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Rise To Honor - Background
Date: 11 June 2002, 6:45 pm

NOTE: This first part doesn't have much to do with Halo or the Covenant, and really only serves as a background, but hang with me, it'll get closer to the storyline later.

The city lights were bright and powerful. The would-be pitch-black sky was illuminated by the city lights and bustling. Hover cars zoomed about in the sky highways above the ground level of the city. The city was mostly vertical, where there were many levels of streets. 1st street would be grounded, while Second Street would be suspended a few hundred feet above. Bars were inhabited by the worse kind of scum that ever roamed the planet. The apartment buildings always littered the area, and police sirens would constantly go off. One could see many military vehicles going about, searching for something, or just traveling through the city to reach somewhere else in the world. Pelican transports could be seen zooming past the other hover cars, sometimes recklessly. What was this place? New York City during the time of a great crisis. People walked to and fro on their personal accounts, doing their own thing, sometimes without a worry in a world. Even in the dark shadow looming over the entire planet, threatening to attack and destroy them all, the people constantly strived to keep their everyday lives normal. What was going on? One word. Covenant. They were the ones that had attacked the colonies, and the Earth. The SPARTANS were said to be the saviors, the ones that would save Earth from invasion and complete destruction. They failed. It is rumored that one or two had survived the initial impact of attacks from the Covenant, but most people dismissed them as myths, and others dismissed the SPARTANS as failures. The Covenant had taken about 2/3 of the world now. Millions, even billions had been slaughtered, all on a religious account. The Covenant's religion played the biggest role in their intent on destroying all life on Earth. Seemed kind of random and stupid, but hey, whatever works for them. Most of the military had been crushed, and only a few remnants were left in the world. The government drove many out. Consumed by their greed in politics, they had organized their own group to replace the somewhat renegade military. Imagine that, the government troops replacing the mainstay of the Earth's military might. One might guess what happened. The military didn't listen to the government, and it became their downfall, for the government wasn't going to take such crap. That's why they had the military disbanded. The military fought back, and while the two groups were busy fighting each other, the Earth was apparently left wide open for attack. The Covenant, being intelligent beings decided to take advantage of this. To counter this problem, seeing the fate of the Earth ahead of time, the government decided to join forces with the Covenant. So, now the beaten military lead by one man had to fight both the Covenant and the traitorous government to defend the lives of all the civilians on Earth. One could predict the outcome. Now Earth was struggling to hold their last 1/3 of the planet, and they weren't going a very good job.

So what does any of this have to do with the city scene? Well, the one man that leads the military wouldn't be here if it wasn't for one mysterious man that had helped fight against the Covenant. He wasn't a mercenary, and he wasn't part of the military...just a renegade that fought without a purpose. He had disappeared in the later half of the war, but now this man has returned, for a second bout with the Covenant.

There was a bar on the corner of 4th street. It was dark and gloomy, and didn't get the best business, but it was great for those that didn't want to be seen or revealed. Whether it was to hide from the police, or an AWOL soldier, it was just a great place to get away from the rest of the world.

Unknown, melancholy music was played in the background, fitting the feel of the bar very perfectly, and even contributed to the dark feel. The bartender was leaning back on a stool, looking about, apparently bored. There were 4 people at the tables, 2 of them playing cards, and the other watching while drinking his ale. The fourth one leaned in a dark corner of the bar, staring out at them. He was barely visible, but a silhouette of his figure could be vaguely seen. His jet-black eyes darted around, searching the place, always on alert. Two other men walked in the bar, the electronic bell ringing as the broken door creaked open. The bell was useless, and it was a wonder that the bartender didn't just take it down and sell it, for the creak of the door was loud enough to tell that someone was coming in. The two figures that walked in were dressed in complete black, and masks were thrown over their faces. The bartender knew what they wanted, and didn't even twitch a muscle. The one of the left began to speak.

"I want all the money you have right now!"
"No."

The robber held up a large pistol, custom fitted without a scope. He held it to the bartender's head, and clicked back the hammer.

"Yes. Give us the money, or I'll blow your brains out!"
"Uh...erm...ok."

The bartender was about to get the money when two loud shots were fired. The sounds were in tandem, fired in perfect unison, one right after the other. The instant the sounds came, the two robbers lost their heads. One head went flying out the window, making a loud crash, while the other just flopped down and rolled on the ground. The bodies both merely crumpled to the ground. Blood splurted all over the place as the robbers lost their heads and lives. The fear-stricken bartender returned to his senses and slowly got up, blood spots all over his shirt and face. Where had the shots come from? Back in the dark corner, the silhouette of the figure leaning there had a gun still pointed out at where the fools had fallen. The gun was still smoking. He slowly lowered it, and holstered it again. A second later, the electronic bell rang again and another person came in. He was dressed in a dull green shirt, and puke yellow pants. He ran over to the corner, looking to the fallen bodies for a second, but overall, ignoring them. It seemed he was used to that type of thing. He handed a small, square disk to the figure in the shadows, and left without a word between them. The bell sounded again as he opened the door to leave, and walked out.

The dark figure placed the disk into a slot in a device attached to his arm. A screen lit up, and a message scrolled down as the disk was put in. The figure carefully read it, and then turned it off, pulling the disk out and putting it into his pocket. He slowly walked out of the shadows, and the light illuminated the figure that was hidden in the shadows the entire time. He was a little short, but very strong. He was Chinese, not that ethnicity mattered anymore in the great scheme of things. What with the covenant and all, bigotism shifted from interracial to interspecies. It was strange how the human species always needed something to generalize against. He wore baggy, black jeans. They were real, not synthetic, as most clothes were these days. He wore a black, sleeve shirt, with a picture of a white wolf on its back. He had two straps over his shoulder, crossing over each other at his chest. One strap held a normal assault rifle, with a silenced muzzle. The other strap held a long sniper rifle, a rare prototype that most didn't see in the city. He had a pistol strapped to his left thigh, and a small pack that undoubtedly held electronics and explosives. He slowly began to head to the door, his jet-black eyes continuing in the wariness. The other men sitting at the tables stared at him, as if he was Kroeger himself or something. The bartender had fully recovered from the shock, and spoke up.

"You have another job?"
"Yes, this time it's the mayor."
"Alright, I won't tell anyone, as always."

In response to the bartender's last comment, he nodded and left the building, heading towards his small hovercraft.

Rise To Honor - Part 1: A Bounty Hunter's Life
Date: 13 June 2002, 8:10 pm

The electronic bell ringed as he slowly walked out of the dank bar into the great darkness of the city. The lights all around the city shined right in his eyes, a huge transition in dimness that would momentarily blind any normal man. But in this guy's case, it only served as an annoyance, nothing more. He walked through the street, which was suspended in the air, towards a dark alley that laid on the other side of 4th street. As he walked, police sirens could be heard, always screeching as a warning of the crime in New York. Large crowds of teenagers could be seen and heard as they moved as a big mass from one store to the next. The dark figure wished he were a kid again. It would lift all those horrible memories from his mind. The memories of his parents, his aunt, uncles. Everyone. Perishing in demonic flames. He closed his eyes, and continued to walk towards the alley. He had no time to think back to those times. He had to think about here and now. The present was most important. His grandmother always told him that the past was something to be learned from, and the future was something to prepare for, but the present was where you did both. A great figure of speech. He wondered if his grandmother made that up, or got that from an electro-dictionary.

He reached the end of the alley, and looked about, making sure no one was nearby. He kneeled down, and pressed a button on the wristpad that he had used previously to access the data on that disk. A digital grip pad appeared in his hand. It felt like gel, even though it didn't even exist at all, and was merely a projection to gather information. He pressed the first and third digital buttons, and the grip handle disappeared. He stood up, and waited for a few more seconds. A small hovercraft came in from the roof of a shop on 6th street. It streamed through the crowds, and through the two streets recklessly. He'd have to fix that. He didn't want that thing to ram into crowds and cause attention to be directed towards him. He watched as the hovercraft slowed its descent, and landed a few feet above the ground where he stood. The hovercraft was skinny, and had two engines on the front and the back. It was very similar to its ancient predecessor, the motorcycle. As he sat on it, he pressed a few buttons in quick succession, and was off towards the protected house of the mayor. No one really cared about the mayor, he didn't have any real power in the city. The military had mostly taken over decisions in New York. It perplexed him why this mission was to take out the mayor. It didn't matter to him. If it got him money, he'd do the job.

The hovercraft swooped over near the fence of the mayor's property, and zoomed up to a small hill overlooking the house. The house was white, and seemed even brighter with the huge lights surrounding it. Guards would come in and out of the house one at a time, and make their search routes. A grounded helicopter stood, just in case an emergency would break out. Other than those securities, there didn't seem to be any ceiling cannons, or rocket launcher placements. This would be much easier than the president assassination: another one of those useless, but lucrative kills.

He didn't know why he had become a bounty hunter and an assassin. The very ideas of those professions went directly against his personal values of honor. He was once a very honorable person. That was why he had helped the humans instead of using his abilities to take advantage of the pandemonium that had occurred during the initial attack on Earth itself. But when he had left Earth on the longsword, heading towards a colony, he had seemed to have changed. On the colony, he was to meet with his friends on the colony, creating a hideout for all of them until the conflict was finished. Except for him, all his friends had run from the conflicts, and had fled from the military drafts. Even though he didn't do the same, he didn't see their actions as cowardice as many would have. He saw it merely as a higher respect for life, and its value in the world. They just didn't think it was their place to extinguish it, Covenant or not. They had all collected as a small group on a seemingly abandoned colony to get away from all the bloodshed and war. Little did they know that it was actually a major staging ground of the government. The government discovered their hidden location, and began attacks on their hideout. As they fled again back to Earth, many of his friends had died from the outnumbering troops. He guessed that it was the reason why he had changed from his honorable ways. He had decided that the government was at fault for all this war and conflict. He blamed the government for everything, and hated it with all his heart. When he returned to Earth, he enlisted as a mercenary. At first it was only to assassinate the government figures as a sort of revenge for the deaths of his friends on the colony, but it became much larger than that. He soon spread his services from government to military figures. Then it came to powerful crime bosses. Soon it had grown to: "If you have money, I will kill him" type of attitude. He soon had become quite notorious for being one of the most powerful assassins on the face of the planet, and in the galaxy. He was quite well known as being emotionless, and constantly cool. Even in an impossible situation, he would keep his cool, and get himself out of the horrible situation. In the underground, he went by only one name: Shadow. Yes, physically, he was the same Shadow that had helped Kroeger to save the humans, and even at one point, he saved the man himself. But in another way, he was a different person. A different attitude, a different soul. No...in most ways, he was not the same man that had helped Kroeger. That man was long gone.

He parked his hover-bike, and kneeled down next to it, and pulled out his sniper rifle all in one smooth motion. The sniper rifle wasn't your conventional rifle that was issued to most snipers of the military. No. This one was different. Instead of using bullets, it used energy fusion to shoot rail gun shards at speeds almost that of the speed of light. It had a small reactor in the center, and the clip was held at a hardpoint behind the trigger and handle, much like the assault rifle. He aimed, zooming in. He locked on the mayor. Immediately, stats and other information came up in a column next to the viewpoint of the sniperscope. It displayed information like rate of target movement, size, height, age, weapons he's holding, and even identifies who it is for you. But he didn't need any of it. He knew it was the mayor. There were three bodyguards all around him, and he was sitting at the desk titled: mayor. How obvious could it get? Despite the nagging hints, he looked to the stats to ensure that this was the man to hit. It was.

He smiled, as he always did before firing. His sweaty finger pulled the trigger, and a half-silenced blast sounded.

*Flak*

The millisecond after it was fired, the mayor lost his entire abdomen flying through the wall into the garden. Another millisecond later, he moved the sniper rifle to the bodyguards.
*Flak* *Flak* *Flak*

The three guards fell, headless. He immediately turned his attention to the helicopter, his sights right at the cockpit.

*Flak*

He fired again, and the helicopter was immediately engulfed in hellish flames, its pilot melting in the cockpit. He turned to the police cars that were coming in to investigate. Those fools.

*Flak* *Flak* *Flak*

All three police cars flew up in flames, melted scrap metal flying everywhere. Loud screeches and crashing sounds were sounded as civilians looked on in horror, where the entire police and government force of New York City were both demolished in one swift assassination. He turned to his hoverbike, and was about to leave, when a military APC came rushing in to the mayor's property, rolling over the police cars. The door flung down, and the troops dispatched out of the protection of the military APC.

It was somewhat of a new vehicle, having not been released at the beginning of the war. But by the middle of the war, the military desperately needed some APC to protect the soldiers as they were traveling towards the battlefield. Or in this case at the mayor's house, away from the battlefield. It had standard hoverjets at the bottom, four of them, one in each corner. It could hold up to 15 troops, and had two 12.7 three-barreled machineguns mounted on each side of the APC. It's armor was a bit heavier than the M12-LRVH Hover-Warthog, but the armor was still paper compared to the Covenant X-153 Hovertank that arrived to meet the troops that exited.

Shadow wasn't an anti-human person, just an anti-government person. He had lost most of his honor back at the colony, his rampaging assassinations getting out of hand. But he still had the bit of honor within him that told him to protect the humans that would surely lose. He had no qualms with those marines, and definitely did have dislikes for the Covenant. But his mission was to kill the mayor and any other obstacles, and then disappear. It was the most efficient way of killing and getting away with it. But the nagging honor within the deepest bowels of his soul told him to save these helpless humans. His contemplations disappeared as machine gun fire began to sound. Loud pings sounded as the bullets of the APC and the soldier' machine rifles bounced off the tank's enormous armor. He whispered to himself as he swung his sniper rifle from the mayor's house to the Covenant tank.

"Lets see how your armor matches up against THIS."

*Flak*

The sniper rifle fired again, and the tank exploded in enormous blue fumes. The front lines of the marines were blown back as enormous pieces of melded metal flew out in all directions. One Covenant trooper stationed inside the tank flew out of the tank, landing in a small nearby ditch. The bewildered marines slowly walked towards the tank, cautious about the destruction of the tank. As they slowly walked towards the tank, inspecting it for survivors, the commander of the military group looked up towards the hill where the shot came from. There was nothing there. Even through his infra-red eyepiece, there was no presence on that hill. Shadow was long gone before the marines would know what even happened to the tank. Meanwhile, he frowned as he flew back to 6th street, where would park his hoverbike. Why had the Covenant come into the city? One thing was for sure; he'd be tangling with much more than government figures now. Just great.

Rise To Honor - Part 2: The Mission
Date: 22 June 2002, 7:45 pm

The hoverbike slowly came into the alley where Shadow had once called it before the assassination. It slowly lowered in a satisfying hum, and deactivated. He jumped off the bike, and un-strapped his rail gun and his assault rifle. He'd cause too much attention walking about with that type of weaponry out in the crowds. He placed them on the ground with his right hand, while opening up a console with his left. He pressed a code into the console, a storage compartment door opened. He placed both weapons in the compartment, and it whooshed shut, the console beeping twice to indicate that the compartment was now locked and password protected. He kept his pistol and his sack of explosives and engineering equipment with him just in case. He poked his head out of the alley, looking left, then right. No one. He walked out and immediately blended himself in with the crowds on 4th street. He was invisible to anyone following him now, although he doubted that anyone suspect that he was the killer of the mayor and the Covenant. About halfway across 4th street, he turned left and pressed a few buttons on a console. The console made a loud beeping sound each time he pressed a button. When he was finished, the entire console blinked, and a large, semi-transparent, public elevator came down to a position behind a set of doors next to the console. The doors slowly opened with a loud swoosh, and Shadow walked in, the doors closing behind him. It would have been faster, and easier to take the stairs adjacent to the elevator, but most people didn't use the stairs unless there was an emergency. Thus, by taking the stairs, he'd most likely cause some attention by the crowds, and many may notice the pistol that was attached to his left thigh. The elevator hummed as it floated up to 6th street, its anti-grav generators pushing the platform methodically. The elevator finally came to a stop, and the outer doors swung open. He casually walked out and walked about three-quarters across 6th street, and into another discrete alley. The city was full of these things, and the common people stayed out of those alleys, knowing that gangs and bounty hunters usually gathered there. The cops or the military never bothered to bust anyone in the alleys, for the scum would just return within a few days.

This particular alley seemed to have nothing in it, but it was a no-mans land for anyone that valued his or her lives. Shadow was notorious in the city, and everyone knew that his hideout entrance was somewhere in that alley. Everyone knew that he was the best assassin in the city, and no one wants to just walk into the lion's den. He smiled as he walked up to a brick that was in the middle of the dead-end wall. It looked exactly like the others, and he needed to count from the end blocks to figure out which one it was. Exactly 14 blocks in. He was lucky that some alleys still used bricks as their walls. Most alleys used pure steel now, and hiding a console in one of those would be very hard. He pressed the block in three places, the top-left, top-right, and dead center. The block protruded from the wall. On the top of the block was a console. He entered in a 5-digit code, and the console silently blinked twice. The brick returned to its normal position within the wall, leaving no evidence that anyone had done anything in the alley.

He walked out of the alley, back into 6th street, went back to the elevator, and back down to 4th street, almost completely backtracking his steps from before. But instead of going back to the alley where his hoverbike was, he kept going for a few more blocks, and walked back into the rusty old bar that he usually hung out at. The bartender had already finished cleaning up the mess of the two attempting burglars, and had changed his bloodstained shirt to a nice clean one. The three men playing that were cards before were still there, but had finished their game and were just telling stories of their past adventures. He walked back behind the bar to a hall where the restrooms were. The hallway was short, the women's bathroom on the right, and the men's bathroom on the left. But at the end of the hall was an open console, just waiting to be accessed. The console wouldn't have been showing at all if he hadn't activated it from the console in the alley on 6th street. A clever way to elude any marauders that wanted to attack him. So most thought that his hideout was in that alley on 6th street, but it was really only a remote access point. He walked up to the console and pressed in another 5-digit key code. As always, the console blinked twice, and a door to the right of the console lifted up with a quick whoosh. The door was normally camouflaged to match the ancient wood color of the bar, but it was really only a holographic image to make the door look like the rest of the hallway. He walked through the doorway, and the door immediately slammed shut behind him, and a small hatch closed over the console, leaving no evidence at all in the hallway. The entire process was quite complicated, and often got annoying, but it was necessary for an assassin of his level and status to keep his base of operations a secret. He walked to another door, with a small camera right in a corner above it. The camera tracked the movement of Shadow, watching his every move.

"EVA, just let me in, you know it's me."
"Ah, Ah, Ah! We must make sure of that. Now hold out your hands."

A small, nondestructive laser came out of the camera that was watching him, and scanned his retinal and fingerprint signatures. With the activation of the laser came a little squeak of slight startup malfunction, and after the laser finished, it blinked on and off a few times before completely shutting off. It seemed that the laser was having problems. He'd need to get a replacement when he had the chance.

"You've been recognized as Shadow. Welcome back."

Shadow nodded as the camera deactivated and the door swung open. He walked in to a dark room lit with just a few red, emergency lights. As he took a few steps in, EVA deactivated the red lights, and green and blue lights took their place. The place was still dark, and that's how he liked it. Nice and dark. The blue lights highlighted all sensory and recon information as well was blueprints of various targets, while the green lights highlighted all the mission preps, weapon schematics, and strategy information. The entire base was a small room, a little smaller than the bar room itself. The place was a complete mess, littered with fruit-bartis cans, food cases, and empty weapon clips. All these things were strewn in with piled maps, books, malfunctioning equipment, and clothing.

Shadow stepped over some of the junk, and went towards the mission prep, overlighted with a green light. He was wondering if anyone had another job for him. As he activated the console, he felt something behind him. Who else could be in the room? Well, he certainly wasn't going to find out the hard way. He spun around, pulling out his pistol at the same time. Holding it sideways, one eye closed. His jet-black eyes jerked around, searching for the presence. They focused on something leaning on his chair, holding not a weapon, but a disk. Shadow's eyes immediately softened, and he lowered his gun.

"Travion, you really have to stop coming in like this. I know that EVA allows you in, but the least you can do is tell me that you're in here! I could have shot you!"
"Stop yelling, Shadow. You'll cause the neighbors to be curious."
"Bah, the windows are closed. Either way man, it's good to see you again."
"Likewise. But I didn't come here just for the friendship. I have a mission for you."
"Always getting straight to business. That's my Travion. So What's the job?"
"This job is for the military."
"Fuck, you know that I don't want to get involved with those guys anymore."
"Yes, but this mission is important. It involves recent arrival of..."
"Lemme guess. Covenant?"
"Yes."
"Shit. I hate those fuckers."
"Me too. But the mission is to exterminate an entire Covenant base. If you succeed, then the Covenant will surely pull out of the city, which means better business for you and no more Covenant to hate."
"You know I'm not in it for the money. It's for revenge."
"Well, you've certainly taken your revenge for the government a bit too far, eh? You didn't stop at them; you went after political and military leaders, and even civilians. Now I know this isn't about revenge anymore man. This is about something else. Where did the old Shadow go?"
"That Shadow is long gone man. He's long gone."
"Hrmph. You really have a lot of things to sort out man. Either way, are you going to take the job?"
"Yes, if it means getting those bastards out of my city. Plus, I need the money. I'm broke."
"Good."

The dark figure handed the disk to Shadow, and swiftly left the room, the security doors shutting behind him. Shadow looked down at the disk. He sighed and placed it in the slot on the device attached to his arm. Mission data immediately began coming up. Travion was right. He sure DID have things to sort out. But those things would have to wait.

Rise To Honor - Part 3: More Than He Bargained For
Date: 26 June 2002, 4:39 am

Shadow brought up the screen and began to read the mission orders in eerie green type.

Disk Detected.
Accessing:
...
...
...
Password required: ******
Checking:
...
...
...
Password accepted.
Accessing disk informational archive:
...
...
...
Information encrypted, Password required: ******
Checking:
...
...
...
Disk info found:

Mission: Operation Firewall
Priority Level: Class B
Employer: Classified

Mission Type: Assassination/Extermination
Mission Payoff: 80,000
Mission Status: Open
Mission Details: Shadow, this is Travion. I should have given you this disk already at your base of operations. I know that you don't want to soil your mission with stuff involving the military and the Covenant anymore. I know that you've had some bad experiences with them before. But as you know, the Covenant have extended their war into New York City. You and I both know that this is going to be VERY bad for our business from now on if we don't get rid of those meatheads. The mission is to either destroy all Covenant forces in the area or at least push them out. I know what we're doing is only a temporary solution to the Covenant problem, but it should give us some time to plan out our next move. Their base of operations is at the edge of the city, near Bullion Street. They've taken out the park there and converted it to their base. So far, the military hasn't been able to touch them. They seem to have one of those Genis shields that have been recently developed by their race. I can take down the shields for you, and you can take them out while they're vulnerable. My squad and I will have the shield down as soon as you give the orders, and we can probably keep it down for up to 10 minutes. You probably know this is a risky mission, but the money will be worth it. The blueprints are attached as a file in this disk, as well as recommended supplies to bring, although I know you never follow those recommendations anyway. Good luck and we'll be waiting at 9th street, in the Jevar apartments, as always.

Shadow read it over twice to make sure that everything was straight, and took out the disk from the device on his arm. Well, the money sure was high, and it seemed important to Travion. He had already agreed to it, but he could easily pull out if he wanted to. With a mission like this, he'd expect at least 2 rounds of Covenant reinforcements to the base, and at least 10 grunts and elites at the base. Throw in a few Jackals and possibly a G-Hunter, and things might get a bit heated. But he was ready. He hadn't fought Covenant in a long time, but he wanted them out of this place. It was already run down enough, he wasn't going to let that type of scum get in it. Of course, he and his kind were generally regarded as the scum of the city. Interesting that Travion didn't hire any other bounty hunters in this instance. He was both high priced, and very hard to get to, while the others wanted less money, and could probably get the same job done pretty easily. But why him? Oh well, he needed the money. He walked away from his standing point on the far side of the room, and walked to the blue-lit blueprint table. He inserted the disk into a small slot at the side of the table, right next to a console. After inserting the disk, the dim, red table flashed into a white screen with blueprint scans in each corner. There were 2 small bunkers, and one larger base. He'd have to take out the bunkers and then rush the base after all the Covenant troops outside were exterminated. He nodded in the dark room, and pulled out the disk. The table immediately dimmed again, and returned red, although the lighting above it was blue. He placed it in his pouch along with his devices and explosives. He might need it later. He began to walk to the door, when a voice sounded over the base intercom.

"Shadow, you going on that mission?"
"Yes EVA, don't let anyone in. Even Travion. The only person that is allowed in from now on is I. Anyone else, kill them."
"Yes sir."

Shadow pressed a button on a console next to the door, and it swung open.

"Good luck."

Shadow nodded, and slammed the door close. He walked to the outer door, which was still camouflaged in with the rest of the hallway. He walked towards it, and it zipped open, and immediately closed as he walked out, blending in with the hallway as it did so.

"Another job?"
"Yes."

He walked out of the bar after affirming the bartender, and swiftly moved to the alley on 4th street. He took a quick look, and quickly walked into the alley, and strapped on his two main weapons. He sighed again. It seemed that he'd have to flush out these baddies, but after that, he thought he'd need to get away from the city for a while. He needed to sort out his priorities. He started up his hoverbike, and headed towards 9th street, where he was to meet Travion. The bike moved at half-speed, sure to not attract attention. He floated up past the other streets, heading straight for the Jevar apartments. He stopped right in front of the apartment building, and turned left for a nearby alley. Before he drove in, he looked through, and saw three men talking about something. Probably narcotics or weapons transfers.

"Get out of this alley."
"No way pal! We were here first!"
"This alley belongs to Travion."
"Yea! So? What are you doing to do about it?"

Shadow pressed flipped up a switch next to a screen on his bike. Immediately, the screen lit up, showing the three men as targets. He smiled and pulled the trigger.

*BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM*

The machine gun fire came from a gattling gun attached to a hardpoint on Shadow's hoverbike. It was a smaller version of the warthog's machine gun, and each of the firing muzzles were silenced. The bullets shredded their bodies, and the three men went down immediately. He had no time for games with these bums, although he did feel sorry for them after he was finished. He drove the hoverbike to the end of the alley and shut it off. His back was now facing the opening, seeming to leave him wide open for attack.

He was about to get out, when he heard some scuffling on 9th street. He immediately grabbed for his assault rifle, but didn't turn around or dettach it from its strap. 4 shadows appeared at the alley's entrance. Looks like the silenced fire wasn't enough to get by these thugs. Apparently, they were friends of the fools he had just slaughtered. He didn't turn around, giving the impression that he was unaware. He waited a few seconds, and the shadows showed that one of the thugs was pulling out his gun. Shadow smiled, and pulled his assault rifle off his strap, and vertically over his shoulder. All the while, he had the trigger down, spraying 20 bullets right into the thug's body. As soon as the gun was over his shoulder, he jumped forward off his bike, and landed right next to the endwall of the alley. Immediately, pistol fire slammed into his hoverbike, but he himself was protected. He dove to his left, and fired off the rest of his assault rifle clip, killing the three remaining thugs. Each bullet made a small sound of impact as they landed destructive hits, causing of blood to spray all over the place. All three bodies crumpled to the ground, next to their other fallen friend, an enormous pool of blood spreading from their chewed up bodies. He slowly got up, and walked past them and their dead, accusing eyes. He didn't even look. He knew how their eyes were. He'd seen them hundreds of times before, yet he was still bothered by them. So innocent, and angry looking. He really wished that they had closed their eyes before they died. But that was just stupid. He stepped over their bodies, and pulled them into the alley, laying them next to the three bodies of the original thugs he had encountered. The blood pool was a dead giveaway that something had gone down in the alley, but he wouldn't be in the apartments for very long. He walked into the dead-empty lobby, and walked up two flights of stairs to the 3rd floor. He quickly moved to room 43, and opened the door. Travion and a few other men were talking about the mission.

"Hey, I'm glad you could make it. You still doing the job?"
"Yes, and who are these people?"
"They're your partners in this mission."
"No, no. I work alone. You know that. Why do you have to bust my bubble like this?"
"Sorry man, but I just don't think you can do this thing alone."
"It's a walk in the park compared to some things I've done before. What's with this sudden loss of trust in my abilities here?"
"Look, this is an important mission, and I don't want it to fail. You're working with these people, or you lose the job."
"Fuck. You know I need the money this time. Fine, I'll work with these guys, but they're in my command. Got it?"
"Hey! I'm not working for some other bounty hunter!"
"Yea! Me neither!"
"Hey Hey! This is Shadow, the famous assassin. I thought you guys would be honored to fight with this guy."
"Is he really? The famous Shadow?"
"Yes, and you're following his command."
"Yes sir."

Shadow placed down a white disk on the table next to the men.

"Don't be late. I'm not going to wait for any of you if you're not in your post in time. How many of you are going to be working with me Travion?"
"8 others."
"Are you fucking kidding me? We'll never get to position without being noticed!"
"Look, it's just to make sure that the job is done."
"Fine. You guys better be there. I want 4 stationed on the ground level on Tartif Street. The other four will go with Travion to blow out the Covenant shields."

Shadow immediately turned around and walked out of the room, shutting the door behind him. As he walked down the stairs and out of the banged up apartment house, he couldn't help but be angry. Why the hell was Travion all of a sudden hiring others with him? He had never done it before. There was definitely something going on. He hated working with other people, and 8 was really pushing it. They could easily overwhelm him if they decided to turn on him. They were seasoned warriors, not a bumbling soldier, or a stiff, stupid government agent. If Travion hired them, then they were certainly competent. But that was the thing that worried. He knew that Travion was trying something. He'd have to be on his toes, or he could end up against mercenaries AND Covenant at the same time. He didn't trust anyone, even Travion. He knew they would turn on him, whether Travion planned it or not. They were mercenaries, not soldiers. If killing Shadow meant more money for them, then they'd certainly get rid of him. He'd need to decide on some way to make sure they stay in line, but concentrate on the mission at the same time. This was starting to look bad, and he really would pull out, but he needed the money to keep him going. Travion knew he was in a bind. He walked out of the apartment, over the dead men, and drove off on his bike. He'd need to think this one through. If he just went into this one without much of a plan, like all his other missions, then he'd surely end up as a carcass after everything was said and done. Ha, if he had kept his old attitude, and stayed away from this crap, he'd never be in such a screwed up position. But at the time, to go back and fight with the military was something he didn't want to do, and he was so angry at the damn government for slaughtering his old friends. Now, it seemed that anything was better than knowingly going into a trap.

