The Retainer: Start of the Journey

by MarshalSun

Tyler Williams, an average Gamer from the 21st century, but also with his own speciality and dreams gets mysteriously teleported or sent to the Halo Universe, his favourite Sci-fi gaming universe and one that he is extremely knowledgeable in. Join him as he faces and takes decisions which could alter the future or not for the Halo universe. [Act-01] [Retainer Saga]

21. Chapter 19: Climax

Disclaimer: Once again all halo characters that are not my OCs belong to Microsoft and 343 industries [Now to Halo studios].

---

Chapter 19: Climax

5th Cycle, 6th year of the Ninth age of Reclamation

Location: Korinth system, Shield world 0459 [Trove, Inner surface, Sinaris-pattern Heavy destroyer, Proclamation's Tithe

Third Person POV

As the Heavy cruiser hovered closer towards the entrance portal, expecting the human ships to exit.

This single ship was responsible for countless human deaths, its crew was all dishonored or shamed warriors, with only some exception.

The preparations were completed, his warriors were all readied, all Kal'arn waited for was the human ship to exit the Portal and be torn apart by the destroyer.

Over the course of his stay on this ship, he had learned a lot, one of the main things he learned was that to never anger the Arbiter.

Even during their preparations while the Arbiter prepared to return to the Apex site, some foolish Sangheili dared to question why he was not to join them in battle, the Sangheili soon found his head on the floor as the Arbiter, like always, showed no sympathy or remorse to those who served him as well.

It was a damn miracle that Kal'arn had managed to even survive the damn Savage.

His insult to his bloodline still ran cold through his veins, the House of Khan may not be comparable and remarkable compared to those of Vadam or Madam, or even the lesser houses, but it was still a House none the less.

And one of the few houses to control an entire Planet, even if said Planet was where disgraced and dishonored warriors exile themselves to, it was home to him, to his friend and to his father.

Kal'arn had not yet gotten a hold of an Energy sword, it was quite shameful as a Commander to lack one, but it did not matter much to him, he would prefer to fight the Humans just as they fight against them.

Passing by a supply case, he eye was caught by something, a weapon. As he turned to look at what caught his eye, his eyes nearly widened, it was a Vostu-pattern Carbine, one which uses toxic and radioactive ammo.

It was far superior compared to a plasma rifle, but it too had its flaws, like human weapons, it also required to be reloaded after its ammunition was expended, unlike Plasma weapons which only need some slight recharging.

Usually used by rangers or Spec-ops, it was strange to see such a weapon simply left here. Seeing no one, Kal'arn grabbed ahold of the Carbine, taking the ammunition kept inside the case as well.

He was already proficient with the Plasma rifle, and so it was time to use a better weapon, one which he expected, would kill many Human soldiers, slacking the Carbine over his back, Kal'arn continued walking through the purple corridors of the vessel, making his way over to the shuttle bay where his warriors waited.

Entering into the shuttle bay, there were four Spirits loading up warriors and vehicles, while a full wing of Oghal-Pattern Banshee's lined up near the energy barrier which would have separated the pressurized environment of a vessel and the vacuum of space .

Their battle plan was simple...to Kal'arn that is.

Once the human ships exited the portal, the destroyer will get close enough to the human ships, and then, tear them apart, as the destroyer's weapons were devestating in close range.

However if that were not suffice and say the human ships managed to stay intact and afloat, then Kal'arn and his warriors were to board the ships.

There were many other commanders with other units, so it was a competition, a challenge, a tournament of some kind to see who would be able to bring down the human ships.

As he entered the boarding platform, he was greeted by his loyal Friend, Ekar, no matter where or when ever Kal'arn was or went, his Friend would always be the first to greet him.

"The preparations are finished, we only wait for the human ships" Ekar told him.

Kal'arn nodded, "I can see that quite well my friend, it is time we put an end to these human filth"

Kal'arn did not use the term Nishum, as others of his kind, even including his friend did. They were worthy warriors, capable of putting a satisfactory fight, but still, their kind was to be exterminated. However those Faceless humans, still haunted him...how could they not.

Kal'arn hadn't seen those humans again, although that might be because he hadn't participated in a real battle since the first Human world he step foot on. He wondered if one of them would be capable of facing the Arbiter alone.

Bah, those were stupid thoughts, the Faceless humans may be good enough to match or even outmatch the Sangheili, but there was no way one would defeat an Arbiter, especially the current Arbiter, even though he may be closer to a brute than a Sangheili.

There was no denying, he was unrivaled in combat, and one of the few reasons why Kal'arn never dared to challenge him was due to his sheer combat prowess.

Kal'arn was a new warrior, a Young blood as the elders back on his home world call to those who have served in combat not even for a year.

He had taken his time onboard the Proclamation's Tithe to learn the history of the Arbiter, especially the current Arbiter, and one thing was cleared after his brief search for knowledge, the Arbiter, Ripa 'Moramee truly was a brute, a Savage warlord, who had no care for honor…that also not in a good way.

"My Friend, are you there?" Ekar asked, snapping Kal'arn out of his deep thought.

"Ah…yes…yes…I was in deep thought" Kal'arn answered.

"As I was saying, it seems the Human ship is about to exit" Ekar informed.

Kal'arn's battle sense returned and he regained his focus on his upcoming task, "Ready the craft's, if that ship survives, we must not waste any moment and board it immediately" Kal'arn ordered.

"As you command" Ekar nodded, placing his fist on his chest as he did so, "See you on the other side, my Friend"

Kal'arn watched as Ekar left the boarding platform, making his way towards the lower part of the shuttle bay where most of the warriors were at.

Kal'arn boarded the nearest Spirit and entered the control room, the view from the control room was far wider compared to standing on the shuttle bay's platforms, and the Craft's control room had transparent one way armor plates which were like glass, allowing the pilot to see almost everything.

---

February 25, 2531, 0447 hours

Location: Korinth system, Shield world 0459 [Trove, Inner surface, UNSC Phoenix class support vessel, Spirit of Fire

Through the large entrance portal that was on the artificial surface of the planet's interior, or Dyson sphere that they had just entered.

From there exited the Spirit of Fire, its exit causing a large and strong gush of wind, which ripped out the leaves from some of the trees on the artificial surface.

Inside the bridge, Cutter sat on his Captain's chair, in front of them, through the Observation deck, he could see a covenant destroyer making straight for them, a course for collision. Turned his chair around he ordered, "Hard starboard!"

"Hard Starboard, aye!" Serina repeated.

The Spirit of Fire began turning, trying to avoid collision, but it was far too late, the portside wing of the Spirit of Fire collided with the destroyer's side.

Due to Covenant shielding and superior materials, the wings were ripped off, causing a large explosion and destroying some of the Heron that were docked on that part of the ship.

As the two ships glided through it each, Serina informed, "Captain! They are charging weapons!"

"Battle stations! Bring weapons online" Cutter ordered as he shifted his chair around, "Tell Forge he's not done out there yet"

"Alerting the Sergeant, aye Sir" Serina's avatar gave a salute.

The Plasma weaponry on the destroy began opening up on the Spirit of Fire, just as it was bringing its weapons online, the Holotable inside the bridge changed from displaying a hologram of the current ship to ship engagement, and instead showed the hologram of the Planet they were in.

It showed that the Spirit of Fire's signal was inside the planet, "So…am I the only one freaked out by the fact we're inside the planet?" Serina said.

Outside meanwhile, the naval coil gun batteries of the Spirit of Fire also began exchanging fire with the Covenant destroyer, however superior Covenant plasma weaponry easily took them out.

---

[Few moments ago, at the aft quarters]

Tyler watched as they exited the entrance portal and entered the actual Shield world; all around them it was covered by distant it was all encircled by artificial land and sea. Just think of it as a Halo ring which is stretched around to encase a whole star, because that's what Tyler thought it looked like.

"This day is just getting crazier" Forge said as he looked around at where they had just entered.

Tyler couldn't agree more with the Sergeant, it was a crazy day, and it was going to get even crazier in just a moment.

"Uh…guys…is that a Covenant ship over there" Alexander pointed.

Tyler looked towards the front of the ship where Alexander was pointing, and yes, in the distant, a Covenant CPV destroyer was closing in on them, and it was highly likely that they were on a collision course.

As they both the Spirit and destroyer closed in, Tyler could only issue one order, "Brace for impact!"

Grabbing a hold of a nearby support beam, Tyler grabbed Forge who nearly stumbled off towards the edge as the two ships collided, "HOLY MOTHER-!" Forge exclaimed.

As the impact from the collision subsided, Tyler let go of Forge and stood straight, "Covenant Plasma cannons are opening up!" Alice warned.

"Take cover!" Jerome ordered.

Again, Tyler pulled Forge into a cover as the portside of the ship and aft section was bombarded with Covenant plasma cannons, "Lieutenant, I'll have you know, I can take care of myself, so don't treat me like how I treat the lady" Forge said.

"Just keep your damn head down or we'll both get blown to bits" Tyler said as he and Forge continued to take cover behind the entrance to the airlock.

As the covenant barrage stopped, Tyler and Forge came out of their covers, both Red and Bravo teams were luckily unscathed by the bombardment."Can we just get some damn break, for once!" Forge complained.

"Sergeant Forge, Lieutenant, what's your status out there?" Cutter's voice was heard through their COMs.

"We're all good, Captain, but that damn covenant ship's gonna turn us to dust out here" Forge answered.

"Hold firm, you're not done out there" Cutter said, "Forge, use those Cyclopses to repair the power core while you and the SPARTANs defend against the covenant, I'll try to sent as much reinforcements as possible, make sure that power core is repaired or we're all going down"

"You got it, Sir" Forge answered, turning over to the group of Cyclopses who were the late comers to their previous chaotic fight against the flood, "Alright people, we got a power core to repair! Double time!" Forge issued.

"We'll keep you covered" Tyler told Forge.

"Hey, leave some covies for me as well" Forge said before making his way over to the lower aft with the Cyclopses where the power core was located.

Turning around, the upper and front aft sections were already being attacked by Covenant banshees, Tyler turned over to Jerome, "I'll take Bravo to the frontal aft"

Jerome nodded, "We'll hold the upper aft"

"Let's move" Tyler issued, he was once again back to leading his team, the slope down to the frontal aft was a difficult trek, with Banshees swooping around, picking off isolated squads of marines and etc.

The Spirit of Fire was a good distance away from the covenant destroyer at this point, however it was still under its plasma cannon's range, and that's not counting the swarms of dropships that were seen exiting the ship in the distant.

"That's a lot" Cassandra said

"Which means more for us to kill" Alexander said, lock and loading his battle rifle.

"For once, I miss fighting the covies" Maria agreed.

The Coil guns were still offline due to the damaged power core, without those, the Spirit of Fire would be swarmed by those dropships.

The first Spirit dropships started touching down at the lower aft, coincidently where Bravo team was at.

"Guess we're getting the honors to start this" Cassandra said as he aimed her MA5B.

The first covenant to step foot on the Spirit of Fire was a poor grunt, who immediately got shot in his methane tank, breaching it, and giving the grunt a gruesome death.

The small squads of marines that were already present in the lower aft immediately engaged the covenant boarding parties.

It was a breather to fight the covenant once more, after the nightmarish fight with the Flood, it was a nice relief. Although their relief was cut short as more and more Covenant dropships arrived and began deploying Hunters and even Locusts.

Getting to the frontal aft was probably a bad idea, but Tyler didn't care much, if they were able to make the covenant focus over at their position, then it should give Forge and the Cyclopses enough time to repair the power core.

More or less, Red team was also probably facing some of the boarding parties, "Can we get some air support of our own, these banshees are staring to piss me off" Forge's voice was heard over their COMs.

"Dispatching, Sparrow Hawks, treat them well" Serina said.

From the sides of the ships, a squadron or two of Sparrow Hawks flew out, "Can we get a tank as well?" Alexander tried asking.

"If you can balance it and make sure it won't fall off the ship's sides, then I'll consider" Serina said.

"Owen, can you do that?" Alexander asked.

"Of course I can't, even we SPARTANs can't defy Physics" Owen replied, he was using a SAW, which he found in the Spirit's armory, it was a solid weapon, easily shredding through Grunts, and even Elite's with their energy shields.

Tyler, once again forgot to grab ammo for his DMR, and so he had to rely on his dual M7 SMG's, they were decent against an Elite, but the inaccuracy of the gun at medium range was something he didn't prefer.

Maria, as Tyler would say in his words, was quite frankly, carrying the team. She was the one cutting the head of the snakes, in the countless of Spirits that had dropped off troops, Maria had been targeting Covenant officers like Ultra's or Majors.

Cassandra meanwhile, closed in the distance between her and a locust, just narrowly dodging its focus beam; she slid under it and attached a plasma grenade. Moments after she reached a safe distance, the Locust exploded.

"How long till the power core's repaired?" Tyler asked over SQUADCOMs.

"It's halfway done!" Forge replied over SQUADCOMs.

Tyler could see some of the coil guns come back online, "Some Coil guns are online" he informed.

"Lieutenant, I'm sending out two Vultures, keep those covenant away from the power core" Captain Cutter ordered over COMs.

If the Sparrow Hawks were doing decent, then the arrival of the Vultures definitely was a large power shift in their favor, the two gunships tore apart literally anything that came close by, Banshee's, Spirits you name it.

"Red team here, another wave of dropships inbound" Jerome said over SQUADCOMs

One of the Vultures had to fly over to Red Team's position, as it was also getting focused on, the covenant were trying to attack them on all front. It was a classic tactic they used, one which could be countered with proper defenses.

"Power core is seventy percent repaired" Serina informed.

Either the covenant figured out what they were trying to do, or they simply were getting impatient, Tyler didn't know, but what he did know was that, a shit ton of Banshees started swooping around above them, harassing any isolated units.

They were quite frankly, stuck on the frontal aft, the upper aft was a good five hundred meters upwards while the lower aft, where Forge was at, was another fifteen hundred meters away.

From the exterior, the distance between the aft didn't look like much, but in reality, a full Warthog run could be conducted from the lower to the frontal aft.

