PROLOGUE: PART 2

18:42 HOURS, SIGMA OCTANUS IV, JULY 18 2552, ERIDANUS SYSTEM

Black One retrieved the new S2-AM Sniper Rifle she had taken from the weapon rack in the Pelican troop bay, patting the scope and checking the slide of the rifle. Setting it back, repeating the process when she retrieved her MA5B Rifle.Bravo 33 swung across the natural clearing of the reserve, careful not to be a target to the Triple A Wraith hover tanks set on higher ground.Black Three, Two and Four stood around the drop-ramp of of the Pelican Dropship, Three gestured to his armor that he'd need a thorough checkthrough on his MJOLNIR Power Reactor as Stanforth began briefing "Naval Intelligence reports that based on the schematics of the Covenant vessel that there are several critical components vital to the ships operation, you'll need to penetrate through the Covenant forces guarding the main entrance to the ship, the gravity lift, that'll be your way in, advance through the reserve and effect entry onto that frigate any way you can! Good luck Spartans, and make sure you dont come back without that NAV data! Stanforth out." Two gave Three a "all good" thump onto his pauldron as he responded with a "thumbs up" gestureThe Pelican lowered to the ground level as the four black armored Spartans piled out of the pelican and back down to ground. 33's pilot was even more careful, taking the pelican away from the clearing, pushing back up."Spartans, this is as close as I can get you to your target, they've got triple A up ahead and not a lot of breathing room, if you need anything from me then you're gonna have to smoke it. Otherwise, good luck!" Bravo 033 vanished into the now blackened sky."Copy All, Black One out" One signed off, before her metal boots hit the sand. Black Four took point and set his visor to maximum magnification zoom."Four, what are we lookin' at?""They've got the basic shade emplacements, an AA wraith some few hundred meters into the next canyon, piles of grunts with elites and a lotta jackals with carbines""Great. This Sniper Rifle should come handy"Black One turned 90 degrees to her left and took up on top of the cliff, bringing the S2-AM Sniper Rifle Oracle Scope to her visor, her helmet's heads up display connected into the scope automatically, the sniper optics opened in her HUD, she cycled between the two magnifications, 2x and 10x. She activated the night vision setting on the rifle scope and brought the rifle forward with the magnification at 10x zoom. She brought up TEAMCOM and spoke "Alright, Lets get it to it, I'll take out as many of 'em as I can with my Sniper Rifle, once they start firing back, let 'em have it! That'll make sure we still got the element of surpise." Three lights winked in unison, "roger" Four respondedShe turned the rifle onto a grunt operator manning a shade cannon, pulling the trigger on the aliens skull as it's cyanic blood and brain matter splatter the operating canopy of the turret emplacement. Her next target was an elite, who had just looked her in the eye, before he could indicate her position, she sent a round through the elites skull, knocking its body back, minus half its face and jaw. "Gotcha" she whispered. Two jackals using point defense gauntlets began to squawk. They surely must have known she was here, and her answer came in responding plasma weapon fire that burned into the rocks. The three other Spartans scattered in the rocks let loose and opened fire, cutting down the responding forces in a matter of seconds. She holstered the SRS99 and switched to her MA5B and took point, sliding down the hillside, gunning down stragglers.One turned to the rest of her squad and raised her left hand and pointed it in the direction of the AA wraith tank, "We'll scrap the Wraith first, I'm not shy on some air support.""Sounds good with me." Two thumbed upTiptoeing through the hillside and onto a seperate clearing, she scanned around the area of the plating of a claret-red colored chitin like plating of the wraith hovertank, a squad of elites surrounded it, commanded by a veteran crimson armored elite as he directed the wraith operator, One took position next to a fallen UNSC marine, his chest seared with plasma, she collected two magazines for her Sniper Rifle and three ammo clips for her Assault Rifle, switching back to her sniper and resting the tripod as she crouched, she pulled the trigger onto the Crimson elite who dropped a second later, then turned to a cobalt armored elite who had been the furthest from cover. Two, Three and Four mopped the rest of them, as the AA Wraith turned to face One, Three jumped upon and smashed open the front facing hatch of the tank with the combined effort of his fist and butt-end of his MA5B rifle, climbing onto it and began to fill the cockpit with hot lead, as purple blood spilled across the interior controls. Sending a frag down into the cockpit before sliding down and watching as it erupted into a plasma flume."Bravo 33, Black One. Triple AA's been taken care of, fly safe"Bravo 33's pilot sounded almost overjoyed, as if someone had just handed him the present he always wanted. "Appreciated, Black One, just let me know when you need me!""Copy that, Bravo 33""Alright, back on course with that frigate."Three acknowledgement lights winked in Black-One's HUD, as they began moving back to the direction of the curved, whale shaped ship.Overhead and back towards a large clearout, One looked out to the sky as the rest of Black Team hopped down the rocks behind the blackness of the far edge of the clearing, forever silent until the first shot was fired, eclipsed by the silhouette of the Covenant Frigate. It had set down its Gravity lift upon the clearing, several grunts and elites stood guard, one elite, in pearl white armor, stood in front of the gravity lift, what seemed like a spherical field which rained down onto the bulbous alien purple platform. The White Armored elite carried a yellow plated shoulder fired flak cannon. Colloquially referred to by UNSC Marines as "Fuel Rod Guns' ', they were man portable versions of the flak cannons mounted onto Wraith Tanks configured for Anti Air (AA). The elite barked an order at its red armored subordinate and it responded, not before One answered by sending a 14.5 round through the aliens cranium, the elite snapped its head towards the direction and roared, it began to dash for cover as fired at the elite, catching him by center mass, the energy shield held strong against the force of the powerful ballistic, but was severely weakened, she turned and fired off the other two rounds of the four round clip. Releasing the emptied clip, gripping it out and dropping it. She took out her last magazine, slid it in and slid back the charging bolt and snapped it back. The three other spartans began to tear into the enemy defenders with efficient lethality. A fuel rod blast was sent in her direction, throwing away in response and landing with a roll as she met the ground, she turned and fired another round into a grunt operating a shade gun, then two more at elites who were exchanging fire with the rest of her squad, before spending the last round, the same white armored elite emerged from cover with a Plasma Pistol one hand, producing a fiery green glow at the tip of the weapon, and a Energy Bladed Sword in the other, he roared in anger he fired a overcharged bolt from the plasma weapon into her chest, her armors energy shields absorbed the force of the impact and collapsed, a warning accompanied by a beep echoed in her helmet. She tried turning her Sniper Rifle onto the elite and squeezed the trigger, the round missed the elites head at point blank, a surge of cyan blue energy cut through the long barreled rifle and it fell apart in half. The elite brought up its energy sword, the blade which could easily cut through her MJOLNIR like a hot knife through butter, and tried to bring it down over her, she grabbed its wrists with her armored grips and dug her fingers into them, she glared through her faceplate into what she guessed was an angry snarl, being harder to tell with its four pronged jaw and no chin. It roared in fury. She smashed her knee into the chest of the elite and threw it back against the strut of the gravity lift base, before reaching for her combat knife and slashing it across the elites throat before it could cut her in half, it dropped with a wet gurgle onto the floor, wiping its purple blood onto her wrist, sheathing it and deploying her MA5B assault rifle off her rear magnetic mount.The rest of Black Team were all but finishing off their handiwork when Black Three approached her, "you all good?"She nodded, "yeah, I'm good"

