Chapter 5

Most of the bridge officers were now loading their M6G Magnum pistols as Wei dug through a bulkhead compartment and Ferguson flipped through a holoprojected display with video feeds. One of a shootout in one of the ship's mess decks, another of a squad of marines and naval crewmen being gunned down in a hail of plasma fire, and another of the ODSTs running over a Hunter in a warthog, flattening it against the wall of the starboard cargo hangar bay. All the while the sound of gunfire and shouts continued to get closer to the bridge, Ferguson beginning to hyperventilate as Strieger moved to give him some comfort, something Strieger wasn't exactly experienced at, he wasn't experienced with almost any of what had gone on today, but he couldn't waver his false bravado, not in front of the bridge crew at a time like this.

"Something the matter Ferguson? Your first time seeing an alien?"

"Outside of patriot news broadcasts and holovids, yeah it is, are they really as bad as they say they are?"

"Do you bleed Ferguson?"

"Um...excuse me sir?"

"It was a question Ensign, do you bleed?"

"Well, yes I do sir."

Alec placed his hand on Ferguson's shoulder like a father figure, despite them only a year or two apart in age as he knocked his knuckles lightly on his chest. "So do they, if it bleeds, then it can be killed... don't bother trying to overthink things, just remember that fact, and do your duty."

Strieger planned on saying more; about how the bridge's one entrance was an excellent choke point, but he was suddenly interrupted by a pair of marines that ran onto the bridge, assault rifles in hand. One of them yelling out as the other dropped his rifle and put his hands on his knees, gasping for breath as muzzle flashes and green blobs of plasma flew through the hallway.

"Sir, Tango and Zulu teams have both been wiped out attempting to hold the covies back, we have aliens in the corridor, we need to evacuate you and all vital personnel from this location."

"It's too late for that marine, if they're in the corridor then they already have us trapped. We hold the bridge."

The marine stepped forward to argue but was struck in the back by a glob of green plasma, knocking him to the floor and melting through the ballistic armor on his back, severely searing his flesh. As he dropped to the ground screaming, the crew turned to the doorway, one of the little bipedal creatures the marines called a grunt stood there, plasma pistol in hand.

As the cowardly little creatures saw the rest of the crew turn to him, it squeaked and threw his pistol into the air, attempting to run away with its hands throw up in the air, to no avail as the crew unloaded 6 .50 magnum caliber rounds into the creature's back, propelling it into the bulkhead wall and splattering its electric blue blood across the wall.

Before anything else could be said or done, another 3 dozen of the little creatures turned the corner, these ones emboldened by their numbers did not decide to run. The officers with their magnums and one marine with his assault rifle opened fire from behind the cover of their consoles, tearing the shieldless grunts to shreds. As this second wave of the little menaces kept coming, the bridge crew began running out of ammunition, as most only carried a single magazine on them, another trio of grunts entered the bridge, needlers in hand, when there was a loud crack, followed by the distinctive pump of a shotgun, the Grunts being immediately shredded by the buckshot.

Strieger turned to see Lieutenant Wei standing there, shotgun in hand that she must have pulled from a bulkhead compartment. Shell casing clattering to the floor as she began walking forward, nodding at the marine. Her weapon at her shoulder as she and the marine advanced to drag the still breathing wounded man away from the door.

"It's not safe lass, we don't know how many more are around that corner." O'Malley spoke to Wei from behind the holographic display table he was using as cover.

"The man has plasma burns, if we don't treat him with biofoam soon he'll die of infection." Wei spoke as she and the other marine slowly moved forward towards the choke-point of the door.

