1411 HOURS, NOVEMBER 2, 2554 (MILITARY CALENDAR)

SLIPSTREAM SPACE - UNKNOWN COORDINATES

The shift of gravity and the alarms coming from the cockpit brought Tysiac out of his sleep. The last of the dreaming memories faded as he got up.

Shaking off the sleep from his eyes and moving to the pilot seat, the man went through a list of checks on the console as the Prowler began its exit from Slipspace. The alarm's purpose was simply to wake up its crew from Cryo, if there were any. As the darkness of Slipspace began to disappear and reveal the galactic background of the multitudes of stars and nebula and the familiar arms of the galaxy, Tysiac brought scans up and the stealth shroud online. Whatever was here wasn't something he wanted to attract attention to yet.

Soon after, Tysiac looked away from the consoles and controls and looked through the front viewscreen of the Prowler.

The sight of a Halo Installation was not a pleasing sight. Tysiac was quick to establish both an image and a blip-report that was sent straight back the way he came. ONI would want to know firsthand there was another Halo and one that didn't match the location of the Array.

With the report sent successfully, Tysiac took control of the Prowler and began making his approach towards the Installation. His thoughts had already blurred through the questions of why there was one here. That "why" was going to be answered by him and ONI wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

Tysiac put enough momentum to shift his attention to the comms to ensure his arrival went unnoticed and to take a little peek at what was out there. Off the bat, any sensor that might've been around the Halo or the system did not detect him, as far as the programs and sensors could tell. Given both sensor and visual out of the viewscreens around the Last Word, there was no Covenant or Banished presence, nor any evidence of a Forerunner presence besides the Ring itself.

The comms, however.... Curious.

Tysiac brought the Prowler to a slower approach as he wanted full attention over the comms and what the Last Word was picking up.

The Ring had a vast population of inhabitants. And coming from the comms, they weren't Forerunner or Covenant. They were sending the eerily familiar signals of human communications. A majority of it was combat reports, requests for supplies or reinforcements...

The most prominent and consistent signal was religious-based... Worrying...

Tysiac had the systems record, clip and snip some reports and the religious broadcasts into a file, keeping it as a small update package for ONI to scratch their heads over once the overhead recon was done. The details over the religious iconography were... eerily familiar. It wasn't enough to say that this was the same religion that the Covenant Prophets had been playing and brainwashing their coven with, but it wasn't encouraging hearing about a deity called Omega blessing "holy wars" across the Ring.

Going over the topography, the Ring itself was predominantly land-based. Much of the Ring seemed to be built to sustain such a large amount of life from forests and woodlands, grasslands and plains, with only two particulates holding a major source of water from the nearby ice lands and tundras. While there was a band of arid territory with the second source of water bordering it, the territory only held a spot of an actual desert just before the mountains and ice lands sitting right next to it. Further away and connected to the "ocean" of the Ring were lakes and rivers within jungles.

Then came small chatters and reports coming from outside and away from the Installation, which brought Tysiac's attention immediately and went over them. The Hyperscanner equipped on the Winter-class Prowler swiftly identified the source of the chatter, exposing a small, modular, and unarmed space station along with satellites of various designs. The scanner then picked up shuttles that were descending into the gas giant with nothing returning.

Whatever lived on the Ring; they were in a primitive space stage, much akin to how humanity used to be limited through space stations and satellites during the early twentieth century. The civilization had theirs orbiting around the gas giant that their home was in geosynchronous orbit with. There were more satellites around the system, mostly observational and research pointed towards their assigned planetoids.

As it stood, the Last Word remained undiscovered, including its departure from Slipspace, and as long as the communications didn't speak in passcodes that they were aware of him, that was how Tysiac preferred it. Coming closer to the Ring, the communications began lighting up a lot more and much clearer. This time, it was a flurry of activity. Much of it was involved in military matters, owing back to the discovery of these "holy wars" that the religious media was spouting.

Tysiac left the comms to its own devices, skimming passively over the chatter as he began preparing for where to land the Prowler. With no set time limit for his mission and always being sent out on lone missions, Tysiac was often without crew or AI aboard the Last Word, leaving him to handle much of the activity and work himself.

