Tasuma spent the next two days in a less traveled corner of the Mammoth, in a pile of lekgolo worms, with its armor and weapons piled next to it. Tasuma spent its time focused on growing the colony, expecting that it would need more mass to survive this mission. It noticed that under the command of the ODSTs, the hunter was used as a mobile mortar. Held back just behind the front lines to provide a solid defense for a quick and sudden fall back action, and utilizing its assault cannon as a makeshift mortar. However under the command of Sangheili and Spartans, it noticed that more often than naught Tasuma was utilized as a breakthrough or bodyguard unit, often times separated from the main team. Tasuma thought it was because of the smaller unit scale, and granted, Aegis was a smaller unit.

Occasionally members of the team would stop by and they would have some small talk. Yalu discovered that he was actually Tasuma's senior, having served longer in the military, though not by much. Aviza discovered that Tasuma had an interest in human movies and novels, and that once he pranked a whole platoon of ODSTs who were piling into a theater for some R&R. Tasuma had split his body into many smaller forms and taken each seat, eliciting some 40 or so surprised apologies or exclamations from drop troopers who nearly sat on the lekgolo worms.

When the Mammoth suddenly halted, Tasuma felt urgency in some of the crewmembers and Aegis members. In response the colony moved over, occupying its empty armor and forming the two armed, two legged Mgalekgolo form. It took only a moment, and then it stood upright. It looked around, signifying that Tasuma was idle and awaiting orders.

...


Tasuma followed the team, taking up the rear once more. It stayed a little more than a dozen meters behind the team, short enough that Tasuma would be able to sprint up to the team if they required armor, and far enough that the Hunter would be able to provide indirect fire support with its assault cannon. Though it didn't have a spotter to give it accurate coordinates and degrees to fire at, Tasuma knew enough to do it himself, though with less accuracy.

Paxopolis Broadwalk

---

Her mind was still racing from the Sim and the confrontation when Tar passed the train centre's double entry doors. The cool morning breeze of Paxopolis whispered through her armour. The base's clean, wide streets were starting to fill up with people on their way to work.

Tar's stomach complained; she realised she hadn’t eaten yet today. She set off for one of her favourite places, courteously waiting for a pair of ONI analysts to cross her path. Tar had never fought Humans during the war. She’d wanted glory in battle like all her brothers, but hadn’t been allowed to enlist on account of her gender. As a result, she’d never even seen a Human until her flight to Paxopolis almost half a year ago.

Although comparatively puny, they were generally quite clever and resourceful. A lot of their behaviour was dishonourable by Sangheili standards, but mostly they were at least civil around her. There had been a few insults, but they were quickly pounced on by superiors who seemed under orders to make the co-deployment a success.

Tar was particularly impressed by their weaponry. Considering they hadn’t been blessed with reverse engineered Forerunner technology until recently, their ground armaments felt powerful. She was particularly enamoured with their M90 shotgun. The pump action seemed inconvenient, but it had the stopping power of a Gravity Hammer. She’d used a variant with an extended trigger (to accommodate her large Sangheili hands) on a few exercises already.

She crossed the street from the training centre, walked a few hundred metres down one of the main thoroughfares before heading down a side street. She saw the neon sign which read ‘Refreshment Area #0259’, and the smaller, homemade sign underneath which read ‘The Kel ‘Darsam’ in Basic Sangheili.

Two Sangheili conversing outside the large front door moved aside to let her enter. The interior was high-ceilinged and surprisingly spacious. It had been designed specifically for Elites by sympathetic builders. A bar separated an open plan area with chairs and tables and space for activities from a full kitchen. A stairway off to her right led to a mezzanine level where she could hear a group meditation being guided. Several Sangheili sat at tables nearby playing complicated games with dice and other small objects. A group of older hands loudly discussed epic poetry in the corner.

Tar moved to the bar, where an attractive young cook took her order for a mixed bowl of meat and vegetables along with a nutritious shake. She stood at the bar with her eyes closed, following the instructions of the meditation guide upstairs.

The Major had managed to push her buttons earlier; she'd almost been compelled to fight him for her honour. Perhaps she should've done - It would've forced the other traditionalists on the base to respect her, at least for a while. The meditation helped, and she slowly felt her battle reflexes quietening.

After a few minutes, she heard the door behind her open and close. He was right on time. "What're you eating?" She called out, opening her eyes and turning round.

The Sangheili that approached wore his full, crimson-colored armor, with the exception of his helmet. He was a Ranger, so a vacuum-sealed helmet was not particularly convenient attire for breakfast. “Roasted colo, I think. I need proper food to get this foul taste out of my mouth of a fruit a Human gave me. I cannot conceive of how they stomach such things.”

The Sangheili stood alongside Tar, repeating his order to the cook. His name was Kryu, and they had known each other for about as long as they had been stationed on Sarcophagus. They were both crew of the same cruiser, and though they served different units, they did often have cause to be deployed together.

Spartan Aviza observed the current situation at hand, weighing her options on where the best location would be to gather information about the compound in the distance while remaining undetected. It was obvious at the moment that the team was currently not set up for any stealth missions, they would be identified almost instantly then obliterated shortly there after if they tried anything besides keeping their distance. "It's never that simple is it.." said Aviza under her breath before she came to a conclusion on to where they could best view the point of interest and its surroundings. "It appears that our best option on observing the compound in the distance without being caught from the patrols would be to move to the Mesa in the distance, Shih, could you please ping that location for the team?" Without waiting, Aviza would start moving out towards their destination, and would be the first to arrive. When she did, she would quickly go prone and enable her Argus armor to start scanning the surroundings in great detail.

---

Vael, on his part, agreed with Aviza’s decision. While it was more exposed, nothing they had observed so far suggested that the phantom patrols would range that far from the structure. Moving closer would only worsen the risk of detection. As for actually reaching the mesa, it was not an entirely easy climb, but it was nothing the team could not handle. There was no path leading to the top, but there was a steep, but traversable, hill that led most of the way up. They would only need to climb the very last section up to the flat up of the mesa. For Vael, he tossed his sentinel beam up ahead of him so he could get a firm grip on the rocks for the final climb.

Vael did not need an order to follow Aviza’s lead. He kept himself low to avoid silhouetting too much against the sky, laying prone to observe the structure in the distance. His HUD did allow him to zoom in on objects in the distance, though it could not compete with the many specialized sensors built into Aviza’s armor. It was those that Shih was making the greatest use of to scan the area.