"Can a covenant destroyer even carry that many banshees?" Alexander asked, banshees were flying around the Spirit of Fire like flies will over animals.

"Don't know, and don't care" Maria answered.

The Vulture had been forced to head to the upper decks as the Covenant began focusing all of their dropships towards Red team, leaving Tyler and Bravo team to deal with this ungodly amount of Banshees.

"Is it only me, or are the covies getting a bit sloppy" Alice asked over SQUADCOMs.

"Either way, it's benefiting us" Tyler answered.

In reality, even Tyler was confused as to what Alice meant by Sloppy, the forces he and Bravo team faced down here were aggressive like all covenant forces, "Guess Jerome and his team got the lucky end" Tyler heard Owen say.

"Uh…Heads up! The Covenant ship's charging its weapons once more!" Forge said over SQUADCOMs.

Suddenly they felt the ship shake, since they were at the frontal part of the aft, they weren't susceptible to the plasma cannon from the covenant destroyer, however what they were susceptible to was debris raining from the upper aft.

"Sergeant Forge! What's the status on the core!" Cutter asked over COMs.

"Not good, Captain, damn barrage severally damaged it once again, it'll take a good thirty minutes to get it fixed" Forge answered

"Damn it, I'm sending more Cyclopses, get that core fixed, if we stay in range of that destroyer any longer, we're all good as dead" Cutter said.

"More boarding parties inbound, they really seem to like us" Serina sarcastically said.

Another wave of dropships began to land on the front aft, it also didn't help that the airlocks on the front aft were all damaged, leaving the only route for reinforcements up from the upper aft.

This particular wave however deployed more Elites than Tyler would have wanted. 'Bloody Mary, just how many Elites are they dropping?' He thought. For context, five Spirit dropships atleast dropped off two dozen elites of varying ranks, but mostly minors.

"Focus fire on the Elites" Tyler ordered, he trusted the marines in taking care of the grunts and Jackals. Speaking of Jackals, Tyler hadn't really seen too much of them since Arcadia.

Had Tyler not had insane speed, him currently using an SMG would have been a massive tactical disadvantage for him, his speed allowed him to close in the distance between the Elite's allowing him to tear their Energy shields apart in close range with his dual SMGs.

Two banshees suddenly swooped down towards him, firing their fuel rod cannons which almost hit Tyler directly, only narrowly missing by a few inch, although the impact and explosion caused was enough to knock him back.

"Two more bandits inbound!" Alexander warned, Tyler looked up to see another pair of banshee swooping in, taking out a group of marines with their fuel rod cannons.

His slight daze was cut short as he narrowly dodged five green projectiles the size of a 7.62x51mm bullet. Turning around he saw an Elite in white armor, similar to those of the ultras in Halo 2. The Elite wielded a Carbine.

'Oh shit' Tyler cursed mentally as he realized the vulnerable position he was in, Carbines were deadly, and since the MJOLNIR wouldn't have energy shields until 2552, the MK IV would be easily penetrated by the Carbine, also the fact that his large faceplate was probably the most vulnerable part of his armor.

As the Elite fired another burst of five projectiles. Upon seeing this, Tyler's instincts kicked in and he immediately flipped over at the closet cover, which was a collection of debris of a destroyed locust and Spirit.

--

Kal'arn was genuinely shocked on how fast and agile the Faceless human was, he hadn't hesitated even once upon seeing the same human from the Relic back on Harvest. But this was the first time he had the opportunity to truly see the Human in combat, and it truly terrified him.

No human, No, No being was capable to reacting so quickly, not even the T'vaoans. 'Just what is this human' that was the only thought that came to his mind.

Reloading his Carbine, he made himself vulnerable as the Faceless Human soon leaped out of its cover, and with both of his short weapons, opened fired.

Kal'arn quickly ducked down into a nearby Human ship's weapon structure, which waa in the shape of a box.

As he finished reloading, Kal'arn came out of his cover in search of the Human, only to find him gone, it was here that he made his biggest mistake, he lowered his guard as he looked around for the human.

He heard a sound behind him, it was already too late, mid way turning around, his Carbine was snatched off his hand, throwing it away, and the Faceless Human went for a punch to his lower mandibles. Kal'arn retaliated by blocking his punch, the sheer strength of this Human could rival even the strongest of the Sangheilies.

Kal'arn was kicked on his stomach by the Human, but he still stood firm, the struggle between the two continued on, both of them in hand to hand combat. Kal'arn could see the reflection of his own face on the Human's large golden head. It was a surreal sight; he couldn't even tell what the human had on his face, no emotions, no nothing.

The Human then head butted Kal'arn knocking his back stumbling back a bit, that gave the Human the opportunity to double kick him on his stomach, this time sending Kal'arn crashing towards one of the human ship's disabled weapons.

Kal'arn got back up, although one with much struggle, the first sight that greeted him was that of an Sangheili Evocati, with his energy sword ignited, the Evocati engaged the Human in Blue armor.

The human seemed to sheathe his short yet sharp metallic blade and dodged the strike from the Evocati, easily stabbing him in his lower jaw, instantly killing him.

Another opportunistic Obedientiary with his Energy sword also ignited attempted to stab the human while his backs was turned.

The Human swiftly grabbed the dead Evocati's Energy sword, igniting it and blocking the Obedientiary's attempt to kill him, and with his metallic blade which he had removed from the Evocati, he stabbed it into the Obedientiary's skull, also instantly killing him.

Kal'arn only watched in horror as this Faceless human dispatched veteran Sangheili warriors as if they were like Unggoy.

The human, in a final show of force and victory, atleast to Kal'arn, deactivated the energy sword and took it for himself, attaching it to his hips.

Kal'arn looked around him, there were more of the Faceless human's kind, one wielded a long barreled weapon, with some sort of attachment on its hilt, this particular human with precision, and assassinated many of the Field officers that assaulted this part of the human ship.

Another was seen rushing a Mgalekgolo head on, the human leaped over the behemoth, landing behind it and continuously shooting it in its weak spot, killing it with little efforts.

While another was seen with a weapon with some sort of barrel like thing bellow its weapon, this one was shredding everything, even Sangheilies in its way.

The last one was a weird weapon that looked like a mixture of what the humans usually use called 'assault rifles' and a type of glass or something attached to its hilt, the last Faceless human was constantly moving around, not giving their warriors a chance to even aim at him.

'These aren't humans' Kal'arn thought with fear, it was the second time he had felt such fear, the first time being his first encounter with the parasite the infested the outer surface of this Holy world…these Faceless one's…they cannot be humans…No…They're Demons.

Kal'arn slowly stumbled forwards, he had no weapons, but if he were to die, he would die with honor. He noticed the human ship's weaponry also coming back online, all round him, their forces crumbled, the proud Covenant military was being shattered by these Demons, prime among them, was the greatest of them, the one that he assumed was their leader, their greatest, Blue Demon.

A large green human aircraft hovered above him, and its main cannons aimed at him, this was it, his death, he let off one last breath.

However the large human aircraft was suddenly blown apart by a green focus beam.

Suddenly a Kmiro'sish-pattern Lich hovered above him, as the Human ship's weaponry began to turn and aim towards the Lich; it fired its focus beam once more, destroying a few of the ship's weapons. A grav lift was opened right on where Kal'arn was standing pulling him up.

Landing inside the Lich, the grav lift closed shut; the first person to greet him was his Friend, Ekar. "Ekar, what's the meaning of this" Kal'arn asked, he wasn't angry, instead he was in relief, he was saved from death, and would be able to continue fighting.

"We're here to take you back, the battle's lost, and our fighters are being destroyed by the human ship's activated weaponry" Ekar explained.

"Why…why did you come for me?" Kal'arn asked.

"You are our commander……and my Friend, abandoning you is a betrayal and a dishonor for me" Ekar simply answered before heading to the control centre of the Lich, "Withdraw from the human ship"

Kal'arn followed Ekar, entering the control centre, he saw them flying away from the human ship, their dropships were seen being shot down as they neared the human ship, while the human ship started to gain speed and escape from the Proclamation's Tithe's range.

"Take us to the surface, we shall continue the fight there" Kal'arn issued, they may have lost this battle, but the campaign is far from finished.

--

Tyler watched as the Elite in white armor got pulled into the Lich that had suddenly arrived, something about that particular elite seemed familiar, as if he had seen him somewhere.

The Lich flew away in the distant as the Spirit of Fire's Coil guns came back online, "Captain, the power core's fully repaired" Forge said over COMs.

"Excellent work, Sergeant" Cutter said, "Serina, best speed away"

"Bravo Team……back to upper aft, we'll let the marines clean this up" Tyler said, he sighed, one problem after another.

"Finally, some damn break" Alexander said.

"It's not going to last long, is it?" Cassandra asked.

"Of course it won't" Tyler sighed, he made his way up the slope which led to the upper aft.

"Hey, Lieutenant, the Captain wants us to head down and scout the area, meet me at the Hanger bay" Forge said, Tyler internally groaned, he was sure everyone on Bravo Team groaned upon hearing that.

"No breaks I guess" Owen said.

"I just want to get this over with" Maria said under her breath.

"Don't we all" Tyler who heard it replied.

---

February 25, 2531, 0923 hours

Location: Korinth system, Shield world 0459 [Trove, Inner surface, Apex Site

It was all quiet inside of here, no feeling, no sound and no sense. Anders slowly opened her eyes, being kept inside this stasis; she had been constantly jumping in and out of consciousness, although that could be attributed due to fatigue.

She could hear multiple heavy footsteps in the distant approaching towards her, 'How long had it been' she thought; it felt like an eternity inside here, although sometimes, due to exhaustion, time would feel longer, she turned her head around to see who was approaching her this time.

Moramee angrily walked towards Anders, two zealots flanking him on either sides while he had his energy sword activated and was dragging it through the floor, she heard him say something in their alien tongue, "Restraints off"

Suddenly the stasis field around here disappeared and she collapsed to the floor, she had been kept so long in the stasis field that normal gravity or artificial gravity felt too heavy, she would need some time to regain herself.

Moramee walked over and grabbed her by the neck, lifting her up and making her face him, this time he spoke out in English, "Your judgment has waited long enough"

Moramee began to drag Anders over to the command consol, she tried struggling but the strong grip of the Sangheili was simply too much for her to resist, nearing the consol Moramee threw Anders towards it.

"Just get it over with" Anders angrily said, in turn. Moramee grabbed her right arm, lifting it towards the spherical consol, five of the alien letters or symbols laminated, and Moramee slammed her hand into it.

The Spherical consol accepted her attempt to interact, and started to emit blue lights which soon shot out like a beacon. As a result, the ancient Forerunner ships began to awaken or activate.

Moramee walked over to the sides to have a better view of the vast ancient fleet that was awakening. "The Ancients have granted us the power to doom your race!" Moramee exclaimed in English, "Let the deconstruction of our gifts begin! The majesty of our new fleet will be unparallel!"

Anders still on the ground, looked around, she noticed that the large elite and his two henchmen were distracted, and so were the large amount of Elite's in ceremonial armor that guarded the bridge way.

Getting up, she slowly and silently walked over to where she had been kept restrained, the symbol on the ground was not something of covenant origin and so she wanted to try something. Stepping on, it illuminated some blue light, indicating it would accept her accessing.

"Nothing ventured…..Surface" Anders said and she was suddenly engulf in a white light, the last thing she was a ring of energy elevate towards her head at high speed.

She now suddenly found herself outside of the Apex site, and on a bridge of some kind, all around her she was surrounded by lush green vegetation, "Hmm…that worked out pretty well" she said to herself.

She quickly took her words back as in front of her, three weird alien blob like things which looked like brains but also squids…land squids with tentacles crawled towards her, Anders slowly and nervously backed away, as one of the infection forms jumped towards her, it was suddenly shot apart, followed by the other two.

Anders turned around to see two familiar faces, one was the bald and muscle headed Sergeant, while the other was the azure blue and large helmeted SPARTAN Lieutenant. "Lady, I haven't got all day-you want to be rescued or not?" Forge asked.

Anders sighed in relief and hurried towards the two, "So. What? No 'Thanks for coming, Sergeant?'" Forge jokingly said.

"Later! The covenant are assembling a huge fleet" Anders replied.

"Of course they are" Forge sighed.

"Let's go, LZ's this way" Tyler said, leading the way.

Nearing the LZ however where the rest of Bravo Team were stationed, the Pelican that was hovering above was suddenly attacked by more of those aerial bird combat forms, while on ground, a small swarm of infection forms headed for them.

"Suddenly this LZ doesn't look so good. Spirit, we're gonna need some back up" Forge said

"God, do these things even know when to give up" Alexander said in frustration as he smashed an infection form with his foot, stepping on it.

"Maybe you should negotiate with them" Cassandra suggested.

"Uh…Pelican's not looking so good" Owen informed, and yes, the Pelican was not looking so good, it was literally smoking from its wings, while the tail soon erupted in fire, loosing control and crashing nearby.

"And another Pelican…" Forge said.

This was the, what, twentieth Pelican they had lost in total, "Sergeant, can't Serina just built more Pelicans from the Spirit's inbuilt factory?" Alexander asked.

"Provided we have the resources, which we do…it's just that she's quite stingy when it comes to new Pelicans" Forge explained.

"Is that even possible with an AI?" Cassandra questioned.

"Maybe we can discuss this, AFTER we're out of this place…Follow me, I saw a teleporter this way" Anders said as she led the way.

"She really sometimes reminds me of Halsey" Owen whispered to Tyler.

'Oh boy, only if you knew' Tyler thought, before following the Professor along with Forge and the rest of Bravo.

Reaching the teleporter, Tyler and Bravo team covered the professor as she worked on activating the teleporter. "There! It's active" Anders said.

"Sergeant, Professor, get going, we'll watch your back" Tyler told.

"Hey, now don't run off af-" Forge was about to finish but he was teleported away just in time.

"Two and Five, you're next" Tyler ordered to which he was met with a green wink from both Cassandra and Maria.

"Let me guess, we're going next" Alexander asked.

"Go" Tyler ordered, to which Owen and Alexander complied, finally he too stepped through the teleporter, taking him where Forge, Anders and the rest of Bravo were at.

