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UNSC Warlord Book 4: Rise of Tespan Chapter 1: Deployment A group of Marine’s were slaughtered at the Temple of Fahro, within a few minutes the base was taken over and secured by the imposed threat. ‘Temple of Fahro was one of Emissa’s sacred places that was currently being used as a relay post by UNSC Warlord.’ Activities of the sort have been happening all across the globe of Nessyapa. Speculation has it that there’s a group of Insurrectionists targeting these various locations across the globe, which doesn’t seem likely for a small armed resistance. Fireteam Falo, a group of ODST’s known for their stealth operations, were tasked with this job. Deployment would begin shortly, as their Pelican was approaching the island. “Alright team, this is another Stealth OP.” Captain Finch stood near the bay hatch. “You know the ground rules. We get in, figure out what the hell is going on, and get out. Keep the firefight to a minimum. We can’t blow this OP.” The hatch bay opened up, it was about a 10 feet drop onto the shoreline. Rocks and hills both swarmed the view in front of them. Only a few kilometers to go, and they’ll be at the Temple of Fahro. “Sliv and Quincy, grab your things. We’re moving out.” Finch grabbed his DMR and slapped the magazine in from the impact of the drop. Sliv fell shortly behind, shotgun in hand, already locked and ready. Quincy was already on the ground by the time Sliv arrived, his green woodland skin covered his entire sniper rifle. “Alright, Sliv. Move up on me. Quincy’s got our backs.” Finch swiveled past a few large rocks. Bright lights emitted from the hillscape in front of them. Whoever was here before them, is still here now. “Sir, three tango’s dead ahead. Third one’s headed out. We’re gonna have to push our way past them.” Quincy spoke in his rough, low, British voice. “There’s a rock on the edge, you could probably use to get the drop on them.” “Roger that, Quincy,” Finch responded while motioning Sliv towards the ledge. “We’ll get them. Quick and clean.” Finch motioned at Sliv, who was now above the two soldiers. He dropped down, the blade of his knife immediately penetrated the first targets throat. He pulled his knife out and sucker punched the next target. Knocking him cold to the ground. “Targets down,” Finch walked up beside Sliv, “Quincy, we’re moving up. On us.” “Roger that.” Quincy, closed up from behind. “Sir, tracker says target location is approximately one kilometer West of our position.” Sliv put away the tracker. A light glared in the distance. They kept moving. A few more guards were spotted towards the right, luckily out of the way. A retaining wall was up ahead. They could either climb over into safety, or risk going around and breaking their operation. The glare came over Sliv’s helmet again. This time she knew what it was, “Quincy, target tower overhead. Northwest, about sixty degrees by twenty high.” Quincy nodded at Sliv, suppressor quipped to his weapon, he raised the Sniper and pulled the trigger. Eliminated. Finch already had Sliv above the retaining wall, and was moving up himself. Quincy came over, and reached up and grabbed their hands for a boost. “Target in sight, fellas,” Finch stared in awe at the Temple in front of them. Sliv pushed passed them, taking lead towards the door. “Doesn’t look like anyone’s home.” Quincy said, as they got closer to the door. The lights were on inside and out, but no one’s in sight other than those few guards they past by. “Keep a close watch, we made it this far, but we still gotta make it back.” Finch sounded a little worried as he entered the passcode to the door. The Temple was secured by the UNSC to keep out intruders and siege’s from happening. However, this seemed to prove otherwise. Either a threat bigger than they imagine, or a small tactical force got the hand on them. The door unlocked. They went in. Nobody was inside, everything was the way it was supposed to be. Monitor’s intact, generators online, and... “Oh my god.” Sliv almost screamed, she couldn’t believe what she saw. Quincy and Finch followed her gaze towards the ceiling. Both of them gasped in horror. The Marine’s were hanging by the ropes, dangling from the ceiling with the words ‘YOU’RE NEXT’ smeared in blood behind them. “Wha-... What do you guys think they mean by ‘You’re Next?’, Sliv saw Quincy fall to the floor; quickly turning to her side as she heard Finch. “Oh no.” She knew what was about to happen. She turned around, only to see a rifle punching her in the face, knocking her out on the ground with her comrades. “Secure the bodies, bring them outside.” A loud, calm, American voice shouted. It sounded familiar. But who? Moments passed by, what felt like hours was merely just seconds. Sliv could feel the mixture of the cool air mixed with the warm breeze. It just got colder. Oh no. She knew what was about to happen. Were... Were they stripping her clothes? Why? Why would they do this? Were they doing this to the other two as well? This couldn’t be happening right now. She wanted to scream, but couldn’t. What use would it do her anyways? Nobody else was nearby. “Sliv, on my way for extraction. You better be ready in fifteen minutes.I don’t care how hot the zone is, you need to get out of there now. A large force has just show itself on the radar. It’s not safe!” It was their Pilot, Lewith. If only he knew what just happened to them. Sliv felt her earpice being removed, then crushed. So much for that anyways. Like it would even matter. She felt something poke her. Here we go, she thought. They poked her again, this time even harder. Her eyes flew open. A fire was in the distance, it was the Temple. They set it on fire, but why. She looked around for answers. She saw them. Finch and Quincy were tied up. Rifles aimed at there heads. She couldn’t make out what they were saying, probably questioning if there were more of them or who sent us. Then she noticed. They both had their armor stripped, left in their undersuits. That’s when a sigh of relief flew over her. She was in hers as well. But what were they doing with their armor? A few more individuals walked by. Their armor and weapons in hand. Wait. Were they going to board their Pelican and take out Lewith, and use the ship for their own need and desires? No. She needed to warn him, but how? Two gunshots fired off, both came from a pistol. She looked over and saw what happened. The horror in her eyes. Finch and Quincy were dead. It was too late for them now, but not her. “We got what we need.” The voice from earlier came back to haunt her. She couldn’t see who this figure was, but she could hear him loud and clear. “Kill the girl. Leave a message for the next team they send. Let them know what they’re messing with.” The voice got quieter, she heard him walking away. The sound of him entering a heavy vehicle could be heard. The vehicle raised. Now she knew what it was. They had a Mantis. But how? How could they have one here? As she saw some more individuals close in on her, weapons ready to fire... A Pelican flew over them, full throttle. It started to turn around. Lewith already knew they were done for, but it seemed he was willing to violate protocol just to pay his own respects. Oh no, this was bad. This was very very bad. Whoever these guys were, were imposing a good threat for a small armed force. There’s no way to explain it. They had one of the new expiremental Hannibal Mantis’ fully operational and everything. The Mantis fired at the Pelican. Within seconds, the ship lost control and was on its way for a crash landing towards them. ‘Maybe this was good, maybe Lewith would still have some control and was willing to use his last breath to ram his ship into this threat.’ but she was dead wrong. Something was charging up, it was really really loud. It sounded from above her. Sliv noticed the previous indivuals were gone, they ran away. She looked up, and realized why. These guy’s had a god damn Condor Gunship! But how in the world did they get that. Who exactly are these people? They were definitely no small armed force if they had this much power. This is bigger than they thought. If only she could have let Command know. Everything she had was down. Her comms were destroyed, the Temple was blazed. She was lost in thought for too long that she forgot what was going on. The Condor fired on the Pelican, a loud explosion was heard as the round pierced through the Pelican. It was obliterated to millions of pieces. She realized it was too late. Her body was numb, she could still move. Maybe even stand. She got up on her knees, then slowly got control to stand up. Pssht. A silent round pierced her leg, she let out a cry of pain. The adrenaline kicked in hard. She stood back up. She started to move away, this time faster. Psssht. Another round pierced her, this time in her other leg. There was no way she could keep going. She turned around, about a quarter way in her turn the Pelican debris rammed her thirty feet into the ground. It happened so fast, she didn’t have any time to process the thought. A warm liquid surrounded her. She felt perfect for the first time in awhile. A deep breath escaped her as she gave in and let out. Fireteam Falo was dead. Their mission objective failed. ~End of Chapter 1~ (*Touchup, will have a personal banner made later on for this Book)

~Chapter 23: Finish~ Ash watched as Junior and Joseph were eliminated by the Stratego within seconds. Marines and ODSTs ran in to assist, but were killed by the two soldiers that remained. The team had to move quick, they knew if they eliminated those soldiers, the Stratego would just bring in more. If they didn’t, they’d get killed bringing down the Stratego. There was no other options. They were in a tough situation right now, one they wouldn’t win but they wouldn’t lose. Magnus was at the face of the Night right now, his bullets did no harm to it. Only the armor. Ash watched as the knight knocked the weapon out of his hand, then use the incineration cannon to dispose of him and everything he had. Runner ran over to Ash and got behind the cover where she was hiding. Tears streamed down her face, the same thought was in her mind as it was Ash’s. They were going to die. They knew there was no other way. Ash looked Runner in her eyes, “It’s just you and me now. Everyone else is dead. Archangel, Anne, Jackson... They’re dead. I know we both will meet our fate here soon. But let’s not go down without a fight, see if we can save this ship even if we can’t save ourselves.” Ash forced a smile on her face. “A..Alright. I..Guess we can do that.” Runner looked at her with hope, “I wish things went differently. I wish I would’ve got to know you better.” Ash looked at Runner, in attempt to keep tears from rolling down her eyes. “Here, take this. I’ll be right behind you.” Ash handed her a shotgun. “If it doesn’t work, I’ll be behind you to do the rest. I promise.” Ash gave her a pat on the back. As Runner ran towards the Knight, Ash pulled the pin off one of the grenades on Runner’s belt. She stood back, a tear rolled down the cheek of her left eye. “Ash?” Runner called out, terror in her voice. “Ash!?” Runner was face to face with the Knight Stratego. It was too late to go anywhere, the Knight went to swing. The grenade exploded, as well did the others. Blowing the Knight Stratego to bits. Leaving the two Soldiers. Ash wiped the tears from her face and stood up with the pistol Magnus had given her. She made sure it was ready, and that these two Prometheans would be the end. --------------------------------------------- Jackson ran up to Verite. Sword in hand, he swung while Verite blocked. Verite swung while he blocked. This battle would go on for awhile, unless they stepped things up. Either way, the timer on the bomb kept ticking. “Y’know, for an Elite. You’re pretty good. I’ve killed about as many of your kind as much as you use grunt’s for cannon fodder.” Jackson smirked at the Elite. Verite grunted in hatred, “I’ve killed many of your kind as well. With my hand, and in the destruction of your planets.” Jackson didn’t like that response. He unleashed the anger in him with the movement of his swings. Verite hated this demon, his anger was triggered more by the fact that he could have killed him, but decided against it. The damn demon was supposed to just die and rot in the wasteland of the Brute’s. “Not bad yourself, but you still got what’s coming for you.” Jackson taunted the Elite. “You’ll see!” Verite swung his sword as Jackson blocked it, then kicked the demon in the chest, he swung his sword again. Removing Jackson’s arm with a clean swipe. Jackson stared at the Elite, hatred in his eyes. “You cheated. That is not fair.” “I will determine what is fair and what is not fair, demon. Now you will die an undesiring and unrespectful death. You’ll have what’s coming to you.” Verite went to swing, but Jackson jumped out of the way. “Well, all I needed to do was buy myself some time.” Verite seemed confused at what Jackson was saying. “This was supposed to be a round trip, but it seems my time has come to an end.” Verite just stared at him, confused... Wait. The bomb. Verite screamed right before it detonated, which is exactly what the last thing Jackson wanted to hear. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ash walked up towards the Soldier’s. Weapon at the ready, the two Soldiers stared at her with their weapons lowered. “Human!” As Ash went to quickdraw, she was stopped. Penetrated by a hot, warm, sharp object. “Ughnuhuhhuh...” Ash couldn’t move, it didn’t feel right. What happened? “You think you could just run away, come back, blow up one of my ships, and then think you could leave? Well I’ll have you know I do not take this sort of behavior in an acceptable manner. Your death is just a matter of the correlation. Soon will be your ship and the rest of your friends.” Lan Chorus said in a hasty matter, pure hatred rushed through him as he drug the sword out of Ash and through her on the ground. She watched as more Elite’s came in and killed the Soldiers and pushed for the command deck. Ash laid there in a pool of her own blood. Waiting for the last seconds to pass... ------------------ Ash opened her eyes. A bright light was in her field of vision as were three other people standing over her, two of them were in a lab coat one was in an ONI Jacket. “The simulation is incomplete, and she has failed her objective. What makes you think she’s worthy of joining our Spartan team, Doctor Halsey?” Must have been the ONI Jacket guy. “The simulation is meant for them to fail, but she has by far made it even further than most Spartan’s have. For the exception of a few of them, regarding Blue and Red team. I think she’ll fit in nicely.” Halsey responded. “But what if she fails like she did her objective? We’ve had other Spartan’s make it as far as her, such as T-031 Jackson and S-034 Archangel, but they were a loss on the frontlines a couple days after.” The ONI seemed like he wanted to discard of her into the waste can. “It’s alright, Thomas. This one is special. I know she’ll make it far. You just have to trust me. I’ll work with her, and hopefully she can be one of the best soldiers out there you’ll need her to be.” “Very well, do what you must. We believe the Covenant are headed to Reach within the next few days. I hope she’ll be ready by then.” The door slammed shut and everyone left, the lights went out leaving her in the dark. “It... It was all a simulation...” Ash cried. ~End of Chapter 23~ ~Book 3: Complete~

~Chapter 19: The End~ Jackson opened the Pelican’s door, Banshees swarmed the sky. Every so often the sunlight was blocked by the aircraft's. His vision turned to the side, there; a Covenant Supercarrier drifted in the distance, plasma cannons fired upon the ground and the sky. “Jackson, close that door. We can’t risk Ash getting hit at all. She’ll die. I’ve managed to get her body into some kind of hibernation, but like I said. She can’t get hit, otherwise she’s done for.” Junior said, he stood up against Jackson. Almost all of their teammates were dead, killed, or injured because of this Spartan. Junior started to think they would’ve been better off without him. “I know.” Jackson said. He pulled down the Machine gun turret. It sort of just hanged there from the roof. He took one last look over at Ash, before he ripped the turret off and shut the Pelican’s doors, as then he proceeded to the top of the Pelican. Where he would meet his fate. The first thing he saw as the hatch opened, were eighteen Banshees. They all zoomed past him, none turned around and none stopped. “Caelin. How long before arrival?” Jackson asked as he stood on the hatch. The sky was full of Covenant, but they were all headed in one direction. “I presume twenty minutes, sir. That’s if no firefight’s are engaged, as well as this Pelican keeps up at this speed. This one wasn’t designed to go this fast, sir.” Caelin replied back. She maneuvered the Pelican underneath two Phantoms headed straight at them. Yet, they didn’t engage. They just continued on their path. Jackson turned around and headed to a seat in the Pelican as the hatch closed. “Archangel, anything new on the battlenet?” Frank asked. Seeing as how he was not capable of receiving anything. “Yes, it seems the fleet has arrived. Warlord is back, but they’re up in the atmosphere. I’ve managed to briefly contact them. We’ll need to use a Longsword back at the camp to get back, if not, we’ll look for the next closest thing.” Archangel said, as he remembered himself try to contact whoever shot the MAC rounds. “That makes more sense...” Junior spoke up. He turned and looked directly at Runner. “So, sweet cheeks. How’s it feel to no longer be the only female ODST, now that Anne has joined the team?” “I really do not care.” Runner replied, disgrace in her eyes. Junior just laughed. “Alright you guys, we are approaching camp. It’s under attack at the moment, so if we want out of here, we’re going to have to push through.” Caelin yelled from the cockpit doorway. Jackson, Archangel, Magnus, Runner, and Joseph stood at the doorway. Weapons ready, pointed out the hatch as it started to open. “Alrighty guys, you’re good to go. Secure us a Longsword.” Caelin and the pilot landed the Pelican, just as the five opened fire when they jumped out. Grunts and Jackals were everywhere. An occasional Elite showed his face for every 50 Grunts. “We stick together, covering fire in all directions. Let that be in front of us, or behind. You will open fire on the target.” Jackson ordered, he held his knife and ran it through an unsuspecting Jackals throat. The Longsword wasn’t very far away from where they landed. It was just swarmed in Covenant, and whatever remained of UNSC troops. Joseph ran up to an Elite, he pulled the trigger on his M60 as fast as he could before he had to swap magazines. The Elite was shieldless, but reached for his energy sword. Joseph noticed instantly. His thruster pack activated, and Joseph slammed right into the Elite. Knocking it on the ground and out cold. “Caelin, we’re at the Longsword. Archangel is inside, setting up the controls. Runner is in there with him, for cover protection against any unseen enemies. Magnus, Joseph, and I are all eliminating what threats are left. I advise you head here now.” Caelin could hear the rapid gunfire in the conversation with Jackson. She turned and looked at the others. “They’re ready.” Junior and Zeff looked at her. “Frank, help cover fire with Junior and lead the way for Zeff and me while we carry Ash. Anne, cover our backs please.” They all looked at her, but none of them argued. They couldn’t lose their leader right now, and this plan seemed pretty solid for a two minute walk. They pushed through the wreckage. Vehicles were on fire, damaged, or unharmed. All in variety, Covenant and UNSC. A ghost laid underneath a hornet, and a Phantom’s ruins were crashed on top of a Scorpion. “What happened here, happened fast.” Junior spoke to the group, he aimed his shotgun at every corner. “Yeah, no kidding. This place is a complete mess compared to what was here yesterday. I never thought something like this could’ve happened the very next morning. It’s unbelievable.” Zeff was saying as he carried Ash over his shoulder. He looked at everything. It was like one of those horror scenes of a wreckage. An ear-piercing scream was heard from their left. Which distracted everyone and made them turn to look. A Marine ran through the wreckage, engulfed in flames, the smell of his burnt flesh immediately filled the air. “You gotta, you guys gotta help me! The... They’re destroying everything, they’re coming for you next! They’re... They’re... They appear out of nowhere! You gotta run while you still can!” Junior shot the Marine. “Good call, corporal. I would’ve done the same if it was you.” Zeff sounded astonished. “There it is, the Longsword awaits us.” Caelin pointed at it. Two Phantoms flew overhead and dispersed troops. Jackals, Grunts, and an Elite. The other one let out two Hunters. “We need to move fast, and now.” Caelin helped Zeff run with Ash, ensuring her safety. Jackson, Magnus, and Joseph ran up and shot the Covenant as they ran to cover Ash. Frank and Anne stopped to help. Jackson deployed a Drop Shield just as the Hunters fired their charged assault beam. Allowing Frank to pull the trigger on the sticky detonator that was attached to one of them. As the shield dropped, he fired another and instantly detonated it upon impact. “All clear!” Frank exclaimed and headed towards the Longsword, just before he noticed a Spirit come in at a ludicrous speed. He looked up in horror. The Brute Chieftain was the only one on deployment. “Everyone, stand clear of the targets drop zone!” Jackson barked the order, then jumped back about ten feet away from the zone. The Chieftain jumped out, and swung his hammer, to see who was close. Which was no one. Everyone opened fire, as it ran. Archangel came out of the Longsword bay on the exit strip. Jackson lowered his Battle Rifle, and looked up in horror. He screamed, but no words came out. He only heard Archangel’s. “Zeff! Look out!” Zeff turned around to look, dropping Ash on Caelin. Which did some damage to both of the two. The Chieftain swung his hammer at the left side, where Ash was, and hit Zeff in the same area Ash was hit. Except a lot worse, since this was the other side of the hammer. Zeff looked up at the Brute. There was nothing he could do at this point. This was his grave. His teammates rounds did nothing. The Brutes shields still flickered. They couldn’t kill him in time to save him. There was only one thing he could do. Finish his mission, which was to protect Ash. His arm fell to his belt, he remembered his one and only spike grenade. This was to be used on Lan Chorus as an alternate plan to kill him, if they were to ever find him. There was no choice now. He wouldn’t be there to see that damn wretched Elite fall. With little will to do so, Zeff grabbed the grenade. His body screamed not to do it, but he must. It was his duty. The Brute held the hammer over his head now, going in for the swing. Zeff looked up at him, and activated the spike grenade and slammed it into the Brute's chest. The Chieftain startled backwards, fear showed on his face. He swung his hammer, but the grenade detonated. Spikes cleared open the Brutes chest and armor, and a few blew into Zeff’s head. It killed both of them. “Zeff!” Jackson yelled as he ran over to him, he saw the slots where the spike went inside his head. It was done, Zeff was gone. So was the Chieftain. Jackson grabbed Zeff’s tags, with sorrow, and slowly stood up. “Jackson, let’s go now! Prometheans are starting to show up!” Archangel ran over to him and yelled at him. Jackson heard the Prometheans, and ran back inside the Longsword where everyone was waiting. Caelin had her right arm broke and the wrist. Ash was buckled up safely, and all who didn’t have a place to sit, stood and held on tight. “Sir, shall we go?” Frank asked. “Yes. Take us to UNSC Ambient. They need the medical attention.” Jackson grumbled, Archangel could tell he was not happy with this recent event of Zeff. He was a good soldier, and died doing his job. He respected that, but there was no way he could ever repay him. Frank pulled them into the atmosphere where all their fleets ships laid out, opening fire on opposed Covenant ships. UNSC Ambient was the furthest away, but out of range of the battle. That was their target, and that’s where they are going to head. They all sat in silence as Frank guided the ship towards their safety, and away from this vicious Brute world. First Dexter, then Michael, now it’s Zeff. Jackson was ready to say his motivational speech when they got back. More than ready. He looked over at Ash, who was still unconscious but miraculously still alive. She was like a sister to him. They were all like brothers and sisters to him. They were his family. From where he comes, his duty is to protect his family. Which is exactly what Zeff had done for them. ~End of Chapter 19~

