K, I formally apologize to everyone who's reading this story. Me and Kontra were habing a little bit of a dispute over how this was going to progress. Now after lots of arguments, editing, and playing halo we've done the next two chapters in what we hope will keep u interested. Enjoy

Chapter 2

6 months later

They were surrounded. Hot plasma burst across the skies of the planet of Oberon 7. Andrew crouched low in the square of overturned warthogs. Things were looking bad. It had been 6 months since the Spartans had graduated from their training course, ever since then Andrew and his team had been whisked away to different planets accomplishing mission after mission (20 in total) this would be their 21st ...providing they survived. The team had been placed in charge of a growing Covenant threat on the planet. It had been one year since the brutes came to the planet, and the UNSC were getting unruly. Apparently the planet was home to a very experimental subspace teleportation device that would allow for the humans and their allies to travel millions of light-years without the use of ships. And so Andrew's team had been sent to the planet to finish the fight there once and for all, which of course at this point wasn't really going that well.

"Chief! Come in Chief", the hiss from Andrew's radio brought him back to the battle. It was the squadron of marine snipers that Andrew had placed all around battle field. "We have the enemy in sight. Their forces amass to an estimated fifty thousand at least. So far it seems to be mostly grunts and jackals in the front with the brutes giving them orders and support fire from behind, so far no sight of any leaders".

Andrew frowned, he had been hoping to spot the enemy's force's leader so that he and his team could take him down. Typical brutes, always allowing the smaller soldiers first as cannon-fodder while they bring up the rear. A sound on his right made Andrew look to his side. There, crouching beside him while cursing at the brute forces was Andrew's second in command, Sai. In their years as trainees, Andrew had noticed that all Sai seemed to care about was having fun, being funny, burning stuff, blowing shit up and whether or not he got to drive something really, really, really, fast. Of course this made him a rather easy target, easily distracted and always making his engines rev Sai was usually the first "casualty" in all of their practice missions. Now after many months of intensive training and war Andrew noticed how Sai began to change from the A.D.D. fool that he was, into a slightly trigger happy, but very skilled fighter, with amazing skills in vehicles, stealth, rapid fire weapons, demolition and was an excellent tracker and scout. If it could move, then Sai could and probably would end up driving it. Of course, some things never changed...

"MOTHER FUCKING WHORE, SHIT! I hate these bloody fucking brutes!! Cowardly bunch of…" the shots from Sai's seemed to drown out his cursing. As Sai went on with his rants and rapid bursts of fire another Spartan behind the two of them was writing complex mathematical formulas on the dirt while muttering to himself…"Trajectory…sine 34.…distance is good…the wind is perfect…"

Greg was the team's techie and weapons "master", him being the one who figured out how to recharge the many plasma based weapons of the covenant armada. With this discovery Greg had become the chief technological and weapons officer for their entire SPARTAN division. Greg was the team's heavy weapons expert, backup demolition expert, grenadier, and a master strategist, among many other intellectual laurels. Over the past few years, Greg had also become something of an expert with traps and surprises.

Greg quickly (relatively speaking) explained his plan to Andrew and Sai.

"Hey guys, if I were to chuck that grenade about 5 feet to the left of that outcrop of rocks over there…the resulting explosion should send those fuel cans behind the rocks into the larger portion of the jackal snipers up on that cliff over there…barring that, I can always use a rocket laun---…..nah, the 'nades should work."

Sai swiped two fingers across his faceplate in the typical Spartan smile and said with a laugh, "Whatever you think works mate! Just hope you don't miss, or we're all fucked!"

"Well, let's do this! NADES AWAAAY!!!" Greg yelled as he threw 2 frag grenades to the exact spot he had pointed out. The resulting dual explosion blew up 2 of the 5 fuel cans behind the rocks, and sent the remaining 3 canisters careening up towards the cliff, accompanied by plenty of rock pieces.

Greg started to count aloud as he watched the bodies of the jackals drop. "That's one, two three four, five…six…there's seven. HAH! Got 'em all!"

