AN: I'm really, really sorry about not posting this sooner! After months of wait, here it is!

I'll be changing the names and few things from the original version, but, hey, what are re-writes for?

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SPARTAN-A073

CODENAME ICARUS

OPERATION REDGATE

A flash of yellow and white filled his vision for a tenth of a second, but it was long enough for him to notice. The sniper rifle he was holding kicked back, jostling against his armored shoulder and upper arm. The suppressor he had modified the rifle with served him well, as no enemies heard what otherwise could've been an alert to the whole Covenant outpost. His sensitive hearing heard an extremely faint groan from the elite he just downed, then a thud.

"Tango down on northwest side, hide behind the Covenant supply rooms," Icarus spoke into his radio, external speakers off so no one would hear him. "Got it, Icarus. Moving in," a female voice replied as another figure appeared from the shadows. Her visor was yellow-tinted, and her armor was dark green and grey; good for blending into dim corners. She swiftly sprinted across a shadowy stretch in the open, then sliding in behind the supply rooms. She glanced at the elite on the ground, giving Icarus a thumbs up. "Aura, focus on the mission," Icarus reminded her.

Her head made an extremely slight tilt, and he knew simply just from the movement that she was rolling her eyes. After a second, she nodded, then peeked out from behind. "Moving in," Aura said, fingering the C4 attached to her sides.

Operation Redgate was to drown a Covenant outpost in lava. It would sound extremely hard to do, but the outpost was in the middle of a vast sea of lava, multiple floodgates and Covenant-designed barriers keeping the lava from leaking in. This was a stupid move on the Covenant's part, as just one small malfunction could make them all into molten piles. The C4 were remotely detonated, so they could hitch a Phantom and escape, while the whole outpost was turned into nothing but the molten liquid.

Aura was nearly sighted by a grunt, but she reacted quickly enough and pulled out her silenced magnum, popping the small creature's head off. Confetti flew out, much to Icarus's amusement. She was slinking in between two structures – Icarus couldn't tell their purposes from this distance – and her form was heavily shrouded in darkness. If not for the blue outline, he would've had a much harder time seeing her. Abruptly, a red silhouette popped up in an alleyway on her left. "Jackal, on your left!" hissed Icarus, hating the fact that it was protected by the purple metal of the structure.

The light below her helmet on his HUD flashed green, and she hugged the wall. From her comm, he heard faint chirping and squawking noises. He opened a small window on the middle right, displaying what Aura saw. She peeked around the corner, seeing a jackal fiddling with its busted shield. As quick as the wind, she fired a round into its head, then jumping over and closing its mouth before it could make a sound to alert the rest of the outpost.

Icarus gave a very small sigh of relief, the red silhouette fading away as the jackal died. He then heard a grunt from behind him. Alarms went off in his head, and he swung around, already unsheathing his knife. A loud screech emanated from what was behind him, alerting all the Covenant in the outpost. It was only for two seconds, as he felt his blade dig into leathery skin and slashing through flesh. The Elite slumped over onto the SPARTAN-III, blue blood trickling from the wound and dripping onto Icarus's black armor. He pulled the knife out, kicking the Elite body away.

A plasma beam fired half an inch from his head. He mentally cursed, turning around and sprinting down the small obsidian cliff-face that had formed under the lava before being exposed by the Covenant. He reached a ledge and jumped upwards, slamming into the slanted face with a grunt. He slid down and onto the ash-covered ground, leaving a wave of rising dirt and soot in his wake. "They found me!" Aura grunted over the comms.

"Then fight back!" replied Icarus, grabbing his SOCOM magnum, dropping behind cover as a blast of plasma flew over his head. "If only it as easy as it sounded," he heard Aura sigh dramatically over the comms. And then he heard the loud firing of a battle rifle. Numerous squeals of terror were heard, Icarus guessing she had run into a pack of grunts. He had no idea why the clumped up with no actual leader to follow, as they were as easy to fight as a child would be. If you armed the child with plasma weaponry and gave them some armor. He winced at his simile.

"Vo kukresh!" he heard a throaty voice shout, then the roars of multiple brutes and Elites echoed and bounced in between the buildings. He gritted his teeth and leapt over his cover, firing a couple of rounds into the head of an Elite that had dared get too close. A brute did something akin to a shout but with more of a throaty edge, charging at the SPARTAN-III.

Swiftly, Icarus ran at the brute in response. He then leapt up, arms outstretched. He flipped over the brute's shoulders, kicking forcefully at its back. The momentum the kick carried sent it crashing into a Covenant supply room, breaking through some of the weaker points. It roared in frustration and tried kicking at the ground. Icarus turned around and grabbed the energy hammer that laid discarded at the beast's feet. With dim acknowledgement, he fired a few rounds into the brute's head, before noting that a couple of jackals were closing in on him.

