The Codex 2 Story

Table of Contents

Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four

The Codex: Final Strike

 

Chapter 1: Terra (Earth)

 

            “Anda Sofadee, with the Praetor dead and his second in command, Erda Renadee also killed, you now bear the blame for the failure to excavate and protect the Codex from destruction. You are branded, in the eyes of the council, a heretic for your actions.” The Prophet of Truth paused to let these words sink into the female commander. The council sitting around the chamber was deathly silent, and the words echoed in Anda’s head, she would now be executed for following orders.

            “What do you have to say?” Demanded the Prophet of Truth, the elite stood unmoving with her eyes penetrating the holy prophet, her eyes conveyed all the words she needed to say.

            “Very well then, let this be an example to witnesses that failure does not bode well with the council, especially when it pertains to a holy forerunner structure.” His eyes swept the chamber, and then his gaze settled back onto Anda Sofadee. “You will be executed in a few units, until then, you will be subject to torture until you are at the brink of death. This way, you will realize the weight and magnitude of your failures. Pray the gods be kind in the afterlife.” The Prophet retreated from the podium without breaking sight with Anda until he moved past the chamber entrance and the doors hissed shut.

            One of the two brutes that stood behind Anda during the hearing struck her in the back and she fell forward onto the steps leading to the podium unconscious. The council sitting around the chamber then filed out without word; there was no need to spit insults as the female special-ops commander as everyone knew full well that the consequences were quite obvious. There was also no celebration for the execution of a heretic, the holy Codex was now destroyed, the annihilation of such a structure casts a shadow over any other event no matter how significant. The entire covenant would be mourning for days to come.

            As the council exited, the two brutes carelessly and silently grabbed Anda’s hooves and dragged her out of the chamber, leaving a puddle of purple blood on the steps and a trail that stained the crimson walkway. Once the main entrance doors slid smoothly shut, the chamber was quiet once again, leaving only the faint buzzing of the dimmed lights in the room. Another dark chapter has been written into Covenant history…

 

            “Alright, that should be the last of them.” Said the Chief, the remaining Spartans and ODSTs had spent the good part of the past few hours rounding up the Covenant on the ship and putting them in the brigs. Those that would not surrender however faced a swift, merciless death. The ship commander, Enda ‘Nerodee who temporarily replaced the Praetor as commander willingly surrendered the ship along with his pride but he knew that if there was any chance of retaking the ship, it would not be done with dead bodies but with ones that had beating hearts still true to the Covenant.

            “Move it along splitface.” An ODST said with distaste as he roughly shoved Enda into a holding cell with the butt of his gun. In this particular brig there were 8 cells, 4 on each side of the room with the control panel at the far wall between the cells and the entrance door on the other side of the room. There was one ODST at each cell facing the prisoners that were in them, all the high-ranking elites that weren’t dead yet. The ODST that guarded Enda looked around the brig and received nods from the other marines signalling that everything checked out, then he nodded to Red 2 standing at the control panel, the Spartan pushed a button on the panel and glossy films of energy materialized on the cell doors.

            “Okay we’re good here, let’s get out of this place and back onto the bridge.” Ordered Red 2. “You two,” he said pointing to the two ODST’s closest to the exit. “You’ll have to guard this brig.” The two soldiers nodded and moved to the doors, everyone else filed through the exit and headed towards the bridge; guarding the jail was a boring job, but at least it was easy and safe.

 

            Just as Red 2 and the rest of red team along with a handful of ODST’s double timed up to the bridge room, Mackenzie, blue team and another squad of ODST’s walked in through a set of doors on the opposite side of the room. They had just finished rounding up the last covenant prisoners on the other side of the ship.

            The Chief was quietly conversing with Lykurgus, Red 2 heard a short clip of their conversation but it wasn’t much. “This ship, the Covenant apparently calls it the Perpetual Justice, a destroyer-class which is quite interesting considering…”

            “Acting Red 1 reporting sir!” Red 2 saluted to the Chief and stood there standing perfectly straight and still. He was not only saluting to his superior, but also to Red 1, Jack Foster, who had given his life so that they could all survive. Red 2 took over his position and he was determined to make Jack proud of him. He would always remember how Red 1 always seemed like a cocky bastard whenever in battle or around Blue 1, but he also remembered how Jack was always the first one out on the front lines shooting at the covenant and putting his team mates lives above his own. Jack might’ve been cocky, but he was a great commander and Red 2 would not let him down. Ben Jefferson dropped his hand when the Chief turned about face from the control console and saluted back. However, at the mention of Red 1, Ben saw Blue 1’s helmet move slightly to the left as she flinched at his name. Although Mackenzie always acted tough and distant whenever she was subject to Red 1’s antics, everyone else in the team always suspected that she really had feelings for him even though she never showed it. Now they weren’t so sure. Blue 1 had been as tough as nails ever since Jack’s death, cold and ruthless when they were rounding up the prisoners; that’s how she had always been. However, at the sight of her flinch, Red 2 thought that there might be some truth to the rumours after all.