Andrew replied over his comm. "Damn good throw Greg we got----" he was cut off by a shout from Sai,

"oh FUCK!! We've got Brutes rapidly closing on our position! A force of ten or so Ultras approaching at 6 o clock, 3 minor chieftains with hammers at 3 and 9 o clock, and a very large pack of Majors and Minors at 12 o clock!"

A different voice chimed in over the comm. "Chief, I've got my sights on their main Chieftain, you guys want him dead yet, or is that gonna mess with your plans?" This was Candace. Candace was the team's sniper and long range expert; she was also the most athletic among them, being the fastest, lightest and the best jumper.

Andrew swiftly came up with an on-the-spot plan. "First off guys, this plan starts on my mark!"

"Greg, I need a volley of grenades at our six! When you're out of grenades, I need you to bombard our 12 with as many rockets as you can manage, understood?"

"Yessir!"

"Sai, plasma grenades to the 9 on my mark, then pick your shots carefully, we're only gonna get one shot at this, I'll take our 3!"

"Candace? That big chieftain needs to go down as soon as Greg finishes with the grenades, wait for his signal!"

"Aye sir!"

"All right team Paradox, ready…MARK!"

Chaos ensued as Andrew's rapidly thought up plan came into action. Greg's speedy arm and excellent aim soon decimated the force of Ultras directly behind them; he flashed his HUD signal twice, giving the signal to Candace for her shot, quickly running to his appointed rocket spot. Sai and Andrew stuck one hammer brute apiece and brought down the remaining four with several quick headshots from their MA5Bs. Andrew wildly looked around, waiting for Candace's shot. Hoping that she hadn't been taken by surprise by Brute Stalkers

CRACK

The three Spartans in the warthog barricade looked in the direction of the vapour trail, they finally saw the golden-armoured Brute Chieftain fall down from his nearby perch on a cliff.

Andrew nodded in silent admiration at Candace's perfect aim. Sai and Andrew returned their attention to the force of Brutes in front of them, taking quick potshots and throwing grenades at random, several rockets soared into the morass of brutes, Greg's aim as always was perfect, and all the brutes in that force flew as the rockets exploded.

Andrew barked through the comm.

"Candace, quick scan, any hostiles around us?"

"Nothing to report Drew, all hostiles neutralized!"

Andrew twitched slightly at the use of his childhood nickname. The nickname brought many memories of their childhood training back to him. All the good times, and the harsh conditions under which they had been trained, but he was glad for it. Because this training had formed them in to an unstoppable force of 400 Spartan warriors. Not a single one of the original 400 trainees had been WIA, KIA, or even been announced MIA.

He remembered back to the first ten missions he had completed with UW Company. The UW Company was comprised of Team Paradox, Team HUX and Team Rubicon and Team Dart. He, Sai, Greg and Candace had all been a part of this company of 12 Spartan soldiers. Among this company were their other friends who had assimilated into Team HUX, Team Rubicon, and Team Dart. Team HUX's leader was Steven. Steven was the best shot in the entire Spartan Corps. A born leader and brilliant battle tactician. His aim and natural talent with all ballistic weapons was legendary in the UNSC. His aim was second only to Linda, (Spartan 058), of the original SPARTAN IIs. He had been named as the Master Chief of the new Spartan generation. Next in the team was Jon, a very well rounded soldier with a superb sense of aim with the newly created "Spartan Laser". He was the only one in the entire Spartan Corps who still had a fascination with an archaic form of humor called "puns". The third member of Team HUX, Kelvin, was an oddity, to say the least. He had no outstanding fighting qualities, besides his odd, but very accurate sense of logic. He often saw flaws where no other would have thought to look, and was always thinking up riddles to entertain the Corps. The fourth and final member of Team HUX was Matt. Matt was a giant, even by the Spartans' augmented standards. Being naturally tall and fit, he was an astounding 7 ft 6. He was the strongest and second fastest member of UW Company, with Candace being the only single Spartan with faster agility, reflexes and overall speed. Team Rubicon was comprised of Chris, Haider, Grant and Wilfred. Chris was a Zero G, Hand to Hand, and stealth specialist, he was also very accomplished in the various Covenant Loyalist & Separatist technologies that they had encountered. Haider was another excellent sniper of the UW Company. He had often worked together with Candace and Sai on reconnaissance missions. The most distinguishing thing about Haider was the aura of calm and safety that he seemed to exude. He had never failed to be there for any of them when it counted. Grant and Wilfred were both scouts and demolition experts. Wilfred, Sai and Grant usually cooperated together to create excellent traps that often involved massive explosions. These two were very close friends and often stood by each-other, doubling up in firefights. Finally, Team Dart was a Special Ops team, comprised of Sheldon, Henry, Jeffrey and Ming. This team was a stealth, aerial, tracking and espionage team. Sheldon was an aerial vehicle master. His piloting and ship-fighting (AKA dogfighting) skills were well praised in the Spartan Corps. Henry, Jeffrey and Ming were a stealth-tracking, demolition, and espionage team. They all had a strange ability to hide in a location, and a minute later appear a full kilometer away without being seen. They had never failed to find and destroy any target they were ever assigned to. The team often used Sheldon for aerial cover as they scoped out their target area. Henry, Jeffrey, Ming, Wilfred, Grant and Sai (when put together) were the best demolition, tracking, scouting and stealth squad in the entire UNSC. As Andrew recalled his days with UW Company, he remembered that fateful day when the UNSC HiCom (High Command) had ordered the breaking of UW Company and had sent the different teams to four different systems. Team Paradox was currently campaigning in the Feldoras System. The whereabouts of Team HUX, Team Dart and Team Rubicon was unknown.

