The Phantom of Equis

Jun, Six, and Kronos were making their way down a narrow ledge on the cliffface making it across the chasm below.

“You know I can fly, right?” Kronos asked as they reached the top of the hill near the edge of the ledge.

“Flying isn’t very stealthy now is it?” Six said, smirking under his helmet.

Jun turned to Kronos and said, “The covies probably have sensors to detect air borne threats, that’s why we aren't using a pelican, and even if it couldn’t pick you up on it, it's not worth the risk,”

“Heh, sorry... didn’t think about any of that,” Kronos blushed as he adjusted the sniper rifle on his back, “although its annoying that HQ has prohibited me from using ki based attack without clearance,”

“Quit whining, it's only for this OP,” Kat said over the comms.

“Hmph,” Kronos said as they climbed a boulder once they were over Jun turned around and handed them each a magazine clip.

“Here, you two will need these, high velocity armour piercing, these babies can take the hat off an elite at two thousand yards,” He said.

Kronos whistled as he and six took a clip each.

The trio slid down the ledge and came up behind an elite who had been looking off into the distance.

“I got him, I want to try something,” Kronos said as his hand was surrounded in a purple glow for a second and he mumbled, “kaolc,” turning invisible, although it was more of a camouflage as you could somewhat see the distortion when he moved ,if you looked closely.

There was silence for a few seconds as the Elite perked up, sensing something before being knocked unconscious by Kronos who had now decloaked. Kronos placed two fingers on the Elite’s forehead, and closed his eyes.

“Err this guy’s mind is hard to read, I can only pick up a few basic things like his language and customs, not much else,” Kronos growled in frustration taking out a dagger and slitting the elites throat.

“What’s wrong, your fancy power not working right?” Six asked smugly.

“Haha,” Kronos said laughing before being shushed by Jun and Six.

“Sorry,” Kronos whispered before perking up, “Five sigs, small, probably grunts coming this way... let's ambush them,”

The trio dashed back to the bushes and laid waiting for the grunts.

A squad of short creatures wearing pointed armour and gas mask like apparatus on their faces waddled into view.

“Sorry boss, Clap had to go to th- Oh he is dead, um maybe we should-” The lead grunt said when they found the dead Elite.

“Surprise mother fucka!” Six said jumping out and gunning them down.

“Aw, they were kinda cute, did we really have to kill them?” Krono asked giving the dead grunts a pitying look.

“Yes,” Jun and Six said in union as they head down the hill.

They came across a small village that was now under the complete control of the Covenant.

“Can we stop being sneaky boi’s now?” Kronos whined.

“No,” Jun scolded.

“Let's go in slow and take them out,” Six said as they sneaked up on a group of sleeping grunts.

“No don’t do it, they're so cute when their asleep, “Kronos whispered.

“The only good covie is a dead covie, now lets make these covie’s good,” Six said taking out his knife, stealthily killing the grunts.

“You’re mean,” Kronos said glaring at him.

Six flipped him off and they made there way through the encampment in silence, until Kronos tripped on a rock and fell onto a box, breaking it.

“You did that on purpose,” Jun said as the alarm was raised.

“Maybe,” Kronos grinned.

“Damn it, Kronos, why can’t you just follow orders,” Carter yelled over the comms.

“But stealth is so boring,” Kronos whined.

“I don’t care, shut up and do what you’re told or you’re going to sit at camp for the rest of your time in this unit,” Carter yelled at him.

“Fine, sheesh,” Kronos taking out a pistol and shooting down five grunts without looking.

Kronos jumped into the air and sniped a few elites,as slowly landed on one of the taller building.

“Hey no flying!” Jun said.

“I didn’t, I just jumped high,” Kronos said as he took out a few more elites.

“Thanks to you we have to fight through entire hordes of these guys,” Six groaned, poking his head out of cover to shoot down a charging elite.

Suddenly a dropship came in, dropping some elites with white armour and preparing drop down.

“Take it down, Kronos,” Jun said.

“Finally,” Kronos said, firing a ki blast and obliterating the ship and its occupants.

“Still can't get over that,” Six said shaking his head.

“Let's get moving,” Jun said as they headed into a forest like area, before reaching a clearing where the bird like skirmishers were being attacked by two giant reptilian like monsters.

“What the fuck is that?” Six asked.

“Thats one big boi,” Kronos whispered.

The creatures quickly killed the skirmishers, before charging them, prompting Kronos to take out his sniper and shoot them down quick with a headshot.

“Kat did you get any of that?” Jun asked.

