Steele's POV

We crept through the hallways towards Kyle, needing to abandon the maintenance tunnels because of increased traffic. Henderson hadn't been discovered yet, it just happened that right now must have been the time that repairs and inspections were done. Whatever the cause, the hallways proved to be faster but more dangerous. There were a couple of close calls where we were almost discovered but our luck held and each time they dismissed their suspicion.

Finally we got close and I stood with my back to the wall, looking just out past the corner while only letting the tiniest part of my visor be visible. Across the hall and a few doors down was Kyle's room. There were two Sangheili Elite's guarding it, one wearing the armor of a high-ranked Elite. Dangit I thought. He was going to be a challenge, as higher-ranked Elites weren't as stupid as their colleagues.

I put up two fingers behind me and signaled that one was difficult. My team nodded at the intel and I engaged camo, creeping up to keep the charge from draining too fast. My team followed. I was ten feet away when the High Elite stiffened and looked around. I slowly signaled with my hand for my team to halt. They stopped and I held my breath. He walked forward, pausing right in front of me. I signaled my team to move in on the second. It looked all around the area I was standing in slowly, sniffing the air at the same time. I held my breath and out of the corner of my eye noticed that my camo's charge bar was dropping dangerously low.

It seemed to look straight at my face, and I noticed my outline was starting to show as my camo began to fade. It growled and raised its sword. I said a quiet "go" just before my shield fell and I tackled him. My team jumped on the second in the same instant. Scott helped me hold him down and I grabbed his head in both of my hands, twisting it. There was a sickening crack! and the Elite fell limp, his neck twisted at an odd angle. I shuddered slightly at the noise and then steeled myself against the emotion. I could not be hesitant during battle. I picked up the Elite's hand and placed it on the lock for the door. It turned green and we dragged the Elite's inside, Sift scouting before us and Selina covering our escape.

I pushed it aside and stood up, re-shouldering my gun. Sift had been waiting for me to proceed before her. I walked past her and through the short entryway's doorway. It opened into a room similar to the one we were in except that instead of five platforms, there was one facing away from us. A medical fluids drip was on the right of it and a small metal table with tools to it's left. I swallowed and cautiously proceeded, dreading what I would see on the table.

I slowly walked around it and gasped when he came into full view. Kyle's helmet was lying at his feet, the only neat thing there despite the dents and scratches on it. His head was lolled to one side, his hands, midsection, and feet were strapped to the table with plasma straps. That was an odd touch due to the young nature and lack of augmentations of Kyle. Otherwise, he looked awful.

There were burns all over his face and scorch marks on his armor where it had been superheated beyond what the armor could withstand. Old blood trailed down the sides of his head from his ears, his face covered in perspiration. I leaned forward and gently opened one of his eyes. His eyes were rolled back. There were also two humiliating red lines on each of his cheekbones from the blade of Henderson's knife. On the rest of his body, weird tree-branch-like lines ran across his armor from the electricity he had been shocked with burning it's way across it.

The team came around the platform as well and Sift gasped, pausing a moment before quickly approaching him. She began to administer first aid on his face and checked for broken bones. I brought out my knife and carefully sliced through the restraints, lifting him off the table and setting him on the ground. Kade shifted nervously at the door, signaling that Henderson likely would have been discovered and gotten free by now.

I nodded and my gaze returned to Kyle. Sift pulled a small white pill out of her bag and put it in his mouth, stroaking his throat softly to trigger the reflex to swallow. She then grabbed a small tube, wiped his face, and waved it under his nose. After a second he coughed abruptly and his eyes opened wide, fearful. His coughs continued and Sift rolled him on his side. He coughed out a small amount of liquid before the coughs ceased and he could breathe normally, well normally for someone who had been tortured, which sounded like a balloon inflating and deflating.

He looked around with wide, scared eyes until he saw it was just us. His face relaxed but there was just enough tension to see that he was not ok mentally as well. Sift spoke first. "Do you have any broken bones? Anything that is life-threatening or seriously inhibits you?" He coughed again before speaking in a voice that made me wince, "Maybe a few ribs and some fingers, but other than brain damage it was mainly surface torture." He gave her a broken smile before his eyes landed on me. I looked back with sadness in my eyes, a little disappointed he couldn't see through my helmet. I looked away after a few moments, ashamed.

