Melting Point

[August 4, 2551]

[Lower cliffside of ONI Site C-38L, Kroine]

[0545 Hours]

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[COLE PROTOCOL ENACTED]

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The breeze was strong. David was almost certain that if he was anymore clumsy, his body would've leaned off the ledge by now and plummeted into the snowy depths below.

He had to keep still, and wait out the storm. It has grown thicker since they first landed, and it was only getting worse as the wheels of time turned. A notable humming slowly circled right around the cliffside's edge, and a spotlight shined. A Type-52 Phantom dropship crested into view, another round of its patrol and slowly hovered itself past him.

David was as stiff as the ice, tucked beneath his heavy coral MJOLNIR Mark V armour, analyzing everything from beneath the comfort of his favoured CQB-class helmet. The orange colours clashed with the scenery, something he had previously noted to take care of, but never acted on it. The other two probably had the same issue. At least in his case, there were several white trims painted along his arms and legs to somewhat make up for the lack of camouflage, Ichika too. He couldn't say the same for his Lieutenant Commander, unfortunately.

As the Phantom hovered by, David steadied his breathing and waited. He instinctively crested the suppressed M6G on his hip holster, but was unsure what his plan would be if he was spotted. Perhaps, if it was close enough he could board it, but that wasn't something he was going to count on. Luckily, the dropship did its course only a few meters above David, allowing him to hide in plain sight just fine until that storm came to pass, then he had to move.

'You know what? I hate this. I really do.'

David straightened his upward, leaned back against the bed of ice and slowly shuffled side-to-side along the lip of the cliff. His armoured boots carefully caressed the ledge, critical that only half a meter in front of him was a possible falling death. This brought David back, to the last time he had felt this uneasy over heights. Ten years ago, back to the very beginning of his new life. How long had it been?

He snapped out of his train of nostalgia. Now wasn't the time. Fractions of the snow crumbled beneath his feet as the more he moved slowly. He kept himself unbent, no sudden movements or pulls; right foot, left foot. He continued this motion until his gloved hand brushed across a cold, watery solid clasped onto the side.

David took a glance back to which he came, sucking in a calm breath of air. Digging his hands into the snow, he heaved and swung his left leg around until it was forward to his right leg, and his chest was now uncomfortably pressed against the cliffside.

'No looking down.'

He raised his hands against the long sheet of ice painting the wall, fingers clasped in armour and dug them deep into the glacier until they were stuck. He could've just continued on and looped around the whole edge, but time was at the essence. The surface wasn't a far climb and for obvious reasons, it was still a dangerous bet, but he needed to be efficient.

After all, he wouldn't be a Spartan if he did things the easy way.

Using the frozen protrudes like handles, David slowly ascended up the cliff like a spider on a wall. Each climb was thought out, sometimes he had to make a quick guess.

And other times, he wasn't so lucky.

"Shit!"

As he clenched a frozen spike, it suddenly fractured and shattered, yanking down from its spot on the wall, bringing his hand with it. With his other hand still holding on, he dangled there for a few moments, trying to regain his stability. That's when he looked up, and noticed he wasn't that far from the surface ledge.

He braced himself, placing both hands and grounding the tip of his feet into the wall before pulling, and hurling upward. He only had one second, he grabbed the ledge with his hands, tearing deep into the snow sheet until they couldn't budge. It fractured for a moment, and he cursed beneath his breath.

But thankfully, David didn't feel a thing. He didn't budge. The snow remained only partially fractured and spared him the dreaded fall. He sighed beneath his helmet and heaved his hands flat onto the surface, hoisting his knees up with him until he was safe.

He threw off his cloak of snow, reached over and plucked the weapon off his back. A BR55 Service Rifle equipped with a suppressor and 2x field scope, a weapon most notable for its powerful three-round burst fire. While most people he knew preferred the regular MA5 series assault rifles, David felt a sense of pride mastering this weapon due to its high power at ample range, making it quite efficient in combat.

'Still a bit of hike... Let's kick this off, shall we?"

Weapon in hand, David began making his through the thick pine forests. It was still pouring with snow by the second as he went along, but he didn't feel too cold. He could thank his armour for that.

