Planet Earth, Japan

September 7, 2010 12:00 Hours

Saya's eyes darted back and forth as she continued to walk down the seemingly never ending corridor of the Tokonuso East Police Station. Her grip on the pistol tightening with every step she took. Saya Takagi was not a person that got unnerved easily; she was a genius after all. But, ever since her normal, everyday life had shattered into a million pieces, she had begun to change. No longer was she the confident young heiress of the Takagi family, nowadays she found her past confidence replaced with a constant growing fear. A fear of turning into one of "them".

Now, here at the dead center of a potential combat zone, surrounded by flesh eating monsters straight out of a horror movie, Saya Takagi was out of her element. Nothing in her old life had prepared her to deal with this. Saya was scared. As she continued to will her shaking legs forward, her grip on the pistol tightened so much that she feared the damn thing would snap into two pieces. Just as she thought that she would go mad from that sickening feeling of fear, a familiar presence touched her shoulder. Slowly turning her head backwards, she was met with the reassuring faces of her friends.

"It will be fine, Takagi."

Saeko smiled as she released her grip on the pink haired girl's shoulder. Saya only robotically nodded in acknowledgment before slowly turning back around, once again facing down that seemingly endless corridor. This time however, she took a deep breath. As she exhaled, she felt some of that fear leave her body along with the Carbon Dioxide. Saya Takagi would not be a weak willed person; she was a genius after all.

As soon as they had reached the third floor, she knew something was wrong. Compared to the other floors, this one looked like a small battlefield. The dead littered almost every inch of the place, almost as if to warn her that she was walking straight into a deathtrap. With a tremendous amount of willpower, Saya did not allow her grip around the pistol to tighten again. She would not be scared. Pushing her fears towards the deepest parts of her head, she tried to analyze the current situation at hand logically. Through process of elimination, since the armory was empty, the next most probable destination that the boys would have went to would be the control room.

"We should check the control room next. According to the map from the reception desk, it should be right down the hall."

Rei and Saeko nodded in response.

As the trio continued down the corridor, Saya's unease began to grow even more with each passing step. She could not explain it, only the closer she got to the control room, the worse the feeling got. As she stood in front of the door to the control room, she slowly pushed the already unlocked door out of the way. She let go of the breath of air that she had unknowingly held as her eyes darted around the empty room full of computers.

"Do you think any of these computers work Takagi? Perhaps we might be able to check the security cameras to see what transpired here."

Saya walked over to a row of powered off computers, pressing a few keys.

"I doubt it Senpai, unless some of them happened to be EMP proof."

Saeko merely nodded in response.

"Then we should continue to look for Takashi and everyone else."

"Hey wait, that one's still working! I can still see the screen on!"

Saya looked over to the row of computers that Rei was pointing to, and true to her word, the screen on one of them was indeed "on". Quickly walking over there, she could see the words "J-Alert System" flashing on the screen.

"Hey Takagi, what's the J-Alert System?" asked Rei in a curious tone of voice, "And how's this computer still working?"

"It's Japan's nationwide emergency warning system. It's pretty much designed to provide information to citizens during a crisis like an earthquake or a tsunami," Saya said simply as she began typing, "It's probably running on a backup power system, like the ones in hospitals."

Rei raised an eyebrow as she nodded.

"You sure are familiar with this stuff Takagi."

Saya only smiled in response as she hit the enter key.

"Of course, I'm a genius after all. It seems that the JSDF is implementing an evacuation of the city."

Saeko frowned as she heard her underclassman's words.

"An evacuation? They aren't going to send reinforcements?"

"You've seen how things are Senpai, they probably chalked up reclaiming the city as a lost cause", the pink haired girl responded as she continued to type, bringing up a map of the city on the screen, " It seems like the evacuation is taking place at Shintoko Third Elementary School two days from now."

Rei's eyes widened in realization.

"No way, that's where Takashi's mother works!"

Saya nodded in response.

"Hopefully, the JSDF have already set up a base of operations there… We should keep looking for the boys now, I haven't heard any more gunshots in a while, and I'm getting worried."

"Yeah you're right; it's been quiet for a while now… We should go."

Rei and Saeko turned and headed for the door.

