Ok, well, wow. This story was already favorited and I even got a review, oh, and followers. Thanks guys! :D Those little actions are very much appreciated.

Anyways, this chapter is way longer than the first one. I hope I didn't add too much detail. . I also hope I got the mission down. I'm just doing this by memory. I haven't played Halo for a month or so now. Been too busy. I should play it again real soon.

*Ahem* Well, anyways. I already gave a warning. There is swearing in this story. Also, I would like to add that I do not on Halo or Noble Team and the Covenant, no matter how epic that would be.

KEY

thinking thinking thinking= Thinking

/Do you copy? Do you copy?/= Comm Link (that's what you call it, right?)

Chapter 2

Nisha groaned as she fluttered her eyes open. She was met with the intricate eggshell-white ceiling of her room. Then as her dark brows knitted together, she lifted her left hand towards her face and flexed her thin fingers, hoping that nothing was broken.

When her hand seemed fine, she tested the other one and in relief discovered that her right hand had made it too.

Groaning, she lifted herself onto an upright position only to feel her head seemingly being crushed between two boulders. The pain began from the back of her head and she inhaled sharply and then let her body to fall back down onto the floor.

Letting her body relax against the ground, she remembered the event from the previous night. There had been a storm, and then an earthquake.

Turning her head to the side to survey her door, she narrowed her eyes at the door. The doorknob…she had tried turning it, but it wouldn't turn. What had happened? Perhaps it had frozen in place?

Her logical reasoning said otherwise.

When she attempted to sit up again, the pain from the back of her head exploded and Nisha was forced to go back down. Letting the first few feelings of panic crawl through her numb body, she daringly let one of her hands venture to explore the back of her head to see if she was bleeding. She drew her hand away and then let it appear in front of her face. There was no blood, thankfully.

Letting that hand fall limply onto the ground she cleared her throat.

"Mom! Dad! Shane!" She repeated herself several times and allowed her voice to become louder with each repetition but she received no response and eventually her voice became hoarse.

Fear twisted painfully at her stomach and this allowed her to bolt upright and momentarily ignore the screaming pain in the back of her head as she launched herself at the door. Was her family all right?

When she tried the doorknob, it still did not budge, and in her panic, Nisha began to pound at the door. Each pound was accompanied by a heated word and soon she resolved to kicking the wooden hinged slab.

"Open dammit! Open!" Her hoarse voice was a mixture of anger and fear. Each kick only made her panic even more. Would if her family was hurt? How could she help them when she was stuck in her room? She felt a lump grow in her throat and she fisted her hands. No, she couldn't cry right now.

Soon, both her hands and feet, and her hips (she even slammed her hips against the door) became sore and she let herself fall on her bed. Her breathing was heavy and her feet, hands, and hips throbbed.

Trying to calm herself down, she looked over and tried switching on her lamp. The power was still out. Angry, scared, and confused, the teenager then smacked the lamp hard onto her desk before she felt pity for it. She had to calm down; she had to control her anger.

As she let her dark eyes waver onto the floor, they swept over her room and her spirits were suddenly lifted when she spotted her iPhone. Without any hesitation, she leaped at it like a wild animal and then turned it on. There was only one thing wrong though.

Where her lock screen should have been, there, in bright red, bold letters were the words sprayed across the pitch-black screen: ERROR ERROR ERROR ERROR

No matter how many times or how hard she tapped the screen, Nisha couldn't access her phone and soon she gave up.

When she about to check the windows, there was a loud bang at her door that caused her heart to fly right out of her chest. The girl froze on her spot and let her eyes focus on the shadows under the crack of the door. There were lean shadows that danced across the ground and then there was movement. Another heavy bang, and another. Soon, the banging intensified until each one caused the door to shake and almost bend.

Nisha didn't know whether to speak or not. Was it the police? Either way, her voice was frozen in her throat and she stared like an idiot.

No, the police would have called out…they wouldn't bang the door like that…

There was another loud bang at her door, this time accompanied with fast, chattering voices. They sounded more animalistic and yet so alien. There were scratching noises against the door, as if some animal were dragging its claws against the wood.

Another bang resounded into the cold room and Nisha winced and suddenly, she felt an adrenaline rush as she realized that these people, or creatures, weren't planning on helping her.

As quietly and quickly as she could, she scooped up her phone, hoping it would be useful later on, and went into her walk-in closet and shut the door behind her. The closet was freezing but right now, Nisha was unaffected, as her body seemed to go on a heating rage. Her heart was thumping furiously and she could feel the blood in her veins rush throughout her body, giving her some animalistic energy.

Remembering her opening chest/window sill thing, she opened it up and then quickly wiggled in, ignoring the other old, dusty items and closed the lid as quietly as she could and allowed herself to settle into the cramped space and let the darkness envelope her.

Still panicking, she dug her way deeper and tried burying herself further under all the junk, not caring about the musty smell that would cling onto her. The only thing she feared was making noise or sneezing.

Just as she had buried herself under some of her old jackets and stuffed toys, she heard her door crash open and instantly her body tensed.