JULY 18th 2552, 20:00 HOURS, COVENANT SUPPORT FRIGATE, SIGMA OCTANUS IV, ERIDANUS SYSTEM

"Black One here, Frigate Penetrated"Stanforth came back "Copy that, Black One, locate a terminal and pull down the schematics, disable the ship, and acquire the Nav Data.""Copy all, Black One, out."The Covenant interior was much different compared to the interior bulkhead of a UNSC Warship, being less spacious and a more smoothened shape, the interior design was just as purple and curved as they were outside. The controls to doors and terminals were holographic glyphs that adorned ends of the tunnels, the Covenant security forces began piling out, the Spartans were faster, gunning them down quickly and efficiently. "Let's find a terminal and pull down the ship schematics, and find any potential weaknesses, or at least something to break that'll be useful" One took point through the access door as the other three followed suit, as the door lead to a passing group of grunts, One gunned them down as the other Three moved further through. She held up the rear, scanning each possible angle of response, satisfied she fell in. Backup, she found a more open room, and what seemed like holographic glyphs that could be an access terminal, Black Two had already began working a Spoofer device onto the alien software, attaching another device to the Spoofer, a "Tapper", ONI's, (Office of Naval Intelligence) latest hacking software, Two tapped a flurry of controls with her plated fingers, and eventually stopped and spoke on COM, "alright, schematics show four potential targets that'll grease this heap real good. Uploading to your HUDs."Black One smirked in her helmet, "Power Conduits" Two nodded, "yeah, pinch reactors, we light 'em up, it'll also do some serious damage to critical components of this beast, namely the main reactor going critical in a wildcat destabilisation, otherwise it'll be a helluva firework show. One's just outside this terminal, the other one is on the adjacent connecting deck, two on the upper deck of this one, same floor as the bridge"Black One nodded, "alright, we'll light 'em up, can you access the security systems?"Yeah, I've just unlocked the maintenance access doors""Alright, let's move out and start "disabling maneuvers"Three came back "by "Disabling Maneuvers you mean-?"One finished him off "blowing things up""Oh, I knew that"Three lobbed the other Spartans a C-12 plastic explosive. "This'll be enough?""Just about" Two smirked.

