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Countdown to Zero
Date: 25 August 2008, 9:30 pm

COUNTDOWN TO ZERO

Part 1
Chapter 1
Inside a Covenant Remnant Space Station, April 27, 2553.
"But this doesn't make any sense. Why would the Covenant destroy their own signal?" Solipsil asked.
"I don't know. But this isn't their style. They like a straightforward method. A double bluff isn't like them." Atin, Zeta 1, replied.
"Well, at any rate, the decryption is done. Lets get out of here, Atin."
"Agreed." Atin got out his Com link.
"'Come in, Char. You read me?'
'I read you, Chief. What's up?' replied Zeta 3, Charlotte, the squad sniper and tech specialist.
"We're done here, but the Covie system's trashed. Were on our way back."
'Copy that. We're waiting." Solipsil stopped.
"Chief, I got something. Something that a normal scan wouldn't pick up."
"What is it?" Atin asked.
"Its a footprint. From a UNSC system! Thats impossible. We were the only ones here."
Atin looked confused. "Maybe not. Run a full scan. Find out where that footprint came from."
"Right. Scanning................what? Impossible! Impossible!"
"What? Whats going on?"
"I'm blocked out! That can't happen with a UNSC system! I have full access!"
"That doesn't matter. Break in. No matter what the cost."
"Right. Working.........I'm in. What? I don't recognize that routing code."
"What?"
"The ones that hacked the system must have trashed it. But they didn't tell us. The signal is from ONI. From a group I've never heard of. Section Zero."

Atin entered the bridge of the UNSC Supercruiser Stonewall. Among the bridge crew was Charlotte. As she looked up at him, she said,
"Welcome back. Everything go normally?" Atin smiled.
"Nothing goes normally. But we found something strange. You're familiar with ONI?" Charlotte furrowed her brow. "Not as well as some people. They're Military Intelligence. That's all I know." "Well, you know that there is Section One. They handle enemy force deployments and technology. Then there is Section Two. They are military propaganda. After that is Section Three. They run the secret projects, like NavSpecWar. But I bet you haven't heard of a Section Zero."
"Never."
Atin nodded. "I just found out. They trashed the Covie system."
"How? I thought that their system is unbreakable."
"So did we. But there are two things that don't make sense. First, they locked Solipsil out when she has access to all systems. Second, why would they do the job, and then send someone else to do it again?"
"I don't know, maybe to cover their tracks? But either way, this doesn't sound g-"
Just then, the NAV Officer yelled, "Slipspace rupture! Incoming enemy ships! Tracking one, no, five, no, twenty-two, wait, seventy-eight ships! Vectors everywhere!"

The UNSC Enforcer-Class Supercruiser was a powerful ship. A damn powerful ship. With over
80 turrets on the front hull alone, and a Super-MAC cannon under the main section, it was a warhorse. But not even this powerhouse could destroy 78 mixed Covenant ships.
On the bridge, Atin and Charlotte looked at the ships with disbelief.
"S-Sir? Orders, Sir?" The NAV Officer asked shakily.
Atin looked at the situation. It was possible, but there wasn't enough time. Just then, a voice came on the COM.
"This is Sangheili Ship Master Ntah 'Vhrom. We have been trailing the Jirhanalie for a number of days, ans it looks like you could use our assistance."
"Very appricatied, Ship Master. I have a plan. But we will need you to distract them."
"Right. I hope you know what you are doing. Weapons! Charge all plasma turrets! Full power to shields!"
"All right people, I want you to load one of our escape salons with all the nukes we got! Transfer power to kinetic shields and Shaw-Fujikawa engines."
Charlotte raised her eyes with surprise. "What!? You can't be serious! If we detonate a nuke, it will take down our Super MAC for 24 hours!"
"I know. But the nukes are the main part of my plan. You heard me. Get to it!"
"Yes Sir!"
"Ship Master, you're gonna want to charge your slipspace generator if you want to survive. And transfer power to shields and slipspace. Nothing else. Copy that?"
"Yes, I receive. What exactly are you planning?"
"To blow all of those Brute forces to hell."
Charlotte yelled, "All of the nukes are in salon 2-B. Ready to jettison salon."
Atin turned to the viewscreen. The Elite forces were really giving the Brutes hell. They can still maneuver while giving power to the shields.
"All right. Lets do it. Ship Master, get out of here. Thanks for your help."
"Right. Best of luck, human."
"Target the flagship of the fleet. Charge the Super MAC and remove safeties on Archer Missiles pods A1 through P20."
Charlotte raised her eyebrows. "Thats a whole lot of missiles."
" 120 pods, to be exact."
Each pod contained 20 missiles. With 120 pods, that would add up to 2,400 missiles.
The NAV Officer turned and said, "Safeties removed. Archer Missile pods A1 through F20 armed and ready to fire. Super MAC charged and ready to fire. Covenant Flagship is an Assault Carrier. Targeting weakest spot on its hull. Targeted. Ready to Fire."
Atin nodded. "Good. Link firing of Missiles and MAC. Ready. Fire." The lights flickered and went out. The entire ship shuddered and the MAC slug shot forward. At the same time, three hundred and twenty missiles launched and streaked toward the enemy flagship. The MAC shot impacted and blew through the shields and half the hull. The Archers went through the hole in the ship and a series of explosions followed. The explosions tore through the ship until the missiles impacted the reactor core and the ship was destroyed in a violent explosion.
"Now, lets finish this. Jettison the escape salon. Jump-heat the slipspace converters."
Charlotte checked the status. "Done and done, sir. Ready to fire. Oh, and if you were wanting to check on your salon from hell, I just launched a recon drone."
"Very good, Char. Activate Shaw-Fujikawa engine!"
As the Supercruiser entered Slipspace, the feed from the drone filled the screen.
"Status on the nukes?"
"Ready to fire, sir. Giving you detonation codes. All set."
"Right. Got it." Atin looked at the red button that could disintegrate dozens of enemy ships.
"Time to die, Brutes." Atin closed his eyes and pressed the button. A beep confirmed the
detonation. The feed from the drone showed an instant hellhole. A white flash filled the screen. When it disappeared, the display showed only 4 ships intact, with 3 of them missing part of their hull.
"Very good, crew. Now lets head home."
Charlotte looked at Atin. "Now what, we just go home?"
"No. We have a job to do. To reveal Section Zero and find out what they intend to do. This is just the beginning."










Chapter Two
Planet Draala, Hersher System
"Zeta 4, what's your status?"
"Arming bomb now. Running into some hostile trouble. Nothing I can't handle."
"Copy that. I'm falling back to RV point Gamma. There's multiple waves of hostiles. You got 5 minutes before I have to fall back again."
"I got it. Good luck."
Copy that. Zeta 2, Over and out."
The arming timer on the HAVOK Nuclear Warhead was counting down agonizingly slow. Zeta 4, Kami, let out a grunt of disgust as she picked up her M90A Shotgun and blasted a Brute back onto it's partner's back. The Brute snarled and charged. Kami just had enough time to pump the shotty and blast the Brute's head off. "Gotcha." she said as she tossed a grenade and killed the other Brute. She checked the bomb , and smiled as she saw that it was now armed. "Zeta 4 here, bomb's armed."
Zeta 2, Nikki, hung from a steel cord, wielding a MA5C Assault Rifle. She dropped a grenade and let loose a burst of lead from her AR. One fell, but it seemed like every one she killed, 2 more took it's place. "Zeta 2 here. I'm falling back to RV Delta. Copy that, Zeta 4?"
"No need, Zeta 2. I'm done here. Lets get out of this dar'yaim."
Agreed, Zeta 4." Nikki let her cord release and sprinted to the team's Longsword. As Kami came aboard, Nikki activated the power plant on the fighter. Kami strapped in, and the Longsword rose into the air and rocketed into the sky. Nikki took off her helmet. "Thats endex. Good job. Lets go home."

The UNSC HighCom building in Washington D.C. was filled with people who weren't intimidated easily. But the way Atin and Charlotte were walking through the building with faces of angry determination made everyone move out of his way. When they finally reached the elevator that would take them to Atin's office, Charlotte said "All right, so whats the plan?"
"Well, first, we need to get the squad rounded up. Then we can brief them on Section Zero." The elevator dinged, and the door opened to reveal the Office of the Chief of Special Operations. For an office, it was enormous. On the floor there was the Emblem of the UNSC. Behind the desk, there was a huge window, displaying the City of Washington D.C. Atin walked to the desk and put Solipsil's data chip into the holopanel. Her figure appeared on the desk.
"Solipsil, run a full system search on anything relating to Section Zero."
Solipsil was an experiment put on by ONI Section Three to see what would happen if an AI was allowed to go rampant and not be destroyed. Solipsil was put in a controlled environment and allowed to do anything she wanted to do. Eventually, she went rampant. After more studying, she went stable. She was the first stable, rampant AI ever. With that, her loyalty to the UNSC was not hardwired any more. She was assigned to Atin's squad partly because she hacked the UNSC Mainframe, and eventually she grew to be one of the squad. She trusted Atin with her life, and would allow no one except for Atin to carry her in MJOLNIR armor.
"There's not much. No good leads. But I didn't think that it would be this easy. Just a scan wouldn't uncover much. Hey, Kami and Nikki are back." The elevator dinged, and two SPARTANs walked in. "Hey. Welcome back." Atin said.
"Good to be back." Kami replied. "That last op wasn't that easy."
Solipsil appeared on the holopanel. "So, the whole Zeta Squad is back together again. Good. Because we have something important to talk about."
"And what's that?" Nikki inquired.
"Well, I suppose I should start with the mission that Atin and I were on. We were assigned with intercepting a Covenant signal from the source: a small Covenant space station. The mission went on smoothly until we got to the comm center. I got into the system to discover that the entire system was totally destroyed."
"Totally destroyed? Like, the data was wiped or something?" Nikki asked.
"Exactly. Nothing was there. Except for a very well hidden footprint. A UNSC footprint. Upon closer scanning, I found out that it's origin was ONI. From a group called Section Zero. Thats all I found. We decided to leave and return to the ship. After that, we were attacked from 78 Covenant capital ships. Luckily, we were assisted from a Sangheili heavy warship. We were able to destroy most of the enemy ships."
"So why would ONI do a mission, and then do it again?"
"We are thinking that they wanted to cover their tracks. But for what, we're not sure. Thats what we are trying to figure out. However, we really have no leads."
"So what do we do? Search for leads?"
"Exactly."
Atin considered for a second, then said, "Tread carefully on this one, squad. You all know how ONI can be. If they want you out of the picture, they take you out. As for their mission, we still don't know what they want, but even though they are still UNSC, don't trust them."
The squad looked at each other, and as one, said "Got it."


It was a beautiful day in the city of Trivert, on the planet Alpha Centauri 4. The sky was blue, the birds were singing, and Thomas Riverto wished that he didn't have to go to his job so he could stare at this perfect vista for the rest of the day. But, he had to earn his pay, which meant that he had to go to his job at the HoloVid Theater. The traffic was always horrible, he had to leave a whole hour early, even though the Theater was not that far from his house. When he finally got there, he was only 5 minutes late. But that didn't stop his boss from chewing out his ass for what seemed like the 50th time. After he got done with that, the day went so slow he could have sworn the clock was broken. But after he came back from his lunch break, he got a great idea. He would take everything that was of value at his office, and never come back. He was almost done cleaning out the cubicle when he found the old MA2B rifle that he got from his brother in the UNSC because there was heavy gang activity at night. His gut feeling told him to take it. He found 5 clips of ammo, plus the clip in the rifle already. He got in his car, and wished that he never had to go back to work again.
"Just my luck. Stuck in rush hour again. Damn." The expressway was packed with cars going 5
MPH. Thomas was considering just laying on his horn when he heard an enormous BOOM!! He looked up and saw what looked like a huge slab of metal appearing from space. Once again, he had a gut feeling. It told him to take the MA2B. He grabbed the gun, and left his car. He saw....something coming. It looked like a ship. Then, it started firing things out of it's hull. One of them was coming his way. Then, suddenly, he recognized it. A UNSC Archer Missile. He jumped off the expressway seconds before it exploded in a ball of fire. His first reaction was to get to his family. He had no idea why the UNSC would attack one of its own colonies, but right now he didn't care. The only thing that mattered was escape.







Chapter Three
UNSC Office of the Military Director
"All right. Heres the plan. Me and Char will go down and infiltrate the city and slot any hostiles there are, while Kami and Nikki stay in the ship and destroy the hostile warship. Clear?"
The squad, all in unison, yelled "Clear!"
"Good. Lets go."
On board the UNSC Stonewall, Atin and Char, in their MJOLNIR armor, were boarding the ODST drop pod that would ship them to the city the fastest, but not necessarily safest, way.
"You ready, Char?"
"Affirmative, sir. I'm set."
Atin smiled. During normal times, Charlotte was the happiest member of Zeta Squad. Always the one with the jokes. But during an op, she turned pure military discipline. He remembered when he first met her. Atin was leading an evac of a school in some backwater planet far away. She was scared, just like all of them. However, he saw he hardness in her eyes. So he went over to her and asked if she wanted a chance to get even. She eagerly replied yes. So, they went to the back of the lead evac Elephant and he gave her his personal BR55 HB-SR for target practice. To his surprise, her eyes were almost the same vision as his, so the highly modified Battle Rifle needed no adjustments. She was such a good shot, he let her keep the rifle. Ever since, she had clung to that rifle and became an artist with it. She was better with that than a certified sniper with a sniper rifle. She could take a hostile down at twice the Battle Rifle's maximum range. She was excellent. She was-
"Sir, you there?" Char asked.
"Yeah. I'm here. How are you? Nervous?"
"Nervous? You kidding? Remember the free fall drop? Where you only have your armor for protection, and the only thrust you have is the explosive decompression and a small maneuvering thruster. This is going to be a piece of cake."
"Ha! I guess you're right. Ok, lets do this. All set?"
"All set. I'm ready."
"Copy that." "Drop command, this is Zeta 1. Drop in 5 seconds."
5............................................................
4...................................................

3.............................................


2......................................




1.........................
The pod separated from the ship with a loud BANG! and Atin and Charlotte's pods were blasted down to the surface and hit the pavement. All of a sudden, Atin's training kicked in and he grabbed his new BR55 HB-SR rifle and ran to the nearest building, knowing that Char would be close behind. Only when he reached the bombed out building did he see the ship. That was a Chameleon-class Prowler. One of the biggest stealth ships in the UNSC. And that was the confirmed hostile ship. Suddenly, two things clicked. Either the prowler was captured by the Covenant, or ONI was responsible for the attack. Damn, what he wouldn't give for Will and his tank to be here.
"Sir, advise that we get farther inside so we will have a good line of sight and the element of surprise."
"Agreed. Lead the way." Atin opened a two-way channel between him and Char. That way, he could talk to her without turning on his radio every time. However, he could hear everything, including her every breath. But, in a way, that in itself was comforting. It was an easy way to make sure that she was still alive, at least. When they found a safe floor, they were just sitting down when they were attacked.


"Transfer power to weapons and kinetic shields!" Nikki yelled to the Bridge crew aboard the Stonewall.
"Power to weapons and kinetic shields, aye. Charging up Super MAC."
"Good. Also, arm Archer pods A1 through D15." Nikki was sure that the other ship was a Chameleon-class Prowler, but it was still the designated enemy target.
The Prowler suddenly opened fire with 15 missiles. However, the Stonewall's shields held.
"Well, that answers that question." The prowler was hostile. Now is the time to attack.
"Ready Archer pods, then fire MAC on my mark."



Thomas Riverto held his MA2B with a white-knuckled grip. The enemy troops were here. Although there were only two of them, there was only one of him. And, they had armor. But this gun was a UNSC rifle. The ammo was certified. It should pierce that armor. This is the time. Ready, now!
Thomas leapt from his hiding spot, and suddenly, the troops that were sitting, were now standing with their rifles trained on his head. He opened fire with his MA2B, and got the shock of his life when the rounds looked like they just splashed over their armor. With that, he know he was about to die.

