I

An old admiral

"What happened to Minotaur?" The retired admiral cleared his throat and took a sip of his coffee. "That's a question I get a lot these days, especially from reporters like you. The war is over for, what, two years? And now people start digging. Digging into the mysteries: the ships, the Spartans, all the men and women that went MIA. I can tell you right off the bat that I do not have the slightest clue where that planet went. I know it got glassed by a Covenant fleet in the early stages of the war. Years later, it vanished. Just like that. Whoosh. Off the radar. Some people link it to an entire UNSC fleet that went AWOL a few years prior. Other nut jobs link it to the covert recognizance mission of the Adamant Colossus. Thanks to this 'brilliant' article by your newspaper, everyone now knows I greenlighted that mission. As a result, all the conspiracy theorists, thrill seekers and young reporters looking for a career defining story appear on my doorstep. Let me tell you, you won't get your story here. And now you've taken enough of my time. You know the way out." The reporter wanted to ask more questions but the old admiral turned his chair around. He was not going to answer anything else. His mind wandered to reports he read long ago. Reports he kept hidden, even from UNSC High Command; documents which are now destroyed, all the containing information only to be found in an old admiral's head.

Date: September 12th, 2544

Time: 0912 (military time)

The deep voice

Captain Davila lit a cigar and leaned back in his chair. "The Cole Protocol states that we have to eventually scuttle this ship," he explained to Spartan team Setekh. "We've been floating dead in space for hours and it will only be a matter of time before the Covenant catch up. As we speak, the engineers are doing everything they can to fix the slip space drives, but I'm afraid it will take too long. Also the weapon systems are barely functional." He paused for a few seconds and he wistfully looked at a picture stand on his desk.

"Have you ever seen him like this?" Oscar-374 whispered in Miya-397's ear. "Did you know they used to call the cap' rayo de la guerra? He used to be swift in decision making and relentless in warfare. Nobody knows how many covenant ships our captain turned into space debris." Miya leaned towards Oscar: "He's just getting old. His career had to end someday, why not today? Go out with a bang you know?" Ivory-490 turned around. "Hey you two, stop fooling around." Then he turned to Davila: "So, what are our orders, captain?" Davila looked up, but didn't have time to answer the Spartan leader's question.

Alarms went off as several blinking dots appeared on the screen. "Sir, five unidentified vessels are approaching our position". AI Alexandra popped up on the holopad. She was trying to overrule the automated 'Slipspace rupture detected!'-voice messages. The AI continued advising in a loud and urgent manner several defensive options. Davila was not really paying attention. It was like he already accepted that he was going to die. Until Alexandra mentioned something odd: "These ships are not Covenant. I repeat, not Covenant."

"So, what are they?" Davila stood up from his chair, appearing more revitalized, to take a closer look at the screen. "It's UNSC!", Alexandra shouted, looking elated for a second, but that elation quickly turned into doubt. "It's strange however. They look like UNSC frigates but they don't have the proper tags. The scanner does not show them as friend or foe. Just as 'unidentified'. The ships also do not seem hostile. If they wanted to shoot us, they probably would have already done it. Either that, or their weapon systems are malfunctioning. They're just floating there, like they don't even see us."

Ivory took a step forward. "Sir, we should try to contact them. Maybe they are UNSC and they just went dark because they used up all their power for one last jump, running away from danger... The ships do look heavily damaged." Spartan Jenny-131 entered the conversation. "All five of them went dark at the same time? Just after a slip space jump? That seems too great of a coincidence to me. Maybe the ships were hijacked by insurrectionists, or worse, the covvies... to lure us into a trap. I don't trust this. We have to...". Davila cut her off. "Quiet Spartan, I cannot think like this... Alexandra, establish a connection. We're going to try to make contact. We're a big pack of meat in a large chunk of metal anyway. We have to hope they are friendly. If not, we will lure them into our trap and blow them 'til kingdom come. I already have a nuke primed in the engine room." Jenny stepped forward to say something, but Ivory held his arm in front of her chest, lifting one finger, as if he was too curious what was going to happen and didn't want her to spoil it.