Rise To Honor - Part 4: The Delay
Date: 28 June 2002, 4:54 pm

Shadow was leaning in his deactivated hoverbike as it hovered a few inches above a building on 8th street. A good night's sleep would be the best for him. But the assassination was this night, and he'd only have a few hours of sleep before he'd have to start the mission. The hoverbike slowly bobbed up and down, a smooth movement that could put anyone to sleep, except Shadow. He was very worried about the upcoming mission. Things would get very hot, and he had no solution as to how to avoid it. Pulling out of the mission was not an option, and assassinating all the bounty hunters without alerting the Covenant and blowing the mission would be utterly impossible. So what was he to do? Do as he always did. Keep cool, and play his cards as they came down on the table.

He continued to lean in his hoverbike, but sleep never came to him. He just looked straight up into the light polluted sky. Even with the lights of the city all around him, a few stars in the sky were still visible. Always there, and always unmoving. Never changing their position, always the same for all eternity. So unlike him. He was changing his position in life, changing his principles as they best suited him. He had changed so much since his first military encounters with Kroeger and his elite squads. He had become harder, more callous, and ruthless. He was once honorable, protecting humans wherever possible, and slaughtering Covenant in the name of helping Earth. But he wasn't a star; he was quite the opposite. After the event on the colony, he had gone through an enormous metamorphosis of personality, leaving honor and pride behind, and picking up revenge and anger. He hated what he had become. He had become the scum of the Earth, something he fought against in his past life. Now he had become what he most hated, and he thought it despicable. He needed to change, but he had already dug his grave too deep. He was too far off to return to his old ways.

He sighed and sat up. He pulled up the screen on his arm device, and looked at the time. He nodded. 2:30 AM. It was time. He activated his hoverbike while opening up a com channel between Travion using his arm device.

Open Service Channel:
Class: Public
Command: revert 5428491
Reverted: Private Class 5428491
Accessing Private Channel:
...
...
...
System Password required: ********
Checking:
...
...
...
Password cleared, entering Private Class Channel 5428491

Travion here.

Hey Travion, it's Shadow. I'm coming up to my position right now. Are your boys ready to take down those shields?

Sure am, and the other 4 bounty hunters are on the street you requested.

Alright, I'm heading to Tartif Street now. Is this a private channel?

Yes.

Good. I need to tell you that I'm suspicious about the other assassins. I don't trust them.

Well, you don't trust anyone, what makes this one different?

Well, I'm pretty sure that these are actually going to try something.

Well, you never can trust bounty hunters. Just stay frosty, and I'll give you cover if they turn on you.

You better.

Shadow closed the channel, and the video and audio link disconnected with Travion's channel. He deactivated his device, and turned back to the controls on his hoverbike. 3:00. He was going to be late at this rate. He needed to be halfway across the city before 3:45, and with this traffic, he'd never make it in time. He sighed and pulled up on the stick, and the hoverbike went straight up above the hover street. As soon as he was a few feet above the other cars, he pushed the throttle to full, and zoomed by all the other cars, hovering closely above them. The police would probably try to stop him, so he'd have to have some daring moves ready. And as predicted, two police hovercars popped out from the regular traffic and began to pursue him on an intercepting trajectory. He slowly pulled back on the throttle, and he slowed down, little by little. The police cars came closer and closer, and then the hoverbike disappeared. They looked around, and thought he had disappeared into thin air. He smiled as he had actually evaded them by pulling full speed downward towards the ground level of the city, evading their visuals and sensory equipment. The good news: he had evaded the police pretty easily. The bad news: he was moving downwards straight into multiple layers of horizontal hovercar traffic. He gripped the stick tightly, and jerked left and right to avoid the beeping cars as he sped past them, narrowly missing a crash at each level. At each layer of traffic he zoom past, he zoomed by another street. At 3rd street, his right wing was clipped right off by a passing taxi. Flames began pouring out of the gaping hole where the wing was once attached. Smoke came next, clogging up his vision as he hurtling faster and faster towards the ground level of the city, blindly flying past more layers of horizontal traffic. The fumes choked him, and he felt he couldn't breathe. It was all a fiery hell to him, but he kept his cool, and bailed out of the bike. As he jumped out, he breathed in fresh air, and he could see the bright lights of the city as clear as day. He looked to his left, and saw his hoverbike smoking like crazy as it flew out of control. He looked to his right, and saw those two police cars coming again. It seemed like the fire caught their eye. Well duh. He waited a few more seconds as he headed for the crazy traffic of 1st street. He'd never get by without being smacked by one of those cars. He reached for his pistol, and took aim with the sight. On each street, there were floating, rectangular steel shapes that were suspended every 1000 feet or so. They were generally used as lamp posts and devices to show where the street turned and curved. These horizontal shapes were what he aimed for. He flipped a switch on the pistol, and the pistol changed from attack mode to grappling hook mode. He fired, and a dart was shot right into the rectangle lamp. The dart was attached to a wire, which was attached to the gun. He held tightly as he swung faster and faster, suspended right above the zooming cars. As he swung, he saw his uncontrolled hoverbike slam right into one of the skyscrapers that rose high above 1st street. There was no explosion, but there was a loud crashing sound as it collided with the building. He looked back to the traffic on 1st street, and waited for a slow moving car to pass. He pressed the pistol trigger again. The wire detached from the pistol, and he landed right on the car with a thud. He looked up and the police cars were following close behind, looking for which car he had landed on. Lights flashed on and off extremely quick as the rectangular lamp posts whizzed by, each making a whirring sound as the car drove on. He switched his pistol back to attack mode, and popped off a few rounds from his pistol at the left car. The first bullets bounced off, but the last shot landed a hit on one of the hover generators. The generator began to smoke, and soon burst into flames, consuming the car in the immense heat. What was left of the car smashed right into the street, blowing up a few cars with it and leaving a small crater where it had slammed. He holstered his pistol, and took out his sniper rifle. Fortunately, the second car wouldn't be able to fire with him sitting right on top of a civilian car. He took aim, and fired. The sniper shot flung a bullet right through the car as it exploded in midair.

"This is unit 6, I've found the trouble maker. Civilian casualties are unknown. I'm on first street, following a car with an ID of - SHIT..."
"Unit 6, what was the ID? Unit 6! Report in! This is station 7, where the hell are you?"

As the civilian car began to slow down, he jumped off the side, landing in a small alley.

"What took you so long?"
"What?"
"Shadow, It's 4:00. Weren't you the one to tell us not to be late?"

Shadow was quite confused for a few seconds before he could reorient himself. He was surprised that he had jumped off at the exact right alley.

"Uh, I ran into some trouble with the cops."
"Did they follow you?"
"No, they're space dust now."
"Alright, Travion is already in the midst of taking out the shields. We'll come in on the ground floor, and you give us support from the top of the building. When things start getting rough, as we expect, you should come down to give us some help."
"Fine, but I need a way to get up and down on this building quickly. I lost my hoverbike in the police car attack."
"We have one in the second alley on this street."

Shadow nodded and began to jog out of the alley towards the other alley holding the hoverbike. He came to it soon enough, and inspected it for any detonation implants, or some other way to blow him up while he was on this thing. He even did a full status scan of the thing. There was nothing strange about it. Didn't seem to be sabotaged in any way, but he was still suspicious. It was an old T-56 model, but it was good enough. He jumped on, and boosted up to the top of the building at the end of 1st street, careful not to cause too much attention. He landed it at the edge of the building, and leaned over, watching the unaware Covenant below. Two sets of patrols walked about the perimeter of the area, while the main base was infested with quite a few of them. There were 4 parked Ghosts, no Banshees, and one Covenant tank. He could take those out quickly enough. It seemed like quite a straightforward mission, but it was the other bounty hunters that worried him. He looked down, and saw them huddled, undoubtedly plotting how they would kill him. He turned back to the Covenant just in time to see the shields go out. The shields became dim, and then flickered for a few seconds before completely shutting down. Some grunts looked around confused, while other ran to take cover knowing that danger was amiss. The elites became alert and looked around, careful to maintain their position, while the grunts ran screaming a mix of human and alien language. He targeted the head of one of the golden elites, and fired.

Rise To Honor - Part 5: Expected Betrayals
Date: 1 July 2002, 9:14 pm

As he fired, the elite's head popped up off his body like a jack-in-the-box, and landed right next to one of the nearby grunts. Meanwhile, the body shook for a few seconds and then fell to its knees as blueish purple blood sprayed out of the, gaping hole in his neck and then fell to the ground chest first. Shadow smiled at his kill and immediately backed off from the building edge as elites and grunts from the entire base tracked his shot from that building. He had pulled back just in time as blue and green plasma bullets went through the very spot where he was just standing. Additional shots that weren't so accurate slammed into the side of the building, creating large holes in the concrete after each shot. As soon as the number of plasma shots began to dwindle, he ran back to the edge of the building. Only this time, he ran to one of the corners, sure to be as far away from where he stood on the edge last time.

He lifted his sniper rifle and pumped two shots into a grunt and another elite. The elite's head popped off similarly to the first one, and the grunt was sent flying back into the base as his body splattered all over the alien building. Once again, green and blue shots came right at him. Instead of backing off, he merely sidestepped, heading for the other end of the building's edge. Meanwhile, he continued to track enemies with the rail gun, bursting off a shot whenever possible. By the time he hit the other end of the building, 9 enemies were killed and his clip was out. He quickly backstepped, kneeled down, and unloaded his clip with a swift pull. The clip landed with a small clank, and he clipped a new one in its place.

As he reloaded his sniper rifle, he heard from human machine rifle fire coming from Tartif Street. Looks like the other mercenaries had started as well. He came to the edge of the building again and pumped 3 shots into some grunts that were going to move in behind the other mercenaries. He should have let them live, thin down the ranks of his possible enemies. But he didn't know for sure, and for now, they were on his side. He wasn't THAT cold to let them die merely because he had suspicions. As soon as he took out those grunts, a com message came up on his arm device. He lowered his sniper rifle and activated it. A video feed came up of the lead mercenary of their team.

"Shadow here."
"We almost have them, but we might need your help to clean this place out completely."
"I'll be right down."

A trap? Maybe. He should be on his toes. He turned around, and snapped his sniper rifle to his shoulder strap while he jumped onto the rusty old hoverbike. He instantly activated it, and it sputtered to life. He moved the bike forward a little bit, and changed some settings on the bike. After that, he pushed the throttle to full, and the edge of the rooftop came closer, and closer until it was gone. He seemed to float for a few seconds and then dropped at full speed down towards the ground. The wind ran past his face at high speeds, and the fast winds pumped up his adrenaline even more. A beep came from his device, but he didn't bother to look at it.

"Sorry man, but you were killing our business."
"What?"

He pulled to the left, but it wasn't in time. A rocket clipped his wing and ran right into the building behind him. He could feel the immense heat of the rocket exploding on the building behind him, and it made his skin burn just a bit. Just great. He was right about those scumbags. They really did turn on him. He'd have to bail, obviously, but the right time would be right before the thing crashed into the ground. He waited for a few seconds, decided the right time, and jumped just as the bike slammed into the concrete of 1st street and nearly flattened itself against the ground. As he flew down in the air, he unstrapped his sniper rifle over his shoulder, and did the same with the assault rifle in the other hand. He landed in a kneeling position right in front of the crashed hoverbike and fired two quick sniper shots off at the awaiting bounty hunters. They both went flying back as their bodies were torn apart from the shot. Meanwhile, he dove to the left just in time as machine gun and sniper rifle fire hit the crashed hoverbike behind him. It exploded in flames, and he ducked just in time to dodge a flying piece of metal from the blown bike. It cut right over his head and dug itself into a nearby tree behind him. He quickly ran through a set of bushed to that thick tree to take cover.

He peeked to the side, and saw two soldiers perched on the roof of a building across the Covenant base. So they had backup snipers too, eh? Guess they didn't have the balls to do the job with four. He stood with his back to the tree, and breathed in deep. He rolled away from his cover and fired two one-handed shots from his sniper rifle aimed to the snipers on the roof. The first one lost his head, and immediately dropped to the ground of the roof. The other lost his arm, and screamed in extreme pain before falling off the building to a neck-shattering death. With his other hand, he mowed down the last two original assassins on the ground level.

He heard the roar of hovercar engine coming from above. He looked up and saw two cars full of reinforcements coming down from 2nd Street. Just fucking dandy. They screeched to a stop a few hundred feet in front of him and bounty hunters piled out of the cars as he ran into the center of the square, into the Covenant base. He dove behind the Covenant headquarters just in time as machine gun and pistol fire came. As he leaned against the back of the base, he could hear a Covenant elite coming out of the base as well as his screams of agony and surprise as the assassins turned their attacks to him. Well, no more Covenant threat. He heard another vehicle coming down from 2nd street. Great, more fucking reinforcements. Or not? He looked up and saw a military hover APC come down right next to him. It lowered and spun around, revealing the bay doors. Soldiers popped out from the doors, and immediately began taking fire from the assassins. Well, it seemed that the military and he had a common foe. He turned around and climbed a Covenant ladder to the top of their base. But instead of jumping to the top and revealing himself, he stood on rungs that were 3rd from the top, concealing everything but his head and his gun. He took aim and fired three quick shots. The first two went right through the hovercars. The bullet went straight through, into the building behind, and a few seconds later, the cars exploded in flames, consuming all the assassins residing within or near the cars. The third shot went right through the stomach of the one assassin that was too far from the cars to be hurt from their flames. He crumpled over as he died. He strapped his sniper rifle in, but kept his assault rifle on his arm. He ran towards the wreckage of the two exploded cars, the military APC following close behind. It made him uneasy, but he had just saved their asses, so even if they knew that he was an assassin, they probably wouldn't do anything about it. He leaned down to one of the dying assassins, and held his rifle to his head.

"Who the hell sent you?"
"What do you care?"
"I'm going after your boss. Tell me who he is!"
"NO!"
"YES!"

He slammed the guy with his gun, and then once again held the gun to his head.

"Now tell me, who's your boss?"
"Ok, ok. It's Travion. He wanted you dead so all of us could get more business with you out of the way."
"Alright. Get out of here before Travion has you killed for telling me."

The surprised man got up and ran like he was on fire. He knew that Travion was coming for him, and he was definitely going to skip town for a while. He turned back to the military troops.

"Whoever you are, you saved our asses. We are thankful."
"Yea, well it seems I'm number one on the bounty hunters' hit list. I think I need to get out of this city for a while."
"No problem, we'll take you back to our HQ for now, and when you deem it time, you can be on your way."
"I don't think so."

He was about to answer, but three more cars came in, guns blazing from their residents. He and the troops ducked as the cars slowed down, and landed, bounty hunters pouring out again. That damn Travion really wanted him dead if he was sending so many thugs after him.

"On second thought, I think I'll go with you."
"I thought you were going to say that."

He and the troops jumped in, and the door swung close just in time as fire pinged off of the APC's thick armor hide. He took a seat away from most of the troops, and felt a jolt as the APC started moving. He sighed, and he was off to get involved with the group that he sworn that he'd never come back to.

Rise To Honor - Part 6: Getting On the Horse
Date: 4 July 2002, 3:52 am

"So, my name is Gunner, and I lead the military squad that has been sent to stop the Covenant in this city."

"My name is Shadow."

The soldier's eyes widened with surprise.

"What? You mean THE Shadow? The famous assa..."

"None other."

"But, but, but..."

"Look, I just need an escape vehicle and I'll be on my way."

"Well, we have nothing to do with the police and why they're after you, and I'm guessing you're the guy that saved our asses at the mayor's place. So, we'll provide you with a warthog. We can't spare the hover warthogs, for we'll need those to take out the Covenant reinforcements that will soon be arriving. Plus you'll need the extra armor it has over the hover warthog if you want to get out of here alive."

"Fine."

The APC continued to zoom across 1st street, heading towards the military HQ. He was suspicious about these guys. Although Gunner seemed pretty convincing, they could just be lying, and be waiting to turn him over to the police as soon as they had him. But on the other hand, he needed these guys to get out of this place. He could always go back to his base to get his backup hoverbike, but Travion and his thugs would be waiting for him there. Yea, now that he thought about it, going back to the base was totally out of the question. That reminded him of something. He raised his arm, and activated the device.

System Booting...
...
...
...
System Ready
Command: COM connect
...
...
...
Connected to COM network
Channel: 4938271
...
...
...
Connected to Channel:
Channel Password Required: *************
...
...
...
Password accepted, connecting to channel:
...
Connected

Shadow here.

Shadow? With all the news on the network, I was beginning to think that you were killed. I was getting ready to scuttle the base to make sure no evidence was left.

Good, we're going to do that anyway. When you're finished destroying everything, I want you to download yourself to this device. You know the code and access sequence. Good luck.

Yes sir.

As he was speaking with EVA, he realized that Gunner and the other marines were listening the entire time. He looked up at Gunner, who immediately turned his head away from him. Well, they were certainly as suspicious of him as he was of them. He looked away and deactivated his arm device. A sudden jolt and a slowing down of the APC made him realize that they were almost at their destination. His muscles tightened, ready for a confrontation. He felt the APC spinning around, and lowering to the ground. The hum of the APC engines slowly died down, and the bay door swung up. The marines and Shadow slowly jumped out of the APC and began walking to the debriefing room. The hangar was a bit dark for a military hangar, but it seemed to suffice. Large stands lined the upper wall and consisted of shotguns, assault rifles, pistols, sniper rifles, tank punchers, slice bombs, fragmentation grenades, and a Covenant plasma rifle. Interesting. He turned to the right wall, and saw two small tables lining it. The left one was a deactivated blueprint table, and the right one had a list of all the parameters of that mission. Interesting yet again. The left wall held the APC, and the back wall was the opening of the garage door. He looked left and followed the others through a small door on the left wall. Two levels of stairs stood right at the entrance of the door, and he trudged up with the marines as they went up the stairs and through the second door on the right. He wondered if he should follow them in, but Gunner motioned that he accompany them. He sighed and followed in.

The room held a large projector where all aspects of the mission could be broken down, and 6 rows of chairs took up most of the room. He found a nice dark corner in the back, and decided to lean there instead of sitting down with the rest of the marines. After all, he wasn't one of them, he was the outcast of the situation. Gunner didn't bother to sit down, and instead walked to the projector and brought up a 3-D digital map of the Covenant base as it looked before the attack.

"As you can see, on our earlier excursions, the Covenant base was quite well defended. But the forces that we encountered tonight were very small and weak. My only guess is that Shadow and the other assassins had already taken out most of the forces by the time we had arrived. Is that true my friend?""Yes."

One of the marines in the ranks turned around to the corner where Shadow stood.

"Out of curiosity, why were you attacking the Covenant base anyway?"
"I was getting paid to do it."
"I see. A true bounty hunter."
"Shut up Jaroff, we need to get back to business."
"Sorry Gunner, sir."
"Now, where was I? Oh right. Now, when we arrived, we were immediately hit with the other mercenaries. It seems Shadow helped us out and took most of them out. While he was taking them out, our pilot was able to get some screen captures of the base after the attack."

Gunner pressed a button on a small device next to him on a table. The image of the perfect Covenant base was replaced by the war-torn version.

"As you can see, the Covenant tanks were blown up, and we see a few mercenary bodies lying on the ground. The main base was mostly intact, and all the Covenant troops were extinguished. No doubt though, they'll have reinforcements coming in before we can say 'shoot'. Now since Shadow has graciously covered all possible casualties for us by taking out the mercenaries for us, we'll keep his cover and just say that it was a very well planned and a very successful attack without any casualties. I DON'T want any talking about this, or it'll get back to the Lieutenant James. Got it?"

"Yes sir!"
"Dismissed."

Shadow watched as all the troops slowly began to file out of the narrow doorway. Shadow watched patiently as they all left the room, and then he got off his leaning position to walk out the door as well. Before he could get out, Gunner called over to him from the projection table.

"Hey, I need to speak with you."
"Yes?"
"Well, to stop any further trouble, I think you should leave immediately tonight. It would prevent trouble for both you and me, and you can get out of here before this Travion guy can get his bearings."
"Fine with me."
"Alright, we'll get you that old Warthog, and the base will mostly go on unnoticing the lost of the equipment, except maybe the mechanics. Does this work for you?"
"Yes, I'm lucky to get any sort of vehicle at all. Thank you."
"No problem. It's the least you can do for saving us."
"It wasn't anything extra for me, I was just getting rid of them as part of my mission. You're presence had no bearing on how I dealt with the attackers."
"Well, either way, you saved our asses, and I'm still thankful for it."
"Alright."
"Follow me to the third hangar."

Shadow nodded and followed Gunner closely as they exited the debriefing room. They took a left and walked slowly through the bright-lit hallway. The bright lights were quite a change from the old dank lights of the hangar and the debriefing room. Gas and energy pipes lined the ceiling, and dorms and other rooms lined the left and right walls. He could hear loud chatter from the relaxing marines and some talking between the commanders and top officers. As they neared the end of the hallway, they walked through the second to last door on the left, and walked into a pitch-black room. He thought it was a trap and immediately grabbed for his sniper rifle. His hand held tightly onto the handle of the weapon, but immediately eased when the lights flicked on and no one but he and Gunner were in the hangar. Two War-Pelicans and two Warthogs were in the hangar, the Warthogs piled around the left side, while the War-Pelicans were neatly lined up on the right. One of the Warthogs was missing an axle and the chain gun at the top. One of the wheels was gone, and the windshield was smashed. It seemed pretty banged up, but the other one seemed to be in perfect condition.

"Does it work?"
"Perfectly. You have my permission to assassinate me if it breaks down through your trip."
"Fine."

He got in the warthog, and turned it on, watching the old familiar screens come up.

"Good luck."
"You too."

Gunner opened the hangar doors, Shadow revved the Warthog and blew out of the hangar. The military sergeant watched quietly as the assassin left without saying a goodbye. He smiled and pressed a button on the side wall of the hangar, and the hangar door slowly closed.

Rise To Honor - Part 7: The Desert
Date: 7 July 2002, 10:51 pm

NOTE: This story contains some minor spoilers for those who haven't read Fall Of Reach. If you don't mind having some spoilers, or don't plan on reading that book, then you can ready on. But otherwise, you might want to think twice about reading my story, lest you have the book ruined for you. From here on in, there will be small spoilers from the book.

The warthog zoom through 1st street, heading for the border of the city. A police guard was standing in the way, and two guard towers that stood on the right and left of the road focused their searchlights on the speeding warthog. On the far sides of each of the guard towers were 500 feet high walls that surrounded the entire city. It was for protection of the base, and protection of foolish people trying to leave and go out into the deserts beyond the city where they would surely die. The only opening was where the street led through out of the city. The policeman standing in the way looked wild-eyed in surprise at the speeding vehicle, and froze in his position. Meanwhile, the police officer from one of the guard towers sounded a message from the intercom.

"Halt! You must have clearance to leave the city. Stop!"

The 12.7mm three-barreled machine-gun on the warthog had gotten a major upgrade as the war progressed on the lands of Earth. An AI could be installed as software into the Warthog's main computer. The AI could be programmed to track multiple targets through a 2000 ft. area. All living and structural possible targets are immediately selected automatically and showed up tagged on the HUD of the Warthog's computer screen. In addition, manual targets can be selected using a coordinate system, but usually the automatic finding system worked well enough. Both guard towers and the guard standing in the way was targeted on the computer's system. Shadow pressed a few coordinate buttons on the keypad next to the computer screen, selecting the guard towards as enemy targets. The towers would most likely fire upon him if he continued on his course without firing at them. So he'd have to make the first move. The green reticules marking the guard towards blinked from green to red, indicating that they were firing targets. The gun began to turn and fired on both of the guard towers, mowing down the police guards stationed inside them. One of the searchlights was blown out, and fell to the concrete ground with a loud smash. The spray of blood from the guard in the other tower blocked the other light. The area fell into almost complete darkness with only a few city lights nearby to illuminate the situation. The Warthog didn't slow down when it neared the still frozen guard. Instead it rammed right into him, rolling him over in a grinding crunch under the heavy wheels of the vehicle. A nearby police hovercar watched the entire scene without moving or firing off any guns. The policeman in the car was frozen just like the one standing in the middle of the road. Most of the time a car would come INTO the city to get away from the covenant and government attacks against the civilians. But it was almost unheard of for a car to be leaving the city. In addition, the Shadow had eliminated the guard tower occupants and the guard so coldly and efficiently that the policeman had not chance to respond in time.

"T-This is B-Black 5. Renegade military vehicle has exited the city walls and attacked police personnel. Casualties are unknown. Suggest response."
"Make no response and return to base. The vehicle is long gone now, and we can't change what happened. Whoever was driving that is out of our jurisdiction now."
"Yes sir. Returning to base."

The Gatling gun was still spinning and was most likely still hot from the shots fired. After a few minutes, the gun stopped spinning, and the computer system signaled that there were no viable targets in the area. Shadow looked at the thing without emotion. He always did do things without any outward emotion or feelings. He normally kept his emotions inside of him, as it was in this case. He was greatly surprised. How could there be no targets in the area? Surely there had to be a building or something in the area for it to target. He banged the computer screen twice and decided that it must be busted. Probably a lack of maintenance. He looked up and finally saw why the computer decided that there were no targets to flag. There was nothing but desert in the area. The city was beyond the 2000 ft. circle, and a flash of memory hit him. Of course. The nuclear bomb attacks of the government had laid waste to all unprotected areas. All the outlying areas near the city and hundreds of miles around it were obliterated. The city was lucky to have the military stationed there. They had adequate nuclear protection shields, but the suburban and rural areas around it weren't quite so lucky. All was left was dirt and sand. At first it was just dirt and remnants of some buildings, but after some years, with no trees and buildings to block the winds, the dirt was dried up and turned into sand somehow. He didn't really understand how, but that's how it turned out. And the situation wasn't really working wonders for the Warthog. The axle began to grind from sand flooding the system, and the vehicle seemed to be overheating, even in the night. Another miscalculated symptom of dropping multiple nuclear bombs in such tight spaces was that the ozone was bombarded by multiple waves of nuclear waste from the many bombs that were dropped on the city to try to take out the military. So he guess that even though it was night, the heat from the sun was still too overwhelming without the ozone layer to protect it.

He sighed as the Warthog kept on speeding through the dunes of the deserts. He didn't know where to go. Maybe he'd find some old friends that he knew were in the area. He didn't know he was a lost cause these days. He could hear a beeping on his com system on his left arm. He pulled it up and looked at it. He saw a black, translucent AI with black hair covering most of her face.

"How goes EVA?"
"Well, the good news is that the HQ was scuttled. Nothing is left. No evidence whatsoever. In addition, apparently, I was able successfully connect with your SATCOM system and upload myself to it before the HQ was destroyed."
"Ok, what's the bad news?"
"Well, the explosion was much larger than I had anticipated, and the entire building collapsed. Old Ben at the bar was bartending when it exploded."
"Well, it was my fault. But there's nothing I can do now."

EVA was one of the "smart" AI's. She had the intelligence that of the famed Cortana AI, and was very good at planning out attacks. But like all "smart" AI's, she had a limited lifespan. Hers was 8 years.

The Warthog began climbing up another of the many numerous dunes that he had been through, and he looked to the sky. Without the city and everything else in the way, everything seemed so...peaceful. The stars gleamed brightly, and he was once again reminded of how much of a renegade he really was. He never stayed in one spot, emotionally or physically. As he neared the top of the dune small bump sounded from a distance and a screech sounded. The screech was all too familiar. It was a rocket. He looked up from the computer screen that he was trying to fix, but it was too late. The red glow of the rocket zoomed right at him with a dark gray trail of exhaust behind it. The rocket slammed right into the sand right in front of the Warthog and exploded in burning flames. He brought up his right arm to protect his face just in time as shards of melting metal and fire pierced right through the windshield glass like Covenant pulse lasers. The small shards landed right in his arm, and a large one actually managed to get through his arm, protruding from both sides. Before he had time to scream in pain, the Warthog flipped backwards down the huge dune mountain. As the Gatling gun slammed into the sand, the Warthog jerked a bit, and he was flung from his seat into the sand. He rolled down the sand, his arm stinging in pang each time it rammed into the sand as he rolled. He hit his fist into the dry ground and it managed to stop his rolling fall. Blood soaked his right arm and stained the sand in the spot where he had fallen and rolled. His entire arm felt like it was on fire and being frozen at the same time. It hurt more than a pulse laser going through it. He looked at his arm. It was bad. There were 4 small shards in the back of his forearm, and the big one had made a big gouge. He grabbed the shards with his left hand, and ripped it out as quickly as possible. He didn't bother to scream. The screams only made his mind think that the wound was worse than it really was. He plucked out the remaining shards and ripped off the sleeve from his black wolf shirt and tied it to the wound on his arm. He opened and closed his hand into a fist a few times to make sure that his arm worked. He'd need it if he were going to go up against whatever had attacked him. He looked to the Warthog. It was flipped over, but other than that, it didn't seem too damaged. All of a sudden two more screeches filled the silent air, and the warthog exploded enormous red heat. He whispered to himself.

"Ok, well then. I'm screwed now."

