UNSC Trinity
Current Location; Unknown

Sharia appeared in the middle of the room standing in front of Captain Rios, the AI's hologram eyes were closed as if she was thinking and doing some calculations in her head before opening her eyes. "Coming out of slipspace now, hold onto something." She said through the Trinity's intercom system. Regina leaned over the giant planning desk her eyes looking out of the main view port of the Trinity, the blackness of slipspace quickly returned as the stars appeared. The massive ship came out of slipspace the bridge crew stumbled forward slightly. "Report?" Regina asked looking towards the AI. "Engines have shut down, it will take sometime to get them back online. We have a few injured but nothing to serious." Sharia answered.

Regina walked closer towards the viewport passing some members of the bridge crew, looking over the stars before turning to look at Sharia once more. "Where are we?" Regina asked making her way back towards the captain's seat taking a datapad that was handed to her by a member of the bridge crew. "I dont recognize any of the star patterns Regina, but from what I'm guessing we arent in our galaxy anymore. I already set up an emergency distress call, I'm not sure the UNSC will hear it anytime soon unless something or someone picks up the distress signal." Sharia said.

A few seconds later Sophia came up onto the bridge she was already in her armor holding her helmet under her arm she approached Captain Rios looking to her for a moment and then gave Sharia a quick nod. "We dont really know Sharia thinks we are in another galaxy." Captain Rios answered turning to look at Sharia. "The Forerunner artifact was similar to what was on Earth that led to the Ark." Sharia quickly turned her head looking out to see slipspace ruptures. "Looks like our friends are still stalking us." Sharia said looking towards Captain Rios. "Weapons are still down, working on them right now, shields are still working but barely." Sharia told the Captain. "How many ships are there?" Regina asked looking towards Sophia and gave her a nod. "Get the other Spartans and the marines ready." Sophia nodded as she turned to leave the bridge. "Lets see we have two CAS-Class Assault Carriers, three CCS-Class Battlecruisers, one CPV-Class Heavy Destroyer, and six SDV-Class Heavy Corvettes."

Regina nodded going back to sit back in her seat. "Get the Candor, Kirkland and the Memphis ready." Regina said over the comms.

Unfathomable Truth
Current Location; Unknown

Fleetmaster Verdin slams his fist down on the arm of the command chair, leaving a dent in the metal, as he recieves the news. Several of his ships, including one CCS class battlecruiser, was too damaged during the fight with the human ships and had emerged from Slipspace with wrecked, torn hulls and dead crews. "Give me the status of the other carrier," Verdin demands, hoping that at least it had survived the offense, however a shake of the operations master made him click his mandables in anger.

"Sensors, give me a sweep, now!" Verdin growls, rising from his chair to stalk the middle of the bridge, and the hologram that displayed the locations of his ships compaired to the Unfathomable Truth, and more importantly, the location of the giant human ship. "Navigation, communication, move the fleet straight for that human ship!" He shouts. As he walks back to his chair, feeling the thrum of engines beneath him, he gets caught unware when the ship's engines suddenly release a whining noise that echos through the ship before finally dying out. His crew then scrambles to release reports.

"Engines offline, power fluctuations-"

"Fleetwide navigational failures, everyone requesting orders and repairs-"

"Plasma generation offline, the ship is going cold-"

As yet another, junior officer opens his mandables wide to throw out his own words, Verdin holds up his hand for silence. Everyone but two Unggoy go silent, and within a moment, Verdin pulls his plasma pistol from it's holster and shoots one of them, leaving the other one to quickly quiet down. Verdin turns back to the command crew. "So, we are drifting slowly toward the human ship, with our plasma generation and engines offline, correct?" The operations officer gives a subtle nod. "Shields also, Fleetmaster," He says respectfully. Verdin gives a nod. "Then we will focus fleetwide repairs on our shields and plasma generation. As long as we are heading for the Humans, we do not need our engines." He gives a look to the communications officer, who takes the hint and begins to relay orders to the fleet. The operations officer begins to assign repair teams and Huragok to find out what was wrong with their systems.