"This is captain Sandro Davila of UNSC Adamant Colossus. Does anyone read?" It was quiet for a while. Then the radio played some static and a deep voice emerged: "This... is... Sandro Davila of U... N... S... C... Adamant Colossus. Does anyone read?" Everyone on the bridge froze for a minute until Alexandra broke the silence: "Okay, that really freaked me out." Davila tried again. "I repeat, this is UNSC Adamant Colossus. Does anyone read?" A tensioning silence set in. Everyone was holding their breath. Then the deep voice sounded once more: "I... read." Davila looked at Ivory and back at the radio. They were both surprised. "Unknown vessel, please identify yourself. You are making unauthorized use of UNSC material", Davila continued. "Please respond."

A grumbling low frequency sound filled up the bridge. The voice it eventually produced resembled a mountain exhaling. "I am all that is and all that was. You are the lucky one, Reclaimer. I need you. You are required to complete a certain task. Otherwise, you would already be mere dust." Everyone on the bridge looked at each other confused. "Sir!", Alexandra shouted. "Multiple Covenant contacts are warping in. I recommend commencing the emergency protocol. You know what that means, right?" Captain Davila looked Alexandra straight in the eye and his voice turned ice-cold: "I know… Begin preparations for the procedure. Do not set the nuke if the Covenant is not in range. Only if there is no other way."

"Look", Miya said, standing near the window staring at the unidentified UNSC frigates. "They are turning their power on." Alexandra assessed the situation and concluded: "The ships are powering up their railguns. This is either a really bad thing or a really good thing."

"Either way, initiate the countdown for the nuke. As a precaution, in case we are not able to manually detonate", Davila replied. "Countdown set at two minutes", Alexandra said with a sad tone in her voice, before she disappeared from the holopad. Ivory was just about to give the captain one final salute when five railgun beams blasted past the Adamant Colossus into the approaching Covenant carriers. "Those are not regular railguns", Jenny noticed. "Look at the color and speed of the beams." Miya ran to the other side of the bridge. "One shot even completely split a covenant carrier in half... Right through the shields, like they weren't even there!"

It did not take long before the Covenant started to retreat; probably thinking they walked into an ambush. "Alexandra, cancel the timer. We're in the clear", Davila ordered. "Don't speak too soon, captain." Oscar was pointing at a pelican like aircraft approaching the Adamant Colossus.

"Do I have permission to enter your ship?", the deep voice from the radio requested.

Date: April 2nd, 2539

Time: 1316 (military time)

Top of her class

"This is Miya. She's kind of loco but one of the best shots I've ever seen." Oscar entered the room as he was beckoning to a young woman in a purple striped armor. When the woman entered the room she was immediately struck with shivers from the icy and strict stare of the Spartan commander, piercing her soul. The commander started walking forward, slowly, circling the young woman like a predator. "So, this is the new addition to team Setekh? It doesn't look like much. Are you sure you brought the right one, Oscar?" Oscar nodded, not saying anything, waiting how this would play out. After a short, but definitely too long awkward silence Miya felled a rough but amicable punch on her shoulder. The Spartan commander's expression was changing for the better. "I've seen your record, soldier. Welcome to the team. You can call me Jenny."

Date: September 16th, 2544

Time: approximately 1500 (military time)

Focus and silence

"Would you two please shut up for a while?", Ivory was annoyed by Miya and Oscar who were once again debating about some obscure subject. "I'm trying to focus here. Remember, we're on this abandoned, forsaken, glassland planet because some anomalies were detected. The planet should be dead, but it seemingly isn't. So I need you two to stay focused", Ivory continued with some irritation and sarcasm in his voice as he started to walk faster. "Seems like someone's armor is too tight...", Miya whispered to Oscar. Of course Ivory heard it, but he tactically ignored her.

