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Chapter One: Part I, Discovery of an Enemy
Date: 14 May 2004, 3:11 AM

Gallant Strife
_______________________________________________________

Chapter One: Discovery of an Enemy

PART I

0544 Hours, July 21, 2552 (Military Calendar)
System Designation Classified, Planet Codename Milestone

The warm rain came down hard through the thick jungle. What was once a fairly mossy ground covered by thick plants was now turning into a half foot deep swamp as the rain drops fell through the large trees towards the landscape. The inconsistent hilly terrain made travel through this area difficult and slow, and the added flooding by the heavy rain did not especially help.

First Lieutenant Todd Kren cursed silently at the difficult terrain this place was turning in to. The only advantage he could see in any of this was the rain; their sloshing movements through the swampy jungle was completely drowned out by the continuous rain.

This place was now christened as the armpit of the universe.

Nevertheless, despite his newfound hatred, he still had a mission to accomplish, and he had eleven other men to lead. They were no doubt feeling the same way about this place.

He scanned the jungle back and forth with his M7A1 rifle as he walked. There were no animal sounds, nothing but the sound of rain coming down around them. The only movement was of the top of the trees swaying back and forth by some sort of wind that could not be felt at the jungle floor, and the leaves on all the plants as the heavy raindrops relentlessly hit them. If he did not know better, Kren may have suspected a hurricane of some sort, except for the fact that they were nowhere near an ocean. Maybe this planet had its own form of hurricane like storms....

Did it really matter what kind of weather they were in? Kren was partly mad at himself for hating this place so much. He was the platoon leader of what was probably one of the most seasoned and trained group of men in the ODST division of the Marines. They had seen blazing hot deserts and freezing cold mountains, yet he could not get over the fact that he was pretty much swimming through the thickest jungle on this planet, and for some reason he hated the hell out of it.

Maybe his bunched up anger on this mission was not about the weather, despite his certain dislike for it. Maybe it was because he had been sent to this hellhole by the one man him and his squad disliked the most. If it was not for that damn Navy ONI spook, he could be fighting the Covenant along side other Marines, somewhere where he could inflict as much damage on those ugly creatures as possible. But, like his training told him, and also his gut feeling, they were going to see their far share of the enemy on this assignment.

His wandering mind snapped to attention when their point man, Sergeant Jeff McCollum, knelt down into a crouch and held his fist up, without looking back. Master Sergeant McCollum was Kren's right hand man in First Squad, and he knew his stuff, having served with him for nearly four years. He was somebody who could be depended on, no matter what the situation. McCollum slung his M7A1 rifle and pulled out a small black device.

Kren, who was less then twenty feet behind him, turned around and motioned for the rest of their squad to get low and stay quiet, then he crouched up to McCollum's position and knelt beside the sergeant. He was looking at the small motion sensor screen, which was at the moment blank; not even picking up the Marines behind them. Everyone had stopped moving.

"Speak to me," Kren said quietly, looking around at the foliage. He could not see any farther then twenty-five feet, the vegetation was that thick.

McCollum waited in silence, then finally answered. "Unidentified motion detected..." He looked up and pointed slowly, "...that way, about forty-nine meters out." The sergeant looked back at the display and waited, obviously expecting it to reappear.

Kren looked in that direction for a moment. The maximum range for the motion sensor was about sixty meters, it was a heavily upgraded system from the standard issue, but in this weather and terrain, he wasn't sure just how close something could get before getting detected.

He reached into a web gear sack and pulled out a pair of binoculars. This system was extremely sophisticated, having built in infrared sensors as well as night vision assistance. Kren and his men had nothing but the best equipment available, and despite the idiotic man this ONI spook was, he made sure they got whatever they needed.

He activated the IR and pointed it in the direction McCollum had detected the motion source. He turned the magnification down and peered through the lenses.

At 43.2 meters away, range being given by an estimate IR range calculator, a large body emitted heat. It was hard to tell the outline of the creature, but it was definitely eight or nine feet tall with a body mass at around 500 pounds. A really large Elite?

"Got it," Kren said, still looking through the binoculars. "Just over 40 meters out; looks pretty big and whatever it is, it's staying pretty still."

McCollum nodded and turned to face the squad behind them. He activated the comm. link. "Smathers, get up here."

The young private got up and crouch walked up to them, remaining silent. Despite his young age at nineteen, he was admitted into the ODST training and then further hand selected by Kren's direct commander, Colonel Tucker, to join their small special ops division. He did not specialize in anything specifically, except being a damn good shot and killing anything that did not wear UNSC clothing.

McCollum handed the motion sensor to the private, who slung his M7A1 and grasped onto it. The screen remained blank. "Hold on to this and tell me if you see anything move aside from our squad, OK?"

"Yes, sergeant." Smathers replied, holding the piece of equipment tightly.

Kren frowned and put the binoculars down, then activated the comm. link. "OK Marines, one target, 40 meters bearing 235, silent kill. Let's get him."

Chapter One: Part II, Discovery of an Enemy
Date: 14 May 2004, 3:34 AM

Chapter One: Discovery of an Enemy

PART II

0930 Hours, July 19, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Aboard ONI Stealth Frigate Valiant Knight, en route to:
System Designation Classified, Planet Codename Milestone

Two Days Earlier

Lieutenant Kren rubbed the back of his freshly shaven head as he walked down on of the long steel hallways aboard the ONI vessel. He wore his pressed Class B uniform and his shined boots. His cover was tucked neatly under his arm as he made his way towards one of the briefing rooms aboard the ship. Normally, Kren wouldn't have been too anxious to go and hear someone green Navy man talk to them about information that was usually wrong, but this time was different. After being hastily put aboard this ship with his platoon of thirty six Marines and not being told why, then being put on a thirty-two day trip to some unknown system, surrounded the whole time by ONI spooks who would like to keep their meals classified until the last moment, all began to wear on him, and his patience.

He rounded the corner and saw the room ahead. He walked briskly to it and entered the door. The room was one of the briefing rooms used by the ship's executive staff, and it had exceptionally nice seating, oak tables, and framed pictures that were probably worth more then Kren's monthly salary.

Seated around the large wood table were his three squad leaders and each squads' two fire team leaders. At the head of the table, the ships Captain sat, stirring his coffee impatiently, obviously waiting for someone to make this briefing begin. Kren started for one of the few empty seats left just as his platoon executive officer came through the door.

Second Lieutenant Damon Meyers briefly studied the room, then followed Kren's direction toward one of the empty seats. Meyers was very much like Kren, personality wise at least. Both officers had noticed the ship's CO impatient body language, but neither of them cared. Despite their most-of-the-time respect for the chain of command, they had learned over the years that caring too much about any superior officer's general mood did not get them, or the war with the Covenant, any farther along.

Meyers, who was almost four inches shorter then Kren, took a seat next to him and placed his cover squarely on the table, as did Kren. The two officers looked up towards the CO, who still waited. Obviously, whoever was late, it was not them.

Kren looked down the table at his line of NCO's. All sat straight up and waited in what most Navy men would call the seated position of attention, but in reality his men were just well disciplined, and had extremely good posture....

Three officers came through the door finally, causing the ship's CO to look up, then take a deep swig of his coffee. "About time," he muttered as the thick door closed behind the officers.

"My apologies, Captain." The highest ranking officer, a Major, said, moving towards the head of the room and pulling down a projector screen sheet. The other two officers moved to the rear of the room to activate the projector. The screen lit up as the officers prepared their briefing.

The Major, wearing an Office of Naval Intelligence patch on his uniform, pulled out the podium and set a stack of papers on it. After the officers in the back nodded, he cleared his throat and looked at the row of men who waited for him.

"What you all may be wanting to find out is why ONI has sent us, and this group of spec ops Marines, on a month-long trip into deep space." The feedback of his crowd was exactly what the Major expected; impatience. "So right now, we will inform you of this assignment.

"Let me first start by stating the authority of this mission, so that there is no question later. This assignment does originate at ONI headquarters, but the authority and the order to launch this mission was actually by Supreme Naval Command. So in case you were wondering, this assignment is not something to be taken lightly, and after get into the information, you will indeed see why."

The Major hit a button and the screen came to life, showing black space with thousands of stars. "Some of you may recognize this view from a deep telescope space shot from Reach. And, as you may see, nothing especially special about it. "He hit another button on the remote like object. The view zoomed in what Kren thought looked like, literally, a trillion magnification. The sight was a very concentrated area that was previously not seen in the first image. "This is a high telescopic zoom of something that has not been seen before. Many people would have suspected it would take us decades, possibly centuries to locate, but we got tipped off a few months ago.

"When the attack and subsequent invasion of Cote d' Azur happened, and we were able to recover the alien artifact, there was something else we were able to find. Similar to the star coordinates discovered on that artifact, we were able to transcribe and second set of star system coordinates. I'll save you all the technicalities, but through days of analyzing and deciphering, this system..." he pointed to the projector display. "....was found. It hasn't even been named yet, but the single planet orbiting the star has a set of very perplexing properties, which has motivated headquarters to endorse this endeavor.

"First of all, some sort of radiation field has encompassed the planet, making radar or radio wave sensors ineffective against the planet from orbit, but radiation and IR sensors have been able to penetrate its system; only, of course, at relatively short range.

"Because ONI was not able to detect anything on the surface because of the radiation field, and because this star system was found after investigating the alien artifact from Cote d' Azur, ONI sent a small stealth ship out to investigate. As we all know, if the Covenant want it or know of it, we must take it away from them. The war is not in our favor, so we must hurt them any other way possible, which is the logic ONI used to send out the ship, which leads to what the stealth ship discovered four weeks ago when it entered this unknown system.

"Aside from observing massive Covenant ships in orbit around the planet, the IR sensors we able to detect installations planet side. After careful reviewing, we have noted them as some sort of structures that are being occupied by Covenant forces. They do not appear to be made by the Covenant, but they resemble some of the technology the Covenant posses; such as plasma weapons and systems for instance."

The ships' captain spoke up, addressing the major. "So you're saying these structures do not follow Covenant building patterns, but they contain similar technology?"

The major hesitated for a moment. "Actually, sir, most components are exact technology matches."

"So how can you make the statement that the Covenant did not build those structures...hell, how do you know this isn't some sort of Covenant home world?" The Captain asked.

The major set his briefing papers down and looked intently at the ship CO. "Naturally, every thing here is classified," he saw the look change from impatience to anger on the captain's face. The major sighed and continued. "It has been speculated for some time now that the Covenant is possibly not the only alliance of aliens out there. When we first encountered them, the thought was that they were a single alien race. After time progressed and we met the Covenant in battle on the ground, we witnessed that there were actually many different species within the Covenant alliance. So far true, but after we captured weapons and other technologies from them, and after we were able to improve upon some of it; the shielding used for the SPARTAN-II Project for example, many, especially at ONI headquarters, are beginning to think that the Covenant are either too dumb to improve upon weapons or even design new ones. Or that the technology they have really isn't theirs."

The captain leaned back, gesturing for the major to continue.

"This would then mean that the Covenant has acquired this technology from an outside source, yet they refuse to improve on it. And we know that the Covenant are a deeply religious group of aliens, so one would think to believe that these technologies have been acquired from another species of technologically advanced beings that have some sort of deep religious importance to the Covenant. "The major paused for effect. "There is some race of beings that the Covenant outstandingly reveres." There was a pause.

The then major continued. "But again, one would think that if one of the races in the Covenant created it, why can't they continue to improve upon it? Because of the fact that they do not improve upon the technology they have, the only logical conclusion on why they do not improve their tech is because the race or beings who created this technology, the beings that they revere so much, no longer exists, therefore they view them with deep religious standpoints, almost like this other race were some sort of martyrs or gods."

Kren leaned forward and spoke up. "So, the Covenant have acquired their technology from some long-dead race that they think are gods, are using it against us, and this planet we're going to contains more 'technology' from this long lost 'godly' race?"

"That would be a correct assumption, Lieutenant." The major replied.

"Have you ever thought," the ship Captain interjected, "that the Covenant haven't improved their technology because they simply can't?"

"Yes, but if that were true, how did they get that far in the first place?" The major replied. "Think about it; if we humans can improve upon a technology we have never seen before in mere years, how come they cannot do the same? I'm not saying we can improve upon their weapons, per se, but rather their shielding and ship systems, which still classify as something they can improve upon. The fact of the matter remains; this technology must be from a foreign source, and because of the religious significance of it, that 'source' dictates that they cannot improve upon it...maybe they view it as blasphemy, who knows?"

The ship's CO let out a long sigh. "Okay, so that's the rundown on why we're going to this planet? To acquire technology?"

The major looked away. "Not merely for the technology. This is the first planet we have ever encountered that harbors Covenant forces that we as humans have never been on. Intelligence is the other half of the reason for sending this spec ops mission."

Everyone one in the room, save the three ONI officers, remained silent as they digested the information they had all received. Even if what the major said was half-true, the situation was now very delicate, and confusing.

Kren rubbed his forehead as he addressed the major. "So, what can a platoon of Marines do to this so-called Covenant world. This sounds like an exercise in futility, and from what I've seen over the years, we need less of those."

"That brings me to what the actual mission briefing is." The major replied, moving back to the podium to retrieve the papers. "Gentlemen, welcome to the first phase in Operation Gallant Strife."

Discovery of an Enemy, Chapter Two: Part I
Date: 24 May 2004, 3:46 AM

___________________________________________________________

Chapter Two: Reading Between the Lines

0602, July 21, 2552 (Military Calendar)
System Designation Classified, Planet Codename Milestone

Lieutenant Kren slowly peered around the corner of a large tree. The creature they had detected just minutes before had not moved, but stayed in the same spot, remaining deathly quiet and ready, for something.

He peered through the thick rain and spotted something barely moving through the brush no more than 10 meters away. It wore no type of armor or clothing, and had no weapon in its hand. It was not looking directly at Kren, but it obviously knew something was close.

Kren had never seen anything like it before. It was huge, with a coat of fur all over and large muscular arms and legs. It had a mouth the size of a humans head and the intimating look of an Elite, yet the creature looked nothing like any Covenant he had ever encountered. Maybe it wasn't part of the Covenant....

Kren gave some quick hand signals to Sergeant McCollum and Fire Team Alpha, five men in the fire team plus the Sergeant, who were crouching behind another tree a few meters away. They nodded and slowly raised their rifles at the creature, but withheld fire. Kren turned around and the motioned for Fire Team Bravo to move up, who consisted of five more ODST Marines. They skillfully and silently moved up to a fallen over tree and peered over it, aiming their M7A1's at the creature.

Kren peered through his 4x Optical Scope on the rifle and got a closer look at the creature which was already close. It was fully alert, but still did not move; its body slightly heaving up and down from the creature's steady breathing. Whatever this thing was, it was probably native to the area, since it seemed to know the priorities of stealth in the jungle. If the Marines had not had their sensors and optics, this thing could have easily taken them all out.

Crack!

Kren heard the noise of a stick break under the foot of one of the Marines from Fire Team Bravo. The noise, while actually relatively quiet, seemed to echo around them as the bushes where the creature waited suddenly moved. Kren thumbed off the safety on the rifle and tried regain a visual location of the creature.

"Sir! Target moving left, target moving left!" Came Smather's voice through the comm. link.

The Marines immediately check their sixes and flanks, just as they were trained to. The sound of the rain drowned out any movement, as the rifles in the hands of the Marines' scanned back and forth. Splashing was heard behind Kren, and he spun to face it.

Damnit.

The creature, at least ten feet tall, was squarely facing Kren as the long thick hairs on its back went straight up. Its black eyes eyed the Marine up and down as its jaws clenched. Kren blinked.

The powerful force of an object hitting Kren was the first thing he felt as re opened his eyes. In the split second the creature had tackled the lieutenant from almost five meters away.

Kren flew back as the sound of silenced M7A1's filled the air around them. He felt the pain hit him as he fell back first into the six-inch deep muddy ground. The force however, carried him even further through the mud into the vegetation as the sound of muffled shots filled the air, barely audible above the hard rain.

"...Fire, fire, fire!" Came a voice through the comm. link.

"Target moving north! He's coming back around!"

"Check your six, Leven's!"

"Target approaching, suppressive fire...!"

The comm. link was alive with reports from the Marines as Kren clenched his fists, still lying in the mud. Then he realized his rifle was not in them. He felt around, ignoring the numbing pain in his chest as he tried to find the rifle. It couldn't have gone far.

He blinked several times as his Heads-up-Display reset, obviously the small computer had gotten knocked offline from the blow. If it wasn't for his Mark IAC body armor, he would probably be dead from the forceful hit.
_______________________________________________________

Sergeant McCollum set his rifle to three round burst as he tried to track the target moving around them. It was so fast that the shots from the Marines scattered around the area seemed to miss. Or maybe they were hitting it, but the creature failed take any damage...

He heard something behind him, and spun around quickly.
_______________________________________________________

Kren quickly drew his M6D pistol from the holster and leveled it on the target, now 3 meters in the air and coming down for an attack on Sergeant McCollum. With the safety already off and a round in the chamber, he squeezed the trigger. The first round impacted the creature in its neck, and the following three rounds went directly into its chest. The high-explosive rounds detonated on impact, sending a torrent of blood and guts as the creature came down for a hard landing in front of the McCollum, who unleashed a fully automatic rifle at the creature from one meter away.

The creature, while obviously wounded, was not dead. As the last rounds of McCollum's clip ripped through its body, it rose up to its fill height as the blood mixed with the mud below. Kren pulled the trigger, only to hear a dissatisfying click. He was empty.

As Kren reached for another clip, the five Marines of Fire Team Alpha moved on past him, their rifles steadily aimed at the creature, firing short, controlled bursts. The rounds impacted on the creature, bringing a low, deep, growl from it as puffs of blood came off its body as the 45. Caliber Armor Piercing Rounds ripped through its body.

The creature slumped forward and landed next to McCollum, who back pedaled slowly away as Fire Team Bravo emerged, surrounding it from behind.

Kren finished the three-second process of reloaded his pistol, then, with it still aimed at the creature, moved slowly towards it. The ten Marines and Sergeant McCollum had their weapons shoulder on it as the large creature twitched, its head in the ground with black blood filling the muddy water around it.

"What the hell was that?" Came a loud whisper from Sergeant Brooks, Fire Team Bravo leader.

The Marines stood their in silence as the rain poured down around them. Whatever had attacked them was a very formidable foe, possessing great stretch and surprising speed. Kren leaned forward for a closer look; the only rounds that hat hit the creature were the ones of his pistol, McCollum's rifle, and then that of Fire Team Alpha's. The whole time this thing was moving not a single projective hit it.

"At least it's not invincible," Private Smathers remarked, giving the limp body a forceful kick to make sure it was dead.

Kren holstered the weapon as the rifles from the Marines around him slowly went down. The ordeal had salted about sixty seconds, but it felt like an hour. The pain in his chest throbbed as he looked around at the vegetation. This was this creatures home, and there were probably more of them. Many more.

"Security circle," McCollum quickly ordered. The Marines fanned out and set up a perimeter. "Smathers, keep an eye on that motion sensor."

"Yes, sergeant." Came a confident reply.

Kren turned around and spotted his rifle in the mud a few meters away. He walked over and picked it up, then pulled the bolt back, ejecting the current round a bringing another one up. It functioned completely normal, even though being, flooded with water.

The M7A1 was a new edition rifle that was finishing its final stages of field-testing. The rifle packed a much heavier punch then the standard issue MA5B, and was much more versatile. The rifle chambered a .45 armor piercing round, but at the cost of having only a clip size of 30 rounds. The rifle also had special operations modifications that could be added to make the weapon even more effective. Such modifications were all installed on the Marines' weapons. The one Kren found most useful was the addition of a silencer. Although it didn't eliminate the sound of the gun firing, as did guns with silencers and sub-sonic rounds, it effectively cut the sound in half, thus retaining full firepower at the off set of a slightly louder gun. However, in this weather, the sound would not travel far at all. A greatly useful ability of the gun was being able to operate after being under water, thus making it a prime choice for special operations where infiltration through water was mandatory.