"Hold fire! It's a civvie! Take him alive!" Atin barked. As his shields flashed, he tackled the civilian and knocked his gun down. He put the civvie in a arm lock and opened audio channel. "Who are you? What is your name? Why did you try to attack us?" the civvie just looked at him with wide eyes and said, "Why should I tell you? Why didn't you kill me like you killed everyone else?"
"Oh. I get it. You think I'm with them. No, we're with the good guys. The other ship. Now who are you?"
The civilian looked out the blown window and saw the Stonewall."You- oh, thats a relief. I thought I was dead. My name is Thomas Riverto. Who are those people that are killing everybody?"
"I don't know. Thats what we are trying to figure out. Come with us. We need to leave the city. It is completely lost. Our only option is to bomb the city. Come on. Lets go."
"Umm..ok. I'm coming."
Atin, Char, and Thomas walked to the edge of the city and into the jungle.
Charlotte stopped and said, "Go on. Ill make a hole here and provide sniper cover."
"All right. Good luck, Char. Be careful."
"I always am."
When Atin and Thomas were about a half-mile from where they were, Atin suddenly had a bad feeling.
Almost instantly, Charlotte's voice bursted on the com. "Ambush! I'm hit! Ahhh!!................."
"Char!? Char!? Can you hear me? Come in Char! Come in! Char!!"
"That's it. I'm going back. Thomas, you stay."
Atin sprinted back to Char's position when he saw his motion tracker flicker. Just then, he saw 4 human figures materialize out of thin air, rifles pointed directly at him. He immediately opened fire and in what seemed like no time, all 4 of them were dead. He finally reached Char's still armor. "Char, talk to me. Come on. Char. Give me a sign here. Come on, Char. Please." He opened a diagnostic and sighed with relief. The new armor system damn near saved her life. "Command. Armor System Liquid Metal Crystal Unlock." Charlotte's armor relaxed. He brought up TEAMBIO. She was breathing, had a strong pulse, but was just unconscious. He called Thomas over and radioed a Pelican for pickup.


"Lock on to enemy! Ready Archer Missiles on my command!" Nikki ordered.
The NAV officer shouted "Impacts on port decks LP5 to LP7! Shields holding. Archer missiles locked and ready to fire on your command. Super MAC is charged up and ready."
"Good. Link the firing systems so the missiles get there 4 seconds before the MAC."
The NAV officer typed quickly. "Done. All set."
Nikki reached for the red button. "Let's end this." She pushed the button. Instantly, she heard rapid missiles streaming for the prowler. When they impacted, they created a wall of smoke around the enemy ship. A second later, the power flickered and went out, and there was a huge BOOM!!!!!! Followed by what looked like a bolt of red-hot lightning that crashed into the prowler. The MAC round went straight through, pierced the reactor core, and exited through the other side. The hostile prowler listed, and fell to the city. The reactor went critical, and the ship exploded. When the smoke cleared, all that remained of the city was a crater.
"What's Atin's and Char's status?"
Another bridge member said "In a Pelican, en route to the Stonewall."
"Good." Nikki and Kami went to the hangar where Atin's Pelican was, and they found Atin carrying Char, who wasn't moving. "What-what happened?" Kami asked.
"An ambush. Whoever did it had active camouflage. Come on. Ill explain everything in the MedBay." When they got to the Medical ward, Atin hooked Char to the medical diagnostic machine. She had a strong pulse, good heartbeat, no internal bleeding, but she also had a broken arm, a fractured leg, and a cracked wrist, along with multiple contusions that were from her getting knocked against her stiff armor.
"All right, shes fine, but not in any shape to fight anytime soon. But first of all, I should explain what happened with her armor, because I'm sure you are both curious." Both Nikki and Kami nodded. "All right. The MJOLNIR armor, as you know is fitted with a Metal Liquid-Solid Crystal that gives us increased reflexes and decreased reaction time. However, in the event of an emergency, the armor can, more or less, command the ML-SC to change to a solid crystal and harden, thereby protecting the Spartan from further injury of bullet, or plasma, or explosive. But the Spartan's body gets thrown around a lot inside the immobile armor. That is what saved her life."
"Wow. Thats insane. So what ambushed her?"
"Thats just it. The explosive that made the armor stiffen up was an M9 Frag Grenade. Also, they shot very unusual 8mm rounds at her. It wasn't friendly fire. My guess? Section Zero."
Kami looked at Atin, confused. "But why?" Kami asked. "Why just attack a city? And with a ship thats not even certified for war. It was a stealth ship. Not a warship. This doesn't make sense."
"None of this makes sense. Any of it. But we got a civvie that said that the invaders rounded almost all of the citizens in a very large building, then just bombed the building. Killed them all. Why? Maybe just to distract us. But I gotta say, for ONI, they're pretty sloppy. But, at any rate, the mission is complete. We should head back and get Char to a hospital."

















Part 2
Chapter Four
Inside a UNSC Hospital
Atin, Kami, and Nikki all sat around Charlotte's hospital bed. She would be fine, but she was still unconscious. And worse, with the injuries she sustained, she would be out of action for a while.
"We need a new strategy." Nikki said. "This isn't working. If we keep this up, Section Zero will accomplish what they want to do before we know what hit us."
Atin held his hands up to his mouth. "I agree. We have to get to work. But I don't think we should leave Char here. We should take turns staying here."
Kami nodded. "Ok. Atin, you want to take the first shift?"
"Sure. Ill stay for 6 hours, then Nikki, then you, Kami."
Nikki and Kami stood. "Good luck. See you in 6 hours."
"Bye." Left with nothing to do, and with the sedatives still in Charlotte's system, Atin nodded off.


"Cover that side! Send reinforcements to the west bunker!"
"Hostiles reported in the city center! Hundreds of Brutes! They're murdering the civilian population!"
"Fires reported in all corridors! We can't hold the Command Post!"
"Fall back! Everybody fall back!"
"What the hell? Somethings going on with that artifact near Voi!"
"What? What's going on with it?"
"I don't know! The Forerunner ship shot a beam of light, and now there's a big portal or something! The ships are going through it."
"That isn't important. Concentrate on the mission. That's all that matters-uhhh...ugg...ahh.
"LT? Shit! Brutes in the CP! Code Red! Code Re-Ahh!
"Fall back! Everybody fall back! LT? Lieutenant Atin! Come on!!"
"I'm gonna settle this score. Kill these Brutes. Will, hold them off for a couple more seconds. We can't let the Covenant take this CP, Jon. You know that. Ok, charges are set. Let's get out of here!"


Atin woke up with a jolt. "Damn. Not this again." Will. He missed Will. Every time after a mission, he'd want to go into space just to stare at the stars. He loved space almost as much as Atin. He looked up at Char, and she stirred. Her eyes opened, and she looked around. "Welcome back." He said. "We were worried about you."
"What happened? The mission. It felt like I was hit with a frag grenade."
"You were. It was human forces. An ambush."
"But how? I didn't see them."
"They used Active Camouflage Technology."
"So it wasn't the Insurrection."
"No. We are thinking it was Section Zero."
"Huh. Wouldn't surprise me."
A nurse entered, and, surprised to see Char awake, said, "You should be getting plenty of bed rest. You should be asleep right now."
Atin nodded. "Yes,you should. The morphine you are on will wear off soon. I need to contact the rest of the squad."
Charlotte didn't look content. "You should find another soldier to take my place until I get better. If this is Section Zero, you will need a full squad."
"You sure?"
"Yeah. You'll need all the help you can get. Ill be back in action in a few weeks."
"All right. See you soon. Bye."

Atin was at the end of his line. There was nothing, absolutely nothing, on Section Zero. The tech room was going as fast as it can, and even Solipsil couldn't find anything.
"Bingo! Gotcha!" Solipsil said with excitement!"
Atin looked up. "What did you find out?"
"Proof that this is Section Zero that attacked Trivert. I found the same routing code from the Covie station as the Prowler that attacked Trivert."
"So we now know that it is Section Zero."
"Exactly. So what now?"
"Well, we need a replacement squad member for a while. We'll start with that. And I know just the person."
"Good. You do that, and we'll try to get some troops together to help us with Section Zero."
Atin nodded and left.

Chapter Five
In Orbit above Planet Tempest, Arcturus System

"I don't like the look of this place." Solipsil said.
"Neither do I. But this is the place that the new squad member is." Atin replied.
When Atin's ship touched down, there was immediately a guard on station.
"Identification now, sir."
"I am Commander Spartan 38. Here to get Lt. Commander Jon Williams.
"Um, yes sir. This way, please."
"No way. It can't be you, Atin?" Jon said as he saw Atin.
"Is that the way you talk to your superior officers, Jon?"
Jon saw the Commander insignia on Atin's uniform. "My apologies, sir for not identifying your rank!"
"It's all right. I have a proposition for you. Now, I'm not going to lie to you. I need a replacement squad member because one of my squad got ambushed by some people who have super effective technology ambushed her, and now she's in the hospital."
Jon put his face in his hands and laughed out loud. "You know how stupid that sounds?"
"Yes I do. But you're the only one who can do it. What do you say?'
"You think I'd turn down an offer to do SpecOps with you? Of course Ill do it. But it's not up to me. You're gonna have to talk to my CO."
"Don't worry about it. I get my orders directly from the Brass. This is NavSpecWar. We can get pretty much anything we want." Atin walked to the CO's office and opened the door.
"Hello, Commander. I am Major Caldwell. What can I do for you?"
" I hate to say this, Major, but I'd like one of your soldiers. Lt. Commander Williams."
"Ah, he's one of my best soldiers. But what's the story with him? He's a soldier, a damn good one, but he's in the Navy. What's the story?"
"Well, it's a long story. To be brief, he's in NavSpecWar. Naval Special Warfare. They use the Naval Command Structure, but they're trained for SpecOps warfare. They're the best."
"I see. Well, fill out the transfer papers and he's all yours."
"Thank you, Major. Goodbye."
Atin walked back to Jon's area and said, "Good news. You're now Zeta 5. Gongrats."
"Sweet. So I'm NavSpecWar again. In the best squad in the whole UNSC, getting the best tech, weapons, and training. So who's the enemy?"
Atin laughed out loud. "Whats so funny?" Jon asked.
"The enemy? ONI."
"What!? ONI!?"
"Thats right. ONI Section Zero. They were behind the attack on Trivert. And that was just a diversion. Who knows what their real objective is. So, you still in?"
"Of course. "
"Good. Pack your things. We leave immediately."
"Copy that. Give me 10 minutes."
"Right. Good to have you back."


"This is strange. I don't like it." Solipsil looked worried. And when a super-powerful, rampant AI looked worried, it wasn't good.
"What did you find?" Kami asked.
"Coordinates. Star maps, and the travel time for Sigma Octanus IV. Also, refrences to the Deep-Space Artifact that the Apocalypso found. Both had something to do with the Forerunner. This isn't good. Section Zero's going to play with fire and get us all burned if they play with the Forerunner artifacts."



"How many security checkpoints do we have to pass?" Jon asked.
"Just one more. Then, an elevator ride."
"Oh, joy."
When Atin and Jon finally got to the Control Room, they were both getting annoyed. Jon had to register himself at all 10 security checkpoints. But they were finally there.
"Ok, here we are." Atin opened a tall vault.
"Wow." Jon said when he saw what was in the vault.
"This is MJOLNIR Mark VI armor. It has been calibrated to allow normal, unaugmented humans to operate it without the armor overpowering them."
"You serious? Normal humans can wear Spartan armor now?"
"Well, yes. But this calibration is extremely expensive. We only have a few of them available."
"Still, thats insane."
"Yeah, it is. Lets get you fitted."


"All right, team." Solipsil said. "With the data I gathered from Charlotte's suit, and the analysis from Jon's skills, I devised a new training program. We are going to train longer, harder, and better. It's gonna be the worst training yet, but we are going to be ready. For anything."
"Is she always like this?" Jon asked Atin quietly.
"Not usually. She just likes being in control."
"Ah."



Solipsil's training pushed the squad to it's limit. With it, they got to know Jon and be able to work with him better. But he still didn't replace Char.
"So, what was Charlotte? In the team?" Jon asked.
"She was the team sniper and medic." Atin replied.
"Oh, a sniper. What rifle did she use? The SRS99D? Or the C Variant? Cause I still know people who use the C Variant. They say the higher rate of fire makes up for the decreased accuracy, but I like the D Variant, even though it has increased recoil. What do you think?"
Atin looked impressed. "Well, I do like the D Variant. But Char didn't use either. She used a custom BR55 HB-SR."
"What? A sniper that didn't use a sniper rifle? Hmm.....interesting. She must be good with it."
"She was great. The best shot I know with the BR55."
"What is the BR55 HB-SR? What does that stand for?
"It stands for Heavy Barrel-Special Release. The heavy barrel reduces recoil and increases accuracy. But the Special Release? That means that every part of the rifle has been improved and modified. Only a couple have been made."
"Wow. So how did Charlotte get one?"
"Well, it was mine, but I gave it to her after I found out how good a shot she was. She and I have almost the same eyes, so the optics didn't need any adjustments. She loves that weapon."
"You ever wonder why she loves it?" Nikki asked as she walked in.
"I don't know. Shoot." Atin replied.
"Well, here she is, a girl going to a school in a backwater planet, with nothing exiting going on, and suddenly, it's attacked, and a War Hero comes along and gives her a custom rifle and enlists her in the best squad in the whole UNSC. She idolizes you."
"Hmm..thats an interesting viewpoint."
Jon cut in. "Wait, so what rifle do you have now that you gave yours to Char?"
"Oh, I got another one. I have connections. But it wasn't easy. And it wasn't cheap."
"I guess not. But thats the price you have to pay for a powerful weapon."
"True."
Suddenly, an alarm klaxon blared. Solipsil appeared on the holopanel.
"You're not going to like this. A new Section Zero attack."
"Where?" Atin asked.
"Earth. The Skyview Facility."
"Damn. Damn! No!"
"Yeah. Sorry. But the good news? Most of the Civilians have been moved to the facility below. They're safe for now."
Jon looked confused. "Isn't Skyview just a school?"
"Well, it is, but under that, there's a UNSC Command Facility. They must have known that. But to me, Kami, and Nikki, it's personal. All three of us went there at school. Squad!"
At once, the squad shouted, "Sir!"
"Suit up! We're going down there to stop the Section Zero attack on Skyview!"
"Sir! Yes Sir!"

Chapter Six
On board the UNSC Stonewall, en route to Skyview Facility.

"Ok, here's the plan." Atin said. "We don't know if Section Zero managed to take control of the AAA, so we have to go in the fastest way possible."
"Oh no, you're not saying what I think you're saying." Nikki said.
"Sorry, but it's the only way."
Jon looked confused. "What's the only way?"
Atin smiled. "Orbital drop."
"With drop pods?"
"Afraid not. We need to maneuver if they have AAA set up."
"We're going to drop. Out of orbit. With only MJOLNIR armor?"
"Yep. That's about right."
"Damn. Thats just crazy."
"You're right. Let's go."
Kami said, "Will we finally get a chance to use our modifications?"
"Maybe. Depends on the situation."
Jon looked confused for a split-second. "What kind of mods did you guys put on your armor?"
Atin replied, "Well, a couple things, actually. First-"
The intercom turned on. "Approaching Earth. All personnel lock down systems. Go to General Quarters."
Nikki, Kami, and Jon stood up. "All right, lets do it."
Atin stood and opened a reinforced case. "One more thing. ONI wanted us to try out a new weapon. A human version of the Covenant beam rifle." Atin opened the case and took out a rifle with a white stock and black barrel. "It has a removable barrel extension for close range fights. It has double the penetration of a Battle Rifle, and a modified scope. The only problem? It's not quiet at all. Pretty loud. And it's bright. Not much of a sniper weapon. But it's our job to test this out and reply back to Section Three about it. There's one for each of us."
Jon looked at it and appeared impressed. "Wow. So we actually managed to replicate Covenant technology."
"Thats right. Maybe we can even make starship shields as powerful as the Covenant's someday."
A voice on the intercom said, "ETA to Earth in 5 minutes. Zeta Squad, to Hangar Bay 5, please."
"Well, I guess that's our cue. Let's get to it."