Even without such sensors, Vael could still see the activity around the structure, and it was, unfortunately, not encouraging. It was not just Jiralhanae occupying the structure, but he could see Humans as well. Far more of them than Jiralhanae, in fact. Most of the Brutes Vael could see seemed to be moving closed crates to and from the interior of the structure. This was the insurrectionist base, and the Jiralhanae they were dealing with were holding directly above it. Together, the two factions would present far more forces than Aegis team ever expected to face at once. The structure itself was a fairly large compound, with multiple buildings and other obstacles that would slow any approach to the central tower. He did not see any way for them to reach the center before Jiralhanae reinforcements could overwhelm them. Not alone, at least.

”The Jiralhanae are holding too close to the rebels. They will be able to assist them should we attack. I believe we will need reinforcements to deal with them. Perhaps then we can surround the central tower and prevent their leader’s escape.” Vael suggested.

Shih soon chimed in over the team’s radios. ”I’m afraid it might not be even that simple. Now that we’re close enough, I’m getting better readings on the structure. I’m detecting evidence of an underground tunnel system beneath the central tower, leading away from the compound and into Sarcophagus’ superstructure. I can only begin to guess at the purpose of the tunnels, but the point is that the rebels may have an underground escape route planned in the event of an attack. If we want to stop them here, we’ll have to get into that tower quickly.”

As she was giving her explanation, the AI highlighted the relevant sections of the compound on their respective HUDs, though she soon also highlighted the Brute cruisers above them. “Luckily, I don’t think the Brute ships are going to give us much trouble. Based on everything I can get on sensors, their ships are in pretty poor shape. I’m not even picking up shields on anything but the corvette. I guess the Brutes haven’t had access to proper maintenance these last few years. If we call in the battle group, they should mop the floor with them.”

Having moved with the rest of the team to the plateau, Lucas scoped up on the structure, or structures, as it had turned out, and watched the movements of those below. The Jiralhanae were definitely patrolling the outer area of the crater-like area but the interior was being patrolled by the Insurrectionists, which provided the team a potent advantage. "Before we do that, myself and a couple other members of the team are outfitted with active camo. If Grikgar is outfitted with enough ordinance, and I brought some grenades that we can jerry rig some charges out of, we can sabotage some things before calling in the battle group, particularly things that Shih marks as important. And while the rest of the team pushes in at lightning speed to take advantage of the confusion, we can sneak in and find the URF leader."

Granted, they were still a fairly small team to split up in such a way, but if things played out right, then they could maybe even get the two groups to turn on each other. "Let's face it, these are greater numbers than we were expecting and we don't necessarily have the time to come up with too many more ideas. Plus, maybe the two groups will turn on each other when there are plasma charges destroying critical URF infrastructure at this base."

Ben had followed the rest of the group to the plateau. He saw Grikgar following him, and turned to the Unggoy briefly when he heard the reason he was following so close.

"Shadow if you want, but be careful." He listened to Ryker's speech, then realized something rather embarrassing. He turned off the coms on his suit for a moment as he quickly conversed with his AI.

"Phong, does this suit come with active camo?"

"Yes, it most certainly does. Don't tell me you forgot about it."

"I haven't actually used it in- never mind. Can you create a shortcut command for it so that I can activate it on eye contact with the symbol in my HUD?"

"Processing request. Compiling program. Rendering icon. Done." No sooner than Phong had spoken did an active camouflage symbol appear on his helmet's screen:



"Thanks." Ben reactivated his coms, knowing that too long of a gap in communications might give cause for an inquiry. Unexplained outages in communication could serve as cover for and a sign of unauthorized contacts with rebels and enemies, after all. If there was no cause to hide one's discourse, why turn off the mic? Fortunately, Ben knew the cutoff point after which the UNSC would find such a thing to be suspicious; one minute and seventeen seconds exactly. Anything less could be seen as a hardware failure or a momentary software glitch.

"Sounds like a good plan. What type of infrastructure are we talking about?"

The Kel 'Darsam - off Paxopolis Broadwalk

---

Tar chuckled and patted her comrade affectionately on the back. "If the Humans gave you poison, would you eat that too?" She enjoyed the regular meetings and light hearted banter with Kryu more than she probably let on. It provided temporary solace for her, especially as her deployment to Sarcophagus stretched from weeks into months.

Kryu shrugged. “I am not convinced that was not their intention. It was sweet at first, but the aftertaste was horrid. I still feel that I can taste it. The last time they gave me something of theirs to eat, it was most acceptable. Pleasant, even. Perhaps they were attempting to earn my trust?” He said with a short grunt.

Their food came quickly - popular dishes were pre-prepared and kept hot for the breakfast rush which was due in 10 minutes or so. Tar devoured hers, foregoing utensils over holding the bowl up and grabbing food with her tongue and mandibles.
“So, I had an...interesting simulation...with some fresh recruits just now.” Tar ventured in between mouthfuls. “Such an array of characters - three sessions in and they’re still as diverse as the seasons. It seems ONI doesn’t like making things easy for me! How was your training exercise yesterday?”

Kryu huffed, shaking his head slightly before pausing to take a drink. “All but one of my recruits have never so much as used a thruster pack before, but that is fine. The ones that have never flown do not know what they are doing, so they listen to me. It’s the one with experience that gives me trouble. He has his own technique, and does not wish to stray from it. So, yesterday, he comes in too quickly for his landing, does a poor job of handling the impact, and breaks his leg. The last I saw him, he was arguing with the medics.”

"We're certainly a stubborn kind, aren't we?" Tar slurped her shake. "So many returning from war with rushed, incomplete training. They now hide behind hero status, claiming imaginary feats of valour. Tar heard herself speak and realised she had assumed an overly negative tone.
She had feats of valour too, despite not serving in the war. Her Keep had been attacked by surprise, and she'd fought them off with her own soldiers. But she seldom felt comfortable talking about those feats. She had failed her father by allowing him to be captured. The shame still threatened to overwhelm her years later. She'd only managed to hint to Kryu what had transpired, so it was no wonder blurting it out in front of the recruits had shaken her.

Even if she had wanted to gloat, she would've needed to embellish some of it. Much of that battle was clouded by a red haze in her mind, preventing her from recalling some details. The clearest memory she had was tentatively asking her trusted lieutenant about what he'd seen several days after. She would never forget the look on his face. Raw fear, of her.

