The Counters and Lucky Strikes advanced once more, with Syuen somehow at the forefront of the formation. The others did say they wouldn't rely on the newfound MP Nikke to cover their backs, so, here she was, covering their fronts. Bullets zinged against her ballistic shield as she fired her SMG in the blind, thankful for the NIMPH that allowed combat programs to at least be installed in her noggin.

She saw Product 23-20 appear behind her, yelped as the woman's high-caliber shotgun barked just over her head. She looked back at 20, who smirked, pat her on the back and said, "Keep up, Pipsqueak!" which garnered a growl out of her (former) boss. She stumbled as a particle beam from one of the larger Raptures struck her shield and paused just as Cortana caught her.

The AI pushed past her and drew her weapon, firing an energy burst right back at the Rapture and shearing it clean in half. She cast an impassive glance back at Syuen, then took cover and activated her own neural-lace-based hacking system. At least Halsey was putting her company to some good use, Syuen thought.

She pushed up beside Cortana and dropped to a knee behind cover, dropping the spent magazine in her SMG and asking the AI, "Do you people usually outfit your AIs with human bodies?" before she slid the weapon back onto her hip and looked over the shield. Burn marks and carbon scoring marred the shield already, despite it being basically brand new.

"Not really," The AI shot back, "I just took some liberties."

The two heard the thundering steps of TALOS, then watched the heavy mech surge forward, hefting its MG arm and firing a burst from the spooling minigun. Rounds spat out of the bottom of the weapon, piling high behind the mech as Chief and the Commander advanced. Beside him, Rapi, Anis and Neon also pushed forward.

Sammy spoke, "Once again, here we are in the thick of it!"

"Couldn't be any worse than normal!" Joked Layla as she dropped a spent magazine. She primed a fragmentation grenade and threw it high and far, the explosive detonating among the smaller Raptures, shockwave knocking them all off-balance. Delta was farther behind, her rifle thundering. An AP round made by Neon zipped clean forward and cut through the first larger Rapture.

The Commander moved forth next, sallying past a series of smaller Raptures and gunning them down, before utilizing his newfound strength to jump clean over the machine, recalling his enhanced body's abilities and the training given unto him by other Spartans. He landed atop one of the Raptures and decided to replicate what Chief had done beforehand. Grabbing one of the recesses in the segmented armor and planting the barrel of his AR into its back, he squeezed the trigger.

Bullets tore through the upper armor, the full magazine expended by the time he punched through enough synthetic steel and flesh. He did see the core of the Machine, but nearly tumbled back as the monster bucked, then stood on its hind legs. He swung his rifle onto his back, cocked his fist back, then slammed his fist against the core, causing a small crack. Automatic fire struck Alyosha's back, causing him to stagger as his shields flared, his grip slipping.

The beast bounced forward next, throwing the Commander off of it. He landed on his feet and hands, however, skidding across the floor as the pained Rapture screeched and bucked, to the point it even squashed a couple of its own units underfoot. Rapi ran up beside the Commander, asked, "Are you okay, Commander!?" then opened fire.

"I'm good, yeah!" He replied, drew his rifle, hit the release on the mag catch and dumped the empty magazine before slapping in a fresh one and racking the bolt. Chief deftly dodged another swing from a larger beast, shot its leg out, then put three rounds into its maw while Pinne beside him protected him from gunfire and Kilo gunned down yet more hostiles.

Sammy rolled up next, sidestepping a jumping suicide Rapture and sniping another mid-flight. She bodied a third rapture by slamming her elbow into its face, put the barrel of her assault rifle into its maw and opened up, letting her bullets rip and tear through the monster's innards. In reply, she got shot by three separate units, the rounds puncturing her plate carrier and forcing her into cover.

"Sammy!" Layla called out as she pushed up to join the girl. Sammy took off the armor plate and revealed the wounds, superficial penetrations, to which Layla murmured, "Swear to the Lord, girl, it feels like you're the one who gets shot the most out of everyone…" while patching her wounds up with specialized sprays.