The NAV marker on his heads-up display revealed a good 4km, which rapidly diminished as he approached. The more he closed the gap between him and his destination, the more he could see his destination, and it was a sight. A UNSC black site to be sure, or former one as of now.

As he crept behind bushes, he caught a glimpse of the facility and its new occupants. Covenant roamed throughout, their purple barriers erected and guards policing every inch of soil. Signs of a past struggle were strewn everywhere, between the wrecked human vehicles and idling corpses, as well as lamp posts the Covenant never bothered to turn off.

"Crow Three, Crow Two. Moving on the black site, over." David whispered over TEAMCOM, the private communication channels commonly used by fireteams during ops.

Over the freezing hills and trees, way farther and higher than where he was, David could see a HUD status light wink green in acknowledgement to his voice. He looked right, toward a second miniature icon transparent through the scenes. The friendly signature of the third, but not least member of this team, already making his way through the compound. He didn't need to say any further, they went over this time and time again, and have been here before.

Same shit, different day.

David crept around the shadows and analyzed the base from the ground up. It wasn't a large detachment of guards, low-twenties at best, as much as they expected, but the problem came with their tight formations. It wouldn't be easy to take out without another's notice. The best he could do for now was take out the few stragglers, and hope their buddies follow suit.

The operator moved forward, keeping his augmented eyes peeled at every stretch of snow. He kept to bushes, trees and took cover behind the many snowbanks built up from near-constant winter. When he folded behind one of the snow hills, he could hear the faint barks of his first victims slowly approaching.

He peered over the corner and saw them. A small file of Covenant Unggoy gradually waddled from the covering of a pine tree, patrolling down the outskirts of the yard.

The UNSC called them "Grunts," because that's all they were to the Covenant: cannon fodder. The configurations of this particular pair indicated them as nothing special, your typical minor-ranked Grunts, brandishing their horseshoe-shaped Plasma Pistols, standard-issue but poorly equipped.

David holstered his rifle to his back and drew his combat knife, flipping it upside to where it was now underhanded and meshing with the reflective snow.

The snow crunched behind him, as the Grunts stomped their flat feet across the path, snarling and chatting in their alien tongue. While they resembled arthropods, the behaviour they exhibited was more akin to monkeys and dogs. David crept around the corner of a tree trunk, as the duo suddenly stopped and turned to each other. One appeared to give the other an order and that Grunt turned to walk away, leaving his friend all by his lonesome. When they were a considerable distance away, David struck.

He pursed his lips and let out a modulated whistle from beneath his helmet. Almost immediately, the lone Grunt bucked up with a husk and spun around to where the noise was. David moved back into his hiding spot remaining invisible, as the alien slowly crept over with caution. It was right to be careful because as soon as he could a second of David in its sights, the human grabbed it by the next slammed it into the tree–the impact of which knocked off its respiratory mask–before ramming the knife into its throat.

It sputtered and gagged, the knife to spew open a vast river of blue bioluminescent blood all over the snow and partially on the tree. It clasped onto the snow, bleeding out until there was nothing left to bleed. David grabbed its corpse, hastily dragged it out of obvious view and kicked some snow over the blue blood to clean up. He couldn't do much about the stained bark, but it wasn't too much that it was obvious so he hesitantly left it.

He reached down and policed the Grunt's jettisoned Plasma Pistol, and looted two spherical Plasma Grenades from its body. You never know when these might come in handy. He slipped the grenades into his utility sack and hooked the Plasma Pistol to his hip, taking a quick cautious scan of the surroundings before drawing his suppressed magnum before proceeding further into the target-rich environment.

David slithered through the forests as another small blizzard began to pass, on the tip of his toes, and circled toward any side or rear doors marked on his TACMAP. Prior to the deployment, he and the rest of his time had been given a full digital schematic of the black site's layout. They knew the front entrance was a no-go, so any other entry point was valid as long as it wasn't heavily fortified.

As David snuck around, he found himself discovering more corpses littered in blind spots, their bodies snapped like rag dolls. He grinned. Only one other person was capable of this. He crept toward a garage on the side which was half open and noticeably lacking in defence.