He unlocked his sniper rifle from his strap and looked at the ammo count on its reticule. 30 shots. That would be enough. He felt his pouch, and knew that he had 3 extra clips for his assault rifle. If he were going up against human targets, then there would probably be plenty of ammo to spare. He slowly climbed up to the top of the dune, his arm stinging in pain every time he put weight on it. He poked his head above the dune, and saw a base in the middle of a small crater type of ditch. Military...not government. Good. They wouldn't have any Covenant soldiers in the complex. He slowly brought up his sniper rifle and slowly rested it on the hot sand of the dune. He looked through the scope, and reconnoitered the area. Two guard towers that were extensions to the main base. It seemed like pretty mainstream stuff. He decided to give the base some more scrutinizing and looked through the main bay window. He thought he'd see a petty officer. What he got was an enormous surprise. It was Kroeger himself! What was he doing in this backwater post? Well, now that Kroeger was in the picture that guy would be able to command the military troops much better than any officer. That would make his job much harder. And more bad news. He looked to the left of Kroeger and saw something he hadn't seen in many, many years. A Spartan. He didn't make any sudden movements or anything to signal that he was surprised in the matter, but his mind said 'fuck' hundreds of time in his head. This was just great. A Spartan? It could be one of a few that were left to fight against the Covenant. It could be John, Kelly, James, Fred or Linda. He smiled to himself. Those old Spartans. During the wars, the once thought dead Spartans had returned to fight against the Covenant. John of course was the famed Master Chief that had destroyed Halo. Kelly and Fred were able to secure a Longsword and get out of Reach before it was glassed. Linda was resuscitated after the destruction of the COMS center near Reach. She too experienced the strange species known as The Flood. She was lucky like John to get out of that ring world before John was able to blow the entire thing up. James...well, he personally didn't know how that Spartan got back. All those memories returned to him. Yes, he had past experiences with these soldiers...only they were allies back then. It seemed now he had some big time enemies on his hands. He sighed and turned back to the tower. Two guards resided in the tower. One was administering to the systems of the radar, and the other had a platformed M21 SSR Rocket Launcher. He waited for the guards to radio in to the main base before he'd make his attack. This way, he'd get more time before the base would call in for a report and realize that their guards were dead. He watched through the night vision aided scope as the rocket launcher guard pulled out a radio from its holster and spoke into it. He nodded twice and put it away. He heard some roaring sounds to the left. He immediately turned his head from the scope and saw two Hover Warthogs being prepped for investigation of incident with the rockets. Apparently, the guard had radioed for an investigation. He'd have to make this quick, or he'd get smeared by the warthogs. He fired two quick, silenced shots at the two men. Both shots caught each in the stomach. They toppled over each other, dead. He jumped off the apex of the dune and seemed to hover in the air for a few seconds. He landed in the middle of the dune sliding down the great mound of sand. He hit rock bottom and strapped in his sniper rifle. He pulled out his pistol and shot the grappling hook through the plexiglass at the top of the guard tower. He jerked it twice to make sure it was secure and looked back to the hangar were the warthogs were being prepped. They were already racing out of the hanger. He pulled the trigger on his pistol and held tight with both hands. He zoomed up to the top of the tower, sandy wind blowing into his bloodied face. He jumped in and looked at the controls. No apparent alarm system was switched. He looked through the cracked window and looked through his sniper scope. The Warthogs didn't seem to have seen him infiltrate the tower. The just continued on their course for the blown Warthog.


"EVA download yourself into this disk."
"Yes sir. Done."


He pulled out a disk from a slot in the device and attached it to the computer screen. The dark and mysterious body of EVA immediately flashed and appeared on a capsule hologram station near the computer screen. She was just standing there, but he knew that she was hacking through the base mainframe and getting info on the base schematics and whatnot.

"I need you to get blueprints and a plan ready for getting us a ride out of this place."
"Well, you could've just gone to the hangar."
"Yes, but I want to investigate Kroeger and the Spartans before we take our leave."
"Alright, eject me, I'll formulate a plan as we get into the base."

He pulled out the disk from the slot and she immediately disappeared from the hologram space. He place the disk back into his device. She reappeared on the device screen, and seemed to be formulating the plan. He couldn't wait for her to finish. He needed to get out of this place now. He turned to the doorway of the guard tower which lead to the main base. He ran through it, assault rifle drawn.

Rise To Honor - Part 8: Infiltration Gone Wrong
Date: 12 July 2002, 11:58 pm

Shadow ran through the hallways, beads of hot sweat running down his face as he ran quickly and carefully. A few drops slid down his forehead and sunk into his eyes. The sweat would normally irritate a man, but Shadow was too concentrated with the mission that he didn't give a rat's ass about the sweat. It was the least of his worries. As he ran through the hallway that connected the guard tower to the main building, he thought of how he would enter the main building after he charged the automatic doors. He thought that he might wait for reinforcements, but that wouldn't work. As soon as the base was alerted to his presence in the tower, he'd have one way out, through the door in front of him. Surely, that's where the soldiers would be coming in. Yes, that idea was definitely out of the picture. If he ran in for a full frenzied firefight, he'd be able to take out most of the base's guards and personnel, but Kroeger and the Spartans would just be too much for him. No, but the full assault was also out of the picture. He decided that stealth and cunning were the best ways of getting into the hangar and finding a vehicle to get out of this damn desert. And maybe get some rations on his way. He ran right up to the door and it automatically zoomed open. The doorway revealed a perpendicular hallway in the main building. It was much more brightly lit than the dimly lit connection hallway. Control panels and view screens lit up the area in bright colors of red and green with other colors dotting the area.

He made sure to stay in the doorway, for cameras were sure to litter the area. With Kroeger and the Spartans here, security cameras would definitely be in place in the default military sections as well as some additional ones. He grabbed his pouch and dug around with his left arm, blindly searching for a device in the pack. He found it and slowly pulled it out. It was a rod-like device, with type of dura-plastic section attached to it. The dura-plastic section was filled with fiber-optic sensors, enough for a full visual scan if activated. In addition, the bending factor of the section allowed him to search the hallway and around the corners without being seen. He listened carefully to make sure that there were no incoming footsteps, ensuring that a wandering guard wouldn't stumble upon him. If that happened, he'd be sure to yell for help before he could kill him. After that, all hell would break loose. No footsteps. Good. He pressed two red-lit buttons on the non-bendable area of the device, and it blinked a few times. He activated the COM device on his left arm and it beeped twice and showed up a few figures and stats to tell him that the fiber-optic device and the COMS system had linked up using infra-red. Infra-red was quite an old way to transmit things, and was usually outdated by UV and Gamma. They were much faster, but much more unstable and unreliable. He couldn't have Gamma and UV equipment if they were only going to work some of the time. No...he would need something that always worked when he needed it to work. That's why he used Infra-Red instead of other bandwidths.

He bent the fiber optic sensor to a 90 degree angle and slowly pushed it past the doorway using his right hand. Meanwhile, he held up his left arm to see what was going on through the COM system. The COM system targeted two cameras and another laser detection system. He swiveled the device and took a peek on the left side. The same exact thing was targeted by the COM system. He pressed a few buttons and his arm device took down the coordinates of the laser targeting and the cameras. Meanwhile, he put away the fiber-optics and pulled out another device. It was a flat, circular shape, with a relatively small screen dominating most of the device. In addition, there were a few buttons on the edges where the screen didn't reach. He pressed one of the buttons and a large keypad ejected from the side of the device. He hooked the circular device up to the COM system on his arm device and began searching for a military data frequency where he could tap and hack through. The COM system on his left arm opened up a small hole, and a thin antennae popped up. He waited a few seconds, and the system found a GR-Class military frequency. It wasn't the most secure frequency, and he himself could be tapped if someone was expecting company, but it would get the job done. He pressed a few buttons on a keypad, took a few seconds to hack through the security codes for the camera and laser targeting systems, and finally was able to shut them down. He typed in a few more codes to erase his tracks and put up false camera pictures to make the camera guard think that nothing happened. Doing that was much better than just shutting down the cameras. If he just did that, the screens would go fuzzy, the guard would know that there was something was wrong, and all hell would break loose. He detached the circular device and placed it softly on the ground and reattached the fiber-optic system. He slowly pushed it through the side of the doorway again and investigated. The cameras hung down, deactivated on both sides and the lasers on each side were not visible. Good, all the security measures in the hallway were finished. He deactivated all his systems and put the fiber-optic system and the hacking device back in his bag. He pressed a few buttons and EVA showed up as a hologram.

"Do, Do, Do. Oh, hi Shadow. I was just playing around with the military's communications systems, it's much fun."
"Hehe, you're a lot like Cortana."
"Who's Cortana?"
"Er, an AI I met on a past mission before I programmed you."
"I see. Well, what did you call me for?"
"Well, I need you to go on silent mode from now on. That means you only speak to me through text on the COM system. Got it?"
"Righto."

The hologram disappeared and a whole bunch of text came up on the COM system. He responded using his default system alias: User 1.

EVA: So, what do we do now?

User 1: You use those blueprints to find us a secure way through the military complex to Kroeger and the Spartans without having to deal with any security measures.

EVA: Thinking, thinking. Got it. There's a ventilation shaft up above you. You can't see it because it's on the other side of the ceiling, but you can get through it. I recommend that you use the grappling hook to push up one of the steel plates.

User 1: Oh right, and they're not going to think about us being in the ventilation shafts.

EVA: Well, they don't know we're here yet, so lets move before they find out. Ok?

User 1: Ok, what's the weakest ceiling plate?

A visual sensor opened up on his COM system and the AI responded on the text communication.

EVA: That one right there.

The visual sensor sent up a small laser pointing to one of the steel ceiling plates.

He lowered his left arm, and pulled out his pistol with his right hand. Immediately, extreme pain was sent down his arm and made him feel cold, chilled to the bone. It was that damn wound he had gotten out at the desert. He'd have to tough it up though, or he wouldn't make it out alive. He slowly aimed with a shaky arm, and fired into the plate. The grappling hook shot up and attached to the ceiling. At the same time it dislocated the plate and pushed it up into an inner ceiling above the one that was visible. It made a loud clang, and he immediately looked around to make sure no one was in the vicinity. His COM system flashed, notifying him that a message was being sent.

EVA: I already scanned, no guard sized heat sources in the area.

User 1: What about Spartans?

EVA: Nothing.

He pressed a switch on the side of the pistol and pressed the trigger again. The wire retracted and he was pulled up to the ventilation shaft. He crawled in, and looked around. Nothing. He detached the grappling hook from the ceiling plate, and it clanked back down into position, leaving no evidence that someone had infiltrated the base. As it slammed back into place, the entire shaft went pitch black, having no light flooding in from the hallway. He reached for his bag and pulled out a small eyepiece. He placed it on his ear and it gave him night vision for one of his eyes. He could have gotten goggles, but if a sudden high amount of light was to hit, he wouldn't be completely blind with only one eye using the device. Of course that meant he would need to close his non-night vision eye while the other did all the work. He activated it, and the area immediately lit up for him. The entire place seemed green through the eyepiece, but there were darker spots along the shaft. Must be stains or something. He slowly crawled, trying to make as little sound as possible. The base was sure to have sound sensor systems located in the hallways beneath the shaft, so he would need to be quiet.

EVA: Make a left here.

He saw an opening in the shaft that led to another intersecting shaft. He crawled through that one and expected another message.

EVA: Keep going and make the second right here.

He did so. He kept on following these directions from EVA until she told him to stop.

EVA: Right ahead of you should be a vent. This vent leads right to the Spartans and Kroeger. But watch it, the Spartans have heightened senses.

User 1: I know.

EVA: Well, I'm sorry, I didn't think you had encountered a Spartan before.

User 1: You are wrong

He pulled the fiber-optic device out of his bag again and attached it to his COM device. He pulled out an additional audio device and attached it to the fiber-optics. He slowly pushed the device through the vent and waited for the conversation to start.

"Commander Kroeger we need to be getting out of here soon, sir. If we want to get to the mission site in time, we should leave now."
"I know that John."
"Alright sir. Linda and James are at the post where the guards did not report in."
"Status Report."
"Well, the guards are dead. The intruder driving the Warthog apparently wasn't killed in the missile barrage."
"This soldier probably won't be a problem. The blueprints are here. I want you to pack these up for the mission. We'll probably need them."

Another Spartan stepped out from the other side of the room. It was Fred, Shadow could tell. He was right about all of them. They WERE all here. Each and every one of the ones he had predicted.

"I suggest that we leave to commence Operation Wraith."
"Yea, we better get leaving. John, go get James and Linda. Fred and Kelly are to come with me to the hangar. You guys meet us there when you finish getting James and Linda."
"Yes sir!"

Shadow watched in silence and slowly pulled out the fiber optics once everyone had left the room. He put away the devices and thought to himself for a few seconds. So, they knew that he was in the complex somewhere. In addition, there were 5 Spartans instead of just the one that he had seen in the window. Now he was in big trouble. He'd need to move quick if he wanted to get out of here alive. He was bugged out of his thoughtful trance by a blinking of the COM system.

EVA: We need to get out of here now!
User 1: Yes, tell me the fastest way to get to the hangar.

EVA: That's simple, we can even head off the Spartans and the Commander if we want.

User 1: Fine. The sooner the better.

It would have been smarter to just wait for the forces to leave. But who knows, it could be the entire fleet. If that happened, he would be without a vehicle. In addition, he was sure that the engineers were onto him now, and were probably going to flush the shafts with immense heat to make sure he wasn't in there. He would need to be out of there if he didn't want to be barbecued. EVA sent him more directions, step by step, and after a few minutes he was at the ventilation shaft leading straight to the hangar.

EVA: Here it is. Try not to get us killed.

User 1: You can go to normal communications as soon as I get out of the hangar. Right?

EVA: Right, I'll know when, I'm a smart AI, remember?

User 1: Right.

He looked at his assault rifle and made sure everything was in secure.

User 1: How long before Kroeger and the others get to the hangar.

EVA: With James's and Linda's location, and how fast Kroeger and the other Spartans are walking, I'd say we have about 46 seconds, and counting.

He didn't bother to respond. He kicked out the ventilation door and jumped down to the hangar. He fired a quick silenced spray towards the two closest marines.

*FT**FT**FT**FT**FT**FT**FT**FT**FT**FT**FT**FT**FT**FT**FT**FT*

The silenced shots ran right through the marines as he made his run for one of the warthogs. He fired off another few rounds at the unaware engineers. They crumpled over, dead. He jumped in, and quickly activated the systems, and the engines roared to life. He heard the sliding of automatic doors, and he turned around. He finished off the clip at the door with almost complete accuracy. It was useless though as it smacked into the first person in the doorway, a Spartan. The bullets just bounced off as they slammed into the MJOLNIR armor. The shields glistened a shiny gold as the Spartan immediately responded with cover fire for the commander.

*GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE* *GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE*

*PING**PING*

Shadow took cover as the bullets came straight for him. Most bounced off the back end of the Warthog, but two others smashed into the dashboard right next to his head. He had forgotten that the damn Spartans were crack-pot shooters. He pressed the accelerator and watched as the two Spartans got into a second Warthog: one into the driver seat and one into the gunner stage. The assault rifle would be useless. He dropped it into his seat and unstrapped his sniper rifle. He had one advantage that the others did not. He had a sniper rifle, and they had assault rifles. He intended to use this advantage, or he would have no chance. As soon as the warthogs pulled out of the hangar, he swung around and fired two quick rail gun shots.

*BLAM* *BLAM*

The first hit the chain gun blowing off the gunner Spartan and the second shot blew up the Warthog, causing the driver to fly out. They were both hurt, but he knew they weren't dead. They were tougher than that. But at least they would be down for the count for a few hours. He kept on driving up a dune hill. All of sudden he heard the screech of two rocket shots. He didn't bother to turn around to confirm his guess. He just jumped out, sniper rifle in hand. He heard an enormous explosion, and his skin burned as it felt intense heat up against it. Yup, his Warthog was probably totaled. He turned around, and sure enough, the Warthog was flipped up, and smoking. Man, he was having a bad day. A lone assault rifle shot came at him.

*BLAM* *PIP*

Time seemed to slow down as he heard it. He jumped backwards down from the top of the dune down the other side. He watched as the shot finally came and smacked into the hot sand. Well, at least his reflexes were very good, maybe as good as the Spartans, even in their MJOLNIR armor. Maybe he was exaggerating, but he held quite a secret inside of him that pertained to the Spartans...

*PIP**PIP**PIP**PIP**PIP**PIP**PIP**PIP**PIP**PIP**PIP**PIP**PIP**
PIP**PIP**PIP**PIP**PIP**PIP**PIP**PIP**PIP**PIP**PIP**PIP**PIP**
PIP**PIP**PIP**PIP**PIP**PIP**PIP**PIP**PIP**PIP**PIP**PIP**PIP**
PIP**PIP**PIP**PIP**PIP*

Scorching assault rifle fire came from the hangar and slammed into the sand all around him. He didn't bother to dodge and ran quickly, trying to get out of range. A loud alarm sounded as he began to run. Great, now the entire base knew of his escape, and he had no vehicle. The entire trip inside the base was a total waste. Or was it? That conversation seemed like a normal conversation, but there might be some clues on the visual that he didn't notice with his bare eyes. He heard the pit pat of running and turned around. Something was following him. A Spartan was running as horrific speed, catching up to him. He could barely see her as she hid behind one dune and rock after another. He was lucky to get a quick glance at her, and now knew of her presence. Judging by the speed, the Spartan was definitely Kelly. He stopped running, turned around, kneeled and fired a sniper blast right into her chest. Her armor's shields took most of the hit, but the shot was powerful enough to push her back and blow her unconscious. Or so he thought. After a few seconds, she got up again, and began the chase again. Instead of panicking, he calmly fire two more shots. The fire hit her shoulder, and her entire left side pulled back from the blast, and the second hit her leg. She fell down. She was definitely unconscious now. The entire time he was concentrating on Kelly, and he hadn't heard the Warthog noises coming closer, and closer. He heard them now in the almost dead silence of the desert. Just great. A hover-warthog pulled up over the hill and immediately began firing upon him. The last two Spartans and Kroeger were in this one. If he could take this one out...but it was too late. The fire came quicker than he anticipated, and was forced to jump out of the way of the blasts. Midway in his jump, he fired his sniper rifle again.

*BLAM* *PIF*

The blast slammed into one of the hover generators, but the thing only smoked and kept on coming. He got up and broke into a full sprint up to the dune hill. Maybe if he could get up there, he could get the advantage of higher ground. But he wasn't fast enough. Stinger bullets ripped through his flesh and his back felt like it was on fire. He felt warm blood flow down his leg and the rest of his back as the bullet tore through him. He was lucky that he was at long range, or he would done for. Fortunately, only a few bullets landed their mark on him. But even then, the pain was getting to be too much. He immediately slowed down, but didn't fall or crumple to the sand. A screech sounded. Great, another rocket. He saw a glimpse of the missile right before it slammed into the sand right in front of him. A mix of fire and sand tore into the flesh of his face and chest. Meanwhile he was blown straight up in the air, at least 5 feet. He flailed his arms, still gripping tightly onto his sniper rifle as he fell. He landed with a thud on his bloodied back. He groaned and pointed the sniper rifle right at the Spartan driving the Warthog, probably John. He grimaced as small explosions in the sand flew up around him as the chain gun kept its fire trained on him. He pulled the trigger...

*CLICK*

No, it couldn't be. The gun had jammed. Either way, it didn't matter. The enemy fire stopped as his vision blurred and began to go black.

Rise To Honor - Part 9: Friendly Return
Date: 16 July 2002, 4:43 pm

His eyes were tightly closed, waiting for bullets to ravage his body even more. He wasn't scared to die. He had seen it too much to be scared of it. No, he was just waiting for it to happen. All of a sudden, three rockets fired out from behind him on the top of the dune that he was running towards. Behind him? There were no vehicles behind him. Or were there? Another question popped into his mind as the screeches of the rockets came to his ears. Why would they be firing rockets at him? The curiosity was too much, and he struggled to open his eyes. His eyepiece was cracked and malfunctioning...and he could barely see through the cracked, green glass. He let that eye closed and watched through his other eye and saw just in time as three red-tail rockets zoomed right for the Warthog. John was a crack pilot, no doubt about that, but three rockets heading straight for him was way too much. The Warthog swerved to the left as the first rocket hit. He swerved back to the right as the second one came. The Spartan was amazing, using extreme precision to keep the commander safe. He himself had already lost two warthogs to rocket fire, but the Spartan was able to dodge both rockets in one shot. Yes, John was quite the talented Spartan. Even in his talent though, he couldn't move into time for the third rocket. It slammed into the front and exploded in black, noxious fumes. Sparks and the sound of bending metal came to his ears as the black smoke covered the entire vehicle, making it impossible to shoot into or out of the area with any accuracy. He decided that this was his chance. He pulled out his pistol, and began firing random shots into the black gas.

*BLAM**BLAM**BLAM**BLAM**BLAM**BLAM**BLAM**BLAM**BLAM*

Two Spartans immediately jumped out of the cover smoke, and began a full sprint towards him, assault rifles firing in controlled bursts.

*GE**GE**GE**GE**GE* *GE**GE**GE**GE**GE* *GE**GE**GE*

He immediately adjusted his aim and began firing on the left Spartan. The bullets pinged off of the golden armor harmlessly. Damn, this was bad. All of a sudden, Assault Rifle fire came from the dune above him where the rockets had come from. Who the hell was helping him? Three sets of machine gun fire pounded into the Spartans as they ran towards him. They each dodged to the side, and the assault rifle stopped behind him, leaving only the sparking sounds of the broken down Warthog.

All of a sudden, two sets of hands grabbed him by the shoulders. Was it the military? No. The feeling of familiarity came over him. He looked up. Two unmasked soldiers pulled his arms around their shoulders and helped him onto their Warthog - one female, one male. A third soldier stood, continuing cover fire against the Spartans. The fourth was the driver, hands held tightly against the wheel, ready to take off. The Warthog was a custom model. It lacked the mounted heavy chain gun that the other models had, and instead had open compartment to store supplies - and injured soldiers. He laid him down, and then kneeled down next to him in the dug in area. The driver yelled out.

"C'mon, lets get the hell outta here before the Spartans make us mincemeat!"
"Shut it Cal, I'm coming."

Shadow would have smiled if he had the energy. They were all old friends of his, and fellow soldiers in an old military project to follow up the success of the original Spartan project. He just laid there as the female soldier finally jumped into the passenger seat but no letting up on her fire. She was relentless, as he always remembered.

"Get us the fuck out of here Cal!"
"Shut your trap or I'll make you get out!"

The Warthog's hover engines glowed a bright blue, and they sped off down the dune.

"Well, we ditched those fuckers."
"Hey Az, it's not over yet!"
"What now Geb?"
"They still have two pursuing Warthogs."
"I got him."

The Warthog came to a complete stop as the engine died out. One of the soldiers tending to him pulled out a Achilles Rocker launcher from the cargo stash near his head. She tossed it to the one at the passenger seat. She jumped out of the Warthog and kneeled down, targetting system locking onto both of the speeding vehicles.

"Adios, suckas."

He fired two rockets, both hitting their mark. The first grazed the top of the Warthog traveling through the windshield and detonating at the mounted gun. The second rocket slammed into the front, blowing up its transmission and hover yaw reversers. She laughed and then dropped the rocket launcher. She began a full sprint back to the rest of the team, and the Warthogs sped off into the night.

Rise To Honor - Part 10: Reunion
Date: 19 July 2002, 3:14 am

*THUMP* *THUMP* *THUMP**THUMP* *THUMP**THUMP*

He could hear his heart beat five hundred times harder and louder in his panging head. His chest was boiling, steaming in a red hot color. His head felt like it was about to explode. Everything was black, he couldn't see a thing. All of a sudden, at the thump of one of his heartbeats, an image of the Spartans came to him. They came running at him, guns blazing. The image slowly faded back to black. At the second image, he saw the face of Travion, laughing in a broken down apartment. It too faded out before he could make anything of it. Again, his heart thumped, and another image appeared before him. It was the face of 5 children, one of them being him. They were playing king of the mountain. He was at the top, pushing the other four down to the bottom, laughing and playing. The heart thumped again, but the image did not disappear this time. Instead, a female scientist could be seen, walking up to him with a gun. He shot them all dead, including himself. His mind screamed even more in pain as he saw himself fall in a large puddle of hot red blood. He screamed out to his fallen body, pain rising up within him.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!"

He rose up immediately. He was panting heavily, everything was a blur. Everything was dark, but the light from the moon coming in the from the window illuminated the situation a bit. He looked about him. He was in a bed, a familiar one...a familiar look, a familiar scent. His clothes were thoroughly soaked through in sweat, beads of the stuff still rolling down his face and arms. He looked around his bed. There on the wall to his left was a door ajar, more diminutive light flooding into the room. On the right wall were two posters suspended halfway up. One of a wolf's head with a dark gray pelt, dark black eyes, staring mysteriously back at him. The other was of two wolf, caught in the midst of running side by side, snow flying up behind them. The front wall was completely blank, except for his grappling pistol and his custom sniper rifle. A flash of recognition ran through him, and his mind once again zoomed back to his childhood days. He and 4 others were once again playing king of the hill. But this time, a military soldier took them all to a far away base. He sighed. He knew where he was.

He swiveled his hips, and brought his legs down to the ground. The carpet felt soft under his callous feet, warm and cuddly. But stood up, and realized that he was only in his baggy pants. His wolf shirt was gone, and all his equipment had disappeared. He was so used to the weapons on his back that moving through the room felt like floating on clouds. Everything felt so light. Even then, his back still screamed out in immense pain, and he had a slight limp in his walk.

He walked out of his room. Immediately, bright light flashed at him. He was momentarily blinded, and he brought up his right arm to stop the light from hurting his eyes. His arm immediately felt like it had fallen off, and he dropped it back down. Looks like he still had the wounds from the recent battle. Wait, was it recent at all? How long had he been in this safe haven? He had questions to be answered, and he had old friends to meet again. He limped through the hall. He could hear loud laughter from the room up ahead. He slowly limped through the hallway, looking around. Everything was the same...always the same. He smiled and walked into the room. The laughing and loud talking faded away, and all four of the people at the table stared at him. Az, Jan, Cal, and Geb.

First, there was Az. She was a hard, tough assassin. She was quiet and always wore black. He always had one hand on the handle of her pistol, ready to strike at anyone to attack her or her comrades. She was much like him, the warrior type, the type that always kept cool. She sat in the back, and stared blankly at him, as she didn't even know him. She was cold on the outside, but once you got to know her, she was quite the caring person for those she was friends with.

Then there was Cal. He was the normal cynical type of guy. He was a pilot, and one hell of a crack one at that. He could drive anything from a full-fledged battlecruiser to the smallest fighter without any transition problems. But the problem was that he looked at everything in the worse possible case scenario. If the ship ran out of ammo for one of its guns, he'd think that the ship would blow up that second. If he was shot in the leg, he would think that there was no chance of survival. If he crashed in one of his ships and managed to pull out of it alive, then he'd give up any chances of being rescued. But hey, he made some great jokes in his cynicism.

There was Jan, a loud one. She was the mechanic of them. She was so good at that stuff that she could wire a Covenant ship to blow up using a mere COM communicator. That's how good she was. During the days before he had left the team, she would normally spend most of her time in the launch bay, working on tweaks for the ships and vehicles. Man, with the proper tools and equipment, she could get a 12 meter scanner to project an EMP blast across an entire city. He had seen it before, and had been there when it happened. She was also a crack hacker. She could hack through any system within the given amount of time she had. You give her a quadruple coded, military frequency, a triple H.A.C.K-RTS Firewall, and even a computer counterattack hacking system, she could get through it within five minutes. She was a bit odd and quite jumpy though.

Then there was Geb. He was the normal type of guy. He didn't talk too much, but he wasn't as quite as Az or Shadow. He was sort of the leader of the group once they got together, and it wasn't self proclaimed. No, he was quite the humble guy, but his leadership skills, and his great planning enabled him to lead the team in and out flawlessly. Nobody really argued with his judgement except Shadow on a few occasions, one being the reason for his leaving. Really, he was the best planner, the greatest leader, and a cool guy.

And him? He, of course, was the sniper of the group. His description is pretty much self explanatory throughout the recent events. Well, how did all these guys get so good at what they did? One word, and one number. Spartan III. They were all part of the Spartan III project, the project that was supposed to succeed the original project in sending out crack troops to stop the Covenant in their tracks. But the government got sloppy and recruited a few bad apples, the 5 here to be more explicit. They were the best at what they did. No one could outmatch them, but they always kept to themselves. All of them. None of the other trainees liked them. They were both jealous and scared of them. After a few ensuing events, they decided to stick together. Even though they had made their own group, they were still the rogues of the entire project. Besides, they all hated authority, and thought that anarchy brought out the best in soldiers. So before all the soldiers went through cybernetic enhancements like the first batch of Spartans, the 5 were able to break out. All the others died from the experiments, and the Spartan III project was considered a major failure in scientific and military attempts to help mankind. But the 5 survived, and created their own way of profit: they became mercenaries, known as the Black Wolves. They worked for whoever was willing to pay for them, and they were the best group of soldiers saved for the few original Spartans to make it out. But by far, the 5 were more talented, being faster, stronger and more intelligent than the first Spartans. But they lacked the fine-tuned training, the drug and cyber enhancements, and the MJOLNIR armor. Even then, though their abilities and team work seemed to be up to par with the Spartans. How could this be measured? Well, they often did many jobs for the government before it took its break and defected to the Covenant side. Even then, they kept their escape a secret, otherwise, they'd be locked up forever. So they fought side-by-side with the Spartans, fighting to stop the Covenant, and eventually the Government as well. All was going well until Shadow and Geb got into an enormous argument about authority. Geb tried bossing Shadow around, and Shadow wasn't going to have any of it, being the rogue of even their mercenary group. Without going into much detail, Shadow left the group and came up with his own assassin job, alone. The fight wasn't really all that serious, but even small things tend to escalate and separate a group. But feelings were mutually friendly now, and the group was apparently back together now. Cal finally broke the eerie silence with a slightly humorous comment.

"So, how's it going sleeping beauty?"
"Fuck off before I blow your head off."
"Haha! Still the moody Shadow," Cal responded.

Az decided to intervene before things went from bad to worse again.

"So, how are the wounds?"
"I don't know, you tell me."
"Well, from our care of yours, you had quite a few heavy caliber bullets in your back, shrapnel wounds to you arm, and your leg there got shot up a few times. All things considering, you did a great job. I can even walk now without collapsing on the ground."