"Gotta learn to keep my head down," The girl grumbled, obviously in pain as her comrade tended to her. Layla snorted, then furrowed her brows as she checked her friend's injuries. The bullet holes weren't in a caliber used by Raptures. The polar opposite, in fact. Still, she ignored it and continued treating her, stopped the bleeding and put her armor back on for her.

"You should learn not to rush ahead without backup…" Layla then shot back, before a chill shot up her spine as a familiar, high-pitched scream reached them. Craning her neck to the sound, Layla gasped as she saw little Signal collapse behind cover, dark-red coolant leaking from a gut wound. She stood to her feet, preparing to run, when she heard Delta cry out.

"SIGNAL!" The soldier cried, a combination of pain and fury subdued underneath a cracking facade of calm. The thunderclap of five consecutive sniper shots filled the others' ears and six targets fell. The last shot nailed two of the enemy's units clean. When Layla managed to get Signal into cover and check her, she froze.

"These are our bullets…" She mumbled, then called out, "PUPPET NIKKES, INCOMING! SIGNAL TOOK A HIT FROM ARK-MADE BULLETS!"

Rapi sighed deeply as she already sighted the silhouettes of the controlled Nikkes. That just confirmed that the Heretic that Kelly had encountered was, indeed, here. And going by the large silhouette in the distance, hidden among the buildings, she figured that Cinder had come armored up. She checked her ammo, scanned the dozen or so Nikkes being utilized as puppets, then steeled her gaze, preparing to jump.

"Anis, Neon, cover me!" The girl ordered. She scanned the most optimal path to get to their target through her hordes of zombified Nikke, then jumped out. She heard both of her squadmates call out to her, but something inside her snapped at that moment, when she saw multiple of their comrades, missing their brains and being used as puppets by a Heretic.

As she rushed, she lifted her rifle, allied rounds zipping past her from her team-mates and the Luckies. Her first burst met a Product-08 that was trying to snipe her. With surprising agility, she dodged the shot from the girl's antiquated rifle, pushed the barrel up with her left hand and planted her rifle's barrel into the girl's chest.

She fired one burst. The reinforced UNSC ammunition tore clean through the puppet's fleshy chest, spraying blood-red coolant and artificial bone onto a Product-12 whose face had been ripped clean off, leaving a metallic endoskeleton visible. She tossed the corpse aside and, at the same time, kicked high, slamming the heel of her boot into the chin of the shotgunner Nikke.

She spun about, fired a burst into the back of an iDoll Sun with half her armor missing, stapling her spine with bullets from the back of her skull to the base of the spine itself. She dropped the spent magazine, spun about and elbowed the Product-12 in the face with a lot of momentum, causing the neck of the Nikke to snap.

A grenade struck a Rapture beside her, shattering it to pieces, while bullets rang past her head from the team sniper. Neon pushed up behind her with Pinne and Sammy, their shotguns and rifles spitting out high-caliber buckshot and slugs. Finally, joining the ranks were the others, with the Chief and Commander not far behind.

She kept charging forward, to the surprise of everyone. She side-swiped a Soldier FA with no skin on her left arm, pinned her to the floor with her boot and emptied her magazine into the girl's chest, spraying herself with coolant.

"What's gotten into her…?" Anis mumbled as she loaded fresh shells into her launcher.

Neon pushed her glasses up onto the bridge of her nose and squinted. As Rapi aimed and fired her own underbarrel launcher, the round splitting into several micro-missiles that rained a barrage down on the enemy, she saw the girl's eyes glow a faint red, her hair seemingly emanating heat that made it shine brighter in the sun.

"I don't know…" Pinne said as she approached cover, reloading her shotgun tube while Sammy and Layla swapped out magazines. She looked back and watched Delta tend to Signal a bit, before turning back to sniping at the enemy. Pinne quipped, "Not like I mind it, though… She's sure going to town," only to notice the fear in the girls' eyes.

Sure, Rapi was a capable fighter. Everyone was acutely aware of this. But even to those that knew the veteran Nikke, she still moved with a terrifying fluidity now, as if she was focused on putting their puppeteered sisters to rest. Meanwhile, Rapi herself knew what drove her to do this:Red Hood's lingering thoughts.