Unfathomable Truth

An echo ran through the halls of the ship, alerting Khazo that there was a problem with the engines. He hadn't felt any tremors or heard any alarms so the theory of the heretics attacking was ruled out. Still there was a problem and he needed to be briefed on the situation, if it compromised his mission he needed to formulate an alternative to complete his task. Intelligence stated that the human ship they were engaged in, this "Trinity", was created for locating artifacts of the gods. His mission was to get aboard that ship, acquire any information on those artifacts and report back.

With weapon in hand Khazo exited the crew quarters and made his way through the halls dodging crewmen scrambling to get the ship back to optimal standards. A Jiralhanae attempted to shove the Sangheili out of his way but was quickly put in his place with a single leg sweep. In another situation Khazo would have ended the Jiralhanae's miserable life, but he had more important things to do and so moved on ignoring the idle threats thrown his way. "Khazo! Khazo 'Tevum!", a familiar voice sounded from behind Khazo quickly made its way to his side. The voice's owner was Zalfud, a Unggoy assigned to the engineering level of the Unfathomable Truth. Khazo had become well acquainted with the Unggoy after meeting by chance before boarding the ship. From what time the two spent together Khazo saw a bit of himself in Zalfud, he lost many brothers in the war with the heretics and wanted revenge. Even if he wasnt a fighter Zalfud took pride in helping disciples such as Khazo take the fight to the heretics. "What is it Zalfud?", Khazo answered looking down at the Unggoy sprinting to keep pace with him.

"There has been a problem with the engines-", he said almost out of breath. However Khazo kept his usual pace despite the Unggoy's lack of stamina.

"I am aware of that. I am heading towards the command center to speak with the Fleetmaster"

Zalfud took a deep breathe from his methane tank and sprinted up to his towering friend, "That's not all! From what I've heard the entire fleet is experiencing the same problem! What's more, we activated the thrusters just after exiting the void and immediately after our engines failed sending us on a intercept course with the heretic ship!", Zalfud had to stop, his energy depleted he took a moment to catch his breath. Khazo stopped as well and looked down at the Unggoy engineer. "Thank you Zalfud, once I get more information from the Fleetmaster I will inform you of what I learn", It was unusual for Sangheili to show respect for Unggoy, they were the underlings of the Covenant and many saw them as useless fodder for the heretics. Khazo however respected the little Unggoy, his loyalty to Khazo in the short time they knew each other showed him that the Unggoy are more than simple minded fools. "Thank you Khazo, good luck on your mission my friend!", Zalfud said with the before having to take in another breath from his tank. Khazo had not told anyone but the Fleetnaster why he was here. Officially he was not a stationed member of the Unfathomable Truth's crew but a passenger, Fleetmaster Verdin had only been told that Khazo was here to acquire information from the heretics.

Khazo nodded and continued on his way to the command center. Upon arrival he approached the Fleetmaster and bowed slightly before looking around to get a sense of the situation, "Fleetmaster Verdin, I require a status report of the ship, I assume the situation is under control, as it usually is with your leadership", Khazo glanced over to find the body of a dead Unggoy being dragged out of the room, his cause of death Khazo would guess was the Fleetmaster. "However if the ship is incapable of assisting me in my mission I request a handful of Sangheili Rangers to accompany me on a transport ship to continue my mission", while he did not outrank the Fleetmaster Khazo's mission was stated as highly important by their superiors making Khazo and his needs among one of the Fleetmaster's priorities.

Spartan Watters when not in cryo was usually in one of two places training on S-Deck or in the armory. This time though she was patrolling the most likely areas for a boarding party with a squad of ODST. These ODST she had known before her ascension to Spartanhood. They knew her better than her parents did. They understood her unusual way of speaking and even her nonverbal communication.

Watters had no need to call in for a status update her A.I. Taber Fuson kept her apprised of all relevant information. Taber also kept an eye on the Covie ships looking for smaller ships coming their way with a boarding party. If one was sent Taber would calculate the most likely insertion point so Watters and her ODSTs could get there hopefully before the they could exit their craft.

