(Now the same as usual, I do not own any of the Halo stories so all credits goes to the ones who created the story so hope you enjoy this story.)

Planet: Reach (Epsilon Eridani System)

Date: August 14th 2552

OPERATION: RED FLAG

The UNSC is pulling many resources in this fight for Reach when the Covenant discovered the planet and is now sending everything against them; the UNSC needs to do the same thing in order to stop the Covenant from destroying their fortress. If Reach falls then they will be closer from reaching Earth, it would be the end of humanity if these two planets fall to the Covenant.

It has been a day now since the UNSC discovered the Covenant's powerful superweapon against their fleet is now hanging in space, away from the danger right now but it will come back down when reinforcements arrive. The great Supercarrier has made its hold over the skies right now, causing the UNSC forces on the ground for a total retreat while they plan to find a way to take down that powerful ship, both ONI and any other higher ups plan for a strategy to take out that ship before the main fleet arrives. Due to the discovery of that ship, fifty percent of the fleet is making its way to Reach, they will have to deal with that monstrosity and surely deal with extra Covenant ships that will arrive soon.

ONI decides to initiate OPERATION: RED FLAG, a plan that might save Reach and end the war but might involve many phases in order to get this started, planning to do the impossible right here and that is to hijack the most powerful ship in Covenant fleet, The Long Night of Solace'. ONI believes that with a perfect strategy and the element of surprise, it is possible for them to steal the Supercarrier and use it against the Covenant and to use it to reach their home world, if succeeded on taking that ship, they can end the war if the mission to the home world completes.

The first phase in this task is to retrieve Cortana and take her to a Halcyon-class vessel where it will launch into space and attack against the Covenant, the ones who will help pull this off on hijacking the Long Night of Solace is Blue Team. Before they could leave, they need Cortana, this here is when another team travels to Sword Base and that is Noble Team. Noble Team are on board on two Falcons, flying over the battlefield and getting a look at the view, noticing that Sword Base is under attack yet again by Covenant ground forces. The Covenant have dealt heavy blows to the UNSC defences, destroying their defences outside the base and have already started to add their AA-guns, stationed near the edge of the cliff.

Inside one of the falcons is Noble Six who is Spartan Kane, a black Spartan who is famous at Lone Wolf, now is here with Noble Team to help fight the Covenant. He now sits with Carter and Kat on this falcon, looking out on the other falcons nearby and seeing the other half of Noble Team on the other one, also noticing some plasma fire from the ground trying to hit the falcons out of the sky but kept missing until finally one took a hit.

Carter looks out at the falcon that took a plasma shot underneath it, seeing it exploding and falling out of the sky, causing him to contact the other pilots on the falcons. "Pilot! Take us down now!"

"Yes sir."

Carter contacts the rest of Noble Team now. "Were going in."

The falcons begun to disembark onto the ground, once landed the Spartans will jump out, with them would be a handful of marines who came on another falcon that was behind them. Once they are off they quickly took flight into the sky, flying off elsewhere while firing off their machineguns on the ground and in the air as they fly off. Carter runs forward to take point, signalling everyone else to follow him towards an abandoned base that the Covenant ground forces destroyed, now guarded with heavy infantry, two ghosts and a wraith.

The Spartans move up towards the area in a line, once they spot the Covenant they open fire while the marines stay behind them for now, moving up and splitting in half, having half the team moving towards the destroyed buildings just to avoid plasma fire from that wraith. A ghost attacks Kat by using its boost engine, charging towards Kat but she activated an armour lock, blasting that ghost to bits on impact and sending that grunt flying past her.

Jorge would be standing near Kat once that ghost was destroyed, firing all out towards the other Covenant troops nearby, killing a couple of grunts while two elites jumped out of its fire. Kane and Emile would be running together on the right side to take out that wraith, Carter and the others would move off on the left side, through the destroyed buildings to cut the enemy's advance.

Carter was with the marines by his side, having Jorge take the middle with Kat while Jun was at the back, targeting the Covenant troops and firing two shots to blast the second ghost to bits. Jun notices the wraith was moving in position, getting him to move out of its sight and starts trying to target the gunner on the wraith.

Carter stayed with the marines while shooting down at the grunts that came out of the AA-Gun. He looks back to the marines "I got the gun. You guys cover me."

"Yes sir." The one behind him responds, taking his position to shoot at the Covenant while Carter runs towards the AA-Gun, taking some hits with needle fire but did not damage his shields well.