Tar decided to change the subject. "Have you heard any more whispers of an actual mission, outside Paxopolis?"

Again, Kryu shook his head. “I haven’t heard anything specific. I know our commanders have put the garrison on alert, but no one is saying what we are on alert against. I am wondering if we are simply being tested? I believe many of the recruits sent here are chosen based on how well they will get along with former enemies. Perhaps they want to see if we still have the skill and discipline necessary to defend this place?” He reasoned.

“Shaking down the base would put everyone in their place, whether that is at the barricades or on the next shuttle back to Sanghelios.” Tar agreed, thoughtfully tasting the last strips of meat in her bowl.

After a short pause to have some of his breakfast, Kryu gave Tar a curious look. “You are still wanting to be reassigned from here, aren’t you.” He asked, though he still did not know the exact reason why she had been looking to leave.

---

Vael hummed to himself, taking a moment to observe the defenses and other points of interest that Shih was highlighting in the compound. Walls and other fortifications, turrets, clusters of soldiers, there were plenty of obstacles for them to get through to reach the center.

”There is some possibility that these two groups will turn on each other in the confusion, but we should not rely on it. And if they have an escape plan prepared, I do believe these cowardly rebels will try to go to ground no matter who they think is attacking them. As soon as they are alerted to an attack, we need to reach the central structure quickly if we are to catch them.” Vael reasoned. He gave another look at the defenses, particularly what appeared to be an anti-aircraft turret on the near side of the compound. ”The battle group can land reinforcements when they arrive, while we move to pursue their leader. But not all of us are equipped to sneak through such heavy defenses. I suggest we move forward with Spartan Ryker’s plan to sneak in, for those of us who are able, and sabotage that anti-aircraft turret. That will clear a path for a dropship to insert the rest of the team directly onto the central structure.”

"I like the idea of causing chaos and confusion among the two factions present, though if we are going to call in reinforcements, the anti-aircraft cannons and other defenses will need to be dealt with first. Sending in a team with active camouflage, as Spartan Ryker suggested, is a sound plan, and I say we act upon it when the chance arrives." said Spartan Aviza, still prone upon the mesa. "The question is though, who here has active camouflage and will join us on this short but very important stealth mission? Remember, the longer we wait, the worse this whole situation could get. It is better that we handle the problem at hand so they do not develop into something more serious." If it was up to her, and it wasn't, she would have called quite a few MAC-Blasts down upon the complex, wiped them all out, and called it a day before any of the hostiles would know what happened. Aviza was very straight forward like that at times, but deep down she knew that was not going to work for the current mission.

Ryker's form flickers from view very briefly before coming back into sight. "I would never ask my teammates to run a job I wouldn't. I suggested the plan, I'll help carry it out." The SPARTAN-IV had no qualms about helping to carry this out, if not doing the job himself. Black Ops cells rarely had the kind of support that Aegis was getting, and they could rarely afford to send out more than one man even for an important job like this.

"If no one else wants to go, just give me the charges and some time. Wouldn't be the first time I've planted explosive charges solo."

Roy and Elna made their way to the designated way point that the gracious and ever benovlennt Spartan Lead Aviza had set for them and for once they followed through and found themselves with the team. Taking cover, Elna held up a over watch position on their rear incase any smart brutes or jackals decided they wanted to come through and pick a fight with the elite team of questionable operatives. While everyone made their pitches on how to take down the URF and the covvie rememnants. To Elna it didn't really matter the thinking part of the job was not in her job description she just laid down bodies where they were required to fall, for her it was just another waking minutes in this unyielding hell hole.

"Perhaps instead of just turning this camp into an afterthought with the MAC, we identify the HVT and then blast it. Or don't, I'm impartial maybe your AI have some witty statement to back this up." He says checking his PDA briefly before slithering up to Vael and Aviza where he expected some kind of daily validation or maybe a pat on the back which would make his ego jump through the roof.

---

Vael did not take his eyes off of the compound below, though he did respond to Spartan Ryker. ”I will join you. We will need to move quickly and avoid discovery, but we may also have to ensure there is no one to discover the charges before they detonate. We should make sure that our reinforcements are ready to join the battle the very moment the rebels are put on alert. The construct…Shih, can it send a message informing the battle group of this plan so they can be ready for our signal?”

”She can, yes.” Shih replied with some noticeable offense in her tone. ”There is always some small risk, but if I send the message as a short, encrypted data burst, then the rebels shouldn’t be able to intercept it. Or at least, they won’t understand what they intercepted until it is too late.

Vael nodded towards Aviza, as it was her suit the AI was inhabiting. ”Then you should do so. Our reinforcements need to be ready to act.”

”Already working on it. As for Petty Officer Younan’s concerns, he does have a point. We still don’t know who we are supposed to be capturing here, but I think the rebels themselves can help us figure that out. Once all Hell breaks loose, they are going to be scrambling to get their leader out of there. Spartan Aviza’s armor is equipped to easily intercept their communications, so if we decrypt them, we might be able to learn what we need.” The AI suggested.

While the others were speaking, Vael slowly crawled back from the edge of the Mesa, making sure he was far enough away that he did not silhouette against the sky when he stood back to his feet. ”Someone who is equipped to observe from distance should remain here to assist in guiding us through the compound.”

There were plenty in the team already equipped to go down into the enemy base. Yalu was rarely ever requisitioned with active camouflage like a spec ops elite, but at the very least he could be useful from a distance by taking Commander Vael's suggestion.

"I can guide you," Yalu said. "One of my primary talents is warding death away from my team."

Yalu peered down at his carbine. "And we will all be ready to head an assault on your order. These rebels and brutes will not have any time to think. I think the shock will be spiced if we fire on the brutes with human firearms and then the humans with covenant weaponry."

The Kel 'Darsam - off Paxopolis Boardwalk

---

Tar looked at her comrade. Her face must have been a picture and she hadn’t even known it. “Yes I… I have unfinished business with the Jiralhanae.” She suddenly got the urge to tell Kryu the whole story, or at least what she could remember. The recruits would probably tell everyone they saw, meaning the whole base would be privy in a few weeks. Better he heard it from her.

As Tar ground the last bit of her food between her mandibles and considered how to proceed, her helmet, sat on the bar beside her bowl, chirruped loudly. She stared at it. They didn’t get orders very often at all.

Putting her bowl down, she clicked her helmet back into place and hit replay on last comms.