            “Blue 1 reporting sir! All remaining Covenant troops have been put in holding cells, the ship is clear sir.” Mackenzie reported, she didn’t salute the Chief so he just turned to her and nodded and moved on with the rest of the briefing. The Chief stood on top of the raised platform which housed all the control panels while everyone stood below in a semi circle around the platform.

            “Alright people, I know everyone is tired after days of non-stop fighting on the surface but we’re now on the final stretch of our mission and we cannot stop now. Our fallen comrades have sacrificed too much for us to stop now.” There was a sniff from among the squad. “So we must make sure that Jack, James, Henderson, every single one of our friends will not have died in vain and that they will live on in the memory of our success. We-”

BEEP BEEP BEEP

A console behind the Chief interrupted him and started to beep; he turned quickly and scanned the console but couldn’t decipher the Covenant glyphs. Lykurgus materialized instantly to deliver the news.

“Sir! The Covenant are here!”

“Damnit, if we don’t get out of here we’re dead.” The Chief said to himself, and then turned to Lykurgus. “Lykurgus, get us out of here! Lock in a jump vector that doesn’t lead us to the Inner Colonies and go, it doesn’t matter where, anywhere’s better than here.”

            “Yes sir, slipspace engines engaging, thrusters forward at half speed.” The Chief’s orders left a lot of flexibility, almost too much or so Lykurgus thought. Therefore, he took this chance to peruse the Covenant navigational database for some possible locations. Most of the Covenant ships that were boarded by humans have had their databases wiped since it was always in the midst of a battle, the UNSC ships do the same thing so it was no surprise. However, the Perpetual Justice hadn’t been in battle but merely orbiting the planet so the commander of the ship didn’t think it was necessary to purge the nav database. This proved to be a fatal mistake however, Lykurgus collected a series of destinations from within the system and then chose the one that he calculated would be the most effective escape route; the Covenant would never think of following them there...

            The artificial gravity on the ship faltered slightly as the massive ship lurched forwards. Motes of light collected on the lateral lines of the incoming Covenant ships and beams of deadly hot plasma lanced towards the Perpetual Justice. The space in front of the ship started to boil and melt, the stars behind it distorting into long streaks of light. As the nose of the ship touched this chaotic space it bent like rubber and stretched, then it bounced back as the destroyer poked through the fabric of space and entered the realm of slipspace. The vacuum soon re-stabilized again and the lances of plasma shot harmlessly past the position where the ship once was moments ago.

 

            “So um… where are we headed?” Inquired Red 3 after an awkward minute of silence. As if in response, the ship suddenly lurched again and stars pinpricked the view screens on the bridge. “What’s with that? Why is the ship so unstable?” Chris Hobart picked himself up off the deck and glared at Lykurgus who appeared beside one of the bridge consoles.

            “The destruction of the Codex with the nuclear bomb had caused some equipment malfunctions aboard the ship, although the shields withstood most of the damage, some systems like the inertial dampeners were damaged. I hope the ride wasn’t too discomforting.” The AI stated confidently.

            “Just get me off this ship and onto some solid ground and I’ll be fine.” Replied Red 3 with disgust.

            “Hey…” Green 4 interrupted, pointing to the view-screen. “What’s that?” An object far off in the distance started to come into view. Around this object there were an abnormal amount of stars, and they all seemed to be moving. The object got bigger as the Perpetual Justice drifted closer towards it, no engines or thrusters were engaged, they were moving on the inertia from the slipspace jump. Now the object was clearly circular and more stars started to appear around it, it was as if they were orbiting the object, moving in slow, long ellipses.

            The ODST’s on the bridge moved closer towards the view-screens to take a look, the Spartans stood back as their enhanced eyesight allowed them to see just fine. The Chief tapped a button on the console under the main view-screen. The image displayed zoomed in towards the object and the image was magnified 100-fold.