Unfortunately for them as the marine placed his hand to check the downed man's pulse, his arm was grabbed and yanked on by some invisible force, before doubling over as if struck in the abdomen, the marine hit the ground with a smack, blindly firing a few rounds of his assault rifle before the weapon was wrenched from his grip and thrown across the room. A few of the rounds striking the invisible entity and fizzing against its shields, disrupting the active camouflage and revealing a hulking elite in maroon armor, standing over Wei and the disarmed marine, Wei immediately raised her weapon to the Elite's head but the creature grabbed the barrel and turned it out of the way, the shell blasting harmlessly into the bulkhead ceiling. It then grabbed Wei by the arm, lifting her off the ground and placing its 4 fingered fist squarely into the center of her stomach, causing her to scream in pain before being thrown to the ground. Pollard, O'Malley, Wright, and Ferguson all aimed and attempted to fire at the creature, but both Ferguson and Wright were both out of ammo, and Pollard and O'Malley were both only able to get off 2 shots and 1 shot respectively, flickering harmlessly into the elite's shields. The elite warbled its jaws, almost as if laughing, before pointing his plasma rifle towards Wei, crumpled on the floor, only to be interrupted when the disarmed marine leaped onto its back, driving his combat knife into its shoulder, overloading the elite's shields and sending a spray of purple blood into the air. The Elite roared, grabbing at the marine and judo threw him over his shoulder, then as reaching to pull the knife from his shoulder, Strieger emptied an entire magazine of his magnum into the Elite's chest, each .50 magnum caliber round punching into the Elite and knocking him back step by step until he was pressed against the hallway wall as Strieger continued firing. As the last round struck the creature, the Elite howled, began to raise its weapon towards Alec, before dropping the plasma rifle and slumping to the floor in a pool of its purple blood.

Strieger breathed out deeply through his nostrils as the clip dropped to the floor with a clang, glad to finally have been able to put the extra magazine he always had hidden in his left boot to good use. Looking to his Lieutenant crumpled in a ball gasping for breathe, and the two marines groaning on the floor, he nodded to O'Malley and the two of them dashed forward, Strieger lifting Wei to her feet as O'Malley heaved the two marines onto his shoulders with a groan, only for the two of them to turn and see a pair of common elites standing in the doorway, carbines in hand and aimed at them, O'Malley sighing and turning to him as the rest of the crew watched, all out of ammunition. For some reason the Elites didn't immediately shoot them, perhaps they were soaking in the moment before them gunned them all down, their warbles sounded almost like they were laughing, much like the other squidhead.

"Well Cap'n, I'd say it was quite a run, but considering it's been a day would be a bunch a bullshit, but to be honest, that battle was some of the most impressive shite I've ever seen."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence…. For all its worth."

Cullen chuckled as he slumped his shoulders. "May you die in bed at 95, shot by a jealous spouse."

"I find that unlikely." Strieger retorted.

The moment was interrupted by the sound of a grenade going off in the hallway, catching both the Elites' attention, causing them to turn and fire a few shots to their left as they began to slowly back up, only to be sprayed down by a hail of bullets. As the corpses of the two aliens slumped to the ground, the clicking of dozens of foot falls could be heard approaching. Turning the corner in front of them were a few dozen ODSTs in full battle dress, Gabriels and Miles both recognizable by the color stripes on their helmets. Gabriels dual wielding a pair of submachine guns, and Miles with a battle rifle resting across his shoulder, removing his helmet with his free hand.

"Good to see you're still kicking captain, and by the looks of it you boys got some action yourself."

Strieger couldn't help but nervously laugh. "You certainly have an excellent sense of timing Colonel."

"It's a gift I suppose."

Two of the ODSTs with medic patches stepped forward to handle the two marines and the Lieutenant as the bridge crew caught their breath, some began to cry, others laughed nervously and thanking the ODSTs for saving their asses as Strieger and Miles paced away to discuss things.

"What's our status Miles, how are the Marines holding up?"

"Heh, pretty well all things considered, it seems that many of these boarding pods were not fully manned when they were launched, most likely due to that stunt you pulled turning their ship into a pincushion. We've seemed to have killed the majority of them and we've moved on to mop up operations of any stragglers wandering through the ship. In total we have about 60 casualties, 43 of them KIA." The two of them turned as one of the medics came walking over to them. "Make that 63."

