The pelican ride was bumpy due to the winds and the snow lashing out at them. They didn't have a lot of time to stop the empire from firing a pulse that would wipe out all life in the immediate area. Thankfully, according to Cortana, that wasn't going to happen anytime soon. Due to a mixture of quantum and other sciences that Aniko didn't even pretend to understand, the shorter the range, the more power the ring needed to charge to fire. She shook her head and focused on the holo-map in front of her, running simulations in her head to try and get to the control room quickly and remove the index.

Remove that, and the whole system would shut down. It may send a stand-by mode pulse to the other rings, but that could be fixed long-term. Right now, they were focused on the short term and their lives. Looking around, she noticed that the ODSTs and Spartans were doing final checks on their weapons, ready for a quick deployment. She smiled at that as she turned to look back at the map.

'Focus,' she told herself. 'I need to focus,'

That's when she thought of something and moved the map back to the HIVE mainframe. Their original target. She had forgotten about it given all that had happened in space and on the ground, but now she looked at it an idea came to mind. While the HIVE was uncrackable by AI or other sources, given the fact that it was made up of thousands, if not more, of human minds, they could disrupt it. She stroked the chin of her helmet as she considered the idea.

Hitting her comms, she wanted to double-check this with someone. "Cortana do you read me?" she asked.

A moment later, the former AI came on. "I read you loud and clear Lieutenant,"

"What would happen if we deployed EMP generators to the HIVE mainframe?" she asked.

Silence filled the channel before Cortana came back on. "It would disrupt communications," she said at last. "We didn't consider it because it didn't work at other HIVE stations, but at the mainframe…." She trailed off. "Lieutenant, what are you thinking?"

"Aside from the advantage of cutting enemy communications, if we take out the mainframe, we could use it to turn the Empire's weapons against them. Drones, false reports, false targeting data. We could use it for a full-on cyberattack because they don't use individual AI for their ships," she explained.

OOOOO

Cortana listened to the plan that Aniko had come up with and had to admit, it was a solid plan. But there was one thing that the Lieutenant didn't consider, who would be there to coordinate? Even without being activated the Federation could see that the HVIE was not only complex, it was a huge communications network that connected every ship, every base, and every listening outpost in the Empire to one another. A big brother network that needed the human minds inside of it to keep it running. Like it or not, she would need to go down to the ring to do all the necessary coding and programming to even make Aniko's plan viable.

She pulled back in her chair and ran her hands over her eyes as she took another look at the HIVE mainframe map. The complex was essentially a large pyramid-like structure. Octagonal with several tiers going up to its flat top that only had an antenna on top. Around it was a large wall practically covered in base defences and anti-missile countermeasures. Even if they dropped a company of Spartans into the compound, they would be cut to ribbons in short order.

Even a missile loaded with an EMP warhead wouldn't get close to it. Unless... Cortana moved forward and did a seismic scan of the area. And there it was. It was too much to hope for, but if it was there, then they could do something about it. It was there, which meant that she could do something about it, but there was one thing that turned her stomach upside down, a unique feeling that she didn't like.

She stood turned and walked over to Parisa, grabbing her by the arm, and pulling her over to the captain's office. No one stopped her, nor did the president resist her. She just let the former AI pull her into the office and let her close the door. Once the door was closed, Cortana took a deep breath and turned to the president who had a coy smile on her face. Something she wanted to punch off, but shook her head and narrowed her eyes.

"I know of a way to disrupt the HIVE," she said.

Whatever the president was expecting, it wasn't that as she frowned. "And you need my help?"

Reluctantly Cortana nodded as she showed and explained her plan to Parisa who nodded while listening to the former AI. Once Cortana had finished Parisa stroked her chin considering the action.

"We're going to have to bring charges and cutting lasers with us," she muttered. "How many do you think we'll need?"

"At least 4 other Spartans," Cortana replied and Parisa nodded again as she looked at the map with the plan.

"If Palmer was able to send a strike force here," she pointed to a sector some distance from the mainframe. "Do you think that will be a good enough distraction for us to get in?"

Cortana paused, considering the action before nodding. "That would divert their attention…" she mused.

"Good, I'll make the call," Parisa said heading for the door but stopped just shy of it. "You know, I'm being serious about it, right? I love him as much as you do. There is no reason for us to fight over his feelings. A Spartan is human, as well as something more. I doubt one of us can handle him alone,"

Cortana was about to snap back but held her tongue. She sighed as she looked at the president. "I don't know. I'm not fully human. I'm still trying to figure out all of these emotions, these feelings. I just…." She trailed off.

