(Hello, good to see everybody, this is the first chapter of my fanfiction which is the sequel to part 1, if you didn't read that, you should probably do so, or you will be lost. I know the first ten or so chapters is just mindless cringe worthy comedy, but it'll be necessary if you want to know what's going on, anyways I hope you enjoy this.)

PROLOGUE

VERONICA DARE

UNSC SAY-MY-NAME

30 MINUTES BEFORE CRASH

Dare stroked on the keypad, for the last couple of hours all communication had stopped between forward unto dawn and the Say-My-Name. It was an ONI directive they got, but there was also problems going on. They were all told from their hard work, the war would end… but it didn't matter to them anymore.

Some sort of 'virus' infected the ship and jettisoned all of the escape pods. But that was the tip of the iceberg; it then started using the ship's COMs and satellite imagery to start looking for something, areas on the ARK. Commander Cox, the one in charge of the vessel, ordered all information to be deleted VIA Cole protocol, but that virus still managed to get a large amount of data and send it over to wherever it was on the ARK. Like the data over troop placements, including Dare's ODST squad.

It first started with a radio frequency, Cox immediately ordered to stop all communications with the Dawn so they could look into this signal. But that turned out to be the virus, and then all so quickly the ship was put in the sorry state it was in, it routinely shook from blasts of Covenant plasma.

Dare made sure that Romeo was given her previous assignment. She quickly tapped images on her display; she heard beeping from the nearby medical center… Ever since the virus came, it caused havoc in med-bay… But why? Veronica sighed and kept typing on the data pad, she looked down to see the massive fight going down on the ARK. She was busy trying to hack into the virus and stop it from its takeover of the ship, she couldn't so she did the next best thing, figure out why it was here. Commander Cox spoke on the speakers.

"We have a hull breach in sector 7, I repeat, hull breach in sector 7." Dare slammed her fist on the desk, the Covenant were attacking, and they were like sitting ducks. Suddenly the ship shook coarsely.

"Agh!" Veronica yelled falling out of her seat. She looked out to see some kind of… pod? From it walked out some covenant grunts, the Unggoy. Dare groaned and got behind her desk, she got on her COM headset.

"Captain Cox, the covenant has boarded." She whispered quietly.

"They haven't seen me yet… permission to enga-"The ship shook again, the Unggoy fell to the side from the sudden shift of gravity. Dare used this chance and immediately pulled out her pistol and fired into one, it fell to the ground dead. The other one took one look at her and started running down the hallway. She breathed and putted in another clip.

"Yes, Dare, we're not giving up this ship, not to Covenant, not to a damn computer." His cold voice said over the COM. She recalled reading his file once, he was an ONI agent through and through… lots of black ink though.

"Affirmative." She could hear the speakers start.

"All crew and personnel, prepare to engage." He ordered. Dare pulled a couple loose strands of hair back. The ship needed to stay afloat, or else the Dawn would have no backup. She quickly went to a nearby combat locker and pulled out a MA5B assault rifle, as well as a combat vest. She putted the vest on and loaded the rifle. The personnel in the room that were still alive did the same. She quickly putted a helmet on and then headed through the hallway.

Why would they enter the ship? Is it because of the ARK?

Dare put the thought away and returned to the matter at hand, she hurried into the next room and saw two jackals, a grunt, and two Covenant Brutes. She putted the silencer on her pistol and fired at the grunt and then jackal, scoring two headshots. The two fell to the ground, and the aliens turned to their fallen. Dare immediately got behind cover holding the pistol closely, it fell somewhat sweaty. She quickly got to the Brute and released a burst of fire into it, the beast fell to the ground, flesh ripped through. At the same moment Dare picked up its spike grenade and stuck its friend. She rolled out of the way and saw it go off. The brute fell to the ground leaving the Jackal remaining. The thing seemed somewhat… petrified. She loaded her pistol rushing towards it, the thing immediately raised its shield. She stopped at the moment. The thing was about to fire it's plasma pistol when suddenly it fell to the ground from a well-placed pistol shot. She looked to see who it was,

"Thought you needed help, Captain Dare." Cox's voice deep voice said. She looked at him.