She knew Red had gone through a few things in her long life as a Nikke, serving Humanity. She had been a member of Goddess long ago and had remained one of the best fighters, despite almost seventy years of absence. Yet, here she was, driving Rapi to a feat, that of putting her sisterhood to sleep while clearing a path for the Commander and Chief to deal with the local Heretic.

A bullet struck and cut her cheek, two strands of her hair cut by the kinetic impact. It struck the ground behind her, but didn't slow her down whatsoever, her rifle now repeatedly barking in bursts of four to five rounds, each nailing a hostile Nikke Puppet or a smaller Rapture, while the bigger units beside her were being destroyed by her comrades.

Syuen herself watched with muted awe and a little fear. When she saw Rapi throw a kick into the chest of another Nikke and basically shatter the little puppet's chest armor and chest, her own suddenly got a bit tight and a sharp pain shot through her now artificial heart. It'd just dawned on her that Rapi had hit her with a fairly light kick, considering…

She pushed up with the others, deciding to provide Pinne with her shield this time, rounds skimming off the plate while she fired her SMG and Pinne blasted her shotgun. She'd adjusted her auditory sensors and was thankful she did so, the booming thunder of the gun above her head suddenly becoming a bit more bearable.

Her heart was still thumping in her chest, though. If she dropped and started cowering like a sniveling rat right now, she'd probably be dead before the others even had a chance to put her in the ground or mock her. Her combat programming and her NIMPH drove her forward, causing her to feel more like a passenger in an autonomous body than herself…

She yelped as a heavy round struck the shield and knocked her back. Pinne sidestepped the girl and fired her shotgun at the Rapture that had nailed her, then loaded slugs and domed another Puppet Nikke. While Syuen was trying to get her bearings, laying flat on her ass, Pinne turned about, leaned her shotgun on her shoulder and offered the diminutive former CEO a hand.

Stunned by the act of kindness, she gripped the hand and was helped to her feet. Pinne said, "You're a damn good meat shield if nothing else, boss," and she flashed a grin at Syuen. Despite the backhanded compliment, Syuen felt at least halfway decent about surviving a hit that… She looked at her Shield and blanked, noting the massive dent in the center.

She gasped as Kilo once more surged past them, ammo reloaded. TALOS's hands lifted up and locked together and he brought down a hammerblow on a larger Rapture, cracking armor and even the Core. The heavy-duty Nikke and her combat mechanoid then grabbed and ripped the Rapture in two, Kilo laughing heartily, "This is fun!"

Rapi, who was still farther ahead, didn't care about fun. The moment her eyes caught sight of a corridor among the enemy troops, she said, "Corridor, spotted up ahead! Let's move!" with the others close behind. Raptures and Nikke Puppets fell like broken toys strewn across the battlefield while the troops advanced, taking bullets and plasma rounds and missiles.

Anis, Rapi, Stella and Neon were farthest forward again, with Neon commenting, "We're surrounded!" as she fired her shotgun. Casting a glance back, she gasped and yelled, "And they just closed the pocket!"

"Son of a-!" Anis barked, then ducked as a missile screamed over her head and fired right back at the MLRS Rapture. She said, "The bastards split us up! I can see Kilo and the others farther ahead, but no Commander, nor the Chief!"

"You've been awfully quiet, Stella," Rapi stated as she and the others fought their way through.

Stella replied, "I'm tracking the Chief, Cortana and my brother through all of this," before she kicked low, breaking the buckling knee of an already-damaged Puppet and doming her with her SMG. She told Rapi, "You went to town there, Rapi…"

"Had to," She replied, "Too much at stake. Obviously, though, I should've thought it through more."

"I think she split us up for a reason. It isn't your fault," Neon voiced as she loaded both tubes on her shotgun, watching as the Raptures and Puppets maintained their distance. She told the confused girls, "They aren't firing accurately at us. I know we could scratch it off to damage or missing eyes or brains, but…" she looked ahead next as thundering footsteps filled the air, "... I think she might want to talk to them."