Foxtrot-228, lovingly called LT by Alice, wasn't in his cryo pod, nor was he training his hand-to-hand techniques on the S-Deck. He was on the firing range, checking the range that his sniper rifle was calibrated to. Normally he kept to sighted in to just under it's maximum range, so he was always able to take out any priority targets he came across on recon missions deep in Covenant territory. He'd gone straight to the firing range when Alice informed him that the battle had been interrupted by a sudden and forced jump into slip space. Never hurt to sight in one's weapons, or to clean them even though he'd not really fired them much since being assigned to the Trinity. "Orders coming in, LT. Looks like we're prepping to take the fight to the Covies." Firing one last round down range, which took his target in the head. Placing the weapon back on it's place on the rack, he grabs his shotgun and places it on his back along with his katana and the M6G combat pistol he almost always had on his hip.

"How's the damage to the Trinity? Anything we can use to keep them at a distance?" Alice rolled her eyes in her picture on the top left of Foxtrot-228's HUD. Of course he was more worried about tactical information than anything else. Guess old habits really did die hard with her Spartan II. Of course, her concern was him and always would be. And her Rampancy had been taken care of when the UNSC had recovered the two of them from Requiem, so she wouldn't be leaving the LT anytime soon.

"Engines and weapons are down from what Sharia will share. Shields are just barely in working order and our friends followed us over to...wherever the hell we are. Astrogation charts are useless as there's no readily identifiable star clusters nearby." 228 grunted and headed for the bridge. Maybe the captain could shed some light on what exactly had happened.

"Are you sure you want to use that?"
Emily shakes her head in response to Cody's question, slinging her rocket launcher onto her shoulder and grabbing an MA5C off of the table in the center of the room. Cody shrugs and grabs his own set of weapons. A moment after they begin picking grenades, Andrew strolls in as if he was having a casual day at work, grabbing a standard loadout of a pistol and rifle. "You been grabbing the drugs, private?" Emily asks, a grin on her face. "You know, I'm not sure the UNSC will react well if you are nicking all of the morphine for adrenaline pumps and overdoses." Andrew looks back at her with a grin on his face. "Shut up, or I'll give you a prostate exam and then tell the UNSC I did it because you and Cody slept together." Emily and Cody's faces both go red as Andrew laughs.

The door of the armory slides open, and Samuel takes long strides toward them. "Sergeant on deck! Dauntless, form up!" Emily calls, and the trio stand ramrod straight in a line along the table they were organizing their weapons on. Now that they were paying attention to their squad leader, they saw that there was someone in white armour following behind. "At ease," Samuel says, standing opposite of his team, the Spartan standing aside. "This is Spartan Rose. She will be accompanying us, mainly for spook reasons-" Rose gives Samuel a sharp look from beneath her helmet, and he returns the look, though a lot more casually. "Go ahead. If you don't like the way I speak, say it yourself."

Rose turns to the ODSTs again, and clears her throat. "According to our resources, star charts, and cross referencing of data analysis, it has been concluded that this is a new system. For ONI sections one through three, including ONI division delta six, I am required to gather intelligence of this system." She turns her head back to Samuel, who scowls lightly. "Dauntless, grab your gear."

Arrow had been gathering information on the current scenario, and was compressing and piling files in Rose's storage drive on the Trinity. "You know," He says in her helmet speakers, "You didn't need to be so harsh with them. Even though Mr Peterson looks ready to shove you out of an airlock." Rose giggles quietly, and wiggles her eyebrows at Samuel's image on her HUD. "Jeez, you make that sound like I was angry." She says, watching fireteam Dauntless grab their equipment. Once they are done, they move out, Rose following.

