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FICTION

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"And a Colder Place"

May 22 2528 - Hour 0621

MCPO John-117

Installation-04, En Route to the Control Room

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This situation was far more tense than expected.

In John's mind, the idea that fellow humans, member of the military at that, were deliberately sabotaging humanity's effort to regain power was absurd. ONI had been the promoters of the Spartan-II Project, and yet Halsey told them why they had been looking into this matter: they wanted soldiers for themselves, not humanity.

The greed of some shall be the end of all, that's the phrase the Doctor used in regard to what she thought of them, and now he could properly see why these were far more of a threat than he had thought them to be. Antagonistic? Sure, but outright establishing an effort to cause a new galaxy-wide disaster? This was just despicable.

Usually his mind would be clear for a mission, but he had been thinking of the debriefing and this one was going to be simple and yet complex in its own simplicity. The two was meant to split in two. John would be in charge of Jorge and Grace. Grace was giddy enough to break the new environment she was in, while Jorge, despite his size, happened to be somewhat of a caretaker to Grace.

He was always the big teddy bear to many, so it made sense that someone with that kind of size and soul would be keen to keep the girl under a leash to prevent her from being too destructive.

"After all, the Colonel didn't tell you to 'go nuts'."

Such a reminder 'pained' the explosive female Spartan, but seemed to do the trick in keeping her from causing too much destruction.

Now, while John and the other two Spartans took care of the small rebel ship going underneath the known surface of the planet, the one carrying the nuke, Colonel Sutton and Major Celik chased after the stolen Pelican going for the facility containing the Flood within the Halo.

It was a tense operation and one they could not fail. The sheer amount of knowledge over the needed coordinates by the ONI agents was by far the worst detail to keep track of. With ease, they managed to not only find the entrance through the Silent Cartographer that led to the Control Room area, but also unlocked the doors that led there.

From the tropical sight that was the Cartographer to the icy peaks of the Control Room region, the trio was soon moving to the ship that had been left parked. The bomb was there and it was properly deactivated for good before being put on the Pelican that took them there.

"Sir, we found the bomb and neutralized it. The agents seem to be making a run for the Control Run, we shall pursue soon-"

"No," The colonel's voice came through and interrupted the Spartan. "You three shall first take care of the generators to the Control Room. By disabling those with your Armors' shields, you should be able to neutralize their means to activate the Ring or do something worse."

"What could be worse than blowing three fourths of the Galaxy, sir?" Grace asked, almost in a tone of challenge, and Sif replied with impeccable precision.

"Setting an activation code that may activate all the Rings at once."

"They can do that?" Jorge asked, blurting out the very question the other Spartans were thinking about.

"Not as easily as it may sound. Still, you can outright avoid this if you take care of the generators. Using your MJOLNIR's Shields you should be able to overcharge them and cause them to suffer a system failure."

"Understood."

"Good, sending the coordinates. Also, I want to remind you all that we will soon enter the containment structure and we will be unable to keep radio contact going."

"Roger that, Sif," Jorge confirmed.

"Godspeed, Spartans. Time to end this mess for good. Log out."

With the new mission parameters assigned, the trio split to individually tackle the new task. Much to their surprise the supposedly easy stroll in the snowy hills turned into a troubled path. John was the first one to find out as Sentinels were instantly turned into hostiles as they attacked him. Thinking on his feet and reacting accordingly, the Spartan dodged the attacks and retaliated with controlled burst of his Assault Rifle.

The flying constructs broke with ease, yet their numbers made it tedious to reach his destination. Clearing up the room took some more time, but he was able to put an end to the robotic resistance within three hours. Then, as he reached for the soft beam of light connectiong the generator to the structure's system, he felt his shields hit by an EMP blast. It was expected, it didn't make it any less worrisome as he thought more foes would come for him but... things were quiet for long enough for his shield to recover.

"Generator's down."

Two green lights flared up from his HUD, showing that the others were aware of this message. Next up was Grace followed by Jorge. With all generators disabled, the Sentinels' presence weakened considerably and they started to move towards the control room itself.

Once reunited by the entrance, they found the entry panel was easy to crack open, allowing for the first large door to open and reveal a corridor that led to their last stop. But this calm stroll was not bound to be as peaceful as they had envisioned.

The second large door was soon opening, but before it was fully open, a powerful laser struck through and hit Jorge, slamming him on the ground and disabling his shields and rendering him stuck as the armor lost power. Likewise, Grace dashed to the side, but was struck down too.

John managed to dodge the first attack, trying to return fire to the spheric entity responsible for the attack but- The burning beam blasted through the Master Chief's shields in a stronger way than a normal sentinel's laser. John was soon sent flying like the rest. And as Sentinels flocked to catch their weapons and restrain them, the ONI agent by the terminal looked shocked at the situation.

"Why are you not killing them?" He demanded, a Magnum handgun still unholstered as he seemed ready to do this himself. The hostages were lying on the ground, their mouths and limbs restrained for the time being.

The floating monitor turned to the ONI agent. "Priorities."

Where is the other one?

There should have been two agents.

"What do you mean 'priorities'? I told you, we are the Reclaimers so-"

"You are not Reclaimers, but potential ones. Still, to answer your question, the purpose of your partner is no longer fulfillable. Not when the activation panel has been deprived of energy to properly function. So... your claim is no longer acceptable."

The agent seemed to realize what had happened, aiming his gun to the monitor, but was instantly melted by the intense heat blast that had struck the Spartans as it now scorched his head until it fully melted. There was a strange and unpleasant silence after this betrayal, but the monitor was still in a 'good' mood as he shifted closer to the Spartans.

"Now that these fake Reclaimers, I have to ask you two... who is the Reclaimer with the Class 8 Combat Skin that has been in contact with you for a while now?"

...

"What?" Grace uttered in pure confusion, mirroring her fellow Spartans' confusion at the odd question.

AN

Next time, Log makes a few discoveries about the containment facility, especially in regard to it having an actual 'armory section' or two.