"Good you could make it, sir." She said. Cox nodded, he was roughly 6.6 with dull brown hair and blue eyes. Luke Cox was of the same rank of Miranda Keyes. She could recall them bickering when they went through the slipspace portal. He sighed.

"Damn ship has gone to hell, I made sure to assist all marine forces onboard, but as you can see." He said looking at a map where part of it was blacked out.

"We couldn't do much, we lost engineering." He said. Dare nodded.

"It's not your fault sir." Dare said. Cox sighed.

"And yet here I am." The man said looking around the room. He was rather a… philosopher, in her opinion, always focusing on morals. He looked at Dare slightly.

"I'm sorry you couldn't be dropped in with your team." He said. Veronica looked down.

"I know…" she had wanted to go with Eddy Buck and his ODSTs, but she had been ordered to remain on board the ship and direct them… And if the ship was going down… she would never see them again. Cox sighed and then gripped his pistol.

"Come on, we should-" The ship shook madly. Veronica grabbed for the railing and caught it. More of the personnel onboard were busy. Cox sighed.

"We should head to the bridge."

5 minutes later

Luke Cox, Veronica Dare, and the other marines they acquired approached the bridge of the SAY-MY-NAME; parts of it were literally on fire. Suddenly the top screen of the NAV computer started booting up. Dare looked at it.

"What?"

"I'm sorry… reclaimers." It spoke; it was using a very old dialect of English. This must have been the virus… or whatever it was. Dare could see the front of the ship was facing towards the ARK.

"Why are you doing this?" Dare asked. This thing obviously wasn't Covenant. The 'virus' groaned.

"I had been waiting far too long for this moment, and since those fools would rather destroy this vessel outright… I have no choice." It said. Suddenly the ship started moving. Dare immediately held onto the railing. One of the personnel who remained on the bridge looked at Commander Cox.

"Sir, we're going to crash into the ark!" he yelled. Cox sighed.

"How much time?"

"… 40 seconds until impact and dropping." The engineer said. Cox looked at all of them; he wiped his head for a moment. The others watched him closely.

"Damn... All of you, I am proud to serve with you today, the war is over… and this… this turn of events… I'd like to say I'm sorry… but my last order before this ship crashes will be to do your best to brace yourselves…" He said, the man nodded, not loosing any buit of conviction in his face, he and the others left the room. It rumbled from the coming impact The virus did not answer back. Because it knew it would get away with this, even if enough of the ship survived… The personnel on the dawn would never know. The ship was starting to burn.

Dare stepped back. This was it, the ship was going to crash… kinda ironic when you think of it, the war was going to end, and they were going to die at someone else's hand besides from the Covenant. Dare slowly walked to a nearby message relay. She dialed a message out to a specific team, not caring the message wouldn't send… but just wanted to leave a last message.

"Please record message."

Halo 3 ODST 2

PART II

JAMES DANTE THE "ROOKIE"

AT NEW MISSION PLACEMENT BY UNKNOWN THIRD PARTY

CITADEL UNDERGROUND

It was deep underground from the citadel, the battle above took a lot out of the trooper staring at the screen, preferably, he would of wanted to take a nice rest, but instead he had chosen to go against his better instinct and go underground and search for missing troopers, he felt the need to scratch his head, but he was wearing a helmet. The terminal in front of him was a huge blue screen with a dark circle in the middle, it spoke.

"My name… Alcatraz, you may have heard of me." It said, using a dated English dialect. The soldier shook his head.

"Er, no… I just came down here looking for something." He said. The eye shifted for a moment and then responded.

"It does not matter, what you are looking for… but that you are here, reclaimer." It answered back. The soldier sighed and shook his head.

"I don't know what you're talking about, I was sent here to find the missing prisoners from Johnson's team." HE said. The computer didn't ask him who Johnson was, but immediately played a recording.

"What? Can't start your own party?" A familiar voice answered back, that was Avery Johnson alright, and this AI knew a lot.

The soldier immediately looked at him.

"How did you-?"

"I see many things… reclaimer." It said. The soldier sighed, and then nodded.

"Alright… Alcatraz, my name it James Dante, why do you think I'm here?" he asked. The eye looked at him, like he was a child asking silly obvious questions. James stared at the machine. It finally continued.

"You are here… because fate has brought you here." IT spoke cryptically; James looked at it and then sighed.

