I do not own Halo or any of its characters.
Traitor
Ethan sighed as he sat in the armory. The Infinity had been attacked by ancient UNSC fighters and a shuttle that was a trojan horse for an attempt at blowing up the Infinity. Majestic had stopped it, but Roland had tracked the fighters' deployment from a planet near the Brute Homeworld. As it was bordering on a declaration of war to be there, Sarah had taken Majestic for a stealth mission to investigate the missing UNSC ship that may be there, the Spirit of Fire. Ethan was not invited to come, and instead was under orders from Lasky to help the Science team finish upgrading the rest of the Infinity's weapons to Hardlight ammunition while Maria worked on trying to figure out how to turn the Infinity's cannons into Hardlight weapons. The problem was, they didn't have the technology to make a strong enough Hardlight power source for them.
"I've finished the upgrade schematics, but we'd need either a much larger Assembler Vat or something similar in order to make the upgrades," Maria said.
"I know," Ethan sighed. "I suspected as much even before we began designing the upgrades."
Maria nodded. "On the bright side, the small arms are almost finished being upgraded."
"That's true," Ethan nodded. "Just another hundred to go."
Maria chuckled. "Considering there are almost ten thousand weapons onboard, that's almost nothing."
Ethan sighed, finishing reassembling the now Hardlight Railgun, only to stop, staring at it. "If the others had been there, maybe..."
"Hey," Maria cut him off, setting her Hardlight hand on his shoulder. "Don't do that. No slipping into being lonely just because they got reassigned. They had to work hard to break you out of your shell and make you feel normal without you noticing, don't slink back into your cave, now."
Ethan grimaced. She was right, as always. Sarah and Maria had kept him from being outright suicidal, but leading Crimson had made him feel like a human again. And so had Crimson's competition with Majestic.
"It wasn't your fault," Maria said, knowingly. "Bad things happen. That doesn't make it your fault."
"I know," Ethan sighed, setting the Railgun aside and pulling the next over to himself. "We were never walking away from that fight without losing someone."
Maria nodded, switching back to her normal hologram body. "Let's take a break. Check on how Sarah and Majestic are doing."
Ethan nodded, and they headed up to the COC. Just as he did, Sarah made contact.
"Admiral, whatever we found, it's not the Spirit of Fire," Sarah said. "It's a space station, a huge one, with a Covenant Capital ship docked."
"Drop a beacon," Ethan said.
"Deploying," Sarah acknowledged.
A moment later, the beacon was deployed, and an image of the station appeared. The station was a large metal ring, dozens of massive cannons along its entire length, then a pair of long, thin arms sticking out from opposite sides of the ring, and a large, conical structure in the middle. The ship docked to the side of it was a Ceudar-Pattern Heavy Corvette, and was nearly as long as the station was wide.
"Looks like we've found our Covenant remnants," Ethan said. "Should I go and reinforce Majestic?"
"Go," Admiral Hood nodded. "Once You're there, we'll prep all Spartan Fireteams for battle before moving in."
Ethan nodded and headed to the Armor Bay, pulling his armor on himself before grabbing his Assault Rifle and Magnums and DeMarco's Battle Rifle. Then, he headed to the nearest Hangar and took a Booster Frame, a long, narrow, one-maned craft with a pair of large wings loaded with a dozen capsules that each fired two dozen rockets, a single, powerful Gauss Cannon, and two heavy machine guns. They also had a deployable turret in the back, but that was for emergencies only, since the gunner wouldn't have a seat or any kind of harness. Ethan hated Booster Frames. They were fast and maneuverable, but they also had no shielding and very rarely made it through a battle intact. Still, its maneuverability got him through the asteroid belt easily, and a few minutes later, he had landed on the same chunk of rock as the others and had radioed to Miller that he was in position.
"I don't know why I'm surprised that you fly that thing like an expert," Thorne greeted him.
"Hey, Thorne," Ethan said before his voice turned bitter. "I hate Booster Frames."
Thorne chuckled. "They get the job done, at least."
"Barely," Ethan snorted. "And only sometimes."
Thorne shrugged, glancing at the Battle Rifle in Ethan's hands. "Is that..."
"Yeah," Ethan said. "DeMarco's. I borrowed it before..."
"He looked up to you, you know," Thorne said.
"What?" Ethan frowned.