Already, Cassandra, Maria and Forge were engaged with Covenant patrols in the area, while Alexander and Owen rushed to cover the professor. "Spirit of Fire, this is SPARTAN 071, we have the professor, requesting pelican at our location"

"Pelican's already on route, I've sent a gift as well" Serina said, 'A gift' Tyler wondered, but he brushed it off as he went off to join Forge.

The small skirmish didn't last for too long as it was mostly grunts and Jackals against five SPARTANs and a badass marine sergeant. Just as the skirmish was over, the Pelican too flew over head; it was carrying, by the looks of it, an APC, eerily similar yet not, to the future M650 Mastodon, probably was a very early prototype.

The Pelican detached the APC as it touched down, lowering its ramp, "Finally! Sergeant, I need you to stay down here and get this place locked down" Anders said as she boarded the Pelican.

"Well, whaddya know? Locked down is my specialty" Forge confidently said with a smirk on his face.

"Then I'm sure you'll do perfectly fine, I'll get back to my lab and figure out a way to stop the covenant from activating the fleet" Anders said and soon, the Pelican flew away.

"So…what now?" Alexander asked.

"Didn't you hear the lady? We're gonna get this place tight" Forge answered.

"Great" Alexander mumbled.

Before they could do anything else, three drop pods landed nearby, and from them exited Red team, "Need a hand?" Jerome asked.

"Show off" Forge scoffed.

"Lame" Owen said under his breath, Tyler also had the same thought, he had dropped far too many times from a drop pod to know that a short drop like theirs is quite lame.

"Lieutenant, do you read, over" Cutter voice suddenly broke through their COMs.

"Roger, Sir, read you loud and clear" Tyler answered.

"Lieutenant, we've got some new problems to deal with, Serina had just scanned through the landscape and around a radius of twenty kilometers, she found an alien ruin, similar to that seen on Harvest…I want you and your team to investigate it, Red team will continue on with Forge" The Captain explained, things had just changed once more.

"Looks like you're going treasure hunting" Forge joked.

"Well…we'll be on our way for our task, Sergeant, good luck" Tyler said.

"Oh, and we're taking the APC" Alexander added.

"No fair" Alice whined, although no one except the SPARTAN heard it.

"Serina, can we also get an APC like theirs?" Forge asked.

"Yes…after you have retired" Serina answered, Tyler could hear Cassandra and Maria chuckling while Alexander straight out burst out laughing.

Owen by this point had already entered the driver's compartment of the APC, starting it up, but Tyler could also hear him chuckling through SQUADCOM.

"Or if you want, a Bison may do fine" Serina proposed

"Nah, I think we'll be good" Forge immediately rejected.

Cassandra and Maria went over to the side of the APC where its hatch was located, while Alexander entered from the hatch on the other side.

"Later" Tyler said, he could hear Forge shout something but couldn't make it out as he also entered the APC, the hatches closing as he did so.

Inside there were seats for twelve passengers, six in the vehicles rear and four in the middle, with a further two folded-down chairs, while also enough room for another eight to stand, in the front was the driver's compartment, and behind it in the centre of the troop bay was the remote control link for the M41 Vulcan chain gun turret.

"I've linked the location of the structure to your HUD's" Serina informed the team.

On the HUDs a NAV marker approximately thirteen hundred meters northwest of here, appeared. "Have us under way, Owen" Tyler said as he took his seat, Alexander got on the control link for the turret.

Stepping on the pedals, Owen sped away from their previous location, following a natural road way which led towards their destination. "For an APC, the interior sure is well maintained" Cassandra who sat opposite to Tyler said.

"I'm sure, Serina, picked the best one for us" Maria joked.

"Best? I'd say the worst one, that AI is freaky at times" Alexander chimed in, "But I must say, not exposing my head while manning the turret sure is a refreshing experience"

"I'd say it's the best vehicle I've driven yet" Owen commented over SQUADCOM.

"So long as we don't get blown up, I guess I'm fine with it" Tyler gave a simply opinion.

Following the road, they soon drove into a forest, on both sides there were dense trees, they were in a vulnerable position and location as they could be ambushed at any moment.

They heard the sound of some engines in the distant, it wasn't human.

Reacting quickly, Tyler ordered, "Owen, reverse the APC, portside, into the forest!"

Owen complied and stepped on the reverse pedal, retracting into the forest into the left, just as they hid inside the thick forest, covered by trees and larges bushes.

Just above them, flew above a Covenant Lich, escorted by two Phantoms.

Tyler observed from the firing port inside the APC, as the sound of the Lich and the Phantoms disappeared into the distance, Tyler internally sighed in relief.

Facing a Lich inside of an APC was probably as bad as taking on a tank with sticks and rocks...although one Paticular Marine Sergeant would be just fine with that.

"Can we take on that Lich?" Alexander asked yet another stupid question.

"If we all want be turned to charcoal, then yes" Maria answered to his question.

"Looks like we're not alone in these parts of the….where ever" Cassandra said, they still couldn't fathom that they were inside a planet which now on the interior seemed like a Dyson sphere.

Of course Tyler was the least surprised.

They continued on to their destination, the next few minutes of the ride was met with little issues, Tyler took the time to somewhat patch up some breaches in his armor, which he had sustained during the battle on the Spirit.

"ETA to the structure is two minutes" Owen informed.

Tyler looked at the rest of his team who all began to prep their weapons, Tyler too pulled out his DMR and started checking it, and the last thing he wanted was for his primary weapon to jam or malfunction.

"Everyone ready?" Tyler asked.

All four SPARTANs winked their green status light once, Tyler felt the APC come to a halt and motioned, "Exit"

The rear hatch to the APC opened up and Tyler along with Cassandra, Maria and Alexander exited, their weapons aimed. They currently stood by a cliff of some sort, with a large entrance to an alien structure which was no doubt Forerunner.

Owen also exited the APC through the portside hatch, joining his team. "Looks ominous" Alexander commented.

"What do you think is inside?" Cassandra asked Tyler.

Tyler walked off towards the entrance, "Only one way to find out, let's go" Tyler ordered, the rest of Bravo followed up behind him as well, never lowering their guard.

Stepping inside the structure, they were greeted by a vast hallway with stripes of blue emitters on the walls and support beams, 'Damn this looks way more advance in person' Tyler thought as he looked at the Forerunner structure which was no doubt hundreds of thousands of years old or maybe tens of thousands of years old.

"This place makes me feel primitive" Alexander murmured.

"I wouldn't lower my guard if I were you, we're in unknown territories with killer drones and space zombies" Cassandra reminded.

They continued on their trek, passing by multiple doors and rooms which all had weird advance and alien tech, "I think the Professor would have loved to see this place" Owen commented as the passed by a room filled with some sort of power conduit.

"Too bad she's busy figuring out how to SAVE humanity" Alexander said.

Continuing on, they entered into some sort of generator room maybe, it had a large cylindrical object in the center which emitted a large beacon of blue light, separating them and the beacon was a long bridge which reminded Tyler of the one seen in Halo Ce's mission Assault on the Control Room.

"Stay here" Tyler ordered to which both Alexander and Cassandra looked at him confused.

"What?" Alexander questioned.

"You sure?" Cassandra asked, "Anything could happen over there"

"Trust me" Tyler assured as he continued on the bridge alone, in fact he himself was not sure what this thing was or what it even did, he simply didn't want his team to be caught in the cross fire if things went FUBAR.

Walking across the bridge, Tyler occasionally glanced down; the glass like planes on the bridge's floor really did give him anxiety about walking across it.

Each step taken was a careful one, down bellow was a deep dark pit, and if say, the bridge's glass broke due to his armor's weight, then it was game over for him as he only had half of his thrusters working which won't be enough.

To his relief he made it across the bridge without problem, but now, he came face to face with the massive beacon or generator, next to it was a control panel or something. Tyler walked over, his DMR still in his hands, with his right hand; he pressed the control panel to see if anything would happen.

Suddenly a large burst of energy came from the beacon, sending Tyler knocking a few feet back. The rest of Bravo team immediately drew their weapons, ready to shoot if anything made a sudden move to their Team leader.

"Tyler, you alright?" Alexander asked over TEAMCOM.

"Yeah…I'm fine" Tyler said, getting back up on his feet while also picking up his DMR.

"Contacts!" Maria alerted.

Tyler spun around and saw dozens of aggressor sentinels rise from the dark pit, hovering above the bridge and around, they didn't seem to make any hostile approach. Alexander had his Battle rifle aimed at one of the Sentinels, his fingers on the trigger.

"Wait! Lower your weapons!" Tyler ordered over TEAMCOMs.

"You can't be serious, these things tried to kill us not even five hours ago!" Alexander expressed his reluctance.

"I'm with Alex on this one, I'd not take any chances" Cassandra agreed.

"Just lower your guns, they aren't immediately trying to kill us like last time" Tyler said although his team still seemed reluctant, "Just don't shot, unless fired upon"

Over across the bridge, Tyler saw the four SPARTANs look at each other before finally lowering their guns, he could still tell from here that they were highly weary.

A few moments later, Tyler internally thanked himself on making that call as over the sides of the Bridge, from the same bottomless pit, two very large Sentinels or Super Sentinels hovered above.

Tyler was sure, one shot from that thing and all five of them were done for. "Suddenly, not shooting seems like a good idea" Alexander said over TEAMCOMs.

Tyler turned back towards the beacon and saw two constructer sentinels hovering around it, possibly checking for any damages.

As Tyler approached the control panel once more, the two constructor sentinels flew away as if making way for him.

Nearing the panel, he suddenly heard a voice speak inside of his helmet, "Hmm…ah, a Reclaimer, finally! I have waited years for you" a voice, undoubtedly an AI spoke.

"Who are you?" Tyler questioned, he had lowered his DMR as he spoke to this AI.

"Ah, yes of course….I am 295 Harken Watch, caretaker of Shield world 0459" The AI replied, Tyler glanced back at his team who still stood by across, their gaze fixed on the sentinels and their weapons on ready if anything occurred.

"Your arrival was truly unexpected, Reclaimer. However it seems in your process of entering, you have allowed the Flood to breach in as well" Watch said, to which Tyler mentally scratched his head.

"Yeah…sorry about that…" Tyler apologized, then, a question came to Tyler's mind, "What did I…do with this control panel?"

"It seems you have activated the local defenses of the Shield world" Watch answered.

'Huh, nice coincidence' Tyler thought.

However the Forerunner AI continued, "The activation of the Sojourner-class dreadnought is also almost complete, the fleet shall be ready for your use, Reclaimer"

Tyler's face just dropped upon hearing that, "Watch…I don't know if you know this…but we didn't activate those ships"

"Nonsense, only Reclaimers are capable of accessing the technology left by my creators, it is impossible for an--wait….that is incorrect…that shouldn't be-"

"Let me just say that one of my kind got forced into doing it by another alien race…or collection of race you could say...they want to kill us all" Tyler explained.

"Unacceptable! Absolutely unacceptable! This is a severe breach in Protocol!" Watch started to go on a rant.

To Tyler, Watch started sounding like Guilty spark, "I deeply apologize for my inabilities to detect this sooner, Reclaimer, but worry not, these pretenders will be cleansed from my Installation" Watch assured.

"Actually, we're going to deal with it ourselves" Tyler said.

There was a sudden pause from the Forerunner AI before it continued on, "Reclaimer, why do you carry such primitive weapons? Your vessel does not even have the slightest of shielding"

'Of course that's what you say' Tyler thought, annoyed. "Look, we're not really well off on technological advancements, and we're currently in a war against a genocidal alien race that is going to steal the ships that your creators left here, for their own use to genocide us quicker" Tyler explained.

"Unacceptable!" Watch said, 'Is this word literally programmed into them or something?' Tyler wondered.

"Although we have a plan" Tyler said, "But I don't think you're going to like it……we're going to blow this shield world"

There was a deadly silence from the AI, before it lashed out, "UNACCEPTABLE! Reclaimer! This is not an ideal way or strategy!

"There are numerous errors present in your strategy! Not only are you destroying a valuable fleet, but also a Shield world! MY INSTALLATION! Reclaimer, what you are suggesting is not only impractical but also unadvisable-!" The AI continued on about a rant about how Tyler's plan, even though it technically wasn't even finalized or his to begin with, was not only stupid but also a severe waste, which the AI had a massive point in.

Tyler although he agreed with the AI as it was spitting or addressing nothing but facts, but he knew if things didn't go out as planned, it would screw up the timeline by a landslide. "Alright! Hear me out!" Tyler exclaimed, which earned a confused look from his teammates who weren't aware of his conversation with the forerunner AI.

"Who's he talking to?" Owen whispered to Cassandra.

"No clue" Cassandra whispered back, they still kept their guards high, as the two big drones were really freaking them out.

"Look, if we don't blow this place up, our enemies would most likely come back with greater numbers, and figure out a way to steal it anyways, hell they've already activated it so we're currently on borrowed time" Tyler explained.

"But, Reclaimer, there are more sites that contain a large amount of dormant vessels, surely you can use them against the pretenders and their measly portion of the fleet" Watch said, that took Tyler by surprise.

'More?' Tyler thought, he had no idea there were more Forerunner ships simply lying around somewhere inside the shield world, either way, it simply furthered their reason to blow this place up.

Using the Forerunner warships did sound pretty good on paper and would probably benefit humanity one hundred times more, but that would severely change the timeline and pretty much send the main timeline of events that would occur, flying out of the window...something Tyler was trying his absolute to avoid doing.

"That sounds pretty good…but I think that won't be necessary" Tyler rejected the AI's proposal.

"Reclaimer! But you are not only wasting a massive asset to your cause, and quite frankly, sabotaging yourself, but also destroying a valuable installation which may benefit your kind!" Watch continued to argue.

Tyler simply chuckled, not because it was funny, but because he knew his decision here was shooting himself and in turn the entire Human species in the foot. "I think mankind is still not ready yet……ready for the Mantle" Tyler said which silenced the AI...it was a argument he hoped woul work...

It was a good minute later that the AI spoke once more, "I…I nor the Sentinels shall interfere or attack you and your vessel…However I do implore you to reconsider your plan" with that, Tyler felt the AI cut all COMs with him.

