We walked forward carefully. My eyes had been augmented along with the rest of my body, so I could see much better than a normal person, but as we moved on it got darker and darker. I looked around as we moved and sweeping my rifle's light across the sides of the tunnel to make sure there were no traps or doors, keeping an eye on the footprints in the dirt.

Selina stood behind me, watching our rear and walking backwards as she swept the area, turning around every so often to keep up.

She turned back from another sweep as the tunnel changed to metal. "What are they doing all the way down here?" she asked, coming up beside me. I looked at the end of the tunnel where it had finally begun to brighten again, "I don't know, but we will likely find out very soon. I'm going to contact Kade and Scott, we might need a quick escape route if things go south fast." I said. She nodded and I turned on my com, pinging Kade and Scott. "Kade, Scott, status." I ordered.

There was a short pause before Kade replied, "I found the compound and I'm not too far from your location but I can't see you or anyone else for that matter." Another voice joined in, "I'm here too, the prisoner is secured and I brought the Pelican just in case you need a little extra firepower!"

I rolled my eyes, "Or an escape route Scott."

Scott grumbled "That too..."

I smiled. "Kade, I'm in an underground tunnel, coming up on a doorway. You two, track our location and be prepared to leave, but wait for us on the surface." I commanded. Their acknowledgement lights flashed.

I slowed my pace as Selina and I came up on a large sliding metal door. "Be ready for anything but don't fire unless necessary." I told her. She nodded. I looked at my motion tracker to see that there were three red dots on it just 10 meters from the door, probably waiting for us. Where are the rest? I wondered. Regardless, we had no way of getting more intel and couldn't waste any more time allowing them to prepare a trap.

I moved forward, standing in front of the door. I waved my hand to signal Selina to proceed. She moved over to one side and leaned against the wall, using a panel in her arm to disable the lock. There was a click and the lock turned green. I looked down the sights of my assault rifle, prepared to fire.

The door slid open soundlessly and I rushed in, scanning the area, and then slowly lowered my rifle. Selina began to follow me but I signaled her to stop. She slid back around the door but it remained open. Slowly I put my gun on my back and raised my hands in the air.

Around me were automated turrets, and all had targeted me as soon as I stepped inside. They charged up but did not fire... yet. The three contacts I saw on my motion tracker were two of the mysterious soldiers. The third was Henderson.

At the sound of the door opening and the turrets, he turned around, noticing me in the entrance. Behind him was a large spaceship in a silo for takeoff. It looked similar to the shuttles they used to use a long time ago but larger, taller, and more advanced. With my arrival so soon after they probably thought they had shaken us, I could only imagine that beneath Henderson's helmet he was pleasantly surprised.

"Well, well, well, what a surprise." Knew it

He waved the second person off somewhere. "Well, I can't say it was a complete surprise, but so soon? And alone? How foolishly noble and predictable."

"Where is Kyle?" I demanded.

"Wouldn't you like to know? All in good time. As of right now, unfortunately I have a schedule to keep or I would enjoy this moment a while longer. We'll be leaving Atrius's atmosphere shortly... but that information wont be of much use to you. In about five minutes I believe there is going to be a glassing of the nearby city Alkaid. What an ironic name. Named after a Star." he said, testing the word and shrugging. "I guess it won't be much of a star after the attack. Too bad. You will definitely be ordered to help as well which means you can't come after us, at least right away...if you can escape the turrets alive that is." He said, walking towards the ship behind him.

"You have earned my respect though, being so dedicated. Not many would go this far but your file mentioned that you do have that kind of personality don't you? By the way, I just activate the function that will make those turrets fire if you so much as twitch or make a sound. So you can die of starvation, sleep deprivation, or a hundred rounds to the chest after your shield runs out." He added, holding up a remote with the light on it red. I silently glared at him.

"Until we meet again... or not." He said and turned away, walking up the loading ramp. It closed behind him and after a few seconds, the countdown to takeoff started.

My com clicked and Kade's voice came through my internal speaker, undetected by the turrets. "Chief, we have a problem, the Pelican was overrun by several dozen rogue soldiers and Rogers escaped during the commotion. I assisted Scott and we have taken back control, but Rogers is long gone."

I internally winced and made a mental note about the fact. It would have to wait until later.