The M7A1 had been battle tested against Elites, and in some cases the first shot penetrated the shield. In most cases, however, it took maybe two to five shots. Not a bad improvement though, considering the stories he had heard of Marines firing full clips of the MA5B rifle at an Elite, and still failed to kill it.

Kren motioned for Fire Team Alpha and Bravo to move up and form a tactical wedge, the same formation they had been in before the encounter; one on his left and right flank. He pulled out a water-proof laminated copy of a topographical map and looked at it for a second. He found his bearings and oriented the Squad.

"Sergeant McCollum, let's get moving." He ordered through the comm. link. The sergeant nodded and moved up ahead of the group and took point. Formerly in Force Recon, the sergeant was a skillful shot and scout, and actually preferred leading point. He began his crouch walk through the brush and pushed away the vegetation as he moved through it. Alpha and Bravo began moving along as well as Lieutenant Kren walked five paces behind McCollum.

The scientists back at Reach would love to see the HUD Camera feed of the creature from all of his Marines, but that would have to wait. Right now, they were stuck thousands of light years away on what was quickly become a green hell.

Discovery of an Enemy, Chapter Two: Part II
Date: 24 May 2004, 6:35 PM

___________________________________________________________

1010 Hours, July 19, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Aboard ONI Stealth Frigate Valiant Knight, en route to:
System Designation Classified, Planet Codename Milestone

Two Days Earlier

"...The infrared emissions from the planet are numerous, but there are three strong ones here," the major pointed to the projector board, the projector showing a rather broad view of the topographic layout of the terrain. "...here, and here. Now these installations are far apart, maybe six or seven hundred miles, so we'll have to search them one at a time. They are all located on the planet's central continent, the smallest, which is about 90% jungle, with the rest being mountainous. The continent, as you may see, is about 1400 miles long by about 1000 miles high, not that large considering the planets' size. The continent is completely cut off from the others, so don't expect any transcontinental travel...not on foot, at least.

"Now in reality, the structures are not too terribly large, so we suspect that the majority of the facilities are underground, deep enough where we cannot detect them via IR sensors."

"If they're underground," Lieutenant Damon Meyers, Kren's XO, interjected. "Then why such a large IR emission from those locations?"

The major zoomed in on one of the structure locations. "Simply stated, the Covenant have set up a garrison around each of them. Comprising of maybe one hundred to one thousand troops."

The major watched as the expressions of the ODST's, and even the ships Captain, went from intrigue to surprise.

"You want thirty-six Marines to stage an assault on a base potentially harboring thousands of Covenant?" Kren asked in half anger, half exclamation. Normally, Lt. Kren did not back down from a mission or challenge, but he was not a radical, and he also knew that he was to watch out for his men. Besides, suicide runs did not fall into the category of success.

"Remember what I said earlier?" The major shot back. "Half the mission is to get intelligence, i.e. reconnoiter." He sighed. "Besides, this information is weeks old, the tactical and strategic situation on the ground has probably changed."

"If we're lucky," one of Kren fire team leaders said quietly.

"Let me say this now," the major announced. "I, as do my comrades here, nor the staff on this ship, plan to take any ground warfare authority upon ourselves. When you get on the ground, until the time you get picked up, you will have the say in what goes, as long as you can complete your objectives."

Kren grunted in approval. "Then the mission, let's hear it."

"Operation Gallant Strife, phase one mission objectives are as follows," the major announced.

"Insert covertly to the planet surface within twenty-miles of the first structure location. Captain, this is primarily your responsibility, and that of your flight crew. The Marines need to land close enough to the structure so they can traverse the distance in less then 18 hours. And also, like I said, this must be done covertly for two reasons; one, the drop ship won't make it out alive, and two, the ground operation will fail miserably."

The captain nodded.

"They will not be inserting via HEV's, but rather through the modified stealth drop ships that were loaded back at Reach. Your flight crew is trained to handle this new craft."

"Why won't we be using our HEV's?" Fire Team Alpha Leader Sergeant Spencer asked, annoyance in his voice for hearing this for the first time. ODST's were not fond of Pelican drop ships, or anything else that was slow and easy to hit.

"We can't risk the Covent detecting the HEV's with infrared sensors. The stealth ship emits no IR." The Major replied, trying to sound confident about a new stealth drop ship that was still in its testing phase.

"Second Objective, you Marines must make your way, again covertly, to the structure location, and reconnoiter the area. We still do not know how many Covenant will be there, so do not engage unless it is crucial to your survival or the success of the mission. You are to take image photography, infrared readings, and visual account of what is there for data purposes. This is extremely important that you find out what is there, at least on the surface.

"Third, and lastly for now, you are to attempt to gain entrance to the facility and recon the underground areas. All while retrieving any foreign or unknown technology when possible. This last objective is dependant on whether or not you can eliminate the guarding forces or bypass them somehow."

Kren, as well as the rest, absorbed the information without much glee. This was completely unorganized, unknown and not put together correctly. He took comfort in the fact that he and his team leaders would have tactical control, but that meant only so much when pitted against such odds.

To many questions remained.

"What exactly is Operation Gallant Strife?" Kren asked.

The major looked at him with an emotionless expression. "Classified."

Kren shook his heads in disgust. "Who are we going to tell? The Covenant?"

The major didn't even blink. "All in due time, Lieutenant, all in due time."

Discovery of an Enemy, Chapter Two: Part III
Date: 24 May 2004, 6:45 PM

___________________________________________________________


0915, July 21, 2552 (Military Calendar)
System Designation Classified, Planet Codename Milestone


Much to Kren's disgust, he hated the fact that ONI personnel withheld every speck of information, despite the circumstances. Hell, if a Marine needed to know something to save the ONI spook's life, he probably wouldn't get it.

He looked at the mission timer on his Heads-Up-Display.
19 hr, 23 min, 33 sec. Goddamnit.

They had been busting their humps over this flooding, thick jungle for almost a day now, and even found enough time to neutralize some animal that would have probably eaten them all alive. The throbbing pain in his chest didn't help him cope with the situation either.

They had landed at the correct coordinates, so they were supposed to be less then 18 hours away. But apparently either the math done by those staffers on the ship was bad or the Marines were slower then they thought.

Hell no, Kren thought. The Marines were never slow. It was the water, the hills, the mud, the vegetation, the weather that slowed them down. If only those bone-head spooks had gotten the latest weather report before sending them to this pit.

The Marines traveled in a tactical wedge formation, moving cautiously, but briskly along the jungle floor as the rain continued to shower them and add to the half foot already on the jungle floor. All of them remained silent, but Kren knew they were thinking the same thing he was.

What, the hell, are we doing here?

"Sir," came McCollum's voice over the comm. link. "According to the topography map, the clearing where the structure is about two miles ahead."

Kren stopped and looked around. The jungle looked the same everywhere. "Copy. Security circle, now." He ordered.

The two fire teams immediately pulled in from their formation and set up a security circle where each Marine pointed a slightly different direction from the one next to him, this creating a circle where nothing could sneak up on them.

"Sergeant McCollum, Privates Henderson and Reynolds, and Sergeant Dieter, front and center." Kren order quietly.

The four Marines came immediately to their CO and knelt down beside him.

"I want to get some eyes above this jungle and see what's around us." Kren said. "Dieter, I want you to get up this tree right here and tell me what you see, OK?"

"Yes, sir." Dieter replied, slinging his S2B SR rifle. Dieter was First Squads sniper, and was very mobile. He was very skilled in the use of the S2B and was reputed to be able to knock Elites out with one shot up to 700 meters away. The only sniper better then he was that of Second Squads, who had nearly ninety confirmed kills.

With the help of Henderson and Reynolds, and with McCollum securing a rope around Dieter's waist, the sniper began climbing the large tree. It had no branches this low to the ground so they had to hoist him up twenty feet to get to the first branch. After that, Dieter made his way steadily up the tree.

Kren watched for the full fifteen minutes it took for him to get as high as he could. The sniper was about one hundred thirty feet high.

"Nothing but hilly terrain in every direction, sir." He replied, his voice subdued by the wind, which was blowing the top of the tree, with Dieter on it, back and forth.

Kren cursed silently to himself. "Okay, get him down."

McCollum was about to follow the order when Dieter spoke back up again. "Wait, I think I see something." Kren watched as the tiny speck at the top of the tree reached back and pulled out the long S2B. Dieter gazed through the 10x optical scope. "Yes, sir, I see something. Looks like the top of a building about...laser range indicates 4.5 kilometers."

"That must be it," Kren said. He hit the comm. link activation button. "OK, get down here, sergeant. We've got to get moving." Kren turned to Corporal Ryder, their comm. specialist. "Ryder, get Second and Third Squads online. Tell them we have the location of the objective, and we will mark it with a nav aid. ETA to objective, 2 hours."

________________________________________________


Kren held up his fist, and the eleven Marines behind him came to a halt. They had set up a navigation marker at the range and bearing the Dieter had reported, and had been following it steadily for almost two hours, cautiously making their way through the flooded, muddy jungle. Now the marker range read less then a kilometer.

Second and Third Squads had acknowledged the orders and were one mile east and west of them, respectively, as the entire platoon traveled north towards the nav maker. Lt. Damon Meyers took the information about the creature seriously when he heard about it over the comm. link. Apparently, only Kren's First Squad had encountered anything.

He motioned again for Alpha to move farther to his left and Bravo farther to his right, then to proceed further along towards the nav marker.

Kren was now on point, with McCollum tagging within arms reach behind him. The sergeant reluctantly gave up his position, but made up for it by being as close to point as possible. The two Marines were five meters ahead of both fire teams, and were sometimes even out of sight through the thick vegetation, but so far, they had kept the formation close and proper, without many problems.

Kren look ahead to see a large bush directly in his path. Instead of going around it, he decided to go straight through it, since it was bigger then most. He ducked down even farther and pressed through it, pushing past the large wet leaves and branches. He pushed aside another branch and stopped mid step, causing McCollum to bump into him.

"Down!" Kren whispered to McCollum, and the two Marines dropped into the prone position. He then quickly activated the squad comm. link. "Alpha and Bravo, hold your positions. I say again, hold your position."

"Roger."

"Acknowledged."

The two responses sounded completely normal, as the two fire teams, who couldn't see through the vegetation yet, hunkered down and awaited further orders. Kren, on the other hand, stared ahead in awe.

In front of him was the large clearing that had been predicted. And, also as predicted, a large Covenant Garrison was there, surrounding the large structure that lay two hundred meters ahead in the center of the clearing. Covenant crates, tents, and even vehicles, were scattered about, completing the camp that surrounded the structure. It was large enough to easily have a thousand Covenant in it.

Except for one thing.

"Where the hell are they?" McCollum asked, scanning the area with his M7A1, and not seeing anything move.
Kren looked around. The rain continued to fall and the thick clouds overhead continued to mix around by the high winds. Nothing was different. Nothing felt different or looked different. Except for the fact that nobady was at the garrison.

"It's completely deserted."

Discovery of an Enemy, Chapter Three: Part I
Date: 28 May 2004, 4:48 AM

___________________________________________________________


Chapter Three: Unlocking the Door

1123, July 21, 2552 (Military Calendar)
System Designation Classified, Planet Codename Milestone

The long rifle slowly swept the area from the tree line to the clearing. Sergeant Dieter took a careful look at every tent, every crate, and every vehicle with his S2B. His skilled eye carefully picked apart every obstacle for any sight of movement; the process of looking at every object was time consuming, but it was necessary.

Lieutenant Kren scanned the area with the binoculars, occasionally turning on the IR sensors to pick out any targets hiding behind crates or tents. Much to his surprise, the base was covered with areas of high infrared feedback, most notably the tent structures and several crates. The vehicles reflected a dull IR feedback, giving the appearance that they were still functional and ready to go. It was as if whoever was manning this base suddenly disappeared.

The large structure at the center of the clearing emitted no heat, at least none detectable at this range. It was strangely shaped, with a square base and walls, up to about ten meters, where it then turned into a trapezoidal shape, coming to a point at the top. It appeared to be made out of some sort of metal and was a dull gray. No doors were visible on the side Kren looked at.

There was a soft rustle behind him. "Sir, Lieutenant Meyers from Second Squad would like a word over the comm." Came Corporal Ryder's voice, the comm. specialist.

Kren crawled back out of the bush and stowed his binoculars. Attached to the Corporal's back was the LRISC-A2 communications pack. The Long Range Inter-Squad Communications pack could relay communications without satellite aid up to 40 miles by penetrating the very peak end of the Ultra High Frequency scale. The pack, while somewhat bulky, weighed only ten pounds, making it a reliable and mobile asset on the field.

Ryder stood still while Kren attached his inner-squad microphone to the LRISC. Once connected, he dialed in the modulating distorted frequency that was encryption protected and entered the four-digit code. The comm. link was now open to both Second and Third Squads, who were both approximately one mile away to the east and west.

"Foxtrot Sierra, this is Foxtrot Oscar," Kren transmitted.

A crisp clear voice responded; the reception at this close range was exceptionally good. "Foxtrot Sierra copies."

"Patch me through to el-tee Meyers."

"Roger, Foxtrot Oscar."

After a short silence, Lieutenant Meyers voice came on the line. "Sir, what's the ops plan? We have zero contacts, and Third Squad has not seen any movement either."

"We're going to send in scouts from each of our squads and recon the area. Post your sniper on covering watch, along with one of your fire teams. Send the remaining fire team out on a general recon route towards that structure. Report any contacts or special interest objects." Kren ordered, composing the plan as he spoke.

"Roger, Foxtrot Sierra out." Meyers responded.

Kren then contacted Sierra Tango, Third Squad, and repeated the orders.

"Roger that, sir." Responded Third Squad Leader Gunnery Sergeant Jonathon Jacobs. His Squad was a mile west, and were waiting on the edge of the clearing like Kren was.

"Make it happen, Sierra Oscar out." Kren detached the cord and set the LRISC to standby mode. He then turned to Sergeant Brooks. "Fire Team Bravo will be reconnoitering the clearing with me, so get your troops prepared."

"Yes, sir." Came a crisp response.

"Sergeant Spencer, Fire Team Alpha will be covering myself and Sergeant Brook's team as they recon. Get your troops in a line formation, covering the open area." Kren ordered next.

Spencer stood up slowly from his huddle with Fire Team Alpha. "Yes, sir."

Kren then turned toward where Dieter was. The sniper was barely visible, being extremely well camouflaged and not moving at all. The long rifle still swept the area back and forth. "Sergeant Dieter, remain at your covering position." The sniper's right hand slowly waved an acknowledgement.

This was it. They were about to find out why they had traveled over a month in slipstream to this god-forsaken planet. They were going to find out why the Covenant was here. And they were going to find out where the Covenant went.

___________________________________________________________

1200 Hours, July 19, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Aboard ONI Stealth Frigate Valiant Knight, en route to:
System Designation Classified, Planet Codename Milestone

Two Days Earlier

Lieutenant Todd Kren sat down in front of an Open Access Computer, known as OAC, and logged on to the system network. These computers were the standard around the ship and military bases, and had access to all files that were not classified. Confidential files could be accessed from these, though, provided you had either the right codes or a strong AI partner. Kren unfortunately lacked the latter option, so he would have to dig as deep as possible by himself.

He went to the central search engine and sat there for a moment. This Gallant Strife special operation was a little too quiet for his liking, and the lack of information by the ONI major in the briefing didn't appease his curiosity. The last thing he wanted was to be part of an event where he didn't know the true purpose was behind it.

He slowly typed in G-A-L-L-A-N-T-S-T-R-I-F-E.

The search engine buzzed for moment, then brought back over thirteen thousand returns. Apparently, this was a popular subject. He noticed that the most viewed returns were noted under the "Historical Document" section of the UNSC database. This was the object of some history lesson at some school.

He opened the file.

// OPEN FILE //

HISTORICAL DOCUMENT 10453A

Article found in the Standard Instructor Textbook: "History of Military Operation Cover-ups, circa 2045-2051." Third Edition. Copyright 2040

Return Result of "Gallant Strife" - Operation: Gallant Strife.

Text Excerpts follows:

During the Third World War (2045-2051), Joint Allied Forces conducted the secret operations that were designated as the "Gallant Strife" operations under the High Military Command Authority by Lieutenant Robert H. Tanner and his men under the authorization of the American Armed Forces (See "History of the United States of America"). The primary goals of these operations were kept strictly confidential, until a law order forced the military to release its contents July of 2062.

According to what files were recovered (most were reported burned or destroyed by the military), Lt. R.H. Tanner, commanding officer of the 347th Marine Force Recon Platoon (United States Military, Navy Branch), was ordered to conduct a surgical deep reconnaissance/intelligence operation into the heart of southeast Asia, where the country of China (See "History of People's Republic of China") was located. China was not only the focal point of the war, but was also the area of many technological inventions that drastically changed the balance of power between the Axis and Allied Powers of WWIII (See "Secret Technologies, WWIII"). From what documents were left, the apparent overall orders of Lt. R.H. Tanner was to located, identify, and gain information on the technologies and manufacturing sites within Chinese boarders and return this information back to Allied hands. The operations were reported to be very successful, and third-hand reports said the 347th MFR achieved all of their objectives with a casualty rate under 10% (the actual number of combat deaths were never released). The specific mission goals of the 347th MFR were supposedly destroyed before the court-order for the release of information was enforced.

After subsequent court rulings, Lt. R.H Tanner (Ret. as of 2062) was ordered to testify before the court and give the full details of Gallant Strife. But due to unknown reasons, Lt. R.H. Tanner was never found to give his testimony, and the case was closed after many more fruitless court rulings on 25 September 2062.

The historical context of this goes to show the many cover-ups the military has put forth over the decades, even though many of the information they wish to cover up has been years old. Gallant Strife was never fully released to the court, and it's eventual closure goes to show the extents the military is willing to go to keep certain information completely confidential.

End Article of "Gallant Strife"

// CLOSE FILE //

Kren leaned back in the squeaky chair and rubbed his eyes. The parallels between this World War III operation and his operation were too close. And the name was not the only thing. The use of a special warfare platoon, the deep recon mission, the objectives of finding technology....

Kren remembered the briefing the ONI major gave. When he was asked why this mission was commencing, the major said it was for both intelligence and technology findings. But every man with ears in that room could tell the major was lying out of his teeth. While intelligence was no doubt a factor of the mission, those spooks wanted nothing more then to find out what technology is keeping the Covenant at that world.

This Gallant Strife operation was obviously based off this historical operation. But something was missing. This was bigger then it appeared. He scrolled down the list of returns and found a separate result, this one with the ONI symbol next to it.

// OPEN FILE //

OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE, HISTORICAL REVIEW 111231C

Article excerpt from the Central Intelligence Agency (See "History of the CIA").

Gallant Strife, Operation, circa 2045-2051. Official Court Release (In conjunction with the USN). Based off remaining available information.

Gallant Strife, Operation(s).

1. Released purpose of operation.

a. Perform a land ingress of Chinese land-space.

b. Locate locations where the suspected technology* is.

c. Get visual and documented accounts of what the location is, what technologies are present (also locate the manufacturing site if possible).

d. Egress with information.

2. Units used within operation.

a. Known units:

i. 347th Marine Force Recon Platoon.

1. Only known ground force to actually set foot ion Chinese soil.

ii. 952nd Marine Airborne Squadron.

1. Unit that inserted and extracted 347th MFR.

b. Suspected units:

i. 22nd Space Wing (USAF).

1. Unit suspected of aiding by using a military satellite (reportedly MAS-114, still unconfirmed).

ii. USS Wilson, SS-153 (USN).

1. Ship suspected of aiding in the operation through unknown means.

iii. CIA Detachment (Serial Number Unknown).

1. Aid to mission unknown.

3. Notes: * = See special report containing information regarding the technologies suspected and/or found during Gallant Strife.

