August 23, 2552, New Alexandria.
Around a week later, Seth, Matt, and Jorge were shifted around by the order of ONI who utilized Seth's Mecha exoskeleton for the past week in fight off the Covenant. However, despite the [M.A.C.] guns on [F.L.A.M.E.] the Covenant was still strong as ever. Seth had sunk 17 ships of various size, but this appeared to not even affect the invasion as more and more ships came every day. The UNSC had order a full evacuation of the planet and the three Spartans were being assigned to assist in the evacuation of New Alexandria. The rest of Noble team would assist them later, but for now they were stuck together. Seth was tasked by the UNSC commander in charge of the evacuation, to clear the skies so civilian transports could escape Reach.
Seth was currently chasing after several Banshees and Phantom gunships, when he received a call from Jorge requesting close air support. The Spartan quickly shot down the group he chased, before making his way towards the Jorge and Matt. When he arrived, Seth saw that the two Spartan and a squad of ODSTs were pinned down by several brutes. Seth opened fire on the Covenant forces, clearing the area of all hostiles. He was soon reassigned to assist Jorge and Matt on clearing the path for the duo, plus a team of Marines, to get a missile defense network back online. If successful, Seth's workload with be significantly lowered. It didn't take long for the UNSC team to get the network back and once it did, the transports were away.
"Missile defense online. All evac transports, you are cleared for takeoff! Repeat, you are clear for takeoff! Go, now!" A Marine stated over the radio.
"Civilian transports away. You saved a lot of lives today, Spartans." The air traffic control operator said over the radio. Seth landed next to Jorge and Matt. The trio saw the civilian transports fleeing the planet while the missile batteries opened fire on the Covenant forces.
"Noble two, six. Do you read me?" Kat stated over the com-link.
"Affirmative ma'am, we hear you." Seth responded.
"Alright. We're bringing you three to us." Kat stated. With that Jorge placed a flare beacon on the ground and the trio waited for their transport to arrive.
Later that night, Noble team was once again whole with a new addition. Matt became Noble seven (unofficially) and they were tasked with destroying three covenant jammers placed within the city. It didn't take long for the Spartans to complete the task at hand and return to Olympic tower, an ONI facility.
"Look at this place. Used to be the crown jewel... Not anymore." Jun stated as he looked around him.
"Sir, that true about Gauntlet, Red and Echo Teams assigned to civilian evac ops?" Carter immediately turned towards Kat, knowing she was the source of this leaked information.
"Those are senior-level communiques..." Noble leader stated.
"I hear what I hear. Point is, why put Spartans on defensive deployments?" Kat responded.
"I need that link to SATCOM, Kat." Carter said trying to change the subject.
"Chasing it, but this console has more shrapnel than transceivers... You didn't answer my question."
"You wanna know if we're losing?" Carter said bluntly.
"I know we're losing. I want to know if we've lost." Just then, the Commlink came back to life.
"Colonel Holland. Hailing us! What's he doing on an open channel?" Kat asked as they were in an extremely dangerous situation. They could be tracked by the Covenant through the open channel back to their location.
"Let's hear it." Carter said.
"-near the southwest quadrant of the city, over? Sierra Two-Five-Nine, if you are receiving, I am authorizing override of radio security protocols to link with this channel." Holland stated over the open channel.
"How long for a secure link?" Carter asked.
"I can't guarantee secure anymore."
"Could the Covenant trace it to us?"
"I could."
"Noble Leader, this is a Priority One hail. If you are receiving, acknowledge immediately." Holland stated. Carter quickly grabbed the ear piece.
"Keep it brief." Kat said.
"Carter here... Yes, sir." Through the force, Seth sensed that something bad was about to happen. Jun looked outside and saw that several Covenant ships were leaving the area in a hurry.
"We've got movement. Multiple Covenant vehicles vacating the area... and they're in a hurry." Jun informed the group.
"How often you see Covenant retreat for no reason?" Emile said. Just then Blaze and Flame detected a massive spike of radiation in the area.
"Radiation flare! Big! Forty million roentgens!" Kat yelled out as her instruments began to go haywire.
"Just lost Holland. What's going on?" Carter asked.
"Atomic excitement scrambled the signal. Ninety million now!"
"Source?"
"Airborne. Close!"
"How close?" Just then the group hear the Covenant begin glassing New Alexandria. A massive shockwave hit the tower, breaking the glass in the tower and knocking the Spartans off their feet.
"That close!" The seven Spartans got back up and ran towards the elevator. Kat pushed the button on the elevator, but missed it the first time due to being temporarily blinded by the flash from the glassing.