"So, where's the drop bay?" Jon asked.
"This is it. When we get to orbit, the hangar door will open and we will get sucked out by the explosive decompression. We will have only a maneuvering thruster and a de-burn thruster for when we get in the atmosphere. We will also have a weapon holder for the new Beam Rifle. That is attached to the thruster carapace."
"All right. I guess you're serious about this. Lets get going then."
Atin opened 4 full length lockers and took out 4 black, bulky objects. He also took out a smaller plate with latches that hold weapons in place during the orbital burn. He attached the bulky part to the back of his armor and it latched on like a magnet. The same happened with the smaller plate. He attached it to the front of his armor and it stuck. Then, two shoulder straps and two side straps came out of the back plate and attached themselves to the front. "There. Thrusters on the rear plate, weapon holder on the front." He attached the Beam Rifle to the front plate and pushed it down. A click confirmed that it was locked. "Once you are inside the atmosphere, a green light will appear on your HUD. That is the signal to activate the de-burn thrusters. When you are 100 feet from the ground, there will be a red light. That is the signal to grab your weapon, and dump the pack. Clear?"
As one, the squad yelled "Sir! Yes Sir!"
"Good. Suit up. We drop in 3 minutes."
The intercom activated. "We have arrived at Earth. Zeta Squad Drop 2 minutes and counting."
Atin's voice came on the Squad's armor. "All right, squad. Just relax and everything will be ok."
"Zeta Squad Drop 1 minute and counting."
"This is it. It's time to take back the Skyview facility."
"30 seconds and counting."
A timer appeared on Atin's HUD. The digital numbers seemed like they were counting too slow.
"20 seconds and counting."
Atin looked at the TEAMBIO. All three squad member's heart rates were above normal, but not dangerously high. That was a good sign.
"10 seconds and counting."
Atin found that his heart rate was going up. No matter how many times he did this, dropping from a starship to the planet below always seemed like a damn stupid idea.
The digital numbers on Atin's HUD reached the single digits.
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
Then, the hangar bay opened almost instantly. The squad were sucked out of the hangar and tumbled out in space. "Squad! Fire maneuvering thrusters to align yourselves with the course!" Atin activated the thrusters and found himself tumbling again. He worked the thrusters again and straightened out. With a slight turn of his head, he saw that the other squad members were headed to the planet on a good course. A green light shined on in his HUD, and Atin switched on the de-burn thrusters. There was a bone-jarring jolt as the thrusters activated. He switched on a channel to the squad. "How's it going, squad?"
Nikki was the first to report in. "Going good, sir. How are you?"
Atin smiled at the fact that Nikki was able to talk like it was a normal day when they were barreling through the atmosphere.
Kami reported next. "Green, sir."
Jon reported last. "Little bumpy, but good. Nice view."
"Good. We're getting close to the 100 ft. mark. Once you impact, sprint to the building. Don't forget to take your beam rifle. Good luck."
A red light flashed on Atin's HUD. He detached the rifle from his armor, and, before he could detach his thruster pack, a bullet flew dangerously close to his thruster pack. He activated the scope and found a single human figure on the roof. He took aim, and pulled the trigger. The rifle shot a thin, pink beam with a loud woosh. Through the scope, he saw the beam go straight through the figure's chest, and the figure fell. Atin smiled with the knowing that the new beam rifle was a success. He unlatched his thruster pack and threw it off. Then, he and the rest of the squad landed on the pavement. To a viewer from the school, it must have looked like 4 meteors landed in the parking lot. Once he landed, Atin sprinted to the school. To the squad, he yelled, "I'm going onto the second floor! Squad, you go to the first and meet me in the main office!"
4 soldiers taking an entire hostile building, fortified with an unknown number of hostile troops, seemed unbelievable. But they were Spartans. The unbelievable was normal for them.

Truth be told, Kami was worried about her friends. She knew that Atin and Nikki were too, but being the newest member of Zeta Squad, she hadn't learned to be as....detached, as they were. But, if she let this get in her way, this mission would not last long, and she couldn't be an asset to her team if she wasn't focused. She just had to keep an eye out for the active camo that they used on Char. Hopefully, she wouldn't need to use the modification that she installed in her armor. Kami watched Atin jump up the stairs and go up to the second floor, while she sprinted with the other 2 squad members to the entrance. She watched Nikki break down the glass, and guessed that surprise had been thrown out the window. Now that she thought about it, there was really nothing normal about 3 people in full body armor in a school. She smiled to herself, but just as she was beginning to feel good about the mission, she was shot at from nowhere and her shields flickered to ¾th.

Atin jumped up to the stairs that would take him to the second floor. He ran up to the second story balcony, and did a somersault through the glass and came up running. He stopped behind a brick pillar and looked for any hostiles. There was no way that nobody heard that. He looked around for the slight shimmer of light that meant active camo. Then, he remembered a trick that he learned when facing Brute Stalkers. "Team, switch to thermal imaging. Their AC generates heat. Look for that."
He only hoped that the team heard him. He turned on his thermal filter on his HUD, and found two extreme heat signatures where, in normal vision, there was nothing. He took aim with his beam rifle, and fired. The beam shot forward with a loud thewwwww and the heat signature fell with a loud scream. "Damn. There goes the element of surprise. Oh well, I didn't think it would last." He took aim at the other, and this time, he aimed at the head. He pulled the trigger, and the soldier was killed instantly. With that, he shot forward and leapt past the railing and landed on the first floor.

Jon always liked a straight-up fight where you could actually see your enemies. Not this. He hated this. The squad was forced to take cover, and whatever weapons they used were perfect with active camo. They had almost no flash, and the soldiers were moving position constantly. Also, it seemed that they were jamming communications, because the only way that he could talk to the others was through short-range directed single beam transmissions. Atin was out of range. This was going to be a massacre if it continued. Just then, a pink beam went through the air, and a scream penetrated the air. A figure materialized out if thin air and fell to the ground, dead. Atin ran to cover beside Jon. "Didn't you hear me? The active camo generates heat. Use your thermals." Atin said.
"No. Our communications have been jammed. Only short ranged comlink works."
"Oh, well, that complicates things a bit. But I have an idea. Squad! Harden Electronics! Prepare for shield drain!"
Nikki spoke up. "What are you planning?"
Atin took out a steel cylinder with blue details.
Nikki sounded impressed. "Gotcha. Go ahead."
Atin threw the EMP Grenade towards the outlines of the Section Zero soldiers. When it detonated, a blue flash filled the entire school. Atin rebooted his MJOLNIR software and when he could see again, the Zero soldiers were disorientated. Atin took this chance to strike. He yelled to Jon, "Cover me! I'm gonna take one alive!" Jon turned and replied, "You got it!" Atin lunged at one of the Zero soldiers and knocked his rifle down, put him in an arm lock, and put his other arm close to the Zero's throat. Out of Atin's gauntlet, a blade sprang out. The soldier's eyes widened.
Jon asked, "Is that the modification you were talking about?"
"One of 'em." Atin turned the soldier to face the other one. To his surprise, the free soldier fired on his ally! Atin was forced to turn to shield the captive soldier and take the bullet. His shields flared, and Atin yelled to Nikki, "Sis! Take him alive!" Atin threw the soldier to Nikki, and she shoved him in a corner and pushed a button on her gauntlet. A blue bolt was fired from her gauntlet and it expanded and covered the captive. Jon asked Nikki, "What was that you just did?"
Nikki replied, "ElectroMagnetic Net gun. My modification."
Atin lunged for the gun that he knocked out of the captive's hands. He shouldered it and shot the other Zero soldier. "All right, squad. It looks like that's all there is for now. Let's go down to the facility below and start an interrogation."













Part 3
Chapter Seven
In elevator to Skyview Facility, Earth

"The surveillance tells us that the civilians were evacuated when Section Zero attacked. Unfortunately, some were shot, but only one has been confirmed dead." The elevator slowed to a stop and the doors opened. In the control room of the facility, some UNSC Junior Officers were hard at work on the various computers. The squad carried the prisoner into an empty room. Atin took off his helmet. "All right. Kami, Nikki, go find your friends. It's about time you two see them." Nikki and Kami thanked Atin and left. Atin stopped, and said, "Kami, wait."
Kami stopped and turned. "Yes, Sir?"
"Tell Eric and Maryellen I said hi."
"Yes Sir!" Kami left.
"Ok, Jon. Let's start on this. Get the info out of him, no matter the cost."
Jon nodded. "Got it." Atin and Jon entered the room with the prisoner.
"So, let's get something understood. If you tell us what we want to know, this will end very well. If you don't, it will end very badly. Do you understand?" Atin put on his polite, dangerous voice.
The prisoner just smiled. "You're not going to get anything out of me."
"We'll just see about that."


Two hours. And still, the prisoner hadn't talked. Atin was getting seriously pissed. "Ok, once again, what is your goal?" The prisoner spat in his face. Jon recoiled visibly. Atin just looked annoyed. He picked up the Section Zero rifle. It was a little bit longer than the BR55, not as tall, also. "This is a very good weapon, you know that?" The prisoner just scowled. "Good weight, good balance," Atin looked through the scope. "Very good scope. Semi-Automatic 8mm rounds, am I right? Very nice." Atin aimed the gun at the prisoner's foot and shot. "Little recoil. Very nice." Atin remarked. "All right! I'll talk!" The prisoner cried. "I'll say that you are never going to stop us!" He started laughing uncontrollably. Atin leveled the rifle at his head. He fired. "We need someone to clean up this mess." The intercom activated, and a voice said, "Spartan 38, you have a video call. Atin looked at Jon, confused, and left for the Control Room. When he got to the main monitor, an image of a man, about in his early 30s, with a cold face and dark eyes. Atin took an instant dislike to him.
The man on the monitor said in a formal accent, "Hello. For us to continue this conversation, tell everyone to leave. I will talk to only you." Atin silently cursed. "Everyone, leave us. I'll get you when this is over."
After everyone but Atin left, the mystery man said, "Very well. My name is Axton Masanus. I am the leader of the group known as Section Zero."
"What!? You're in charge of Section Zero? Give me one reason why I shouldn't disconnect this link right now."
"Because I have information that you might want. You see, you have become a pest in the eyes of Section Zero. You have interfered with our plans too many times. So I have a proposition for you. Join us, Atin. You could become a real asset to Section Zero."
"Join Section Zero? Screw you. Why don't you tell me why you attacked Trivert and here, and why you trashed the Covenant space station system."
"Ah. Well, we needed some information from the Covenant system. Regarding here, it is to show you what happens when you cross Section Zero. As for Trivert, some people just need to learn their place in the Galaxy."
"You sick bastard. I'd never join you!"
"I figured you would say that. So I will give you another chance to reconsider. But before you give me your answer, you should know that I control a Tactical Nuclear Weapon from my starship orbiting Earth. If you do not give me the answer that I am looking for, I will destroy you and everyone else in that facility of yours."
Atin considered for a couple of seconds, then smiled. "Bite me."
Masanus grinned ever so slightly. "Very well then. Die." The channel closed. Atin called in all the engineers. "We got a bit of a problem here. I met the Section Zero boss. And, somehow, I might have said something that could have possibly offended him somewhat. So now, there's a Nuke incoming."
Jon smiled. "So, you got a plan?"
"Yeah. I do. Align the last resort."
The lead engineer responded, "Mass Driver charging."
Jon raised his eyebrows. "Mass Driver?"
Atin nodded. "Correct. There is a Mass Driver in the facility. If we fire it, it might detonate the nuke while it is still in the air. However, it is under the school. So, it will make a big hole. Still, we need a very, very lucky shot. Status?"
"75% charged. Targeting. Locked on. It looks like it will hit the nuke directly. Alert! Slipspace rupture! It looks like Masanus' ship got away."
Atin stared at the nuke. "That doesn't matter. There will be other times. Ready Mass Driver. Set?"
"Set! Ready to fire!"
Atin yelled, "Fire!"
The whole facility shook as the Driver fired. The image of the Nuke approaching showed the Driver slug getting closer......closer.....and......smash!!! the slug slammed into the nuke and, the nuke detonated in midair.
Atin relaxed. "Good job. Now, radio the Stonewall. It's time to evac all of these people."



"So what do you think?" Nikki asked Atin. The evacuation of all the civilians was going smoothly. At this rate, they would all be evaced in two hours.
"I think that we have enough information to bring this to Lord Hood. Maybe he'll give us some support."
Nikki nodded. "If anyone would help us, it's him. How fast do you think you can see him?"
"I'm the Chief of Special Operations. I think that would yield some authority. In the meantime, we should help out with the evacuation. It might make this go a little bit faster."
"I agree."
With as many students that the school above Skyview Facility had, the UNSC Personnel arranged the students into groups based on their grades. The evacuation Pelicans had been hard pressed to get all the students out, so Atin had commanded 2 squadrons of Longswords and a squad of Shortswords to help them. Atin went over to the nearest evac group and spoke to the UNSC Officer in charge. "How are the civvies doing, Sergeant?"
The Sergeant saluted and said, "They're all really calm. Thats a good thing. And they're all cooperating very well."
"Good. I'm going to assign some more personnel to you when they're done unloading all the necessary parts."
"Thank you, sir."


When the last Pelican was almost done loading, Atin rounded up the squad. "Well, here's what Nikki and I have. I'm going to take this to Lord Hood, and try to get some more ships. We can't handle this with the Stonewall alone, and I don't want to tell anyone else about this until Hood knows."
"Why don't you just get some ships from Section Three? They should give you some ships. You're the Chief of SpecOps." Jon said.
"Well, this could go into the field I'm worst in. Politics. This could be the largest UNSC internal breakdown ever. We don't want many people to know about this."
"I guess you're right. We should head to the Pelican now."


Chapter Eight
UNSC HighCom Building, Washington D.C.

Back in Washington D.C., Atin and the squad headed to the Office of the Chief of Special Operations. Atin sat in his chair and inserted Solipsil's chip into the system. "Solipsil, try to get me an appointment with Lord Hood as soon as possible."
"I can get you in in 30 minutes, Chief."
"That soon? All right, that'll work. Thank you. Squad, while I'm gone, I want you to help Solipsil try to intercept Section Zero's transmissions. See if you can find anything out."
"Yes sir." Nikki replied.
Atin walked back to the elevator and went one floor higher. Even one floor higher, Atin still needed an appointment. When he got to the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, he immediately saluted to Lord Terrance Hood. "Sir! Commander Spartan 38, reporting sir!"
Hood saluted. "At ease, Commander. What did you want to tell me?"
Atin tilted his head slightly. "Well, sir, we have a breach in security. A big one."
"Commander, if you could, cut through the crap. Tell me straight. What did you need to make a private appointment to tell me?"
"Permission to speak freely, sir?"
"Permission granted."
Atin nodded. "Well, let me start out with the mission to Covenant Station 42-Alpha. When I put Solipsil into the system, we found that the information we were tasked to retrieve had already been destroyed, along with the entire memory system wiped, with the exception of a UNSC footprint."
"Are you sure it belonged to the UNSC?"
"Absolutely, sir. Attempts to identify it led to the discovery of ONI Section Zero."
Lord Hood shook his head. "Impossible. There is no Section Zero. We would know about it."
"At first, I thought so too. That is why I did not include it in my mission log. Also, if I know anything about ONI, they like to keep things secretive. Maybe it was a secret weapons program. However, that brings me to my next point. You are aware of the attack on the city Trivert?"
"Of course. No one knows who attacked, but you destroyed the attacking ship, correct?"
"Yes sir. We did. But the attacker looked extremely simalir to a UNSC Chameleon-Class Prowler. However, we did destroy it after it opened fire on us. After the attack, Solipsil identified the same routing code connecting Section Zero to the attacking Prowler."
Hood looked uncomfortable. "So is it possible that there is a Section of ONI that we don't even know about?"
"If there is, they cut off from ONI some time ago. They also seem to work independently from the UNSC. And, as I learned, against it too. They were behind the attack on Skyview Facility in Montana."
"How do you know?" Hood asked.
"I had the....displeasure of meeting it's leader. An Axton Masanus."
"Hold on. I'll check on the database. Yes. There was a Colonel Axton Masanus in the UNSC. He went missing during the fall of Coral. It says that he was involved in some shady activities, but not enough to warrant a full search."
"Interesting. Yes, the picture on the file matches. He asked me to join Section Zero, and when I declined as politely as possible," Hood smiled and almost laughed. "he launched a Nuke at us. We were able to destroy it with a Mass Driver shot. Also, you might want to know that Solipsil learned that they have been researching Forerunner artifacts, like the crystal on Reach and the Sigma Octanus IV Stone. We don't know if this is relating to their plan, but we do know that they must have a central plan. Because of this, I am asking you to add some ships to my fleet, and also to have outfit those ships with more weapons, both conventional and nuclear."
Lord Hood nodded. "Your request is granted. If you need anything else, just tell me. I will rearrange any plans I have to see you. Good luck on this."
Atin sauleted. "Thank you, sir. Will do, sir."

When Atin returned to his office, Nikki said, "Atin! We found it! Section Zero's headquarters!"
Atin ran to the desk. "Really? You found it? Where?"
"It's on Tasur IV. A volcanic planet. A real..vacation."
"All right. We're going there. Load up. Also, we received some new ships. Destroyers and frigates. We need time for them to get set up. In the mean time, I think I'll go see how Charlotte's doing.
"That's a good idea." Kami said. "Tell her we said hi."
Atin nodded. "Will do." After that, he left.
Nikki sat in Atin's chair. "Ok, lets go to the shipyard and see how those new ships are doing."


Atin knocked on Char's door and entered. "How are you?" He asked.
Charlotte smiled when she saw him. "I'm doing better. Still sore as hell, though. I'll be back on my feet in 3 weeks."
Atin smiled. "Thats good to hear. We found Zero's headquarters. We're assaulting it tomorrow. With any luck, Section Zero will be wiped from the face of the galaxy by 2100 tomorrow."
"Cheers for that."
"Got that right." Just then, Atin's comlink rang. "Atin!" Nikki said over the link. "You gotta come and see the new ships!"
Atin sighed and told Char, "I'm sorry. I gotta go."
She smiled. "It's all right. Go kick some ass."
"You know it."

