A hole was torn into the fabric of the space, distorting stars and bending light. Lightning crackled out of the hole as a space ship rumbled through, the hole closing behind it.

The ship had two olive drab stripes running on the sides. A name was barely visible on the side of it, Fenrir. According to the United Nations Space Command, this huge ship was a smaller Halcyon-Class Corvette. Traditionally, Halcyon-Class ships are tough and slow with not very good weaponry. Fenrir, on the other hand, sacrificed that armor for speed and a Magnetic Accelerator Cannon (MAC for short.) that fires a large metal slug at extremely high speeds. This sacrifice earned her the title Corvette. On her bridge was Captain Lockheed, an experienced veteran of many space battles with the Covenant, a group of aliens bound together by a religion based on an ancient, highly advanced society. Fenrir maneuvered into orbit around a green planet with a red sun. As they rounded the horizon a large space station appeared in the shadow of a bleeding moon, this was the Achilles Station over Epsilon Erandi 9.

The date was October 7th 2554, one year after the end of the Covenant-Human war. It had been 29 years since the start of the war, on Harvest, an outer colony. A passing Covenant explorer happened across Harvest and launched an offensive after failed negotiations and first contact scenarios. And so sparked the Great War. We repelled them on land but, once we got into space it was all losses. Their superior technology was no match for our, now primitive, technology. The fight between Covenant and Human raged throughout the Milky Way.

By 2551 they had whittled away almost all of our outer colonies when they attacked REACH our main spaceport and Naval base. Doing so, the Covenant bypassed several inner colonies. This saved those colonies, but doomed Earth. As the Covenant advanced on REACH, another Halcyon-Class ship, the Pillar of Autumn activated the Cole Protocol, a safety order from Admiral Cole that required all ships to warp in a randomized direction before warping to a Human occupied colony or installation. Upon warp the Pillar of Autumn discovered an ancient relic, a ring world called Halo built by the Forerunners.

The Autumn was a special ship for more reasons than one, the most prominent being that she carried all remaining SPARTAN-IIs on board, some 21 of them. SPARTAN-IIs are physically modified soldiers trained from age 6 to fight for the UNSC. They are the best of the best. The ancient installation was metal around the outside, yet eerily like Earth around the inside, clouds and even a hurricane on one of the oceans. The ring looked deserted and the Autumn with Captain Jacob Keyes at her bridge maneuvered in to take a closer look, but was ambushed by a Covenant stealth battlegroup. The Pillar suffered massive damage, but doling out just as much to the enemy battlegroup. As the Pillar of Autumn approached the surface of the ring, she was pulled in by the ring's gravitational pull, unable to fight it. The Autumn was heavily damaged upon impact with the surface of the ring-world, her fusion reactors utterly decimated. The inhabitants of the ship poured out and salvaged any supplies they would need to survive.

They attempted to repair the old ship but any attempt was thwarted by a Defense AI that was tasked with protecting the ring. The AI dismantled the ship and disappeared. Seemingly stuck, the Humans settled in, their shelter unknowingly the only space faring ship on the ring, built by the Forerunner. The humans established contact with a benevolent AI named Mendicant Bias who told them that the ring was a weapon, and about Forerunner technology and how the Forerunners built worlds like this one. Using this knowledge they established a connection to Earth and sent them technology like plasma weaponry and shields. Using this technology, humanity was able to bite back in space with the help of the Covenant Separatists and win within a year.

Recently, UNSC lost contact with the Halo Installation. So, Fenrir was sent in to investigate. There had been rumors about a 'Neo-Covenant' amassing near the Prophets' home world. The Prophets were the religious leader behind the original Covenant, they believed by firing the Halo array they would embark upon 'The Great Journey', when in reality they would be killed by the Halos' awesome power.

Fenrir approached the Achilles Station. "Achilles, this is Halcyon-Class Corvette Fenrir requesting permission to dock and refill supplies." asked Captain Lockheed. There was no answer. "Achilles. This is Halcyon-Class Corvette Fenrir. Requesting permission to dock and refill supplies." He repeated. "Sorry Fenrir, We couldn't pick you up on our radars. Permission granted. You may dock in Port 3." said the Operator. "You heard the man Fincol, get us to that port." Lockheed said to his navigations officer. "Yes sir!" Fincol responded. Fenrir was by no means small, but was considered small when compared to the gargantuan Marathon-Class Destroyers.

