AUTHOR NOTES : Okay well, this is the first fan fiction I've written for HALO. I was reading one of the books and I just thought of a plot and decide to write something on it. It was a craving. Anyway, this chapter is short, but it's just to get things started. Tell me what you think !

Chapter One.

Contact.

" ETA two minutes to contact." A voice rang through their headsets. Aboard the pelican sat ten marines. Lieutenant Fleming sat with her eyes closed. Holding her MA5B assault rifle, she took a deep breath. She had encountered the covenant before, she knew what to expect. Although, in war the truth was, you never know what to expect.

"Contact! All teams deploy! Move Marines! Go! Go! Go!" A loud voice echoed. With that, LT. Fleming opened her eyes and jumped from the pelican, that was now low to the ground. Rachel ran for the closest cover which was a large boulder. Peeking around the corner of the rock she could see the enemy. Pulling her head back quickly she took a deep breath. Had she kept her head there a moment longer one of the plasma shots would have taken her head clean off. Listening to the sounds of battle, Rachel kept calm. She was always calm, she needed to be. Taking a deep breath Rachel rolled to the side, out of cover, and landed on her knee. Several short bursts erupted from her gun. After hearing the satisfying sound of the grunts wailing in pain, Rachel rose to her feet. Stealthily approaching the enemy's set up, she checked it quickly.

Holding her hand up to her ear she pressed her headset. "Ground team clear." After reporting Rachel examined her surroundings. On the ground lay slain corpses from both sides. There were several marines checking for vitals on the fallen. Rachel placed her hand on one of the marine's shoulders.

"There's nothing we can do for them, we need to continue to the rendezvous point." she said half speaking, half ordering. The marines nodded. " Move out marines!" Rachel said with a wave of her hand and they followed. Rachel was given orders to lead the team to one of the ancient structures that was half a kilometre from the drop point. From there they would rendezvous with APLHA team blue and they were to back up BRAVO team while they escorted a special package out of the structure and wait for EVAC.

It seemed simple enough, but through her years in the army Rachel knew that nothing was ever simple. Continuing through the thick bush of the jungle, Rachel stopped suddenly when she heard the crack of a gun and one of the marines fell to the ground. "Sniper!" she yelled. " Take cover!" jumping to the side she hid behind a tree. " Reynolds! Give me a visual!" Rachel shouted. One of the marines nodded and began feverishly typing away at a console on his forearm. Then, peering around the tree he tossed a spherical object, which was a camera. Typing some more he finally turned to Rachel. " Uploading to your HUD now." he said. Instantly, Rachel could see through the eye piece that was attached to her helmet. She could see where the sniper was.

"He's up on the ledge. Northwest two clicks." she said. Turning towards one of her marines she smirked. "I'll give a distraction. When I say, take him down Avery." she said to a female marine who was holding a sniper. The woman nodded. Reaching into her belt Rachel pulled out a small device. Holding it in front of her she pushed a button and a red laser scanned her up and down. Then, tossing the object an image appeared of her. A hologram. A loud crack rang out through the silent jungle.

"Now!" Rachel yelled. The female marine sprung from her cover and fired one round dropping the sniper instantly.

"Good work. Move out." Rachel said as the other three marines followed her. It was just the four of them traveling to the structure the rest were dead. Looking to the sky Rachel could see a blue beam reaching upwards. She knew it must have been coming from the structure they were headed to.

They continued through the jungle with no further resistance. What they did find however were dead bodies of the covenant. Even brutes were laying dead on the ground. Rachel knew of those creatures. They were the strongest of the covenant. It would take at least ten marines to bring one of them down. Rachel didn't think ALPHA team blue was that big, considering they found at least six dead marines on the way. No, they must have brought something else, some other kind of weapon with them that would deal all of this damage.

Rachel and her three marines reached the half a kilometre mark, and there in front of them stood a very old structure with the pulsating blue beam coming out the top of it. Around the structure were dead bodies, some marines, some alien. Rachel and her team slowly approached the structure. They passed over the dead bodies and reached the stairs. Rachel signalled for Reynolds and Adams to wait at the bottom while her and Avery ascended the stairs. When they reached the top Rachel heard a grunting noise. Turning her rifle quickly towards the noise she saw a marine propped up against the wall wounded. Lowering her rifle she approached the marine, Avery covered her.

Kneeling beside the man Rachel examined him. "What happened here?" she asked needing answers. "Where's ALPHA team blue?" she asked hoping they weren't all wiped out. The man winced in pain as he looked up at her.

"They're gone.. All gone." he said in a small whimper. " We…we came to help BRAVO team while they extracted the package but we were ambushed. Our whole team slaughtered by brutes. We didn't stand a chance.. And.. He came to late." he said breathing heavily. Talking was taking a lot out of him.

"What happened to BRAVO team? And.. He? Who's he?" she asked curious.

"I…I don't know. Last I saw BRAVO team ran inside with him. But they were only down to two men…." he was breathing even heavier. There was a pool of blood around him. Rachel could tell by the wound that he was badly injured and she knew that there was nothing they could do to help him. Even if they patched him up with biofoam he still wouldn't make it.

