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Chapter 6
Fleet Commander Ewlo 'Eeyaree scanned the terrain with his dual plasma rifles. Nothing seemed amiss. The darkness worried him, not the darkness itself, but who might lurk in it. Darkness is the ultimate camouflage, if dark enough; it can conceal anyone and anything. He flexed his four fingers and shoulders; it was good to out of that cramped, uncomfortable stealth pod. Ewlo then began issuing his orders. "Oblo! Nkla! Oyla! Spread out and secure the area." The three Elites spread out in a triangular way, looking for threats. After five Units, Ewlo called them back. Only Oblo returned.

Ewlo called Nkla and Oyla again, but got no response. Ewlo sent the remaining 8 Elites out searching in pairs; he himself had a seasoned black Spec-ops, named Esmo 'Mijodee, for a partner. "This doesn't feel right." Esmo said, somewhat worried. "This means we aren't alone on this holy ring, and we must find the infidels who dare desecrate this holy place." Ewlo replied coolly, when suddenly he sensed an arm snaking over his shoulder. The Elite quickly grabbed the arm and threw his assailant, who was caught by surprise, over his shoulder. Ewlo roared a challenge at the sprawled figure and prepared to fight.

Justin was still a little dazed when the silver Elite roared at him, but he was up to the challenge. He drew a seven inch long combat knife and held it up, pointing it threateningly. The Elite responded by bring his two plasma rifles to bear. "Uh oh." Justin said as he swore he saw the Elite smile. Justin decided to make a hasty retreat as the plasma rifles whined and emitted blue-white bolts of death, which splashed across Justin's back, drained his shield and partially melted his shoulder armor before he could get behind a dune. "All units, open fire. But leave the silver one for me." Immediately two Battle rifles and a sniper rifle opened up on the other Elites, who returned the favor. Justin primed an HE fragmentation grenade and threw it at the silver Elite, who had to dive and dropped one of his plasma rifles to get out of the way. Unfortunately, he rolled right into Justin, who slammed his fist into the Elite's face, causing him to fall over. The Elite lashed out with a foot and kicked Justin a few feet into the shallow water of the lake. The water was a foot deep, completely fresh and rather warm. Justin stood up; his armor soaked, and beckoned the silver armored alien closed. The Elite charged after him and swung a four fingered fist at Justin's head, but Justin blocked and his knee connected with the alien's stomach. The Elite picked Justin up, not an easy feat since he weighted two tons in his armor, and threw him where the water was deeper. Suddenly a trio of Phantoms, no doubt summoned by one of the remaining Elites, appeared out of nowhere and rained fire down on the camp, whose residents, now fully awake from the entire ruckus, replied with battle rifles, Warthog turrets and rocket launchers. The Phantoms suspended themselves 10 feet off the ground and allowed the 6 remaining Elites to board. One Phantom, which was colored silver, closed in on the Elite of the same color. As the Elite ran to where the Phantom was parked, Justin emerged and, now thoroughly pissed off, fired is Magnum's entire clip at the Elite, but only got 3 hits which bounced off his shield. With Justin's gun no longer firing, the Elite took the time to pick up a fallen comrade's carbine, aim and shot an ODST in the head. The Helljumper's head exploded and he fell, lifeless. The Elite turned his head to Justin, sneered, went up the Phantom's grav lift and soared away, with bullets and Gauss rockets following him. Justin walked back to camp without looking at anyone and went into his tent, sat down on his cot and thought. Charlie came in, he usually didn't do this kind of thing, but this wasn't a usually situation. Charlie approached Justin and put a hand on Justin's shoulder. "There was no way you could stop him. He was too far away. If wasn't your fault." Justin just nodded and Charlie left with as much as another whisper.

Chapter 7
The aftermath of the attack wasn't so bad. 9 Helljumpers died and 2 Warthogs had been damaged, but could still run. The group packed up and left 2 hours after the shadow square had passed, which took longer then their internal clocks took to wake them up, ergo they woke up at 8:30 AM in their minds and it was still pitch black. Dawn on the Super Halo was different, because you didn't see the sun come up, you saw the light spread across the landscape as the black shadow square passed them and blue skies returned. After a while of going up and over the dunes they soon found a twisting, turning path with flashing blue markers through the sand. It was difficult to turn on the path because of the sand, but it beat going up and down constantly. Plus this time around the trip was a lot more entertaining.