~Chapter 14: Chieftain~ “We’re not far from the crash site, it seems we have about seven kilometers.” Caelin said, she was focused on both the distance and the sky. The desert seemed so vast and felt like it would never end. It was incredibly beautiful, yet it felt so empty at the same time. Caelin heard Ash yell, “Defensive procedures, use whatever you can!” then she started to hear what was going on on the outside of the Pelican. The Falcon’s nose gun was being heard, with its loud three shots. The machine gun turrets had opened fire. She looked to her side. Three phantoms and seven banshees were on to them. All full of big hairy monkeys. “You have go to be kidding me right now.” Caelin activated the Pelican’s weapons. Two heavy machine gun turrets swung down in the back, and a missile pod launcher lowered down in between them. The nose gun opened out of its canopy and mounted itself on the nose, exposed. “Ash, get up here and take point.” “Will do.” Ash walked over and took the nose gun. While Zeff and Michael took the machine gun turrets, and Joseph was on the missile pod. “Suppressive fire, suppressive fire!” Joseph yelled at the marines and Junior. Who were all stuck with DMR’s. Junior watched Frank, Magnus, and Runner got caught behind. Engaged with six banshees. More of them en route. They appeared to be stripped of their fuel rod cannons. However, their twin cannons were still effective. “Ash, your friends are falling behind. If we do not help them, they will die. The falcons chances of winning are 80%, but do you want to take those chances?” Caelin asked her, she kept the pelican focused on the objective. Ash was in despair over what Caelin just said. “Caelin...” Ash knew she was going to have to add a few extra minutes to the clock. She didn’t want to take any chances. “Turn around and lets help them out.” Ash said. Caelin turned the Pelican around. Ash engaged the phantoms with the forward nose turret. She destroyed two of the phantoms almost instantly. Caelin smiled at her. The brutes weren’t putting up with any of this. Choppers and Prowlers were headed towards them on the ground. Cannons blazed and fired at the pelican, while the pelican took out the banshee’s. “Let’s go Frank, we need to get out of here. Anymore time and everything’s lost.” Ash said. “Got it.” Frank pushed on the thrusters and flew above the pelican, which moved back towards the route of the objective. Michael and Zeff engaged the ground forces. Which put up a really good fight on this desert terrain. One of the choppers seemed to be going off route towards the pelican. Most likely retreating. “Should we engage it Zeff?” Michael asked. “No, it appears to be retreating. Leave it for now. It’ll tell its friends to fear us.” Zeff said, completely unaware of how the Brute’s worked. “Alrighty.” Michael said. He engaged a couple banshee’s and more prowler’s. Even some ghosts that showed up. “Sir, we have a problem.” Junior told Ash. “What is it?” Ash asked him. “Well you see, there’s a lich right behind us, and well you see. Our machine guns aren’t capable of breaching the shields on their own. Plus, we have no idea what these Brutes plan on doing.” Junior said. “Understood.” Ash said. “Joseph, come up here.” Joseph walked through the entryway, “Yes mam?” “We need you on the cannon.” Ash said. “Yes mam.” Joseph said. He reached over and climbed up the ladder to the controls. He took the controls and activated the cannon. “Alright Ash, I’m ready.” “Good, I need you to help Zeff and Michael with that Lich. They need all the firepower they can get.” Ash said. Banshees and Phantoms swarmed at them from the front. Joseph turned the cannon around and fired at the Lich. A Scorpion-like shell fired at the Lich, and was absorbed in the shields. He fired a few more. All which did the same thing. “Ash, I’m going to need some assistance.” he asked. Firing another shell, which did the same thing. “I’m sorry, I can’t at the moment. We’re dead if I have to stop what I’m doing.” Ash said. Everything got closer and closer. She fired up the laser cannon and wiped out as much Banshees she could in a single charge. Joseph fired at the Lich again. The shields went down. “Michael and Zeff. We’re good to go. Destroy this thing.” “You got it!” Zeff said. They both engaged the infantry, some of them ran for the plasma turrets, but were killed before hand. “Watch out you guys, this area seems to have a few desert mountains.” Caelin said. She watched where she flew. Wasn’t too bad of an area, not many mountains. It was just better to be safe than sorry. “Caelin, this is a Brute stronghold. We’re taking fire from Spikers and Maulers from down below.” One of the marines said. Junior looked at the soldier. Where have I seen this man before? His face looked familiar... “Watch out!” Caelin yelled. The Brute Chopper returned on the mountain. Headed straight towards the Pelican. Michael engaged the Chopper, but it kept coming. At last, the Chopper applied its boost and flew straight at Michael’s cannon on the side of the Pelican. “Oh you have got to be kidding me.” Michael disengaged the turret. Which was too late on his part. The Chopper slammed right into the turret, and destroyed it to pieces. The collision was enough to throw Michael out of the bay of the Pelican. Luckily he grabbed ahold of the center piece between the two thrusters on the tail. “Michael, whatever you do. Do not let go.” Junior said. “I’m going to try my best to see if there’s anything we can do to get you, and fast before that Lich takes you down.” Junior looked into the bay to see what he could find. Zeff destroyed the Chopper that almost killed Michael. “Don’t worry Michael, I got your back on this.” Zeff fired as fast as he could and as much as he could at the Lich before he noticed something. It was the power core. Zeff engaged the power core, almost instantly destroying it before Joseph saw it and took the credit for the destruction of the Lich. The Lich swirled around in circles, just barely missing the Pelican. “Michael we’re coming to get you, stay put!” Joseph said. He left the cannon’s seat and headed on the roof of the Pelican. It was too late. Two Brutes were already up there after him. “Michael! Don’t let go!” Junior yelled. He fired his magnum at one of the Brutes who were equipped with a Beam Rifle. Headshot, just enough to kill him. “Don’t you even dare.” Joseph said. He slammed into one of the Brutes, throwing him off to his death. Joseph pulled up his DMR and fired everything he had into the Brute. He reached his hand down and pulled Michael up. “Thanks, you saved me. I really thought I was going to die so quickly and suddenly like everyone else has before me. Thank you, I appreciate it.” Michael said. “For an ODST, you did pretty good. I owe you one.” Michael and Joseph headed back to the inside of the Pelican. Ash spoke to them, “Hey, get down here. We’re literally three kilometers away from the destination.” “Roger that, we’re coming.” Joseph said, he looked at Michael. “Why don’t we get you down there and have Junior look at you. What do you say?” “Sounds good to me.” Michael headed down first. “That’s good. Didn’t wanna lose someone valuable on this team.” Joseph said, he headed down the ladder, but something stopped him. He was moving away from the ladder now, he saw Michael’s head pop up with his Sniper Rifle in hand. He fired it right above Joseph. Who realized what was going on now. He completely disregarded his surroundings. They were still engaged with Brute forces. Joseph watched the Pelican fly away as the dead Brute that grabbed him weighed him down to his death. “Sometimes we save each other, sometimes we don’t.” Joseph hit the ground. He didn’t die, but he did have a Brute on top of him. He watched as Brutes all surrounded him, and their Chieftain approached him. He roared incredibly loud and swung his hammer. ~End of Chapter 14~

~Chapter 12: Impact~ The Longsword was coming in heavy, the heat shield was down and it started to smolder. Pieces flew off, engines were cut out. They were going to crash. Not crash land, crash. Jackson was at the controls with Dexter. Archangel tried his best to do what he could in the back. He wasn’t of much use. Jackson and Dexter both tried their best. They knew they wouldn’t land, but maybe if they could angle it right and be able to slide on the ground. It would at least give them a chance to survive. “Jackson, the back end of the Longsword has torn off. I’m not sure if that makes a difference, but I don’t think flight controls are much use anymore. We’re going to have to wish for the best.” Archangel said. “Understood. Dexter, hold on tight. We don’t want to lose you. You too, Archangel.” Jackson said. He turned around. Archangel wasn’t there, one of the seats flew and knocked him out of the hole in the Longsword. “Well crap. We lost Archangel. Dexter, let’s try our best.” Jackson stated. “Will do sir, I suggest we hold on to something other than the seats. Maybe up against the wall behind us? That way impact doesn’t kill us, if we hit nose first?” Dexter suggested. “Good idea.” They did as suggested and braced for impact. Archangel’s fall wasn’t too high, just about a mile off from the surface. He saw what appeared to be infantry on the ground. Sure to be hostile, it was unknown. He activated his thrusters and aimed it at the ground, to lessen his fall damage, by slowing himself down in speed. His impact was hard on him, but it could have been worse. His armor was locked up, immobile. He looked around before he passed out, a group of Elites walked in front of him. No more than three of them. They were a distance away, but they seem to have spotted them. They grew closer to the spartan. “Demon.” The leader said. He withdrew his energy sword. “No Verite, we must leave now. The Brutes will feast upon him, lets not waste our time with this foolish one.” The Elite on the left said, Beam Rifle in one hand. Plasma Rifle strapped to his leg. “Yes, but if I see this one again. I will destroy him. Fools should never have come here.” Verite put his Energy Sword away. Anger was shown on his face, but he walked away. There was some Banshees they were headed towards, four of them in total. It seems one of them was killed or lost. Archangel watched the Banshees take off, he heard an explosion afterwards. The Longsword must have crashed. “Well, this is it for me.” Archangel passed out. ~End of Chapter 12~

~Chapter 11: He’s here~ Lan Chorus approached beside the Longsword. Dexter was the only survivor seen on the field. The ship was crashed, on fire. Smothered to bits, you name it. That ship was no longer stable. Its cargo and everything fell out. Nothing was left for use. Lan looked at his fellow Elite soldiers beside him. He motioned the others to stand still as he approached the survivor. Dexter looked up at the Elite, his face was in utter disgust. This couldn’t be. He couldn’t die this way, not now. They had to kill him. He scrambled to get up, but was proven otherwise. Dexter looked behind him. His legs were gone, crushed by the Longsword. The bleeding has stopped from the flames that scorched them closed. He was hopeless. His magnum was five feet away from him. That may be his only chance. He reached for it. Lan smiled down at him, with that ugly disgusting face of his. The left side of his face looked like it was burned, just a little. Enough to leave such a scar. One of his eyes. Oh shoot, Dexter couldn’t tell, he was losing focus. He was bound to die anyways, he might as well do this now. His hand was just about there... Lan Chorus stepped on his hand, Dexter screamed in pain, but that didn’t stop him. He had to at least try. There was nothing else he could do. He was bound to die. Lan Chorus was quick to Dexter before he could do anything silly. He reach for an energy dagger and cut off the arm he stood on. Dexter howled in pain, he felt even weaker than before. As if his last breathe was moments away. Now was his chance, he slowly moved his other arm over and grabbed the weapon. Lan Chorus was in the midst of communication with the other Elites. “Now you see brothers. This is where we will win and they will lose. If they wish to scout us out and follow us, it will be their grave. We will not run in retreat, we will face them. Unlike those cowards who fled our battle. Taking out our Supercarrier. Fear not, we will have our victory.” Lan Chorus said, his voice was of pure hatred towards the UNSC, specifically UNSC Warlord as it seems. Lan Chorus heard the gun click. He looked down immediately at Dexter. “You will pay for this.” Was all he said. “Yeah, well it’s worth it. As long as you’re dead.” Dexter pulled the trigger. He felt relaxed when he did it. A little too relaxed. He opened his eyes and see where he went wrong. He pulled the trigger too late. The relaxation, or I don’t even think it was relaxation to begin with, wasn’t what he thought. He lost his energy. His arm dropped and he didn’t even know it. He couldn’t hold it up. When he pulled the trigger he had missed Lan Chorus and instead, shot one of the other Elites. Tears rolled down his eyes. Dexter sniffled, and his whimper was silent. He had failed. He was so close, and he failed. He screwed it up, he let down his guard. He just couldn’t take it anymore. “I. I can’t...” Was all he could mumble out of him. His voice was weak and he didn’t have any energy left in him. “As I promised, you will pay. Your body will lay here for the Brutes, but you yourself. Will not be here when it happens.” Lan Chorus was angrier than ever. It was absolutely livid. Lan Chorus grabbed his energy sword and withdrew it, he pulled Dexter up as he slammed his sword down. Cutting a deep penetration all the way through his body. Dexter’s face had a shocked look on it, but that’s all that was left for it. He was dead, he couldn’t move his muscles anymore. The anger ventilated through Lan Chorus, he ripped the energy sword out of his side. Laying the body in a bunch of torn up pieces. “We are done here. We must move on before the Brutes catch up to us.” Lan Chorus said, and at that exact moment, a Covenant Spirit flew over them, and lifted them up inside through the gravity lift on the back side, on the bottom. It headed back to the Cruiser that awaited them, floating in space. Jackson fought to open his eyes, he heard something. But maybe he was sleeping, he couldn’t tell. Maybe it was a dream. Damn, it was hot out here though. Jackson managed to keep them open. He saw something in the distance. There was a crashed Longsword, must have been the one he was on. Of course, why wouldn’t it be? There was a group of people nearby it, all with their heads on the ground. “What in the Sam Hell are those guys doing? I’m over here. Damn it Frank. Always managing to do something to upset me.” He looked through his binoculars at them, just to make sure. He was wrong. It was a group of Brutes, they feasted upon something. Someone. Jackson’s heart beat rose. He saw the remains of the body. “Oh my go...” A howl broke out behind him. ~End of Chapter 11~

~Chapter 8: Bloodshot~ “You guy’s ready?” Moth walked into the room, smile on his face. They were aboard the UNSC Warlord, once again. Ash, Runner, and Junior were stationed on UNSC Amber. Runner had previously went through a nightmare, where they were attacked by the Covenant and lost. Everyone died, she remembered Ash’s the most. It was the one part that she laughed at before she could spill the beans. “Not yet, we’re just now packing our bags. Give us about 5 minutes.” Zeff lied to Moth. “Well then hurry your guys’s asses up. We don’t have all day. It’s time to get ready. The location has been deciphered. We’re on route as we speak. Get your crap and let’s go.” Moth didn’t put up with people who thought they were being funny. “Dexter and Frank. Follow me, Zeff. You’re behind them.” Moth marched out of the room. They couldn’t do anything but as told. “Where are we headed?” Frank asked in a respectful manner. “South hangar. Hasn’t been used very much, but we need to get things up and running for any upcoming problems.” Moth cleared his throat and looked over to make sure they were in follow up unison right behind him. “If this it the right place, we’re expecting a heavy resistance. We’re going to need you to do your very best. Chances are, they’ll send everything they got. Hell, fellow UNSC crew ran into one of his ships. Damn Covenant tore them a new one. Sent a couple locust after their outposts and they even decided to hot drop hunters in some of the strongest fortresses on the damn planet, with just Spirit’s. Bloody mess. However, they were pushed back. It was just one ship after all. They fled, unknown location. We think we have it.” Moth turned over and looked at them. “We think.” He pushed open the doors to the South Hangar. “Sounds like they’re going to give us hell as well. I understand we won’t be the only troops with our feet firm on the ground but I’m certain that most, if not all, of us will either die or end up wounded. Lan Chorus isn’t someone to mess with. He himself has taken out about eight of our own fellow teammates. That was just on his own. Now that this is his entire fleet, we might not stand a chance.” Dexter said, he sounded worried. He remembered when Lan Chorus killed Alex. Damn freak jaw followed him the whole way to rescue them, just to get stabbed. He also remembered Heli, being torn to pieces. As Michael described the tragic encounter he saw at the base. Poor Heli. He was so quiet and helpful. He belonged. That’s over with now, they need to forget about the dead and go on. That was only going to drag them down. Moth looked at Frank. “Now this is what you’ll be going down in. We can’t risk Pelican’s after Installation 07, and we don’t wanna use drop pods. You need to use some sort of aerial vehicle to maneuver the land.” He motioned another engineer to lower the vehicle into the bay, to prepare for loading then departure. Frank’s eyes lightened up. “That’s... That’s... I can’t believe it, that’s... I haven’t seen one of those in years! I... I don’t... I don’t know what to say... Being able to pilot one of those is going to be like cleaning up rust off a 23rd century car. It’s been that long.” Frank’s heart beat raised up, around 212 BPM. Zeff looked at Frank, “You alright? You look like you’re about to have a heart attack! Bahahaha!” Moth scorned at Zeff, “Knock it off. Frank, she’s all yours.” Frank couldn’t breathe, it was too much. He didn’t know what to do... It... It was... His heartbeat reached 225 BPM. “Uh Frank? Bud you alright?” Dexter looked at him in concern. Frank had sweat roll down his cheeks. His face was red. Frank collapsed on the floor, fainted. Moth was quick to action, a med team was in here in less than fifteen seconds. They grabbed Frank and took him to the med bay. Hopefully to recover him. “Alright, well that’s all I got for you guy’s today. Grab the team and meet back here next time.” Moth looked over his shoulder at Zeff. “And no funny business. I will hit you hard enough, you’re going to be as bad as when we first got Zen.” Moth snickered and walked away. A confused look overcame Zeff’s face. “What the hell was Zen like when they first got him?” He looked at the others for clues. They just shrugged, neither of them were there. They’d have to ask Archangel. Paladin was the only one on this ship who knew, but they weren’t going to bother him. His assignments differed from there’s. Not someone they would want to go up and question, without getting a dish served cold. “You heard the man. Let’s get the others. However, let’s split up among the ships and tell the others. Everyone on this ship, we can just tell on our way out.” Dexter took the leadership role again. “Zeff. You get Ash, Runner, Junior. They’re on UNSC Amber. Frank. You get Magnus, Joseph, and Michael. They’re on UNSC FireStorm. Last but not least, I will get Jackson and Archangel. Whom are on UNSC Valkyrie II with Commander Jessica Naeir. Alright. Let’s get going.” Dexter headed towards the East Hangar. They had twenty minutes before jump. They had to get this done fast and neat. Dexter and the other two walked into the hangar. They each took their own individual Longsword and headed to their destinations. ~End of Chapter 8~

~Chapter 7: Give me a Kiss Goodbye~ “Alright, we are aboard the UNSC Amber. Runner has been taken to the med bay. Junior is attending Runner along with other medical attendees. Her recovery is unknown at this time.” Archangel confronted Moth. Who was on the machine, his goal set to make sure the code for the next location, would be deciphered here soon enough. The others were aboard the UNSC Amber as well, Archangel was the only one who went to UNSC Warlord. As ordered to inform the Captain as what happened and to do so, he did such. “Hm.” Moth said, no concern was in his voice. He directed one of the operatives to step out so another would step in, one more advanced in the subject. “Seems as things are good. Sad to hear that Eric was killed. Hopefully this doesn’t affect the mission. He was Samantha’s second son. Second best son, to be precise. He went mute after a rivalry in the past with crew members. Easy to say, they were insurrectionists aboard the ship. Last one got a bullet on his throat before he was killed.” Moth went over and stepped in to help. “So you’re saying to just continue as we normally do with all our past crew deaths and MIA?” Archangel sounded confused, unknown about the subject. “Yes.” Was all Moth said, Archangel was then dismissed. Red alert was going off, he headed to the observation deck. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jack reached over and gave Ash a kiss, who returned it. “Yuck. You two disgust me, take that crap elsewhere. Not in the med bay.” Junior said, he grabbed a syringe. Ash and Jack were irritated by that response. They walked into the other room and continued where they left off. Runner looked at Junior before he knocked her out, “Please Junior. Pull through. I don’t want you guys to miss me and I don’t want to miss all of you.” A tear rolled down her both of her cheeks in unison. “I’ll do my best.” Junior injected the syringe. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dexter, Frank, and Joseph all stood around and discussed what was needed. The red alert was going off, and they needed to get this done fast. “Covenant in bound. We have a whole fleet. I’m estimating around nine ships total.” Dexter read the radar. “This can’t be good. We won’t be able to last. Valkyrie II is a UNSC Destroyer, Warlord is a Phoenix Colony, FireStorm is a Charon Frigate, Vortex is a Jericho Carrier, Amber being a Stalwart Frigate and all we have for ships at this location. We may as well say our prayer.” Joseph said, fear deep in his voice. He knew there was no match. Even if we called for help we were screwed. “Well, was good fighting with you lads. Nice getting to know ya.” Frank said, he turned around and walked right into the blade of a Promethean Knight. “Oh my god. We’re under attack by the Prometheans as well.” Dexter grabbed his pistol and shot the Promethean right in the face as it revealed its face, after he pinned Joseph to the ground. “That’s enough of you.” “Thanks.” Joseph grabbed Dexters hand and pulled himself up off the floor. Just to find out a Promethean Battlewagon stabbed Dexter in the torso and Joseph just pulled himself on to it as well. The Knight took his other arm and decapitated them. Its Watcher came over and pulled them off its sword as so. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Zeff looked at Magnus, who stared out the window with him. Vortex and FireStorm were shredded to hot metal pieces. Warlord was head to head with the flagship Cruiser. Valkyrie took out three corvettes, before it was taken out by a Covenant Supercarrier. “This is terrible, we’re losing this battle as fast as it's started. We’re next.” Zeff said. He watched Warlord take down the flagship and engaged the other cruisers. “No kidding. This is the end of us. Why did Lan Chorus all of a sudden decided to attack after we found the message? It just doesn’t make any sense. I highly doubt he’s even on one of those ships. He’s probably watching the fight from somewhere nearby.” Magnus said. He started to walk over to the hangar bay, to help do his best. Instead, he was stopped by the sheer terror of UNSC Warlord being splattered by the supercarrier. Blown to millions of pieces, explosions everywhere. “Well there’s only one option left.” Zeff said, he watched as a Promethean crawler and Watcher killed Junior and all the other medics. A Promethean Commander shot a binary rifle at Jack, which incinerated him to nothing. Ash started to cry, she grabbed her knife and killed the Promethean. She grabbed Jack's battle rifle and shot down the Watcher then took out the Crawler. She looked over at Zeff, directly in his eyes. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She was taken out by an Incineration Cannon. Magnus put his hand on Zeff’s shoulder, he turned around to look at him to see what he needed. Instead, he turned to a headless body. Promethean in front of him. The Battlewagon knocked him down, and pinned him to the ground while a grunt ran over and mauled his face. Piece by piece, the grunt ate Zeff’s face until nothing was left. He screamed in pain, but there was nothing he could do. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael ran into the launch bay, he entered a drop pod and fled to the surface of the Installation. As soon as he landed, he ran towards the cave. This part of the Installation was cleared of flood, for some weird particular reason. He looked back up and watched as Amber was destroyed with the rest of the fleet. The UNSC Fleet of Ajustic was destroyed. He was the only survivor that lasted the longest. He was deemed to die on the surface of the Installation here soon. He knew it, there was no one to reach. A distress beacon wouldn’t matter since there was no cryo tubes on the surface. Michael walked into the cave. A bronze floor appeared as he ventured deeper. Strange, has he seen this before? The room cleared out and started to open wider, the bronze metal grew up the walls and onto the ceiling. He went forward. “I could have sworn I’ve been here before. This is the weirdest moment of Deja Vu I’ve ever had.” Michael went into the other room. Maybe there was something here that could help him? A loud metallic roar was heard. “Son of a gun. I have been here before.” Michael watched as a Precursor Robot entered the room. It’s body resembled the one on Ballast. It raised all five of its tentacles and charged them up. Michael had nowhere to run. They fired. Michael screamed in pain as he fell to the floor, and incinerated. Team Lord was dead, there was no one left. All survivors now joined the ranks of those who have been killed in action. Michael joined his brother, Caboose. All that remained were the survivors of whom were Missing in Action. That’s if they survived. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Runner turned in her sleep, she opened her eyes and saw Junior. “Good morning, sleeping beauty. How was your rest? You should be up and going again here in a few days. You’re recovered, we managed to save you. Glad you’re back to reassure. I’ll let the others know. Until then, I advise you just sleep while you can. Enjoy.” Junior walked out of Runner’s room, she shared it with Junior as of now since no one else was advised to enter the patient's room except for the medical expertise. Runner fell back to sleep, hopefully this time without the nightmare she had before. A smile appeared on her face. ~End of Chapter 7~

