CHAPTER 24

Margaret 053 lowered her body down to her belly and began to crawl through a cramped mess of snow capped trees and ferns. She eventually climbed deeper through the foilage and raised to a crouch, behind a clump of logs, she eased herself through the fortress of wood that had been the result of the excavation there, she rose her helmet slightly over the brambles and inched forward, the blackened MJOLNIR Rig working together with the dead of night to shield her from view.

As she moved forward, she snapped off her supressed M7 from her magnetic mount and scanned the area around her,

SPARTAN BLACK etched behind, they rose up like haunting spectres and readied their weapons. Margaret held her hand up and tightened it to a fist, and they all froze in place.

"What is it?" Roma said, before looking to the sky.

"More air traffic" Margaret quietly responded

it came, two phantom dropships with harrowing searchlights that bathed the rocky path ahead, it snapped its searchlight across the area like a viper.

"Air patrols are increasing in intensity, looks like they know were here" Victor said

"lets keep it at that and not at "where we are", stay low, keep it tight and move out as quiet as you can. Stay out of those spotlights."

three acknowledgement lights flared in her TEAMCOM as she rose her SMG forward and silently moved ahead, she made sure to watch her every step as she moved across the terrain.

Their new MJOLNIR Armor was special from the other SPARTAN IIs. A skunkworks prototype that was specifically designed for them and their mission specifics, named after the team, designate "MJOLNIR: BLACK". Full of all sorts of fancy gadgets and features. Such as the VISR mode and the enhanced magnification of the Visor system, a secondary feature hid their signatures off most human and covenant RADAR systems, with the exception of motion trackers, even which could be avoided by crawling beneath it's radius or moving slow enough for it not to pick up, or by interference by things such as wildlife.

The ONI tech-heads who worked on these "special edition tuxedos" as Team Black called them had envisioned to maintain the combat efficiency of other MJOLNIR Battle Armor, while maintaining full covert capability of the more-cheaper and newer SPI (Semi-Powered Infiltration) suits that were worn by most of the newer SPARTAN IIIs, in addition to a new energy shielding system reverted from captured Covenant technology. Thus MJOLNIR BLACK was created.

Margaret herself wasn't comfortable outfitted with relatively new equipment, especially one which she and her team would field test. But it seemed that it worked perfectly, almost like a second skin.

She felt uneasy about attachments to hardware, they were ultimately expendable, and this battle armour can always malfunction at some point, she would make a personal note to the techs at the Special Warfare Centre on Earth for future modifications to resolve any issues with the equipment should they arise with herself or her squadmates. But for now she focused on the mission, and looking after her squad, like any leader should be expected to do.

The Phantoms eventually departed away, no troop deployment.

At the top of a snow ridden ridge, Margaret lowered herself back to a crouch and set her visor magnification to maximum at the structure, the position was ought to give a better angle, if the Covenant were here.

Otto gave a low whistle, "huh, is it normal for them to burn holes through the ground to mine? Or crack it out? And what are those glowing four-armed cage things? They dig with those too?"

She set her visor to the centre, several perfectly described cyan glowing, four armed units were being latched onto the crater at the centre of the mining operation.

"We're gonna need to get a closer look at that, Three."

"Oh that's just great, more sneaking around. With respect, I feel nervous playing stealth in this new 'tux, boss" Otto huffed

"Don't we all, Three" Margaret whispered, "but you got to take risks and live a little, now get moving!"

The four Spartans vanished back into the night as they slid down the ridge and into the chasm below.