“Affirmative Recon Bravo, it's an indingious creature called a Guta,” Kat said over the comms.

“Well, guess we should keep going,” Kronos shrugged.

“There’s a trail through the rocks up ahead. Let's take it,” Jun said as they followed it deeper into the woods.

Suddenly, gunfire rang out.

“Gunfire. Magnums, security side arms, standard issue,” Jun said as they ran towards the pump station where the shots were coming from.

“Noble Two, that’s some sort of pump station. Got eyes on civilians, more local militia, they’ve engaged hostiles.

“Move to assist, they may have intel we need,” Kat said.

As they dashed in, one of the militia men said, “Give us a hand! The bastards just keep coming!”

“That’s what she said,” Kronos laughed before taking cover behind some crates.

“Shut up Kronos,” Six said taking cover next to him.

“You guys don't let me have any fun,” Kronos said pretending to pout, before taking a few shots at a the charging covenant forces taking a few out.

Six took out his assault rifle and jumped over the cover, mowing down several units.

“Let’s shoot some lizard boi’s!” Kronos said grabbing a rifle off a downed trooper and charging after Six.

“Can you stop using that meme? This is what I get for introducing you to the internet,” Six sighed.

“Ultra’s inbound!!!” Jun said, pointing to the white armoured aliens as they charged Kronos and Six.

“You got enough ammo?” Six asked.

“Don’t need it,” Krono said dashing forward grabbing one them and using him to slam another into a wall making a crater in the wall.

Kronos took out his sword, threw the elite he was holding to the air and pointed the blade into the air causing the elite to be impaled on the blade.

“The force is strong with this one,” Six snickered.

“Oh is that a reference to that Star Wars movie you told me about? Watch this!” Kronos said outstretching his hand and floating the last ultra into the air. Before making a fist causing the ultra to explode.

“Whoa calm down there Frieza,” Six laughed, “You might make one of them go super saiyan,”

“But they’re not saiyans,” Kronos said in confusion.

“Woosh,” Kat said over the comms.

“Ya know from that one scene in Dragon Ball Z,” Six trying to explain the joke.

“What scene?” Kronos asked giving him a look.

“Where krillin dies, and Goku goes Super Saiyan,” Six specified.

“Goku can go super saiyan, but he’s like twelve!” Kronos said in surprise.

“Huh? Dude have you ever watched Z? He’s like thirty!” Jun said walking up to them.

“Maybe he only saw the original Dragon Ball,” Six offered.

“No, I meant this kid named Goku,I met him while I was verse hopping, he needed a haircut, but other than that he was a good kid,” Kronos said getting confused.

“Wait…..Your telling me, that you actually met Goku,” Six said grabbing Kronos by his soldiers.

“Well um yeah,” Kronos said shrugging.

Six looked at him, and Kronos looked at him, they looked at each other for like five minutes, it was kinda awkward.

“Um no homo?” Kronos asked.

Six stared at him, “Agreed, but you are taking me with you next time you hop,”

“Um ok,” Kronos said walking backward, obviously very weirded out.

“Bravo team be advised, several wraiths inbound,” Kat said over the comms.

“Ready to show off your fancy moves, seven?” Six taunted.

Kronos grinned and goes Super Saiyan.

“This makes way more sense than I am comfortable with,” Jun said, shaking his head and running for cover.

“Kronos… smash,” Six said pointing to the wraths.

“With pleasure,” Kronos said, blasting two of the wraiths away with a one handed ki blast.

“Honestly, I'm ashamed I didn’t know what those were before now,” Six said looking a tad bit depressed.

“To be fair, nowadays it's all Final flash or Kamehameha,so normal ki blasts. aren't as common,” Jun said as he chucked a blue ball of light onto on of the wraiths blowing it away.

“Hey stop stealing my kills with your lucky shots!” Kronos glared at Jun. Unfortunately for Kronos it only took out the driver so the wraith slammed into Kronos at full speed, as he was sent flying over the heads of the two spartans and into a pool of water.

“Not a word Six,” Jun said.

“Looks like he’s all washed up,” Six laughed.

“God damnit Six,” Jun face palmed.

A flash of light came from the pond, and a few seconds later Kronos found himself in a strange hallway.

“Fuck, I botched that teleport trying to get away from that fucking water,” Kronos said shaking the water off him.

Suddenly, he heard footsteps coming down the hall. Kronos quickly cast his cloaking spell and stood out of the way, as a blue armored elite walked by.