Kat moved into cover once she was taking too much plasma hits from that wraith, getting her to stay behind a large rock while she reloads while Jorge stands by her side, firing off rounds through the Covenant infantry near the marines. Very soon, that grunt that is mount on that plasma gun on the wraith took a hit in the head, killed by Jun when he had the opportunity, removing the problem and leaving the rest to Emile and Kane who were very close of attacking the wraith.

"Cover me." Emile said to Kane as he switches to the rocket launcher and moves in position, trying to get behind the wraith without it noticing him.

Kane moves forward and spots a handful of grunts approaching the site; he took aim and fired his assault rifle at them, removing them before they could do any trouble. The wraith would not target him after he revealed himself, instead it targets both Jorge and Kat and fired a plasma shell across the field, causing them both to shield block to block against the blast. Emile would make it behind the tank, crouching down and firing through the back core of the tank with one shot, triggering massive explosions from the back and soon the wraith went up in purple flames when it blew up.

"That takes care of that." Emile said when standing back up

Soon another explosion went off inside the AA-Gun, causing massive chains of explosions thanks to Carter when he threw a grenade inside the core, giving him a few seconds to escape before it explodes.

"All teams move up." Carter said

"We got more company." Jun said as he stays where he was, taking aim towards a handful of Covenant infantry and seeing a revenant coming through. "I don't think so." He said to himself before he fired. He shot the elite through the head, stopping the revenant from moving any further.

"There mine!" Emile turns towards the Covenant infantry, firing a rocket towards the revenant and blasting that to bits, killing two jackals in the process and causing the four grunts to run around while he reloads.

Both Carter and Kane fired a few rounds at the grunts as they were running around, Kane only killed one while Carter shot the other three with his DMR, killing them quickly with headshots. Once they are dead and clear, Carter signals everyone to move up, making their way towards the entrance into Sword Base.

Sword Base was becoming a serious wreck inside as Covenant began blasting through the windows and making holes through the walls to get inside quickly, causing the UNSC forces to be stretch too thin, seeing they cannot handle many places at once. Things got worse when they lose contact with some of their teams, seeing the Covenant are advancing and became more difficult because of the engineers floating around in the sky, making things harder. The marines would have to retreat further within, gather as many troops as they can and retreat and to destroy information like the computers and generators so that the Covenant do not get their hands on it.

Inside Sword Base was a Spartan-III who was busy helping the marines fight against the Covenant; her name is Rosenda, a member of Noble Team but put in the noble reserves for now. She wore a white armour and a CQC helmet, carrying a DMR while having a battle rifle on her back. She stood on the high ground in the middle of the base; she threw one elite off the balcony and sent him crashing on the bottom then threw two grenades down there once she stood at the edge of the balcony to take out the other infantry at the bottom.

Rosenda takes aim at the engineer and shoots it out of the sky, soon getting a transmission from Doctor Halsey. "Rosenda. Noble Team is inside the building, you need to return to me immediately."

Rosenda looks back when seeing three marines crouching down, having fear in their eyes as they try to reload their weapons and could not go back out there. Rosenda walks up to the marines while responding to Halsey "Negative, I still got a job to do here."

"Noble Team will take care of the mess, just get back to me. The Covenant can't get their hands on what I have and I need you here right now."

Rosenda came towards the marines and grabs one of them, lifting him up off the ground and getting him to stand before she lets go of him. "Follow my lead. Stay alive."

"U-Uh… R-Right… Sir."

Rosenda punches him slightly to the chest before turning towards the stairway. "Let's move." She aims her battle rifle forward, moving back downstairs, and responds to Halsey. "I'll be there in a minute."

Rosenda kept moving while firing her battle rifle at some of the grunts in the room, killing two of them while she keeps going and shot twice at a jackal before it died. The three marines would follow her as they watch her back, following her through the hallway and stops when she runs over the bridge, firing her battle rifle down at the Covenant infantry that starts shooting back at her. She was moving sideways along the bridge, taking some damage but she kept going and shooting down at them, she was trying to get the marines to follow but she notices their hesitation. Once she made it on the other side, one of the marine's runs along the bridge and did the same thing she just did, soon to see the others running across the bridge and only one fell at halfway. One elite took a lucky shot and hits him in the chest twice, getting the marine to stop when watching him taking those hits, watching him falling off the bridge and crashing hard onto the floor.

"Move it!" Rosenda shouts to the marines who watched that marine fell. She looks forward and spots some grunts coming around the corner, getting her to fire a few rounds through the heads, and continues moving with the marines behind her.

