Watters encountered several more Marines on her way to her next objective. She sent them to the docking bay to reinforce that position. Before she got to her next objective she stopped by the armory to gather materials for her trap. Once at her objective she began placing landmines to thin the very large heard of Covenant coming for the bridge. She waited around a corner, for the distinctive boom. After a few minutes the first boom came, followed quickly by a second and then a little longer a third. Taber brought up a thermal imaging display from the security cameras on Watters HUD. Using that Watters used that to throw grenades with decent enough accuracy to thin it out more. Once she used up the last of her grenades she pulled out her assault rifle to finish them off.

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

"UNSC Trinity my Hyper Drive is spooled up, we're ready to go at any moment just give us the word." Felicia was getting worried it's been nearly fifteen minutes and they said they would be ready in five.

With no Intel as to where everything was located in the human ship, Shayan and his team were forced to scour the lower levels in hopes of stumbling upon their target. The path they took was filled with heretics and the farther they trekked the more casualties they sustained. "Sir, the heretics have wounded a number of our men! What is our directive?!, Shayan yelled into his communicator as the sounds of the heretic guns fired at his position. The stoic voice of Khazo simply replied, "Continue towards the defensive arrays, the Unfathomable Truth is still on an intercept course with this ship. We need those guns to be down to prevent severe damage to our vessel!".

"We have no information as to the arrays' location!"

"I'm sending you the schematics now, our contact was not thorough with but it should be enough to get you to your destination"

"Acknowledged, what is your status?"

"My team has suffered a number of casualties as well"

"Should we send them back to the F.O.B.?

"Leave them where they lie, our mission is too important to waste time on them"

Shayan hesitated with his response but eventually replied, "Affirmative, I will continue to the array command center. What about the power center?"

"What of it?"

"Why waste ammunition of the Unfathomable when we could destroy the ship from within?"

Khazo thought of this for a moment, if this was accomplished it would save resources and warm him renown but there was a chance the ship could instantaneously explode. While he was willing to die for the cause Khazo preferred to live to continue his work. "Very well, divert course to the engine room and see if you can start a reactor meltdown. Make sure we have time to fall back to the ship"

"Very well, I will not fail you, sir"

"See that you don't", Khazo shut off his communicator and turned to the remaining men of his team. Just two Kig-Yar, one a sniper, another a shield wielder. "We are nearing the data archives, move quickly and quietly", he whispered to them as he peered around the corner. From the looks of it the only soldiers in here were the group of four protecting their scientists. "This should be done with quickly", he thought as he bolted around the corner and into the room. The nearest marine had no time to react as his body was stuck with Khazo's energy sword. Using the human corpse as a shield he charged for the next one and threw the body onto him. The scientists tried to run out the room but some were shot down by the Kig-Yar, causing the rest to run bck into the room and hide as the small battle ensued. With the one marine pinned to the ground by the corpse of their comrade Khazo fired a shot from his rifle into the marine's head, leaving a glowing hole which simmered with glowing how plasma fire. The next two were already firing at the Sangheili but his armor's shield held back their fire long enough for him to get within arm's reach of them. One he grabbed by the scope of his gun and ripped it from his grasp. With the heretic disarmed Khazo kicked him in the torso with all the force he had, one could hear as the armor that he wore buckle under the force of the kick. The man went flying into the nearby wall and collapsed onto the ground. The last marine at this point had dropped his gun and was begging for mercy, "Please N-!" he laid dead on the ground before he could even finish, the rifle putting a hole in his head.

"Lock down the room, bring me one of the humans but kill the rest!", Khazo ordered to the Kig-Yar before looking around the room at the various artifacts of the Gods. He found one which piqued his interest, from its appearance it seemed to be a weapon of sorts. It's shape was similar in design to a rifle but it lay in pieces as if the humans somehow understood it's assembly. His thoughts were interrupted as he felt a body brush against him. He looked down to find a human staring up in horror at him. "Have you dealt with the others?", he asked his guards who glanced at each other then answered "All are dead but this one".

