Darkest Night: Last Hope

Darkest Night: The Chase is the set in the canon reality.
== Prologue: The New War ==
It is currently the year 2565, and six years ago, the brutal war between humanity and the Banished started on Instillation 00, the Ark. It all started when Captain James Cutter and the crew of the UNSC Spirit of Fire encountered them on the instillation after the Spartans of Red Team were ambushed while scouting an abandoned UNSC research site. The war has been raging on ever since the encounter and has as bad as the Human-Covenant War. The Banished have continued to salvage ships left behind by the original Covenant and its remnants. Humanities forces are being slaughtered anywhere the Banished turns up. Any colonies that the Banished can get their hands on are deemed a lost cause. Every single outer colony near Banished controlled space has been decimated to molten pools after being pillaged and glassed. They have already reached colonies of the Beta Hydri System. The only bright side is that they still have not found the location of Earth as all records of the planet were wiped from the systems of planets that were being attacked. All the Banished knows is that they are getting closer.
The UNSC Infinity was heavily damaged in an ambush at Zeta Halo and has been made unfit for service until repaired. Earth’s best scientists and military engineers are struggling to come up with a solution to stop, or at least slow the advancing Banished forces. For the last year it has seemed like the Banished will win and that all hope is lost. The UNSC has lost its control over the colonies and its remaining fleets are spread thin, trying to get help and supplies wherever they can. If The Banished gets within the radar distance of any ship, they have been ordered to retreat instead of engaging, in order to reserve enough ships to have a final defence on Earth.
Any civilians remaining in the inner colonies that are near Banished controlled space are focused on trying to escape them and flee to the colonies closer to Earth. On the planet Tribute in the Epsilon Eridani System, Fireteam Thunder is gearing up, ready to fight the Banished whenever they show up. The team of five Spartans; 322, 122, 622, 222, 522, Fireteam Thunder of the top secret Spartan Project 22 have been a key fighting force in the struggle against the mighty threat, as they were present on Reach when Atriox came back to the Milky Way from the Lesser Ark.
== Chapter 1: Escaping Tribute ==
1837 hours, October 28, 2565 (military calendar)
ONI Research Site; Black Base
Casbah, Tribute
Word has been spreading around the remaining people in the City of Casbah that a Banished fleet is on a path that leads straight to the Epsilon Eridani system and that they will be arriving any day. On the evening of October 28th, Spartan Fireteam Thunder is making preparations to make a stand against them when they arrive. As Theoretical and Experimental Physicist, Dr. Isaac McGraw is collecting his research and prototypes, Spartan Conor-322 walks into his quarters. McGraw personally knows the leader of the fireteam, Spartan Conor-322, from his time on the planet Reach, when the Spartan was training. ‘You almost done?’ Conor says as he takes his helmet off. ‘Yeah, just picking up the last few notes and the Crystal shard. Is everybody gone?’ ‘Yep, the last of the staff just got into the last Condor and have made their way to Sol.’ The two walk down the hall to Isaac’s lab and go to the secure locker. Isaac opens it with a code and reveals the Menachite Forerunner Crystal shard in a containment unit. ‘Let’s hope you have time to get this to your weapon, apparently these things don’t like Slip Space travel over long periods of time, are you sure your containment unit can stop it leaking radiation?’ ‘It should be able to hold the radiation in but I don’t know if it will stop any other effects.’ McGraw releases the unit and Conor takes it out of the locker.
Before they can leave the lab, Owen-122 walks in, ‘Everybody is loaded onto the Prowler, it’s time we got you out of here McGraw.’ McGraw picks up the last of his notes and follows the two Spartans to the landing pad. Before they can get there, Spartans Colt-B233, Drago-A200, Mallery, Army Trooper Finn O’Connel and Sangheili Xotan ‘Lofam come rushing down a hallway towards them. Mallery stops just in front of the, ‘guys, change of plan, we all need to evacuate Tribute.’ McGraw steps forward, ‘Why? What’s going-’ BOOM! He is cut short by a loud explosion coming from outside. ‘The Banished is already here, and there’s too many for us to stand a chance against.’ ‘Banished forces are already heading for this base.’ Colt says, ‘I have ordered the Prowler to go airborne and cloak until we get to the roof.’ ‘Alright then, let’s get moving.’ Conor says as he makes his way towards the stairwell.