"First glassing? Me, too. Don't worry, I'm on it. Our best option is a fallout bunker in Sublevel Two. Ninety-six meters northeast. We get orders from Holland, sir?" Kat said asking Seth. She turned towards Carter waiting for an answer.
"We're being redeployed to Sword Base." Carter stated much to the shock of Noble Team.
"Sword?! Covenant own it now!" Jun added.
"Which is why they want us for a torch-and-burn op. Keep Doctor Halsey's excavation data from falling into enemy hands." The elevator made it to it predetermined destination. The Spartans rushed out of the Elevator and made their way the bunker.
"If it hasn't already." Kat added.
"Maybe, but according to Holland, the Covenant are still hunting for something." Jun, Matt, Jorge, Emile, and Carter made it to the bunker. Seth was behind Kat, when he saw a Phantom above them, and a Jackal was aiming towards Kat. Without a moment of hesitation, Seth used the force to fling the female Spartan forward.
"Where does he get off calling a demolition op Priority One- AH!" Kat was flung forward inside the bunker. Amidst the confusion, Seth partially deployed [B.L.A.Z.E.] and unleashed her miniguns on the Covenant Phantom, destroying it. With no time for questions the Spartans locked down the bunker as the glassing of New Alexandria was underway.
Three days later, the radiation levels had lowered to a safe enough level to get the civilians and the Spartans out of there. After setting up a flare, the group looked around at the devastation around them. The once beautiful was unrecognizable from the glassing. Inside the bunker, Seth could sense the people in the city, that couldn't make it out in time. As the amount of lives he sensed decreased, the feeling of fear grew. He was reminded of the times the Republic would enact a Base Delta Zero and complete destroy a planet, making it unlivable. As Seth was allowing his mind to wonder, be started to think about his friends and family back home, which was odd for the Je'daii. He never got much homesickness before. He was brought out of his train of thought, when Matt tapped him on the back to let him know their ride was here. He quickly got on board for his next assignment.
August 29, 2552 Sword Base.
Noble 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7, along with a squad of ODSTs were currently just outside of Sword Base, waiting for the go head to begin the operation. Noble Six was inside of [F.L.A.M.E.] and was flying just outside of the sensor of the Covenant AA batteries that were set up after the alien alliance had set up shop in the ONI facility. The plan was for Noble team members on the ground to disable/destroy the AA battery allowing Seth in [F.L.A.M.E.] to unleash a massive amount of firepower on the Covenant forces inside sword base without the worry of being shot down.
The ground forces split up into two groups. Carter, Kat, and Matt were the team assign to destroy the AA guns, while Jorge, Jun, Emile, and the ODSTs would attack the base. It didn't take long for the team of Spartans to destroy the anti-air gun emplacements. Once they were gone, Seth was cleared to engage any hostiles he saw.
Seth saw the Jorge's group was having a little trouble with a group of Hunters that were protecting the entrance to the Sword Base. Seth landed in between the troops and the Hunters. Seth fired several grenades at the large aliens, causing them to raise their shields to protect themselves. Seth brought out one of [F.L.A.M.E.] energy swords and launched himself towards the closest Hunter. He stabbed the large colony of alien worms and delivered an [Impact Punch] sending the beast flying towards the wall. He turned his attention to the remaining Hunter and raised a red barrier up. The Hunter fired a round from its arm cannon, but [F.L.A.M.E.] raised a red barrier and blocked the attack before it hit.
He charged up an energy and unleashed the red beam on the Covenant member, killing it. He, along with the other members of the strike force, entered ONI base and began to attack the hunkered down Covenant inside. Seth stuck to the wrist mounted Grenade launcher, due to the possibility of damaging the structural integrity with [F.L.A.M.E.]'s stronger weapon systems. After clearing out the Covenant Noble Team enters a corridor littered with dead bodies and destroyed equipment. An unmanned turret stands behind some sandbags.
"Looks like they got themselves cornered." Jun stated.
"Or were committed to the position." Carter said to Jun.
"I'm going with cornered. There's nothing here." Emile said as he looked around.
"Sir, what are we doing here? If we're here to blow up this base, we should do it in a different location." Jorge said.
"This is the location Dot stated." Kat said.
"Dot, confirmed your vector." Carter ordered.
"Vector confirmed, Commander. We are precisely where ONI has directed-" Dot paused for a moment. "Apologies. Coordinates revised. Please confirm?" Dot said.
"Revised...?" Carter said slightly surprised.