Tyler turned around and saw as the Sentinels, including the super Sentinels all flew above towards the top, which was very high up and seemed to have a passage way for the Sentinels.

Tyler gripped his DMR with both his hands and began to walk back across the bridge, towards his team.

The first one to approach Tyler as he neared his team was Cassandra who stopped in front of him, "What was that all about?" she asked tilting her head.

"Yeah, you were standing there for like a good ten minutes" Alexander added.

"Just talking to the AI of this place" Tyler answered, "Tried convincing him that we might have to damage this place in order to stop the covenant"

"And how did that go" Maria asked.

Tyler paused for a moment before answering, "The AI won't interfere or show any hostilities towards us, same with the drones"

"Well that's good news" Owen said.

"Didn't think you were good at negotiating with alien AIs" Cassandra teased.

"Me neither" Tyler could only agree. "Let's get going, we've stayed here long enough"

"Agreed" Alexander nodded.

The Team of SPARTANs began to retrace their steps across the Forerunner structure, if there was one slight difference they noticed, then it would have to be the sudden amount of sentinels around, floating and patrolling the structure.

When they had first entered, the structure was mostly if not comply devoid of any activities other than the automated systems, but now, it was filled with Sentinels of varying designs like Aggressors, Constructors and even a few Super Sentinels which acted like mobile floating cannons.

As they neared the entrance, Tyler stopped in his tracks while his teammates continued on, something on the wall had caught his eyes, something he hadn't noticed while entering the structure.

On the walls, there were some drawings carved out, something Tyler immediately recognized, how could he not? It was the literal thing that defined this universe.

On the wall, seven Halo rings were carved out and arranged in a circular formation; Tyler theorized that they were probably arranged in a circle to indicate their location in the galaxy.

Tyler stood for a moment, his gaze fixed on the carvings on the wall.

He wasn't looking at it because he was shocked, but because it was something symbolic.

He was going to have to wait, fight for another twenty one years, just to get to the point which revolved all around those damn rings, it was going to be a long wait, and a bloody one as well.

Tyler looked away from the wall and continued towards the entrance, jogging along to catch up with his teammates who were all standing at the entrance waiting for him, "What, are you talking to another AI?" Alexander asked in a teasing tone.

"No…just admiring the design of the structure" Tyler answered as he along with the rest of the team stepped out of the structure.

"Lieutenant, are you there?" Cutter's voice was heard over their COMs.

"Yes, Captain, we're still here" Tyler answered.

"Finally, I've been trying to get in touch with you for a while, you and your team's signal suddenly went dark after you entered that structure" Cutter said, expressing his relief, "Is there anything I should be aware of that you found in that structure?"

Tyler pondered for a moment before answering, "No, Sir, it's mostly empty with a few drones around it; the tech seems advance but other than that, nothing else"

"Alright then…Lieutenant, Serina has sent you the NAV marker to Forge's location, the Professor seems to have an idea as to how to deal with the Covenant…I need you and your team to be there, I've already dispatched a Pelican to your location to pick you up" Cutter informed.

"Understood" Tyler answered as the COMs with the Captain cut off.

"More waiting?" Alexander asked.

"Pelican's gonna be here soon, Owen, get the APC ready, we're not leaving it here" Tyler ordered.

"Wasn't planning to" Owen replied, walking over to the APC.

As Tyler was about to head over to a clear and higher ground to see if the Pelican was in sight, he was stopped by Cassandra who placed a hand on his shoulders. "Why'd you lie?" she asked.

Tyler sighed and answered, "I don't think the Captain would be pleased to hear that I negotiated with an unknown AI, plus we've already got more than enough things to worry about"

Tyler removed her hand of his shoulders and walked pass her, continuing on his path, Cassandra simply stared at him for a moment before shrugging and heading towards the APC.

---

February 25, 2531, 1342 Hours

Location: Korinth system, Shield world 0459 [Trove, Inner surface, UNSC Phoenix class support vessel, Spirit of Fire

The Spirit of Fire hovered above ground, just low enough to lower its FTL reactor which was being lowered down, while two Pelicans lowered down as well, preparing to lift it of the ground once it landed.

Down on the ground, a Team of marines including Forge and Bravo Team watched as the reactor lowered down, with Bravo Team ready to provide escort.

Inside the Observation deck of the Spirit of Fire, both Captain Cutter and Professor Anders watched the reactor being lowered down "Is this really going to work, Professor?" Cutter asked, still unsure of her plan.

"I believe this is our best hope" Anders answered, "The overloaded FTL reactor will cause a chain reaction in the sun"

"Enough to destroy all the ships here before the Covenant can get a chance to make anything from them" Cutter said catching on, as both he and Anders walked over to the screen that displayed a rough scanning of the Planet's inner surface which showed a star in the centre and the shape of the ships the covenant were activating.

"Well, put simply. Captain, our reactor will cause the sun to go supernova, leaving nothing here but dust" Anders explained as the screen showed a rough idea of what would happen.

"That's the weak part of this plan, if you ask me" Serina said gaining both Cutter's and Ander's attention, "We've no way home without that reactor"

"One problem at a time, Serina" said Cutter, "If the Covenant get their hands on these ships, it will mean the end of the war"

"We'll take our chances here, to give humanity some hope" Cutter continued, "And I think we might have another way back home" he ended.

Cutter finally realized just how perfect Tyler's idea of leaving the Roman Blue out of harm's way was, but right now, they had a different task and problem at hand.

"I know it's been a tough call, Captain, but it's the right one" Anders said, it was clear even she didn't like the cost of stopping the covenant, but it was either that or the complete annihilation of Humanity.

Sudden the screen displayed a live feed of Forge who was helping attach the reactor to the Pelicans, he turned around and looked at them or the probe recording, "Spirit of Fire, this is Forge. She's buttoned up and ready to go!" Forge said giving a thumbs up.

Tyler's voice was also heard in the background, "Sergeant, we're done here as well, meet you back at the APC"

"Right, see ya there, Lieutenant" Forge said as he went over and grabbed his MA5B, making his way over to the prob.

"Deliver that package safely, Sergeant" Cutter said.

"Keep the coffee hot, I'll be back before you know it!" said Forge

"I'll be monitoring you from here, Sergeant" Anders said.

"Well, it'll be pretty obvious if he succeeds…he does have eight SPARTANs watching his back" Serina said.

--

On the ground, inside the APC were Owen who was driving like always, Alexander who was manning the turret and Tyler, Cassandra, Maria and even Forge who sat inside the troop bay. Red team was driving a warthog outside following the APC's lead.

They were to trail the Pelicans that were carrying the Reactor to the designated drop site, if things went south, which it would, they were going to have to get that reactor to its drop-site themselves.

"Once this is all over, I'm gonna take a nap" Forge said as he leaned his head against his seat.

"You're not alone, Sergeant" Tyler agreed, he hadn't had a nice sleep in a damn long time, and also a shower.

The calm environment was quickly destroyed as suddenly, outside, the chain gun of the warthog that Red team was manning was heard opening fire. "Victor, evasive maneuvers! You've got banshees on your six!" Owen was heard over COMs.

"Alex!" Tyler turned over to Alexander who grabbed the remote link to the turret.

"I got it" He answered, as the turret of the APC also opened fire.

"And just when I thought this would be easy" Forge said as he locked and loaded his assault rifle.

Even with the support of the APC and Warthog, it was still not enough as the banshees were far too numerous, with one precise fuel rod hit to the Pelican's wing, it was enough to cripple it.

"This is Victor 397! Stabilizers out! We can't carry her! Going down! Clear the area, we are dropping the cargo!" the pilot said.

The Pelicans soon crashed over at a slope, releasing the cargo before it was caught up in the blast, the reactor slid down the slope. "This is Red Team, cargo's in sight, it's still intact" Jerome reported.

"I don't want to take any more chances flying that core in. We're changing this to a ground operation" Cutter ordered.

As the APC came to a halt, the rear hatch was opened up and Tyler along with Forge, Cassandra, Maria and Alexander exited. Just as Jerome reported, the reactor was still intact. "We're gonna need something big to pull that" Maria said.

"Spirit, we're gonna need some heavy back up if we're to bring this thing to the site" Forge said over COMs.

"I figured that would be the case, Sergeant. I've sent in some reinforcements to help you out" Cutter informed.

Overhead, six pelicans along with an albatross which carried an Elephant, the albatross settled the Elephant down near the reactor, while the six Pelican deployed two platoons worth of marines. While also deploying three more Warthogs, two Scorpions and one Wolverine for Anti-Air it seems.

"Now that's what I call a backup!" Forge said, immediately heading over to one of the Warthog and getting onto the turret, "Hit the gas marine!"

Tyler looked over to his team and nodded, "Alex, you stay in the APC's turret, Maria, Cassandra, with me" Tyler ordered.

With that he split his team; Tyler got onto the turret of the Warthog, which was his favorite, a gauss turret, while Cassandra took the driver's seat and Maria in the passenger. Most of the marines went over to man the Elephant, who also had an extra six mongooses in its aft and another warthog, while twenty marines boarded the APC.

The Elephant started up and reversed towards the Reactor which was hauled into a large puller. The Elephant attached its hook to the one in the puller, the marines on the Elephant made sure it was properly attached. Once it was sure, one of the marines gave a thumbs up.

"Convoy, move out" Tyler ordered over COMs, with Cassandra immediately stepping on the pedals, speeding up in front.

"Jesus, does she always drive like this?" Forge who's warthog they had just passed, asked through SQUADCOMs.

"Eh, she's holding back" Tyler answered over SQUADCOMs, it was true, if Cassandra were actually driving as she usually does, she would have driven the Hog straight towards a wraith only to juke it.

Driving up the Slope, it was much easier for the Warthog's compared to the Elephant which was dragging the reactor, and the Scorpion, which was self explanatory. "Banshees! Three O'clock high!" One of the Marines on the Elephant informed over SQUADCOM.

Turning the Gauss turret, six banshees were seen swooping towards the convoy, Red team's warthog was the first to open fire, but it was Tyler with his Gauss turret that scored the first kill. The Banshees scattered, their formation having shattered by the Convoy's response.

The Wolverine did the cleanup work, its M260 Launch rocket system easily dealing with the remaining Banshees. But that wasn't the end of trouble, coming over the slope; two Spirits touched down and deployed troops and a Wraith in front of them.

Unfortunately, Tyler's warthog was at the front and hence the Wraith targeted them, firing its main cannon, the large blue projectile flew towards them, Cassandra's instincts kicked in and she turned the warthog conducting a drift, which almost would have certainly thrown Tyler off the warthog, and he would be on the ground had he not held a tight grip on the gauss cannon.

"Careful Cassie! The hog may not blow up, but my head sure as hell will!" Tyler said.

"Just hang on!" Cassandra replied as she continued to maneuver, doing crazy turns once more.

'Ah yes, all it took was a wraith and she goes full Tokyo drift mode' Tyler thought as he held the handle of the gauss cannon tightly. They held on just long enough for the rest of the Convoy to catch up, "Damn, I'd hate to be in Cassandra's hog" Alice said over TEAMCOM.

"Shut up and get those Covenants off our tails!" Tyler ordered, their Hog was basically acting as the bait as most, if not all the Covenant forces deployed there were aiming for them.

The Scorpion came over the slope and immediately fired a round at the Wraith, the Covenant tank had its rear exposed while trying to get the three SPARTANs, and so it was instantly blown up.

That was the opportunity Cassandra needed to turn the Hog around and slow down with her maneuvers and allow Tyler to get a proper shot.

Upon seeing and feeling the Hog slow down, Tyler aimed the Gauss cannon straight at a Hunter, firing it directly into its neck, ripping its head off and killing it.

Its bond brother upon seeing this went berserk and charged the fuel rod cannon which was aimed towards them, only for it too, to be run over by the APC.

Owen was driving the APC straight through the Covenant formation, its heavy armor provided cover and a suitable defense against Covenant plasma fire which only slightly charred it.

The Marines inside also opened fire from the firing port, while Alexander caused mayhem with the turret. "Hey, leave some for me as well!" Forge said over SQUADCOMs.

The skirmish was over in a few minutes, with Red Team clearing the last few remaining covenant off, while the rest of the Convoy continued on, unchallenged for now. Coming around a corner, they came across another slope which they would have to drive over.

Going over this slope was met with more resistance compared to the previous one, three Vampires flew above the convoy and rained fired, one of the warthog manned by marines was immediately blown apart by the constant barrage of plasma cannons.

While the Elephant was bit by two large Needles from the needle cannon, "Those things gonna tear us apart!" A marine on the Elephant exclaimed over SQUADCOMs

Tyler Fired two shots with the Gauss cannon which drained the shields on one of the Vampires, the Vampire with its shield's down tried to fly away, but was ripped apart by the chain gun turrets on the Elephant.

The Scorpion unsurprisingly one shot a Vampire, while the Other one was focused down by the APC and Forge's Warthog, only for the kill to be stolen by Red Team who drove up after cleaning up the mess left behind from the last skirmish.

"Damn thief!" Alexander yelled over SQUADCOMs.

"Get good" Douglas replied over SQUADCOMs, Tyler was damn sure he had a grin as he said that.

"No time for competitions, Gentlemen, let's get this over with so we can get some hot chow" Forge said over SQUADCOMs as his Warthog drove forwards, taking the lead, however that didn't last long as Cassandra soon over took the Sergeant's Hog.

Coming over the slope however, they were immediately met by a beam rifle projectile which almost hit Tyler's head, "Woah!" Tyler exclaimed, he had nearly lost his head.

Cassandra once again performed evasive maneuvers which worked at the Sniper Jackal was unable to hit them, Tyler thanked Space Jesus on the fact that it wasn't a Halo 2 Legendary Jackal sniper, which would have instantly been the doom of the entire convoy.

The Jackal was perched up on a rock, while some stationary guns were emplaced around its position. "Keep the Hog steady, I can't get a clear shot!" Maria said, as she tried to aim her sniper rifle.

"Do you want us to die!" Cassandra shot back

"Just slow down Cassie! Its either that or we are gonna be torn apart by those stationary guns!" Tyler ordered.

