Locke walked into the HIVE base along with Storm Company Osiris. The latter moved though the base to secure it, they weren't phased by the dead bodies before them. While there were enough supplies to keep them fed, they were killed by one of the traps the base had. They began to move the bodies while their commander made their way to the lower level where they intended to kill John. He stepped into a large round room with a tube in the middle.

A human form hug in the tank with wires connecting its head to the base's wiring. He sighed before he moved over to the main control panel. After typing a few keys, the wires disconnected and the liquid was flushed from the tank. A moment later, the tank opened up and Locke walked up to it. The nude woman shook from the cold air around her. But the Spartan didn't care as he pulled her out of the tube and onto the cold metal floor.

"Th… the… the voices…." she muttered but Locke turned her so that she looked at him.

"Are gone, you are going to help me kill 117," he said, his deep commanding voice echoing in the room.

The woman side nothing as she fell back and asleep. Locke sighed as he picked her up and took her out of the room. He made his way to the cellblock before locking her in one of them. but before he left, he posted two guards by her cell. As soon as he left, the two looked inside.

"Is she…" one asked.

"Yeah, one of those freaks," the other said and that was the end of that conversation.

"J…j…..j…John….p…pp…please help…..m…m….mmeeee," the woman said breathlessly.

OOOOO

Fred watched the holotable as the heavy mobile command vehicle moved slowly across the green landscape. The large six tracked vehicle was a larger version of the elephant heavy transport. Except, this was more of a mobile fortress. Armed with heavy armour, several scorpion turrets, anti-air rocket turrets and a large MAC gun, the machine was little more than death on wheels. Once it was somewhere, nothing short of a nuke would be able to move it.

At least, in theory. The machines where not always used due to the fact that they made very tempting targets for bombers and other artillery. But the anti-air was meant to counter that, didn't mean it worked all the time.

The Spartan's eyes watched as the Imperial forces moved before him. He was hiding in the nearby hills until the Imperials made a move. When they had, he made his. A wall of heavy armour and infantry moved to block the Imperial advance with a wall of steel and fire. The Scorpions were upfront, Kodiaks hung back and the infantry hid in the trees. From the Storm Commander's perspective, it looked like Fred was weak as all he could see was the Scorpions and HMCV. While the HMCV was going to be a hard nut to crack, but the Scorpions were the easy target.

Unlike the Federation's standard Scorpions, which were essentially the same as the UNSC tanks, the Imperial Storm Panzer's where very different. While they were same size and armament as the Scorpions, it was the style that made them different. The hull was a large angular box with the turret being central on the hull. This gave it more armour as well as the ability to deflect shells. They didn't have the speed to match the Scorpions. But they were able to take the punishment.

They looked brutal, but that was the point. The Imperials loved weapons of terror, not just war. Mentally, Fred hoped that his assault group was prepared. All of them were fresh recruits, despite the training he had put them all though. He sighed as he stood and looked out the main window. The sight of the Storm Regiment was a sight, and he needed to hold.

"Sir," Allen, his second, called. "They're moving,"

Fred looked out the window again, and indeed the Strom Regiment were on the move.

"Wait for them to reach the line then spring the ambush," Fred said.

"Sir," his seconded nodded and communicated the orders.

The Scorpions already began to fire their weapons at the oncoming armour. Some rounds hit, others didn't but cannons on both sides fired getting their range and targets. After a few moments, the exchange of rounds found their marks and a few tanks on both sides exploded. Others were damage and slowed, but some had jams and weapon malfunctions. Fred had accounted for that and set his tanks up in a line section.

When a tank on the front was damaged, it pulled out and a fresh one would replace it while repairs were made. This allowed for a constant fire on the oncoming enemy. But something was off. The Imperials were moving, but they weren't pressing an advantage. Fred Knew that his formation had weaknesses, but he had used them to place traps. Something was up. An explosion shook the HMCV sending people to the floor.