"By an AI of unknown origin, whose clearance is well above my own."
"It's now telling to head two thousand feet below ground?" Matt stated.
"I didn't bring my shovel, Commander." Emile said jokingly.
"Sir, I say we go AI-free on this one. Obviously, these coordinates are junk, and the longer we go chasing them-" Jun was cut off by a grinding noise, causing all the Spartans to draw their weapons. They soon saw a new path open.
"What is this, Dot?" Carter asked.
"Our revised route, Commander." The AI stated.
"Alright... We came this far." Carter said as Noble team now made their way down the newly opened path. Eventually they came across a tram station.
"Your new AI friend tell you anything else, Dot?...Dot?"
"She's been expecting you."
"That's perfect." Carter said sarcastically. As the tram began to move, a video screen came up with Dr. Halsey appeared.
"Apologies for the unusual security measures, Commander, but the stakes demand it." The sight of Halsey was a complete shock to Noble team. She was reported Dead by the UNSC.
"Doctor Halsey. Casualty reports have you listed as-"
"Yes, well, as they say, news of my death has been greatly exaggerated. The data module Noble Two procured from Visegrad station contained precisely what my scientist promised: a latchkey discovery. It has unlocked, at last, the secrets of this excavation."
"Not sure I understand."
"Your orders were a pretext to bring you to me and have been overridden. You are here, Team Noble, to assure the delivery of this vital data to a secure location."
"Doctor, our orders are to destroy all sensitive material-"
"Others will handle the demolition."
"I'll need to confirm this new directive with Command-"
"Colonel Holland will be briefed. You belong to ONI now." The tram carrying the seven Spartans came to a stop and the group entered a nearby elevator. As the elevator descended the group saw the massive forerunner object.
"Before you is an alien artifact neither human or Covenant in origin. Advanced beyond our comprehension... until now. Thanks to Noble Two, the decryption of its data is nearly complete." Halsey said informing the group of the massive object.
"Whatever we're doin' down here, we better do it quick." Emile said as their radars detected a large amount of Covenant forces coming.
"Have your data ready, ma'am. We're coming to you." Carter said as the Spartan wanted to finish this mission as soon as possible.
"The decrypting data is still underway..."
"I don't think you understand. We're out of time. If it isn't portable when we reach you, it's gonna get buried." Carter said.
"Bury any of it, and you bury mankind's best chance for survival! This is the reason humanity has fought so hard on Reach. They died for this. Please. Buy me all the time you can." Halsey begged much to the surprise of Noble leader. The elevator doors open and Noble team moved out.
"Let's find Halsey's lab. Six, I want you in the air. Three get on that ridge. The rest of you with me." Carter order. Just as the group were moving out, Jun noticed something.
"Commander, I'm seeing turrets already in defensive positions."
"ONI was expecting company?" Emile asked.
"They sure as hell got it. Doctor, we have hostiles inbound." Carter said as he noticed the drop ships coming towards them. That was until the Phantom was hit by an Energy Beam courtesy of [B.L.A.Z.E.].
"Spartans, you cannot allow the Covenant to break through the door to my lab." Halsey stated as the Spartans began fending off the Covenant forces.
"Understood. Let's give the doctor the time she needs."
Seth was in the air attacking the Banshees and Phantoms that the flew into the large cave. Some of the braver Covenant jumped from their dropped ship at a dangerous height. Some of them got lucky and survived the fall, but they were quickly shot dead by the vigilant eye of Noble team. Not even the Special operation elites with activate camouflage were killed almost instantly thanks to [B.L.A.Z.E.]'s thermal vision. Noble team was able to buy the time Dr. Halsey needed, and now opened the doors.
"Well done, Spartans. I'm opening the laboratory door."
"Door's opened, Noble Six. Get to the lab." Carter said.
"Give me a second." Seth said as he was almost done with the remaining Covenant.
"Seth, we need to move now!" Jorge said as he could tell that this situation would get worse if they didn't hurry. Just then Blaze showed on her radar that a lot more Covenant would be here shortly. They had to move.
Seth arrived next to the rest of Noble team and entered the opened doors. They ran into the corridor and reached Dr. Halsey's lab. They saw a large sphere-shaped Forerunner artifact outside of her lab.
"What is this stuff?" Jun said as Noble team looked around.
"Ma'am?" Jorge said hoping for an answer.
"Knowledge. A birthright from an ancient civilization. This AI is its custodian, and she has chosen you as her carriers." Dr. Halsey said as she moved to a different monitor inside her lab.
"Chosen? By an AI?" Emile question.
