Halo: Destinations

Prologue:
Rogue laid flat against the muddy ground, the dark semi-liquid was cake to a good part of the surface of her mark VI armor. Halsey had said to be careful, it was only a prototype, still in the developmental stage. The green moon above was emmitting a speacial sort of radiation that the covenant was attempting to use as a new source of energy. The purple light was coming around again. Rogue burried her head into the mud, and waited, thinking of all the things that Blaster would be saying right now, if he saw her. She'd never hear the end of it from Houdini either. Rogue peeked her head back up, then wiped as much of the mud off her faceplate as possible. They hadn't seen her. Rogue slowly crawled forward, then froze, lurkers were on patrol, the last thing she wanted to deal with. Huge werewolf-like creatures that ate corpses, even their own live accomplices at times. She'd seen grunts be ripped to sheds, and eaten half alive by lurkers. Rogue couldn't see the point of why they were in the Covenant.

One stopped, and sniffed, druel oozed from its jaws, then looked around.

Rogue silently stood, then jumped onto the branch of a sturdy tree, making not a sound, she waited, the lurker walked directly under her. It stopped. Rogue waited, she didn't want to attack, unless necessary, if a corpse was found, it would arouse suspicion before she could get back out with the Intel.'' Stupid ONI! The least they could have done was tell me what I need to expect.'' Rogue thought in her rage. The lurker knew, Rogue had no choice, she hung down, then in a single motion sliced her hand down, breaking its neck in an instant, then she pulled the corpse up, and hung it over the branch, hoping it wouldn't be found. Rogue dropped back down, then took her battle rifle off her back, and placed the silencer on the barrel before she bolted over behind a tree, then aimed. jackals with beam rifles were on station, she was about twenty meters from the entrance, elite guards had been placed at the entrance, four. She had to get through three walls. She could handle it, but she still didn't feel safe about solo missions. SPARTAN Rogues had never been good on their own, their strength was in their numbers. John 117 had once told her that SPARTANs have to stay together, united, because divided we fall.

As much as she hated to admit it, Rogue had slowly been severed from her team, she trusted Doc being in charge, but the ONI had been using her for an entire three months, with the promise that she'd be seeing her team. She wasn't even aloud to speak to them. Rogue was hurt, and angry. She wasn't hurt physically, but mentally, she wanted to see her brothers and sisters again, all she could do was follow orders until ONI decided to keep their promise.

Rogue slowly merged back into the shadows, then slipped behind the trees, and made her way to the entrance. She peeked out.

"This is the Austin to Rogue, come in Rogue, what is your progress?"

"Radio silence."

She looked down, then picked up a rock before throwing it.

The elites tensed, then drew their swords. Two started to walk to where the rock had landed. Rogue nodded, before jumping into the tree above her, then jumped again until she could see the top of the wall, then in a wink, jumped out, and landed without a sound behind the first elite, and delivered a deadly blow to its back, then she jumped again, just as the second jolted around. Rogue landed behind him, then delivered another blow, the two were out, or even dead. She quickled hid the bodies, then entered. She had to admit that she was disappointed in the Covenant's security, quite pitiful. She had made it through the next two obstacles without a single problem, and no alarms had been activated. Rogue's adrenaline slowly increased as she continued, though. Something felt wrong, very, very wrong. One of those times that Streets would quote from an anchient human film called star wars. She'd say "I feel a disturbance in the force", but still, Streets had always had an uncanny sense, always knowing the smell of danger.

Rogue waited, holding herself to the ceiling, her radar detected only one enemy inside, most likely a scientist. The elite in green armor finally exited. Rogue dropped down, once it was out of sight, then crept over to the door, and pushed the opening symbol. The panel turned red, then vanished. Rogue stopped, wondering what had happened, just before the doors opened. Rogue brought her rifle up, then scoped the room out, before entering. There was one large generator in the center of the circular room. It glowed green, with waves of energy that were being extracted into the power cells in the manufacturing, and examintation levels bellow. Rogue placed her rifle on her back, then opened a come line, only to hear static, she expected that from all the radiation. She approached the generator, as the door closed behind her, then stopped halfway. She looked down, her legs felt... heavy. Rogue flashed her red signal light, just before sinking to her knees, and fading into the utter darkness.

Duty
"I'm going to kill you, Speed!"

Speed slipped under Boomer, then flipped back before he could grab him. "What'd I do?!" Boomer had always been horrible with patience.

Doc walked in, the froze as Speed knocked him off his feet, and to the ground.

"Sorry, sir!" Speed shouted.

"Did you forget weapons duty again?" Doc asked, laying on the ground.

Speed stood back up, then turned, "I-am-so-sorry, Boomer."

Boomer crossed his arms, "Do you understand that I'm the one who takes the fall for your irresponsibility?"

Speed shrunk, "It won't happen again, Boomer."

Boomer walked over, then swiped his hand across the back of his skull. "Oh, I know," he whispered sinisterly.

Speed rubbed the back of his neck, then helped Doc up, "Sorry."

