Aboard UNSC Pelican Charile-3-3, late in the evening...

"Reports from the police have confirmed the discovery of the Black Hand Killer's possible hideout. The infamous murderer has been terrorizing Vale for the better part of 2 years, preying on anyone they could find, gathering quite the following of nasty criminals. Today, Police Chief Sweeney has asked directly for help from the enigmatic organization simply known as SWORD, known for their interventions after the burning of the habitation block within the Industrial Sector, as well as the post-Terror Attack elimination of all White Fang bases of operation within Vale's borders..."

As the news report continued to play over Radio, Six checked her gun. Racking the bolt, she slid the weapon on her back. The only one standing up, Noble Six stared at the hold full of ODSTs with silenced variations of their magnetic weapons with a grin. The men checked, prepped and cocked M7 Mag SMGs, rifles and some even brandished non-lethal Tasers and Flash grenades.

Vale police was courteous enough to provide them some extra equipment before their deployment. Six felt a slight shift in the Pelican's engines. The forward momentum reduced as the aircraft began touchdown. The Street had been cordoned off, as far as the girl could see. Reporters from VNN and smaller Newspapers and channels were present with film crews and cameras, behind the police cordon. Twelve cars and six SWAT vans were present...

Were they expecting a fucking cult...? Then again, she came in with a squad of heavily-armored Shock Troops, so...

Alice was the first out of the bird, with her ODSTs trailing not too far behind. She turned toward the American-style line of houses and started walking toward the man in the middle of it all. A SWAT officer with relatively light gear... Sitting over a line of 10 Body Bags. Well, that was foreboding enough. She looked to the ODST Sergeant and said "Eyes open. Windows and roofs. Anything moves up there that isn't SWAT, gun it the fuck down."

"Aye aye." The Trooper nodded, readying his rifle. "Alright, scatter and keep your eyes open! Rooftops and windows are to be watched constantly! If you see anything move or poke a barrel out at you, identify, tag and gun it down!" He then barked, waving forth the squadron. As they scattered to join the SWAT surrounding the house, Alice walked up to the SWAT Officer...

"Take it it's not some side-street stabby fucker then..." She spoke, taking his attention to her. The raven-haired, blue-eyed man shook his head.

"Nah, asshole's good... And he got what's basically a cult following of wannabes and Copycats... And somehow, all of them got hold of guns that don't resemble anythin' produced locally. Fuck, they're military-tier weaponry..." He noted, crossing his arms. Alice had a nagging feeling... He looked to her, noticing her fully and giving her a once-over, before adding with a smirk "Well, ain't you a battering ram of a woman."

"I'll take that as a compliment." Alice quipped, looking at the doors and windows... Windows were boarded up. No light... Probably murder-holes in them that they could peek out of, shoot and cover back up. She started formulating an entry plan, before saying "I want snipers covering every window. We brought high-caliber Anti-Materiel rifles to deal with any kind of cover they may have. Post them up with your men... I'll be taking a breaching kit and three of mine with Shotguns and we'll be sweeping the place, starting from the garage..." She pointed to the sunken-in road portion of the house with a large electric door "To the attic." She pointed up.

"You seem to've got this all figured out." The Captain mused. "Whaddaya need me and my boys to do?"

"Keep watch around the house. Make sure the asshole and his cult doesn't escape... We here to kill or incap?"

"Incap if possible. Need some intel from him."

"Right..." Alice grinned. "Hunter, Reeves, Rick, with me." She then called them in through comm. The trio of ODSTs promptly joined her as the snipers posted themselves up on higher ground. The team prepared for a tactical insertion, forming up into a wedge and advancing toward the garage's side door. The Spartan removed the magazine from her rifle, opting instead to switch to something Ruby had gifted to the UNSC's Tactical Units before leaving on that op to the Zone. Thermite Breaching Rounds. Whilst you'd usually expect these to be fired out of specialized breaching shotguns...