"Good. Watch the door, I'd prefer my conversation with the heretic go undisturbed", he said as he looked down to the human before grabbing her by the back of her head and aiming her towards the artifact. "What have you learned of the Gods? Where are you storing the information!", he roared at her but only to receive a cry of fear. He grabbed her by the neck and lifted her up to eye level. Unlike before where Khazo basically screamed at her this time he spoke in low and menacing tone one would expect to hear from something in a nightmare. "I have killed your fellow heretics without hesitation. I shall do the same with you unless you tell me what I wish to know...where is the information I require", just as he concluded his threat Khazo realized the human was reaching the last of her breath and so he released her. Falling to the ground on all fours she gasped harshly for air and got up slowly so as to not appear threatening. Once she was somewhat composed again she spoke, "It is a Forerunner weapon, the closest comparison would be your kind's plasma rifle. The only difference is fires a concentrated beam of...some form of energy

"That is it? That is all you know?!", Khazo barked as he reached his hand out slightly. The scientist flinched harshly for fear of being choked again. She quickly yelled out, "There's more!". Khazo stopped himself as he waited for her to continue. "We have information on other forerunner artifacts but the data is in the servers. I didn't have enough time to study the weapon which is why I don't know anything on it please don't kill me!". Khazo thought for a moment as to what his next move would be. The heretics would have a wealth of information of the Gods which he could return to the Unfathomable. However without the right tools it could become useless information. Khazo activated his communicator and contacted Shayan, "I have what I came for and we are about to return to the ship. What is your status?".

"We are nearing the engine room, resistance is moderate as their forces are being diverted to other breaches"

"Hurry up, we will wait for you at the hanger no longer than 10 minutes!"

"Affirmative, sir!", Shayan's communicator went off again and Khazo opened another channel to the F.O.B. forces, "This is Khazo, my team is returning from the human research laboratory, have your location ready for us by the time we arrive. We have a prisoner so watch your fire". Khazo did not wait for a reply as he changed the channel to the command center of the Unfathomable, "Shipmaster, I have the information as well as an artifact from the Gods! I am also bringing a heretic with me as prisoner, I ask you have a containment cell ready upon my arrival, I will bring the heretic to you for inspection". With all parties informed of his plan Khazo ordered the human to extract the data files from the server and pack the artifact in a bag. Once everything was ready he held her arm like a parent with his child and pulled her towards the door. The two Kig-Yar took up guard positions as the shield wielder covered the front and the sniper their rear.

Sharia appeared on her holotank and quickly turned to face Captain Regina with an alarmed look on her face. "Ma'am we have covvies that managed to get into the Forerunner archives and the data center, as well as a party making their way over towards the engine room. I suspect they are after the Forerunner rifle that we found before being transported here." Regina stood up and quickly put into a call for her Spartans. "Watters, Harris, and 228 get down to the engine room. I suspect that they will set up a bomb in the engine room, I cant let this ship get destroyed." Regina said and quickly turned towards Sharia. "I want you to slow down both of the covenant's teams path, do what you have to disable gravity put up blast doors whatever you need to slow them down."

"Steele Falcon, we are dealing with boarders heading for our reactor, we cannot jump until the threat is eliminated if we were to jump while in slipspace, and they set up a bomb we will lose the ship." Regina said looking over at Sharia as she opened a channel to the three Spartans. "I have set up a tram already for you guys to get you down there to the engine room as fast as possible. Sharia out." The AI gave a nod to the captain as she started to proceed to lock down some of the doors that the Covenant teams were planning on using to get back to their ship as well as the engine room.

Sophia held her hand to her helmet radio as she listened into the orders, the hangar had been secured now with a covenant dropship still there. She grabbed a Spartan Laser that was on the ground and aimed it at the dropship and fired several shots into it until finally it went down exploding it. "228 lets go we are needed in the engine room." Sophia said as she quickly made a run over towards the closest tram station on the ship and waited for Spartan Watters to come. "C'mon Watters you are with us, Sharia has slowed down the Covenant for a short time."

--------------------------
Sari's fleet had just come out of hyperspace seeing the UNSC Trinity and the smaller ships fighting off the boarders, as well as seeing the Steele Falcon fending off some of the boarding crafts. "This is Jedi Master Nevran here we got your distress call, and thank you Steele Falcon for assisting them."

Sari's fleet then started to open fire on the Covenant boarding crafts and fighters, the jedi master stood over looking at the battle from where she stood. And then she quickly started to sense a dark disturbance in the force just as a Sith fleet had joined in.

----------------
Nara stood on the bridge the moment they had came out of hyperspace she noticed the republic fleet already assisting the other unknown ship, that she assumed was the ship that sent out the distress signal and then the other fleet which she had never seen before that seemed to be attacking the UNSC. "Upon fire on the Republic fleet!" Nara ordered the officers of the bridge crew and turned around to face Carl Celdak. "Send out fighters to attack the Republic ships, and then send a message to this Covenant the Republic seem to have newer allies now."