At the shipyard orbiting Earth, Atin walked to the level that his 20 new ships were waiting at. When he got up to the level, his mouth dropped. "Impressive, aren't they?" Nikki walked up to him. "Very. What kind of modifications do they have?" Atin asked.
"Well, to start with, the frigates have extensive upgrades to the engines, allowing them to increase speed by another 70% in a pinch. The Archer pods have been increased to 20 missiles per pod, and the Titanium-A plating has been added to. Also, the autoturrets have had new loading systems added, increasing their rate of fire, and entirely new turrets have been added also."
"Wow. Very nice. And the destroyers?"
Nikki nodded. "The Archer pods have been increased to 25 missiles per pod. It has pods A through F with 10 pods per letter. The armor has been added to, and turrets have been added. The MAC system has also been upgraded, with the charging time dramatically decreased."
"Wow. Thats amazing. 7 destroyers, 13 frigates. Thats doing pretty good, considering that ships are tight with the war just ended."
Nikki was very happy with the new improvements with the ships. "Yeah. And with the mods, they would be even harder pressed."
"I agree. Well, lets get back to the Stonewall. We need to get our weapons in order."



"What do you think? AR or SMG?" Nikki asked Atin in the armory of the Stonewall.
"AR has better range, and it's also good in CQC. If we get into mid-range, we're gonna need better accuracy than the SMG." Atin replied. Nikki picked up an AR and put into her weapons tray.
"Someone's gonna need a sniper. I'll let Jon handle that. He's pretty good. And Kami should take along a shotty." He picked up a M90A and placed it on Kami's weapon tray. "I'll take along my BR55 HB-SR. And also, I think I'll take a Spiker too." Humanity had a surplus of Brute weapons after the war, and ammo wasn't scarce.
"All right, I think we're ready. Lets go kick Section Zero's ass."

Chapter Nine
On board UNSC Supercruiser Stonewall
This was great. Atin now had a fleet to combat Section Zero with. Battlegroup Stonewall. Excellent. After they transitioned to slipspace, Atin switched on the intercom so all of the Battlegroup could hear. "Fleet, you have been chosen for a great honor. You will destroy a secret subcell of ONI that has gone rampant and are attacking the UNSC. If you are lucky, this mission will have never happened. No one will know that this went on. But you will know that you saved the UNSC. Good luck. Now, when we get to the planet, form a blockade around Zero's headquarters and start shelling the area around it from orbit. Zeta squad will infiltrate the complex and kill the leader, take the main data, and get out of there. After that, we will commence the Orbital Bombardment."
"ETA to Tasur IV?"
Nikki, who was manning the NAV station, replied, "42 minutes to arrival. We should go down to the launch bay and load up. How are we getting down there?"
"The easy way. Dropship."
In the launch bay, the squad was forming up next to a special prototype heavy attack gunship.
"Ok, everyone, grab your weapons and suit up. We go out there in 5."
Jon looked at the gunship. "This thing looks powerful. What kind of weapons?"
Atin patted the ship approvingly. "Dual machine chin machine guns, unique pulse laser turrets, two on the body, two on the wings. And, finally, new energy shrouded missiles. The energy pierces armor, then the missile detonates inside. A major improvement. However, don't hold your breath about this replacing the Pelican. It's way too expensive, and a special variant has to be deployed in order to transport vehicles. So the trusty Pelican is still the standard."
"We have arrived at the world of Tasur IV. Zeta squad, please launch. All ships, prepare for Orbital Bombardment."
Atin stood and placed his BR on his back. "You ready, squad?"
The squad stood, and said, "Ready."
"Then lets go."


The dropship wasn't very cramped, but the pre-mission jitters still made Atin feel like the cabin was smaller than it was. When the dropship reached the facility, it skimmed the ceiling until it found a good landing spot close to the center. The squad jumped off the side and they reached the door. "Damn. Locked." Nikki said. The dropship pilot spoke up. "Clear the area! I'm gonna blast the door!" When everyone was clear, the gunship shot a pair of missiles at the door. The door, along with the room behind it, was blasted to bits. "Much appreciated, pilot." The squad sprinted into the totaled room and kicked the back door in. In the following hallway, there was a computer terminal. Atin inserted Solipsil's chip into the terminal. "All right, I'm in. But I can't reach the encrypted files. I have to be in the control room to do that. But I can close all doors except for the ones leading to the control room for you guys. Also, I can reroute all Section Zero forces to another part of the facility so they won't bother you. Come on, lets go to the control room. It's not far." They continued along until they reached an elevator. "This should take us to the control room." Kami said. "It's nice to finally have an easy mission. And no hostiles to boot. This'll be easy."
Atin replied, "It's easy. Maybe too easy. A gunship coming in, and blowing a door is too hard to miss. They must have seen us. I don't like this. But we need to get the data we came for." Atin took Solipsil out of the terminal and back into his helmet. They entered the elevator, and it went down. "Ok, squad, take positions. There are likely to be guards, but I don't think that they will use their Active Camo. Take positions, ready." The door opened, and the squad ran out, killing the guards and the computer personnel. When the smoke had cleared, Atin put Solipsil's chip in the central computer system.
"Solipsil, see if you can uncover their plan. Find out what they're doing."
Solipsil sounded frustrated. "There's a lot of kill systems raining down on me, hang on, I'll block their systems. Ok, lets see. Plan. Ok, got it. Its an encrypted file. Opening. What? They're not serious! They can't be! The war is over! Damn it!"
"Solipsil, what is going on in there? What is their plan?"
Solipsil sounded worried. "Section Zero is planning to activate Halo."
Atin looked at the squad for a second. "Are you serious? Halo? Why?"
"Because they think that the Brutes will attack us again. So this is a kind of double-knockout. But this is crazy!"
"We have to stop them. Whatever it takes. Where are they now?"
Solipsil replied, "They already left, but they're going to take the whole Halo under their control before they fire it. That should buy us some time. Also, they are going to stop at another planet and uncover some supplies of some sort. I think we should go back to Earth, ask for a fleet from Lord Hood, and stop the firing of Halo once and for all."
Kami shook her head. "But we don't even know what Halo they're going to."
Atin said, "Yes we do. Delta Halo. Substance system. It's the only Halo that we know the Coordinates to. Solipsil, lets get out of here." Atin retrieved the chip and inserted it into his armor. They sprinted to the busted door, and radioed the gunship. When they were picked up, they saw the ships in space destroy Section Zero's headquarters with multiple MAC shots.
"This is going to be a challenge."










Part 4
Chapter Ten
UNSC HighCom Building, Washington D.C.

Atin strode into Lord Hood's office and didn't even salute. "Sir, we have a problem."
Hood looked at him. "Well, it had better be a big one, Commander."
Atin cleared his throat. "Sir, Section Zero is going to activate Halo. Kill all of us because they don't think we can survive another attack by the Brutes."
Hood buried his face into his hands. "Damn. I figured that they would do something stupid like that. All right, I'll give you all the ships I can manage. I will ensure that they will be ready by 0800 tomorrow. Do you need anything else?"
Atin looked down. "Besides a miracle, sir? Nothing. But I do wish that John was here. He would know what to do."
"We all wish that the Master Chief was here. But I am relying on you. One last thing."
Atin looked. "Sir?"
"Give them hell."


Atin entered the squad's bunk. "All right, we're gonna get some more ships by 0800, then we strike. Any questions?"
The squad chuckled slightly. "No sir." Nikki said.
"Ok, then. Get some sleep. Tomorrow's gonna be a long day."

Atin would be stupid if he thought that the squad would be able to sleep on a night like this. He couldn't even sleep. So he went down to the training room and began a training session in hand to hand combat. "Solipsil, create 7 hostiles for me, please." 7 holograms of soldiers appeared, and surrounded Atin. He rolled, and threw one soldier onto another. Two down. He kicked another, viper-quick, and he disappeared. He lunged at another, and took him down. The others all fared the same. When he was done, he took a deep breath.
Kami started clapping. "Good job. Bravo."
Atin looked up. "Can't sleep?"
"No. I don't think anyone can."
Atin walked up to her. "Walk with me."
They were walking alone a wide window, with the beautiful vista of stars in space outside.
Kami stopped. "Are you sure we can do this?"
Atin looked at her. "Do what?"
"Stop Section Zero. I mean, they have nothing to lose. Their ultimate goal is mass suicide. They will just fling themselves at us. And we have everything to lose..."
"This is going to be hard. But we have something that they don't. The future. And comrades. And each other."
Kami looked at Atin. "I can't say I'm not a little scared."
"I'm a little scared too. It's natural. But we can face it together."
Kami smiled. "Thanks."
Atin put his hand on Kami's shoulder and smiled at her. "Get some sleep, Kam'ika."



"Atin. Wake up. It's 0500." Solipsil's voice stirred Atin from his sleep. But he still felt like his head was in a fog. "Jon. Wake up. Wake up, Jon. Damn." Atin threw a magazine at him. "Suit up. We leave in a few hours."
Jon got up, but he was still groggily. "Wha-whats going on?" He looked at the magazine Atin threw at him. "12 mil by 40? You keep your special M6C under your pillow?"
"I figured that having an M6G would be overkill for personal defense in a bunk."
"Yeah, and you wouldn't want anyone to think that you overkill things. So, give me a sitrep."
Atin looked annoyed. "We're getting ready to suit up. The new ships are already ready. 50 of them. 30 frigates, 18 destroyers, and 2 carriers. The Stonewall is almost ready too."
Jon instantly woke up. "So this is it, isn't it? Where Section Zero makes it's final stand?"
"Yep. Where we hold the line, and push them back into hell."
Jon smiled. "Good. It's time to end this."

When Atin and Jon made it onto the bridge, a couple of the crew, including Nikki was there. "Good morning. I was beginning to wonder about you." Nikki said, not looking up from her station.
"Sorry," Atin replied. "Some of us had a bit of a late start." he said, tilting his head to Jon.
"But where do we stand?" Atin walked over to the Command Chair.
Nikki turned to face him. "All Archers have been filled, MAC system verified. Kinetic Shields at 100%, and engine shakedown has been completed. All other ships reporting ready for combat. We're ready as soon as you give the signal."
Atin nodded approvingly. "Very good. Have all crew report to General Quarters. I'd like to get under way ASAP."
Kami walked into the bridge. "Good morning." Atin told her when she walked in.
"Good morning." She still looked a little shaky, but she had that hard determination in her eyes. She was ready for anything.
Atin turned on the intercom. "Today is the day we turn the enemy back. If Section Zero wants to activate Halo, they have to go through us to do so. And that will not happen. This is the time."
Nikki, at the NAV console, said, "All ships reporting ready for slipspace transition. Initiating countdown. 10 seconds and counting."
Atin stood by the Command Chair. His mind was still clouded with....something. It wasn't right. It felt like they were walking into something. But, they were ready for pretty much anything. There was no running anymore. It was time for offense.
Before he knew it, the timer to slipspace transition went from 1 to 0. Atin felt the usual feeling of nausea and the fleet traveled into the 11 nondimensions of slipspace.

Squad.
Vengeance.
Future.
Thrill.
Leadership.
"A leader must be ready to send soldiers under his command to their deaths.
Duty. Honor and self-sacrifice. Death does not diminish these qualities in a soldier."
Chief Mendez.

Chapter Eleven
On board UNSC Supercruiser Stonewall

Atin snapped out of it, and the cloud that was in his mind evaporated instantly. "Nikki. ETA to Delta Halo?"
Nikki looked at Atin. "15 minutes. Give or take 5." Slipspace travel always bent the temporal flow. That wasn't all, but Atin didn't want to remember the principles of Slipstream Space.
"Tell the ships to go to general quarters. I want to be ready."
Nikki nodded. "Copy that. Damn. Atin! Coming out of Slipspace in 15 seconds!"

The space around Delta Halo rippled and shot out light that was caused by the Chrenkov Radiation made by the nukes aboard the ships. The Battlegroup Stonewall finally landed in the trap that Section Zero set. They would be destroyed.


"Exiting slipspace in 5. 4. 3. 2. 1."
The ships transitioned to realspace and the stars shone, with a blue planet in the background. By the planet, there was a ring the size of a moon.
"Halo. Always makes you stare." Atin couldn't help but feel amazed. Such size. Such deadly power. The power to kill all life. "Huh? What's this?"
On closer inspection of the ringworld, Atin saw specks of light. He zoomed in, and those specks became strange objects, looking almost like whales in the sea. It was a shape that had been burned into Atin's mind.
Covenant Capital Ships. CCS-Class Battleships, Destroyers, Frigates, and even two massive Assault Carriers.
A huge fleet. Massive. Damn. It would take a human fleet double the size of this one to be on even ground with them.
On Atin's monitor, a Brute Cheiftain clad in golden armor appeared. "I am Salumus. We have been instructed by the Guardian of the Great Journey to destroy you. The Guardian will send us on the Journey after we dispose of you. Die, humans."

"Damn! Ambush!" Atin pounded his fists on the control panel. "All hands, Battlestations! Group targets and fire at will!" To Kami, the gunnery officer, he said, "Charge the Super MAC. Double shot."
Kami looked at Atin with worry."Atin, you know that charging a double shot will take energy from kinetic shields."
Atin nodded. "Kinetic shields aren't worth crap against those energy and plasma weapons. We need a double shot." To Nikki, he said, "Find out what ship is the flagship. I want to find that Chieftain."
"Sir, flagship identified. Those Brutes are complacent about their ships. We should fix that."
Atin smiled. "Agreed. Super MAC?"
Kami said, "Charged and ready!"
"Fire!"
The entire Supercruiser shuddered, the lights went out, and twin bolts of red hot lightning shot out and impacted the Assault Carrier, and the feed from the Chieftain's bridge immediately turned to static. The Flagship's nose crumpled with the impact of the first slug, and the second slug went clean through, and gutted the ship. It exploded violently and sent two other ships tumbling.
Right after that, all of the other ships opened fire in a huge wave of plasma.
Atin yelled over the intercom, "Evade! Get away now!"
The plasma rolled over the UNSC ships. Most of them boiled away in an instant. After the plasma dissipated, only 17 ships remained. "Status! What's the Stonewall's status?"
Nikki replied, "The Stonewall was lucky. Only minor hits. No hull breaches. Remaining friendly ships are mixed. Some are god, some are lucky to be intact."
"Damn." Atin snarled.
"Incoming message! You want to take it?"
It might be Brutes, rubbing it in, but then again, it might not. "I'll take it."
The Command Panel lit up, and a commanding voice said, "This is Sangheili Ship Master Rtas 'Vadum. We have come to assist you in stopping the Ring from firing. Let us handle those beasts."
A hole in slipspace appeared, and a huge fleet of Covenant ships appeared and shot lances of plasma at the Brute ships. The Elites' plasma was much more effective than the Brutes because a leaked signal from the AI Cortana taught the Elites how to maximize their plasma by compressing it into a needle thin lance. The Elites' wisely kept this secret to themselves, and that helped them in the war.
"Ha! Eat it, Brutes!" Jon yelled.
"Wait. We're not through yet." Atin leaned forward. The Brute ships started glowing. The built-up plasma shot, but not at the Elites. The plasma streamed straight toward the Stonewall.
Atin snarled, "Damn! Evasive Maneuvers!" But it was too late. The plasma shot forward and impacted the rear part of the Supercruiser and boiled the armor away.
Nikki yelled, "Engines damaged! Reactor level skyrocketing! Going critical in 4 minutes! The Stonewall's going down!"
Atin bowed his head. "Damn. Kami! Man the Damage Control! Jon! You're on weapons!"
Kami ran over to the Damage Control Console, something that was never used before.
"Jon. It's time. The Stonewall's doomed. There's nothing we can do to stop that. But we can give them her parting gift. Arm Archer missile pods A1 through Z20.
All of the bridge crew felt their mouths drop. Row A had 20 pods. 1 pod had 20 high-explosive missiles. 26 rows, with 20 pods each, each pod having 20 missiles, added up to 10,400 missiles. A hell of a parting gift.
Jon smiled. "One last resort, coming up!"
"Last resort?" Kami asked. On Atin's console, a red touch button appeared. Above it read, Burning Bigbang. Atin smiled as he pressed the button. A man-made hellhole that was also Stonewall's dying breath.


On board the Assault Carrier Shadow of Intent, Sangheili Ship Master Rtas 'Vadum was having his hands full with the Brute fleet. He turned his head just in time to see what looked like the human lead ship exploding.
The Weapons engineer stared at the smoke, and felt his jaw mandibles go slack. "Has it been hit?"
Rtas felt confident in the Humans. They were light-years behind the Covenant, and yet, they had still given them hell. The smoke around the ship started clearing, and he saw that the ship was intact, and the explosion was really thousands of their ballistic missiles. Enough to destroy 20 Brute ships. Rtas felt good that he was now the humans' ally, rather than their enemy.

"Missiles launched!" Jon yelled. Atin felt himself smiling at the sight of over 10,000 missiles shooting towards the hostile ships. But then, he realized that he almost forgot what he had to do.
"Nikki! Give me 150% thrust straight to Delta Halo! I'm going to put her down right on top of Section Zero."
Nikki looked at Atin, astonished. "Aye, sir. Reactor skyrocketing. Critical in 30 seconds. 20 seconds. 10 seconds. 5."
Atin yelled hurriedly, "Shutdown engine now! Vent coolant! Shut down the reactor completely!"
Shutting down a Nuclear Reactor completely is the final blow to a ship. It takes all of the power away and kills the ship. This was it. The Stonewall was doomed.
"Reactor temperature going down. Stabilizing. Power lost." Going down.