            “Oh you’ve got to be kidding me…” Said one ODST, exasperated. The object turned into a small planet with the magnified view; however there were no stars nearby to suggest a stay system, just a lonely planet drifting in space. But it wasn’t alone, the stars that surrounded it weren’t stars at all, they were starships, Covenant starships.

            “Lykurgus…” Candice said slowly. “What’s that…?”

            “That, Candice, is the prophet’s homeworld.”

Chapter 2: Vates (prophet)

 

            “So then, what are we doing here?” Asked Candice with a slight hint of exasperation.

            Lykurgus responded immediately. “The Chief’s orders gave me quite a bit of leniency so I thought it necessary to maximize the effectiveness of our situation and resume with our original mission. The Covenant navigational database was still intact so I found the prophet’s homeworld with ease, I calculate that given the circumstance, with the Covenant not expecting such an attack on their homework and the abilities of the squad, chances of succeeding were as high as 80% in some scenarios. Needless to say, I felt this was the right decision.”

            “Wait a second, wasn’t that mission scrapped a long time ago when the Spartan II’s were eliminated?” Blue 5 chimed in.

            “The mission applied to all the Spartans squads, that includes you guys, the Spartan III’s.”

            “So… now we’re about to get straight into the heart of the Covenant huh, and do what the Spartan II’s couldn’t.” Reasoned Blue 1.

            “In a manner of speaking, yes.”

            “Alright let’s rock and roll!” Whooped Ben. Behind him there was a clacking sound as a sniper rifle round was loaded into the barrel.

            “I’m with you.” Said Blue 3, who almost never said anything but when he did, he meant it.

            The Chief nodded to the squad and looked at Lykurgus. “Good thinking there Lykurgus, extract yourself from the Covenant system, we won’t be taking this ship in. We’ll need small ships and one with slipspace capabilities. Someone has to go back and tell Earth of the location of the homeworld.” He paused to look around and met the gaze of every faceplate in the room. “I know that none of you want to go back to Earth since you’d be missing all the action but this is the most important part of our mission in case we do fail. At least they’ll know the location and launch a second assault at some time in the future.” He sighed.

            “Green 4,” the Chief turned to face him. “You’ll have to go with Lykurgus back to Earth, I cannot ask any more of you, you’ve sacrificed so much for humanity already and all I can do is give you a chance to live. Good luck on your journey.” He saluted him with pride and honour.

            “Yes sir!” Sam saluted back but his posture was a little slumped, disappointed that he would not take part in the real mission. He walked up the ramp and reached towards the console where Lykurgus’ chip resided and pulled it out.

            Lykurgus spoke to the Chief again from within the Covenant system. “I’ve created a copy of myself with a copying code that I found in the Covenant system, this way I’ll still be here while the vital information is sent back to Earth. Although there might be some problems with my coding, I’ve fixed all the major problems and everything should be fine.”

            Sam inserted the chip into a slot in his belt and turned towards the Chief.

            “I’m glad to have worked with you Sam. Take care.” He offered his hand and Green 4 shook it firmly. Then he turned towards the rest of the squad, nodded solemnly and left the bridge without a word towards the shuttle bay.

 

            “Hey Jim, do you know where we are?” The ODST said to his companion.

            “Hell if I know although we should be heading back to Earth by now.” Jim walked towards the main control console in the brig to contact the bridge; their personal radios wouldn’t reach the bridge since they were being interfered by the energy shields from the holding cells. Halfway across the room the elites in the cells started talking to each other in their native tongue, what they didn’t know however was that the ODSTs’ had translation software built into their suits, although crude, they did the job. Jim continued to walk towards the console as if he couldn’t understand what they were saying.

            “Once our collective lights shatter and break away the bonds, we will cleanse the vessel of impurities with blinding retribution.”

            Jim clicked on his private COM channel with Raymond, the other ODST, the channel was working but there was a lot of interference. “Did you get that?”

            “Yeah, but what the hell does it mean? The translation software isn’t exactly the greatest.”

            “I don’t know but I think we should call in reinforcements.”

            “Well I’m going to get in contact with the bridge anyways so I’ll ask for a few ODST’s.”

            “Roger.”

            Jim reached the control console and tapped on the COM button, then he linked his helmet to the console through the electronic interface built into his suit and opened a private COM to the bridge. “Chief?”

            “Yeah, I’m here.”

            “Where are we? Are we back at Earth yet?”

            “No, there’s been a change of plans, come to the bridge and I’ll explain everything.”

            “But sir, we can’t leave the prisoners.”

            “Probably won’t be using this ship anymore so it doesn’t matter, just come to the bridge. That’s an order soldier.”