Cassandra reluctantly slowed down the hog, just enough to gave Maria a straight shot which she took, firing her Sniper rifle, she scored a headshot on the Jackal sniper, Tyler in the mean time took shots at the Stationary guns, destroying one, while killing the occupant of the other.

However that was not the end, just as the Convoy came over the slope as well, a Scarab just had to ruin the day by coming down the last slope which would lead towards the portal that led to the Site.

"Holy shit, that's a Scarab!" Forge exclaimed over SQUADCOMs.

"Evasive maneuvers, now!" Tyler ordered as the Scarab charged its large focus beam, as it fired the focus beam, Tyler's Hog was able to dodge it, but unfortunately the Scorpion and the Wolverine were caught up in it, destroying them in an instant.

"Spirit of Fire, we need some heavy backup!" Forge exclaimed over COMs.

"Just hang tight, Sergeant. Shortswords have been dispatched to your location" Serina informed.

"Better hurry up, Serina, either that or we're all cooked" Tyler said.

He couldn't pull the same stunt as he did back on Arcadia for a number of reasons, first was the fact that the Scarab was perched on the slope, second was that his thrusters weren't in the best of shape and third, he didn't have any grenades and he wasn't going to waste bullets.

The Shortswords could be heard in the distance, and it was clear even the Scarab was aware as it turned its large Anti air plasma cannons towards where the bombers were coming from.

The Scarab fired a barrage of plasma cannons towards the approaching squadron of bombers, two of the six bombers were shot down.

The remaining bombers flew over the Scarab, dropping their payload which caused a large smoke to erupt as the bombs exploded.

As the smoke cleared, the Scarab's legs were disabled while its Plasma cannon was basically gone, a large gaping hole left behind with blue fire erupting.

The Scarab continued to break apart, its legs falling apart as small explosions went inside it, soon, its legs gave up and the Scarab's main base collapsed to the ground, and soon it erupted into a gigantic explosion which could probably be seen from kilometers away.

The Shortswords were seen flying away, back to the Spirit of Fire.

However, coming late to the party, two Vultures flew over, joining the convoy and providing them with much needed air support, which would have been handy a few minutes earlier.

"Seriously! Now is the time when we get the big guns!" Forge complained.

"Vultures, head up ahead and clear up any obstacles, we've already taken heavy casualties" Tyler ordered over SQUADCOMs.

The Vultures left the Convoy and flew above the slope and over, their cannon were heard opening up in the distant.

The convoy slowly continued over the slope, the APC had taken some beating as its green paint was unrecognizable since it was charred black due to plasma burns.

"Owen, you should stick to the back, your APC is smoking" Jerome said over SQUADCOMs, he hid it very well, but not good enough as Tyler could hear the concern in his voice.

"Understood" Owen complied, it was rare for him to take orders from anyone that wasn't either Tyler or Cassandra, although Jerome's was more of an advice than an actual order.

Coming over the slope, the large teleporter to the site was in sight, around the area, there were multiple destroyed ghosts and Wraiths along with dozens of dead grunts, Jackals, Elites and a pair of Locust.

All of which they would have had to faced had it not been for the Vultures which hovered over head with minimum damages.

"That's the spot" Forge said over COMs, "Captain, we've reach the drop site, we're proceeding with the objective"

"Sergeant, engineers are on their way to rig the core. We're nearly there" Cutter informed.

Cassandra halted the warthog and Tyler watched as the reactor was slowly reversed into the large teleporter by the Elephant, the APC also stopped near the entrance to the teleporter, all there hatch opened up and the twenty marines including Owen and Alexander exited the APC.

"Finally, I'm out that damn thing" Alexander was heard saying.

"No time for relaxing team, this is far from over" Tyler reminded. The next few minutes or hours are going to be the most tenacious and impactful for Tyler, that is on a personal level, Forge had at this point, had become a good friend of his, which only further his resolve to prevent his death.

---

5th Cycle, 6th year of the Ninth age of Reclamation

Location: Korinth system, Shield world 0459 [Trove, Inner surface, Kmiro'sish-pattern Lich, Faithful Voyage

The Lich had touched down a nearby relic or structure which was exposed on the surface. Sangheili, Unggoy and some Kig'yar guarded the entrance to the relic, while two Huragoks who were on the Lich were brought out to examine the relic, their knowledge on these relics was crucial.

Kal'arn walked out of the Lich, flanked by Ekar who had an Energy sword, its hilt kept on his hips as he followed his Friend.

Kal'arn was not pleased that he had been called for this relic when he had humans to be dealt with, if he had learned one thing about relics, only the Hierarchs and the San'Shyuum as a whole seem to understand what they truly mean.

"You seem disturbed my Friend" Ekar asked.

"Treasure hunting is something I am not fond of, especially when we have a battle going on" Kal'arn replied.

"But isn't it an honor to be the ones to carry such relics?" Ekar argued, although not in a disrespectful tone.

"Had it been any other circumstances…then perhaps" Kal'arn answered but paused for a moment before continuing, "That Human…..that Demon"

Ekar stayed silent, he understood what his friend was going through, and it was his first real defeat in a fight, something he had been forced to run away from like a coward, Ekar could only place a hand on his friends shoulders and somewhat comfort him with some advising words, "My Friend, you should not think vast about this Demon, it could be your downfall in a battle"

Kal'arn looked down, and understood what his friend was trying to say, "I…I will…let us continue" he said, continuing on into the Structure, the inside was completely filled with majestic and awing architecture of the structure, if the Ice Relic was a treasure vault, then this place was the hall of treasures.

It put even the greatest of architect of the Covenant to shame, even High Charity, the Holy city itself could not compare to this structure, just how powerful and mighty were their Gods? That was what Kal'arn thought.

"Marvelous" Kal'arn heard Ekar mumble.

However grand and advance looking the structure was, its interior for the most part did not have anything of value, the only thing it had was a beacon in the centre which emitted a blue light into the sky of this Holy world.

Kal'arn noticed however, that the two Huragoks were both hovering over and looking at a wall, as if examining it, Ekar was the first to make his way over and pushed the Huragok's out of the way to see what they had found.

As Kal'arn reached the site, his eyes widened, it wasn't anything important like a luminary or device which belonged to their Gods that they found.

It was a simple carving on the wall, but what was carved there was a different story.

"By the God" Kal'arn gasped.

The wall had the carvings of the Sacred Rings, seven of them that is.

He had read the prophecy of the Great Journey, what it prophesied, the Sacred Rings were meant to be the gate way, their road to the Great Journey, where their Gods awaited them.

"What is it?" Ekar asked, it was no surprising he didn't know what the Sacred Rings were, he had spent many of his years mastering combat, other than learning anything related to theology, he simply relied on the knowledge of others to understand what the Great Journey was.

"The Sacred Rings…a carving of them" Kal'arn explained, Ekar's eyes also went wide open.

"This is truly a finding then!" Ekar exclaimed.

"It is only a carving…only a clue to where they truly are" Kal'arn explained, regaining himself after the shock, "We must take this, it is a stepping stone towards the Great Journey"

Ekar nodded and ignited his energy sword, stabbing it into wall, and carving out a rectangle which engulfed the carvings of the Holy rings which were all arranged in a circular path.

Just as Ekar was about to pull the metal made wall apart, a Sangheili minor suddenly ran up towards them in haste, "Commander! A human convoy is making their way towards the holy site!" the Sangheili reported.

"What!" Ekar exclaimed, stopping what he was currently doing.

"Ready the Phantoms! I-we shall intercept them!" Kal'arn ordered and the Minor bowed his head nodding and quickly exited the structure. "I shall leave the Lich here, you shall need it more than I"

"We shall see each other on the other side" Ekar said nodding. "Good luck my Friend"

Kal'arn made his way outside the structure with haste, the two Phantoms were already loaded with troops, he boarded the closed one and went over to the control centre, "Set course for the site, we must halt the humans at once!" Kal'arn ordered.

Soon the Phantoms lifted off the ground and flew over towards the direction of where the site was sat, they would be mostly alone on this venture, the Proclamation's Tithe had left the inner surface of the planet, as the Arbiter had ordered it to await outside the planet and prevent any further Human reinforcements entering.

The Arbiter was overly confident in the fleet that was awakening, he was sure that the humans would stand no chance against the ships that their Gods had once used. It was arrogance, hubris…something which plagued the Sangheili species to its core.

And unbeknownst to him, that same arrogance would prove to be the down fall of the Arbiter and many Sangheili in the coming future.

Kal'arn picked up a plasma rifle which was kept inside the Phantom, the Unggoy manned the Plasma cannons on both sides of each Phantom, while the Sangheili readied their weapons, Kal'arn knew that those humans, those Demons would be there, and this time, he would not make the same mistake.

The Phantoms maneuvered over to the side a bit to avoid detecting from the Human vessel, the last thing they would want is the human vessel to be responsible for their demise.

---

February 25, 2531, 1432 hours

Location: Korinth system, Shield world 0459 [Trove, Inner surface, Apex Site

The reactor was almost in position, they were just in time, as the Forerunner Fleet had still not fully activated. All they needed was to get the reactor inside of one of the ships which was positioned just below the artificial sun.

"Reactor's check, fleet not activated…check…back to the Spirit…not check" Alexander said as he read his to do list, which he simply made up just now.

Tyler and Bravo Team stood on the other side of the Reactor, Tyler looked around the site, and the forerunner ships were almost fully activated and readied to be used. 'This has been a LONG campaign' Tyler thought.

On the other side, they hear Forge's voice, "Gentlemen, we're burning sunshine here!"

Tyler looked over to Cassandra and nodded, he went up the trailer getting set to release the reactor.

Although Tyler's hand was gripping on his DMR's handle, he damn well knew what was going to happen in the next few seconds, and he was damn well ready for it.

The rest of Bravo team went up to the front where the bridge towards the teleporter was at.

Tyler saw the marine Lieutenant make his way towards the large doors, pressing on the controller which slid the doors open. "It's active!" the Marine Lieutenant informed.

However Tyler's attention was quickly drawn by the sudden flashing of the red status light by Cassandra.

'And so it begins' Tyler mentally said to himself as he gripped on his DMR tighter, he looked towards the bridge to see multiple elites de-cloaking, all of them, like the in-game cut scene were armed with ceremonial spears.

However, Tyler had forgotten one thing…the Arbiter, he heard the cry of Lieutenant, spinning around, facing towards the opened doors, he was too late, and the Arbiter had already killed the marine, throwing his body away.

Then it clicked, "Forge! Don't!" Tyler warned, but again, he was too late as Forge had already stepped on the level, releasing the reactor which would have crushed any human with its weight….unfortunately, the Arbiter was no human.

Tyler went around the trailer; he didn't pay attention to what was going on at the front as he had to deal with the Arbiter, and fast.

On the front, Bravo team along with Red team stood side by side, their weapons drawn, Cassandra and Jerome gave each other a slight glance before nodding. "Let's go!" Jerome issued.

Alice and Douglas with their dual SMGs were the first to engage the Elites, however it was Maria that scored the first kill with her sniper rifle.

Jerome with his M90 shotgun killed the last of the elites….that was however the first wave as another two dozen elites charged towards them.

"This is where the fun begins" Alexander said over SQUADCOMs.

Tyler came around the corner of the trailer's rear, this time, he was not too late as Forge was about to make his way over to where he expected the Arbiter was located at. "Forge! Duck!" Tyler warned.

Forge spun around to look at him, and in record speed for an average human, ducked down, dodged a slash from an energy sword from the Arbiter who was using active camo.

Tyler fired some shots at the invisible Elite, forcing it to de-cloak while also blocking the bullets with his dual energy swords.

The Arbiter snarled as Tyler emptied an entire mag on him, it however did little damage, the only thing Tyler accomplished was agro the Arbiter even more.

Forge pulled out his side arm and fired a few shots at the Arbiter, who quickly reacted and prepared to stab him right then and there.

But Tyler reacted with extreme speed, tackling the Arbiter off the sides, sending them both hurling down towards the endless pit probably.

"Tyler!" Forge shouted as he got up and rushed towards the edge, to his relief and despair, Tyler had landed on a platform which was passing by below the site, it had a teleporter on both ends.

However he had not landed alone as the Arbiter was also on the same platform as he.

Cassandra, who was in the middle of stabbing an elite with its own spear also saw what had occurred, "Maria, Owen!" Cassandra said over TEAMCOM, motioning them to split off the main group.

"You can count on us" Maria said, before she and Owen also made their way over to the edge, timing it just right before jumping off, landing on another platform which passed by below them, it was slight above Tyler's which was almost eighty feet down.

Just as they landed, their attention was shifted towards the sky as they heard and saw two Phantoms approaching at high speed..

Forge got up and grabbed his Assault rifle, making his way towards the front where the main action was taking place, "Alright! Let's kick their ass!" Forge issued as he head butted an elite who had charged him with his spear, shooting it as it stumbled to the ground.

--

As Tyler got back up, he realized that his DMR had fallen off; now, he was only left with an M6D magnum which lacked any ammunition, and a stolen Covenant energy sword.

Tyler watched as the Arbiter got back up as well, gripping on the deactivated hilt of both of his energy sword, he could see the hate in his eyes, and hear the growl he was releasing, 'Oh he's pissed' Tyler thought.

"This will be your demise, Human! Once I have taken your head, your entire species will burn!" the Arbiter said in English, this was damn well the first time Tyler had heard an elite speak in actual English, surprisingly, the Arbiter's pronunciation was almost perfect.

"We'll see about that" Tyler said as he grabbed his energy sword off his waist, activating it, he didn't know why, but he went into the Soresu form, he felt dumb using a lightsaber form for a damn energy sword, but well…it was what it was.

The Arbiter followed suit, igniting both of his Energy sword.

Both of them stood face to face, it was giving Tyler some serious flashbacks from his first dual with an Elite on the Unrelenting, and the one on Eridanus against the Elite General.

Inside his helmet, Tyler took a deep breath, 'This is not gonna be fun' he thought, unlike other fights or duals where he was confident about his skill…this one…he wasn't sure, this Arbiter or Ripa' Moramee, if he remembered the lore correctly, was probably the most dangerous dualist of his time.

