Ok, sorry for the huge wait, I found out some really bad news when I said I'd put my 2 chapters up last week. they got fizzled up, somehow corrupted in one form or another, I didn't wanna find out how, just somehow reclaim some of the typing I lost. Sadly, you're only getting 1 chapter up this time until I can retype the next one (it's too confusing to put up right now, it's all mumbo jumbo T.T) anyways, here's a new chapter I may have to alter a bit later, enjoy!

"Garrett, we got a problem" Jack said as he sat hunched under the communications station. "Please don't say that, I hate when people say that, I've got enough problems, why can't I ever just get a minor inconvenience?" Garrett grumbled. "Ok, it's a minor inconvenience, one in which may get us shot at by friendlies." Garrett sighed, and then asked what he was talking about. "The communications station is half rigged, and our IFF? Not installed. We're effectively a big blip on EVERYONE'S sensors."

Garrett turned around to see Jack was playing around with wiring under the station's control panels. "You break it you buy it" Garrett said as he altered coordinates to follow Ilana's path. It was getting worse by the minute. Every sector they past through, sensors picked up destroyed fleets. Ilana was carving a way straight through UNSC space to tear apart the evac ships.

"I swear this is not good at all" Garrett said as he swapped primary generators to secondary and synced them to the fusion reactor. "Well, you gotta admit, she seems to hate letting hostiles get away." "That's not what I'm referring to. LOOK at where she's going!" Jack checked on a panel near his head as he had circuits placed on his chest. "Well, ya, but, she'll get em in the end, then we just leave."

Garrett was trying to stay calm, but it was adding up. "No, I don't quite think you understand. What is she doing to get to where she's going? She's carving a path, that's what, straight through our space. That means all the fleets between that colony and Earth are going to be decimated, don't you think that leaves quite a big hole straight through our defenses?" Jack pulled out from the panel he was working on. "Oh shit" was all he could say. "Yep, and you can only guess whose going to take advantage of that." Jack started working faster.

"Can you speed this hunk of metal up any faster then to catch up to her!" "I'm pushing the reactor to 113 KBDs, twice as much as it's supposed to go, I've got every generator on maxed, I've vented every form of heat I can think of. The problem is if we do catch up to her, with no IFF, what do we look like?" Jack got a little shock when he inserted a chip in the wrong way. "Shit, things keep going from bad to worse then huh?" "That is the understatement of the year. We still have to catch her and get her to somehow stop. Can you at least get the communications grid to work again?"

Jack flipped a switch, saw the thing short circuit, pulled out, and grabbed a fire extinguisher as sparks flew out. "Um, give me a few more minutes…" and sprayed the area judiciously. "Too late, we hit a Salem Pocket. Brace for a big jump!" and Jack flew across the room to land in a chair seemingly waiting for him. Garrett was thrust hard into his pilot's chair as the sort of wormhole thrust them forward at an alarming rate. The ship around them groaned as it tried to keep together.

"Was that such a good idea to do?" Jack asked from the back. "Not really, but it's not like I really expected that thing to be there. Shit, at this rate, we'll be there about 4 minutes after she does… I hope she doesn't cause too much damage…" Jack pushed forward and slid back under the panel. He cleared out some of the foam. Luckily most of the parts were water proof, so he decided to place some other pieces in in hopes of getting the thing to at least wake up.

"Ok, I think I've got it working, but there's a problem" Jack said as he pulled a screwdriver out of his mouth. "Stop with the problems… what is it?" Garrett asked as they slowed down. Jack shifted his weight to compensate as they got out of the Salem Pocket. "Com grid is up, but I'm using the pelican's beacon signal to broadcast. It's a fairly limited range. We'll basically have to get up close and personal. I mean REALLY close" he emphasized. "With those point defense systems, I'd much rather hold off the covenant armada that comes through that tunnel she's made…"

Ilana disengaged from her jump trajectory. She was there. Earth looked quite odd to her. Unlike most other planets with a fully Terran environment, Earth had many split land masses. Unfortunately for her, that was the only thing she noticed aside from the orbital platforms surrounding the planet and the fleets wondering why she was there. The evac ships were attempting to enter the atmosphere on emergency land procedures, but she wouldn't dare let them get away. Not after the pain she's gone through.