"By this AI, yes. Her measure of you carries as much weight as my own..." Dr. Halsey said she moved towards a blue hologram of a woman, that was the AI Cortana.
"...Perhaps more. You are to take her to the UNSC ship-breaking yards in Aszod. There, you will find a Halcyon-class light cruiser waiting to get her off-planet."
"I understand." Carter said.
"Do you? Mankind is outmatched. When Reach falls, and it will fall, our annihilation is all but certain. Unless we can glean from this artifact a defense against the Covenant. A game-changer. On the level of the conical bullet in nineteenth century, or faster-than-light travel in the twenty-third." Dr. Halsey said trying to enforce the importance of this mission. Failure meant the destruction of Humanity in the entire galaxy.
"And what if we can't?"
"An apt question if there were somewhere else to place our hope. There is not." Dr. Halsey took one last look at Cortana before placing her inside a storage unit. She picked up the Storage unit and walked over to Noble Six.
"Take it, Lieutenant. She has made her choice." Seth placed his hands on the storage unit containing what may be the last hope for humanity.
"Do you have it?" Dr. Halsey asked.
"Yes." Seth responded.
"Say the words, please."
"I have it." Dr. Halsey let go of Cortana and the group of eight now moved outside, where the group could now see that it was morning. Soon two pelicans arrived getting ready to transport the teams.
"Dr. Halsey, Noble Three, Five, and Seven will escort you to CASTLE Base." Carter
"I require no escort, Commander-"
"Commander, permission to make a suggestion?" Seth asked.
"Lieutenant." Carter nodded his head, giving Seth the go ahead.
"I believe I should head to the pillar of Autumn by myself."
"Are you mad Lieutenant? There's no way-"
"[B.L.A.Z.E.] is significantly faster than any other aircraft in the UNSC and has a stealth mode. Halsey is going to be needed for the coming fight, and we need her in one piece. Her chance of survival increased dramatically if he has a full Spartan team with her." Seth said cutting off Kat. As much as he didn't like Halsey for her experiment on children, he knew that the Spartans were the only thing keeping humanity in the fight against the Covenant. They needed her for now, but once the war was over then she could be trialed for her crimes.
"Lieutenant, I told you that lone wolf stuff was to stay behind."
"Commander, you know what has to be done." Seth said while using the force to persuade the leader of Noble team. Carter paused for a few second before he spoke.
"You need make it to the Autumn in once piece Noble six. I can't believe I'm allowing you to go." Carter said to the shock of the other season members of Noble team.
"Thank you, sir." Seth said as he activated [B.L.A.Z.E.].
"It may have not been for long, but I'm glad to have been a member of Noble team."
"What do you mean 'been have' you're still a member of this team." The Spartan two said.
"The big follow is right. As long as you ain't six feet under, you're still on this team." Emile said.
"Noble Six, we're counting on you. Get to the Autumn and get off this rock. Is that understood?"
"Yes Commander." Seth now activated [B.L.A.Z.E.]'s green GN particle wings and flew in the air as the rest of Noble team boarded their Pelican.
As Seth was flying off, he heard the sound of a large explosion as the forerunner artifact and the rest of Sword Base was destroyed in a massive underground explosion.
"Blaze, Flame we have a mission to finish." Seth said aloud.
"Who are Blaze and Flame?" A new voice said inside of Seth's helmet.
"What the- who's that?" Seth wondered who this new voice belonged to.
"I'm Cortana, the AI construct you just picked up. I linked up with your Spartan armor Seth-121, and nothing you have listed matches any of the UNSC or ONI's records. Oh, your exoskeletons suits both had AIs in them? Huh? They don't follow UNSC protocol. Seth, you shouldn't have AI of this caliber for just an exoskeleton, these two are more than capable of operating UNSC frigates." Cortana said as she began to probe for answers.
"Quit scanning me!" Blaze said.
"What is the nature of your programming?" Cortana said.
"Knock it off!" Flame stated as she was now being scanned by Cortana, after Blaze stopped her from scan herself.
"121, I think you have some explaining to do?"
"We should have placed a few extra layers of protection." Seth said.
A Couple of Minutes Later.
Seth decided that the best course of action with the addition of their newest AI, would be the disclosed their current situation. At first the AI construct thought Seth was lying as the process of traveling between dimensions was impossible with this current universe's understanding of Space and Time. She was threatening to inform the UNSC officials about the false Spartan's true objective, but Seth was able to convince her, not only to keep his true identity a secret, while he searched for the relic, but he also got her to assist him in helping keeping his identity a secret and him find the relic.