The Stonewall plummeted into the artificial atmosphere of Delta Halo with a loud scream. Atin tried to find a safe plain to set her down on. The supercruiser smashed into a soft rock butte, shattered it, and landed in a valley below. The stern section was trashed and mangled, but the bow section managed to emerge in good shape.

"All right, troops. Grab a weapon, suit up, and lets get away from this wreck, cause it'll be a signal flare to hostile troops." Atin stood from the Command console and pressed what Commanding Officers call the Final Button. The database was wiped, and all systems were shutdown permanently. The squad grabbed their weapons and latched them on to the back of their armor. "Let's go, Zeta."

Chapter Twelve
Near Ruins of UNSC Stonewall
It had been at least 5 miles that they had walked. Some of the Naval personnel had gotten very tired and slowed down. Atin didn't blame them. On his HUD, a symbol indicated that Kami had initiated a two-way communication. "Sir, these Naval personnel will slow us down. Do we really need them?"
"Well, the Stonewall will be a signal flare to any Section Zero forces. And who knows, with Brutes in space, there might be Brutes on the ground, too. If we leave them, they'll be easy pickings. I guess we'll just have to put up with them."
Kami groaned. "I guess you're right." Just then, one of the bridge crew that had been, only a moment ago, whining about how bad his feet hurt, fell with a scream. Atin thought that he had fell, but then, his gut told him one thing. Sniper. "Sniper! Get down!" Atin yelled to everybody. Then, a figure appeared on the top of the cliff. "I got him!" Jon said as he leveled his sniper rifle and shot. The figure fell down. It was a Section Zero Elite Soldier. "You shouldn't have done that." A voice said. Hundreds of humans and Brutes appeared on both sides of the cliff. "You are surrounded. Surrender, and we will make your deaths quick. There is no hope for survival."
On the two-way comlink, Atin told Kami," Damn. Well, we could fight. We might get out of it, but all of the crew will die. What do you think?"
"I just don't know. We should pretend to surrender, then hope that they come down here to slaughter us. Then we strike."
Atin smiled. "Good plan." On the outside audio, he yelled, "We surrender. We accept that we are now Prisoners of War."
Nikki came on his comlink. "You have a plan?" Atin said, "Just go with it."

The Section Zero Lead came down with 20 of his Elite Troops. His uniform identified him as the Section Zero Left Hand, Gilad Toger. As he came up to one of the bridge crew with a knife, Atin heard a very familiar high-pitched triple crack. Toger's head bursted with blood and he fell, dead. The squad leapt into action and killed the Elite troopers. Then, Atin looked at the squad's savior. The helmet was as familiar as his own. His comlink flashed, and a screamingly familiar voice said to the whole squad, "You need some help, Zeta?" It was Charlotte's voice.
"Char!" Kami yelled.
"Yeah!" Nikki yelled after that.
"Good to have you back, Char." Atin said.


"Damn. You brought a whole fleet?" Char had really pulled out all the stops. She had brought 30 ships, all of them, destroyers, carriers, and even some mighty cruisers.
"Yep. I even persuaded Lord Hood to let me have the Ironclad for awhile."
"Damn. That's one good cruiser. What about land troops?" Atin felt bad about not giving Char the welcome back attention she deserved, but this was a battlefield.
"I brought 2 tank brigades, along with 4 squads of Warthogs. And the commander of the 1st tank brigade is someone you might know." Then, Atin's friend and former comrade, Will walked in. "I don't damn well believe it. Good to see you, Will."
Will looked like there was nothing he'd like to do but get some payback on those Brutes. "Same to you. Looks like you could use my help. Luckily, Char ran into me and persuaded me to come help."
Atin nodded. "Did you bring your special weapon?"
Will smiled. "You know it." He brought in a custom Scorpion tank, customized with two main cannons and four machine guns.



"All right, here's the plan. There are 3 phase pulse generators that allow Halo to fire deep into space. If we destroy all 3 of them, then Halo can't fire. Kami, Nikki, Char, I'll leave that to you. Will, take your brigades and engage the land forces outside the Control Room. Jon and I will infiltrate the Control Room and stop Section Zero once and for all. To get there, we'll each use a squad of Longswords that Char brought. Everyone clear? Good. The UNSC is relying on us. We can do this. Trust your comrades, and they will trust you. You will not fall back. You will not stop pushing forward. We will destroy Section Zero! Kote!" Atin put his hands out and everybody joined in. Then, Atin's radar flickered and he brought his rifle up to see a metal sphere floating towards the squad.

"Please don't shoot. I mean you no harm. I am 2401 Penitent Tangent. I am the Monitor of Instillation 05. I require your assistance. These meddlers are trying to activate this installation with no reason. The compound mind has left and been destroyed and the Sentinels have contained the Flood. There is no reason to activate this installation. You must assist me in stopping this atrocity."
Atin put his gun down. "That is our plan. You can go with me. I'm going to go to the Control Room and kill the one who's trying to activate this Halo."
Tangent bobbed up and down. "Excellent! I will leave the bloodshed to you and your comrades."
Atin nodded. "All right, squad. Board your Longswords, and form up. We go to the first Phase Pulse Generator first." Atin and Jon entered the Command Longsword, followed by Penitent Tangent.
"Ok, Jon. This is it." Atin said as he punched the controls that started the Longsword. It rose in the air, and shot through the air, followed by 4 squadrons. They reached the first door that lead to the Phase Pulse Generator. "Nikki, first one's yours. Good luck." Nikki's squad peeled off from the main group and landed on the platform. The small cloud of Longswords then reached the second door. "Char, your turn. Give them hell." Once they left the second door, a Longsword reported in. "Sir, Tank brigade is almost at the wall of hostiles." When the squads reached the third door, they immediately started taking fire. "Kami! Get in that generator room! We'll hold them off!" Kami's Longsword made a shaky landing and she sprinted through the door. "Ok, they're in. Squad! Punch it to the Control Room!" The valley opened and there was the Control Room embedded in a rock formation. Below the formation, there were about 30 Wraith heavy tanks taking fire from Will's brigade. Just then, 2 Anti Air turrets shot at the Longswords. They quickly fell, and Atin's and Jon's started taking heavy fire. Atin punched it and it landed near the Control Room door. Atin and Jon sprinted into the opening and saw that the antechamber was totally ruined. "Damn. But this doesn't look new. Maybe there was a past skirmish." Atin remarked. "Maybe, but we need to get in that firing chamber." Atin and Jon ran through the wreckage and into the Core room, where they took fire from Axton Masanus, who had the Index on his belt, and his Right-Hand man.


Nikki ran into the hallway near the first Generator. She used hand signals to tell her squad to sneak in quietly. She sneaked in, found a hiding spot, and threw a grenade. It blew, and she leapt and shot the remaining Zero soldiers. "According to Solipsil's data, I just have to walk in and that will destabilize it." She reluctantly stepped closer to it and she heard a loud bang and her shields drained. She tried to pull back, felt some suction, and fell back. "Generator number one destabilized. Mission accomplished."

Charlotte was ready for some payback for the ambush that she fell victim to. She backed into the door, motioned for the troops to follow, and went through, shooting wildly with her BR55 HB-SR. She felt her shooting arm recoil back, but felt no pain. She jumped and threw a grenade, rolled, and then ran through the blast, not even feeling it. She kicked the last trooper and shot him in the head. "Thats for the ambush." She walked into the generator and it destabilized. She went to her squad leader and was about to commend him when he said, "Ma'am! You're hit! Get a medic!" Char looked down at her arm and blood was leaking out. She grabbed a tube of Biofoam from the medic that ran in and inserted it into the wound. She would be fine, and the mission was accomplished.

Kami slowly walked into the generator room with her troops. However, her mind was in a fog as she hid and took aim. She opened fire and rolled to cover. She was taking the troops one at a time, so she didn't see the trooper sneak up on her from behind. All she felt was the kick that he gave her, looked back, and saw the barrel of a rifle in her face. She rolled, swept the ground and tripped the soldier to the ground. She leveled the shotgun at the soldier and shot. Once all the hostiles were down, she stepped into the generator and destabilized it. "All right. Good job, men. Mission Accomplished."



Will's tank brigade was doing very good against the Wraith tanks, espically because Will's Scorpion was armed with two main cannons. He trailed a Ghost and blasted it when a Wraith mortar blew up close to his tank. He swiveled his turret and shot both cannons at it, causing it to explode violently. Just then, his radar alerted him that there was a Seraph fighter incoming with a plasma charge. He kicked open the hatch and grabbed some weapons just in time to jump out of the tank before it was blasted by the charge. "Damn. Those bastards owe me a new tank." He said as he aimed two rocket launchers at the Seraph. He fired, and two rockets, followed by two more, impacted the fighter and it exploded. He dropped the launchers and pulled out two SMGs. He shot at the ground troops surrounding him and jumped on another tank. The battle was almost over. Atin and Jon had better kill that Section Zero soon.



Atin and Jon were under fire from Masanus and his Right-Hand man, Exun Otuer. They leapt from cover and Atin shot at Masanus as Jon fought Otuer. The shots just bounced of Masanus. "Foolish little pest! Do you honestly think you are the only one who has a shield generator?" He said as he shot at Atin. The rounds went straight through his shields and hit the armor plating, denting it. He found Masanus' shield generator, a glowing box on his belt. He shot with his BR55 HB-SR as fast as he could at the box. The ammo counter flashed from 06 to 03 as he drained Axton's shields, then he used his last 3 rounds to shoot the generator. It blew in a shower of sparks. He glance at Jon, who also seemed to be out of ammo, who was in hand-to-hand combat with Otuer. Atin parried with his rifle, and Axton kicked him down and aimed the shield-piercing rifle right at Atin's faceplate. He pulled the trigger, and the rifle shot.

Will was leading the battle from on top of a tank, shooting hostiles, and routing the hostile troops. He had seen Atin and Jon infiltrate the Control Room, and now, all there was left to do was stall for time while Atin stopped the firing of Delta Halo. Will jumped as the tank he was in exploded. He jumped in a Warthog that had taken a hit, and gunned it, ramming a Wraith. He jumped behind it and tore off the protective cover. He punched the cover, and ripped out the power limiter. The Wraith's mortar cannon exploded and plasma spewed everywhere. He looked around, and saw that was the last tank. Without their Wraiths, the battle was won.


Atin opened his eyes, and everything was black. His eyes adjusted to the darkness, and he saw that his HUD had been disabled. There was a large crack through his visor, and, right in the middle of it, inches from his face, was a lead bullet. Atin jumped away, and tore off his helmet. He looked at the front, and the bullet had become stuck in his visor. "Now that's what I call lucky." Atin said. He dropped to one knee, and a section of his thigh plate popped out and a handle came out. He grabbed it, unsheathed the combat knife, and made a vicious strike at Masanus. He blocked the hit with his rifle and aimed it at Atin. "You don't scare me. I know you're out of ammo too." Atin taunted.
"How do you know?" Masanus said.
"Cause if you weren't, I'd be dead now." Atin said as he slashed again. Out of his eye, he saw Jon go down to an EMP burst, and the Section Zero Right-Hand was about to finish him off when Atin swept across his chest, slicing it open. He stuck the knife in Otuer's stomach, and roughly pulled it out. He lunged at Masanus again, and they fought for what must have felt like 10 minutes. Atin made a grab for the Index, and Axton made a downward strike at Atin. But the grab was only a feint, and Atin stepped back on his other foot, pushing it farther than it was supposed to go, felt it dislocate, then relocate as he got back on two feet. He kicked Axton's head with his left foot, and Axton fell to the right, right where Atin stabbed the combat knife with his right hand. The knife went in Axton's chest half an inch. Atin rolled with the knife, and when he hit the ground, dug the knife into Masanus' chest, killing him instantly.

Atin removed the Combat Knife from Masanus, and put it back in the thigh compartment. Just then, 2401 Penitent Tangent floated in. "Excellent. The meddlers have been disposed of. Commendable work, Reclaimer." He floated close to a terminal, and a hologram of the Halo ring and a sphere in the middle of it appeared. "What's that?" Atin asked as he walked close to the terminal. "A verification that this installation has not been harmed by the meddlers. Also, a verification that the Flood is still contained." Atin pointed to the small sphere in the middle. It was protected by many tiny specks. "What is that?" Tangent bobbed up and down. "That is the Shield World that is directly connected to this installation's firing mechanism. If this installation is activated, then a compressed slipspace portal opens, leading to the sharpened edge of the shield. Presently, there are 10 humans located in the Shield. They are safe there." Atin nodded. "Can I free them from here?"
"Apologies. Protocol dictates that a Shield cannot be unsealed from a Sword installation."
"That makes sense." Atin ran over to Jon, just as he was stirring from unconsciousness. He gave Jon a hand up, then said, "Mission Accomplished." Then, Atin passed out.



Epilogue

"Welcome back." Kami said as Atin woke up. He looked around, and saw that her eyes were sparkling with something. "Hey. How are you?"
Kami smiled. "Good. The mission was a complete success. Section Zero is destroyed."
"Very good job." Atin looked around. Nikki was at a computer console, Char was pacing by the door, Jon was sitting in a chair, and Will was staring out a window. Atin got up, and walked left to Nikki. "Hey, you're up. We were really worried about you. Some of us more than others." Her eyes moved slightly to the right. "Where are we?" Atin asked.
"In the medical bay of the Marathon-Class Cruiser Ironclad. The flagship of Char's fleet. The Elites almost completely destroyed the Brute fleet by the time she got there. Shipmaster 'Vadum told me to send you his regards."
Atin smiled. "Good. So, I trust that that Section Zero has been completely destroyed?"
"Of course."
"Good. Thank you." Atin walked over to Char, who was wearing a sling on her right arm. "Good to have you back, Char. And what the hell do you think you're doing out of your hospital bed?" Atin said with a smile.
Char thought for a moment. "Last time I looked, I was saving your ass. Sir." She said jokingly.
"Good to have you back."
"Thanks for helping us out." Atin said to Will.
"Anytime. And I guess I owe you one for getting me back in active duty."
I'll remember that sometime." Atin said.
Jon spoke up. "So I guess that their time just ran to Zero."
"Oh, my God." Atin and Will said, shaking their heads.












Later, Atin and Kami walked up to the observation deck.
Atin told Kami, "You know, officially, this never happened. Any of it. There was no Section Zero."
Kami nodded. "I know. No one will know what happened. Except for us. That's the life of a SpecOps soldier, isn't it?"
"Yeah. It is. It's a shame, but that's the way it is. But we have our squad."
"We do. And I'm glad that I have such an awesome squad. But where do we go now?"
Atin looked out into the space. "We can really go anywhere. The war is over. We've had a gold rush of new technologies. We have new Elite allies. This is a period of Reconstruction for the UNSC, but it's also a period of new opportunities." Atin looked at Kami. Then they both looked outside into the infinite space.

Limits of Trust
Date: 1 October 2008, 2:24 am

THE LIMIT OF TRUST

Chapter 1: Reville

"Honor. Selfless action, and unbelievable courage against all odds. You are truly one of the best assets in the UNSC. In light of this, you are awarded the UNSC Colonial Cross, Medal of Honor, and Medal of Valor. Congratulations, Captain Spartan 38." Lord Hood pinned the Colonial Cross, the highest award ever given, to Atin's uniform. Atin had just been given a promotion, also. So had all of the other members of Zeta Squad after the events regarding Section Zero and Delta Halo.. Everyone had been given the Colonial Cross, and Charlotte had been given 2 Purple Hearts for her injuries.
"Now, I expect that Zeta Squad give even greater results in the future. Dismissed." Hood saluted, and Zeta Squad snapped to attention and saluted, also.
The award ceremony had to take place in a secret location because of the top secret conditions of the mission to stop Section Zero. When the squad left, they stopped in the lobby, and sat down.
"Well, we have about 2 days to get some R&R. Now, I don't care what you do, just get back here in 2 days by 0500 hours." Atin said.
"Well, it's about time that we got some appreciation. 2 whole days, huh?" Char asked sarcastically.
"Yeah, but you can take some more time off if you get shot again. What do you think?" Kami, now a Lieutenant Commander, replied.
"Uh..no thanks. I'm happy with 2 days." Char, also a Lieutenant Commander, said.
"Well, do what you want. Squad, dismissed." Atin ordered.