"Help him up," I ordered them. Selina and Scott grabbed him by the shoulders and slowly raised him to his feet. He tried taking a step before almost falling again. "I'm too weak," He said. "The pill I gave him won't be in effect for a few minutes," Selina told me. "Then we will carry him," I said firmly. I signaled Kade to open the door. Scott put Kyle's helmet on him and Selina put Kyle's arms over their shoulders and helped him to the door. Kade looked out before and stepped forward, scanning both sides multiple times before waving us out.

We took a step before Kyle tripped, falling past Kade and towards me. I caught him and he leaned heavily on me, grabbing onto my armor to hoist himself up. Selina and Scott relieved him from me and we proceeded down the hallway. We passed a hangar area that was vacant and there was a small ledge near one of the doors. Kyle tripped on this too, falling against the door and catching himself on the airlock, creating a banging noise. I kept myself from sighing irritably and we moved on. After that it was quiet though.

We finally arrived at one of the entrances to the core of the ship, conveniently not too far from the hangar our ship was cloaked in. I was about to move in when I noticed movement at another entrance. I hid and looked back at it slowly. I was very much surprised to see a Venator helmet peering around the corner back at me, or a helmet with two parallel V-shaped visors that looked like they were stacked on top of each other. I tipped my head to the right to get him to go around and he nodded before ducking out of sight.

I pulled back and made the same motion to my team as I said, "We have company. Friendlies." and walked around to the right side of the circle. The same guy in Venator armor waved to us, leading a team of three other generation IV Spartans. He waited until he was close to introduce himself. "Senior Chief Sir!" He said in the loudest whisper he could, crisply saluting. "First class petty officer Dalton Smith 121 at your service sir! This is my team. We were sent to help with extraction. We have a Pelican waiting in the same hangar as yours and outfitted with medical supplies. I also brought a HAVOK nuke to help out with firepower."

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He unhooked the large cylinder form his back and offered it to me. I took it, handing it to Kyle, and said, "Thank you, I appreciate the support." He nodded, "Anything we can do to help you, sir?"

"Yes, I need you and your team to cover us while we plant the nukes at the core. At my signal we have to hightail it out of here. I'm giving it 30 seconds." I told him. He nodded and relayed it to his team quickly before turning back around, "I'll deploy a bit of my stealth skills to help you with that and mark myself for your visor so you don't shoot me. Let's do this!" He said in a light-hearted manner. Before I could contemplate his oddly optimistic behavior, he had cloaked and ran around the corner. I mentally shrugged and signaled my team to move back to our previous entrance.

I scanned the dome, with its four entrances before slowly walking in. The platforms ran to the center where a large, glowing ball was contained in a metal structure connected to the floor and ceiling. The floor was a few hundred feet below the walkways, but a large platform circled the core. My team and I walked in tight formation, scanning the entrances. We were almost there when a shot, aimed for my head, skimmed off my shield as I stepped forward. I turned and fired at the entrance, where a Jackal sniper had been peering over the edge of the door. It fell and for a second, all was quiet. Then the room filled with utter chaos.

Grunts, Elite's, and Jackals began streaming through the entrances, even the one we had just come through. Kade hoisted Kyle over his shoulders and we ran for the core, fending off our two entrances as we did so. I heard human gunshots behind us, the work of Smith's team. The Covenant were falling off of the walkways like sand in a windstorm, but there were so many of them it seemed like their numbers had barely been scratched. We backed away farther, my feet hit the edge of the core. I waited for the bodies to hinder the walkways nearly impassible before saying, "Cover me."

My team formed a tight formation and Kyle sat to my left with his back resting against the core, borrowing Scott's secondary gun. The blockage would not hold for long though, they would get smart and just throw them off the walkways. I quickly pulled the nuke off of my back, placing it on the ledge to the core where is stuck. I did the same with the second and connected them so they were controlled by one. I opened the timer and primed it, setting the counter to thirty seconds.

Before I hit the activate button, there was a large bang behind me. I looked to see a hunter on one walkway, shield down and impassible. I knew nothing could penetrate that shield, and if no one could bring it down soon, we would be overrun before the bomb could prime. I grabbed two grenades from my belt and told my team, "Focus fire on the second walkway." I got up and ran at the hunter. It saw me coming and moved its shield to fire at me. I saw my opportunity and jumped at it, throwing the grenades into the folds of its armor. I then pushed off of its shield and flipped backward.