"The scanner shows no anomaly or any signs of life", Jenny informed Ivory as she was trying to catch up. "I think the Adamant Colossus just picked up some ghost signal. Dust and echoes maybe? Old distress beacons? I mean, we've been walking around here for hours. I think this mission is literally going nowhere." Ivory turned around to Jenny: "When did I say you could speak freely, Spartan?"

"Sorry, sir!"

Ivory looked down as if he immediately regretted snapping at Jenny: "Well, it does not matter anyway. I think you're right. I will contact Davila."

"Commander Ivory-490 to captain Sandro Davila of the UNSC Adamant Colossus, come in?", the Spartan leader radioed to the UNSC frigate in orbit. "This is Alexandra from the Adamant Colossus. The captain is not available at the moment. What is your status?"

"Minotaur is barren. No signs of life or anything of interest detected. Requesting a bird out of here."

"Negative. The Colossus is still picking up signals. However, the coordinates are revised. Just a few clicks north of your current location there's an abandoned UNSC relay outpost. Your objectives are to investigate with caution, eliminate potential hostiles and retrieve any relevant intel you can find on the strange signals." Ivory sighed and replied with a simple: "Affirmative."

"It looks like we're not gonna bore ourselves to death after all!" Miya checked the magazine of her sniper rifle, probably for a third time. Ivory turned towards her. "You just make sure you get your shots straight when I need you to. And from now on, no more weird debates". His orders were clear. "I want focus and silence."

The Spartans walked to the designated location without saying a word. Miya thought about the 'boring professionalism' Oscar once mentioned. Yes, Spartans are professional soldiers, the best of the best. But Ivory is way too young to be this boring. Even Spartans need some distraction from this shitty war… And these dull ops… Being sunk up by her thoughts, at first she didn't realize the radio tower of the relay outpost finally appeared on the horizon. Jenny's long range scanner went mad. "Sir, I'm picking up multiple contacts in the distance. Their movement is... odd", Jenny informed her commanding officer. "Acknowledged, stay sharp Spartans, I think this is gonna get hot real soon", Ivory replied while making a move-forward-gesture with his hand. The Spartan team proceeded with caution, as Alexandra ordered, towards the radio tower.

"Sir, now my radar shows movement too."

"I see it too, Oscar. It looks like they're everywhere. We should..." Ivory could not finish his sentence because a creature jumped Oscar from behind a rock, trying to pierce his armor with a claw-like hand. Oscar's extra hours of close combat training came in handy when he fought the beast off. Miya fired a few shots at the back of the beast while Oscar looked for his shotgun which fell on the ground during the attack. As the creature was distracted Oscar blasted it to tiny bits with a single shotgun shell.

"What… in earth's name was that?", Miya said looking mildly in shock. "I expected Covenant or insurrectionists. But this thing clearly falls in the category 'none of the above'." Her elevated stress level was audible in her voice. Meanwhile she zoomed in with her sniper rifle, looking for more enemies in the distance. "I see another one, can I take him out?", Miya hastily asked Ivory. "Hold your fire, Miya", Ivory ordered. "I don't want to attract any more attention than necessary. Also your bullets didn't seem to harm it." Miya slowly lowered her rifle and leaned against a glass rock, purposely showing her boredom. Ivory ignored her subtle body language while Oscar was getting up. "Sir, do you think this has anything to do with the strange messages the Colossus picked up when we were stranded a few days ago?", Oscar asked. "I think it might", Ivory replied just before Jenny's warning. "There are way too many contacts in northern direction. And it seems we got their attention. Going any further would be borderline suicide... as is staying here." Ivory knew from a few painful experiences ignoring Jenny's advice in these kinds of situations was not a good idea. "Roger that, we're heading for the pickup point. We've seen enough."