~Chapter 4: The flood~ A girl walked into the room where a boy sat in a wooden, she appeared to be a teenager in the under half. She approached the boy in a distinct manner, as not to make him think he was in any trouble. “Hey bud. Whatsup?” was all she said to start a conversation. “Well, I scored an 82 in range and a 43 in combat. Have to wait until tomorrow to go for other training course.” He replied. “Oh. I got an 86 in range and 48 in combat today.” The girl said, smiling at both of their progression. “Okay.” The boy said. There was a hint of depression in his voice this time. The girl thought it may have been her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. I was just trying to start a conversation was all.” The girl said. Sorrow was in her voice, but it was more sympathetic than self shame of the topic. “If you want to leave, you may wish to do so. If not, that is fine. You may do as you please, I’m just going to sit here like always and wait until the next day. I have no friends and I have no family. ONI reports say my father was just enlisted into the UNSC, but I will never be able to get to see him face to face. Ever again because of this.” The boy had tears roll down his cheeks and towards his chin. Which then dripped off of his chin and onto his lap. “Look, I’m not going to leave you. I’m your friend. Alright? I like you out of everyone here. I have feelings for you. I don’t want you to think you’re lost.” The girl said, her voice trailed off with innocence on her breath. “It’s fine. I got this, alright? Just relax off me and cool down. Procedures are in four months. I want to get this done and I can’t do it without you. Recently I’ve been having moments where I can’t remember anything. As if I had amnesia. However, I remember them later. Just boldly. I’m not sure what to say about it. I just feel kinda weird you know?” The boy said, curiously and afraid. “Relax. You’re just being overworked with what’s coming up. Let’s just get back to training at midnight and we’ll be ready to go for the tests.” The girl said in a promising voice, as if to make the boy feel less stressed or whatever was going on about him. “Alright. Well, just leave me alone. I’m going to take a nap until a few hours before then. Come back if you even bother.” The boy said, he walked the girl out of the room and shut the door. He reached up to the top and swung the latch over, and locked it. --------------------------------- The Scorpion swung its barrel around the corner. Still nothing in site. Which was odd. Michael watched their three and nine. Bek had an eye on their six. The cave seemed to go on for quite a while. Green mist was in the air, everywhere to be precise. Yellow nests were clung to the wall. They moved as if they could breathe. Bek pulled up her magnum and shot one because it started to annoy her. A few flood spores fell out and scrambled around the room. Other than that, no other flood came into contact. “Michael, do you feel as if our every movement is being watched by someone. By something?” Joseph asked through the open hatch of the Scorpion. He kept watch at the ceiling. All that was there were some stalactites covered from the flood. “Nope. I just feel as if this is going to be an awesome adventure I get to spend with my best friends.” Michael said. He swung the flashlight over to the other side of the tank, he saw nothing still. “I feel as if we’re almost there. Like. I don’t see anywhere else to go. There’s a wall in front of us, this is a dead end.” Bek said. She was right, there was no where else to go. This was a dead end. Just a giant wall covered in flood tile. Joseph looked up at the wall. She was right. There was nothing here it was just a false route. He stopped the tank. “Michael and Bek, cover me. I’m going to get on a channel with Dexter to let him know this isn’t the right area. Then see what happens next.” Joseph reached over and turned on the radio. “Dexter, come in. Dexter, can you hear me?” There was nothing. A few minutes later, “Yes. I can hear you. Sorry about that. Was tracking to see where the signal was coming from. Anyways, what’s up?” Dexter put down his BLT Sandwich he grabbed for lunch. It was the first one he’s had in a long time. Boy, was it delicious. That bacon was just so fine and good. The right amount of grease and crisp. It was heaven for him. “We reached the end of the cave. There’s nothing in here. We haven’t seen anything, not even flood. I think the routes a fault. Must have been for Lan Chorus as well. What do you suggest?” Joseph looked up at the other two, they were on the lookout like he asked. Bek had the rocket launcher strapped to her back. “Well.” Dexter took a bite out of the sandwich. “Something happened with one of the other Pelicans. So the other team is going to investigate. However, just go ahead and regroup at the desert. Should be fine there. They’ll be back once they find out what’s wrong.” Dexter took another bite. He reached over and put the bacon he had on a tray and just put it in his mouth. “Oh, and take the tank with you too; if you can. Anyways, that’s about it. Have fun!” Dexter was off the radio. A loud scream erupted. Several loud screams erupted. “Oh no this isn’t good. We’ve been ambushed.” Joseph said as a flood combat form appeared up on the ledge in front of them. It pointed at them with it’s tentacle like fingers. Michael shot it down. Another scream erupted. “I think it’s time we punch it and get out of here!” Joseph said, he pushed on the pedals. The Scorpion moved as fast as he could push it. Flood tanks and combat forms appeared all around them. All they could do was fight their way out and hope they make it. Bek pulled up the rocket launcher and fire it at a flood carrier. It didn’t do much good, it exploded into a bunch of flood spores. Which then Michael took out for her. “Uh, I need to reload. Hold on a second.” Bek reached over and grabbed ammunition on the side of the tank. Joseph aimed the cannon at the tanks in front of them. They were basically hunters, just without their fuel rods. Their tough like hide made up for the armor. Joseph fired and killed one of them. The other started to sprint at them, he took it out too. “Ah, there we go!” Bek said, she pulled up the rocket launcher. Which was a tad bit late on her part. A flood stalker ran up and jumped at her. Pinned her on the ground. “Bek!” Joseph yelled. He turned his cannon around. It was too late. A flood spore jumped on her face and crawled into her mouth. All was heard were groans and the sound of choking. Joseph couldn’t stop now, he moved forward. Michael watched as Bek’s legs kicked and she screamed. After a few seconds, the noise stopped and the flood pursued. One of them looked like a Spartan infection form. In Bek’s armor. Michael shot it down along with the others. Joseph approached the exit where the stalactites hung from the entrance. He moved the cannon up and shot them as they just drove under. They fell down and destroyed any flood forms there. “Well, entrance is closed. Not long before more show up. Come on. Let’s go, into the Pelican!” Joseph said. He got the flight controls while Michael got the Scorpion on attached. “We might wanna go. They’re here!” Michael yelled. Flood forms of all type crawled at them from every direction. “Just a second.” Joseph got the systems online and functional. He slammed the thrusters and took off for the new waypoint. “Whew. That was a close one. Thought we weren’t going to make it.” Michael said. He crashed into the copilots seat. Tired as he was, he decided to rest. “Not all of us, just half.” Joseph said, then pushed forward. The ETA clock suggested three hours until arrival at the desert. ~End of Chapter 4~

~Chapter 5: First Floor~ The boy was done. Procedure was over. As well as his other colleagues. It was time for him to get back to training. But to where to begin. That procedure was very vital to his capabilities. He felt ready for anything. Maybe some range or close combat or... He was broke off by their leader. “You guy’s should be ready to test yourselves and prove what you are capable of. First off, no more basic training. You’re all going to try on-course training. Paintball to start off first. Then we’ll try captive training. Finally, we’ll have escape training.” The leader took a moment to swallow what spit was in her mouth from talking before she would continue. “Each of these training sessions will be difficult. Those of you who prove worthy, will make it. Those who don’t. Goodbye. You will all be paired in squadrons. Three of you are crew, one of you are team leader. We’ll see fit as your training goes on. You’re all dismissed.” The leader walked away. “Hmph.” Was all the boy said. He walked up to the list. He went to look for what team he was on. There was only about seven different sheets, but he found himself. He didn’t know who the other two are, but he knew the girl. She was the squad leader. He was support. The other two were offense/assault. “Well isn’t this just great.” He walked back to his room. Captive training was going to be a piece of cake, just like paintball. All captive training was is just hunting down insurrectionists that were captured and thrown in the course. They weren’t stripped of armor or weapons. Which was the point. They were taught to bring down the enemy at his best. With the adrenaline rush they had from the capture, they would be more difficult than on the battlefield. That also depends on rank and their own personal training. However, escape training was going to be tough. It was like captive training. Except, the other way around. They were supposed to get caught by insurrectionists. Then to find a way to escape them. Death did not matter, however it was recommended to do such. Those were just extra points. The tricky part was to be captured as a captive. Sometimes they just shoot you in their traps. This was a chance they were willing to make. ------------------------------ Pelican 3 arrived at the landing zone. Ash noticed there was a pelican there, but no sign of the team. The pelican was wrapped by the flood. It was immobile. However, the warthog was gone as well as the gungoose. No matter, Ash didn’t want to take any chances. “Runner. You mind coming up here?” “Whatcha need?” Runner said? She was in there in a jiff. “See those controls over there? I want you to use them and fire the spartan laser at that pelican. I don’t want to take any chances of the flood taking our ride; with them being so close. Don’t wanna have to have Pelican 1 come over here and grab us. Won’t have a ride by then. Junior won’t be able to use his special warthog. Which will drive him insane.” Ash told her, although she thought that was a little too much information to say. Nonetheless, she’s just getting her thoughts out there. No big deal. “Hey, no problem. All you had to do was say fire and I’m on it.” Runner grabbed the controls and aimed at the pelican. She held the trigger to charge the spartan laser, then fired. The pelican’s massive laser cut through the pelican and forced an explosion. It was loud, but didn’t seem to attract any attention. The pelican laid in fire. Runner had a smile on her face. “Alright, what’s next to set on fire?” “We’ll see. As of now, unload the Warthog and let’s go find them.” Ash commanded. “Alrighty, will do!” Runner said and then did as she was told. ~End of Chapter 5~

~Chapter 3: Epilogue~ “You know. We could help you. All you have to do is come with us.” The woman in the said to the boy. “I don’t know! I killed my best friend! I’m not sure I want to even live anymore. I hate my guts.” The boy said. Tears rolled down his eyes, it reminded a woman of a storm that once came through this town. A tropical storm to be exact. His tears resembled the rain that day. Heavy and just kept pouring. “We’re not making this a choice. You’re coming with us.” The woman said. “Okay, but what about my family?” The boy asked. “Don’t worry about it, they said it was okay for you to come. They were very dissappointed with your behavior, but they said it was alright. Just come on. It’s alright, your mom and I are freinds. I used to baby-sit her when she was little. Just like you!” The woman said with a smile on her face. The boy wiped his tears off his face, “Alright. I suppose if my mom said I should.” The boy got up off his knees and walked over to the woman and got in the vehicle. -------------------------------------- “Alright. I’m ready to kill whatever I see. Even if it’s just a worm.” Runner hopped out of the Pelican. Feet first. Runner, Junior, Zeff, and Ash were assigned to the desert. Their compass pointed to an enclave of a building of some sort, about forty-clicks from their currrent position. The reason for the so distant landing was because it was in the dark zone. Plus, if there was any Covenant around, they didn’t want to get caught. “Alright, since I’m driving. I’ll let you know who’s going where.” Junior got out of the Pelican after he turned the thrusters off and shut it down. “I’m going to be driving, of course. Zeff takes shotgun, literally. Runner gets flamethrower. Ash, you’ll use both turrets. However, stick to the one you prefer. If we get engaged. We’ll need you to switch back and forth as needed. Is that clear?” They all nodded their head yes. “Dexter do you come in?” Ash opened up the communications with Firestorm. “Yes, loud and clear. What’s up?” Dexter replied. “We’re in the desert. Pelican’s landed, and ready to head out.” Ash told him. “That’s great. Look, we have bad news.” Dexter said. “What is it?” Ash was concerned. Dexter flipped through some things. “Umm. Pelican 2, whom was supposed to reach the island, has gone off the map. It seems they have crashed or something has happened. We’re going to have to pull you out of the desert and sense you all over to investigate.” Dexter finally found the file, he pulled it up on Pelican 3’s visors. They saw Pelican 1 land at their destination, a few clicks from their destination, the cave. “So, we’re going to need you to go to the island. We believe it’s the Installation’s Silent Cartographer, so that’ll be fun.” “Alright, Dexter. We’ll go. Only because their vital to this team and we need them with us.” Ash said. She looked at the others. Junior already had the Warthog reattached to the Pelican. Everyone else was loaded. Ash loaded up. “Alright. Here are the coordinates. Let me know how things go. If you need anything, we’ll be here for orbital support. UNSC Warlord has MAC rounds if anything gets too out of hand. Dexter out.” Dexter broke off the communications. “Well, you heard the man. Let’s go check on our friends.” Zeff said. The Pelican rose. A bunch of something came right after them, they ran at full speed. They were too far for any of them to see what they were. Covenant or Flood? No matter, plasma rounds were being shot at them. Junior punched the thrusters. ETA was one hour. -------------------------------- “You know. This cave doesn’t look too bad after all.” Bek said. She walked in the entrance. “Hello!” She yelled. The only reply she got was an echo, followed by a screech of some sort she had never heard before. “Looks like we’re good to go in. Nothing’s in there.” “Uh, no. I heard a screech. I don’t feel safe going in there.” Caboose said. “Nah, that’s just my tummy.” Bek said. “I’m kinda hungry.” Caboose looked out her like she was an idiot. “That makes no sense.” Was all he had to say. “Look guys. Let’s just take the tank; mount up, then go look for any clues.” Joseph said. Reaper unmounted the tank. Joseph got in the pilot seat, Caboose took the machine gun turret. Bek rode on the side; a rocket launcher and ammunitions laid there for her if she needed it. “Hey guys, hold on just one sec. There’s something in front of the Pelican. I want to check it out.” Reaper walked over to the front of the pelican. “Hey, guys. Wanna come here for a sec?” Reaper said, fright in his voice. Joseph moved the cannon of the tank over to Reaper. Who faced the other side of the Pelican; out of range. “Reaper, I can’t see what you’re looking at from here. What is it?” “I don’t know, let me check.” Reaper dissapeared behind the Pelican. “What is it?’ Bek asked, impatiently. Nothing. A few seconds later, they heard a frightened yell. “Ahh! Get it off me! Get it off me!” Reaper came from the other side of the Pelican. Two flood combat forms jumped on top of him, they broke his visor and lashed at him. Joseph and Caboose revved up their machine gun turrets and took out the flood. “Ah, thanks you guys. Although, I know longer have a helmet. I should be fine.” Reaper stood up, he walked over and bent down to pick up his gun which laid in front of the Pelicans mounted nose gun. Reaper went to turn around and walked over to the Scorpion. Except, instead his head started to get bigger and bigger really fast. “Reaper. What’s wrong with your face? It’s getting....” That was all Bek could say before Reapers head was in Bek’s lap. She screamed. Joseph shot the cannon. “Woah. What happened? Bek’s over here screaming like a twelve year old girl.” Caboose asked Joseph. “Well it appears there was a flood tank form on the other side of the pelican. Reaper was stupid and didn’t pay attention, so it swung it’s scythe looking arm thing at Reapers head, and cut it clean off.” Joseph explaine to them. “Huh. That’s weird.” Caboose said. “Anyways. We need to move. We can’t keep getting stalled like Reaper did. We need to push forward.” Joseph said. The Scorpion entered the massive cave. It was dark outside, but boy was it dark inside. Joseph kicked up the extra set of lights, which included the one that was mounted underneath Michael’s turret. They pushed through the cave. No flood in site nor Covenant. ~End of Chapter 3~

~Chapter 2: Her name is Ash~ “Just tell her you love her. Get it over with!” The girl said. “No. I won’t. It’s too much for me to handle! I don’t think I’m even capable of telling her hello. It’s too much for me.” The boy sobbed. “Well you ain’t going to get anywhere crying like a baby. Now go! I’m telling you this is the last straw. I’m tired of hearing it. So why don’t you just do it, god damn it!” The girl screamed. “No, I’m just scared of rejection is all. I don’t want her to think differently of me if she doesn’t want to. I feel as if our friendship will be wasted.” The boy was sad. “Then it’s a friendship worth wasted then. Isn’t it? You stupid boy.” The girl laughed. “You know, I might just tell her myself.” She smirked at him. “No! No you won’t! That will ruin it!” The boy screamed, angrily. “Well if you won’t do it. Someone has to.” The girl teased the boy, tongue out and everything. She decided to walk away after that. The boy stood up and through a punch, it hit her in the back of the head, knocked her to the ground. “How does that feel? Probably the same way I feel about telling her, now isn’t it?” The boy was angry. “Uh.” The girl started to cry. “Ugh. I can’t move! I can’t move! I can’t move my arms or legs. Please, somebody help me!” The girl cried out in pain. She was paralyzed. The boy realized what he did. He was afraid. How would he explain this to his mom? This was his best friend. There was nothing he could do besides regret. He looked over at her, she cried in pain and agony. He had no other choice. The boy grabbed the nearest metal chair he could find. He sat it on the girls head, then he sat on the chair. A crunch sound was made. Then silence. The boy looked down, his weight crushed the girls skull in. He got up and ran. ---------------------Story-Resumed------------------------------ “So do you mind telling us who you are? You don’t look familiar.” Jackson said. He walked through a couple doors, the command room on this ship was in the other room. However, he won’t go untold of the escorts name. The last time he was escorted, previously before he joined the UNSC Warlord, the escort was a fake. Jackson walked into a meeting with the Captain and higher staff members. As a result, he was punished. If he would have had the name, he would have been free. The ODST turned around, that big smile was still there. “My name is Fauz. Now, right through these doors you will run into Captain Mike Lespane. Good luck you guys.” Fauz walked away. He still had a smile. Only a few of the crew managed to give a question look about it. They then entered the room. “Ah. So you must be the newly patched up Team Lord? Not to worry, you’re other crew members will be joining up with you soon. Things will be explained nice and tidy.” Mike didn’t properly introduce himself, however he was right to the conversation. He obviously wanted this over quick and them on the surface. Er, ring? Whatever the word is, he wanted them there. “Now. Things will go simple. Your comrade, Dexter will be in charge of equipment and everything you need. If you need a transport. He’ll give you it. If you need a weapon he’ll give you it.” Mike said. Wow. So Dexter is here to help all along? Thought he would have stayed behind, but I guess not. That’s all Archangel could think. “With that little issue cleared. Here’s your crew. I’ll call them one-by-one so you get to know them better.” Mike said. Dang, this guy was organized. Samantha just sent them in. How could this captain be captain of a Frigate? Unless the requirement was to not introduce new crew, but to just throw them together. Well no, that still doesn’t make sense. That’d make him in charge of the missile pod turret. Which is probably the lowest job to have. Mike introduced a Spartan that walked in with the CQB Mjolnir variant, “This is Reaper. He’s a Spartan Two. He’s an oddball, I’ll tell you that. Thinks he’s comical and hilarious. Which he’s definitely not. The odd part about him is he doesn’t like to work together. He likes to go his way, on his own. Lone Wolf. Now, I’ve told him to leave that crap behind but he won’t listen.” He then waved another soldier to come in, this one was an ODST he was silent like his weapons, unlike Reaper who was having a laugh, “This here is Magnus Dreyar. He’s your silent type, doesn’t like to talk much. He too is a lone wolf. However, will work in groups. Lone wolf is just a preference of his. He’s a nice guy once you get to know him. Just doesn’t tolerate sarcasm. So keep it to yourself if you throw any in his direction.” A Spartan walked in without being told to do so, notably a Spartan IV in Recon armor, helmet in hand. “Oh, uh. Yes, this is Zeff. Be careful around this one. He likes to tell lies and manipulate you. So if he tries to attack you when you’re weak. Don’t give in. He’ll also try to get you to join his side, usually to win an argument. He is smart though, I’ll give him that. Just tries to get what he wants all the time. Hell, he managed to manipulate two marines to turn against each other and kill one another. Traded bullets is how, to clear up any questions.” Zeff walked over and respectfully stood beside Magnus and Reaper. Fauz appeared once again, with that smile on his face. He escorted an ODST out to everyone. “Ahh, yes. This here is our good member Joseph. You need him on your team to butt heads against Zeff. Joseph here can tell when you’re lying, he knows how to work his way around situations. Not just arguments. However, he is easy to get along with. You’ll become friends with him shortly, I’m sure. He’s even managed to become friends with Magnus.” Joseph rose two fingers in the air, showing a peace sign. Then quietly went over to stand with the crew. Mike looked over to see who was left. “Huh, just one left. Wonder where the other went. Well then, we’ll carry on.” A Spartan III walked into the room. “Now this ones a keeper. That you can’t keep. He’s only here for this mission and leaves afterwards. However, he’ll make sure the job gets done. His name is Eric Magarnold. Son of the Captain of UNSC Warlord actually, yes surprising he’s here. UNSC sent him over since no one else wanted to tag along. He’s quiet and won’t talk at all. However, he’ll get the job done. He’s fast and smart. No need to worry about losing him.” Mike patted Eric on the back, which was a motion for him to go stand over with the others. “Well you guys. I’m sorry the other one is not here. Hopefully you’ll run into her sooner or later. Hopefully sooner. Anyways, you should all meet downstairs. Dexter is waiting for you. Time for me to go.” The 65 year-old man walked out of the room. Happy to be of assistance. They all walked out of the room. “He was such a nice man. Introducing everyone and stuff. Great we get teammates and Dexter is actually coming along!” Archangel said. “Yes, but lets go.” Jackson lead everyone into the elevator. He pushed the button for the launch bay. “You know, I hope this goes well. Would be nice to get to know you all a little better.” Joseph said with enthusiasm. He held his hand out to Michael. “Hi.” Michael shook his hand, “Hello. I’m Michael Caboose.” Joseph gave a smile, “Well it’s nice to meet you Caboose.” Michael gave him a confused look, “Oh, people just usually call me Michael. Caboose is fine though!” He smiled. “Thanks.” Joseph replied. The elevator door opened, they all stepped out. They spotted Dexter over near three pelicans. He seemed to be in a conversation with someone. Everyone walked over. “Hello Dexter, glad you’re here to help.” Jackson said as he walked up to him. The person, who turned out to be a Spartan looked at them. Jackson could only make out that it was a female. He couldn’t get anything else. “Oh, hey guys. Sorry, I was busy here talking to Ash. One of your squad members.” Dexter noticed that the new recruits were with them. “Oh, Ash I think you missed your introduction with Mike. Dang it, why did you have to bother me?” Dexter walked over to talk to the other engineers. “Well, okay then. Be that way.” She looked away from Dexter and at her new team. “Hello, guys and gals. I’m Ash. To cut the exaggerated details that Mike probably has to say, I’m just the one you’ll look at for helping get the job done. Nothing more, nothing less. I’ll care for each one of you. Yep, that’s about it. Now lets go, shall we?” Ash walked over to join them. Dexter approached them. “Well everything is ready. This job is dangerous. However, you’ll be split up into teams of three. The teams are already made. We’re not drawing sticks or seeing who can skip a rock the farthest. Plus Paper, Rock, Scissors would just take too long.” Dexter looked for the paper on his clipboard. “Ah here we go,” Dexter started to name off the teams. “Joseph, Bek, Frank, Caboose, and Reaper will be in Pelican 1; on the left. You can’t miss it, there’s a tank attached for transport. Archangel, Jackson, Eric, and Magnus are Pelican 2; this one’s in the middle. Attached to it is a Gauss Warthog, with a Gungoose sitting on the inside. Runner, Junior, Zeff, and Ash will be in Pelican 3, on your right. Attached to it is a modified transport warthog. Included is a machine gun turret on both sides, flamethrower facing backwards, and the passenger gets a simple mounted shotgun turret on the dash. Improved for durability as well, that way you won’t be taken out so easily if you encounter flood.” Dexter’s mouth ran dry from the read-off. A glimmer shined in Runner’s eyes. “Alright, well mount up everyone. Let’s go.” The teams split off into their three sections and boarded the pelicans. “The pelicans have preset destinations. We’re going to sweep the landscape. Hence why you’re split up into three teams. As far as we’re concerned. Only one of these areas has the message, as far as we’re concerned. We’re not sure which one does. We have Covenant traces on the battlenet saying they were in each of the three. Anyways, good luck to all of you. I’ll be here if you need anything.” Dexter said, then flickered off their HUD’s. The pelicans all lifted up and took off. Each of the three broke off in separate destinations as they reached the surface. One was to search a cave. One was to search a desert. One was to search an island. As the pelicans grew near the installation, a green-musky look appeared in the air. This gave everyone an unsensational feel. Each of them knew, if they were to die from these creatures. It would use them to turn them against one another. Dexter saw in one of the Pelican’s cameras, a large figure ran across the ground. Then the camera went out and a Pelican came up missing on the screen. Only two remained. ~End of Chapter 2~