Cruiser after cruiser started moving to block off her path to follow the ships into orbit, as she started to fire down at them. If you want me to stop, give me back my heart you monsters…she thought as tears started to well up in her eyes again, the thought of Garrett smiling at her floating around.

The Arbiter stood, watching the whole room along with 5 black armored elites. Everyone thought they were special operations elites, but he knew better. He had taken the liberty of wrangling up what was left of the council, 5 of the deadliest elites known. Along side some of them were some grunts, most notably the white suited officers. The grunts had earned their right to be in that room after sabotaging many ships controlled by the brutes during the grand split of the covenant. The elites found that they had earned the respect to be considered warriors for their capabilities to do things elites could not.

2 lone hunters stood with their backs to the wall, watching their surroundings. In the middle of the room was a large table, with 16 seats placed. On the other side of the room, 10 Spartans fully suited stood with weapons in hand, not pointed at the new Trinity members, but simply as guards. Both sides were uneasy as negotiations would soon happen. Humanity was going to attempt to sign the exiled elites, grunts, and hunters, into their small empire as allies. They were to meet under peaceful yet restricted terms in this base with some very high ranking officials of the human's side.

The Arbiter shifted uneasily. He had already seen what 1 Spartan was capable of, and there were 10 of them standing there on the other side, motionless. Suddenly the door on one side opened, and in filed 8 humans, 1 looked to be wearing a white military suit, quite distinguished, with a white cap. He seemed to be fairly old, with quite a few medals on his chest. He assumed this was the man named Lord Admiral Hood, core commander of the human defense fleets and ground forces.

The second was a smaller man, fairly old as well, with a neatly trimmed beard. On his shoulder was a band that had a unified flag stating president of the United Pacific Alliance. The third man was wearing a slightly red but very dark black suit, and seemed to have slanted eyes. He was wearing an arm band that showed he was the Prime Minister of the Eastern Federation. The Fourth person to enter was a young woman, mayhap in her late 20s, with a dark blue suit on and an armband stating she was president of United States of Mars. The fifth person was a somewhat middle aged man, with an odd scowl crossing his face. He wore no armband, however he would soon find out by whisper that that man was in charge of the Fortress World of Reach II.

2 more entered, 1 was Sergeant A.J. Johnson on behest of the Arbiter himself. Ever since their flight to get to Earth so long ago, he found that Johnson was to be respected and fairly honorable. The other, was a young woman, maybe early 20s, long dark hair, and was wearing glasses. The oddest thing was she was wearing a lab coat, and carrying a paper pad with a pen. And she also greeted each Spartan as if she had known them all their lives.

"Ah, Arbiter, it is an honor to meet you after all this time" Admiral Hood said putting out his hand. The Arbiter stared at the hand put out for him to shake, and wondered why he was doing so. "It's a greeting gesture, shake his hand" was whispered behind him from another elite. The Arbiter put his own hand, almost twice the size of Admiral Hood's, and shook. Introductions were done, and all sat down, save the guards and the elites, even the Arbiter himself could not sit due to the awkwardness of the chairs. "Now, to get down to business" The Asian man started saying…

"Oh shit" Garrett yelled as they dropped from jump. "What does that mean?" Jack yelped out from under a gunner seat that he was slave rigging to the main battle terminal. "HEADS UP!" and Garrett blew emergency thrusters on port side to keep from ramming into a cruiser. Jack slid across the room like he was on wheels, and slammed his head into a wall. Jack winced and yelped again as the pain hit, and he got up and stumbled back to where he was working.

The MAC cannon on the cruiser fired, a rumble and groan felt throughout the whole ship as the round flew by, toward what target they didn't know. "Realigning stabilizers, cross linking the sensors to battle terminal. You got those turrets working yet?" Garrett said as he turned off an overheating generator. "I think I got it, but I'm not an electrician. What does the funny purple light mean?" Garrett looked up from typing things in, looked behind his chair and stared at the purple light blinking. "Err, try pressing it" he said as another MAC round flew by, the cruiser changing course now to attack the frigate they were in.

"Garrett…" "I'm working on it, shut up and man the controls to shoot down anything they launch at us." "Doesn't that mean we're firing at the good guys?" "Since when is a cruiser firing a MAC cannon at us a good guy?" "Good Point."

