A/N: This story is not dead. I've have decided to revise everything and will continue. I don't own Halo or the Inheretance Cycle.

It has been 5 years since the end of the Human-Covenant War, and John was in the last place he would ever expect, the bridge of the Shadow Of Intent. He glanced over the mixed human, Sangheili, and Kig-yar crew manning the stations around him, remembering the reason for all the firepower, the Neo-Covenant. The Neo-Covenant had first appeared 6 months ago, composing of the Jiralhanae, the Yanme'e, and portions of the Unngoy, and the Kig-yar races. The N.C., as they were also known, had struck without warning, and without mercy, at Reach. They failed under the combined might of humanity and the Elites. But a heavily encrypted file on the only crusier not entirely destroyed reveled that the Brutes had mobilized every world under their and their allies control in order to crush both the humans and the Sangheili. In fact the fleet of over 20 heavy crusiers that tried to crush Reach was the smallest and most underpowered of their fleets. John turned as the hatch hissed open and the only member of the old Covenat that he trusted with his back, the comander of the vessel, walked through, the Arbiter. "Hello, you old sharkmouth." said the Master Chief.

"Hello, you old shizno." replied the Arbiter.

"You trust him." said a voice in his head. No, it wasn't a sign of madness. It was the human AI Cortana.

"How are you doing?" asked the last Spartan-II, woried.

"Fine," came the replied with the sensation of streching,"those Elites know how to stop rampancy. I'm good for the next seven years or so."

The Chief nodded, happy that the only one close to him was safe as long as she could be. He returned his attention to the Elite in front of him. "So, why is it you awaken me in the middle of the night from my house and shuttle me to this forsaken piece of void?" asked the UNSC Marine.

"Follow." said the Arbiter.

They walked walked through a maze of corridors, lifts, and ramps until they reached a door marked with a glyph that meant Science. The Arbiter palmed open the door and ushered the Chief inside. The Sangheili opened a small vault in the ceiling and carefully pulled a small lump of metal with a hologram of a glyph raised from the looked at it, puzzled. "It is a Forerunner artifact we discovered in rubble of the citidel you knew as Castle Base on the planet Reach. Everyone who has touched that symbol since we discovered it has vanished into a portal and have not been seen or heard from since, even though we have scoured the entire known galaxy for any sign of them." the Arbiter informed John.

"What does that have to do with me?" John asked.

"I had hoped that you would arm your self for a prolonged campain and go in search of them. I would go myself except I have to lead our fleets against the bastard Brutes and their mongrel alliance." explained the Arbiter.

John thought about it for several minutes and consulted with Cortana. Finally he spoke, "Okay, I'll go. I'll leave at 12 hundred hours, shiptime tomorrow."

At 5 minutes before the time he said he would leave he stood in the hold of the ship, armed for war. He carried both a regular pistol and energy sword strapped to a thigh , a shotgun in his hands, a sniper rifle across his back, and all the extra ammo and grenades he could carry. The lump of metal stood on a pedastal in front of him. The Arbiter stood next to him. At exactly 12 hundred hours he reached out and brushed his gauntlent against the symbol and a pulsating portal opened before him. He felt a sudden suction and was pulled through the portal.

But something went wrong as soon as the portal closed. The glyph rippeled from white to red and detnonated with the force of a small bomb. The Arbiter picked himself up from where the explosion threw him and wondered what had happpened.

John-117 picked himself up from the rock in which he was imbeded in. He ached everywhere. He was next to a river that threw itself of a cliff a few feet away from where he was. He checked his gear, and once he saw everything was in working order, scanned the valley far below with the sniper rifle. He saw what looked like a village being built far from the cliff. He sighed and began to free climbed down the cliff, planning on asking where he was. "Are you sure this is a good idea?" Cortana asked.

"Don't worry. We'll be fine." John answered.