Chapter 1-Capture and Escape

The operation had been set up from the get go. Noble Six and a team of ODST had been tasked to infiltrate an area heavily populated with the Covenant to try and get any information they might have on the next raid they would hold on the planet. Turned out that the damn covies had somehow known about their plans to raid the base and had been there to cut down the ODSTs and capture the Spartan Three.

So now here she sat stewing in the guilt and anger of losing such good men to the blue plasma of covenant weapons. The massacre had happened in seconds of stepping over enemy lines and Six could still see the blood caked on her recon armor and around the mouth guard of her Mark V helmet. Her pretty purple and orange looked darker from the dried liquid and Six desperately wished to be able to clean it off. She could care less if she was coated in the blue and purple blood of her enemies, but seeing the red on her armor made her ironclad stomach turn.

Six is now stuck on one of the biggest Covenant flagships currently in orbit around Reach. She would have been able to make it back to HQ if not for the squad of Sangheili Zealots that had been dispatched to capture her. They had taken her by surprise and knocked her out cold with a blow to the back of her helmet when her shields had gone down.

Restless energy coursed through her and Six stood to begin pacing the small room that the Covenant called a cell. It barely allowed her six foot 4 inch body to stride five steps in either direction and she was beginning to feel claustrophobic. There was a reason that she hated doing drops with the Helljumpers.

Her anger ticked up a notch when she began to go back over her situation in more detail. They had taken her weapons and disabled her shield generator. Her com unit would not work inside the cell and there was a miniscule crack that started at the right corner of her visor that continued to distract her whenever she looked that way. In a fit of anger, Six reared back and punched the wall of her cell.

"You should calm yourself human. Keep that up and they will send the guard back in here." A voice suddenly says and it stops Six dead in her tracks. She would have thought that the Covenant would have put her into a cell block by herself. Apparently Not.

From the accented words, Six would have to guess that it was a Sangheili stuck in here with her. Why he was here with her was a question that she wanted answers to immediately.

"Why would they have a Sangheili stuck in such high priority cells?" She questions and is shocked when the elite in question begins to chuckle at her. She honestly did not see anything that would be considered funny in her question or the situation. She turns to the right of her cell and can just see a glimpse of bright silver-white armor staring back at her. She knows that the only ones to wear such armor were the Ship Masters.

"Knowing too much of the Prophet's Will has sent me to this forsaken cell." He rumbles to her after he had stopped his inane laughter. "My execution has been postponed until the others have glassed this planet and we return to High Charity."

"High Charity?" Six questions him. She had heard of it before but had never truly believed that the Covenant's central base was a giant ship the size of a small planet. Hearing the former Ship Master speak of it so casually sent shivers down her spine.

"Mhmm. Yes their so called Holy City." he growls and Six can hear him stand and begin to walk along his cell. He is close enough now that she can see more of him. The usual blue highlights of his armor have been changed to a brilliant red and his flesh was an unusual pale brown. The most accenting feature about him had to be his emerald green eyes. Most elites she had come across had either yellow or orange colored eyes.

"Why are you telling me all this?" Six asks now and she sees amusement and resignation pass through his gaze. Again she wants to know what is so funny about this whole situation. He gives her a shrug and he is shocked to see such a human expression come from the massive male. And he is at least eight and a half feet tall and he fills out his small cell far more than she ever could.

"You have heard of the human saying the enemy of my enemy is my friend yes?" he says instead and when Six nods in acknowledgement he gives the Spartan what must be a smile to his species. To her it looked like he was about to start snarling at her with the way his mandibles raised at his jaws and his teeth bared. "Then why should I not tell what should be my friend on a ship full of enemies?"

"I guess that makes sense." Six says and the two of them launch into silence. She does not know how much longer she will be stuck in this cell, but at least this way she might be able to acquire information about the on goings of the Covenant. "Would you be willing to tell me about it? If I somehow escape then the information you have would be a boon to the UNSC."

"Hmm. I will help you if you get my out of this cell. The Brute that patrols here will come for you far sooner than myself. You are a demon of the Covenant and they will see you killed." He says and moves closer to the blue shield that separates the cell from the hallway. He looks Six in the visor and somehow is able to capture her own eyes behind it. "Promise me and my information will help you destroy the Covenant and save your race."