~Chapter 1: FireStorm~ Runner just reached Blue Teams base. How convenient, they just had to play capture the flag on Ragnarok. The most overplayed map, and the most played objective game mode. Why couldn’t it have been Ricochet on Chiron Tl-34? Whatever. The teams were an even Three versus Three. Red team consisted of Archangel, Runner, and Michael. Blue Team consisted of Jackson, Junior, and Frank. Of course, Dexter was the spectator and was in charge of the simulation. Bek, well she went to take a nap. Whatever I guess. Runner sprinted into Blue Teams base. The flag was settle conveniently on the pedestal above her. “Well. Here goes nothing.” She noticed Junior was on top with the Sniper Rifle. She watched as an indicated flashed on her screen that Junior just sniped Michael. “Hehe. Only if that were for real.” Runner jumped on top of the base, she walked up to Junior. Surprised he didn’t notice, or maybe it was her ultra ninja stealth mode? Oh well, she took her Carbine and, from behind, put it in both her hands and put the Carbine over Juniors head. She took the Carbine and slammed it up against his neck. He mumbled something but she couldn’t understand. She used her advantage and twisted the Carbine, which snapped his neck. He fell on the floor. “Well that was that, time to get this baby home.” Runner took their flag. The announcer announced that their team had the flag. “Well, they probably know now to. Better get back quick.” Runner went into the air vent on top of their base, it flung her high in the air. She was supposed to land around near those inclines that were split between the river bed. “Alright, now to just...” Splat. Frank ran into her with the Banshee. Runner was thrown out of the simulation, as well as everyone else. “Okay, what the Hell? I was in the middle of winning and you just stop the simulation? C’mon Dexter.” Michael said. Even though he was terrible on that last match. He died forty-three times and only had two kills. He didn’t even get a capture. One of those being a betrayal against Archangel. “Sorry guys. It’s time for you to go, we’re here. UNSC Firestorm is about five kilometers away from us. You all need to get in the Pelican, which is on the deck below us, and have Frank pilot you over.” Dexter said in an urgent manner. This mission must be a really go-getter and the Commander must not want to waste time. All six of them huddled in the small elevator. Junior quietly jammed out to the elevator music, it was one of his favorites. He remembered it used to play all the time in the elevators when he and his father were in New Alexandria. Oh how he missed his father. A tear skimmed down his cheek. Frank was next to him and noticed the tear; he put his hand on Juniors shoulder and told him “Cheer up big guy, we’re your family now. You don’t gotta worry about losing us.” Frank patted him on the shoulder twice, then gently shook it once before he dropped his arm. “Thanks. That means a lot to me. I have no one.” Junior wiped the tear off his face. He meant what he said too. Archangel heard them talk. He was a hundred percent agreed on that. They stuck together through thick and thin, no one gets left behind. Everyone stays alive. It was the unsaid rule of the team. The elevator door opened up. Looks like they were just in time, a Pelican was just being lowered down into the Hangar in front of the shield door. Frank walked ahead of everyone, obviously he was the pilot. He wanted to make sure the thing was safe and ready for immediate launch. Someone walked over to them, “Hello guys. Pelican’s ready. You can leave as soon as you like. Be safe, and have fun. We’re all counting on you. I want Lan Chorus dead as everyone else does.” “Wait. Biggles? Is that you Biggles? What happened? Why are you now working on the vehicle deck? Where’s Jack at? You two used to be together side by side.” Archangel just unloaded questions on him. “Hehe. Yep it’s me, Biggles. I got too old to fight and command had nothing for me to do anymore. Which brings me to Jack of Harts. He and I were on a mission to track down some insurrectionists who were messing with a Communications Outpost. Well, we got the Outpost secured, but on the way back Jack was taken out by a Spartan Insurrectionist, who took him away and left me all on my own as the Pelican took off. God knows where he is now.” Biggles looked down in silence. Jeez, those two really were best friends to the end. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know...” Archangel said. “It’s fine, just go ahead and get in. Firestorm is waiting for you, don’t want to waste your time. Bek’s already in the Pelican waiting for all of you.” Biggles said, then walked back where he came from. Everyone else loaded into the pelican. Frank took off to UNSC Firestorm. ----5 Minutes Later---- Frank approached UNSC Firestorm’s deck, it’s deck was small. However, I guess it was a Frigate. Probably why it was selected best for the job. Could get up close, and wouldn’t cost much if it was destroyed. They landed the pelican, as they exited they were greeted by a marine. Another one familiar to both Bek and Archangel. “Hello guys, they’re in the cafeteria getting some... some food. I hope you know how to get there. It’s just through those, um, those first few doors. Yes. They’re right through those first few doors. Mhm.” The marine said, he was really shaky and probably was insane. “Wait a minute, you’re Zen! Hi Zen!” Bek yelled. “Hrrrrmm!!” Was all that Zen said. “Just go through those doors, leave me alone!” Zen took off in a different direction through a few other doors. “I wonder what’s his problem.” Runner said as she took her helmet off. Jackson lead the team, through the first two doors. Then through another door. He didn’t see the cafeteria. He decided to turn back, but heard a noise. It sounded like a beat of some sort. Jackson pushed open the door. “Err’body say “Warlord” KEEP IT GOING, Tanks, Hornets, Warthogs, Warlord! Let the Covenant come over here, get a taste of my Warlord! Taste a bit of lead that I got from my ship, Warlord! Covenant might stand a chance against our Warlord! Boy, now I know you ain't talking about our Warlord! My mothers captain of the ship Warlord! WaWaWaWaWaWa Warlord!” Then all six of them sat down and ate some sausage. “Um, okay. If that is literally them. I will seriously just take Caboose and get in the nearest drop pod; take it down to the Ring or Installation whatever. Then, I will search for the clue or even Lan Chorus himself down there. Than to put up with those cheerful chatterboxes. It’s too annoying, and I just want to call them all stupid right now.” Runner hyperventilated. “Relax, C’mon lets go. They seem nice, that’s a thing. We’ll just introduce ourselves...” Jackson said before he was interrupted. “Hello Team Lord, glad you made it. Go ahead and take the elevator in the room where you landed the Pelican, and meet the Commander upstairs. You’ll be able to meet your new teammates up here shortly after they’re done eating breakfast. See you soon!” Someone said to them before they had the chance to meet their crew right now. They followed orders and took the elevator up. Runner noticed one of them was a girl, hopefully she wasn’t as bad as Bek. They all got in the clunky elevator, which slowly raised them upwards. Well here goes nothing. The elevator stopped and the shackles slowly raised in front of them. An ODST awaited in front of them, a huge grin on his face. “Follow me.” was all he said before he lead them. They did as they were told. ~End of Chapter 1~