"He did," Madsen agreed, walking over with Grant and Hoya. "At first he saw you as something like a rival. Always, 'I can't let Ethan show me up,' and 'I have to prove I can do anything Ethan can.' But then by the time we left, is was, 'I can't let Ethan down,' and 'Time to make Ethan proud.' You ended up being his idol."
"After the way things started, and after all the shit you and Crimson went through and won every time, he wanted to earn your respect," Grant said.
"We didn't win every time," Ethan said. "I seem to remember hanging from a wall in a makeshift Covenant prison."
"And DeMarco was the first person to volunteer for a rescue," Hoya said.
Ethan smiled, in spite of his feelings of failure for letting DeMarco die. "Here. You guys should have this." He held out the Battle Rifle to Madsen.
"Keep it," Madsen said. "He'd want you to have it."
"Are you all really getting choked up about a rifle?" Sarah asked, walking over, only to pull Ethan into a hug. "What happened wasn't your fault, Ethan. You should have died, too, but instead, you kept him alive until the assholes in that station decided to get petty about it."
"Maria ratted me out, huh?" Ethan asked.
"She did," Sarah nodded, releasing him. "If you want, I could stick you with a Fireteam."
Ethan shook his head. "I belong to Crimson."
Sarah nodded. "We'll find a way to leverage them back to the Infinity."
"Good," Ethan nodded. "Now, what's the plan for the station?"
"Once the Infinity gets here, we'll head to the station on the Booster Frames," Sarah explained. "We'll have other Spartans reinforcing us, and our orders are to clear the station entirely."
"Sounds fun," Ethan nodded. "Just have to wait for the rest of the guests."
Sarah nodded, and they all set about preparing themselves. However, after the first hour, they were all bored, Madsen and Ethan taking turns kicking small rocks with the intention of hitting each other's shields.
"You two are like children," Sarah shook her head, then stood as the Infinity appeared from slipspace, arriving in between the asteroid belt and the station. "They're here."
Everyone quickly mounted up on their Booster Frames, but just as they did, a massive cannon rose from the top of the station's central structure.
"It's a Glassing Cannon!" Maria warned both the Spartans around her and Ethan and also the Infinity, but the warning was too late.
The beam punched through the Infinity entirely, about a quarter of the way from the front of the ship. Ethan swore, instantly firing his Booster Frame up and taking off, the others all flying along with him, all of the same mind. Distract the station's forces before they could fire again. Except, they couldn't. The cannon fired two more times, one of the beams sending a wave of destruction through the command deck as well. Sarah tried to radio, but comms were down. Ethan shook his head, accelerating until his Booster Frame was vibrating beneath him.
"Guess it's our job to save the day again, Spartans," Sarah said as she and the others sped after Ethan.
"No worries," Thorne said. "We've had practice."
"Incoming!" Ethan warned as the station began to fire missiles and plasma blasts at them.
"Evasive action!" Sarah ordered.
Ethan pulled his Booster Frame through a dizzying, sickening series of flips and spins, its thrusters screaming, then punched the release for two of the rocket tanks, sending two dozen rockets exploding along the top of the station's outer ring. The Covenant ship began to detach from the station and head for the Infinity. Ethan swerved, getting behind the Corvette and released half of his remaining rockets, blasting the Corvette's shields but not breaking them.
"Shields at thirty percent," Maria informed him. "I told you upgrading those rockets was a good idea."
"Yeah, yeah," Ethan said. "How much fuel do we have left?"
"Plenty, why?" Maria asked.
"Because I want to know how much I'm going to be yelled at," Ethan smirked.
He armed the rest of the rockets without firing, then fired the Booster Frame's massive Gauss cannon. Then, he shoved the throttle to full speed before leaping backward off of the Booster Frame, stopping himself with his armor's thrusters. The Gauss Cannon had almost completely finished off the shield, having more power than the standard Gauss Guns mounted on Warthogs, and a moment later, the Booster Frame punched through what little remained of the shields and exploded between the central thrusters. They were both blasted apart instantly, and the outer two were severely damaged as well, a trail of explosions tearing along the ship for a quarter of its length before finally dying out. Ethan grinned, flipping and landing on the outside of the Corvette above the hole.
"Spartan Zero, what's your location?" Sarah radioed.
"I took a detour," Ethan said. "The Covies just looked too happy having functioning engines, so I fixed it."
"Good work," Sarah said. "What'd you do to your Booster Frames' rockets?"
"Minor upgrades," Ethan said. "Nothing important, now."
