Black Spartans

Hell To Pay

It was three days before Alpha and Mark finally found a weak point. It wouldn't show the weak points as it had before, but it would paralyze them, which, in theory. Would give the unlikely alliance a chance to destroy Cortana, and send them back to whatever pit they crawled out of. 

Mark looked at the two cases next to him, one's top was covered with a picture of a sandy beach with a single palm tree next to the ocean, the other had a single patch of mixed colors. He opened the first case, and smiled with a slight sense of pride in his eyes. 

"She's going to love it." Asaroth said, entering the room. 

"You can't tell her, not until I give the okay." Mark replied, pulling the ring from the case. 

"Abysll?" Asaroth asked, sitting in a spare seat next to Mark. 

"Yeah, and the inner layer is special, every time we repair our armor we throw away pieces of it, replacing it with new pieces, I used those pieces, and I melted them, and formed the base piece." Mark said, looking at the black inner layer, then the dull grey outer layer. 

"Hmm, and the jewel? What is that?" Asaroth asked, clearly pleased. Mark winked to Asaroth. 

"Thats a secret, but I will tell you that it means everything to the Black Legion." Mark said, Asaroth raised an eyebrow. 

"Its a core... isn't it?" Asaroth asked. Mark sighed, he should have known that Asaroth would guess. 

"Its a cooled planetary core. But its where its from that means so much." Mark said, looking into the crystal with a small sense of pride. 

"Well, where is it from?" Asaroth asked, sitting back and crossing his arms. Mark gave the Elite a concerning look. 

"You're turning into a human... anyway, its from the first planet we ever operated on. Hell, that feels like so long ago." Mark said, remembering the kid that dropped into hell that day, versus the one he saw reflected back in the crystal. 

"That would make sense, it brings good memories, I cherish the memories I share with you all, and I miss the twins dearly." Asaroth said. Mark couldnt meet his eyes as he nodded. 

"As do I Asaroth, as do I." Mark said, then he stood up. 

"But." He started, placing the ring back into the protective case and placing it onto a high shelf. "We have a job to do, Alpha has found a weak point inside the Guardians once more. I can explain later, but for now, I need you to gather your forces, we won't have much-" 

"All Hands to battle stations, all hands to battle stations! This is not a drill! We have posative confirmation that the UNSC orbital defence is under attack by Guardian forces." the speaker blared inside the Chaos. 

"Time.... Speak of the devil and he will appear." Mark said, shaking his head and rushing off. 

"Gather everyone at the command point! Now!" Mark yelled to Asaroth. The Elite nodded and ran off. Mark turned and slipped the contents of the other case into a package, then he turned, and mounted his armor.

--

Mark stormed into the command center, as he did it fell deadly silent. "We are lucky that she was confused for so long, Alpha and myself have something that can disable the Guardians, but in that time we will need to do a lot of things, the most important being cut Cortana's connection with the Guardians, the best way I can think of doing this is simply applying a kill code to her directly, the second most important will be to get the civilians out of there and get the UNSC on their feet. As much as I hate myself for saying this, Angel is third priority. If we can grab her, great, if we cant, then hell, we get our jobs done and she goes free. This is our ONLY shot ladies and gentlemen. I know many of you hold hate in your heart for eachother, but I ask you that you put aside this hate, so we can fight like the brothers we are. Whos with me!" Mark asked.