Kicking over a Grunt who was desperately trying to crawl away, 228 puts a round of buckshot into it's chest and then follows. Alice's face pops up in the top left of his HUD and smirks. "Looks like you still got it, LT. Anyways, been keeping an eye on the Covenant Battlenet and they're going crazy. I guess two fleets of unknown ships have shown up, with one fleet helping us to their best ability and the other firing on the supposed friendlies. Seems the Covies don't know what to do with themselves. Hope those Grunts have some kind of toilet system in their suits, cause I'm pretty sure they pissed themselves." 228 lets loose a slight chuckle and waits next to Sophia.

"Gonna be honest, Commander. Three Spartans for a job you and Watters could handle seems a bit much. Got a game plan in mind?" He looks down the hall as they wait, watching as a fresh group of Marines with ODST and Spartan IV support move into the hangar to secure it and lock it down from further boarding. Cutting his external speakers, he turns his attention to Alice. "The defense systems up yet?"

Alice's picture smiles again and she then takes on a thoughtful look before shaking her head. "Not with engineering under fire. It's gonna take more time to fix with Covies crawlin' all over them." 228 nods and continues waiting, keeping an eye out for anymore stray Covies.

-Unfathomable Truth

"This is Unfathomable, your containment cell is being prepared," Verdin glanced at the communications officer as he said this, who instantly got the message. "And shall be ready when you arrive back on the ship." He flicked a switch, and the COM snapped off. Verdin had a small dislike for Khazo, though he would not let that show. Especially as a new fleet showed up, along with a second new fleet, the former engaging his forces and the latter engaging the former. The operations officer turns back to Verdin, his eyes clearly stating that he had good news to bring. "Fleetmaster, all of our ships are back online," He says, to which the communications officer chimes in, "The fleet are requesting orders." Unfortunately, before Verdin could reply, the officer added in some bad news. "Sir, Valence has been destroyed, and we are receiving a message from the apparently allying fleet." Verdin clicks his mandibles. The current situation was certainly not the best, and was quite confusing. "Order the fleet to engage both the human and other fleet, but leave the last fleet untouched. Relay the message to me." Verdin says, leaning back as a COM window opens to the fleet attempting to contact him.

-UNSC Trinity

"Reports are wild. We have hostiles crawling around everywhere."
Rose bites her lip, finishing a grunt with a shot to the head with her pistol. "Tell me something I don't know, Arrow." She says. Dauntless had turned out to be a good fireteam, supporting her as she engaged many of the hostiles that bothered them en-route to wherever they were going. "There are hostiles at the data center, and by the sounds of the COM, guys planting a bomb at the engine room. You can go for the data, that's sensitive stuff. Dauntless can go for the engines." Arrow put a marker for each person on their HUDs, and they began to separate without a word, Dauntless going for the engines, Rose for the guys at the data center. "Oh, and Rose. You should take a look at this." Rose' eyes widened as she saw two unknown fleets pop up in a window in the corner of her HUD. That certainly was a discovery. Who are they?

Upon triple timing it to the data center, which Rose was already quite near, she spots a trio of Covenant, possibly spec-ops, moving out of the data center. Upon closer inspection, they had a prisoner which the Elite was carrying. That would make things a lot harder, however she had the element of surprise. Normally, a person would throw a flashbang and then start shooting, however Rose found that if you shot first, the enemies were to busy shooting back at you to notice the grenade. She didn't know how it worked with Covies, she only used this trick with Insurrectionists, however she tried it anyways. She laid down at the corner, and popped only her head and her gun out, shooting under the legs of the enemies to hit the sniper in the rear of the trio's legs. She quickly threw the flashbang before continuing to fire at the Covies.