END REPORT

Classification released August 2062 - CIA


// CLOSE FILE //

Kren's thoughts were confirmed. The current Gallant Strife operation and the historical operation were linked. What those Marines of the 347th MFR found were probably buried deep in the database of ONI, even though it was over 500 years ago. Whatever happened on those missions were destined to stay lost in the system.

The technology they found was not worth keeping it hidden, not even from a court insight ten years later after it happened. So, the obvious conclusion was not centered around technology, but something else they found.

Who knows? For all anyone could tell, technology was actually not the reason they did this. Maybe the technology was a cover-up; it was a good one too, since nobody would ask the deeper questions. These Marines, and whoever this Lt. Tanner was, found something so secretive that it would never surface again.

Kren sat straight up. The fate of those Marines 500 years ago is still hidden today, as are the things they found. If this happened to the 347th MFR, was his platoon destined to repeat their fate? What was so important on this planet that it would merit sending this small group out? And what was so similar that it would be branded under the same name of the secret operation conducted 500 years ago?

Kren typed in a new search. His hand hovered above the enter key as he thought. This was no simple recon mission, and if his gut feeling was right, this was no simple operation.

The bulk-head creaked and the thick door swung open. Kren hit the escape key and turned around.

"Time to suit up, sir." Sergeant McCollum said.

Kren nodded. He would, along with his team, find out the rest soon.

On the surface.

Discovery of an Enemy, Chapter Three: Part II
Date: 28 May 2004, 5:05 AM

________________________________________________________________

1140, July 21, 2552 (Military Calendar)
System Designation Classified, Planet Codename Milestone

The six barrel's moved steadily back and forth as the six Marines made their way cautiously across the clearing. The foot long wet grass, covered completely by water from the rain, was the only thing in this clearing. It was completely void of rocks, trees, or anything else natural. It did, however, have its fair share of Covenant objects and structures. Thousands of them.

Kren spotted Third Squad's fire team moving cautiously across the clearing just under a mile to the west. And Second Squad's fire team was also about a mile to the east. He looked back but couldn't see any Marines covering them. They must have been camouflaged well, since they were less then 100 meters away and no trace of them could be found.

"We've got you covered, sir." Came McCollum's voice over the comm. link, reading his CO's mind.

Kren looked back down the sight of his M7A1. This was far too perplexing to make the situation nerve-racking. Curiosity kept him taking steps farther towards that structure, not his will to fight.

He put his fist up, bringing Fire Team Bravo to a halt, then crouch behind him. "We're going to check out some of these tents structures. Each of them have emitted some IR feedback, so let's at least clear one of them."

"Roger that, sir." Sergeant Brooks replied. "Lancer and Levens, cover us from the left. Sir, me and the rest will follow you in."

Kren nodded. There was a large tent 40 meters away, and the group moved towards it. Their feet splashed through the field, which looked much like a lake, as the clouds overhead continued to shower them with rain drops the size of their casing rounds. Was this weather year-round?

Kren got within ten meters of the entrance and halted, giving Privates Lance and Levens time to move around and cover the door from the side. This was going to be tricky, since the door appeared to be made of a hard plastic that swung aside. Not giving them much cover from plasma fire if anybody was hiding inside.

He inched up to the door, with Brooks right behind him, along with the remaining men from Fire Team Bravo. All their M7A1's were trained on the door as they came up to a halt. Kren looked back and gave the signals for a forced entry. The Marines lined up behind him, so close that they were almost hugging the back of each other, with Kren at the front. This style of entry was known as Stacking, and every Marine there was well aware of how to use this tactic.

Kren was looking right into Lancers eyes as he reached for the apparent level to open the tent door. He gripped it tightly, holding his rifle with one arm and ready to fire at the slightest movement from the inside. He waited for a second.

Breathe. This was simple.

He yanked the cover up with all his might, sending the flap up into the air, ripping it at the seams. He then lurched forward into the tent, his rifle coming to bear, scanning the room on the left side. Brooks came in, still hugging close to his CO, scanning toward the center, then followed by the rest, who scanned the right side of the tent.
Nothing moved.

Kren noticed a slight distortion of light in the corner. Camouflaged Elite?

His rifle came to bear as the silhouette of a large, vaguely humanoid form moved towards him. He made out the form of an Elite, as it lunged toward him, its appearance still vague and distorted. It looked like a ghost, halfway visible, halfway transparent. No sound was heard, despite the fact that it was running at him, the tent floor being pushed down as the weight of its feet hit. His finger pulled back on the trigger.

___________________________________________________________


McCollum watched through is scope form the tree line as his CO made his entrance to the tent, rushing through the door. There was suddenly northing, then the flashes illuminated from inside the tent.

The sound of subdued automatic gunfire reached his ears a second later.

___________________________________________________________


Kren yelled out, his rifle shouldered and firing at the half-transparent Elite that lunged at him. The casings ejected quickly as he fired his weapon at point blank range. The rounds did nothing to stop it. In fact, they didn't even hit it.

Kren heard the slight click of his rifle run out of ammunition. He dropped the rifle and pulled out his M6D, the process took less then one second as the barrel of the pistol came to bear. One round came out of the pistol and passed completely through the half-invisible Elite.

The Elite was now in the air, coming towards him for the attack. It had no weapons, but its fists looked threatening enough as the stretched out toward him. Kren's muscles tighten up but he didn't move; this Elite would be tackling him the hard way.

Kren lowered into a charging stance, throwing his weight forward as the Elite came at him. They were mere inches apart as Kern's fists came out, ready to impact on the Elite's armor. He blinked as the two made contact.

And he fell straight through the Elite and onto the tent floor, his M7A1 being the first thing to impact him.

Brook turned around and watched as something went crashing through the door outside, and also looked at his CO, crashing to the floor. He had just been checking the far left side of the room when gunfire erupted from his CO. The sound of a silenced M7A1, then the loud explosive shots of an M6D.

"What the hell...?" Brooks started.
___________________________________________________________


Private Lance was adjusting his helmet strap when a half-transparent Elite came stumbling out of the tent. He immediately brought his weapon to bear and fired rounds into as it got on its feet and stared down Lance. Levens joined in from behind, sending another array of .45 armor piercing rounds into the transparent Elite.

But without satisfaction, as the rounds went straight through like the Elite wasn't even there.

___________________________________________________________


Dieter focused his sights on the Elite. His finger flipped off the safety and and pulled the trigger in one smooth motion. The rain-draped silence was shattered as the 14.5 millimeter projective left the long barrel of the S2B. The round traveled and impacted with the Elite's head—only to keep going through, his tracer proof that it did not hit. That was not right....

___________________________________________________________

Kren stood up, and with his pistol drawn, bolted out the door. He looked to his right and saw Lance and Levens, both beginning the reload process after both firing thirty rounds each. He looked to his left and spotted the ghost-like Elite. It stood there and stared back, not moving. Then, without a single sound, it raised its arm and appeared to roar. Kren watched, his M6D aimed at the Elite.

Then, it disappeared completely.

Brooks, along with the rest of Fire Team Bravo, burst out of the tent, their M7A1's scanning the area back and forth. "Where, sir?" Brooks asked loudly, trying to find whatever everyone was shooting at.

Kren stood there in silence, slowly lowering his pistol. It was gone.

"What the hell is this place?"

Discovery of an Enemy, Chapter Four: Part I
Date: 2 June 2004, 6:25 PM

___________________________________________________________


Chapter Four: Finding the Way In

1330, July 21, 2552 (Military Calendar)
System Designation Classified, Planet Codename Milestone

First Lieutenant Todd Kren stood in silence as the wind picked up the rain and threw it nearly horizontal in the middle of the clearing. The cold, bitter day had just gotten very strange, and that fact that they were standing in the middle of the largest Covenant base he had even seen didn't help matters; especially when it was deserted.

Second Lieutenant Damon Meyers stood still as well, his rifle held back over his shoulder, the barrel pointing up and away to the rear. The rain streamed down his Mark IAC body armor to the ground, which was also flooded with water. His grim face said enough for now.

Gunnery Sergeant Jonathon Jacobs, Third Squad Leader, slowly turned his rifle end over end, inspecting it. The long rifle, made even longer with the addition of the silencer, was completely soaked and covered with mud. His facial expressions were grim as well, and the wear and tear of the day was beginning to show on him.

Not just on Jacobs, but on them all.

Kren slung his rifle and rubbed his face with both hands, smearing the mud across it. They had been on this planet for almost twenty-four hours. They had moved at least thirty kilometers in the first twenty hours and now they were standing in the middle of a windy, rainy, muddy swamp clearing that harbored nothing comfortable or even familiar. This was not the place each of the Marines' wanted to be at.

Sergeant McCollum slowly walked up to them, his splashing footsteps louder than usual. An obvious sign of fatigue. "Tell me something good, sir."

Kren sighed, wishing he could. "How are the troops?"

McCollum pointed to a group of Marines in a circle 20 meters away. Their body posture was unusually bad, again bearing testimony to their fatigue. "Mixed group from all squads are taking a standing break, and Sergeant Brooks and Sergeant Dieter are checking over a Covenant Ghost vehicle."

Kren nodded in approval, watching as the two sergeants curiously moved around the small attack craft, eventually starting to touch it and fiddle around in the seat. His men were in dire need of rest, and without it they could never perform at their best.

He needed his men at their best if he wanted to get them all out alive.

"Okay, so inform me of what you all know." Kren asked, still observing Brooks and Dieter on the Ghost.

There was as short silence before Sergeant Jacobs spoke up. "Well sir, zero contacts, and an unused Covenant garrison."

"Aside from the obvious." Kren commented, his patient growing thin.

Meyers spoke up. "Tactical situation is obvious, strategic situation is still unknown, but right now, we need to get inside that structure and found out what the hell is going on."

"We also need to find out what the hell that Elite was doing, and why we couldn't kill it." McCollum stated.

"I was there, I shot at it from point blank range, hell I even tried to tackle it," Kren said quietly. "It was as if it didn't exist, but that it was merely visible to us."

"Hologram?" Meyers offered.

"No, there were no emitters outside the tent, and the Elite was definitely outside the tent. Something else caused this, and I'm thinking whatever it was also caused this entire Covenant army to go missing." Kren said, looking towards the large structure in the middle of the field. "And the answer is probably in there."

The four Marines stared the structure down for a moment. Contemplating, thinking, trying to figure out what was going on and how they could find out why. The ONI major had definitely left something out, and Kren's little computer search before they departed only left deeper questions in his head. A gnawing feeling in his gut reminded him of the 347 Marine Force Recon platoon on those fateful operations 500 years ago. They had found something that was too important for the rest of humanity to know. Was his own platoon about to do the same?

If it could change the tide of war with the Covenant, it was worth it.

"Sergeant McCollum, get those troops over here on the double and ready to move. We're going to find out what the building is, and what's inside."

___________________________________________________________


Kren motioned for his squad to halt, then he turned around and motioned for Third Squad to swing further around to the east. The entire platoon was ten meters away from the structure, and the had found no doors. Now it was time to check the other side.

The structure was actually sloped down into a hole type area, with the ground sloping down about 5 meters before the wall. Kren couldn't tell how deep it was since it was filled up with water, but the lack of grass tips sticking out was enough evidence to keep him and his men from trying to wade down it. Except for the fact that it seemed to be surrounded by a moat, the building looked rather bleak and uninteresting, with nothing inscribed on it or any special patterns.

Over thirty M7A1's scanned the area back and forth as the Marines silently moved along the side of the moat. The other half of the clearing was very similar to the half they had already seen. It was littered with Covenant objects and vehicles, even a pair of Wraith tanks sat immobile out in the clearing. Nevertheless, like the first half of the base camp, it was empty without movement.

Kren side stepped and finally got to see the edge of the wall on the opposite side of the building. He motioned for his Squad to move up and into a stacking formation as Third Squad swung further out around, ten meters behind Kren. He peeked around the corner and saw nothing, so he silently, but quickly, stepped out and scanned the area with his rifle. Nothing was there.

Second Squad came around from the other side and quickly set up covering positions for all angles. The area was secure.

Kren looked at the structure and saw the large door, but half of it was submerged underwater from the moat. It was easily large enough to drive two Warthogs through at once and it towered above them ten meters up along the wall and thirty meters to the sides. The door split dead down the center, and on each half was a large gleaming red light just above the surface. Not a very inviting invitation.

He turned and motioned for Third Squad to cover both their left and right flanks, then for Second Squad to move up along the moat towards the door. Kren then moved his own squad closer and stopped five meters short of the large door, just on the edge of the moat. It had alien engravings on it, obviously some sort of unknown language. To the right, he spotted some sort of control device barely above the water.

"Corporal Gordon, with me." Kren ordered, slowly stepping down into the water towards the panel. The electronic specialist jumped up and ran forward to catch up to his CO, splashing slightly through the water. Corporal Gordon of Second Squad was the platoon's standard electronic specialist, having received training in all fields of electronics to make him suitable for on the spot work. He waded deeper into the water behind Kren, and both were already up to their waists before it began to level out. They made it to the control panel, finding the water to be at least four feet deep. Both the Marine's examined the panel for a moment, their legs and lower torso submerged under the cold, muddy water.

"Get this door open." Kren ordered.

"Yes, sir." Gordon replied, slinging his rifle and pulling out some equipment from a waterproof webbing pouch.

Kren looked back at Meyers. "Second Squad will be on a covering position at the door." Second Squad moved quickly to cover the door completely. Kren then motioned for First Squad to come up along abreast with Second Squad to cover the door as well. Third Squad remained guarding the rear and flanks. "And let's get some ropes around Gordon and myself, if this door opens, we could find ourselves in a rather unfortunate situation."

Meyers nodded and began retrieving rope from one of his squad member. He then threw the rope to Kren, who secured it around himself and Gordon. The electronic specialist was still getting his equipment attached to the panel. Kren watched as Gordon began to interface his own device with the control panel. The device lit up and came to life as the Corporal finished the procedure.

"Almost there, sir." Gordon announced, slowly punching in different entrance codes. The device tried to translate them and interface with the control panel as the Corporal worked to find the right root access code that made the door function.

Kren felt the mud under his feet vibrate. Then the water began to get disturbed, forming small waves that moved away from the structure. Gordon took a step back, looking around at the water turn over, and also surprised about the mud moving under his feet.

There was a deep thump as the control panel lit up.

Meyers watched and tighten his grip on the rope as he felt the thump vibrate through the ground. He looked on as his CO and electronic specialist looked around, obviously watching in astonishment. Suddenly, there was a second loud thump in the ground.

Kren felt the mud move around his feet, then he felt nothing to stand on.

"Shit!" Meyers yelled out as the rope went tight and his CO, along with Corporal Gordon, disappeared with the water straight down. The loud gasping sound of air rushing up and the water going down erupted in front of him as his body jerked forward and he landed flat on his face, still holding the rope that was now pulling him toward the sudden hole where his CO and electronic specialist used to be.

The four other Marines holding the rope began to slide forward toward the hole, all of them trying to hold the rope.

"Taylor, Marks, Rolland, get on that rope now!" McCollum ordered, running to grab it himself. The water that used to occupy the moat around the building erupted in a white wall of water in front of them as pressured air from below sent it into the raining sky.

___________________________________________________________


Kren closed his eyes as water, mud and air washed over him, throwing his body around as he felt vertigo. He could not tell which way was up or down, but it did not matter; he could hold his breath a little longer. He could fill his body being thrown around as forces of water and air collided. Whatever caused it at the movement was not important, just surviving it was.

"...grab that rope..."

"...pull it up, let's move ladies...!"

"...keep your footing soldier, don't let go..."

Voices filled his head as he felt his mind going numb. He had felt this feeling many times before, especially during times when he was forced to hold his breath for longer periods of time. It was the first stage toward blacking out, a deadly thing to do, especially under water.

He felt a strong tugging from the rope around is waist, but it felt minor compared to the other forces around him. He was beginning to feel slightly mad, despite the overcoming sense of carelessness as his mind began to go blank. He had been fighting those Covenant aliens for nine years and had made it this far. Why would he die here, under muddy water on a strange and unknown planet? After all the plasma bolts he'd miraculously dodged, the grenades the failed to go off, and the men who had taken their lives to save his, why would a simple event end his life here, where his finger wasn't even on the trigger.

Why? His mind dismissed the thought. As it did everything else.

___________________________________________________________


One, Two, Three.

How long had the fight been?

One, Two, Three.

Why had it lasted so long?

One, Two, Three.

Why had it claimed so many lives?

One, Two, Three?

When will it end...?

Kren opened his eyes abruptly as a surge of water came spewing from his mouth, hitting the face of another men directly above his. His heart raced as he took a deep breathe from his lungs, only to find more water in them, forcing another cough of water to come shooting out. His blurry vision, dimmed by blackness, began to clear up as he continued to cough and clear his respitory system. His chest had a constant three beat pressure system against it, and the sound of it echoed in his head.

"...stop CPR, Jacobs..."

"...we have a good pulse..."

"...Lieutenant, can you hear me?"

Kren coughed up more, his mind racing to find the proper response.

"Sir, can you hear me?"

Kren wanted to reach up and wipe his face with his arms, but they would not move. He tried to bring his legs up to stand up, but he found them weak and motionless. He knew that survival in the battlefield depended upon one's strength and mobility, but for the first time, he found himself too weak to move at the movement.

"Lieutenant, come on, snap out of it!"

Kren's mind cleared. He blinked several times and stared straight up into a crowd of several Marines, all of whom looked down back at him, concern etched on their faces. He coughed yet again. "Yeah," he muttered.

"Holy shit...Lieutenant Meyers, we got him."

Kren looked over to see footsteps plash through the muddy water and come up to him. He looked up to see a very wet and muddy Lt. Meyers looking down on him. He nodded to Sergeant Jacobs, who stood up.

"Back from the dead, sir? Good god..." Meyers said, wiping his face, smearing the mud across it.

Kren grunted and closed his eyes, feeling his body slowly come back to life. He moved his arms and legs and with satisfaction, found them in workable shape, despite the weak feeling his body had. He rolled to his side and coughed out again.

"Get him up," Meyers ordered. Three Marines came over and grabbed their CO to pull him up. Kren stood up and almost fell over, but the three Marines steadied him and did not let go. He felt the blood rush away from his head and he wobbled as if drunk, but he quickly regained
his posture and straightened his knees. His head felt heavy.

Kren looked over to see another group of Marines hunched over another body lying on the ground. He slowly walked towards it, one of the three Marines staying with him to keep him steady.

"...One, two, three."

"Nine."

"One, two three."

"Ten."

"One, two, three."

"Eleven..."

Kren moved closer to try and see what was happening. The platoon's corpsman was knelt over a motionless Marine, steadily giving him CPR. Another gave him mouth-to-mouth as the pair tried to revive the soldier. Kren look down and saw the face.

Gordon.

"Aww damnit! Come on, Corporal! Work with me!" Corpsman Sergeant Pullman said, repeating the CPR process on the Corporal.

Gordon's face was deathly pale, with his lips were turning a blue color. Kren cursed silently as he watched them try to save the Corporal's life. He had survived, now Gordon had to.

"One...two...three..."

Pullman stopped. He breathed heavily and looked at Gordon's body. He wiped is face then looked up at Kren. Pullman shook his head.

"Fuck!" Sergeant Spencer yelled, giving one last mouth-to-mouth process. "No, no, no...Goddamnit!"

The frustrated voice caused every member of the platoon to look towards them. Spencer looked up, anger on his face. He shook his head slowly and deliberately and clenched his fists as he stood up, looking back down at Gordon's body.

"Not like this," the strain on his face showed as he looked back down on the deceased Corporal. "Not like this."

Discovery of an Enemy, Chapter Four: Part II
Date: 2 June 2004, 6:44 PM

___________________________________________________________

1420, July 21, 2552 (Military Calendar)
System Designation Classified, Planet Codename Milestone

The silence dominated Kren's men, only broken up by the occasional splashing of feet and the constant pouring of rain. The platoon had just finished burying their first casualty on this mission, and none of them were happy. To make matters worse, most were flat out angry at how the Corporal had died. It seemed like a meaningless act and that his death had no purpose behind it.