As he crouched beneath the door and into the warmer interior, the motion tracker in the corner of his eye suddenly blinked with a yellow dot, fairly close to him. He didn't free however, it was no danger.

He inched around the parked truck to see another armoured soldier standing afoot above a Jackal's beak. He reached down, clasping and ripping the grip of a knife from the avian's neck. The soldier's orange-painted armour glimmered in the flickering light, his EOD-class helmet peered up to meet David's gaze.

"Took a more scenic route, eh?" David stepped forward as the soldier slipped the knife back into his sheath.

"Gotta keep it easy." The soldier named Marley responded, with a voice only slightly older in tone.

"Yeah, I'll bet." David walked passed him and crouched somewhere near the wall, connecting his wrist-mounted TACPAD to a series of electronic panels.

Marley watched his back, keeping close guard of the garage door with his suppressed MA37 ICWS in hand.

"They'll find those bodies sooner or later."

David tapped a couple of commands onto his wrist device, "Mhm... Well then, we better slip before they do."

With the press of a button, a large section of garage wall streamlined and folded aside, revealing a dusty, overgrown passageway stretching into the darkness.

David holstered his pistol and drew his BR55 once more, flashing his hand forward for his ally to follow. Marley slowly backed up and accompanied behind him into the cramped corridor.

As they crept into the gloaming passageway, the two blinked and activated the night vision systems in their HUDs. The darkness was broken apart by a dark green hue which shaded every corner of the hallway and revealed the dark edges with visible light, stripping away all aspects of uncertainty.

Secrets like these were no surprise to the team, ONI secrets and all. From the looks of it, it was never utilized when the Covenant attacked the facility. David wondered why.

Marley checked his area TACMAP and looked up, marking the ceiling above with a NAV point. David slowly pushed it apart with his flattened hand, revealing a much larger facility above. Bingo. This was their entry point.

Like the passage below, the black site was pitch, but their NVEs were tweaked enough to make up for it. It was eerily silent as they plodded against the metal floors. Crimson-coloured blood tinged the white walls, almost every nook showing signs of some sort of struggle.

David turned around, taking a swift scan of their back as they turned down a corner painted with the black writing: "OPS CENTER," just the place they needed to go.

As they progressed down the discoloured corridor, Marley curled his fist upward, ripping his hand away from the handguard of his assault rifle. David stopped dead in his tracks, and Marley jerked his head slightly to the side in another communicative gesture.

"Trouble ahead." He motioned without words.

That's when David could hear it clearly, the series of bestial snarls and clicks. He squinted down the sight of his rifle until the crosshair waved against the heads of two Jackals standing together behind a shaded piece of furniture. He got down on one knee, holding his rifle tight and waited for his boss's signal.

Three seconds passed, and Marley rapidly flickered his HUD light green to signal the order. There wasn't a moment without of pause in that following second, as they fired off their silenced rifles, several rounds splattering into the unsuspecting aliens, splashing their surroundings purple before spasming onto the floors.

They flicked their barrels toward the blind spots, seeing that the area was clear for now and the two began to close the gap, with David taking point toward the particular piece of furniture.

"Holotank, 11 o'clock," whispered Marley as he spun around to watch his ally's back.

It could be seen that the piece of furniture wasn't just any, it took the form of a large cylindrical pedestal welded to the floors, connected internally with the walls and such.

This is what they came for, or at least this was one of the objectives.

David took his hand and wiped his armoured fist against the stained pedestal, placing his hand flat on the glass lid. At the motion of his touch, the holotank brightened up with a purple-blue glow.

It was only a few moments later that a miniature figure manifested on the tank. Her holographic red dress fluttered in the air, pink hair tied neatly in duos, and her doll-like face slowly turned toward him. David knew about Artificial Intelligence for a long time. He knew that they could take whatever avatar they so decided, and what a beautiful avatar this one took.

Her eyes widened at the sight of the soldiers, her bright pink aura glint reflecting off his visor.

"Spartans..." She murmured with a tone of relief.

"Identify." David requested. The AI flinched up and stood taller.

"MUS 1273-1: Muses. Role: Assistance, ONI Black Site C-38L." She listed off, even making a quick bow toward her introduction.