Ruby was quite inventive in making the magnetic slugs of the new range of Mag weapons very versatile... Thank you, Rose Industries LTD. The Spartan pointed the barrel at the door's keyhole as the others stacked up behind her, before powering her shields. She flicked the safety off, then raised her left hand, showing three fingers... They started to drop and the Shock Troopers tensed...

Three... Guns on me.

Two... Not fun for you.

One... You'll be dead and gone...

GO, GO, GO!

The roar of the Magnetic DMR, followed by the fizzling of the Dust-charged Thermite rounds, gave Six a countdown of two nano-seconds... Her armored boot made contact with the burning lock and the door nearly broke, swinging open on only one of its hinges... Alice raised her rifle and fired at the first bastard she saw aiming at her and holding a rifle. The Thermite charge detonated in his shoulder and the man screamed in agony as he burned alive as the Spartan and 3 ODSTs entered the room and opened fire...

Two more bastards, these ones toting AKMs, fell, filled full of holes. They collapsed onto a workbench and tool cabinet, respectively, falling over on top of the said machinery and items, with the shelves falling onto their heads. Alice stuck a left onto the cramped stairwell leading up to the main hallway, with the squad trailing behind her. She punched open the door, sending the shards of wood into another bastard. She caught a good look at him... He was wearing basic civilian clothing, so that was... Not disconcerting at all...

Drawing her Sidearm before the man could raise his M14, Alice dumped two rounds into his chest and one into his head. An automatic weapon fired a 3 second burst and bullets sparked off her shields or penetrated the thin walls around her. She raised her handgun without even looking and fired. The enemy Machine Gun fell silent... Cocking her head toward the kitchen hallway, she saw an M249 SAW... Huh, old Earth guns galore.

She stepped forward from the doorway, letting the ODSTs inside. Reeves' M7 SOCOM spat bullets up the stairs. A man's spine cracking was heard as he tumbled down them. The ODST let loose another stream of rounds up the stairs and a wet thunk followed. Alice, Rick and Hunter moved forward, with the middleman kicking down a door to a closet under the stairs and firing his MA40. The rounds punched through the armed man inside, through the drywall and through the concrete, drawing blood.

Alice drew and swiped with her knife. Her blade pinned someone onto the fridge, blood splattered on some kid's drawings. She fired twice from her pistol and two more men that came in from the courtyard, through the back door, fell dead. She motioned to Hunter to follow Reeves. Rick would stay with Alice as she cleared the courtyard. As the first bastard came into view, more 5,56 rounds sparked off her shields, draining them... Fucking hollow-points...

Her bullets answered. The man had no eyes anymore.

She watched as the Shed's door was kicked down... And a fucking MINI-GUN revved up! Oh, hell to the fuck no! The Spartan drew her DMR and fired at the barrels of the gun out of spite, joyfully watching as the spinning drum boiled and the ammunition inside each barrel cooked off. Another round between the eyes of the girl manning the tripod-mounted, battery-powered Gatling melted her face and brains.

Two more died by Rick's gun. Alice nodded to him, before the duo went inside, only to find Reeves and Hunter pinned down upstairs, the latter with an AP round through his shoulder and still firing his gun. Alice once again went first, taking more rounds to her armor, toward the master bedroom... There, she saw a fat man with what looked like a high-caliber rifle, maybe a .308 or even a .50 BeoWulf... The rounds did drain her shields a lot, but she was still good on walking.

Raising her pistol, the woman watched as the man tried to drag one of his hostages out of hiding... She popped two rounds into his head and...

Through the drywall in front of her, a blurry figure appeared. Alice felt the air knocked out of her lungs as the figure Bull-rushed her through two more walls, before both wound up flying out into the courtyard and impacting the dirt hard enough for Alice's shields to flare and die out. As the smoke around her cleared, Alice awoke with the barrel of an... MA5K Rifle... Pointed at her... With wide eyes, the woman grabbed the barrel, pushing it aside as six rounds spat from it, before she delivered a gut punch to the armored figure, feeling Titanium-A...