The five Spartans, Trooper, Sangheili and McGraw make their way to the rooftop up the main stairway. They reach the third floor when they see a Brute at the base of the stairs, starting to make its way up. It spots the group and starts yelling to alert the other Banished forces inside the facility. It quickly runs up towards them with uncredible speed. As it gets close, Colt charges at the beast and tackles it to the ground. He pulls out his combat knife and stabs it in the side of the neck, but it keeps struggling. The Spartan continues to stab at the neck as plasma rounds go flying past him. He looks up to see a dozen Brutes and Grunts down the stairs running towards him, ‘Run! Get up the stairs!’ ‘McGraw, get everybody to the roof!’ Conor yells as he rushes to cover Colt while he gets to cover. ‘On it. Everybody, let’s get moving!’
As Owen, Xotan Finn and McGraw make their way up to the roof with the Crystal shard, Conor, Mallery Drago and Colt engage the group of advancing Banished forces. ‘Frag out!’ Colt yells as he throws a grenade at one of the Brutes. It hits the beast on the head with such a force that it knocks it off balance. It lands on the floor and within a second, it detonates, destroying everything in that section of the hallway and blasting a large hole into the floor. As the dust starts to clear, they see a group of Elites running towards them. ‘We need to go before even more get here.’ Conor says as he fires his shotgun at a Brute leaping through the air at him. The group of Spartans start to head for the roof to catch up with the others.
As they reach the roof, Colt chucks three live grenades back down the stairs and  then closes the fire door. The blast echoes through the entire building and the ground shakes a little as the stairway breaks apart and crumbles down. They hear screams of terror as the Banished forces are crushed by the debris. A few seconds later, they reach the edge of the building and see the others still being loaded into the Prowler. As McGraw and Owen jump in, the door behind the group is kicked open by an Elite Zealot. The Elite doesn’t advance and just stands in the doorway. It activates two large green Energy Swords and steps forward, out of the doorway as three more Elite Zealots arrive behind it. It stands up straight and begins to tower over the other elites at a height of around ten feet tall. Colt recognises the massive Elite Zealot and starts to step backwards, ‘That’s the Elite of Legends, The Spartan Slayer, Kor ‘Nar Lohamee. He and his squad of Zealots killed an entire fireteam of nine Spartan IIIs with their bare hands.’ Conor’s voice suddenly gets very serious, ‘We know, his second in command also killed one of our own, Cory-422. But that one is the Elite that took my arm and my eye. ‘Well that’s not good.’ Xotan says as he aims his Needle Rifle at the giant Elite. 
As they start to head for the Prowler, a Banished Corvette moves into view overhead and starts to fire at it, causing it to pull away from the balcony. Conor yells into his comms, ‘Activate your cloak now and get out of here Liam!’ ‘What about you five?’ ‘We will be fine, just get everybody to safety.’ ‘Alright then, I’ll take them to the bunker on Noble Hill, meet me there.’ Liam pulls the Prowler away and turns its cloak on. As it disappears Conor hears a laugh coming from the massive Elite behind them, ‘All alone?’ Mallery fires half of his magazine at Kor and they all bounce off his shielding, ‘What do we do Conor?’ he says as he lowers his weapon. ‘We can’t beat this guy, especially not when he has his squad with him, we need an escape route.’ ‘We could take two warthogs from the garage.’ Drago says as he points to the garage further down the facility. ‘Sounds like a plan, ready to go?’ The group nod their heads as they all turn and run to the edge of the balcony. ‘No!’ Kor yells behind them as he begins to give chase. ‘Woo hoo!’ Mallery yells out as he jumps over the side of the building. The others all follow him, and within the next second the four spartans and elite are falling down towards the ground.