“All units will report back to the Repentant Proselyte immediately.” were the simple instructions.

She looked at Kryu, who was rapidly finishing off his breakfast in anticipation. “They’re calling us back to the ship.” She said. Despite her wobbly morning so far, Tar was excited. This hadn’t happened before, and could only mean one thing; there was at least a chance they’d go into battle. “They must have heard us talking.” She grinned.

She paid for both of their breakfasts and patted Kryu on the back again, letting him lead the way to the exit.

The broad street was alive with activity when they emerged from the side street of the Kel ‘Darsam. Sailors and marines of all species were quickly trooping from various buildings and heading towards the shuttleport. Some were unarmed, jogging quickly as they were unencumbered. Others were fully armoured and sporting assault weapons.

Tar and Kryu nudged their way into the flowing crowd, finding space next to a platoon of ODSTs. They were tall and strong by Human standards, and each wore a fitted black undersuit with the flaming skull insignia. Tar idly guessed their oversuits must've been stored on board their star ship.

One of the ODSTs noticed Tar looking and winked up at her, chewing gum and fingering the pistol in his chest holster. "Hey sexy." He called, blowing a kiss. Tar growled and turned to Kryu. "Hopefully the base isn’t under attack too, with us all standing around in the open. Let's move." She began picking her way through the slow moving crowd, opening a hole for her comrade to follow.

Kryu spared only a glance to the Humans. To him, their behaviors were far from consistent, and sometimes irrational in ways that he never would have expected before the end of the war. He had fought against them during the time of the Covenant, and his experiences against their warriors did not prepare him for the…oddities he would experience as their ally. Nevertheless, there were far more important concerns at the moment. He caught up to Tar and kept pace close beside her.

“Whatever is happening must be related to our warriors being put on alert. I doubt our superiors would collect us all from the city just for a test. If that is so, then it is strange they did not inform us of any threats. I dislike this secrecy.” Kryu commented.

Upon pushing her way through the crowd a ways, Tar found the reason everyone was moving so slow. A cargo platform carrying boxes of equipment had tipped over, covering most of the road.

After navigating carefully past it, the road was still busy but there was much more room to manoeuvre. Tar broke into an ambling jog alongside Kryu, as excited as her comrade to find out the meaning of their orders.

They slalomed past groups of soldiers in varying states of combat readiness and teams of base personnel heading for their regular duty stations. A few other Sangheili joined in, taking advantage of the course through the crowds Tar and Kryu were creating.

After traversing a few streets, roughly one kilometre in total, they reached one of the entrances to Paxopolis shuttleport. Given that Paxopolis did not have regular, civilian contact with other colonies, the majority of the shuttleport’s traffic were generally military transports. Though, it was particularly busy now.

Fortunately, once they were in the shuttleport itself, the soldiers boarding their dropships were far more organized than the civilians in the streets going about their day. For Tar and Kryu, they lined up to board the same phantom heading up to their cruiser, the Repentant Proselyte.

After they both headed up the grav-lift and found their places in the phantom, Kryu nudged Tar’s side with his elbow to grab her attention. “Maybe we are leaving Sarcophagus? We’re not under attack, else the city would already be going into lockdown, but I cannot imagine what aside from real combat would call for the aid of an entire cruiser.”

“Perhaps.” Tar agreed. “Not just one cruiser either. A lot of the sailors making their way back were from different ships. It seems most of the fleet could be mobilising.”

“I heard it could be a Brute battle group.” Said a Minor opposite them. Despite her extreme scepticism of the young male’s source of intel, Tar felt all her nerves tingle at the thought.

“A Brute ambush, outside the sphere? They have no honour!” someone called out.

“It sounds like a fair fight to me!” A Major at the far end stood up and hammered his chest. As one, every Sangheili in the Phantom’s hold began rhythmically beat their fists against their armour and produced a deep, threatening sound from the back of their throat.

This continued for much of the short journey up to the Repentant Proselyte, with different officers taking turns to whip them into a frenzy. By the time the Phantom docked in one of their cruiser’s enormous hangar bays, Tar was ready to tear apart the first Brute she saw with her own hands.

They all exited the Phantom via the grav lift and headed for one of the many doors into the ship proper. Tar knew Rangers prepared for battle in a separate area to her, toward the stern, so she caught Kryu before they parted ways. “If i don’t see you before - good luck, brother.” They shared a heartfelt salute.

Kryu hummed for just a moment, then gave a slight laugh. “I would wish you luck, sister, but I know you do not need it.”

Tar chuckled. “Just make sure I have a ship to come back to.” She playfully patted his arm and began walking toward the SpecOpsCon for debrief.

(Still here! Not dead. Sorry for the short post, but I get the sense that there's not much for Ben to do atm.)



Ben turned to Vael. If they were to split up, it would be impossible for him to keep his eyes on everyone at the same time. If treason or desertion were to happen on the group he wasn't a part of, he couldn't stop it.

"Vael, which team should I be with? My armor configuration isn't ideal for long-distance observation. At least, not that far. I'm only equipped to deal with anything within the distance of a UNSC sniper's range. If you think it wise that I help sabotage that turret, I will do so."

---

Vael looked down at the Spartan, Ben. He did take a moment to consider his offer of assistance, but ultimately, he did not think it wise to group too many of them together for an infiltration. “You should stay here, try to help from a distance if you can. We should not bring too many more for this task. Bringing too many of us will only increase the chances of detection.” He reasoned.

Vael decided to leave behind the sentinel beam he had been carrying, as he would need his hands free and did not have the space on his armor to carry it. He joined Spartans Ryker and Aviza, then started to climb back down the side of the mesa along with him. “Have your people improved the capabilities of your active camouflage since the war? We will need to remain cloaked for our entire approach to the structure.”

Ryker nodded as he took a step down. “It’s based on the Sangheili design, or at least mine is. I’m not sure how standard issue it is, since the last unit I was with was working closely with a Swords Spec Ops team. I’ll have the battery power to get there and then some as needed.” Reaching the bottom of the mesa, Lucas opened a line directly to Major Yalu. “Can ya read me, Major?”

"Receiving you, Ryker," Yalu's quick sangheili voice responded clearly across the comms channel. "I have waypoints on each of you through my optics. I have my eyes on the lookouts and security devices ahead of you. Advance behind concealment and sound off when you are ready to infiltrate."