            “Yes sir, we’ll be there.”

            Jim clicked off the COM and his posture slumped a bit. He walked silently across the room back to Raymond who was watching him intently.

            “C’mon Raymond, we’re needed on the bridge ASAP.”

            “But-”

            “I know, but we don’t question orders. Let’s go.” With that, the two ODSTs filed out of the room leaving the Elites feeling pretty confused in their cells.

 

            “Alright people, we’ll be infiltrating the homeworld with two phantom dropships and we’ll rendezvous on the planet. Then we move in as one squad towards the prophets, we’ll need to insert the copy of Lykurgus that he created before he left into the Covenant system to locate the prophets. We’ll have to risk detection on that one but it’s absolutely necessary. Once we near the prophets, a group will split off to secure escape routes and ships, we’ll need one or two slipspace capable scout-ships.” He chuckled. “It should be an easy in and out job.” He said with a smile.

            As soon as the Chief finished talking the squad of ODST guards including Jim and Raymond walked through one of the doors on the bridge. The group of marines in black armour thudded across the room towards the crowd of marines in green and black armour alike.

            “Reporting sir.” Saluted Jim.

            “Red 2 will brief you on the details, the rest of you, pack up and move out. We’ll meet in launch bay Alpha with Green 4.” The Chief then nodded to the ODST guards and left the bridge with the others as Red 2 explained the situation to the guards.

 

            Green 4 boarded the lonely scout ship anchored to launch bay Alpha. He sat down in the pilot seat and turned the ship to life. The engines started its warm-up cycle which would take around a minute to finish. Sam got up from the uncomfortable alien seat and exited the ship to check the exterior. The scout ship was sleek and blue, almost like a miniature version of the destroyer although without the plasma turrets and lateral lines, the engines were also partially concealed to reduce the heat output. Everything about the ship was designed for speed and stealth but a slipspace generator made it bulkier than it needed to be, however it was still much faster and more manoeuvrable than a seraph fighter.

            Just as Sam finished the visual inspections the Chief and Blue team entered the bay.

            “Sir!”

            “How are you Sam?” The Chief never called anyone by their first name except for Jack; it was a sign of closeness between the two men. At the mention of his name Sam stood even straighter but then relaxed after taking notice of the Chief’s casual but concerned tone.

            “I’m fine sir. I’m always eager to do my part for the UNSC.”

            “I know you want to fight but this is the most important part of the mission.”

            “I understand. Sir, when I was captured by the Covenant back on the surface, I was hearing a lot of things that seemed to suggest the Covenant were in argument among themselves. There was an elite called the Praetor that headed the Codex operation but apparently an elite called the Cleric came along to survey the operation. He was sent by the prophets and he didn’t seem to like the Praetor or his allies very much. There’s this one elite under the Praetor’s command that the Cleric despised for reasons I’m not sure of, but I saw this elite kill the Cleric in the Codex as we were escaping.” Mackenzie shifted uneasily at the mention of the place where Jack died but she stood in her place. “It’s possible that this elite might have escaped if he left early enough so he might make a useful ally. It doesn’t seem like he is very fond of the prophets anymore.”

            “Thanks Sam, I appreciate the gesture although I don’t think we’ll be making any friends while we’re on the surface.” Just then, all of the ODST’s and Red Team entered the bay through another set of doors. The Chief nodded to them then looked back at Green 4. “Take care of yourself.” The Chief put his hand on Sam’s shoulder, nodded and then walked towards the waiting phantoms. Just as Sam was about to turn about and enter the scout ship, he felt another hand on his shoulder and turned around. Blue 1 was facing him. She took off her helmet to reveal a sweet face that hardly anyone ever saw. Mackenzie had flowing red hair that reached her shoulders; she was never one to follow military regulations. Her blue eyes shone and glittered, almost taking on a shade of purple as they reflected the lavender and purple surroundings of the ship. Her skin was white, which was a characteristic all Spartans had, but hers was still somewhat darker, it was almost more unusual to see than white skin. Then Mackenzie showed a bare, genuine smile that Spartans almost never see or do themselves. She stared for a moment at the blank, expressionless faceplate of Green 4 and then said.