"That's debatable," Sarah said. "Get into the Infinity and head for the bridge."
"Understood, Commander," Ethan confirmed. "On my way."
He sprinted the length of the Corvette, then leapt from the top of it, firing his armor's thrusters and entering the hip through the hull breach nearest the bridge. The areas near the path of destruction were still depressurized, and there were dozens of casualties floating around, many of them charred, many more were likely vaporized, and several had been impaled and pinned to the wall by debris. Then, finally, Ethan passed through a pressure barrier in a hallway and sprinted through the few hallways and doors until he reached the bridge, walking in and yelping at the destruction. Many of the crew members there were dead, all were wounded, and Admiral Hood had a chunk of metal impaling him through the gut. Ethan grabbed a med pack off of the wall and sprinted over instantly, ripping the metal out and began to fill the wound with biofoam. Admiral Hood's shout of pain turned into a long groan of pain and discomfort, but once it was done, he sighed in relief, his breathing growing a little easier.
"Thank you," Admiral Hood said. "What's the status?"
"Commander, I'm with Admiral Hood, he's asking for a sitrep," Ethan said.
"We've captured the control room of the station," Sarah replied. "That Corvette's still limping along, and it's getting into firing position. Fortunately, the Glassing Cannon's just finished powering up."
"Interesting," Ethan grinned. "Maybe we should show them as good a time as they showed us."
"My thoughts exactly," Sarah grinned.
A moment later, the cannon fired, obliterating the Corvette.
"Job well done, Spartans," Admiral Hood said. "Bring Captain Clayton back to the Infinity, along with anyone still breathing."
"On our way, Admiral," Sarah said.
As she disconnected, Ethan lifted Admiral Hood into his arms. "Let's get you to the medbay."
He stopped at a compartment on the wall that had Vacuum Suits and put the mask of one on Admiral Hood, sealing it before carrying him through the ship to the medbay where several medics rushed over to take him.
Ethan tipped the glass back, swallowing scotch and grimacing. "You two seriously have no taste."
"What are you talking about?" Sarah asked. "This is good scotch."
"There's no such thing as good scotch," Ethan said, then stood, walking over to his and Sarah's fridge and beginning to pull out bottles.
"Oh, no," Sarah groaned.
"What?" Lasky asked.
"He's being a girl," Sarah said. "How am I more of a man about my alcohol than you?"
"Hey, if he's not a scotch man, he's not a scotch man," Lasky shrugged. "What's wrong with him liking...what is that, vodka?"
"Just wait," Sarah smirked.
A few moments later, Ethan walked over with a trio of vodka mixed drinks with miniscule umbrellas in them and set them down on the table. He loved that he and Sarah had been upgraded to a room the size of a small, one-room apartment, including a fridge, a table and a shower stall in the corner that was blatantly against the rules and which Lasky had done a wonderful job of acting like he didn't see it. Lasky raised an eyebrow and took his, pausing as he saw Ethan using the umbrella's stick and the ice cubes in his own drink to mix it until the orange and wavy lines of pink had mixed into a darker orange with a slight, pink hue. Sarah drained her scotch and did the same, so Lasky shrugged, copying them. Finally, all three took a sip and Lasky's eyes went wide.
"Holy shit," Lasky said. "That tastes like orange sherbert. What is this?"
"Vodka, orange juice, and grenadine," Ethan smirked. "Simply, but good."
"Yes, your white girl drinks taste good," Sarah rolled her eyes. "Again, how am I more of a man about alcohol than you?"
"I like rewarding my taste buds while getting drunk, not torturing them," Ethan shot back.
"Pussy," Sarah smirked, sipping her drink.
"Bitch," Ethan grinned.
"Could you two please stop flirting?" Lasky asked. "I'm trying to enjoy my girly drink."
"Hah!" Sarah grinned victoriously.
"Wow!" Ethan said dramatically "Fine, I'll keep my good drinks to myself and you two can drink your cat piss scotch."
"Don't be grouchy," Sarah grinned. "You can have some cat piss if you want it."
"Not even if I was blackout drunk," Ethan snorted.
Sarah shrugged as Lasky chuckled, and they continued to drink and chat for a while more before Lasky headed back to his own room for the night. Ethan and Sarah both stripped out of their skinsuits and got cleaned up before going to bed. Ethan cuddled into Sarah, holding her securely, and both drifted off to sleep quickly.
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