HRP reboot - Chapter 2: On the Run

"Can I state for the record that since we have a whole mess of scrap in orbit, I am a happy man. I very, very, happy man." Jaryd said, looking around the small little cargo hold of the Pelican. "Oh, and nice to meet you Commander Ryan. Sorry about your ship."

Commander Ryan nodded slowly, breathing in slowly. "I did not think the UNSC would send reinforcements so soon" She said, the loss of her ship and her crew was a terrible if not cruel blow. "Thank you but sorrow will not bring them back... However I am grateful no doubt I would have been captured and tortured till I revealed the location of UNSC planets"

Jaryd glanced at his comrades when she mentioned the UNSC, but said nothing on that topic. "Well, can't let you be tortured now could we? That'd just be inhuman."

She laughed weakily at that. "Oh believe me I bet there are a few UNSC Admirals who would like to have the seven shades kicked out of me"

"Seven shades? Sorry, that's a new one for me." Jaryd was confused, hard to tell from behind his helmet.

"Beaten up really badly" She explained to the Spartans. Commander Ryan was just glad to be alive even though by all rights she should be dead. She shut her eyes feeling guilty over the fact that she felt glad. Her friends, her crew where dead... All of them gone even the frustrating AI. Lindsey took a deep breath trying to collect herself, she had to remain strong this was no time to lose her edge.

"Oh, well, that sounds just as bad as torture." Jaryd remarked, looking over at what remained of the ship behind them.

"Yeah... I probably should not speak so freely about my disagreements with the UNSC Admiralty" She said to the Spartan not yet knowing that her rescuers where in fact enemies of the United Nations Space Command.

"Hey, nobody's listening. Feel free to say whatever it is you want to say." Jaryd made the smile gesture. "Everybody's got an opinion."

She chuckled at the Spartan. "Your not like I expected" Lindsey said to Jaryd. "I've never got on with UNSC Command I.. I am too gung-ho apparently"

"And what did you expect?" Jaryd asked, curious.

"Well..." She had never really talked about her feelings about the UNSC with anyone, so it took her a while to come up with an answer. "I can tell you what I did not expect and that was posting to the most dangerous war zones, denied requests for both additional marines and Shiva Nukes" Commader Ryan sighed and muttered. "I kind of felt like the UNSC's dog, given the scraps while the Captains got every single request"

The ramp lowered, and Rika trooped on, helmet off. Her red hair free, she frowned.
"Commander Lindsey Ryan, Ree." Ren said from the cockpit door.
Rika sighed. "And?"
"In sheep's clothes." Lina responded.

Nodding, Rika sighed yet again, then unholstered her pistol and held Lindsey at gunpoint. Michael and Lina also drew their weapons, pressing them into Lindsey's back.
"We're sorry. But we're not UNSC. We're renegades, and we really don't want to hurt you ma'am. Please cooperate, and we'll treat you with dignity." Rika said. "I'm sorry."

Siri had just arrived at the bottom of the ramp. "Rika! Are you..." she looked slightly perturbed. "Please guys. Loweer the guns. She can't exactly beat us all." She stepped up and placed a hand on Rika's shoulder. "Commander."
The Spartans holstered their weapons as Saoirse stepped forward, Lina relieving the woman of any and all weapons. "I am Doctor Saoirse Monroe. As you were told, we are deserters, and we just want to be free. So please miss. Cooperate. Jaryd there usually is pretty quiet, and you know what they say about the quiet ones."

Jaryd stood up. "What she means is I like to find out how things work, the...internal mechanisms by things run." He carefully let out the part where he deals with machines and not people.

She sighed but refused to raise her hands. "I suppose there is no real reason why we cannot be diplomatic about all of this" Commander Ryan seemed remarkably calm, though inwardly she was furious. "I might not like the UNSC but I will not betray it I swore the oath just like you did to defend Earth and her worlds... If you want information on the UNSC I cannot give you that I am afraid" She knew where this was probably going to lead... Torture no doubt. Lindsey wondered how long it would be before she cracked after all she was hardly a key asset so she would probably not even rate a rescue attempt. Perhaps blind loyalty to the UNSC was foolish but even so, her duty was to the United Nations Space Command. She tossed her smg to the floor and pulled her knife out of her boot and broke it over her knee before tossing it onto the floor. It was her own version of an officer breaking their sword. "Okay rebels I surrender" Only with that did she finally raise her hands.