"How much further is it?" Bryan complained as he floored the Warthog's accelerator and plowed through a group of Jackals. "Not much further." Aida said, rather annoyed. Bryan and his troops had had 5 different enemy encounters since day-break, including a sniper filled valley, Wraiths, Banshees and portable turrets. And during every encounter Bryan asked Aida how much further they had to go at least once and Aida was getting tired of answering. Suddenly a swarm of 25 Drones, large sentient insects with limited flying abilities, appeared and one lucky bastard grabbed on to the hood of Bryan's Warthog. Bryan slammed the Warthog into a wall, dislodging the large insect, backed up and floored it so his bumper squished the bugger just like he would its smaller cousin. The things were easy enough to kill; they just couldn't sit still long enough for you to hit it. Five buggers decided to work together to grab onto Charlie's ATV and lift it 10 feet in the air, causing Charlie to jump off and the Drones to drop it, trying to squish Charlie under his own vehicle. Charlie dodged, picked up the sniper rifle attached to his ATV and went to work, picking off bugs like turkeys in a 6x6 fenced area. The LAAG on the Warthog was incredibly effective against Drones, so they tried to take those out first, knocking off gunners and shooting their plasma pistols at them. One Helljumper was using his empty shotgun as a bat and was swinging it at a bugger who also lost his weapon and tried to fight with its sharp fists and clawed feet. One Warthog lost its driver when a dozen needles punctured him and he exploded in a mess of blood and pink crystals, causing the Warthog to go spinning out of control "Bryan! Hunters on your left!" Aida yelled urgently. Bryan turned just in time to see the pair of blue armored behemoths emerge from a Phantom that had just arrived. They landed with a THUD and roared at the combatants. Hunters were twelve foot tall, blue armored juggernauts with razor sharp spines on their backs. They had metal shields on their left arm that could repel anything sort of rockets and can also be used as a melee weapon, breaking bones and tearing flesh with vicious ease. On their right arm is a fuel rod cannon integrated directly in their armor, fuel rod cannons could launch green globs of plasma at an enemy and usually melt their enemy on contact. They only had one weakness: little spots of orange flesh on their back, stomach and neck. Also, it probably couldn't take a three and a quarter ton, four wheel drive jeep smashing right into it, but Bryan was going to test that theory.
Bryan turned his 'Hog to the left and gunned straight at one of them. The Helljumper on the LAAG fired a continuous burst at the Hunter, but did little damage. The Hunter hopped with surprising agility out of the way, but as he did so, the guy in the passenger seat of Bryan's LRV pulled out a captured plasma grenade and threw it at the monstrosity. It stuck onto its shoulder and exploded in a blue blast. However the Hunter was unharmed, but a little stunned and dulled its reflexes, making it too slow to avoid Bryan's Warthog as it did a donut and collided with the Hunter. There was a horrible scraping of metal on metal, which Bryan hated a lot, and then a series of bumps as they drove over it with orange blood tracking on their tires. The other Hunter saw its brother had been slain, roared in rage and vented its fury on a rapidly retreating Drone by swatting it out of the air with its shield like it was a paper airplane. The Drone was batted onto a nearby rock wall, stuck for a minute and slowly slid down to the ground, trailing white blood. Bryan turned his Warthog to face the Hunter. "I hope you know what you're doing." Aida said, worriedly. "I do." Bryan replied as he turned the Warthog to face the beast, but was still some distance away. They stared each other down for a few seconds, cyborg and alien. Then the Hunter roared with pure hatred and fired his fuel rod gun, which missed Bryan's LRV by inches and exploded on the large boulder behind him, leaving an ugly melt hole in it, as Bryan floored his Warthog forward. The Hunter also charged and raised his shield/bludgeoning weapon. Bryan reached for a button and turned on his high beams at the last second, blinding the monster; it was a good strategy but it didn't quite work out. The Hunter swung its shield blindly and barely clipped the Hog in its side, but it was so strong it sent the Warthog flying and crashing to its side. Bryan undid his seat belt and rolled out of the Warthog. The passenger was unconscious and still buckled in, the Gunner was also alive, but lying on the ground it his arm at an awkward angle. Meanwhile the Hunter still swinging its shield blindly, roaring and cursing in alien tongues, unable to see. Bryan pulled out his special pistol; it was a brand