She tried not to breathe and her heart was racing so much that it actually hurt her chest. In vain, she tried to control her breathing and her beating heart.

There was that same chattering noise and steady, careful steps. There was a heart stopping moment when she heard another bang and then a familiar sound that she had only heard from a videogame she had played.

Was that a plasma pistol?

There was more chattering, although this time it was harsher. Nisha almost chuckled when she realized that whatever these things were, one of them was getting a scolding. That amusing thought instantly vanished when she heard the voices come closer. No doubt, they were right in front of her closet door.

She heard scratching against the door and then the sound of the doorknob being turned. As the door was forced open fast, it squeaked quickly and she could feel the wind rush through the miniscule crack in the lid.

Nisha felt herself stop breathing altogether and she feared that her heartbeat would give her away. All she could do was helplessly look through the tiny crack and hope whoever, or whatever the swift shadows belonged to, they wouldn't find her.

In the panic filled air, Nisha could hear everything in detail. She could hear the soft, stealthy steps on the carpet, and the animalistic clicking noises coming from the creatures.

A blotch of gray and black covered the crack, and there was a flash of metallic purple and green.

Nisha almost gasped.

A plasma pistol!

Suddenly, the pieces fell into place, and at first, the girl thought that she was just hallucinating, or going insane.

Plasma pistol…. animalistic clicking…stealthy steps…gray and black…

An image of a skirmisher popped into her head and she let that image freeze in her head as she took it all in.

No, no, this is a dream…a nightmare…or is it?

Dream or not, Nisha could definitely feel the fear instilled in her body, and she remained quiet and hoped that these creatures would just leave, or just find her and get it over with. She couldn't take anymore of the suspense.

There was that chattering voice again right above the lid of her chest and Nisha felt herself curl even more into a tight ball, her eyes growing wide with fear. There were a few clicks and high growls when the sounds stopped altogether. The silence stretched out and although it was quiet, Nisha could still sense the presence of the aliens.

There was a questioning chattering from the one farther away from her hiding spot and then an affirmative growl from the one closest to the frightened girl.

From the tiny crack, she spotted flashes of gray and black and felt the wind as the skirmishers ran out of her room and away to wherever.

Even minutes later after the creatures' departure, Nisha still remained hiding, barely breathing as she tried to muster enough to courage to get out.

It' a dream…just a really realistic one…

With that thought repeated in her mind, the teenager slowly allowed herself to open the lid just a crack and peer out. There were no skirmishers greeting her with plasma pistols.

She kept opening the lid more and more each time she was sure that they had left until she was standing and peering around, now curious.

Finally with the hopes of it being a dream, and that familiar spark of curiosity, she crawled out of her hiding spot and looked out of the doorframe of the closet and gasped.

Her desk, which was directly in front of her about six feet away, had been partly melted and there was a mark that decorated the half-melted part. It looked like an exploded black star, and it was no doubt the mark of a plasma pistol. Some of her books had also caught on fire and were now black ashes and her lamp was as good as gone.

Slowly exiting the closet, her eyes slid onto the wall where her board had been. It was once adorned with a collage of pictures of her and her family, but now it was completely empty, and there was a scratch mark left on one corner. Looking down, Nisha expected to see the pictures on the floor but she saw nothing.

Where are my pictures?!

The girl crouched down and began looking over the messy carpet, even under her now messed up bed but found none of her family photos. Nisha began to panic more and she shook her head, hoping that the skirmishers had just crumpled them and thrown them away with no care. Most of the pictures had been of herself at various vacation spots and some more with mostly her and Shane.

"Where are they? Where are they?" It was no use, her search proved to be fruitless and her only conclusion was that they had been taken or just melted.

Realizing that this issue wasn't so big right now, Nisha stood back up and then looked out the doorway, realizing that the door had indeed been kicked open violently as it hung from its hinges. A crack webbed from the center to the edge, but that wasn't what caused the teenager to freeze in her place.

Instead of a cool, winter breeze, the breeze that wafted into the room was warm, and almost humid. There was also tall, wild grass and the sun's light was strong and sprayed everywhere on the ground. Boulders of all sizes littered the ground and there were a few dry patches of dirt where no vegetation grew. There were also trees with oddly shaped branches popping from the ground.

Where the hell am I?

At first, Nisha thought that she was in Florida, based on the feeling of the breeze, but she remembered the skirmishers and her stomach nearly flopped right out of its place.

"No way…" she breathed as she took curious steps toward the doorframe. As she peered out of her room, she tried her best to look up at the sky without being blinded but failed, so instead she let her eyes wander around the terrain, taking it all in.

"Yep. I'm on Reach. I'm so dead."

Well, I there ya go guys. I hope you liked it. I know it wasn't much longer than the first chapter, but the next ones should be more longer. Maybe. Probably.

I'll be working on the next chapter soon. If you saw any mistakes, grammatical ones, or just ones concerning Halo, please PM me and I'll try to fix it. Thanks! :D