-1There is chaos everywhere. We have tried to ask our superiors, but none of them will give us answers. Not even the higher up grunts, not that we really expected them to know anymore. All that we have been told is that the elites are making an attempt to split from the covenant and that they are doing a very good job of it. Many of our people have been caught inside of the fiasco. They followed the orders of their elites and attacked the brutes, but many of them died in the process.

My squad is hiding on the sacred ring. We do not have a leader to help us, to guide us. We are alone. A group of the vermin marines came and killed our elites and jackals. The rest of us ran when we saw them fall. We managed to gather here behind a cluster of rocks, but who knows how long it will be until we are discovered and killed.

We have had some discussion about what we should do next, but we have not been trained to lead, only to follow. One of us suggested that we try to find other survivors and then possibly make it to a phantom, but there are too many problems with this. We could all end up dead at the hands of a squad of humans. We could head in the direction, or any number of other things. The best option, which we had decided to follow, is that we are all going to stay here and hope that Tartarus will be able to activate the sacred rings. Then we will all be on the great journey and all of this will not matter.

We feel a rumbling in the earth. Something is happening. One of us runs off screaming that we had been discovered and that all of us were going to die. The rest of us look at each other in confusion. I feel a strong desire to follow my comrade in his path of screaming, but I hold with the others. It is not long before a loud pulsing rattles our very bones. The fear that I have been feeling is now escalating into a full fledged panic.

Everything has settled now, except that the sky is now filled with a strange light. Everything has calmed down, but fear will not leave us. Our future is uncertain and as such, we cannot be calm. Our comrade that ran off has returned to us now, and we all wait for our doom or salvation.

One of my friends in trembling beside me. I soon know why this is. Someone is approaching.

I hold my plasma pistol tightly, knowing that it is my only defense. The others are doing likewise, preparing to defend ourselves against the oncoming danger. Fear grips me, urging me to run from here. I rue the day we were compelled to join the covenant.

Whoever is coming, they are getting much closer. It sounds like covenant, but we cannot be sure. We crouch here, trembling. They are here now. The long heads and glowing shields of three jackals stand before us.

"What are you doing here?" croaks one of them.

"We are waiting for an elite to come for us," one of us replies somewhat squeakily.

"You will have a long wait. The brutes lead us now."

A/N: As usual, I don't own anything. Something about the wording bothers me a little with this story. I can't really say what though.