Garrett changed his vector to go right behind an Orbital MAC platform to curb off some of the fire that was starting to drift towards them. Fighters were launching to try and intercept them, but the frigate was moving at quite a good speed. "There she is! Well, we found her, now to get up close and personal…" Garrett said as he punched in a direct flight path. Jack launched a salvo of archer missiles towards the engines of another frigate in hopes of getting them off their backs. No such luck. The frigate strafed along their starboard and ripped armor plating off with their auto cannons and lasers.

The ship groaned as damage was registered on a panel near Jack. "Armor on deck 6 Breached! Sealing the area off! Generators 2 and 9 are gone, we've lost 4 turrets!" Garrett went wide eyed as he weaved behind the frigate that just opened holes in them. Jesus these guys mean business Garrett thought. Suddenly a red light went off as a lock was registered. Both Garrett and Jack looked at each other before Garrett blew emergency thrusters and ejected chaff aerosol mines to their port side. A plasma torpedo inched by the ship, searing off more armor and exploding in the mines. The ship was rocked hard as it barely evaded the explosion. He knew where that round had just come from. Ilana.

Ilana watched with fascination and coldness as a lone frigate seemed to be fired at by both her and the defense forces alike. Maybe it is manned by the enemy that I seek to destroy… nevertheless; it will not survive the next attack she thought to herself as she fired another torpedo. Just as the torpedo flew towards the small ship, it veered off behind a cruiser and used it as a shield, the cruiser making contact with the explosive and becoming nothing more than debris and dead bodies.

Hmm, this might take a bit more effort with this one. Interesting. It seems to be coming straight toward me, though why it would do so I haven't the faintest clue… maybe its crew believes they can somehow stop me. She slowly moved the Nexus straight toward the frigate, confused slightly but more annoyed. The frigate sped through the ships, not really stopping to attack much, simply flying at maximum speed to get to her. If they think they can self destruct near me in hopes of destroying me, I'll have to disappoint them, despite my willingness to die… not until I've finished my revenge…

Garrett flew the ship as best he could, but he was an ex marine, not a navy flight officer. He blew what remained of the thruster backup tanks and ejected them, scrapping dangerously close to another cruiser as it fired its cannons attempting to drop them out of space. The rounds missed, but the shock wave was enough to rip apart one of the engines, making it incredibly difficult to maneuver. They were already moving at a very fast pace, so the engine wasn't needed to keep going, it was mostly there now to make hard turns and keep from getting chewed up by a salvo of archer missiles.

"Shit, shutting down power to engine 2, breach on internal nacelle, we got a sputter on internal sensors! I can't keep up with half this shit!" Jack yelled as the ship groaned again. Garrett was starting to get desperate, they had already gotten as close as they could, and they wouldn't survive another attack. "Can't you get out there with that armor of yours! This would have saved a lot of pain for us!" "Gee, you know how to fly this thing!" "Not really but… good point…" Garrett could have easily gotten outside and warned Ilana, but that would make Jack a goner. The other reason was the fact that the ship's insides were not made for a large mech to suddenly materialize inside of it, so he would have to get to a cargo bay, and by that time they would have been killed.

Jack fired everything he had, making the ship look somewhat like a porcupine as missiles flew in every direction, the ship's power flickering inside. Jack looked right into Garrett's eyes as they heard one sensor read out nearby. Target Nexus at 1500km. Garrett leapt towards the com station as Ilana fired point defense systems. "ILANA!" He yelled into the com mic.

Ilana was thrust from her cold demeanor as she heard his voice yell out towards her. The point defense beams narrowly missed the frigate as they carved barely under it. She stumbled back. No, it couldn't be, could it? He survived? But how? My love… but I can't sense you on that ship… She scanned 3 times, with no luck at detecting his life signs. "Garrett? Are you really… alive?" She choked out as tears flowed freely. She heard a huge sigh of relief and a cheer in the background, what sounded like Jack. "Holy shit, we made it… stop firing damn it! Stop firing! Disengage from attacking!" Garrett yelled out to her. She immediately stopped all attacks as the Nexus floated majestically through space. "I… I cannot believe it, I could have sworn… I… I missed your voice so much…" she started to cry. "Well we're alive now and…" and the MAC round hit the small frigate.