"Who owns this ship?" I demanded.
"You do!" the tortured Elite Ship Master moaned, "You do. Please… just kill me!"
With an incendiary Warp, I grant his wish like the benevolent goddess I am.
"I never thought that I would ever feel sympathy for the Covenant," Captain Keyes stated, "but knowing that the USNC has hired her and her husband to fight this war changes things."
"I am greatly disturbed." agreed the Master Chief.
"Before there was ignorance, now there is understanding." Linda spoke, "I hope understanding comes quickly to the Covenant forces everywhere."
"Harsh." John said and led the captured marines and Captain out of the vessel.
"That was an impressive showing." Linda said as she closed the distance between us.
"Want to give the floating throne a try?" I grinned under my helmet, "Maybe add a nice fur cloak to your look?"
"I don't think purple and green are a good combo." Linda denied.
"In some parts of the multiverse those are fighting words with a guy that can shatter planets with his fists." I chuckled thinking about the possibility of Grunt and the Incredible Hulk duking it out.
I can already hear him shouting 'Please stop, I can only become so erect!' if I brought that up with him.
"The multiverse?" She asked.
"I'll fill you in on the drive back." I smirked.
"Let me know if you need another trip to time out." I chuckled while Major Silva glared at me.
"Major, stay civil." Captain Keyes ordered, "I've seen what this woman is capable of. Any attempts to antagonize her will see you brought up on charges."
"You can't be serious, Sir?" Silva gaped hearing that.
"I put it on the level of tampering with a nuclear device." Keyes stared the man down.
"Okay. With that out of the way we have several OPs to plan." Keyes began the war room session and assigned the Spartans to collect the Silent Cartographer, a map of the installation, under one of the islands dotting the ring world. He would be leading a team of marines to a 'weapons cache'.
"Alright, pump the breaks." I told him, "The 'weapons cache' is bullshit. It is where the Flood were being researched in an attempt to create countermeasures against possible Flood invasion from darkspace. The Covies have already released the flood and should have locked the area down, but we shouldn't hold out hope on that holding. Which means it is HazCom from here on out and we need flamethrowers ready to go to burn away swarming flood forms. Remember that these things are also airborne, but far less effective in that form."
"How exactly did you come by this intelligence?" Keyes questioned.
"My husband has an approximate knowledge of many things." I said, "I am here because of that. The stakes are too high for us to just trust that MC John will be able to make it happen off of faith, trust, and pixie dust."
"Some people call that luck." Linda said.
"Yeah, but in our experience plot armor goes out the window when we enter the verse." I sighed.
It would be pretty sweet to just be able to kick back, relax and command the bitches in the X-Force to do all the heavy lifting, but Grunt just insisted that I should go on another adventure and have fun while he does the administrative work this time. I personally think he just doesn't want to live in another organization with so many dicks hanging out.
"So we pray the Flood stays contained, but be ready to fight them." I ordered, "John and Linda will make sure this Halo Ring doesn't get fired."
"And what will you be doing." Keyes asked.
"I am going to clear out the Pillar of Autumn and get it ready for you to use it as an improvised WMD to destroy this Ring. Everyone else will be getting everything possible ready for EVAC." I answered.
"Our forces have managed to raid the Autumn for equipment, vehicles, and supplies, but Covenant presence in the area is still in the area." Silva stated.
"By the time I am done with them the crash site of the Pillar of Autumn will be a scar so deeply carved into their racial memories that future generations of Covies will wake up at night in terror of it." I spoke, then put on my helmet and walked out to get my car."
"Holy shit, she is scary." I heard Captain Keyes gasp after I left.
Roughly 16 hours later Chief and Linda showed up in a pair of stolen Banshees, flying over broken bodies of the Covenant and the Flood that tried to take over the corpse of the Pillar of Autumn and the smoking wreckage of enemy vehicles including a massive Scarab heavy excavator turned super tank.
"What the fuck took you people?" I called out as I sat on top of a dead Elite Ultra.
"Captain Keyes and Major Silva attempted to retake the Truth and Reconciliation to use as our escape vessel, but the place was infested with Flood and Keyes ultimately chose to crash the ship rather than allow it the chance of escaping with the Flood on Board. We were the only survivors."
"Neat." I responded, "So how are we getting this vessel to go critical?"
"Explosive force directly applied to the fusion engine will cause it to destabilize." John answered.
"Cool." I nodded, "I've got my car parked in the Longsword still docked, so once we do that we haul ass and take that ship into space."
Watching the Halo Ring blow was something special. All that power stopped by us. I guess this is why Grunt wanted me on this mission, aside from the fact that I look human and he looks alien.
We ended up killing the engines on the Longsword when a Covenant scout fleet came into the area. A nearby Pelican containing survivors from the blast; however, activated its engines and Cortana took remote control of both vessels and executed a slingshot maneuver using a nearby moon's gravity.
The two ships docked and Sargent Johnson came aboard with three people that I am sure are important to somebody somewhere.
We loaded their ship up with mines and Cortana piloted it and deployed the mines in the direction of the pursuing fleet. The explosions caused enough of a distraction for us to board the flagship, The Ascendant Justice, and insert our AI into the systems to depressurize the ship, killing everyone on board not wearing full space suits. We did end up killing one Elite up in the bridge, and Cortana launched us into Slipspace with the destination of Reach as suggested by her partner John.
I used my Quantum Entanglement Communication Device to let Grunt know where we were going.
"Good." he chuckled, "I've been keeping an eye on the planet and think we can take the leftover cleanup forces."
When we exited slip space we saw a fleet of twenty black battleships with red Xs painted on them engaging the leftover Covenant ships and absolutely shredding them. Grunt's plan to hit a Covenant dry dock and retrofit facility had obviously paid off in the form of new ships and the massively upped armor, engines, and weapon systems sported by his vessels.
"You better have sent a bill for this battle." I told him over our comms line.
"Of course babe." he laughed, "Do you think this is amateur hour. We'll get the salvage and a fat payday for our efforts. I'd never miss the chance to double dip."
We met Grunt planet side when he stepped off his ship with his new Spartan lover Kat. It took me a moment to recognize the upgrade to her prosthetic arm because of the slimmer profile but when I did I just shook my head.
"You gave her a Saren arm." I chuckled.
"Dude was mad, but had sick taste in robot arms." Grunt grinned.
"He made you something not meant to destroy his enemies or drive fast." I told the girl, "It must really be love."
"Oh no." Kat denied then used her arm to turn a piece of nearby rubble into smaller rubble, "It is very much meant to destroy enemies."
I saw her shaking her robot hand as if to relieve pain.
"Going to have to get used to the full nervous system integration." she mumbled.
"You made it so she can feel pain with her robot arm?" I looked at my giant husband.
"And everything else." He smiled, "Anyway. Wife, this is my new lover Kat. Kat, this is my wife, Jack."
"Nice to meet you Kat." I said, "Now I'd like you to meet my new lover, Linda."
Before Linda could say anything for herself Grunt and I participated in a crisp high five.
"You people are so weird." Kat sighed.