As the Spartans strolled through a seemingly endless wasteland of sand, rocks and glass, Ivory attempted to make contact with the Adamant Colossus. "Ivory to Alexandra. Requesting pick up at pre-arranged lz. Objective area is way too hot. I recommend we discuss our options back at the Colossus." Alexandra being well aware of the unknown contacts team Setekh ran into swiftly replied. "Acknowledged. Pelican is en route."

"It's good to see you alive and well", captain Davila said to Spartan team Setekh back on the bridge of the Adamant Colossus. "Any intel on the strange signals from the relay tower?", Davila enquired. "Negative, sir. We were held off by unknown hostiles. I've never seen anything like it. According to Jenny the whole place was infested by them. Oscar took one out and we brought back some samples for study. That's all we have at the moment." Davila put his cigar in the ashtray and walked to the window where he gazed upon the planet below. "Alexandra, how is our 'prisoner'? I need you to execute a full biological scan and compare the results with the samples team Setekh just brought aboard. I have a feeling the problem we encountered a few days ago is not as unique as we initially thought."

Date: August 30th, 2542

Time: 0801 (military time)

There's always a bigger ship

"There she is! The UNSC Adamant Colossus", Jenny told Miya, while giving her a tour through the massive shipyard on Phoinike, a smaller UNSC colony world and navy base. "Why are you looking like that? Expected it to be bigger? Yes, I know. I don't know who named it. It was probably not a sma…"

"I did."

Jenny and Miya turned around. A man stood behind them, slowly lifting his head while lighting a cigar. After the smoke cleared the two women saw a wrinkly face emerge. Jenny silently thanked God she didn't finish that sentence. Miya sighed. "Oh great, another space cowboy. Such a cliché." Jenny punched her while she opened her eyes up wide. "That's your commanding officer for the next two years!", she whispered loudly. "It's all right, Jenny", the old man replied. "I am well aware of her achievements and I'll let this slip of tongue slide for now. But you must know, I have only one master and it's called the chain of command. So, I won't have any insubordination. Do you comprende, Spartan?" Miya nodded hastily. "Great", the man continued. "I am Sandro Davila, captain of the Adamant Colossus. And, as Jenny already mentioned, your CO for the next two years." He paused for a while and looked at Jenny. "I am very sorry to say it, Jenny, you know how much I like you, but my first order will be concerning a change of leadership in fire team Setekh." Jenny nodded without showing any emotion. "I need someone younger than you, more serious, capable of maintaining his focus. I know it's not gracious to say this to a lady, but you are getting old. A young muchacho called Ivory shows great leadership potential. I need him for this mission." Davila saw Jenny's face lighten up a bit. "Ah good, you know each other. Then we won't have any hard feelings, won't we?"

"You know I am a professional, captain."

The captain grinned and walked towards the docked spaceship.

Date: September 12th, 2544

Time: 1243 (military time)

Mushroom bomb

"Ivory… Ivory… Wake up!" Ivory's heavy eyelids opened. Alexandra looked into his eyes in a scrutinizing manner. "Good, your eyesight is all right. Can you move?"

"Barely," was Ivory's answer which also barely left his mouth. "Are those the engines I hear?", he asked while touching his forehead and looking like it was the loudest sound he has ever heard. "Yes, they're fixed. Not entirely, but we"ll fly." The AI paused for a while to give the Spartan some time to get his head together.

"Forgive me for being so inquisitive," Alexandra finally continued. "But what the *bleep* gotten into you in the hangar?"

"Wait, are you bleeping yourself out now? Never mind. What happened was… I messed up. But I'm guessing the situation is under control. The marines managed, right?"

"No thanks to you."

"I am sorry. I never expected the creature would explode. Where is Jenny? Oscar? Miya?"

"They are all right. Like the marines, they managed too."