The Covenant infantry at the bottom was about to go chase after that Spartan, only to be stopped when the doorway opens up from behind them, seeing the six Spartans all together and began firing through, eliminating the infantry in seconds. The team rushes right in, seeing the whole place is worse than the last time they were here, seeing the Covenant has been busy while they were away.

"We left for one minute and this place goes straight to hell." Jun said

"The Covenant are getting desperate on taking this base." Kat said when moving in, reloading her assault rifle "Can't blame them."

Carter moves forward and looks up at the balconies above them; hearing gunfire going off and seeing the flashes of light from above, seeing there is people still fighting. "Let's move Noble."

Just as they were about to move, Carter stops and notices a phantom coming straight towards them, seeing it on fire and coming straight through the window to crash through, destroying the bridges that will lead them to the top. Noble Team ran for it to get into cover, seeing that phantom is not slowing down and will soon hit against the end of the wall, covering the doorway and causing more explosions from inside the phantom. Noble Team was lucky that they saw the phantom on time; all made it out of there by running out of the area and inside the room on the left.

"Guess we won't be going back now." Emile said when looking at the phantom then looks back to Carter

"Two and Six." Carter points forward while aiming his rifle "Move up."

"Yes sir." Kane moves forward with his assault rifle ready, having Kat following him to the side and tries to look forward while checking his indicator, seeing several yellow life signs on his indicator on the corner of his HUD.

The team continues moving without seeing any Covenant infantry around to stop them, seeing only dead grunts and jackals are laying on the ground and a couple of marines as well who are unfortunate. Once they are getting closer to the life signs, Carter would try to contact that unit, making sure that they do not deal with friendly fire when they come around that corner.

Six marines was standing in an empty curved corridor, having one of the marines controlling a mounted machinegun that was aiming out there. They soon got the word from Rosenda who was standing there looking at the wall, ordering the marines to hold fire when she too saw life signs coming towards them on his indicator. The marines would lower their guards, seeing both Kat and Kane appearing in their sights, getting Noble Team to lower their weapons as they move in.

"More Spartans." One of them said when approaching them

"Another Spartan?" Kat asks herself, walking around the corner and seeing Rosenda "Rosenda?"

She looks back at them "Well now… Good to see you guys again…" She looks over to Emile when he walks around the corner "Emile…"

"Oh it's you again." Emile said "What are you doing here?"

"You have to ask her."

"Her?" Carter asks

A sudden secret doorway would open up from around the corner that got everyone's attention, the same wall that Rosenda was looking at before Noble Team arrived. She would be the first to go through there while Noble Team hesitated, seeing her going through first and got them and the marines to follow.

"So who is she?" Kane asks Emile while walking in there

"She was meant to take my place in Noble Team, only if an Insurrection happened."

"Well you're lucky."

"So where are we going anyway?" Emile asks Rosenda

"You have to ask her." She stops and looks over towards the tram up ahead, seeing the lights lighting up the room to reveal the tram

The whole team made there step inside the tram and seeing it was capable to hold all of them, once inside, the tram activates and sends everyone further down. They all wait in silent as they wait for this to end, only to break the silence when Halsey appears on the screen, revealing herself to everyone.

"Doctor Halsey." Carter said

"Hello everyone, glad to see your faces a second time."

"What's going on here Halsey?" Carter asks "Why are we all here?"

"Commander Carter. Your orders have been to come here to initiate the highest-ranking mission that could change the fate of this war forever. You know what I am talking about."

"Red Flag."

"Operation: Red Flag is a high class operation that will involve a lot of steps in order to achieve this, if you play your roles correctly then you will surely win this war for us and save Reach."

"Win the war…." Jorge said "What are you talking about?"

"That large Supercarrier that is staying in space… Your job is to steal it."

"Steal?" Jun asks "The most fortified, longest, strongest and probably the most powerful ship the Covenant Empire has?"

"I thought we were meant to blow it out of the sky?" Emile looks to Carter

"Stealing this ship will give us the location on the Covenant home world, with it; we can end the war once and for all."

"I still think blowing it out of the sky would be a good idea." Kane said

"Won't make any difference though." Jorge said

"He's right." Halsey said "Destroying that ship won't make any damage to the Covenant fleet, destroying the Covenant Empire once and for all will bring the end to everything. You Spartans and of course you marines, if you survive this. There is an artefact that needs to be finished, once it is done, Phase One will begin in Red Flag and with it, you will deliver it to a Halcyon-class vessel that is preparing to depart from Reach and attack the Supercarrier."