Saya hit a couple more keys on the keyboard, bringing back the J-Alert warning on the screen before she began to go after her friends. As she was about to follow the other girls out of the control room, something caught the corner of her eye. A rather dark liquid had begun to leak out from behind one of the rows of computers. That was blood. What was even worse was that it was fresh blood. Her heart almost stopped as endless possibilities flooded into her mind as to why there would be fresh blood when all of the dead here had already been here for a while. Taking a deep breath, Takagi slowly made her way towards that side of the room.

"Takagi? What are you waiting for? We still have to find the boys!"

Ignoring Miyamoto, Saya continued making her way towards the trail of blood. As she stopped right in front of the row of computers, she reminded herself to calm down. Take a deep breath. Saya Takagi could not get unnerved this easily; it would be unbefitting for a genius. Exhaling, she peered over the computers to where the crimson fluid had originated from. What she saw caused her brain to momentarily blank out. A huge wave of nausea soon followed up, threatening to empty her stomach of all its content.

The two now separated halves of what used to be Kohta Hirano continued to leak out that blasted red liquid. Takagi could still see the shock on the boy's face through his now lifeless eyes. The machine that was the brain of Saya Takagi seemed to have jammed. For a few seconds, she couldn't comprehend what exactly she was looking at. Then she did the only thing that she could think of.

She screamed.

Six had heard the scream. Judging from the pitch of the voice, it was most likely Saya. She had probably found the boy, Kohta, what was left of him anyway. If she was there, then that would mean there would be a very high chance that the other two girls would be there as well. He sighed. It appeared that they had completely disregarded his orders to stay outside. Perhaps he should have just knocked them out and hid them in the back of a van.

No… at this point it didn't matter, what's done is done. All it meant was that he had to approach this situation differently. He had recognized it as soon as he saw it, one of those Zealots from Reach that had helped run a sword through his gut. Now the main question here is whether or not it would go after the newcomers in this situation. No… that's the wrong way of thinking, it wasn't after the civilians; this elite wanted Six from the start. If it had wanted to kill the civilians, it could have easily killed Takashi along with the other boy. But, it didn't. It had deliberately only killed Kohta, before running into the corridors taking Takashi with it. It most likely wanted Six to chase it. But, why would it do all of this? Why go through with all of these unnecessary actions instead of just going after Six from the start? It made no sense to the Spartan. What was the goal here? If it was the civilians, the elite should have just killed both Takashi and Kohta before escaping to go after the rest of the girls outside. If it was after Six, why didn't it simply attack while it had the element of surprise? The elite's actions were completely illogical from the Spartan's point of view.

Six frowned. These thoughts were throwing him off his game. He needed to focus, Takashi was at risk here. Pushing the thoughts away, he continued to silently creep down the corridor hugging the wall, combat knife in one hand and pistol in the other. He had three bullets left. He knew that that the enemy had an energy sword at the least, whatever else the elite potentially had was anyone's guess. The odds were not in his favor. Three shots would probably not be enough to tear through the elite's shields. That meant he would have to rely on his combat knife. Six was quite confident in his skills. He wasn't as good as Emile at CQC, but he could hold his own. Although that didn't really matter in this situation, no matter how good he was in close quarters, going against a Sangheili armed with an energy sword with nothing but his combat knife did not exactly bode well for him. He would have to improvise on the go. Hopefully, the elite didn't have experience fighting in Earthlike urban environments. That would at least give him a little bit of an edge.

Six stopped as he reached the next corner, back still hugging the wall. The elite had gone down this way before Six lost vision of it. It had been quiet for a while now. The enemy would most likely make his move soon. Quickly, checking the around the edge of the wall for any signs of the elite, he dipped into the nearest room.

Taking cover behind the wall inside the room, he knelt down as he looked around, checking for anything he could use.

The room was a typical office, a bunch of desks, some of them flipped over, along with a random assortment of office materials scattered everywhere and whatever else you would find in your everyday office. A dead body lay in the corner of the room, blood slowly leaking out from what appeared to be bullet wounds, judging from the size, .38 rounds most likely. There didn't seem to be anything of use on the dead man.

Six frowned. He was running out of options. He had to think of a way to deal with this elite before Saya and whoever else followed her came down this way. As he racked his brain for ideas, his eyes continued to dart around the room, looking for anything of use. A couple plastic bags on top of one of the tables caught his eyes. They lingered there for a few more seconds before darting back towards the dead body in the corner of the room.

