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NOTE: It seems that some of you really want the action to come up, so I'll tell you this: the action and intensity will only improve from here on in.

Shadow wandered slowly through the worn dirt pathway that lay before him. It was obviously a pathway to the city, as it curved ominously towards the enormous dark Covenant mass that beheld his eyes. He might as well get a start on the elimination of the Shade. She seemed like an interesting, yet extremely evil character from what the Covenant commander had told him. But of course, the truth is never completely objective when told from one side in a war. It would be like asking a mouse if a hawk was a decent and wholesome creature. The answer could be answered as easily as anything. But the nagging doubt that perhaps such an opinion was nothing but an impartial statement could not leave his mind. It was the driving reason for his decision to assassinate this Shade. More than once had he listened to the ideas of another, and realized that they served to be true facts rather than brash unrealistic ideas of others. Of course, he had plenty of experiences the other way. But if Shade was such an evil creature, then destroying her before she could wreath all of space in the smoke of destruction. It would be wise to strike first before Shade's strike could land its damage to the fullest. But to counter this, if Shade was nothing but a military and political opponent of the Covenant commander who had convinced him to reinstate his abandonment of his career as an assassin, he would simply be used as a pawn to destroy someone largely innocent. For all he knew, Shade could be on the good and righteous side and he would be eliminating the very hope of this future that had fallen upon this universe. It seemed for every excuse he had to hunt down and destroy this creature, there was one for him not to commit such an act. But one loose end reminded him of why he made the decision to kill Shade. They had saved his life. Whether he was being used a pawn, and whether the act itself was good or not were all variables that he could not control. What he could control was keep the honor in every way he could. And that included repaying the debts that he owed to those that helped him survive the destruction of life.

Enough of the pondering and the internal discussion of the morality of his acts. It was time that he find this Shade and eliminate her with swiftness and efficiency...just as he always had done his job. If he faltered just a second to think about what he was doing during the heat of his act, he would never succeed in the destruction of Shade. He began to walk down the path, his feet making almost an inaudible sound as they crunched down upon the snow that had built up upon the road. All the while, he looked to the Covenant city with a baneful vision...a place of some nasty events to come ahead. How he would be able to wander the streets without the Covenant absolutely slaughtering him was beyond him, but he never thought that far ahead of time anyway. He would simply think on his feet when the need came to him. He had always acted in that manner in the past, and it had never failed him before. He wasn't about to lose his nerve and try to think ahead. If one would try to do that, then one would try to continue with the plan, and the surrounding environment becomes something of less importance. And details that should not be missed would be completely ignored because of one's intent on moving in with the plan. Without a plan, everything is as clear as nature's purest of waters. He would see everything, hear everything, notice everything, and act upon everything.

By the time he had finished walking through the path, night was beginning to take hold of the sky. He wasn't sure how long the nights and days were on this planet, but he hoped that the night would last at least a few hours before daylight would rear its vociferous head once again. The path ended in a cleverly hidden tunnel ahead of him. On this side of the path were two projector cloak generators that effectively hid the view of the pathway by projecting an image of their surroundings and blend them along with the real surroundings to make an image of a constant wall of forest trees. From his side, it was obvious that the images were fake simply because he would see the light shooting out from the cloak projectors in order to create the imagery. It seemed pretty clever, but he assumed something to that effect would have been created in the future to hide the existence of a base as a standard. He slowly walked through the images, and realized that he was now on another road that clearly led straight to the city. He looked behind him, and he saw nothing but endless trees in front of him. Hopefully all the electronics that were with him were now repaired, for he would need one of them now. He looked inside his bag and quickly searched through it. Listening devices, a small number of grenades, visual devices, camera disrupters, numerous hacking equipment pieces, and of course...his earphone for listening to both music and the radio contacts while going on to complete his mission. At the very bottom of the pack was the device that he used for communications, and for displaying and speaking with EVA. The damaged parts that had prevented him from speaking to the AI when he had first awoken in the Covenant homebase, but they claimed that they were able to completely repair her before he set off. He quickly snatched it out of the bag, and examined it. The blastmarks and the wear on the device seemed to be fluent with what he expected. There weren't any obvious alien devices attached to it or any blatant modifications made to it. EVA had been operating nominally when he was back at the base, but he was always extremely cautious when other people meddled with his equipment. Next to the main screen were numerous buttons, and a switch. He flicked it up, and dozens of lights were immediately brought to life and danced all over the device like fireflies trapped to its surface. A second later, EVA popped up on the holoprojecter, smiling at him.

"What took you so long to get down to this point?"
"Ponderings."
"Ponderings? I didn't think anything went off inside that barbaric head of yours."
"Shut up."
"Hey, you HAVE done some idiotic things in the past. I believe it merits your stupidity."
"I believe that comment just merited me turning you back off."
"You love my company, whether you admit it or not. Besides, you need me to guide you on this road to get to that Covenant city."

Shadow didn't respond to EVA's last comment, but it obvious enough that he was going to let her stay active, for many reasons. Deactivating her would only make her that much more annoying when he needed her at later point. He didn't want to have to deal with that, as he already had enough mental stress on the upcoming battle that was going to occur. He turned back to the projection that he had just walked out of, and placed a small tracking device on the ground right next to it. He shoveled some snow over it in order to cover its visual from the casual passerby. He stood back up and looked to EVA, who was "floating" on her back in her holo-projection.