new pistol, fresh out of R&D. It was the M6E ALA (Anti-Light-Armor) pistol, a rather large pistol, it took someone of great strength to wield and it had a special feature. Bryan aimed and fired three of the six shots he had and the 2.5 inch long bullets embedded themselves into the Hunter's chest armor and the small C-4 charge in each exploded with the force of a big firecracker. They blew the Hunter's chest plate off and exposed the mass of writhing orange slimy worms inside it. Hunters were made of thousands of spineless worms with a collective mind and held together by their armor. Without the armor to hold the worms in, a few of them started falling out. One ODST took of his helmet and threw. Bryan fired off the remaining three bullets into the fleshy mass and its insides detonated; raining orange gore on Bryan's armor, and it fell backwards, dead as a door knob. The Helljumpers cheered at the sight of the toppled Hunter, Katie punched the air, Justin fired several victory shots from his magnum into the air and Charlie simply crossed his arm, made eye contact with Bryan and nodded. Bryan wiped some of the guts off of his armor, flipped the Warthog upright, wokeup the unconsious passanger and switched places with him; he was tired of driving. He closed his eyes without sleeping as the convoy started going again. After another half an hour of driving, the convoy had arrived in another, slightly hilly plain and the marines had promptly put the Hunter incident beside them, memorizing it so they could tell their grandkids about today if and when they left got too old for the corp. "Bryan, we're half a kilometer away from Beta base" Aida advised. Bryan opened his eyes and looked up to see a large butte the size and height of a football field and had an amazing view of the surrounding plain, there was also a large U-shaped building on top, that looked unarguably like Forerunner architecture, and several tents were scattered all around the structure. Bryan could see several Warthogs and Scorpions parked around the top of the slopes to be used as anti-aircraft/infantry emplacements. "Wow." Justin said over the COM "Location, location, location." Bryan had his convoy stop at the foot of the butte and he and his Spartan's went alone up into Beta base.

Chapter 8
The camp was a hive of activity. Marines were moving around, doing plenty of things to keep themselves busy, like moving boxes of supplies, reading, smoking, talking, cleaning and inspecting weapons. However all this stopped when Bryan and his squad became visible, every marine dropped whatever they were doing, stood up straight and saluted. Bryan returned the salutes "As you were." Formalities done, the Marines went back to what they were doing. Bryan noticed the majority of the soldiers were standard issue marines, with an ODST here and there, whereas his marines were all Helljumpers. Bryan shrugged and thought to himself, 'the Powatan probably just has fewer Helljumper then the Arrowhead'. Suddenly Katie put her hand on Bryan's shoulder. "Look, more Spartans." She said while pointing to their right. Bryan turned his head and, indeed, there were two Spartans, one in blue armor and one in salmon colored armor, who were sparring. They jabbed, kicked and blocked with such speed that a normal person would only see blurred arms and feet. Bryan and his Spartan's, however, could easily follow their movements and saw that the salmon one clearly knew how to fight up close and personal better then the blue one. As blue did a round house punch, the salmon one caught blue's fist, and, with a sidways karate chop, knocked the blue Spartan's legs out from under him, causing him to tumble to the ground. Bryan approached the winner, who saluted. Bryan saluted back. "Do butterflies fly in the desert?" Bryan asked. "Only cactus quills fly in the desert. It's a pleasure to meet you sir." The salmon one said in a female voice, surprising Bryan slightly. She made a gesture of tracing her finger along her helmet where her mouth was, this was the Spartan's way of smiling and was the closest thing they could get to expressing emotions. Bryan made the gesture back and checked her ID tag on his HUD; her name was Spartan 264-Theresa. "She's kinda cute, huh?" Justin asked over the COM that only went to Bryan and his squad. Katie nudged him hard in the ribs and he shut up. If she had done that to a normal person, it would have broke several ribs. However Spartans had their bones hardened to be almost indestructible, so Justin's didn't break, it just hurt. Meanwhile the other Spartan, in blue, stood up and saluted. "Too bad you guys didn't get here sooner, we've been bored stupid." He said as he brushed dirt off his armor. His tag said he was Spartan 226-Matthew. "C'mon, I'll take you to Snipra." Mathew said and beckoned for them to follow him as he walked away.