"So, what are you gonna do on your leave, Atin?" Kami inquired. They were in Washington D.C. at about 2 A.M. The UNSC always had weird times for everything. The ceremony had started at 8 P.M., and had let out at about 1. They had roamed the huge city, which was still alive with activity even at this hour, for half an hour.
"I don't know. I'll probably take one day off, and the other getting ready for the next mission." Atin replied.
"Wow, that's not very exiting. But, I guess having a day to get ready is better than having an hour." Kami said as the two walked by an alley. A stray man walked forward, and Atin could see that he had a knife. He opened his coat, exposing the M6G pistol he kept inside it, and the man backed off. "I'm worried that having 6 squad members might slow us down. Jon is a good soldier, as is Will, but 6 squad members is a big number. However, it might be nice to have some more firepower." Atin was saying as they got to the Zeta Squad bunker. Atin walked Kami to her room, and said, "Good night, Kam'ika." She smiled.

"You're back late. I was just going to send a search party for you." Will, a Lieutenant Colonel, remarked as Atin walked into the bunk.
"Oh yeah, the capital of the UNSC is a dangerous place. But we did almost get mugged."
"One more chump thinks he can take you down with a knife? Before he knows it, he'll be bleeding from a slice caused by his own knife. That's a bladesmaster for you."
Atin stopped putting away things from his pocket. "It seems like so long ago when I was certified a Spartan Bladesmaster. But it was only 2 years." Atin looked at the clock. "Damn. It's already 2:30. We need to get up at 0600 again. I'm turning in."




Chapter 2: Discovery

"Atin. Wake up." Atin heard Solipsil's voice before he was awake. "Don't you have a snooze button?" He asked groggily.
"Very funny. And, in case you were wondering, it's only 0400. Lord Hood has an urgent message for you." With that, Atin was instantly awake. He got up, and walked to the computer.
Lord Hood appeared on the screen, and Atin said, "Sir! My apologies for making you wait on me, sir."
Hood chuckled. "It's alright, Captain. I want you to have a look at this." An image appeared on the screen. It looked like a temple. "What exactly am I looking at, sir?" Atin asked.
"We're not sure, but we think that it's a Forerunner structure."
Atin's eyes grew wide. "In that case, I would like to have the squad go there immediately."
Hood nodded. "I was expecting that. You know that you're throwing away you're vacation time. But, I'll have the Ironclad ready."


The squad had gathered in the Zeta Squad lobby in under 15 minutes, even though it was 4:20 in the morning. They all had dark circles under their eyes, but Atin could tell that they could leap into action at a second's notice.
"Sir, Zeta 2 reporting for duty. And, if I may speak freely, what the hell are we doing this early in the morning?" Nikki, now a Commander, asked.
Atin stood with tired eyes as he said, "We have identified a possible Forerunner temple. I would like to infiltrate it and see if it has anything to do with the Array, or Shields." After hearing that, the squad stood a little straighter. "Anyone interested?" Everyone raised their hand. Atin smiled. "Good. Then lets go. The Ironclad's waiting."

On board the UNSC Cruiser Ironclad, Atin stood at the bridge. They were in Slipspace, en route to the deserted planet. About 1 hour to go. They were making good time. Atin was starting to think about what may lie in the abandoned Forerunner temple. With the Forerunner, anything was possible. They had flourished in the Milky Way for centuries, until a galactic parasite, known as the Flood, invaded their Empire. The Flood penetrated any organic body, and burrowed into their chest cavity, where they take command of the host body. Over time, the combat form mutates into a carrier form, where more infection forms grow and escape. They were the perfect parasite. As they kill, they grow. And as they grow, they kill. Eventually, the Flood evolved into a horrific intelligent form, known as the Gravemind. The Flood, now sentient, attacked the Forerunners until the mighty Forerunner Empire was reduced to a couple planets. The Forerunners created 7 ringworlds, which they called the Halo Array, which was possible of killing all life with enough biomass to contain the Flood, including all of the Flood forms, including the Gravemind. With that done, they formulated a way to have life go on afterwards. The Halos would kill all life in the galaxy, so the Forerunners created a new installation called the Ark, which was able to activate all the Halos, and placed it outside the Halo's range. They then took any and all sentient life, including humans, to the Ark, and activated Halo and destroyed the Flood.
"Atin?" Atin's concentration broke. He turned, and Char was standing behind him.
"What's up, Char?" He asked.
"Well, um..." Char looked uncomfortable, and Atin knew that she was going to ask something important. Char mustered up her confidence, and said, "Please take me as your apprentice."
Atin was taken aback. "Apprentice? As what?"
"As a swordsman. I already know long range combat, so now I want to know close range. Please."
Atin smiled at her. "Are you prepared for a long and grueling training?"
Char nodded. "I am, sir. I will do anything you ask, follow your every command."
"Then I will take you as my apprentice."
Char instantly looked relived. "Thank you! Very much! But we better get ready to get on the way."
Atin looked at the time. Almost 15 minutes to go. "Right. Lets get on down to the launch bay."

Atin and Char walked into the hangar, and there was only one Pelican dropship in the whole bay. Atin looked at it and said, "So I guess we're taking this one?" Jon, now a Commander, told Atin, "No, we're taking invisible one." Atin nodded, and picked up his BR, but his gut told him to also take an AR, too. The squad boarded the Pelican and the lights dimmed. Atin felt the dropship lurch free of the Cruiser, and drop down to the surface of the planet. In the cabin, a red light turned on. "Red light. Get ready!" Atin barked. Then, the red light turned green. "Green light! Go! Go! Go!" He said as the door opened. The squad ran out of the Pelican and into the entrance to the Forerunner temple.

The inside of the temple was drastically different from the outside. While the outside looked worn and decayed, the inside was constructed out of the same Forerunner alloy as Delta Halo. It was also perfectly tidy, like it was constructed a month ago. The squad had to turn on their lights to see. After walking for an hour, they reached a dead end. "Well, damn!" Will exclaimed. "That's it?" Atin looked down at the wall and saw that it had an imprint on it. Something in his head told him to place his palm on it. When he did, the wall lifted up and reveled an inner corridor. "Well, on we go." Atin said. They walked into the corridor, and the wall fell. The whole hidden corridor dropped, and in an instant, the elevator was falling rapidly. When it finally stopped, the wall lifted again. In the distance, there was what looked like a terminal. The 6-person squad cautiously walked up to it, and a very loud voice yelled, "Reclaimer detected! Storage facility unlocked. Warning! Cont-" The voice cut to static, and the terminal dropped. A door appeared in the wall, and it opened. Atin looked to the squad and said, "Well, this is it. We know that there is something in there. Now, we find out." The squad nodded, and they walked in. When they all got inside the room, the door closed. A light appeared, and a pedestal raised up. On it were 6 gauntlets. Atin walked up to one of them. It looked like it would fit on his arm. It had a blocky compartment on the outside of it, and in that compartment, it looked like something could come out of it. Atin reached forward, and the gauntlet floated up and lunged forward onto Atin's forearm and locked. Atin stepped back, and tried to pull it off. It wouldn't budge. Nikki stepped up to Atin and told him, "Whatever it is, I don't think it's coming off. But it doesn't look harmful. I suggest that each squad member take one." Atin considered for a moment, and nodded. "Right. Squad, help yourself." Nikki reached for a gauntlet with a rounded top on it. Char took one with a long tube attached to it. Kami got one with a large, round attachment. Jon took one with a very big sphere on it, and Will took a gauntlet with two storage tanks and one nozzle connecting both.
"Ok, mission accomplished. Now lets get out of here." Atin told the squad. But, just as they were leaving, he had a very bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. The pedestal dropped and fell, the light flickered, and the wall started to crack. As Atin watched this happen, he just knew what was going to come out of the wall. "Squad! Get out of here! Now!" He yelled, and the squad sprinted for the elevator. When they got there, Atin turned around and saw the wall shatter and thousands of little blob-like things flew out and slithered to the squad. Atin triggered the elevator and the door fell with a bang. As the elevator rose, Kami spoke up. "What were those things?" She asked. Atin swallowed, and explained, "Those things were Flood infection forms. Some of them must have survived the Halo fire somehow." The squad was silent for a moment, then Char said, "So what do we do?"
Atin looked down. "There's only one thing we can do.

Chapter 3: Extermination

The elevator slowed down to a halt, and the door opened to a wave of infection forms. They tried to attach themselves to Atin, but they just popped against his shield. The squad sprinted for the exit, but two lumbering hulks walked out and tried to smash their huge arms against Atin. He sidestepped, grabbed his AR, and unloaded on the beasts. "Squad! Open fire on their heads!" The hulks were a special kind of Flood called Pure forms, and they could smash a fully armored Spartan if struck. Atin fired until his clip was empty, and he ducked from a horizontal swipe. Kami blasted it in the mouth with her shotgun. It fell, but was still moving. The squad ran outside, and the desert sand had started to sink from the collapsing temple. He called in the Pelican, and as it was coming, it fell under fire from Flood Pure ranged forms. The pilot had just enough time to open the hatch, and have the squad jump in before blasting away.

The squad jumped out of the hatch into the Ironclad's hangar bay. Atin immediately got on the COMlink to the bridge. "I am ordering a shipwide lockdown. Nobody is to leave the ship, under any circumstances. I will be on the bridge shortly." On the bridge, Atin looked at the planet. He zoomed in, and saw that the area where the temple was located, was completely infested with Flood. He reached for the communications console, and typed in a secret code. A strong, prideful voice came on. "Yes? What is it?" The voice said. "We need you. Bring the cavalry." Atin replied, and then he killed the link. He walked back to the command screen, and saw that Kami's eyes were worried. Atin put his hand on her shoulder and said, "It's all right. We got an ace up our sleeve for this one."
They watched the Flood spread across the planet for half an hour, when the Navigation officer called out, "Slipspace rupture! Incoming ships!" Atin and Kami looked out the viewport and saw 50 Covenant capital ships emerge from Slipspace. Atin picked up the COMlink and heard the voice say, "This is Fleet Master Rtas 'Vadum. Fall back, and we will commence plasma bombardment. The planet will be glassed."

The Elites had been at it for at least 3 hours, and the entire surface of the planet was on fire. Nothing could survive that. Within days, the atmosphere would dissipate, and the planet would become a barren, desolate, ball of glass. "Spartan, We have finished. You may return to Earth now, if you desire." Atin clicked the COMlink, and said, "Can you post one ship here to monitor the planet?"
"Of course. We have it under control."
Atin nodded. "All right. Thank you, Fleet Master. Goodbye." Atin inputed the coordinates for Earth and the cruiser transitioned to Slipspace. Atin turned to the squad, and said, "Now we can finally return home and find out what is so important about these gauntlets.

Chapter 4: Fresh Blood

"This figures. Out of the office for one day and they find some way to put a pile of work on my desk." Atin grumbled as he went through the files on the desk of the Chief of Special Operations.
"Well, what do you expect? We can't just go and do anything we want." Nikki said as she was going through the database, looking for any information on the Forerunner gauntlets.
Atin found a file and opened it. "It's another one about the Insurrection. I don't know what we're gonna do about it. We can't legally do anything unless it's confirmed to be the United Rebel Front again. Anything else is just terrorist attacks."
Nikki turned to look at him. "Well, the URF could be anywhere and claim to be just Insurrectionists. That's the problem. Unless we have a good, solid lead, all we can do is step up local security."
Atin closed the file. He was looking at another one when his COMlink went off. He checked it, and the text said "Gather Zeta Squad 1 through 4 and come to my office." It was from Lord Hood. Atin looked at Nikki. "Why does he want to see us all of the time? Is he getting lonely?" Nikki laughed. "Just don't say that to his face, or he'll court martial you."

Atin, Nikki, Char, and Kami walked into Lord Hood's office. In there was another person. Lord Hood spoke before Zeta Squad could even salute. "Squad, this is Commander Robert Graves. He has proven himself countless times, and he is a valuable soldier."
Atin looked at the soldier. He looked like he could but up a fight. "Sir, if I may ask, why are we here?"
Hood folded his hands. "Robert is the newest member of Zeta Squad."
Nikki immediately shouted out, "But we don't need a 7th member!"
Hood looked at her. "5th member. Jon was dismissed as a Zeta Squad member when Charlotte was released from the hospital. And Will was never a member of Zeta Squad, even though he is a good soldier."
The squad looked like they had been struck. Atin said, "Have him report to Zeta Squad bunker. But I want to speak to you personally." Hood nodded, and motioned for Robert to leave. The rest of the squad left also. "Why did you do that? You know that we can complete our mission best when we are able to do what we want."
Hood put his hands up to his face. "I know that. I know that better than anyone. However, I was overruled. I voted against it. But the Security Council wanted to put another squad member in. Be wary of him, but also make him a part of the squad. That's all I can ask. I have an opening mission for you. We have evidence of a URF base somewhere in a forest. I want you to go there and make it disappear."

Atin walked into the Zeta Squad bunk. Robert, the new guy, was sitting on one of the chairs. "Sir, what are we doing?" he said as Atin walked past him. "Get ready. We're shipping out in 30 minutes." Atin replied as he walked into his bunk. He got on his COMlink and called Will and Jon. When they arrived at the lobby, he spoke to the entire squad, all 7 of them. "This is Commander Robert Graves. He is the 7th member of Zeta Squad. I don't give a damn what Hood says, we are a team. Now, get ready. We have found a rebel base and we're gonna do what we do best. Explosive relocation." The squad chuckled. "Will, good news. You're getting a new tank." Will smiled."Get ready, squad."

"You ready, Char? Don't hold back." Atin said as he formed a fighting stance. The Ironclad was about 4 hours from planet Victoria, the site of the URF base.
"Ready." Char said, almost trance-like, as she readied her practice knife. It was a modified humbler stun baton. It wouldn't leave any permanent damage, but it would hurt like hell for an hour after touching it. The clock on the wall dinged, and the two soldiers lunged at each other. Char tried a horizontal strike, and Atin blocked it. He then jumped behind her and was going to execute a powerful vertical lunge when Char turned and brought up her knife to block, but, at the last second, Atin jumped backward and used all of his strength to lunge forward and whip the practice knife across Char's midsection. She fell, and he helped her up. "Now I know why they call you a bladesmaster." Char grumbled as she got shakily to her feet. "Sorry. But you did good. A few things to work on, but otherwise very sharp." Char clutched her stomach, and winced. Even for a Spartan, the stun batons really got to someone. But, if she was a normal person, she would be rolling around in pain right now.
"Right. Lets do it again." Char said as she grated her teeth. Atin just smiled. "I'm afraid not. You need enough time to recover before we try it again. You need to be at your top. We'll try again after the mission."
Char picked up her practice knife and sheathed it. "Why is the new guy here? We don't need him. Won't he just slow us down?"
Atin twirled his knife and sheathed it in one motion. "Hood said that the Security Council all voted on it. Apparently, they want to make sure that Zeta Squad is completing our missions the way they want."
"So, in other words, they want Robert to spy on us." Char said.
"I guess so. Keep your eye on him, but don't look you're keeping an eye on him." Atin said.
"Umm...Roger that." Char said.
Atin walked up to the bridge, Char following closely behind. "Status, crewman?" Atin said to the NAV officer. "Sir, ETA to rebel planet is 30 minutes. Give or take 15, of course. Advise you get your team to the Pelican soon, because I don't know what the hostile count is. Might be rough." Atin nodded, then looked at the viewscreen. Planet Victoria had once been the location of a major URF, or United Rebel Federation, base that Spartan Blue Team had razed. There probably wasn't just one base there, either. This might be the big one they were looking for. Atin opened his COMlink to the squad. "Zeta 1 to all Zeta Squad members. Report to the hangar by 0730. This is it, squad. Lets go."

Chapter 5: Infiltration

"5 to ground, I repeat, 5 to ground! Get ready, Zeta. Good luck!" The pilot said as the Pelican dropped into the atmosphere. The Ironclad had done its job perfectly. It had exited Slipspace and dropped the Pelican before the Innies could even blink. Inside the cabin, the 7 members of Zeta squad all looked ice cold on the outside, but on Atin's TEAMBIO monitor, their pulses were racing. All except for Robert, the new guy. Either he had ice in his blood, or something was up. "Robert, whats up? Nervous?" Atin said.
"No sir. This isn't my first op with the Insurrection. I'm ready. You can count on me to get the job done." Robert replied. Atin was impressed. "All right. Let's see what you can do." He replied. The hatch opened, and Atin took his Battle Rifle from the rack and placed it on his back, and it stuck with a metallic snap. Nikki grabbed a Shotgun and an AR, Char, her BR and a pistol, Kami, her Shotgun, Will, his Rocket launcher, Jon, an AR, and Robert grabbed a Sniper Rifle. 7 soldiers. They were ready. The Pelican lowered until it was hovering just above the ground. "Bang out, Spartans! Good luck!" Zeta Squad jumped out of the Pelican and Atin surveyed the area. The whole area of land where the base was supposed to be looked like it had been in a landslide. The plot of land that Zeta was on had lush, green trees and bushes, but the next two areas were barren, separated by 20-foot cliffs. However, the second plot's edge was what looked like at least a 500-foot drop onto sharp rocks below. The squad took cover and Char spied through her BR's scope. "Sir, I have 4 soldiers emerging from a hatch in the first plot. Want to go for it?" Atin looked through his own BR. "Yeah. Lets go. Squad! Fall out!" And Zeta Squad mobilized into action.
Atin jumped down to the second plot of land and did a barrel roll when he landed. He sighted through his BR's scope and took down one of the soldiers. As he looked at the second, he saw that Char had already taken one down, and they both shot at once, and all of the Insurrectionists were down. The squad sprinted to the hatch. Atin opened it and the whole squad jumped in.
Zeta squad fell through the hatch into the base. Immediately, Atin and Char locked their BR's at their shoulders, and advanced forward slowly. "Did you forget about me?" Solipsil asked Atin. "No, of course not. It's not like you're in my head or anything. Can you get us a map of this mini-hellhole?" Atin and Char rounded a corner and shot 2 guards before they could raise the alarm. Char sighed with relief. "Yeah, I got a map. To level this place, you'll need to put 5 different charges in strategic locations. I'll highlight the positions on your HUD. Atin looked at the map and discovered that this base was much smaller than he thought. "Why in the hell would they need so many guards and defenses for a base this size?"Nikki asked Atin over the COM. "I'm not sure. But all the same, lets do what we do best, squad. We need to split up into 5 teams. Char, you're with me. We can work best at long range. Kami, you're with Robert. Everyone else, you're on your own. Place a charge in your location, radio back to me, and meet up right here when you're done. Keep radio silence until you place the charge. I'll link them all to one detonator. Good luck, squad."