            “Take care of yourself Sam. I’ll see you-” She started to choke with emotion; while most Spartans suppressed their emotions out of habit, Mackenzie never chose to do so. She was always in touch with her emotions, that made her a better soldier, a more passionate leader, and it kept her human. “I’ll see you when we get back.” Mackenzie then turned away with tears welling up in her eyes and walked towards the phantoms without bothering to replace her helmet. Sam then turned to the remaining members of Blue team, Blue 2, Blue 3 and Blue 5. He acknowledged them with a nod and entered his ship. Blue team wordlessly followed Mackenzie to the dropships as the scout ship’s engines whined and powered on.

           

            Inside the ship, Green 4 lowered himself into the pilot seat, opened up the belt pocket that contained the chip and inserted Lykurgus into the ship system.

            “Alright Lykurgus, let’s get out of here.” Sighed Sam, although he was talking to himself more than he was to the AI. He eased the engines and slowly coasted out of the launch bay. Once clear of the ship he turned away from the home planet off in the distance and spoke to Lykurgus.

            “Is the ship clear of tracking devices?”

            “Yes, I’ve scanned the ship and everything is clear.”

            “Alright then, set a course for Earth and let’s go.”

            “Already done.”

            The space in front of the scout ship began to boil and froth; the engines pushed the ship into this chaotic space and vanished without a trace. The space began to solidify again and left no trace of ever being altered. And just like that, Sam, Lykurgus and the scout ship were gone from sight.

 

            The two squads were split evenly, half the ODST’s and Red Team would ride in one phantom while the Chief, Blue team and the other half of the ODST’s would go in the second dropship. Once everyone was inside Phantom One Ben engaged the engines and the phantom slowly whined and skirted out into space. Meanwhile in Phantom Two the Chief was conferring with Lykurgus.

            “So if the ship set?”

            “Yes sir, after we depart the ship will go into slipspace on a random vector, the engines will overload and destroy the entire ship in slipspace, there will be no traces.”

            “Excellent, let’s move out.”

            Blue 2 pushed the throttle to half speed and the phantom whisked away. Phantom One was waiting for the second ship and once they met, the two dropships turned and sped towards the prophet’s home planet.

 

            As the two dropships sped silently towards the planet, the Perpetual Justice turned away from the planet and faced a frothing, bubbling patch of space. It entered this area and slipped out of view into slipspace, disappearing forever.

Chapter 3: Adlegatio (mission)

 

            “I don’t get it.” Said one ODST at random.

            “Get what?” Replied Red 3.

            “This mission and why we are here. This whole thing was for you crazy, suicidal Spartans. Us ODST’s aren’t built for this kind of shit, we got better things to do than to sneak into the heart of enemy territory to grab some ugly alien. I’d much rather meet them head on in battle.”

            “Well there’s the airlock, feel free to jump out… feet first into cold, cold space.” Red 4 interjected. The rest of the crew, including the other ODST’s all chuckled at this, they might’ve been going to their doom but there wasn’t any reason to share some laughs first.

            While Will Garretson silently piloted the phantom, the Chief sat uncomfortably in the ill-designed co-pilot seat and the rest of Blue team and the ODSTs sat in the bay. Some of the ODSTs were saying quiet prayers over the global COM while others just remained silent. One or two even decided it was time for a smoke. Blue team sat on one side of the bay, away from the rest of the ODSTs, conversing silently on their own private COMs. The whole bay was dimly lit with a few panel lights creating faint shadows. Purple colour permeated everything and soon smoke began to fill the room.

            “You better stop smoking or I’ll shove those cigarettes down your throat.” Growled Blue 5. Most of the crew was taken aback by the comment, Daniel is usually unsure of himself but that comment was anything but. The two ODSTs that were smoking immediately dropped their cigarettes and put them out. Soon enough, the smoke started to dissipate.

            Candice Mackenzie sat away from everyone else in her own corner. Her helmet was on the floor beside her, her legs were bent up and her hands fell between her legs. Her red hair draped over her face as she hung her head and sat there wordlessly. Silent tears began to fall from her face as she finally has a chance to relax after all she’s been through on the surface. The endless battles, struggles and moments of despair kept piling up and she never let out any emotions because she knew they would hamper her abilities in battle. Now they were just sitting there, waiting to be transported from one hellhole to another so Mackenzie cried silently, she cried for Frank David, she cried for James Thomas, she cried for the ODST’s and she cried for Jack. The moment between her and Jack just before she left the Codex kept replaying in her head.

            “Goodbye Jack… Goodbye Jack…Goodbye Jack…”

            Her thoughts went on into eternity and her sadness and grief were as great as space itself, and she was like a star in the universe, lonely and wandering through the vastness of space, without a purpose, without direction, the only other star companion in her life was now gone and all she now knew was how to fight.