"Lieutenant David-B114, Asymmetrical Action Group Team 3." David introduced in return, taking a swift glance around the room. "We just picked up your transmit. What's the status report 'round here?"

At that question, Muses' expression grew sourer and depressive. Her eyes narrowed in mourning.

"They killed them all..." She mumbled, an obvious sadness in her voice. "Nobody is left but me."

"Bugger." David muttered.

"Hurry it up, Two," Marley called out, pushing for them to hurry.

"Right." David reached behind his back and removed a metallic microchip from his rear pouch. He slipped it into a slot in the pedestal, surging the chip with a bright pink. Muses crossed her arms, eyes shut for a few moments before David pulled out the chip, the AI's form disintegrating before he slipped it into the end of his helmet. Before they passed through, David reached down and snatched one of the Jackals' point defence gauntlets, securing it to his free wrist before proceeding.

"Muses, what exactly happened here?" David inquired, following behind Marley with his weapon pointed at the shadows.

"It was a quiet attack. It started off the way I presume you did, no suspensions. Nothing on the scanners." Muses began to retell the tale, her voice disembodied but ringing in their COMs. "Next thing we realized, half the power is out and several dropships are on us like flies on a carcass. I scrubbed and sealed away as much as I could, but I couldn't get all of it. If they could restore find a way to power... and access the remaining files, the'll..."

"Find Earth," Marley spoke up, glancing over his shoulder.

"Yeah, we know." David spoke calmingly. "This isn't our first close call, mate. We've cleaned our messes before, and we'll bloody to do it again."

"That's... comforting to hear, Lieutenant."

"Alright, then let's scuttle this bug." They continued through, "Do you know the override code?"

"I do, but it's no use. The self-destruct systems are controlled electronically, and as I mentioned before that part of the site is a complete blackout." She explained, "There's also the case that the Operations Center is currently teeming with hostiles so going in there to try and restart it is highly unrecommended anyhow."

"Then we need a way around... I know."

"You read my mind." Marley dug into a pouch and withdrew several small canisters. He handed a few to David, and kept some others to himself.

David inspected the canisters. C-7 Foaming Explosives–often used for room breaching, able to blast through any wall or door in just a few doses. But in enough amounts, they could even cause some serious devastation.

The duo inferred the layout of the base once more. It was simple: get down to the lower levels and stick them to these reactors. If they were still somewhat active, they could just blow the fuses, overload the circuits and let the core irritate into combustion on its own. That would effectively make up for the lost self-destruct and wipe everything in the vicinity.

The Spartans began to pick up the pace, continuing through the unfortunate facility, their boots clanking louder and faster as they followed the pointer toward the new NAV indicator tagged by Muses.

David halted by Marley as edged by another corner, about three red blips breezing on their motion trackers. The dots were small and sounds made it clear.

They flung out of cover, catching three Grunts off guard who were silently patrolling the halls. Marley shot the one in the front, dropping it into its back. David bounced off the wall, and rammed the enormous weight of his armour into the second Grunt, flailing it around with vertigo until it collapsed on his tank with a gasp. David swung his BR's rear, taking out the third before it could even fire a shot, then lifted his foot and smashed down on the second Grunt's fave, caving in his face and gas mask until all that was left of it was a big leaking blue hole.

"Woah..."

They didn't take the time to acknowledge Muses' utterance of awe, proceeding without thinking otherwise about what they did and kept going until they reached a closed sector barring a spiral staircase with a sign reading: "AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY," with a Superintendent icon on the side.

David and Marley pressed up against either side, digging their fingers into the crevice between the door. The titanium door slid free no match for the two of these super-soldiers, but a loud screech bellowed from its hinges, echoing down the hall.

The sound made David cringe with intensity.

There's no way something didn't hear that.

"Let's go..." Marley jerked his head forward, motioning for David to focus up–which he did–proceeding behind him toward the grated staircase.

Their NVE systems couldn't see the bottom, but they knew there had to be one so they started descending rapidly. It was a very long walk descent, the constant spinning starting to get into David's head halfway.

"Ugh... I feel someone should be rolling barrels down at us."

"Shut up, Dave."