Unknown Sector
Republic Warship Valor

Sari stood on the bridge of Thranta-Class Corvette she had her arms behind her back overlooking the bridge, with a small fleet of five ships. One of the bridge crew looked down at the communications. "Ma'am we are getting a distress call." The communications officer said turning to look over at Jedi Master Nevran, she started to walk over towards him. "Play it." She said, and the officer nodded as he turned it onto the intercom. "This is the UNSC Trinity, we are requesting immediate assistance, our engines are down and we have Covenant on an intercept course. Requesting that a reaction force be sent to our location at best possible speed." The officer looked up at Sari looking for orders, listening to the message once more. A different officer, the navigations officer, looked up as well. "We can be there in ten minutes, maybe eight if we push the engines," she claims.

Sari closed her eyes sensing a disturbance in the force, and nodded. "Set in the course then order the fleet as well." She ordered, the navigations officer nodded as she put in the coordinates the Republic fleet went into hyperspace.

The edge Between the Seat of the Empire and Unknown Sector.
Imperial Warship Crescents Wrath

Nara sat in her seat quietly looking out into the view port of her ship watching as a few fighters flew by the bridge, so far the day had been rather dull. She stares at the Oppessor for a moment until she heard one of the bridge officers voices, Nara sighed as she stood up and approached her. "We are reciving some sort of distress call within the Unknown Sector." She said staring at her for a few seconds before pressing a button letting the message play. "This is the UNSC Trinity, we are requesting immediate assistance, our engines are down and we have Covenant on an intercept course. Requesting that a reaction force be sent to our location at best possible speed."

It took a few moments before Nara said anything she had never even heard of these factions before, and then nodded. "Order the fleet to intercept them, we will drag them back with us if we have to." Nara said before turning back to sit back in her command seat. The navigation and communication officers nod before sending out the order to jump.

Unfathomable Truth
Intercept course with the UNSC Trinity

Watching as the Operations officer does his work, Verdin begins to look through the ships' troop compliments. "Get troops to the boarding craft and dropships," Verdin commands. "And then immediately launch a wave of boarding craft." The communications officer bows his head before relaying orders to the fleet. He turns around again to look back at Verdin. "Fleetmaster, the Valence is now back up to full operational status," he says. Verdin relaxes slightly. The CCS class ship would prove to be effective against the Trinity, he thought to himself.

Before Verdin has a chance to reply, the command center's doors slide open to reveal a familiar face, whom bows before speaking. "Khazo, the ship is still under repairs," Verdin explains to the lower ranking Sangheili. "However, the fleet are now releasing boarding craft, and the Valence is operational to assist them. Go now to a craft, and fufill your orders. I know that they are of great importance."

Verdin turns back to the operations officer, who gives a slight bow of his head. "The first wave of boarding craft has been released, fleetmaster."

UNSC Trinity
Current Location: Unknown

Arrow multitasked, running through the ship's systems as well as monitoring what Rose and fireteam Dauntless were doing. Suddenly, there was a ping, as one of the Covenant ship's signatures duplicated, and then did it again, and again. It took a nanosecond for Arrow to realise that Covenant boarding craft had been deployed, as well as dropships. Quickly, he pings Trinity's communication and operation officers with an alert, and at the same time he informs Rose of the situation. "Rose, we have hostile boarding craft closing fast," He says, his face turning stern in his image in the corner of her HUD. She blinks before she looks down at the shorter ODSTs. "Dauntless, we have boarding craft closing in. Get ready for action!" She says, as the ODST's look at eachother. Not a moment later, Trinity's intercom goes off.
"Now hear this, now hear this, Covenant boarding craft are approaching! Battle ready status, people!"

Taber Fuson put up a way point on Spartan Watters HUD. She motioned for the ODST follow. If they got there quick enough they could ambush the Covenant forces as they exited their craft. The Spartan raced ahead to secure the scene just in case they were not quick enough. Taber Fuson had sent out a call to all forces in the vicinity of the exact location where the boarding parties would be entering, and kept them updated as they approached or if they changed headings.

Spartan Watters quickly followed by the ODST team with her arrived in time to get behind cover and watch as they cut a hole into the side of the ship. The side of the ship fell with a loud thud. Before the dust even cleared six grenades were thrown into the hole.