"We will be diplomatic. You'll be returned to the UNSC at the first possible convenience. Unless you'd rather stay with us that is, and be on the run. Up to you really." He looked over at Siri and nodded.

Finally, the Hammer Time exited slip-space. It had not been as long as expected to get back, though the crew was still in cryo. She had exited slip-space in the same system as a UNSC shipyard, and attention was immediately given. While a repair platform saw to the needs of the ship, the crew, awoken from their sleep and transferred to a different ship, were sent to the surface of the planet to be debriefed.

Dragon squad sat in the deck of their own pelican, already being dropped off from the ship that had ferried them this far. No one really knew how bad the situation was going to be for them, considering that they failed in a simple pursuit mission. But given that they escaped destruction by Covenant forces, they allowed themselves to be a little hopeful.

"We really could care less." Rika said. "We just want to be away from them. I'm not property, I'm a person. I know how a person should be treated."
Michael brought the woman's arms behind her back, fastening riot cuffs on her. "Secure."
Rika stepped aside, glancing at Saoirse. Siri sighed softly, shrugging. "I can take her."

The Spartans looked at each other, then pushed Lindsey gently but firmly. Saoirse took Lindsey's arm and started to walk her to a corridor, then towards a staircase.
"If any UNSC come by, we'll find a Pelican or something and send you over." She said. "I know you won't believe me, but we don't want to hurt you. We just can't take a chance you'll try and get us all captured..." Stopping finally at a cabin, she keyed it open and pulled her inside. "If I release your hands, will you be complacent? Please? I don't want Rika to get mad at you."

--Roughly Forty Minutes Later--

"So let me get this straight," the intelligence officer said as they placed their data pad down on the table. "You were in the same dropship as the renegade scientist, Saorise Monroe, the main target of you and your team. You practically had her in your hands. And you let. Her. Go?" The officer did their best not to lose their temper, but it was difficult as they stared down Lin. For her part, she simply stared back at him. "Sir, if you recall from my testimony earlier, I was in no shape to actually restrain Ms. Monroe. I already told you I was knocked out after being jettisoned out of the ship." He nearly slammed a fist down on the table. "I refuse to believe that an ODST of your experience, was simply knocked out, when you have been in far worse jumps!" Lin scowled. "Believe it or not, that's what happened. Sir. I took refuge in the drop pod, and as I was jettisoned I got tossed around, and was knocked out for my troubles. All I remember after that was waking in the med-bay."

Jaryd sighed and walked off to a corner of the hanger to start tinkering with some engine and weapon parts that were on the frigate since before they left.

Planet Athera

Lieutenant Cameron Leon was pretty sure he was the highest ranking UNSC officer within the the entire solar system, not to mention the four adjsacent systems. He was leading a ragtag bunch of Marines, a couple ODSTs, and a few Medics in an attempt to get some civilians to safety.

Not that anywhere on the planet was safe.

As he pushed some brush away, he glanced back at the mountain ridge. The UNSC E-Band was being lit up with an SOS...but he was pretty sure no one was coming.
Glancing at his small group of soldiers guarding a much larger group of civilians, they trunged towards the remains of the UNSC base in the south, hoping to find food, ammo, and transportation to the coats, where they could hopefully hide out on an island.

But that was before the Long and Dark December set off a Shiv nuke.

"Lieutenant!" the guy lugging the sensors trunged up, assisted by two of the four ODSTs left. "Got something. Someone set off a nuke near the planet." He looked pretty damn happy. "I think help's arrived. Should I?"
Leon shook his head. "Wait until we make it to the base. Should only be one or two more hours. Keep an eye on the radio."

The men continued on.

"Uh huh. Well then private, looks like your story checks out. The rest of your team, even the captain, said the same thing. So you won't be charged with aiding and abetting a fleeing criminal." He turned off his data-pad, pocketing the item. "Which I suppose in a small way is good, considering that we need every able bodied soldier right now. Your commanding officer, will know more. Dismissed." With that, Lin rose and left the sterile room, walking out into the hallway. She had a decent idea of where to find the rest of her squad.