Yalu's noticeably human language towards Ryker reflected their simulation time. He had not adapted fully to human battle-chatter, but he was further ahead than expected for so little collaborative mission experience.

For the trio, it was not difficult for them to move up to the rim of the crater-like area the structure was situated in. The only patrols moving beyond the rim seemed to be the phantoms, and they were easy enough to avoid for just the two of them, with or without active camouflage. Though, such concealment would be required to reach the structure itself, as their approach was across wide open ground.

As Yalu could see from the Mesa, the Forerunner structure did not look like a military installation. Surrounding the central tower were a few smaller structures. The Forerunner “walls”, if they could be called that, ran between the smaller buildings and appeared to be vertically stacked tubes. They did not form a complete perimeter by themselves, though the rebels had put up their own barricades to fill in the gaps.

Their target, the AA turret, was a Human made autocannon that had been installed on top of one of the smaller Forerunner buildings. They had a few approaches available to them. The Human barricades were shorter and would be easier to get over, though more of the rebels could be seen near them. The Forerunner walls were taller, but if they worked together, they could potentially scale them.

Looking at the barricades in front of the three of them, Ryker took a moment to zoom in on the rebel ones with his DMR, pinging the URF personnel that he could see at the one nearest to them. “How’s activity passed the pings, Major? How are the patrols spaced?” Having gotten closer like he, Vael and Aviza had, Lucas knew he had a much more limited field of view over the complex than he had on the mesa the others were at.

“Oh, and while you’re at it, do you see any extra explosives unattended? Preferably something like Brute shredders.” The auto turret was large caliber from what he could tell and the URF had fortified its construction so it wouldn’t be downed by a single explosion, and the SPARTAN-IV knew the Brutes liked to overclock the explosives in their grenades, making them perfect for extra oomph.

Yalu scanned the outlines his heads-up-display found to track. "The barricade ahead has five enemies...four small arms...correction, five. AR mounted within their reach. They cannot be trusted not to loiter." Yalu wrinkled his mandibles at the cigarettes they smoked as if he could smell them from here. "The tall wall nearest to you has one enemy, small arms, patrolling left. You might boost one another over in camouflage -- Commander Vael is tall enough. If you are quiet and to the enemy's back you may avoid his notice, but if you slay him you will have only as long as it takes for his brothers to notice his absence. What is your decision?"

“My advice is to avoid killing anyone, doing so will inform all personnel within the complex that there are hostiles within the premises. If that does happen, our priority target may slip away before we even start dismantling their defenses. That would lead to a mission failure, which I will not allow. For the moment, I feel that placing said explosives in critical points then detonating them at the correct time is paramount to our success here.” Said Aviza, staying close to the rest of her team.

”Agreed.” Vael replied. He peered slightly over the rim of the crater, looking down on the wall below. ”I should be able to boost you both up, then you can pull me up. We should be quick, and make sure the guard is looking away. The disruptions to our active camouflage may be noticeable. And if at any point we are discovered, I recommend calling for our reinforcements to jump into battle immediately. If nothing else, they will be able to stop the mongrels from landing any more troops from the cruisers above us.”

Vael got ready to stand once more, but first turned his gaze towards the others. “We have our approach. Are we ready to move? If so, we can engage active camouflage.”

I am ready to move out immediately, if we all agree and understand what we are to do? said Aviza, quickly having Shih ping the location of the nearest enemy and their most recent movements to everyone in the squad. She would take no chances, they had one shot at this and she was going to ensure everything went very smoothly.

Lucas shook his head as he drew one of the energy daggers from its specialized sheath and prepared to leap over the edge of the crater. “As someone who’s done this kind of thing regularly, I’m going to say that risking being seen out of the concern the one person MIGHT be noticed missing is really dumb.” Ryker crouches and leaps, activating his active camo as he lands and begins sliding. “Just saying. Major, keep an eye on that lone guard please. If he comes back towards us while we’re scaling, let us know.”

"Understood."

Vael acknowledged the others, then engaged his active camouflage. Being that they had their allied IFFs, they would be able to track each other’s location even with active camouflage, which would help them coordinate.

Vael climbed over the rim of the crater, albeit slowly and carefully. While his camouflage could handle him moving as quickly as he pleased, he still did not want to needlessly disturb the ground. They would be heading down a fairly steep incline at first, so knocking down even a few rocks or clumps of dirt at the top could cause some noticeable movement from the perspective of the compound below.

“While I welcome speaking your mind, the comment was out of line and unwelcomed Spartan Ryker, but what is done is done and we shall move on.” said Aviza as she activated her active camouflage and carefully climbed down into the crater following closely behind Vael. It was times like these that she was very grateful for her ARGUS-Class Mjolnir armor,and its advanced information gathering equipment built into it. “Shih, keep all of us updated on the current ware-abouts of the hostiles around us and if anything changes, please.”

Lucas reached the bottom of the crater ahead of the other two, his experience in infiltrating enemy encampments like this over the course of the previous war serving him well. Upon reaching the bottom, he moves quickly and carefully to the bottom of the area they’ve chosen to go up the wall at, ignoring Aviza’s comment. Sometimes even the team lead had to be reminded that there are those with experiences that they don’t have, though that rarely mattered.

Vael had started moving more quickly once he got past the steeper parts of the incline. It was important that they reach the wall as quickly as they could get away with, though that would hardly be the most difficult part of their infiltration. He stopped at the wall, remaining as still as he could until the guard passed over him. Then, he got into position to boost up the first of the Spartans that came to him. Unless he was overestimating the Humans’ attempt at adapting active camouflage, he did not expect to be fully revealed when they touched one another, but it could disrupt the field enough for them to be noticed if someone was looking right at them.
As Aviza was fed real time information about her current surroundings, the Spartan Team Leader hung close behind Vael, but not close enough as to disrupt anyones active camouflage. As soon as he stopped at the wall in front of them, Aviza would do the same, silently nodding at the large Sangheili to let him know that she was ready to proceed with being boosted over the perimeter wall. Carefully but somewhat gracefully, she would use the boost and be first over the wall, awaiting on the other side for her fellow team members to follow, then to help Vael over as well.

Lucas waited until the count of thirty, when Aviza had reached Vael, before moving over to the Sangheili and getting a boost up. Once he reached the top, he turned and held a hand out to him so that he could help boost the large alien up. The lone patroller was still currently walking with their back to the trio, but that could change quickly, so with his other hand, Ryker exchanged his plasma dagger for one of his standard issue knives and poised it to throw if the man turned around. While a gun would be potentially more accurate, even a silenced weapon would make more noise than a knife thrown through the air.