However, the hunter had moved its shield again and my jump was off. I landed on the edge of the walkway and teetered unsteadily. The grenades exploded and I was forced to jump off. I twisted in mid-air and used my thrusters to help me get to the other walkway but it wasn't enough. I stretched my hand out as far as I could, almost there! I hit the side of the walkway heavily, the metal digging into my abdomen and squeezing the air out of me. The impact jarred me and I began to slip off. I desperately grabbed the walkway with my hands and slid off, managing to hook my hands onto the side.

I looked up to my left and saw the Covenant advancing on me, despite my team killing them as quickly as humanly possible. They did not shoot at me though, and seemed they were trying to get to me to grab me instead. I tried to pull myself up but another thump on the walkway almost shook me loose again. They were only feet away, I knew I was done for. Then, I heard Kyle's voice call out, "Get down Senior!" I immediately put my head below the platform and heard something whistle above it. There was an explosion and shrapnel and purple blood showered around me.

I looked back up to see that the entire portion of the walkway was clear, for now. I hurried and pulled myself up, running back to my team. They shot past me but were careful not to hit me while they shot. I squatted down again and looked at Kyle, he paused and returned my gaze. "Thank you," I said. He nodded and I turned my gaze to the bomb. I was about to press activate when all of a sudden I was shoved to the side. I was surprised to see Kyle jump past me with his arm pushing me and Scott back.

I was a bit angry until I saw an electric, purple beam headed towards us. It hit Kyle squarely in the chest, smoking and fizzing in a burst of light. He was pushed back onto me and I caught him in horror. There was a moderately sized crater in his chest plate, black scorch marks stretching outwards from it. His eyes were closed.

Kade fired at Henderson and Rogers who had now joined the fight on one of the exterior platforms, hitting the gun and disabling it. They were forced to hide behind the Covenant as a sniper round broke Henderson's shield. I set him against the core and shook him. "Wake up Kyle." No response. "Come on, wake up! We can't lose you now after we've come so far!!" I shook him lightly again. Finally, he opened his eyes weakly, "Hey." I smiled and he propped himself up before wincing. "Didn't think it'd hurt that much." I smiled again, "We'll get you back soon, just a bit longer."

I looked behind me at the Covenant. They were advancing even closer and we were running out of time. Smith radioed me, "We need to get out of here now or we will be overrun, hurry!" I thought for a moment. We have to leave but they will disable the bomb before it detonates. Someone has to stay behind. Kyle needs medical attention fast and he has information vital to the UNSC. I also need Kade and Scott to take him. Sift will need to give him medical attention and I would never let Selina stay behind. I know what I have to do.

I stood up. "White team, take Kyle to the hangar as soon as I give you the signal. I'll be right behind you." I struggled to say that last bit normally. It felt wrong to lie to them but they would never leave if I told them. At least my secrets would die with me.

They nodded while I turned back to the timer, finally pressing activate. It began beeping and I turned to them saying, "Go, go, go!" Kade offered a hand to Kyle but he got up on his own and let them go first. I returned my gaze to the walkways and took out both of my weapons, firing down each walkway with cutting precision... Until I was pushed down the opposite walkway that is. I looked up to see Kyle aiming a pistol at me while two grenades cleared the walkways. "What..." he shook his head and interrupted me, "You have to go, I'm already done for, I won't make it to the Pelican. Even before I stood up I knew I was on my last minutes. You however, can still save the universe. Your team needs you. I knew you might try this. I already set an EMP and HAVOK nuke to go off in space near the mothership." I remembered him tripping. He must have taken them from me and done that at the airlock. The bomb beeped, 15 seconds left.

He shot my shield and I took a step back. Plasma began to drain his shield. "Go! You don't have much time! Go!" He threw a grenade at my feet and returned his fire to the walkways. I ran and was thrown forward by the force of the grenade. I rolled as I landed and looked back to see the Covenant start to overrun Kyle. I gave the auto pilot the command to take off and ran towards the hangar. As I ran through the opening I saw the Pelican begin to fly away from the ship. If I jumped, the lack of gravity would carry me with ease towards it.

I was halfway there when there was a sudden silence behind me, like a breath of air. At that moment I knew I hadn't been fast enough. I'm too late, and Kyle died for nothing. I thought, a part of me disappointed. There was a roaring sound. I turned to see fire explode through the opening and through the walls. Metal twisted and everything tore apart around me. My shield was instantly overloaded and fire scorched my back painfully. In the split second I had left, I looked at the Pelican in the distance, glad to have at least saved them. Then I cried out one last time before it all disappeared into oblivion.

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