"Snipra? What kinda name is that?" Justin asked. "Funny words from a guy whose last name is Yurmanovich." Katie snidely responded. "Hey! Just because my dad was Russian doesn't mean you can make fun of him." Justin replied hotly. "Would you two shut up so we can find this 'Snipra' person?" Charlie interrupted and followed Mathew. Bryan followed him and Justin and Katie brought up the rear so they could continue arguing over a secret COM channel. "Do you know this Snipra?" Aida asked. "Why?" Bryan asked, irrately because he didn't want to talk very much at the moment. "I notice you had an adrenaline spike when Matt said Snipra's name." Aida stated, with a touch of arrogance in her voice. Aida had access to all of Bryan's vital signs; she would know if something was wrong with him before he did. Bryan said nothing as he spotted another Spartan. This Spartan had black armor and was busy tinkering with an M19 rocket launcher using a tool kit; his name was Spartan 291-Kaden. Kaden was so engrossed in his work that he didn't notice Bryan until he was right behind him. Kaden turned and saluted. "It's good to see you guys made it, if we're gonna pull off this op we need more Spartans. At least that's what Peter says." Kaden said. "Who?" Bryan asked. "Peter. His tent's over there." Kaden said, pointing his thumb over his shoulder at a tent a few feet away. Bryan poked his head in the tent to find a Spartan in orange armor hunched over a table with maps and battle plans. His tag read: Spartan 253-Peter. "Peter's our strategist. He's been pouring over those maps like he had a final tomorrow." Kaden said to Bryan. Peter heard and looked over his shoulder at them. Seeing Bryan, Peter stood up and saluted. When Bryan returned the salute, he went back to his maps. "If you want to see Snipra, she's over this way." Kaden said, indicating to a slope by the structure. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on. Snipra's a girl?" Justin asked. "Well, duh. What did you think?" Theresa asked him, slightly annoyed. "Well…Uh…. I didn't know what to think." Justin said, somewhat embarrassed. "Come on. Let's go" Bryan said, bugged by all that procrastinating. Mathew led Bryan and the other 5 Spartans away from the base. It was a 1 minute walk to get where they were going, but when they did get there they saw her lying on the ground with her fingers laced behind her head, looking at the clouds. She wore violet armor and was almost as tall as Bryan, but not quite. She saw them coming and stood up. Bryan and Snipra saluted at the same time, as they were of the same rank of Senior Chief Petty Officer. "We should discuss our mission plans; do you have a place we may talk in private?" Bryan asked. Snipra just nodded and beckoned him to follow her. Bryan turned to his team. "You guys get the vehicles up here and get some R&R." He turned to Snipra's team. "You help them." Snipra's team turned to their team leader. Snipra nodded again and they left with Bryan's team back to the convoy.
Bryan followed Snipra into the base, which was abuzz with non-combat personnel as they manned communication equipment and looked over maps and such. While they were walking down one corridor, a man with glasses and a PDA in the breast pocket of his jumpsuit approached Snipra. "Ma'am, the Arrowhead and the Powatan were forced to retreat when a Covenant Armada appeared. We estimate 200 or so ships." "Keep me informed." Snipra said coolly and walked off. They soon arrived in Snipra's quarters. I was a simple room, with a cot, extra Mjolnir VII armor parts, a S2 AM Sniper rifle, a covenant beam rifle, and several add-ons placed on a rough desk. The door slid closed and Snipra took off her helmet. She had beautiful, cold hazel eyes, some freckles here and there, and brown hair in a bun. She took a band out of her hair and shook her head, releasing her shoulder length, well combed hair. Bryan also took off his own helmet; he had black, bushy hair that was rather uncared for from too much fighting for his life and not enough tending to his hair. He also had light brown eyes, and a scar on his left cheek from an accident he had before he was recruited. They both had unnaturally pale skin from being in their suits too long. Bryan stared into Snipra's eyes. "It's been too long Annika." Bryan whispered. "Yes, it had been." Snipra whispered back. Bryan pulled off one of his gauntlets and felt her cheek with his bare left hand, her skin was so soft. She put her arm around Bryan and drew him closed. Bryan bent over and their lips locked in pure passion.

Chapter 9
Several hours later the Spartans met in what could only be the war room. It had a large hologram chart on the table holoprojector, which the Spartans were seated around, displaying the entire system around Sylvain. All Bryan could see were red hostile ships, which meant they had no cover, space-wise, and they were an open target. Fortunately, the Covenant would never fire. They wouldn't risk damaging their sacred artifact, not even if it meant they could destroy a million humans.
