Halo's control room, 3:13
The Batarian strike team had been deployed to secure the Ring's visible structures hours ago, and so far, they had lost contact with four other teams. One followed a group of human spec ops into a locked facility and went dark. Another was supposed to guard the entrance to another towering structure while the last entered. None had checked in, and the fleet that brought them here was being torn apart. They had tried twice to get evacuated, but both times, a ship big enough to get them came in, and a pair of black fighters blew it apart. The things looked hardly any more complex than a triangle with wings, but they were swift, and from how the shuttles exploded, they also had some intense firepower.
Now, they had retreated as far into the Installation as possible, though they only made it through a kilometer of the wide hallways before coming across a locked door. The hallways were over fifty feet wide, and the doors they passed through spanned the entire width of the hall. Now, they had set up machine gun nests and barricades with what little they salvaged from the destroyed shuttles. There would be no rescue, no reinforcements, only a futile last stand. Two of his men had taken the easy way out, plummeting their non-existent morale.
The only thing they were unwilling to do was surrender. Not to the humans. Nothing would bring them more shame. The fleet was pulling back, and their orders were to hold this position for as long as possible. They were sent to hold this station until their larger fleet could overwhelm the UNSC, but they were decimated and abandoned. Now, they were trapped.
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The group reappeared moments after, although a few had stumbled initially. They were at the foot of a large pyramid built into the face of a cliff. Canyon walls surrounded them, and sand flew in the wind. Thom gestured forward twice, and the group set off at a jog to climb the ramps of the ancient structure. They met scattered barricades and a few empty crates, and the burning wreckage of a shuttle was the only sign of life until they reached the door. The remains of a tent told them their enemy had ditched the defenses around the door in favor of taking cover inside.
"Stack up. Flash and clear." The soldiers took very little time to prepare before their Captain activated the controls for the door. The doors slid open, and they were met with a wall of gunfire. Two loud bangs and a pause in the gunfire were all the Marines and troopers needed to swarm to the first line of barriers and take out the Batarian soldiers. Those behind the following line of defenses recovered quickly and opened fire again, pinning the Marines and ODSTs. Five Spartans rushed forward and leaped over the Marines' positions as the batarian defenders lobbed grenades and fired their weapons desperately attempting to stop the hulking titanium-clad Demons.
Thomas still had half his shield strength when he reached the second barrier and vaulted over their enemy's cover. He placed a boot into a batarian, clearing a place for him to stand and turn to hit right. He wasn't worried about his back, Collin was the next spartan over the barrier, and his hammer met the skull of a batarian that had tried to stab the Captain in his back. While Thom gunned down the batarian defenders in front of him, Collin was having a field day bashing in heads and causing mayhem in the enemy line. The sound of Thom's M7 submachine gun tore across the Batarian line and only made it easier for the rest of Onyx to catch up and tear apart the defensive position.
The Marines and ODSTs weren't about to be left behind and rushed over the captured barrier to assault the batarians. Their approach was not a dead sprint like the Spartans but a methodical charge. MA5B and MA5C assault rifles spat 7.62 rounds at the few defenders, tearing apart their kinetic barriers with ease. Their Shielding wasn't meant to withstand the nearly 4000 joules of force the UNSC weapons imparted, and their shields and armor crumpled quickly. The Batarians holding the second barrier fell under the firepower of the UNSC Marines and ODSTs, while the Spartans tore down the defender's cohesion. With the second line of defenses taken care of, the group moved to the final door between them and Halo's control center.
When the door opened, only one batarian stood in its way. He was strapped with bombs and looked tired.
"You fought well, humans, but this is where-" His head exploded before he could finish. The smoking piston belonged to the ODST sergeant, and the group approached the dead batarian, who was twitching slightly. Colling picked the man up and tossed him over the railing. His body exploded a moment afterward.
"What in the blazes is wrong with these people and their timed explosives? The only timers we use go on bloody nukes!
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Eternity's control room 3:20
Hannah was panicking. They'd forced the batarians to retreat, but there were two freighters she had written off as supply vessels rapidly approaching the Halo now. The Eternity couldn't reach them in time, and the Captain was still trying to gain control of the Ring. She whipped her head around to devise an idea when she spotted the monitor floating next to a weapons officer. She ran and grabbed the chassis of Shamed Instrument and quickly explained what she needed from the monitor. The monitor disappeared in rings of light moments late, all too happy to help.
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Halo's Control room
Thomas was not at all phased when the monitor teleported into the control room mere feet from their group. Instead, he continued towards the console and holstered his SMG onto his hip. The Marines lagged momentarily, taking in the scale of the control room, while the ODSTs and Spartans moved forward, weapons lowered but ready.
001 Shamed instrument approached the Spartan. Hannah had warned her of the ships nearing her Ring, and she floated over to the spartan as they approached Halo's main console. Once the Index was inserted, he could activate the Ring's secondary defenses.
"Hello again, reclaimer. I'm afraid we're short on time. The batarians sent two vessels on a collision course with the Installation. luckily, this Ring has a secondary defensive system, which we can activate once the protocols have been reset." Thomas walked to the console with the monitor and looked at her from behind the golden visor.
"And you're certain this won't fire the Halo." The monitor shook itself back and forth in the negative.
"The main offensive arrays are disabled currently as the flood has been disposed of. Full decontamination will take time, but this Ring couldn't fire even if we wanted it to." The spartan nodded before grabbing the Index off his belt. They both stood before the console, and Thomas inserted the Index. Immediately, the background hum they had been tuning out raised in pitch and volume. The pillars lining the walls and stretching to the ceiling shifted and split apart, revealing glowing pillars of energy. The 3D image of Halo and the surrounding asteroid field shrunk until it was only in the center of the walkway.
The change took only six seconds, but Thom could make out all the nearby vessels when finished. Including Eternity and the two freighters approaching the Ring. Thomas saw quickly that the batarians had fled the battle and abandoned two unarmed ships. Eternity was still radio silent. Something was stopping any signals from getting through. Turning to the monitor, he asked her about the more pressing issue.
"How do we stop them?" The monitor had been staring around the room, perhaps seeing the room like this for the first time. She turned and looked at him before replying.
"You need only activate the defenses," the monitor said as if it were that simple. Before Thomas could reply, Collin stepped forward and started shouting.
"Is that so? Why didn't I do that? MAYBE ITS BECAUSE WE HAVE NO BLOODY IDEA HOW TO WORK THIS DAMN THING, FOR THE LOVE OF-" while collin was screaming his head off in frustration, Dante felt a tug at his mind. He turned to the console, and while he couldn't determine what any symbols were supposed to mean, he understood the dial off to his left would change which section of the Ring was selected. He didn't know how he knew this, but when he placed his hand above the disk and twisted it, he could see a portion of the Ring glow with a golden hue. He continued moving the disk until he saw the section the freighters were targeting.
Collin has since quieted down once he saw the Captain had figured out something. Thom felt the pull from the terminal again and found a new panel had opened this time. It showed the two freighters circled with readouts from what he assumed was a scan. Pressing his fingers on both ships, a red circle surrounded both.
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Derelict Freighters 3:22
Not a soul was left onboard the supply vessels once their commanders had received the order to abandon them. This meant that the scanners were left unattended, and no one was around to hear the computers' warnings about a hostile system lock. A moment later, the ship violently decompressed. Its hull collapsed in on itself, and its ammunition stores detonated. The only signs the vessels had been attacked were a flash of light and the Halo ring glowing with energy.
The flood may have been the first thing to awaken the Ring, but the reclaimers would be the ones to determine the fate of a galaxy.