July 14, 2010 1:29 PM
Auburn Washington

Nick and his girlfriend Michelle both sat on the couch concentrating on the TV screen in front of them. Xbox 360 controllers in hand they were playing all the Halo games in order on legendary to gear up for the release of Halo Reach in the coming months. Right now they where playing Halo: CE. As they pushed through the flood infected halls of the Truth and Reconciliation, they came to an open space. Nick nor Michelle had ever seen that room before. Suddenly the speakers filled with static and the screen shuttered. But as soon as it arrived it stopped. Then they heard Cortana talking,

"Strange I've lost connection to the Covenant Battle-net, Reconnecting. Wait what's this?"

"What Cortana?" They heard the Chief say. Which was even stranger because he never speaks unless he is in a cut scene.

"There was a Human Network called the XBOX. It was streaming Live positional data for, our position. But as soon as I tried to access it disappeared. I think someone is wa-"

Cortana was interrupted permanently when Nick's 360 flashed to the opening loading screen and returned to the dashboard.

"What was that?" Nick said out loud.

"I think it was a Easter egg, was your capture card on?" Michelle replied.

Nick got up and checked the box.

"Nope it was off."

"Dang, now we have no proof that it ever happened."

"Lets just move on to the Halo 2 campaign." Nick suggested.

"Ok,"

About Two Hours Later

After finishing the ODST campaign, they decided to take a break and play Matchmaking on Halo 3. They were playing a version of Team Slayer on Sandbox. The game type was Sprockets, and once again they were on the losing team. They both took cover where the missile pod would spawn, Then Michelle said,

"Why are you a Spartan?" She was an Elite.

"Damn, I forgot to change back, I was working on a video with my brother."

Suddenly the screen again glitched and static filled the speakers. But instead of returning to the loading screen the TV went dark and words appeared,

"Attention Scanning player variants. Error, Species Conflict, Zero Hosts found.
Beginning Generation, Connection Established."

Nick and Michelle looked at each other, not sure what to say. Out of nowhere golden rings started to form around them. They were speechless. They reached for each other and for a moment they touched, there was a flash and they were gone.

________________________________________________________________________
Unknown Time and Location

Nick shot up and hit his head on something. There was a reverberating twang of metal vibrating and he blurted out

"Ouch,"

His body felt different, stronger, larger. Also he didn't remember falling asleep. He could hear what sounded like other people sleeping. The bunk above him creaked and the lights on the ceiling snapped on. He watched bunk after bunk appear out of the darkness. It all seemed familiar. Then he noticed a sign painted on the wall,

"UNSC barracks 04B"

That ran a chill down his spine. Now other people began to come out of bed. He saw a patch on their sleeves, an Eagle holding something with the word Spartan written underneath it. After a few minutes of thinking he finally accepted the idea that somehow he had gotten into the Halo Universe. Nick swung his legs out of bed and got a sudden head rush. Memories, eight years of them flooded into his mind. The meeting at the ONI amphitheater, years of painful training, then most recently the augmentations. All of those memories and his mind came to one thought,

"Where is Michelle?"

Nick scanned the room, there were about 40 other Spartans here. But Michelle was not among them. The person above him above him jumped down, another guy.

"Yo, Nick ready to head to the obstacle course?"

The guys name was Brad, his number was 098.

"As ready as I'll ever be." Nick responded.

He looked down and saw that his number was 102. Nick got ready and jogged out hoping that he would at least survive until the end of the war to come and find Michelle.

________________________________________________________________________
July 1, 2552 2:00 am
Standard IV Tumble Highway, on-rout to Standard Orbital Space tether

Nick rode shotgun in a Warthog escorting the last evac convoy out of the western coastal areas. The night was dark and the lack of street lights made it hard to avoid the hundreds of cars and trucks that sat abandoned along the road. So far they haven't seen any sign of Covenant activity on this side of the planet, the other was a different story. A Covie Assault Carrier was shot down and it crashed relatively intact, causing hell for him and all the other UNSC forces on the planet. The Elephants slowly rolled down the highway crushing the small civilian vehicles. Two Hornets and a Vulture flew overhead providing Arial cover. Search lights lit up the surrounding hill side revealing dense forest. Suddenly the sky to the north lit up and Plasma mortars flew over-head.

"Incoming!" someone yelled over the radio.

Most of them impacted the hillside just on the south side of the highway. But of them hit in front of a Elephant, the roadway gave way and the Elephant fell inside.

"Get everyone out of the back. Move, move, move." Spartan 098 said.

"Spartan 103 to Pelican Bravo 245 and Echo 121, we need immediate evac for roughly 45 civilians, over. "

"Nick head up and cover the other Elephants." Spartan 098 said.

Nick hopped back inside it passenger seat and the Marine driver stepped on the gas. Another volley of Wraith mortars flew over head and impacted the highway. A hole opened up and the Hog flew through. The front tires struck dirt and the Hog flew down the dirt path that sat underneath the highway.

"You've got to be kidding me, the next onramp is twenty miles away." the driver said.

An hour later they still hadn't found an onramp

"We need to get back on, wait what's that soun-?"

The Warthog came to a sudden stop, dirt and pebbles flew by. The Hogs lights revealed a churning river. Then everything was quiet, the sound of automatic gunfire was in the distance. But then there was a crunch of underbrush on the other side of the river. The driver killed the engine and the lights went out. After about a minute a purple light popped out of the trees and they could see a trio of Elites and about four or five Grunts walking along the river bank with their weapons drawn. They were talking, and the translator picked up some of their conversation

"They should be… here… there it is… need one alive primarily the demon."

It took him a few minutes to figure out that they were talking about him. He reached over and said,

"We should get moving."

"Agreed," The driver said as he reached for the key.

As soon as the Hog started up the Covenant camp came to life. Nick saw a green light appear and it looked like it was coming closer. The driver put it into reverse and backed up as fast as he could, but it was no use. The Fuel Rod round slammed into the front and caused the already damaged Hog to explode. The Marine driver was killed instantly and Nick was thrown clear. With shields down he tried to fight back. But as he stood another round slammed into the ground nearby. His left side armor was partially blown off and he was thrown into a tree. His helmet barely functioned but some how the translation software still worked.

"Hold your fire, hold your fire! That's all of them. Major go with a group of Unggoy and take that Demon."

Nick couldn't move his left arm but he tried to grab a frag grenade. As he reached over he could hear the sloshing of the Covies crossing the river. Finally he had a grenade out of its pouch. But before he could arm it an Armored hoof stomped on his arm and he passed out.

"Be very careful of our precious cargo Unggoy they want it alive" the Sangheili said with a smile.

Author Notes

Well I just rewrote the First chapter, Hope its better.