He smirked a little. Technology these days had greatly accelerated to accommodate the healing of the nearly dead soldiers that fell in battle. Good thing they were still highly paid mercenaries, or he'd be dead now. He had heard of their continuing success throughout the underground cities and stuff like that.

"So, where's my wolf shirt?"

Cal responded in an equally dark voice.

"Well, it got shredded up completely. Want one of ours?
"Fine."

He really didn't want it, but it was better than nothing. Plus, they had saved his ass...the least he could do was be a bit gracious to them. All of a sudden, Jan chimed in.

"Why are you guys talking about SHIRTS? I mean, isn't that supposed to be a girl thing?"
"Shaddap."

Cal smiled and held up a plate with a nice slice of pie on it.

"Hungry?"
"Yes. Thank you. Thank you all. I'm grateful that you came to save my ass."
"Hehe...you've saved ours enough times, it was time that we repay our debt."

He smiled, Geb was right. All of a sudden, a beep came on Jan's COM system. She jumped off he chair, and frantically pressed a few buttons on her system as if the world's fate depended on it. Yup, the same old hyper Jan. She pointed the vid screen towards a larger screen suspended above the table, and a screen of John-117 came up.

"Hello Dark Wolves. It seems you guys are back together again."
"Geb, I've killed our tracing TTS's, so those fuckers can't track us."
"No no. I don't want Shadow. He's fine where he is. He's helped us out numberous times, to put a bounty on his head would be improper. Well, since the team is back together, I was wondering if you guys could do another job for us.

Geb returned a say.

"Times have changed fuck head. But I'll listen to what you have to say."
"Well, the military has lost many bases and ways of financial and other support. Recently, the government, along with the Covenant has taken New York City. We had many factories and other forms of support there. It would mean a great deal to us if you guys made a return to the battlefield for Man's survival, and help us destroy a few key government leaders."
"How much?"
"5 bil."

Shadow nodded to the others as they looked to him to see if he agreed. He was, after all, back with the group again. He smiled and turned back to the Spartan.

"Fine. Upload info to us about when we do this, where we meet before the strike, full blueprints of every structure in city, as well as blueprints of the city itself. I also want exact specifications of what the mission parameters will be."

The Spartan looked down on-screen, and a few beeps could be heard from his side of the transmission.

"Done. Pleasure working with you guys again."
"Same."

Shadow watched as the screen flicked off. Working with the Spartans again...what fun....

Rise To Honor - Part 11: Back In The City
Date: 26 July 2002, 2:19 am

System starting up:
...
...
...
System booted, connecting to ODBC intranet backbone server:
...
...
...
Connected.
Command: Access User - Geb:Pass - ****** Root Folder T://UGDKE//mail
Accessing...
...
...
...
Accessed. You have 1 new incoming file.
Command: Access incoming file
Accessing...
...
...
...
Accessed, starting up file viewing:

Hey Dark Wolves, this is Kroeger and the Spartans. I know you guys don't want to be involved in the big war and everything, you have your own thing going on. But as you know, there's a war going on and we need your help on this next mission. Recently, we've lost control of New York City to the hands of the Government. I was once confident that we had a chance in actually surviving this war without being completely exterminated, but now that we no longer have the resources and facilities of New York, I don't think we'll pull through. This is where you guys come in. We want to take back the city, but it's too heavily guarded and too well finagled. Their main base HQ is in the Hester Tower, where their general resides. If you accept this mission, we'll be sending you guys and the Spartans into New York City via dropship. From there, you guys are to infiltrate the Hester Tower and assassinate all the lead figures in their HQ. When we hot drop you, you guys will be on the edge of the city, near the neutronium power plant. You and the Spartans are to infiltrate that facility and disable it, giving you full darkness to cover your operations. After you complete your first mission parameter, you are to move quickly and meet the local city resistance. They will be able to provide you with supplies, tactical data, and analysis of the situation. Once you guys have a clearer idea of the situation, you and the Spartans will plan out your next move in the assassination. If you succeed, we will have a dropship waiting for you at the Juti bridge, near the construction yard. Your pay will be very high, as always. This mission must be completed soon, so inform me of your decision to participate as soon as possible.

The file was originally a text file, but Jan was able to hotwire it to an audio feed so everyone could listen to what the situation was. Meanwhile, Shadow leaned in a dark corner of the room, contemplating the situation. He could always back out of this one, it'd be the smart thing to do. He didn't need money now, he had the Dark Wolves to help him out financially. They could always do easy jobs and get money that way. They all could. But something nagged in his head, telling him that backing out would be the cowardly thing to do, the dishonorable thing to do. But another told him that he had already lost his honor, he had become an assassin...a mercenary. The original voice fought back and told him that his honor was still in him somewhere. The two voices continued to bicker in his head until he made his decision. He wasn't about to be the one to let the entire human race die out. This mission was critical to their survival. He nodded to himself, and decided. He would do it.

The eerie silence that followed affirmed to him that the others were going through the same ethical battle as he was. He wondered if any of them were going to back out of this one. He watched Geb, as he sat in his chair, deep in thought. Finally, Cal broke the silence.

"So are we going to take this one or not?"

Az was quick to reply, she was always a fan of honor...just like Shadow, although she hadn't lost any in the recent year like he had.

"I'm in."

Jan chimed in after a few seconds.

"Same here."

Cal looked around nervously, anyone could tell he really wasn't up to the job. A second later, Geb made his decision.

"Well, I can't leave you guys hangin' out there alone without a leader. I'll go too."

Cal sighed and slumped in his seat.

"What the hell, I'm gonna die anyway, might as well be a painful, horrid, ugly death."

Az looked to Shadow. She really was the only one that had gotten kind of close with him. The only one that understood his quietness, and his battle to keep his honor with him.

"So, you coming Shadow?"
"Your sniper will be there to cover you."

Shadow never gave a straight answer to his comrades. But it was close enough to saying yes.

"Alright then. Lets get to our Pelican and get back to that desert base that Shadow was trying to escape from to meet Kroeger."

Images flashed back to him. Images of his escape, images of his infiltration of the base. Yes, he was going back to that place. It would definitely feel awkward, to come back to the base as an ally of the one you were once an enemy with just a few days ago. That thought reminded him of something else.

"So, how long has it been since you guys rescued me?"
"1 week. You recovered fast, even for a chosen one of the second project."
"Lets not talk about our childhood, shall we?"
"Fine with me."
"I'm going to my room to work on my weapons and electronics for an hour or so."
"Sure, we got time."

He nodded, and got up off the table. He turned to the entrance and slowly walked back to the hall. His leg still panged with slight pain, but it was starting to dissipate, and was already much less painful than it was before he had left the room earlier before. He guessed it was just the phantom pain when he woke up, and now it was wearing away. He walked back into the very dark room. The moon was full, and was shining through the open window enough to illuminate the room enough for him to do his work. He walked over to his pack. He pulled out a small toolbox, and a earset. He opened up the small compartment on the already small device, and began fiddling around with it. This device was originally used for communications with other members of the team, but he was able to get Jan to help him make it a dual-feed system. The second thread was for a more...recreational purpose. The first band was for communications between members as always, but the second band was for music. He normally listened to music during his missions. It helped him to keep cool and to keep his adrenaline going. The ear system was only a single one, where he put it in his left ear. He normally used his right ear specifically for detecting environmental sounds, such as snapping of a stick, or a gunshot. This way, his senses weren't dulled very much, and he still got his mind pumped up during the mission. It was also one of his favorite ways of spending his relaxation time. But in the recent missions at the city, he hadn't any time to repair the broken system. Looked like he had some time now. The mission coming up seemed impossible, and he'd need all the help he could get. A few bright blue sparks flashed as he continued to fiddle around with the system. After 20 minutes or so, he was beginning to get frustrated, and was on the verge of calling in Jan for help him out. But one final blue spark, and he could hear the leaking sound of the loud music coming out of the earphone. It was working now. He nodded, not smiled. He never smiled.

He placed the device back in the bag, and pulled out sniper rifle from its leaning position on the wall. He looked at the ammo count. It still had 11 shots left. He opened a hatch, all the 11 slugs poured out of it. He closed up the hatch and pulled a small, hexagonal box from his bag. The box was almost full of slugs, and he completed it with some of the remaining 11 slugs that he took out of the firing mechanism. He pulled back two cocking struts, and hooked in the box. The small HUD indicator on the rifle indicated it was at max capacity of 40 slugs. He didn't normally use the box because he normally didn't need that many shots. But this mission seemed like it would take at least all night. He wasn't going to be caught unprepared, and decided that 45 should be a good number.

As he leaned his rifle up against the wall again, he heard footsteps coming closer to the doorway. His first reaction was to grab for his pistol, but he remembered that it was only one of the Dark Wolves. Az popped her head in and nodded to him. They didn't need to converse, they knew each other like the back of each other's hands. He snatched up his bag, sniper rifle, and grappling hook pistol and followed the others to the hangar. They walked through a dark hall, dimly lit by two light bulbs. At the end of the hall was a steel door that automatically slid open as they approached. The doorway lead to the hangar. It was a complete mess. Generators, axles, wheels, chainguns, and other assortment of items laid strewn all over the place. Looks like Jan had we working on the vehicles again. He raised an eyebrow as he looked at Jan's new masterpiece. It was a heavily modified Pelican. There had been plenty of melding and refit jobs to make the vehicle smaller. They only needed 5 seats, and the extra room would be a waste in weight and target size. Two chainguns were welded to hardpoints on each side of the cockpit. Another was welded to the top of the cockpit. A mismatch of missiles were attached to the wings. The wires for firing the missiles were still out in the open. Looks like Jan hadn't had time to finish the job yet. It was fine, they weren't using the vehicle for battle anyway. In the back, the small engine were replaced by oversized G-14 interceptor boosters. They looked quite odd and large on the compacted Pelican. Oh well. Jan never went for looks anyway. She preferred performance.

The others walked to the weapons rack in the hangar, and he followed. He would need an assault rifle for close range combat. He looked at the different models, and decided that the basic MA5B would do fine for him. He could now hear the hum of the Pelican's engines, and the heat from the powering engines. He snatched up a silenced assault rifle, and picked a few extra clips on his way. He jumped in, and they could hear Cal's voice.

"And we're off...to certain death."
"Shut the hell up! We're only going to Kroeger's for now."

The Pelican rose a few feet into the air, and the engines could be heard as they began to power up. Cal looked back from the cockpit to the troop area, and yelled out to Shadow.

"Hey Shadow, this new vehicle is a doozy, you might want to strap in."
"I don't use seatbelts Cal, remember?"
"Right."

The platform suddenly shook and began to rise. The ceiling of the hangar zipped open as the Pelican began to rise to the roof. The platform stopped as it came even with the top of the roof, and shadow watched as the Pelican began to start moving. All of a sudden, the powering up sound was replaced by an enormous explosion of heat and gas.

***VVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEE...BLAM...sksssssssss***

"What's wrong now Jan?"
"Er, I'm figuring it out now Cal, gimme a break."

Jan jumped off her seat, and bowled out of the hatch door. She flipped up the Pelican to the engine systems.

"Shut the damn things off will ya?"
"What?"
"Shut them OFF!"

Cal smiled snidely, and responded.

"What?"
"God damnit. Someone tell him to shut off the G-14s."
"Cal, stop playing games."
"Sorry Geb."

Cal flipped a few switches on the system and pulled down on the throttle.

***VRRREEeee....eeee...ee***

Jan opened up the top hatch of one of the engines and began fiddling around with the wiring. After a few minutes, a thump could be heard from the inside, and she jumped back off the Pelican and jumped back inside.

"This should work now."
"Yea, right."

The Pelican rocketed forward, jerking everyone near the open door of the ship. Shadow was nearly thrown off his seat, and would have fallen to his death if he hadn't been able to keep his center of gravity. They pulled up, higher and higher, the sight of the HQ becoming smaller and smaller. He looked through the window, and looked down at the town where the HQ was stationed. The small town was surrounded by forest, protecting it from any nosey outsiders looking for trouble. Plus, the townsfolk didn't really care about what the Dark Wolves did in their HQ. So, it was a practical location for the Dark Wolves to place their HQ.

"How long is the ride?"
"With this baby, 20 minutes."

He nodded and continued to look out the window, his nose pressed up against the glass. After 20 minutes of sitting in a stupor, looking out the window, Shadow finally noticed that the Pelican was slowing down. He looked down to the desert base. It was quiet now. No chainguns trailing his path. No missiles coming at his face. Damn, the guards even hailed him as a friendly. He looked down, and saw the remnants of 2 warthogs from the battle that they had neglected to bring back to the base for salvage. The Pelican, halted to a stop, and began lowering down to the pad on top of the base. All of a sudden, one of the engines died out partially, and the Pelican jerked to a crooked position.

"Jan, how about working OUT the kinks, not putting more in?"
"Sorry, I didn't have enough time, ok?"

The Pelican finally landed on the pad and everyone jumped out and ran to the main command center. Shadow led the way, he had been there already. They walked through a pair of sliding doors, through two corridors and to the second door on the right. Before they walked in, Spartans were sitting neatly and quietly in their rows, looking straight at Kroeger. As the Dark Wolves barged in, their heads turn in unison towards the rag-tag group of assassins. Kroeger's voice chimed in.

"How nice of you to join us."

Shadow looked to Kroeger and gave him the finger, then walked to the back, leaning in a dark corner of the room. He liked being out of the way, unnoticed. Kroeger smiled in return, and looked to the Dark Wolves.

"Well, you are already briefed, let me introduce you to- "

Geb interrupted rudely.

"Kroeger, we've already worked with John and his team. Lets just get going."
"Alright, Spartan III's, we'll get down to buisness."

Geb looked at Kroeger with surprise.

"How long have you known?"
"I figured it out a few days ago, Geb. But don't worry, we're not the government."
"I see."

It seemed Kroeger was onto them now.

"So, you guys better get on the mission."
"Aren't you coming with us?"
"No, first, I'm a general, and we don't go into battles. Even if I did, I would never keep up with you and the other Spartans."
"Ok, lets get this fuckin' straight Kroeger. We're not Spartans. Those godamn hybrids over there are."

Geb pointed an accusing finger towards Kelly.

"Hey, I resent that. You're just jealous because we are enhanced and you're not."
"Bah, you guys needed the damn enhancing. We didn't, we're fine without those damn augmentations."

The two groups were about to go at their throats when Shadow intervened.

"You guys are like little children. Settle our differences some other time guys, we have a mission to do."

The Dark Wolves grunted, and the Spartans nodded. They quietly shuffled out of the room, and retraced their tracks back out to the landing pad on top of the base. When they got up there, extreme wind bit into Shadow's face. Sand wretched as his skin as he strained to see what was going on. He looked to the Spartans as they quickly walked to the Pelican that was hovering in the air. Oh right, they had helmets to protect them from the damn winds. He smiled and trotted up after them, the other following him. They all jumped aboard and were off to a nearly impossible mission.

Rise To Honor - Part 12: Let The Party Begin
Date: 31 July 2002, 8:35 pm

The hum of the powerful Pelican engines dominated most of Shadow's hearing. The hum calmed him a bit, as he looked about the cabin. He jerked his cast between the Dark Wolves and the Spartans. Even in the many years of knowing their presence, and of having met them and fighting with and against them, Shadow still found the image of the Spartans to be quite impressive. They say that the Spartans resembled the image of the ancient Greek gods. He didn't even know what those gods looked like, but he was sure that they had to be quite intimidating to resemble that of the Spartans.

He reached into his electronics bag, and pulled out a small disk. It was a red disk, its data composure written in green, digital letters across the side. He eyed the disk for a few seconds and slowly clicked it into place on the COM system on his arm. He pulled out another object out of his bag. This time it was a small, black, bean shaped thing. He placed it in his ear and pressed a small little button on the system. It flashed red once, illuminating the semi-transparent skin of his ear, and then flashed off. He pressed a few buttons on his COM system, and all of a sudden a heavy rock band sounded through his mind. (AHHHH!!!! And I'm broken, I know I need you now 'Cause deep inside I'm broken You see the way I live. Cause I'm broken!) He smiled as the music flooded his head. He loved the music. It was mostly ancient music from a thousand years ago, but it didn't matter. Rock had gone out of popularity about 1000 years ago, and most people these days listened to techno and new age music. He didn't understand how it was called new age music. The style was invented a thousand years ago about when rock went down the tubes in popularity. It didn't make any sense to him. Oh well. Even though rock was pretty much an unheard of genre of music, a few companies still sold reprints of the ancient music. All of a sudden, his right ear could sense the voice of someone speaking to him.

"Hey, Dark Wolf, mind turning it down? My enhanced senses can hear it as well as you. I don't know why you Dark Wolves listen to that stuff for entertainment anyway. Don't you want to do something like pushups or sparring?"

It was Linda, he could tell her voice. Cal yelled from the other side of the cabin.

"Yea, how do you listen to that crap?"
"Fuck you Cal. I like this shit. You guys are all wimps listening to that techno shit, and you Spartans don't have a life, listening to jack shit."
"Yea, well you listen to some kind of bullshit that calls itself after some inanimate object."
"Ok, then what the fuck does techno mean then?"

The Spartan beamed in between the fight between Shadow and Cal.

"Hey, Dark Wolf member, are you going to listen to that music during the mission?"
"It helps me get my adrenaline going during near impossible, and critical missions. And James, I have a name you know."
"Why listen to music, won't it make it harder to hear?"
"That's what two ears are for my friend."
"A human simply does not have the complexity and the finesse to - "

Jan interrupted instantly.

"Well, Shadow sure as hell does."
"It's impossible. No human has the..."

Shadow turned the music way up high to drown out that damn Spartans talk. He sure as hell wasn't going to listen to it this loud in the battlefield. The leaking sound would give away his position, and the sound would drown out his ability to hear the sounds of others. Good thing his hearing was beyond most others', or he'd have to go into a difficult mission without his music. A continued to sit in his spot, listening to his music, when Geb interrupted his deep listening.

"Hey, Shadow, I've never heard Rock. Can I hear it for a second?"
"Here."

Shadow pulled the device out from his ear. As he did, the noise coming from the small earphone became louder. He tossed it to Geb. Geb snatched it out of the air, and examined the device for a few seconds. He shrugged and placed it in his ears. He immediately began shaking and moving about as if he was having a seizure of something. His eyes were shut tight, pain seeming to rush through his head. He pulled the earphone off and held it in his hand, looking at the earphone was if it was a bomb about to explode or something. He held his ear, and tossed it back to Shadow.

"Damn, how are you going to listen to that while you're in the mission?"
"I'll turn it down, don't worry."
"That music is horrible...why do you listen to it?"
"Why do you eat?"
"Because it's a necessity."
"Exactly."

Geb looked at him as if he was crazy. But it was true. Shadow really did need his music. He was lucky to have enough time these days to be able to fix that damn thing from constantly going on the fritz. He was about to put the earphone back in when John yelled over everyone. He snatched Jan's COM system and tinkered around with it for a few seconds to display a 3-D map of the city.

"This is the mission, when the Pelican comes to horizontal position, we will high jump from there, and use our MJOLNIR shields to protect us from the fall. From there, we'll secure the area. When all is secure, the Pelican will lower to the ground to land the rest of you Dark Wolves except Shadow. He will stay in the Pelican and will be dropped off at the top of the power plant before any of the enemies troops can respond with anti-air weaponry. The Pelican will retreat to a safe position to pick us up later after the mission is accomplished. From there, Shadow will supply sniper support for us as we make out way into the base. Any questions?"
"Yea, why can't the Pelican just drop us all off at the top of the power plant. Won't it be easier?"
"No, the Pelican would take to long to drop us all off. There is at least a 95% chance that the enemy troops will shoot the ship down before all of us can depart. That's why most of us are being dropped off at a less guarded area, and THEN moving to the power plant as Shadow provides cover. Everyone got it?"

A Spartans gave the proper response to a commanding officer.

"Sir, yes Sir!"

The Dark Wolves on the other hand...

"Whatever."
"Works for me."
"We're gonna die."

The Pelican came to a sudden stop, its engine as full power to keep the hulking machine up. The pilot yelled in from the cockpit.

"Alright Spartans, you're clear to HJ down to secure the area."

The Spartans each quickly jumped out of the wide open cargo doors and fell perfectly, legs first. The Pelican had to be at least 5 stories high. The military forces must have updated the suits' shield system to take high impact like that. He'd never seen them do it before. He jumped out of his seat and put his earphone back in his ear. The music was off, but he'd turn it on when the time came. He leaned on the edge of the Pelican, sniper scope sweeping the area where the Spartans were landing. He watched through the night-scope as each Spartan kicked up a lot of dust as they landed on the streets. Their already gold armor glowed a brilliant bright color as they smacked into the ground. He wondered if they're lack of camouflage would alert the other soldiers. The entire city was abandoned. Guess all the people were in hiding from stray shots between the battle. Smart civilians. There were no enemy soldiers. The Spartans moved into a pentagonal position, making sure that there were no enemies nearby. After a few seconds of staying in position, Shadow could hear a radio transmission from John.

***The area is clear, Jen you have clearance to land.***

The pilot, apparently named Jen, called back.

***Roger that, landing now.***

The Pelican jerked as the thrusters eased of their power, and the Pelican slowly hovered to the ground. They slowly reached ground level and the other Dark Wolves piled out of the ship, eye pieces on and active. Az looked at him carefully, and said something before leaving.

"Don't die Shadow."

He smiled and nodded in response.

***Jen, you are clear for re-takeoff. Good luck Dark Wolf member.***

Shadow assumed that John was talking to him. He stood up in the Pelican as it once again began to rise. He looked down as his baggy pants and loose shirt wavered in the howling, tearing winds. The Pelican once again began moving forward. He continued to stand, watching as the power plant drew closer and closer. With was a circular building, the top having one elevator in the center for going down to the second and first floors of the building. That was his way in once he finished providing cover fire for the team. Finally the Pelican came to an immediate stop.

"Jump. Quickly!"

He nodded and flung himself off the edge of the Pelican. He landed small crunch, and did a small roll before getting up. His legs were still a bit weak from his injuries. But he'd have to bear it out. He pressed a button on his COM system, and the music immediately started up again. He pulled his sniper rifle up and listened to the music while scanning for enemies.

(DROWWWWNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!)

He locked in his sights on the 9 Spartans and Dark Wolves. All of a sudden, two figures came out behind them, sneaking up closely. He smiled as the music came exactly when he fired the two shots.

*FTEW* *FTEW*
(ONE! Nothing wrong with me! TWO! Nothing wrong with me!)

The two shots popped off both their heads, and send them flying backwards. A few of the Spartans looked behind them in wonder at how fast Shadow fired those two shots. But the Dark Wolves kept on running, knowing Shadow's abilities already. Three more were about to snipe the troops from the rooftop.

*FTEW* *FTEW*
(FOUR! Nothing wrong with me! ONE! Something's got to give! TWO! Something's got to give!)

The three bodies slumped over, night-vision highlighted blood spilling out of their guts. The group was almost at the base. All of a sudden, he heard the sliding of the doors of the power plant. He swung his sniper rifle down, and saw nothing. The government forces must have been firing from inside the hallway to prevent sniper fire from hitting them. Smart move. Little did they know that their enemy was right above him. He pressed a button on his COM link twice, and then took out a grenade. One of the figures of the group stopped and motioned for the others to stop as well. Shadow smiled, and turned around, and began walking towards the elevator in the middle of the roof. He pressed the ignition button and carelessly tossed the grenade of his shoulder.

*clink* *clink* *BOOM!!!!!!!*
(AAHHHHH!!! LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOR! LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOR!)

The grenade had hid the ground level right in front of the entrance and had apparently blown the people at the doorway sky high. He smiled as EVA popped up on as a hologram on his COM system.

"You know Shadow, I've been meaning to talk to you."
"Hey, hey EVA. No 'hello's, no 'how ya doing's?"

The AI frowned and raised her eyebrow.

"I assumed that you wouldn't enjoy such tortures."
"You assumed right. We need to work on your sarcasm recognition."

Shadow slowly walked to the open elevator doors and closed them behind him. The hum of the engines sounded as the elevator began its descent. He strapped in his sniper rifle and pulled out his AR.

"Right, well...I've been thinking. Can you give me a different name?"
"Different name? EVA! I'm in the middle of a mission. Mind...just a sec EVA."

He put up his AR, and fired a few rounds in a suspecting guard at the entrance. Those fools. They would at least think to send more than one person to investigate. He looked at his COM, and saw no other human heat signatures in the area. He slowly walked out, AR ready. Two more were in the next room to the ahead and left. He could hear them talking about who was going in first to check it out. He smiled and dove across the doorway, assault rifle at full automatic. The damn, fat fools were unsuspecting and untrained to fight. The government was getting sloppy on who they were hiring. The bullets tore through their skulls and their neck, tearing their bodies as their lives were taken away. He landed on his shoulder. He did a quick flip to get up and silently moved into the room, head down, back arched down to make his already small figure even smaller and harder to hit. No other enemy forces. He looked around a bit more. There were two mainframe computers in the middle and a few side computers to handle the lesser functions of the power plant. He held up his AR, but remembered that the military had sent him on the mission to help take the city back, not disable its power. They had use for the city. He smiled and strapped in his AR, took a seat, and got down to work.

Meanwhile, the Spartans and the rest of the Dark Wolves were moving quickly through the hallway of the base floor. There were 4 rooms. Two on the left, and two on the right. At the end of the hall was the elevator to the second floor. 4 of the Spartans had ARs. Linda had a sniper rifle. Geb and Az had ARs, while Jan and Cal had shotguns. John was leading the group. The Spartans moved swiftly and as a team to investigate the left rooms, and the Dark Wolves split up quickly and efficiently to investigate the right rooms. All four were empty.

"Clear!"
"Hey Spartans, we got nuthin here."
"Lets moves to second floor."
"Cool."

The 9 troops quickly filed into the elevator, Linda taking up the rear, sniper rifle held up. She continued to keep her rifle up until the doors closed. The hum of the elevator made the situation very eerie and discomforting. A few clicks and clangs could be heard from the slight movements of the Spartans' armor. The opened quickly, and the Spartans led the way in. They rushed in with the Dark Wolves, all in the diamond formation. They all sighed and smiled as they saw Shadow sitting there at the computer screen, two guards dead in the base.

"8 for me, 0 for the big guys."
"Shaddap Shadow, you had all the chances, we're just getting warmed up."
"Dark Wolves, what is this you're speaking of?"

Jan explained.

"It's an old tradition. Every member of the Dark Wolves team competes for the highest amount of kills in our missions. So far Shadow is winning 8 to 0, 0, and 0."
"Games? Aren't you fools under the impression that this mission is critical to the survival of the human race?"
"Yes, and getting all jumpy and nervous about it like Jan only makes things worse, doesn't it? We like to keep it cool. We operate much smoother that way."
"I see. So, Shadow, how's the decoding going?"
"I've almost got it. I'm not much of a hack, Jan really should be the one sitting here, but alas, you guys move like snails."

Jan jogged over to the computer to help Shadow out.

"What are you having trouble with?"
"I can't get this damn code to work. I've already hacked it and pulled it out of their file batch in the log security files, but I can't get it to work. It's like their own security key doesn't work."
"You dumb dumb! Here let me sit down."
"By all means."

He stood up, grabbing his AR, and slinging it over his shoulder, watching intently on what Jan was doing. She pressed a few buttons, pulled a few strings, and smiled as the entire room went pitch black.

"How are we going to get out of here when even we can't see?"
"Don't worry, the backup generators will be coming on in 5,4,3,2..."

As she said two, the emergency lights flickered on.

"Damn, off by a whole seconds. Stupid me. So, what do we do now John?"
"We find the resistance."
"Shouldn't be too hard, especially in the cover of complete dark like this."
"Well, lets get moving Spartans...and..er..Dark Wolves."

Shadow lifted and eyebrow and took the rear as they exited the power plant and began phase two of the mission.

Rise To Honor - Part 13: In The Streets
Date: 4 August 2002, 3:46 am

Shadow walked out through the hallway and followed the others as they made their way out of the dimly, red-lit power plant. As they neared the exit, the door slid open, and everyone put their guns up, ready to fire at anything on the other side. But there was nothing. Just blowing sand, and a dark view of outstretching street that traveled through the entire city. Shadow pulled up his night-vision aided sniper rifle to see through the near-pitch black night. His eyepiece was destroyed during his attempt to escape from the military desert base, so he'd have to make do with the sniper rifle. They moved in a rough diamond shape, scanning the rooftops and the alleys for any possible enemies that could be moving up to attack them. The night vision blipped, and a contact appeared on his scope. The scanner normally would pick up just 9 contacts, the Spartans and the other Dark Wolves. But in this case, there was an additional one that blipped. It was on the roof on the left. He swung his rifle around and prepared to blast. But another loud shot came from the ground right next to him, leaving a white vapor trail behind it.

*BLAM*

The enemy soldier slumped over, a hole in his chest. As he slumped, his body tipped over, and fell to the ground. Shadow lowered his rifle and looked to Linda. She lowered her sniper rifle and began scanning for any other enemies. She had quite the fast trigger finger.

They continued to move along the street, looking for any enemy contacts. But none came. It seemed as if there were only minimal patrols tonight. He continued to move quickly, until they found a quiet alley. They quickly moved into the small section, making sure no enemies were dwelling in there. After they found safety, John spoke up through the COM systems. Shadow could hear the Spartan through the loud music he was listening to.

***I'm getting an encoded message from the desert base. It has military encryption, it must be Kroeger.***

John held up his hand to where his ear would be on the helmet, and he could now hear the message being relayed from the Spartan's suit to everyone's com channel.

***This is Kroeger. We've gotten a recent message from the resistance. They're hidden somewhere in one of the two parking lots. The line broke off before I could finished receiving the information. We must assume that they have been found out, and are under attack from the government. Those resistance fighters are absolutely necessary for the success of the mission. I'm issuing your team an additional mission parameter of saving the resistance leader. I'll contact you again if I have additional tactical information.***

The Spartans radioed back in the standard military response to a superior.