But this didn't come cheap. Seth had offered his fighting services and some highly-advanced weapon/starship data he obtained during his time in the clone wars. Cortana wanted both for her assistance. She didn't trust the false Spartan, but this highly advance data may just save humanity. Flame was currently faking the highly advance data so it appeared to have come from the Forerunners. While Seth was almost at Aszod ship breaking yards where the Pillar of Autumn was. He stopped the release of GN Particles so he would contact the Autumn.
"UNSC Pillar of Autumn, this is Seth-121, do you read me?" Seth said over an open channel, breaking the silence he had maintain to avoid the Covenant force.
"This is Captain Keyes of the Pillar of Autumn. We are tracking you, Noble, and have begun our launch sequence. Proceed to drydock, platform D. I'll be on it myself to receive the package."
"Understood, Captain. I'll be there."
"You better be soldier, because my countdown has no abort." The Captain of the pillar of Autumn said. Seth main his way towards the drydock and messaged Keyes. With [B.L.A.Z.E.]'s impressive speed, it didn't take long for Seth to reach the platform. He messaged Keyes.
"Noble Six to Captain Keyes, I'm at the drydock. Covenant are approaching my location." Seth said as he saw several drop ships.
"Copy, Noble. My Pelican's ready. Clear an LZ and I'll meet you there."
Seth used the full might of [B.L.A.Z.E.]'s arsenal to cleanse the area of all non-human life forms. After blasting the remaining Covenant force from the area, the false Spartan called in Captain Keyes. Soon a Pelican arrived and Seth handed the data module to Captain Keyes.
"Good to see you, Spartan. Catherine assured me I could count on you." Just as Seth was about to board the Pelican, the shadow of a CCS-class battlecruiser appeared and deployed a large amount of aircraft towards the shipyard.
"Cruiser, adjusting heading for the Autumn! Noble Six get on that Mass driver, and give us covering fire. We'll leave a hanger open. Once we're airborne, you'll have a small window to get off the planet."
"Understood Captain. You will get off this planet, I can assure you of that. Now go!" Seth said as he ran towards the Mass Driver Cannon.
The Je'daii made his way to the Mass Driver Cannon and began to fire at all the incoming Phantoms and Banshees, which were numerous, but just as the groups of aircraft were start to thin out, the Mass Driver cannon stopped working.
"Oh, you've gotta be shittin me." Seth cursed. He quickly deployed [F.L.A.M.E.] and using her [M.A.C.] guns she began to eliminating the remaining aircraft, while simultaneously vaporizing the ground Covenant forces that were able to land on the ground while Seth got out of the Mass Driver cannon. She also had a little help from Seth using the force to choke the Brutes and Elites as they had an anatomy similar to humans, so a crushed windpipe should be lethal, or at least significantly slow them down.
"Cruiser, moving into position. I need it dead!" Captain Keyes said as the Carrier was now charging up its ventral energy projector.
"Flame, Maximum Firepower!" Seth roared and the Marker symbol on his chest began to glow. Flame stored enough energy inside her [M.A.C.] guns and unleashed her full wrath on the battlecruiser.
The CCS-class battlecruiser erupted with explosions as the rounds of the [M.A.C.] guns tore through the ship, killing hundreds of Covenant crew members. The battlecruiser now began blasting its siren as she fell towards Reach's surface.
"Good guns, Spartan. All stations: brace for cast-off. Six hurry!" Captain Keyes said as the ship took off from the planet. Seth switched from [F.L.A.M.E.] to [B.L.A.Z.E.] and hightailed it to the open hanger as the Pillar of Autumn was now exiting the atmosphere.
"This is the Pillar of Autumn. We're away. And the Package is with us." Keyes said over the comms and caused a large sense of relief to the other members of Noble team listening inside of CASTLE Base.
September 19, 2552 01:20 Hours.
After spending 20 days in slipspace the Pillar of Autumn arrived in Soell solar system and found a massive Ring like object orbiting a large gas giant.
Meanwhile Back at the Imperial Palace.
Tabane was currently working on a special device using the data Blaze had given her, regarding the technology she uses for Interdimensional travel. Her end goal would be able to send support to Seth should he ever need it, or to send a rescue team, but for now, she was just trying to set up a connection between her device and [B.L.A.Z.E.], but this was proving to be most difficult. As she was trying out several different methods, her device began to show a grainy image that soon became clearer, but she soon lost the transmission.
"Shoot! I was close that time." Tabane said as she would start the experiment again for the seventh time this night.