UNSC Warlord Book 2: Odds and Ends The Prologue... Captain Samantha Lea Magarnold stood tall and proud. The smile on her face gave the soldiers a decorum environment that each and every one of them could enjoy. The engineers were at the ship controls, their initiative was to guide the ship a fast and safe route to the objective. The pilots stood beside the engineers as they explained the plans and routes that we will take. Not all engineers and pilots were in the ships bridge... [uNSC Warlord’s Holding Deck] “Hey man, it’s been a long long ride. We haven’t done anything for a weeks now.” Paladin set his feet up on the table and took a drink of some scotch. Bek sat in a chair, opposed from Paladin. “Yeah yeah. I’m kind of glad it’s been so quiet. Now that the Covenant is finally gone and the Elite’s have decided to join our side for the end of the war. Sad to see that they’re leaving already.” Bek watched Paladin open another bottle of Scotch, “You should really lay down on so much Scotch. That’s the fourth bottle you’ve opened in the past hour.” Bek rolled her eyes. Paladin took his mouth away from the bottle for a few seconds. “You know what’s fun about being sober?” Bek stared at him, she said nothing. Paladin gently took another sip then answered his own question. “Nothing.” He laughed, so hard he fell out of his chair and onto the floor, the scotch toppled over with him. Glass was everywhere. “Aw, man.” Bek just smiled, she tried her best not to laugh. Cajun casually walked up to the table, “Hey guy’s.” “What’s up, homie?” Paladin said as he sat back in his chair. He left the Scotch on the floor, and acted as if it wasn’t him. That didn’t seem to work. “Look, clean up your Scotch mess and we need to go. Commander wants us to go down on the surface and check some things. I know the wars over, but there’s still rebels and then there’s the Covenant who don’t know the wars over. There’s two corvettes down on the surface, Osiris is taking them out but not until we check on everything.” Cajun mad that sound so casual and easy, that Bek and Paladin both knew it was easier said then done. Cajun, Paladin, and Bek all got into a transport pelican. Cajun took the controls, but sighed to himself as he did. “I hate these new models. I’m so exposed.” The pelican’s lift lowered to an exit passage. There was only one way to go. He activated the thrusters then flew out and headed for the planet, Ballast. Paladin stared at Bek, a huge grin across his face. Bek returned the smile, but quickly put her helmet on. Paladin couldn’t resist, “You hayabusa armor... You look so good in it... Maybe we should, sometime...” Paladin past out in the seat before he could finish. Bek just laughed and shook her head. This flight had a lot of turbulence. They crashed into the surface. Bek got up out of her seat, she checked on Paladin. He was alive, just knocked out from the Scotch. At least that’s what she thought. Bek entered the pilot’s cabin, Cajun was dead in his seat. A giant sized purple needle was through his chest. She carefully exited the pelican. A nice wood terrain was in view. A fair amount of trees were present in areas, but there was also open areas about. Like the one they were in. Bek checked her navigator, the outpost they were headed for was one kilometer southeast from their position. Not far of a travel, but it would be if she had to carry Paladin’s intoxicated body all the way there. She noticed her gungoose was still intact. She walked over to it and checked if it worked, keys were in it already but the fuel was low. Enough to get her to the outpost, but not back. She tried it. The gungoose started with a loud squeal at first. She might want to get that checked. Without hesitance, she rushed into the pelican. Took Paladin out of the seatbelt, locked him in on the back of the gungoose. She took the controls, and took off towards the outpost’s directions at full speed. Tree’s came into view, she couldn’t risk it. She went through them on a beaten path. A few grunts came onto the road. It didn’t matter now, she fired the smg’s. That was quick, they all laid dead as she ran over their corpses. There was some thing funny about them... No she told herself, not now. I need to get to the outpost, I can’t stop to look at the roses. There it was, the outpost. It looked really rugged and was made out of stone. I guess this is what the 2014 trend used to call ‘ratchet’. Two ODST’s stood outside, as if they were guards. One had a medical symbol embedded on his left shoulder. Weird. The other one looked normal. Wait, there was a third one she could barely see. That one looked normal too. She drove up to the outpost. A spartan stood at the warthog, gun aimed at them. “Who are you, and what’s with the body on the back?” The spartan questioned. This must have been the leader here. A pilot and another Spartan appeared at the top of the base. Except this one was a Spartan IV, unlike the Spartan III in front of her. “I am Bek, and this is Paladin. He’s drunk and passed out from Scotch. We were sent here from UNSC Warlord to check on your outpost, except our pelican crashed because a Covenant Vampire took out our pilot. We’re here now, and that’s about it. I think our pilot knew more, but I dunno.” Bek breathed heavily from all that social talk that she’s not used to. “Hm.” Then yes,” The Spartan handed them a cartridge, “here is the log of what’s going on. Give it to your Commander.” The spartan walked away. “That’s it? How are we supposed to get back?” Bek exclaimed. She wanted out of here fast, the ODST above her stilled her fear. She had no idea why, maybe because of the knife that the ODST held. Or... Wait, was that ODST a female? She felt a little more comfortable there was another female, but she was also terrified because she had no idea what that ODST was capable of, girls are unpredictable and she knows that. “Here, I’ll have my pilot. Take you back up to your ship and drop you off.” The Spartan waved at the Pilot, “Frank. I need you to give these guy’s a ride back up!” He shouted up at him. “Yes sir, Jackson! Give me a few minutes to prep the hornet.” Frank headed over to the hornet, that Bek just now noticed sat there. “Why are you always preparing? Just go!” Jackson yelled. He seemed as if he didn’t like the pilot, or pilots in general. Interesting. What if Cajun would’ve been here? “Uh, sir. I can’t leave. For at least a few hours or ever...” Frank said. He was now down on the ground beside Jackson. That was really quick, does he have silent footsteps or something? He looked at Bek, “You’ll thank me when I tell the Commander why.” He smiled at her. “What is it, Frank?” Jackson sounded irritated. “Look for yourself.” Frank pointed over at the open area just beyond the trees. Two Scarabs and a Lich was headed straight at them. “Well, I guess there’s our ride out of here. Michael, Runner and Heli. You take out the Scarab on the right. Dexter, get out here!” Jackson yelled, an engineer walked out from the garage. “You, Frank, and Bek will take out the Scarab on the left. Junior and I will take out the Covenant on the lich and get us a ride out of here.” “Hell yeah I will!” That ODST must have been Junior, he looked aggressive and ready to kill anything that set him off, or Covenant in general. “Alright, let’s go.” Jackson put his helmet on. End of prologue... ~Chapter 1: Elongation~ Jackson finished off the Elite Zealot. “Junior, get over here!” Junior ran from the upper deck down to Jackson, who stood beside the lich controls. “We need to get off this lich, I managed to use the controls to EMP the Scarabs. That should provide enough time for the others to take out the power cores. As soon as we’re down, run back to the base. This explosion’s going to be massive and attract a lot of attention.” The shields started to glow a bright blue and then they began to spiral. “Let’s go!” Jackson ran over to the grav lift, it opened but the grav lift failed. They jumped. Jackson landed softly on his feet, no thanks to his crouch stance. Junior fell and landed on a tree branch. Snap. He landed on another tree branch. Snap. He then landed on another tree branch. Snap. The cycle continued and continued. He eventually landed on the ground, belly first. “Junior, get up. Let’s go! You can play in the ugly tree another time, but not now!” Jackson took off in a sprint towards the base. Junior stumbled up and ran behind him. They noticed the other troops did the same. Finally, they reached the base. A massive explosion shook the ground and lit up the sky. The Lich blew up first. The Scarabs went next. “Glad that’s over with.” Paladin took a sip of his coffee. “I don’t think so, none of you are no longer safe here. Or anywhere down here.” Someone said. “Archangel! How did you get down here? And what are you talking about?” Bek asked the soldier, who turned out to be a guy named Archangel. “Long story short, but we need to go.” He replied. A Covenant Cruiser came out of the middle of nowhere, it’s energy projector started to charge up. “Sir, should we fall back into the cave? We haven’t been back very far. But now’s the the only chance we got!” Runner exclaimed. “Roger that. We have no other choice. Everyone, go into the cave. We’ll make it through there.” Jackson sounded over confident, but he needed to reassure the squad they would be safe. Sanity was all they had at this point. Everyone fell back into the cave, full sprint. The Cruiser was at a gain. It’s energy projector fired. Jackson caved the entrance in. He hoped it would give them a chance of survival or at least keep them alive a little longer from the heat. It must have worked. Everyone was still at a sprint. The cave was dark. Only the Spartan’s had flashlights on their helmets, the others were forced to use the flashlights installed on their weapons. Which was everyone, except Junior. Who was stuck to rely on everyone else. They continued further back.They’ve been at this for about sixteen hours. Everyone was tired and exhausted. Next up was fatigue. It began to lighten up. The ground and walls suddenly came up to a bronze metal interior. “This is a little creepy, soothing, and confusing. All at the same time. What is this place?” Junior ran ahead, afraid of the darkness. “If I knew, I’d tell you. Hehe.” Paladin answered. “There’s yellow lights on the walls lighting up everything. We need to continue forward. There could be Covenant down here.” Michael said. “Right. Let’s go.” Jackson continued over the metal floor, a clankity clank sound made from their steps. It was hard not to stay quiet and evade the Covenant with this much noise. Jackson kept his SMG’s up. Archangel prep’d the rocket launcher. For just in case reasons. Bek looked over at Jackson, “Have you been here before that you know where you’re going? Because you look like you know which way we should go.” “None of us have ever been down here before. This looks like a whole other world.” Heli spoke up. That was the first thing he’s actually said since he’s been here. Jackson turned around the corner then stopped. “What is it, Jackson?” Dexter walked up beside him. He was the engineer, he needed to know what was going on. His armor wasn’t as strong as the others. It was durable, but that was only for a soldier of his class. He wasn’t afraid of the Covenant, but if there was any. He would improvise a plan to stay alive and help out as much as he can. Jackson said nothing. “Jackson?” Junior said it this time, Jackson’s favorite member. Nothing. Junior walked up next to his commander. He stopped in shock as well. “Everyone. Run.” Jackson ordered. He backed up behind the wall. A giant rocket launched pass and slammed into the wall, it created a dead end. They couldn’t head back, it was blocked. The only way through was to go where the rocket came from. Only Jackson knew what it was. Michael noticed something else on the wall... It was some sort of... Writing? ~End of Chapter 1~ ~Chapter 2: The Ancient One~ “Alright everyone, we’re going to have to go through. Stealth is the only key we have, I’d rather not upset this thing.” Jackson ordered. He peered around the corner, it wasn’t there. Jackson took the team and slowly walked their way down into the crevices of the room. The bronze metal continued where they went. A loud sound erupted. Jackson held still. The team did as well. Nothing. It must have been just an explosion far away. “Sir, what is that thing you saw?” Dexter held his weapon aimed at the sky. Jackson noticed he was scared. His arm was shaky like a broken tree branch in the limb, his voice cracked in fear like the crevice they were in. Jackson felt bad for the kid. “Archangel, can you reach your ship. UNSC Warlord?” Jackson asked politely. He didn’t turn around, he kept face forward as they walked. “Negative.” Archangel replied. “UNSC Warlord has left the planet, we were outnumbered. Reinforcements should arrive within the next eight days.” Archangel held a grip. He fell behind and watched their backs, he wanted to ensure everyone made it through. Bek screeched, “What?! They left us? They were are friends!” She began to cry, she had been hurt so much before that she had to just let it all out. It was unbearable for her. Jackson turned around in horror. “Shhh!!!” Bek couldn’t stop her sorrow. A loud thud shook them. Bek stopped. Everyone stopped. A second loud thud, followed by a metallic noise. It was quiet for a second. Then a loud metallic groan sounded. The team looked up in horror. There, floating above them was an eighteen foot tall robot. Yellow eyes on its face, bronze metal covered its body, a pistol mounted on its left arm, five spikes were on its back, it carried two small black sticks on its back, the right hand had a bright yellow opening on it, the same color as its eyes. This was unlike anything they have ever seen. The robot fired a rocket blindly in the room. “Everyone, we need to move. If we don’t, we’re done for!” Jackson sneered. He edged the team forward. “Whatever you do, do not try to attack or engage. Our mission is to get out of here.” He pushed through the crevices, slowly. The robot sound faded, the team pushed into an entirely different room. It was open as well as the last one. There was a cave on the other side. Hmm. This place didn’t seem very big. Jackson felt off. He motioned for the team to stay put. He moved forward towards the entrance. Nothing happened. As he came close to the entrance, he slipped. Luckily, he managed to catch himself. There was an enormous drop, large enough to be considered a grave for him and the whole team. You could probably throw the robot in there too, if you wanted and there would still be enough room to bury people. Jackson turned around. The team wasn’t there. He stopped to think where they would have gone. Could they have returned to the crevice? Could they have been killed? Cou-? He stopped mid-thought and turned around. Right there was the robot they had tried to escape. Jackson held himself together and stared face to face at it. The robot grabbed one of its small black sticks. It activated into a large red laser sword. It missed, but it sent off a concussion wave. Which caused Jackson to lose balance. He fell on his back, but was quick to retrieve himself. He watched as the robot’s five spikes on its back spread out. Wait, those weren’t spikes. Those were tentacles! The robot fired them in an order. Hot mama, they turned the area they hit a bright yellow. The tentacles then pulled the ground up, causing platforms on top and crevices on the bottom. Too hot to touch, Jackon turned around and ran. Archangel held the rocket launched up as Jackson came up. “Watch out!” He yelled as he pulled the trigger. The rocket hit the robot in the face. Nothing happened. The robot held up its right hand, with the bright yellow opening, and fired. Two blue like things shot out. They appeared to be armorless hunters. The team shot them down, they split into four small hunters, the team shot them down as well, they died. Piece of cake. The robot then began to fire rockets. They were slow, but they were massive. The team ran in a different direction. Everyone was on the run for their lives. Their own very chance of survival was about to end. All because of this robot. The team came upon a cave, maybe an exit to finally get out of here? They didn’t have any choice. They had to run for it. The robot fired another rocket, the team heard it gain on them. Michael looked over his shoulder. Paladin struggled to keep up. Now was his only chance, Michael dropped in speed and fell behind Paladin. He gave him a massive push, which caused him to rocket forward into the cave with the others. Ironically, the rocket slammed into the cave entrance. The wall collapsed. He had no way out. “No! Not again! No!” Bek bursted into tears. This couldn’t have happened again. It reminded her so much of Destroyer. Oh how she missed him. She didn’t understand how no one knew what happened to him. He was with them on the ship, then was gone the next morning. It happened so suddenly. Now Michael was gone. Bek just sat in her tears and cried. “Bek. It’ll be alright.” Runner crouched at her side. She set an arm on Bek’s shoulder. “I’m sure Michael is alive. After all, there’s no proof he’s dead. He’ll find his way back to us, I’m sure of it. He always has.” Runner took off her helmet then smiled at Bek. Bek’s sobs went mute. All she could feel was pain and anger. “It’s alright, let’s go now. There’s a light up ahead. We’re almost out of here. Michael will be with us up here soon. I promise.” Her smile turned into a wide grin. Although the assurance was overly justified. Bek accepted it, blindly. She stood up and walked side by side with Runner as the team progressed upwards towards the light. The robot’s loud voice could be heard throughout the walls of the tunnel they were in. Dexter shuddered at the sound. He moved closer to Jackson. He always felt safer around Jackson. He has never let them down. He’s been there for them through thick and thin. It was just a natural occurring habit for him now. The team exited the tunnel. ~End of Chapter 2~ ~Chapter 3: Again~ “Let’s go! We’re almost out of here! We just need to contact Warlord and let them know where we’re at. We don’t have much longer down here.” Jackson kept at a push for the tunnel’s exit. He grabbed Dexter, who was completely exhausted, and threw him over his shoulders. Archangel matched his pace with Jackson, “Sir! Mind you, Warlord has left this planet. There’s nothing here, just Covenant ships and that robot! You’re not going to get anywhere. It’s not even worth trying. We’re better off finding an outpost where we can take refuge until they come back.” Jackson looked at him, Archangel couldn’t see through his helmet but he knew he could feel anger. “You mean, if they come back.” Jackson kept his gaze on him with a dead beat. Archangel lowered his pace back to the group. Ashamed and feeling threatened by their only available Commander. Jackson stood at the exit as he waited for everyone. Back turned, Dexter passed out on his shoulder, and quiet. A little too quiet. Frank approached him first. “Jackson?” No response. Frank turned his eyes his way. It was an exit alright. Not the kind they wanted either. Everyone else walked up and saw it too. There was no where to go. A bronze metal platform stood at the end. Blue decal was in the center, unknown identity to any of them. The only way they could go was forward, and climb down, or to go back underground and join Michael in his grave. “You guy’s wait here, I’m going to go up and check things out. See what I can find.” Jackson stated. He laid Dexter on the ground, nice and easy as to not wake him. He carefully removed Dexter’s helmet and set it on his lap. He then proceeded to put him in a restful position. The others watched him as he cared for the poor soldier. After Jackson finished with Dexter, he walked forward towards the platform. The team felt as if an ominous breeze rushed over them. Although none of them paid any attention to it. They all just watched Jackson proceed forward to the dead end. Jackson approached the bronze metal platform, the was something on it. He picked it up, it looked like a wrist band. He put it on his armor. To his surprise, the wristband expanded and tightened. A small dish like object projected from the wristband. Jackson questioned it. He took a quick glance at it. He couldn’t figure it out. He had no idea what it did. He held it in the sky, maybe it was some sort of beacon? Nope. He lowered the weapon then tried again. Nothing, still. He lowered the weapon again, quicker this time, then thrusted it into the sky. A yellow ball flew out of the dish. It looked like a fuel rod gun, but was as fast as a rocket launcher. The ammunition for it looked simply as if it must be like the Spartan Laser, no consumption. Jackson looked around. There was no where to go. Maybe this weapon could help him defeat the robot down in the cave? Jackson started to head back for the others who all sat on top of the hill and watched him as he walked over the platform and back to them. Except he didn’t. “Jackson!” He heard Archangel scream. Too late. Jackson looked around confused. The ground trembled and was shaky. He had a sudden urge to make a run for it. His hesitance failed him. The platform began to float away from the cliff. “JACKSON!” He heard the entire team scream. The platform continued off in the distance. “Jackson...” He could hear a faint scream of the team. He was all alone, the only one able to make it out alive. He just stared at the sky, he knew he failed his mission. The platform stopped. Jackson looked back down. There was no where to get off, this enormous platform took him to the middle of nowhere! He had no way out! “God damn it! I’m separated from my team and there’s no way for them to get to me!” Jackson was furious and angry. He punched the platform in rage and cursed everything he saw. The wristband, his choices, the platform. Everything. Finally he came to a stop. Jackson turned around, he forgot about behind him. He stopped. Fear went through him. His eyes widened, his arms drop, his legs gave out. He was down on his knees. Jackson looked up again to see if it was still there. It was. Another robot. Except, this one was even larger. About six times the size of the last one. This one looked as if it was seventy-four meters tall. It held different technology as well. Which scared Jackson. There was something on the eye, a cannon like object on one arm, the other arm completely replaced with a giant gun of some sort, something on its chest, and a launcher of some sort on the backside of the shoulder. Jackson felt his life’s countdown tick away. The robot spoke, “I have you now.” The thing on its eye lit up. A blue laser powered up and was aimed directly at Jackson. ~End of Chapter 3~ ~Chapter 4: Disclose~ “Ohhh... Where am I?” He opened his eyes. It was pitch black, and he couldn’t see. Michael reached out to move around. He couldn’t do that either. Was he paralyzed? Was he a vegetable? What was going on? Wait. What was the last thing Michael remembered? He tried to think... There was a robot. They were on the run from it. Oh. That’s right. He saved Paladin from being hit by the rocket. The rocket hit just above the entrance, and collapsed the cave. That was all he could remember. Hopefully nothing else happened and he was just knocked out. There was only way to find out if he was under the rock. All he needed to do was push his way up. Michael gathered all his strength and forced his arm through what he thought was rock. Pebbles and a few rocks fell down on his suit. His arm was out. Now all he needed to do was, “Just pull myself up...” he said to himself out loud. With a hard push, Michael arose from the rocks. The room was darker. The bronze floor was gone. No wait, the bronze floor was still there. Just covered in rock. How much of that rock wall was destroyed? Eh, it didn’t matter. Michael got up and started to walk back the way he thought he came. This was going to be a long 16 hour trip back to the base. “Hopefully UNSC Warlord is back with reinforcements...” ~The team~ “Archangel do you see him? I can’t see anything.” Dexter looked over at Archangel. They both laid on their stomachs. Archangel pulled up his sniper scope. They’ve been on the look for Jackson since he left. “I’m not seeing anything either. We might just want to give up.” Archangel looked away from his scope, and turned his head at Dexter. Dexter was still on the look down his binoculars. “No. We need to make sure he’s still alive and okay. He could be on the return right now, we need to be prepared for when he arrives.” Archangel rolled his eyes at his response. Although he didn’t object, he returned to look down his scope. “Guys.” Runner said. Helix was the only one who looked at her, but he didn’t respond. He had a bad experience the last time that one word sentence was said. He shuddered at the thought. “I think I found him.” Archangel said. He wasn’t sure. It was very far far away. “What do you see?” Dexter asked. “Guys.” Runner said again, but louder. Frank heard her this time, he got up and walked over to her. “What’s wrong.” “Oh my god. You won’t believe this.” Archangel looked up from his scope and turned at Dexter. “What?” Dexter was tired of this bush beating. “It’s Bek. She’s hurt.” Runner said. Frank motioned for Junior to come over. “What’s wrong?” Junior asked Runner. Runner moved her arm. There was a bullet wound in her left side. “Strange. How did this get here?” Junior moved Runner aside and started to patch the wound. “It’s the robot. It’s back and it’s fighting Jackson.” Archangel said. “Move aside,” Dexter commanded and Archangel did. Dexter looked down the scope, “What in god’s name. That’s not the same robot. That’s another one!” Dexter scolded Archangel for his ignorance. “Alright. So? We found him. Just like you wanted.” Archangel got up he reached for the sniper rifle. “The robot just launched a bomb, it’s hovering up Jackson right now!” Archangel grabbed the sniper rifle from Dexter and put it on his back. “You idiot!” Dexter stood up and got face-to-face with him. Dexter raised his fist to punch the spartan, but before he could even try a tremendous explosion went on. Everyone turned to the explosion, which is the direction Archangel spotted Jackson. Everyone was silent. “What was that? It sounded like Frank’s mom just got out of bed! Bahahaha!” Paladin gave himself a good time. Archangel tried not to smile at the joke. Junior just finished with the wound. He got up and walked over to Dexter. Runner watched Bek as she slept, she felt sorry for the girl. A tear slipped from her eye. Bek’s did the same. ~End of Chapter 4~ ~Chapter 5: Here Comes the Boom!~ “I have you now!” The robot said. Jackson stared directly into its eyes. Ready. The machinery that covered its right eye lit up. It looked like a charge of something, like a button. Except this machinery fired a blue laser at Jackson. It missed, but the robot could drag the laser across until it finally got him. Jackson ran at a good pace. The laser kept on his tail, but was not fast enough to catch up. He needed to find a way to destroy that laser. His weapons were long lost. He dropped them back at the cave exit. Which was just a dead end, until he got on this platform and grabbed this... Wait a second, that’s it! He could use this thing on his arm. If it would deal any damage to the giant beast in front of him. Only one way to find out. Jackson raised his arm as he ran from the laser. He stopped to shoot. “AAAAAHHHH,” The robot sounded injured. Jackson kept the gun at a steady fire. The machinery blew up. A black hole replaced the eye and machinery. As if it just disappeared. Jackson felt accomplished. A giant pillar arose from the depths on the platforms back left. About a hundred meters away. Jackson forgot what he was supposed to do. He quickly focused back on the giant robot. Its gun mounted on its back right shoulder extended and the barrel enlarged. It shot something at him. Jackson dodged, but it was pointless. The object stopped and floated in mid-air. Electricity sparked on its sides. A timer sounded. A timer!? Jackson quickly activated his emergency jetpack, he flew straight in the air and out of range. Which didn’t last very long. The jetpack lost its charge and Jackson landed back on the platform. The robot looked at Jackson and made a loud roar. It pulled up its right elbow, which had a shiny medal on it. It was as if it wanted to show Jackson something. Nope. The shoulder charged a bright red, it shot five spheres at Jackson. Who instinctively jumped out of the way. They weren’t aimed at him either. They all landed on the floor. Jackson watched them carefully, one by one they exploded. It was a small explosion but a concussion wave was emitted from each one of them. Jackson jumped and dodged each of the waves. He started to shoot the robots elbow. This little wristband amazed him. The technology it had could help the UNSC greatly. He broke what was actually another piece of machinery on the robots right elbow. Wires flailed from it and the piece exploded too. The robot roared again, “I have you now!” Another sphere shot up from the depths, this time on the back right. Same distance and size. The giant robot brought its gun up again. Jackson tried to shoot it. It didn’t work. The gun could withstand the bullets. It shot another bomb. Jackson tried his emergency jetpack again. It was charged a little. He had to use it. Jackson pushed the trigger and it thrusted him in the air. He made it about four hundred meters and crashed back down on the platform. The robot wasn’t happy. It lifted its head up, which moved its metal nose out of the way and revealed another giant shiny medal on the robots chest. Maybe this was another piece of machinery? It fired green balls, much like the one on his wristband shot except his was yellow, Jackson just stood still. He knew that the robot gave up on direct fire after the laser. The green balls hit the floor and revealed monster like things. They looked like what those hunters he faced earlier looked like. Except he concluded weren’t hunters. They were something else. Jackson just quickly shot these ones down. Wasn’t that difficult. He raised his arm and went to shoot the shiny medal on the chest. The robot already charged another bomb and was about to fire it. Jackson saw another pillar come from the depths below. Except the depths got a nice, hazy mist over them now. He couldn’t see the bottom. The robot fired its bomb. Jackson used his jetpack. It had just a tiny charge. His only hope. He pushed the button and thrusted three hundred meters in the air. Just fifty meters out of range. He crashed again on the platform. His emergency jetpack was out and completely destroyed from the close radius. Jackson took it off and threw it over the edge. Maybe he should have thought about have used it back over when the platform first moved? He wouldn’t be where he was now, dead. The robots rage was mad. The wires were flailed around from its movements. The feet kicked in place. It brought its left arm up. No. This wasn’t its arm, it was a staff of some sort. The end piece charged bright yellow. Jackson stood his place. It fired directly at Jackson. Jackson dodged just barely. “Holy cow, I thought it gave up on direct fire. It must have gave up on indirect fire as well.” Jackson started to shoot the staff. It charged again and another giant ball of yellow missed him. Jackson kept fire on the staff. The robot was irritated, “NOOO!!!” It screamed. It fired another one, Jackson was almost hit that time. He fired some more at the staff. It exploded the robots entire left arm. The robot roared at its loudest. The gun came over its shoulder again. It just fired bomb after bomb after bomb. Jackson watched a fourth pillar arise on the platforms front right side. What were these platforms for? The robot stopped for a second to say something, “Your jetpack won’t protect you now!” Jackson noticed his weapon shined light instead of the bronze metal it was. The robot said something else, “The weapon! It does exist! He must not be allowed to use it!” Jackson aimed the gun at the robot, it charged up. The robot stood still. “Blast something!” The robot exclaimed. Jackson fired the charged shot. It shot something similar to the robots staff. A giant white ball of power crashed right into the robot. It was destroyed. The ball continued on afterwards. Towards the area his friends were. Jackson felt accomplished. He looked at his wristband. It was gone, completely crumbled and destroyed. Jackson looked in the air, all the bombs were still there. He covered his eyes in fear of his demise. His luck, he teleported. Jackson got up from the ground he was thrown on. He looked around. “Ugh-guh.” He grunted. He saw his team, all near the tunnel exit. He looked to his right, the giant ball of energy came right at them, directly at the tunnel exit. “Everyone, get out of the way! Get over here, now!” Jackson shouted. They all looked in surprise. He wasn’t sure if they ran over to him from the order, or because they were happy to see him back. Jackson spoke to them, “Watch it.” They looked confused, the giant ball of energy slammed into the tunnel and ripped right through. A giant tunnel was formed and the collapse was gone. They could continue back a different route, and hopefully avoid the smaller robot inside. Dexter looked at Jackson and said, “I’m glad you’re back. I missed you.” He hugged Jackson. A grin overcame his face. Jackson was happy to be back too. He turned to where he came from, the team did too. The four pillars and platform charged. The pillars shot four bright white beams into the sky. The platform shot a giant white ball of energy, much like the one that hit the tunnel, except bigger, into the sky as well. They all then collapsed and self-destructed back where they came from. They all watched in awe. Something crashed from the sky. They all looked to see what it was. The Covenant’s last supercarrier was destroyed and crashed into the surface of the planet. Judged from the surprise and crash speed. No covenant on board survived. “Oh my god. We can leave! We don’t have to worry anymore! Woo-hoo! Now all we have to do is get to Bravo Base, and I can fly us off this planet!” Frank was happier than ever. Heli and Bek looked at each other. They smiled. “Thanks for helping me out,” Bek said. Heli took the courage to reply, “You’re welcome. I didn’t want to lose a new friend the day I met her. Just, don’t attempt suicide again. Please?” He had confidence. “Heheh. I won’t.” Bek gave Heli a kiss and walked away to rejoin the others enter the tunnel. “Runner, you’re skills are very important this mission. I’m going to need you.” Jackson looked at Runner, she walked at his side. “Yes, sir. What kind of havoc should I bring upon?” Runner smiled behind her ODST helmet. “You and I are going to kill us what the ancient ones used to call that robot, a Vector.” Jackson said. Runner abrasively grabbed her weapon, and loaded it. She was happy to finally kill something. Who cares what it was? As long as she could kill it. She looked over her shoulder and made eye contact with Paladin. Then quickly turned her head forward. A giant grin came across her face. “Ready when you are, Commander.” ~End of Chapter Five~ ~Chapter 6: Jigsaw~ Michael climbed up the tunnel. He was exhausted from this long walk, being almost crushed by boulders, and his life risked from a merely invincible robot. He was just glad to be out of there. He grabbed the wall to support himself out of what was now what they used to call the cave entrance. The room was fine, everything was the same. It’s as if the Covenant’s energy projector was never fired. Michael continued through the building, he was quiet. As not to disturb any enemy forces in the building. He ran into a wall. “Ow!” He yelled. “Who goes there?” Someone said. Michael noticed a weapon aimed at his head as he recovered from the pain. There was an arm, but no person. It was a magnum. Could this person see him through the wall? Michael thought. “I’m a member of Team Mike, we were sent down here to observe and take out any Covenant ground forces. My team are eighteen hours away underground in that tunnel I just came from. I was separated from them when I risked my life to save one of them from a wall collapse.” Michael responded, he may have said too much information. The soldier moved from behind the wall. It was a Spartan II, a red light shined at the right side of the helmet. It turned off in a matter of seconds. “I am Alex, from UNSC Warlord. You guy’s alright? Or more or less, are you alright?” The spartan said. “Yeah I’m fine. Just exhausted. Is anyone else here?” Michael started to get curious of the Spartan and wondered if anyone else was around. He was kinda hungry, too. “Just my ODST support man, Fauz. He’s in the other room, covering my back. Just in case I made the wrong move. To my luck, I’m safe. Now, would you mind leading us to your friends?” Alex stood up tall. It was as if he was a leader of a team, or maybe the general of the UNSC Warlord? Whoever he was, he looked like he could kick a Field Marshal's teeth in. Jackson didn’t stand a chance against this rocky mountain. “Yes, uh, just follow me. I’ll lead you to them.” Michael turned around and led him upstairs, then to another set of stairs that led them downstairs to a concealed room that had just a rugged couch and the cave. “No wonder we couldn’t find the entrance. I thought it led back to your small armory. I guess this is the way in. We picked up your distress beacon, but it’s a little up on the weak side. We can track the location it was last emitted. Which was this base. Nothing else could be found or heard. We’ve been here for the past three hours. Searching.” Alex started to explain to Michael about how one of the UNSC Warlord crew members left an anonymous distress beacon. It was either Bek or Paladin. He bet it was Bek, she was the most concerned of the team. “I understand that. Thanks for the summary. Do you mind telling me why the Covenant’s energy projector’s didn’t do anything to our base?” Michael decided to answer the question to calm his desperate need to want to know what the hell happened. “Energy projector’s? As soon as we came back, we saw two covenant cruisers, and our ships high-tech engineer, Osiris, managed to shoot them down within ten seconds. We never saw any of them fire at the surface.” Alex was confused as to what he wanted to know. “Oh...” Michael felt stupid. If they would’ve just waited out five more seconds, they all would’ve been just fine and not in this huge mess as they were! Oh well, I guess it’s better safe than sorry, he thought. “Alright, let’s go. Fauz, you coming?” Alex put the magnum back on his waist. He grabbed a spartan laser and assault rifle, he put both of them on his back. “Yeah, yeah. I’m coming, mate. Jeez, hold ya breath. Was only doing some Yoga, before we go.” Fauz appeared around the doorway, he held a sniper rifle and a DMR resided on his back. Fauz was an ODST, one of the best in his class. Which his class just so happened to be... Sniping. This is gonna be great. “Alright, then lets push forward.” Alex activated his helmet lights and walked into the cave. Fauz and Michael followed behind him, their flashlights on. This was going to be a fun, long walk. As Michael was walking, he heard something behind him, he turned around to see what it was. Nothing. He heard the noise again. Michael turned his head over his shoulder, he hoped to see if it was really something, or if he was just hearing things. He saw nothing. Maybe he was in early development of Schizophrenia. He heard the noise again. This time he turned around as soon as he heard it. He saw nothing. Wait, there was a displacement of air. It looked a little infringed. Wow, he really must have Schizophrenia, or at least in the development. He would have to check this out with Nut. It was a scary thought, but he needed to know. Something moved in front of them. ~End of Chapter 6~ ~Chapter 7: Renknown~ “This has got to be the most boring evacuation,” Paladin took a deep breath, “that I have ever had. I don’t know if it’s because of the environment, or because half you guys don’t even talk.” Paladin took a drink of some coffee. “May I ask where you got that coffee?” Frank waddled over to Paladin, “I’ve been thirsty and coffee sounds really good right now.” Frank had a grin on his face. Paladin took a sip of his coffee, his eye on Frank. “Nope, and if you ask again. I’ll shoot you in the back of the leg. That’s a promise.” Paladin drank more of his coffee. Frank’s grin went to a disappointed frown. He then waddled back over by Heli. “Where are we going again?” Archangel asked Jackson. “Back to base. It’s too risky in here. Radiation is safer than this place.” Jackson grabbed onto a rock ledge, and pulled himself up. The others did the same as well. This place was like a giant maze. None of them knew where they were going. “Ugh, this is so frustrating.” Runner punched the wall. Which surprised Bek and Paladin, she managed to puncture the wall. “Guy’s, it’s fine. We have nothing to worry about. As long as we follow Jackson, we’ll make it there safely.” Dexter stated. “I’m starting to get sick of your Jackson will hep us with this, Jackson will help us with that; bullcrap. My father was the same way, but in the end he ended up killing those who he loved and then having them turn upon himself.” Doc was frustrated, yet depressed. Dexter’s statements that made Jackson sound like a diety, annoyed him. He missed his father, that’s who made him who he was today. “Guys, lets settle down. There’s always a way out...” Jackson started to say. A loud roar was heard. “Oh, you have got to be kidding me. This thing again? It’s just as bad as having Michael around.” Runner said, “Well, kinda. I mean, I’d rather have this thing around since it’s quiet and just roars; I’d also rather have Michael just for the reason he doesn’t try to kill us. At eighty-percent of the time.” Runner noticed she was in a conversation with herself. “Who the hell are you talking to?” Paladin walked over. “HAHA!” He started to laugh about it. Runner walked up to Paladin, weapon drawn. She had him in a hostage position, pretty much. “Talking crap about me? Do it again and I’ll blow your ******* brains out. YOU HEAR ME?” Runner was upset, very upset. She noticed her mistake, but no regrets. The giant robot was over them, tentacles drawn. “You have got to be kidding me!” Jackson yelled, he took off in a sprint away, at his best to avoid the robot. The team did the same. The robot didn’t do anything, it just made some sort of what sounded like a chuckle. It then flew in sync, above them. “This thing’s just playing with us!” Bek yelled. “I’ll protect you...” Heli felt embarrased, but he wanted to sound confident to Bek, he wanted to prove to her. “Ugh, look Heli. I like you, but I would never date you. This isn’t the time or place either, I know, and I’m sorry. It’s just, you’re a guy.” Bek said. “What does being a guy have to do with anything?!” Heli was confused and mad at the same time. “Nothing, it’s the only excuse I could come up with.” Bek dived under a rock wall. Then continued to run with the team on the other time. Heli felt hopeless, he all of a sudden hated Bek. Really? Had to say that right now? When we could all possibly die? He thought. He was sick of it, he stopped and let the team run on. He was going to face that robot. Heli made his way up the rock to the upper ground. The team ran over the rock, there was a cavern at the end. At least it was some place to go, Jackson thought. “Let’s go guys, the cave is right there. We can make it. I have faith in all of you.” Jackson made a mad dash of a sprint, and was in the cave. The others arrived shortly after. The robot was angry, it shot three of those armorless things that looked like Hunters. The team shot them down, they diversed into two. Now there was six. They shot again, now there was twelve of them. Archangel was tired of this, he grabbed his rocket launcher and them. That killed all twenty-four of them. “Bit of an overkill there, buddy.” Paladin said. “You know what else is an overkill? Bek with that comeback she told Heli earlier. BAHAHA.” Paladin laughed at his own joke, Bek smiled at it. Embarrased. “Ah there you guy’s are!” Someone yelled, Jackson turned around. Oh god, it was Michael... And two other dudes. He had no idea who they were, but one of them was a Spartan II, the other was an ODST Sniper. They looked like they meant business. “Hello, Michael. These some friends you found? Who are they?” Dexter asked, instad of Jackson. It make Jackson sound more confident in what he was doing. He could appreciate that. “Uh no. No they are not friends. Actually, they are... Team Lord from UNSC Warlord. Uhm, this guy is Alex.” Michael gestured to the Spartan II, “...and this one’s name is Fauz. He’s funny, he shoots things he doesn’t care about. Hehe.” Michael sounded even stupider than when he left them. “What are they here for? I thought Paladin and Bek was our way out?” Jackson was confused. “No. We came because we picked up on a distress beacon. Your friend here, lead us to the cave where it was transmitting from. Luckily, we ran into you guys at the end. He already explained why you came down here, you don’t have to explain. Right now, we need to move. We have to get back to the surface. Now.” Alex started to turn around. He stopped. “Commander, what’s wrong? You usually don’t hesitate.” Bek asked. “Uh-huh... Ugh... Guh...” Was all Alex could say. “What is it?” Archangel asked. An energy sword appeared out of nowhere, it penetrated Alex before he could vanish. The Elite uncloaked as he did so. He wanted the Spartan to know who his killer was, this was honor for the Elite. Afterall, it’s something their race values greatly. The Elite quickly disappeared and was gone before the team could even get a shot off. Alex was on the floor. Jackson moved over to him with Junior. He motioned the team to stand back. Junior examined the wounds. Alex spoke to Jackson, “Jackson.” Cough. “I want to say, it was an honor to meet you. A great honor.” A consecutive cough kept up for about five seconds. “Why is it an honor for you to meet you?” Jackson was confused. “I don’t understand.” “About ten years ago... I fought alongside your grandfather, Sarge. He was an excellent Commander. Unforanutely killed, by our medic.” Alex still spoke to Jackson. Junior felt anger run through his blood when Alex said that. Yet, he also felt a little sad for Jackson. His father killed Jackson’s grandfather. Who was apparently a great leader. He just hoped Jackson was the same. He wanted to know what his father felt like with that type of guy. Was Jackson already there and he didn’t know it? Junior felt like he needed to let things go. He didn’t care, maybe he should start. Jackson and Alex were still in their conversation. “You’re not there yet. I know you will be. I want you to go with Fauz, he’ll let them know you’re Team Lord’s replacement. We need heroes, Jack. You’ll become one of them. I know you will.” Those were Alex’s last words. He didn’t move or breathe. His body stopped. Alex was dead. ~End of Chapter 7~ ~Chapter 8: Reputation~ Heli watched as they walked out of the room, he watched the Elite kill the Spartan and flee, except the Elite fled into the cave, not out of it. Hopefully the Elite wouldn’t go for him, it was his time to prove to everyone he wasn’t worthless. He was sick and tired of it. Let’s do this. Everyone was gone far in the tunnel. He stood his ground, gun drawn. He waited for the robot to return. He saw no sign of it, not even a sound. “Maybe this is pointless, I may as well face the fact that I’m worthless and not desired.” Heli lowered his weapon, tears streamed down his eyes. He sat there in silence for hours upon hours, tears were stained on his cheeks. His eyes were red. The team is most definitely at the surface now. He should head back as well. He stood up. The robot was right there. five tentacles came out of its back. They all fired their deadly yellow beams at Heli. One at a time, and in a consistent stationary manner. Heli dodged the first one, easily. The second one came up, he hurtled over it with grace in his jump. The third one stopped him in his tracks, he was forced to turn. The fourth one just barely missed, it went right over his shoulder. The fifth one was unexpected, he was left with an incredible wound on his left shoulder. The pain was enough to make him stop, he wouldn’t. Heli grabbed his weapon as he fell to the ground, he noticed something above the robot. He couldn’t tell what, but it was something. He opened fire. The robot retracted its tentacles and raised its... Its... Its wrist pistol? A pistol came out of its arm and fired rockets at him. They missed, but each one got closer and closer. The clip was up. He grabbed another and unloaded it into the caves ceiling. This time it did something. The robot stopped to look up. A stalactite fell on the robot, it penetrated the armor and pinned it to the ground. “What you got on me now, you stupid pile of scrap metal?” Heli gained his confidence back, with a drastic ego boost. The team wouldn’t believe this, he thought as he started to walk away. The ground rumbled. Heli turned around, he watched as the robot pulled the stalactite out of its body. A giant hole was in its left side of the abdomen, wires sparked on the inside. Heli knew the robot was going to kill him. The robot grabbed a rod from its back, it glared at Heli. He should probably run... The robot slammed the rod on the ground, it missed him. That wasn’t the point of it, Heli was thrown back by a concussion wave. “Not going to go out like this.” He grabbed his gun, loaded it, and locked on to another stalactite. He opened fire. The robot saw him, it fired three giant balls out of its left hand. It then rested back and charged all of its tentacles. Three, what looked like he could describe as only monsters, came up to him. He changed targets and shot at them. They were tough. Once one fell back, he locked onto the other one. He took them all three down. Except, well, he didn’t. Once they fell down, they split into two smaller forms. “Grrr...” Heli was irritated. He shot each of them down again. He then returned focus on the stalactite, it was almost ready to fall. The monsters approached him, again. Except now they were four to one of the original form. Heli took them out, with quick ease. He looked back up. The robot fired the lasers from its tentacles again. “You won’t get me now.” Heli stood still, the lasers all missed him. The robot glared at him, it used the lasers and pulled five pillars out of the ground with its laser. Heli shielded his eyes from the bright, molten pillars that were pulled out of the ground and formed. They soon hardened from the coolness in the air. The robot pulled up its pistol again and started to fire at Heli... Or maybe the pillars instead. Each rocket hit a pillar, which shattered and caused debris to fly at Heli. Now was his last chance, he unloaded what was left into the stalactite. It fell on top of the robot, again. This time the stalactite was big enough to finish the job. Penetration through the head, the robot fell to the ground. Heli approached it, sparks flickered everywhere on the machine. The robot eyes were blank as it stared at him. “Not so tough now are you, you piece of scrap?” Heli grabbed the chest piece and assembled it onto his back with his weapons. He turned and walked away. “I... I was made by the precursors... Your time is coming... You have been warned...” The robot self destructed as he walked away from it. “I don’t know what that means, but that doesn’t matter. I can finally prove to Bek I’m not worthless. She thinks I want her heart? No. I want her to learn her place, by doing that I first need to show her mine. I’m not going to put up with her crap, or anyone else’s again. Jackson may have destroyed the bigger one and caused a destruction of a Covenant Super Carrier, but none of the others were a match for this one.” Heli had a grin of determination on his face. He walked towards the tunnel, and headed for the exit. This was going to be a fun six hour trip. The Elite stood at the robot, who claimed to be built by the precursors. “Command, this is Lan Chorus. We need to leave the planet, now. Send a transport to evac me from here, I’ll get to the nearest and fastest exit I can. Be there. I will explain everything on board.” Lan watched Helix enter the tunnel. “You may have won this battle, but you will be more that surprised for the next. Team Lord’s leaders are dead. You’ll have to manage on your own. Sarge and Alex were all they had to rely on, the rest will be easy and undisciplined.” A Scarab broke the wall down. Lan walked over to it, a Lich was in the air, it awaited his arrival. Lan boarded it and headed towards a third Corvette, which was undetectable by the UNSC surprisingly. They left the planet. ~End of Chapter 8~ ~Chapter 9: We need to go~ The sky was brighter than an American Independence Day. They have been on the defensive side for hours since their arrival back topside. A few soldiers remained, Marine’s and ODST’s laid all around the base. Dead. “Michael, can you focus the tank on the approaching Wraith’s. There’s a count of four, we’re better off taking them down now before they reach the base.” Jackson was set on top of the building beside Dexter and Runner. He had the sniper, they had the long range rifles. “I don’t think that would be wise as of right now. Whatever, I guess.” Michael aimed the cannon at the Wraith’s. He fired at each wraith, twice in fact, each of them were down before they were in fire range of the vicinity. Frank engaged Banshee’s. Three of them came in from behind, fuel rods fired and dual cannons were blazed hot. One was down, it swirled into the trees below. Frank decided to turn on some music is the Hornet to celebrate his first kill. ‘I’m bringing sexy back’ the song started off. “Yeah!” Frank said along with the song. He fired missiles at the other two banshee’s, instant kill. “Frank, focus. We have a lich incoming. I’m assuming they have at least sixty covenant on board, that’s too many for us to handle. Junior is downstairs preparing the warthog so we can head to an evac point. Warlord is right above us, but we have no support. Radio is down, their engaged in combat with the Covenant Cruisers. Archangel is repairing the base defense cannons, they’re offline. Once they’re online, we can radio in transport, which is linked with the cannons.” Jackson sniped an Elite Spec Ops. He reloaded as Runner shot down a team of jackal snipers. “I’m on it.” Frank engaged the Lich. It powered up it’s EMP and was ready to knock out Caboose. “No you’re not.” Frank shot at the EMP cannon, the Lich’s shields flickered. “Come on.” The base cannons came online, they fired at the Lich. “Well, how convenient.” Frank took a sip of coffee he stole from Paladin, then fired the missiles at the Lich’s EMP cannon. It went offline. Frank engaged the onboard Elite crew. “Archangel, you getting communications established? Michael, we have Locust walking towards us.” Jackson sniped an Elite off the turret of a Shadow. Dexter killed the driver. “Yes sir. I have communications up and running. Already contacted UNSC Warlord. They’ll have an evac pelican in 2 clicks. ETA in 10 minutes. I’m going to go help Junior out.” Archangel left the operations room. The base shook. “What’s going on?” Bek asked. She finished with the fuel in the Warthog. “Locust are engaging the base. Michael is taking out the last of them, it’ll be a few seconds. Hopefully the base doesn’t fall apart.” Jackson told everyone. “Warthog’s ready.” Junior said to Jackson. “Alright, Runner and Dexter, let’s get down their. Frank, land the hornet, let’s go.” Jackson ordered. Frank landed the Hornet, he hopped out and ran down the stairs. He hopped on the back of the Warthog, gun ready. “We’re ready Junior, let’s go.” Jackson got on the makeshift turret. Every boarded the passenger seats. Junior slammed on the gas, full speed out of the base. Michael trailed behind in the Scorpion. -------------- Heli walked up tunnel. He was finally back above ground, and ready to get out of here. As well as prove to Bek he wasn’t worthless. There was no one here, the base cannons were on. Strange. Those weren’t on before. He walked across the room and entered the operations room. The radio was on, maybe he could communicate and get ahold of them or something of the sort. He walked over to the radio. “Hehe. It’s not even worth it anymore.” Someone said. The bases power went offline. The radio went dead and the room was dark. “Wh... Who’s there? Where are you?” Heli raised his weapon, ready to fire. “Doesn’t matter anymore.” An energy sword lit up and ripped through Heli’s abdomen. An Elite was shown in the light of the sword. “Ugh... Ugh...” Heli couldn’t talk. “You’re friends will be next.” The Elite swung his sword, Heli slid off and flew across the room, his body dead on the floor. ~End of Chapter 9~ ~Chapter 10: KRRRRSSSSSHZZZZZTTHZZZZZ~ “Where the hell is the evac?” Jackson assisted Frank in the destruction of an enemy Banshee. Two more fired at them. “It’s up ahead, we’re almost there. We’ll have to hold the line for about 30 seconds, we’re early.” Archangel took Junior’s shotgun and shot an Elite that tried to board the Warthog. “Nevermind the evac, where the hell is Michael and Heli?” Runner shot a jackal, denied. It raised its gauntlet just in time. She pulled the weapon over her shoulder and took out five grunts, then turned back to get the jackal by surprise. “Who knows? Maybe Michael went back to get Heli. He wasn’t in the Warthog.” Frank shot his sticky detonator at a Hunter, as soon as they were out of range he pulled the trigger and watched orange ooze explode everywhere. He reloaded. “He also wasn’t at the base. What could he have been up to?” Paladin just sat there and watched everyone. He took a sip of his coffee. Dexter and Archangel sniped any Elite’s that were after them on Ghosts. Dexter replied, “Could have been because of Bek. She’s awful flirty for a Spartan. Heli would probably have done something to prove to her he’s not worthless, like she treated him.” He shot a grunt off a shade turret. Archangel and Dexter stopped, together they said, “Oh crap.” Junior stopped the vehicle then hopped out and gunned down every Elite within fifty meters of range. “Knowing the fool, he’s probably dead from that robot.” Junior power kicked a grunt, which flew at a wall. Death on impact. “I don’t think he would’ve done that.” Bek said. She shot a drone. “Your evac shuttle has arrived! Bahaha. Hurry up and get on before I leave you to die. Don’t think I’m joking, I will.” It was Osiris, he was the one sent to extract them in this heavily armored Assault Pelican. The mounted spartan laser cannon charged up, it took out two Wraith’s in just one shot. Ugh. Bek stumbled into the Warthog, she fell on the ground. “I’m coming. Just wait.” “I told you, no waiting. We’re leaving.” Osiris commanded the Pilot to take off. “You can’t just leave her there! That’s insane!” Runner yelled at Osiris. “So be it. Nothing you can do now.” He bursted out in laughter. “Oh ho ho...” He started to calm down. “Samantha, we’re en route now. ETA, twenty seconds.” Osiris got in the co-pilot seat, he fired the 40mm cannon at a phantom. It took severe damage, he finished it off with a second. “Cheers.” He pulled out a canister and drank what turned out to be Scotch. They boarded the UNSC Warlord. This time, it wasn’t boarded. -------------- Michael walked into the base. “Huh, when did the power go off?” He activated his flashlight and found the generators. He managed to get it back online. He walked over to the Operations room to make radio contact with Warlord that he would arrive in a Hornet. Michael screamed like a little girl and threw himself backwards. He saw Heli’s body on the floor, blood was everywhere and his death was brutal. The floor was a tinted dark maroon. Heli’s left leg and left arm laid on the table. His right leg and right arm laid thrown around the room. He found his body, er the main part. It looked as if it was cut open and something feasted on the inside of it. Michael took his helmet off and threw up on the body. He wiped his face off afterwards. “This is the least I can do.” He grabbed Heli’s helmet and took it off. An eye was gone and his nose was torn off in half. Michael threw up again. He then took the video chip of everything Heli recorded within the past seventy-two hours and then made radio contact with command. He was set. Without acknowledgement of the body, he ran out of the room and got in the Hornet and started it up and headed towards the UNSC Warlord. He noticed a lone soldier off in the distance. They were surrounded, but they managed to keep alive. He started to head over to the soldier. Too late. A Scarab charged the soldier, they were gone. Michael threw up in the cockpit. ~End of Chapter 10~ ~Chapter 11: Instilled~ Michael landed at the exact same time as the others did. He put the Hornet offline and hopped out of the canopy. “Hello everyone. How’s it going?” Osiris walked by Michael, “Jeez, you remind me a lot of Destroyer. I hope you die like he did. Save us the trouble of ear infections.” Osiris walked onto a platform, it rose above to the ceiling. He got off and headed towards the Control Room. “What the heck’s his problem?” Runner crossed her arms, her eyes glared at the platform. “Oh him? That’s just Osiris, he’s always been that way back when Sarge, Dumby, Destroyer and I ran into him back on Harvest. He’s a tough dude, tough as nails and doesn’t give a crap about no one.” Paladin took a sip of his coffee. Runner smacked the coffee out of his hands, “Continue.” Paladin looked at her, annoyed. “I was gonna drink that you know.” “I know, now continue.” Runner stared at him intensively. “Well, that’s pretty much it. He doesn’t give a crap and if it causes an explosion. He goes for it. Whatever lights the boomstick.” Paladin walked over to an outlet on the wall. He pulled off his backpack and pulled out a coffee brewer and a coffee bag. He then started to brew some coffee. “Alright, so the guy loves things to die in a horrific way. Wonderful. I’d rather go take on that Elite that killed your Commander, Alex.” Runner rolled her eyes, she was irritated about this place already, paranoid. Paladin poured himself a cup of coffee. “Alright, so now what do we do?” Jackson spoke up. “Well, don’t ask me. I don’t know.” Paladin said. He took a sip of coffee, commander Samantha came up on his VISR. “Paladin. I need to see you and the survivors. Now. Moth will be waiting outside the door.” That’s all she said, and flicked off the screen. “Never mind. Follow me.” He finished his coffee and walked over to the platform. Paladin pushed a button, which raised the platform. “Wanna tell us where we’re going?” Jackson said. “Commander wants to see you survivors. As soon as you’re in the clear, we’ll be on our way.” Paladin replied. “And what about Bek? What are we going to do about her? She could be alive for all we know.” Jackson stated. “She could be, but I highly doubt it. See, as soon as we boarded the ship and Osiris left. We left the surface and are now above the atmosphere. By now, he should have cleansed the surface with missile strikes.” Paladin threw his empty coffee cup in the trash. “I highly doubt Bek is still alive after that.” Jackson just stood in silence. Osiris just wanted to kill her... That was his plan. He must have got sick of her like he got sick of Destroyer. Except, he didn’t kill Destroyer. The doors slid open. A beautiful young woman stood in front of them. A lustrous golden hair, nicely fined nails, well taken care of uniform, and a nice hint of wow. This commander was a stun, a fox I tell you Er, well you know what I mean. She was attractive. Frank scratched his head. He tried not to blush over these thoughts, but dang. “Hello everyone. I see you have survived and are back in the land of the living. Looks like we’re a few people short...” Samantha looked at Moth. “Uh, well a few of them died. Helix and Alex were both killed by Lan Chorus. Mam.” Moth saved himself from an argument. “Ah, Lan Chorus. He needs to go down. He’s been bounty hunting us ever since the Fall of Reach. He took out two of our good soldiers from Team Lord. Biggles and Jack of Harts during the events in between.” Samantha gazed off, as if she was remembering all the tragedy he had caused. “Ah, so what is it you propose Commander?” Paladin stepped forward. “It’s simple.” Samantha’s smile turned into a wide grin. Everyone looked at her, even Moth. “I want you to find and kill Lan Chorus.” ~End of Chapter 11~ ~Epilogue~ Bek fired at the Covenant, there was a few grunts left. She could see a Scarab and several Wraith’s on the move to her position. She needed to get the Warthog going and get out of here. She picked up a magnum and shot the two grunts in the head. She proceeded to the warthog and grabbed a gas can off of the back and began to fuel the Warthog. “Any minute now...” She mumbled to herself. “Any minute indeed.” A voice said. Bek finished with the fuel. She turned to look at who spoke to her. Instantly, flashbacks occurred. She remembered what happened back on Reach, what happened up until just last night. That voice, that same voice that spoke is the exact same one that killed all of her friends. Bek drew her magnum and pointed it at their face. It was Osiris. A wide grin was on his face. He had apparently landed in a drop pod when Bek hadn’t paid attention. She stared directly at him, then headed to get in the Warthog. Osiris stopped her. He grabbed her by the arm and threw her backwards. “Haha. No, you little piece of trash. You’re a no good, useless soldier. I don’t want you on my ship, but I want you to be confirmed dead, so I don’t lose my current position to you ratting me out like the little snitch you are.” Osiris kicked her helmet off and puncher Bek in the face, twice. “Ow. Why are you doing this to me? This hurts a lot. I thought we were friends Osiris? I don’t understand.” Bek had tears down her face, the salty water mixed with the wounds Osiris made. It caused it to sting and hurt her more. “Key word there, little miss witch. You THOUGHT we were friends. We were never friends. I hated you from the start. Destroyer’s death made me so happy, I couldn’t believe it. I let you off for a while. Now I came to claim my vengeance.” Osiris stated, loud and clear. With pure hatred. “How will you get out of here then?” Bek saw Warlord’s engines kick on and ready to leave the surface. She turned her attention to Osiris. Oops. His boot came in like a sledgehammer, Osiris broke her nose. Bek burst into tears, blood dripped from her face. “I have a broadsword on route to your little base, your little Warthog here will get me back just in time. I have everything planned already, you stupid little brat.” Osiris picked Bek up and threw her towards the Covenant. They were a click away, they’d be here in one minute. Osiris beat Bek’s face in, until blood came out of every possible spot. She was severely injured, why would she just stand there and take it? Nevermind. Osiris’s job had to be done. He grabbed a shotgun off his back and aimed it at Bek. “Say goodnight, you dirty piece of trash.” He pulled the trigger. What luck, Bek rolled out of the way just in time. She was in the Warthog, she tried the ignition. The Warthog started. Damn, she was fast to it. Osiris was absolutely livid, he ran over to shoot her. She took off. “God damn it!” Osiris pulled up Communications, “Yes, Warlord? This is...” Osiris looked to his left. The Scarab fired upon him. Osiris didn’t stand a chance. Bek was alive, but she had to take care of her wounds as soon as she could. She didn’t have her helmet anymore, there was no time for that. A loud boom was in the distance, she turned around. UNSC Warlord headed up into the atmosphere. That broadsword was her only chance. “Come on...” Bek arrived at the outpost. ~End of Epilogue~ ~End of Book 2~ Credits:

~Epilogue~ Bek fired at the Covenant, there was a few grunts left. She could see a Scarab and several Wraith’s on the move to her position. She needed to get the Warthog going and get out of here. She picked up a magnum and shot the two grunts in the head. She proceeded to the warthog and grabbed a gas can off of the back and began to fuel the Warthog. “Any minute now...” She mumbled to herself. “Any minute indeed.” A voice said. Bek finished with the fuel. She turned to look at who spoke to her. Instantly, flashbacks occurred. She remembered what happened back on Reach, what happened up until just last night. That voice, that same voice that spoke is the exact same one that killed all of her friends. Bek drew her magnum and pointed it at their face. It was Osiris. A wide grin was on his face. He had apparently landed in a drop pod when Bek hadn’t paid attention. She stared directly at him, then headed to get in the Warthog. Osiris stopped her. He grabbed her by the arm and threw her backwards. “Haha. No, you little piece of trash. You’re a no good, useless soldier. I don’t want you on my ship, but I want you to be confirmed dead, so I don’t lose my current position to you ratting me out like the little snitch you are.” Osiris kicked her helmet off and puncher Bek in the face, twice. “Ow. Why are you doing this to me? This hurts a lot. I thought we were friends Osiris? I don’t understand.” Bek had tears down her face, the salty water mixed with the wounds Osiris made. It caused it to sting and hurt her more. “Key word there, little miss witch. You THOUGHT we were friends. We were never friends. I hated you from the start. Destroyer’s death made me so happy, I couldn’t believe it. I let you off for a while. Now I came to claim my vengeance.” Osiris stated, loud and clear. With pure hatred. “How will you get out of here then?” Bek saw Warlord’s engines kick on and ready to leave the surface. She turned her attention to Osiris. Oops. His boot came in like a sledgehammer, Osiris broke her nose. Bek burst into tears, blood dripped from her face. “I have a broadsword on route to your little base, your little Warthog here will get me back just in time. I have everything planned already, you stupid little brat.” Osiris picked Bek up and threw her towards the Covenant. They were a click away, they’d be here in one minute. Osiris beat Bek’s face in, until blood came out of every possible spot. She was severely injured, why would she just stand there and take it? Nevermind. Osiris’s job had to be done. He grabbed a shotgun off his back and aimed it at Bek. “Say goodnight, you dirty piece of trash.” He pulled the trigger. What luck, Bek rolled out of the way just in time. She was in the Warthog, she tried the ignition. The Warthog started. Damn, she was fast to it. Osiris was absolutely livid, he ran over to shoot her. She took off. “God damn it!” Osiris pulled up Communications, “Yes, Warlord? This is...” Osiris looked to his left. The Scarab fired upon him. Osiris didn’t stand a chance. Bek was alive, but she had to take care of her wounds as soon as she could. She didn’t have her helmet anymore, there was no time for that. A loud boom was in the distance, she turned around. UNSC Warlord headed up into the atmosphere. That broadsword was her only chance. “Come on...” Bek arrived at the outpost. ~End of Epilogue~ ~End of Book 2~ In the upcoming full Book 2 of combined sections, there will be a video at the end. Thank you for reading!