As Andrew recollected on his days with the UW Company, he wondered why he had suddenly started thinking of his old friends. As he turned his attention back to the field, he noticed on his radar a massive contingent of Brutes of all ranks headed towards his team's various positions. He noted that there was also a vast amount of Choppers and Prowlers, with 3 AA Wraiths escorting as backup.

Greg's voice crackled in over the comm. "Hey Chief, we've got 2 Pelicans inbound to our position, it looks like they have several vehicles and are obviously bearing reinforcements. Do you have a specific LZ for them?"

Andrew thought quickly and replied back with the location. "The cliff that Candace is on has a huge area of land, wide enough for whatever Company has been sent to reinforce our position. You and Sai fall back to her position to assist with preparations. I'll meet you there in 15 minutes.

As the team split up Andrew stood around the busted warthog and took a look around. The lush jungle atmosphere seemed to be to be lost to Andrew as he stared at the carnage around him. "I hate this part," as Andrew said this he began to walk around the carnage, he bent over the dead bodies of his fallen marines and took their dog tags. Andrew sighed.

"I hate this part"….

15 minutes later, Andrew stood atop the designated hill. The UNSC pelicans landed gracefully on the hill. Andrew's team was already there. As Andrew stood beside his team the dog tags rattled against his amour. Sai, who was standing next to Andrew looked down and said

"Goddamn… so many?"

Andrew looked at Sai, "not everyone's a Spartan Sai".

Just as Sai was about to reply, the doors of the pelicans opened. What was in them shut Sai up momentarily.

A lone Spartan emerged from one of the two pelicans. The distinctive emblem on his armour marked him as Steven, the Master Chief of the next gen. SpartanIIs. Greg was the first to react.

"Master Chief! Sir, what are you doing here? I thought Team HUX was in an entirely different system!" He yelled out with a respectful salute. He smiled widely under his visor.

The Spartan stepped forward and said "Greg, good to see you man! It's not only Team HUX that's here. Team Rubicon and Team Dart have joined us as well. We encountered them on the way to your location. HiCom has ordered the re-formation of the UW Company. Apparently there's something here of relative interest, so we got pulled from our missions to come help you guys since you're obviously doing a sterling job".

Andrew laughed, "Hello Steven. It's been a while eh?"

"Yeah, it has. How's shit out here on Feldoras? HiCom's mission briefing had said that your entire Marine contingent got blown."

"You have no idea Steven. On my way up here, all that was left of Bravo company was these dog tags."

"Welcome to war mate." Steven replied with a hint of a smirk.