Ivory felt his energy returning to his body and sat upright in bed. "Do we know anything about those creatures?" Alexandra opened up a screen. Datastreams appeared followed by an image of something that looked like a jellyfish. "Not much yet. They are some kind of spores," Alexandra explained. "It might be a parasitic life form, thriving of other organisms to survive, maybe even requiring other organisms. Whatever it is, it's certainly not affiliated with the Covenant."

Ivory stood up to perform some stretching exercises. "Yes, about that. I am sure the covvies are seeking revenge for those five ships this 'parasite' blew up."

"That's what bugs me." Alexandra moved her hand like she was scratching her chin. "These jellyfish-like creatures could never fly a frigate, let alone fire its weaponry. Something controls them, something intelligent, something that can mimic human speech." Ivory walked to the next room where he proceeded to try and lift some weights. "And what about the faux UNSC frigates? They didn't attack us after we made short work of their landing party?" Alexandra disappeared and popped up on the holopad behind him. "No, they just warped away. God knows where. For some reason they won't destroy us. I guess they really need us."

"That's the Ivory I know!" Miya leaned against the doorpost of the medical bay. "Got beaten up by an outer space mushroom bomb and he's already testing his muscles. Don't worry; I won't hold it against you. We all would have made that mistake." Alexandra smiled: "Speak for yourself." Miya walked to the holopad and slapped her hand through the AI's hologram. "Don't be so sure, Alex. You're behaving more human-like every day. Sooner or later, even you will mess up."

A marine hesitantly knocked on the doorpost of the medical bay. "Uh, sirs? It's the captain. He needs you up on the bridge. It looks like Setekh has a new mission." Miya clenched her fist in an encouraging manner and grinned: "Can you handle it, Ivy?" Ivory sighed. He had already given up teaching her the etiquette of being a proper soldier. "How can someone be such a great and terrible soldier at the same time."

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

Date: December 29th, 2538

Time: somewhere past midnight

Gauntlet

"This training mission is messing me up, I mean, not physically, mentally." Oscar mentally struggled to keep up with Ivory. "Be quiet, Oscar. Jenny may look like the good cop, but she doesn't tolerate failure. And I know she likes messing with us. For all I know she's leading us in circles just to wear us down."

"Doesn't it bother you we actually don't know shit about her?"

"What's there to know? She entered the Spartan program practically before she could walk. There's no life. No history. Spartan II's are weapons, not humans. She's meant to die sooner or later and so are we. So please shut up and keep moving."

"Well, I like her", Oscar mumbled while he was pressing branches of hanging trees out of his face. Ivory pretended not to hear him, but was thinking the same thing.

"Can you guys keep up?" Jenny stood on a hill near a flag pole. "You're almost there!" Oscar wanted to make an angry remark about it being the same flagpole he saw five hours ago, but was too mentally worn down to do it. "So, how was your first training mission with fire team Setekh?", Jenny asked while looking down at Oscar. "Loved it," he answered without any love in his voice. Ivory said nothing, touched the flag pole and sat down. "Well, you passed", Jenny padded Oscar on the shoulder. "You will be the first member of my team." Oscar frowned. "But what about Ivory?"

"Him? He's not a member. I'm drilling him for a special program starting in six months. The boss sees something in him, apparently. And before that day, I'm yet to make a real Spartan out of him."

Date: September 17th, 2544

Time: 0720 (military time)

Nuke the outpost

"Let me get this straight, Alexandra. You're telling me the same parasite entity that tried to take over our ship lured us to that glassed planet? Why?", Davila asked his ship's AI trying to make sense of it all. "I have some theories," Alexandra replied. "The most logical explanation is the entity failed to take over our ship with his spores, by means of infection, like he probably did to the five other UNSC vessels we encountered. For some reason he underestimated us. After that he landed on the closest habitable planet, setting a trap. And we almost walked right into it."

"Wait, so the thing Oscar killed… used to be…"

"Human, yes. Very likely."