---------------------

"Mistress we are picking up a distress call of a ship under attack." Felicia didn't look up from her book. "Then make course for the location best possible speed. Then wake up our overzealous murderbot. Have him man the cannons. Make sure he knows to disable not to kill." Taly did as instructed. "At best possible speed without taxing the engines we will arrive in eight minutes." Taly then left to wake up HK-51. Felicia placed a bookmark and took a seat previously occupied by Taly.

---------------------

Spartan Watters put a knife through the brain of the last of the Covenant forces from this boarding craft. She looked around, all the ODST were dead. She didn't have the time to mourn the last of her friends. She marched on to the location of some more Covenant forces. She picked up some random Marines on the way. She didn't bother to get their names or ranks they would be dead soon enough.

228 had been on his way to the bridge when Alice told him the Covenant ships had launched boarding craft. Changing course for a nearby hangar. "Open a com channel to the captain." Alice smiles and static comes to life on the bridge of the Trinity. "This is Foxtrot-228 inbound to the hangar nearest my position. What's the readout on the incoming enemy forces?" As he walked he checked his shotgun, making sure a round was loaded. Putting it on his back, he draws his katana and checks for wear and tear. Alice talked as he worked.

"Should have had you grab at least an assault rifle. We'll be fighting in a hangar after all. Maybe just your sniper would have been good, nice range and power, and you're one hell of a shot." 228 let Alice ramble on with a smile on his face. He wasn't sure what he'd do when she finally went rampant. Before he could get a reply, he heard the characteristic discharge of a plasma pistol from behind him and he rolled to the side, spinning and coming up in the cover of a doorway. "Nevermind, covies are saying hello."

Alice cut the channel and 228 dove out of cover, rolled into a standing position and fired once, the unfortunate Grunt on the receiving end screaming as the buckshot took out his chest and breathing apparatus. Pumping the gun once, 228 shimmers from sight as he moves forward, his cloaking module activating.

"Ma'am we are getting reports of Covenant boarding crafts inbound, as well as some fighter escorts." Sharia announced turning to look over at Captain Rios, who was looking down at the holographic display. "Are the point defense turrets online?" Regina asked her eyes looking up at the AI, who nodded. "Some of them are been working on getting the rest on, we will be having some hitchhikers." Sharia said as she closed her eyes for a moment then some of the point defense turrets came online.

Regina watched silently as some of the covenant crafts were destroyed while looking down as she started to get reports of boarders on several decks already. "What about the status of those Covenant ships?" Regina asked Sharia expanded an image over the holotable showing one of the CCS class cruises was already moving. "One of the CCS Cruisers is moving, should I order the Kirkland, Candor and Memphis to intercept?" Sharia asked, Regina nodded though a CCS Cruiser wasn't a match for the Trinity with shields down twenty percent and weapons down it would cause some major problems. When a channel was patched through Regina heard 228's voice over the comm asking where to go. "I'm sending Commander Harris down to your location, and head to Hangar 27 to assist Watters those are your orders Captain Rios out." Regina sighed looking towards the bridge crew knowing that there could be a big problem.

"Order a detachment of Spartans and ODSTs to critical areas." Regina ordered the AI nodded sending out orders to various squads and fireteams to defend critical areas.

Sophia looked over her HUD seeing her orders given to Sharia as she was given 228's location and quickly started to run past both marines and other non military personnel until she finally reached his location.

"At once, sir!", Khazo answered Verdin as he bowed before heading out of the command center. Before he could start running Zalfud was already waiting for him outside. "What news?", he asked getting ready to Sprint incase Khazo took off. The Sangheili took a moment to collect his thoughts before answering, "As you know the ship is still under repair, however we are sending boarding parties to the heretic ship. The Valence provide assistance as well. If I had to infer as to what the complete plan would be I'd say the boarding parties need to hold at least the enemy defensive arrays until the Unfathomable Truth is fully operational and ready to fire. I'll be going out with the second wave of dropships. Until then farewell, my friend", Khazo didn't wait for a reply, he simply started running towards the nearest hanger. Along the way he found a variety of men to follow him into battle. A Type-52 Troop Carrier could transport twenty-four troops and while he only found ten, Khazo assumed command of the rest he'd meet at the hanger.