Marathon Destroyers were the best ships in the UNSC equipped with 4 Super Magnetic Accelerator Cannons and the best shielding of the fleet, she had more than 100 Archer missile pods, each pod carrying 7 missile boasting 700 missiles and two plasma cannons. These ships were so large they carried a small colony of Marines and Naval officers on board and could carry civilians in time of need. Marathon Class ships were created as flagships in the last year of the war. Only two were ever made, although rumors are floating around that there is a third Marathon 'X' Class that could make worlds. The world shaping technology has been around for a long time, the oldest use was on Mars in 2085 to make the red planet habitable.

Fenrir docked with the Achilles Station and started the refill. Captain Lockheed walked over to the holo-map on the bridge and studied it. After the refill they would leave the system and perform their jump to the installation. A large plasma bloom exploded from the Achilles, rocking Fenrir inside her pin. Klaxons sounded, warning lights flashed "Sir! Pirates are boarding the Achilles!" came the intercom. A second, larger explosion rocked the station

Captain Keyes walked from the command post of The Pillar of Autumn very worried. Keyes was not a man worried easily, and he would never show that he was worried or nervous to his crew. Never. Though today, it was close to showing. He was on his way towards the docking bay, where no doubt, the SPARTANs onboard would be preparing to go groundside once they left Slip-Space. There were only about 21 SPARTANs left and all of them were onboard the Autumn. Keyes rounded a corner and almost ran into a group of Marines scrambling about, trying to get gear ready. He stepped into the huge tavern of the docking bay. 30ft above him were pelicans getting prepped and their pilots strapping in. The ground floor of the bay was littered with canisters of AP ammunition and Warthog parts and tools. Engineers scrambled to make last minute adjustments to the large vehicles. Keyes overheard a sergeant giving his men a pep talk before they exited slipstream, "AM I RIGHT MARINES?" and a practiced chorus of 'SIR, YES SIR!' was all Keyes managed to hear over the roar of pelican and warthog engines being tested and revved. Keyes entered a weapons locker off to the side of the bay and was greeted by a shout of "OFFICER ON DECK!" and a full contingent of SPARTANs snap to attention. "At ease," Keyes waved them off.

"Chief, Are your men ready to go?" Keyes asked.

"Yes sir, We are all suited up for a full combat drop" replied the giant green clad man.

"Take a small squad and get ready to go EVA, there's a ship that is just sitting in the dock that hasn't enacted Cole Protocol. You and that squad are to retrieve or destroy NAV data from it." Keyes told chief. "Your men will be dropping to the surface without you for the time being. You will come back to The Autumn and drop unto the surface." Keyes spun on his heels and walked out of the locker back into the noise of the bay. (AN: canon says that Linda goes with John to get the NAV data, and Linda gets hit by a plasma bolt and spends the rest of HALO:CE in cyro where she is picked up after by John.)

"Sir?"

Keyes looked to his right, there was a Sergeant standing there.

"Yes?" Keyes answered, "If you could make this quick, Sergeant, I'm needed on the bridge."

"Yes sir, when are we dropping into normal space? I'd like a time frame to work in, sir." said the Sergeant.

"I'm sorry sergeant, I can't say a specific time."

"Yes sir, Thank you sir." said the Sergeant before snapping off a saluting and running back to his unit.

Keyes took a step backward and turned around smartly, heading for the bridge.

A greenhorn marine was running around the Docking bay, gathering parts and tools for an engineer working on his Warthog. He was short, by many peoples' standards. He wore a clean basic outfit, nothing to make him stand out except for the fact that his armor was new, signifying he had no battles or skirmishes with the Covenant under his belt. His face was a little adolescent and he always shaved. His brown hair was at the longest length that the Marines would allow and his green eyes always glued to the floor. He bent to pick up a wrench looking tool from the ground, and turned around to meet face-to-face with a very tall ODST. The ODST stood a good foot over him, and his old battered armor reeked of body odor. There were the remnants of some beige striping down his armor and some matte black still remained but a lot of his armor was burnt and the metal showing. The big burly man looked down at the rookie with hard eyes. He seemed to be judging how well he might stand up to him in a fight, which probably wasn't very well.

"JACKSON! Where are you! Where's my Huesar Wrench?" came a voice.

The ODST looked at where the voice came from, pursed his lips and put on his helmet walking away.

"Jackson! What the hell man?" a combat engineer walked up to the rookie and yanked the wrench out of his hands. The combat engineer was of good build and broad shoulders, and had no helmet on. His hair was blond but you could only barely tell from the amount of black grease in his hair, it tended to stick up because of his habit of running his hand though his hair. He was wearing goggles earlier but now they were on top of his head. His face was covered in soot and you could clearly see the outline of where the goggles were.