"Right. Can't wait to come back all the way up these steps again..."

"Actually," Muses butt in, "There should be an elevator at the surface level. It could bring you back to the peak level, but you would most likely be recognized by hostiles."

David and Marley stared through the grated staircase to finally see the ground, finally relieved from all of the descent.

"Once we plant the foams, being seen will be the least of our priorities." Marley stated, taking a look around. They walked through a series of different rooms, most of which were blackened and empty. A locker room was vacant, jumpsuits hanging untouched, tools and other instruments of engineering laid throughout. In spite of the implications, David was finding himself in his happy place again and wanted nothing more but to start touching all this stuff, be he mentally restrained himself. His box of collected electronics back in the prowler was already getting big, and he didn't need an overflow.

Right now, the duo needed an overload. When David entered a certain area, ignoring the sign outside, he flinched at the uncomfortable feeling in his tech suit. Marley had split up from him, taking the route toward the other reactor core.

"Are you okay?" Muses asked, worried.

David shivered, then stretched out his limbs. He began to march, ignoring all of the electrical tides circling through every piece of the air, breaking into his armour's power and HUD. It was a strong breeze, even stronger than the outside storm. Every edge of his HUD was static, rapidly flickering in error the more he neared his destination. On the other side of him, there was a sealed trap door which he needed out of his way. David unguarded his face then with a fearsome groan, clenched the handles of the door and forcibly tore it up, hurling it to the side. As he crouched and looked down, he could see it clearly: the reactor core.

It was like a thick pillar in the center of the room, covered in protective steel with sparks heavily shooting from it. The temperature was extremely hot, and if not for his powered armour, David felt he would've been simmered alive by the core. But he won't.

David lowered against the ledge, slipping his legs into the hole until he was hanging by one arm. He let go of said hand and fell, hitting the ground in his boots with a thud and felt the electromagnetic burst hit every fraction of his body.

There, David flicked upward, gazing right at the electronic pillar. He twitched forward, clutching some of the protective sheets and peeling it right off until the covering fell, and a blue glow broke through the darkness, emitting high amounts of heat. This was where it came down to.

David reached for his front pouch, withdrawing his share of C-7 canisters and began to wire them against the lip of the tear, setting them just between the static core and protective peel. He had to be careful not to do anything he'd regret, like triggering the foams right there.

Although it wouldn't have been that big a deal for the UNSC, a worthy sacrifice according to them, this super-soldier was dead set on surviving a survivable operation.

When he was finished prepping the explosives, David stepped back with stiff movement, pressing against the curvaceous of the reactor space walls. Like the stairs, it was all grated, like a convenient ladder back to the surface. Groaning, he stiffly held on and scaled back up the side of the wall, growing freer of his limbs as he neared the hatch and clasped the side. He swung his legs back to grab on, just almost missing the ledge by an inch and pulled the rest of the way.

When he was finally back up, he heaved and sucked in a fresh breath of air. He was glad to finally be out of there. Sitting in a Black Cat undergoing slipspace transit was more bearable than being in that volcano. His HUD seemed to settle as he stopped toward the exit door, finally resuming normality and his energy shielding rejuvenated to full capacity. He swung the door open and locked it behind him, checking his TACPAD for the next objective.

"Crow One, charges are set. Waiting up here on you, over." David radioed in.

"Got it. I'll be there in a sec."

He could see that Marley was still in the other reactor, arming up his foams against the core, so now he just needed to wait and that wouldn't be a problem.

David equipped himself with his battle rifle again and began stepped back into the robust locker room. Save for the faint crackling of electricity, it was still quiet enough to hear a toothpick drop in here. David glimpsed around, sweeping into the center of the room. And when it all seemed fine, something disturbed the silence.

"Well, that ain't good..." David gripped the handguard of his rifle.

"Huh? What's not?" Muses asked, confused about what he meant.

"Don't you see, mate?" David's eyes darted to the corner of his HUD.

In an unusual fashion, his motion tracker had stopped pulsating, leaving his IFF icon standing lonely in the translucent blue sphere.

Nothing was there, because nothing was being scanned. There were a few reasons for that, but David knew the truth.