Arriving at the hanger Khazo lead his men to the first empty Type-52 he found. Ordering his already recruited men onto the ship, Khazo stood outside looking for and picking those not already assigned to a dropship. Once that was done Khazo established himself as the commanding officer of this boarding party, there was one outburst from a low ranking Jiralhanae but his protest was quickly silence after having a plasma rifle aimed an inch from his face. The rest fell in line pretty quickly. The dropship was deployed and enroute to the heretic ship Khazo began to form the squads. He would lead a group of ten Kig-Yar who's objective was to collect the information needed on the Gods' technology and if possible bring down the heretic ship's shields. The other group was lead by a Sangheili Ranger named Shayan 'Thalamus and was comprised of six Kig-Yar, four Mgalekgolo, and a Jiralhanae. Their mission was to take control of or disable the defensive battery array to reduce damage to the Unfathomable Truth and the rest of the fleet.

The dropships landed in the hanger of the heretic ship, there was already fighting going on as a boarding party had made its way into the hanger. Khazo held back from deploying the troops until he saw through the observation window of he dropship that this hanger was marked "Hanger 27", "Brothers, our first objective is to gain control of this hanger. Once that is established the two teams will break off and fulfill their missions. Once your presence is no longer required then and only then will you be permitted to return to the dropship. Come, let us spill the blood of the heretics!". Khazo was the first to exit the drop guns blazing as he fired a few rounds into a couple of marines distracted with the other boarding party. Not soon after all twenty-four of his dropship's troops came pouring out firing in what seemed to be every direction but Khazo had picked his men carefully. The Mgalekgolo were there to suppress the enemy as the Kig-Yar used their marksmanship skills to pick off any still not in cover. Those utilizing their shields became targets for the enemy but as the heretics that did leave cover to fire back were once again picked off by the Kig-Yar marksmen. The only loose end was the Jiralhanae who felt it wise to charge off ahead of the group. Where he went and his fate was unknown, not that Khazo or his men cared.

It wasn't long before they had taken control of the Hanger and Khazo positioned the other boarding party as holders of their F.O.B. "Shayan 'Thalamus, status report", Khazo commanded to his fellow Sangheili. "We lost only the one Jiralhanae and a couple of the Kig-Yar, all others are still here and ready for battle. The boarding party we encountered upon arrival has merged with us and will provide security for this position should we return"

"Excellent, have your squad continue on with their main objective, I shall soon depart with mine. Keep in contact should you require assistance"

That was all that was said before the two went back to their teams and headed out further into the ship. The halls would soon be filled with heretic blood.

Taber Fuson informed Watters of the backup coming. Watters rolled her eyes. Watters informed what remained of the Marines. The Marines started complaining about the Captain and the lack of support. Watters wasn't happy considering the number of Spartans. "Taber is there a tank on the platform ready to load on to a Pelican?" Taber confirmed it. "Then have Sharia raise it up." Watter nor her Marines could get to the tank without being riddled with plasma but anyone coming in could use it as cover and even get in the tank. She checked her ammunition. She was running low. She scavenged the ammo from several dead Marines and passed around what she couldn't use. She dropped her assault rifle momentarily one of the dead Marines had picked up a Sticky Detonator. She grabbed it and fired at a Hunter who was targeting a human Watters couldn't see. She ducked back behind cover and detonated. She dropped the spent pistol and picked up her assault rifle.

{I copy. Heading for 27 now. Current status?} Blasting the last Jackel from behind, he racks another round into the shotgun's chamber and checks the next hall for any more Covies. Not seeing any, he steps into the hallway and swaps the shotgun for the sniper rifle. He'd continued moving towards the nearest hangar, which was indicated by the signs and so he was at the door to 27's observation room with in a couple minutes. When Commander Harris arrived, he gave a simple inclination of his head. "Commander. Ready to bust this when you are." He switched back to the shotgun and took up a breaching position, ready to move in. His Motion Tracker was showing enemy contacts on the other side of the door, but regardless of that, clearing a room before just waltzing into it was standard when being boarded.