Without moving my head I looked around me. There were six turrets on each side of me fifty feet away. Selina was still behind me and they would only target the first thing that moved. I couldn't turn on my Com to talk to her, for that would require a physical response from me and the turrets would fire. I was on my own, at least initially. I thought for a moment about the model they appeared to be, as they were UNSC-issued turrets. From what I remembered of their summary in the weapons manual, they couldn't go down past a 45 degree angle and up past a 25 degree angle. I could try to get under one of them before my shield ran out, but the others would fire at me whether or not there was a turret in the way. It wouldn't be cover for long as the defensive shielding was designed to be pretty light compared to other guns to allow for a higher payload and faster tracking.

Wait, that's it!

I may be only 16 and not a fully developed Spartan yet, but I could run at least twenty miles per hour. I could dart around the turrets in one row and get them to fire on each other while Selina engaged the second row. I just hope she understands what I'm about to do.

I took a small breath, tensed my muscles, and burst into action. The turrets from both sides spun up and fired at me. I ran in a zigzag pattern, turned to the left side, and jumped as I ran straight at one of the turrets. Arcs of bullets flew at lightning speed after me, several hitting my shield. I flew through the air and landed on top of the turret, rolling off and behind it. Bullets pelted the metal of the turret I had taken cover behind, a few skidding off my shield and forcing me to adjust my position so the small turret could cover me better. I got into a running position and pushed off just as the first bullets tore through the now-decimated turret. I ran at the second one in the row, zig-zagging as my shield was already just above half-charge, and slid under it as it tried to follow me. The other turrets disabled it quickly as they had done to the first.

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I looked around and saw that Selina had come in as soon as the shooting started and was working on the wiring of the second turret in the other row. Unfortunately our assault rifles and pistols weren't strong enough to pierce their armor plating, no matter how light it had been made. I noted quickly that none of them had been re-tasked to fire at her. Good. As the second turret I had taken cover behind was completely destroyed, the countdown on the spaceship reached zero and it began to lift off, the blast of heat pushed downwards into the vent system.

I quickly jumped to the next turret. My shields were draining dangerously fast. At this rate I wouldn't make it to the fifth turret, but I'd just have to jump to each one faster. My leg muscles burned as I pushed off the ground hard enough to bend the metal floor slightly as I sped to the next one and looked over again. Selina was on the fourth turret. Only four left. Bullets hit my shields again and it drained from half to a third. I waited as long as I dared for the fourth turret to be destroyed and ran at the next one. This time I jumped off of the top of the remains of the fourth to make it harder for the other ones to hit me and ran even faster, diving at the fifth.

I slid on the ground and hooked a hand on one of the three leg bases, swinging myself around behind it. The last two turrets chipped away at the one I had taken refuge behind, decimating it a bit slower as less firepower was available now. Pieces of broken metal tumbled around me and I looked at my shielding. Twenty percent. I looked back up around the side of the crumbling turret to see that Selina was finishing the last turret on the other row. A bullet hit my shield and was deflected, surprising me. I looked back and saw to my horror that the turret was completely destroyed, faster than I had previously calculated, and the remains were slowly leaving me wide open. I immediately grabbed a square piece of the decimated gun and ran towards the active turret. Bullets tore through the metal, but prevented the worst of it from hitting me.

The piece got smaller and smaller as I ran towards the final one. Finally it broke into two and I threw the pieces at the turret into the oncoming stream. The gunfire pounded my shield and I jumped over the turret. Five percent. A warning light in my helmet went off as my shield began to flicker. I landed behind it and whipped around, grabbing the main wire and pulling with all of my might. The turret started to turn and for a horrifying second I thought I was done for, but at last the wire snapped. I stumbled backwards and the turret leaned forward, ceasing to fire.

I let out a small breath and dropped the cord as Selina came up to me. "So... that was interesting." I nodded and looked up at the dissipating trail from the ship. Henderson had gotten away. Dang it! "Saving Kyle will have to wait, we need to warn Alkaid." I turned on my com to the other two members of my team. "Kade, Scott, pick us up through the silo on top of my location marker, do not pursue Henderson."

"Affirmative, I see it, ETA thirty seconds." Kade replied.