"What... does that mean?" Muses asked.

David's eyes fell on the orange lockers by the walls in front of him, freshly painted and still quite reflective. He could see himself and narrowed his eyes over the area by his shoulder. He didn't move a muscle.

"It means..."

The reflection briefly distorted his shoulder and the air around it warped. Then, with a fearsome roar, the entire room was painted light blue as a twin-pronged blade ignited behind David's back and swung.

David ducked to the side, narrowly avoiding the energized sword as it swept above his head and bisected the locker beside him, leaving a sizzling slash mark in its wake. David rolled forward, spun around and rapidly sprayed his rifle into the distorted piece of air carrying the blade. Several armour piercing rounds shattered into the hostile's armour, flashing a blue web of energy shielding.

The big creature recoiled by impact, sliding backwards against its large translucent feet as its large body began to uncloak and take colour. The dominating, 8 feet tall figure slowly revealed itself to the Spartan, clad in its ornate blue combat harness.

Damn. An Elite.

The saurian creature's mandible clicked in resentment of the Spartan: "(Filthy Demon!)," it snarled in its tongue, flipping its energy sword up to shield his face from the incoming rounds. It whipped into cover, giving David much-needed time to reload but also giving his enemy time to re-cloak.

"Crow Two, I can hear that gunfire. What's the sit?" Marley prompted.

"I've been... engaged..!" David fired away into the shadows as the Elite jumped out and barrelled towards him with high aggression in his eyes.

It swung away with its sword, missing David's helmet but caught of the stock BR and knocked it out of his hand, flinging it across the room. The Elite then kicked David into a bench which shattered on impact, but in only a matter of seconds, he was back up again ready to fight.

David drew his combat knife, slashing it against his shoulder to mark his newfound weaponry. The Elite stiffened up at the proposal–as honourable warriors their species was–and gripped his energy sword tighter.

"Well?" David taunted. "My head's right here. Come and take it off, hingehead..."

The Elite cried out and dashed forth, twisting his energy sword and running it across the ground, almost taking a toe from David's foot. The Spartan clenched his knife and bashed the grip into the face center of its face, knocking it back with a yelp. As it tried to regain its footing, David ducked a swipe and dipped beneath the alien's armpit, running his blade into the open part of its waist and grappling to its large back like a jockey.

The Elite thrashed around like a feral beast, trying to tear the Spartan off of him as if he was a parasite. David raised his knife upside down, about to make the final blow until the Elite slammed back and bashed him into the hard locker. The knife in his hand almost leaped out, but he wouldn't allow it and somersaulted backwards as he hit the ground, kicking up onto his feet. As this fight went on, the once tidy and organized locker room was soon decorated with vicious sizzling streaks of hot plasma and bullet holes as they battled for survival.

David wasn't any feeling tired, and he was nowhere near giving up, but he couldn't say the same for his foe. The Elite's breath drew heavier and filled with more malice than ever. He stanced up with his knife in hand, and readied. This was it. David took brief glance at one of the halved benches, his BR rested on a slant.

Before he could think, the Elite charged again, all sense of honour seemly dropped as rage overtook him. David jumped, avoiding a slash and made a break toward his fallen rifle. The Elite roared and pursued, and just as he brushed the grip, he was grabbed by the throat and slammed him against the locker. It snarled in its face.

"Lieutenant!" Muses whimpered out.

"No worries."

David slowly brushed his hand toward his holster, withdrawing the previously policed Plasma Pistol from that Grunt and aimed it right at the Elite's face. He squeezed down the trigger, not letting go. The Plasma Pistol danced around in his hands for a few moments until it finally ejected a green orb right into its face, blowing off its shields and melting part if its mandibles.

It screamed into the air, holding the side of its face with agony and despair, while dropped to the ground and stood there watching, waiting.

The Elite's head finally exploded with a round lodging itself into the back of its cranium, causing it to abruptly stiffen up like a board and collapse like a statue. It hit the ground with a heavy thud, rattling tools, and behind it, Marley stepped over, putting more rounds into its head.

"About time. The party's over, mate." David complained.