"Rose, ahead, there's a-" There was no time for Arrow to finish as a boarding craft came crashing into the window of the hallway, a tube pushing it's way into the side of the hull and deploying a small shield to keep atmosphere inside. A squad of grunts came piling in, and before Rose even shouts anything Dauntless have formed a small square, two at the front crouching and two at the back standing. Rose joins the rear of the square, and together, they pull their triggers, releasing a hail of bullets that cut down the first squad of grunts.

"Hah, that was easy," Cody says, relaxing, before more, larger contacts appeared on their motion trackers. "Emily, get that launcher ready!" Sam commands, as a stream of more grunts pour out of the craft, joined by several elites. "Andrew, Cody, suppressive fire!" Sam begins to fire, and the others follow as Emily primes her launcher. She fires as a hunter exits the craft, and watches as it explodes into pieces, showering the other enemies with metal. Rose notes that she wasn't given a task to do, so she focuses on the elites, cutting the trio of them down as a second rocket turns the second hunter into orange mush.

As the final grunt drops to the ground, the team sprints down the corridor again, on their way to intercept another boarding craft of hostiles.

Sophia heard 228's voice over the radio and then he materialized, she quickly returned the nod as she headed over towards the upper deck of the hangar, her eyes went down seeing a boarding craft enter the hangar as a group of more covies pouring into the hangar. "I'm ready." She said nodding towards him and opened the door she quickly ran for some cover on an upper railing and started to open fire on a pack of grunts one bullet manages to burst into it's methane tank and caused a small explosion as a spark hits it.

228 waits to a count of three before following the Commander in, turning the shotgun and blasting an Elite point blank as he tried to flank Commander Sophia. His shield fizzled out and before he could turn to face the Spartan II, he was gurgling in surprise from the knife blade now implanted in his skull. Pulling his blade free, 228 turns his attention to another group of nearby Grunts and emptying the last four shells in the shotgun into them. As he pumped the last shell out, he put the weapon back on his back and drew his katana, taking advantage of the close quarters to remind the Covies of why he and the other Spartan IIs were known as Demons by their kind.

A Jackal hiding behind it's shield had little chance to turn around as 228 flipped over him and split him in two, the halves hitting the floor just as 228 removes the breathing apparatus and head of a nearby Grunt. He could already hear them running back towards the main hangar. "Ah, a Demon! A Demon is here! Flee for your lives!" Chuckling in spite of himself, he sheaths the blade and pulls out the shotgun again, reloading it and pumping a round into the chamber before looking at one of the Elites that had come back when the Grunts fled. It wore the armor of a Zealot, so the Spartan wasted no time in engaging it

Without speaking, 228 surged forward and slammed the butt of his shotgun into the side of the Elite's head even as it drew one of it's energy swords, the shield fizzling out and the blow sending the Elite stumbling to one side. Still, the Zealot, to it's credit and skill, swung at 228, forcing him back. Once more putting the shotgun on his back, he drew his katana and moved forward once more, catching the next slash from the Zealot on the blade.

The Steele Chameleon dropped out of Hyper Space near the battle going on. HK-51 was plugged into the weapons console firing at any of the boarding craft, under strict orders not to destroy but to cripple beyond repair. Taly was flying like a madwoman attempting to prevent any one target from being able to lock on to their ship. Felicia was on the comms. "To the UNSC Trinity this is the Steele Chameleon we picked up your distress call, we are here to render aid as best as we can. Whatever is wrong with your Hyperdrive I suggest you get fixed soon. This sector of space is quite unfriendly. We need to leave before a Sith ship picks up your distress call."