Never expect that from an AI

"I now know why fate did this to us… I have been trapped here, by my makers… the ARK was my domain, then it was ripped from me… I need you to help me take it back." It simply said. James stared at it.

"Wha… why me?" The AI stared at him.

"Because the data said so." James looked around the room, there wasn't a way out, and he then sighed.

"I have finished scanning your equipment; it is compatible, with my software…"

"And you want me to be your… courier." James said sighing. The machine slowly answered back.

"Yes…"

"Why do you think I'd do that?" He asked. He did not have time to lug some AI around town.

"Because, when I lost control of this installation, I was imprisoned here, but, I do have full control of this room… and surveillance." It spoke. James stared at it.

"So you're gonna keep me in here until I die?" he asked. The machine laughed.

"It would be most unfortunate for those soldiers…" James shook his head.

"No, you've got a deal." Alcatraz acknowledged, then immediately out of the terminal slipped out a card.

"Take the card and put it into your suit interface, I will keep a fragment of myself here… for security reasons." James stared at it for the moment then sighed.

I guess two minds are always better than one

He plucked the card and slid it into the back of his helmet, he felt a sort of jolt.

"Hm… not much power to work with, there should be engineers nearby." It said. The door opened.

"If this is going to work out, approach the engineers." Alcatraz ordered. James slowly walked through the door. He knew engineers well enough, they were biological super computers. James sighed and slowly walked to the through the room, all the lights were on, and there was no flood here… although there was some human blood, and a pile of scrap.

Foxtrot must have been through here…and that meant Covenant as well

The room was a straight forward grey hallway; he stepped forward and saw a small group of roughly… six engineers, they floated in the air. Alcatraz immediately got on James's speaker. He spoke some form of gibberish and then suddenly the aliens swarmed James, he shook.

"Do not be alarmed, they will 'modify'." Alcatraz said. James felt the back piece of his armor removed, but then re-attached. The back was wear the HUD's battery was, they must of strengthen it. Jsmes saw one of them remove his helmet and then placed it back on his head. It felt the same; however… different, new icons were on his HUD and such. They engineers finished and scrambled away, James looked at his gear. The original fingerless gauntlets he originally had were replaced with nearby scrap and fabric to be fully gloved gauntlets. He had a strange meter at the top of his HUD.

"As I said before, I looked through files. As an "orbital drop shock trooper", you lacked the standard kit to reclaim me, I was expecting Sierra 117 to come through, but you will do just as well and so I had the engineers take the liberty with your armor. The same basic design is the same; however they had been upgraded with an extended rechargeable battery, and a shielding unit, though incomplete, perhaps we'll find an upgrade along the way to increase the strength… a motion tracker with the range of… twenty meters and…" Alcatraz said. James sighed.

"So, you basically made me the next best thing from a Spartan?" he asked.

"…Basically." Alcatraz answered. James sighed and slowly walked away from the engineers.

"Why are there engineers here?" he asked. Alcatraz then answered.

"When the flood was gone, they were brought here from the facility that housed all life… They've been here a long time, but their orders remained virtually the same, remain underground. I had tried many times to change their… minds, but they wouldn't… and so I could not use them." Alcatraz's cold voice seemed to take a lower tone. James sighed. So this AI was in charge of the ARK, then another AI took over? Strange. James looked towards the blood in the room, around were two other doors, besides the one James came in through, it gave him a slight feeling of containment.

"What's with the blood?"

"Soldiers, the ones you might be familiar with, they overloaded my system to get through the door… I ask that you kill them… built up a ruckus around here." He simply said. James slowly tapped the side of his helmet. He walked through the hallway and noticed that the door was open, although slightly broken. Sparks were shimmering out of it as the left side tried to close, while the right side was torn in some direction, Seems the work of hunters. James slowly walked through the door, clutching his rifle. He heard talking on the other side.

"The hierarchs are dead, the fleet is in turmoil, we must remain here." A deep Brute voice said. James saw that it was a wall on the other side which went both ways. The marine clung to the side and quickly moved in the way of the blood prints, the right side. From there was a wall that went right and led to a brute talking to another.