It was like a drop of a pin, as both of them charged at each other at blinding speed.

The Arbiter went for a slash with one of his swords, which Tyler blocked with his. However the Arbiter used his second sword to send a slash towards his head, aiming to behead him.

Tyler, still blocking the first slash, ducked his head; while still maintain his defensive stance, dodging the second slash.

It was difficult for Tyler to face an opponent who dual wielded, and to add in on his already sour situation, the Arbiter was physically, really strong, so much so, even Tyler's brute strength won't be able to overpower him.

Tyler kicked the Arbiter on his abdomen, knocking his back a bit, but as Tyler went on in the offensive, aiming to thrust his energy sword into the Arbiter's chest, he was blocked by both the Arbiter's blades, and returning the jab, the Arbiter sent a powerful kick towards Tyler, which sent him knocking back and into the teleporter which teleported him to another platform, right below the main site.

Before Tyler could properly get up, the Arbiter charged through the teleporter as well, immediately swinging both his swords, aiming to slice Tyler in half.

But Tyler, entering SPARTAN Time as adrenaline kicked in, immediately leaped back, doing a back flip to doge the Arbiter's swing.

'Alright…this is way harder' Tyler thought, this was by far the toughest single opponent he has faced.

As Tyler landed on his feet, the Arbiter did not give the SPARTAN any time to breath, sending a barge of strikes with both his energy swords, Tyler blocked each and every strike the Arbiter sent with his own energy sword, although he was slowly being pushed back under the relentless assault.

In his HUD, Tyler saw on the top left, which displayed the ammo bar of any weapon he would hold, since he was holding a covenant weapon, it displayed a flat bar, with the hologram of the weapon, the charge on the energy sword dropped with each strike that Tyler blocked.

Ironically, the Star wars lightsaber stance was really saving his ass big time, Soresu was a defensive form, and currently Tyler was on the defensive, ' A good offense is a good defense as they say' Tyler said as he dodge a slash to his legs.

However, there was one thing Tyler noticed as the dual dragged on; the Arbiter's attacks had dissolved from calculated strikes meant to push Tyler to the brink of collapse, into simple brute strength.

Tyler could feel the weight of each strike; each one carried a deep hatred, a sense of disgust.

He could feel the anger radiating off the eight foot tall Elite.

Every strike that Tyler blocked, the Arbiter snarled, the following strike being stronger than the previous.

Seeing an opening, Tyler grabbed the Arbiter's left arm, halting one of the energy sword mid strike, while he slammed his knee up into the Arbiter's jaw, possibly breaking a few of his teethes on its mandibles and stunning his senses, the Arbiter growled as he was hit in the Jaw, but that was not the end.

Tyler gave one final kick to the Arbiter's stomach, atleast where it would be located at.

As he did so, the Arbiter was sent flying back, a large amount of saliva exiting his mouth.

Before Tyler could rush in for the finishing blow, a rain of Plasma came down on him, to which he quickly rolled back dodging, Tyler glanced up to see two Phantoms flying around, their side gunners aiming the plasma cannons towards him, while the phantom's main gun continued to fire.

Retreat was the only option, Tyler quickly ran back towards the teleporter to his back, still holding his energy sword, Plasma continued to rain behind him as he ran, barley making his way over to the teleporter which he jumped into, teleporting him atleast a few meters away from his previous location, he stood on another similar platform, the site was now a good fifty meters way, while still being forty feet above.

The Arbiter got up and grabbed both of his energy swords, glaring at the phantoms for a moment before chasing after the SPARTAN. The dual was far from over.

As the first phantom was about to fly over to where the teleporter had taken them to, its side gunners were sniped off, both grunts on both sides were shot off the Phantoms.

Maria was kneeled down, aiming her sniper from one of the platforms above which gave her a clear view of the Phantoms; Owen exited the teleporter on the same platform, pulling the SPNKr out of his back.

Before the first phantom could fly away, Owen fired both rockets from the SPNKr, both of which impacted on the Phantoms engines, disabling both the engines, completely immobilizing it, the core of the Phantoms were in critical condition.

Owen threw a plasma grenade, which landed on the damaged Phantom's roof; the explosion of the grenade was enough to detonate the core of the phantom, which sent a chain of power outage through the phantom before exploding into a bright ball of explosion.

Kal'arn who had been aboard the second Phantom watched as the Blue Demon's companions destroyed the other Phantom, he could only growl in annoyance, "Fly towards the Arbiter's location!" Kal'arn ordered, he wasn't sure who would win the dual between the Blue Demon and the Arbiter.

Especially after his previous fight with him, he was now extremely cautious about him, and the Arbiter's hubris might spell his own doom…but he wasn't certain, the Arbiter, before their intervention was dominating the dual against the Demon.

The Phantom, ignored the two SPARTANs and started flying over towards, Tyler's and the Arbiter's next location, "We're going to have to catch up" Maria said as she got up, Owen was already sprinting towards the next teleporter and so she too followed him, They had to keep that Phantom off Tyler's back or else it might be the end of him.

Meanwhile, Tyler finally got a chance to catch his breath; turning around to face the teleporter which he had ran through a few moments ago.

As expected, the Arbiter exited it, he dragged both his energy swords through the forerunner made metallic platform.

Slowing he walked over towards Tyler, looking intimidating to any normal human or living being…But Tyler was no normal human…"Enough of your cowardice! Face me, for running would only delay the inevitable!" The Arbiter exclaimed in English, if he was angry a few moments ago, then right now, he was a burning volcano.

Tyler sighed, the fatigue finally catching up to him, and flowing through his body, "Yeah…." Tyler said, as he entered the Soresu stance for the last time.

The Arbiter didn't even wait, as he immediately charged towards him, his blades already preparing for another swing. Tyler swiftly blocked each and every swing the elite threw at him, if Tyler had the Force, this fight would have been long over, unfortunately and luckily, this was Halo, not star wars.

A small gap opened up between he and the Arbiter, this was his chance to step back a bit and switch his stance…if there was one thing he learned from Star wars, that would be helpful to him in some situations…then it was stances.

Tyler quickly switched over to Form II or Makashi; he was going to have to pull a Count Dooku here.

For whatever reasons, Energy swords and lightsaber stances went perfect together. The two of them clashed once more, but this time, both Tyler and Moramee were in the offensive, countering each other's strikes.

The Phantom finally neared the platform that the Arbiter and the Demon were dueling on, opening the ramp on both side, it gave its occupants a clear view of the ongoing dual, as the grunt manning the plasma cannon on the side which was facing the platform, aimed the plasma cannon, it was sudden shot in its methane tank, which suffocated and killed him in an instant.

Kal'arn turned to see where the shot came from, and saw the two Demons, perched up on a platform a few feet above them, he aimed his plasma rifle, along with a few Elites who were similarly armed, and fired, pinning the two SPARTANs.

Owen turned to look at Maria and spoke, "I'll bait them, take the shot!"

Maria couldn't argue, she knew it was the only option left, Owen got up and got his armor plate on his shoulders immediately hit, but he shrugged it off, and ran towards the nearest teleporter.

The Elites, including Kal'arn all aimed towards the SPARTAN who was making a run for it, besides them, inside the Phantom, a Jackal, armed with a Sulok-pattern beam rifle, aimed towards the Blue Demon, preparing to end him, as he was distracted dueling the Arbiter.

It was then that Kal'arn saw the other Demon rise up and aim her weapon; the Demon fired her weapon, the projectile slamming into the Kig'yar besides him, killing it.

Before Kal'arn could return fire, the Demon had already joined its comrade and disappeared through the teleporter.

Kal'arn eyes soon shifted over to the ongoing duel, and so did all the other occupants of the Phantom, he was about to aim his plasma rifle towards the Blue Demon, ready to end him once and for all, but he stopped, as what occurred next shocked everyone onboard the Phantom.

Meanwhile, Tyler continued to clash with the Arbiter, the Makashi stance proved to be highly effective against the Arbiter, who further dissolved into relying on his brute strength, instead of using actual tactics.

The Arbiter sent another slash, one which Tyler somewhat managed to dodge, the energy sword slicing his should pads, but not outright cutting it.

Tyler stumbled back as bit, glancing at his damaged armor part, which left him vulnerable.

The Arbiter took the opportunity and once again swinging both his blades sideways, aiming to slice Tyler in half…However, Tyler had planned this, before his swings could even come inches close to him, Tyler elbowed the Arbiter's left arm, forcing him to drop one of his energy swords.

Tyler kicked the Arbiter once more, sending his stumbling back a few inches, grabbing the activated energy sword mid air; Tyler thrusts both his energy swords into the Arbiter's chest.

The Arbiter's mandibles opened wide, letting out a short yelp of pain, his eyes wide open.

"The inevitable thing was……your own death" Tyler whispered.

On the Phantom, every Elite stood frozen, it was a sight to be seen, but one that terrified all of them. Kal'arn eyes were wide open, he could not comprehend that the Arbiter was…dead…defeated…"Impossible" Kal'arn heard one of the Elite's mumble.

As Tyler removed the energy sword out of the Arbiter's body, he deactivated both of them as placed them of his hips.

Moramee let off a last gasp of air, before he finally collapsed face first onto the floor…the Seventeenth Arbiter was dead.

Tyler looked down at the dead Elite; his faceplate was slightly covered by the purple blood of the elite. He couldn't believe he had actually won. Ripa 'Moramee had officially and personally been his toughest opponent to date.

He could not stare at the dead body any longer as he was suddenly snapped out by his SQUADCOMs coming to life, "Tyler! Let's go!" Maria said, Tyler turned to look up, seeing both Maria and Owen looking down, over the edge of their platform towards him.

Tyler gave a slow nod, before slowly walking over to the nearest teleporter, basically dragging himself as the duel had taken a massive toll on him and his body, entering the teleporter, he left the platform he was previously on.

The Elites on the Phantom did not even dare stop him, they were all frightened, stunned and their bodies refused to move.

This…this was true fear that Kal'arn felt…they had all just witness one of their greatest warriors, even though he may have been brutal and a savage, fall.

The Phantom, hovered closer to the platform, stopping just few inches away from it, Kal'arn used all the strength in his body, to force himself to move, jumping off the phantom and onto the platform, he held the Arbiter's body, slowly dragging it towards the Phantom.

Soon, two more Elites joined him, helping their commander drag the dead elite onto the Phantom.

He didn't do this because he wanted to give him a proper burial or an honorable one, no…He knew that once an Arbiter was felled, his body would be taken to High Charity and presented to the Hierarchs.

As Kal'arn settled the body inside the Phantom, the ramp closed up and Kal'arn ordered, "Take us back to the Lich…the Hierarchs would want the corpse"

--

Back at the Apex site, Cassandra and Alexander dragged the dead bodies of the Elites and threw them off the edge, into the endless pit or whatever was down there.

Forge shut the eyes of the dead marine Lieutenant...another good soldier was dead, all because of those damn covies.

Red team meanwhile, hauled the reactor into the lift which would take it to the top of the ship, directly under the artificial sun.

Forge got up and went over towards the reactor, Jerome, who was closest to it, turned towards him and spoke up, "Sir, it's already overheating. I'll have to separate the core and align them manually when they need to blow"

"Son, I've a feeling before this is over we'll need every last Spartan in the fight" Forge said as he patted the SPARTANs shoulders, "I can do this. Report back to the ship"

But before Jerome could answer, another voice rang out, "No you damn aren't"

Both Forge and Jerome turned to see Tyler, limping his was over towards them, while being helped by Maria, with Owen close behind.

Alice and Douglas gave way for the Lieutenant as he approached the two, while Cassandra and Alexander gave their Team leader some concerned glances, it was really the first time they had seen Tyler this exhausted.

"Looks like someone took a beating" Forge joked.

Tyler halted a feet away from Forge, his armor had really seen better days, "At least I'm alive" Tyler answered. Panting a bit, Tyler continued, "Like I was saying…You're not staying back"

"Lieutenant, I know we've been through some pretty wanky stuff together, but…someone's going to have to stay back and set sunshine ablaze, and you Spartans are a hell of a lot worth more than a marine like me" Forge said.

"But you have something that we don't…a family…a daughter to look after, didn't you say" Tyler reminded, to Tyler, that argument sounded a bit lame, and too emotional. 'Come on, Tyler, you're a damn SPARTAN, being emotional is like being like the Master Cheeks' Tyler mentally said to himself.

And to everyone present, even to his own teammates, it a surprise and shocking revelation, although as SPARTANs are trained to, they didn't show it, say, expect for Alexander. "Lieutenant…" Forge was about to argue but he stopped, he knew the SPARTAN was right, but it seemed selfish at the same time, groaning in frustration, Forge kicked a small pebble that was next to his feet.

"So what do you plan to do? Somebody's gonna have to stay back and blow this damn thing up. Unless Serina can pull a crazy MAC shot over here, which would instantly kill us all" Forge said.

"That's not the only option we have…Owen" Tyler said motioning Owen to come forwards.

"Understood" Owen replied as he carefully pulled the HAVOK nuclear warhead.

"Is that what I think it is?" Alice asked.

Forge turned to look at Tyler, directly into his large faceplate, "Now where the hell did you get that from?!" he asked, flabbergasted.

"We borrowed it form the Roman Blue" Alexander answered, gaining Forge and Red team's attention.

"At this point, what have you NOT borrowed from the Roman" Forge sarcastically asked, meanwhile Owen was busy arming the Warhead, setting the timer and placing it in a position which would instantly detonate the reactor as well.

Tyler was about to answer with 'People', but he stopped, as it would have technically not been true, sure Bravo team never borrowed People from the Roman blue, but the amount of back up and reinforcements they had requested and received from the ship kind of counted as borrowed.

"Timer's set" Owen informed as he returned back to the group, "We've got thirty minutes to pack things up and leave"

Alexander asked a question, and to no one's surprise, it was another stupid question, "And what if we don't leave by then?"

Owen turned to look at his idiotic teammate and bluntly answered, "We die"

"And say, we do somehow survive, what then?" Forge sarcastically asked.