"Sir main cannon down," one of the operators yelled.

"So that was it," Fred muttered. "Allen, take command,"

"Sir," the Capitan saluted as he got up from the floor.

Fred left the command room and made his way to the weakest point of the HMCV, the engine room.

OOOOO

Holly Tanaka moved deeper into the engine room looking at what else she could damage. She smiled to herself. She never expected one of the elite blue team to make such a fundamental mistake, but then again, he probably thought that his fortifications were enough to hold off infiltrators. But he was wrong as she managed to get in and cause havoc. The smell, the fire, the sparks, it felt good.

She had her helmet removed to get the full effect of her handiwork. The heat, the smell, the smoke, all of it filled her with nostalgia. Her planet was glassed and that trauma haunted her. The Spartan IV augmentation only enhanced that turning her from a soldier with baggage, to a destruction loving psychopath. She loved it all, it gave her a trill that was better than sex. There was something about it, that gave her a sense of power. She was strong, and there was nothing that could stop her.

The sound of metal on metal then met her ears. As she turned, she managed to dodge a knife thrown her way. The metal weapon dug into the floor harmlessly. Holly smiled and Fred landed before her, helmet on but taking a fighting stance. She laughed as she drew her own blades and licked them cutting her tongue as she did so. But she didn't care, pain wasn't as issue for her, not since she upgraded.

Unlike Fred's experience mixed martial art stance, Holly went into more of a crouch. He stood like a soldier; a warrior ready to take on the galaxy. She stood like a thrill-seeking predator, only in it for the kill. She pounced on him, but Fred moved swiftly like a dancer dogging her attack. But Holly made a quick move redirecting herself at him and managed to strike at his helmet and breast plate. The blade made a scar on Fred's armour but it was his helmet that took most of the damage as the plate fractured and split from Holly's excessive augmentations.

He backed up and pulled his helmet off, but as he did so he threw his knifes at her. Moving like a ballerina, she caught each one of them before flipping one in her hand.

"You think you are the only one with knifes?" she asked laughing.

Fred didn't smile as he drew a pair of new toys. The hilts were shaped like the knives he used, but Holly knew what they were before he could even activated them. Pleasure was now replaced with anger and her smiled vanished as Fred activated the blue energy blades.

"You goddamn traitor," she said as she activated a pair of arm shields. "You dare use technology used by our enemy?"

"A gift from John's friend," Fred said as held his new knifes like his previous ones. "First rule as a Spartan, use whatever you can get your hands on. If you don't understand that, you aren't fit for that armour,"

Holly screamed as she charged in and wacked Fred with her shield. But he blocked the move with his energy blade before kicking her out of the way. She stumbled as Fred pressed his advantage pushing her back with quick swift attacks. A few hit their mark, but the anger that she felt meant that not all made it though and she countered with a few attacks of her own. But none slowed him down until she saw an opening. As Fred moved in with a swing from the side, she grabbed his arm and threw him over her shoulder. He landed with a thud and a grunt on the floor.

As she tried to move in for the kill, Fred slammed his fist into her knee with a crunch sounding followed by a scream of pain. But that didn't stop her as she brought her knife down. Fred rolled before it made contact with the ground and he slashed at her arm taking it off at the elbow. But that still didn't stop her as she tried to stab him again. Jumping to his feet he then made a devastating blow. He stabbed her through the chest, but missed her heart. This allowed for her to stab him in the side before headbutting him.

He stumbled back as blood leaked from his wound and she shakily stood. "You cannot kill me," she said triumphantly.

Fred said nothing as he moved and slashed at her. That was the killing blow. She fell to the floor as her head fell off the stump on her torso.

"No one is unkillable," Fred said as he stood and looked to the knife in his side. "No nurse yet," he muttered before hitting his earbud. "Engineering teams to the engine room, repairs needed, also body disposal needed for a Spartan IV," he said before heading back to the bridge.