The captain wanted to put his hand in front of his mouth but instead he scratched his nose. "So, how do we go on from here?", he asked. "It's simple." Alexandra pulled up a schematic of a ship, a planet and some dotted lines on the screen. "We bomb the relay outpost. From orbit. Nuke it. Leaving nothing alive in a thousand square miles. No parasite can escape that."

"Sounds easy enough," the captain replied. "Do they have any weaponry, ordnance, defense systems?"

"Well, they kind of crashed. The ships are even more damaged than before and their weapon systems seem to be offline. But we should be careful nonetheless. One of those railgun blasts can torch our ship in seconds. And not to mention there's a real possibility the Covenant showing up at any given time."

"Acknowledged. We have to hit them fast and hard. And be on our way. I'll brief Setekh. Are the engines fully repaired?"

"We're close."

"All right, it sounds like we have a plan."

A plan they did have. But it was not a good one. They had no idea what they were up against. They fired a nuke at the outpost, but the projectile froze in mid air, too close to the Colossus. "How can this be?" Alexandra was searching her mind for possible explanations regarding the strange phenomenon. "Wait, someone has set the timer remotely", she observed. "How long?", Davila enquired. Alexandra screamed: "At five...!" A devastating shockwave hit the Adamant Colossus, blasting it off course. "Uh oh, we're stuck in the gravitational pull of the planet. Navigation is offline. Brace for impact!" Alexandra's warnings were not heard. Davila was unconscious after smacking his head against a wall. The intercom sounded: "All personnel please move to the nearest escape pod. Collision with planetary surface is imminent." Some people made it to the pods, others were too late. Fire team Setekh, assisting with the evacuation, was among the latter.

Date: September 17th (?), 2544

Time: unknown

In a manner of speaking

"What just happened? Where did he go? Jenny! JENNY! Snap out of it!", Miya screamed loudly to her seemingly frozen comrade. Jenny snapped out of it, raised her rifle and started shooting. Her firing was rapid and precise. She didn't stop, didn't lose focus. Miya jumped backwards to provide cover, only to forget her high velocity ammunition went right through the beasts without harming them. "Shit", she mumbled. She reached for her knife, grabbing it just in time to slice through an attacking abomination. "Fuck, this is gross", she complained while shaking some dark green slimy substance of her hands. "It's hard to imagine these things used to be human."

"All that was human is long gone, Miya. We need to destroy them, destroy them all", Jenny said with a monotone voice. She was still firing her gun nonstop.

"Are you two all right down there?" Oscar just found his way back to his team after the crash separated them. "We are now", was Miya's answer while she pulled her knife from the last deformed humanoid creature attacking them. Oscar jumped down. "Where's Ivory?" The two women silently looked at each other. "He fell down", Miya finally said. "He's probably dead", Jenny added.

"Don't say that!"

"Why not? Creature grabbed him, he fell hundreds of meters down. What other conclusion is there?"

"There's no time to discuss this, we have to find the captain", Oscar intervened. "And we have to contact Alexandra, maybe then we can find Ivory." He looked at Jenny. She said nothing. He sighed and realized he was now the one in command. He hailed to the ship's AI but only received static as response. "Follow me", he ordered.

"Can we go past the armory? I need a new weapon. A shotgun, an assault rifle, hell, I'd even take the Spartan Laser. Anything is better than this useless thing". Miya threw her sniper rifle out of a blown out window. Ahead of the corridor there was screaming. Men and women were wailing, followed by a nasty noise. "I don't think we should go there", Jenny remarked. "We're too late to save them." She looked at Oscar. His guts told him they couldn't leave them behind, but he was still programmed to listen to her and replied: "I know a different route, let's pick up the pace."

"Alexandra to Setekh. Are you there? Are you alive?"

"Alexandra! Gracias a Dios." Oscar concentrated on the coms. "Where's the captain?"

"He's… he's gone. The creatures took him. There's nothing I could do. I tried to track him, but he vanished. I'm in the dark. You have to find him. Oscar…"

"Yes?"