"You seem to think that the information that you have can not be found elsewhere." Six states and stays her ground when the Sangheili seems to draw himself up.

"It would take your human scientists years to find out what I alone know. Why do you think my entire ship turned on me?" He snarls suddenly and lashes out against the blue shield. "The Prophets intended to light the Holy Rings once they find them and lead the Covenant on the Great Journey. These rings do nothing but destroy all life around them. When I tried to tell my most trusted they turned on me and named me Heretic."

Six is silent after his outburst and can only stare at him with wide eyes through her visor. She has never seen a Sangheili lose their cool like this one had. Him being accused a Heretic must have stripped him of all honor and poise he must have had. However, she had no cause to believe or disbelieve him so she would just have to go with her gut and whatever luck was on her side.

"Okay." Six says after a moment of silence. She watches the Sangheili jerk his head in a nod before retreating back to the small bench that serves as a bed in the cell.

"Teda 'Radom." he says suddenly and if Six was not a hyper lethal spartan three she would have jumped at the sudden sound in the silence.

"What?" she asked him and turned back to where he was sitting. If she was honest with herself she had almost dozed off in the silence of the cell block. She had not had a wink of rest in well over twenty-four hours.

"My name. Teda 'Radom."

Oh. Well then. "I guess you can call me Six. Everyone else does." She tells him and hears his grunt of confusion at the number for her name.

"That is a human numerical gliph is it not?" He asks and sits forward in his seat to better see her.

"Yes, but since I joined Noble Team, I go by the number. Used to be a lone wolf before the Covenant decided to start glassing Reach."

It is quiet after Six speaks. The two of them sit in silence once more but far from the comfortable one they had shared earlier. The glassing of planets was an obvious sore spot for the spartan and she would rather the two of them not speak about it at all. She did not want to speak to Teda at all if she could help it. Not until they were out of these cells.

"I must apologize on behalf of myself and my brothers for the death we have caused you and your race. We have all blindly followed the Prophets and never once questioned their way on our quest for the Great Journey. When we first met you humans on the battlefield we never once questioned why the Prophets ordered your extinction. We should have." Teda 'Radom says suddenly and Six knows that the apology is genuine when she sees the self loathing in his gaze. She wonders if he knows that he wears his emotions so openly in his face.

It takes her a long time to speak with him after his apology. She knew that it had been real and had taken a lot out of him to say it. But after years and years of fighting each other, it is hard for her to accept it.

"I can not accept your apology right now. Nor do I think you could accept mine if I gave you one." Six says finally. She watches Teda dip his head in acceptance of what she says and feels an odd sense of relief. She would rather not lose the only thing in this place that might keep her sane. Six can already feel the walls begin to close around her. Her training is the only thing that prevents her from having a quiet meltdown.

Their silence is interrupted by the door at the end of the hall sliding open and the jailer comes lumbering through. He aims a nasty grin at both the shamed Sangheili and Spartan before coming to a stop in front of Six's cell.

SIx cringes internally at the yellow teeth aimed her way and can't help but feel anger at the thought of all the men that have been ripped apart and bitten by the Jiralhanae. If they did not die from blood loss then they would die from whatever unknown bacteria that lives on the brutes.

"Time to die, Demon." the brute snarls at Six and she glares at him from behind her helmet. If looks could kill he would have already died ten times over in the most horrid of ways. Time seems to slow down and Six zeros in on the way the Jiralhanae moves his fingers across the data pad that will open her cell. She memorizes the movements and when the light shield door goes down, Six is on him.

She tackles the brute to the floor and he goes down with a loud thud. Her fist cracks across his jaw and the furry beast howls in pain as several teeth come flying out of his mouth to clink on the floor. His hands grip her sides and she feels his claws tear into her black bodysuit and push through the gel layers and into her flesh. She forces down her grunt of pain and flips until she is straddling him from behind. Six's arm goes around his throat into a chokehold and she bares down as hard as she can on the brute's windpipe.

Finally after what feels like hours have passed, Six feels the brute go still in her hold. She keeps her arm locked for a few seconds longer to make sure the beast under her is properly dead before she lets go and gets to her feet. She takes a deep breath and feels time right itself around her as the adrenaline in her system slowly seeped out of her.