***Sir, yes sir!***

The Dark Wolves, on the other hand, didn't say anything remotely respectful.

***Yea, whatever.***
***Another parameter to an already impossible mission? These military dudes are all screwed up.***

Shadow looked at the others, and brought up EVA onto the channel.

"EVA, we need the best route to the closest of the two parking lots in the city. Quickly."
"Hold your horses, I'm working on it...got it. There's an alley directly across from your position. It leads to a parallel street. You need to get on that street."
"Fine."

He looked to the others and nodded to them. They nodded back, apparently having heard the conversation and understanding what they needed to do. They all swiftly moved out of the alley, scanning the rooftops and the street on both sides to check for enemies. Jan and Cal took the lead with their shotguns in hand. The other five followed in a loose formation, ready to provide support for the two soldiers. Shadow and Linda took up the rear, making sure no enemies sneaked up on their six. Shadow saw nothing on his COM system, and had no visual of enemies. He turned to Linda, and they both nodded. As he turned to follow the others, he heard shotgun shots.

*BLAM* *Cicket* *BLAM* *Cicket* *BLAM* *Cicket* *BLAM* *Cicket*

Shadow turned just in time to see two enemy government soldiers fly through the air and into the street on the other side of the alley. Jan and Cal nodded and continued on to the street, the others following.

***Incoming!***
(Is This What it takes! To keep me alive!)

He spun around again, and he and Linda both fired in unison at the two incoming soldiers.

*BLAM* *FTEW*

Linda's shot went right through the soldier's chest, blowing out blood in the exit wound. He fell to the ground, dead. Shadow's shot was powerful enough to push the soldier across the entire street and smash the government agent right into a broken down hover vehicle in a loud smash and crunch of bones. Linda turned to him, her body language showing that she apparently wasn't happy.

"Nice job. Alert the entire city why don't you?"
"Well, I don't hear your shots being quiet! That thing wakes up the dead!"

Linda heaved an enormous sigh and was about to argue back, when they both heard assault rifle blasts.

*GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE* *GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE*

They ran side by side through the alley to the next street. Shadow came out just in time to see the last enemy soldier get slammed with streams of bullets. None of the Dark Wolves or the Spartans looked hurt, but he got a nervous transmission from Jan.

***Everyone of your toes! Two enemy Scorps, down the road.***
***You sure? My sensors don't detect a thing, and this sandy wind is killing my visuals.***
(I don't want to waste my time, become another casualty of society, don't wanna fall in line, become another victim of conformity.)

Az popped in with a response for Jan.

***Trust me, Jan has the best sensor equipment. If she says its there, then its there.***
***Fine, I'm trusting you mercenaries. How far?***
***25 KM. They will be in firing range within 10 secs.***

Linda radioed a transmission.

***My scope doesn't zoom that far.***

Shadow didn't say anything. He just jogged up ahead of everyone, and kneeled down. He looked through the scope. It was 3x right now. He clicked a switch 3 times, and it zoomed 25x. All he saw was dust. Maybe Jan was actually wrong...or maybe...He had an idea. He zoomed back out once to 20x. There they were. He had zoomed to far. He grinned and fired two quick shots.

*FTEW* *FTEW*
(I try so hard, and get so far, but in the end, it doesn't really matter.)

The first shot blew right through the Scorpion Tank's muzzle, blowing open the entire gun platform. As it exploded, it set the entire tank on fire. The second shot went through the tank's cockpit, killing the driver. The tank continued to glide along for a few seconds, and slowly stopped moving as its driver died at the controls. He stood up and slung his rifle over his shoulder.

"So, where do we go now EVA?"

The AI popped up on his COM system as a hologram, her cloaked body hiding her face.

"We keep moving north along this street. The garage should be directly at the end of the street as it goes to a T-intersection."
"Alright."

The others probably didn't hear the conversation as the wind howled throughout the street. He decided to repeat the instructions to the others.

***We move up ahead north along this street. The garage should be at the end of it.***
***Roger***
***Hope you're right Shadow.***

They swiftly moved along the road. They continued to move along the road, scanning the rooftops for enemies. There were none. After what seemed like hours, they could see the garage up ahead.

***6 bogies, up ahead! They're lined up...looks like they cutting off an escape route for the resistance. Guess the resistance really IS under attack.***

Az gave a simple answer.

***Lets blow through them and go inside, and save their asses before its too late!***
***We can't! My sensors show that they have implemented a software lockdown system. They've closed and locked the garage doors. Those things are made of titanium!***
***So, Dark Wolves, how do we get in?***
(It's my time to fly!! Follow me into the night!)

Geb smiled and gave a thoughtful answer.

***We get to the roof of one of the nearby buildings. The top of the garage must have a ventilation entrance somewhere. We'll use shadow's grappling hook to zip over to the roof of the garage and enter through there.***
***Sounds like a plan Dark Wolf. Linda and Shadow, you are to take out those bogies stationed at the entrance while the rest of us will secure a rooftop.***
***Roger.***
(Can't Believe!!!!)

Linda pulled up her rifle while Shadow kneeled down, aiming for the heads.

*BLAM* *FTEW* *FTEW* *BLAM* *FTEW* *BLAM*

The enemies all slumped over, dead, and enormous puddles of blood spilling out of their already decaying bodies. They nodded to each other, and went to catch up to the others. Shadow took the lead while Linda secured the rear. He snapped in his sniper rifle on his strap, and jumped onto the ladder, climbing up like a spider at lightening speed. Linda made sure there were no more enemies, and then made her way up the ladder. They ran to the edge of the rooftop where the other were looking over, analyzing the situation. Shadow tossed the pistol to James, the strongest of the Spartans.

***Just aim and fire. Hold on to the pistol while the rest of us cross. When its your turn, press that trigger over here and the wire will retract, bringing you over as well. Got it?***
***Understood***

James aimed, and fired within a mere second of his conversation with Shadow. The garage was a story shorter than the building they were on, so the wire would be pointing down as they flew over. This way, they wouldn't have any problems with getting stuck in the middle of the trip. He pulled on the wire a few times to make sure it was secure, and nodded to Cal. Cal nodded back and was the first to fly over. He took his shotgun and placed over taut wire. He pushed off the edge of the roof and quickly slid of the wire, screaming.

"I'm gonna die!"
***ZIIIIIIIIPPPPPP!***

Cal landed in a small puff of dust, immediately searching the area for enemies. He raised his hand, sending out a transmission at the same time.

***It's all safe here.***

The others fell in suit, Shadow being the last before James came over. As he zipped over, the world seemed to fly by him, and he felt as if he was going to fall and die. But he knew that wasn't going to happen unless he was too heavy for James. He landed in a thud as he hit the roof. He pulled his rifle off from the wire and immediately went to join the others who were huddling near something. James came in immediately behind him. He too landed in a quick thud, and ran to catch up. He tossed Shadow the pistol while they jogged to meet with the others.

***Looks like a ventilation shaft alright. I want Fred and Kelly to be the first ones down there. If it's going to be a heavy firefight, the MJOLNIR armor will take more of a beating than unprotected flesh would.***
***You saying we can't handle the heat of battle?***
***Yes, your more vulnerable.***
***This is bullshit. These damn military fucks are outright insulting us.***
***Relax Geb. They're right. We don't have the protection that they do. It may be an insult to our whopping egos, but the Spartan IS right.***

Geb just grumbled over the radio, and followed as the Spartans jumped through the hatch. Shadow was the last one. He strapped in his sniper rifle, and pulled out his MA5B. It would be more effective indoors. He jumped through the hatch. He expected an immediately landed through the pitch black darkness of the shaft. What he got was a 10 foot drop into the heart of the garage. He landed on concrete, and light flooded in. It was dim light, many of the lights having been blown out already, but it was brighter than the shaft. He looked around. The Spartans and the Dark Wolves were already in the midst of pushing the government troops back. He watched as the rag-tag group of resistance fighters helped out as well. Bodies were strewn all over the place, and he could smell burning flesh as he walked through, firing his rifle in the general direction of the enemy.

"We're glad you guys came. The military commander said you'd be here. We could use your help in getting these fools out of here."

Shadow nodded and ran up ahead to the others. All of a sudden, the right wall exploded, sending shrapnel and concrete flying everywhere. One of the resistance fighters exploded into a million pieces as the wall blew up right in front of him. Another fighter had his head lopped off by a chunk of concrete flying his way. Shadow dove to the right and flattened himself out as an enormous pieces flew right at him. Once the pieces of rock and concrete had stopped flying everywhere, he flipped up and began firing into the smoke where the explosion had come from. He could hear distant fighting in other parts of the garage, but he had no time to help them elsewhere, he needed to help the fighters here. He finished off his round, and tossed a grenade in from his sack of devices.

*GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE* *GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE*
*flick* *kink* *kink* *BOOM!*
(She loves me not! She loves me not!)

He dove behind a box and pulled out the clip. He fit another in, and was about to dive in as he felt something graze his hair. He looked up and saw a small beam white light flood in through the wall of the box. More holes became visible as he sat there behind the box. They were shooting through his cover! It was time to leave. He dove out from behind, and fired a few more rounds into the two remaining government troops in the area.

*GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE* *GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE*
*GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE*

The bullets thrashed through the soft flesh of the government troops, and they collapsed to the ground, blood flying everywhere. He got up from his dive and took a look around. Three dead resistance fighters, but there were still two alive, moving towards the hole to police the enemies' weapons. He nodded to them and moved up ahead to the next part of the garage. He zigzagged through the maze of cars as he ran towards an open fence where the main fight was occurring. All of a sudden, he saw a slight bulge in the concrete wall to his left, and then saw it fall apart in pieces. A huge scorpion tank drove through hole, and began turning its muzzle towards the forces in the main garage area. He needed to do something, or the resistance fighters, Spartans, AND Dark Wolves would all be dead. He quickly dropped his assault rifle and pulled out his rifle with his other hand on in one smooth motion. He fired a blue vapor trailed blast right into the main part of the tank.

*FTEW*

The shot went right through the tank, and into the wall behind it, driving 20 feet into the thick concrete before stopping. The tank collapsed right in its middle where the hole was made, and exploded in a fury of fire. His skin felt like it was melting off as the flames hit him. He was blown back and into a car behind him. He heard the crash of a window and the pain of the shards of the glass stabbing into his back. Not good. He slowly pulled himself out of the window of the car, and kneeled over on one knee, aching from the pain of the heat and the glass lodged in his back. He couldn't get it out now, he'd have to get to one of the Spartans or Dark Wolves first. He slowly struggled to stand up, and began to walk through the open fence towards the main garage area.

He could hear no more fire. Guess it was over now. Dead bodies littered the entire area, and empty assault rifle shells still clanged as they rolled along the ground. He was about to walk up to the medical area, where all the fighters were heading to, but he could hear the pained, muffled screams of help from somewhere in one of the garage atriums. He resolved to find the injured person, and turned to the sound of the calling, the loud rock music still blasting in his earphone.

Rise To Honor - Part 14: Hitting Where It Hurts
Date: 9 August 2002, 1:39 am

He slowly walked over to where the voice was calling out for help.

"Can anyone hear me? I need help here!"
(I was spinning free, whoooooaaaaa!)

He listened carefully. The sound was coming from the left. He saw a crumbled wall, and an enormous pile of concrete and granite leaning against the half blown wall. He guessed that the soldier was trapped under there. He unstrapped his rifle, his back panging in the extreme pain of the glass lodged in his back. He'd take it out now, but he didn't have the time. If he wanted to save this resistance fighter before he ran out of air, he'd have to act now. He aimed with his rifle right at the center of the pile. Then he remembered. The rifle round would go right through the soldier if he shot using the rifle. Well, he guessed he'd have to do it the old fashioned way. He dropped his sniper rifle and it landed in a loud clank on the metallic floor beneath him. He slowly kneeled down, trying to take the pain of the glass as he descended. The job was too big, he'd need a cutter.

"EVA, where is the nearest cutter utility around here?"
"Scanning...there's one near the resistance med center. But at the rate you're moving, you'll never get there and back before the guy runs out of air."
"Fine."

He pressed a few buttons, his fingers moving at a rapid rate. Some of the buttons were behind EVA's hologram. He didn't bother to go around, he just shoved his finger through the image and onto the buttons that were needed. EVA didn't seem to like it, but that was her problem.

Connecting to Channel 144345663:
Connected.

***Jan, or someone, I need anyone that can move. There's a beam cutter right outside the resistance med office. I need it to cut out a trapped soldier.***

He waited a few seconds, and a response came after a while. From the sound of the voice, it was Az.

***Be right there Shadow, moving as quick as possible.***

He continued to kneel down, but said nothing to comfort the trapped soldier. He didn't want to the poor guy to give up his hopes that he was going to be saved. Already, his chances were too slim for any real chance at getting out of there. Shadow didn't bother to give him the chance to know that he was so close, but have his heart drop a thousand miles down after realizing that they won't get to him in time. His mind raced on about that type of thing until he heard the barely audible clanging on the ground. It was Az all right. She was a silent walker, being an assassin and all, and she had trained herself to be as quiet as possible. He was getting impatient, and the cries of the trapped soldier were getting more and more frantic. She sprinted around the corner and dove cutter first into the rock. She landed on her knees, digging into the granite immediately. A yellow beam blew out of the nose at the front, and began slicing right through the rocks. The rocks split in half, their insides melting in a molten orange.

"I think I'm breaking through."
"Lower the power level, we don't want to burn right through the soldier."
"Right."

She turned a switch and the beam became less intense, but nonetheless, still cutting at a fast rate. Finally, the last rocks gave away, and the hole was broken open. Shadow immediately pulled up his sniper rifle, snatching it from the ground. He expected a resistance member, but he saw a government agent, sitting in the cavern of rocks. He held the rifle right at the soldier's nose, Az holding her pistol at an arm's length.

"Get up."

The soldier silently stepped out of the hole and stood up. He stood tall and respectful. Shadow nodded to Az. She dropped her pistol and patted the guy down. No weapons. He must have lost his rifle when the avalanche of rock hit him. Man, it was all just a big waste of time.

"Well, you're no threat to us, but we could use you for information on your commander's base."
"Alright."

He was cooperating quite easily. There must be something up. Was he planning on running? No, this soldier didn't look that stupid. Was he going to give them false information that would send them to a trap? Possibly. But the Spartans could probably tell if the fool was lying or not. They'd have to be wary of the information that this soldier gives.

"Shadow, I need to get back tot he med center, we have a lot that need medical attention. Can you handle him?"
"Don't insult me Az."

She didn't acknowledge his last comment, but instead, merely dashed off back to the med center. He pulled off his earphone, the blasting music ceasing to ram sounds into his mind. Shadow looked to the soldier. He saw and insignia on his left shoulder. It was a small eagle with a bomb clutched in its beak. That could mean only one thing: this soldier was a mercenary, not a government regular. It meant that the mercenary only held loyalty to the government where there was money. And if it meant his life or the loyalty to a government that was merely paying him to do his job, he would most likely choose life.

"Look, you don't look like the type of guy that is very loyal to the government, but that means we can trust you even less. Right now, we have people in there that are fighting for their lives. Help us save some lives."
"You're right. I never wanted to be with the government in the first place. I was forced in by...certain people."
"Well, lets get going."

He dashed forwards, constantly looking back to make sure the soldier was following. After a few twists and turns in the labyrinth-like garage, they made their way to the med center. He heard the voice from one of the Spartans. It was Kelly, and she had her helmet off right now, and was working on a critically wounded soldier.

"Damnit. Good. Dark Wolf, we need you're help. I need you to get me the tools I need when I ask for them."
He nodded, and stood by the medical table where all the tools were being held.

"Scissors. The long, bendy kind."
"You mean the U-gen scissors. I'm not stupid Kelly. I know what these medical tools are."
"Alright."

They continued to work quickly, as she desperately tried to save the soldier. In the background, he could hear the yelling and screaming of other patients in other parts of the med center, being attended to by the Spartans and the other Dark Wolves.

*beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee*

Kelly rose from the table, a look of frustration and sadness in her face. He looked to the stat system on near the soldier. The line was straight. No movements.

"We did all we could."
"Yea."

They looked to the others, and began to help with the rest of the wounded.

An hour later, the saving had been finished, and the survivors were doing various things. Geb, John and the resistance leader were talking about plans on attacking the government, and were looking down at a hologram of the building they were going to assault. A few of the resistance fighters were attending the wounded in the med area. The Dark Wolves, Spartans, and the government soldier were all sitting in the middle of the garage. Some were checking equipment, one was guarding the soldier, and Shadow was just looking out through the gaping hole in the wall, leading straight out to the dark night.

"So, what are you going to do with me?"
"Probably let you go back and do what you want once we accomplish our mission."
"Really?"
"Yea, most of you're a hired merc anyway. You hold no real loyalty to the government."
"True."

Shadow looked to the blueprint table where Geb and the others were arguing over invasion strategies.

"No, I say an aerial drop would be the best."
"But they'll be expecting that. Plus they have anti-air guns stationed at the top of the building. None of your vehicles will ever get by those."
"So what do we do?"
"I say we split up into three groups."
"Three?"
"Yes. The first group will consist of the Spartans. They will go in through a side entrance that is relatively unprotected."
"Yes, but they'll have so many security measures."
"That's where the Dark Wolf group comes in. They'll use a grappling hook to head over to the top of the building. I'm guessing the AA guns are computer automated and will not detect incoming targets as small as us. We'll gain entrance through the roof. This hologram shows that the security room is at the top floor. We'll break in there and take out all security measures. After that, the Spartans will break in at the ground floor, shoot a few, and make their way to the heart of the building where the commanders are located. Meanwhile, Dark Wolf group will make their way down from the top level to the commander's room, and make a good path for the Spartans once they've assassinated the commanders. Both groups will make their way to the roof and get extracted up there after we disable the AA guns."
"But I'm sure that external security will see them as they swing over to the roof. After that, they'll be finished."
"That's where group 3 comes in. They'll consist of Shadow and Linda. They'll take a building adjacent to the government building, and start attacking the guards. The guards will be distracted in their response to Shadow and Linda. That's when group two makes their run to the roof of the government building. Once team 3 has finished the distraction and eliminated all external security, they'll use a grappling hook to move the roof for extraction."
"Sounds like a good plan. The Spartan group will be team red, the Dark Wolf team will be team black, and the snipers will be team blue."

Shadow nodded and listened as everyone was rounded up to go.

"Dark Wolves! We're leaving!"
"Fuck."
"Shit, we're gonna die!"
"Fine."

"Spartans, prepare to mission pre-sequence."
"Yes sir!"

Rise To Honor - Part 15: Infiltration...Again
Date: 10 August 2002, 9:07 pm

Shadow stood at the edge of a 3 story building, the wind blowing hard at his face, the sand ripping through his cheeks and stinging his eyes. But he kept on watching the towering business building where the government commanders were planning their next move. He wondered if they were suspecting anything. Linda was right next to him, sniper rifle slung over her shoulder. He looked past her towering figure and viewed black team on a roof of an adjacent building. That team was to infiltrate through the roof, but only after the snipers proved the diversion. Then the Dark Wolves, known as black team in this op, would get to the security room that right below the roof entrance. Kind of a stupid place to put their only way of blocking infiltration. But he guessed that the original building's security room was there, and the government hadn't bothered to move it. Stupid. Black Team would shut down the security measures, allowing the Spartans, known as red team, to infiltrate through the ground level while the snipers were still providing cover. Red team would make their way into the heart of the building, finding the commanders and assassinating them. Meanwhile, Black Team would make their way down past the security room and meet up with Red Team to make sure the mission parameter was accomplished. After that, both teams would make their way to the roof, and a dropship would be there waiting for them. It was quite the risky mission, and the reckless plan made it even worse, but honestly, he couldn't think of a better one. He just hoped that the dropship would be there when it was supposed to be.

***This is Black Leader. Blue Team, you're go for diversion.***

Kelly responded in the normal military lingo.

***Roger.***

Shadow, on the other hand...

***Is that you Geb? Tell everyone that I'm still winning!***
***Shut up, we'll meet plenty of baddies inside the building that you'll never be able to touch.***
***We'll see.***

The transmission was killed, and he raised his rifle. In his peripheral vision, he could see Linda aiming her rifle too, ready to strike.

"EVA, I want you to hack into my scope and get it to highlight all enemies in bright green boxes"
"Done."

He nodded and began firing, as did Linda.

*FTEW* *BLAM* *FTEW* *FTEW* *BLAM* *BLAM* *FTEW* *BLAM* *BLAM* *FTEW* *FTEW* *FTEW* *FTEW* *BLAM* *FTEW* *FTEW* *BLAM* *BLAM* *FTEW* *BLAM* *BLAM* *FTEW* *FTEW* *FTEW*

The blasts left multiple blue and white vapor trails each time they fired. Shadow targeted most of the hardened targets, like the scorpion tank, hover warthogs and parked hornets. He'd have to make sure those things stayed out of commission. Linda, with the weaker weapon, focused on the softer targets, like soldiers...and...more soldiers. He blasted, and a scorpion tank blew up, taking out two hover warthogs with it. He fired at another tank, and another. They both blew up in nice hot fire. But the smoke was covering the entire area. Linda yelled over the fire.

"Reload, cover me."
"Hurry."

The smoke was getting to irritating. He had to do something about it.

"Damnit. EVA, smoke reduction."
"Done."

The smoke immediately became somewhat semi-transparent in the scope, and he could see a few of the gun emplacements. He fired at those. The first blast landed right at the base of the gun, toppling it over and sending the operator flying out. He fired again, and the sliding soldier lost his head. He swiveled and blasted another gun emplacement, causing it to explode in a fury of red and orange heat. He turned, and blasted the last gun emplacement, sending the slug right through the soldier, as he toppled over to the ground without an abdomen. He could hear Linda's voice yelling to him from the middle of the roof where she was reloading.

"Get BACK! GET BACK!"

He didn't bother to contest her exclamation. He jumped back, sliding on his back as machine gun fire slammed into the edge, blowing off hunks of concrete and rock.

"Thanks Linda."
"Anything for an ally."

He nodded and watched as the machine gun fire continued towards the edge. The fire soon began to dwindle, and eventually stopped. They looked to each other, although it was more or less a one-way thing. He couldn't see her through the shiny helmet she had on, but he was as clear as water to her. They looked back to the edge, and ran towards it, sniper rifles drawn.

***Black Team, you have go for infiltration of roof. Go now.***
***Roger.***

Geb nodded to the others, and took out a grappling hook pistol. He fired it towards the roof of the business building, but he missed. The slacked wire came tumbling down towards the ground. He sighed and pulled the trigger again. The wired immediately began snapping back towards the pistol, slithering in the air like a snake. As the wire snapped back into position, he aimed, and fired again. This time, the wire stayed tight. He jerked it a few times, and nodded. He took out a device from a bag he had brought from the garage. He had borrowed one of the rocket propelled zip lines from the resistance. He placed the large device under the wire, and clipped it on. He pulled at it a few times to make sure it was secure, and then attached the rocket. He heard Az ask a question.

"You think they're going to notice us with this loud thing?"

Geb looked to the two snipers on the adjacent building, sending hell from above.

"Nope."

He smiled as he said it.

"Cal, you're first."

Cal nodded, and strapped in his shotgun. He grabbed the handle on the zip line, and released the lock. The rocket activated and sent Cal flying through the air. Meanwhile, Geb struggled to keep hold of the pistol and anchor it while Cal was flying.

*FFFFFFFFFFFFFSSSHHHHHHHSHHH*
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!"

After a few seconds, the lines came zipping back. Geb nodded to Jan. She did the same, only without the yelling. Then it was Az's turn. When the zip line came back for him, he detached it from the wire, and tossed it to the ground. He held the pistol up, and pressed the trigger, sending him up to the building. As he went, gravity and inertia had taken affect, and he was about to slam into the business building wall. He held out his feet, and winced as they collided with the wall. He wasn't that heavy of a guy, but still, it was painful. He pushed off the wall again before the line could drag him along the edge of the building. The wind blew along his face, pulling his cheeks back. In fact, if there were a vid of him doing this, it'd probably be quite funny. Finally, he reached the roof, gasping for air.

Cal smiled.

"What took you?"

Geb wasn't in the mood for sarcastic Cal.

"Shut the hell up."

Jan intervened.

"Well, while you were taking your good old time getting to the roof, we found the spot on the roof that is directly over the security room. The bad news is that they have two soldiers stationed there."
"We'll still blow the roof, but first I want you take out the AA's."
"Alright."

Jan took out a small, boxy device from her pouch. She eyed it a bit; making sure it had survived the trip, and placed it on the AA gun. Meanwhile, the others ran to take cover behind a block of steel a few hundred feet away. It was a mismatched explosive, with stick dynamite taped to certain spots, and two grenade strapped on at other parts of the box. She dialed a few buttons, and then took out another one of those strange devices and ran to the next AA gun and did the same. She ran to the third and fourth, and when she was finished, all four guns were wired with explosives. She dashed from the last AA gun to the block where the others were hiding. She held a one-button detonator in her hand.

"This should work."

*KABOOOM* *KABOOOM* *KABOOOM* *KABOOOM*

Shrapnel and explosive heat slammed into their faces as the explosion made its way closer to them. It was TOO close. The fire was right in front of them. But it ceased just in time. The AA guns were nothing but craters now.

"Woops. Looks like I used too much TNT on those."
"You think? You could have barbecued us!!"
"Relax, we're not dead, now ARE we?"

Geb jumped into Cal and Jan's "discussion."

"Jan, place another one of those buggers, right where the security room is."
"Right."

She did so, and they all hid behind the steel block again. The explosion sounded, and they ran at full speed to the gaping hole that was created. Az was the first to make it there, and she crouched, scanning through the hole, seeing if she can nail the enemies from there. There was one.

*GE**GE**GE**GE*

The blast tore through the soldier. He grasped at his blown chest as he fell to the ground.
She jumped down, and assessed the situation. There was a second enemy soldier. She wouldn't have time to lift her gun. She dove right at his feet before he could fire. She tripped him, and then lifted her gun while he was discombobulated.

*GE**GE**GE*

The others jumped down as she finished off the last guy in the forehead. The room was actually quite cramped. It was full of vid sets and computer screens linked up. There was food everywhere. Those slobs. A single bulb at the roof of the building dimly lit the room.

"So, lets blow this place."
"NO! Jan's going to hack through and disable it all. We can't take chances by just blowing everything sky-high Cal. Jan, get on it."
"Roger."

She sat down at one of the two chairs and began to fiddle around at the main computer screen.

"Hmmm, this will take me a little while. If only EVA was here to help me hack."

Geb kicked open the door to the hallway, and poked his head through. Nothing. A few security cameras, but they had the security room now. He pulled back into the room just as Jan was finishing.

"I needed to use one of their own remote protocol systems to hack through their server, and I needed a connection that routed faster than the old 0C6's that they had, so I needed to rerout-"
"Did you get the system offline Jan? That's all I want to know."
"Yes, it's finished. Tell the Spartans that they're clear to go."

John was picking up a weak signal. Barely audible, but it was still there. Static was all over, but he was just able to pick up what they were saying.

***Tea- *shssssssss* you *shssssssssss* to go!!***

John couldn't make it all out, but he got the drift.

"Red team, lets move in!"
"Roger!"

John shot his assault rifle a few times through the lock and immediately kicked it in.

*GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE* *WHAM!* *CRUNCH*

The door fell open, giving way to the Spartan's massive strength. Even made of titanium, it was dented in the shape of the John's boot. After kicking down the door, he kneeled down, assault rifle aimed. Sure enough, there was a frightened guard at the door, his gun slung over his shoulder. He fired a few rounds into the soldier's gut and he fell to the ground, head first. A pool of blood quickly flooded out of the holes that were torn through his skin. John jumped over the dead body and ran to a T-intersection at the end of the hall, his teammates right behind him.

"Hallsey maneuver. Go!"

John jumped to the left, his gun pointed at the left hallway leading out of the T-intersection and quickly kneeled down. James jumped to the right and kneeled down as well. Kelly stood behind John, her gun aimed at the hallway, right over John's head. Fred did the same with James.

"Clear!"

4 reticules blinked as he announced a declaration. The blinking told him that they had acknowledged his exclamation. He thought of a minimap in his mind, and immediately his helmet HUD brought up a transparent blueprint of the entire building. He ran forwards, Kelly right on his tail. James and Fred backed out from their positions for a few seconds, and then swiftly turned to catch up with the others. The hallway cut a quick left, and John slammed his back against the right wall, slowly peeking over to see what was on the other side. Nothing. He slid out from the wall and re-commenced his run towards the elevator. The others followed in quick suit. At the end of the hall was the elevator. The radar indicator on his HUD indicated that the distance was 1000 feet...900...700....400...

*GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE* *GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE*

*GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE* *GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE*

*GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE* *GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE*

*GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE* *GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE*

*GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE* *GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE*

He dove backwards as all the doors in front of him in the hallway swung open, soldiers bawling out. He could hear the doors behind him swing open as well. He turned behind him, and then back to his front. He and the Spartans immediately began to fire in the general direction of the enemy, trying to brave the impact of the bullets as they tore through the shields and make their way through his enforced armor. Each time his shields took a hit, his back strained to handle the recoil of the hits.

*GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE* *GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE* *GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE* *GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE* *click* *click* *click*

He was out. He kneeled down and unhooked his clip. The image on the rifle blipped out and reappeared as he snapped in a new clip. He was about to begin fire again when he could hear the screams of Fred. The Spartan fell to the ground, bullet holes through his gut. John screamed out and began firing in a great rage. Another Spartan fell but the rest kept on firing. He kept on pounding the bullets into the enemies, calming down with each of his reloads.

After 2 whole minutes of intense fire, the battle was over. John was still breathing very heavily, slowly relaxing and cooling down. Bodies of enemies were strewn all over the ground. Puddles of blood and stains of the crimson liquid were splotched all over the hallway, staining the doors and everything. In total, two of the Spartans were seriously injured. Fred had a major wound in his stomach. The blood was slowly pouring out of through his armor staining it with its dark red color. But he was Spartan; he could handle it. James got hit in the shoulder. He wound his arm a few times as if he was throwing a ball, but seemed to be all right. As for John and Kelly, their shields held out long enough for them to eliminate the enemy before sustaining any wounds.