Khazo had just begun to make his way out of the data center and towards the hanger when he heard shots ring out accompanied by the screams of his rear guard. "They''ve discovered us", he thought as he turned to return fire at the heretics. It was barely a moment before everything he saw was white and his eyes were blinded for a time. The rear guard was alive but wounded, barely managing to get a good aim at the enemy and simply fired wildly in their general direction. Khazo reached behind him for where he remembered the vanguard Kig-Yar to be and grabbed it by the head, spinning it around he blurted out commands to cover him while he prepared his next move. The human Khazo took captive was grabbed by her neck and Khazo placed his deactivated energy sword to her back. "Ceasefire, demon! We have one of your own and will kill her if need be!", Khazo wasn't going to wait for the demon's reply he signalled the vanguard to cover and fire as he backed up away from the firefight. As if by fate a blast door was sealed right between him and his vanguard leaving the Kig-Yar to face the demon on his own. "Unfathomable, this is Khazo. The demons have located my position and I am seperated from my men, I request reinforcements by directed to my position!", Khazo left his communicator open to hear for command's response. In the meantime he grabbed his captive by the arm once more and lead her around the corner and towards Hanger 27. Switching to the comm channel of the hanger team he spoke, "Hanger team, I am nearing your position, what is your status?". The only response he received was a gurgling sound followed by the sound of a human weapon. Khazo knew what this meant. The heretics had taken their position and now he was without escape from the vessel. Looking towards the captive he said,"Where are the escape vessels located?".

"I-I-I don't know!"

"Yes you do, where!

"I think two levels above us but I'm not sure!"

"...pathetic", Khazo grabbed the human and held her in his arm. Taking out a couple plasma grenades he armed them and placed them to a point on the ceiling. After getting a decent distance back the grenades detonated leaving a noticeable hole in the ceiling exposing the inner workings of the ship. Khazo jumped up and with his free hand latched onto a metal ledge made by the explosion. He pulled himself up and found that instead of the next level above he was actuall in a maintenance passage. He headed down the tunnel and at one point it inclined signalling he would soon be on the next level. "Shayan,report. What is your progress on the reactor?", he had turned his comm channel to the bomb team to make sure they had not begun the countdown.

"We are in the reactor chamber, sir. The heretics have sealed us within and we can only assume they'll be here to eliminate us!"

"Ignore your current directive and make your way to my position, we have a much more important task to complete!"

"But sir-"

"That was an order, Shayan! I'm sending you my location, converge on my position and we must locate another hanger to escape this place"

"What happened to our original F.O.B.?"

"The heretics have taken it back, they now search for me and my prisoner."

"I've received your location, my team is working on getting a door at the opposite end of the room open. We will accompany you soon", Shayan deactivated his communicator and turned his attention back to his team. "Forget the reactor, place the bombs at the doors. You, take yourself and some men into cover and watch that door. The heretics will be coming and we need cover while opening our escape door. Everyone else get to work on opening this door! We need to meet with the data team and locate a new escape ship"

Watters just finished stabbing an Elite with her knife when Sophia radioed in. "Go ahead. I'll catch up." Watters pulled her knife out. "Quickest route?" Taber calculated while monitoring the Covenant Battlenet. "They abandoned their plan to destroy the engines, they are now heading for the escape pods." Watters began running. "Time?" Taber calculated. "Engine room team, will be a while. The one with the hostage is nearly there. He could abandon his troops and be off the ship in a matter of minutes with the hostage and whatever else he took. The elite is traveling through the maintenance tunnels." Watters switched the armor piercing rounds. "You can't shoot you'll kill the hostage." Watters grunted. "We can't let that hostage be taken back to their base, you saw what Halsey was capable of after she defected. This hostage may not be as intellectually gifted as Halsey nor cooperate willingly but after enough torture the hostage will cooperate. Taber you know the protocol after Halsey, all scientists are expendable if they could end up in enemy hands. I'll try my best to save the hostage but I will do my duty."

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

Felicia put on her combat armor. "Taly keep the Falcon flying and in one piece. HK will keep the prey busy. Get me close enough to the Trinity for me to board. I sense I am needed over there." Felicia proceeds to the ramp as Taly seels off her section of the ship. "Master this is as close as I can get, there is a hole just below the ramp about two in front of you." The ramp lowers and Felicia is sucked out. She guides herself to the hole and uses Telekinesis to put debris from the space battle over the hole. She then used pyrokinesis to seal the breach. Sharia opened up the area temporarily to allow Felicia to exit then resealed it. Felicia then used Force Speed to catch up with the person she sensed.

Three marines rushed down a hall of the UNSC Trinity, heading for the engine bay to support other friendly forces. As a result, they passed right by a room Reza had hidden himself when he heard them coming. With his squad being eliminated, with him and another minor sangheili surviving. They awaited for the marines to pass before exiting out into the hallway. When they made sure it was clear, they kept moving in an alert stance. The minor, who was covering their rear with a Type-51 Carbine, spoke up, "We should have fought them."