 

            The planet grew increasingly bigger against the starry background as the two ships approached it. Surface features were apparent now as clouds began to show, sparsely populating the sky. They were lit from surface, as there was no star to illuminate the planet; the only light sources were from below generated by Covenant structures. The whole planet glowed an eerie purple and the clouds were even darker outlined by a bright glow on the edges, its peaceful look greatly contrasted its true destructive nature. The majority of the stars remained motionless in the background but the once massive cloud of specks orbiting the planet became Covenant starships, revealing sleek and purple profiles.

            BEEP-BEEP BEEP-BEEP

            A query was arriving from the Covenant master AI asking for the password.

            “Uh oh, Lykurgus, disrupt the signal with static to buy us some time and get that password!” Yelled Red 2.

            “Working...” Then a heartbeat later which seemed like an eternity. “Done, access granted, we’re clear to head to the surface.”

            The two phantoms sped towards the planet without incident but fears and nervousness were present in everyone and tensions were high as huge Covenant starships coasted by their little ships. Each ship was a chance to be spotted and in a firefight, the two small dropships wouldn’t stand a chance. Almost everyone held their breath as in the last few minutes of the approach a giant Covenant cruiser passed a few hundred metres from their ships, even though the distance didn’t make any different, everyone acted like it did.

            Now the forward view screens were filled with the surface, the stars and black velvet of space was gone, and a purple glow filled the cockpit cabins of the two dropships. Everyone connected their helmets to the forward cameras except for Mackenzie she just sat in the corner still with her head hanging. No one knew what kind of sensors the Covenant had on the ground, would they be able to detect the humans inside the ship; or would they just appear as another convey of troops coming down to the surface?

            The ships descended into the atmosphere and a myriad of shades of purple began to fill the cockpits as the ships dropped further towards the surface. There was a brief moment during the descent when the phantoms’ shields flared against the heat of re-entry but the curious shape of the dropships sliced through the air with ease and there was never enough friction and pressure under the ship to build a shockwave and generate a lot of friction. It was a peaceful contrast to the usual stressful and shaky re-entry with human ships. However, it also gave the passengers time to think about their impending mission since they weren’t distracted by the sensations of descent.

            “Man… We’re totally insane.” Jim said over the team’s COM. No one bothered to respond but everyone gave their silent agreements.

 

            Anda Sofadee sat in her cell on the edge of her small metal bed. She could hear the howling and squawking of jackals in nearby cells and the barks of grunts all mixed together. Smell that filled her nostrils was putrid and gagging but she got used to it after spending two days in the disgusting place. Everything was a dark, dank grey and the cells were nothing much cold, smooth metal coated with dried blood and guts everywhere. There was no need for scintillating films of energy to hold in the prisoners, just cold steel bars because even if someone managed to escape their cell, they wouldn’t get very far before being overwhelmed by brute guards carrying every weapon imaginable. The dark reality of the prisons underground on the Prophet Home Planet was a disturbing contrast to the cleanliness and holiness on the surface.

            “The prophets never cared about the Praetor,” she thought to herself. “They only wanted to get him away and use his skills to their advantage, they didn’t care about him. That must be why they sent the Cleric,” she reasoned, “to make sure the Praetor succeeded, then after he did they would execute him anyway.” She slammed her fist against the bed in anger, denting the surface and sending a harsh echo across the prison halls, all the noise died down as jackals and grunts receded to their beds in fear of the female commander. “I will have my revenge so the Praetor may rest in peace. I will not fail you…”

            Anda fell back onto the hard bed with a dull thud and stared at the murky ceiling until she fell asleep.

 

            Inside Phantom One Red 2 told the rest of the crew. “We’re approximately 2 minutes to touchdown, everyone prep up and get ready to move out.”

            Back in the bay of the dropship, Jim piped up again. “So where are we landing and how the hell are we going to infiltrate the structures to get to the prophet without getting noticed?”

            The Chief got on the channel to explain. “That’s the easy part, when Lykurgus extracted himself from the Perpetual Justice’s database he downloaded all the information from it which included a map of the Prophet’s main temple on this planet. A section of the map was heavily encrypted but Lykurgus managed to crack it, it’s a map of the underground section of the temple. The planet has a vast network of underground tunnels that prophets travel in when they don’t’ want to be seen above ground, I’m guessing the map was encoded so that only the highest ranking elites and guards knew about it. Luckily, this tunnel system is not filled with sensors since nobody knows about them anyway but that’s just perfect for us and we’ll use them to get inside the temple.”