"From the files… they are called, Brutes… I can heighten your response since I have access to the cameras built into your helmet… be careful to engage." It said. Did that mean Alcatraz has also cut him off from the Dawn? He sighed and finally crossed the corner. He immediately fired his assault rifle towards the alien, getting through the thing's shields and bringing it down. The other one immediately charged towards him, almost immediately James (with crazy dexterity), jumped to the right, and then plunged a knife into the brute's ankle. The beast fell to the ground.

"I… how did I do that?' He asked. Alcatraz immediately answered.

"You didn't… I increased your reaction time appropriately, consider me a… neural interface, you have learned new predator techniques… for, interrogation." He said. Rookie looked down at the brute, trying to get away from him.

"You mean… ok…" he said, he immediately approached the brute, he was crawling on his belly, the knife was deep in his leg. James stepped on it, making the knife go deeper.

"AGH!" the ape yelled. James smiled.

"Good… now you're going to tell me everything you know about the human prisoners." He said. The brute breathed in.

"And if I do not?" James stepped harder on the knife. It yelled loudly.

"Fine… seven prisoners… one wounded… we were going to have them start the journey… then you devils crashed your ship!" He said. James smiled.

"Thank you… any traps?" he asked. The brute shook from the pain.

"No… NO." HE said. Dante nodded.

"Alright… how many of you are there?" he asked. The brute stared at him.

"I will never tell you… runt." He yelled, teeth clenched. James nodded.

"Good choice… pig." He immediately pulled the knife out and stabbed into the things throat, blood oozed from both cuts, and after ten seconds, the thing bled out, choking on its own blood. Dante pulled the knife out from its throat. He

"I'm impressed, Lance Corporal Dante." Alcatraz said. James almost forgot he was there.

"Thanks… I was… vicious." James said sighing. He put the knife away, and looked at his hands, they had a sort of metallic sheen.

"All in the new techniques I taught you… remember what the thing has probably done to your kind." It said. James slowly nodded, and looked down on the corpse.

"Yeah… your right."

APPROXAMITELY 30 MINUTES AFTER SQUAD DEPARTURE TO FORWARD-UNTO-DAWN

EDDY BUCK

Alright, you guys are clean, get going." The matinence officer said. Eddy Buck, Michael Crespo, Kojo Agu, Taylor Miles, and Quentin Victor walked out of the decontamination area. Usually it wasn't used unless they were exposed to a deadly chemical, but it was worse… the flood. Buck sighed walking through lines of marines, He had a wound in his side, while on the way on the pelican, Romeo patched up the injury, well sort of, a bandage filled with bio-foam would hold him together for now, but he could get it looked at later, he needed to check something. He turned to the other marines.

"Hey, pay attention to any coming inbound Pelicans, I need to check up on something." He said slipping off a helmet with a very cracked visor, the one that belonged the James Dante, Victor nodded.

"Alright sir." He said. He was about Dutch's age, the sniper they used when Romeo was out of commission. Buck quickly went through the ship and approached the bridge. The commander Miranda Keyes was announced dead, so there was no-one to lead the ship; however the crew was still in. He approached the woman working at the COMs ARRAY.

"Hello, I'm Eddy Buck, we just got out of the ARK… have you had any transmission with the SAY-MY-NAME?" he asked rushing. The woman looked at him. She sighed and slowly shook her head.

"I'm sorry sir, all contact was lost a couple hours ago, all ships we had sent had been destroyed." She said. Eddy sighed, slightly slamming his fist on a nearby machine. The woman sighed.

"Did you have something valuable aboard the ship? If so, I believe the UNSC would gladly add more to your pay to cover damages." She said. Buck sighed. He looked out the window towards the SAY-MY-NAME

"No, it's alright… I just… oh my god." He saw the ship going towards the ARK in a sort of freefall. The woman looked at it and quickly spoke up on the PA system.

"All personnel, the UNSC Say-My-Name is crashing onto the surface of the ARK!" she yelled. The people on the bridge immediately freaked out, that ship was literally half of the UNSC's forces. It crashed to the ground and was followed by a sort of explosion. Buck couldn't believe it. Debris flooded the screen.

Veronica… god damn it

He tried to keep his cool, but couldn't find it… he slowly breathed in and swallowed. The action aboard the bridge was in turmoil.