A couple meters before they hit the ground, the Spartans use their thrusters to break their fall while Xotan digs his Energy Sword into the wall to slow his fall. ‘Run!’ Conor yells as he starts to head for the garage. He looks back to see Kor leaping after them. When the Elite reaches the ground, he takes the shock of the landing with ease. They reach the garages door and quickly dash inside and get in two of the older model M12 Warthogs and quickly start them up. Conor and Colt drive as Drago and Mallery get on the turrets, with Xotan in Conor and Mallery’s hog. As they burst onto the road they see that Kor has stopped chasing them. They continue to drive away as a Phantom flies overhead. It drops a black Revenant on the road in front of Kor. The Elite gets in and starts to give chase, ‘Fire at him, try to slow him down.’ Conor says as he turns his warthog round a corner.
The two Spartans start to lay into Kor as they race through the streets towards the suburbs. Along the way they pass multiple Banished patrol units searching buildings for any people hiding away but are going too fast for them to react. They get to a long straight bridge and start to get to the Warthog’s maximum speed of 125km/h. This lets Kor begin to catch up to them as his modified Revenant has a far greater top speed. ‘We need to do something, or we won’t shake him.’ Colt says as he continues to fire at him. ‘Try shooting at this fuel tanker up ahead when we pass it, it might block the road.’ Colt says as he slows slightly to get in behind Conor’s Warthog. Mallery climbs into the passenger seat of his Warthog to grab Conor’s Rocket Launcher. They race past the tanker and Mallery lights it up. It explodes, creating a massive, hundred-meter-high fireball. The blast flips it across the road and creates a wall of fire, blocking Kor’s path. At this, the group relaxes slightly as they continue to drive off to the bunker at Noble Hill.
== Chapter 2: Journey to Sol ==
1913 hours, October 28, 2565 (military calendar)
Noble Hill
Casbah, Tribute
Conor, Mallery, Colt, Drago, and Xotan arrive at Noble Hill in their Warthogs, half an hour later. They then head towards the military bunker where the others would be waiting above, in the Prowler. They get to the bunkers entrance and find Liam and Owen waiting for them next to two Falcons, ‘Hey guys, ready to go?’ ‘Yeah, let’s get out of here.’ Colt replies as they get in the back of the Falcons. As they fly up towards the Prowler, they see the city’s last high rise building fall to the ground as its base give’s way under the heat of a glassing beam. The group lands in the Prowler and make their way to the cockpit. There they meet McGraw along with Kate and Wade. Liam pilots the Prowler out of the planets atmosphere and towards the Slip Space route.
‘Incoming hail from Banished Supercarrier, ‘Embodiment of Death.’ Odin says just before the transmission appears on the screen. ‘Answer it.’ Conor says as he walks towards the screen with Mallery. As Odin accepts the hail, Kor ‘Nar Lohamee’s face appears on the screen, ‘Did you really think you could escape me Spartans? I know where you are, and I will keep hunting you to the ends of the galaxy. There is no escaping me.’ Conor shakes his head, ‘You warlords are all the same, big ego. That will be your downfall, that will be the thing that gives me the ability to avenge Cory, and everybody else you murdered!’ ‘Who is… Oh, is that your little friend that Zyto lifted off the ground with his sword, and teared in two? I remember him, his cries of pain brought joy to-’ ‘Shut up you filth!’ Liam shouts as he slams his fist on the desk, ‘Odin, end transmission.’ As he says this Kor starts to laugh. Odin ends the call, cutting him short.
As they head for the Slip Space route, a sudden explosion rocks the Prowler as one of the fleets Destroyers fires one of its Aljordan-Pattern Plasma Beam Emitters at them. The beam grazes the hull, causing alarms to ring out all over the ship, and then continues towards a large asteroid, hitting it directly and completely demolishing it. ‘If we get directly hit by that, we are toast!’ Mallery yells out as he stumbles for a seat. Liam increases the ships speed, ‘Then let’s get out of here.’ As they start to pick up speed, more destroyers appear behind them and give chase. One fires a plasma torpedo, barely missing them.