"Activate it." He commanded.
"Done."
"Where do we go now then?"
"Right, down that road. You'll need to hurry though."
"Why is that?"
"Because they'll have searchlights up and the gates closed and guarded by the time the night comes to greet you."
"Why the security?"
"In case you didn't know, the Covenant factions are at war here. Of course they'll garrison a city and fortify it from enemies."
"Right. So how do you suggest I infiltrate the city without getting burned?"
"Just walk in."
"Just walk in? Have they fried your logic circuits?"
"No. I will take care of the rest."
"Whatever."

He didn't know how she knew so much information at this point. He had just activated her just a second ago. He guessed that she had already hacked through the Covenant information databases and extracted all information and had deciphered all Covenant communication channels. She probably knew more than he would ever need to know about this city. He was a bit uneasy about her handling the entire situation herself because of the fact that she had been handled by the Covenant engineers and they could have done anything to her to fry her logistics and change her logical and complex thoughts into nothing more than idiocy. But he was willing to take the chance. She would have at least notified him if she suspected that they had meddled with her circuits, though they could have adjusted her to the point that she couldn't even conjure up the ability to do that. Doubts began to fill his mind like water rushing into a leaking ship. But he quickly flushed those ideas away. He needed to have trust in someone. Considering the lack of trust he had in his own judgment recently, he would need to have someone to rely on. EVA seemed to be the only candidate.

He didn't know how far the city was, but he estimated that it was about 2 miles. He could sprint that long without getting tired, and he didn't want to take any chances with the daylight. With that fact in light, he began a full spring down the road, hoping that no Covenant transportation vehicles would come speeding by and notice his present along the road. He continued in a full sprint throughout those two miles, looking at nothing but what was ahead of him. There wasn't much look at around him anyway. Just limitless alien trees on both sides of his vision. It was quite chilly, and his short-sleeved flannel shirt wouldn't do much to take the bite out of the cold, and his t-shirt already had enough holes to allow the cold right through to his skin. The icy death of the winter here was beginning to stab at him, and make running more difficult, but he would have to continue on to the city before he would resolve to stop.

After about 4 minutes of a full sprint he had landed himself right in front of the gates at the city. The doors were shut nice and tight, and there were two guards at the top, monitoring the events in front of them.

"EVA. Do you see something wrong here?"
"No."
"Look again. The damn gates are sealed nicely, and the guards are standing there already."
"I can handle it. Hold on just a second. Run when I say so."
"Whatever."

He watched carefully and suddenly the guards began sprinting across the wall to the station that stood atop the side of the wall to the left of the gates. They entered the station, and had apparently left their posts for some odd reason. Then the gates slid open in a strong grinding sound.

"Wait."

He watched again, and saw two rather slight movements on the front of the wall. They were two automatic gun turrets attached to the wall. A second later, they slumped over, as if deactivated.

"Go."

He didn't bother to respond in words. He quickly jumped up and sprinted through the behemoth gates. As soon as he was through, the gates began closing behind him. He looked around him, and saw a bustling city full of Covenant soldiers, civilians, and...drunks. It was funny how every culture had its beer and alcohol of sorts. Lights littered the city even more profoundly than New York. Everything seems far more sleek, natural, and round than the square building and vehicles that he found himself among in New York. It was an entirely different feel. Still the urban experience seemed to still render itself here somehow, even past all the differences between the human and Covenant cities. Covenant military vehicles dotted the huge mass of civilian ships that flew around the multiple levels of Covenant roads. He looked up and realized that the roads went up to 10 levels before ending. That made one very large city. Not quite as large as New York, but definitely very large for a city that looked so very small from where he was at the Covenant base. If any of those military soldiers got a look at him, he would be done for. What was he thinking? If ANY Covenant person saw him, he would be in a shitload of trouble. He'd have to act quickly, and find a hidden area until darkness took the city.

"Where can I hide until nightfall?"
"Already a step ahead of you. There is a derelict building only a block from here. You can use the alleyway over there to get yourself to that building. Though some incompetent Covenant bums still live there, you can find yourself some recluse at room ERE - 33."
"That's an odd room number."
"Hey, I'm here to get you there, not analyze why its there and what the number means. Though I could probably do that for you if you wanted."
"I don't."

He breathed heavy once and made a full sprint to the alleyway and jogged through it as soon as he passed the threshold from main street to alley, looking up and around him to ensure that there wasn't anyone else hiding out in the alleyway from the city. The host of alleyways were truly one enormous maze, with turnoffs and forks at nearly every point in the back. But fortunately EVA had a map displayed in front of him on his comms device. It took him only a few seconds to find the building and get to the room. It didn't seem too much different from your general rundown place, though the dirt on the walls and the garbage around the building was arguably worse than the kind you would find at a human bum building. He quickly entered the room, and locked the door behind him. It was then that he realized that he didn't have any food. He would only last a few days until he died of dehydration or starvation. He would either have to finish the mission in that time, or find a place that sold liquid and food that he could digest.

"So, oh brave hero, what do we do now?"
"We find the local bar. We'll search there."
"How do you know that there's a bar here?"
"I saw it five blocks down."
"Really? It must have missed my sensors."
"You know, you're really worrying me. You seem to be acting odd lately."
"Don't worry about it."
"Whatever. I'm going to get some rest now. I haven't slept in weeks."

"No. I will take care of the rest."
"Whatever."

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