While most of the Marines calmly scanned the area, making sure nothing would sneak up on them, all of them in their minds were trying to figure out what would happen now. Kren was especially distracted by these thoughts. For one, he had survived a direct encounter with some unknown creature only hours before, and now he had just survived a near drowning incident that claimed the life of his electronics specialist. Was it luck?

Or was it fate?

Kren pushed aside these thoughts as he walked over to the entrance to the structure and looked down. The large door was now open, a black void beckoning at him, and the ground in front of the door sunk down 10 meters to a pool of muddy water. The sides of the newly formed hole were not metal, but rather of a crudely cut rock. Why it was there and who created remained mysteries. But the now open door took superiority over whatever else might be there.

So the logical conclusion is that this place was booby-trapped. Kren would have expected a much more sophisticated defense system, but if it claimed the life of one of his Marines, it must work. He knew that the enemy, even if it was completely absent from this base, was going to make a formidable defense to this structure. He had to stay on his toes.

But he knew that the only reason this place would be defended was because something inside the structure was of high value and importance. The first obvious reason was the huge Covenant garrison they were standing in the middle of, the second was this door leading down into a dark abyss.

Kren turned to face McCollum and Meyers, who stood staring into the open door with their rifles pointed at the ground. "Well, we've completed two of our three tasks," Kren said, disgust in his voice. "We've made it this far, let's finish this off so we can get off this god awful planet."

McCollum grunted in approval. "Should we leave anyone at the surface?"

Kren looked around at his men, organized in their fire teams. They were all on alert, scanning the area from their perimeter locations. He could not risk leaving their only entrance and exit open to being overrun, even if the only known enemy on this planet were ghost Elites and savage animals.

"Second Squad will remain at the surface, keeping this building completely guarded." Kren looked at Meyers and saw the look on his face. Kren spoke in a lower tone. "I need you up here to keep our evac in good condition. I cannot risk a whole platoon of Marines to go into his rabbit hole and leave our backdoor compromised."

Meyers nodded reluctantly.

"First and Third Squads will go into the structure and see what we can find. I have no clue how big this place is, but I'll give it Four-Five Mikes until we can make it back out. Any longer, and this probably wont work."

McCollum and Meyers nodded, setting their HUD mission countdown clock to 45 minutes.

"Meyers, while we're under get the Valiant Knight over the comm., and tell them were going to want an evac in Five-Zero Mikes. As soon as we get the surface, I don't want to hang out to see what might be on its way to get us."

Meyers nodded again. "And a back-up plan?"

Kren thought for a moment. "We rendezvous at the surface here and travel due south, the way we came in. If you are not here at the surface and if a don't see any bodies, I'm going to assume you will be at this..." Kren quickly found and established the coordinates for a nav marker. "...location." The nav point appeared on the HUD, reading 500 meters due east.

"Understood, sir." Meyers responded.

"Okay, gentlemen, this is it." Kren said, checking his ammo clip as he talked. "Let's get this over and done with, and get the hell out of dodge."

The Marines split three ways, with Kren moving for First Squad and McCollum moving to get Third Squad ready to go. The day journey through the jungle to get here, and all the encounters along the way only left more question to be answered. Nevertheless, Kren knew that they would be answered, somewhere in this structure.

___________________________________________________________


First Squad moved silently down the right side of the tunnel as it sloped downward into the darkness. The flashlight beams of the M7A1's danced across the walls and tried to penetrate deeper into the darkness. Behind them, the opening that they came through seemed like a small hole of light, leaving them with only their rifle mounted flashlights and night vision goggles to see where they were heading.

Kren opted to save the NVG's battery use. Even though they could last for hours of continuous operation, he didn't want to take a chance with running out of battery life deep underground. Besides, the flashlights were outstanding for this type of situation.

Private Smathers followed close behind Kren, watching the motion sensor closely as the two squads moved deeper under ground. They had be moving for almost three hundred meters, and by the looks and feel of things, they had to be at least 50 meters under ground.

The walls were void of anything significant, except for the fact that they were expertly constructed, being perfectly vertical and perpendicular to the floor, which sloped down. Whoever made this went to great trouble to make this place a structure masterpiece, something that could also probably withstand plasma bombardments.

Kren held up his fist and the squad came to a silent halt behind him. On the other side, Gunnery Sergeant Jacobs held up his fist as well, following his CO's lead. The group of Marines silently crouched down and looked around, trying to see or figure out why they stopped. Kren waited a minute, then gave the signal to cut off all lights. Four seconds later, the Marines sat in utter darkness.

The Marines did not don their night vision goggles, but rather waited in the darkness. Kren peered ahead down the dark tunnel as his thoughts were confirmed. Ahead, the tunnel made a right-hand turn, making whatever was beyond it unknown. However, Kren could now see, after his eyes adjusted to the dark, a faint purple light coming from around the corner, barely visible. The appearance of the turn was maybe one hundred meters ahead, and a quick check using his M7A1's scope range-finder laser gave him a report of 107.

The light looked strangely similar to the color and tint the Covenant used aboard their ships and inside their structures. It followed closely the Covenant's apparent love for those types of colors, which led Kren to believe that the light was not from whoever built the structure, but from the Covenant.

McCollum silently came up next to his CO, and without goggles, stared ahead and saw the same thing. "Covenant?"

Kren nodded in the darkness. "Appears so."

McCollum reached into one of his web pouches and pulled out his NVGs and connected them to his helmet. He pulled them down over his eyes and activated them.

Kren was quickly startled when McCollum raised his rifle immediately and aimed it off into the darkness.

McCollum's voice was flat and serious. "Sir, you saw some ghost Elite in that tent?"

Kren thoughts went into overdrive. Obviously, that was not an isolated event. "What do you see?" He asked quietly, slowly pulled out his own NVGs.

McCollum stared through the scope as the crosshairs settled on the temple of a barely visible humanoid from, waiting silently along the wall and staring directly back. The green and black perspective through the lenses made identification impossible, but it stood at least eight feet tall, and the silence of it made it seemed trained and ready.

Kren donned the NVGs and looked off to where McCollum's rifle pointed. He sighted his own rifle and found the same thing. The half-transparent Elite stood there, watching them, making no sound or movement. It was alone, and it carried no weapon.

"Do not fire." Kren said softly.

McCollum continued to keep the rifle's sights on the apparent head of the creature. "What is it?"

Kren watched in silence as it stayed perfectly still. He couldn't tell if it was the same one he encountered on the surface, but it had the exact same attributes. Half-invisible and completely silent. Did it even exist in real time? Or was this some kind of separate dimension that made it merely visible to them?

Kren continued to watch as it stood there. Then, his goggles began to flare up. The area around where the Elite stood became a bright green through his goggles. The brightness was slowly making his goggles useless as it filled his vision.

Then it vanished, along with the half-transparent Elite.

"Somebody knows we're here."

Discovery of an Enemy, Chapter Five: Part I
Date: 22 June 2004, 10:33 PM

________________________________________________________________


Chapter Five: Deeper To The Bottom

1430, July 21, 2552 (Military Calendar)
System Designation Classified, Planet Codename Milestone

Both First and Third Squads were completely illuminated by the purple light that emitted from around the tunnel's corner. Flashlights were off and no one wore their night vision goggles, but instead waited anxiously as their bodies cast long shadows back towards the entrance of the tunnel.

Kren looked back one last time to make sure all of his men were in position and ready, then looked forward again and silently moved towards the turn in the tunnel. It turned out that it was a ninety-degree corner, which made anything on the other side unknown until he looked around it. He could feel McCollum right behind him, and could see the long silencer pointing forward just to his right as he crept along the wall towards the left hand turn.

He stopped just short of the turn. He pointed his rifle down so it would protrude around the corner, then inched up to it. Kren then turned to face the wall, and peeked out around on corner.

Before him was another tunnel spanning only about fifty meters towards a large open room. Along the tunnel walls were some type of inscriptions on them, and illuminating those inscriptions were large Covenant floodlights. There were also power crates and storage crates scattered along the tunnel way towards the door, along with some obvious Covenant equipment on the floor. At the end of the tunnel was the large room. He couldn't see it very well past the floodlights, but it too was illuminated by purple lights. There was something in the center of the room that he could not discern. He pulled his rifle's scope to bear and peered through it.

It was four large metal beams going from the floor straight up out of sight to the apparent ceiling. They we all spaced evenly apart in a square pattern and going directly up the center was bright lime green light. He couldn't see where it went towards the top, but it was definitely some type of light.

But throughout the tunnel and room, no movement was seen.

The room also appeared to be large, because he could not see the edges of it or the ceiling from inside the tunnel. The air inside seemed to be a greenish haze, making anything on the very far side of the room not visible through the slight haze that filled the room. Kren's immediate concern was that it was some sort of foreign atmosphere or chemical agent in the air.

He stepped back from the corner and turned around. His men waited anxiously with the rifles pointing towards the corner. Kren looked at McCollum and nodded slowly. "We're going in, but there maybe something in the air down here. Everyone must put on their air scrubber mask."

The sergeant nodded and turned around to pass the order down. Kren pulled out his own air scrubber kit and pulled his helmet off. The air scrubber was a full face mask that sealed around the entire head. It had large goggles for adequate peripheral vision and a air purifier attached to the breathing port at the front. The grey plastic around the head made the Marines with it on look like biological containment personnel, but it was a necessary precaution.

Kren tighten the kit around his head and activated it, then felt the kit secure to his head, cutting off all airflow unless it was through the scrubber. His breathing echoed in his head as he peered through the goggles of the full-face mask. It was not an ideal way to perform combat operations, but it was better then suffocation by some unknown air agent.

He looked back and saw his men don the air scrubbers. McCollum was already done and looked back at his CO, only his eyes visible through the light yellow tinting of the goggles. While his breathing sounds were audible in his mask, the sound of his men breathing were completely quiet. At least these things were not loud.

The was a nod from the team leaders indicated they were all set. Kren turned around took a step towards the corner again. He peered around it one last time and saw no movement. He held up his fist, then made a quick forward gesture. He rose from his crouch position and with his rifle coming up, moved silently around the corner and into the last stretch of tunnel before the large room.

Kren walked along silently in awe. The Covenant had found this place interesting, and had gone to the trouble of setting up this massive undertaking of equipment to study whatever artifacts or inscriptions were on the tunnel walls. He walked up towards the first floodlight and looked at the wall as he went by. Similar symbols that were etched on the entrance door at the surface were carved into the walls down here. They spanned along the entire length of the wall towards the large room.

The two squads of Marines cautiously made their way around the Covenant flood lamps, crates and equipment towards the room. Tools and equipment were scattered across the floor, like they were suddenly dropped and whoever was manning them left. There was no blood, bodies or anything that would indicate a fight. The Covenant were simply gone.

The only sightings were those two half-real Elites that disappeared. Kren, and now McCollum, knew that those were probably not random occurrences, but that they were actually somehow making contact with them. Whether it was hostile or not he could only speculate, but for now the important thing was that they had in fact seen them.

As they neared the room, Kren could get a better look at it. It was definitely large with the walls extending out into the green haze. From what he could see so far, there were Covenant crates and lamps in there, lighting up the area with purple light.

They neared the end of the tunnel and Kren held up his fist. The two squads came to a halt, their M7A1's pointing into the room. Then he, followed closely by McCollum, inched forward to the entrance to the room. He got to the edge and peered out both directions.

For as far as he could see, the wall stretched into the haze. He looked into the center of the room. About 200 meters in was that beam configuration with green light going straight up. He followed it to the ceiling, where it met some object that sent the beam two separate directions down toward the walls in the green haze. The room looked to be several acres large.

"Their two-car garage?" McCollum whispered from behind, his voice deep through the mask.

Kren thought for moment. What was the point of having such a large room under ground? Obviously it was to keep something out of view. But the Covenant, and now they, had found it, so what was trying to be hidden? Kren pulled out his binoculars and scanned the area.

There, right before the four beams and green light was a control panel of some sort. There were actually four, one on each respective side of the light.

"Looks like this room isn't the actually hiding place," Kren theorized quietly. "But just the first step to finding it."

___________________________________________________________


The rain continued to come down hard on the men of Second Squad at the surface. Lt. Meyers cursed to himself silently as he slowly scanned the area back and force with his binoculars. He put down the binoculars and looked at the mission countdown timer.

0 hr, 34 min, 19 sec.

He hoped Kren was making good time down there. The ONI major had said during the briefing that there was no way to tell how large the underground excavations could be, so for all they knew, it was a city under ground.

Not to mention he wanted his CO back out of there so they could get off this rain soaked planet and back inside a metal hull were it was dry. Meyers warmed to the thought; food, sleep, and all those other little things that made their life just that much more comfortable. Meyers smirked. Compared to this, everything made life that much more comfortable.

He brought his binoculars back up and peered through them. He checked the right flank to left flank for any movement. Nothing but crates, tents and the occasional vehicle filled the landscape. The initial intrigue of finding this deserted base was now gone. The only thing left to look forward to was leaving this base himself.

A blur of motioned caught his attention. It quickly disappeared behind a crate. He checked the range: 144.5 meters away. Strange...

A second later another blur of motion darting from behind a tent to a closer crate caught his eye. This one was closer, only 125 meters away.

Yet another motion came into view. It was in the open long enough for him to see what it was. A large, fur-coated creature. It was incredibly fast and stealthy. Meyers sighed, then his mind snapped to attention.

Was this the creature Lt. Kren had described to him over the comm.?

He turned to his fire team leaders. "All eyes alert, we have incoming unidentified threats."

His fire team leaders stared back blankly for a second, trying to figure out where he had seen them, but turned to pass the order down. A second later, the squad of Marines was fully alert, looking all directions for any threat, their long rifles pointing out towards the distant tree line.

Meyers brought his own rifle to bear and looked through the scope. He noticed immediately at least five more contacts, all of which were using the Covenant objects to their advantage, then darting forward to closer ones. The large creatures were very silent and fast. But why us? Meyers thought. What did we do to them?

"Contact, 50 meters, sir!" A Marine yelled out.

Meyers swiveled and brought his sights to bear.
The creature was in a low crouch run moving directly at them. Its fur was soaked with rain and its foot steps silently brought up splashes of water as the creature began closing the gap quickly.

Meyers stopped thinking and his training took over. First thing to accomplish, friend or foe identification.

His finger thumbed the safety off and pulled the trigger in one quick operation. Foe.

The single round flew thought he air and impacted the creature in its forehead. The armor piercing bullet shot through the creatures skull and sent a satisfying dark red mist out the back of its head. The creature fell forward into the mud and didn't move.

Meyers turned to face a second creature charging in at them, but before he could shoot, two Marines, after following his lead, opened fire. The muffled rounds impacted the creature and brought it down, the large body sending up a splash of muddy water.

Second thing to accomplish, observe the threats and make tactical decisions. He lowered the rifle and looked out into the flooded field. He noticed many more movements. He did a quick rough estimation in his head. Enemy strength: well over thirty.

The creatures began clustering up. He noticed as many more began appearing through the clearing. His count quickly reached triple digits.

"Fire Team Alpha, suppressive fire. Bravo: single shots to their head." Meyers called out.

Two crisp replies followed as the teams got organized. Meyers stood and watched as the creatures began encircling them. They were hundreds of them, far more then he would have ever guessed.

Meyers cursed silently, then called over to his sniper, Sergeant Galvin. "Sergeant, make your shots count, and hit the ones at long range, we'll take care of these close fucks."

The sniper nodded slightly as he settled down into a firing posture, bringing his S2B rifle to bear. Meyers watched the encirclement of creatures, but none of them charged. The Marines withheld their fire. Both sides stood still, watching, waiting. Meyers looked intently at this group of alien creatures. They obviously had some level of intelligence, but to what degree was anyone's guess.

The loud rumble of the S2B erupted from a few feet away as a single round knocked out a creature two hundred meters away. Meyers turned to see the shell being ejected and splash into the water. The long rifle barely turned, then another round fired off, the large muzzle flash sending a spray of water forward. 200 meters away, another creature fell.

"Lieutenant, I got movement!" Corporal Davidson called out, the Marine looking intently through his scope. Although officially branded as the demolitions expert, Davidson was a skilled marksman and was a former Force Recon member.

Meyers peered through is own scope and saw the large group of creatures moving toward them at an alarming rate. There were more then he could count, and they moved skillfully and quickly together. Meyers sighed heavily as his reticule settled onto the temple of yet another creature.

"Fire at will."

Discovery of an Enemy, Chapter Five: Part II
Date: 22 June 2004, 10:59 PM

___________________________________________________________

1505, July 21, 2552 (Military Calendar)
System Designation Classified, Planet Codename Milestone

Gunnery Sergeant McCollum slung his rifle and cracked his knuckles. Before him was one of the four separate control panels in the center of the underground cavernous room. He adjusted his air scrubber mask, then took a minute to look over the control symbols. They were all holographic and of a pre-dominate yellow color.

But something was very familiar about them. They weren't like the Covenant icon usage system, so he couldn't relate them to that. They were just familiar, like he had seen them somewhere. Lieutenant Kren came up next to him, his long rifle pointed at the ground. The two men studied the panel for a moment.

"Ancient Greek symbols?" the lieutenant offered.

McCollum thought for a moment. It was very similar to that, but Greek was not one of his high-points. "Looks a lot like it."

Kren slung his rifle and stared down at the panel. They had to try something, and quickly. He looked at the countdown timer. 0 hr 29 min 44 sec.

He reached out and pressed a symbol that looked like an alpha. The button glowed when he touched it, then flashed twice. He immediately heard a dull growling noise echoing throughout the room. Around him, the Marines of First Squad brought their rifles up and scanned the room.

The noise stopped.

"Lieutenant," came Sergeant Jacobs voice. "Over there."

Kren followed the direction he was pointing and saw an opening in the wall, one that was not there previously. He brought out his binoculars and looked through them. It was on the far side of the room and was no bigger then a standard hallway aboard the USNC vessel.

"Sergeant, go over there and secure it with a team." Kren ordered, stowing the binoculars."

Jacobs and two other Marines cautiously ran towards the opening, their rifles staying aimed at the new opening. Kren turned his attention back to the control panel. Next he saw what look like a beta symbol. Alphabetical order?

He quickly taped the button and it flashed. Another low growing noise could be heard. He looked around to try and spot it, and saw a previously invisible door open near where Jacobs was running to. It was the same size of the first and was ten meters away from it. This new door, as did the first one, vanished into blackness.

Kren watched as Jacobs and the two Marines finally make it to the door. He activated the comm. link. "What do you see?"

Jacobs voice came back. "This door leads to a passage way that continues on a down-grade for as far as my flashlight can see, as does this second door."

Kren sighed. He knew that all of these symbols unlocked a new door, and that all of them probably went a separate direction downward. The new question now was, which door lead to whatever they were looking for?

He turned around and faced the entrance they had come through. The symbols on the walls, the Covenant interest in them, that was the only other place the answer to this question could be.

He started jogging towards it, much to the other Marines' surprise, but they all followed. He got to the entrance and looked down the length of it. The walls were lit with those purple Covenant lights. Damnit, Kren thought. Where to start?

"Sir, what are we doing?" McCollum asked.

Kren started walking deeper into the entrance tunnel. "Trying to find which one of those doors out there leads the right direction."

He looked along the walls, trying to find anything he recognized. The symbols here were foreign to him, but somewhere there must be a connection to those control panels. He started waking faster down the tunnel, looking at the walls. The Marines sluggishly followed the CO, looking themselves for anything that might help, despite the fact that most of them did not know the Greek system.

They got to the turn that lead to the surface. Kren turned around and started looking at the other wall, and headed back towards the large room. McCollum stopped however, and silently stood still. The sergeant quietly stepped forward to the turn that lead to the surface and peered around it. A distance light showed where they had came through, but something else could be heard.

