accomplished then, nothing to do now but locate a ride out of here. Chief reached down to pull Cortana out of the console and prepare for their second extraction from the Autumn. Fate, however, had other plans it seem, as a familiar voice decided to make painfully clear to all.

"I'm afraid that's out of the question."

"Ah hell," Cortana groaned in a tone of pure utter disgust and loathing.

It was the Monitor, Guilty Spark, speaking to them all through the ship's internal communications. Everyone immediately got jumpy, pointing their weapons about the Bridge, expecting Sentinels to pop up at any moment.

"Ridiculous," Guilty Spark remarked. "That you would imbue a ship's AI with such a wealth of knowledge! Weren't you afraid it might be captured? Or destroyed?"

As Chief looked back to Cortana, he could see the AI was in distress.

"He's in my data arrays," she fretfully announced. "A local tap!"

---

Guilty Spark floated among the various terminals, quickly and efficiently searching over all that was held within. It was everything he could've hoped for, everything he ever dreamed. In some way he had to thank the Reclaimer for taking such a risk in coming here. If he had not, Protocol would've ultimately locked him out from ever entering this ship. But now, he was obligated and he was taking advantage of it to the full extent.

"You can't imagine how exciting this is," he informed the Reclaimer and his comrades over the intercom. "To have a record of all of our lost time! Human history is it? Fascinating."

Finished with this terminal, Spark flew up to another just a level above him. He hummed to himself merrily as he did. Before he had been prevented from learning what had transpired across the void in their absence. He had been forced to let that other crashed ship be boarded up and forgotten. Now, not only had he stopped the Reclaimer's insane efforts to defy protocol, he had also gained this wonderful reward of knowledge. It was as if his eyes were now open and he could see once more. His vigil, his sacrifices, at last proved fruitful indeed.

"Oh I shall enjoy every moment of its categorization!" He declared aloud. "To think you would destroy this installation, as well as this record. I am shocked, almost too shocked for words."

---

A chime sounded through the ship's speakers and everyone looked at the countdown timer to see it had been frozen. Cortana could only look on flabbergasted.

"He's stopped the self-destruct sequence," she stated in frustrated awe.

"The little bastard is harshing our need to explode shit!" Zek growled in anger. "Party pooper."

Guilty Spark continued his spiel, refusing to shut up even despite his supposed shock.

"Why do you continue to fight us, Reclaimer?" He asked aloud condescendingly. "You and the interdimensional intruders cannot win. Give us the construct, and I will endeavour to make sure your deaths are relatively painless and-"

The speakers finally cut out, offering some relief from their present predicament.

"At least I still have control over the comm-channels," said Cortana with a slightly pleased grin.

"Please keep them off for as long as possible if you can," Miranda requested.

However, they had bigger problems than being forced to listen to Guilty Spark. Namely that their mission had gotten a whole lot more complicated.

"Where is he?" Chief asked Cortana.

"I'm detecting taps throughout the ship, Sentinels most likely, as for the Monitor…" Cortana paused, her face thoughtful as she tried to discern the floating eyeball's location. Then suddenly, she found it. "He's in engineering. He must be trying to take the core offline."

"If he shuts the reactor down we can forget blowing up Halo altogether," Shepard quickly reasoned. "Cortana, can you shut him out of the systems? Restart the countdown? Anything?"

But the AI could only shake her head.

"He's already disabled much of my remote access and he's already well underway to shutting the core off," Cortana explained, her face one of absolute desperation as she shrugged her shoulders. "He could easily just power it down well before the timer hits zero. Even if I could restart the countdown… I don't know what to do."

For once, Cortana was without a plan or anything to say. It was enough to convince the Master Chief how bad this was. Without the core, they had no bomb and there didn't seem to be many options open to them. Except maybe one that the Spartan could think of.

"How much firepower would you need to crack one of the Engines shields?" He asked the AI.

Cortana was staring back at the countdown timer.

"Not much actually," she admitted. "A rocket, even just a well placed grenade could do it. But why do you…?"

Cortana turned back to see her answer. Chief was lobbing a frag grenade up and down, the action speaking louder than any words could. Everyone knew almost instantly what he was suggesting.

"Damn, that sounds dangerous, risky and potentially suicidal," Zek noted aloud. "You know what, I like it. I fully support this idea."

"Not like we have a better one," Tali begrudgingly agreed.

Chief looked back to Cortana, who was eyeing him rather curiously. However, she suddenly nodded approvingly at the idea.

"Okay, I'm coming with you," she stated.

As if he intended to leave her behind. No, they needed everyone on this. However, as Chief went to pull the chip, something cast a shadow over the bridge. Appearing in the windows that looked outside were four menacing machines.

"Sentinels! Scatter!" Cortana shouted to everyone.

The group broke apart as laser slashed across the bridge. They either dove for safety under command consoles or ran for cover behind small corners.

"I am not going to get roasted alive by a bunch of friggin robots!" Zek shouted rather annoyed. "That was not in my plans for today!"

Chief's shields had taken some bad hits from the initial laser attack and he had been forced to duck down to avoid losing them further. The glass of the Main Control screen had also shattered as the laser hit it, further damaging his shields when the shards hit him. Reaching over to the console nearby, chief grabbed Cortana's chip and plugged her back into his head. He then readied his Assault Rifle and popped back up unleashing a hail of bullets.

If Guilty Spark wanted him so bad, fine. He'd go right to him. No matter how many of his little fellow machines he threw at him didn't matter. This ship and this ring were being destroyed today.

---

AN: I know it's been a while, but let me explain. This chapter is massive in scope, so much so I realised I would have to slip it up into sections. I have an A plot running alongside a B and C plot, as soon as I realised that I knew I would have to write this differently. So I wrote the sub-plots out first and did the main plot last, figuring it would be far easier to focus on one thread at a time. And it was, but it did reveal I was right to split this level up into different chapters.

The good news is this means you'll be getting the next few updates a bit faster with any luck as the A plot taking place on the Autumn is a bit more straightforward. I apologise if this chapter seemed light on action, but you're going to get a ton of it in the updates to come. I'm still writing the A plot and with the holidays coming up I wasn't sure if I was going to get it all done in time. So I wrote what I wanted for the first chapter of the finale's A plot out and inserted the relevant beats around it. That will be how this goes for the rest of the finale. You'll get updates as soon as the writing on the A plot on the Autumn has advanced enough. At least this way, I have something to give you before Christmas. It unfortunately meant I had to skip Beta Reading, so I didn't have Crow to correct any of my spelling errors. Hopefully I didn't miss too many.

Because most of my thoughts about the finale kinda run throughout their total length as a whole you won't really be seeing any behind the scenes notes for a while. Feel free to ask questions, but realise you probably won't get your answers for a bit. Do feel free to visit the profile page regardless though where you'll find links to some of HellFox's best audio adaptations of the story yet. Two scenes from chapter two have been fully recorded and are available for your viewing pleasure. Please endeavor to check them out when you can as he put a lot of hard work into both.

Thank you all for reading and sticking with me despite the time taken between updates being slightly longer. Hopefully I can make it up to you with an awesome finale that will be continued soon. Thanks again for reading and have yourselves a Merry Little Christmas and a Wonderful Holiday Season all around. No matter your creed, beliefs, culture or race, tis a joyful season this time of year.