"That's a crazy assignment." Jun said "No way a Halcyon-class ship could take on a Supercarrier."

"Let the crew of that ship handle it. I need some time though, the Covenant are already aware on my location and they will try to get in, you cannot allow them to get their hands on this."

"Don't worry…" Carter said "We won't let them get their hands on it."

"Let's hope not. Otherwise Reach will fall."

The tram continues moving down the rails where the people on board looks out and notices this huge structure in the distance, underneath the ice above them, seeing they are further away from the base. The team notice large chunks of ice falling from the surface, revealing the Covenant are aware of this place and started deploying phantoms through the gaps so they could enter within.

"They know were down here." Jorge said

"We need to set up a defensive perimeter around the entrance." Carter said "Give Halsey some time to complete her work."

"Spartans, there are four defensive turrets offline around the area, if you turn them on then you have more fire power against the Covenant." Halsey responds

"Copy that." Carter opens up the tram door and walks out of there first, moving forward with everyone behind him. "Kat, you and Kane will activate the turrets; we will prepare a defence at the entrance."

"Copy that commander." Kat looks to Kane for a second before looking forward "Try and catch up." She then started running off the platform.

"Alright the rest of you with me." Carter moves forward with his DMR at the ready

Both Kat and Kane did their job by getting towards the turrets, getting the two to split up before the Covenant arrive while Carter and everyone else makes their way to the entrance into the facility. They notice the area is pack with heavy weaponry, giving them time to last long down here in a firefight against the Covenant and not have to worry about running out of ammo. The team would have to defend that area, getting the Spartans guarding the gate while the marines would be moving to the left side to get some cover.

"Two defensive turrets are online." Kat said after she activated her first one while Kane activated the other one "I'm onto the next one."

Kane just arrived at the third one, pressing the console to turn the turret on and getting the gun to rise up out of the round storage where the gun was hiding. "Third weapon is online." Kane said then looks out, seeing a Covenant phantom landing closer to the ground.

"Get back here now." Carter contacts him

"Copy that." He turns back and starts running, running over the snow and goes to see how Kat is doing on the fourth turret

Kat was aiming at a phantom that was inbound to drop a wraith further ahead, quickly getting her to activate the console to get the turret out of the round storage. "The last one is online."

"Kat, get back here now. We got banshees incoming."

"Copy that commander." She turns back and starts running, looking over to Kane as he was nearby looking back at her "Come on Kane we don't want to keep the comma –"

A sudden shot fired from the phantom behind them; a zealot fired a needle rifle straight through the back of the head of Kat. Kane looks back at her when seeing her collapsing onto the ground, getting him to catch her and held her body in his arms while looking towards the sniper. He took out a magnum off Kat and shoots at the phantom, soon to have Carter to join, firing his assault rifle at the phantom when seeing Kat on the ground. Kane would soon stop and drops the magnum, picking Kat up off the ground and running back with her in his arms, back to everyone else while they cover them. Jun will be the one to take out that zealot when he took aim and fired, hitting that elite zealot through the head and sending him falling off the phantom before it took off.

Carter ran over to them once the sniper was dead "Kat!" He calls to her, noticing a hole through her visor.

"She's dead sir."

"We got company!" One of the marines calls to them "The turrets are firing."

"I got her." Carter takes Kat off his arms and holds her "Get in position." He turns back and walks with her in his arms back to the gate while Kane runs off to get a new weapon. Carter places her down, getting her to sit against the wall next to the entrance, looking at her for a while before he lowered his head. "I'm sorry Kat." He mumbled to himself. He looks back at her and moves his hands over her neck, pulling her dog tag off her neck and placing it through his armour.

Kane rushes back into the fight with Carter appearing next to him; both aim their rifles outwards at the enemy, killing the enemy before they could disable their turrets and giving them time. Everyone else joined in and open fire towards the Covenant, seeing banshees flying over to attack from the sky while also getting the wraith tanks to move as close as they can. They fire across the area and hitting only the walls and the ceiling, causing the team to move back while firing at the Covenant, back underneath the roof so they could hold out against their onslaught.

The marines who stood in the open continues firing on where they are, their fate would soon end when a Covenant elite was nearby, armed with a plasma launcher. He fired at one of the marines, hitting his chest and obliterating him, killing two more marines who was nearby while the other one collapse onto the ground.

Rosenda ran over to the marine to help, she grabs his assault rifle and helps him up off the ground before giving it back to him. "Take this and stay down." The moment she said that, she took a couple of hits from plasma fire from the enemy, getting her to look back and fire back at them.