Black One began to move through the upper access passageway, gunning down some hapless grunts on the way, "alone against all of them? Like they've got a chance in hell…" she whispered softly.Pushing on through and catching an investigating lance, she primed a M9 frag and threw it at the group, killing 5 of the grunts and sending the others scattering, she sang a storm of lead from her MA5B at the elites, as the clip emptied on the final elite, she drew her knife and stabbed the saurian warrior in the shoulder, crying out in a pained howl, before sending it into his temple, it fell silent as it crumpled to the floor, she began to place a C-12 charge onto the conduit, satisfied with the placement, she remotely detonated the sticky explosive with the remote detonator controls in her HUD. The conduit began sending purple sparks, and an alarm began to echo throughout the deck. One pulled up her COM, "One here, upper deck conduits now outta service...think I've hit a nerve."Three acknowledgement green lights winked in response, three came onto COM "Sounds good, me and Two just about did it with the conduits upstairs"Four came in "right side's conduits up in smoke""Copy that" she pulled down the ship schematics in her HUD. "Rendezvous on the upper deck, near bridge level" all three green lights winked in acknowledgement.As she moved back up towards the passageway to the upper decks, a pair armored behemoths stomped out of the door, on each of their right arms, they withheld a massive assault cannon, using the same incendiary gel as the white armored elite's fuel rod gun, and on their left a powerful, thin delta shaped shield, they were larger and looked more powerful than she was, the Covenant's heaviest of Shock Troop, they were Covenant Hunters, made up of a colony of worms that formed into imposing almost humanoid beings, they roared as they began to open fire at her, she dived for cover as a fuel rod slammed into where she had been a moment ago, taking a Plasma grenade she had looted from the corpse of a grunt, she primed and tossed it at the hunter at the left of her, attaching onto its armor-integrated cannon, detonating and sending plumes of vaporised smoke from what had been its arm, orange plastic-like blood spilled onto the floor, it brought up its shield and brought it down over her as it furiously charged her, she rolled behind it and filled its exposed back and neck with the entire clip of her MA5B. It groaned as it collapsed with a metal clang onto the floor, the final hunter, enraged, furiously fired its own assault cannon, desperate to avenge it's bond brother, One reloaded and fired her rifle into the center mass of the armored creature, keeping it off balance as she lobbed a pair of grenades at it, they detonated, but yet it still stood standing, it tried to smash her in half with the blunt force of its heavy shield, not before she dogdged the blow and lept behind it. She bruised the back section of the creature and slammed another frag into its back, the upper half of the entire creature blew apart as the grenade detonatedMoving onto the upper deck, Black Four had just finished his knife work on a now dead elite, and was pouring fire onto another, One peeked around the corner and began joining in the fight at the surrounding two elites, taking them down efficiently, Black-Four nodded at Black-One, who gestured towards the door, "more of 'em!"A file of covenant elites began to pour more hot plasma at the duo, until a frag detonation later and a series of assault rifle bursts from behind them put them down quickly, "nice to see you" Two greeted with a smile gesture"We missed your charm" Three added"Alright, conduits are all done for. Two?""Bridge, directly adjacent through this deck""Alright, let's move!"

They stormed through the entrance to the bridge, Three had quickly dispatched the bodyguards, as Two and Four began to fire on the red armored deck officers, the gold elite, the ship commander, ignited his own cyan, curved energy sword. Black One rushed up to the elite and drained his shields with her MA5B, before ramming the butt into his gut, buckling the shielding, expending what remained of the clip into his upper torso, he fell down with multiple gaping, purple blood stained bullet holes in his golden armor.Black Two advanced up-front, and began setting the custom spoofer device onto the projector of the bridge controls, patching through Covenant encryption and flurring through commands with her fingers. Beeping in a chime of success as she reached out and retrieved the device, "were done here, lets move out"One nodded "time to abandon ship, she's just about had it!"Black Team rushed down deck through deck, gunning down covenant as they moved through further down into the Dropship bay,"Bravo 33, need a pickup, and on the double!" Black-One keyed onto the COM."Copy that, Black One, sit tight, I'm comin' to ya""At your earliest convenience!" One addedAt the Dropship bay, adjacent to the door the four black clad supersoldiers had been, five elites, encased in sealed armor and helmets in darkened gray, lead by a gold armored leader, began to aggressively harass the Spartans with Plasma, they responded and began to fire hot lead onto the elites, One Elites shielding buckled and failed, and he eventually collapsed, Three took his last C-12 charge and hurled it at the connecting strut which held the upper floor and shield door controls, thumbing the detonator taking the energy shielding of two of the elites, killing one and depleting a good chunk of the others, in unison, they collectively finished them off in a tide of rifle fire, just as Bravo 033 flew into the hangar, "get your asses on board, I don't plan on lingering!" Black Team collectively piled into the Pelican, One held the rear, before she jumped into the troop bay, gripping a seat handle on the pelican to hold herself in "punch it!" she yelled into the Cockpit. The pilot nodded, "Aye, Aye Ma'am!"The Pelican shot out of the alien ship at rapid speed, Black One crouched to absorb the effect of G-Force, as her stomach started to settle, she glanced out onto the ship, which vaporised in a brilliant series of sapphire lights, before igniting in a beautiful, blue glow, which seemed to irradiate across Cote D Azur's atmosphere. "Beautiful" Black Three awed. As the Pelican climbed to orbit.