Anis hummed, "Good thinking…" then knelt and reloaded her launcher, "The heck would a Heretic want to talk to humans about?" before she heard Syuen squeak in the distance. She chuckled and said, "Maybe she just wants to scare the living hell outta Syuen now that I think about it. Didn't Kelly say she hinted at some Missilis program when they first met?"

"Project PANDORA," Rapi confirmed, "Doctor Halsey's still looking into it…"

"Hope she finds something quick…" Neon mumbled…

Chief, Cortana and the Commander advanced down a 'corridor' of enemy troops, having slowed down to walking pace. Nothing shot at them, terrifyingly enough. Each Rapture and puppeteered Nikke stared them down. Cortana mumbled, "I really don't like this…" while her mind registered the BattleNet discussions between these units.

It was standard binary talk. Combinations of orders to stand down mixed with various indignant replies from some more individualistic 'Lord'-class Raptures present among them, each of said units staring them down. The Commander nodded, replying, "Yeah… Why would they stop attacking us now of all times…?"

"Keep your guards up," Chief reminded them, readying his own rifle. As they arrived at a clearing, the trio formed up, each watching a part of the gathered units of Raptures and Puppet Nikkes staring at them, their damaged forms glaring like the angered ghosts of the damned. It wasn't until the roar of an engine filled their ears that the Chief snapped his rifle up and shot.

The burst, however, pinged harmlessly off what seemed to be a bipedal mechanoid unit that looked almost like a human mech, though rather obviously modified with all the bits and pieces of a Rapture unit. Its central oculus locked onto the Spartans and AI and a booming voice spoke, "Shoot again and you won't be walking out of here alive, Tourists."

The three exchanged quick looks, then lowered their respective firearms, though the safeties remained off. A little hum, followed by amusement, "Good to see you're as willing to talk as your comrade down in that Lost Ark. Let's have a nice chat then, shall we?"

"After you," Chief transmitted over the com, tense. She snorted, then let her mech touch down, its armored feet thumping against the floor and cracking the old concrete. It leaned forward, its central hatch opening before the figure clad in a tight bodysuit descended, showing off her armored uniform. The team paused.

"She looks like a Product Twelve…" Alyosha murmured.

Cinder took her helmet off, revealing the scarlet hair and burning red eyes of a Nikke corrupted. As she advanced toward them, she crossed her arms to her chest and spoke, "Well, I guess the intel had you both pegged right. The Commander with a heart of gold and his veteran friend… You two have been giving the Raptures a lot of trouble."

And then she cast a glance toward Cortana, "Not to mention your now semi-digital partner here. Didn't think you'd get a body as an AI."

"Figured I'd do some upgrades," Cortana replied defensively as she stared the Heretic down.

Cinder simply smirked, then shook her head, "I see hostility's the name of the game for all of you. I get it, one of the 'big bad' Heretics are here," and she mockingly raised her hands. She told them, "You can relax. If I wanted you all dead, you'd be smeared across the ruins of this city by now…" before the distant gunfire of UNSC forces advancing with them echoed.

She scoffed and said, "Have to admit, though, seeing Humans capable of fighting us off, even if they have to do it in packs, is strange," then she crossed her arms to her chest. She asked them, "Anything in particular you're all doing in my territory outside of searching for Intel on me?" to which they shook their heads. She shrugged, "Figures. You Tourists need to learn to at least knock without stirring up a ruckus. You have any idea how much time it's going to take for me to rebuild my Puppets?"

"Why do you use Nikkes as puppets?" Alyosha asked, seemingly angry about it, but hiding it well.

Cinder smiled, eyes glowing red, and started, "Simple, really. We're all Nikkes. We know what we're capable of," and suddenly each Nikke in the force began to speak, a thousand voices corrupted and changed, "What better tool to fight Humanity's Goddesses than Demons formed from their own carcasses?"

The deadpan stare from Cortana and the slight shake of the head from Alyosha, combined with the young man tightening his grip on his Carbine, caused the girl to reply, "A bit too pompous?" with a smirk. She shrugged and said, "I'll use layman's terms, then. Raptures are big, bulky and optimized for swarm tactics. Nikkes are good for squad combat and are humanoid. Smaller targets, better combat capabilities and all that."

