... Yes, I know exactly how much trouble I'm probably in.
M.C.O., I have never and never will give up on writing this story. It's just these things called Real Life and Writer's Block keep getting in my way.

This is short, but it's what I have. I know it's been months, and I'm incredibly disappointed in it myself.
If any of you are left, I am so very sorry that it has taken this long, and I must also say that I have reached a decision.

I will not be posting new updates for MaOF until I have completed it, or until I feel I have enough chapters stocked up and have a good enough flow to keep to my original promise of an update a month. I simply cannot keep up and I don't want anyone to think that I've abandoned this to rot. That is not the case!

As I said, I will never stop writing on this story until it is over, but it will be a long time yet before I can regain what writing ability I have lost during this block.

I hope this chapter is somewhat acceptable for an update..

"Well done, Kira Asumee. Your assessment has concluded, and we are pleased with the results," Truth said upon hearing the success of their mission. "We will call again for your skills soon enough. I am certain you will prove reliable in time." He dismissed the girl and Zhar before he turned to speak with Mercy and Regret.

Once they had left the room, Regret spoke. "You call that a success? There was hardly any data on that chip worth looking over at all!"

"As I would expect," Truth answered. "The Humans are getting smart and deleting their information before the Sangheili warriors get a chance to board their vessels. I also said that she was to simply retrieve data on this mission, regardless of importance, and she did just that."

"I understand that she also took down two of the vermin herself," Mercy broke in. "Quite messy by the sound of it. That at least proves she is loyal to what she has been taught."

"For now," Truth moved toward his quarters. "Her loyalty, while intact now, could very well change if she is exposed to other Humans too much and forced to kill them. We should refrain from straining it too far for the time being. Until she is of proper warrior age, she will remain on data retrieval missions and accompanied with Sangheili. Do either of you disagree?" Hearing no arguments from either of them, the door slid open and Truth disappeared behind it.

oo00oo

Her sixteenth birthday came and went a few weeks prior to this mission. In the two years since she started going on missions, she had accumulated many missions to disable systems and retrieve any and all information that had been in them. This one was no different to her, though the location was. Apparently their newest target was built on a large asteroid that may or may not have been associated with the human rebels; it was difficult to determine.

The familiar order over the speaker alerted her to their approach and her hand quickly went to her swords, leaving a shiny Plasma Rifle strapped to her belt. The violet door opened and the sound of whizzing bullets immediately filled her ears as the Sangheili filed out to take on their opponents clad in olive. The girl herself was in a new set of armor colored black with a very dark gray suit underneath. The armor itself was polished, but not shiny, much like her blades. She drew them from their sheath and followed after her father figure down a vacant hallway while the humans were distracted with the rest of the party.

They had long since abandoned the hostage act when she had fully come to terms with what going on missions truly meant. Kira knew now that all information had a price of some kind; in this case it most likely meant lives. She still disagreed with said price, but she could live with it if she had to do it through self defense. The pair quickly dispatched anyone that crossed their path and found the engineering room a few decks down abandoned as usual.

The teen began accessing the computer and discovered the base had no A.I., and likely no one watching the systems for hackers. A rebel base, she decided. She grinned as it meant it would be almost too easy to take all the information her data chip could hold. She handed the chip to her battle partner and started heading back to the ship. It wasn't until she and Zhar were one deck away from their exit on their way back that they ran straight into trouble. Standing before them was a pair of humans just a head shorter than the average Sanheili in sage colored armor, likely male, and they had AR's pointed at them.

One hesitated to pull his trigger, leaving Kira enough time to drag Zhar down a service hall to their left by his elbow. The new targets gave chase and remained only a few feet behind even after the older warrior began firing his Plasma Rifle. The pair burst from the tunnel and ran to the next room toward the last staircase between them and their escape.

Just before they could set foot on the stairs, the entire base rumbled above; the shaking was enough to knock them and their pursuers to the ground. The thick windows of what they recognized as an observatory revealed UNSC ships had also found the rebel base and were unloading MAC rounds on it. Kira turned to look behind for the sage armored humans, but found that they had vanished from sight. Seconds later, another landed a hit somewhere higher up the base, prompting Kira to her feet and running up the stairs.

At the top she was stopped short by a forest of wires hanging out of the ceiling that were sparking at the end. The floor was littered with crumbling panels and melted metal as well as fresh blood. Footsteps followed quickly behind them up the stairs, and as eyes met visors once again, a MAC round collided with the escape vessel just down the hall. The force of both explosions sent the young teen sprawling straight into the mess of electricity and metal.

oo00oo

Time slowed as the human dressed in black fell in front of him. The first thing he heard after her arm struck the wires was a scream of pain, then a roar of anger from the alien that he recognized from many years ago. He ran straight past the threat to the other fighter they had been chasing; his partner unloading rounds into the shield the surrounded the Zealot. He knew the girl did not have much time if she wasn't breathing, and the enemy knew it as well.

Jake left him no choice but to flee went the shield finally gave. The older warrior gave a final roar of anger and sadness before leaping down the stairs and looking for an alternative escape route. Jake looked back to Tom asking, "How bad is it?"

"If we can get back to the Pelican, she might have a chance." He picked up Kira and slung her over a shoulder. "She's breathing, but she has massive burns on her arms, and who knows what damage the shock did to her."

"Well Nina said get out or get roasted two minutes ago, so let's get going!" The jokester took the lead back downstairs and through another service tunnel that opened up into a docking area. They both hopped in the back of the craft and sealed the hatch as another explosion shook the base. The craft pulled away from the base and flew back towards the ship that brought it here.

The entire trip back, Tom was only aware that the Covenant had gotten away with a lot of data, the rebels on the base had been wiped out, and that the girl he had dragged back here was too damn similar to his lost friend to shoot her.

And that's that. Kira is now being taken back to the UNSC, but her welcome home won't be so welcoming.
I am truly sorry that I have to essentially put this on hold until I finish it, but I just cannot find the drive to write for Halo right now. I may instead write one shots for other games or something of the like just to write.
I will state this again for those that may have missed it the first two times...

I am NOT abandoning this story!

It's simply not going to be updated until I have plenty more written in a presentable manner for uploading.
If you stuck around this long, then I thank you. Thank you so much. :3

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