"Everyone still with me?"
"Yea, we're here boss."
"Good. The elevator is right ahead of us, lets get going."
"Roger."

He got up from his kneeling position and quickly kicked open the elevator door, smashing it into the back wall. They all got in, and the elevator ascended.

"They'll know we're coming. We should have taken the stairs."
"They'll know either way. It's better than taking the stairs."

The elevator finally came to the commanders' floor and john and the others kneeled down, ready to take fire. But there was no one to meet them. He thought again of the minimap, and it was brought up right in front of him on his HUD. He located the room where the commanders were located and rushed towards it. There were no windows in the room, so they had no idea what would be waiting for them inside. He motioned for James and Kelly to take the other side of the door while he and Fred stayed on the left. He looked up the radar on his HUD, and it detected quite a few more heat signatures than there were commanders. He motioned to Kelly, and she took out a charge from her metal backpack. She adjusted it with a few dials and snapped it on the door.

"On 3."
"1, 2........3!"

Kelly clicked the detonator and the door went flying backwards, pulling out of its hinges.

*BLAM*
"shi.."
*SLAM* *CRUNCH*

The door had slammed into one of the enemies inside, crunching his bones. John kneeled down and peeked to through the blackened doorway. He immediately began fire upon the enemy. He took a few hits from enemy fire, but his shields were holding up.

"Take Cover!"

Kelly had detached a frag II grenade and was in the process of throwing it in. The rest of the Spartans dove out of the way of the doorway. As he dove out of the way, John watched a few of the enemy commanders dive out of the way into another part of the room. It was useless. The explosion would be too big.

*clink* *clink* *KABOOOOOOOOOM*

The explosion blew out the entire room, the flames blazing out through even the doorway. If the Spartans weren't wearing their armor, they too would probably have been burnt to a crisp. As it was, he could feel the amazing heat through even the thick hide of his armor.

The Spartans charged in the room and checked for any survivors, being especially careful with the commanders by checking their pulse. John wondered how the Commanders be as stupid as to all be in the same room at the same time. A sense of doubt lingered in his head as the others checked the pulses. Perhaps there were more in the building at other locations. It didn't matter. He completed the mission parameter of destroying all Commanders in the designated room. They had done what they were told. There weren't too many snags to the mission, although the saving of the resistance fighters was a pretty big one.

"Clear!"
"Good, main mission parameter complete. Lets get to the roof."

As John turned around, he heard a large explosion from outside the room. He dashed out to see what it was, and he smiled behind his helmet when he saw Geb slide down a rope from the hole in the roof.

"Well, looks like you guys cleaned up quick enough."
"We need to get to the roof."
"That's already taken care of."

Geb pointed to the hole right above him.

"Jan had a few tricks up her sleeve. This thing goes all the way to the roof."
"Lets go then."

Geb nodded and his line pulled him up through the hole and slid out of sight. A second later, 4 more lines came rolling down from above. John and the others ran to the hole in the roof, ready to grab the lines. But before he could get there, he heard the swooshing sound of an automatic door. He swung around, and immediately began fire on the troops that were flooding in.

"Incoming!"
"Roger."

The Spartans zoomed up through the hole, firing their rifles as they went. He could hear the enemy troops getting closer to the hole. He re-positioned his rifle towards the hole beneath him and began firing on the troops that were investigating their route of escape. Rogue bullets bounced off his shields, doing nothing. He finally reached the top and hopped up to the roof. The AA guns were gone, and Shadow and Linda were waiting there with the rest of the Dark Wolves.

"So where's our fuckin' ride?"
"It's coming Dark Wolf, don't be impatient."

Az looked up and spoke out.

"Won't the external defenses shoot down the Pelican?"

Shadow nodded and replied.

"The AA guns are gone, and Linda and I killed all the ground troops. And I believe that puts me ahead of all of you."

He smiled and turned. Geb thought a bit before realizing that he was talking about the amount of kills he had.

Cal suddenly heard a footsteps coming in from the floor below.

"Hold it. They're coming!"

Everyone each positioned himself or herself as they wished. Shadow and Linda fell back to the other side of the roof, holding their sniper rifles up. Cal and Jan ran to the side of the protruding doorway, ready to pound incoming enemies with their shotgun. The rest of the team strategically placed themselves around the middle of the roof with their rifle up. The door swung open, and Jan got the first hit. The blast sent the enemy flying into one of the sidewalls and collapsing on the stairs. The next enemies began to come in through the door, flooding out into the roof.

*GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE* *GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE* *GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE**GE*

*BLAM* *cicket* *BLAM* *cicket* *BLAM* *cicket* *BLAM* *cicket* *BLAM* *cicket* *BLAM* *cicket* *BLAM* *cicket*

*FTEW* *FTEW*

*BLAM* *BLAM*

The fight raged on. Shadow zoomed in and began taking random enemy targets. They each fell to the ground, either headless or without a chest in their body. Suddenly, and enemy soldier tossed a grenade towards Shadow. He blasted the guy all the way through the doorway, but the grenade was already thrown. Linda dove out of the way, but Shadow didn't have the time. The grenade clinked a few times across the steel ground stopping about 10 feet in front of him. The foolish soldier had under-thrown it. Of course that was worse than the soldier having thrown it over the roof but better than landed right in front of him. The grenade cracked, and fire came out, blowing right into his face. The loud explosion deafened him, hopefully temporarily. The fire wasn't that bad, for the grenade was too far away to do much. But the explosion had send him stepping back, tripping over the roof edge. Fear hit him as he realized that he was going to fall thousands of feet to the ground before he snapped his head. Fortunately, his hand caught grab of the roof edge before that fate hit him. His other hand still grasped desperately onto his sniper rifle. His fingers were slipping, and he was going to fall. All of a sudden, an enemy soldier's head popped out from the edge of the roof. Shadow used the last of his strength to pull his sniper rifle up and blow the soldier's head to kingdom come. Wet, soppy, blood splattered all over his face as the head of the enemy popped off his neck socket. He was slipping, and all the sounds and everything drowned out of his head. All he could see was the black night looming over him, and his thoughts on death. He could still hear the music slamming into his mind.

(Sorry! It's over!!! Sorry! It's over!!! Sorry! It's over!!!)

He continued to hold on, the sand tearing into his struggling fingers. Fear was in his mind, but it stayed in the back of his head. Fear was not a problem, it was all a blast to him. It he was going to die, then it what a better time then when fighting. His life wasn't a hell of a lot of greatness anyway. He listened for gunfire, but he couldn't hear any. Sounded like the firefight was over. He could also hear the sounds of dropship engines, but his ears were too damaged to hear where the engines were coming from. He had almost made it out of the fight, but he didn't last long enough. His fingers began slipping some more, and he held out for the last second before it slipped out. A crappy feeling in his stomach came to him as he began to fall. The kind one gets in roller coasters or bungee jumping. But there was also a feeling of shock as he began to fall. Those two didn't mix well. He didn't scream, he didn't yell, he didn't cry. He didn't do anything. He just let himself fall.

*slip* *CLANG!*

He had fallen on something metal only a few feet below him. He rose up from his laying position and looked below him. It was a miracle or something. He smiled as he realized he had landed right on top of the dropship. He didn't know when the dropship had picked everyone else up, but it was there.

***We save your ass!***

He was too surprised to say much.

***Holy...***
Rifle fire slammed into the dropship as the enemies tried to attack the ship. He quickly regained his bearings and raised his rifle. He blew off the last few enemies on the roof as the dropship sped away.

Rise To Honor - Part 16: Abandoned Allies
Date: 16 August 2002, 6:30 pm

"You have worried there. I thought we were both going to die when you were blown off that ledge."
"Well, I guess we got lucky EVA."

He continued to fire his rail gun, blasting through the enemies that were still desperately trying to take out the retreating dropship.

*FTEW*
"AHHH!!! My arm!!!!!"
(Try to see it through!!! Not another point of reference!!)

Shadow smiled a bit, still standing on the dropship. As soon as they were out of range, he slung his rifle over his shoulder and looked to the sky. Any normal person would easily loose balance on the rickety dropship, but Shadow was different. His black baggy jeans were wavering wildly in the great sandy winds blowing up again him. His black wolf shirt was torn and charred.

They had done it. They had done the impossible. Break into a high security building and assassinate a few of the most highly respected and guarded commanders of the government. That was quite a feat they had pulled off. He sighed deeply and sat down on the top of the dropship. All of a sudden, there was static interrupting his music. It irritated him a bit, but he knew the message might be important.

***Hey Shad, you mind coming inside the dropship?***
***How do you suppose to I do that?***
***Oh, right. You have a point there.***

All of a sudden, the dropship shifted to its right, throwing him off balance. He rolled over on the ship and began sliding down as the ship turned to its side. He grabbed his rifle and grasped for a nearby metal ring attached to the ship. The gun caught hold and he pulled himself to the ring and held onto it with his other arm. He watched as soaring rocket zoomed right by the ship. So that's what made the ship go into evasive maneuvers. Quite odd.

***More rockets! Incoming! All personnel brace for impact!***
***AND WHAT THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?***
***Shadow, you're still alive? Hold on buddy!***
***What else am I going to do?***

He heard the crackling sound of three more rockets launched his way. The ship swung to the left, flinging him off to the other side of the ship. His hands desperately grasped for anything that would keep him on the ship, but to no avail. He was flung off the ship entirely and fell down towards the rocky concrete ground of the city. His mind kept cool, no matter horrible his situation was. He watched as his sniper rifle flew down right next to him, also sending itself towards its doom. The ship was at least 40 stories up, and he had no parachute. He was pretty screwed. He grasped for his pistol. He pulled it out quickly and fired the grappling hook. It clicked out and attached to the side of a three-story building. He shortened the line as he reached the ground. The wind pounded at his face and tore through his skin. The damn sand was getting in his eyes. As he came down on the swing towards the ground, the gravity and inertia pulled so hard on his arms that they felt like they were going to snap any moment. He was near the second floor of that building now, and was loosing his grip. He tried to hold on, but his sweaty hands just couldn't clutch it. He slipped off and was send soaring forwards at 2 stories high. He landed in a 2 foot slide, the concrete digging into his skin. There he laid for 3 minutes, unmoving...

"Shit! Shadow's gone!"
"We have more important thing to worry about. LIKE US!"

More rockets came flying towards the dropship like mad hornets toward an intruder. Three of them zinged past the dropship, barely missing. Geb questioned.

"What the hell is shooting at us?"
"Gee, maybe the government troops got a little pissed that some of their best commanders were just assassinated."
"Alright, I get the picture."

A jolt was felt as a rocket came streaming towards the dropship. The intercom sounded and a worried pilot spoke through.

"The wing is clipped, we're going down!"

The dropship rattled profusely as it made its slow uncontrollable descent towards the ground. Cal sounded off.

"Fuck, just when I thought we were getting out of this alive."

The dropship was still upright and overall doing alright, but it couldn't keep its altitude. The pilot tried steering the ship towards an open road within the city.

"SHIT!"

The pilot had pulled too far to the right, and the other wing was clipped off by a nearby building. Their slow descended had slipped to a wild fall. Pieces of metal began breaking off on the Pelican, and fires started up all around the soldiers in the cabin area. The dropship hit the road nose first, smashing up the cockpit, and sending many of the Dark Wolves and Spartans flying out of the ship. What was left of the Pelican continued to slide along the rugged ground for a few seconds before coming to a complete stop.

Shadow slowly opened his eyes. His back felt like it was broken, a thousand needles stuck in his back, stabbing at his nerves. His arms felt like jelly, and his right leg felt like it was dislocated. He slowly gathered the energy to pull himself up with his weak arms. He tried moving his leg. It was alright, just badly bruised. That was good. Having a dislocated leg in a hostile environment was NOT good, and he was lucky to not have one of those. Damn, he was even lucky to have survived that. A 40 foot drop, cushioned by a grappling hook. He felt his back and remembered the assault rifle. When he landed on his back, the assault rifle must have made the pain so much worse. He snapped it off its strap and looked at it. It seemed to be in working condition. He took his left hand and rummaged around in his pouch, counting the amount of clips he had. 4 extras. Good enough. He slowly stood up, and took a look around him. No sniper rifle. That sucked. He was in a small alley, and no one seemed to have noticed him yet.

"EVA, you still working?"
"Yes. Nice job klutz!"
"I guess your sarcasm logics are starting to adapt. Anyway, I need you to calculate the fastest route out of the city from this position."
"That's going to be hard. You're right in the middle of it."
"Fuck."
"Hold....got it! Got straight through this alley and through the road up ahead."
"Right."

He lifted his assault rifle and looked at the ammo reading. 58 bullets. Good enough. He picked himself up and started up a job through the alley, jerking eyes left, right and above to scan for enemies. He came to the end of the alley, and kneeled down, looking at his COM system to scan for enemies. There was one contact, coming down through the main street now. If he hanged in the alley, he could get the soldier by surprise. He flattened himself up against the right wall as the soldier slowly walked along the sidewalk. The footsteps came closer, and closer. As soon as he saw the hand of the enemy soldier around the corner, he pushed himself off the side wall off the alley. He dove into the middle of the street, gun blazing at the government trooper. They pierced right through the soldier, and blood exploded from his chest, flying everywhere. The body crumpled to the ground, and Shadow policed his weapon. It was a standard assault rifle. He pulled the gun out of the dead hands of the soldier and took a frag grenade. Now he had two assault rifles, one for each hand. That would of course lessen his accuracy without two hands on each gun, but at least he'd get better bullet volume. Any normal soldier would probably break his arms trying to fire a rifle one handed. Not Shadow...not any of the Spartan III's.

"EVA, what's my next destination?"
"Take a right on this main road and keep going. It will take you out of the city."
"Alright."

John slowly pulled himself up. He was conscious for these few minutes on the ground, but he hadn't energy to pick himself up. Now that he was up and going, he'd have to see if there were any other survivors.

"Anyone else alive?"

John heard a slight grinding of metal against concrete and immediately swung around to the sound. It was a dark wolf, stuck under a slab of titanium. He quickly ran over and grasped the plate with one hand. He lifted it up and tossed it aside. The dark wolf was a female, but he couldn't remember her name. She didn't seem permanently hurt, and there were no mortal wounds.

"Ugh. What kind of flying was that?"

Jan felt an extreme pang of pain her left arm, but it wasn't too bad. She slowly stood up and brushed herself off.

"Well, now that we're alive I recommend that we go now."

She spoke extremely fast, and John had a hard time understanding her. He could barely make it out, but responded.

"No, we need to see if the others are alive as well."
"Count me in on that list."

John turned around and saw Geb was alive. His shirt was torn, and there was an enormous gash on his chest, but he seemed to be alright otherwise. The gash wasn't even too deep. Two more sounds came from the dropship, and he walked over. It was Kelly and James. They were fine as always. A little bit of dented armor, but nothing other than that. He knew that they would probably be fine, but he was worried a bit about the Dark Wolves. They were more vulnerable without the MJNOLNIR. Luckily the final two Dark Wolves also came out of the dropship with James and Kelly. Fred and Linda walked to the area from the other side of the ship. Linda spoke.

"Sorry boss. We were checking on the pilot. His skull was crushed. There was nothing we could do."
"It's alright. We'll add him and Shadow up on our list of first casualties. Let me contact Kroeger first."

***Commander Kroeger, this is Spartan group. Come in.***
***I read you John. What's going on?***
***We were attacked by some type of AA weapon and we crash landed on the ground. We lost two. Shadow and the pilot.***
***Shadow? *sigh* That's a pity. You now have two new mission parameters. I am air-dropping you some higher-tech weapons that weren't stationed at our base. Your mission parameter is to make contact with those weapons and pick them up. Your second mission parameter is to get out of the city in any way possible. There is a dropship hangar near a construction yard. I have detailed it for you on your minimap. Good luck.***
***Yes sir.***

John had rerouted the entire conversation to the general team COM system so that all could hear what they were supposed to do. There was an eerie silence after the message was terminated. Kroeger didn't seem REALLY sorry that Shadow had died. It seemed as if the commander was almost happy and faking his sadness. Something was wrong. Cal finally spoke up with a sardonic question.

"So...how much are we getting paid for this again?"
"1 billion dollars."
"Damnit Kelly, I was being sarcastic. Do you know what that means?"

Kelly head silent for a few seconds and then repeated a dictionary definition verbatim.

"A form of wit that is marked by the use of sardonic language and is intended to make its victim the butt of contempt or ridicule."
"Arg. I give up on you."

Az jumped in the conversation.

"I don't think we should be arguing. Lets get to that dropped weapons cache and get out of here."
"I'm all with Az."
"Then lets go team."

The group scavenged what they could in the way of weapons. There wasn't much. A few pistols an assault rifle and a shotgun. Linda didn't even have her sniper rifle anymore. After they got what they could, they jumped into position. John thought of a minimap, and the transplant in his brain did all the work. The minimap immediately showed up on his HUD and pointed out the position of the weapons cache. It was just around the corner. How convenient. He began to break out in a jog, and the other followed suit. He stopped at the corner, and motioned for them to all go around at the same time. They did so, but nothing was there but a large metal box for them. John smiled behind his helmet and ran to the box. He pressed a code in on the keypad the box opened up, revealing a large rack of pulse rifles. The pulse rifles we crystal powered laser weapons that could inflict amazing damage. They were the top of the line technology, and they finally could get their hands on it. In addition, there were two Tarantula laser chainguns. The laser chainguns were four barreled weapons that rotated every round to give rapid laser power. There was also a laser sniper rifle, dubbed the Mantis. It looked like a normal sniper rifle besides a few key things. The rifle was doubled barreled and there were two bend metal rods on the sides of the rifle. The rods were placed a 45 degree angel on each side and bent down in the opposite 45 degree at about halfway up the rod. On the end of the rods were two crystals that powered the weapon. The performance differences were quite noticeable between the standard old sniper rifle and the new laser sniper rifle. First, this weapon was powerful enough to penetrate even the toughest Covenant armor. A golden elite could go down with one shot to the leg, even with its full shields up. That's how powerful it was. In addition, the Mantis had unlimited rounds and a faster firing rate than the older sniper rifle. The double barrel was for faster firing rates. The faster rates were only useful when facing armored tanks and those types. The Mantis was quite powerful again armored vehicles but still needed a few shots pumped in to destroy an enemy vehicle. Thus the higher firing rate. Needless to say, Linda was ecstatic when she picked up the weapon. She had be waiting years for the weapon to be released to the military market, and it was like a god weapon to her. They nodded to each other and started up again down the road. At the first crossing, there were three enemy guards, their backs facing to them. The Dark Wolves smiled, and the Spartans nodded. The guards were impaled with a huge rain of laser blasts. The first guard had both his arms blown off by laser bolts before a bolt went through his face. The second guard was decapitated by three shots to the head. And the final guard was hit by one of the laser chainguns. The hail of bolts tore through him, leaving almost nothing left of his body. They quickly ran forwards, not needing to police the enemies' weapons. To the left was a construction yard.

"Shit. I got 30 enemy soldiers and two scorpion tanks moving to our position. They'll be within firing range in 20 seconds."
"We need to take cover in that construction yard."

They quickly ran down the street, sprinting as fast as they could. The Spartans began to take the lead with their heightened abilities in the suit and cybernetic augmentations. The yard was mainly one three-story building that was only made of steel beams. It was apparently unfinished, and with the enemy firepower, it would probably never get finished. It was still night, and the team needed to use night vision to navigate to the yard. The ground level was made mostly of dry dirt and a few useless construction vehicles.

"Sensors indicate that there's a dropship somewhere in this vicinity."
"Fuck. You mean we need to find that damn thing in this huge jungle of twisted metal and broken down vehicles?"

Shadow kept on running when he heard a very interesting sound. It was the sound of laser rifle blasts. He had only seen those things once before on the black market when they were busting out of an assassination job. Those things could give hell to the enemy. He just hoped that it was the military that had it, and not the government. He kept on sprinting down the road, searching for enemies. But there seemed to be none at all. Where the hell WAS everyone?

(So you take me, and you break me, and you see that I'm falling apart!!!!!)

He rounded a corner and saw a construction yard ahead.

"Shadow, there's dropship in that construction yard!"
"EVA, how the hell would you know?"
"I just can. It's complicated stuff. The problem is that there are 30 enemy troops and two tanks moving to that position. I'm guessing that the rest of the team that survived the dropship fall is in the construction yard, under siege."
"Are there any other flying vehicles around?"
"No...wait. Yes. There's a Mad Hornet in an adjacent building. A fighter/bomber like that could hold all the troops should they fail getting to the dropship."
"Right, and if they do. We'll just take the Mad Hornet for ourselves. Sounds like a good plan. Lets get going."
(GET DOWN WITH THE SICKNESS!!!!)

Rise To Honor - Part 17: Get Me Off This Forsaken Rock
Date: 20 August 2002, 2:00 am

"Shit, we're soooo FUCKED!"

Jan finally had enough.

"Quit your wining Cal. We'll get out of here. I hope."
"So what the hell do we do now?"

John decided to make a plan.

"I say the Spartans will find the dropship. It should be on the roof. Because we're faster..."
"Fuck that! We're all as fast as you!"
"Just listen. We'll get to the dropship. You mercenaries hold off the government while we get the ship found."
"Fine. You boys better hurry up."
"We will. We will friend."

The Spartans sprinted off, while the four remaining Dark Wolves stood with their laser rifles at ready. Jan thought she saw a movement and she fired a few bolts into the air, hitting nothing.

"Relax."
"But we're so fucking screwed."
"Incoming!"

The troops were assaulted by rifle blasts. Geb and Jan jumped out of the way. Az and Cal stood where they were, blasting through the incoming troops. The guns ignited superheated, brightly colored bolts that tore right through the troops. The first few fell quickly, but they knew that it wasn't the end.

"Az, Cal! Find cover!"
"Got it."

Az jumped out of the way and hid behind a box. Meanwhile, Cal moved to the others, who were hiding behind empty water tanks. Fire was exchanged, and none of the Dark Wolves were injured. The battle raged on, blood flying everywhere, dead bodies seeming to jump out from the ground. Jan yelled out.

"Y-nade!"

They all knew what that meant. The Dark Wolves all ducked behind their cover while Jan clicked a button and tossed out a round frag grenade with four small bottles of gasoline taped to the side. The grenade exploded, and at first the makeshift weapon seemed to have a normal reaction. But a second later, the explosion set off the gasoline, and fire bloomed out from the area, coating the entire place in fire. Three of the soldiers waved around themselves as the fire consumed their bodies. Two others merely disintegrated into ash as the fire slammed into them. After a few seconds, the Dark Wolves jumped out from their cover and started firing on the disoriented survivors. The two remaining troops of the detachment were decapitated and fully torn apart before they even had a chance to let out a scream of pain.

"SHIT! TANKS!!!!"
"Fuck. We're going to the roof NOW!"

The Dark Wolves dove out of their positions, and made a mad dash for the metal stairs that were in the back of the construction area. Assault rifle bullets pelted the area all around them, but none of the government forces were skilled enough to land an accurate hit. A huge explosion shot out from the wall to their right just as they began to start up on the steps. Jan looked back and saw the smoking barrel of one of the tanks.

"Fuck, they're here!"
"Don't look back!"

The stairs were a set that wound around a large concrete pillar standing all the way to the top of the construction yard. Geb tripped twice, as the others did a few times. It was so dark for them to see. Another explosion lit up the area with orange light. This time the first flight of stairs were blown away. They kept on running for their lives as the explosions continued, double fold now that a second tank had entered the area. Geb saw the dark blue light show through the stairs. He knew they were almost there. He jumped to the platform where the Pelican was located. Az and Cal followed suit. But Jan wasn't so lucky. The stairs fell out right underneath her feet. Geb yelled and dove to the rough and spiked edge of the platform, his hand barely grasping her. He pulled with both hands and lifted her up to the platform just as another tank shell swooped by to kill her. Geb watched as the engines started up immediately.

"They found it! Lets go guys!"

The Pelican suddenly left the ground. It got to 5 feet, then 10 feet. What were they doing? They would never get in the Pelican at that height! All of a sudden it hit Geb in the like a rock slamming into a bug. They were leaving without them. They were going to abandon them without even batting an eye. It was smart on the military's part. Now that the mission was complete, and the Spartans' escape assured, leaving the mercenaries here would just give the military less problems in the future. But it was absolute madness!

***DAMNIT JOHN!! WHAT ARE YOU FUCKERS DOING?***
***I'm sorry Dark Wolves. Orders of Commander Kroeger. You are to be left here for the government. I'm sorry, but we must follow orders. I'm sorry.***
***DAMN RIGHT YOU'RE SORRY!***

Geb kneeled down as the Pelican sped away, its bright white lights shining greatly in the night sky.

"So what do we do now?"
"Fight to the end. Fight to god damn end."

Shadow ran as fast as he could towards the warehouse where the Mad Hornet was supposed to be. He saw two enemy patrols team. 5 in all.

"Hey! Stop there!"
*FTEW**FTEW**FTEW**FTEW**FTEW*
(I SHUN IT AWAY, I KEEP IT IN ME! IS THIS WHAT IT TAKES TO KEEP ME ALIVE?)

All five of them lost their heads, an enormous pool of blood spread out on the ground like a plague. He jumped over the dead bodies and shot another blast at the door blocking the entrance to the warehouse.

*FTEW*
(SHOW YOUR FEAR, IT'S NOT HARD TO SEE)

The door turned a bright blue to reflect the shot that hit it. It flew back at a high speed, its hinges coming with it. He looked behind him, and saw the Pelican leave the platform. But he also saw four figures still on top of the platform. Those military fuckers must have left them behind. He ran through and brought up EVA on the COM system.

"Where is it? We need to get to them quickly."
"It's around here somewhere. Scanning...got it! It's behind some scrap metal right in front of you. The scan pulled up that it was in working condition. Shadow ran full speed into one of the pieces of scrap metal and rammed it out of the way. He took another piece and shoved it off. There it was, the Mad Hornet model. It was a pretty large ship. It was about _ the size of a Pelican. It had three hatches on the underside that could store bombs of any medium to small sort. The main cockpit had three armada sized laser chain guns and a missile launcher that stored three sidewinder VI missiles. The ship had two very large engines in the back that gave the Mad Hornet very great speed. He opened the cargo door at the back and looked inside. It was empty. Good. More room for the Dark Wolves. He closed the door and sprinted to the cockpit window. He smashed it open with the butt of his rifle and jumped through. He landed in the seat and looked around. There were screens and controls everywhere. He pressed a few to start it up, and lights lit up around the cockpit interior. In addition, an enormous amount of HUD screens showed up around the cockpit. He nodded and took hold of the joystick. He flicked a switch and began firing laser chain gun rounds at the wall of the warehouse. The wall fell apart in splinters of metal as the laser blasts tore right through it.

"Hurry up Shadow! They're running out of time!"
(NO ONE CAN SAVE YOU NOW! WHEN IT ALL COMES AROUND...WHAT ALL YOU SEE! WHAT YOU'LL EVER BE!!!!)

He pressed a few more buttons and the engines hummed to life. He grasped the throttle stick and pushed it all the way forward. The ship immediately jetted forwards so fast that Shadow was pushed back into the seat of the ship, barely able to move. He slowly pulled up on the joystick, and proceeded to the construction yard.

"We're so screwed!"
"We're running out of time! What do we do?"

Another tank blast slammed into the platform, blowing out a huge chunk. The four pulled their arms up as the fragments and crud slammed into their shirts and skin. They quickly recovered and began firing their weapons in the general direction of the enemy. But it was no use; they were too far away for any way of firing accurately enough. Geb slowly poked his head over the edge, and watched as assault rifle pinged off the area near him. He could hear the faint sound of a ship's engines. A Mad Hornet. It was coming towards them. What were they doing with MORE reinforcements? He looked up to see it. The blue lights were shut off, as if the pilot didn't want to be seen by anyone. It was coming in at high speeds, very high. Recklessly high. The ship all of a sudden veered off to the side and began blasting at the tanks. The three missiles sent out a loud screech as they contacted the tanks and blew them to kingdom come. The entire area became entrenched with smoke. And all he could see was laser fire tearing through the enemy ranks.

"What's going on?"
"I don't know."

All of a sudden, the Mad Hornet appeared out of the smoke and slowed down right over the platform. Geb squinted, trying to see the pilot through all the wind and debris. A sense of recognition flowed through him, and he smiled as he figured out it was Shadow. A transmission came over the intercom.

***Need a Ride?***

Geb smiled again and the Dark Wolves dove into the cargo bay of the Mad Hornet. The doors automatically closed. The engines began to hum again and the ship sped off into the night.

Rise To Honor - Part 18: Home
Date: 22 August 2002, 12:17 am

"I can't believe the military betrayed us!"

Jan was pretty pissed, but no more pissed than any of the others. Geb replied.

"They're no better than the government. We can't trust anyone but ourselves."

Shadow replied.

"Well, at least we got out of there alive."
(THIS IS HOW I PRAY! AS IF MY LIFE'S NOT HARD ENOUGH! BURN ME ALIVE INSIDE!)

"Yea, but without any money, or any alliance with any powerhouses."

Shadow nodded, but decided to put in something else into the conversation.

"That can be fixed. I have an old friend in New York that can get us all the weapons and devices we need. Needles."
(AND IF MY LIFE'S NOT HARD ENOUGH, TAKE EVERYTHING AWAY!)

Geb quirked an eyebrow.

"You still talk to that guy? And besides, we just used up all our luck trying to get out of the city, and you want to go back in?"
"It's the only way."
"Shadow, you're crazy man. There's no way we're going back in. I'm not risking our lives just for some hardware that we don't need."
"Then how are we going be hired guns if we don't have any guns?"
"We'll manage somehow Shadow. I don't even think that we should be mercenaries anymore."
"You're just being weak."
"You're reckless...a loose cannon, even for us. We don't need this type of life anymore. I've realized it. We all have. Except you. We can be mechanics, spies. Anything! And you choose assassin. That's so like you."
"Fine. But I'm getting myself weapons. Even if it means I go alone. Killing is the only life I know anymore. I'm not going to abandon it so easily."
(ANOTHER NIGHTMARE ABOUT TO COME TRUE! WILL MANIFEST TOMORROW!)