"A very surgical and robotic reason to use the corpses of your former comrades as fodder," Cortana replied flatly, crossing her arms to her chest. She added, "At least you destroyed their brains, so that means nothing of the original is left in there."

"I'm not cruel enough to try and mind control them, thank you very much," The Heretic shot back, chuckling. She added, "Anyways, I'm also not the sole one utilizing Nikkes, though the other one is far more forward with the way she 'cares' for hers. The thing you should understand about most of us Heretics is that we're still those Nikke you care for so much."

Chief shot back, "And yet, you betrayed humanity due to, what, Corruption? Or by your own will?"

"In my case? A little bit of both," She answered the rebuttal, then looked to Alyosha and told him, "You probably already figured out why. PANDORA, one of Missilis's many little Black Box projects. Keep talking with your Doctor Halsey about it," and when she saw the two soldiers and the AI perk up, she grinned, "She'll tell you all there is about it."

Cortana asked, "You're awful courteous for someone who's supposed to be our enemy. Why?" while calmly trying to pierce through her modified NIMPH's various firewalls with her wireless hacking suite. Honestly, the fact she could use this stuff now meant she had the capability to at least fight any Electronic Warfare units toe-to-toe.

Cinder's eyelid twitched. She told her, "Well, for one, get out of my brain…" in a low growl, before she lowered her arms by her side and added, "Two:This was an interesting test of your capabilities as troops, especially now with actual Commanders willing to fight side-by-side with everyone," while Cortana slowly backed off. The Heretic smirked, then looked at Alyosha and told him, "You're different. Just like the Master Chief is."

"How?" The boy asked.

She let out a knowing chuckle, then replied, "Oh, you'll figure it out soon enough. Say hi to Modernia for me, though…" and then she boarded her mech, stating, "You're free to go, Tourists. Hopefully, I'll be able to give you more of a show next time," as the hatch closed. The battalions of Raptures around them began to leave, as did the legion of Nikkes.

Alyosha blinked, lowered his rifle and took his helmet off, watching the mech fly off under the power of antigravity engines. They disappeared in the fog that was now slowly covering the city, to which the Commander joked, "Well, that was interesting… Do you folks think she knew about Cortana's capabilities as a spy?"

"Oh, yeah…" Cortana nodded, "She had countermeasures in place."

"That'd be impossible," Chief voiced, "Unless she found another AI with the same Cyberwarfare Algorithms as you," which, the Spartan soon realized, was more likely than he thought. Kelly had also mentioned that Cinder had told her that there was more UNSC stuff out there that they hadn't found just yet, what with their campaign having a slow start.

The others soon caught up with them, Anis, Rapi and Neon calling out, "Commander!" in unison. They were the first in front, while the others ran and/or stomped their way forward in the case of Kilo to rejoin the formation. Rapi stared at the disappearing forces of Puppet Nikke, grip tightening on her rifle. She tried to take a step forward, but paused as Chief put a hand in front of her. She looked at him with a raised brow.

He shook his head, then radioed, "This is LUCKY STRIKE ACTUAL, requesting Evac for us and the COUNTERS. Presence of Heretic callsign 'CINDER' confirmed. Containment teams, proceed to secure the city as possible," then he slung his rifle onto his back. He ordered, "Cortana, contact Doctor Halsey and have her give us everything she's uncovered on Pandora so far."

"On it," Cortana nodded, then looked at the confused Nikkes and told them, "She just let us go…" with an awkward smile. The sheer confusion struck so far out as to make Syuen, the currently-most-'tired' Nikke, who was panting after trying to catch up with everybody, nearly faint. Thankfully, Layla was right there to wake her up, while Stella and the others followed their Commanders toward the arriving Pelican.

Reports were already streaming in about the other mission going on in the ruins of New York, with an Artifact and another Heretic. The enemy was making moves, scouring multiple possible locations for the Ark itself, to probably try and deal a crippling blow while Humanity was still building up its forces. It was, however, gonna take more than guesswork to knock mankind out of the fight

But if they did have an AI, the situation could easily change…