I grimaced and walked to the edge. Selina walked up next to me. "You okay?" I shook my head, "To be honest to you, not really. It's my fault Kyle is in this mess, and I still haven't been able to get him back, Twice. I've failed." I lowered my head. She awkwardly put a hand on my shoulder, having to raise her arm up to my height. I looked up suddenly at the touch. It was a major sign of comfort, rarely given and never by mistake. "You've accomplished more than we ever will and you will always have us, your team, at your back. Without you we wouldn't be here and we definitely would have lost Kyle's trail long ago. You are more of a Spartan than any of us despite being so young. It's to be expected that there will be a few bumps along the way. Cut yourself some slack. Regardless, we couldn't have asked for a better leader." There was a humming as the Pelican began to lower into the silo and we looked upwards. "Good will always conquer evil. We will get him back, save that city, and make Henderson pay for his crimes no matter what." She finished.

I nodded. The Pelican came to a hover in front of us and the ramp lowered. Scott was waiting at the top. "Come on, there are already reports all over local channels of a covenant ship being spotted and ground forces entering the city." He said, waving us in.

We ran up the ramp and Scott gave Kade the signal to go. Selina sat down across from me and Scott stood next to me. He set a device in the middle of the floor and it projected a holographic map of Alkaid. It was a large city, one of the biggest on Atrius. In the middle of the city was the Governor's building and a fountain centerpiece/news projector, along with 10 other skyscrapers.

From there the streets stretched out in a boxed design around a river that flowed through the center around the fountain. There were several ten to twenty story buildings surrounding the skyscrapers, and to the east of them were a mass group of apartment complexes. Between the skyscrapers and apartment buildings was the mall and the business district. Dotting the edges of everything were smaller housing blocks and the East side ended at the vast Calid Ocean that stretched to each pole but was almost completely surrounded by land.

Scott pointed to a section near the water fountain in the city center. "This is where Kade secured us a landing zone. There have been multiple distress calls across the city, including some from the Governor for an escorted evac. The commander of the military base near Alkaid has also ordered all available personal to help with evacuation, which means us too. There are shuttles along the river and the beach that will take civilians to our ships in atmosphere. So far only the buildings directly around the Covenant cruiser have been evacuated, which has been preparing to fire just North-west of the city center. A defense-perimeter has been established at the beach to protect evacuees and the shuttles. There is heavy fighting along the Skyscrapers." He turned to me, "You're our commander, take it away."

I nodded and leaned over closer to the map. "Our first objective is to secure the Governor and get him to safety. We will need a shuttle ready and waiting to pick him up for extraction." I looked at Scott, indicating that he would do it.

"I'll secure the ship now." He said and put his hand near his ear, presumably on a private channel with one of the shuttle's pilots.

I nodded and continued, "Then we will evacuate those in the skyscrapers and the people closest to the Covenant cruiser first. They will head to landing sites along the ocean side. Instead of going door to door, Scott will send out an evacuation call as we go that will emit from any active piece of technology capable of broadcasting it. There are probably already sirens on the street, but knowing Spartans are there will draw out the people who can't defend themselves and are afraid."

Selina and Scott nodded, and Kade's Acknowledgment light winked in the corner of my HUD. Kade yelled back, "ETA one minute." I leaned back and looked at the approaching city again as I paused my orders for a moment, inspecting the city center as it came into view. Smith and Strang's faces appeared suddenly before me again with the look of horror they held when our hands missed, then flashing to Kyle's unconscious body between them as they dragged him down the street. I leaned back away from the window quickly, trying to get away from the images. Another image passed of the Covenant ship's plasma beam washing over Scott and Smith, their screams ringing in my ears.

I shook my head uneasily to clear it and the room returned to my vision. I looked up uneasily to find Scott and Selina staring at me due to my strange behavior. A spartan wouldn't normally act like that without reason. Disturbed by the flashback and the effect it had on me, I continued speaking "When we touch down I want each of us to stay within 500 feet of a White team member unless I say otherwise."

They nodded again, but I saw Scott check out the window towards the sky, probably curious as to what had caused such a reaction. I ignored him and continued, "I know Kyle needs to be rescued as soon as possible, but I don't want a single soul left in that city. It is our duty to protect the innocent and we took an oath to obey the chain of command. Kyle will have to wait, but when we do find up to Henderson, he'll get what's coming for him."