‘We need to stop them from following us back to Sol,’ Colt says as he heads to the weapons chair, ‘We have three modified XGBU-302 Disruption Bombs on board, they should scramble their trackers, how about we use them?’ Just before they go through the slip-space portal, he releases the Disruption Bombs and send them towards the ships. They head towards the massive ships and detonate, the larger than normal electrical wave pulses over the ships and shuts down their systems. ‘Yeah!’ Colt cheers as they slow to a stop as their crew try to stop them from gliding off. Odin appears again and this time his face is filled with worry, ‘No time to celebrate guys, it won’t stop them for long, and even worse their flagship, the Embodiment of Death is heading directly towards us, we need to get out of here, right damn now!’
Far in the distance, towards Tribute, the Embodiment of Death is speeding towards them with half of the fleet close behind. Liam starts to fly through the portal as the fleet reaches the three Destroyers. Grito ‘Dalkamai looks at his ships sensors as Fireteam Thunder’s Prowler disappears from the screen, ‘No! how could we let this happen, how were they allowed to escape? Track those Spartans down and inform Kor of where they went.’ After a couple of seconds, the ships navigator responds, ‘Sir, that pulse from their Disruption Bombs that hit our ships is still scrambling our navigation system and trackers, we won’t be able to find them for at least another five minutes.’ ‘Keep trying, I will inform my brother.’
‘Zyto, we are having trouble locating where they went, can you pick them up?’ Grito says to his brother, Zyto ‘Dalkamai. The two brothers are both in command of separate CAS-Class Assault Carriers, with Risan ‘Lavam being in command of the third. ‘No, our scanners cannot track them. Dammit! Kor will not be happy about losing those Spartans.’ Kor suddenly comes across their transmission, ‘Do not worry Zyto, I know exactly where they fled to.’ Kor says back to his second in command. He raises his voice so everybody around him can hear, ‘Inform Atriox of what has happened, set a course for Mars and prepare yourselves, we will be leaving for our destination in four days! We are heading into the heart of the human colonies and will be met with great force! This is a task we cannot fail! We shall swiftly make our way through their forces and eliminate Fireteam Thunder once and for all! Let nothing stand in our way.’
Kor calls the rest of his fleet from Tribute, to regroup on his position, ready to slip-space jump. The fleet includes his flagship; a CSO Class Supercarrier, along with 3 CAS Class Assault Carriers, 3 Kewu Class Battleships, 4 ORS Class Heavy Cruisers, 5 CCS Class Battlecruisers, 5 CPV Class Heavy Destroyers, 8 SDV Class Heavy Corvettes, and 13 CRS Class Light Cruisers. The modified ships are equipped to take on any similar sized UNSC fleets with ease. In recent years it has been a major factor in decimating UNSC forces. After the UNSC Infinity was grounded after the Battle for Zeta Halo, the UNSC Eternity was moved from the Special Assembly Plant Concord located in the Ort Cloud of the Sol System and put in a top secret location where its construction was resumed. However, days before its completion, Kor lead an assault on the planet and the shipyard was abandoned. This means that if humanity finds out they are in the Sol System, they will send every ship they have to try and stop them. To stop this, Kor plans to get the Hands of Divine Salvation, a Zealot Chapter under his command, to take 11 Light Cruisers to the edge of the Sol System to distract UNSC naval forces while he avoids them and heads to Mars to stop Fireteam Thunder once and for all. He will have to make the jump minutes before the humans arrive in the system so that the systems defences don’t have much time to retaliate.
Three minutes after they travel through the portal, the Manechite Forerunner Crystal in the lower level starts to react to being in slip space. Even while in McGraw’s containment unit, it sends out an unknown energy wave that engulfs the entire ship. This energy puts everybody on board into a coma like state, where they start to have visions of another world where the Banished succeed in wiping out humanity. The group remains in this state while traveling through Slip Space. While in this state, the group starts to experience another reality.
== Chapter 3: Awakening ==
0709 hours, November 1, 2565 (military calendar)
Banished Fleet of Striking Honour
Tribute Orbit
It is now the morning of November 1st and while Kor and the rest of his fleet are waiting and preparing to jump, the 11 Light Cruisers open Slip Space portals that lead to the planet Neptune and go through them. As they arrive at their location eleven minutes later, alarms start to go off in every human outpost in the system. Shortly after, the rest of the fleet open Slip Space portals that lead to Mars and go through them. In the two minutes that they take to reach their destination, a large fraction of the systems fleet has made their way to Neptune to find the Cruisers. When Kor arrives, he has to wait another nine minutes for the other ships to catch up. They are met with no resistance and hide in the asteroid field near the planets to stay hidden.