All being said, it was also out of personal choice. He was never one for the social chatter and had a small preference in minimalism. Fewer hands may end up with more work, but it also meant less spoilage in his field of work. If that was one way he could word it.

His attention came back to the Last Word after studying his options, the ring world nearly covering the entire left side of the Prowler's viewscreen. Moving back to the controls, Tysiac brought the stealth craft to a slowing stop. The ship's engines hummed to life as Tysiac brought it to a standstill within the ring's inner area. The lands on the surface gently turned around the craft as he began his reconnaissance.

After rechecking the Hyperscanner and monitoring the comms to ensure he remained undetected, Tysiac began moving power around the craft. He turned off the gravity, bringing the engines to run at minimal power to ensure that gravity from Halo or the gas giant wouldn't pull him in. After fiddling with more systems to let the Prowler run as dark and invisible as he could, the man left the cockpit and gave a small jump towards the equipment bay.

Much of the modifications and reconfigs made on the Last Word were redesigned to house on-ground equipment and ammunition. That left the Last Word without the standard Moray mine racks that Winter-class prowlers were famous for. However, that was Tysiac's intention.

Before the mission would have begun, he had spoken with the engineers in charge of the Last Word to retrofit it. Since his activities would rarely require him to stand and fight any opponents who found his craft, he had made the request for the removal of the mine racks for more room for weaponry and enough ammunition to fight an entire war.

Giving a quick trip through the on-board shower, Tysiac suited up. The armor he had repeatedly requested, which undoubtedly caused ONI to complain to him frequently, took a considerable amount of effort to obtain, even after receiving the augmentations required for safe handling.

The memory of him nagging the spooks into getting this made Tysiac give a wry smile at the armor: The RANGER-class MJOLNIR [GEN2]. His acquisition for the armor alone was something that made the higher-ups grumble about getting, since Imbrium MC and Lethbridge Industrial ended up discontinuing making the armor and had been excessively aggressive in monitoring and reacquiring every armor piece. The main part of the armor, both Tysiac and ONI were able to negotiate out of the companies; The bucket-helmet itself was where Lethbridge was quick to throw a fit over. So, to make amends where he could and not start burning bridges between the spooks, Tysiac asked for the ANUBIS-class helmet. The enhanced sensors would aid the armor enough and it wasn't utterly incompatible, add on that it would give some good P.R for ONI and the newly allied Sangheili over the combined technology of UNSC and Sangheili tech, much to ONI's own paranoia about the shift in the alien's allegiances.

Though when it came to the required S-IV augmentations, Tysiac tried his luck and asked for a more potent set of augmentations. His reasons given was that due to the nature of his work, having the best of armor and best of augments, it would help him further his work for Humanity's safety and future. And through his work, help ONI further along in dealing with what remained of the Covenant and whatever faction reared their ugly head at them.

As vague and obtuse as his reasoning was, it was something he preferred to say and think. It felt better to say that rather than fall into what a lot of soldiers had requested under the reasoning: "I wanted to be a Spartan."

Given the great and famous Spartan-IIs, who wouldn't? Fancy suit of armor, augmentations, capable of decimating armies in a single stride, being so fearless that you hold the propaganda that "Spartans never die"?

Unfortunately, his brazen request and reasoning brought him to be asked and judged by Commander-in-Chief of ONI, Margaret Parangosky, personally within his office.

Tysiac would get his armor... However, his request for "playing around" with augmentations was... technically denied. They did relent to have a more... manageable bus to proverbially throw the man under. But because he put his reasons in wanting to be a Spartan, ONI relented... Barely. The only thing that aided the decision was from whatever backhanded grace from some unknown force at work, because his genetics happened to be just enough to make him compatible with a Spartan program, despite being a full-grown adult.

Under no circumstance did that mean ONI was happy about the arrangement. Yes, one of their own could endure the more dangerous sets of augments that had the tendency to kill Spartans, but the precedence he inadvertently created didn't outweigh the benefits. Neither did Jun-A266 seem happy about Tysiac being a Spartan, as well as being his instructor. And the additional scars and recovery pains that he gained from the procedures made it abundantly clear.