McCollum turned around to face his CO, now halfway back down the tunnel. "Lieutenant."

Kren didn't stop looking as he replied. "What?"

McCollum looked back towards the surface. "I hear gunfire."

___________________________________________________________


Sergeant Galvin fired off his last shot in the clip. The creature had been no more then fifty meters away, and it fell into the mud, joining the dozens of other fallen creatures that now littered the area.

"Grenade!" A Marine yelled, and the pin was pulled. The sniper shielded his eyes as the water twenty meters away erupted into a white wall of water, sending two creatures up into the sky.

Lt. Meyers fired off another burst that sent a creature into the mud. His rifle barrel was hot from the continuous fire, and the three empty clips that lay in the mud in front of him bore testimony to the number of rounds that had left his rifle in the last five minutes. They had killed at least sixty of the beasts, but they were sill coming in mass, and they were getting close.

He slapped a new clip in the rifle and aimed up. The creature was ten meters away from taking out one of his Marines. A three round burst ripped apart its head, and the corpse fell into the mud within an arms reach of the Private's life he just saved. He turned and fired at another threat coming in. There were too many.

"Sir, we need to get an evac now!" one of his fire team leader called back.

Meyers fired again. "Wessern, get over here!"

The comm. specialist jumped up and ran to his CO. Meyers fired again, then looked at the Marine. "Get the Valiant Knight online, tell them we need some support at our coordinates. Also, tell them we need evac in..." he looked at the countdown timer. "...25 mikes."

The Lance Corporal nodded. "Yes, sir."

___________________________________________________________


Kren frowned as he stared at the wall. He then looked back at Sergeant McCollum, who stood by the corner that led to the surface. "Get up to Second Squad and find out what the hell is going on. I want you back here in 4 mikes."

McCollum nodded and ran around the corner.

Kren put his attention back to the wall and continued back towards the large room searching for any clue on what door was the right door. The Marines around him looked for anything that might help, but nothing but silence ensued. Kren looked at the last segment of symbols before they got to the room. Nothing.

He cursed in frustration. This place was a maze, and finding the right way to go was harder then what he was ready for. Not to mention the fact that Second Squad was probably engaging an entire Covenant armada up there. He looked at the countdown.

0 hr 24 min 59 sec. Shit.

He walked into the center of the tunnel and thought. The situation was bad, growing worse, and he had no intel on what to do or what he was even really looking for. This mission was a crap-shoot from the beginning and all the find details that those ONI pukes said at the briefing was quickly coming apart. What the hell were they thinking? He thought.

Kren closed his eyes and put his head back. His frustration was obvious to the other Marines nearby, but he didn't care. What they needed was a freaking specialist who knew what all these symbols were. He opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling of the tunnel.

Crudely etched directly above him was a rough circle with a straight line through it. It looked familiar, mathematically familiar.

"A Theta?" He whispered, staring at it.

He remembered the many math courses he had taken in school, and they had used thetas for trigonometry and calculus. It looked just like that symbol. A circle with a line through it.

He turned and ran for the control panel.

___________________________________________________________


McCollum ripped his mask off and took deep breathes as he neared the top of the tunnel. The sound of gunfire was obvious, as was the booming sound of an S2B rifle. He stowed the air scrubber mask and pulled his rifle to bear as he made it to the top.

He looked out to see Second Squad firing like crazy at an incoming flood of creatures. The creatures that had attacked him and First Squad in the jungle.

"Lieutenant Meyers!" McCollum yelled, running up to the Marine officer who was letting loose a barrage of rounds.

The lieutenant stopped to reload and turned to face the sergeant. "What the hell? Are you done down there?"

McCollum shook his head. "No, sir, but we heard gun fire."

Meyers grunted. "We're being overrun sergeant, I say we can hold them off for another five minutes tops." He turned to fire.

McCollum looked out at the hundreds of dead creatures that lay in the mud, then he saw the hundreds more coming in at them. The sight was frightening, and those creatures were relentless in their assault. It was obvious the Marines would run out of ammo before the creatures stopped their attack.

"What's the status with the evac?" McCollum asked, bringing his own rifle to shoot a creature less then fifty meters away. Three muffled shots brought it down into the mud.

"We called in immediate air support and an evac in 25 mikes." The lieutenant answered without taking his eyes off of the creature in his scope's sight. Two shots to the head took down another creature. "Maybe with some air support we can hold them off long enough, but I don't know. How's progress going down there?"

McCollum fired off a long burst. "Working on it."

Meyers cursed loudly as he stopped to reload. "If that air support is not here in three mikes, we're pulling in."

McCollum nodded and turned to head back under. This was a living hell.

___________________________________________________________


Kren reached out and tapped the theta symbol on the control panel as the rest of First and Third Squads came to a running halt behind him. The Marines were still not sure what their CO was doing, but settled with it without asking questions.

Kren hoped this was it. He knew they were short on time and if what McCollum had heard was right, Meyers and his men at the surface were in a world of hurt. Half of him wanted to take them all out to the surface and see what was going on, but he knew that there was something down here they needed to get, especially before the Covenant find it.

A low growling noise emitted from behind him. He turned around to see another door, on nearly the opposite side of the room from where Sergeant Jacobs was, slide open. He started running for it as he activated his comm. link.

"Jacobs, get over here with your detail."

"Yes, sir." Jacobs replied.

As soon as Kren was close to the door, he motioned for everyone to slow down. He then directed a fire team to cover their backs, and fire team to cover the flanks, and the rest to keep moving forward with him. The passage that lay beyond the door was pitch black, and he couldn't see where it went. The intrigue of finding this cavernous room, an empty Covenant garrison, and now this maze was over. The only thing left that drove him was the will to get whatever it was they were looking for and his men off this rock.

He activated the flashlight on the M7A1. It didn't penetrate as far as he hoped, but it would have to do. He looked down the small tunnel and noticed it came to an end 50 meters away. Great.

"This it, sir?" Jacobs asked, panting.

Kren thought for a moment. "Maybe." He turned to face the sergeant. "You stay up here with the rest while I take a fire team down with me. If we're not back in--"

"Lieutenant!"

Kren turned to see McCollum running from the entrance tunnel.

"Second Squad is being overrun, Lt. Meyers said--"

"By what?" Kren interrupted.

"Those creatures," McCollum took a deep breath, obviously induced by the run. "The thing we were attacked by in the jungle. There are hundreds of them."

Kren cursed, wishing he could remove the air scrubber mask so he could rub his eyes. "Casualties?"

"None so far," McCollum said.

"Sergeant Spencer and Fire Team Alpha will go down with me. Third Squad and McCollum: go to the surface and give Second Squad a hand. Sergeant Brooks and Fire Team Bravo will stay in this room." Kren ordered.

"Yes, sir." Four Marines replied in unison.

"Move." Kren ordered, then turned to the small tunnel before him. He motioned for Sergeant Spencer and his fire team to follow while Brooks and his fire team set up a semi-circle around the small tunnel's entrance. Kren cautiously, but quickly, moved down the small tunnel towards the end. It was barely large enough for him to stand straight up.

As he got closer, he noticed that even though it did end, there was a hole in the floor. He moved up to it and found it barely large enough for him to fit through. He looked down it with the light. It went for as far as he could see. The tunnel was not large enough for him to move around Sergeant Spencer, who was directly behind him, so he couldn't see exactly how far they had gone.

"Give me a rope," Kren ordered.

Spencer passed the word down and within a minute they had a three hundred foot long rope at the hole. Kren slung his rifle and tied it around his waist. The other Marines grasped it firmly as Kren made sure it was all tight.

"One tug is to go, two tugs is stop, three tugs is pull me back up." Kren said. Spencer nodded.

He knelt down next to the hole and squeezed in. His complete weight went onto the rope as he dangled for what could have been hundreds of meters high. The Marines began lowering him down, and his body scrapped along the narrow sides of the hole.

___________________________________________________________


McCollum, along with the men of Third Squad, reached the surface to find Second Squad firing at those creatures. Those hairy beasts were getting very close.

Meyers stopped to reload and saw the newly arrived reinforcements. "Thank god," He whispered and ran over to them. "Third Squad, relieve my men, we're almost out of ammo." Jacobs nodded and deployed his fire teams. Meyers turned to get his own Squad's attention. "Second Squad, fall back to the tunnel entrance." The two squads exchange positions.

"Status of the air support?" McCollum asked, ducking as dirt and mud flooded over him from a nearby grenade explosion.

"They should be here," Meyers responded, loading his last clip. McCollum noticed this and handed over two of his own.

"I thought you said you were pulling in five minutes ago." McCollum said, firing his rifle at two creatures running through the mud at them.

Meyers looked at the sergeant. "Let's just say I thought you could use a little more time."

McCollum nodded. He heard something and looked behind him. It was a slight whining noise. He looked up into the sky.

"About fucking time." Meyers said.

___________________________________________________________


Kren had been going down at least a hundred meters when his body broke out into an opening. He quickly tugged the rope twice and came to an abrupt halt, his legs dangle over complete darkness. He pulled out his rifle and activated the light. He was in a small room.

He tugged the rope once, and he began lowering again. His feet hit the dusty floor and the rope went slack. He tugged it twice, then removed it from around his waist. He activated the comm. link.

"Spencer, do you read?"

There was a thick static. "Marginal, sir."

"Hold your position, I'll be back in five mikes."

Kren looked around the small room. It had no engravings or anything out of the ordinary; the walls were devoid of inscriptions. He turned around and saw a small tunnel leading out of it into compete darkness. He moved for it.

It was a tight fit, but he squeezed through it. It went on for twenty meters, then emptied into another room of the same size. This room had two exit tunnels, each one on opposite sides. Kren cursed, this was not what he needed. He reached into his web gear and pulled out a chemical light. He broke it and threw it on the floor, then picked the right tunnel first. He moved through it and it emptied into yet another room, this one had a single exit. He moved forward, but stopped.

Something was not right. He could not see much in the black room; only where he pointed his flashlight, but he could smell something rotting. This made him very uneasy as his gut told him not to go forward, even though it seemed like the logical thing to do. He slowly looked to the right and spotted something against the wall.

Oh shit. Kren's heart began racing as he recognized the familiar sight of an Elite. His rifle came to bear but it didn't move. Kren then saw why.

Sticking out of its abdomen was a very sharp metallic rod covered in purple blood. The floor around it was also covered with the Elites blood. He followed the bloodstains to the center of the room, where something reflected back off his light.

A trip wire. Crude but effective.

Kren took slow steps back into the tunnel, then turned around and headed for the last room he was in. His heart was pounding hard as he thought about it. This place is booby-trapped.

He got into the last room, illuminated by the chemical light stick. Ahead of him was the other exit. He headed for it, taking deep breathes to calm his heart down. At any moment, something could decapitate me, he thought.
He squeezed through the tunnel and got to another room of the same size. It had one exit, straight ahead, just like the booby-trapped room. He looked around the room and found no corpses, and he did not notice and trip wires. He took a step forward and felt his foot sink an inch.
He instinctively fell backward as wind rush past his face. His rifle clattered to the ground and he could not see anything except for the wall at which the flight pointed. He cautiously reached for the rifle and grasped it, then pointed it up. Directly above him was a shining, sharpened rod that was slowly retracting back into the walls. It had missed him by a mere inch.

He rolled on his stomach and low crawled toward the other end of the room. He found the ext tunnel, stood up and looked back. The rod disappeared seamlessly into the wall. What is this place?

He squeezed through the tunnel and found it to be at least 50 meters long. He cautiously made his way to the end, then found it to empty inside a large room. He stepped out into it; his flashlight couldn't penetrate to see the other end, telling him it was a very large room. He looked up at the ceiling and saw light coming down from a hole. It was a grayish color, and water drops came down through it, splashing into a puddle that was in the middle of the room. He moved forward, checking for anything unusual, then stopped directly under it.

He looked up as water drops splashed against the air scrubber mask. Above him, at least three hundred meters, was the source of the light. It looked strangely familiar.

It was the surface.

Discovery of an Enemy, Chapter Six: Part I
Date: 28 June 2004, 5:28 PM

________________________________________________________________


Chapter Six: Answers to Questions

1510, July 21, 2552 (Military Calendar)
System Designation Classified, Planet Codename Milestone

Gunnery Sergeant McCollum watched as the stealth drop-ship came flying over, its engines whining as the pilot banked to the right. The ship, which was the one that had dropped them off over a day ago, opened fire at the field with a pair of MK IVA3 twenty-millimeter cannons. Flash suppressors subdued the muzzle flash but the sound of it was nowhere close to being silenced or suppressed. The loud rounds echoed throughout the area as round casings fell to the earth before the Marines; 20-millimeter rounds threw water and mud in all directions.

McCollum watched as crates, tents, and even a threesome of Ghosts were shattered as plumes of water rose around the field. The sight was relieving and frightening at the same time. He noticed the creatures immediately begin evading as fast as they could. Damn, so they weren't oblivious to fire from above.

He turned as he heard the LRISC crackle to life. "Delta Four-One is on station, over." The craft banked and disappeared behind some nearby hills.

Lance Corporal Wessern grabbed and keyed up the microphone as the loud echo of the MK IVA3 cannons ceased. "Foxtrot Sierra copies and requests continued air support."

Wessern turned to Lt. Meyers, who surveyed the destruction through his rifle the scope. The shooting had slowed down as soon as the UAS-9A appeared on the horizon. The still-in-testing Utility Air and Space craft, affectionately already receiving the name Blackspear from the pilots who flew it, was ONI's pet job for creating their own standard ship that could perform the same missions as the much vaunted Pelican drop-ship; close air support; transportation, and special warfare. To the Marines who had seen it, which number was well under triple digits, it was nothing more then a fancy Pelican with a Longsword-like appearance. But to ONI, it was the craft to have.

McCollum did notice that the UAS-9A was much quicker, quieter and stealthier then the Pelican. The offset, whether or not it was justifiable, was the trillions put into the Blackspear program.

"Anything for Delta 4-1, sir?" The comm. specialist asked.

Meyers looked around them and noticed only a few creatures coming at them. The rest has disappeared either into the jungle, or were hiding among the newly created ruins of that portion of the massive Covenant base. "Tell them to stay on station until we need evac, roughly ten mikes."

Wessern turned and relayed the orders to the Blackspear now roughly hovering over some hills three kilometers away. Meyers turned to face McCollum.

"Okay, now we have to get off this rock, and we have ten minutes to do so." Meyers said, hinting at the fact that First Squad was still under ground. "Let's make sure we all leave."

McCollum nodded and turned to run back down the tunnel.

___________________________________________________________


1510, July 21, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Aboard ONI Stealth Frigate Valiant Knight,
in orbit around Planet Codename Milestone

"Captain!"

Gary Rayford turned to face his first officer. Nothing had caused his crew to yell out about anything in the last three days, so he knew this was serious. He leaned forward in his captain's chair on the bridge and beckoned for his executive officer to tell him what was going on.

"Sir, two Covenant frigates are moving towards the continent on the planet where we sent our the UAS-9A. They appear to have detected it somehow near the location we dropped our troops."

Captain Rayford frowned and looked at the main screen as it magnified to show the two frigates moving toward the planet, specifically where the Marines were sent. He checked the sensors; the Valiant Knight has not detecting anything unusual. What caused it?

"What did they detect?" Rayford asked. The two enemy frigates had been orbiting the planet since they arrived, and had failed to detect the Blackspear the first time it went in. Something must have happened down there.

The first officer was busy tapping commands into his computer console, but pointed directly across the bridge to the Communications Officer. Rayford turned to face the Petty Officer at that station.

The Petty Officer looked up and saw the Captain's hard gaze boring down on him. Sweat began to form on his forward as he brought up some information at his own console. "Well, sir, it looks like the UAS-9A provided a quick covering fire at the coordinates of the structure. Possibly the craft was detected by some Covenant ground force near there when it strafed the field."

"Damn," Rayford said under his breath. "I thought the last report was that the Covenant base down there was deserted?"

The Comm. Officer tapped some commands in as he talked. "Yes, sir, possibly they or some scout party returned to that location. There could be other possibilities, but I believe that is now not an issue, sir. "

Rayford nodded, quickly trying to compose a quick tactical plan. "XO."

"Sir?"

"Move us in closer, we may have to try and cut some time off the return evac flight." Rayford said. "Also, get the slip-stream generators warmed up, we will have a hot egress."

"Yes, sir."

The captain sighed as he leaned back in his chair. Being on a stealth ship had its advantages, such as being completely undetected unless the Covenant got very close. It also had one big disadvantage: no MAC. The Valiant Knight would not survive a fight with the Covenant.

___________________________________________________________


1512, July 21, 2552 (Military Calendar)
System Designation Classified, Planet Codename Milestone

Wessern pushed the earphone harder against his ear as he strained to hear the static transmission coming in from space. "...I repeat, Foxtrot Oscar, Sierra, and Tango, this is Victor Kilo, extraction must be completed on the double. Reports of two enemy Frigates in orbit are moving in on your position. Please acknowledge."

Wessern flipped the transmit button on the LRISC. "Victor Kilo, Foxtrot Sierra copies. Please advise how much time we have."

The crackled reply was not reassuring. "Five mikes."

"Foxtrot Sierra clear." Wessern severed the link.

Lt. Meyers frowned as he overheard the order from the Valiant Knight . "How did they detect us? The Blackspear is supposed to be a stealth ship, if the Covenant can detect it why the hell did ONI even try and make it 'undetectable'?"

Random shots came out from his Squad as the Marines dispatched anything that moved in the field. The air cover done by the Blackspear was more then efficient, even if all it really did was tear the place to bits. Meyers did not witness a single kill by the 20-millimeter rounds, but it did get rid of them somehow. Or something out there made them stop.

"Sir, wondering why the creatures left us?" Sergeant Galvin asked, staring through the large scope mounted on the S2B.

Meyers grunted, pulling out his binoculars.

"New contacts, 210 meters out, just beyond the tree line." The sniper said, his voice becoming flat.

Meyers peered through the binoculars and froze. The mindless assault by these creatures was enough for him and his men for one day, but now it appeared that it wasn't over yet.

That's how those Covenant frigates detected us, he thought, fatigue slowly beginning to overwhelm him. Or rather, that's how they found out we were here. The lieutenant put the binoculars down and let his head drop as he rubbed his face. He looked back up to see that the Marines around him were in the same state he was. No food, sleep, shelter, or rest for over 26 hours; it was all starting to wear on the battle-fatigued men.

"Wessern, get First Squad on the horn and tell them we must pull out immediately." Meyers ordered, his voice calm but hinting at a deep stress. "Get Delta 4-1 online as well, tell them he will need a hot evac on our command."

The Marine nodded and immediately pulled out the LRISC.

He brought the binoculars back to his eyes as he thought of something he heard back when he was going through Officer Candidate School.

Training only takes you so far, after it stops, after everything you learn and practice ceases, only willpower and teamwork will carry you through.

They would need those two aspects more then ever now: willpower and teamwork.

He sighted the movement in the tree line: The Covenant.

___________________________________________________________


First Squad comm. specialist Corporal Ryder flinched as he heard the familiar beep emit from the LRISC strapped to his back. He reached behind and pulled out the headset and strapped it on. There was unusual static over the net, and the incoming transmission was difficult to understand at best. Being underground definitely had its disadvantages.

"Foxtrot Oscar, this is Foxtrot Sierra, get Lieutenant Kren on the line." The voice said, barely audible above the static background.

Ryder turned to his fire team leader. "Sergeant Brooks, Second Squad wants to talk to the Lieutenant."

Brooks walked over to the comm. specialist and grabbed the headphones. "This is Foxtrot Oscar, the lieutenant is not with us, he went--"

There was a shuffling noise above the static. "I don't care where the hell he is...and that we need evac ASAP...no circumstances can this happen. Covenant forces sighted in the tree line, as well as reports that...Foxtrot Oscar do you copy?"