Six allowed himself to smirk a little bit. He had an idea.

Onin 'Goloree continued silently stalking down the hallway, he had turned off his camouflage a while ago, as he did not want it to overheat. He had heard the female human's screaming and if he had wanted to, he could have easily tracked down the source. But no, he would not do that, after days of searching for the demon, the hunt would not, could not be stalled for any longer. His pride would not allow it. He hadn't even killed the one he had captured as bait for the demon. No, instead Onin had merely knocked the whelp out, tossing him into one of the many rooms. He would purge the humans later; the scars on his mandibles were consuming his entire being, burning with fiery vengeance. He would not settle for anyone else's blood right now. Onin would make sure to savor every second of the hunt before he ripped out the demon's heart. Crouching next to the wall, he peeked his head out around the corner, looking down the next corridor. Empty.

Onin knew he had the advantage in close quarters combat. The demon only had a mere pistol along with a piece of scrap metal, worthless. The odds were in his favor. It would take a lot of pistol rounds for the demon's weapon to pierce his shields, more than enough time for Onin to close the gap. And when they got into close quarters? The deal would be sealed. A piece of scrap metal only a few inches long, the only area that he would have to watch out for would be his mandibles. But the demon would never have the chance to get that close anyway; his energy sword gave him a huge reach advantage.

The demon would have considered these things as well. Which meant that he would most likely be looking for a surprise attack, knowing he wouldn't be able to win head on; perhaps lying in wait inside one of the many rooms on the floor? Onin was not familiar with warfare in these types of environments; he would have to tread carefully, no matter his weapons advantage. All was well though, what good was it to hunt prey that couldn't fight back? There was no honor in that after all.

Onin was broken out of his thoughts when he heard a loud sound of two objects hitting colliding with each other. He narrowed his eyes as he looked down the hallway. A trap…?

Slowly creeping over to the edge of the wall, Onin heard the sound once again. Activating his camouflage, the elite peered over the wall and saw another pen get thrown against the wall. His grip on his energy sword tightened. Was this a challenge from the demon? Or was it a trap instead?

No… It didn't matter, he was the hunter here. He would act in a way befitting of his people. With a snarl, Onin leapt from his cover and charged straight down the hallway, energy sword ready to burn through skin, muscle, and bone.

150 feet.

As he reached the halfway point, Onin's eyes narrowed, now would the demon run? Or would he decide to fight head on instead?

75 feet.

He laughed as he saw the Spartan leap out from his own cover as well, deciding to charge straight at Onin himself. Did this demon really think it would be able to defeat the mighty Onin 'Goloree in close quarters combat? The very same combat that his very race, no, that his very family clan took the most pride in!?

HAH!

Onin 'Goloree picked up his speed as he roared a loud battle cry.

50 feet.

A couple bullets whizzed through the air, impacting against his shields, but ultimately not piercing through. Hearing a "click", the sound the human's obsolete weapons made when they ran out of rounds, Onin saw the Spartan throw his pistol straight at him. With a grunt he smacked it out of the air with his free hand, his other hand getting ready to strike with his energy sword.

25 feet.

As the two titans closed in each other, Onin saw the Spartan take out his combat knife with one hand and the other reach towards his belt. Onin's eyes narrowed; did the demon have a grenade?

15 feet.

In one swift motion, Six grabbed the crudely made "water balloon" that he had filled up with the blood of some long dead police officer and threw it straight at the elite. He smirked as he saw the small eyes of the Sangheili go wide. It had probably thought that Six had thrown a grenade. With a grunt, he gripped his combat knife tightly and lunged as quickly as he could.

The elite lifted its free hand again, and just like it had before with the pistol, attempted to smack the "grenade" away. Only this time, instead of simply flying away, it exploded into a shower of red liquid, spraying everywhere, including its eyes, momentarily blinding it, while the red fluid harmlessly bounced off Six's visor.

With a loud roar in frustration, the elite blindly slashed at where it thought the Spartan would be. Six easily dodged the strike and with the momentum, stepped closer into range. Gritting his teeth, Six plunged his combat knife straight into the only unarmored part of the alien, it's mandibles.

