John looked at the screen along with the rest of the bridge crew and the Captain. Reach was displayed to them, it's surface burning and a fleet of Covenant ships in it's orbit.
They needed to get back to Earth, to report to Fleet Com what had transpired, but a straight shot to the Inner Colonies would be in violation to the Cole Protocol. There was also the fact that they would be arriving on a Covenant battlecruiser and would likely be shot at before getting a message to their allies, so this pit stop at Reach had a two-fold purpose. First, to stay within the parameters of the protocol, and second to find a mostly intact UNSC ship to dock the Truth and Reconciliation to as a way to keep themselves from getting blown up by their allies.
"Captain, scans indicate a patch of Reach the Covenant are deliberately avoiding to glass," Cortana reported. "Chatter also indicates that they're excavating that area as well, looking for a Forerunner artifact."
"Hmm, interesting," the Captain mused, pulling out his pipe. "Must be important if they're going out of their way to retrieve it."
"That's not all," Omegamon chimed in, appearing on the deck as a hologram. "There's a secured code I believe the Master Chief will be familiar with."
"Let me hear it," the Spartan in question said and a series of beeps played in his helmet. Six notes in a familiar pattern. He knew this code. "Is this a secured channel?"
"Yes," the Digimon confirmed. "Go ahead."
John gave the response signal. The line went quiet, and then the signal changed.
"There are Spartans down there, sir."
"Are you sure, son?" The Captain turned to fully address him and all eyes were now on the heavily armored man.
"Absolutely, sir."
The Captain, after much discussion over how they would extract the survivors, gave him the green light. John and three Marines including Sargent Johnson boarded a Phantom dropship and sped away from the Truth and Reconciliation.
Alphamon rode in the Master Chief's armor since Cortana was needed on the ship. He made sure they were not intercepted and ignored by the Covenant.
"Alphamon, you're a gem!" the pilot, one Warrant Officer Sheila Polaski, said to the Royal Knight when he reported what he was doing.
"I do my best, ma'am," he responded. "And we're approaching the coordinates now."
"Lock and load, boys and girls!" Johnson readied his rifle and the Digimon watched the soldiers prepare their weapons just in case they came across any enemies. The Master Chief likewise grabbed his rifle.
"Alphamon," the Spartan spoke for everyone to hear, "it'd be best if you don't reveal yourself to the survivors until we're back on the Truth and Reconciliation."
"I agree with that assessment, Master Chief. I'll still assist you without making myself known to them."
"Wait, why? We can just explain things to them, right?" Johnson asked, confused.
"Explanations will take too long and we're on a time crunch, Sargent," was Alphamon's simple and short response. The entire story was way too long to convey on a mission like this, and one important part of said story was near-comatose and unable to convey her side of the entire incident.
The dropship landed in a canyon and the bay doors opened. The Master Chief was the first to step off and sweep the area with the three Marines following his lead. No IFF tags popped up, but the signal from earlier played over the Chief's Team COMM.
"Oly oly oxen free," the man responded and a battered Spartan stepped out from behind a boulder.
"Chief?" the Spartan called out as he approached.
"Spartan-044," the Chief said and Alphamon could hear his brief smile upon seeing one of his brothers alive.
Captain Keyes was glad they were able to sneakily jump into the system at all and stay under the radar. The Truth and Reconciliation was now maneuvering close to the UNSC Gettysburg amidst a field of debris to latch on to the mostly intact human ship.
"The Master Chief has made contact, Captain," Omegamon appeared on the bridge in hologram form. "Beyond this, Alphamon is now out of range for me to maintain a line of communication."
"I'm surprised you were able to maintain the line so far out," Jacob said, fiddling with his pipe, not lighting it like he normally would. The Digimon were a life saver; the two mega leveled monsters swept through the Covenant ship's internal network and detained an alien AI while Cortana dismantled it. "How are things looking with the fleet?"
"They're still focused on the excavation planet-side," Cortana responded this time. "However, there are some mentions of 'infidels' burrowing their way down ahead of them. It's possible some UNSC personnel survived the destruction of CASTLE Base by taking shelter in the old mining tunnels."
"It's probably a good thing the ground team will also investigate the site, then," Omegamon said. "The more lives we save, the better."