"Captain, Colonel, it looks like these three should all make it, though definitely worse for wear."

Strieger turned and looked the ODST in the eye, or more specifically visor. "What's the diagnosis Marine?"

"Sir, the Lieutenant has 3 broken ribs, a torn rotator cuff, and a fractured sternum. Private Conti over there has a broken collarbone and 2 slipped discs. While in severe pain, neither have injuries that are particularly life threatening. It's the Corporal I'm worried about, severe 3rd degree plasma burns covering almost the entirety of his back, this ship is hardly sterile, especially now that it has alien blood and bacteria in it, if we're not careful he could die of infection."

"Noted." Miles said as he flicked on his safety, flipping his battle rifle into a more comfortable position cradled backwards across his forearm. "The path to the infirmary is clear, I'm taking 2 squads and bringing them there." Gabriels went to speak but was immediately cut off. "Gabriels, you're staying here and guarding the bridge with the rest of your platoon." She snapped her fingers and dropped her head in disappointment, holstering her caseless submachine guns into her hip holsters as the Colonel left the bridge and one of the other ODSTs turned to address her.

As Strieger turned back to the viewport, viewing the burning Assault Carrier floating aimlessly in the debris field. The pink and purple hull of the gargantuan vessel was now covered in pockmarks from colliding debris. The carrier continued to list to its port side, decompressions throughout the vessel would occasionally appear along the outer hull, a massive fireball appearing here or there, only to be quickly snuffed out by the vacuum. The captain was so distracted he didn't notice Petty Officer Perón enter the bridge, kicking over a corpse of a Grunt as she strutted by, flanked by a pair of other ONI agents.

"No more surprises, Wilson, load another Shiva, we have no means of boarding that ship without risking any survivors self destructing it on us, so we waste it."

"Unfortunately Captain, I must overrule you on that accord, though I must say, defeating 3 covenant capital ships with a lone Cruiser, very impressive." Perón interrupted him as she made his way towards the viewport screen, only for Strieger to block her path, his finger in her face, his eyes filled with rage.

"You! You knew about station and what happened to it, it was you who went over my head and changed our mission coordinates, and it was you that risked the lives of my entire crew for what?! A god damn field test?!"

Perón stood there as Strieger shouted in her face, seemingly unphased in the slightest. "That information, as you will soon learn about all things connected to ONI, is highly classified, though I assure you that you were never alone out there, see for yourself." She motioned towards the viewport with a nod of her head as the other ONI operatives moved to inspect the corpses of the two Elites.

Strieger and the bridge crew, as well as the lingering ODSTs turned towards the viewport, viewing the debris field and the floating covenant hulks with bulkheads still exploding and burning, suddenly a few distortions could be seen, a flicker much like the active camouflage of the Elites, as the camouflage faded fully, the crew could now see a trio of Prowler stealth corvettes, two of whom were turning towards the Covenant Assault Carrier.

"You had 3 vessels with nuclear weapons onboard and you didn't help us? It was pure luck that the shockwaves from the mine ambush disabled their energy projectors."

Perón sighed for a moment, brushing a bit of dust off the hip of her uniform. "While our original plan was to handle this mission ourselves and leave the Son for cleanup, our timing was… off, due to an uncalculated risk. Though it seems you decided to take a risk as well captain. I have no doubt that you fully comprehend the details of the Cole Protocol, the moment the covenant boarding craft attached to the Seventh Son, it becomes the duty of the crew to overload the vessel's reactor to prevent the covenant from learning the location of Earth and the inner colonies. Failure to comply is a capital offense, equivalent for life imprisonment or a firing squad, for you and all your commissioned officers that didn't object."

Strieger began to object, but held himself, a defeated look upon his face. "Do what you will with me spook, it was my decision to continue the fight for the Son, nobody else's."