Then came the aforementioned backhanded grace, coming back around for a second slap. The end result was obvious from the very start to Tysiac. The augmentations he gained would only make him stand on par with the Spartan-IIIs. His genetics, while they were enough to count him as a Spartan, had its limits.

But despite all the setbacks, the threats and the newfound limitations, none of it ever stopped him from trying to live beyond both ONI and his instructor's expectation....

A sudden shudder immediately brought Tysiac to alertness. His brooding had made him barely remember when he donned his armor. The ANUBIS-class helmet was still undergoing diagnostics and integration with the armor as he flew to the cockpit as another shudder occurred.

As he sat, the Prowler began descending out of orbit. The Prowler's engines roared to full power as the Last Word was being pulled into a crash course with the ring.

Tysiac quickly began running checks through the systems. The stealth systems were fine, no hull failures, and the chatter didn't pick up or get excited.

So what the hell's rocking the boat, and what was causing him to lose the Prowler?

Another shudder, and the surrounding monitors began to collect static as the Prowler began tipping further forwards. The engines were just about to enter afterburners as Tysiac realized what was happening. The ship was under an electronic attack, likely assisted by AI. Something was aware of his presence and was trying to drag him onto the surface of the Ring.

Tysiac gave a curse as he quickly made to cut the engines completely, however the attacker appeared to keep circumventing his efforts as the screens began collecting more static, the viewscreen showing briefly the Ring coming closer and more dominant. The man left the cockpit as gravity began to affect the Last Word. There wasn't much for a human to fight in a battle against an AI, however there were ways to force past it as he made his way to the engines. If the AI was grabbing the engines, it could send him hurtling into the Ring at speeds he couldn't control. Nearly ripping a panel open, Tysiac began trying to find his way with his hands as the helmet providing a reference to the internal wiring of a Winter-class Prowler to his HUD. He heard sounds coming from the cockpit but ignored it, likely the attacker trying to distract or divert his attention before finding the right wires and cutting them.

The engines began to gutter and die as Tysiac pulled the cut ends of the wires so he could find them again as he left and looked over to the cockpit. Instead of showing status and notifications, the screens all around began showing text in readable language and static noises that almost seemed to pass as some kind of "evil laughter". Either the attacker thought too highly of themselves or they were competent but obsessed with theatrics.

Regardless, it's the attacker's attempt to mock the man as he made his way back and tried to fight through the hacked systems, making sure that his own suit wouldn't fall prey to whoever and whatever was bringing him down. Finally, after multiple unsuccessful attempts with the attacker doing.... Whatever the hell it was trying to do, Tysiac was able to cut all power to the Last Word, turning the stealth craft into a falling meteor. The screens had attempted to bring in a broadcast of whoever or whatever was attacking him, however the total shutdown had interrupted the broadcast short.

Now left inside a metal coffin that wasn't an ODST pod, Tysiac waited with a timer running on his HUD before be began putting power back into the Prowler at the two-minute mark. This provided enough time to make the attacker lose interest... perhaps... But it would either turn its focus away from the ship as he had both the Hyperscanner and the comms completely shut down during the startup, as that was likely the method the attack had begun.

Making his way back to the engines and doing what he could to splice back the wires together, Tysiac briefly looked at one reactivated viewscreen showing the front of the Last Word. There were clouds and a large lake that he was coming straight towards and the ship was burning up from re-entry. His attention immediately returned to the ship's other screens and began fighting for control and to stop his approaching crash as collision alarms began sounding off, one screen demanding in ever so helpful red and yellow about going too fast and pulling up.

As the Last Word began to pull up and started to strain against the air pressure, pushing hard against the wings, Tysiac began fiddling with the controls with one hand, trying to adjust the thrusters. Instead of trying to fly the ship in a curve out and away from crashing, Tysiac began adjusting the thrusters, engines and wings to point the ship in the opposite direction, aiming straight towards the atmosphere of the Ring. It was a worrying experience as his eyes kept flitting towards the viewscreen that switched around the spacecraft and presented the nerve-wracking sight of the lake coming ever closer. The ship wasn't suffering re-entry damage by this point, but that meant nothing if he hit the water at the speed he was coming in at.