"You need to get out of here… but he's still here…find him.. Be careful…117." the man yelled in pain and breathed heavy breaths and then, nothing. His head dropped and he was gone.

"Who's he?! Find who!" Rachel yelled, but it was no use. " Dammit!" she said hitting the ground. It seemed as though a small crack formed but Rachel moved to quickly for anybody to notice anything really. Moving to the edge she called Reynolds and Adams to come up.

Standing outside the entrance to the structure Rachel faced the two marines. "You three stay out here and cover the entrance. Reinforcements may come, for either side. I'll go inside and look around. From what I could tell there's only one way in and one way out and that's this door right here. If things get too hot out here, move inside the structure and we'll use it as our defence. Anything else and you radio me immediately. Even if it's the slightest move of a branch. Am I clear?" she asked looking at the three faces in front of her. "Yes mamme!" they all answered in unison. "Good. Be safe." she said as she turned and stood in front of the door. It was activated by motion so once she moved in front of it, it opened for her. Entering the structure the large stone door closed behind her.

Clutching her rifle, Rachel slowly moved through the elongated hall. It was all stone, and in the stone there was light and symbols. Rachel knew that this was all built by forerunner. Strange, she thought, but oddly familiar. Reaching the end of the hall it turned to stairs that descended deeper into the compound. She began making her way down. So far there was nothing unusual, so far. Entering the bottom of the stairs there was another door. Stepping in front of it, it slowly opened for her. At the entrance there were two bodies, aliens. Rachel stepped over them. It looked like BRAVO team had come through here. Continuing forward into the room there were large pillars that were lined up outside the center of the room. Rachel's eyes diverted to the two bodies laying on the floor in red blood. They were marines. Rachel remembered the man saying that there were only two men left from BRAVO team.

Slowly lowering her gun she let out a small sigh. So this was all useless. Just as Rachel was ready to go back up the surfaces he heard a voice. Quickly moving up against one of the pillars she could hear the voice was coming from the center of the room. She stayed quiet.

"This doesn't make any sense. I'm going through all of the files but they're all turning up with the same thing. The UNSC insignia. But that's not possible, there's no way the UNSC could have been here before us. And even if they were, why would they send us to retrieve the information? And one of the kill switches." the female voice spoke.

"There's something else we don't' know, something more to this mission." came another voice. A male voice, though it sounded somewhat synthetic.

"I don't like this chief, I don't like this one bit." the female voice spoke again.

Rachel stood there, she thought she recognized the male voice. Though, no name or face came to her at the moment. Rachel couldn't get a visual on either of the persons that were speaking. She turned and decided that she better get to the surface and bring her marines down with her so that she'd have some backup. Although when she turned to move she stopped. Something wasn't right. The voices stopped, they knew she was there. Clutching her rifle tightly she pressed her back against the pillar as far as she could so she wasn't seen from either side. If they knew she was there they were going to come for her. She was outnumbered, but there was only two. Maybe she could take them both, but she'd have to see them first.

Bringing her rifle up to her shoulder and holding it taut Rachel turned the corner of the pillar and was face to face with the end of another rifle identical to hers. Looking beyond the rifle she saw who was holding it. Her eyes squinted at first and then she saw who, or rather, what it was that was holding the rifle. It stood over six feet tall in green armour head to toe. It was a SPARTAN. It seemed that this SPARTAN was untrusting of her as she was of him. Her face well covered by her helmet he wouldn't be able to see her completely.

A moment passed, neither of them moved, neither of them spoke. Rachel's finger never faltered from the trigger on her rifle, she glared at the being in front of her.

" Stand down marine. We're on the same side." the male synthetic voice spoke. Rachel didn't move.

"How do I know once I lower my weapon you won't fire." Rachel said.

" Because if I wanted you dead, you would be." he said simply.

Rachel looked at him for another moment and then lowered her weapon slowly.

"Is there anyone left from team ALPHA or team BRAVO?" Rachel asked looking at the man in front of her. More so his reflective visor. He slowly shook his head. "And the package?" she asked.

"How did you know of any package?" he asked looking down at her.

" We were the support team. Sent to help team ALPHA blue escort team BRAVO out of the complex with the package to EVAC." she explained.

"We?" he asked.

She nodded. "The rest of my team is at the front door." she explained.

" How many of you are there?" he asked.

" Four, including myself. The rest were killed on our way here." she said monotonously. Rachel quickly put her hand to her ear as a transmission was coming in. " LUITENENT! WE'RE UNDER ATTACK! WE'RE SEVERLY OUT NUMBERED ! THERE'S THREE DROP SHIPS - SHIT! THEY'RE EVERY WHERE! THEY HAVE ----" the transmission stopped.

"Avery. Come in Avery.. DAMMIT!" Rachel said as she banged her hand against the pillar and it shook. Master chief looked at the pillar but didn't say anything. "I need to get to my team." she said looking at the Spartan. He didn't say anything. Rachel turned as she began heading towards the surface.