"Commander Cox, do you read me?" The woman said trying to communicate with it, no answer. Buck's breathe heaved and he walked out of the bridge towards where the troopers were staying. Mickey looked at him.

"I'm sorry… gunny." He said. Eddy shook his head.

"We don't know what happened yet… she could still be alright…" he said. There was little faith among them. Mickey slowly nodded.

"So… anything else happen?" Buck asked. Mickey nodded.

"Yes sir… Faire's alive; Sargent Johnson just communicated with the ship about it." HE said. Buck sighed; he forgot to ask about that. Anne Faire was the squad's newest member; she had a close relationship with James Dante, the Rookie. He had almost lost faith that they would make it… Well half of them anyways.

"What about Dante?" he asked. Dutch shook his head.

"Johnson said he opted to remain on the ground looking for the lost Foxtrot forces… we lost his signal." He said. Buck sighed.

"Alright, hopefully he's deep underground… otherwise…" he didn't finish that sentence. Mickey nodded looking down.

"He'll find a way sir… I know it." He said. Buck then asked.

"What about the Chief?" he asked. Romeo looked out the window; they could see the covenant ship high charity in the ARK, as well as the strange new halo ring coming out of the ARK.

"He's coming to tell the board his plan, a way to stop the flood here." He said. Buck nodded.

"Alright…" He said. The group walked to the hanger, and saw a pelican land. Outside of it came Sargent Johnson walking out with Anne Faire following behind, she looked like she's seen quite a bit, her red hair fell out of her traditional ponytail, her right hand, while missing a gauntlet looked burnt and damaged. Mickey looked to Eddy, he sighed.

"Go down there and see if you can help." He said. Mickey and Faire were good friends. HE nodded quickly headed down towards her; he talked with Johnson for a moment. Then Mickey turned to Faire, he tried talking to her, she seemed angry, and it seemed he didn't get the hint and then she started to yell.

"Get the fuck away from me Mickey!" Buck immediately headed down.

"Woah, calm down Marine!" He yelled. Faire stared at him, and slowly looked down. Johnson looked to her.

"I'll talk with the medics; have them take a look at you." He said, she nodded slightly. Johnson turned to him.

"She's been through a lot, be gentle…" He said. Buck saluted. Johnson then handed him something.

"Give this to her, when she's better… it's from Dante…" He said. Buck slowly took the strange box; it had an old wood sort of feel.

(Bet you thought I wouldn't forget about that)

I can look at it later

He put the box in his pocket; Johnson hurried away, talking with an officer on what just happened. Buck looked at the red headed girl, she seemed to be in some sort of depression, and maybe just anger… she had been high-strong before. Or maybe it's just the intense pain in her right hand.

"Anne... What happened?" he asked. She looked down, trying to find the words.

"…I don't know." She simply said, walking away. Buck sighed, she was in a terrible state, and lashing out at Mickey over nothing… must have been bad. Romeo sighed.

"She seems in a good mood." Buck nodded.

"She's gonna have to have a fully psychiatric build up." He said. Dutch sighed.

"I'll keep an eye on her." He said. Taylor 'Dutch' Miles was the big brother of the team that was expected of him.

Romeo looked to Buck.

"I'll go through the COM traffic between her and Rookie." He said, Buck nodded. Kojo 'Romeo' Agu had been known to be rather uncaring, but he knew they needed to help her. He turned away and walked towards the COM station. . Mickey swallowed looking at his captain.

"Any orders for me?" he asked. Buck slowly put his hand on the private's shoulder.

"Find something to keep yourself occupied, I'll message you all when it's time." He said. Michael nodded.

"I hope Rookie's okay…" he said. James was his best friend, the two had went to the same academy on Luna, they even signed up on the same day, and now, seeing as he now had gone missing and Faire in the state she was in… Mickey would probably go into a type of depression. Buck nodded.

"I know he is… I can feel it."

(Alright, I can safely say I'm back, it has been a long while with setbacks after setbacks, but I have basically written the first half of this Fanfiction which I will try to release on a weekly basis. I wrote this at the beginning of the summer and I can already see some problems with personalities of one of the characters compared to right now, also I have an issue of dating things, so I might edit that a bit. I hope you enjoy this first chapter, and please tell me what you think.)