Feeling gravity nudge him deeper into the chair, and the viewscreen was showing the rear of the Last Word and the near endless blue that was the lake with only the edges showing the land and trees around it, Tysiac put the engines to maximum afterburner, trying to use the engines thrust and the Winter-class Prowler's preference over speed to quickly bleed out the fall. Gravity immediately began shoving him into the pilot seat as he fought to keep awake from the sudden G-forces. His eyes now shifting to one screen that had been indicating the speed he had been falling at and the distance from the surface. Already he was bleeding speed fast, but not enough to Tysiac. The distance simply kept falling at hundreds of meters at every heartbeat that was thudding against his chest.

Time seemed to just crawl for him. Yet he dared not look at the viewscreen showing how close he was to the lake. Looking there wouldn't help in anything other than increase the dread gnawing in his gut as he simply waited to know whether he crashed or his idea worked. There wasn't a thought about his death or about the loss of the ship, only the mental counting of seconds.

Just after reaching ten seconds, a great noise slowly started from the back of the ship before the ship gave a hard jolt, nearly throwing Tysiac around in his seat as the lights of the monitors and screens flickered and nearly shut off as gravity set Tysiac back to his feet, the sound of water flushing and hissing against the heated steel of the Last Word.

Quickly getting out of the pilot seat, Tysiac viewed through the viewscreens as to what it could see. Skimming through, he found nothing but the lakeside of the forest around the ship, a great deal of steam and not finding any debris. Not trusting with that alone to tell him how well his attempt had done, Tysiac opened the main door that led down and into the water itself.

Reaching and grabbing from the weapon rack for a MA5D-AR and pocketed a few mags to his pouch before taking to the water out of the ramp. The lights below the ship illuminated the lake, showing both strange wreckages of metal and aquatic plantlife. Looking around, Tysiac could see that the underside of the ship seemed to have handled the "landing", though as he began making his way to the back of the Last Word, he could see plates falling away from the wings and engines. The wings themselves were thankfully intact, and the rudders and flaps seemed to be in fair order as he made his way to each side.

Coming to the surface and atop of the left wing, Tysiac made his way across the Prowler and towards the back. The tail end that covered the third-middle engine was terribly bent to the point of nearly sheared off. The engine itself wasn't looking too good either, though at least it resembled the look of an engine installed on a UNSC Prowler...

Luck had backhanded with him again, it seems. Only question was how hard was the blow, as Tysiac made his way back into the water and back into the boarding ramp. The water was slowly making its way up, thus making him bring back up the ramp to buy a bit of time and check just how well the Last Word would handle itself. Either he could pull this off, or he had to pull the entire damn thing onto the lakeshore.

Quickly making back to the pilot seat, Tysiac began bringing the engines up slowly. The console informing him of the ship's shape and integrity warned him of both the damaged engine and the tail shroud, however nothing began to change as he propelled the ship forwards across the water. It wouldn't have helped, but pulling the rudders to try to "push" air and water underneath the ship relieved some of the tension in Tysiac's gut as he came to a stop at the shore of the lake.

Realizing there wasn't much else he could do with the main engines, Tysiac started up the lift-off procedures. He hadn't tried it over the water as he figured it would've ended up causing more of a problem and make the ship sink faster rather than trying to lift off from the bank. The loud engines roared as he felt the ship rock around before gently lifting off the ground, the viewscreens informing him that he was indeed off the ground and out of the water. The console showing the corvettes' integrity was telling him that some of the engines were damaged and were barely keeping the Last Word aloft.

Seeing extensive work ahead of him, both on the Ring and with his ship, Tysiac gently guided it further around towards the bank and away from the water, finding a clear spot that was big enough to contain and hide the corvette. Landing, he cut the engines, brought the ship to low power and proceeded over to the small crew quarter and began to weighing his options and plan his method of approach for the Control Room, and the counterattack on whatever wiseass decided to play their games on him.

Red vs Blue © Rooster Teeth. Halo © 343 Industries. Concept by Myshu, assisted by The Department of Chupapology.