Reza kept walking with both plasma pistols raised to their front, "We don't need the humans to know we're here."

The young sangheili snapped back, "I'm talking about our dishonorable retreat from the hanger, we should have fought and died along-side our brothers!"

The major ignored the minor's temper, "If dying in a pointless hail of gunfire is your understanding of honor, you know little of it. What's more honorable: Killing a few humans or disabling their internal systems so the rest of our forces can kill the same humans with even more ease?" The minor grumbled but remained quiet as they continued down the hall. With that, Reza opened comms with the Unfathomable, "This is Major Reza 'Mosam, we survived an enemy assault and require a new objective. Recapture of the hanger is impossible but internal damage to the vessel is still an option. Orders?" With that, the two continued down the hallway, Reza hoping to stumble across an important section of the vessel.

---

When gunfire had left the hanger for a few minutes, a pilot helmet could be seen lifting up from behind a few crates. It turned left and right, reading the scene before it. After a few moments of this, it rose up even more, revealing it was attached to the body of a man. He held a pistol with a tight, and shaky, grip. He aimed it around the area, extremely cautiously. When the man detected movement, he took a shot in the general direction of the movement. When he actually looked, he saw that it was a marine. The soldier stood there in shock for a few moments before checking himself for any bullet wounds and releasing a sigh when none were found. He then glared at the pilot, "What's wrong with you!"

The pilot still seemed very tense as he continued to hold the pistol out in front of him, almost blindly aiming it at the marine, "Is uh... is the area secure?"

The marine nodded awkwardly and spoke slowly, "Yes, we've secured the hanger."

With that, the pilot relaxed, letting his weapon drop to his side as he sat on one of the crates, "Oh good..." He quickly realized the marine was till there, "Uh... Sorry about that. Was um... temporary blinded by plasma fire. Yeah that's it!... That's a thing right?"

The marine shook his head before leaving without saying another word. The pilot relaxed before speaking to himself, "You did it again Falcone, you survived another savage melee... Frakking barbarians those aliens." He continued to remain seated upon the crates as his legs didn't want to move.

---

Carl gave a confident nod at Nara's command before stepping away and coming up behind one of the coms-men. He placed a hand on the man's back to gain his attention before giving him orders, "Order all fighter squadrons to focus fire on the Republic forces. Have bombers target Republic frigates but not to overextend themselves, along with any fighter escorts. Ignore both forces of unknown contacts until further notice." The general gave a quick thought before continuing, "Get boarding craft ready as well, set them up for immediate launch when called upon."

The coms-man gave a nod and turned back to his station to relay the orders to those that needed them. Carl then stepped away and adjusted his uniform slightly, preparing himself for his call to the unknown 'Covenant' forces. With a nod to a coms-man who handled the ship-to-ship communication, Carl awaited for the unknown fleet's captain to accept the transmission.

When a face with four mandibles, yellow eyes and a bulky but lean physique greeted him, Carl raised his right eyebrow for a moment before lowering it again. Carl spoke in a strong tone of voice, "This is the Oppressor, a dreadnought of the Sith Empire. Who are you and why are you here?" Carl wondered if the Sith Lord would like to speak with them herself, so he prepared to step away at any indication she approached.

-Rose, UNSC Trinity

Rose begins to reload, seeing that the elite was threatening to kill his prisoner. "Rose, I'm detecting signs of a significant data cache of forerunner intel as well as a forerunner weapon." Rose nods, but then bangs her fist against the wall as a , then ducks back around the corner to hide from the fire of the two jackals. "Bridge, this is Rose. An elite has made off with a significant Forerunner data cache, a Forerunner weapon and a scientist. I'm going to take a prisoner." She says through her COM, before darting out. In a split second, she decided to take the Jackal with the shield. The shield would be good for research on shield technology, and she figured it would be easier to take a Jackal nor injured rather than a Jackal with several bullets wounds. Rose fired a few more rounds into the already-injured Jackal, and then slammed into the shielded Jackal, pinning it to the ground and ripping the pistol out of it's hand, breaking a few fingers of the alien. She lifts the jackal like a child and pin's it's gun to her armour, carrying the creature under her arm away to a containment cell.