When the pair pulled up Vael over the wall, he followed through with that momentum to roll over the top and drop down to the other side as quickly and quietly as he could. There was a fair amount of ambient noise from the general bustle of activity around the compound, so, they did not need to remain entirely silent, but a wrong move could still reveal them. The guard was soon to turn around, but by that point, Vael was on the ground, and the three of them were no longer in contact with one another.

From the Mesa, not everything in the compound was visible behind the wall, so they could not have planned ahead. They had to see what was ahead of them and figure out their approach quickly. Between them and their target was a sort of courtyard , which was currently filled with crates both Covenant and Human in origin. From what Vael could observe quickly, there were Human workers that were taking the mostly unorganized weapons from the Covenant crates and sorting them by type into crates of their own, then others would carry them into the main structure. On the opposite side of the courtyard, Jiralhanae were carrying closed Human crates up onto a landing pad and loading them into their phantoms. For the three infiltrators, they would need to pick one path through it all and get to the AA turret.

Aviza observed the scene before them, “Shih, I have an idea.” began the Spartan, “If I hooked you into the facilities systems, is there any chance you could cause a distraction? Perhaps even permanently shut down the Anti-Aircraft weaponry so we would not need to use explosives?” Doing so would enable them to silently and stealthy remove their objective without the need of any explosives, putting them all in less danger in the long run. Many other scenarios ran through her mind but this one was at the forefront.

“Are you serious right now? All due respect, fire team leader, using explosives is the most efficient use of our time. We don’t have the luxury of finding an access port to plug the AI into.” Ryker glanced over his shoulder. “The SAFEST option might be to have Shih shut it down, but safe isn’t necessarily fast and we need fast.” And he didn’t have to mention, or he hoped he didn’t have to mention it, but if the URF caught on to Shih in their systems, they could capture her.

Shih did not bother joining in on the conversation until she had made the scans she needed to figure out the viability of Aviza’s approach. Granted, with access to the Argus sensor suite, that was only a few seconds. ”Clever…I didn’t give them enough credit.” Shih remarked, though she elaborated right away. “Whether I can access the turret remotely depends on if it is networked, or operating independently. I can’t tell that from here, but what I can tell from EM signatures is that these rebels have managed to tap into the Forerunner structure’s grid to power the turret. And they probably didn’t stop there. Now, Forerunner safety protocols won’t apply to anything they managed to jury rig into the grid, so if you get me to the right Forerunner console, I might be able to give them enough of a power surge to break more than just the one turret. In fairness, though…I should say that Ryker is not exactly wrong either. Explosives would be the faster and more reliable way to take out the objective.”
“If I was not serious, do you think I would have used what little we have of our time asking Shih if it was possible to do so? With all due respect, Spartan Ryker, the final decision lands upon Vael and myself, and when the time comes, we shall act accordingly.” Aviza said as she very carefully made her way through the first set of obstacles and towards their first objective. “Explosives it is then.” thought Aviza to herself as she headed up the ramp towards their first objective. ”Heading towards first objective, provide me with cover. said Aviza. Once she had reached the top of the ramp, Aviza would move towards the anti-aircraft cannon with great care, making sure to not be seen or cause any unwanted attention. It would only take a few short seconds before she reached the objective, and when she did, the Spartan would remove the outer panel from the weapon, sliding the explosive into its interior. “First explosive planted, let’s move onto the next.”

"I see a human officer in a window overlooking the landing pads to your two o'clock," Yalu interjected. "Whatever is between yourselves and the turret, take a wider route if possible. The floodlights I can see lighting the area may make your shimmer catch his eye."

Vael growled lightly under his breath, but nevertheless, he had focused wholly on the task ahead. He followed Aviza’s lead, and Yalu’s advice. The workers were not being vigilant for intruders, so it was easy enough to weave between the crates and make his way to the base of one of the smaller Forerunner buildings, on which the turret had been assembled. He avoided the line of sight of the window from the main structure and ended up pressing himself up against the building, just under the turret. Aviza had moved up and was working quickly, but the door just beside Vael opened up just before Aviza finished with the first set of explosives.

It was a pair of Humans that walked out of the Forerunner building, one older woman, and a much younger male. They were not in armor, and by the mention of ‘voltage regulators’ that Vael heard as they passed, they were probably technicians. Vael was not spotted when they walked out, so he was keen to just let them pass at first. However, they were moving around towards the ramp, and could not be allowed to reach the turret above. He turned his head briefly towards Ryker and nodded his head. They would need to be dealt with.

Ryker nodded in response to Vael and gave only the slightest warning as an energy dagger left its specialized sheath before the younger man stopped suddenly as the SPARTAN-IV’s hand caught his mouth. The dagger struck twice, once at the base of the neck, severing the spine and preventing any sound from escaping his mouth, and again between his ribs, puncturing his heart and killing him instantly. Lucas left the older woman to Vael, knowing the Sangheili’s effectiveness at removing unaware humans from any given equation almost first hand.

Vael moved alongside Ryker, matching his pace and timing his own attack with the Spartan’s. Ryker had used a blade, though Vael did not want to risk the glow or noise of activating his sword. Instead, he simply grabbed the woman’s head in one hand and, with a quick, simple motion, twisted until her neck snapped. At the same time, he grabbed a hold of her arm with his free hand to make sure the body did not make noise hitting the ground. Naturally, the close contact with the pair of technicians did break both Vael and Ryker’s active camouflage, though they could re-cloak without being seen if they were quick enough.

Once the pair was down, he dragged the young man’s body back to the door the pair had entered and opened it, looking inside warily before moving the body in and to one side. “Tangos down. We’re clear here.”

Unfortunately, just as Ryker finished speaking, another complication emerged from the building, trailing somewhat far behind the other two. It was a young, apprentice technician, no more than a teenager, but his eyes still went to the other two quickly, with their killers still holding the bodies. “Hey!” He said, briefly pausing out of confusion and fear. He was just a few meters back, but still out of Vael’s reach. He had not yet alerted the guards, but that would only take one shout.

