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Chapter 1

"All done, Drew?"

"Yeah, Smith, I've just got one more box." Private Drew replied. This was it for Avalanche- after months and months of late nights, cleanup work, and pointless investigation, him and his buddy, Smith, were just packing up the last Hornet to leave this godforsaken tundra behind. As Smith was packing up the last box, something caught his eye-a piece of dark grey armor with a yellow streak running down the middle.

"Can't forget this…" he muttered. It was a piece of armor from one of the bloodiest battles in history. The funny thing was the Insurrectionists were nowhere to be found- One of the freelancers, Agent Texas, had gone toe-to-toe with a deadly duo- Agent Washington, who was a trained fighter and one of Project Freelancer's many veterans; fighting with Washington was Agent Maine, the AWOL brute who was infamous for his desertion of the Project and the trail of corpses that seemed to appear by magic wherever he went. None of them had survived. Agent Texas' armor was all that had been found-no body or anything. The same could be said for Agent Maine- he had not been seen since a M12LRV tow cable had been attached to his chestplate- apparently, said vehicle had dragged him off the cliff.

Washington was a totally different story. His corpse had been found and disposed of, however the Project did that. But these were supposed to be the elite…how was it possible? Having one die was a rare event, but it seemed impossible that three freelancers would be KIA in one shot. Ah well, he thought. Not my problem… As he turned around, he spotted a piece of white armor near the cliff edge. Nobody had white armor but… He shuddered. Even though it owner was definitely dead…the thought of Agent Maine gave him chills. From what he heard, Maine was over 7 feet tall and over 250 pounds. NOT someone you would want to meet in a dark alley at night…

As he picked up the chunk of armor, he paused. Had he just heard what he thought he did? It sounded like a growling noise, but over the wind, he couldn't be sure. "Drew, come over here," he said to his friend.

"Yeah?" Drew asked. He was pretty new to this business. He had been recruited only a few months ago, specifically for this mission. The UNSC, at this point, needed as much manpower as they could manage, so they expanded their ranks, resulting in mass recruitments.

"The growling noise…" Smith heard it again. "See, there it was. Did you hear that?"

"Yeah. What was-" Before Drew's sentence could be finished he was grabbed by a hand from over the cliff edge. As Drew screamed, Smith brought up his rifle and opened fire. He had never been a good shot, but he had been sure that he hit…whatever this was. The next thing he saw was the hand come all the way over the cliff, Drew in a chokehold. As the rest of their assailant came over the cliff, Smith became more and more shocked as he realized just who they were seeing.

"No, "he yelled, "that's impossible! You were…No, stay away from m…AAAAARGH!"