-Verdin, Unfathomable Truth

"Major, I'm redirecting you. You shall move to regroup with special operations officer 'Tevum. He is conducting a very important mission. Chocon out." Just as Verdin snapped off the COM, a new window opened up with a flash, displaying a face of a Human. This is very unusual. Who are these different races. He listened to the person who started to talk to him, and then formulated a plan. It may be dishonoring, allying with Humans, however if this Sith Empire did not know about the Covenant, he could use this as a tactical advantage. "Sith Empire, I am Fleetmaster Verdin Chocon of the Covenant. The forces that we are attacking have stolen technology, technology that has been set by the gods for us to discover." He clicked his mandibles.

Reza stopped moving as he spoke again into his comm, this time to Khazo, "Officer 'Tevum, this is Major 'Mosam. We have been informed that you require assistance. Where are we needed and how can we be of use?" According to the mission data the Unfathomable had sent him, Khazo's last location was possibly a few hallways away as well as a floor below. Curse these humans and their confusing, maze-like ships.

---

Technology from gods? Carl thought to himself. Though he doubted said tech was in fact by divine beings; having those that used the tech being called gods by a faction with space-faring ships meant it was probably very powerful technology. With that in mind, the General wondered if the Republic knew about this UNSC faction and the artifacts that the Covenant had in their disposal. It was somewhat odd of the Republic to be here and suddenly allying itself with this UNSC faction. He hoped the Sith Empire could gain from the retrieval of this tech, and maybe he'd rise higher as well. Carl doubted a lasting alliance could be made with a religious group like this, especially if the Sith got a hold of this technology themselves but it would be necessary to team up in order to halt the escape of this UNSC faction.

His thoughts were but a brief few seconds when he spoke back to Fleetmaster Verdin, "Well it seems our enemy, the Republic, has allied itself with your thieves. We will offer what help we can with our fighter and bomber squadrons as our fleet tackles the Republic fleet. We will also send some of our boarding craft to help apprend your thieves. Send us priority targets so we can send a squad of bombers to disable them." Carl knew he was overstepping his authority, as he had no command over the vessels of the fleet but he figured that, if everything goes well, the Sith Lord won't get too upset. Besides, a temporary truce would increase their chances of success against the Republic and their friends, instead of it being a three-way battle in the Republic scum's favour.

Felicia & Watters arrived at Khazo and his hostage's location from different directions within seconds of each other. "Watters don't fire on the person in the weird armor, he or she is from one of the ships that is helping shoot Covenant boarding craft."

Felicia examined the situation, she didn't recognize the alien species before her. She extended the lightsaber in her left hand. Leaving her left one free to be used as a blaster. "You want to release the hostage and return everything you took."

Watters watched in fascination of Felicia. "I think that is some form of mind control being employed." Taber thought aloud. Watters took aim with her assault rifle to kill the elite as soon as opening presented itself.

"Listening in on the Covenant's transmission to the other fleet." Sharia said looking over at the captain for a moment, as she continued to focus on controlling the ship as well and giving the bridge crew targets to fire on. "We also have one of our new allies on board helping with Watters with getting the hostage out of there grasp as well as the Forerunner tech we uncovered. And Fire Team Dauntless, as well as 228 and Commander Harris are making their way to the engine room, I've locked down the stragglers in the engine room." Sharia said, the captain looked at the AI and smiled at her. "Thank you, send orders to the other ships to focus on their fire on the Covenant still."

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

Once Dauntless had caught up with 228 and herself Sophia quickly called for the tram, which quickly came by and then got inside of the tram which would quickly move down the length of the ship, and eventually came to the engine room. Sophia was the first one out, and looked to the team of ODSTs and at 228. "Focus your fire on the Covies, but leave the sangheili team leader alive he might have useful information and could use him for a prisoner exchange." Sophia said, and made it to the blast doors to the engine room, seeing the giant reactor at the center of the room. And the team of Covenant on the other end of the room and quickly made her way to cover and started to fire on the weaker targets first, taking out a Kig-Yar sniper.

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

Nara followed Carl over to the communications console just in time to see Verdin appear, crossing her arms over her chest listening to what the alien had to say never having met this alien species before she was interested and wondered if they would be of any use to her. She looked towards the commander as he gave the order to send boarding crafts over to the Trinity which was a good idea. The Sith Lord gave Carl a pat on the shoulder and then turned to Verdin. "Like my commander has said we will help you retrieve what they have stolen from you, I will come over to your ship soon. We will also send you coordinates for a safe location for you. " Nara said turning to Carl. "You have command I will visit this Fleetmaster myself." Nara then started to leave the bridge and made her way to the hangar where her personal craft was, and quickly flew it out of the hangar to the Unfathomable.