"Dude, wake up. Now's not the time to be staring lovingly into a big man's eyes." He said jokingly as he slapped Jackson's helmet. "Come on, the 'hogs almost done."

This seemed to snap the small man out of his reverie, he looked up at the engineer and said "That ODST was about to kill me man!"

"What'd you do to him?" asked the engineer over his shoulder as he walked back to the Warthog.

"I don't know! He just came up to me and stared at me, scared the crap out of me!" Jackson said, running behind the engineer to catch up.

The engineer laughed as he sat down on a crate in front of the Warthog, "You need to calm down, you're so high strung! Geez."

"Yeah, but did you see the size of him? He was huge!" Jackson said, holding out his arms to demonstrate.

"Shut up Jackson, no ones in the mood for your crap." said the soldier in the corner. He stood up, showing his muscular body off to anyone looking. He wore mostly black, with an assortment of knives and other sharp objects all over him. On his back was a shotgun, and his whole demeanor screamed 'killer'. His dull brown eyes bored through dark repair station, and his voice cut like the many blades he carried.

"Is my 'hog finished yet?" he asked rudely

"No, Hutch, it's not." replied the engineer, the big guys' name was really Randolf Killory but he'd gut anyone that called him that. "It'll be done soon though; I just need to beat on the Air recycler until she starts to breathe again."

A new friendly voice chuckled as it entered the room. With all eyes on him Michael Kirkland strode into the room. Average height and build, Michael stood even eyed with most men. He wore the standard leadership role equipment set ontop of his standard issue ODST armor, which more shades of Olive Drab and grey.

"Settle down Hutch, soon we'll be off this ship and on some hard ground. I was just talking with Cortana and she says we'll be coming out of Slip space in a few minutes. Unfortunately, we'll also be coming out of slip-space and into a Covenant surprise party they're throwing for us." Michael scanned his team's faces; Jackson was looking at him concerned, Chris Conagher, the engineer, was hammering away at the Warthog, and Hutch was just sitting there, looking at him. Michael walked around the mess that Chris had made around the Warthog to sit down next to Hutch, "We will be among the first to drop to the ring, along with the Spartans."

"Spartans? I thought they were only myths! I didn't even know we had them on board!" shouted Jackson, who had jumped up at the word 'Spartan'.

"I met a Spartan once before, a long time ago. He killed wounded 2 ODST badly and killed a third, just by using his hands. That was before they got their freak armor…" Hutch scowled at the memory, holding his left arm as he talked. "Now they're just inhuman. I don't trust 'em, not at all."

An awkward silence hung in the air as Jackson looked around between his teammates to see their reactions. Chris took one final whack at the Warthog's engine and it sprang to life.

"It doesn't matter if you trust them, Hutch, we just have to work with them. They are the highest ranking unit in the navy. I don't think I've ever heard of a report of them losing, not once." said Chris, getting up from his crate, "If we're going to go down, I'd like to be with the Spartans."

"I agree with Chris, I'd sure like to see these big green guys anyways, they say they stand at over 7ft tall!" Jackson chimed in, moving from where he was standing to slide into the Passenger side of the Warthog.

Hutch stood up pointing at Jackson, "You don't know what you're talking about! If you had been there, you'd-"

Hutch was cut short by Michael snapping to and yelling "OFFICER ON DECK!" Michael's team quickly followed his example.

Captain Keyes walked into their room, talking with one of his lieutenants, "Go back up to the bridge and prepare to exit slip space, I want all systems running dark when we exit."

"Yes sir!" The Lieutenant said, snapped off a salute and briskly walked off towards the bridge. Captain Keyes took a minute to survey the Warthog with his eyes, and said "At ease," to Michael's team.

"As you all most likely know, we'll be dropping you all off first on the ring to establish a landing zone for the Pillar once we're done in space. Your method of entry will be via HEV, I trust no one here has any qualms with this method?" Keyes got no response, so he continued, "We will also be dropping the entire squad of Spartans and a full complement of supplies to aid in your mission. Unfortunately, I don't have very much in the way of Intel, but know that one of the Spartans will be carrying Cortana. That should speed your mission up a bit. You launch as soon as we drift over the Installation."

With that, Captain Keyes left the room.

"Well, You heard 'em guys, Feet first into hell, as always." Michael said.

His team chorused back a "HOO-RAH!"