The reaction was almost instantaneous. The elite roared out in pain, it's eyes flying straight open. Seeing red, the elite tried to bring it's energy sword back in order to lunge at Six. With a good deal of effort and concentration, Six grabbed the elite's wrist, slowing down the strike, giving the Spartan enough time to tightly grip into the knife embedded in the elites mandibles. Grunting, Six dragged the knife straight across the alien's face, cutting through any flesh in its way.

The elite screeched in pain, it's hands flying straight towards it's now ruined face, dropping its energy sword along the way. Six leapt for the covenant weapon as quickly as possible. Grabbing it, the Spartan reared back and lunged straight at the elite.

Realizing what it had done, the elite's eyes widened as it tried to dodge the quickly incoming strike.

Six grunted as he felt the sword impact against the elite's flesh, and in one smooth motion he drew out the energy sword and let the alien's body drop dead onto the hard unforgiving floor. Pressing down a button, the Spartan powered the energy sword down and latched it onto his belt before getting down to his knees to begin searching the body. As Six continued to look for anything to loot on the fresh corpse, his heart rate finally began to drop, his adrenaline starting to wear off. Two sticky grenades and an energy sword.

With a grunt, he got up and picked up his combat knife off the floor. He swung it around for a little while, flinging off the blood before sheathing it back into its holster. Giving the dead elite one last look, Six ran down the hallway. This time, it had better stay dead. Shaking his head, Six picked up his pace, with any luck, Takashi could still be alive.

Onin 'Goloree's last thoughts were curses on the demon as the Sangheili now laid dead, another one of the many kills of Noble Six's rather illustrious career.

UNSC Spirit of Fire

Orbiting in uncharted space

Year 2535 (?)

"Ah, captain, good to see that you're awake."

Captain Cutter slowly walked over towards his usual position on the observation deck. Resisting the urge to scratch a rather itchy spot behind his neck, most likely due to the Cryo-chamber, Cutter folded his arms and looked out into the vast space through the windows on the deck.

"Serina, Status report?"

"All systems normal. It seems that we've drifted off into uncharted space Captain. The year is now 2535 by the way."

Captain Cutter frowned as he continued to stare off into the vast emptiness of space.

"It's been 5 years then…", Cutter said as he turned his head over towards his AI, "I take it the reasoning for you waking me isn't because we're in uncharted space then?"

The AI shook her head as she brought up a map on the monitor.

"We've picked up a distress signal from these coordinates, Captain."

The AI highlighted the area on the rather empty looking map of the uncharted solar system. Cutter's frown only deepened.

"A distress signal in uncharted space?"

The AI nodded in response.

"It would seem so, Captain."

The Captain sighed.

"Alright, bring us there Serina. Try to establish radio contact when we're close enough. Anything else to report?"

The AI nodded once again before she zoomed in on the co-ordinates on the map.

"What am I looking at here Serina?"

"What do you think Captain?"

Captain Cutter's eyes narrowed. He had forgotten about how annoying his AI's personality could get at times.

"It looks like Earth to me Serina."

"It does, doesn't it?", the AI put a finger on her chin, " But the thing is Captain, that's not Earth, that's the planet where the distress signal is coming from."

"Explain Serina."

The AI then brought up a few more images of planets. Planets such as Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars, or so they would seem.

"It would seem that we've wandered into an uncharted solar system, and from what I've been able to map out so far, one that is completely identical to our very own Milky War Captain. Now there could be a number of reasons for this, although most of them seem quite skeptical to me and border on the realms of science fiction."

The Captain sighed once again. Things always did have to get complicated.

"Wake up professor Anders, Sirena."

The AI nodded.

"Rodger that Captain, one rather suicidal professor coming right up."

Author's Notes: Right, it's been a while huh? (That's probably an understatement lol). Anyway, I'm not dead and the stories not dead. So here we are! Good job on the people that guessed what the ship was from a few chapters back by the way. I hope that the chapter turned out to be as climactic as it was inside my head. If it wasn't then blame my horrible writing skills and my lack of creativity, which I seem to be severely lacking in.

Anyway as usual, shoot me a review to let me know what you guys thought about this one. Oh and if anyone would be interested in being my beta, would you kindly give me a PM? I proofread these myself but more often than not, I end up seeing grammatical errors that get through, so I'd thought I'd just ask around.

Anyway, I'm rambling on now so enjoy and cheers!

-Special FX