"Oh relax Captain, there are exceptions to the Cole Protocol, your actions defeated a small covenant fleet with a single vessel, saving your crew and a number of ONI personnel, as well as a Rear Admiral. Arresting you for that would be a serious blow in the PR department, and I'm not completely heartless believe it or not."

"There has to be something you can tell us about this mission, what happened to this station, or why there hasn't been any reports of this battle on the net." Strieger spoke, the rest of the crew remaining mostly silent as Iago ran diagnostics on the ship.

"Maybe when this mission is unclassified, now if you'll excuse me, there's still a mission to complete." Perón unfolded her arms, flattening out her sleeves and bringing her wrist to her face speaking into a hidden microphone on her uniform's cuff link. "Yellow Team, operation is green, you know what to do."

The crackle from the microphone responded, an electronic voice breaking through the static, loud enough for most of the bridge to hear. "Yes ma'am, moving to retrieve the package, callsign Osprey."

"Excellent" she responded, "You have a 30 minute window to retrieve the objective Sergeant, good luck."

"Wait a bloody second, Yellow Team…. Spartans?" Wilson muttered under his breath.

"Very well then, Petty Officer O'Malley, clear the bridge. I want a full assessment of the ship's damage, the boarding craft removed from the hull, and these alien corpses shot out an airlock, as the next most senior commissioned officer not wounded, see that it's done."

Cullen stood there, as if confused by his order before nodding, scratching his chin and tucking the cross around his neck back under his collar. "So be it Cap'n, you heard him boys and girls, we've got work to do. Ferguson, grab those Grunts and start dragging." He said as he turned towards the door, the rest of the bridge officers following him, with Ferguson jogging up next to him.

"What? Why me?!"

"Because the Cap'n just put me in charge, remember to lift with your knees"

The continued bickering as Ferguson relented, grabbing the Grunt by its three toed feet and started dragging it, Wright and Pollard laughing as they all filed out of the bridge, a set of nervous laughs, but it was nonetheless a good sign. Now the only people that remained on the bridge were Strieger, Perón, Gabriels, and her platoon of ODSTs.

"What about clear the bridge did you not understand Lieutenant?"

"Captain Strieger, with all due respect, I was ordered to guard the bridge and its crew."

"The crew just left Gabriels, I just give the orders, now go, we could use all the extra hands we have to search for Covenant stragglers, I'm ordering you to clear the bridge."

"But sir, the Colonel ordered me…"

"The Colonel isn't here Lieutenant, that was a direct order from the highest ranking officer onboard this ship, now!"

"But… Yes sir, let's move boys."

Once the Lieutenant and the rest of her platoon had left the bridge, all that remained were Strieger and Perón. Standing there in silence, the emptiness of the once packed bridge was chilling if nothing else, splashes of fluorescent blue Grunt blood still stained the grey metallic flooring. Strieger walked over to his chair pressing a button on its arm rest that muted the room to even Iago as Perón stood facing the viewport.

"Here we are Petty Officer, an empty bridge, completely cut off from prying ears, and nobody of improper clearance level. Tell me everything that happened here, please."

"Captain, despite the fact that your efforts here saved this entire operation, unless I get clearance from ONI high command, I can't disclose any information deemed classified to non-Intelligence agents."

"With all due respect ma'am, bullshit. How can you expect me and my crew to help you finish this mission if we don't even know what we're doing. I ask that you please tell me, if not for me, for all these men and women floating around in front of us, it's not right if they died for nothing, at the very least and as corny as it may sound, someone should know why they died."

Petty Officer Perón opened her mouth to speak, but cut herself off as she looked out the viewport to see a trio of UNSC midshipmen, floating listlessly in the vacuum, their skin blue, veins clearly visible under their flesh, all three of them had massive bruising around their throats, marks from their hands, the natural reaction to the feeling of suffocation. As an Intelligence Officer, she had done many questionable things for the sake of the human race's survival in this war, and she had seen just as many horrible scenes of suffering and violence, but something about this was different, they were only a few meters from the viewport, well lit by the bridge's ambient lights.