Jaryd's helmet suddenly binged softly. It was detecting a UNSC SOS on E-band. Several thoughts hit him at once, the first being confusion as he thought he had disabled that feature, the second being confusion as to why he was just now getting an SOS even though the ship nearby was already wrecked or close to it, and then the third was realizing Aithera might still have marines or other UNSC forces on it. He quickly commed the others, walking briskly over to the Pelican. "Hey everybody, we've got an SOS. Isn't there something we normally do when we get an SOS?"

=while waiting for dan to respond finally recieved the sos on E-band to moved the ship closer to the planet while still being cautious=

be ready for anything

Rika looked up. "Get to the bridge and have Requiem get us there. Prep the Longsword and the Pelican. I'll fly cover in the Peregrine." She looked over at Jaryd, more directly. "You make sure Siri is safe, and once she's on the bridge, grab the Hornet and cover us."

Jaryd did a lazy salute as he started off towards the bridge. "Can do!" He commed up Siri. "Hey Siri, just thought you'd know there's an SOS going on right now on the planet and Rika wanted me to yell at you to get to the bridge. So if you could do that that'd be awesome." He started running, full speed towards the bridge.

"And what is one exhausted Commander going to do unarmed against a ship full of rebels? I am surprised you  put handcuffs on me but hey if you want to be civil I can chat and not escape" She decided that since they had shown her nothing but good treatment then it was only fair to show them the same. Perhaps... These rebels where not the bad people she believed they where. Commander Ryan waited to see what they intended to do though being a prisoner was not really something she wanted to be for very long. Escape was however utterly impossible considering she was alone on their ship. Co-operation suddenly seemed like a much better option than mindless resistance.

Takimg out a knife, she cut the riot cuffs off. "There. Please. Get some rest. You look like hell." Siri tapped her comm. "Great...strap in. We're going through the atmosphere. There's an SOS on the E Band." She backed to the door. "I'll try and bring you some water when I have a chance."
Keying the door closed, Requiem locked it as Siri ran to the bridge.

As the Long and Dark December exited the atmosphere, the pelican, longsword, Peregrine, and Hornet left the hangar.
"This is Spartan - 136 from U SC Long and Dark December, does anyone read us?"
She repeated herself thrice before she got a response.
"Spartan, this is Lieutenant Leon of Alpha Platoon. I am currently holding out in a building in the town of Maira in the south. We're holding the line, but we need help. We got half the garrison force here apparently, and air support won't be far behind."
"We have your signal. Inbound. Hang tight. The cavalry will arrive."
The small group of air vehicles roared towards the fight. "Leon, we have a longsword at the moment. We can use that and outr pelican to carry people to safety. Choose who goes where Lieutenant."

Commander Ryan watched the door shut and slowly rubbed her wrists. She sat down and looked around the gilded cage that she was trapped in. Perhaps committing to their cause would not have resulted in this outcome. But who knew at least she was not stuck on that bridge, fighting against endless waves of Covenant. The door was locked but there had to be other ways out of here... It was a soldier's duty to attempt to escape from captivity and to return home. Just because they had suggested that they would take her back did not mean that they actually would let her go back to the UNSC. If she could steal a Longsword or even an escape pod then... What was she saying the whole ship was controlled by Rebels, best thing for now was to simply sit and wait.

After making sure the frigate was on the proper path, Jaryd started heading back towards the Hanger. He slid in sideways to the doorway and jogged up into the Hornet. He jumped into the Pilot's seat and started taking off, flying off after the others, albeit very slowly compared to them. He kept his eyes open and wary for any threats as he flew.

As Leon and his men held the covenant at bay, Rika led the formation.
"Hit it."
Tapping controls on either side of her, the side mounted grenade launchers began to auto-track the covenant ground forces. She took the stick and began manuever, laying down fire with the chin gun.
"Jaryd, take the left flank. The town square is half a kilo to the west. make an opening. I want the dropship to head there now. I want the Longsword to make sure nothing gets close. Let's get this done."
She kept up her barrage as the Long and Dark December approached the area.
"Siri, get ready to fire an Archer or two. Level a few city blocks."
"Got it."

The Spartans went to it, ready to evac the area.

"Roger that. Heading west." Jaryd said over the comms, banking over to head toward the town square. He hovered for a moment and started opening up on 'soft targets,' his cannons firing down on Elites and Grunts and Jackals, instantly starting to draw fire from those near his killed enemies. He swerved back and forth and kept it up. "Missiles out." He said, thumbing the button and launching a pair of rockets to explode near a cluster of fairly well defended Jackals.