"Like our instructor once said…It's going to be a very long, long back home" Owen answered, Tyler could notice and understand the nostalgia the other SPARTANs were going through.

"Enough talking, let's get back to the Spirit and get that hot Chow you promised…I'm done living off of MRE's" Tyler said as he started walking off, still somewhat limping.

"I'm with him on that one…" Forge said before going after Tyler who was already a good distance away, "Hey! And I didn't promise the hot Chow!" Forge exclaimed.

The rest of Bravo Team and Red Team looked at each other before going after the two. Before he left, Owen made sure to seal the doors shut to hopefully contain the explosion long enough for the reactor to be chain detonated.

As the crossed through the teleporter and exited back to where they had originally entered from, Forge said something to Tyler, "You won't be able to save everyone in this war, Lieutenant, it's simply impossible, and you probably know that better than me"

That was true, saving everyone from the damages the war would cost was simply and practically impossible, "It's never a bad idea to give it a try" Tyler answered, a small smirk forming behind his faceplate.

"You Spartans are all so stubborn, but you're just a whole new level of stubbornness" Forge said as he mentally face palmed, but he too couldn't resist a smirk.

Outside, the escort team was still on standby, the remainder of the escort group were either clearing the dead covenant bodies or patrolling the area, "How long do we have" Tyler asked.

"Twenty six minutes and nineteen seconds…make that seventeen" Cassandra said, checking her TACPAD.

"Seems good enough" Alexander commented.

Tyler turned on his COMs and spoke up, "This is SPARTAN 071, to Spirit of Fire, over"

"Lieutenant? What's your status, and where's Sergeant Forge" Captain Cutter asked.

"I'm here, Captain, and uh, we're in kind of a situation" Forge said over COMs.

"Captain, we need to get out of this place now! We got less than thirty seconds before everything goes to dust!" Tyler explained over COMs, his voice clearly hinted the urgency of the situation.

--

Back inside the bridge of the Spirit of Fire, Cutter raised his eyebrows as he heard that.

Professor Anders who stood next to him near the Holotable also narrowed her eyes. But before Cutter could further ask what the Lieutenant meant, Serina projected herself on the holotank and informed, the sense of urgency in her tone as well.

"Captain! I'm detecting a massive built up of radiation levels right where the reactor is located!"

Cutter's eyes widened and he immediately spun around to face the AI, "What! Is the Core already overloading?" he asked.

"Negative, the spike seems to be foreign, something else" Serina answered.

Leaning forwards on the Holotable, Cutter spoke up over COMs, "Lieutenant, what the hell is going on?"

Instead of Tyler, Forge's voice came over COMs, answering the question, "Uh, to sum it up short, the Lieutenant and his boys pulled out a HAVOK nuke out of nowhere, and they plan to time it right so it can chain detonate the core"

Anders turned over to Cutter and spoke, as if trying to confirm what she had just heard, "Did he just say a HAVOK nuke?"

Even Cutter seemed flabbergasted by the response, there were so many questions going over his mind, questions that he would probably never receive an answer to, but if there was one thing that was clear, then it was that the Lieutenant was an absolute ballsy bastard.

"Sir, the combination of a nuclear warhead and the FTL reactor alone is almost substantial enough to cause a mini supernova" Serina informed.

Cutter pondered for a moment, digesting all the information that had been dumped on him before answering, "Serina, deploy all Pelicans available, get our men back onboard, we're not leaving anyone behind"

"Suddenly our survival chances seem not so slim, recalling all troops, aye, Sir!" Serina answered.

Back on the surface, Tyler watched as Pelicans started arriving and evacuating all UNSC ground forces and vehicles.

He nervously glanced at Cassandra's TACPAD, the timer was now on twelve minutes and twenty five seconds.

Each second that passed, their survival chances got slimmer, 'Suddenly…I feel like this was a terrible idea' Tyler thought.

Forge had been going around the place, making sure everyone got into their pelicans in order and without any fuss.

Not everyone was idle like he was, Owen and Alexander were helping some of the injured up and into the Pelicans while Red Team and Maria stayed as over watch, only he and Cassandra stood idly, not doing anything.

"If we don't make it out…I'm blaming this all on you" Cassandra whispered to Tyler.

"I too would do that" Tyler whispered back.

Anxiety, that was what Tyler felt, he could literally hear the universal clock tick as every second passed, beneath his helmet, sweat slithered down his head. 'God…just this once…please slow down the time' Tyler mentally wished, he knew it was a dead end as what he wished for was simply impossible.

However, he was somewhat proven wrong as a voice rang inside his Helmet, through his internal COMs, "Greeting, Reclaimer"

"Watch?" Tyler almost in a loud tone, quieting down to make sure no one heard him speaking. "Why are you contacting me?"

"I observed that you had placed two constructs on the docking yard, your primitive technology was far too easy to access" the Forerunner AI answered.

"Wait, you hacked the warhead?" Tyler asked.

"If that is what your kind would describe, then yes" Watch stated, "Reclaimer, I have halted the timer in your construct, you must have the needed time to escape before I activate it"

"Watch…you don't have to do this you know…Why not just leave, maybe take control of a ship and fly off to safety…you're not our enemy" Tyler said, he didn't want the Forerunner AI to get in the cross fire between them and the covenant, and the fact that he had been cooperative and somewhat helpful also proved that he was no enemy.

"How silly of you Reclaimer, I am the caretaker of this installation. Safeguarding it is my purpose" Watch answered.

"But does that include destroying your own installation?" Tyler questioned, he was getting way too close to shooting himself in the foot again, if he changed the AI's mind, then they were all screwed.

"Safeguarding my installation does not only include protecting it against any outside threats, but also preserving it for my Creator's uses…in this case…you, Reclaimer, are the successors to my creators, the next inheritor of the Mantle…if destroying my installation helps in your cause against the pretenders, then so be it…it is what my Creators would have wanted" Watch stated his reasons, and it was touching…to Tyler that is.

Tyler watched as the final pelican which was for them settled down on the ground, Forge was already calling for him and the others to board the Pelican. "I…I'm sorry it has to end this way…" Tyler apologized.

"Sacrifices were always required…my makers too were ready for the ultimate price for the Galaxy…" Watch answered.

As Tyler boarded the Pelican, he took his seat, to anyone else, he had been silent for a while, not talking or interacting with anyone.

But inside his helmet, Tyler was having his final conversation with a short but valuable ally...

"I've left the entrance portal opened for your departure, I wish you well on your war against the pretenders…Farewell Reclaimer…" Watch ended, just then, the Pelican too entered the hanger bay of the Spirit of Fire.

Tyler heard Forge speak over COMs, "Captain! We're all accounted for, hit those damn engines"

"You okay?" Cassandra said, placing her hand on his shoulders.

"Yeah…let's get settled, it's probably going to be a bumpy ride out" Tyler answered, Changing the subject.

---

5th Cycle, 6th year of the ninth age of Reclamation

Location: Korinth system, Shield world 0459 [Trove, Kmiro'sish-pattern Lich, Faithful Venture

The Lich was already up and away in the sky, all that was required was for the Phantom to sock inside the Lich. The world patroller was a large craft, one capable of carrying a dropship which proved to be pivotal as it was a mobile command centre.

As Kal'arn Phantom settled inside the underbelly of the Lich, he dragged out the body of the dead Arbiter off the Phantom and into the Lich.

First to rush over was his Friend Ekar who immediately halted as he caught sight if the Arbiter's body.

"By the Gods, Kal'arn, what happened, and is that the Arbiter?" Ekar asked, both shocked and dumbfounded.

"The Arbiter is dead…slain by the Blue demon" Kal'arn said, not with anger or venom, but with genuine fear.

"What now…" Ekar asked as he looked down at the dead body, Kal'arn could tell his Friend was more than delighted to see the dead body of the Savage Elite, had Kal'arn not been there, Ekar would have probably spit on the body of the Arbiter.

"We set course for High Charity…the Hierarchs would want his body presented before them" Kal'arn answered. "Any news of the Proclamation?"

"My Friend…it seems they have abandoned us…we lost contact with them mere minutes after you departed" Ekar answered.

"What" Kal'arn could only let off a silent murmur, what was the meaning of this? Were they left to fend for themselves? "Have we been left to rot?"

"I do not know my Friend" Ekar responded, "But…we have another solution"

That gained Kal'arn attention, "When you departed, the Huragoks found a method to harness the energy of the beacon inside the structure, they were able to turn our engines which are now capable of taking us home…" Ekar explained.

It seemed fate was on their side, "Then let us be under way, we must not linger here any longer…" Kal'arn ordered.

Both he and Ekar made their way over to the control centre where their pilots were seated at, "Set course outside the planet…we must not let the humans intercept us!" Ekar ordered.

Soon, the Lich accelerated and flew at high speed, due to the artificial gravity inside of the craft; they were immune to any effects of the high speed travel.

They soon entered the entrance portal, entering the hollow ring like interior of the portal.

He could see the exit, the light in the distant in-front of them. Soon, the Lich flew out of the entrance portal, outside of the inner surface and outside to the parasite infested outer-surface.

They wasted no time in staying any longer on the Planet's atmosphere, the last thing any of them wanted was for a single parasite to latch onboard. "My Friend, you should see this" Ekar said, as he motioned Kal'arn to follow him.

Kal'arn didn't think much and followed his Friend who led him to the energy barrier that separated them and the vacuum of space…"What is it?" Kal'arn asked.

"Look" Ekar pointed outside the barrier, towards the Planet which they had just exited, it was in the distant, and the engine of the Lich was flying them away at high speed.

---

February 25, 2531, 1549 hours

Location: Korinth system, Shield world 0459 [Trove, Inner surface, Phoenix class support vessel, Spirit of Fire

[Play the OST from One less sun in the universe, literally gave me chills as i wrote this part :) ]

The star had began to rapidly increase in temperature, the warhead had detonated a few moments earlier which had shook the entire Dyson sphere.

The Spirit of Fire was a few hundred thousand kilometers away from the artificial star.

Inside the bridge, Anders and Cutter walked over to the observation window, the gravity force of the rapidly collapsing star was slowly pulling the ship towards it, and its luminosity was also near unbearable.

"Hanger bay reports all crew checked in" Serina informed.

"Then let's not outstay our welcome. Best speed away" Cutter said.

"Captain, the gravity field from the sun is expanding. We're not going anywhere" Serina informed.

Cutter seemed to ponder for a moment, narrowing his eyes as he struggled to look at the bright artificial star, "Let's see if we can't turn that to our advantage" Cutter said, he was going to take a ballsy page from the Lieutenant's page of ballsyness. "Serina, plot a course that takes us into the sun, we're going to sling shot around it"

Serina, who projected on the holotank nearby the Holotable, and looked at it, which displayed a rough hologram of the Dyson sphere with the rapidly increasing star. "Threading a needle while accelerating around an exploding star inside a planet that's falling apart" Serina said as she transferred over to the holotank which was closer to the observation window, "Sure, why not?"

"Serina, can you do it?" Cutter asked, they were getting even closer to the star which was also expanding rapidly.

"It's done" Serina answered, "You might want to hold onto something"

Cutter walked over to his Captain's chair, while Ander's made her way over to a nearby seat as well. "Closing your eyes might help too" Serina added.

The Spirit of Fire flew rapidly towards the expanding star, around it, the Forerunner dreadnoughts too were dragged in due to the intense gravity.

The Spirit of Fire was quite frankly, inches away from the star, how it was not disintegrated was a mystery to everyone onboard.

Inside the bridge, everyone except Serina had their eyes shut; opening it as they were literally right next to a star would be a death sentence to their eyes.

The Spirit of Fire rapidly encircled around the expanding star, each time it lapsed its acceleration increased, until it was finally slingshot into the entrance portal.

To everyone inside the bridge, passing through the long entrance portal only took them about a few seconds, their accelerate speed really helped them achieve speed which by conventional engines would be near impossible.

The Spirit of Fire shot out of the entrance portal, rapidly flying outside of crumbling and collapsing planet, as the ship flew away a few hundred kilometers away, the Planet that was Shield world 0459 or Trove, exploded and shattered into many millions of pieces.

As the ship finally stabilized, Cutter got off his seat and immediately made his way over to the Holotable, "Serina, status!" he asked.

"All systems, except FTL are checked, hull integrity is at eighty three percent. Crew capacity….almost half" Serina listed.

"Professor, are you alright?" Cutter said, turning over to Anders who was still strapped to her seat, she rubbed her head before groaning a bit.

"I'm fine, Captain. Just a bit dizzy" She answered.

Cutter sighed and turned over to Serina, "So where do we stand?" Cutter asked.

"We're atleast one million five hundred thousand and six hundred kilometers away from where the planet was…Crazy plans do indeed work" Serina remarked.

As Cutter stood there, pondering over all the possibilities, the covenant…they were gone for now, they had managed to stop them from possibly gaining the power to end this war.

As he was about to head back to his seat…a sudden transmission that rang through halted him.

"Spirit of Fire, this is the Roman Blue, we're closing in on your location" Hood's familiar voice range through the bridge, Cutter could only let off a sigh in relief, and a small smile appeared on his face.

'Lieutenant…you just saved all our asses' Cutter mentally praised the SPARTAN who had practically been a massive aid to them.

---

Kal'arn watched as the plant exploded, his eyes widened. "How…" that was the only word that left his mouth.

It was as if everything, everything he had fought for over the past year had come crumbling, all the lives and warriors lost, just shattered in front of their eyes. "The Hierarchs would be displeased" Ekar said, even in his tone, the helplessness was clear.

Kal'arn simply watched the remains, the debris of the planet, where the mighty fleet of their Gods and where the parasite were all at…All of it was gone, lost forever. "We must leave…" Kal'arn simply said.

"My Friend…we would be branded as heretics for our failure" Ekar stated.

"Then we shall face it like warriors…with honor" Kal'arn replied, he stood firm on his decision.

Around them, inside the Lich, the remaining warriors, Sangheili, Kig'yar and Unggoy alike all either stood or sat on the floor.

All of them had a defeated look, the Sangheili more so, they were the last survivors of the entire fleet…they had passed the wreckage of the Proclamation's Tithe which had been destroyed.