Atin kicked down a door and let loose a hail of bullets that dropped 4 guards before Char even got in. "Hey, that's not fair. If you're gonna break the rules, then we won't keep score." Char complained. "What about you getting that one 5 minutes ago? I should have got that." Atin rebuked. "It doesn't count unless you call it." Char said. "Aww, bullshit. Fine, then we won't keep score." Atin said as he nudged her playfully. They edged their way into another room, and took positions, ready to fire, but there was nobody there. Atin consulted his map. They were close to the main power generator now, and everything was going along smoothly. Atin sliced the next door's computer and opened it, and looked at the power generator. It was absolutely massive, much bigger than what was needed to power a facility this size, unless they were testing something that required that much power. Atin walked to the generator's shell and placed the det charge. He activated it, and linked it to his personal detonator. He saw that 2 other charges had already been activated. "It's done. Lets get out of here, k?" Atin said to Char. She nodded. "Nikki to Atin. Charge set." Nikki's terse message got through, as did Will's, Jon's and Kami's. "That's everybody. Good." Atin should have felt relieved, but he didn't. An uneasy lump was forming in the pit of his stomach, and he didn't like it. Atin and Char arrived at the RV point, where Nikki and Will were waiting. "Only Jon, Kami, and Robert now, right?" Atin asked, and Nikki nodded. Jon walked up to the squad and greeted Atin in the traditional way, by hitting each other's forearms together. Atin was about to ask Kami why she was late, when he got a flash in his head. Just then, Kami's voice filled Atin's helmet. "Atin, We've got a problem here! They're all over us!" Her voice was gone as fast as it appeared. Atin looked at the rest of the squad to see if they heard what he did. Judging by their reactions, they had. He looked for Kami's Friend or Foe tag on his HUD, and saw that she was elevating to the surface. "Come on. There's no time! We gotta go!" Atin yelled as he ascended the stairs to the surface.

Chapter 6: The Shot

Atin kicked open the hatch, and bursted through. He looked around, and saw a group of people on the last plot of earth. He jumped down, followed by the rest of Zeta Squad. What Atin saw next was painfully clear. A senior URF officer was holding Robert's sniper rifle, aiming straight at Kami's head. She was kneeling on the ground, with her hands on her head, right next to the cliff that led to the abyss below. Robert was bound together with cables that could hold a Scorpion tank in place. Atin knew what those sniper rifles could do, and it wasn't good. A URF soldier walked up to the squad and took their weapons. The squad handed them over because they didn't want to know what would happen if they didn't.
"Zeta Squad. I always wanted to meet you like this. I am the second-in-command of the United Rebel Front. I am Charles Smith."
Atin barely controlled his anger and worry. "Let my teammates go. Now. It's over. Your base is finished. You have lost. Let them go, and we will work something out. Please."
Smith looked pleased. "No, I know I will die. However, the URF will live on." He signaled to the soldier holding Robert, and he took Robert away. Smith continued. "You do not know how happy I am to have killed a soldier of the famous Zeta Squad. I will live on in URF history when we defeat the UNSC!" In Atin's helmet, Kami said, "Atin. Don't worry about me. I'll be fine, no matter what happens. Whatever happens. Remember that, At'ika." That hit Atin hard. He knew what was about to happen before it happened. "Kam'ika!" He screamed to Kami. Smith laughed manically, then shot her.

Atin felt numb. He wanted his eyes to be lying to him, and he was furious that they weren't. He saw Kami fall from the cliff into the abyss below, and he couldn't feel anything. The only thing that mattered was that that son of a bitch died. Atin charged at him, sprinting with all of his might. He felt a strange tingling on his right forearm, and it intensified, like something giving off energy. It felt familiar, exactly like the feeling Atin got when he looked at Forerunner symbols. Suddenly, the power pulsed, and out of the gauntlet came three blades, one from the top, and one from each side. They locked in place around Atin's wrist, and surrounded themselves with blue energy. Atin charged up to Smith, and slammed the blades into his abdomen. The blades went right through, and exited out his back. Atin pulled the blades out, and Smith fell. He had a look of satisfaction on his face. Atin slammed the blades into his face, also. The blades went through flesh, bone, and rock just like a combat knife through butter. Atin pulled it out, and screamed at the top of his lungs. "No! No no no no no! No!" He yelled. He fell to his knees. "I promise. I promise you, Kam'ika, you will be avenged." He got up, turned to the squad, and said, "I'm going down. To get her." Just then, Lord Hood's voice came on Atin's COM. "Spartan, get out of there. Now." Atin had had it. "No. I'm going down there. I lost one of my best soldiers down there." Damn. He said it. That made it real. "Atin, get out. That is a direct order." Atin ignored him. He got his grappling hook ready. His COM opened again. This time, it was Nikki. "At'ika, please. Come on. Once we get out, we're gonna level the base, and then they're gonna saturate bomb the whole area. I don't know if they will wait for us or not." Atin turned, and saw a Pelican hovering near. Nikki walked over to him, and she put her hand on his shoulder. "Please, little brother, come on." Atin had one look back to the cliff, and then followed Nikki to the Pelican. It lifted, and Atin triggered the charge. The three plots of land vaporized instantly. The explosion was huge. Atin looked up, and saw multiple squadrons of Longswords approaching. Each one let loose 50 bombs, and the entire expansion of land was engulfed in a massive eruption of fire and smoke. Kami's funeral pyre. Atin closed the Pelican's hatch, and reminded himself that the mission must come first. It was the life of a soldier. Hood's voice came on Atin's helmet. "I'm sorry, Atin. I really am. I couldn't stop those Longswords if I tried. Are you still battle ready?" Atin sat down, and his mind was made up. When his task was completed, then he would mourn Kami's death. Now was the time for vengeance. "Fit to Fight, sir." He said, back to his normal self. On his TEAMBIO, he saw that Nikki's pulse slowed slightly. She was relieved. So was Atin. "Your mission is to retrieve Robert from the URF. Good luck, Spartan." As Hood's voice dimmed out, Atin stood and looked at the explosion that had now engulfed the nearby trees on fire. He turned away from it, and faced the squad, not looking back.

Chapter 7: Refocus

"Atin, are you all right?" Nikki asked, cautious. Atin snapped back to reality. "Yeah. I'm fine. Never better." Atin said bitterly. Nikki recoiled slightly. "I'm just trying to help." Nikki replied. Atin instantly felt bad. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped at you." Nikki patted him on the shoulder. "It's ok. If you need anything, just ask." She said. Atin nodded and walked over to the computer console. They were about 3 hours from Earth. "Squad!" Atin barked, back to himself again. "When we get back to Earth, you have 12 hours of free time, because that's how long I'm giving the Ironclad to reload and rearm. Get some sleep. Dismissed."
Atin walked into the training room, clad in full armor. 10 robotic soldiers came into view, and Atin searched deep down for that familiar feeling he got from Forerunner artifacts. He looked down at the gauntlet, and the blades sprang out again and hummed with their blue energy. He lunged at on e of the soldiers and sliced it clean through, jumped to the second and impaled it in the chest. The rest aimed their clunky, old rifles at Atin, and he crouched and was about to roll, when he felt a subtle change in the energy that the gauntlet was giving off. The top and bottom blades rotated to half position and an energy shield popped in place. The bullets bounced right off, and Atin jumped and tried to manipulate the gauntlet, and visualized the gauntlet in combat mode, and the blades rotated back around his wrist, and Atin swung and destroyed the rest of the test dummies. He visualized the blades going back into the gauntlet, and they rotated back into the gauntlet. He kneeled down, and exhaled. His workout was over for today. He had to get ready to leave. As he was walking down the hall, he saw a marine and his friend, both on leave and wearing their dress uniforms. One of them got his friend's attention, and said, "Hey. Check it out. That's one of Zeta Squad. Heard one of them got slotted." His friend whistled, and replied, "So they finally found out that they're not invincible?" That was it. Atin had had it with insults to his squad. He faced the soldier, and activated his gauntlet. The blades rotated and locked half an inch from the soldier's face. "Listen. You try one minute in our position. You'll be dead before you can say 'oops.' So I think you should show your superiors some respect, don't you think?" Atin could see the sweat forming on the young soldier's forehead. "Yes sir. Sorry sir." He hastily replied. Atin deactivated the gauntlet and walked on.

"I need a report on the Ironclad's systems." Nikki said as she walked into the bridge. "Ma'am, all systems are good to go. All Archer missiles filled, reactor at 100%." Nikki nodded, satisfied. She heard another set of footsteps approaching, and she turned. Atin strode up, all military precision now, and looked at her. "We ready? I have Robert's coordinates." Nikki replied, "All set. Everything is ready for a full on assault, if need be." Atin sat down in the command chair, and smiled. "Let's hope not. The system we're going to is the Charybdis IX system. I'd like to jump to the edge of the system, and once we leave the ship, have it jump to a nearby system, so that we can have some space." Atin punched in codes on the arm of the command chair, then looked at Nikki. "Sounds good. We gonna have a panic button or what?" Atin nodded. He opened a link to all of Zeta Squad. "All set, Zeta?" He received positive acknowledgment lights from Char, Will, and Jon. He pushed a final button, and the Cruiser jumped to Slipspace.

Chapter 8: Payback

"Exiting Slipspace in 5...4...3...2...1..now." The Ironclad tore through Slipspace and returned to normal space. Atin peered through the viewport and saw a huge asteroid field. "Well, it's a damn good thing that we have Robert's coordinates, right?" Atin asked Nikki. "Yeah. So, ready to go?" She replied. Atin got out of the command chair, and nodded at her.

"Squad, suit up. Let's get ready to move." Atin ordered as he walked into the hangar. He looked over his squad. Nikki, Char, Jon, and Will. A five member squad. That should be enough. At least, he hoped so. This was it. Atin was ready for a little payback. He walked into the cabin of the Pelican, and the squad followed him. As the Pelican cleared the cruiser, Atin opened a link to the Ironclad's bridge. "All right, people. Phase 1 complete. Jump to a nearby system, and wait for orders, over." The Ironclad jumped to Slipspace, and left the Pelican in the blackness of space. It flashed its engines once, and then shut them off, relying on their drift speed to get them there. "Zeta, ETA to asteroid is 1 hour and 7 minutes." Atin unhooked his straps and started to float around the cabin. He checked his HUD, and applied Robert's tracking point to his radar. He felt tired, and floated over to Nikki. "Wake me when we get there, ok?" He asked her, and then he fell asleep.

"Atin, we're almost there." Nikki said. Atin instantly woke up, and floated over to the viewport on the Pelican's hatch. The dropship shuddered, and the pilot spoke up. "Zeta squad, this is as close as I can get you guys. You'll need to free float to the asteroid from here. Good luck." The hatch opened, and the squad floated out of the Pelican, and out into the open space. "Squad, ETA is in 7 minutes. Prepare for impact, and look like space dust." Atin took a deep breath as the asteroid got bigger and bigger. Finally, after what seemed like a lifetime, Atin hit the asteroid. It knocked the breath out of him, but he was there. He looked around, and all 4 other squad members were crawling to him. "Once we get in, I want radio silence. Be as stealthy as you can." He crawled to an airlock hatch, and placed a breaching charge on it. It exploded with a silent bang, and air shot out of it. Atin jumped through, and the squad followed. He landed, and shouldered his BR. No one was there. Atin ran over to an airlock, and gestured the squad to follow. They entered, and Atin inserted Solipsil into a terminal. "All right. I'm in. I'll put NAV markers on your HUD, and comply with your radio silence order." Atin initiated the airlock, and the squad moved forward. He kicked open a door, and shot 4 Innie guards. Zeta Squad had landed.

"Head's up, Squad. We're close." The squad had been wandering through the asteroid for going on 4 hours now. Atin walked to a terminal, and held out his data chip for Solipsil to come back. When he inserted the chip back into his helmet, he felt the familiar feeling of coldness. The squad breached another door, and were faced with a 5-forked room. Atin looked to the squad. "Well, I guess we split up. If you find an exit or a clue, radio in and we'll come running." Atin took the first one, and walked in to the hallway that followed.

"Damn. Nothing. No sign of Robert." Atin grumbled as he walked into yet another room. Suddenly, the door slammed shut behind him, and the ceiling shattered. Innies started coming in like a floodgate had opened. Atin activated his gauntlet and lunged at one of them. He sliced a hostile clean open, and then, he started to get backed into a corner. He was forced to switch to shield mode, and he rolled to the middle of the room. Just then, he realized that the frontal assault was a trap. From behind, someone shot him, and everything went black.

Nikki carefully entered a room, and saw the trap before she could walk into it. She laughed at the poor concealing skills of the Innies. At that instant, she knew that she had underestimated the URF. The floor crumbled beneath her, and she fell into a room below. Nikki looked up, into the room she was in before, and saw 5 rockets barreling to her. She crouched, and felt a strange, familiar energy from the gauntlet on her wrist. She looked down, and golden energy surrounded her. She felt the rocket impact, and explode, but the new, golden, energy formed a shield around her. She tried to imagine the shield disappear, and it did. She reactivated it, and deactivated it. Nikki was just about to contemplate how to get back to the room above her, when everything went black.

Char looked at her motion tracker, and saw a faint red dot on it. She saw another behind her, and knew that she was walking into a trap. She felt some kind of energy on her wrist, and the gauntlet started glowing. Something started coming out of it, and it floated behind her and latched on to her back. She worked around, trying to get it off, but it wouldn't budge. The long, cylindrical tube opened into 4 legs, and they wrapped around her back. Another blip on her motion tracker, and Char knew that she would have to make the thing on her back wait for later. She saw an Innie in the hallway, and shot him down. Before she could turn and get the one behind her, the thing on her back shot it with an energy beam. She was amazed, and she tried to control it. When she tried to make it retract, it folded back into the gauntlet. She realized that instant that that was a very bad idea. Before she knew it, everything went black.

Jon was having a hell of a time fighting Innies from a distance. All he had was his Assault Rifle, and that wasn't really a long range rifle. His gauntlet started emitting a familiar energy, and Jon aimed it at the Innies, hoping that something would happen. Just then, a grappling hook shot forward, and he rode it to the other side of the chasm. He sighted an Innie, and shot the hook at him. It impacted, and electrical energy traveled along the chain and right into the hostile soldier. He fell, still shaking, and Jon turned around to face another. But there was another guard behind him, and he aimed his rifle at Jon. He fired, and everything went black.

Will knew something was wrong. He cut his way through at least thirty Innies, and he gets to a dead end. He had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach, and he didn't like it. The gauntlet on his right wrist, easily the largest among the squad, started to glow red. He started to knock on it, and it stopped. Just then, the door he went through exploded and Innies swarmed in. He aimed his gauntlet at them, and a glowing orb shot out and impacted the soldiers. It exploded in a burst of flame that lingered on the ground. He lobbed another orb at some soldiers, and it exploded in a chilling mist that froze the soldiers solid. He was having fun with the weapon, so much fun, that he didn't see the one guard that hadn't been killed aim a gun at him and shoot. Everything went black.