"Impressive." Teda rumbles next to her ear and Six grins behind her helmet at the compliment. Six turned as with a few presses of Covenant glyphs, the shield separating the two is lowered and Teda 'Radom steps out. The first thing the massive Sangheili does is stretched out to his full height and Six suddenly feels very small compared to him. She had always been one of the shorter Spartan Threes but the male just makes her feel like a child.

"We should make haste. The exicutioners must already know something is wrong when the jailer did not com them about you." He says and Six nods in agreement. They make for the door but before they go through he places a four fingered hand on her shoulder and stops her. "Wait. I must retrieve something from my quarters first. I will not leave without it."

Six can tell that he will not back down from his statement so does not even try to argue with him. Instead she nods and gestures for him to show the way. She would rather not toddle in a Covenant SuperCarrier, but the Sangheili is her best way out of here.

Teda nods back to her and then they are off. The first covies they come across are a pair of patrolling grunts who they take out with a quick snap of their neck. They take the fallen plasma pistols and continue on down the hall then into the next few rooms unscathed until Six noticed that the halls had become more crowded with guards.

The two now packed two plasma pistols, three plasma rifles, a carbine, and a swath of plasma grenades that they used to easily clear the halls of enemies. "We are close." Teda says when they have a small break in a cleared out room. His voice was strained and Six turned to him in an easy stance to look him over. Teda looked drained. Like the fighting had wore him down and knocked something loose. It was then that she realized that this whole time they had been killing people that her companion had known for a very long time.

She steps closer and does something she did not think she would ever do to someone who was not one of her fellow soldiers. Six places her hand on top of his own and gives it a small squeeze and asks, "Are you okay?"

Teda gives a humorless chuckle and Six can't help but to feel for him. She knew what it was like to take another humans life. Before Noble Team she had been used by the ONI to take down small sepatrests groups that could cause problems in the future. However, they had only been faces that she would never remember, people who she had never spoken to.

"I will be fine." He says and looks down at where her hand is resting on top of his own. Slowly he watches her pull her hand away and Teda can't help his rumble of laughter. Somehow this small demon had made him feel more alive then he had in a very long time. Killing his once brothers had been hard for him. Seeing their familiar faces crying out in pain had made something crack inside of him. He had tried so hard to change their views on the Prophets after he had found out what the Great Journey truly was.

"If you are sure." She says to him and makes her way back to the door and into the next hallway. Teda 'Radom follows after her and the two fight their way to the Sangheili's quarters.

Six peaks around the corner of the long corridor to see a large door at the end guarded by two Honor Guards and curses in her mind at the sight of them. Honor Guards were the most frantic believers of the Prophets and the lies they spewed. With the weapons Teda and Six had on hand it was going to take a lot of luck on their side to not be killed by the energy swords and staffs they wielded. She pops back into cover and turns to Teda who has a murderous expression on his face. Quickly, she takes his arm and leads him back along the hallway and into a cleared room to try and see if the two could come up with a plan and to prevent him from blowing up.

"What should we do?" She asks him and goes over her inventory in her mind. After the two of them had talked, they had replaced their empty plasma weaponry but most of their grenades had been used to clear out packs of Unggoy and the occasional Kig-Yar. Her shields were still disabled and the cuts in her side were beginning to smart against her. They would have to play this smart if they wanted to get out of here alive.

"My active camouflage can be activated for short periods of time. If you are able to distract them, then I will be able to take one of them out. Once I have their blade I can dispatch the other. The battlenet is only reporting you are wreaking havoc in these halls." Teda 'Radom says and Six hums at the plan.

From what she had seen neither of the guards had any long range weapons on them; only the staffs and the deactivated blades attached to their armor. Six would have to be careful if the Sangheili closed the distance between them, but she was sure in her abilities to keep them a good distance away from her. It was a solid plan if they could find a decent enough kill zone that would allow Teda enough movement to take out the first guard.

She told her companion as much and he nods his head in agreement, "There is a training room that we passed down in the hallway before this one. If you are confident that you can lead them there then it would be the ideal place to end them."

"Show me." is all she says and Teda leads her down the hallway he spoke of and showed her the room in question. Inside, Six noted the size and deemed the thirty by thirty foot room to be acceptable for the situation. If things got hairy then it would be easy enough to get away.

"This was my personal training room. It locks from the outside."

"We could just lock them in then right? No need for you to kill more of your people?" Six questions and immediately has to take a step back when Teda 'Radom snarls and lashes out at one of the training dummies littered around the room.