“Well shit, now we have two downed hostiles and this is going to most likely cause us some serious trouble somewhere down the line. Did I not advise against killing anyone at the moment?” said Aviza into her open com after the two targets had been taken out very carefully and quietly. She was swiftly heading back to the group and had almost reached them when the third unknown presented itself. [Identification - human male - Teenage] flashes the Spartans HUD, she did not need anymore information. When the young man called out to them, Aviza was quick to respond to her team first, then to the man present. If there were not two corpses currently being dragged off, I would be able to handle this situation much easier. Do not kill this target, incapacitate him once I have his attention.” Aviza would then flip to an open channel so the young man in front of her could hear her, but no other hostile in the vicinity would.

Taking a knee, so that she would appear much less imposing, Aviza would speak in a tone of voice the others had never heard before, one calming, almost soothing. ”You are with the URF? A little bit young to be a soldier aren't we? I know you are scared and confused at the moment, I would also be in your position.” Aviza would show her hands to the young man, letting him know that she did not pose a threat, and was not planning to injure him. ”I truly am sorry about your fellow URF soldiers, I would have preferred if the situation had not come to that, but they fought back and tried to kill us. I swear to you, if you come over to me, I will take off my helmet and we can talk face to face about what is happening. As a Spartan, I give you my word that no harm will come to you, and so does the rest of my squad.”

Ryker moved first as soon as Aviza got the kids to turn around, one of his SMGs flew through the air and struck him in the back of the head, knocking him unconscious and into the Argus armor wearing Spartan’s arms. “If we’re done being humanitarians, we need to move.” Now they had two bodies and an unconscious person to hide, though fortunately it wouldn’t be for very long. Regardless however, it couldn’t wait and the SPARTAN-IV moved to pick up his thrown weapon.

Vael had to contain his frustration at what he considered to be a waste of time and effort, not to mention an unnecessary risk. Ryker, at least, had acted quickly, but they were all fortunate that the young Human froze in shock instead of screaming right away. Had it been a more disciplined rebel that found them, they would have been forced into a fight prematurely.

Vael dragged the body he was carrying into the building beside them, then re-engaged his active camouflage. ”It is time. Your construct can call our reinforcements. We should make our way to the central structure.”

As per their plan, Shih sent an encrypted databurst to the battle group in waiting. It would only take moments for the ships to come out of slipspace right above them.

The ship was alive with activity, even to Tar, who was a relatively late arrival. Sailors dashed between sections, making last minute checks to the cruiser's status. Excited soldiers moved from their barracks to an armoury, before heading fully laden to the hangar bays and air locks. Tar would normally make way for them, but she was now dying to find out what was in store for her and her fellow Commandos.

She breezed through a security checkpoint and a set of blast doors to the Special Operations Control opened in front of her. It was a smart set of rooms that included barracks, a mess hall, an armoury, training facilities and a variety of meeting rooms.

It was from one of the meeting rooms that a Human female Tar didn't recognise emerged. She guessed she was probably a high ranking ONI officer, utterly anonymous in her dress and expression. She gave Tar a polite nod as they passed each other.

She barely had time to wonder why ONI was present in person on a Sangheili ship, when she heard the familiar voice of Commander Skell calling to her from the meeting room.

"Ah, Tar! Just who I needed to see. Come in here and close the door."

Tar obeyed, sloping into the long, tall meeting room and closing the door behind her.

Skell sat at the head of an imposing circular table with a holo unit embedded into the centre. He was an experienced soldier, with one of his mandibles missing and scars all over his exposed hands and arms. Tar had heard lurid tales of his savagery during the war, and felt them incongruous with his jovial attitude. This made it hard for her to trust him completely, but so far he’d proven to be a wise and strategic commander.

“We don’t have much time, so i’ll be brief.” Skell began from his seated position. “The shipmaster…” He motioned to the holo. “has informed me of a risky mission. There are three Jiralhanae ships on the other side of Sarcophagus, holding position over a den of rebels. Our battle group will take care of the Brutes, but there is a team on the ground that aims to capture the leader of the rebels. The plan is to insert this team into the very heart of the base while reinforcements assault the base from the outside. This mission will require a skilled pilot, so you will take a phantom, pick up this ground team, and drop them into the base. If you have questions, then hurry, because you have one minute.” Skell explained quickly. His usual, relaxed attitude had been replaced by one that was uncharacteristically straightforward, so their time constraints were easy to believe.

"But sir!" Tar objected, moving forward a pace. "If there are Brutes to kill I would much rather be with my brothers than ferrying operators around. Can't you get one of the regular pilots to 'volunteer'?" Tar couldn't shake the feeling that a clue to her father's whereabouts lay in one of those ships. If there was any chance she could be part of a boarding party, she was going to take it.
Skell was quick to snap back in a firm voice, giving no ground literally or figuratively. “That was not a question, that was a complaint, and I did not give you permission to complain. The mission requires a skilled pilot who can deal with ground fire, and that is you. If you survive the insertion, you can support your brothers from the sky.”

Tar wilted a little, but recovered quickly. She had been given an important job, which she did find quite flattering. "Yes sir." She saluted.

Skell brought his fist to his chest and slightly bowed his head. “Good, then get to your phantom.” He said, though has he started to approach Tar, he placed a hand on her shoulder and gave the Sangheili equivalent to a grin. “And you need not be too upset. The heavy plasma cannon of a phantom will rip apart a Brute just as well as your blade. Now hurry, we go to a standby position in 5 minutes.”
Tar leapt into action; 5 minutes was not a lot of time in Sangheili military speak. Nodding eagerly, she turned and ran from the room. There was no time to equip in the armoury, so she exited via the blast doors and headed for the closest hangar. Special operations maintained several enhanced Phantoms near SpecOpsCon, and Tar knew they carried a small personal weapons arsenal onboard. That would have to do for this mission.

Skell got in contact via her helmet comms as she passed impatiently back through a hangar airlock. “I’ve found you a co-pilot; he's waiting for you in Lot 51. The team you’re picking up are Callsign Aegis. Good luck."

"Understood. Thank you sir." Tar replied, stepping from the airlock into a crowded hangar. Ground crews flitted between rows of parked Phantoms like insects feeding on ripe fruit. She found Lot 51 by checking signs suspended from the ceiling and began picking her way toward it. Halfway there, she stopped to grab a weapon strap and two fire grenades from a passing cargo platform.