            Ben came on the COM line. “Touchdown, we’re about a click away from an entrance into the tunnel system, we should be able to make it without incident.” Everyone in the dropship felt the ship slow to a halt and thud lightly on the ground, and then everyone piled into the bay and dropped out below the ship landing on the hard surface of the planet. They were surrounded by tall trees that grew under the sickly purple light. Everything reflected different shades of purple, even the iridescent green and black of the humans’ armour. The ground was bare and cracked, there was no visible sign of any vegetation around, and the trees seemed to grow out of nowhere. The leaves on the trees were big and spade-shaped, they hung motionless, there didn’t seem to be any wind in this area. Everything was silent save the movements of the Spartans and ODSTs, there were no sounds of wildlife either; the planet seemed to be dead. Phantom two touched down a few seconds after and the Chief, Blue team and the other ODSTs emerged from the ship. The Chief paused to look around at his team, there were 9 Spartans left including himself and just a handful of ODST’s left from the battle on Ariaos II, it would be a tough fight, but he was confident they would pull it off all right.

            The Chief took in a deep breath and addressed his team. “Alright team, there’s an entrance to a tunnel system that we’ll use about a click north from this position, if we moved quickly and silently, we should be able to get to it unnoticed. Once we’re inside the tunnels, it’ll be easy since there are no sensors in them. We’ll travel to the underside of the holy temple where the prophets are, capture one of them and escape. We’ll traverse the tunnels as a team, but when we hit this junction,” He pulled up a map on his HUD and sent it to everyone else as well, then marked the location of a junction in the tunnels just outside the temple.

            We’ll split up again, Phantom One will move to the hangars near by to secure a few escape ships while Phantom Two will move in to capture the prophet. Once we have it, we’ll insert Lykurgus into the Covenant system to try and establish contact with Phantom One, it’s a risk but a necessary one. Once we’ve confirmed that the hangar is green, then Phantom Two will return to the tunnels and proceed to the hangars and meet up with Phantom One. We should be able to leave the system without much notice.”

            The Chief closed the map and looked around at his squad again. “We’ve fought for so long alongside each other now, I’m immensely proud of you all, I know we’ll get this job done. Let’s move out, dispersion pattern Alpha.”

            The whole squad spread out among the trees and started to weave their way towards their objective in the north. The marines weaved their way around the trees, taking cover behind them at all times, flashes of green and black armour would appear and disappear in a split second. This carried on for about 15 minutes as they moved slowly through the thick forest. Then they hit a small clearing that was still covered by the canopy above so it didn’t look like a conspicuous hole in the forest.

            Everyone stood behind trees but still stayed in view of the clearing, then the Chief motioned one of the ODSTs forward to check the clearing. Everyone else covered him and watched his motions and the surroundings intently for anything moving. Red 2 gripped the handle of his BR55 tighter with his finger resting lightly on the trigger.

            The ODST walked slowly towards the middle of the clearing with his rifle at the ready, there was nothing visible but maps showed that this was the entrance to the tunnel so they had to find it. When the marine reached the center of the clearing, he knelt down on one knee and touched the ground with one hand. The ground wasn’t cracked here, but it was smooth, almost too smooth to feel natural.

            “I don’t know sir, there doesn’t seem like there’s any kind of opening device here or something. I don’t know how we can get into the tunnels.” He said. The Chief walked up next to him and stared at the same patch of ground.

            “Well, let’s see what Lykurgus has to say.” The Chief then took Lykurgus from one of his belt pockets and inserted it into one of two matrix slots in the back of his helmet. His suit was the only one to have such an interface, only one other Spartan was also issued the same type of armour. A cold feeling rushed and enveloped the Chief’s mind as he inserted the chip. Immediately Lykurgus’ voice sounded in his helmet.

            “Is something wrong Chief?”

            “We’re at the clearing where the access to the tunnels is supposed to be but there’s nothing here, it’s flat.”

            “One moment sir, I will search through the data from the Perpetual Justice.” A brief minute passed as the Spartans and ODSTs stood silently around the clearing, still hiding behind the trees out of habit of training. “Sir, the entrance to the tunnels is right below us, I need you to stand back as I send a signal from your suit to a receiver in the ground, it will tell the hatch below us to open and then we can enter. Luckily, I found it in the Covenant archives from the ship.”