Their overall commander, the Arbiter was slain and now, the Holy world with the Ancient fleet of their Gods too was destroyed…all done by the Humans.

The Lich began to prepare to entre light speed, and make its way towards High Charity where judgment awaited for them all; however, Kal'arn had a plan to spare everyone of the wrath of the Hierarchs.

Before he left for the control center, he glanced down at the piece of metal from the structure that contained the sacred rings as carvings.

Ekar had surely taken his time to carve out the piece, just large enough to fit the entire carving, but small enough to be carried by a single Sangheili.

That was what would save them of shame and punishment.

"Come…we have seen enough" Kal'arn said, motioning his Friend to follow.

---

The Spirit of Fire had sustained heavy damages from its battles inside the Dyson sphere, the Roman Blue too had engaged a Covenant destroyer that had exited the Planet, just hours before it broke apart, the destroyer was destroyed by the Halcyon class light cruiser as its shields were downed as it exited.

As the two ships cruised through the vast empty space, inside the bridge of the Spirit of Fire, the bridge crew along with prominent figures like Professor Anders, Sergeant Forge, Red Team and Bravo team were all gathered.

The screen on the bridge displayed the live feed of Captain Hood, everyone inside the bridge, which is those that were in service or combat uniforms, had their standard issued caps removed, all of them stood in attention.

"The battle may be over, but this war is still far from it…" Hood began with the commemoration speech, the crews of both ships had decided to conduct a make shift memorial for all those who had fallen during the battle.

"Our enemies were vast and mighty…but our will was never shattered, and we stood defiant…" Hood carried on, some of the crew looked down, everyone onboard had seen what could be described, the most desperate and hopeful battle to date.

"To honor those that have given their lives so that mankind may survive to see another day…a moment silence for all who have fallen" Hood ended.

Silence ran through the bridge, every man and woman maintained a moment of silence, even Serina who projected herself through the holotank stood there silent.

All of them had lost so much, seen so much and most of all gained nothing but time…Tyler stood around the corner with his team, next to him was Forge and to his next was Red team and Anders.

As the memorial ended, all the crew aboard the bridge went on with their respective posts, while Cutter wore his cap back on and turned towards the screen to look at Hood, "I've contact Admiral Cole of our situation, he has dispatched a refit station, the UNSC Cradle…it's estimated time of arrival is about seventy four hours" Hood informed.

"Thank you, Captain, your help was most appreciated and a saving grace for all aboard the Spirit of Fire" Cutter expressed his gratitude, the SPARTANs, including Forge and Anders all stood around the Holotable as well, looking at the screen.

"I believe the real credit would and should go to the Lieutenant, it was his idea after all" Hood said to which Cutter nodded in agreement. "Speaking of which, Lieutenant, I've got some news from Admiral Cole"

Tyler could only brace himself for what was next to come, 'God, tell me it isn't another mission or Operation he has in mind' Tyler thought.

"It is with pleasure to inform you that, under direct orders from Vice Admiral Preston. J Cole, that you are hereby promoted to Lieutenant-Commander" Hood informed.

It was like Tyler was shot in the face…by a paint ball gun which was filled with black ink instead.

'This…is way worst' was all Tyler could think, silence followed across the bridge, even the Bridge crew stopped on their duties as they heard the news.

Then it was all shattered when Forge and Alexander had the brilliant idea to clap, and soon, it was followed by everyone and the whole bridge erupted with the sound of clapping and cheers.

"Look at you! I said you'd be a damn well commander!" Forge said as he fist bumped his chest.

"Well, you'd make a damn fine commander one day, Lieutenant Commander" Cutter said as he patted Tyler's shoulders.

"I….thank you…Sir" Tyler said, finding it hard to digest what had just transpired.

"It seems someone's getting all the credit" Serina somewhat teased.

"Not now, Serina" Tyler replied, the last thing he wanted to deal with was the AI's humor and sass.

Soon, the cheers died down and everyone returned back to their duties, Cutter, straightened himself, and followed by Tyler and his fellow SPARTANs. "So, Captain, what now?" Cutter asked looking at the screen.

"If you want, the Roman Blue can stick around and act as extra escort for the Spirit of Fire until the refit station arrives" Hood proposed.

"I think that won't be required, Captain" Cutter turned down the offer, "I believe the Roman Blue and its crew have already helped us a lot, its best you and you ship get going, we can handle ourselves until then"

"It was a pleasure working with you again, Captain" Hood said.

"It was a pleasure as well, Terrance" Cutter replied, before the transmission was cut, Tyler spoke up, it was about damn time he brought this to the Captains attention.

"Sirs, permission to speak" Tyler said.

"Go ahead, Lieutenant Commander" Cutter answered.

"Sir, I believe we should leave out the whole…alien parasitic virus life form out of our reports to command" Tyler stated.

Cutter raised an eye brow while Hood spoke up, "SPARTAN, I'm not even going to question why, but I just want to hear the reason for it"

"Gladly" Tyler said as he straightened himself, "I believe that its best humanity or everyone except those who participated in this battle…in this campaign know of this life form, humanity already has a genocidal alien empire after itself, and hearing that Space Zombies are real won't do good to the overall morale…and I can only imagine what naval intelligence would do if they find out"

Forge, Anders and the other SPARTANs only nodded in agreement, Tyler made an excellent point, and it wasn't a good idea to reveal that there was another massive threat to worry about, but that raised another question, how were they supposed to keep this a secret.

"You make a good point, Lieutenant commander. But how exactly are we going to keep this secret, Command is going to be a bit suspicious if they do not get a clear explanation on why so many of our men were listed MIA after the skirmish on the outer surface." Cutter said.

"I've already made arrangements for that, Sirs. I know someone who can deal with that problem" Tyler answered, before the memorial began, he had sent an encrypted message to Leroy about their current situations, their findings and his plan. He knew Leroy would immediately be on board with it.

"Well it's settled then….anything else you want to add" Cutter asked.

Tyler pondered for a moment, there really was nothing else, nothing that would make any significant change to his overall strategy…'that's right!' Tyler thought, he glanced back at his team, then back to Cutter and to the screen where Hood was displayed.

"Sir…permission for me and my Team to be transferred over to the Roman Blue" Tyler made his final request.

The silence that followed after his request was almost deafening.

No one made even the slightest sound as everyone present in the bridge processed his request.

Even his own team seemed taken aback by the sudden request, to them, they had gotten accustomed to the Spirit of Fire and its crew very well over the past weeks, and so the sudden request for a transfer didn't really make sense even to them.

"For what reasons, Lieutenant commander?" asked Cutter, he folded his arms as he looked at the SPARTAN.

"Sir, I believe it would not be a good strategically decision to have two SPARTAN teams on one ship" Tyler explained, from a wider view, it did make sense. Tyler glanced back at Red team before returning his gaze to the Captain, "And I believe Red Team would do just fine here, Sir"

Everyone inside the room, both physical and digital knew the fact that had the two Captains not been present here, Forge would have no doubt started arguing immediately.

Cutter pondered for a moment before turning towards the screen where Hood was still visible, "What do you think, Captain?" Cutter asked for his former XO's opinion and final decision on the request.

"I believe the SPARTAN has a point, Captain…" Hood replied.

"Then it's settled" Cutter said as he unfolded his arms and extend his hand out for a final handshake, "It's been an honor to have you and your team onboard, SPARTAN, I could only wish we had you longer…Good luck, SPARTAN, I can tell you're going to be one of the key reasons we win this war"

"I'll arrange a Pelican to pick you and your Team up, SPARTAN, see you onboard, I'll infrom Admrial Cole about the changes" Hood ended as the live feed was cut.

"So, no farewell parties" Serina said, gaining a look from everyone. "I take that as a yes"

--

The hanger bay was still bustling with activity; many corpsmen ran around treating the wounded and taking the critically wounded to the med bays, the escape from the planet had been a rough and unorganized one as many types of equipment were in decks where it didn't belong.

But in all this mess, a Pelican was preparing to leave. Outside the pelican, just near the hatch, Tyler and the rest of Bravo Team bit their farewells to people who they had gotten well with. "Hope we'll meet again, Tyler" Jerome said as he patted his shoulders.

"I hope so too" Tyler replied.

Next was Alice who approached him and gave him a fist bump to the shoulders, "Don't get killed Tyler, who knows, a lucky grunt may get you one day" she joked.

"And don't get too reckless, you'll only have you teammates and average Forge to work with" Tyler joked as well.

"Hey!" Forge who was talking with Alexander shouted, to which both Tyler and Alice chuckled to.

Anders was the next to approach him, he hadn't had much time interacting with the Professor, but when he did, he could immediately tell some similarities between her and Doctor Halsey, "Thank you, SPARTAN. I don't think any of us would have made it out without you" Anders expresses her gratitude.

Tyler nodded, "Just doing what's necessary Professor, just don't get too curious into something, poor Forge might get injured once more" Tyler said.

Anders gave a small smile and nodded as she too made her way away from the Pelican, "I'll keep that in mind, and I'm sure the Sergeant wouldn't mind some challenge"

Finally, the elephant in the room, Tyler knew it was going to be a short yet hard exchange between the two of them, Bravo team began to board the Pelican after exchanging their own farewells, but Tyler remained as one last individual remained.

"So…I guess this is it, huh" Forge said as he stood in front of Tyler.

"Yeah…this is it…" Tyler could only agree, they had come a long way since Harvest, their first meeting wasn't the smoothest but they worked it out.

"We came a long way" Tyler added.

"We damn sure did…Harvest…Arcadia…and whatever that world was…" Forge reminiscent. "I just wanted to say…thanks…for everything; you saved my ass more than I can count at this point"

Tyler chuckled, "Don't rely on it, one day you're going to have something reckless as you getting you killed" Tyler said.

"And I can say the same for you too, Lieutenant" Forge said as he grinned.

Forge sighed and continued, "Well…it's been an honor, Lieutenant, I don't know how this war will end, but like the Captain said, you're gonna be one of the main reasons we're probably going to win this"

Tyler didn't answer to that, he didn't know if what they said actually would be his future, 'Will I actually?' he thought, it was a question he never asked himself, John was definitely going to be the legend he was as the Master Chief.

But what was his future, what would his legacy be…he didn't know, nor did he care.

"Don't, die Forge, I won't be there watching your back after this" Tyler said as he too boarded the Pelican, standing just behind the ramp, inside.

"Goodbye, Lieutenant" Forge said as he prepared to leave as well, but stopped mid way as he heard Tyler say something.

"And Sergeant, next time we meet, we'll go get another drink maybe" Tyler said as the ramp closed.

Forge only grinned as walked away from the Pelican, "Damn I forgot to tell him about that rabbit on his hand" Forge cursed as he remembered something he was suppose to tell, but it was too late as the Pelican was already lifting off. "Ah screw it, I'll tell him the next time we meet"

Inside the Pelican, Tyler took a seat besides Cassandra. He looked at each and member of his team, all of them were tired, fatigued and exhausted.

The past few days or weeks had been unkind to all of them, from evacuating civilians to shifting to a different planet and helping out there, to finally ending up on a planet with the Flood and destroying it by causing a super nova.

It was all very crazy as Tyler thought about it, "I'll miss that ship" Cassandra said as rested her head against her seat.

"Me too…me too" Tyler agreed, overall, the weeks spend onboard the Spirit of Fire were some of his most…craziest times ever…he was going to miss everything on that ship…even Serina.

"So, I must say, we're quite happy to have you five onboard OUR ship" the pilot who was unsurprisingly Twister, said over the Pelican's internal speakers.

"What does it have to offer?" Alexander asked.

"It's not fancy like the Spirit, but hey, the Roman Blue is like a brick…a space brick…a beautiful brick, so get used to its honeycomb designs" Twister said, Tyler couldn't agree more.

"I can guess…" Maria said as she cleaned her sniper rifle.

Owen was checking his armor, running his hands through his chest piece and shoulder pads to see if it had sustained any damage.

All of them had their armors heavily damages, but Tyler's was a whole another story, and against all odds, the Red rabbit was still on his left gauntlet.

"Say, Twister…we never got your real name" said Cassandra.

"Oh, yeah…kind of forgot about that…well…if I use my traditional name it would be, Chan-Juan Cài" Twister answered, it only confirmed Tyler's suspicions of her ethnicity being Chinese.

"Chan gwan ts- what now?" Alexander asked, failing to pronounce her name in mandarin.

"Its Chan-Juan Cài, or if you want an easier pronunciation, then it goes something like Ts'ai" Twister corrected.

"Yeah, nevermind, I can't do that" Alexander gave up.

"You got any other names than that?" Tyler asked.

"Well, if we go by my more English name, it would be Lisa…and since I'm married; my surname would not be Cài, but Devereaux, my husband's surname, so…Lisa Devereaux, at your service"

"I didn't know married people could join the UNSC as well" Owen commented.

"It's a different case if you're already in the military when you marry" Twister replied.

"How long have you exactly been serving?" Tyler asked.

"Eleven years, two years more if you include my academy days" Twister answered, "Well, SPARTANs, we're landing in, welcome to the Roman blue, and make yourself at home"

The ramp to the pelican was lowered, allowing the SPARTANs to see the interior of the Roman Blue's hanger bay.

Tyler was the first to get up and walk out 'Devereaux…where have I heard that from?' Tyler thought.

Stepping out into the hanger bay, Tyler along with his Team made their way across towards the exit, Cassandra who was next to him spoke up, "So, where to next?"

Tyler continued to walk and pondered silently, there were many places they could be sent to next, hell Tyler could be recalled back to Reach by Leroy for another damn briefing.

However, there was only one quote he found suitable for this question, one which would define the coming years, "Where ever we're needed" he said as he smiled under his helmet.

---

A/N: and that is it….my first book is finished…somewhat, I still have an Epilogue to do….damn 22k words, holy smokes, I truly went overboard for the Climax….anyways, after the Epilogue I'll be working on the second book of Tyler's story….The Retainer saga...

I'll be honest, dear readers, this has been a crazy journey writing this, and honestly, I'm enjoying every single chapter i write, so fellas...untl next time...PEACE...