"LT, they're trying to blow the doors on their side of the hangar." 228 confirmed what Alice was saying visually, seeing some of the shield wielding Jackals moving to protect the ones working on the bomb. "Thanks, Alice." Activating his active camouflage module, 228 moves swiftly to the right flank and takes a position further back. Swapping the shotgun out for the sniper rifle, he scopes up and aims through a space between the heads of two shield wielding Jackels and pulls the trigger.

*CRACK*

The Jackel working on the bomb suddenly found himself without a head and fell over to one side. The gun shot had briefly disrupted the camo, but 228 was already moving as the remaining Jackal Marksmen fired on his previous position. {Watch the bomb, they're trying to blow the doors open. If you see a shot, take it, moving to subdue the Elite officer now.} Placing the sniper back on his back, he drew one of his kukri and moved up behind one of the marksman and pulling him back and plunging it into his chest, killing him without a sound. He repeated this with the next one.

"LT, might I suggest shooting out his kneecap from a distance, that'll keep him from fleeing if he realizes things are going south?" Pulling his kukri free of the side of a Grunt's face, he considers before nodding and moving further back again. Pulling out the sniper once more after sheathing the knife, he waits for the right moment.

{In position to cripple HVT. Signal when you want me to take the shot, Commander.}

As Khazo stood in the maintenance shaft he went through the channels in his communicator to get a report of the situation. "Shayan, report. How far are you from my position?", it didn't take long to get a reply but what he heard was less than comforting. The sounds of rifle fire and the panicked voices of the nearby troops only confirmed Khazo's belief that he was on his own, "Khazo, the engine room is under attack! My men were working on getting through but the rear doors have been locked down! Right now we are trying to blast the doors open but-wait...What was that?". The connection ended and Khazo slammed his fist into the wall in frustration. Not long then did he recieve a transmission from another soldier in the field, this one by the name of Major 'Mosam. "Major, I am carrying a hostage and an artifact. Both are vital to our cause, at the moment my extraction team is thought to be dead and I require escort to the nearest hanger. Meet me at my current location and from there we wi-", Khazo stopped speaking once he noticed the two humans surrounding him. To his rear was a demon who was taking aim as he looked over the other. The human he was facing was different from most, unlike those he fought before this one wore robes instead of armor, and her weapon was a blade much like his energy sword. She spoke to him, demanding that he release the captive and hand over the artifact. For a moment he felt the urge to do just that but he was able to shake the feeling off. "Return what I have stolen? Ignorant fool! This artifact is one of many left behind by the gods for my people! Your kin took them from us and you have to gall to declare me a thief?!". Khazo raised his energy sword to the throat of his captive and laid his back against the wall, giving himself sight over both humans. "Know this human, the demon you serve is the true thief. Stand aside and let me pass or I kill us all". Khazo twisted his wrist to show his last plasma grenade in hand.

The Major and his squadmate started quietly down the hall as Khazo was giving them orders. However, when he abruptly stopped talking, that caused the two to look at each other before sprinting down the hallway to Khazo's location. They eventually stopped atop of his location, the minor looking puzzled, "How is he in the floor? Isn't the next floor a further distance away than that?"

Reza nodded, "Correct. There must be a shaft of some kind here." Reza holstered his plasma rifles and pulled his plasma launcher from his back, "I'm going to blast my way through and provide cover-fire for 'Tevum, you remain here and assist him out of the breach I make. After that, keep up with him while I slow down the heretics before joining you."

With a nod of confirmation from the minor, Reza fired two explosive plasma bolts onto the floor before backing away. At the safer distance, the Major holstered his weapon and drew out his two plasma rifles again. When the plasma bolts finally blew, they made an awkwardly sized hole that Reza now dropped down into. Taking a quick glance around, Reza noticed the demon and a human wielding an odd colored beam on either side of himself, along with Khazo and the hostage just to his left. Without much thought, the Major pointed one plasma rifle at the demon and the other at the human with the oddly colored beam and started to fire. He then spoke quickly to Khazo in his native tongue, "Go."