The marine helps her by firing at the elite she is shooting, hitting the elite a few times before Rosenda killed it first, afterwards she will move out wards while reloading, noticing some grunts coming, shooting at the turret on the left. She gets helm from Jorge on moving towards the turret as it goes offline; they try to get that turret back online while they go eliminate the Covenant infantry before they call for reinforcements.

"I wish we can steal a banshee and bring the fight to them." Jun said while crouching down behind the sandbags. He aims out at a ghost that was slowly moving closer, getting him to fire twice before it explodes.

"We hold our position." Carter reloads his rifle

"You don't have to tell me that…" Emile said. He stood nearby then looks up when seeing a banshee coming towards them "Incoming!"

Half of the team fired at the banshee, damaging it while it shoots plasma rounds back at them. Emile takes over by taking out a grenade launcher, firing it in the air and held the trigger down, causing the grenade to explode and causes the banshee to lose power. The banshee flies over towards Emile, getting him to roll out of the way for it to crash into the side of the structure, destroying half of their supply of ammo.

"We lost our weapons…." Emile said when looking over to the burning armoury

"Good job Emile." Rosenda said

"We still got theirs." Kane spoke out when rushing towards a dead grunt, taking a fuel rod gun out of its hand and starts moving to the side while aiming at that wraith in front of him. He fired three times as it only had three shots left, seeing that only two of those hits the wraith but was still intact.

The wraith responded by firing at a lower range, firing it at Kane but he rolled out of the way on time, retreating back to the others and ditching the fuel rod gun. The wraith will fire again towards the others, getting them to move back to avoid the plasma explosion.

"How much longer!?" Carter contacts Halsey

"Just a little bit…"

Rosenda stays on the left side while firing at the wraith with her battle rifle, taking out that elite that is mounted the plasma turret, not knowing that a rare elite shows up on the left side, coming around the corner. A white elite field marshal came into the fray, armed with two dual plasma guns and gets closer to Rosenda but was halt when the marine saw it on time. He came rushing past Rosenda while she reloads, looking back and noticing him charging at the field marshal while that elite shoots back at him, hitting him in the chest a couple of times, seeing both of them are not going down until finally that field marshal killed him with a head shot. Rosenda drops her battle rifle and came charging towards that elite before that marine fell, she jumped up and punches it hard across the face then lays a kick to the chest to push it back. The elite would draw out an energy sword once losing its weapons, it tried to cut her but she rolled out the way on time, getting her to get behind the elite so she could finish this. She drew two combat knives and stabs her left hand knife through the back of the elite, she then wraps her right arm around the neck of the elite, pulling back then swings her right hand that was holding her other knife, slicing the neck of the elite and watching it fall.

"Spartans, get to the gate now. I have done it."

"Copy that Halsey." Carter looks out and sees the wraith tank blowing up, thanks to Kane and Emile. "Alright people, regroup on me, were done here."

Both Emile and Kane regroup after they took care of the wraith, they retreat and took some damage from a banshee nearby that was shooting at them. Once everyone was here, the doorway opens up and they all made their way inside except for Carter, he looks back at Kat for a while but he looks forward and moves on, force to leave her behind. He walks through and looks back, noticing surviving Covenant regrouping, seeing two more phantoms inbound but in front of him turns to dark when the door closes shut.

The Spartans venture down into the dark until they see bright lights coming from the place where Halsey lies, standing there and continue typing on her computer and looking back towards them, soon to turn back and looking towards the sphere on her left.

"What the hell is this?" Emile said

"Knowledge." She responds while moving away from her computer and looking back at them "A birthright from an ancient civilization. This AI is its custodian, and she has chosen you as her carriers."

Emile moves closer to Carter "Chosen? By an AI?

"By this AI, yes. Her measure of you carries as much weight as my own…. You are to take her to UNSC ship-breaking yards in Azod. There you will find a cruiser waiting to get her off the planet and start the next phase of the plan."

"I understand." Carter said "This here is for Reach right?"

"Of course…" She turns back to the AI one last time and shuts off her projection. Halsey pulls out the data storage unit, pulling out of the storage and held it with both hands. She took her walk towards the Spartans, thinking she will give it to Carter but she gave it to Kane instead, making him step back while she stops and stands in front of him.

"Take it." Halsey raises the storage unit higher to him "She has made her choice."

Kane looks to Carter as he nods to him then looks back to Halsey and grabs the package with both hands. "Do you have it?" Halsey asks him

"Yes."

"Say the words, please."

"I have it."