OOOOO

General Sturm watched with gritted teeth as the tank battle before him unfolded. He was expecting the HMCV to be destroyed by now. But all he got was a cloud of smoke that was soon repaired. This is what you got when you trusted Spartans to do an infiltrator's job. They were needlessly elevated to heroes by people, and while they did have power, they were too unreliable to get the job done. You could build a battlefleet then build one Spartan, but they did fill a niche in combat.

He sighed and decided to use his secondary trump card. "Attention all units," he said as he clicked his radio. "Holly Tanaka is down, fire the weapons,"

A second later lances of red light came out of nowhere and hit the opposing Scorpion tanks. Sturm smiled.

OOOOO

Fred ran into the bridge. "What happened?" he asked.

"We don… sir," Allen cried out as he looked at the knife still stuck in Fred's side. "You need to see the medic,"

"Not now, we need to…" he tried to say but another lance of red light shot out taking out several of his tanks. "Laser tanks?"

"Yes sir, but they're cloaked," his second said. "We cannot detect them, I was just about to order a saturation bombing on their location,"

"Go…" Fred tried to say, but the holotable changed.

"Blue 2, Fred do you read?" John's voice said.

"I read bother," Fred replied. "I'm in the middle of a battle here,"

"I know that's why I'm calling; I've got serval experimental Kodiaks incoming. Hold on until they arrive,"

"Understood," Fred replied as the table changed back to a map. "Let's see, if we move the ground forces here and here," he made indications on the map. "We can get them behind the main force and attack from behind,"

"I agree, but I think we need to give them something to focus on. Heavy bombardment,"

"Let's do it,"

OOOOO

After they took over the HIVE base, Commander Templar was placed under the command of Fredrick. But the reason wasn't clear to the new commander. For now, he focused on keeping his men in line as they waited for orders. Everyone double checked their magazines and weapons ensuring that they were ready for anything that the Imperials could throw at them. Soon orders came over his comms and he turned to his men.

"We move north!" he yelled. "Attack them from behind, mount up!"

ODST and marines moved over to their warthogs and got on board. All the passengers armed themselves with either rocket launchers or grenade launchers. As soon as they were on, the vehicles moved fast behind enemy lines. The trees covered the advance allowing the force to get behind the Imperials and strike from behind. Chaos followed as warthogs armed with rockets, chainguns and gauss weapons the Federation forces cut down the Imperials from behind. The distraction held long enough for the experimental Kodiak artillery to land.

Much to Fred's surprise, these ones were plasma artillery. He could only watch as balls of plasma were thrown into the battlefield in front of them.

OOOOO

"So, this is the location?" John asked as Vadam awkwardly manipulated the controls of the holo table.

"That's what the tablet said," the Arbiter replied. "We need to get there before the Banished, and Imperials,"

Chief nodded and tapped the map. "Looks like Six and Wolf pack are the closest. If they can get there and secure the area, we can deal with the Imperials before the Banish arrive,"

This time the Arbiter nodded. "I have just the commander to send, Bako 'Falcrum, he and Six have a history,"

Before John could talk the screens changed to Locke's face. "117, I know you can hear me," he said with a calm but aggressive and cocky attitude. "I have someone to show you," he said as he stepped to one said to show a naked human hanging behind him, her hands chained to the ceiling.

He walked up to her and held her face up to the camera. John's eyes widened as he looked.

"H…h…help… m…meeee….," she moaned before Locke came back on.

"You want her, come and get her, alone," he said before the screen shut off.

"Where did the signal originate?" John asked.

"The HIVE base where the first signal originated," one of the officers said.

"Are you planning to go?" Vadam asked. "It's a trap,"

John nodded. "I know, but there is no way I'm leaving this planet without her,"

"Ah," Vadam looked to the map as John moved it over to the HIVE base. "I assume you aren't planning to go alone,"

John looked to his friend and smiled while shaking his head.