Brooks stared at the microphone in his hand; that was the unmistakable voice of Lt. Meyers, even though the static kept him form hearing the complete message. "Negative, Foxtrot Sierra, I do not copy."

The line hit a high of static, but the voice broke through a second later. "...frigates heading towards this location, we need to evac now, do you copy?"

Brooks sighed, but he got the general idea. "Sierra Oscar copies." The line went dead promptly after that.

He handed the equipment back to Ryder, then activated the squad comm. "Spencer, where's the el-tee?" The fire team leader looked toward the tunnel where the squad and his CO went into.

"Down a freaking hole, he said he would be back in...now."

Brooks hated this. Something or someone is always missing when they needed to get the hell out of dodge. Naturally, he thought, anger cursing through his veins. He had seen this happen before many times. Someone goes off to take a piss and before he knows it, a squad of Marines is dead because of it. "Well get him out of there! We don't got time for anything, Second and Third Squad are on the surface claiming some Covenant frigate is closing in on us."

Spencer's voice suddeny pictched up. "Wait, the Covenant are inbound? When? From where?"

Brooks was still grasping the fragility of the situation. "I don't know, but its bad news, you know that. Now get Lt. Kren out of there so we can get the hell out of here."

The was a short pause. "Standby."

___________________________________________________________


"Lieutenant? This is Spencer, we need to get you out of there now. Lt. Meyers says our position has been compromised and is going to be under attack by Covenant forces soon. Do you copy?"

Nothing but light static filled the comm. link.

"Brooks, he's down there and I can't raise him."

The other fire team leader cursed loudly over the comm. link.

Spencer looked down the hole; something must have happened to his CO

Discovery of an Enemy, Chapter Six: Part II
Date: 28 June 2004, 5:56 PM

________________________________________________________________

1512, July 21, 2552 (Military Calendar)
System Designation Classified, Planet Codename Milestone

Kren wiped the raindrops off his face as he stared up the long shaft leading to the surface. He was part amazed and part bewildered, it did not make any sense to have a direct air source connected to these tunnels, unless something was meant to live down here.

He turned and shone the light around the room, trying to find any exit tunnels or anything that might give him a clue as to where to go. The light wouldn't penetrate far enough so he had to move closer in the room. As he got closer the objects against the wall began to become visible.

He stopped in his tracks as he looked down as far as his light would see. Lined along the wall, evenly spaced, were large square containers. They appeared to be made of some sort of metal, and were at least centuries old; a thick layer of dust covered them. The shape reminded him of burial coffins, except much larger. They were at least five feet high and twenty feet long. The sight was eerie and perplexing at the same time.

He took cautious step forward toward the first one. The ground was covered with a thick layer of dust as well, and he felt as if he was in some sort of ancient tomb. The sight would have really made him think that was so if there were spider webs everywhere.

He stopped and slung his rifle, carefully to keep it pointed generally at the container. He stepped forward and grasped the overhang of the apparent lid and pulled up. The resistance was very strong, and he wasn't strong enough to open it; perhaps it was locked?

He took his hand and felt along the top of it, pushing away the layer of dust. A glimmer caught his eye, and he brought his flashlight to bear.

It was a symbol, similar to the type seen in the entrance tunnel to the large room. It reflected his light and bounced off the nearby walls, but so did something else.

He turned off the light and turned around slowly, bringing his rifle to bear. He stared at the light beam coming down from the surface and waited in the darkness. Slowly coming into view was a figure.

It was an Elite.

The half-transparent being stopped directly under the light and stared directly at Kren, its silent body posture showing that of one who was ready to attack, yet contempt with its own situation. Under the light, Kren made the armor discernable as silver. He had never seen that color on an Elite before.

The Elite raised an arm, its large hand grasping a grenade sized ball. The ball looked just like a ball bearing, being completely spherical and chrome. It emitted no light, sound, or anything. Kren would have mistaken it for an oversized marble.

The light from the surface reflected off the ball and the light began to intensify. The room began lighting up as it grew brighter. The Elite began shaking, not from fear, but from the force of something. The appearance was that of the Elite holding up a heavy object with one arm. No sound could be heard as the posture of the large warrior worsened. The "weight" grew stronger.

Kren lowered his rifle and began taking slow steps forward. The Elite's arm began shaking uncontrollably, as did its whole body as the ball grew brighter. Kren had to shield his eyes as the light began blinding him. The room was completely illuminated now.

Kren stopped as he heard something. It was a roar.

The sound grew louder and louder, it was coming from the Elite.

It was the sound of pain, of frustration, of death.

Kren looked up to see the roar reach a real-time volume. The Elite's half-transparent body snapped back into reality, and it became real. The roar from it was loud, the presence of the alien was real. Kren raised his M7A1.

The Elite stopped its cry and the ball went dark. It looked directly at Kren as its arm slowly dropped. It let go of the ball and it hit the ground and rolled into the puddle of rainwater. The Elite was breathing hard.

Kren stared down the sights of his rifle. This was no longer fake.

The Elite's hands clenched tightly as it stood there, staring down the Marine from ten meters away. Kren's heart pounded as he waited for what this Covenant would do.

A crack emitted from the Elite's clenched fists.

Kren instinctively pulled back the trigger at the sudden movement. The rifle spat out a single round as the Elite charged forward.

The round impacted it square in the chest. Its shield lit up.

The second round hit it in the chest again. The shields held up.

The Elite was now charging at him, less then 5 meters away. The hatred in its eyes was visible as its mandibles opened wide. Kren heart pounded harder then he ever thought possible as the rifle recycled for another shot. Time seemed to stand still.

The third shot left the suppressed barrel as the Elite's arm swung back. The round hit it square in the chest and its shield flared, then failed. It penetrated through its armor and shot out through its back. Kren blinked as the purple blood splattered on his face.

The blow of the Elite hitting his body was the first thing he felt as he reopened his eyes. He went flying backward with the Elite toppling over him. His HUD system went haywire and blacked-out as he crashed back-first to the dusty floor. His rifle went clattering across the floor as the Elite went headfirst into one of the containers; a cry of pain being emitted.

Kren slid across the floor until he was stopped himself by a container. Nothing but pitch blackness surrounded him. The only light was from the beam coming from the surface in the middle of the room, and that was not enough to light up anything.

The throbbing pain coursed through his chest as he stared straight up into blackness. His ribs ached as he visualized the bruising being done as he regained full consciousness. The sound of his heart beating filled his head.

Kren rolled over onto his stomach and forced himself to his feet. He swayed back and forth as his equilibrium tried to get back in sync. He felt half-conscious as he looked around aimlessly for the Elite. Nothing but darkness enveloped him. He had experienced this many times before, and he knew that it was a defeating factor in the midst of battle.

He heard a low growl from somewhere in the room and immediately reached for his M6D. The pistol came to bear and he flicked on the mini-flashlight attached to it. He scanned the room back and forth, the light not being powerful enough to penetrate far enough around him.

The sound of foots steps originated behind him.

Kren spun around to come face to face with the Elite, charging him once again. His thumbed off the weapon's safety and pulled the trigger as a bright muzzle flash erupted from the pistols short barrel. The noise of the round echoed throughout the room as the HE round impacted the Elite in its left shoulder. Kren closed his eyes as more sticky substance splattered him in his face.

Kren was thrown back as the Elite struck him, full body, yet again. Kren it the floor hard but gripped the M6D tightly to keep it in his hands. This fall didn't daze him nearly as bad as the first, and he rolled onto his stomach and jumped up.

The Elite was losing its strength, but its pure determination to kill the Marine drove the proud warrior to its feet as it bled profusely from two wounds.

Kren spotted the Elite quickly and brought the pistol to bear. He fired off another shoot as the alien sprang toward him yet again. Kren fired off a second round, and it blew open the Elites torso. A deep growl of pain emitted as the Elite stopped dead in its tracks within an arms reach of the Marine.

Kren fired off another shot and it impacted the alien square in the chest, sending armor and gore fragments flying out. The Elite crumbled to its knees, grasping at the wound. Kren pulled the trigger as fast as he could again, and the Elite took another HE round to the chest.

The pistol clicked loudly as the last round left the clip.

The Elite was completely shredded from the front, with all its frontal armor destroyed or missing. Blood poured out of an artery and began collecting into a pool on the floor. Kren reached to reload as the Elite let out one last cry.

Kren winced as he felt his leg bend an unnatural way. His left leg gave way and he fell to a knee. He saw the Elite retract its arm and hit it again. Despite the Mark IAC armor, Kren could tell the blows were more then superficial. Pain spiked through his leg as he dropped the pistol and reached with both arms to defend against the next blow.

The Elite was weak and the combined arms from the Marine stopped his last offensive strike. Kren gripped the large forearm of the alien, mostly out of pain and slowly pushed it back. The Elite appeared to be dazed, as it did not try to resist. Kren let go and fell to his back, then pulled himself along the floor away from the fallen beast.

The pain in his leg was almost unbearable. He let out a long yell of pain as he felt it in the dark. The leg-armor was missing a piece, and he felt in that area. Nothing wet or sticky came off of it.

Kren grunted and grinded his teeth as the pain began to subside. Then he began to worry about going into shock. He breathed hard but slowly and tried to slow his heart rate down, the pain resounded in waves, and his body shuddered at each one. In all his years of fighting, he had never encountered something that literally brought him to the floor. He had been lucky, avoided plasma fire, even friendly fire, but now he knew what it was like.

What it was like to fall.

Discovery of an Enemy, Chapter Seven: Part I
Date: 30 June 2004, 6:02 PM

________________________________________________________________


Chapter Seven: The Third Party

1515, July 21, 2552 (Military Calendar)
System Designation Classified, Planet Codename Milestone

McCollum grunted in anger as he heard the communications between the two fire team leaders of the squad comm. link. He half hoped that Lt. Kren would find nothing at the bottom of that hole so they could get off this planet, but he knew if that were true this whole mission, as well as the death of a good Marine, would all be in vain.

The jogged down the entrance tunnel toward the large room and his mind switched to other matters. Right before he turned the corner, he heard the report of sightings of Covenant troops at the surface, and he wasn't sure whether he should be glad that the creatures were now gone or worried that they had spotted the Covenant.

But wasn't this the way it always went? Bust your ass over flooded jungle hills, get attacked by some unknown creature, then get assaulted by wave after relentless wave of attack by those creatures, then discover that humankinds arch enemy was now joining the party. This was like going to hell and back, then turning around and going to hell again.

McCollum activated the comm. link as he broke out into the large, cavernous room. "Sergeant Brooks, what's the situation?"

"Not good, sergeant. The el-tee is not responding to our calls."

"How long ago did he go down?" McCollum asked, coming into sight of Fire Team Bravo, guarding the entrance to the small tunnel that their CO and Fire Team Alpha went down.

"Ten mikes, maybe more."

McCollum cursed under his breath as he came to a halt before the team of Marines. He knew that they would not survive an instant with two Covenant frigates closing in, and if they did, they would never make it out alive. In all reality, the extraction was not going to be successful, but nothing would stop the ODSTs from trying.

"Fire Team Alpha, get out of the tunnel so I can get by. Sergeant Brooks and I will go under to see what's going on." McCollum order over the comm. link.

The Marines filed out of the small tunnel as Brooks got to his feet.

McCollum stopped for a moment and thought. The situation could not delay anymore; if any of these Marines were going to survive it would be by leaving now, before the orbiting frigates could launch fighters. He hated this, but he knew it was the right thing to do. It is what Lt. Kren would have done.

"Ryder."

"Sergeant?" The Corporal replied.

"You're coming down too. Sergeant Spencer, assume command of First Squad, take them to the surface, link up with Lt. Meyers, and get in the evac ship. If we don't contact you in five mikes over the comm., get the fuck of this planet." McCollum called out.

Spencer stared at the Gunnery Sergeant.

McCollum walked over and set his hand on the young sergeant's shoulder. "Listen to me," he said quietly, "the first priority is getting these men, and the information we have, off this planet. I am not about to make this whole fiasco an exercise in futility, do you understand?"

Spencer nodded, his eyes hard.

"Take your men to the surface, inform Lt. Meyers of the situation, and get off this planet. They're your responsibility now, pull them out alive."

The sergeant nodded.

McCollum looked up and motioned for Brooks and Ryder to follow him into the small tunnel. He could fell the tension the two Marines behind him were feeling; they knew what was at stake here, that they were putting their lives on the line while the rest went to the surface for extraction.

But he also knew that these two Marines, as would any other of the platoon, would follow their leaders to the death. It was a virtue that Lt. Kren built on and emplaced. These men were not just Marines, or former Force Recon members, or Orbital Drop Ship Troopers.

They were the men of D Platoon, Special Warfare Company, Third Battalion, Ninth Regiment, First Marine Division, Third Marine Expeditionary Force, UNSC.

___________________________________________________________


Meyers had ordered both squads to take cover among any nearby Covenant objects, even if most of them were destroyed or scattered across the field. He knew that the rules had now changed, and they were going to be exchanging fire, to just giving it. The last thing he wanted to see was his men get mowed down by plasma fire because there was no cover.

He peeked over an overturned Covenant crate and brought his binoculars up to his eyes. The Covenant force was not impressive, but it was nonetheless a Covenant force. The scout party consisted only of five Elites, ten Jackals, and a couple dozen Grunts, nothing his Platoon could not handle.

What worried the lieutenant were the frigates orbiting high above them. While they were probably some of the smallest ships in the Covenant fleet, they still held enough firepower to vaporize them, and enough troops to flood them just like the assault the Marines had just gone through mere minutes earlier. Ammo was spread thin among them as the two squads waited quietly among the Covenant ruins.

He hunched back down behind the crate when he heard the squad comm. link crack to life. "Foxtrot Sierra, this is Foxtrot Oscar."

Meyers thought for a moment in puzzlement; the call was not over the LRISC, but rather of the squad comm. link. Whoever it was must not be underground anymore. Did First Squad finally get finished under there?

"Go ahead Foxtrot Oscar." Meyers responded through the comm. link.

"Is Lt. Meyers available?"

"Speaking." Meyers replied, looking back at the structure entrance.

"Sir, this is Sergeant Spencer, in appointed command of First Squad. I have orders from the Platoon Sergeant to bring all First Squad members to the surface, save four, for immediate evac."

Meyers almost stood up when he heard the message. "What? Where's Lt. Kren?"

"Unknown, sir."

"What about Sergeant McCollum?"

The reply was not enthusiastic. "Sir, he and two others went deeper underground to try and find Lt. Kren."

Meyers cursed softly as he thought. This put him in overall command of the platoon. "What was Sergeant McCollum's orders?"

"To evac ASAP, sir."

Meyers turned back around and peeked above the crate. The group of Covenant was making their way cautiously into the field toward them. At the rate the aliens were moving, they had less then five minutes before shooting began. "Copy, hold your position sergeant."

Wessern looked at Meyers from a few meters away. He motioned if he should call Delta 4-1 for the evac.

Meyers remain motionless while he contemplated the situation. Half of him wanted to run back down there and try and find his CO too.

"Yes," he said under his breath, nodding.

Wessern pulled out the headset for the LRISC and began talking.

Meyers leaned back against the crate. His mind and training told him they needed to evac; most of the platoon was ready to go, and they were being surrounded by Covenant forces, either on the ground or in the atmosphere. The tactical situation was that of retrograde.

They needed to pull out.

___________________________________________________________


1515, July 21, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Aboard ONI Stealth Frigate Valiant Knight,
in orbit around Planet Codename Milestone

Captain Rayford breathed heavily as he watched the two Covenant frigates descend into the atmosphere. He was not really concerned about them bombarding the planet; he knew they would never do that, especially to a planet they value so much. What worried him were the tiny specks leaving the frigates.

Drop-ships.

"Sir, a total of eight drop-ships are moving in toward the structure that the Marines are at." The Operations Officer announced.

Rayford nodded. The Valiant Knight was now getting close to the two frigates, much closer then any of them wanted. The tension on the bridge was growing, and so was the fear that the Marines aboard the planet were not going to make it off.

"Sir, incoming transmission from Delta 4-1." The Comm. Officer announced.

"Patch it through." Rayford ordered.

The slightly static line opened and was broadcasted through the bridge speakers. "Victor Kilo, this is Delta Four One, we have been requested to evac the Marines and are moving in now. Reports are that we may have to remain on station after the evac for some reason, but we should be back in space in no more then ten mikes."

Rayford nodded and gestured towards the Comm. Officer.

"Copy that, Delta 4-1, Victor Kilo clear."

The captain leaned back in his chair and thought. Never did he think that this would be easy, even if his ship was stealthy enough to sneak around, or even if they were equipped with top-of-the-line equipment that was still in its testing phase. But he never assumed that the situation would crash down in a matter of minutes, and the entire mission would be jeopardized.

What made the entire situation look even more futile was the fact that only one of three structures were investigated; only one. What if the Marines didn't find anything at this location? What if there was nothing to gain from this mission? He was not a pessimist, and had been through many fruitless missions before, but none of them had the same feeling about them. This mission was different for many reasons, but the fact that this was the first planet that any human ship had encountered that harbored Covenant forces was still there, and the mystery behind it remained unsolved.

He reached over and took a sip of coffee. Regardless of this all, the one thing left to do was leave. And hopefully leave with everyone they came with.

___________________________________________________________


1518, July 21, 2552 (Military Calendar)
System Designation Classified, Planet Codename Milestone

Lieutenant John Abrams nodded as his copilot relayed the evac request by the Marines. He manipulated the duel joysticks and brought the Blackspear out of the hover from behind the low ridgeline three kilometers away from the field. The black ship eased up effortlessly into the air and banked toward the field, passing up into the thick clouds.

"Infrared," Abrams said as the view in front of him went gray.

"Roger," Copilot Lieutenant Weisfield replied, switching on the Forward Looking Infrared system so they could see where they were going. The Heads-Up-Display flashed a dull blue as the contours of the terrain became visible around them. Three kilometers ahead was the heat source of the structure, as well as scattered heat sources from the Covenant base.

At the edge of the field was a slowly moving mass of infrared feedback, which the computer analyzed and classified as Covenant forces. The rough formation of Grunts, Jackals and Elites moved slowly towards the structure. It was only a matter of time before the Marines and this scouting party began shooting.

"Weisfield, send the Marines as message, tell them we will pick them up in 90 seconds right at the structure entrance." Abrams said, both his hands occupied by the two maneuvering joysticks the made the craft fly. The UAS-9A was a handful for the pilot, and operations without a second pilot would be impossible, since the controls required two hands. The advantage of having this system, though, was an unlimited amount maneuvering capabilities.

The copilot nodded and flicked a switch on the console above their heads. "Foxtrot Sierra, this is Delta 4-1, prepare for evac in 90 seconds. I say again prepare for evac in 90 seconds. LZ location is at the structure entrance."

___________________________________________________________


Wessern hit the activation button as he heard the transmission come in. "Copy that Delta 4-1, Foxtrot Sierra clear." Wessern then flipped a channel and performed and normal operation procedure, completely forgetting that it probably didn't apply here. "All Foxtrot units assemble at the structure entrance for evac on my mark."

Every Marine on the surface stopped what they were doing and waited for the order. Wessern looked over at Lt. Meyers, who held up his hand.

"Standby, corporal." Meyers said, looking up into the sky.

Somewhere up in the thick clouds the slight noise of the Blackspear emitted. He scanned the sky for any sight of the black craft, hoping that the 90 second estimation would be closer to thirty.

Then the black craft popped out of the clouds. Meyers almost gave the signal but noticed that it was not heading toward them or the structure, but rather towards the tree line, where the Covenant were.

Meyers watched as it banked into a strafing run and the twin MK IVA3 cannons opened fire at the Covenant. The explosive rounds sent plumes of water into the air as hundreds of rounds blanketed the area where the Covenant were. A few Marines yelled in appreciation as the craft pulled out of the run and into the air. Only a few plasma rounds tried to follow the craft out.