Steven made a signal with his hand. 5 warthogs and a hornet were rolled out of the pelicans.

Steven snapped is armoured fingers loudly, and the rest of team HUX exited the Pelican. Jon, Kelvin and Matt formed up behind Steven. Easily recognized by their respective stances and varied heights.

Nearby, the second Pelican's cargo bay opened. 8 armoured figures jumped out, and were again, easily recognized by their respective stances. Chris, Haider, Grant, Wilfred, Sheldon, Jeffrey, Ming and Henry strode calmly into the sunlight, and all respectfully saluted their Chief, Steven.

"And now it all makes sense..." muttered Candace over Team Paradox's private Comm.

Sai chuckled softly. He was immensely happy that his old teammates were all still alive and, now, they were here to stay, and this time, nothing…not even the goddamn HiCom, would be able to separate the UW Company.

Andrew cut the mood, quite drastically. "SO….uh…while its really great to see you guys, we seem to have a large problem….In the form of several thousand Brutes, along with 10 contingents of choppers and prowlers, as well as 3 AA wraiths for support. We absolutely need to get the fuck out of here, or kill these brutes.

"And that, my friend, is why we are here" said Steven.

His orders then flew thick and fast.

"Snipers! Form up; I want 4 of you besides myself!" "You will need your rifles, extra ammunition, and a mid to short range weapon!"

Haider, Candace, Jeffrey and Greg formed up, with their equipment in tow.

"Now, each sniper will be accompanying a warthog. Obviously enough, you will be sniping from the shotgun seat."

"Vehicle operatives, Sai, you're our best. Pick 4 others to drive the 'Hogs."

"Yessir!"

"Let's see. Wilfred, Grant, Ming and Henry, let's get these hogs prepped!"

Steven gave another few orders,

"Alright, we're going to need gunners. Andrew, Chris, Matt, Jon and Kelvin, you're on turrets! Alright people, let's go!"

"Chief, what about me?" asked Sheldon.

"Sheldon, you're taking the Hornet. Assault and Battle Rifles for weapons. You are our aerial cover. Get things set up. I want a report of the terrain around us, and the progress of those Brutes ASAP.

The Warthogs were filled in teams of 3. The lead 'Hog had Sai, Steven and Andrew. The other 4 were: Wilfred, Haider and Chris; Grant, Candace and Matt; Ming, Jeffrey and Jon, and finally Henry, Greg and Kelvin. Sheldon jumped into the already open cockpit of the Hornet. He ran a large slew of diagnostics just to make sure everything was working properly and that all systems were battle-ready.

While this was all going on, Andrew activated his built in helmet binoculars to survey just what exactly they were getting themselves into. Ahead of the cliff that the company was positioned on lay a 15 foot drop, then after that there lay a ruined city about 1 km away. It was here that Andrew increased the magnification on his binoculars and swore at what he saw.

The city was in absolute ruins. Everywhere he looked there was a building on fire, cars upturned, or bodies lying in pools of blood. But it was what now occupied the city that most concerned Andrew. All around the city behind upturned cars or within the buildings Andrew could see millions of Jackals, Brutes, and Grunts setting up barricades, turrets and being generally bossed around by the brutes that were stationed there. If they traveled in a straight line from their current position, it would be a straight drive right into the heart of the city where the brute's main base was most probably situated.

Andrew looked down at Steven who was carrying a sniper rifle with him into the right-hand seat of the warthog. "Well Steven, what's the plan"? Steven looked up at Andrew and ran his index and middle figures over his face plate (the customary Spartan smile in case you forgot) and said "well, the way I see it, the only thing we can do is charge straight through the middle of the goddamn place, rush the brute base, plant this over sized nuke within it (at this Steven pointed to the large nuke sitting squished in between Sai and Steven) and then run like hell".

Andrew frowned, "typical Steven comes up with the most boned headed, arrogant, suicidal, plan in all of existence and you expect all of us to trust that and put our lives on the line for that?" Steven nodded his head. Sai smiled, he knew what Andrew was about to say, and lo and behold he said the exact words Sai was expecting. "So when do we leave chief?"