Jason appeared in the hallway behind Spartan Watters. "Coming up on your right" He said in a statement to ensure the Spartan didn't turn on him or anything. The boy stopped and looked at the elite holding onto the scientist. Jason very calmly took his Spartan Laser off his back. "Let the lady and the high tech thingy go, Split Jaw. You know exactly what this is gonna do to you" He said calmly.

The Spartan then changes to the private Comm Link with his fellow Spartan. "Watters who's the person in the odd armor. Should I be worried about her or is she one of the guys lending us a hand?" He says simply as he keeps his focus on the Elite. Hoping the stupid dinosaur was dumb enough to make a move a with the woman. He hadn't killed any Split Jaws today.

When the firing started, Jason raised his Spartan Laser and started teasing the charge on it, letting the Elite with the rifles see the laser on his chest. "Please. Make my day" Jason said calmly. Hoping that his fellow Spartan would take the Hostage. The much bigger Spartan was probably better to take on the Elite at close range than Jason was.

Felicia deflected the projectile the alien shot at her back to him. She then turned her Lightsaber back into blaster form and fired both at the aliens not holding the hostage.

Taber informed Athena about what little she knew of the person in the odd armor. Watters decided to take advantage of the distraction, she slightly shifted her rifle. "Sorry." She then fired one bullet into the scientist's head then fired another bullet at the plasma grenade the elite was holding. The resulting explosion would destroy all the research, hopefully the eggheads made a backup. The actual device who knows.

"Trinity this is Taly the second in command of the Steele Falcon. The Sith are sending boarding parties now as well. Get your ship out of here now! You won't survive much longer." She turned to HK cancel Felicia's prior order, shoot to destroy, concentrate on the Sith boarding ships." HK-51 was more than happy to agree.

The blast created Reza caused Khazo to be disoriented for a moment but in that moment so much happened. Weapon fire came from both sides and Khazo tried his best to protect the hostage from fire as well as himself. The deflected round hit Khazo but only brought down his shield, the next two shots from the demon landed in the scientists head, thanks to her struggling to get free, allowing Khazo to toss the body to focus on his escape. The second shot meant for the plasma grenade landed in his wrist and exited out of his forearm. Khazo howled as the shots landed and he quickly threw the hostage up through the hole. When Khazo went to exit himself another shot landed in his arm, freeing his last plasma grenade from his grip and accidentally arming it. Khazo managed to exit the maintenance shaft but Reza was still in there. While in any other situation he would have left his comrade to die but seeing as he was wounded and desperately in need of backup he leaned his rifle into the shaft and blind fired in the direction of the heretics. "Major, the grenade!", Khazo yelled into the shaft before pulling his arm back up so as to avoid the blast. From what he could guess Reza had about four seconds to exit the shaft or be killed.

"What the FUCK was that? We had them!" Jason growled as he looked at the grenade and ducked from pot shots. The young Spartan popped back out from cover and charged his laser, firing off a deadly shot towards where Khazo was hiding. Hoping to at least hit near enough to take out the stupid Split-Jaw's shield.

The boy didn't waste time waiting to see how his Shot had done. He threw a grenade at Khazo, trying to get it through the hole that Khazo was near. Then the Spartan turned and ducked into cover. Bracing himself for the blasts

The Spartan laser took out the Sangheili's shields and blew off the armor on his right arm. The impact from the laser sent Khazo reeling back and once he got back up to his feet he began to sprint away from the blast hole. He wasn't going to wait anymore, he had already lost his captive if he lost the relic then his mission would be a complete failure unless he somehow managed to get back to the data archives. "Khazo 'Tevum to Unfathomable, my hostage has been killed and I am returning to you now. Requesting a fighter escort once I designate the hanger I will be exfiltrating from", Khazo glanced at his arm which had his blood oozing down it. Honor was something he did not care for, his comrades bought him some time and if they could catch up then that was great, if not then it was simply a part of war.

---

In the engine room a large blast echoed throughout the reactor chamber. Shayan's men had managed to blow open the exit route and were scrambling out of the room. "Stay here and guard our exit!", Shayan ordered a Mgalekgolo which had recently lost its partner. The rest of Shayan's men followed him through the halls, mowing down the stragglers of the human forces moving between firefights. In short time the group stumbled into a Sangheili with several bullet wounds and a part of his armor gone. "Where is the rest of your team?", Shayan asked his commander as he looked over his injuries. "Dead. Come, quickly. We must find a hanger soon, two demons pursue me"