"They do not deserve to live." He hisses and strikes the dummy once more. "Those two were my most trusted advisors, my link to the Prophets. My closest companions and they turn me in the moment I come to them with my doubts."

"Then we kill them both." Six says simply and is unsettled how quickly she is to give aid to the Sangheili. They have only known each other for a few hours and she feels more compassion and connection to him than she ever did with Noble Team.

Plan set and ready to go, Six watches Teda cloak himself and hide away in the shadows of the training room. On steady feet, she makes her way outside of the training room and into the hallway that will lead her back to the shamed Sangheili's quarters rest. Her side throbs with pain and she uses it to focus on concentrating for the upcoming battle.

As she rounds the corner, she already has her plasma pistol changed and near overloaded. She fires the hissing bolt at the right guard and it hits him perfectly in the center mass of his body. She had hoped that the over charged bolt would take his shields down but all they did was flicker and come back up to full strength. Six curses and turns on her heel to begin leading the Sangheili down the hallway and to the training room.

By the time she tears into the room, her armor has a few more scratches and more of her bodysuit has torn away thanks to the sizzling ends of the spears the Honor Guards use. The door slams shut behind the three of them and she is now facing them in a much more enclosed space. She has limited room to run from them and with how damaged her armor is she knows that if they get a lucky hit then she might not be getting back up.

In the corner of her eye she can see Teda slink up to the guard that is closest to her. He must have found another weapon in the training room because the next thing she knows the Sangheili is going down with a screech of pain and Teda is throwing her the unused energy sword. She catches it with deft hands and ignites it with a flick of her wrist.

Her sword catches the spear and the two weapons sizzle as they slide against one another. Sparks fly and she has to bite back a wince as super heated plasma lands on the exposed parts of her body. She struggles under the weight of the guard. Teeth clenched she hopes that Teda will relieve this Sangheili of his life soon or else it would be her lying on the ground.

Her wish is answered when with an ear splitting rawr, Teda comes down with a vicious swipe of his pilfered blade and slices the left arm off the Honor Guard about to disembowel Six. The honor guard howls in anger and pain and turns to Teda with mandibles spread in a dangerous snarl. "Heretic!" he says and even though he is missing most of his left arm he attacks Teda with a single mindedness that remind Six of when a Jiralhanae goes on a rampage.

Teda is quick to defend himself of the onslaught that the other of his kind brings him. The Honor Guard is spitting insults and slurs as he slashes at Teda, but the shamed Ship Master blocks each wild swing with a precise swipe of his stolen energy blade. Six watches the entire fight happen and to her it almost seems as though Teda is dancing with his opponent with how quick he moves and how easy he strikes back.

Even though it feels like hours have passed since the battle began, Teda is soon victorious when he ducks under the sloppy move the other Sangheili makes and takes the head clean off his body with one well placed swipe.

The Honor Guards heavy head falls to the ground with a loud thud and Teda us left standing there breathing harshly through his mouth. Six carefully walks up to her companion and places her hand against his arm. At the touch, Teda quickly relaxes and slumps down from his fighting stance. He glances over at Six and his gaze filled with concern as he looked her over. He notes her torn suit and newly scared armor. She is favoring her right leg and Teda knows that she must be exhausted and in massive amounts of pain.

"Let us go. I have supplies in my quarters that will help us get out of here." He says and when Six moves to go past him, Teda grasps her shoulder gently, "Let me help you." when Six jerks her head in acceptance, Teda steps closer to her until they are pressed flush against each other and carefully loops her arm around his back so that he is able to shoulder some of her weight.

"Honor Guard must have got me while I was running back to the room." Six grunts out as they move out of said training room and back out into the hall. They hobble to 'Radom's quarters and he types in the code to open the door. Once inside he leads her to the large bed that sits in the middle of his room and places her down on it.

"I have medical supplies that we can use on your side and leg if you wish Six." He rumbles and goes and fatches the kit that he keeps in the washroom. When he gets back, Six has already detached the armor plates around her left leg and her chest. She looks smaller without the armor and Teda is overwhelmed with a fierce serge of protection toward the Spartan. Why does she make me feel this way?

