As Aaron hacked into the Covenant network, he didn’t find as much information as he had hoped for about battle tactics--but he found the location schematics of other Covenant encampments on the moon, and an ancient ruined castle located deep within the Everfree Forest.

“If the Covies thought they were being clever about hiding from us, they sure were wrong,” Zeke remarked.

“I’m pretty sure they would reveal themselves sooner or later anyway,” AJ added. “That’s one thing you can expect from them.”

“What we really need to know is what the Covenant are after,” Aaron stated. “Celestia said that neither her--or her sister--have had an acquaintance with any Forerunner civilization or piece of technology. There should be no reason that they should be here if this planet doesn’t have what they’re looking for.”

“Well, if they’re making small settlements in a few areas around the continent, and the moon, then they intend on doing something,” AJ said.

“I’ll see if I can look further into their databases to see if I can find out what the leader of this fleet wants with with the equine planet,” Aaron said, before tapping more holo-switches and buttons on the Covenant terminal.

Before Aaron could at least find a reasonable file on the Covenant network, he was interrupted when he heard a brief and pained scream of a marine near the main door of the room.

Aaron, AJ, and Zeke spun around in time just to see the already dead marine suspended in the air with two glowing blue tongs of shaped plasma sticking through the center of his torso.

The marine’s partner in a startled state, began firing full auto from his MA5D on to the source of the shaped plasma, which happened to be an Energy Sword wielded by an Elite Zealot that was at first cloaked. It’s no wonder that the door opened up without anyone or anything on the other side.

Since the shields of Zealots were the strongest of the five Sangheili military ranks, he had the brief time to grab the other marine by his neck and snap it like a twig with a flick of his wrist, all the while still having his first victim staked on his sword.

“Engage!” Aaron ordered and readied his BR85 ready for combat, before he began firing rounds onto the Zealot’s shields that were halfway close to breaking.

Zeke and AJ--along with the help of the remaining marines, joined Aaron in a chorus of suppressive fire to finish off the Zealot’s shields, and hopefully finish him off.

When his shields finally broke, the Zealot quickly dove behind a small barrier for cover.

“Marines. Take the right flank. Harrison and Fredrickson, we’ll take the left,” Aaron instructed.

Both parties moved towards their flanking position in hopes of cornering the Zealot and preventing him from getting another chance in recovering his shields. But as they closed in, the motion sensors on all three of the SPARTAN’s HUD’s were infested with a cluster of random moving blue dots.

“Aw crap. He’s using active camo,” Zeke stated, clearly disgusted.

“Calm down, Fredrickson. I’ve got this,” AJ muttered and activated his Z-5080 SRSA/V armor ability. He did have a VISR 4.0 tech suite after all.

The Z-5080 was one of the pieces of Forerunner technology obtained by the entire UNSC fleet from Requiem. This ability allowed AJ to see through all solid objects no matter the depth. Of course the range went as far as his motion sensor’s, which was twenty-five meters in diameter.

AJ focused his gaze toward the direction of the blue dots which seemed to be quite a dark area of the room. It’s there that he saw the outline of the Zealot who was steadily making his way over to the Marine’s position.

“There!” AJ called and began firing his M395 which revealed the sneaky Sangheili to all.

Now knowing that his enemies had a way of seeing past his ruse, the Zealot let out an enraged roar and made a charge at the Marine squad who continued to fire their MA5D’s in desperation. Unfortunately when the magazines ran empty, they had to stop and take a quick moment to reload. However their moment wasn’t long enough because this gave the Zealot an opportunity to slice them down one by one. This only left one of the Marine’s alive--but instead of killing him, the Zealot grabbed him by his neck, and placed him in front of his body in means of using him as a human-shield.

Aaron gestured to Zeke and AJ to stop firing. He didn’t want to run the risk of friendly fire.

“What are you waiting for?” the marine choked. “Get him. I’m not worth it.”

“We don’t leave people behind,” Aaron insisted. “Besides I suggest that we don’t kill him.”

“Huh? What do you mean?” Zeke asked.

Aaron didn’t answer the question directly. Instead he made direct eye-contact with the Zealot.

“If you want to live to see another day, squid-jaw, I suggest you put that marine down and come with us.”

The Zealot just chuckled and began speaking in English.

“What makes you think I would go with such foolish humans as yourselves?” he asked. “But I’ll answer one request.”

Quickly and without mercy, the Zealot drove his Energy Sword threw the Marine’s chest, and dropped his limp body to the floor.

“I guess we’ll have to do this the hard way, then,” Aaron stated and aimed his BR85 at the Zealot. AJ and Zeke then followed suit.

“You’re going down.”

The Zealot roared and began his charge toward the three Spartans.

Aaron decided to switch to his M45D since things were about to get a little too close for comfort. Plus, the shells were strong enough to pop shields. Aaron could easily fire one shell to destroy the Zealot’s shielding and make him stumble, then use a follow-up one to finish the job--of course Aaron needed the Zealot alive. This could be the UNSC’s chance to find out what the Covenant want from Equis, and where Jul ‘Mdama is.

When the Zealot came within range, Aaron fired a shell from his M45D which made the Zealot’s shields shatter and make him stumble, just like he planned. Then Aaron charged forward and rammed his body into the Zealot’s chest, knocking him to the floor.

“Restrain him, guys,” Aaron instructed to AJ and Zeke.

AJ positioned himself over the Zealot’s head and proceeded to hold him by his wrists while Zeke took the legs. Aaron placed his boot on the chest area and pinned it down. He then threateningly aimed the barrel of the M45D at the Zealot’s temple at point-blank range.

“Now you will come quietly, or better yet, why not just tell us now about what your buddies are up to, and where ‘Mdama is right here. It’ll save us the labor of hefting you around to the Express,” Aaron firmly said.

“I will NEVER dishonor my shipmaster’s honor!” the Zealot bellowed and used his head to knock Aaron’s shotgun from his hands before miraculously breaking free of AJ and Zeke’s restrainment.

The Zealot then grabbed Aaron’s M45D and turned it on him.

“There’s no chance you’re taking me on now! Especially not all three of us!”

It was then that two more Zealots' showed up and restrained AJ and Zeke from coming to Aaron’s aid. They both tried to get free, but the Zealots' had a pretty good grip on both Spartans.

Aaron knew now that this mission was a failure.

Who knew what would become of the UNSC now to defend Equis, but Aaron knew that Kenwood would contact all available units in the fleet to fill up the small gap that Aaron and his friends would make in their absence.

His mind also went to Twilight and her friends.

After all the trouble of making him feel welcome on their planet, this was going to be the end of it? It was disappointing, but making sacrifices was part of being a soldier--but this sacrifice seemed to be in vain.

Aaron could only close his eyes as the barrel of his M45D clinked against the surface of his visor.

“‘Mdama will reward me greatly for this,” the Zealot said triumphantly and squeezed the trigger. What came out of the barrel came to the confusion of the Zealot, and Aaron.

Instead of a M296 lead shell exploding in his face, it was a glob of green paint!

The Zealot drew the shotgun away from Aaron’s face to get a better look at it. It was then that the shotgun’s molecular structure mysteriously changed into a rubber substance which made it droop in the Zealot’s hands.

“What is the meaning of this?!” the Zealot demanded clearly not amused with what he was set up with.

“Oh hohohohoh,” responded a mischievous male voice that seemed to come from all sides of the room, yet had no origin. “There should be no meaning to anything at all. If there was a meaning to anything, it wouldn’t be fun now would it?”