"I'll give you some time to consider," Parisa said before walking out the door leaving Cortana to stew in her thoughts.

OOOOO

Aniko grabbed onto the railings above her as the pelican banked from left to right avoiding a pair of gunships barring down on them. Missiles and 70mm rounds flew in their direction, most of them missing with a few hitting the armoured hull.

"How close are we?" she yelled over the comms.

"500 meters," the pilot said.

She didn't need to say anything as the Spartans and ODST grabbed their gear and got up from their harnesses.

"Give us a call when we are over the drop-site!" Aniko yelled.

"Understood," was all the pilot said as the rare ramp opened.

As it did, one of the Spartans grabbed a rocket launcher and walked to the edge of the troop compartment. Once the rear door opened, he fired at the gunship. The first rocker missed while the second hit the vent on the right wing of the gunship forcing it to break off of the pursuit. That only left one gunship to deal with but their drop coming soon, they couldn't focus on that. The ODSTs were the first to jump out of the pelican followed by the Spartans.

The teams had brought jump packs with them for quick manoeuvring. As they jumped out, they activated them to slow their descent so that they could land in the snow safely. Aniko landed hard but moved into a roll to mitigate any damage to her legs. As soon as she landed, she grabbed the nearest trooper and pulled him into a nearby cave. Others soon followed. Some of them limped thanks to a bad landing.

Once everyone was inside, the medics began to move and fix the sprains and broken bones as best they could while Aniko checked her map. They were close but still had a ways to go. Hopefully, the jump packs would allow them to move fast and quiet. She looked up and did a quick scan of the troopers under her command and sighed both in relief and frustration. It was clear that a few of them had broken their legs due to a bad landing. They wouldn't be going anywhere.

But there were plenty of others to use. But there was one thing that she needed to do while the others caught their breath.

"Sargent Kia, Corporal Dunn, Corporal Tut, Spartan Liao, on me," she said as she got up and walked further into the cave.

The four mentioned grabbed their weapons and walked up to her. Spartan Liao and Corporal Dunn both had sniper rifles while Kia and Tut carried DMRs. The four walked up to her and saluted.

"You four are my scouts," she said and the four nodded. "Move out and map out the quickest way to the control room. Try to avoid engagements, speed and stealth are key here. When you find the control room, do not engage. Map the area and relay how many imperial soldiers there are,"

The four nodded before moving out ahead of the main group. With that done, Aniko grabbed one of the medics and pulled them to the side.

"How many?" she asked.

The medic didn't need more than that. "7," he said. "We don't have the equipment to repair bones here,"

She nodded. "And the rest?"

"They be fine, about half an hour to repair any damage," he said.

Aniko nodded before she turned. "Ok listen up," she yelled. "Rest up, we'll move out in an hour!"

She got a cheer of agreement as the team sat down and broke out their rations. With that, she took off her helmet, walked over to a crate, sat pulled out a ration bar and began to eat.

OOOOO

The drop pod slammed down hard onto the ring's service before the door burst open and Cortana staggered out with a groan. She wore an ODST uniform with little modification. At her side was a pistol, something that she had been training with, but still it wasn't something she was used to. While all Federation officers, regardless of role, were trained with at least a pistol Cortana was an AI before and had zero expectation of ever using a weapon outside of her mind.

So her weapon handling was awkward and poor. Not that she expected to use it on this mission. She stood and looked around to see three more pods land. Their doors popped open and three black armoured Spartans exited the pods with them moving up to her.

"Are you ok?" Parisa asked and Cortana nodded.

A final, larger pod landed. It popped open to show a troop warthog with four cases on one of the seats waiting for them.

"Ok, everyone hop on and let's move," Parisa said as she made her way to the all-terrain vehicle.

The three nodded and joined the president jumping onto the transport. Cortana strapped herself in before she pulled out a tablet and began to look through the data. She had been going over it to make sure that she wasn't missing anything as this looked too simple. Too easy, there had to be something that she was missing. But from every angle she looked at it, there was nothing, or at least nothing obvious that jumped out at her.

Parisa started up the warthog and drove it toward the location of the cave. As she did, a thunderous echo forced Cortana to look up and see several white and blue pelicans of both the lighter and heavier variety as they landed to deploy Atlas forces. While they were too far away, the former AI could see how much Atlas favoured Spartans when compared to other units.

It wasn't much of a surprise however, as Atlas was the most technologically advanced out of all the factions. Seeing what they were deploying, it wasn't much of a surprise. But it did concern Cortana about how the Federation could survive.