The Hornet went into Slipspace towards the December, "Ladies and gentlemen this is your Captain speaking, please be seated, and keep hands and feet in the ship at all times, thank-you."

As the ship entered slipspace and then exited once more, debris floated over the planet they had stopped at. No sign of the December, but lots of comm chatter coming from below.

Pilot- "Cpt. Yang! We've got Covie on the ground, and firing upon Civilians and Marines, how do you want to act upon it?"

Captain Yang looked at his Pilot, then at the crew, "Prep some pelicans to help them, also, get the ODSTs on high alert. Just in case we found our missing Frigate..."

Pilot- "Right away sir!"

Commander Ryan grew sick of sitting idle and began to explore the confines of the cabin, searching for something. She found what looked like a ventilation duct but it would not budge, not matter how hard she pulled or tried to pry it off with her fingers. Of course she would not be held in somewhere she could easily escape from. She sighed in defeat and threw herself down on the chair again, escape was impossible.

The remnants of Trainee Squad 12 moved their way towards what they hoped was the evac zone. Everywhere they looked they saw only death and destruction. There where only two trainees left, Dmitry and Becky both where scared and lost. They turned the corner, it was mercifully free of Covenant. However Dmitry spotted a damaged warthog with what he hoped was a working radio. The Trainee helmet's had poor radios, they would not get anything with their own. It was just their luck to end up on a world that the Covenant chose to attack, this new training idea of teaching the would be marines rapid deployment was all but useless when most of them did not know how to reload their own weapons. Athera had been a death trap, eight of the Trainees and all of their five instructors had been killed. How Dmitry and Becky survived this long was down to pure luck and lots of running. Dmitry grabbed a headset from the warthog and spoke. "Hello? Is anyone out there.. This is... Trainee Squad Twelve requesting..." He trailed off seeing a pair of hunters waddle around the same corner they had. "Anything and everything over" He threw the headset down and opened fire with his MA5C assault rifle. Becky turned around, she had been looking up the street, paused to push her helmet back slightly... It did not fit before firing her MA5C. The bullets pinged off the Hunters' armour. "Run!" Becky yelled as she fired another burst before sprinting away, Dmitry followed suit as the Hunters' fired and the warthog disappeared in a ball of crimson fire. The pair ducked into the ruins of a building and scrambled up the stairs, breathing hard. A jackal leapt out of nowhere but was swiftly brought down by the pair emptying the rest of their clips into it. They did not stop running until they reached the roof tops and there they attempted to reload their rifles. Becky dropped her rifle to the floor with a clatter, her hands shaking as she fumbled to eject the spent magazine. Dmitry too was suffering the same problem. "We are as good as dead aren't we Becky?" He inquired sounding defeated. Becky was too shocked to think of an answer and nodded wearily. They where exhausted, starving and massively dehydrated, completely lost, hopelessly outnumbered and out-gunned. The two rookies took about five minutes to reload their rifles, but they could not summon the courage to leave the building's roof top. Becky chose to call out with her radio even if it was incredibly weak. "Hello? Is anyone out there this is Trainee Squad Twelve, we are... Completely lost, most of our squad is dead, if anyone is out please say something?" She sounded desperate, not like a marine but a frightened teenager. "Please? Someone? Anyone?" The static was heart crushing to hear, through it all Dmitry had fallen silent staring into the distance, watching for Covenant.

Jaryd got a message on his radio and he tapped it. "You're talking to Jaryd, how might I be of assistance?" He paused on the fire and rotated around the town square, looking for more targets. A few stary bolts flew up at him, and he returned fire with his cannons. He switched channels to the rest of Blaze. "Square clear, searching for more targets."

Cpt Yang- "Get the Marines, and ODSTs top side! Move! Move!"

The ship was like an angry bee hive on the inside, people moving towards their stations, and Marines moving towards their Pelicans. All ODSTs got to their pods, waiting for a green light.

As the Pelicans took off, Marine platoon Alpha was in the front, "This is Major Henderson to Marine Battalion Foxtrot of the UNSC Hornet. Everyone stay on this comm channel, and your sub comm channels. Report anything you find Marines! Oorah!"

The Pelicans were hitting the atmosphere, coming in hot.