“Hmmm,” Kronos thought, firing a spell while chanting, “Peels,”

“Really sucks not being able to use unicorn magic in this form,” Kronos cursed under his breath.

He bent down and placed a hand on the sanghelian’s head, memories flooded Kronos’s head, he quickly suppressed as many as he could so as to not be overwhelmed by the sudden info dump, in the end all he knew from this was that he was on a covenant flagship.

“Okay now for my next spell,” Kronos said sitting down in lotus position, “Threads of time rewind now, duo minuta redire,” and with that a purple hex seal appeared below him and the elite got up rapidly and ran backwards back down the hall.

Kronos wiped the sweat off his face, and took a few seconds to catch his breath, “Okay now for my changeling spell, this is gonna hurt,” He gritted his teeth as green flames consumed his body and burned his skin and organs, and a few seconds later he was the red armoured elite he encountered at the start of his mission with Six and Jun.

“Okay, time to make Grandma happy and see what these lizard bois have to say for themselves, well... what their computers have to say anyway,” Kronos said in the language of the elites.

“Okay, gotta be carefull, no magic, no sharingan, and most certainly no ki or super saiyan ,in this form,so if I get snuck up on Im screwed” Kronos thought to himself as he walked past the blue.

“Ah Major! Thel Vadumee was looking for you, it's time for your promotion ceremony, best of luck brother,” The blue said as he turned and jogged back the way he came.

“Oh yeah, his memories did say something about that,” Kronos thought to himself.

Kronos walked into the bridge and was met with most of the Elites (which he now knew as sanghelian’s) wait for him.

“We have come here today to honor the deeds of this one’s soul.” a bright gold armoured elite stated. “Myrta naz. Your time has come, take this blade, and grow in your place in the great journey!”

Kronos took the blade, and said, “It will be an honor to use this blade to fight for the great journey,” as he silently thanked what little memories he got from both of those elites.

“Now go and do even greater work for the journey, and the covenant!” The elite walked off.

Kronos looked at the hilt he had received and ignited its transparent blue tinted energy blade. “Its beautiful, “ He mumbled still making sure to use the sanagheilian’s language. He turned the blade off and placed it on his left hip while adjusting his sword on his right. Kronos then walked down the hall and stopped.

“Shit I don’t know where my bunk is,” Kronos face palmed.

“Second on the left boss,” A grunt said walking past.

“Thanks little buddy,” Kronos said after him.

“Little buddy?” A blue armored a elite said coming up behind him.

“We’re all on the same side, best to treat each other with respect eh?” Kronos replied,hoping he hadn't blown his cover already..

The blue elite looked put off by this but shrugged and walked off, the gold armoured one from before however seemed to have taken interest in Kronos’s remark.

“Oh really myrta? What made you change your mind about that?” He asked walking up to kronos’ elite form.

“I’m trying to keep a more open mind, we are all on this journey together, there is no need to push others down in order to elevate yourself,” Kronos shrugged.

“That is a very open view. Say at some point would you like to clash blades? I need some practice.” The gold one said.

“Clash blades? With a warrior of your standing? What a fool I would be to refuse such a honor!” Kronos said trying to hide his excitement to fight someone he assumed to be quite strong.

“Alright, follow me.” He said leading Kronos, Kronos placing a small device on a computer without the snagheilian noticing ,before they reached a wide open room.

“I will take it slow at first so as not to overwhelm you, then we pick up the pace. Got it?” He said igniting his energy sword.

Kronos nodded and ignited his blade. At first as he said, the gold warrior took it easy on Kronos. Kronos used this time to adjust to his new form. At first, barely blocking the gold warrior’s strikes, but soon over taking him and going on the offensive.

“Must be as the heretics call it a ‘quick study’, well time to cut lose.” The gold warrior speeds up quite a bit.

Now, they were blurs of red and gold as the two clashed in the center of the room, Kronos found himself unable to push his advantage, not that he had one to begin with. He then got an idea. As the gold warrior went in to clash with his blade, Kronos deactivated his energy sword at the last possible second, narrowly dodging the blade and punching the gold warrior in the face knocking him to the ground before reactivating his blade and holding it close to his face.

Only for the gold warrior to sweep kronos’ legs from under him and aim his own blade at kronos’ throat. “That was not a honorable move.”

“It worked did it not, well almost,” Kronos grinned,well as close as he could get with his mandibles.

“You are not Myrta, Myrta would have never used such a move, Plus I bet you don’t even know my name,” The gold warrior said.