After four days of travelling through Slip Space, Fireteam Thunder and McGraw finally appear in the Sol System, next to an Orbital Defence Platform in Mars’ orbit. After emerging from Slip Space, they all awaken from their coma-like states. Liam gets up and looks out the window, ‘We made it, we’re back in the Sol System.’ He says as the group starts to piece together what they just experienced. ‘Did you… Did you guys see that too?’ Finn says as he picks himself up from the ground. ‘My… my theory of time travel... we travelled through time to stop them but still failed. Everything was destroyed before we got a chance to do anything. The Crystal must have reacted to being in Slip Space for too long and showed us an alternate reality parallel to our own. I have looked into the theory of alternate realities too, but I never thought they could actually be real.’ Drago and Finn look at each other and shrug, ‘What’s this about time travel, I didn’t see anything.’ Drago says getting off the floor. ‘Yeah neither did I.’ Finn says while passing Drago his gun. ‘Something must have happened to you two in that reality before what the rest of us experienced.’ McGraw says, trying to make sense of it all. ‘Yeah well lets make sure their fates don’t become our own.’ Conor says as he starts to head to the hangar.
Before he can get anywhere an alarm starts to go off. Kate checks the radar, ‘Kor’s fleet is already here, the radar just picked them up emerging from the Asteroid Belt and there are reports of a small piece of the fleet near Neptune.’ ‘That means we don’t have time to prepare McGraw’s EMP Canon, we’re gonna have to take the fight to them.’ Conor says as he continues to the hangar. ‘Put us in stealth and prepare.’
Soon after, the Fleet of Striking Honour arrives in the orbit of Mars and starts to attack the Orbital Defence Platforms before their operators can react and before the defence fleet can arrive. As the ships start to wreak havoc, the Supercarrier starts to search for Fireteam Thunders Prowler. As it does so, Kor orders it to start glassing the nearest city of New Harmony. Its Lux-pattern superheavy excavation beam quickly starts turning the buildings into molten pools. Back on the Prowler, Conor is grabbing his weapons from the armoury and preparing to board the large ship with the rest of his fireteam. While in stealth, Liam pilots their craft up next to the Supercarrier and pulls up near the hangars. They all head to meet Conor at the hangar of the Prowler and grab their weapons on the way. When they reach the hangar they all line up next to the door, ‘Alright guys, this is our final stand. Let’s make sure it counts.’ 
== Chapter 4: Storming the Embodiment of Death ==
0723 hours, November 1, 2565 (military calendar)
ONI Prowler Black Knife
Mars Orbit
Conor takes out Odin’s A.I chip and inserts it into a holo-projector on the Prowler and Odin starts to project himself, ‘Odin, you stay here and get McGraw and the crystal shard down to the surface and get that weapon ready.’ ‘Will do, but first, let me get you closer to that ship.’ ‘Alright but then you get out of here, and fast.’ The team prepares to jump as Odin pilots the Prowler into the Supercarriers hangar. They breach the hangars shields and all jump in. As soon as they do an alarm starts to blare throughout the ship!
Odin speeds down to Mars surface with McGraw and the crystal shard while Fireteam Thunder starts to make their way to the bridge. They are running across the hangar floor as the door on the opposite side of the room opens to reveal a dozen Hunters! ‘Get to cover!’ Xotan yells as he dives behind a crate. The rest of them jump for cover as the Hunters start to blast the spot they were just standing in. ‘We don’t have time to face these guys,’ Colt says as he throws a grenade towards the Hunters. The Hunters all raise their shields as the grenade explodes and it does nothing. ‘Conor, you, Colt, Mallery, Drago, Finn and Xotan continue to the bridge, we will stay back and hold these Hunters off and any others that come our way.’ Wade says as he fires his Railgun at the Hunters. ‘Alright, you guys hold them off, we will be back in no time.’ Conor says before he and the others start to head for the bridge again. ‘Xotan, which way are we going?’ Mallery asks as they exit the hangar. ‘We take the next left and pass through the Holding Chamber, then it won’t be far from there.