"Commander!" A hoarse voice called to her. Tar looked up to find a short, stocky Sangheili waving to her from underneath her Phantom. She jogged the remaining distance, saluted to and then took the extended arm of the Male. "You must be my co-pilot?" She asked. "Prax Vol, at your service!" The Sangheili half said, half yelled as dozens of Phantom engines started at once. Let's get you in the hot seat, Sister!" Tar nodded, gesturing for Vol to lead the way.

They headed up the grav lift to the Phantom's interior. Tar quickly checked the vehicle's armoury in a locker next to the cockpit. There was a decent, if slightly lackluster selection of assault weapons and sidearms along with two fuel rod cannons. She pulled a Storm rifle from the rack and clipped it onto the strap she’d collected earlier.

Pushing on into the cockpit, Tar found Vol conducting pre-flight checks in the co-pilot’s seat. He turned at beamed at her. “We’re ready to leave, commander.”

“Call me Tar. Good.” She slung her Storm rifle over the back of her seat before settling in and strapping down. The interface above the viewing window showed a countdown to jump.

27...26...25…

“So, where are we headed?” Vol asked.

“Paxopolis surface. We need to pick up a team who're going after a human rebel leader.”

“Ah. I smell ONI treachery.”

“I think you’re right.”

The countdown reached zero, and the whole hangar became eerily quiet. The whole fleet was now waiting for a signal from the surface. Tar counted three extra minutes in her head - Prax checked the instruments over and over again.

Suddenly, the whole hangar bay began rumbling. The slipspace jump had started; They watched it’s progress on their instrument dashboard. As soon as the energy signature died down, lights began flashing and Phantoms lifted off from their lots as one. As their vehicle was up against the wall, they had to wait for most of the others to leave before they had room to maneuver.

Tar and Vol deftly spun the Phantom round and followed the taxi path to the hangar doors. “Prostrate Disciple leaving the nest.” Vol announced over comms. “Acknowledged. Good hunting, Five One.” Hangar Control responded.

Gunning the engines, they pushed through the hangar’s forcefield and into the atmosphere above the surface of Sarcophagus. A beacon called to them from the sphere’s surface; Tar adjusted their course to head for it. After a hard descent, they leveled out within a hundred feet of the arid landscape below. Keeping close to the ground would make them harder to detect by any forward units.

Clearing a dusty cliff face, they finally made visual contact with the rebel base. The other drop ships from the Repentant Proselyte and the rest of the fleet were swarming around the outside of Forerunner facility, drawing plenty of small arms fire. “There’s Aegis team!” Prax pointed. Their waypoint led to a mesa overlooking the base, where a small collection of life forms waited. Tar flicked on the comm channel associated with the waypoint. “Aegis team, this is the Phantom Prostrate Disciple, approaching for pickup. Please climb aboard.”

Tar brought them in for a fast, controlled final descent onto the mesa, sending sheets of dust into the air. Vol kept the side doors closed to improve protection for the passengers but activated the grav lift so Aegis team could board.

The flash of a slipspace portals in the sky drew Yalu's head to twist and look at the phantom hovering its way quickly to their mesa. The IFF and the friendly comms of the pilot prompted him to shuffle to his feet and move back from the edge.

"Affirmative, Prostrate Disciple," Yalu responded, before switching back to their team channel. "Commanders, our dropship has arrived. Preparing to insert."

Yalu snatched Vael's sentinel beam up from the ground along the way to the gravity lift and spoke over his shoulder, over the loud hum of the phantom's engines. "Brothers! Prepare for battle!"

With one more short leap, the grav lift tugged at Yalu's body in its entirety and he floated up into the hatch beneath the phantom. He quickly found a place to hold on in the crew compartment. "Hail, pilots! The south-western side will be clear of anti-ship weaponry on the signal!"

---

Under the cloak of his active camouflage, Vael moved along with the other two towards the base of the central structure. There were a few ramps leading up to the roof of the structure, which was where they would be regrouping with the rest of the team. Ideally, they would be able to remain undetected until their team could be dropped in. It was about when Vael reached the ramp that the battle group dropped out of slipspace in the sky above them, and for a moment, Vael’s gaze went upwards.

As planned, their battle group included far more ships than were necessary to deal with the small Brute fleet, so as to guarantee there would be no losses. Two Autumn-class heavy cruisers, including the Chorus of Thunder at the very front, three Strident-class frigates, as well as a CCS-class battlecruiser and three SDV-class corvettes from the Swords. An alarm sounded across the compound and the rebels started to mobilize right away, but for the Brutes in their ships far above, it was already too late. The Chorus already had its MAC cannon charged and ready. Meanwhile, the Brute ships were in such a state of disrepair that most did not even have shields.

The firing of the Chorus’ MAC certainly gave meaning to its name. The near-deafening sound echoed across the landscape, and the pressure wave that accompanied it allowed one to feel the power behind it in their very bones. Without shields, the Brute cruiser on the receiving end did not stand a chance. The round ripped straight through the ship’s hull like paper, tearing the ship in half. When the two halves fell to the ground outside the structure, the ground itself shook and a massive cloud of dust was kicked up over the whole area, sweeping over the compound like a sandstorm.

Visibility had dropped rapidly, but since he knew where to look, Vael was able to spot the vague silhouette of a phantom descending on the mesa with the rest of the team. ”It is time. Detonate the charges.”

"Not all situations can be resolved with a weapon, and not all situations require one to be solved. It would be wise to keep that in mind, Spartan Ryker." said Spartan Aviza after she caught the unconscious soldier falling into her arms. Moving to her feet once more, she would carry the man into the building where the others were hiding the dead bodies of his fellow soldiers. He would be placed upon the ground in the opposite corner of the building, away from the corpses.

Aviza reenabled her active camouflage and moved along side those of the team that were currently present. All explosives have been planted, when are we planning to detonate the charges inside of the anti-aircraft cannons? inquired Aviza, as her gazed followed Vael's to the sky above. The sudden appearance of the friendly fleet above them was the only answer that Aviza needed, she quickly had Shih prepare the explosives charges, and would detonate them when the time was right or when given the order.

"So we are using a MAC cannon..." said Aviza as she observed the Chorus of Thunder's MAC cannon fire directly through the Brute cruiser. Above them, there would be a moment of silence as the weapon fired, tearing the brute ship is half, which were now falling to the surface, outside of the structure. Then came the near-deafening sound of the battle above, it echoed across the landscape and jolted those within the range of its shockwave. "I never get tired of seeing that, such a magnificent sight." by the end of her sentence, Aviza had already informed Shih to detonate the explosive charges.