She could see the now dried blood that had leaked from their eyes, ears and nose, their eyes were all wide open, a look of twisted anguish across their cold faces, filling her with nausea and something someone at her position was trained not to feel, guilt. Running to a waste basket at a nearby terminal, Perón collapsed to one knee, heaving violently. Strieger moved to assist her but she held up her hand to him, indicating that she was fine. After a few moments of coughing, Perón caught her breath and turned back to Strieger.

"It's…*hick* what you can call a long story Captain Strieger, one that started when one of our Prowlers found something while investigating a derelict covenant vessel. The reports we were given from the crew stated that the ship was completely undamaged externally, but everything onboard was dead, when the EVAs moved in to investigate, they found that the ship had overloaded, like an ungrounded power cord. Every last inch of wiring onboard, every subsystem, everything was fried. They found a single object located on the bridge, a pyramid shaped object covered in alien doodles, definitely not covie gear. When one of the EVAs held a geiger counter to it the thing exploded in his hand, almost depressurized his suit. When asked what we should do with the device, it was my decision to move the device to Ocho Rios Station… I should have known better, we've always had reports that the covenant can track Forerunner tech."

"So the covenant tracked the device back to the station?"

"Yes," Perón heaved again, continuing her story after taking a few seconds to catch her breath again. "My team and I were all here, we knew the risks, and we thought that if we called in the 12th fleet we could safely study the device before moving it to a more secure location, we were wrong. A covenant fleet of over 600 warships all jumped into the system at once, I've never seen anything so terrifying. The Prowlers were able to cloak themselves and escape but…. the rest of the fleet was annihilated in moments."

"Listen, there was nothing you could do to save them Lieutenant, don't beat yourself up over it." Strieger placed his hand on her shoulder but she shrugged it away.

"You can keep telling me that and it won't make it true Captain. Back on topic, we were able to get the device onto one of the prowlers and after a bit of work we finally manage to stop them from tracking it, eventually, the covenant just gave up, left the system."

"How is that possible? Those aliens would eradicate a solar system to get at Forerunner tech, it's part of their principle directives, other than trying to kill us, and you're telling me they just shrugged their shoulders and left?"

"That's how we figured out who was really on board, the only way elites would go against a primary directive of the Prophets, is if there was a prophet onboard that ship commanding them, commanding the carrier you just turned into a flaming hunk of space debris. So my men waited in orbit while I returned to Skojpe, leased out a spartan team from FleetCOM, and activated the stations deep space beacon while managed the reactivate the device."

"Let me get this straight, you were going to send us into this ship graveyard alone, with no support, against what could have been a fleet of 600 warships?!"

"We miscalculated once again, we expected the Prophet to return with only a few ships, and possibly alone considering that they had just wiped out the entire fleet garrisoning the station, but what we didn't expect was how long it would take them to arrive. We planned on simply infiltrating the covenant ship covertly and escaping, the Seventh Son was only supposed to be our support to cover the Prowlers' escape, only the covenant took there time, and you arrived first."

Strieger took a moment to turn back towards the window towards the giant flaming carrier, bulkheads across the ship still popping here and there as the Prowlers moved in, he sighed deeply and turned back to Perón.

"What makes you think that beating we just put on that ship didn't kill the fucking turkey neck?"

"The Prophets are as smart as they are cowardly Captain, I'm sure the bastard is hiding in a safe room onboard that ship, if he was dead there would be nothing stopping them from self destructing."

Strieger formed a small smile on the corner of his mouth, "you owe my crew big time, but until we settle up, tell me what you need from me, the Seventh Son is at your disposal."

For the first time the whole trip, Alec saw the ONI officer crack a smile.

"Well, in that case, we need you to help us jam their communications, and if they're up to it, we could use some of your ODSTs."

"The boys do seem to be a bit itchy in the trigger finger department, I'll leave them under your care, just remember, you break em you buy em."

"No promises, now let's get underway, you know how important capturing this target could be."