As the team makes their way to the bridge with some resistance, Kor makes preparations for their arrival and sends a message on the comms system, ‘Zyto, Grito, Risan, get on this ship NOW! As soon as the three Zealots get the message, they board Phantoms and leave their Assault Carriers to go to the Embodiment of Death. When they reach it they enter the ship via a docking a docking bay and start making their way to the bridge via a different path, getting there much faster than the fireteam members. When they reach the bridge, they are greeted by Kor and discuss what to do about the approaching Spartans. ‘Commander, I have an idea on how to stop them, do you remember Spartan-A450?’ Risan says as he gestures to the holding chambers on the ships map. At this Kor’s mandibles turn into something that resembles a smile.
Back in the vast, endless hallways of the ship, the fireteam is advancing through waves of Banished Lances and is almost upon the ship’s holding chambers when the door to it closes shut and locks. ‘Woah! What’s this?’ Mallery exclaims as it shuts in their faces. Conor bangs on the door, ‘Xotan, is there a quicker way around or is Colt getting us through here?’ ‘It would take too long to find another path, this is the quickest route even with us taking the time to get through this door.’ ‘Now we’re talking.’ Colt says as he starts to laugh and take out a canister of C-7 foaming explosive from his utility case. After about a minute he has set the canister on the door and rigged it to a detonator. They retreat a partial way down the hallway and Colt flicks open his detonator, ‘Fire in the hole lads!’ BOOM! The door is blown open in a ball of fire and smoke, shaking the entire hallway. As the smoke starts to clear, the group moves through the remaining door frame and into the ship’s holding chambers. At the other end of the room, they see Kor standing there with his Zealots and in front of them is Spartan-A450 on his knees!
Conor realises who the spartan is as soon as he sees him kneeling on the ground in his Mjolnir, armour without his helmet. back in 2539, his fireteam survived the Battle for Kholo with the help of Fireteam Midnight. Spartan Clayton-A450 was a part of that fireteam and was thought to have died with the rest of them during the Fall of Reach. ‘Clayton?’ Conor shouts out to him but gets no response as the spartan sits there, motionless and staring at the floor. ‘What have you done to him!?’ Kor pushes the spartan, causing him to fall over to the side, ‘Oh I don’t know, just some light torture for the last couple decades, nothing too bad.’ He pulls out his Energy Sword and holds the hilt to Clayton’s throat, ‘Now, if you move any closer, I will activate my sword, killing your friend here.’ Conor lowers his shotgun and the rest follow suit. ‘Good. Now throw your weapons to the floor.’ Before the team can do anything, the ship starts to shake violently, throwing everybody to the ground. A Jackal comes running in from behind the Elites, ‘Commander, a large human fleet has arrived and is starting to attack our ship, the rest of the fleet is already dealing with the planet’s defence fleet.’ Before the Elites can get back up, Conor orders the fireteam to retreat down the hall then activates his advanced active camouflage.
Now completely invisible to the naked eye, Conor heads towards Clayton, now sprawled on the floor. Before he reaches him he hears, ‘Where did they go!’ from Kor. He puts his hand on the now unsupervised Clayton. The Spartan suddenly disappears from view and Conor stand him up to get out of the room. ‘Search this entire ship! I want those Spartans dead!’ Kor roars from behind them as the Elites start to head back to the bridge. When Conor and Clayton reach the others, Mallery rushes over to help with the injured Spartan. ‘Sir, McGraw has made contact and told me to inform you that his weapon is complete and will be charged and ready to fire in the next ten minutes.’ ‘Tell him to fire on the rest of the fleet, that’s the main threat right now.’ ‘Alright sir, I will try to contact him now.’ As Mallery tries to reach McGraw, a Brute lead Lance come around the corner and starts firing at them. They return fire and try to move to cover while still communicating with McGraw.