Running as fast as she could she made her way up the stairs then down the hallway. Approaching the door she could already hear the fighting coming from outside. It was a relief of sorts, at least she could still hear the sound of returning fire which meant her entire team hadn't been wiped out. The door opened and Rachel held her gun tight to her body. Immediately she squeezed the trigger and short bursts shot out dropping grunts like flies. Rolling behind the wall she reloaded her gun. Putting in another clip she stood from her cover and pulled the trigger again this time, she didn't let go. Bullets shot out around the area as the grunts all dropped to the ground.

Bending down again she reloaded. Looking around she saw her team was on the other side of a broken wall. Standing up she ran towards the broken wall then, jumping into the air she slid across the flat surface of the fallen wall and used her momentum to jump from her heel over one of the jagged pieces .Landing in a roll she emptied another clip on a small group of grunts and managed to take out one of the jackals with a lucky shot.

Bending down beside Avery she could see that the female sniper was wounded. Looking around Adams was laying in a pool of his own blood and Reynolds was injured so badly that his facial features were a mess and he was missing half of his left side. "He was caught by a sticky grenade." Avery said painfully. She outstretched her arm and placed it on Rachel's shoulder. "LT, call for EVAC. You need to get out of here.. You need to -" she winced in pain. " You need to go." she said breathing heavily as she held her side. There was a huge gash. " No Avery, I can get you out of here." Rachel said but Avery griped her shoulder tighter. " Please, it's no use. You need to go…" she said weakly as she leaned against the building. Her grip on Rachel's shoulder relaxed and then her hand fell by her side. Rachel dropped her head. Standing up she grabbed Avery's sniper and strapped it to her back. Then, taking out a grenade from her belt she tossed it over the wall. The grunts screamed, then there was a loud bang and the screaming stopped.

Rachel strapped her rifle to her back and moved over picking up Adams two sub machine guns. Holding them by her side she rose from her cover and fired at the remaining enemies. Then, leaping over the wall she slid down the smooth surface and continued firing upon the grunts and jackals. Doing her best to avoid their attacks she didn't stop shooting until she heard the unpleasant sound of the clicking coming from her guns signalling her guns were empty.

Throwing them aside she approached the nearest grunt and grabbed his neck snapping it between her hands, then turning she kicked another one. Grabbing one of their own sticky grenades she activated it then stuck it to the grunt's face. He ran in circles screaming and then exploded. Breathing heavily Rachel stood in the middle of a blue bloody mess. It looked like someone had gone crazy with a can of paint. Dropping to her knees she lowered her head.

Standing at the entrance of the structure was Master chief. He just stood there motionless.

"Chief.." came a female voice from inside his head.

"I know." he answered simply as he looked at the woman kneeling in the middle of all the alien corpses.

---

The two of them, three including Cortana in Chief's helmet, stood inside the ancient forerunner structure in silence. Cortana was still working to find out what happened to the files they were supposed to retrieve and why it was just left with the UNSC insignia. Chief stood at guard near the entrance watching Cortana go through all of the millions of files in mere seconds over and over again. Rachel sat on a lowered platform, her rifle in her hands and her head faced towards the ground .

Occasionally Chief would glance over to Rachel. He examined her a couple times, judging by the scene that happened not too long ago when she took out all of those covenant Chief could tell that there was something off about her. Not so much in a bad way, but she was definitely different.

Cortana's virtual body flickered as she turned to face Chief. Shrugging her shoulders she shook her head. " Nothing. I've bypassed all the firewalls and even the hidden ones. Checked all the archives, every entry ever recorded, even located all the black files. Still nothing. All I keep getting are UNSC insignia's." Cortana explained.

Silenced hung in the air for a moment or two until Rachel rose to her feet rubbing her temples. " None of this makes sense. Why would they send three ground teams, one with a SPARTAN to retrieve special information only to find that it's already been retrieved and processed by the UNSC…" Rachel spoke summarizing the entire of their situation.

"Unless, it wasn't the UNSC and it's being set up as a decoy.. Or a trick to make us think that they were here before us." Cortana suggested.

"Hm, it's possible.. But why? What's the purpose? If that was so then why were the covenant trying to get in as well if they already obtained all of the information. It just doesn't make sense." Rachel said with a sigh. Walking over to the console where Cortana was inserted she placed her hand on it and began entering some numbers.

"What are you doing?" Cortana asked.

"Entering the designated code that they gave me, perhaps it's the only way around this thing." Rachel answered. Words popped up on the screen saying ' CODE INPUTED. REDIRECTED….UNSC.' Letting out a sigh of frustration Rachel took a step back. " Pointless." she spoke again.

Chief soon approached the console and removed Cortana from it placing her back in his helmet. " We should go. It won't be too long before the covenant sends back up, and I'm near out of ammo." he explained. Rachel nodded her head in agreement.

Leading the way Chief exited the structure with Rachel behind him. They both held their rifles that and were on guard for any surprise attacks. Then, breaking into a brisk run they headed in the direction of their designated EVAC point.