Daniel and the rest of Dragon waited in the atrium of the groundside base, sitting or standing as they waited for Lin. When she emerged from one of the doors, Chris was the first to descend on her. "So, how'd it go?" She asked her friend. Lin simply shrugged. "The guy was a bit of an ass, but no punishments. He said we were being assigned a new mission though. Know anything about that Daniel?" In response, Daniel folded his arms and pursed his lips. "We're being sent to the front lines apparently. It's a system that's only a few hours travel from here that the Covenant began attacking. Small presence but they still want us there." Ozren groaned. "So now we're back to fighting aliens? I think I'd almost rather be chasing Lin's girlfriend." That earned him a swift punch on the shoulder from his scowling squad mate, though it wasn't all that powerful.

"Dmitry! I've got someone!" Becky cried with joy, her face lit up with a bright smile. Dmitry rushed over delighted, the pair cheering. It was then that Becky realised that she had been holding the communicator down so Jayrd would have heard everything. "Er... Pick us up please?" Dmitry flinched, dodging a nearby burst of plasma rifle fire. Becky however was not so lucky, one round struck her left leg and she howled in pain, collapsing to the ground. An elite uncloaked from in front of Dmitry. "You ugly..." Whatever swear he intended to say was knocked out of him when the elite casually punched him in the gut, knocking his assault rifle out of his hands and across the roof. "We got an elite! A huge... He came out of nowhere" She shouted over the radio as the elite slowly turned towards her. Becky snapped up her rifle as she crawled backwards firing it, it clacked empty. "No... No" She did not know how to reload it. Dmitry suddenly reappeared with his rifle and fired at the elite, distracting it. "Jayrd get... Here hurry!" The elite was toying with them, he could clearly easily kill both humans but why rush? The Trainees had done nothing to mark out their location, all reason and thought was gone as they panicked in a desperate attempt to kill the elite.

"I'm going to need some sort of marker for me to know where you are. I've got a Hornet, but haven't quite slapped in that 3d minimap just yet. Is there something you can do? Smoke or an explosion or something?" Jaryd replied, having heard just about everything.

After Captain Yang got off the comm with one of the Admirals of the UNSC Fleet of this sector, he heard Civilians on the comm, "Get Achilles, and Django Squads down there, now!"

ODST CO- "Right away sir! Achilles and Django Squads, you are to land close to these coordinates, immediately!"

John, and the others grabbed their gear, and rushed to their pods. Kyle was sighing in relief, finally they get to do something productive.

The countdown began, "boop....boop.... boop!"

The 20 pods launched out of the frigate, and towards the objective. "This is Master Sargent Do'Tree, we are headed into enemy territory where Civilians need help! Keep your eyes wide open!"

As the Pelican flared out, Ren dropped down into the square, rifle raised. He down a trio of grunts and turned to take out two Jackals. "Square secure! Move move move!"

Civilians ran for the Pelican as the Longsword came overhead, bringing a great shadow of protection over them. Leon ushered men, women, and children into the Pelican, then came beside the Spartan.
"Who sent you?" He asked, firing at an elite running for cover.
"Discuss later with my commanding officer." HE said shortly. "Hey, Jaryd! What's your twenty?" He asked.

The Long and Dark December was over the town now.
"Cherenkov radiation! The Hornet has arrived!"

The pelican full, it lifted a few feet off the ground, Ren sat on the edge. "Lieutenant, the Longsword will pick you up."

As they left the shadow, the Longsword descended and lowered the ramp. ODSTs and Marines ran inside, cramming in as the Falcon flew their way.
"Pelican and Longsword, move. Ren, transfer to Peregrine and let's find those trainees."
As Ren leapt, the Longsword headed for the frigate.

Ren now in the Falcon, the ship winged away and headed for Jaryd as the Pelican followed the longsword.

Whether hearing the Spartan's words or just a mistake made out of fear, Becky pulled the pin out of a green smoke grenade and tossed it at the elite. It bounced harmless off the elite's head but it turned to look in her direction, distracted. Dmitry saw his chance and swiped the butt of his rifle at the elite's neck. The force shattered the shield's and staggered the elite. Dmitry recovered and emptied the entire clip into the alien warrior at virtually point blank range. "Look for the green smoke... The elite is dead I think.. I'm injured, Trainee Dmitry appears to be fine" Dmitry took the elite's plasma rifle as a trophy and headed over to Becky. The wound on her left leg looked bad but there was nothing he could do for her. He smiled at her and sat down beside her tossing the alien weapon in her lap. "Smoke grenade?" He chuckled weakly as if he could not believe they had won. Becky picked up the plasma rifle cautiously, examining the weird alien technology. "Hey... Guess we marines now" She stated though she sounded exhausted, still having not let go of the speaker button. Dmitry nodded the once in agreement. "For what it is worth... Yes we are"