He briskly snapped the magazine out of the SOCOM, slamming in a fresh one, and attached it to his thigh. He gripped the hammer harder, readying himself to swing as the jackals closed in. Now!

He deftly swung the gravity-centered hammer around, causing it to slam into each jackal, along with the bodies of the unfortunate bastards that came before it. A loud slamming sound resonated with ever hit and the snapping of bones seemed to get carried away with the gravity that dissipated once the jackals were dead. Another brute came charging, this time with a buddy.

"Aura, place the C4 in the areas and hijack one of the phantoms!" commanded Icarus through his private comms, twirling around like a top and launching the gravity hammer towards one of the brutes, taking its head clean off its shoulders. "Way ahead of you!" he heard Aura shout. She was punctuated by multiple three-burst bangs, along with the cries of the Covenant. There were too much here to take out on their own; they'd have to plant the C4 as originally planned.

Grabbing a plasma rifle off the ground, he held the trigger, keeping it aimed at the brute. The plasma melted the beast's fur and seemed to burn through its head. It let out an agony-filled, animal-like wail, before falling on the ground, dead. Abruptly, he was in the chest with a large round of the hyper-heated material. His shields took most of it, but a few bits managed to reach his breastplate, leaving glowing, orange scorch marks as a reminder of the battle damage. Much more of this and he wouldn't live. Making it a priority to reach the nearest Phantom, he started sprinting at the purple-metal-made flat area with the vehicles. Plasma, needles, and grenades flew all around him as pelted towards the escape. "I'm planting the last C4!" Aura notified him over the comms, probably having seen his mad dash that only an insane person would've done.

Plasma hit him in multiple places, his shields mostly taking the brunt, but a sizeable portion reached his armor, leaving glowing, small gouges in his completely black armor. A grenade behind him exploded, flinging him forward. Thankfully, he didn't flip over and start rolling on his back, as that would've made things a bit more complicated. He used the momentum to momentarily push himself off the ground, flying through midair with his limbs pointed behind him. He was nearly there!

After another second, he slammed into the roof of the Phantom. Taking a tenth of a second to regain his bearings, he dropped down into the Phantom and glanced at the controls. He pressed a large blue holographic button that was on the righthand side. He noticed a very faint hum coming from the back. When he looked in the direction, he saw that the exposed parts of the Phantom, like where the gunners sat, were covered in what looked like a pulsating, blue bubble shield. Plasma seemed to ricochet off the fields, but he noticed that the shields got ever more slightly greyer with each hit.

A tiny bit more and the Covenant would not hesitate to use plasma launchers. A holographic set of controls appeared, Icarus slipping his arms in. For a second, he tried jerking the Phantom upwards, and it responded, nearly causing him to be thrown into the ceiling at the abrupt pause. "C4 planted! Come get me!" someone shouted, not over the comms, but from outside. He glanced and saw Aura waving her hands and on top of what looked like a very futuristic radio tower. He flashed his light green in acknowledgment, and jerkily flew the Phantom over to where she'd be able to jump onto the deck. "Come on! Any longer and we'll be torn to shreds!" he barked.

Aura flashed green and she leapt slamming onto one of the outer decks and ducking in. Abruptly, a large bar flickered up on the screen he'd been using to see ahead of him, looking like a battery that was flashing red. He heard Aura growl beside him. "Let me take the reins!" she commanded. Icarus nodded, pulling his arms out and the female SPARTAN-III sliding her arms in, handing him the detonator for the C4. The Phantom acted in kind, the jerky movements of Icarus's rudimentary Covenant vehicle training, with the more civilized technique that Aura used.

A large beeping sound filled the Phantom, red lights flashing. "They're breaking the shield!" Icarus looked out, seeing that they were concentrating all their weapons' fire on the parts that would break to reveal the interior. "Detonate it on my mark! And hold onto your ass, it'll be a bumpy ride!" yelled Aura over the beeping sound and red flashing lights. Icarus nodded in agreement, holding his finger over the button. He could feel the Phantom roughly ascending. "Mark!" she hollered. At that exact moment, he pressed the button. Bright lights, even more so than the lava, filled up the sky. The Phantom jostled around, knocking Icarus into the wall.

The red flashing lights turned to blue. "Does that mean it's worse?" questioned Icarus, feeling a bit ignorant yet safer since the immediate danger had passed. "We're about to find out!" with that, Aura flung them into slipspace.