"Yeah, looks like I just ended it." Marley bent down and scavenged what he could from the deceased's body, pulling plasma cartridges and extra grenades from wherever they were hidden. As he stood back up, there was an uproar from above, and it was big.

"So much for a stealth mission..." Marley dismayed.

"Come on, since when have any of those gone to plan?"

"Heh, you got me there."

It always went down like this. David couldn't recall a time a stealth mission ended the way it started, because there had been no such time. It started off quiet, but running guns blazing usually marked the finish line.

With the foaming explosions armed and the entire facility rigged to explode, it was now time to see themselves out, with fashion. The two made their way toward the lift mentioned by Muses, David pressing the button to seal and slowly bring them up.

With their motion trackers restored again, David could observe the discrepancy happening from above as hostiles moved toward the gate.

"Well, we should at least set the table." David nudged Marley who seemed to agree.

Marley switched on his COMs channel and began to organize the escape, as the lift grew ever closer to the top.

"Black Cat 049, Crow One. Prep for rapid exfil, 15 minutes at fallback point. Understood?"

"Copy, Crow Leader."

"Crow Three, Crow One. You still up there?"

"Always." The voice of the third Crow crackled in response, calm and collected at the boss' orders.

"Alright, then get ready. It's about to get loud. RV in 5 minutes."

Marley then took his hand off the mic and looked at David.

"Crow Two," he patted him on the pauldron. "Commence: Rho Maneuver... Let's sprint this shit."

David nodded, turning his attention to the point defence gauntlet on his right wrist. He took this thing for a reason, drawing and cocking the suppressed magnum within his left hand.

Marley threw down his suppressed MA37 and reached behind his back, grabbing onto the barrel of an M45E tactical shotgun. He rested it in his hands and pumped it aggressively, loading an 8-gauge shell into the chamber.

"Here." David offered him some plasma grenades which he had previously stolen.

As the lift flew higher, the air grew colder and a calm before a storm set in. David breathed in, Marley breathed in and the two were ready.

"Muses?"

"...Yes?" The AI didn't know what to think.

David flashed on the point defence gauntlet and a broad blue energized shield buzzed into form. He lifted protectively in front of his face, then stuck his magnum through the gap.

"You better hold on tight." He informed her as an anticipating grin twisted over his mouth.

The lift buckled as it stopped, with nowhere left to go but down now. And they sure as hell weren't going back down.

Marley flicked on the Plasma Grenade's activation switch, priming it into a hot white-blue flash. As the large door began to split open, and the light peered in, he chucked them into the small gap, and it shrieked stuck onto something.

There were sounds of a panic before thunder rumbled, the door opened widely, and a portion of the front yard was engulfed in a superheated blue with corpses and enemies attempting to reform.

"GO!"

The two immediately broke into a full charge, and began to light up the lane. The enemies were barely ready for what came barreling out of that elevator, guns unloading onto them at full rip. The Spartans ripped through the Grunts and Jackals with ease, shotgun blasting them to pieces of flesh, and magnum dropping them with precision. Their NAV marker was far past the trees at least 2 kilometres away, toward the cliffside which David had come from. That's where the sub-prowler is landing, and that's their ride out of this abominable icebox.

To David, it was like time was moving slower, with each stretch of snow they thumped across covered in a veil of smoke and ice.

There was just noise, as ballistic rounds tore through the silence and stray plasma bolts flew in all directions. The amount of plasma fired was so abundant, that portions of the thick snow began to endlessly melt.

David and Marley broke through the woods, as Covenant Legion was in hot pursuit behind, still firing whatever they left. David's Jackal shield had begun to throb red from all hits it was taking.

From a treetop platform in the pines, David could see a lone Jackal peer over the ledge, with a particle beam rifle clasped in his claws. David stopped for a moment, brandishing his shield high while sliding across the ice. The Jackal Sniper took aim, but with a distant crack, its throat splattered in half and sprayed the bark with blood. The sniper round splintered through several other trees before it made its home.

'Nice one, Three!'

Marley flashed a signal with his hand and the two whipped into cover behind the tower-like tree trunk for a breather. The point defence gauntlet was in bad shape, so David discarded it altogether.