Chapter 9: Revelation

Atin opened his eyes, and they adjusted to his HUD. He tried to move his head, but couldn't. He couldn't move any part of his body. He looked around with his eyes, and saw that all of the squad was here, apparently unconscious or unable to move like him. His right arm was in a position right behind his neck. Someone walked up to him and slammed an iron fist into his stomach. Atin tried to hit him back, but couldn't. Then, the one who hit him talked. "So, come to rescue your squadmate, have you?" It was Robert's voice. He pulled Atin's head up, something only someone with MJOLNIR armor could do. Then, the one clad in armor took his helmet off, and it was indeed Robert. "I should thank you. For walking right into my little trap. I didn't need to do anything."
Atin couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You led us on....all along?" Robert laughed manically. "Of course! I led you everywhere. I led you to Section Zero. To the Covenant Space Station. I needed you to get rid of them for me, because if they activated Halo, that would ruin everybody's plans, wouldn't it? And, most importantly, I led you to planet Victoria and the base. Pity that girl didn't make it. I actually liked her."
Atin's eyes were narrowing with anger, and the hopelessness that his armor was immobile. "Who are you?" He asked.
"I am General Robert Graves, the son of General Howard Graves, leader of the United Rebel Front." Robert walked over to a drawer and took out a metal cylinder. It was the hilt of a Covenant Energy Sword. He walked over to Atin, and held up the sword to Atin's neck. "And I will be the one who killed you." He said. Atin willed his right hand to move to his helmet, and it did. He felt a small plug in his helmet, which he recognized as an anti-magnetic plug. He was just about to try to pull it out, but Jon pulled his out first. Jon lunged at Robert, and smashed his grappling hook into Robert's leg. Robert kicked off the hook before the lightning could touch him. Robert grabbed an anti-magnetic gun and shot Jon. He fell, his armor stiff. "Take him away! I'll deal with him after I kill these pathetic worms." Atin had his hands on the plug, and he was trying to pull it out when Robert walked up to Atin with the sword. Just as Robert swung, Atin pulled the plug out. He rolled, and activated his gauntlet. Robert swung again, and Atin parried. Robert took out the magnetic gun, and Atin cut it in half. He swung, and Robert leapt out of the way and into an elevator. "I'm very sorry that you won't live to see out grand plan come to fruition, but I'm afraid you've overstayed your welcome. Guards, kill them." Robert said as the elevator door closed. Atin turned on the guards and sliced both of them open. He rushed to Nikki and pulled out her magnetic plug. She rushed to Char, and Atin pulled Will's plug out. The squad got up, and Atin looked at the view screen and cursed.
"Damn. They're on their way. We better go. I see an escape pod bay nearby. We'll go for that." Atin said as he took out a det pack. He placed it on the viewscreen and set it. "Jon, come in. Jon?" Atin asked over his COM. "Atin, get out of there. I stole a Longsword and I'm getting out of here. Don't worry about me." Atin looked at the squad and they nodded, indicating that they heard. Atin kicked the door down, and ran into the escape pod. When everyone was in, he triggered the ignition. The pod blasted from the asteroid, and into space. "Where to, sir? The panic button won't work, and we only have a limited amount of air." Nikki said. "Just take us to the nearest habitable planet." Atin replied. The pod jumped to Slipspace...........And reemerged in less than a minute. It barreled down on a yellow planet, and crashed in the sands.

Chapter 10: Stranded

Atin kicked the door of the pod open. He poked his head out, and looked at the new environment. All he could see were sands, miles of them, in all directions. "Nikki, any idea where we are?" He asked. Nikki shook her head no. "I had to deactivate all power systems when we exited Slipspace. They're offline permanently now. Sorry, Boss." Atin jumped out of the pod and had his helmet scan the air. When it said it was breathable, he took his helmet off and took a deep breath. "Well, squad?" He said, smiling. "Looks like we're stuck here. Might as well make the best of it." Nikki, Char, and Will climbed out of the pod and looked around. "You think we should look for some kind of shelter? We don't know how hot it gets here." Will said. "Will's right, sir. And the pod's trashed, so we should start looking right away." Char added. Atin looked at Nikki. "What do you think? How much rations does everybody have?" Nikki climbed back into the pod, and came back out, shaking her head. "Not much, sir. Enough food for the whole squad for 4 days. We could recycle our water, and that would last us about a week. I don't know what we'll so after that, though." Atin looked at the sands that stretched out forever. "I guess we get started walking."

"Come on! Come at me!" Atin yelled as Char lunged at him, combat knife in hand. He dodged it, and spun. Atin tried to stab his own knife into her thigh, but she was getting quick. She jumped out of the way, and locked knives with Atin. The two each tried to overpower the other, but ultimately, Atin had the advantage. He slugged her, and put his knife to Char's throat. "I win. Good try, though." He said as he held out a hand for her to get up. "Am I getting better?" She asked cautiously. "Oh yeah. You're learning almost as fast as I did." Char handed Atin her knife, and Atin sheathed it. They had been traveling the sands for 2 days now, and it was about to get dark again. Atin silently cursed under his breath. There was something intimidating about the night here. Atin took a drink from his water canister and winced. Even though the techs said that the recycled water was as pure as a spring, it still tasted horrible. And, from a personal standpoint, he just didn't like to think that he was drinking water again and again. "Sir, can I ask you a question?" Char said. She took her helmet off, and Atin could see that she had something on her mind. "Sure. What's up?" Char considered for a moment, and asked him, "In your training, what was your instructor like?" Atin thought back to his days before the augmentation. "Well, at first, everyone hated Chief Mendez. He was always brutal to us. Making us excersize until our muscles ached, and if we fell, he would zap us and tell us to get back up." When Atin saw that Char looked horrified, he went on. "But eventually, we all looked up to him. Nothing could hurt him. We all saw him get hit, bones broken, tore up, but he never shed a tear. Except for one day. It was the day for Spartan augmentation. I was special among the Spartans in that I got to skip the Catalytic Thyroid Implant. Anyway, after it was done, almost half of the Spartans died. At the funeral ceremony, nobody but me saw it apparently, but I saw a tear going down his cheek." Char took a moment to let that sink in, and then she said, "Wow. That's wild. I would never thought that-" Before she could finish what she was saying, Atin put his hand on her shoulder. She immediately stopped. Atin gave an almost silent signal, and Nikki ran over. Will woke up, and grabbed his rifle. The squad knelt down, and searched the sands. "What do you see, sir?" Nikki asked. They had all been trained to never question orders, but nobody could see what Atin could. Just then, The sand erupted beneath them. Over 20 soldiers jumped up, surrounding them. Before Zeta Squad could fire, one of them spoke. "Do not shoot. We don't want to hurt you. Our leader wants to see you." Atin didn't let his guard down. "Are you part of the URF?" The soldier seemed offended by that. "We are neither URF or UNSC. We live here." Atin looked at the squad, and, given the size and strength of the soldiers surrounding them, they didn't have much choice. Atin stood, and followed them. "Sir, what do you think? Should we trust them?" Nikki asked. She was the first one to follow Atin, and the rest of the squad wasn't far behind. "The way things are, I don't think we have much of a choice. I guess we have to go with them, for the time being." The squad followed the group of soldiers to one mound of sand that looked a bit off color, even in the dark sky. The leader of the band of soldiers reached down and pulled a chain up, revealing a trap door. "You go down there." He told Atin. Atin reluctantly went down the ladder, the squad following him, until they got to a small room. Only the leader of the soldiers came down. He opened a door, and it led to a long hallway. The squad followed, and at the end of the hallway, a door led to a large room with one person in it. He was in his 60s, but Atin could tell that he was a warrior. His face was strewn with scars, and he had the distinctive tall, proud, stature of a warrior. "Welcome, warriors. This is my hidden city." He opened a curtain, and Atin looked out the window. A huge city had been carved into the underground rock. It stretched for at least a mile. "Welcome, Spartans." The old man said.

Chapter 11: Allies

"Who are you? Rebels?" Atin asked. The old man just laughed. "No, we're not rebels. We're not UNSC, either. We just don't want anything to do with the war. But, before we get into all that, I should introduce myself. I'm Mirto. Weird name, huh?" Mirto laughed. On Atin's closed helmet COM, he asked Nikki, "You think that they have just a touch of cabin fever?" She laughed. "Sir, might I ask why you brought us down here?" Atin asked. "Well, after seeing you and your student practicing, I knew that you could help us. I told you that we didn't want anything to do with the war. We also don't want the war here. We just want one of you to win so things can be peaceful again. You know how to bring down the URF, don't you?" Mirto asked. Atin looked out the window. "I know who the leader is. And I know where their main base of operations is. Why haven't you gone to space yet? Your city could be in real trouble if its attacked." Mirto gave a hearty laugh. "We have a fleet of spaceships ready in case we need to evacuate to our rendezvous point." Atin turned to face him. "So you can help us get back to Earth?" He asked. "Well, the ships we have are made for mass transport. Big ones. We can make a small one, hell, we even have one under construction. But you have to promise one thing. Take those bastards down." Atin nodded. "Gotcha."

Atin followed Mirto into a large room where the hull of a medium-sized ship was. He whistled when he saw the large cannon on the front. "She's not pretty, but she'll get you to Earth for sure. I think she'll be done in a couple of days." Mirto said, looking at the ship. "Want a look inside?" He asked. "Please." Atin replied. They walked to a hatch, and Mirto opened it. When they got to the bridge, Atin looked at the systems that were working, and the ones that had to be placed in. "It's all done. Except for a few things." Atin remarked. "Why are you giving this to us?" He added. "Because I know that you four have to power to end this war. You four can bring us peace. And the answer lies on your wrist." Atin looked down at the gauntlet on his wrist. "What do you know about this thing?" Atin asked him, curious. "A lot more than you might think." Mirto said, mysteriously. "Like? Can you start by telling me where you got this information?" Atin was starting to get a little uncomfortable here. "I'll tell you in due time. But you have to master it more."

"Good to see you, sir!" Nikki told Atin as he walked into the room that Mirto had let them stay in for the time being. "It's good to see you too, Nikki." Atin said. Truth was, Atin was exhausted. All he wanted was a good night sleep and a hot shower. "I'm guessing you should turn in early, Atin." Mirto said. Atin turned, and said, with a strange look in his eye, "You want to fight me, don't you, Mirto?" Atin asked. Mirto laughed heavily. "You guessed correct, Captain." Mirto replied. They walked into an open room, and Mirto took off his overshirt to reveal a heavy plate of alloy covering his chest. Atin took out his combat knife, and Mirto took a long dagger out of a sheath in his jacket pocket. They took ready positions, and in the sidelines, Char asked Nikki, "Should we be worried? We don't know anything about this guy." Nikki replied back, "No, I think Atin can handle someone like him. It'll be tough though." Char looked at Nikki with surprise. "But he's easily 60 years old!" Char exclaimed. "I know." Nikki said.

Atin had the eyes of a hawk. He could see when someone was about to make their move. He studied Mirto for the slight slouch that was followed by a viscous lunge. Before Atin knew it, and without any warning, Mirto was barreling to Atin. He dodged the first slice, and blocked the second. Atin rolled, and, to his surprise, was hit with a counter-blow. Atin jumped, and spun behind Mirto. Atin stabbed the knife into Mirto's armor plate, and, about a second later, Mirto jabbed his knife into Atin's weak spot in his armor. They stayed in that position for a couple of seconds, and then they both fell, laughing. "I guess you got me. That's something that hasn't happened in a long time." Mirto admitted. "I was certified the Bladesmaster for my group of Spartans." Atin said. "Maybe you should have tole me that before I challenged you." Mirto said. "At any rate, get some sleep. You four have a big day tomorrow." He added.

Chapter 12: Liftoff

Atin opened his eyes peacefully for the first time in what seemed like weeks. He got up, and walked over to the window. The artificial lighting of the city was dimmed to simulate daybreak. He walked downstairs to the lobby, where the desk clerk was waiting for him. "Oh, Mr. Atin. Mirto wants you to meet him in the hangar when you can." Atin nodded. "Thank you. I'll go there now."

"Good to see you, A." Mirto said as Atin walked in. The ship was easily half the size of a UNSC Frigate. "Why are you giving us a ship this size? I'd hate to cause you any trouble." Atin said. "Trouble? Not at all! We already have more than enough ships to get everything out of here if needed. And the ships this size are just decoy ships. If there is a full on assault on the city, we send these ships out first. Some of them are loaded with explosives, some are just empty ships. We're just fueling our emergency fleet." Mirto said. "Wow. Well, I thank you for this." Atin said. "Are you sure that we can work this bucket with only 4 people?" Atin added. "Well, your AI should be able to handle most of the critical systems, but you'll need one person at the controls at all times to handle the less important stuff. That answer your question?" Mirto asked. "Yeah, that pretty much covers it." Atin replied. He COMmed Nikki to wake her up, but he got her voice instead. "Sir, we're on our way to your location. We've got everything ready." Atin smiled, satisfied. "Excellent work, Nikki." Atin walked into the ship, and looked around the bridge. "Go ahead. Sit in the Command Seat." Mirto said, right behind him. Atin sat down and looked at the systems activated. "Say, Atin. What's your last name?" Mirto asked. Atin stopped what he was doing and concentrated. He hadn't had to remember that since he had been taken for Spartan training. "I'm sorry. I can't remember." Atin admitted. "That's all right. It doesn't matter." Mirto said. Nikki, Char and Will walked into the bridge. "Sir, Zeta Squad reporting for duty." Nikki said. "You'll be fine. Keep in touch with us, all right?" Mirto said. "Don't worry. We know who our allies are. We'll keep in contact often." Atin replied.

"All right. Lets do this. Squad! Take positions." Atin ordered. He inserted Solipsil's data chip into the ship's port. The squad each sat down at a chair, Nikki at copilot, Char at Navigations, and Will at Weapons. "Now, I need you to do something for me." Mirto told them over the intercom. "You need to go absolutely silent until you get to the edge of the system. We don't want anyone to find us out here. Copy?" Atin nodded as he activated systems and flipped switches. "We copy. No one'll know we were here." Atin replied. "System check." He went on. "Engines!"
"Check."
"Power!"
"Check."
"Crew systems!"
"Check." Atin sighed. "All right. I think we're ready to go. Mirto, can you give us a countdown?" Atin asked. "Right here. Goodbye, Zeta Squad." A countdown appeared on Atin's console. Then, the ceiling started shaking and a metal sheet moved, exposing the daylight. The countdown was at T minus 30 seconds until launch. At 20 seconds, Atin took a deep breath. He looked at Nikki, and then at the rest of the squad. "Here we go." He said as the timer counted down from 10. Atin's heart pulsed.

5.

4..

3...

2....

1.....

When the timer hit Zero, the ship lurched, and smoke filled the room. The ship started to accelerate, and then fly out of the hole and into the atmosphere. Nikki was looking at the speed indicator. "We've exceeded the escape velocity." She said. "Good. All right, squad. Just sit back and enjoy the ride." Atin said. The atmosphere started getting darker as they were getting farther from the ground. It became pitch black after they exited the atmosphere, and Solipsil said, "We have 5 minutes until we leave the system. Where to, squad?" Atin considered for a moment. "Take us to the Epsilon Eridani system." He said. Nikki looked at him with astonishment. "Sir? Reach?" She asked. "Yep. Planet Reach. If we drop right to Earth in an unidentified system, they'll probably open fire on us. There's got to be a salvageable ship in orbit above Reach, and the system's occupied by the Elites. Besides, we can put this ship down there, and have a sort of last resort if we ever need it." Nikki nodded. "That make sense. Good thinking, sir." Atin smiled, then turned to Solipsil. "Soli, set course for the planet Reach."

Epilogue

The ship, which Atin had named the Nighthawk, had been in Slipspace for about 3 hours, and would arrive at Reach in another 7. Atin was at the Command chair, and Nikki was at the co-command chair. Char, at the Nav chair, was struggling to stay awake. "Char, if you're so tired, then just go turn in." Atin told her. She snapped awake, then her eyes started to close again. "No sir. I'm fine. I can stay awake for another hour." As she said this, she finally fell asleep. "I'll take her to her quarters." Atin said. Nikki looked like she had something on her mind. "Sir, you didn't trust Robert, did you?" Atin stopped. "No. I didn't. You know, back in Spartan training, they told us that you should keep your distance from other soldiers, even other Spartans." Atin started. "We were the best. We were trained to follow every single order, learn from every single lesson that we got. We learned from that lesson, too. We learned that even the instructors can be wrong." He finished. Nikki smiled with inspiration. "So naturally, every single Spartan got that lesson wrong. And the funny thing was, it wasn't Chief Mendez that taught us that lesson. He sure threw a fit about it. When Command told him that he should be ashamed that we failed the lesson, he said that he was proud of us. Maybe that's why we're the best. Because we're closer to one another than regular grunts." Atin said as he picked Char up and took her to her quarters. "You should get some sleep also. You'll need it. Good night." Atin told Nikki.

"Zeta Squad, ETA to Reach is 1 hour." Solipsil told the squad, who all gathered in the bridge. "All right, squad. This is our first stop in the trip to Earth. That bastard Robert tried to kill us on two different times, but we'll teach him that you shouldn't mess with Zeta Squad." Atin told the squad. "Sir. This isn't over, is it?" She asked. "No. It isn't. Not by a long shot." Atin replied. He stood, and shouldered his BR. The squad stood and took out their weapons, too. Atin barked, "Zeta Squad! Lock and Load!"

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