~Chapter 11: Instilled~ Michael landed at the exact same time as the others did. He put the Hornet offline and hopped out of the canopy. “Hello everyone. How’s it going?” Osiris walked by Michael, “Jeez, you remind me a lot of Destroyer. I hope you die like he did. Save us the trouble of ear infections.” Osiris walked onto a platform, it rose above to the ceiling. He got off and headed towards the Control Room. “What the heck’s his problem?” Runner crossed her arms, her eyes glared at the platform. “Oh him? That’s just Osiris, he’s always been that way back when Sarge, Dumby, Destroyer and I ran into him back on Harvest. He’s a tough dude, tough as nails and doesn’t give a crap about no one.” Paladin took a sip of his coffee. Runner smacked the coffee out of his hands, “Continue.” Paladin looked at her, annoyed. “I was gonna drink that you know.” “I know, now continue.” Runner stared at him intensively. “Well, that’s pretty much it. He doesn’t give a crap and if it causes an explosion. He goes for it. Whatever lights the boomstick.” Paladin walked over to an outlet on the wall. He pulled off his backpack and pulled out a coffee brewer and a coffee bag. He then started to brew some coffee. “Alright, so the guy loves things to die in a horrific way. Wonderful. I’d rather go take on that Elite that killed your Commander, Alex.” Runner rolled her eyes, she was irritated about this place already, paranoid. Paladin poured himself a cup of coffee. “Alright, so now what do we do?” Jackson spoke up. “Well, don’t ask me. I don’t know.” Paladin said. He took a sip of coffee, commander Samantha came up on his VISR. “Paladin. I need to see you and the survivors. Now. Moth will be waiting outside the door.” That’s all she said, and flicked off the screen. “Never mind. Follow me.” He finished his coffee and walked over to the platform. Paladin pushed a button, which raised the platform. “Wanna tell us where we’re going?” Jackson said. “Commander wants to see you survivors. As soon as you’re in the clear, we’ll be on our way.” Paladin replied. “And what about Bek? What are we going to do about her? She could be alive for all we know.” Jackson stated. “She could be, but I highly doubt it. See, as soon as we boarded the ship and Osiris left. We left the surface and are now above the atmosphere. By now, he should have cleansed the surface with missile strikes.” Paladin threw his empty coffee cup in the trash. “I highly doubt Bek is still alive after that.” Jackson just stood in silence. Osiris just wanted to kill her... That was his plan. He must have got sick of her like he got sick of Destroyer. Except, he didn’t kill Destroyer. The doors slid open. A beautiful young woman stood in front of them. A lustrous golden hair, nicely fined nails, well taken care of uniform, and a nice hint of wow. This commander was a stun, a fox I tell you Er, well you know what I mean. She was attractive. Frank scratched his head. He tried not to blush over these thoughts, but dang. “Hello everyone. I see you have survived and are back in the land of the living. Looks like we’re a few people short...” Samantha looked at Moth. “Uh, well a few of them died. Helix and Alex were both killed by Lan Chorus. Mam.” Moth saved himself from an argument. “Ah, Lan Chorus. He needs to go down. He’s been bounty hunting us ever since the Fall of Reach. He took out two of our good soldiers from Team Lord. Biggles and Jack of Harts during the events in between.” Samantha gazed off, as if she was remembering all the tragedy he had caused. “Ah, so what is it you propose Commander?” Paladin stepped forward. “It’s simple.” Samantha’s smile turned into a wide grin. Everyone looked at her, even Moth. “I want you to find and kill Lan Chorus.” ~End of Chapter 11~ Get ready everyone!

~Chapter 10: KRRRRSSSSSHZZZZZTTHZZZZZ~ “Where the hell is the evac?” Jackson assisted Frank in the destruction of an enemy Banshee. Two more fired at them. “It’s up ahead, we’re almost there. We’ll have to hold the line for about 30 seconds, we’re early.” Archangel took Junior’s shotgun and shot an Elite that tried to board the Warthog. “Nevermind the evac, where the hell is Michael and Heli?” Runner shot a jackal, denied. It raised its gauntlet just in time. She pulled the weapon over her shoulder and took out five grunts, then turned back to get the jackal by surprise. “Who knows? Maybe Michael went back to get Heli. He wasn’t in the Warthog.” Frank shot his sticky detonator at a Hunter, as soon as they were out of range he pulled the trigger and watched orange ooze explode everywhere. He reloaded. “He also wasn’t at the base. What could he have been up to?” Paladin just sat there and watched everyone. He took a sip of his coffee. Dexter and Archangel sniped any Elite’s that were after them on Ghosts. Dexter replied, “Could have been because of Bek. She’s awful flirty for a Spartan. Heli would probably have done something to prove to her he’s not worthless, like she treated him.” He shot a grunt off a shade turret. Archangel and Dexter stopped, together they said, “Oh crap.” Junior stopped the vehicle then hopped out and gunned down every Elite within fifty meters of range. “Knowing the fool, he’s probably dead from that robot.” Junior power kicked a grunt, which flew at a wall. Death on impact. “I don’t think he would’ve done that.” Bek said. She shot a drone. “Your evac shuttle has arrived! Bahaha. Hurry up and get on before I leave you to die. Don’t think I’m joking, I will.” It was Osiris, he was the one sent to extract them in this heavily armored Assault Pelican. The mounted spartan laser cannon charged up, it took out two Wraith’s in just one shot. Ugh. Bek stumbled into the Warthog, she fell on the ground. “I’m coming. Just wait.” “I told you, no waiting. We’re leaving.” Osiris commanded the Pilot to take off. “You can’t just leave her there! That’s insane!” Runner yelled at Osiris. “So be it. Nothing you can do now.” He bursted out in laughter. “Oh ho ho...” He started to calm down. “Samantha, we’re en route now. ETA, twenty seconds.” Osiris got in the co-pilot seat, he fired the 40mm cannon at a phantom. It took severe damage, he finished it off with a second. “Cheers.” He pulled out a canister and drank what turned out to be Scotch. They boarded the UNSC Warlord. This time, it wasn’t boarded. -------------- Michael walked into the base. “Huh, when did the power go off?” He activated his flashlight and found the generators. He managed to get it back online. He walked over to the Operations room to make radio contact with Warlord that he would arrive in a Hornet. Michael screamed like a little girl and threw himself backwards. He saw Heli’s body on the floor, blood was everywhere and his death was brutal. The floor was a tinted dark maroon. Heli’s left leg and left arm laid on the table. His right leg and right arm laid thrown around the room. He found his body, er the main part. It looked as if it was cut open and something feasted on the inside of it. Michael took his helmet off and threw up on the body. He wiped his face off afterwards. “This is the least I can do.” He grabbed Heli’s helmet and took it off. An eye was gone and his nose was torn off in half. Michael threw up again. He then took the video chip of everything Heli recorded within the past seventy-two hours and then made radio contact with command. He was set. Without acknowledgement of the body, he ran out of the room and got in the Hornet and started it up and headed towards the UNSC Warlord. He noticed a lone soldier off in the distance. They were surrounded, but they managed to keep alive. He started to head over to the soldier. Too late. A Scarab charged the soldier, they were gone. Michael threw up in the cockpit. ~End of Chapter 10~

~Chapter 9: We need to go~ The sky was brighter than an American Independence Day. They have been on the defensive side for hours since their arrival back topside. A few soldiers remained, Marine’s and ODST’s laid all around the base. Dead. “Michael, can you focus the tank on the approaching Wraith’s. There’s a count of four, we’re better off taking them down now before they reach the base.” Jackson was set on top of the building beside Dexter and Runner. He had the sniper, they had the long range rifles. “I don’t think that would be wise as of right now. Whatever, I guess.” Michael aimed the cannon at the Wraith’s. He fired at each wraith, twice in fact, each of them were down before they were in fire range of the vicinity. Frank engaged Banshee’s. Three of them came in from behind, fuel rods fired and dual cannons were blazed hot. One was down, it swirled into the trees below. Frank decided to turn on some music is the Hornet to celebrate his first kill. ‘I’m bringing sexy back’ the song started off. “Yeah!” Frank said along with the song. He fired missiles at the other two banshee’s, instant kill. “Frank, focus. We have a lich incoming. I’m assuming they have at least sixty covenant on board, that’s too many for us to handle. Junior is downstairs preparing the warthog so we can head to an evac point. Warlord is right above us, but we have no support. Radio is down, their engaged in combat with the Covenant Cruisers. Archangel is repairing the base defense cannons, they’re offline. Once they’re online, we can radio in transport, which is linked with the cannons.” Jackson sniped an Elite Spec Ops. He reloaded as Runner shot down a team of jackal snipers. “I’m on it.” Frank engaged the Lich. It powered up it’s EMP and was ready to knock out Caboose. “No you’re not.” Frank shot at the EMP cannon, the Lich’s shields flickered. “Come on.” The base cannons came online, they fired at the Lich. “Well, how convenient.” Frank took a sip of coffee he stole from Paladin, then fired the missiles at the Lich’s EMP cannon. It went offline. Frank engaged the onboard Elite crew. “Archangel, you getting communications established? Michael, we have Locust walking towards us.” Jackson sniped an Elite off the turret of a Shadow. Dexter killed the driver. “Yes sir. I have communications up and running. Already contacted UNSC Warlord. They’ll have an evac pelican in 2 clicks. ETA in 10 minutes. I’m going to go help Junior out.” Archangel left the operations room. The base shook. “What’s going on?” Bek asked. She finished with the fuel in the Warthog. “Locust are engaging the base. Michael is taking out the last of them, it’ll be a few seconds. Hopefully the base doesn’t fall apart.” Jackson told everyone. “Warthog’s ready.” Junior said to Jackson. “Alright, Runner and Dexter, let’s get down their. Frank, land the hornet, let’s go.” Jackson ordered. Frank landed the Hornet, he hopped out and ran down the stairs. He hopped on the back of the Warthog, gun ready. “We’re ready Junior, let’s go.” Jackson got on the makeshift turret. Every boarded the passenger seats. Junior slammed on the gas, full speed out of the base. Michael trailed behind in the Scorpion. -------------- Heli walked up tunnel. He was finally back above ground, and ready to get out of here. As well as prove to Bek he wasn’t worthless. There was no one here, the base cannons were on. Strange. Those weren’t on before. He walked across the room and entered the operations room. The radio was on, maybe he could communicate and get ahold of them or something of the sort. He walked over to the radio. “Hehe. It’s not even worth it anymore.” Someone said. The bases power went offline. The radio went dead and the room was dark. “Wh... Who’s there? Where are you?” Heli raised his weapon, ready to fire. “Doesn’t matter anymore.” An energy sword lit up and ripped through Heli’s abdomen. An Elite was shown in the light of the sword. “Ugh... Ugh...” Heli couldn’t talk. “You’re friends will be next.” The Elite swung his sword, Heli slid off and flew across the room, his body dead on the floor. ~End of Chapter 9~

~Chapter 7: Renknown~ “This has got to be the most boring evacuation,” Paladin took a deep breath, “that I have ever had. I don’t know if it’s because of the environment, or because half you guys don’t even talk.” Paladin took a drink of some coffee. “May I ask where you got that coffee?” Frank waddled over to Paladin, “I’ve been thirsty and coffee sounds really good right now.” Frank had a grin on his face. Paladin took a sip of his coffee, his eye on Frank. “Nope, and if you ask again. I’ll shoot you in the back of the leg. That’s a promise.” Paladin drank more of his coffee. Frank’s grin went to a disappointed frown. He then waddled back over by Heli. “Where are we going again?” Archangel asked Jackson. “Back to base. It’s too risky in here. Radiation is safer than this place.” Jackson grabbed onto a rock ledge, and pulled himself up. The others did the same as well. This place was like a giant maze. None of them knew where they were going. “Ugh, this is so frustrating.” Runner punched the wall. Which surprised Bek and Paladin, she managed to puncture the wall. “Guy’s, it’s fine. We have nothing to worry about. As long as we follow Jackson, we’ll make it there safely.” Dexter stated. “I’m starting to get sick of your Jackson will hep us with this, Jackson will help us with that; bullcrap. My father was the same way, but in the end he ended up killing those who he loved and then having them turn upon himself.” Doc was frustrated, yet depressed. Dexter’s statements that made Jackson sound like a diety, annoyed him. He missed his father, that’s who made him who he was today. “Guys, lets settle down. There’s always a way out...” Jackson started to say. A loud roar was heard. “Oh, you have got to be kidding me. This thing again? It’s just as bad as having Michael around.” Runner said, “Well, kinda. I mean, I’d rather have this thing around since it’s quiet and just roars; I’d also rather have Michael just for the reason he doesn’t try to kill us. At eighty-percent of the time.” Runner noticed she was in a conversation with herself. “Who the hell are you talking to?” Paladin walked over. “HAHA!” He started to laugh about it. Runner walked up to Paladin, weapon drawn. She had him in a hostage position, pretty much. “Talking crap about me? Do it again and I’ll blow your ******* brains out. YOU HEAR ME?” Runner was upset, very upset. She noticed her mistake, but no regrets. The giant robot was over them, tentacles drawn. “You have got to be kidding me!” Jackson yelled, he took off in a sprint away, at his best to avoid the robot. The team did the same. The robot didn’t do anything, it just made some sort of what sounded like a chuckle. ITtt then flew in sync, above them. “This thing’s just playing with us!” Bek yelled. “I’ll protect you...” Heli felt embarrased, but he wanted to sound confident to Bek, he wanted to prove to her. “Ugh, look Heli. I like you, but I would never date you. This isn’t the time or place either, I know, and I’m sorry. It’s just, you’re a guy.” Bek said. “What does being a guy have to do with anything?!” Heli was confused and mad at the same time. “Nothing, it’s the only excuse I could come up with.” Bek dived under a rock wall. Then continued to run with the team on the other time. Heli felt hopeless, he all of a sudden hated Bek. Really? Had to say that right now? When we could all possibly die? He thought. He was sick of it, he stopped and let the team run on. He was going to face that robot. Heli made his way up the rock to the upper ground. The team ran over the rock, there was a cavern at the end. At least it was some place to go, Jackson thought. “Let’s go guys, the cave is right there. We can make it. I have faith in all of you.” Jackson made a mad dash of a sprint, and was in the cave. The others arrived shortly after. The robot was angry, it shot three of those armorless things that looked like Hunters. The team shot them down, they diversed into two. Now there was six. They shot again, now there was twelve of them. Archangel was tired of this, he grabbed his rocket launcher and them. That killed all twenty-four of them. “Bit of an overkill there, buddy.” Paladin said. “You know what else is an overkill? Bek with that comeback she told Heli earlier. BAHAHA.” Paladin laughed at his own joke, Bek smiled at it. Embarrased. “Ah there you guy’s are!” Someone yelled, Jackson turned around. Oh god, it was Michael... And two other dudes. He had no idea who they were, but one of them was a Spartan II, the other was an ODST Sniper. They looked like they meant business. “Hello, Michael. These some friends you found? Who are they?” Dexter asked, instad of Jackson. It make Jackson sound more confident in what he was doing. He could appreciate that. “Uh no. No they are not friends. Actually, they are... Team Lord from UNSC Warlord. Uhm, this guy is Alex.” Michael gestured to the Spartan II, “...and this one’s name is Fauz. He’s funny, he shoots things he doesn’t care about. Hehe.” Michael sounded even stupider than when he left them. “What are they here for? I thought Paladin and Bek was our way out?” Jackson was confused. “No. We came because we picked up on a distress beacon. Your friend here, lead us to the cave where it was transmitting from. Luckily, we ran into you guys at the end. He already explained why you came down here, you don’t have to explain. Right now, we need to move. We have to get back to the surface. Now.” Alex started to turn around. He stopped. “Commander, what’s wrong? You usually don’t hesitate.” Bek asked. “Uh-huh... Ugh... Guh...” Was all Alex could say. “What is it?” Archangel asked. An energy sword appeared out of nowhere, it penetrated Alex before he could vanish. The Elite uncloaked as he did so. He wanted the Spartan to know who his killer was, this was honor for the Elite. Afterall, it’s something their race values greatly. The Elite quickly disappeared and was gone before the team could even get a shot off. Alex was on the floor. Jackson moved over to him with Junior. He motioned the team to stand back. Junior examined the wounds. Alex spoke to Jackson, “Jackson.” Cough. “I want to say, it was an honor to meet you. A great honor.” A consecutive cough kept up for about five seconds. “Why is it an honor for you to meet you?” Jackson was confused. “I don’t understand.” “About ten years ago... I fought alongside your grandfather, Sarge. He was an excellent Commander. Unforanutely killed, by our medic.” Alex still spoke to Jackson. Junior felt anger run through his blood when Alex said that. Yet, he also felt a little sad for Jackson. His father killed Jackson’s grandfather. Who was apparently a great leader. He just hoped Jackson was the same. He wanted to know what his father felt like with that type of guy. Was Jackson already there and he didn’t know it? Junior felt like he needed to let things go. He didn’t care, maybe he should start. Jackson and Alex were still in their conversation. “You’re not there yet. I know you will be. I want you to go with Fauz, he’ll let them know you’re Team Lord’s replacement. We need heroes, Jack. You’ll become one of them. I know you will.” Those were Alex’s last words. He didn’t move or breathe. His body stopped. Alex was dead. ~End of Chapter 7~