Instead, he whipped out his slightly-damaged BR55 and began firing away at the pursuing lance. The burst rounds tore through a levy of Grunts, partially dissuading additional forces before more Jackals hopped up with their shields ready. There was another crack in the distance, and the line of Jackals forming near the edge of the forest was broken by a single severing sniper round running through most of them.

"Wort!" An Elite clad in white armour meshing with the snow continued to order his men forward in spite of the mass slaughter.

David and Marley began to push back, still firing their rifles but jogging in a backwards run toward the NAV marker, the sniper covering them as they doubled back. To make matters worse the Type-52 Phantom appeared and began to deploy more forces whilst firing its plasma cannon.

Bodies began to pile up where Covenant kept running, and after several sniper rounds, the cannon's barrels partially detached and stopped firing.

Two Spartans, against several dozen alien forces. And they were winning.

As they pressed toward the cliffside, rushing out into a field of snow lacking any sort of cover, suddenly, a winged vehicle flashed in the sky and soared over the Spartans' heads.

"There's our ride!"

The Black Cat-class subprowler lowered to the ground with a heavy buzz, its engine spewing and burning away at the snow below it. David covered Markey as the hatchway unlocked and extended a ramp to its robust troop cabin, allowing the two to climb aboard, but David didn't go yet.

As the ammo indicator on his weapon back to near single digits, David looked toward the right to see something fast and red hurrying towards them from the far distance.

It was a third Spartan clad in maroon-red armour, sporting white trims on his armour. A SCOUT-class helmet rested over his head, and an SRS99 sniper rifle hung off the back.

Crow Three, better referred to as Ichika reached into his LRP pouches, revoking a grenade-shaped item as he came running at full speed, then stopped. He arched his hand back at shattered into the snow, right in front of David and a large golden done burst from it, blocking anymore incoming plasma bolts.

It was now time to leave.

Ichika slid against the ice, then twisted and pounced into the Black Cat, David hurriedly following him after.

The hovering exfiltration craft roared like a dragon as it powered up, and several Covenant soldiers made a dash across the snow in a desperate attempt to stop the escapees.

"Fireworks?" David looked over at Marley as they grew close.

The EOD-clad Spartan took a look out the troop bay, resting his hand by the overhang. Ichika took a resting seat and looked up at him with anticipation.

Marley reached into a pouch and pulled out a black detonator. The enemies who saw it stopped, their followers slamming into their backs with confusion, but nothing could help them escape the following chaos. Winter breezed, smoke and blood stained the field, and Marley squeezed the trigger tightly and the ground shook.

The cliff quaked, and over a dozen explosions cut a circle around the field from the lower cliffside to the edge of the forest surface-side, displacing the terrain until it couldn't take anymore. The surface fractured, the field of white shattering like a puzzle and about 19 aliens screaming as they fell into the dark abyss. The Black Cat remained hovered, and the sound died down. The elements of Crow Team were only left to stare at the survivors who weren't as foolish as to cross the line.

The Elite Ultra was overcome with obvious rage, which David snorted at condescendingly. With an authoritative bark, the enemies gathered and fell back into the pines, disappearing behind the thick spruce forest.

The hatchway slowly closed up, sealing away the outside breeze and the Spartans could finally take a rest. David slammed back against the jumpseat, arms to the side. His stomach lifted as the Black Cat began to take flight, far, far away from this frozen hellscape.

With another, greater earthquake and a blinding flash by the surveillance monitors. They could hear the next round of chaos rise, as Marley triggered the C-7 Foams stuffed to the reactors. The once-bustling black site burst into flames like a volcano, a large mushroom cloud being all that remained and covered the area. All for the best.

"You alright, Muses?" David sat up.

"Mhm..."

That was her response, but David knew she had to have taken it more harder, to see her former home obliterated just like that.

But, it's happened to all of them.

Everybody on this vessel knew how that felt.

"Stardust Actual, this is Crow One. All objectives complete. Black Site is destroyed."

————

STATUS REPORT:

[OBJECTIVES: COMPLETE]

[COVENANT CASUALTIES: 150]

[UNSC CASUALTIES: 0]

————

[COLE PROTOCOL SUCCESSFULLY UPHELD]