Kronos remained silent for a second trying to think of a to get out of his situation that didn’t involve shifting back into his saiyan form. It was then that the device he put on the computer dinged and his HUD was flooded with info.

“You are Thel Vadumee,” Kronos grinned.

“You found that much out. I however still know you're not Myrta, show me what you really are!” Thel practically roared in anger.

“Sheesh fine,” Kronos said as a burst of green flame consumed him causing Thel to step back as several more elites ran into room.

“Vadumee what is going on?” A white armoured one asked running to the side.

“I have no idea how, but we have a heretic in our midsts.” Thel sighed.

The flames dissipated and Kronos stood with his cloak draped around his neck and shoulders, now in his saiyan form, his tail flowing free.

“Well I was hoping to stay hidden a bit longer, maybe get a better feel for how you guys operate,” Kronos said shaking his head and twirling the energy sword on his finger.

“Why should I believe anything you say, heretic!” Thel shouted.

“You know you really should be more aware of what’s going on around you, that was mytra’s mistake,” Kronos smirked ignoring the question.

“You killed him, Why should I not kill you in return!” Thel said.

“You know buddy, I made a promise to god dragon awhile back in return for some power, that promise being I wouldn’t kill without reason, and if it wasn’t for that promise...you’d be dead where you stand,” Kronos said darkness eclipsing his eyes for a few second as a darkly shaded red aura encased them for those few seconds.

“So you say you can kill me anytime?” Thel shouted.

Suddenly the elite next to him dropped dead with several gashes in his armour.

“That will be you in a few seconds if you don’t watch your tone,” Kronos said coldly.

“Again all your doing is making me want to try and kill you, give me a reason i shouldn’t try!?” Thel said.

“How about this, you raise that blade against me, and I'll kill the rest of your little friends, you want that?” Kronos asked getting irritated.

Thel sighes and drops his blade and his rifle. “Kill me if you must, but spare them, I'm the one that angered you.”

“I have no interest in dulling my blade on you armour, but I will like to double check your data banks to make sure my bug didn’t miss anything, oh and I'm gonna need to pilot this ship to where ever I need to be, teleporting takes to much energy to be worth it in verse jumps,”

“You have a deal. What do you mean I’m not worth dulling your blade though?” Thel frowns.

“Oh no, you misunderstand, my blade is stupidly hard to sharpen once the blade has been dulled, so I wished to avoid going through that process , having it forged from near indestructible metal does that to a sword,” Kronos said shaking his head.

“Near indestructible?! That's not possible!” Thel’s eyes go wide.

“Nothing is impossible, not even raising the dead,” Kronos said snapping his finger causing purple chains to appear around the white elite and shatter, causing him to jump up gasping.

“What are you, some kind of god?” Thel asked in awe.

“Nope, you see Thely, there was no blood on the ground, therefore I did not cut his skin, instead I knocked him out and froze him in time for a hot second, so basically the only damage done was to his amour, but make no mistake... that was only a warning, next time he’s not getting up,” Kronos said.

“I already dropped my weapons, what else could you want!” Thel groaned a bit

“I wanted to make sure you didn't see this as a sign of weak will,” Kronos reiterated.

“Now what do you wish, master.” Thel said.

“Master huh? I like that, anyway lemme check the log books and such real quick,” Kronos said going to the main computer and rapidly shifted through all the pages.

Thel is quick to give the order that the human like creature is not to be harmed.

“Hmm interesting…” Kronos said before stopping at a file marked “for the prophets eyes only”, “OOOOOOOOOO, lemme give it a looksie.”

Kronos then watched a short clip before bursting out laughing.

“You guys got played!” Kronos giggled madly.

“What have you found?” Thel asked with raised eyes.

“Look at this, “ Kronos said putting up on screen big enough for the entire bridge to see.

The clip showed Jackals and Grunts attacking a poorly defended station and wiping out all the civilians.

“What!? So humans were never a threat to the great journey in the first place!? Not only that but so much dishonor has been done by us to fight in this war.” Thel raged a bit in anger.

“Like a fiddle,” Kronos mused.

“We must not act rash, the prophets could end us at any time if they found out wecknew the truth,” Thel said.

“Okay so, for now you go about your normal routine.l, Any large deviation could put our operation at risk, I'll need to get into contact with the UNSC, hopefully we can get them on our side,” Kronos said.

“If you can get the humans to see reason behind this, I will gladly pledge my fleet to their war effort.” Thel promised.

“I'll hold you to that, see ya later Thely,” Kronos smirked, teleporting away.