He gave the thumbs up to Wessern and the message went out over the net. The Marines turned around and moved cautiously toward the entrance tunnel of the structure as the Blackspear turned and headed directly at them.

Meyers was starting to feel a ping of guilt in his gut, even though he didn't know why. As a leader, the commander of the platoon, he needed to make sure he could save as many lives as possible. He needed to look out for his men, ensure their safety, to do what was logically right for the greater good.

But he didn't want to leave those four Marines here, under the surface. Of course they were going to stay on station for as long as possible, but he knew that it wouldn't make them come out. It wouldn't make them all go home together.

He sighed as the Marines set up a security circle around the landing zone. He knew what it was like to be left behind; to feel that gnawing sensation in your stomach as you watched your only escape leave.

But he couldn't change the situation, as much as he hoped.

Discovery of an Enemy, Chapter Seven: Part II
Date: 30 June 2004, 6:09 PM

1520, July 21, 2552 (Military Calendar)
System Designation Classified, Planet Codename Milestone

Kren stared at the chrome ball lying in the center of the room as he tried to suppress the pain coursing through his leg. He started to pull himself toward the beam of light, which is where the ball was.

The Elite was hopefully dead, having received more rounds that what Kren thought possible. The creature was obviously not one of the Covenants low-time Elites, and the armor color gave the appearance of it being some sort of high commander or leader. Being in many battles with Elites before, but all of them he had backup, he had come to known that the blue and purple Elites were the easy ones to take down; the ones that really gave the Marines a run for their money were the Gold armored Elites. But never had he seen an Elite with silver armor.

He crawled along the dusty floor and made it to the puddle of water under the shaft that led to the surface. He reached out to grab the ball but stopped. He waved his hand over it and noticed that he did not see a reflection of his hand on it; everything else was reflected by it. He didn't think about it, though, he would have to wait until he wasn't in shocking pain.

He reached out again and grasped the ball.

Kren opened his eyes and found himself standing. He looked around the room. Despite it being completely dark, he could see everything; the containers lining the room, the dead Elite next to his pistol, even his rifle. He looked down at his leg and found it completely normal, it moved and functioned normally, like it was never broken.

He looked at the containers. At first they appeared normal, like how he saw them the first time. But then his vision of it changed; his peripheral vision went blurry as what he focused on took up his complete eyesight. The container walls and lid disappeared before him as he saw through it to what was inside.

He began taking steps toward it, but noticed that he was there in a split second. He looked back toward the center of the room where he was just before, it was at least fifty meters. The complexity of it was there, and he didn't quite understand how that just happened, but he turned to see what was inside the container.

Before him in the container lay a deep red object shaped like a pyramid. It was only about half a meter tall and long, but it was the only thing inside the container. He looked closer and for some unnatural reason he got a view so close that he could see every detail on the on the object.

He had never had bad eyesight, being able to boast and perfect 20/20 vision. But he had never seen something with such detail, not even through a microscope. It was fascinating all the while he picked out every minuet detail of the object. He looked it up and down, and noticed small symbols etched in it.

They were similar to the ones he saw in the entrance tunnel to the large room. But this time when he saw them it was different. He cocked his head to the sight and read them. He had never seen anything like them before he got to this planet, and had no clue what they meant. But for some reason, he understood them.

Key of the Sacred Door, Opener of the Path Beyond.

He shook his head as the information flooded his brain. A key? He thought about it for a second and came to no results.

Something emitted sound and he turned around. Nothing was in the room, but he heard it as if he was near it. It was the sound of cautious footsteps. He focused on the sound and his peripheral vision went blurry again. He found himself staring at three Marines moving into the room he had put the chemical glow stick on his own way in.

Suddenly the view of the Marines on the surface came to him, all of them filing onto the black craft at the structure entrance. He watched as the last one boarded reluctantly. It was Meyers.

He focus changed and he saw eight Covenant drop-ships escort by a dozen Seraph fighters enter the atmosphere from above the planet. He focused and saw every Elite, Jackal and Grunt. He saw the two frigates and saw everything happening onboard each of them, from the small conduit wires being repaired by a Covenant Engineer on the bridge to a dozen Grunts sleep along the side of a corridor.

He noticed a black ship in the distance and found it to be the Valiant Knight. He focused on the bridge and found them all nervously waiting for the UAS-9A to return with its load of Marines. The captain sat on his chair, drinking coffee.

He stopped thinking and snapped back to the room he was in, a wealth of knowledge of what he had just seen washed over him as he stood there. He then thought for a second and focused on the three Marines down in the tunnels with him.

It was McCollum, Brooks, and Ryder. They were turning down the correct tunnel that led to him. He stopped and thought about it.

The trap.

He started running for the tunnel that led to it but found himself in the booby trap room. He looked at the invisible tripwire, something he could not have done before.

Flashlights came from the tunnel that led to the room. The quiet voices of the Marines were completely audible to him as he watched the first, McCollum, step into the room.

McCollum froze and stared directly at him. Kren had never seen anyone look at him like that before, and it chilled him as the Marine shouldered his rifle.

___________________________________________________________


McCollum stared straight down the sight at the figure in front of him. His first impression was that it was the half-transparent Elite they had encountered twice before. But it wasn't, the size was all wrong.

The half-transparent figure came into a better view as McCollum recognized what it was. He heart skipped and beat, the question was not what it was, it was who it was.

Before him stood his CO. The sight was alarming and daunting as he stared at the Marine lieutenant he had known for years. He slowly let his rifle point down as he took a step closer.

McCollum stopped in his tracks as the ghost of his CO immediately put up his hand. No sound was emitted from him, but the signal was obvious.

Brooks stepped out of the tunnel, with Ryder in quick tow. "What the...?"

McCollum shushed him quickly as the figure pointed to the ground directly at their feet. McCollum followed the figures gaze to his feet and noticed something glimmer of his light. It was a trip-wire.

McCollum looked back up at the half-transparent figure. "How?" He whispered.

___________________________________________________________


Kren looked back at McCollum, now joined by Brooks and Ryder. The three Marines stared back at him, their faces pale. He stepped back slowly but found himself back in the room. Wherever he willed himself to go, he was there.

___________________________________________________________


"Let's go," McCollum said quickly as he watched his CO disappear.

The three Marines stepped cautiously over the trip wire and moved for the tunnel. They entered it and traveled the 50 meters distance before it emptied out into the room with the beam of light coming down from the surface. Directly under the beam was Kren, his ghost-like appearance sending chills down each of their spines.

McCollum scanned the area with his rifle and found nothing, despite the fact that his light wouldn't penetrate deep enough to find whatever was on the other side of the room. After making sure it was clear, he stepped into the room and moved toward his CO.

The figure of his CO held something in its hands out. It looked like an over-size chrome ball bearing.

It began getting bright as his CO began to shake. The three Marines had to start shielding their eyes as the light began to intensify to blinding levels. The room was completely illuminated by the light coming off the ball.

McCollum heard the sound of his CO breathing hard, then suddenly the room went dark. He looked up to see Kren's figure snap back into real time. The lieutenant let out a yell of pain and clasped to the floor. The ball rolled slowly away into a puddle of water.

McCollum and Ryder ran up to him as Brooks looked around the room, confused. The two Marines knelt down to the lieutenant as he gritted his teeth in pain.

"Sir? Can you hear me?" Ryder asked, pulling out a medical kit form a web pouch.

Kren looked up at the two Marines above him and grunted. His leg was broken, nothing about it had changed. The pain coursed back through his body as he clenched his jaw, trying to relieve the pain somehow.

"Lieutenant?" McCollum asked. "Are you okay?"

He nodded slightly.

"What the hell happened? what was all this?" McCollum started.

Ryder jumped to his feet and scanned the area as five muffled shots rang out it the room. He then saw Brooks lower his rifle, staring at something on the ground.

"Don't worry," the fire tam leader said, relieved. "It's already dead." He pointed to the bloody corpse of an Elite.

Ruder looked at it in disgust, then slung his rifle and knelt back down to his CO. "Let me guess, sir, you had a run it with that."

Kren nodded and winced in pain as they looked him over. "Listen to me, go to that container over there and get it open." He pointed to the one he had seen the object in. "Get the key out."

McCollum stared at him, puzzled. "The key?"

Kren grunted in frustration. "Just do it."

The two Marines hesitated for a second, then got to their feet and moved for the container. McCollum hefted at the lid and couldn't open it. The other two Marines joined in and together they pulled up as hard as they could. There was a hissing sound, then the lid gave way, slowly budging aside under the constant pressure from the Marines.

Kren closed his eyes as they retrieved the object.

"They key?" McCollum said, looking it up and over.

Kren nodded, bearing the pain that was beginning to go numb; his whole body was starting to go numb. "Stow it on your body somewhere safe."

"Tell me what happened." McCollum said, moving toward his CO.

"Not enough time," Kren said. "We have two minutes to get to the surface and out of here."

"What? No we have more time--" Ryder began to say.

"Trust me, we need to get out of here." Kren said.

McCollum looked him over. "We can't get us all of out of here, especially you, in two minutes."

Kren pointed at the shaft. "Yes, we can."

___________________________________________________________


"Sensors report multiple hostile ships inbound." Weisfield announced.

Lt. Abrams sighed as he circled over the structure. They had loaded all the Marines save five. One of them was reportedly dead, and the other four still underground. He switched to the cabin comm. system. "Lt. Meyers, we need to get out of here now."

The Marine officer grabbed the railing by the cockpit entrance and looked in. "Negative, stay on station just a little longer. They say this is a stealth ship, right?"

The pilot shook his head. "You can still see it."

"Then take somewhere they can't see us." Meyers said.

The pilot thought for a moment then nodded. The craft pulled up into the clouds.

___________________________________________________________


McCollum aimed straight up the shaft. He had unscrewed the silencer off, then attached the rifle-fired grappling line to the end of the barrel. He aim straight up and flicked the safety off. They would only get one shot at this.

He pulled back the trigger and the loud, un-muffled rifle, shot the bulky canister straight up the shaft. All the way up it released cable line that was attached to McCollum's web belt.

The canister shot straight up and out into the cold wet air of the surface. As it reached its maximum length, four grappling hooks flicked out and it fell back to earth. It landing in the mud and was dragged along until it caught something.

McCollum put all his weight on it and testing the integrity of the line. It appeared to be good. He then took off the attachment to his belt and hooked it up to Ryder. "When you get to the surface, radio Delta 4-1 and tell them we need evac wherever we are."

The comm. specialist nodded and stepped directly under the shaft. He thumbed the button and the small motor in the canister at the surface activated. It pulled the Marines straight up in the shaft for the 300 meter journey to the surface. At the selected speed, it would take Ryder 60 seconds to reach the surface.

That made total time at least four minutes. Damn.

McCollum stared up the shaft as the light was blocked out by Ryder's body as he ascended toward the surface. They would need a little luck on this one.

Discovery of an Enemy, Chapter Seven: Part III
Date: 30 June 2004, 6:15 PM

1521, July 21, 2552 (Military Calendar)
System Designation Classified, Planet Codename Milestone

Ryder's head broke the surface. He closed his eyes as the motor forced him up, out, then along the mud to wherever the grappling hook stooped. He quickly fumbled with the controls and turned it off. He came to a sudden halt under a bush as the rain poured down on him.

He disconnected the line and threw it down the shaft towards the others, then he looked around at where he was. The area was surrounded by foliage; he was in the jungle.

He quickly brought out the LRISC headset and flipped the channel on. "Delta 4-1, this is Foxtrot Oscar, do you copy?"

There was a pause, then a crackled reply. "Delta 4-1 copies, glad to hear from you. Location?"

Ryder looked around. He had no clue where he was. "We're not in the field, but we're in the jungle somewhere, location is not known."

The pilot was calm in his response, even though they both knew the situation was bad. "Copy, pop some smoke and we'll find you."

Ryder almost reached back to grab and smoke grenade but stopped. This would give their position away to anyone with eyes; a good thing and a bad thing. "Are you sure? This will compromise our position."

"Roger, Foxtrot Oscar, do it anyways. It's now or never, Covenant Drop-ships are landing in the field."

Ryder wiped the mud of his face and grabbed the MK-SD smoke grenade. He pulled the pin and lobbed it into the bushes. A second later red smoke began filling the area. "Smoke out."

"Copy, standby for evac."

Ryder sighed and pulled out his rifle. He stood up and looked around, trying to see where they were. He moved toward a bush and peered around it, nothing but more jungle.

Noise originated from behind him. He spun around to see two grunts emerge from the smoke, their plasma pistols scanning back and forth. They had not spotted the lone Marine.

Ryder leveled the long rifle on them. The first shot killed the first, and the second shot killed the other Grunt. How did they Covenant get here so fast?

A yellow shield pushed aside some brush to his left, and he caught the sight of a Jackal out of the corner of his eye. It had not seen the Marine ether. Ryder quickly dispatched the alien with two rounds to its unshielded chest.

He then turned at the sound of something and saw Brooks pop out of the hole and get dragged in the mud until he shut it off. The Marine cursed and he got to his feet, mud covering him head to toe. Ryder made a slashing gesture at his throat and Brooks nodded, bringing his rifle to bear. He dropped the line back down the shaft for the next one.

A trio of Grunts emerged from the foliage, their weapons charged. Ryder and Brooks leveled their rifles and within seconds brought the three aliens down. The overcharges went harmlessly into the air, burning the leaves it passed along the way.

"How did the Covenant get here so fast?" Brooks whispered.

Ryder shook his head. "I don't know, maybe we just happened to come up in the middle of another scout party." He looked around carefully. "But I'll tell you one thing, this smoke is going to signal the Covenant like a bitch."

Brooks nodded and knelt down by the hole. They had better speed it up.

___________________________________________________________


McCollum helped Kren to his feet and secured the line to his belt. Kren stood, but only with the sergeant's assistance, and deep exhales of pain were evident as the lieutenant clenched his jaw.

The sergeant looked over at the chrome ball lying a few meters away. "What about that?"

Kren stared at it and grunted. "Stow it in a bag, and do not touch it."

McCollum nodded and handed the motor controller to him. Kren grasped it and hit the button. He started rising to the surface, holding his leg. McCollum watched him up, then turned his attention to the chrome ball lying in the muddy puddle. Surprisingly, it was not dirty at all. He walked over to it and knelt down. So this thing turned you into a ghost, he thought, pulling out a web pouch to slide it in. He carefully slid the bag around it, then secured it to his web vest.

He turned around and walked to the shaft as the line fell down. He grabbed it and attached it to his web belt. He then hit the controller and the motor started pulling him up. He took one last look around the room, not seeing much because it was so dark, but noticing a pistol lying near the dead Elite.

He hit the button again and the speed increased. The room disappeared as he moved into the shaft. If only they had time to look in all of those containers.

He looked up towards the light and waited as he was pulled up quickly by the motor. He kept going even though he starting smelling something burning. Halfway up he looked on himself and found it was coming from his gear. He checked the pyramid shaped object, it was still there. He checked the chrome ball; small slithers of smoke rose form the bag.

There was the sudden loss of weight as he heard the web bag rip. He fumbled blindly to catch the object but it left his grasp. He craned his head to look down and saw it disappear into the dark.

McCollum cursed loudly as he neared the top. He check the bag; the ball had burned through it. He sighed, another question added to the list.

He reached the surface and shut the motor down quickly. He climbed out of the hole to find Ryder and Brooks aiming their rifles around and Lt. Kren sitting up on the muddy ground.

___________________________________________________________


Abrams scanned the area for any sight of the smoke. He had evaded two Seraph fighters, and they did not detect him, but the airspace was quickly being filled up with Covenant ships. They had to get out of here.

The Blackspear flew in the clouds, the pilots using the FLIR to detect anything, but so far, they had come up with nothing.

"There's a Covenant scouting party half a click over there," Weisfield offered.

Abrams shook his head. "God, I hope they're not there."

"Listen we got to find them now or never, we'll never be able to investigate each IR feedback, we should drop out of the clouds and do a visual search." Weisfield said, checking the flight avionics.

Abrams had had enough IR searching blindly as well. He nodded put the craft in a quick descent. The Blackspear broke out of the clouds and into the rain and the two pilots looked around quickly. Half a kilometer away, where the Covenant scouting party was, red smoke filled the jungle.

"Oh shit," Abrams said slowly. "They're right in the middle of that Covenant group." He started heading for it. "Get them on the net, tell them to be ready for a line pickup in fifteen seconds."

Weisfield nodded and sent out the call.

___________________________________________________________


Ryder fired another shot into a Grunt who had wondered into the smoke and appeared before him when the LRISC cracked to life.

"Foxtrot Oscar, prepare for line pickup in fifteen seconds."

Ryder turned on the channel transmitter. "Copy, we are encountering resistance down here."

"We know, Delta 4-1 clear."

Ryder stowed the headset. "Sir, we're going to have to do a line pickup because were in the jungle."

Kren nodded, wishing he hadn't lost both weapons below.

"15 seconds!" Ryder yelled out as he fired, but missed, another Covenant Jackal moving in the brush.

The sound of the Blackspear originated and the craft pulled overhead. A few plasma shots left the jungle and impacted the armored underbelly of the black ship as it transitioned into a hover. The side hatches open up on both sides and two lines fell to the earth. Brooks was closest and grabbed one.

"Lieutenant, you first." He shouted above the roar of the downwash from the Blackspear.

Kren grunted, he usually said that to his wounded Marines when they were evac'd. Ryder helped him up and they hobbled over to the line while McCollum kept some Grunts from getting too close. So far they hadn't encountered an Elite.

Brooks secured the line to the lieutenant's belt and waved up at the drop ship. The line went tight and lifted Kren into the air.

"You're next, Ryder!" Brooks yelled. The downwash sent all the leaves into disarray as wind rushed around them.

Ryder nodded and went to the other line. He quickly strapped on and was hoisted into the air. Brooks ran over to McCollum and tapped him on the shoulder. He flashed a ten second gesture and pointed up. McCollum nodded and fired again until his clip went empty.

The two lines were thrown back down to the earth and the remaining Marines moved for them, one each. McCollum grabbed on and was hoisted into the air, Brooks began the process as something hot hit him in the back. He cried out in pain.

An Elite appeared through the clearing, coming straight for the injured Marine. McCollum looked down and pulled his rifle out, it was empty. He dropped it and pulled his pistol out.

Brooks ejected his back armor as the plasma engulfed it. His back was raw and he could feel the burns as the wind washed over him. The line went tight and he began to lift, but something grabbed onto his leg.

He looked down and saw the Elite grab hold of him, its eyes burning with hatred.

McCollum aimed carefully as not to hit the Marine on his way up, then opened fire at the Elite, now holding onto him. The first five rounds pinged off the Elites shields, the last seven tore into the Elite. But it would let go.

Brooks yelled, part anger, part pain, as the Elite defiantly held on even though it was now ridden with holes. He looked down and spit onto the face armor of the creature, then with his free leg kicked as hard as he could.

The Elite's head cocked sideways, and it loosed its grip just enough for Brooks leg to slip free. The Marine soared into the air quickly as Grunts began filing the area, firing wildly into the air.

___________________________________________________________


"Go, go, go!" Weisfield yelled, seeing that the Marine was now free.

Abrams pulled the collective stick and the craft jetted higher into the air. He then pushed the joystick forward and the craft shot forward, taking minimal plasma hits on its way. He looked at the passive radar receiver.

Ten Seraph's were closing in on them.

He pulled up and headed for the clouds as the fighters closed within firing distance. He jinked wildly as plasma impacted the rear of the ship.

"Armor is holding, but barely!" Weisfield yelled.

They disappeared into the clouds. "Call the Valiant Knight. Tell them we're inbound and need covering fire as soon as possible. As soon as we leave these clouds those fighters will find us again." Abrams said.

The copilot nodded. "Victor Kilo, this is Delta 4-1 inbound."