The figure staggered off of Alice, doubling over from the hit, before raising its rifle... Alice saw the faint, but familiar ripple of an SPI Armor and everything went blank for her... An Identification Friend or Foe Tag popped up over its... Her head... SIERRA ALPHA 120... Carter had mentioned that number and name in passing. And as the Alpha Company Spartan met Alice with a raised rifle and a rippling Semi-Powered Infiltration Armor set, the Spartan felt three rounds... Two bounced off the Titanium of her armor... A third punched through her left shoulder.

Alice raised her own pistol out of automated responses and reflexes, firing two rounds toward the ghostly Spartan-III. 120 rushed Alice, firing from her rifle, to prevent the Sixth Noble's shields from recharging. Six answered by rushing the woman all the same, making sure her Titanium plating took the brunt of the MA5K's Armor-Piercing 7,62 rounds. She was lucky they were just bouncing for now...

She cocked her fist back and with all the momentum of a freight train, she delivered a haymaker. It made contact with the gauntlet of the SPI armor, deflecting to the left as the most proficient CQC fighter in Alpha outside of Emile headbutted Alice with enough force to crack the SPI's visor slightly. The Spartan-III Alpha went on the offensive, delivering each hammering blow with precision only matched by Jun's sniping skills...

Alice struggled, doubling over and on the back foot against the attacks of her opponent. She dodged and bobbed and weaved, trying to find a good moment to strike and not lucking out just yet... She parried a fist to the left, grabbing the wrist, twisting it and growling "The fuck are you doing, Spartan! We're friendlies!" before feeling her counter the twist. Alice broke off, trying to deliver a punch to her opponent, but missing as the III jumped back...

She bounced a bit around like one would see any stereotypically Asian character who knows martial arts do in any movie, to taunt Alice, before she stopped, to remove her helmet... Tossing aside the broken item revealed to Alice a very pale woman, who wore a grin on her face, her eyes black, with scarlet irises, split pupils and jet-black hair waving in the wind... And a pair of feline ears and longer canines

"Woah, Black Betty..." Alice murmured...

120 chuckled... Then spoke, with a Southern accent matching those you'd hear in any trailer park "So... Yer Hell Alice, then." maintaining her combat pose... "I'd'a thought the second Spartan with a Hyper-Lethal ratin' would be puttin' up more of a fight... What's the matter, darlin', cat got yer tongue?"

"... I'm just surprised I'd ever see a Spartan fighting for the Bad Guys." Alice returned, readying her own fists for a nice ol' scrap. "What's with the fake Southern accent, ya trying to woo some local wankstain, or did I shoot your boyfriend up there?"

"Watch yer tongue, missy. I'm technically older then you." 120 bared her fangs in a malicious grin. "Oh, but I do like'em feisty..." And she winked playfully at Six.

... A flirting, batshit insane Spartan-III "I'm certainly concerned." Alice muttered... Before charging forward and trying to deliver a punch... She feigned a strike, catching 120 by surprise when her uppercut hit her right in the chin. The woman staggered, blood spilling from her nose and half-broken jaw, before the wound healed. As she doubled over, recovering incredibly quick, she laughed, watching Alice's shocked reaction.

"Gosh, you certainly do not hit like a girl..." She mocked, before fixing her jaw back into place. "And, by the way... Ya nailed it with that nickname."

"... What?" Alice's brow quirked up.

"Name's Roberta... But y'can call me Black Betty if ya like, Hell Alice." She smirked... "Listen, darlin', I gotta drop off for now, but we will talk more, I promise." And before Alice could grab or shoot at her... Roberta vanished into a wave of black smoke. She heard the SWAT teams moving in to clear the residence, before her ODSTs joined her, all with helmets off their heads and staring at the wave of smoke dissipating into the sky... And Rick voiced "What the fuck was her deal?"

... Alice probably did not want to know the answer to that.