Shadow turned around and began walking to his room. He opened the door and slammed it behind him. He brought up his right hand and deactivated the music using his COM system. He thought this over. He could always just leave the team again, and go out on his own. No, he owed them at least his abilities to them. They had saved his life. He knew that they all couldn't go back. They were all assassins at heart. He looked down, and thought about the military. He knew he couldn't trust the military from the second that he infiltrated their base to get a ride. He knew that Kroeger had changed somehow. Something was wrong with that guy. He bet the Spartans felt the same. It seemed that they were as they always were, just taking orders from someone that seemed to have an alterior motive. If so, he was going to go find out. So, he was going to get weapons AND information on Kroeger. Needles would have all of that. He'd just need to get back to the city somehow. Geb would never let him use Jan's new Pelican system. But of course, Jan might. His sniper rifle was still snapped onto his shoulder strap. He noticed and unstrapped it, swinging it over his shoulder. He looked at it, and grabbed for a large box leaning up against the wall. He rummaged around in it for a few seconds to pull out a few slugs. He loaded them all in, and the sniper rifle's HUD read 30 rounds. It would be good enough. He'd get an assault rifle from the garage.

He was about to get up and leave when there was a light knock on the door. It was controlled, yet powerful. That ruled out Cal, who would give a staggered knock, given to him by his personality. Jan knocked really fast, because she was always hyper. The knock was too calm for Geb too. It must have been Az.

"What do you want Az?"
"Can I come in?"
"Fine."

He didn't really want to talk to her, but she never came to speak to him unless it was absolutely necessary. The door slowly swung open, and the black-clad assassin slowly walked in. She sat down next to him and folded her legs in a "pretzel-style."

"Yes?"
"I'm coming with you."
"No. Geb's right. It's too dangerous, and it's my duty to get you guys the weapons you need."
"I laugh at the face of danger. You know that. Besides, I'm just as good as you."

Shadow looked down at his sniper rifle for a few seconds, and quickly snapped in on his shoulder strap. He got up and began walking out the door, speaking as he went.

"Get your stuff ready, I'll be waiting in the hangar."

She nodded and they both left the room. She took a right in the hallway to her room, while he made a left to the main room. He walked past Geb and the others, who were watching TV. Geb looked at him for a second, and then turned his attention back to the screen. He walked into another hallway, and opened the door at the end, which led to the hangar. He stepped over some loose parts and snatched up one of the newly acquired laser rifle. He eyed the mantis sniper rifle, but decided to stick with his own. He hadn't the time to recalibrate it or get used to its power and recoil. He strapped in the laser rifle and walked to the back of the hangar where the Pelican should have been waiting. But it wasn't there. That's when realization hit him. Damn. Jan had left the damn ship at the military's. They'd have to take the Warthog to the base; steal it; and get to the city from there. He jogged over to the hover-warthog and hopped in. It was a modified one. It had one driver seat and one gunner placement with twin chainguns that could re-outfitted with anything. He placed his handprint on the screen, and it hummed to life. He pressed a few buttons to activate the main systems and pressed a button to open the garage door. Suddenly, the hallway door swung open and Geb yelled out to him.

"Get out of there! Az wants to come with you! If she's coming, then neither of you are going to that city. I don't want her hurt!"
"I'm doing this for the team, Geb. Don't you understand?"
"You'll kill Az!"
"Is that all you fucking care about? She can handle herself. This is what we've always done man! What made you all of a sudden change your ideals about this thing? We'll be back."
"You're risking your life for nothing! We don't have to be killers! It doesn't have to be this way!"
"It does for me. And it is for Az as well. You know that."

Shadow swung the warthog around indifferently so that the front was facing the hallway door. He pulled out his laser rifle and blasted a few shots at the ground in front of Geb. He smiled and backed the vehicle out. Az was standing right outside, waiting. As he back out, she hopped on to the gunner's seat, dropping all her equipment in a compartment in front of the emplacement. He turned the Warthog around again, and they were off to the base.

"I'm glad you came with me."
"Yea. Geb is being impossible. All he cares about is the lives of the team. He's not willing to take chances for the team's benefit."
"Well, I'm just glad you're with me."

He placed the Warthog on autopilot to the now known desert base. The hovercraft sped on, through a small forest for a few hours, and then through the great desert that was once New Jersey. For four hours they rode, Az sitting in the compartment where her equipment laid. All of a sudden, the screen blipped once, twice, three times. He looked down and the sensors had picked up a large building a few miles up ahead.

"We're here."
"Roger."

Az jumped out of the compartment and up to the gunner stand. The hover Warthog continued until they reached the top of a dune. Shadow thought for a minute about how we going to get in there. He unstrapped his sniper scope and searched the unaware base. There was a vent at base level. He could probably get to the roof through there. But those guard towers were sure to detect him if he went in without anything for diversion. He looked to Az.

"I need you to be a diversion."
"Got it."

Shadow jumped out of the seat, and Az jumped in his place. He unstrapped his sniper rifle and began a sprint to the vent...

Az smiled as he left and activated the automatic targeting on the Warthog's computer. The HUD immediately brought up all targets as red dots. She made sure that Shadow wasn't targeted. She pressed the activation button, and the twin chainguns immediately began firing at random enemy targets. She hit the accelerator and began a loop around the base as the towers tracked her movements. The towers were horrible hits. Even the rockets fired nailed only sand hundreds of feet behind her. But it wouldn't take long until they realized how futile and out-skilled they were before they sent out additional Warthogs into the fray. Shadow would have to pick up before then, or she'd be burnt to a crisp. She continued along in a general loop. Swerving each time a rocket was fired to keep it from hitting her.

Shadow continued to run along the sand, slipping down the dunes as quickly as he could. He knew that Az couldn't keep them busy forever, and he'd have to move very fast. A beam of light was heading straight towards him. He did a backflip to give himself room, and dove to the right just in time for the beam to pass right by him. He kept running towards the building. The winds began to pick up as he got closer, as if some unseen force was trying to prevent him from going inside. He pushed forward through the wind, and blasted the vent open with his sniper rifle. He dove in and began crawling.

"EVA, give me the location of Kroeger."
"Scanning. Got it. His brain signals are coming from the third floor in a conference room. I'm also picking up all the Spartan brain signals moving towards that same room."
"What's the fastest way to there?"
"There's a vertical shaft straight ahead of you. Go there, get up the shaft, and you should be right there. Go up another vertical shaft near there and that takes you to the roof."
"Well, that works out pretty easily."

He quickly slid through the narrow tunnel until he got to that vertical shaft. He unstrapped his pistol from its holster on his leg, and he shot the grappling hook to the top. He heard a loud thump and he tugged on the gun. It was tight. He clicked the trigger again, and he zoomed up. After what seemed more than a few minutes, he felt the roof coming near. But it was too late. His head slammed right into the top of the vertical shaft. The pistol began to slack, and he flailed out with his left arm, barely able to grasp the edge of the horizontal shaft that led from the vertical one. He held on, but his head was throbbing pretty bad. With one hand, he was able to pull his entire body up with ease. He was, after all a Spartan. He landed on the horizontal shaft and he retracted the pistol hook. He holstered it back in, and he rummaged around again in his sack. He pulled out a small little ball-shaped device. He walked along the shaft until he came to a grate. Through the cracks he could see the Spartans walking into the room, and Kroeger waiting there for them. He pressed a small button on the device, and placed in near the grate. It blinked once and then stopped. The device was a transmitter. Everything that it sensed visually and audibly was recorded and transmitted the COM system. It would continued to monitor everything until it ran out of power, which was generally four hours. It should be plenty of time to catch the entire conversation between Kroeger and the Spartans. He quickly, but quietly slide along the shaft, hearing the an intercom announcement as he went.

***All personnel report to the hangar. The base is under attack. Code Red alert***

It was strange that the Spartans and Kroeger were so calm. It was if they knew that Az wasn't much of a threat to them. As if they knew something he didn't know. He finally got to the second vertical shaft and shot the hook to the top of that one. As he went up, he spun himself upside down, feet raised to the top. As he hit the roof of the shaft, his feet impacted, and he was able to get into the next horizontal shaft without any pain. He kicked open the nearest grate and dove out. There was a black night sky, and sand zoomed about all around him. He was on the roof, and the modified Pelican was still sitting there as if nothing happened. Perhaps he had made his counterattack on the base quicker than Kroeger thought. Therefore they didn't bother to destroy or impound the Pelican just yet. That lazy, sloppy commander. He'd pay for his move against the Dark Wolves. Oh would he pay.

He ran in through the open bay doors in the back of the Pelican and ran to the cockpit. He activated the system, and it began to rise. He pulled back on the throttle, and he was immediately pushed into the back of his seat as he activated the thrusters. He hit the brakes and slowed down to pick up Az.

There were two Warthogs on her tail now. They were both firing laser rounds at her. Two of them already hit and had blown off the chaingun emplacements. She was weaponless and harmless, yet they still wanted her dead or captured. She continued evasive maneuvers, dodging the mainstay of the enemies' blasts. A stray bolt slammed into one of the hover generators, killing the rear hover batteries. The whole back collapsed and began skidding along the sand, leaving a trail of metal and fire. The warthog began to slow down as the front hover batteries could no longer pull the entire vehicle along. She was done for. The laser blasts continued, pinging off the edge of the jeep. She cringed and ducked as they continued to their attacks. She could hear the launching of two missiles, but it didn't seem like they were coming from the towers. Before she could completely contemplate the situation, the missiles slammed right into the Warthogs on her tail, blowing them up. The first one had a direct hit, and the entire vehicle exploded into millions of pieces, leaving not even the chassis intact. The second missile hit the second warthog from the side, making it flip over. She looked up as the Pelican slowly landed. She raised both hands into the air in joy and jumped off the Warthog. She dashed to the open cargo doors, and strapped herself in. She activated her microphone and spoke to Shadow through the intercom.

***I'm in, lets go.***
***Shit, you were busted.***
(RETURN TO ME! LEAVE ME NO ONE! TURN TO ME! YOU'VE MADE ME TURN AWAY!!!!)

Rise To Honor - Part 19: New York...It's Getting So Old
Date: 24 August 2002, 1:26 pm

Shadow looked to Az as she came up to the cockpit section and sat down in the co-pilot's seat. She was about to say something, but she seemed to be too shy to say it. To make her feel more comfortable, he decided to start something.

"Look at me. Do I look like the person that would make fun of you if you said anything stupid?"

She smiled and finally replied.

"Well, I was going to say thank you for saving my ass back there."
"Well you would have done the same just as easily. It's not like I'm going to abandon you like the damn military or Geb."
"I'm sorry about Geb. He just doesn't consider you to be anything good for the team.."

Shadow quickly interrupted.

"...and he would like me to be dead as much as he would like Kroeger or the Covenant dead. I know. But that doesn't mean that I don't owe him anything. I still owe him my life. That's why I'm getting these weapons for the team. I can feel it Az. Something big is coming. Something that we can't stop by being mechanics. It's something that we're going to need to defend ourselves from. It's something that's bigger than everything before. I just have this feeling."

He looked to her and she quickly looked down.

"You feel it too...don't you Az? That's why you came. You have that ominous feeling too."
"Yes."

He nodded and they sped towards the city. The sensors on the ship blipped once as the dimly lit city came quickly into view. The ship zoomed in quickly. He lowered the ship's altitude so that it flew at about midway between the top of the buildings and the streets. He searched about on the street that Needles was supposed to be located. Everything was so blown apart he couldn't even distinguish between many of the buildings. But he finally recognized the right one. He stopped the forward boosters, and went up in a straight vertical pull. As he came level with the top of the building, he edged the throttle forwards, and the ship slowly moved to the roof. This thing could be a big mistake, so he landed the ship but kept the engines hot, just in case they needed a quick escape. They both jumped out of the cockpit doors and ran to the entrance to the second floor. He smashed open the trap door and jumped down. The lights were on, and everything seemed to be relatively recently used. But Needles was in no sight. He heard a thump as Az landed right behind him. Papers littered Needles' tables and the ground. Coffee-stained mugs were also strewn all over the place.

"Well if he abandoned this place, maybe there's still some stuff we can loot."
"Or maybe he join the resistance."
"Naw, he's no hero."

All of a sudden, Needles popped out from behind him main desk, pistol aimed and ready. Shadow held up his laser rifle, and Az had hers ready as well. Shadow quickly lowered it as the battle worn man slowly walked out from his desk.

"Tak! It's so great to see you friend!"

Shadow wasn't used to being called by his real name, and even then, Tak was a short nickname.

"Hey Needles, it's been a while. Why didn't you run from the city like many of the civilians?"
"I had all my shit here. Besides, the government comes around here once in a while to purchase some stuff. They tried to strong-arm me once, but I told them that this place was wired and I could blow them all to kingdom come if I wanted to."
"Is it?"
"No, just threatened them so they won't kick my ass. So what do you want here? I'm sure it's not just to say hi."
"No, we need weapons."
"Anything for a friend. But I'm low on the mula, so it will cost you."
"I'm willing to pay man."

Needles was the merchant of the city. He could sell a rusty can of beans for the same exact price as a assault rifle. He was quite the amazing guy in that respect. But he was a little eccentric. He would sometimes ramble on about random stuff, or things that had no relation to their conversation. Other than though, he was quite a descent guy despite his way of trade. He was black, but again, race didn't matter anymore. He was very old, and his curly black hair had begun to gray. His face was a bit wrinkled, and he had black soot and dust all over him from the government takeover.

"I was thinking to myself man. Why not sell the TV. But then I thought that I needed it to keep me sane. But on the other hand, I also needed food and money to keep me alive and stuff. But...you get the picture. So then there was..."

As he was rambling on, Az and Shadow looked to each other with weird faces. Yup, the same old Needles.

"And so I said to him..."
"Needles, lets get back to reality. We need weapons."
"Alright. I have a lot of chem weapons...some flame-throwers."
"What else?"
"I have some laser energy packs for the YS-22 Firefly laser rifles you have right there."

Needles pointed to the rifle in Shadow's left hand.

"Alright, we'll take 20 of those. What else you have?"
"We have a triple missile launcher. Handheld."
"We'll take five."
"I have more slugs for the RG-18 sniper rifle that I sold you a few years ago."
"Alright, give me fifty."
"I have what they like to call the Scorpion Rifle. It is such a powerful and fast firing machinegun that whoever uses it will need a waist and shoulder harness to keep themselves from breaking their arms on the weapon."
"Interesting."

Shadow looked at the weapon. Leaned up against the wall, it was as tall as he was, though that wasn't saying much considering he was quite short.

"You see, the machinegun attaches to the right or left hip part on the harness, and the trigger arm has to reach back behind to reach the handle. The other arm aims. The gun is a smart gun."

Az quirked and an eyebrow and questioned.

"What's a smart gun."
"Ma'am, a smart gun is a weapon that self-tracks. It targets any non-human enemy and automatically aims. Of course, you can always easily turn this off if you're going out on a human killing spree."
"I'll take five of those, but I doubt we'll use them all. What kind of clips do they use?"
"Custom. Each clip contains 300 rounds, and you'll need to replace the clip every 30 seconds or so if you fire continuously."
"That's a lot of bullets. But we'll take three clips for each gun. Anything else?"
"Well, I stole this from the government during its experimental stages. It's a beacon for a satellite based Ion Cannon. The beacon is very small, but once activated, it can send a communicate for the Cannon to blast at the beacon's location. I've also outfitted it with a little device that will keep up with the government's constantly changing military codes, another little something I've devised. It may come VERY useful if you want to destroy a large building or something."
"Wow. That's amazing. I'm sure it's expensive though."
"You bet your ass it is."
"Alright, we'll take it."

It took all three of them a whole half hour to load the equipment up onto the Pelican. But once it was finished, it seemed well worth it.

"Az, get in the ship and start it up, I have to pay Needles."
"Right, wait. There are two enemy ships approaching. I think they're patrols, but they'll still find us if we don't get moving."
"Right. Needles, just bill us."
"Alright."

Needles slapped Shadow on the shoulder and dove back into his building as the Pelican took off.

"Shadow! Get up here!"
"What?"
"They're two Banshee 2s. There's no way we'll be able to out maneuver them."
"Then we'll have to go head-to-head. Even with all the shit in our cargo bay?"
"Yes."

The ship began to rise as Az pulled it up. She hit the throttle just as the Banshees were coming around the corner. The ship was moving fast enough to hit them both right on, but they were so maneuverable that they easily dodged it and in a second were bouncing plasma bolts off the hide of the Pelican. Meanwhile, Az couldn't brake, and the ship ran right through a half constructed building. She swerved left, right up and down as she dodged metal bars and plates. He could hear scraping sounds as Az cut through the narrow spaces. He thought they were safe, but one of the plates in front of them lit up in a blue wonder before disintegrating into nothing. Shadow looked at his rear sensors and realized that the Banshees were following them. The damn ships were such improvements over their predecessors. They were more armored, faster, and MUCH more maneuverable as demonstrated now. They also packed plasma shields for defense of the main chassis only. Their weak point were the really, really thin wings that were almost impossible to hit.

The Pelican finally blew out of the other end of the building and immediately fired two Deadshot missiles. They launched out of the front, but immediately made a 180 degree spin and shot right past the Pelican towards the Banshees. One of the banshees made evasive maneuvers and was able to shake the missile. The second wasn't so lucky and its wing was clipped. It tumbled down the ground as orange and red smoke exploded from where the wing should have been. The ship slammed into the ground, but the second one still came after them. The Pelican made a quick turn around the corner, and then another, but they still couldn't shake the bastard.

"What the hell do we do?"
"This."

Shadow ran past all the piled up weapons in the cargo bay and opened up the doors. The weapons weren't strapped in, so many of them began to fly out the back as he opened the doors. He watched as numerous weapons and ammo dropped out the back, including the ion cannon beacon. He unstrapped his sniper rifle, and fired at the banshee. The blast was heading straight on at the Banshee, but bounced right off its shields. The ship began to blast at the cargo bay. Az zoomed up to dodge the blasts and the Banshee followed, but itovercompensated. It zoomed right above them, and was preparing to lower.

"Az, lower the ship!"
She did so, and the Banshee was having a hard time coming level with them. Meanwhile, Shadow grabbed the edge of the roof of the Pelican, and flipped up to the top.

"Not another "top o' the Pelican escapade!"
"Shut up EVA, I'm trying to concentrate."

He aimed at one of the wings, but it quickly swerved and fired some more. The blasts hit the roof, and he dodged by diving to one of the Pelican's wings. He rolled along the titanium-armored roof and ended up kneeling with his rifle aimed. He fired again, and again the blast bounced off. He growled and fired a second time. This time it hit its mark, slamming into one of the wings. The blast cut right through. The Banshee, without its wing for stabilization immediately swerved to the right and exploded along the wall of one of the buildings. He gave the city the middle finger as they left, and carefully crawled back inside the Pelican.

"I'm never coming back to this shithole again."
"I'm with you all the way on that one."

Rise To Honor - Part 20: Making Choices
Date: 26 August 2002, 6:50 pm

*SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE*

Geb looked through the house's window when he heard the loud engines of Jan's modified Pelican, which she named the 'Night Wolf'. He grunted and sat back in the table. He could hear and feel the table rumble as the ship landed on the platform above the garage. The cup of Yavoi that was drinking suddenly began to rock on the table, and spilled to the ground. Seeing his lack of hindsight, Jan and Cal held onto their drinks to prevent them from breaking on the ground. He could hear the engines die out, and the platform lowering to the garage level. He nodded to the others and continued to sit in his place. The door to the garage burst open, with Shadow and Az silently walking in.

"We have weapons."
"We don't want weapons. Jan, Cal and me have all agreed that fighting isn't doing anything for us anymore. It pays well, but our lives could be shot to hell in the process. None of us want to make such a sacrifice. Only you and Az seem to be the ones that can't let go of that lifestyle. If you're going to keep up like this, the rest of us will have no part in fighting any longer. You know that Cal and Jan were never fans of fighting in the first place, and you know that I fear for all our lives. I don't want to lose any of you in the heat of battle. There are plenty of ways to make money and a living."

Az and Shadow looked to each other and then back to Geb. Shadow nodded to Geb and walked past the table and into the hall. As always, the hallway was dimly lit, but when he opened the door to his room, everything seemed even darker. He pressed a button on his shoulder straps and they fell down to the rug floor, taking the laser rifle and his rail gun with them. He sat down on the ground, staring out into the starlit sky through his window.

Maybe Geb was right. Fighthing like this had only done one thing to him. It made him lose his honor. It caused him to lose his honor as a warrior that fought for justice and pride. He only fought for money, and honor used to be on top of his priority list. He must have gotten so mixed up with all of this that he failed to realize it earlier. The thrill of fighting had just taken over him. All he wanted to do was fight, and its consequences, physical, mental, or spiritual had become too severe. No. Fighting was no longer to be his way of life, regardless of how much liked it and how good he was at it.

The door slowly creaked open, and Az came over and sat down next to him. They both began to say something.

"Well..."
"I was thinking..."

They both paused, and then Shadow decided to go first.

"I've been thinking. You remember me before we became assassins. All I cared about was helping other people. To help them survive. That was the honorable and brave thing to do. To help those that were in need. To destroy the Covenant. But when I became an assassin, I think my priorities fell apart. I lost my honor. I lost my selflessness. Geb is right. We should stop fighting. But not because our lives are at stake, it's because we've become selfish and greedy. All we do now is fight. We fight without a purpose. Not a good one anyway."

Az nodded and responded.

"That's what I was going to say. We both lost our nobility when we went into this business. I thought it would somehow satisfy me. But now that I think about it, none of us have the coldness or the greed to fully be satisfied with this job we're at."

Shadow smiled.

"And to think that we were helping the world by killing off our own species. And to think that we thought we were content with this lifestyle. Well, I think it's no more."

The both stood up and walked out of Shadow's room and walked back to the main room.

"Geb, you're right. Fighting is getting us nowhere in the morality scale. Our morals have gone to nothing. Az and me are finished with this job as well. No more hired guns."

Geb smiled.

"I knew that old respectful Shadow was in your heart somewhere."

Shadow nodded and turned around to go back to his room, but before he could take a step, a beep flashed on Jan's COM screen. She jumped out of her seat so powerfully and energetically that it flung the thing right into the stereo, making a big dent. But she didn't care. The news must have been something big.

"Look at this!"

She adjusted the screen a bit, and transferred the information to the main screen of the kitchen. The screen blipped up from its black repose to a brightly colored news report.

***And this is channel 6 YNS News. Urgent information has told us that an enormous Covenant army has marched its way towards the main military base of Ignatious 5. Information tells us that they've already turned on the turncoat government and decimated most of their standing forces. Casualties are 10,000 and up. The Covenant force has numbers of at least 30,000 and have stationed a makeshift base a few miles outside of Ignatious 5. The military and the government have made a truce, but still only have a force of 20,000. As it stands, this battle will determine whether the human race will survive or not. Many are already preparing for evacuation. Information is not available on how the Covenant pressed through the planetary I-Shields developed by a secret military organization, but news is if the military loses this battle, enemy Covenant destroyers may very well be able to get through as well to "glass" Earth. This is channel 6 YNS news."

All throughout the report, the women making it was shaking almost uncontrollably, and her voice was extremely nervous. Shadow's blood boiled in his vessels. He wanted so much to take those Covenant out, and help save humankind. But he would die. But when had that ever stopped him from doing something before? It didn't matter. He realized that this would be the only way he could completely restore his honor was to go into battle and save the ones he was trying so hard to kill. The humans. He turned around and faced the others.

"We need to go there and fight alongside our brothers."

Geb's eyes opened wide in surprise.

"I thought you said no more fighting! You're being a fucking hypocrite! We are not going to fight! We will all die!"
"Geb, for honor. For respect. For the GODAMN RACE! What is wrong with you! Are you AFRAID or something?"
"Shadow, we could easily leave this planet and move to that hidden colony where there are already some civilians there. We don't have to die here! You're an assassin, your life is what you fight for."
"You're a fucking coward Geb! You don't get it do you? I don't care about my life anymore! I've gone through a change here. I am going to fight with my brothers, my allies!"
"Fine. You can go. But the rest of us are staying. We are all staying here. Right guys?"

Jan leaned on the table, apparently debating her decision. Az was quick to respond.

"No. Shadow's right. The only reason we've stopped fighting as mercenaries was because we felt that the only reason to fight was to fight for honor and survival. I'm with him all the way."

Jan nodded and stood straight.

"I'm with them. They're both right. We've done too much wrong as mercenaries. It's time to set it all right."

Geb leaned his head down.

"We can all survive. We can all run from this. But if it's what the team wants, I'm not going to debate it any longer. We're a team, and I'm not going to break it up...again."

Az looked to Cal.

"Cal?"

Cal had his head on the table. One could tell that he really didn't want to do this.

"Well. You guys need a pilot to get over there, right? What the hell. We're all going to die anyway. Might as well be in the heat of battle. We're so going to lose this war."

Shadow smiled.

"I never lose."

Rise To Honor - Part 21: Reinforcements Have Arrived
Date: 28 August 2002, 3:16 am

Shadow watched from the makeshift window that Jan had made in the Pelican. Wind still leaked through, and he could feel a slight breeze as he leaned his forehead up against the cold hard glass. Beneath the "Night Wolf", water rushed up against beaches, and palm trees swayed slowly from side to side. No one was on the beaches though. Everyone had their eyes glued to the TV to know the fate of their planet. Either that, they were in a church or some other religious building, praying to God that they live, and that the human race survives. He was never a big guy on religion. He always thought that it was overrated, over sanctioned by the government and military, pompous, and stupid. He believed that every person in the world when they get old enough should take everything they know and believe, and ascertain their own beliefs and their own perspectives of God and other things of the sort. For his religion, he believed that Nature was the God, and that whatever nature did should be a direct model for what humans should be doing. He smiled. He sure had gone contrary to his beliefs these past few years. Killings others for material needs. Stupid. He couldn't understand how he could be so absorbed that he didn't realize it earlier. As they got closer, they could hear assault rifle sounds, among others. The battle was already starting. Cal called in from the cockpit.

"We're here! The LZ is hot! Get ready!"

Shadow nodded and unstrapped his sniper rifle from his shoulder strap. The others also got their weapons ready. The Night Wolf came to an abrupt stop and began to quickly lower. Shadow looked at his COM system and EVA popped up.

"Shadow, you sure this is the right thing to do? None of this comes up logically in my circuits."
"EVA, maybe someday I'll teach you to understand honor."

Shadow could hear a voice from the other end of the cabin. It was Geb.

"Shit, there ain't gonna be another someday."
"We'll see Geb."

The Night Wolf came to a stop on the LZ, and everyone piled out of the ship, ready for anything. They were at the edge of a forest, and a large force of humans could be seen up ahead. Shadow nodded to the others and they slowly jogged to the front lines of the human force. He could hear a radio transmission from Cal.

"I'm going to the main hangar to meet up with their admiral. I think I'll help them out in the skies. But if you need anything, just give a call."
"Will do, Cal. Will do."

They ran past the ranks and ranks of nervous men, who were standing at ease. After a while, they were able to push their way through the lines, and get to the front. The Spartans were standing right there, surveying the area. Geb got up the courage to speak before any of them noticed their presence.

"I should shoot you right now, you god damn pieces of shit!"

John quickly turned around, hand on his pistol holster.

"You? Of all people. You guys were the last I'd expect to help out the military. After what we and Kroeger put you through?"
"Well, we're here to save the human race, not the lives of your men. Why DID you leave us back there anyway?"

Shadow wasn't taking any chances. He continued to hold up his sniper rifle, aimed right at John's head. He so wanted that fucker dead.

"Well Geb, it goes like this. I never wanted any of you dead. When it came to the desert base thing, I was just taking orders from Kroeger. He said that Shadow was to be terminated, so I just followed orders. Seriously. I left you in the city because Kroeger told me to. They said that you guys were too much of threats to be left alive. Everything in my gut told me that they were wrong, but I had to listen to his orders. Kroeger has gone missing. Recently, his orders have been strange, and the way he was acting was also quite odd. I don't know, but I could have sworn that he was doing something in the background in addition to this. I don't know. He's gone AWOL now, and I fear he was with the government agencies these past few months. I'm sorry. We were just following orders, and I only had my suspicions."

Shadow was infuriated. He continued to hold up his sniper rifle, but began yelling in the process.

"What the hell? Is that all you do? Follow orders? God damn. Can't any of you shitheads think for yourself? Have you once realized that you guys are all automatons that are slaves to a few leaders? You damn military creeps are all the same. If you were smart and had a will of your own, you would realize that what you were doing was wrong, and realize that you should bring us in, regardless of your orders. This was reason why I never joined the military anyway!"

John smiled behind the glistening helmet of his golden armor.

"You're talking to me about right and wrong? This coming from an assassin? What do you know about right and wrong?"
"I left that lifestyle behind me. We're here for our race now. Money has no part anymore."

Shadow's finger was tightening up against the trigger. But he let his anger go, and lowered his rifle.

"Either way, we're all here to help you stop the Covenant."


John felt relieved. He didn't know if they were all going to be slaughtered as of right now by those mercenaries.

"Well, I thank you for coming to help us, despite your absolute hate for us. This is the situation. We're pinned down at this location, and will be retreating soon back to the base. We tried to take that huge hill above us, but their forces were too strong. As of now, we pulled back to the bottom of the hill, and they're reorganizing their forces for a massive blowout. They'll probably be charging down that huge hill, and our forces will do all we can to stop them. Az and Geb will be assigned two 200 men groups to command. They will be on the front lines to stem the first bound of enemy troops. Jan, I want you to take a small group of 50 men, and strafe their forces as they prepare for the big rush. In their excitement of complete victory over our entire race, they'll probably leave the base wide open. You are to take over the base and disable communications and anything else you can get off of them. Shadow, I need you to go with the sniper group and make sure they stay together and stay frosty. You'll be atop one of the trees at the forest edge. When we decide to retreat, you will cover our backs. Any questions?"