== Chapter 5: Blind Jump ==
0732 hours, November 1, 2565 (military calendar)
Banished Supercarrier Embodiment of Death
Mars Orbit
A few moments later Kor and the rest of Unseen Kill are back on the bridge and are informed of a small portion of the fleet being EMP’s by a planet side weapon. ‘How many ships were hit?’ Grito asks the crew member. ‘Twelve smaller ships in one hit sir, and energy readings indicate that the weapon is almost ready to fire again. Kor steps passed Grito, ‘Tell the remaining ships to immediately Slip Space jump to the location of the Hands of Divine Salvation’s ships.’ As he says this an ODP’s MAC round hits the ship and punches a small hole in it. ‘Navigator, open a Slip Space portal to the same location and take us there now!’ With a number of his ships disabled and more and more UNSC ships arriving, Kor decides to do a tactical retreat and meet up with the eleven Light Cruisers commanded by the Hands of Divine Salvation that went to Neptune. As the Slip Space portal opens and the Supercarrier starts to go through it the navigator starts to shout, ‘Commander, the navigation system was damaged in that blast, we are making a blind Slip Space jump!’
Back in the hallways of the ship, Conor, Colt, Drago, Mallery, Finn and Xotan feel the vibration of the ship going through the Slip Space portal. Conor gets on the comms system, ‘McGraw, we are making a jump, try and track us, we have no way off before this ship goes through the portal.’ ‘I’ll try and get your location when you reach the other side, you guys just make sure you can stay alive that long.’ Isaac cuts out before anything else can be said as the Supercarrier disappears into the portal. As the ship travels through Slip Space, the rest of Fireteam Thunder has just finished fighting off another group of Banished Lances. ‘Guys look outside the ship, we’re in Slip Space.’ Kate says as she gets out from behind a crate. ‘Wade joins her at the edge of the hangar, ‘McGraw must have got the crystal shard to the new weapon, that’s the only thing to make Kor flee.’ ‘Yeah, but where are we going?’ Owen says before closing the door to the hangar. Liam thinks about how long they have been in Slip Space, ‘Considering we have been in Slip Space for only a minute or so, we haven’t gone very far, only about 1 lightyear so far. We should make our way to the Slip Space Drive and see if we can disable it before this ship reaches its location.’
The group makes their way towards the Supercarriers drive with little resistance as most of the ship’s forces are trying to find the others towards the front of the ship. After a few minutes of sprinting through the hallways, they round a corner and come across the room the drive is located in but is guarded by a squad of Sangheili Rangers. The six Rangers instantly start to fire their weapons at the Spartans, causing them to go back around the corner. ‘We need to hurry before we travel too far, let’s use our active camouflage and just avoid fighting this lot.’ Owen says as he disappears from view. The rest activate theirs and start to advance on the room. The Elites start to advance down the hallway as the group walks right past them. Once the Elites go around the corner, Kate uses the control panel to open the door. ‘Alright, I will set the explosives, you guys guard the door in case those Rangers come back.’ Liam says as he starts setting C-7 canisters on the drive. ‘Alright, that should do it. These are on a timer for 10 seconds so as soon as I start it, we need to clear the area.’
Liam starts the timer and the four Spartans start to sprint back out the way they came and towards the bridge. 10 seconds later the C-7 explodes and takes the Slip Space Drive with it in a massive fireball. The ship is suddenly pulled out of Slip Space causing it to shake violently. While the group continues to make their way to the bridge, the rest of the fireteam, along with Clayton are still keeping a low profile somewhere in the ship, near the holding chambers. Finn tries to reach the others on the comms system, ‘Liam, Kate, Owen, Wade, do you read me?’ ‘Owen’s voice replies, ‘We read you Finn. What’s your position?’ ‘We are near the holding chambers and have an injured Spartan, can you make your way to us?’ ‘Already on our way, should be there in the next few minutes. Thought I would let you know that we took out the ships Slip Space Drive.’ ‘Alright good job, we’ll see you soon.’