Jaryd hit the comm so message Leon. "Leon, I'm getting some Trainees. I'll be back in 5." He switched to the trainees. "Roger." He spunt the Hornet around until he saw the greensmoke. "I see your Green. Coming in for pickup. It's a hornet so I hope you can hold on to a relatively bumpy ride." He started heading in, staying on course while firing intermittently at Covenant forces he could see as he went.

The Pelicans from the Hornet were arriving ground side, Major Henderson came to comms, "All Marine units move out! Find any and all UNSC forces, and Civilians and bring back to this LZ! Move it!"

As the Pelicans landed and emptied their cargo of Marines, all the units went into every building, and searched. As they spotted the December, the Major came back on to the comms, "I want three squads to check out what is underneath that ship!"

Alpha Leader- "On it!"

Golf Leader- "Right away Sir!"

Zulu Leader- "Heading there now!"

"Negative Jaryd, we'll get them." Rika's Falcon slotted into a position beside him. "Keep us covered."

As they approached, Ren leaned out. "Alrighty. I see them."
Rika hovered above, waiting for Ren to give the ok that they had moved away from the Falcon's LZ.


Saoirse keyed the door open. "Get up." She told Lindsey. "UNSC is here. I probably will have to use you as a bargaining chip." She sighed. "You have my word that you won't be harmed. I'll make empty threats. Just please. Don't cause problems. I want to send you back. You got family, right?"

Seeing the Hornet, Dmitry helped Becky up and they moved slowly closer towards the aircraft. Becky could not walk very well and with both trainees utterly exhausted they could not wait to not be running scared for a moment. "Solid we see you Becky is injured so... Might take some time getting on" Dmitry said, seeing as how Becky seemed to be growing paler, her left leg a dark crimson.

Lindsey turned to see one of her captors and just nodded. "No... Well I'm not on speaking terms with my father and Innies killed my mom when I was five" She told her, getting up slowly.

"Roger, Rika. Providing overwatch." Jaryd angled up and held position, rotating slowly to keep an eye open for targets, swaying back and forth ti mess up the aim of anyone most likely trying to get a lock on his position.

Saoirse nodded. "I am with my dad." She sighed, taking Lindsey's arm. "Just sit quietly and you'll be fine, ok?"
Leading her to the Bridge, Saoirse sat down at the captain's chair, but first tugged Lindsey to sit at her feet. "Just get on your knees and put your hands on your head. Look at the screen. All you have to do, ok?"

One that was good to go, Requiem sent a message requesting a video conversation with Yang.


As the Falcon touched down, Ren hopped out and ran over. "Let's go!" He said, helping Becky up. "You." He looked at Dimitry. "Help her into the Falcon. I'll cover you."
He sent them off, then kicked the door open and fired. Screams an roars were heard.
"Don't stop!" He shouted, chucking a grenade.

Ren made a beeline for the Falcon.

One of the Hornet's comm specialists turned towards the Captain, "Cpt. Yang, sir! We have a video request from the planet!"

Yang got up, moved towards one of the screens, "Let them through."

As Yang was goign to talk to them, Alpha, Golf, and Zulu squads were moving under the December, the Alpha Leader spoke up, "Major, we don't see anyone or anything down here! Just the belly of the ship and..." Static had taken over the comms, then a loud explosion was seen from the Major's position, "FUCK! FUCK, FUCK! I need a recon group to get over there, and tell me what happened! If it's those damned Spartans... shoot'em down."

When the screen came on, it would show Saoirse, lab coat and all, with Lindsey knelt in front of her, facing the screen with her hands on her head.
"Captain Yang. I right now have Commander Lindsey Ryan of the UNSC Nevada, before it's demise, before me. We rescued her from covenant forces, and your radiation scanners should have detected any iradiated pieces of metal floating around the detonation." She paused. "I'll give her back, if you withdrawl all forces from Athera after the safe retrieval of all civilians. If you fail to, we'll torture her. I'd like to think a Commander is worth something to the UNSC."