"We need to find a way to destroy this ring." said Aida as she appeared on the table projector. "But how do we do it? We don't anything that powerful enough to destroy this whole ring." Kaden argued. "We don't need to destroy the whole ring. Because of the way it's built, if one section falls off, so will the others." Theresa explained. "We still don't have any kind of nuclear devices." Justin interjected "The only way to blow up a big ring is with a big bomb." "I have a plan." Peter said as he stood up "I suggest we capture a Covenant ship and use its resources to destroy this Super Halo." "It would take a hundred of those ships to put a dent in this thing." Katie argued "Charlie and I have done extensive research on the rings structure. Its outer surface is harder then diamonds. The only thing it couldn't withstand is a-" "A super nova." Aida interrupted. Katie blinked. "How'd you know that?" "I've done my own research." Aida said with a smile. "A super nova is the only thing that could destroy this thing, so that's what we need to make." "How?" Bryan asked, standing up. "I've searched for all the info I can get about this ring, and I think that this ring has a second, more localized fail-safe. And somewhere, deep in this ring, is the button to start it." "Why would the Forerunners need another fail-safe?" Peter asked, somewhat offended that they liked her idea better then his. "The Forerunners designed the Halo pulse to be a last resort weapon; they would do anything to stop the Flood before activating the rings. Even if it meant wiping out a whole system." Aida replied simply, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world "I think there might have even been super nova makers on the other Halos, but we never found them." "Where would this 'super nova maker' be, Aida?" Bryan asked desperately. "I think I may have some coordinates. I found what I think is an emission of energy from a Forerunner facility. A very large, well guarded one, at that." "Alright we're heading there. Spartans, saddle up." Bryan commanded and all the Spartans left and headed for the one place any soldier loves just as much as home, the armory.
In the armory were several crates, which were used as improvised lockers. Everyone was loading up on their favorite weapons and checking that they work. Justin saw Theresa pull out an assault rifle and laughed. "You're actually using one of those old MA5B rifles? Ha!" "This weapon has saved my life more time then you can ever know." She whispered with venom in her voice. Justin just chuckled and double-checked the number of rounds in his Battle rifle without the digital counter. Katie put extra explosives in her belt pouches and checked her dual M6Cs. Kaden slung his modified M19 rocket launcher (which now fired 3 rockets per clip instead of 2) over his shoulder and also carried a backpack full of extra rockets and was holding his Battle rifle. Charlie and Snipra carried almost the same things, an S2 sniper rifle and one SMG apiece, but Snipra took an extra M6D pistol and Charlie took a flare gun with 3 flash-bang charges inside. Matt preferred a mix of human and alien weapons and took a plasma rifle and 2 SMG taped to his sides. Peter took one of the 3 flamethrowers they had brought with them and a Battle rifle slung over his shoulder. Bryan was yet to pack up because he meant to give a little speech first to raise morale. Bryan stood on a crate and addressed his fellow cybernetic soldiers. "I'm not much of a speaker, I'm no Sergeant Johnson. So I'll keep it simple. We're going to rendezvous with the Arrowhead and the Powatan and they're gonna take us off this rock in 4 hours; we need to set to blow this place up and leave before then. We'll be going in alone because everyone else has to stay and pack up the camp to leave via Pelican the second the ships get here. Our mission is dangerous; some of you may not make it. But for everyone who falls, I expect for those who survive to work twice as hard! Now let's go and blow this ring to Hell!!" The Spartan's cheered wildly and pumped their fists in the air. Even those who didn't usually celebrate were joining in. Charlie was whooping and applauding, and Snipra was simply looking at him and making the 'smile' gesture. He returned the gesture. "'Not much of a speaker'? You were pretty good." Aida said to him. Bryan pulled out his shotgun with his initials carved into the butt, swung a bandolier of extra shells and frag grenades over his chest and picked up a magnum from a table. "Ok, let's move it out. Double time!" Bryan yelled at them and they stampeded out. However, Justin remembered something he forgot. He jogged back to the armory and picked his seven inch long combat knife, which he sheathed and hoped he would get to use.

In the Covenant ship 'Restless Predator', Ewlo 'Eeyaree knelt down before the Prophet of Vindication. This prophet was high in the council; in a few years he may even join the High Prophets of Truth, Vengeance and Hope. "Noble Hierarch, I come before you to request to send a team to defend an important structure." Ewlo said in a voice just loud enough so the Prophet could hear, however the huge echoes in the Prophet's quarters made him easy to hear, even from a distance. "I believe what is inside could destroy the holy ring and several of the human scum are already heading towards the structure. We must act, time is of the essence." The Prophet considered this for a few seconds. Finally the Prophet spoke. "Very well 'Eeyaree, I will send you, my best lieutenants and several soldiers to guard the structure from attack. Do not allow the enemy to do what they plan to. For if they do not kill you, I will. And I'll do it very painfully." "Yes Holy one, the human filth will not be allowed to further desecrate our holy artifact. Their blood will stain my hands as I squeeze their life from them." Ewlo said, making a crushing gesture with his hand. "Good, Ewlo. Now go and do not return until the human's are dead." The Prophet ordered. Ewlo left, already planning his victorious return home.

To Be continued in Battle Royal Part 3...

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