"You can't keep doing this, Speed, Boomer might actually kill you next time, seriously, don't skip out again."

"I won't."

Doc put a hand on Speed's shoulder, before walking past him, and approaching his cot for a moment of down time. He laid down, and closed his eyes. Rogue had been gone for an awfully long while. Doc had never quite understood why she became as pressured as she did, but now, being squad leader, he was starting to understand. Rogue had talked to him before she left. The ONI had called her in for an extended mission that she knew nothing about. All she had known was that it had been Halsey who had called her in. He at least wished he could no how she was, if she was safe, for all the rest of the team knew, she could be dead, he discarded the very thought. He'd hate that to be so, it was enough that she had been MIA once, but to lose her for good would destroy the squad.

"Pillar to F06."

"Sir?"

"I need you in the situation room, now."

"Aye s-."

"Bring Onyx team along."

"Yes-sir," Doc said.

Rogue's eyes cracked open, her vision was a blur, and she re-closed her eyes. What happened to me?

"Yes excellency, it went exactly as planned, the fool played right into our clutches."

Rogue blinked, making an attempt to regain her vision.

"Have you found the purpose of the SPARTAN's mission?"

"No, it has yet to come conscious after the severe decompression. If the radiation had not taken care of its sensors, then it would have escaped."

"Are you certain you can contain it?"

"Yes, Fleetmaster, this stasis field is being fueled by the very radiation from the moon."

Rogue looked up, a large black armored elite was speaking to a hologram of another elite.

The hologram looked over, "It has come to."

The elite turned, she saw an evil grin, "Welcome back, SPARTAN."

Rogue shuddered, hating herself for being so stupid. I am so screwed.

Orders
Doc, along with the rest of Onyx team, Lucky, Tease, Matchstick, Skates and Specs. Communicator joined as the center of communication amongst the Rogues.

The seven rogues took a sudden halt, there was nearly a domino effect, until Doc was able to stop.

“Doctor Halsey, m-ma'am!” Doc snapped to.

“At ease, all of you,” she said in her perfect tone. “Take a seat, you need to be briefed.”

She was wearing what Doc had always seen her in. Lab coat, and all.

The rogues obeyed, and removed their helmets.

“Doctor Halsey has arrived to inform Onyx team only of this situation, nothing said here leaves this room, is that understood, rogues?” Pillar asked.

“Aye sir,” they replied.

“As you all know, Lauren has been away,” Halsey started.

Doc nodded, “Yes ma'am.”

“108 days, ma'am,” Specs concurred.

“She has been on a elongated mission for the ONI that has lead her from Earth all the way out into Covenant territory, dealing with both rebels, and the Covenant, this mission has been priority red, that is why she hasn't been in contact with any of you.”

Doc tapped the table, and closed his eyes.

“Then why are you telling us this now?” Matchstick asked.

“Because something has happened to Rogue,” Doc answered, then met Halsey's gaze.

“Precisely, Leonardo,” Halsey said, looking at him, “Precisely.”

“Listen to me, SPARTAN, if you want to live, you will answer my questions.”

Rogue kept jerking in the restraints, not listening to the elite.

He grabbed her chin, and forced her to look at him, “What was your mission?!”

Rogue ripped her head away, then glared under her helmet.

The elite stepped back, and watched.

Rogue's arms shook as she strained to break out, but it wouldn't phase. Something else was happening here, if it had simply been a research facility to test the moon's power, they would have simply have killed her, no, there's a lot more going on, something that would make them wonder.

“So tell me, SPARTAN, how is the moon's energy holding?” he asked grimly.

Rogue stopped.

The elite smiled, “Are you wondering how you were caught?”

Rogue caught her breath, still glaring at him.

“You should always take precautions. Our Fleetmaster found it difficult to believe a single SPARTAN could be causing all of our grief, but I knew so, I had seen you, demon. You move like a wicked spirit, killing what is in your path, took me an entire month to think of what I could possible do to capture you, and I knew this facility would be too much for your UNSC to not look into, and I knew your ONI would send you, the phantom.”

Rogue kept herself silent.

“But for now our superiors are debating what to do with you, it is not often that a SPARTAN is taken prisoner, it is very rare indeed for us to acquire a live specimen...” he slowly approached her. “Killing you would completely waste everything we had done to prepare, but our Fleetmaster knows how difficult it is to contain, to keep you SPARTANs from escaping. He has dealt with your kind before.”

Rogue narrowed her eyes, before having a sudden rush, and urge to escape, she hadn’t bothered to consider what she was doing to herself. She heard the cracking sound before she felt the agony. She’d dislocated her own shoulder. Rogue shouted in pain, and released her tension, clenching her teeth. This wasn't working.

The elite started to chuckle, “Don't hurt yourself, SPARTAN, that is our scientist's duty.”

The elite left, still chuckling.

Rogue breathed slowly, then closed her eyes allowing her head to sink, she felt so... “I-I'm so sorry, Halsey... I failed you...”