Shadow smiled.

"So, what do we get out of this one?"
"Wha? I though..."
"Just kidding John. We're with the human race all the way. But after that, I will kill you."
"We'll see Shadow. Maybe our long history will halt you from your unstoppable rage after the war."

Rise To Honor - Part 22: The Battle They'll Never Forget
Date: 29 August 2002, 11:47 am

Shadow watched the crest of the hill from one of the taller trees. He was still in his all black uniform, but he still blended very well with the dark forest. The other snipers were each on a different tree adjacent to his. He had command of their forces. 300 snipers in all. Enough to take down almost anything within their numbers. The humans were sure to loose, but he would fight to the end. He looked around him. The other snipers were holding their rifles up towards the hill, and a few were shaking from the fear and nervousness of the situation. But he was sure that most of them wouldn't turn tail. Otherwise the rest of them would be fucked to hell. About 2000 feet in front of him, there were the 20,000 troops, all lined up and amassed for the final battle. There was no way they could devise a strategy with this many men involved. With the forest to stutter their movements, the Covenant all in front of them, John was out of his normal brilliant strategic ideas. It was just a hold out, and whoever had the most men and bravery were the ones to come out of the battle victorious. Many of the soldiers had their guns slinged on their shoulders, others with theirs down at their sides. The troops were equipped with miscellaneous weapons. About half were equipped with MA5Bs, and the other half were made up of laser rifles, chainguns and rocket launchers. But the front line had their guns up and ready the whole time, too nervous to do anything else but be ready. Warthogs made up most of the front lines, dotted with a few soldiers. Each of the warthogs were equipped with laser chainguns. Those should chop right through the elite's shields. The tanks were lined up in the back, ready to provide volleys of shell attacks. On the downside, the enemy Covenant tanks (affectionately called Big Daddies by the military bunch) could also volley against our tanks. In addition we had no higher ground. This battle would be hard. A whole bunch of radio transmissions littered his earphone as he listened to music. Most of it was John going over last minute checks on equipment and everything.

***Boss, we're gonna die!***
***Shut up!***
***Man, if you die, can I get your radio?***
***Hey! I thought I saw something!***
***Life sucks the big one.***
***Soldier, it was probably something that bounced off the glare, it's nothing.***
***Squad 562, we have a technical problem with one of our warthogs.***
***Sergeant, we have 20,000 men. Do you think I have the time to deal with ONE god damn warthog?***
***We're all gonna die!***
***No sir, I guess you're right.***
***This is Red Team. We're ready to perform operation Dead Line.***

It was Jan's voice, and she talked extremely fast from her excitement and miraculously automatically self-caffeinated self. John replied over the radio.

***Go when you see the Covenant charging our position. You're in charge of that initiation. I'll have too much on my mind at the time. Ok?***
***Ok.***

Geb reported from the front lines.

***I think I see something.***

Shadow looked up and through his sniper scope. He scanned the top of the hill. At first all he could see were blades of grass muddled throughout, but in a flash, he could see the slight glare of blue armor. As soon as he noticed, he locked in and fired.

*FTEW*

***Got it.***
***Report Gold Leader, what was that?***
***I don't know. Shadow, what'd you just shoot?***
***Elite.***
***Shit! I have contact! Enemies coming up all over the place on top of the hill!***
***Gold Team, Red Team, Black Team, All Teams prepare for our last stand in this holy war of theirs! Whatever they do, no matter how many we've lost, we will not lose this battle. We can't! This is our moment of truth troops! This is for our freedom to live! This is for everything we stand for as humans! Everything! We will survive!***

There was a huge rally of cries and yells of enthusiasm amiss the nervousness and fear of the situation. John made quite the speech. It gave a boost to morality. It even made his relatively emotionless personality want to fight to the end. He was going to anyway. He looked up from his scope, and at first there were only a few hundred miniature sized Covenant troops appearing on the top of the hill, but soon more and more came. Soon the entire top of the hill was littered with Covenant. He pressed a few buttons on the control panel to activate a private channel with Jan.

***Jan, you better get going now. Once they charge, you'll be cut off. Go now!***
***Shadow? Alright.***

He watched as a small detachment of soldiers quickly left the main group and moved into the forest to flank the Covenant base. The bulk of the Covenant forces didn't seem to notice and they were really preparing for the final battle.

***Stand ready!***
***INCOMING!***
***FOR FREEDOM! LIFE!***

One silver Elite was in front of them all. He yelled something in their language, and the Covenant all of a sudden started down the hill, all yelling some religious babble. Looks like they were as emotional about this as we were. As they started running, the ground thumped beneath them from the millions of feet slamming into the ground, ready to destroy us all. The trembling was amazing. Many of the soldiers had to kneel down to keep themselves from being knocked off their feet. The Warthogs rocked back and forth on the ground as the incoming troops came towards them, some near tipping over. Shadow made the first shot. It hit dead center on the silver Elite. The blast went right through the soldier, breaking a huge hole through his gut. The leader of the group fell to his knees, dying. At that moment he realized how honorable and brave that Elite was. How brave all of them were in this whole war. He never noticed it before, but the alien race paid so much heed to honor and respect. That one silver elite ran into the battle hundreds of feet ahead of the others, knowing that he was going to be the first to die. But as far as the Elite was concerned, being the first death in the final battle of victory was like the martyrdom of Jesus Christ himself or something. The point was that this alien race seemed to have such great respect for the elders, and their "gods". If they weren't at war with these aliens, they could probably teach us something or two. He nodded to himself. The sound of the war came in at the background as he thought to himself. He never thought about the Covenant and their lifestyle. All of a sudden, he wondered how much better it would be to be one of these Covenant Elites right now. Not because they were going to win, but because their mind seemed to operate completely different from a human one. Honor and Respect were priorities beyond survival...similar to the values of the Chinese and the Japanese cultures. Maybe the Chinese and Japanese were on to something. It didn't matter now. He was going to fight for his own honor, the best kind: The kind where death was the only option.

As the covenant bawled in, Geb and the others began to fire into their ranks, blowing out hundreds of their troops before they even got to the human front lines. The tanks blew enormous holes in the Covenant ranks, and Warthogs continuously mowed down grunts, elites, and Jackals. It was strange. None of them seemed to be firing back. The jackals had their shields deactivated, as did the elites. The grunts ran full on, no matter how many of their brethren fell next to them. It was as if they were honored to die in this battle ahead of them. In no time though, the Covenant and the humans collided. Warthogs were flying in the air. Bodies flew everywhere. Geb smiled and just opened loose with his laser chaingun, and mowed down the enemies. A Covenant came running at him. He ducked as the elite came running at him. He caught the enemy soldier's legs, and flipped the elite over his head. As the fool was falling head first, Geb spun around and tore up the soldier before the poor fellow could even hit the ground. He spun around and whipped out the butt of the gun, and snapped another elite's neck. He locked the gun back in place and began firing at amazing rates, tearing apart the enemies. The bullets kept on going through, and the enemies kept on coming. He heard the yell of pain, and he looked to his left. A soldier had a plasma sword through his chest and blood was splurting out of him. The Covenant soldier bowed his head, and slowly pulled the sword out of the dead soldier. Strange. It was as if the soldier was sorry for killing the human. It was as if he was sorry for this entire war. It was as if he never really wanted to do this. Regardless, he yelled and spun the gun to the Elite's position. The enemy's mouth dropped wide open right before he was torn apart by laser blasts. Another yell came from his right. But he disregarded it. There were going to be casualties, and there was no stopping it. Tending to each soldier wasn't going to work. He just continued to firing, hoping not to run out of ammunition. A hunter rammed through a soldier, cutting the fellow in half. The hunter spun around in a 360 degree circle, taking out whoever was in his way. And he came for him now. Geb fired rapid rounds at the enemy, but the bolts just pinged off his armor harmlessly, just like the assault rifle. He kept on firing but it did no good. From the background, he could hear a rocket blasts initiate from human lines. He watched as a rocket hit the ground right in front of the Hunter, sending the now dead corpse flying into the air. He looked around, but the one responsible for saving his life was not in the midst of his vision anymore. He kneeled down and loaded another clip. This was going to be a long

Jan ran as fast as she could with the large smart gun harness around her chest, and the gun itself in her hands. The soldiers quickly kept up with her, keeping their eyes out for enemies in the area. There were none. She looked on the radar on her eyepiece, and found a large metallic signature up ahead. It must be the base. She activated the homing targeting system on the smart gun, and lights and HUD systems lit up. She held the gun up, and was ready to fire on the enemies. The base was enormous, but the main communications and electronics center for the Covenant was located at the front of the base. That would make things easier. The area was surrounded by Shades and Shade II's. Shade II's were essentially Shades with faster firing rate, and the ability to move slowly along the ground. One of the soldiers hanged back, and readied his new Mantis laser sniper rifle. He aimed and fired as many rounds as he could. As she ran forward, she could hear and feel the laser blasts zooming past her and slamming into the shades and their operators. There weren't too many, as they weren't expecting a counterattack with such a large and desperate battle on the human's part. The Covenant should have learned how cunning humans could be by now. The first four shades were completely obliterated and exploded in bright blue smoke. The other two guns were taken out by their operators getting hit. They kept on moving. The building was right in front of them. There weren't any problems, so far. But wait. There were two enemies tanks. They were not operated, but they could provide problems later on. She was about to say something, but the tanks both exploded as they were lit up with the red fire of the laser bolts. They were both disabled, as black smoke billowed out of their cannons and chassises. She kept on going. There were two elites moving to check out the situation. Immediately, the smart gun interfaced with the HUD, and targeted them both. She aimed in their general direction and fired. The gun let out high powered assault rifle blasts at extreme rates. The gun's aiming was handled completely and the elites were all pelted with bullets until they fell to the ground. She ran up to the door of the building and it quickly slid open. There were Covenant operators inside. She and the other marines immediately blasted them.

"I want you guys to stay out here. I'll go inside to deactivate everything. Stay frosty. We don't know what they could still have in this base."
"Yes ma'am."

She rushed to the main control panel and began configuring different items. She moved her hands like lightening across the holographic control panels, pressing and dragging. After five whole minutes of code breaking and hacking, she was able to get to the main unprotected mainframe of the base's communications. She immediately deleted all software and other schematics that were required for communication. She also deleted all map diagrams that were relayed to all Covenant headsets. Finally, she stripped all interstellar communication. No more talky with the destroyers up overhead. She was going to disable more, but a marine burst into the building.

"There's a large group of enemy bogies moving in! There's a Nok with them!"
"Fine. Call for Cal on the aerial transmission. Tell him that Jan needs him. Alright?"
"Yes Ma'am."

It looked like there wouldn't be any time for more tactical disabling. She took out her pistol and fired into the main computer and blasted most of the HUD screens before rushing out of the base. She looked to her right and saw enemy Covenant Elites rushing to their position with a Nok following slowly behind.

"Lets go!"

Geb was still fighting in the ranks of the humans. Huge blue blasts from the Covenant tanks slammed into the human ranks like meteors into the moon. Body parts would fly all over the place, with a mix of blue and red blood all over them. The Spartans also were fighting in the front lines to keep the enemy Covenant from advancing so far. They were professional killers. Almost no one could touch them. Their shields would only momentarily glare in their gold color before disappearing. The problem was that the Covenant weren't giving up any time soon, and they were losing men fast. Overhead, Banshees, Banshee II's, and Verones fought against Mad Hornets, Cheetahs, and Zingers for air superiority. Occasionally, a Banshee or some other flying contraption would hit ground and kill a lot of ground troops with them. It was probably as big of a hell up there as it was down on the ground.

***This is John, we're retreating to the forest for better fighting position.***
***Roger. Az did you get that?***
***Yea, we're pulling back.***

Geb wasn't on the same side of the army as Az, but he was sure she was experiencing the same kind of gruesome battle of attrition. He reprogrammed the channel and voiced it to all in his group.

***Everyone, we're pulling back to the forest. Go now!***
***Yes Sir!***
***Don't need to tell me twice!***

They were still on the front lines, and it took a while of backing out before they could get to the forest. Meanwhile, they had to leave behind injured soldiers. But the retreat was necessary.

***All men, hide behind the thick trees for cover. We are staying together, so listen closely to orders!***
***Yes Sir!***

It was getting to the late afternoon and early noon, and orange light beams shone clearly through the holes in the cover of the trees. The Covenant were moving in quick, but they seemed to be confused and bewildered at the humans' new style of fighting. They tried fighting back, but the camouflaged and covered humans quickly cut down their forces. He looked around himself, and found that most of the other groups had escaped with at least a few troops left in their platoons. He leaned his back on the tree, but not for long. He quickly spun around, and fired off a few rounds into a grunt, and began a sprint farther into the forest, closer to their retreat camp. He constantly spun back around to fire a few at the Covenant. As he turned around, one of the humans was also firing back. The soldier got it in the chest and crumpled over on the ground. Geb looked but a second and another human ally fell. He turned around and began another quick sprint to some more cover.

***Team, status report!***
***We have lost about 120 now sir!***
***Only 80 left? Alright. All men, we are going for a full retreat back to the RC!***
***Roger!***

He breathed a huge sigh. The Covenant were making their big push. They needed to move quickly or be sandwiched in enemies. The firing was nonstop. So many guns were firing that the sound of the blasts never ceased. He breathed another sigh and decided. This was it. They needed to go now. He spun out from his cover...and saw...nothing. What? Where are they?

***Az, you seeing what I'm seeing?***
***The Covenant are retreating!***
***But they were going to crush us!***
***I don't know! Lets just get back to the RC as quick as possible!***
***I'm with you on that one.***

He began to run back, but a blue Covenant Elite was running straight for him. It must have been a straggler in their ranks. He pulled up his chaingun, but the enemy trooper had the first shot. Two superheated balls of plasma slammed themselves into his body. The first shot hit his arm, and blew right through it. The second shot went right through the area right underneath his shoulder. A huge hole was all that was left. He screamed out in excruciating pain as the bolts shot right through him. The Elite watched carefully and then quickly ran past the mortally wounded Dark Wolf. Geb felt the burn zing through is body, and it felt like his entire body was just struck like lightening. He couldn't feel anything, and he couldn't say anything.

The ship rumbled a little as he flew it at full speed, but it wasn't anything that the Night Wolf couldn't take. Cal looked on his radar. Shit. There was a Banshee II on his back. He thought for a second, and decided on a risky maneuver. He put the system on full burst. The burst pushed him into the back of his seat, the G-forces slamming into his body. He pulled quickly up on the joystick, and the ship did a 180 degree flip so now it was facing the incoming enemy Banshee II. But at the same time, he put the ship on reverse so that even though he changed the way he was facing, he was still traveling away from the Banshee II. As he traveled backwards, he zigzagged his movements to dodge all the plasma blasts. He flicked up the missile switch and slammed down into the fire button. Two Hawkblast missiles were released from the missile tubes, and went zooming towards the enemy ship. The first missile impacted the shields and did nothing but create a large explosion that blinded the pilot. But the second missile went right through the weakened shields and blew out the cockpit. Blew smoke began to flow out profusely, and the ship spiraled towards the ground. Kill number 6. He was about to take on some more, but when he looked down to his radar, all the bogies were retreating, seemingly back to their base. Static came through the radio system before Jan's homemade system could adapt to the high atmosphere.

***This is Flight leader 2, we're heading back to Retreat Base. Lets go.***
***Roger

Jan turned and led the group out of the base through the broken line of Shades and began a full sprint towards a flat ground up ahead. She looked behind her. Two of the soldiers were already pegged by Elite plasma fire and the blasts from the Nok's guns. They were done for. Cal was nowhere in sight. She turned around and was ready to stand her ground to the end, but three sniper blasts from a rail gun silenced the yelling pursuers. The Nok, seeing his comrades fall, decided it be best to turn tail. Or maybe it was something else making him go back. Whatever it was, he spun around, and made a full sprint back to the base. She looked up, and saw the silhouette of a dark figure. The sun blocked her main vision, but the loose clothing, and the ninja look told her that it was Shadow. What was he doing here?

***Shadow, what are you doing here?***
***Getting you out of the shit you're in.***
***But what about the other snipers?***
***Retreating with the rest of the humans. C'mon. We need to get back to the human camp before the bulk of the Covenant troops return to base and find us daddling around here.***
***What are you talking about? They're retreating?***
***Yes. They lost communications, thanks to you. When we retreated into the forest, they had a hard time dealing with our forces. They're not used to that type of guerrilla combat. C'mon, they'll be back here in no time.***

She nodded and began to sprint after Shadow's quick moving figure, the other marines also following behind

He was lagging behind the others, sure that the Covenant weren't following their movements. Their retreat seemed too quick and too rapid for their race. It was very strange. He never saw them leave the area so quickly. He heard a small groan from the distance. A wounded soldier? He stopped for a second, scanning the area. He looked up to Jan and the others, but their figures had already vanished into the night. He listened for the groan again, but it never came. He dashed over to where he thought he heard the moan, but didn't find anything. He continued his search, until he found the soldier. And the person he found shocked him almost that he yelled out loud. It was Geb! He immediately kneeled down and looked at the wounds. Two big ones right through the shoulder blades and the arm. It looked real bad. Geb had lost too much blood for any resuscitation, and it was already a wonder that Geb was still alive.

"Hold one Geb. I'll get help."

He pressed open the COM system and EVA showed up.

"EVA! Get help from the RC now!"
"What happened?"
"Just do it!"

He looked back to Geb. It was real bad. He wasn't going to make it. It didn't matter, he was going to help his friend no matter what. He quickly ripped off his shirt sleeve, and tore it into two pieces. He wrapped the first one around the wound on Geb's arm, and the second on his chest. Geb spoke up. His voice was raspy and barely an audible whisper.

"D-Don't bother. It's over. I'm not going to make it."
"I'm sorry Geb. It was all my fault. I shouldn't have made you go into this battle with the rest of us. It was wrong of me to force my values on you."
"N-No Shadow. Y-You were right. It was an honor to fight alongside my race and my team. It was an honor to die in the battle to try to save our race."
"I'm sorry man. I know we never really ever got along, but I would have never left you to die."
"No. You are my brother. I would have fought alongside with you to the end my friend."

Geb closed his eyes, and meant to open them again, but he never had the chance. Geb stopped breathing. Shadow closed his eyes tight, a lone tear slide down his cheek as he realized that he had lost one of his only friends. One of his best friends. He placed his head on the butt of his gun for a few minutes, and then strapped in the rifle. He lifted up the dead body, and slowly walked back to the Retreat Base.

Rise To Honor - Part 23: Plans
Date: 1 September 2002, 5:18 pm

Shadow tended to the wound on his arm. A plasma bolt fired by a grunt grazed it, but it wasn't too bad. Just tore through the skin, and blackened the rest of the skin that wasn't totally torn off. He could have had the wound completely healed, but he didn't have time to go to the infirmary. Besides, that place was already crammed full of people that were injured during the enormous battle. They had won it...for now. After a thorough investigation did they realize that the lack of communications and loss of three leaders had put their forces in utter chaos. Without anyone to command them, the Covenant leaders felt that they should retreat and gather their forces for another attack later that night. That would mean that the humans had a few more hours before their absolute annihilation. He looked around him. Cal was just landing his ship. Shadow just finished wrapping up a white bandage around his arm when he noticed the ship landing at the pad. He didn't bother to go greet Cal.

He looked down to the grave that he had just dug. It was Geb's grave. So ironic that he was the only one who didn't want to go to battle, because he was afraid for the others. When he did go into battle, it wasn't the others, but he who had fallen. He looked to the grave, the shovel he used still alongside the lump of dirt. He kneeled down right in front of the grave, and folded his hands together. He bowed once and stood up. He held Geb's dog tags in his hands. He had always refused to take those dog tags off, even after he escaped from the military base. The dog tags were simple.

The first one was as shown:

Name: Gebrard Donerd
ID Number: XF-34552

The seconds one was as shown:

Rank: classified
Position: Group Leader

He nodded to himself and place the dog tags on the simple unmarked stone that he had stuck in the ground. He unstrapped his gun, and slammed the butt of it into the first dog tag. With his extraordinary strength, the dog tag dug itself into the rock, and effectively created a little niche for the tag. He did the same with the other one. The dog tags were fully locked into the rock, and made a little description for the grave. He nodded and strapped in his rifle. He heard the crunching of leaves. He spun around. It was Az Jan and Cal. He lowered his head.

"I will never forgive myself for making him come with us."
"Shadow, it wasn't your fault. You know that in his heart, he truly knew the right thing to do. And he chose it. He died like he wanted to."
"I will never forgive myself."

With that, he walked past them, and decided to take a walked around the RC. Before he could get very far, he heard some arguing in the commander's tent. He slowly walked in, silent and unnoticed. It was the Spartans arguing over their next move.

"We'll never be able to stand up to their second attack. They'll arrive with reinforcements, and none of us can stop them."
"No, we have intel that the planetary shields have been reactivated at Norad VI. We won't have a problem with new dropships or any more destroyers coming in. And with the government now on our side, we won't have any of those shields sabotaged any longer."
"But we still have a force that is about four times as powerful as ours, and just as numerous."
"Well, there's a huge Resaq generator at their base. It's highly unstable, but only a tank shell class weapon could puncture its armor. But if it is punctured, the generator will go critical and the Resaq crystal will explode, taking out their entire base, and the bulk of their forces."
"We also have the problem of getting to it. Going with an all out attack would not work. And a stealth attack would be immediately detected with their higher class patrols. Especially after that Dark Wolf's sabotage. The only way to stop them is to destroy them from the air. That's where the weakness of the shields are, and that's the only way we'll get a clean shot."
"But how will we get a tank shell in there? Get a tank to fly?"
"No. We can rig a sniper rifle to fire a tank shell."
"Linda, do you want to do it?"
"I can't. My armor is too heavy. I'll never stay up with the jumpjets I have or the parachute I'll be using."
"Why not take your armor off?"
"Because I will never be able to calibrate myself quite enough to get a good enough shot off. I've grown to rely on the armor. Without it, I'm sure my aim will deteriorate past the abilities of a normal sniper. I'm not reliable enough."
"Well, are there any other good snipers?"
"I am."

The Spartans all turned to Shadow's direction when he responded.

"You? Do you think you can do this Dark Wolf?"
"Yes."
"You DO realize that this is a suicide mission. You will be firing from a parachute position in the air, and you'll need perfect aim. And if you destroy the generator, the explosion will be large enough to consume you as well."
"I have perfect aim, and I'm prepared to sacrifice myself for our race. You still think I'm a selfish assassin?"
"Maybe. Well, we'll have the rifle rigged up for you in no time."
"Right. Come and get me when you're ready."

He sat down in a chair a little while outside the tent, mostly thinking about Geb's death and the upcoming attack he must make. After what seemed like a half an hour or so, the Spartans came out of their tent, and an engineer handed them his sniper rifle. It was completely updated and rigged with a large shell. He eyed it a little and lifted it up. It was heavy, so he'd have to use both hands to get the right aim. John stepped up to him.

"You need to go now. We have intel that the Covenant forces are preparing for their final attack on us. You need to destroy that generator. It will therefore create a huge class-D explosion. It will consume all their forces and you as well."
"Alright. Where's my dropship."
"Your Dark Wolf friend will be taking you."
"Fine. Let's go."
"Oh, Dark Wolf. If you destroy this, you're saving the human race. You're saving all of us."

Rise To Honor - Part 24: Honor
Date: 4 September 2002, 3:03 am

He quietly contemplated the situation in his head as the ship quickly jetted forward towards the minimum safe range. They said that if they got beyond that, the Covenant would detect him, and shoot him down before he could destroy their generator. He looked out the main bay hatch which was wide open. He thought of Geb. It was all his fault. Why was he selfish enough to make Geb come along with them and fight in this war? Why? He had been selfish. If he was smart and the right person, he wouldn't have asked any of them, and would have just gone on his own. That would have been the right thing to do. The best thing to do. But he made the wrong choice, and now Geb was dead for it. He hated himself for it. He hated himself for screwing up. Speaking of screwing up, he couldn't screw up in this last, final shot. He just couldn't. There was no other option other than being successful. Surviving was not an option. It was not a possibility. He was going to die. But there was no fear. Only adrenaline and regret. He regretted his life. He had screwed it all up. He could have been a vigilante or something that helped the military stop the Covenant instead of fighting against their own race for money. Hell, he could have even joined the military. But he didn't do either. He became an assassin instead. A hired gun. Nothing more. He regretted having failed Geb. He regretted having not been there before for mankind. He had regretted almost everything. But it could not be changed. And it was going to be all over now.

The jerk woke him up from his contemplative slumber, and he looked up. He heard Cal yell from the cockpit.

"Shadow, I'm going to miss you man. We're at the drop off. Good luck, and we'll never forget you."
"Thanks Cal. May you live in peace after this war is over."
"Goodbye."

He looked to the open bay doors. They were up really high, near the clouds. He guessed that Cal wanted to give him enough time to shoot the generator. The enemy base as a whole was very visible, but the generator itself was impossible to see without a scope. He unstrapped the rigged sniper rifle, and made sure the parachute was ready. A parachute was very low tech, but the RC had nothing else. So he'd have to make do. He activated his COM system.

"Shadow, you know that will be destroyed with you. But for some reason, I feel an obligation to helping you with the destruction of the Covenant."
"Congratulations EVA, you learned honor."

He pressed a button on the COM system, and heavy rock music started. He nodded to Cal and jumped out. He was immediately hit with the powerful winds that rose and dropped over the forest. He was blown around in the air as he fell a ways. He watched the dropship slowly disappear as the fell towards the ground. After wrestling with the wind for a few seconds, he righted himself up and pulled the cord on his backpack. The pack immediately sprung open, and his drop was almost completely stopped by the parachute. His shoulders felt the pain and the pressure as the parachute fought the hard winds that were pushing him down. He grasped the rifle with both hands, and activated the scope. The winds were extremely powerful, and when he finally got the generator in sight, he couldn't get a good shot in. The winds were too powerful. He lifted the rifle up above his head to rest his arms and then locked it back in place between his legs. The scope still shook, but it was a little better. He finally got the generator in his sights and was about to fire, but he could hear the sounds of plasma rifles. He faltered just for a second, and looked down. He immediately saw a burst of plasma bolts heading his way. He used his weight to pick up some movement and momentum. As a plasma bolt headed straight for him, he lifted his legs and swung backwards. The plasma bolt laced his chest, grazing his skin. He could feel the sting and smell his burning flesh, but he looked again as another plasma bolt sailed up. He ducked his head as far as he could, and the bolt missed. But it tore a hole right through the parachute. The hi-tech parachute immediately went to work and activated the second layer of fabric to keep him from falling down to the ground. He sighed a relief and was about to go back to his sniper rifle when he could hear more shots. How DID they know he was here? Was he in their radar range? He didn't know. But the nevertheless, the bolts still zoomed by him, whether he could account for it or not. Bolts upon bolts tore through the parachute, and the lines began to go slack. He knew it would only be a matter of time before he would get caught up in the lines and the parachute. He'd land safely, but he wouldn't be able to fire. How COULD he do this? He had an idea. It was suicidal, but he was going to die anyway, wasn't he? He pulled another, smaller cord from the other side of the pack and the parachute lines immediately ejected from the pack. Instead of a slow fall, he began to tumble at amazing rates. Now he would get a shot in without getting tangled up. More plasma blasts zinged by him as he struggled to steady himself. Two bolts both zinged through his right leg, tearing it up. He winced, but never yelled out and still tried to right himself up. As he did so, he caught sight of his COM system and the numbers it read on alititude. 1,000 and falling. He had no time. He needed to fire now. All his anger, all his frustration, all his madness, all his sadness. All his emotions. Everything he kept within himself during the past hours were released at this point and time. He used all this emotion to finally get the willpower to right himself up. He cringed at the pain of another bolts hitting his shoulder. They must be snipers. No other Covenant weapon could fire that accurately. He locked the gun between his legs again, and tried to lock on the generator. But without the parachute, everything was a blur. After a second of trying to get it, he finally hit the scope on the dot, and EVA stabilized the lock for him. No matter what now, the rifle was locked. He took the moment to say one sentence.

"For my sins! FOR HONOR!!!"
(Fall back on me, and I'll be the strength I need, to save me now, just come face to face with me. Stay in place you'll be the first to see, me heal these wounds, STEP DOWN, STEP DOWN, STEP DOWN!!! I'm not breaking, DOWN!!!! CAN I BREAK AWAY! PUSH ME AWAY! MAKE ME FALL! JUST TO SEE ANOTHER SIDE OF ME!! PUSH ME AWAY! YOU CAN'T SEE WHAT I SEE!!!! THE OTHER SIDE OF MEEE!!!!!! GOOOOOOOO!!!!!)

With that, he fired the blast, and the shot hit straight home, right into the generator. His life flashed before him. Everything flashed before him. His life as a kid, with his family. His life in the military, a hell to him. Their escape, his life as an assassin, his arguments with Geb, the most recent battles of his, the battles in the city, Geb's death. Everything. After the shot, everything seemed to occur in slow motion. He saw the casing crack and the fiery explosion pop out. He watched from a distance as the explosion consumed every Covenant soldier in the area: even the snipers that were firing from the edge of the base. He watched as the trees became larger, and more detailed. And finally, his legs slammed into a tree branch. He felt the extreme pain and the crunch of his legs snapping like twigs. He landed on the dirt ground with a thud, watching as the fiery explosion consumed the forest. He had done it. He had saved mankind, at least for now against the Covenant invasion of Earth. He watched as the fire came closer and closer, and more and more detailed in front of his face. The heat brushed up against his face. The fire became more detailed and more articulated as it came less than 500 feet in front of him. It consumed everything near it. Trees, animals, even Covenant. Everything. He smiled, for he knew he was going to die with honor.

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