------------------

Spartan Watters had to clean the blood and brains of a marine off the visor of her helmet. She gathered all the grenades of every marine in close proximity. Using some EB Green she taped them all together. She began firing what some may see as incompetently. She was forcing the Covenant forces to group together as much as possible. As they started to gather she pulled pins on all the grenades and let it cook for a second or two then threw the mass into the crowd. She watched the as the group turned into a very beautiful mist of Covenant blood. From the chest up her armor was completely drenched in blood. A marine to her right started whooping and hollering. She smacked him upside the head.

"We have a subspace anomaly captain, getting a small ship unknown is coming in. As well as hail patching it in." Sharia said looking over at Regina. Regina stood up from her seat walking over towards the communications officer. "Thank you for the assist, we are currently working on getting out slipspace drive up and running, just keep them off our backs. We are sending you targets just keep them off a bit longer." Regina said looking towards Regina and gave her a nod ordering her to light up some boarding crafts to take out. "How long till the slipspace drive is active?" Regina asked looking towards Sharia for an answer. "Five minutes but it wont get us far it will take awhile to get the proper repairs done." Sharia answered. "Give us five minutes, if you can give us a safe location to jump." Regina said to the Steele Chameleon.

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Sophia rolled out of the way from a Covenant elite just in time to see 228 shooting an Elite in the chest with his shotgun, she turned to look at him and gave him a quick nod in thanks. Sophia quickly went for cover and took aim at a group of grunts with her assault rifle taking a few out in a single burst, and then tossed a frag grenade out at a pair of jackals taking aim at a few marines who were pinned down. Sophia watched 228 going for a sangehili zealot, knowing that they were a big threat. "228 be careful." She said over the radio as she focused on suppressing fire on the covenant.

Felicia began talking to herself trying to work out the best location. She eventually settled on the location of the last Republic Warship they saw the Valor. She transmitted the coordinates. "Location is the last known location of the Republic Warship Valor. Not sure who the captain is but to be on the safe side make sure only the absolutely critical systems are powered up."

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Spartan Watters gathered what was left of the Marines. She ordered two Marines to take command of the tank. She then ordered several more to gather the wounded on the far side of the tank where they would be protected from stray fire. While the rest were ordered to gather any weapons, ammo, and grenades, didn't matter if it was Covenant or human. Taber Fuson relayed a status update. On a computer station behind the tank Watters had Taber bring up a video feed of several areas. One area showed nothing but dead humans and plenty of Covenant forces. "Could you?" Taber analyzed the area. "Possibly. No human life signs in the vicinity. The Captain won't be to happy." Watters shrugged it off. "As you wish." The side of the ship was damaged in that area. "Taber overloaded a damaged power conduit running through the area which caused the side of the ship to blow out. Sucking out all the Covenant forces. "Sealing off the area to prevent someone from accessing the area. "Be prepared to have the captain rip you a new one." Watters straightened up. "Meh. One highly unvaluable area off limits versus Covenant reaching half a dozen critical areas unimpeded." Watters grabbed some ammo and then marched off. To another location of Covenant forces. "Watters I always wondered why the eggheads didn't come up with a virus to kill the various Covenant races, release that on a ship instant end to the threat. What about you?" Watters checked her ammo gauge. "No fun." Taber chuckled.

228 didn't give the commander a response, focusing instead on his familiar dance with the Zealot's blade. He attacked from the right, the Zealot forced a parry from the left, the Zealot attacked from the left, 228 parried from the left and countered from the right and so on and so forth. Both warrior's focused on the opponent in front of them, the rest of the fight happening being drowned out by the sound of 228's katana meeting the Energy Blade blow for blow. After what seemed like eternity, the Spartan found his opening in the Zealot's guard. Slamming the hilt of his katana into the Elite's chin area, the spins and slices twice on the Zealot as he stumbles, once to knock out the shields and the second time to take off the Zealot's head. Rotating in a full circle once, he thrusts forwards through the Zealot's chest and pulls out, sheathing the sword, pulling out his shotgun, and continuing the fight as the Zealot fell to the floor with a wet thud.