Discovery of an Enemy, Chapter Eight
Date: 7 July 2004, 10:53 PM

________________________________________________________________


Chapter Eight: Revival

1521, July 21, 2552 (Military Calendar)
System Designation Classified, Planet Codename Milestone

Kren was strapped in by two Marines as the ship accelerated skyward. He held his leg as the platoon corpsman stumbled over to him, grabbing anything that would help him stand up amongst the abrupt maneuvers of the drop-ship.

Sergeant Pullman pulled out a small device and activated it, trying to stay steady above his CO's leg. The device powered up and sent out a concentrated X-ray emission into Kren's leg. It took a few seconds before it appeared on the small four-inch screen. Pullman analyzed it quickly.

"Fractured leg in three places, sir." The sergeant said.

Kren grunted, not surprised.

"You'll be off of it until we can get you to the ships medical-bay." Pullman said, putting the device away.

The Blackspear shook violently, sending the corpsman rolling to the legs of the Marines strapped in. He quickly got to his feet and grabbed and handle above him. The normal operating white lights dimmed down to red-lights, this usually being reserved for night operations. The Marines onboard looked about, worry etched on their faces but none of them would ever say a word; pride was the lone factor to thank.

McCollum and Meyers cautiously walked over to Kren as Pullman left, defying two UNSC's regulations in doing so. The ship turned sharply as the two Marines settled down next to their CO.

"What is the ball I keep hearing about?" Meyers asked.

Kren winced in pain as vibrations in the ship rattled his leg. "It's what that ghost-like Elite was using when we saw him."

"And how'd you get it?" the lieutenant asked.

"That's not important," Kren replied, keeping his voice calm despite the urge to yell out in pain as the ship made erratic turns. "What I saw when I had it is the important thing. The ball gives you some sort of ability to, well, see things you shouldn't be able to see."

McCollum and Meyers looked at each other quizzically then back at their CO.

Kren continued. "It's like you can be anywhere and everywhere at once, almost like you're omni-present. For some reason, you can figure out just about anything you looked at."

"That's how you knew where that pyramid thing was." McCollum said.

Kren nodded. "The key."

McCollum cocked his head to the side, thinking. "You mentioned that, sir, what is it?"

"It's a key to that can open up and allow us to see through it, like a window." Kren said.

Meyers grunted. "Don't be too vague about it."

Kren didn't appreciate the sarcasm as he tried to keep his leg from moving around in the craft. "I don't know where, how, or what, but that's what I read on it."

McCollum held on as the craft lurched forward. He couldn't see what was going on outside, but he hoped that those pilots knew what they were doing. "So you could read the symbols?"

Kren nodded.

"What about the symbols in the entrance tunnel to the large room?" McCollum asked.

Kren's mind flashed as his memory recalled the information. He was surprised out how vivid his memories were of it. Anything he did when he had the ball were now indispensable memories; it was like he was standing there right then and there.

"Sir?" McCollum asked again.

Kren shook his head and focused on what the Marine in front of him was saying. "'For the present will find and see the secrets of the solidarity of all, and they shall recover the unseen key to see the universe. It shall bring about the change of the possession to the Sacred Door.'"

Meyers rubbed his eyes, trying to absorb the conveyed information. "Okay, so we have the key with us right? Do you know where this key goes?"

Kren thought. His memories flashed before him as he remembered exactly everything that happened while he had the ball. "There's three keys."

Meyers shook his head. "Wait, what?

"There's three keys." Kren repeated.

"Where are the other two?" McCollum asked, trying to get the right information out of the wealth his CO had.

"I don't know, but the three of them form some sort of...trinity." Kren said, not exactly sure how he knew it but just contently stated it. "This key is one among those three."

Meyers let his head drop. "Where does this door go?"

"I don't know, but it's not a door necessarily." Kren replied.

"What is it then?" McCollum asked, feeling as if these were all riddles.

"It's more like a door you can see through, something you can open up but not go through." Kren said.

Meyers leaned back. "And you need all three of them to make this 'door' work?"

Kren nodded. "This is more then a simple door. This may be the way to win the war."

___________________________________________________________


Weisfield switched on the channel selector as the Blackspear broke through the clouds, heading straight for space. The Seraphs were not close behind, still circling in the clouds below.

"Victor Kilo, withhold fire unless you get targets of opportunity, we may have lost them." Weisfield called out over the comm. link.

"Copy, Delta 4-1."

Abrams checked the passive radar receiver for any sign of them. The Seraphs quickly faded back until the left the sensors range. "We may have lost them."

Weisfield nodded. "50 kilometers and gaining."

Abrams watched as the atmosphere began fading away and the view started going black. Stars began to appear as the Blackspear left the atmosphere and made the transition to space. They might have made it out alive.

He glanced back down at the passive radar receiver and set its range to maximum. There was no sign of the Seraphs, now beyond 100 kilometers, but one large contact was creeping at the edge of the receiver's maximum range. He quickly ran a computer diagnostic of the contact.

It was a medium tonnage Covenant frigate: 500 kilometers out.

Abrams activated the infrared system and looked at the bearing of the contact. He magnified to its maximum scale and the outline of the awkward shaped vessel came into view. Without the aid of sensors, the frigate would have appeared like a fairly distant star.

"Contact, bearing 276 by 90." Abrams said softly, almost as if the ship could hear them if they were too loud.

Weisfield looked at the far off contact. "Freaking Covie frigate, thank god this ship is stealthy."

Abrams nodded slightly as he stared at the contact just over three hundred miles out. Part of him was anxious about flying so close to a sizable Covenant ship; he knew if this was a Pelican, what he used to fly before joining ONI's Special Air Wing, they would be vaporized. But they had finally done something right; they had finally made a craft that could avoid, for the most part, detection.

He adjusted the receivers range and tried to find the Valiant Knight, but the screen remained dark. Then he remembered the Valiant Knight was a stealth ship as well. It also emitted minimal IR feedback, which would make detection impossible unless they closed to within at least three hundred kilometers.

"Victor Kilo, coordinate vector please." Weisfield transmitted, coming across the same problem.

"200 by 12, 450 clicks out." Came a clear reply.

Abrams adjusted their trajectory and headed for the ship. They would make it out this time, now all he had to worry about was next time.

___________________________________________________________


1540, July 21, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Aboard ONI Stealth Frigate Valiant Knight,
in orbit around Planet Codename Milestone

Captain Rayford nodded in approval as he heard the incoming transmission. The Marines had escaped off the planet without the Covenant following them back to his ship, and hopefully they had found something useful enough to merit this mission.

He smirked slightly as he thought of it. If they did not bring back anything, that ONI major would be the one taking the 'credit'.

Rayford has not anti-ONI in anyway, he actually worked for them. But he didn't completely relate to the tactics and measures used by these spooks to get what they needed. ONI was famous for what it did behind the curtains, and even though they were fighting for the same cause as everyone else, they had earned the bad-guy cop reputation by exploiting anything, even UNSC resources, to get their own agenda accomplished.

But there were always two-sides to the story. What had ONI accomplished? The feats of gathered intelligence and technology from ONI have proved invaluable on the battlefield. At the rate ONI was moving, despite its certain lack of respect for the other branches, this department alone could change the tide of war.

"Delta 4-1 is entering the docking bay, sir." His XO called out.

"Any wounded?" Rayford asked.

"Two, sir."

Rayford whistled. Damn lucky ODSTs.

He reached for another sip of his coffee when the air-tight doors that led to the bridge parted. The ship had only a limited amount of Marine security guards, so the lone guard at the door halted the trio of officers. Rayford looked behind himself and spotted the three men.

It was the ONI major.

The captain stood up and walked over to the door as the Marine kept them from entering. He had told the Marine that without his explicit permission, no one aside from the bridge staff would be allowed to enter.

"Good afternoon, captain." The major said, obviously annoyed that a lance-corporal was keeping him from entering the bridge.

Rayford nodded. This guy was not used to restrictions.

"I've heard the word that our Marines are back, and we should have a debriefing about how it went on the surface." The major said.

Was this major completely out of the loop? "That may have to wait, the platoon's CO was injured on the surface." Rayford said.

The major nodded. "I know, lets meet him in the infirmary."

Rayford sighed. He was about to turn and motion for his XO to come along when his Operations Officer shouted out.

"Sir, eight Covenant ships have just entered the system."

He turned and moved back to his chair, then looked at the small screen. There were six medium tonnage vessels and two cruisers; they had jumped almost directly into the planets atmosphere.

"Sir, they're launching drop-ships and fighters. All inbound for the planets surface." The Ops. Officer announced.

"Looks like they're looking for their missing Covenant base," the major said.

Rayford shot a glance back a the major. How did he know that?

"Sir! Three more frigate-size vessels have entered the system; they're close."

Rayford looked back down at the small screen. 520 kilometers out.

"We got to get out of here," Rayford said. "Helm, take us out of system, maximum power but keep our IR output down."

"Yes, sir." Came two simultaneous replies from the front of the ship. The ship vibrated as it began accelerating.

He noticed a small group of fighters looming closer and closer to them. The were not on a direct intercept course, but they would pass within two-hundred kilometers of them, definitely close enough for them to detect the stealth ship.

"Sir, I suggest we leave the system." His XO cautioned.

The Ops. Officer spoke up again. "Sir, six more ships have entered the system, one of them is a carrier."

The Covenant were suspicious, and they weren't taking any chances, especially with a whole army of them missing on the planets surface. "Slip-space generators?"

"Fully powered, captain."

"Take us out of here," Rayford ordered.

The XO interfaced with the ships AI and found a suitable vector that complied with the Cole Protocol.

He turned to face the major. "Time to tell me what this is all about."

___________________________________________________________


Rayford and the ONI major stepped into the captain's office. The Valiant Knight was now safely in slip-space leaving the system, so Rayford could slow down and take in all the information; but he was, nonetheless, anxious to find out what this ONI major was up to and why this excursion into deep space was necessary. Rayford stepped behind his large desk and had a seat in his large chair. He motioned for the major to sit as well.

"Let's start at the top," Rayford said. "Tell me how this operation originated."

The major sat down slowly. "You know I can't tell you that--"

"Oh but you can," Rayford said, his voice portraying the impatient he had. "And you will."

"Tell me, captain, how will knowing this help you in any way?"

"Listen, I was just ordered with twenty-four hours notice to take my ship, you and this platoon of Marines into the middle of nowhere to send them to the surface of some desolate planet, only to find out that there's a freaking Covenant army missing and there's some sort of artifact. You tell me, major, do you think that sounds a little strange? Out of the ordinary? Before this I was running recon ops, now I'm evading a Covenant armada."

"The origination of this operation goes way back before you were even a commissioned officer." The major shot back. "This thing does not revolve around you, me, those Marines, or even the planet. It's on a much higher scale."

Rayford shook his head. "It's not about whether or not I want to know, I could care less about who or what this revolves around. But what I need to know is what this whole thing is about."

"You were at the briefing, you heard it all--"

"Don't try that, major." Rayford interrupted.

The major stared at the captain intently as he contemplated what to say. Rayford could see in his eyes that there was no one on this ship to back the major up; the major was in a corner.

"Operation Gallant Strife," the major began slowly. "Is the underlying operation the Office of Naval Intelligence has been doing for the last nine decades."

Rayford didn't flinch, but the statement caught him off guard.

"Ninety years, captain. But the origination of the concept started back centuries ago. You remember going through the academy, you remember that class where it's sole purpose was to show the effects of decisive battles and their outcomes. What are the first that come to your mind? Bunker Hill? The Alamo? Pearl Harbor?"

"...D-Day, Stalingrad; yes I know my history, major." Rayford finished.

"Well what about the Third World War? What did that class tell you about that war?"

Rayford leaned back as he thought. "That war had its decisive battle, of course: when Lieutenant Colonel Davis Piconski led his nine squadrons of fighters into the largest air battle ever on Earth, eliminating one-third of the Chinese air force with the use of a nuke in the end."

The major nodded. "And the list goes on, all the way up to the Harvest system battle not that long ago."

Rayford sat still, not seeing where this was going.

"My point, captain, is to show you that wars are always summed up to the decisive battles that led to their victory or defeat. Is that not true? But let's look at the other side of things; what if we could eliminate or at least foresee these battles in order to give us the edge. What if there was a way out there to stop us from getting slaughtered because we didn't know. Think about it, if we had that kind of capability we wouldn't even be at war right now."

Rayford nodded at the logic.

"2049, World War Three, chaos everywhere," the majors aid. "It was the allies verse the axis, it was total war; do you think the allies won just through those decisive battles? Do you think it was their superior technology or strength in arms, or luck?"

Rayford knew the answer, but beckoned for the major to continue.

"Not at all, captain, there was something that the allies had that gave them the edge. Anything you learned about how the allies won during that war was completely false. Why, you may ask? The simple reasons are to give you the idea that you are inherently better then your enemy and to cover up the secrets that are really used."

Rayford shook his head. "So you're saying that we had, or maybe have, something that gives us the edge? That there is some sort of supernatural force out there that gives us, what?"

"Not quite, captain." The major said, leaning back. "Do you think that we have held off the Covenant advances simply because we are better? Smarter despite their apparent superior technology? We have something on our side, and we've had it for many years.

"2050, the middle of World War Three, special operations were carried out within south-east Asia under the cover of Gallant Strife. Initially these were just search and destroy missions by special forces, but they recovered some unknown artifact that allowed them to see things."

"On Earth?" Rayford asked, puzzled.

The major nodded. "As you may recall the allies were losing the war up until that point." The major leaned back and chuckled. "We've all seen those fighting movies, stories about our hero's and how they're beaten down, but then at the last minute get up and finish the fight off to win, eh? Fiction, that's all it is. Same thing you've heard about the war. We do not miraculously just get back up and start fighting harder then ever after we just got our asses handed to us."

Rayford disagreed, but remained silent as the major went on.

"We have something that gives us the edge, and in 2051, when the Third World War ended, the allies used that something to win. That something was a way to open a 'door', if you will, that allowed them to see certain things."

"And what?" Rayford said. "We found another way to open the 'door'."

"No we found another way to make it bigger, more effective." The major replied. "In 2049, the 347th Marine Force Recon platoon while on an infiltrating mission in south-east Asia found an artifact. That artifact allowed them to see events in the future, giving them a much vaunted edge for success. It was later given to their leaders, and it was used against the axis powers, leading to their victory."

The major leaned forward and talked in a lower tone. "This artifact let us win the few wars that came up in the centuries following WWIII, and it has helped, with limited effect, hold off against the Covenant onslaught. But now we know something; we know that there's not only one."

"There's more, and one was on this planet?" Rayford asked.

"Prescisely. But it gets better," the major said, his eyes lighting up. "These three artifacts were originally designed to be used together, and with all three of them the effects are extraordinary."

"'Designed' to be used together? By who?"

"We don't know, speculations are that it was a race or group of aliens long ago, but who knows? The theories range from us doing this in the future and coming back in time to a phantom super-race of aliens to god." The Major said.

"Then how did you find this planet, and how did you know that it had one of these artifacts on it?" Rayford asked.

"Like I said earlier, ninety-years ago the vision of another object appeared through the one we had on Earth. We didn't know where it was, and Operation Gallant Strife was started to find it by ONI. After an exhaustive search spanning that entire time period, we finally made progress when the artifact in the city of Cote d' Azur was recovered. Off of the artifact we were able to find inscriptions that gave us the starting place to look. Alas, we ended up putting this mission on immediate priority."

Rayford let out a long sigh. ONI had been using this artifact the whole time without anyone else even knowing it. How much had it effected the war so far? Was what the major saying true and without the artifact humans would have been destroyed already? He's instincts told him no, that humanity was indeed holding off the Covenant through decisive battles and tactics, but now there was room for doubt.

"How many of these artifacts are there?" Rayford asked after the short pause.

"Three, we think." The major said.

"So that's only two, where's the third?"

The major rubbed his face as he replied. "It will be found."

Rayford didn't doubt that statement, anything ONI set its mind to it did.

"Where is the first artifact now?"

The major gave him a hard gaze. "That's not for you to know. What you need to do, captain, is get me, the artifact, and your ship back to Reach."

Rayford nodded slightly, thinking about what he had just heard. Even if he disagreed with the major's theory that this artifact was the only thing keeping them alive, it was without question an important asset to the UNSC. He stood, and the major followed suit.

"You will get back to Reach, major."

Discovery of an Enemy, Epilogue
Date: 7 July 2004, 11:10 PM

____________________________________________________________________

Epilogue

1543, July 21, 2552 (Military Calendar)
Aboard ONI Stealth Frigate Valiant Knight,
in slip-space towards Cole Protocol sufficient system

Gunnery Sergeant McCollum helped three other Marines load their CO onto a stretcher that was waiting for them in the docking by after the Blackspear made it in. The Marines were relieved to be back onboard, but all of them were still in confusion about what had just happened on the planet, and the added fact that the ship suddenly jumped into slip-space didn't help.

Kren looked around as he sat up on the stretcher, two medical technicians at his side taking more X-rays before they moved him off towards the medical-bay. He looked around at his men; tired, dirty, most splattered with alien blood. He watched as they silently finished getting off the Blackspear and file up roughly into their fire teams.

He sat there silently, looking around as the thirty five Marines moved around him. Some just sat down and rested against pallets, others talked quietly amongst themselves, some just stood there alone, thinking. He wasn't sure what to think about what they had just gone through, about the Marine they had lost, about the aliens they encountered or even the artifacts he came across himself. The confusion and disarray, added to by the pain slowly leaving his leg as the medical technicians gave him light doses of morphine, was thick upon not only him, but them all. How much of it had been luck? How much skill?

How much fate?

But through out it all, he knew one thing for sure. He was proud of his men, of the stuff they went through and the times they were put in harms way. Never in his commanding career was he content with the men who surrounded him right then and there.

They were ODSTs. They were Marines.

As for the questions the remained on the planet, the questions about the structure they had gone into, the creatures they had encountered, and the missing Covenant army reamined unanswered. Even when he had the ball these mysteries were not revealed to him.

He sighed; he may never know why.

The medical technician told him to lay back down as they did some last checks before they moved him off. Finally, he was off the planet.

McCollum watched silently. His facial expressions were grim and the fatigue showed clearly through his posture. Maybe now they could get their much warranted rest.

Kren closed his eyes and felt the area around him get bright and warm. He opened his eyes and noticed the docking bay was getting brighter. He sat up as everyone turned to face McCollum, who quickly detached the webbing bag that held the artifact. He held it for a second, then dropped it as it shone brighter, forcing everyone to cover their eyes. The process was strangely similar to the ball incidents on the surface of Milestone.

He covered his eyes and felt the warmth as the entire docking bay lit up bright white. Then suddenly, it stopped. The Marines and few ship crewmen in there immediately looked around. Kren uncovered his eyes and looked around them.

Before them was the sight of hundreds of Covenant vessels in slip-space. The awkward looking vessel traveled precariously close together through the dimension bending space. The sight of the ships continued on all around them, and the Marines and crewmen looked about in awe. It was so real yet distant at the same time.

Then the view changed. The Covenant ships exited slip-space. The entered the system near a bright star and continued along at full speed toward a distant planet. Hundreds of the alien ships appeared as the armada launched fighters and their plasma turrets heated up.

Ahead of the massive attacking force was a planet. Surrounding the planet were dozens of UNSC ships, orbital shipyards, and Super MAC platforms. The view suddenly flashed as the MAC platforms and UNSC ships fired. Small, bright flashes emitted from all over as the MAC rounds headed towards the Covenant fleet.

Then, the Covenant ships opened fire, letting loose hundreds of plasma balls that hurtled toward the planet and the ships guarding it. The sight was frightening as the MAC rounds and the hot plasma rounds passed each other, heading in to destroy.

Suddenly, the view disappeared around them. The docking bay went back to normal and the light disappeared. The Marines and crewmen looked around, questions etched on their faces.

McCollum stood there, eyeing the artifact cautiously. The entire docking bay was silent and no one moved, not sure what to do or say.

Kren stared down at the object, then looked up at his Platoon Sergeant.

"Reach won't be there when we get back."

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