"I'm scared."

A tentacle was groping him, like it was trying to figure out what he was made of. "Captain Sandro Davila", a deep voice sounded. "You are going to give me what I need, Reclaimer. Your ship is gone. Your army is thinned. Your enemy is incoming. You have no choice. You WILL help me. And, as one, we will destroy your enemy and mine." Davila coughed. His face was red of the blood pouring down from his head wound. "And what exactly is your enemy?" He cracked his stiff neck.

"It is impossible for your primitive mind to understand. If you join me, you will understand. Firstly, you need to operate this console." A sophisticated but ancient looking device appeared from a slimy cocoon-like container. Davila tried to move but he couldn't since he was stuck to a wall. Frustrated because of this he spat on the tentacle. "And just why won't you do it yourself?", he scoffed. The deep voice remained silent. "I know why. Because you can't. You need me. Without me you're as stuck as I am now." The captain started bluffing. "Did you know? As we speak, my troops are probably already halfway drilling to the planetary core. And my good old Colossus is not carrying a small amount of tactical warheads. My contingency plan is already set in motion. Boom. We disappear."

"I can't let you do that, captain. It will not happen."

"Watch me."

"Captain, you refuse to listen. An adequate form of wisdom has yet to gain foothold in your species. I better you in every way. Your body is fragile. Your mind, so easily corrupted. I know what you say will not happen."

"And why is that?"

"Because I will beat you to it."

The armory was locked. Of course it was locked down. "This will not be a problem." Alexandra appeared next to the door. She closed her eyes and with a sizzling sound the door slid open. Miya ran in first, grabbing all the weapons and grenades she could carry.

"Oh no."

"What is it, Alexandra?", Oscar enquired. Alexandra touched her head. "It's the Covenant, a lot of Covenant. The carriers are launching phantoms. Within the hour they're all over us." Oscar didn't know what to do but he couldn't let his team know. "We have to go", he said. "We're abandoning ship", he decided quickly.

"We're fleeing?" Miya stuck two SMG's on her hip and a shotgun on her back. "No", Oscar replied while he caught a Magnum Jenny threw. "We're finding the captain. And Ivory. He could have survived that fall and you know it, Jenny." Jenny still wasn't very talkative. She did know it, but she didn't want to think about it. It was distracting.

The heavens of Minotaur became crowded. Covenant seraphs patrolled in orbit and phantoms buzzed above the wreckage of the Adamant Colossus. Hunting parties were deployed to track down the escape pods and kill the survivors. They were ordered to kill every last one of them. That was the sole mission of the Covenant. At the foot of the Colossus, marines and grunts were locked in a skirmish. Jackal snipers took out the runners. There was panic. Marines were stuck in a two front fight: Covenant in front of them and the parasite behind them. Somewhere amidst the fighting three Spartans ran, looking for their colleague. They left alive as much creatures as possible, hoping it would distract the Covenant. It worked. They reached the place where Ivory should have landed. Jenny went looking for him, while Oscar and Miya set up a perimeter.

"Oscar, tell me", Miya said in a sarcastic tone. "Why did I have to throw away my sniper rifle? Those covenant shitheads are too far away and I really feel the need to pop some grunt skulls." Oscar laughed and said: "I knew you would regret it, so I picked up this DMR on the way. Go nuts." He threw her the rifle.

Jenny sat down with Ivory. His posture was awkward and his armor was stiff. It went in lockdown in an attempt to break the fall. She knew he might still be alive in there, but she figured it was too late. She grabbed his hand. It was the last thing she did before she vanished, along with Ivory, along with Miya and Oscar, along with the Adamant Colossus, along with the parasite, along with the incoming covenant troops and along with the entire planet. She vanished and disappeared to nowhere. All that was left of her was a memory in an old admiral's head. When he passes, all that she was will be gone. To the known world she died, like she was meant to. She's forgotten and became just another mystery of the great war.