~Chapter 6: Jigsaw~ Michael climbed up the tunnel. He was exhausted from this long walk, being almost crushed by boulders, and his life risked from a merely invincible robot. He was just glad to be out of there. He grabbed the wall to support himself out of what was now what they used to call the cave entrance. The room was fine, everything was the same. It’s as if the Covenant’s energy projector was never fired. Michael continued through the building, he was quiet. As not to disturb any enemy forces in the building. He ran into a wall. “Ow!” He yelled. “Who goes there?” Someone said. Michael noticed a weapon aimed at his head as he recovered from the pain. There was an arm, but no person. It was a magnum. Could this person see him through the wall? Michael thought. “I’m a member of Team Mike, we were sent down here to observe and take out any Covenant ground forces. My team are eighteen hours away underground in that tunnel I just came from. I was separated from them when I risked my life to save one of them from a wall collapse.” Michael responded, he may have said too much information. The soldier moved from behind the wall. It was a Spartan II, a red light shined at the right side of the helmet. It turned off in a matter of seconds. “I am Alex, from UNSC Warlord. You guy’s alright? Or more or less, are you alright?” The spartan said. “Yeah I’m fine. Just exhausted. Is anyone else here?” Michael started to get curious oft he Spartan and wondered if anyone else was around. He was kinda hungry, too. “Just my ODST support man, Fauz. He’s in the other room, covering my back. Just in case I made the wrong move. To my luck, I’m safe. Now, would you mind leading us to your friends?” Alex stood up tall. It was as if he was a leader of a team, or maybe the general of the UNSC Warlord? Whoever he was, he looked like he could kick a Field Marshal's teeth in. Jackson didn’t stand a chance against this rocky mountain. “Yes, uh, just follow me. I’ll lead you to them.” Michael turned around and led him upstairs, then to another set of stairs that led them downstairs to a concealed room that had just a rugged couch and the cave. “No wonder we couldn’t find the entrance. I thought it led back to your small armory. I guess this is the way in. We picked up your distress beacon, but it’s a little up on the weak side. We can track the location it was last emitted. Which was this base. Nothing else could be found or heard. We’ve been here for the past three hours. Searching.” Alex started to explain to Michael about how one of the UNSC Warlord crew members left an anonymous distress beacon. It was either Bek or Paladin. He bet it was Bek, she was the most concerned of the team. “I understand that. Thanks for the summary. Do you mind telling me why the Covenant’s energy projector’s didn’t do anything to our base?” Michael decided to answer the question to calm his desperate need to want to know what the hell happened. “Energy projector’s? As soon as we came back, we saw two covenant cruisers, and our ships high-tech engineer, Osiris, managed to shoot them down within ten seconds. We never saw any of them fire at the surface.” Alex was confused as to what he wanted to know. “Oh...” Michael felt stupid. If they would’ve just waited out five more seconds, they all would’ve been just fine and not in this huge mess as they were! Oh well, I guess it’s better safe than sorry, he thought. “Alright, let’s go. Fauz, you coming?” Alex put the magnum back on his waist. He grabbed a spartan laser and assault rifle, he put both of them on his back. “Yeah, yeah. I’m coming, mate. Jeez, hold ya breath. Was only doing some Yoga, before we go.” Fauz appeared around the doorway, he held a sniper rifle and a DMR resided on his back. Fauz was an ODST, one of the best in his class. Which his class just so happened to be... Sniping. This is gonna be great. “Alright, then lets push forward.” Alex activated his helmet lights and walked into the cave. Fauz and Michael followed behind him, their flashlights on. This was going to be a fun, long walk. As Michael was walking, he heard something behind him, he turned around to see what it was. Nothing. He heard the noise again. Michael turned his head over his shoulder, he hoped to see if it was really something, or if he was just hearing things. He saw nothing. Maybe he was in early development of Schizophrenia. He heard the noise again. This time he turned around as soon as he heard it. He saw nothing. Wait, there was a displacement of air. It looked a little infringed. Wow, he really must have Schizophrenia, or at least in the development. He would have to check this out with Nut. It was a scary thought, but he needed to know. Something moved in front of them. ~End of Chapter 6~

Here's some music to listen to as you read this chapter: ~Chapter 5: Here Comes the Boom~ “I have you now!” The robot said. Jackson stared directly into its eyes. Ready. The machinery that covered its right eye lit up. It looked like a charge of something, like a button. Except this machinery fired a blue laser at Jackson. It missed, but the robot could drag the laser across until it finally got him. Jackson ran at a good pace. The laser kept on his tail, but was not fast enough to catch up. He needed to find a way to destroy that laser. His weapons were long lost. He dropped them back at the cave exit. Which was just a dead end, until he got on this platform and grabbed this... Wait a second, that’s it! He could use this thing on his arm. If it would deal any damage to the giant beast in front of him. Only one way to find out. Jackson raised his arm as he ran from the laser. He stopped to shoot. “AAAAAHHHH,” The robot sounded injured. Jackson kept the gun at a steady fire. The machinery blew up. A black hole replaced the eye and machinery. As if it just disappeared. Jackson felt accomplished. A giant pillar arose from the depths on the platforms back left. About a hundred meters away. Jackson forgot what he was supposed to do. He quickly focused back on the giant robot. Its gun mounted on its back right shoulder extended and the barrel enlarged. It shot something at him. Jackson dodged, but it was pointless. The object stopped and floated in mid-air. Electricity sparked on its sides. A timer sounded. A timer!? Jackson quickly activated his emergency jetpack, he flew straight in the air and out of range. Which didn’t last very long. The jetpack lost its charge and Jackson landed back on the platform. The robot looked at Jackson and made a loud roar. It pulled up its right elbow, which had a shiny medal on it. It was as if it wanted to show Jackson something. Nope. The shoulder charged a bright red, it shot five spheres at Jackson. Who instinctively jumped out of the way. They weren’t aimed at him either. They all landed on the floor. Jackson watched them carefully, one by one they exploded. It was a small explosion but a concussion wave was emitted from each one of them. Jackson jumped and dodged each of the waves. He started to shoot the robots elbow. This little wristband amazed him. The technology it had could help the UNSC greatly. He broke what was actually another piece of machinery on the robots right elbow. Wires flailed from it and the piece exploded too. The robot roared again, “I have you now!” Another sphere shot up from the depths, this time on the back right. Same distance and size. The giant robot brought its gun up again. Jackson tried to shoot it. It didn’t work. The gun could withstand the bullets. It shot another bomb. Jackson tried his emergency jetpack again. It was charged a little. He had to use it. Jackson pushed the trigger and it thrusted him in the air. He made it about four hundred meters and crashed back down on the platform. The robot wasn’t happy. It lifted its head up, which moved its metal nose out of the way and revealed another giant shiny medal on the robots chest. Maybe this was another piece of machinery? It fired green balls, much like the one on his wristband shot except his was yellow, Jackson just stood still. He knew that the robot gave up on direct fire after the laser. The green balls hit the floor and revealed monster like things. They looked like what those hunters he faced earlier looked like. Except he concluded weren’t hunters. They were something else. Jackson just quickly shot these ones down. Wasn’t that difficult. He raised his arm and went to shoot the shiny medal on the chest. The robot already charged another bomb and was about to fire it. Jackson saw another pillar come from the depths below. Except the depths got a nice, hazy mist over them now. He couldn’t see the bottom. The robot fired its bomb. Jackson used his jetpack. It had just a tiny charge. His only hope. He pushed the button and thrusted three hundred meters in the air. Just fifty meters out of range. He crashed again on the platform. His emergency jetpack was out and completely destroyed from the close radius. Jackson took it off and threw it over the edge. Maybe he should have thought about have used it back over when the platform first moved? He wouldn’t be where he was now, dead. The robots rage was mad. The wires were flailed around from its movements. The feet kicked in place. It brought its left arm up. No. This wasn’t its arm, it was a staff of some sort. The end piece charged bright yellow. Jackson stood his place. It fired directly at Jackson. Jackson dodged just barely. “Holy cow, I thought it gave up on direct fire. It must have gave up on indirect fire as well.” Jackson started to shoot the staff. It charged again and another giant ball of yellow missed him. Jackson kept fire on the staff. The robot was irritated, “NOOO!!!” It screamed. It fired another one, Jackson was almost hit that time. He fired some more at the staff. It exploded the robots entire left arm. The robot roared at its loudest. The gun came over its shoulder again. It just fired bomb after bomb after bomb. Jackson watched a fourth pillar arise on the platforms front right side. What were these platforms for? The robot stopped for a second to say something, “Your jetpack won’t protect you now!” Jackson noticed his weapon shined light instead of the bronze metal it was. The robot said something else, “The weapon! It does exist! He must not be allowed to use it!” Jackson aimed the gun at the robot, it charged up. The robot stood still. “Blast something!” The robot exclaimed. Jackson fired the charged shot. It shot something similar to the robots staff. A giant white ball of power crashed right into the robot. It was destroyed. The ball continued on afterwards. Towards the area his friends were. Jackson felt accomplished. He looked at his wristband. It was gone, completely crumbled and destroyed. Jackson looked in the air, all the bombs were still there. He covered his eyes in fear of his demise. His luck, he teleported. Jackson got up from the ground he was thrown on. He looked around. “Ugh-guh.” He grunted. He saw his team, all near the tunnel exit. He looked to his right, the giant ball of energy came right at them, directly at the tunnel exit. “Everyone, get out of the way! Get over here, now!” Jackson shouted. They all looked in surprise. He wasn’t sure if they ran over to him from the order, or because they were happy to see him back. Jackson spoke to them, “Watch it.” They looked confused, the giant ball of energy slammed into the tunnel and ripped right through. A giant tunnel was formed and the collapse was gone. They could continue back a different route, and hopefully avoid the smaller robot inside. Dexter looked at Jackson and said, “I’m glad you’re back. I missed you.” He hugged Jackson. A grin overcame his face. Jackson was happy to be back too. He turned to where he came from, the team did too. The four pillars and platform charged. The pillars shot four bright white beams into the sky. The platform shot a giant white ball of energy, much like the one that hit the tunnel, except bigger, into the sky as well. They all then collapsed and self-destructed back where they came from. They all watched in awe. Something crashed from the sky. They all looked to see what it was. The Covenant’s last supercarrier was destroyed and crashed into the surface of the planet. Judged from the surprise and crash speed. No covenant on board survived. “Oh my god. We can leave! We don’t have to worry anymore! Woo-hoo! Now all we have to do is get to Bravo Base, and I can fly us off this planet!” Frank was happier than ever. Heli and Bek looked at each other. They smiled. “Thanks for helping me out,” Bek said. Heli took the courage to reply, “You’re welcome. I didn’t want to lose a new friend the day I met her. Just, don’t attempt suicide again. Please?” He had confidence. “Heheh. I won’t.” Bek gave Heli a kiss and walked away to rejoin the others enter the tunnel. “Runner, you’re skills are very important this mission. I’m going to need you.” Jackson looked at Runner, she walked at his side. “Yes, sir. What kind of havoc should I bring upon?” Runner smiled behind her ODST helmet. “You and I are going to kill us what the ancient ones used to call that robot, a Vector.” Jackson said. Runner abrasively grabbed her weapon, and loaded it. She was happy to finally kill something. Who cares what it was? As long as she could kill it. She looked over her shoulder and made eye contact with Paladin. Then quickly turned her head forward. A giant grin came across her face. “Ready when you are, Commander.” ~End of Chapter Five~

~Chapter 4: Disclose~ “Ohhh... Where am I?” He opened his eyes. It was pitch black, and he couldn’t see. Michael reached out to move around. He couldn’t do that either. Was he paralyzed? Was he a vegetable? What was going on? Wait. What was the last thing Michael remembered? He tried to think... There was a robot. They were on the run from it. Oh. That’s right. He saved Paladin from being hit by the rocket. The rocket hit just above the entrance, and collapsed the cave. That was all he could remember. Hopefully nothing else happened and he was just knocked out. There was only way to find out if he was under the rock. All he needed to do was push his way up. Michael gathered all his strength and forced his arm through what he thought was rock. Pebbles and a few rocks fell down on his suit. His arm was out. Now all he needed to do was, “Just pull myself up...” he said to himself out loud. With a hard push, Michael arose from the rocks. The room was darker. The bronze floor was gone. No wait, the bronze floor was still there. Just covered in rock. How much of that rock wall was destroyed? Eh, it didn’t matter. Michael got up and started to walk back the way he thought he came. This was going to be a long 16 hour trip back to the base. “Hopefully UNSC Warlord is back with reinforcements...” ~The team~ “Archangel do you see him? I can’t see anything.” Dexter looked over at Archangel. They both laid on their stomachs. Archangel pulled up his sniper scope. They’ve been on the look for Jackson since he left. “I’m not seeing anything either. We might just want to give up.” Archangel looked away from his scope, and turned his head at Dexter. Dexter was still on the look down his binoculars. “No. We need to make sure he’s still alive and okay. He could be on the return right now, we need to be prepared for when he arrives.” Archangel rolled his eyes at his response. Although he didn’t object, he returned to look down his scope. “Guys.” Runner said. Helix was the only one who looked at her, but he didn’t respond. He had a bad experience the last time that one word sentence was said. He shuddered at the thought. “I think I found him.” Archangel said. He wasn’t sure. It was very far far away. “What do you see?” Dexter asked. “Guys.” Runner said again, but louder. Frank heard her this time, he got up and walked over to her. “What’s wrong.” “Oh my god. You won’t believe this.” Archangel looked up from his scope and turned at Dexter. “What?” Dexter was tired of this bush beating. “It’s Bek. She’s hurt.” Runner said. Frank motioned for Junior to come over. “What’s wrong?” Junior asked Runner. Runner moved her arm. There was a bullet wound in her left side. “Strange. How did this get here?” Junior moved Runner aside and started to patch the wound. “It’s the robot. It’s back and it’s fighting Jackson.” Archangel said. “Move aside,” Dexter commanded and Archangel did. Dexter looked down the scope, “What in god’s name. That’s not the same robot. That’s another one!” Dexter scolded Archangel for his ignorance. “Alright. So? We found him. Just like you wanted.” Archangel got up he reached for the sniper rifle. “The robot just launched a bomb, it’s hovering up Jackson right now!” Archangel grabbed the sniper rifle from Dexter and put it on his back. “You idiot!” Dexter stood up and got face-to-face with him. Dexter raised his fist to punch the spartan, but before he could even try a tremendous explosion went on. Everyone turned to the explosion, which is the direction Archangel spotted Jackson. Everyone was silent. “What was that? It sounded like Frank’s mom just got out of bed! Bahahaha!” Paladin gave himself a good time. Archangel tried not to smile at the joke. Junior just finished with the wound. He got up and walked over to Dexter. Runner watched Bek as she slept, she felt sorry for the girl. A tear slipped from her eye. Bek’s did the same. ~End of Chapter 4~ That's it for the boring chapter you guys, lol. Can't always have action or climax points. Gotta throw information in there sometime. Otherwise you wouldn't know what's going on.

~Chapter 3: Again~ “Let’s go! We’re almost out of here! We just need to contact Warlord and let them know where we’re at. We don’t have much longer down here.” Jackson kept at a push for the tunnel’s exit. He grabbed Dexter, who was completely exhausted, and threw him over his shoulders. Archangel matched his pace with Jackson, “Sir! Mind you, Warlord has left this planet. There’s nothing here, just Covenant ships and that robot! You’re not going to get anywhere. It’s not even worth trying. We’re better off finding an outpost where we can take refuge until they come back.” Jackson looked at him, Archangel couldn’t see through his helmet but he knew he could feel anger. “You mean, if they come back.” Jackson kept his gaze on him with a dead beat. Archangel lowered his pace back to the group. Ashamed and feeling threatened by their only available Commander. Jackson stood at the exit as he waited for everyone. Back turned, Dexter passed out on his shoulder, and quiet. A little too quiet. Frank approached him first. “Jackson?” No response. Frank turned his eyes his way. It was an exit alright. Not the kind they wanted either. Everyone else walked up and saw it too. There was no where to go. A bronze metal platform stood at the end. Blue decal was in the center, unknown identity to any of them. The only way they could go was forward, and climb down, or to go back underground and join Michael in his grave. “You guy’s wait here, I’m going to go up and check things out. See what I can find.” Jackson stated. He laid Dexter on the ground, nice and easy as to not wake him. He carefully removed Dexter’s helmet and set it on his lap. He then proceeded to put him in a restful position. The others watched him as he cared for the poor soldier. After Jackson finished with Dexter, he walked forward towards the platform. The team felt as if an ominous breeze rushed over them. Although none of them paid any attention to it. They all just watched Jackson proceed forward to the dead end. Jackson approached the bronze metal platform, the was something on it. He picked it up, it looked like a wrist band. He put it on his armor. To his surprise, the wristband expanded and tightened. A small dish like object projected from the wristband. Jackson questioned it. He took a quick glance at it. He couldn’t figure it out. He had no idea what it did. He held it in the sky, maybe it was some sort of beacon? Nope. He lowered the weapon then tried again. Nothing, still. He lowered the weapon again, quicker this time, then thrusted it into the sky. A yellow ball flew out of the dish. It looked like a fuel rod gun, but was as fast as a rocket launcher. The ammunition for it looked simply as if it must be like the Spartan Laser, no consumption. Jackson looked around. There was no where to go. Maybe this weapon could help him defeat the robot down in the cave? Jackson started to head back for the others who all sat on top of the hill and watched him as he walked over the platform and back to them. Except he didn’t. “Jackson!” He heard Archangel scream. Too late. Jackson looked around confused. The ground trembled and was shaky. He had a sudden urge to make a run for it. His hesitance failed him. The platform began to float away from the cliff. “JACKSON!” He heard the entire team scream. The platform continued off in the distance. “Jackson...” He could hear a faint scream of the team. He was all alone, the only one able to make it out alive. He just stared at the sky, he knew he failed his mission. The platform stopped. Jackson looked back down. There was no where to get off, this enormous platform took him to the middle of nowhere! He had no way out! “God damn it! I’m separated from my team and there’s no way for them to get to me!” Jackson was furious and angry. He punched the platform in rage and cursed everything he saw. The wristband, his choices, the platform. Everything. Finally he came to a stop. Jackson turned around, he forgot about behind him. He stopped. Fear went through him. His eyes widened, his arms drop, his legs gave out. He was down on his knees. Jackson looked up again to see if it was still there. It was. Another robot. Except, this one was even larger. About six times the size of the last one. This one looked as if it was seventy-four meters tall. It held different technology as well. Which scared Jackson. There was something on the eye, a cannon like object on one arm, the other arm completely replaced with a giant gun of some sort, something on its chest, and a launcher of some sort on the backside of the shoulder. Jackson felt his life’s countdown tick away. The robot spoke, “I have you now.” The thing on its eye lit up. A blue laser powered up and was aimed directly at Jackson. ~End of Chapter 3~

Welcome, soldiers. This is UNSC Warlord Commander Samantha Lea Magarnold. As you all know, we barely managed to escape the fall of Reach. Lost a couple good soldiers out there. Damn good soldiers, I’d say. Though they will be remembered, that’s not the point. We’re here because we need you. UNSC has just found a forerunner planet, known as Requim. The Covenant are long gone, but The Storm still persists. Our objective is not Requim, but The Storm. We’ll do what we can, soldiers. I need you. 1.) What type of soldier are you- Spartan, Marine, Helljumper/ODST, Pilot, Engineer, Medic, Operator, Sniper, Elite. 2.) Which primary weapon do you carry? UNSC Personnel Only: SMG, Battle Rifle, DMR, Assault Rifle, Sniper Rifle, Shotgun, Railgun, SAW, Sticky Detonator, Grenade Launcher, Spartan Laser, Carbine. Elite Personnel Only: Carbine, Needler, Plasma Rifle, Beam Rifle, Concussion Rifle, Needle Rifle, Plasma Repeater. 3.) Which secondary do you carry? UNSC Personnel Only: Pistol (M60), Magnum (M6C, M6D, M6G, M6H), Combat knife, Humbler. Elite Personnel Only: Plasma Pistol, Energy Dagger, Energy Sword. 4.) Type of equipment carried. Thruster Pack (Spartan's Only), Jet Pack, Drop Shield, Active Camo, Sentry Drone, Scout Drone, EMP Bomb, Reaper Drone, Grav Lift, Promethean Vision. 5.) Type of grenade- Frag or Plasma. 6.) What is your soldier's nickname or name. 7.) What type of personality do you have? 8.) Weapon Camouflage. (Camouflage's are NOT required.) 9.) Vehicle? UNSC Personnel Only: Gungoose, Mongoose, Warthog Standard, Warthog Transport, Hornet (Pilot), Broadsword (Pilot), Mammoth, Scorpion, Mantis, Cobra. (Vehicles are NOT required.) Elite Personnel Only: Banshee, Ghost, Wraith, Shadow, Locust. 10.) Soldier handicaps? Blind in one eye, missing finger, hot-tempered, confused, depressed, no teeth, back pain, hard hearing, speech disability, etc. (Handicaps are NOT required.) 11.) Gender. Welcome to the UNSC Warlord Soldier. We’ll have everything filled in just a moment. (If you are a returning soldier, you may choose to bring your character forward and update everything, except the soldier.) If you need ANY ideas, you can refer to last books thread for inspirations. http://www.343industries.org/forum/topic/34457-sign-up-your-call/

~Epilogue~ A loud sound came from the engine room. Destroyer was alone. Everyone else was in the mess hall. The sound came again. This time it was louder. Destroyer quietly walked his way over to the engine room. He looked behind him, afraid he was being watched. Nothing. He put in his authorization code. Denied. Destroyer felt for the authorization key he grabbed from Sarge’s body. He slid it into the slot. Accepted. The door slowly slid open. Each inch it opened, Destroyer felt his skin get hotter and hotter. Finally, the door slid open at an incredible speed. Destroyer entered the room. The door slid shut and locked behind him. He noticed something about the door. The door panel was damaged, he couldn’t get out that way. In search for the noise, he went into the room where the engines were stored. There it was. The slipspace drive was seared in flames and the wires were scorched around it. Destroyer ran over to the control panels for the engines. He applied the extinguishers and everything he could to put out the flames. It worked. The slipspace was still at work and ran fine. Destroyer went to exit the room. No. There was no way to get out from the inside, he was stuck in this room. He would have to radio Moth or Alex if he wanted out. Destroyer went over to the radio console. It was damaged, he couldn’t reach anyone. Why out of everything did I forget my ODST suit at a time like this? Destroyer thought to himself. Just then he remembered. He had a small stress beacon. Would it work in Slipspace? He could try to communicate to the others with it. He turned it on. Was this some sort of coincidence? The Slipspace Drive fell off the platform and crashed through the bottom of the ship, it left a massive hole. Destroyer just gaped as the Slipspace Drive fell into the ships shields. It knocked the shields offline. Destroyer quickly went to activate his stress beacon. He pulled it out and pressed the button. The signal was sent. He turned around. He walked right into an Energy Sword. He collapsed. His last moments were of him being drug over to the railing. The Elite was cloaked, all he could see was the energy sword. “You’re ships end is here.” The elite said as he threw Destroyer at the massive pit. ~The End of Book 1~ Book 2 is still being decided!