            “Alright, do it.” The Chief stepped back from the center of the clearing and motioned the other ODST to follow. Almost immediately, a hatch materialized out of the ground, a bright purple oval hatch that provided a sharp contrast to the pale, tanned dry ground. There was no handle or opening device, the hatch hissed open and moved to the side to reveal a dark hole the same size as the covering. The ODST moved forward and peered down the whole, then he jumped in without a word.

            Down the hole, the drop was a short two meters and the marine landed with a thud on the floor. The tunnel was arch shaped approximately 5 meters in diameter and 4 meters tall with a flat floor, he swept both sides of the tunnel with his rifle and then clicked his COM once to the Chief to signal an all clear, then he sent an audio confirmation. “All clear sir, proceed.”

            “Roger, we’re coming in.”

 

            Ben decided to take a break from scouting ahead and sit against the wall of the tunnel. The team had been walking through the tunnel for over an hour following Lykurgus’ directions. They hadn’t encountered anything yet but that was supposed to be a good thing. Red 2 took off his helmet and his eyes immediately adjusted to the dimly lit tunnel. It had been different from his helmet since his visor increased the contrast and enhanced what he saw through filters. It was nice to see things undistorted once in a while. It gave the Spartans a sense of reality that they could never feel from inside their suits, it was like comparing watching a television to see something live. Ben’s thoughts wandered to Mackenzie, she had been very quiet every since Jack’s death and she always kept to herself, she had been more affected by it than anyone else had. Ben wondered how that would affect her skills and decisions in battle but just then, his thoughts were interrupted by echoing footsteps approaching, although he knew they were his fellow squadmates, he quickly donned his helmet and picked up his battle rifle just in case and held it at the ready.

            The Chief saw a dim figure appear in the tunnel and approached it, Red 2 appeared and the Chief nodded to him. Then he consulted Lykurgus. “How far are we to the junction?”

            “Not too far.” Lykurgus explained. “Another 5 minutes and we’ll be there, just follow this tunnel straight ahead.”

            “Very well.” Then the Chief switched on his team COM and briefed them. “We’re about 5 minutes away from the junction, Red team, be ready to move out to capture the hangar, you’ll be provided with a map.” Two lights winked on his HUD, one red and one blue, both leaders acknowledged his command.

            Then with a simple gesture from the Chief, the team trekked on, periodically passing by lights that hung from the ceiling, which provided a regular rhythm of bright and then dim light as they passed by them.

            Five dull minutes passed with nothing but the sound of footfalls and visually bland, purple walls moving past them. Then almost as if it materialized in front of them, the squad reached a junction in the tunnel. The tunnel continued ahead but at an angle slightly to the right and another tunnel veered off to the left. The Chief knew that this was going to be a tough moment, separating after many days of hard fighting; it was almost as if they were leaving forever.

            “Red 2, take your team to the tunnel on the left, it’ll take you to the hangars. Once you’re there, secure it and wait for us, we won’t take too long.” The Chief said, he sighed and then addressed an ODST. “Jim, you’ll lead half the ODST’s with Red team to the hangar and Raymond,” he turned to face another ODST. “You’ll be leading the other ODST’s to follow myself and Blue team to capture the profits.” Finally, the Chief turned back to Ben and outstretched his hand. “Good luck Ben, we’ll see you in a few.”

            Ben took the hand and shook it firmly. “Thank you sir, see you in a few.” He turned to face down the tunnel and then started to jog towards the tunnel, the rest of his team and half of the ODSTs followed him; then they rounded a corner and disappeared.

            Just as the Chief was about to deliver some final words to the rest of the team, Mackenzie sprinted forward and ran off into the darkness down the tunnel. The rest of the squad immediately reacted and they chased after her, this was the first sign of leadership from her ever since they had left the ship. Blue 3 hoped that Candice had finally broken through her shell of isolation and will now lead them to victory, he always preferred to fight alongside her whenever possible although it was rare for a sniper to fight with the team. It wasn’t because she was just the commander, Matt had always found her confident tone and no foolishness attitude to be very attractive. He appreciated it a lot since he always used to be unsure of himself and sometimes goofy when no one was around but ever since he was brought into the UNSC as a child, he had lost all of that. He had become a tough soldier and a cold killer, Candice was the same but her feminine side to it all was what attracted Matt the most.

            Matt ran and caught up to Mackenzie, she glanced at him without losing a step and he glanced back, then they looked forward and kept running. There was no need for words because the glance conveyed everything. Matt wouldn’t let Candice die. They raced down the tunnel and the rest of the team followed, disappearing into the darkness with only echoed footfalls trailing behind them.