'Radom pulls out a glowing blue gel and makes sure SIx is looking at him before he begins to explain what it does, "This will bring you pain, but after the initial hurt is over it acts as a numbing agent. It will close the wounds long enough for you to get medical attention from your people."

"Thank you for this." Six whispers and Teda feels his mandabals twitch into a smile, "You didn't have to do all this for me."

"Nonsense. You got me out of that cell. This is the least I could do for you."

Six only sighs and rolls her eyes skyward. She can not believe that she is actually letting what could have once been an enemy doctor her up. Teda grunts at her and SIx locks eyes with him through her helmet, "You may want to prepare. This pain is immense."

"Just do it. I can handle a little pain."

Teda snorts at her before turning to the wound on her side and holding her down with his weight. He had seen some of the hardiest warriors jerk away from the small vial he held in his hand. "Radom had his doubts that his human could withstand the fiery pain that came with healing oneself. One he had her properly held down so that she could not wiggle away from his work, Teda popped the top off of the vial and poured a generous amount onto her side and watched as the gel hardened into a thin layer as it began working.

The second it came in contact with her skin, Six had to repress a should and the instinct to lash out at whatever was causing her pain. The gel was on par with how undergoing the augmentations made her feel only for a much shorter amount of time. Soon though the icy fire began to fade and a pleasant numbness swept over her entire body. After she relaxed, Six much more prepared for the gel when Teda poured it on her left leg.

The two rested while Six regained enough strength that she could safely move around without cracking the hardened gel and still be able to fight. It came as a relief when Teda informed her that his quarters were closer to the hanger than the cells had been. Having to backtrack all the way back to the cells and then to the hanger would have taken far too long.

While she rested, Teda had raided his storage lockers and brought out a large satchel that he dug out from a locked truck at the end of his bed. He packs the bag with what medical supplies he can carry and the food rations he has stored in the small freezer that is next to his desk. Finally, he pulls out two hilts from deep within the same truck the satchel came from. Teda caresses the handles with a look of longing in his deep green eyes and Six wonders again if he notices that he wears his emotions so plainly for others to see.

When he activates the blades with a flick of his wrist, Six can not help but be mezmorized by the beautiful weapons. They are a pair of plasma blades that pulse a magnificent purple color. Instead of the usual dual bladed sword that is common amongst higher ranked Sangheili, these only have a single blade. Wide at the end where it connects with the hilt ment for their races four fingered hands and sloping down to an almost delicate point. From where she sits, Six can see vague glyphs etched into the hilts and she wonders what they mean.

"These blades have been passed down for generations to the first born of the 'Radomee clan on Sanghelios. Though now that I have been shamed a heretic, I am unable to produce an heir to our lineage nor able to hand down the blades." He explains to her and extinguishes the blades then comes to sit beside his spartan. He has never let another being handle these relics, but he feels possessed to pass one of the hilts over to her and let Six examine them to her heart's content.

"What do these symbols mean?" She asks and traces the ancient Sangheili glyphs with the tip of her gloved finger. The hilts are artfully designed for praticaliy and for comfort, large enough to fit within Teda's huge hand, but small enough that if she spreads her fingers the right way she can easily wield it.

"Family and Honor." He rumbles and carefully tales back the hilt and angles it so that the two of them can see it, "These glyphs mean honor. It represents what we bring to our kin." he then shows her the other hilt where the word family is spelt out in the ancient language. "The two things that represent my family and I have betrayed it. Never to be seen as kin again." His voice is harsh and filled with self loathing.

"Some things have to be sacrificed for the greater good. I don't remember any of my family. We were taken at an early age." Six says quietly and reaches out to wrap her hand around his own that hold the family hilt. "We forge our own paths."

"Wise words for a human." 'Radom murmurs and feels a jump in his chest when his words force a strained laugh out of Six. They fall silent and then Six sighs and gets up from where she sits on the bed. She stretches carefully and finally begins to put on the armor that she had taken off so her wounds could be tended to. They have rested in Teda's quarters for almost half an hour and it was time for them to get out of here. They had been lucky that they had been able to take out the patrols and the guards on the way to his rooms without them alerting the entire ship.

"We need to get out of here. I'm good to start moving. Are you?" Six says and picks up the weapons she had set on the floor when they got inside her quarters. She was ready to get out of the purple halls of the Covenant Super Carrier and get her feet back on hard packed dirt. Spartans belonged on the ground where they could bring the fight to whoever opposes the UNSC.