Conor lays Clayton on the floor, ‘Mallery, can you determine where we are?’ ‘We were in Slip Space for forty-three minutes but it seems that this ship had an upgraded Slip Space Drive so we have gone almost 226 Light Years and are now outside UNSC Controlled Space.’ Xotan looks at Mallery’s navigation system, ‘We are in completely uncharted space, not even the Covenant touched this area.’ Conor picks Clayton back off the floor, ‘Then we need to see if this ship is still carrying any Light Cruisers so we can try and make our way back.’ The group lets the other know of where they are heading and then start to make their way to the hangars on the other side of the ship.
Back in the bridge, Kor is watching over the ships security systems to try and find the scattered Spartans when the radar starts to show a signature moving towards them. The navigator speaks up, ‘Commander, we have a Battlecruiser that is currently on a collision course with us from the port side, if it hits, it could do significant damage and force us into a crash landing onto the planet we are currently in the orbit of.’ Kor roars in frustration, ‘Fire the Plasma Lances!’ One of the weapons operators aims the lances at the incoming ship and immediately starts to fire all six on the port side. The Battlecruisers shielding lets it take the firepower for a few seconds without taking damage, which lets it get within thirty klicks of the Supercarrier. It’s shields break and the Lances start to penetrate the front of the ship, but it’s no use, the ship continues at a frightening speed towards them and slams directly into the port side.
== Chapter 5: The Unknown ==
0822 hours, November 1, 2565 (military calendar)
Banished Supercarrier Embodiment of Death
Unknown
The entire Supercarrier shakes and slowly starts to fall to the right, further into the planet’s orbit. The Banished forces on the ship are sent into panic as alarms start to blare all across the ship. A Sangheili word starts to appear on the screens throughout the ship. Colt stops to look at one, ‘Xotan, what does this say?’ It says “evacuate”. This ship is crashing and everybody on it is currently trying to get off.’ The two separate groups of Fireteam Thunder try to use the panic to meet in a hangar that possibly has a Light Cruiser in it. Kate, Liam, Wade and Owen are able to get to the hangar and start to get the Light Cruiser ready for flight but Conor, and the others are too far away to get there before the Supercarrier crashes into the planet. 
Back in the light cruiser, Kate, Liam, Wade and Owen are attempting to power up the ship when the entire thing powers down. ‘Wade, go check the reactor and see what’s causing us to lose power.’ Liam says from the flight controls. ‘On it.’ He says as he runs off down to the middle of the cruiser. When he gets there he find a group of Engineers messing with the reactor to try and stop them from escaping. ‘Oi, get away from that!’ He shouts at the before raising his DMR and firing a few warning shots at them. The Engineers retreat and flee down the hallways. Wade calls on the comms, ‘Hey Kate, you better get down here, had a couple Engineers messing with the reactor.’ ‘On my way.’ A minute later, Kate arrives in the reactor room to assess the damage. After looking at the panel the Engineers messed with she looks at Wade, ‘We aren’t going anywhere, they destroyed the main powerline out of the reactor.’
As they run through the hallways with Xotan carrying Clayton, the group comes across a section that has flickering lights and then comes to a halt at a heavily damaged section of the ship with an energy shield blocking off an enormous piece of metal smashed through the ship’s hallway. There are pieces of purple nanolaminate metal scattered everywhere ‘This must be what caused us to start falling.’ Colt says as he looks at the foreign wall. ‘It looks like a rather large ship hit us.’ ‘And it’s not Banished.’ Mallery says while picking up a piece of the metal. ‘Well it’s blocking our path, we could try and make our way through the small opening on the left there.’ Conor says while walking to the left of the blocked off hallway. ‘I will go first, Xotan will pass Clayton to me, then you will all come through.’
Conor crouches through the small opening and into the other ship. He emerges into a slightly smaller hallway filled with a thick fog with a slightly green colouring. The lights in this ship are not working so he turns his shotguns light on. After making sure there is no threat, he calls to the others to come through. Xotan passes Clayton through and then crawls through himself. Colt, Drago, Mallery and Finn follow suit and then they continue through the new ship. As they continue deeper in, they come across organic matter on the floor and walls around them. ‘What is this stuff?’ Mallery says poking it with his sniper. Xotan looks closer at the matter and reels backwards ‘I believe this is the parasite….. the one they call the Flood!’