"Yes. I am ready."

The two of them quickly gather their things and are out the door double time. Now that Six is much less injured and Teda 'Radom has his weapons, clearing the halls on the way to the hanger is much quicker. For every enemy that Six takes down, Teda has taken down three more. Plasma only touches her if her companion is too far from her. He is a whirlwind of destruction and beauty.

By the time they make it to the hanger, the population of the ship has been alerted to their presence and the doors leading to their objective are heavily guarded. Six curses aloud when she rounds the corner and has to drive straight back to avoid the thick ball of plasma a grunt hears her way from his fuel rod cannon. He would have to be the first one to be taken out.

"Give me your grenades." Six demands and when Teda hands her the three that he is carrying, she dives back into the hall and lobs one in the direction she seen the Ungoggy. Satisfaction courses through her gut when she hears their screams when the plasma grenade goes off and takes out three of their squad. The glee is squashed however, when a green plasma blob is bounced down the corridor and exploded several feet away from her.

She would have to have another run of tossing grenades down the hall. Her only problem with that plan was that now that they knew she had them, it would be easier for the covies to dodge them. Six would just have to hope for the best and fall back on her good luck that she had been having so far. Taking a deep breath, Six steadies herself then flings her body at the mouth of the hallway and flings her remaining two grenades at the Covenant surrounding the door. Before she tumbles to the other side where Teda is waiting, she watches as one of the glowing blue orbs stick to the Ungoggy that stands beside the one that totes the fuel rod. The explosion that happens is so large that it throws the Sangheili Majors back and kills off most of the Ungoggy and Kin-Yar.

Teda is there to catch her so she does not bounce off the floor and possibly hurt herself more than she already was. He pulls her up by her waist and presses himself against her. She is shocked and a little startled when he jerks her around to face him, "Why would you put your life in danger so recklessly?" he snarls at her and Six can not help but feel slightly offended. She has done far more dangerous stunts under worse conditions they are facing now.

"Who cares if I do? They are dead so now we can get through." She spits back at him and wreastles herself out of his ironclad grip. Once she is back on her feet, she lifts the carbine from her back and slinks around the corner to continue to pick off the remaining Covenant.

Inside the hanger, the two of them scan for a suitable craft that would get them away from the Super Carrier as quick as possible. Banshees were out of the question. So were the shielded Seraph fighters. Their best option would be to somehow commandeer one of the few Phantoms hovering above the floor. Teda and Six pull back to discuss a plan to get into the Phantom and to not get blown to smithereens before they can get out of the Super Carrier's weapon range.

"I can make my way on board using my active camouflage. Once inside I can active the turrets and you can make for the ship while our enemies are taken out." Teda suggests and Six quickly agrees. It is a decent plan and if she is quick then she can get to the Phantom in less than a minute. Before he cloaks himself, 'Radom rounds on Six and grasps her hand is own, "do be careful." And with those parting words he is off.

It does not take him long to reach the ship and slip into the gravity beam that will take him into the belly of the drop ship. He needs to quickly take out the remaining crew before activating the weapons system so that his human could make the sprint to the ship. Teda activates his blades and in the blink of an eye the occupants of the ship are eliminated and he is at the controls turning the turrets on to fire on the beings that he once considered brothers. In the view screens, he sees Six sprints for the Phantom. The Sangheili does not realize that he has held his breath for that entire time until Six is safely in the ship and standing right beside him.

"Let's Go!" she yells and slides into the copilot seat like she had flown a Phantom her entire life. Her shout brings him into action and he snarls at himself for getting so distracted.

With a few flicks of switches and a random location in mind, the two of them are finally out of the Super Carrier. Both slump with relief when the Carrier ignores them and they are able to quickly fly into the atmosphere of the planet Reach. Teda checks the reading on the hull and energy cell that powers the ship and is glad to find all things green and good to go.

"We made it." he rumbles quietly and turns to find that Six has slumped down in her seat and has taken her helmet off without him noticing. She bright red hair that just touches the bottom of her ears and a pale face with a smattering of freckles across her nose. She turns her head and when Six opens her eyes, Teda's breath is sucked out of his chest. Her eyes are the exact same shade of emerald green as his own. Down to the last small flecks of gold and brown scattered around his iris.