**Note: Halo and all of the characters, weapons, vehicles, technology, history, locations and "extended universe" content belongs to Bungie. I do not own any of it. Well, except for maybe my own characters. **

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Chapter 2: A New Beginning

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He turned around, face to face with a Covenant Elite. The Elite pushed him down, and laughed a deep, menacing laugh. It pointed its gun at Joe's head.

Then, it fired.

He closed his eyes, waiting for death to come, but nothing happened. He opened his eyes, and saw that the Elite stood, with its mandibles slightly apart. That was when he noticed a hand in a knife shape jutting through the alien's chest. The Elite crumpled to a heap, and Joe saw the SPARTAN named Joshua, shaking his hand clean of dark-purple blood.

"Thanks," Joe said to the man gratefully. The SPARTAN merely nodded. "Just try to stay with the group next time," he said. Joe agreed with him whole-heartedly. One generally listens to a two meter tall armored soldier.

He got up, and noticed a melted spot of metal just a foot above where his head had been. That was too close…he thought to himself. "Come on," a voice barked, snapping him out of his thoughts. He moved back with the rest of the group. They slowly moved towards the doors leading to the outside. It was just at the end of the hallway, and they made it there without incident. Two of the SPARTANS took post on either side of the door, and Joshua slowly opened it.

There was nothing outside.

The group quickly but quietly moved to the corner of a brick building. Joe was in an ideal place, and he peeked around the corner. He saw Covenant Grunts and Jackals everywhere, and he even saw some odd, pink, floating covenant. One of these was taking apart a pay phone, and putting it back together again, at an amazing speed. He continued to watch this creature, until a hand firmly grabbed his shoulder and turned him around. He was looking at the chest of one of the SPARTANS.

"Hmm, I should have known you would wander off again," it said, with a slight hint of amusement in its voice, which sounded female. Joe realized that he was talking to a woman, and suddenly felt embarrassed by looking at her armored chest, for some odd reason. He looked up into her visor.

"Right," he replied with a weak smile. "It won't happen again."

"Well come on then, let's go!" she said with urgency. "Something doesn't feel right…" So, they moved off. This was when Joe noticed another woman next to the SPARTAN, looking around nervously. Huh, Joe thought to himself. She must have wandered off too. So I'm not the only one then, he thought with a hollow laugh to himself.

The group of three reached the other corner of the building, and the female SPARTAN said to them, "Okay. I'm going to sprint ahead and cover you as you run to that cover over there," she said, pointing to a burned-out building, where Joe could see another SPARTAN crouching. "Ready?" she asked. Both Joe and the woman next to him nodded. As soon as they nodded, the SPARTAN was off, sprinting to the building. She was so fast; she covered the 100 meters in seconds. She turned around, and motioned for Joe to come next. He tensed himself, preparing to sprint. Just as he was about to go, a thought popped into his head. I know what was so weird before. There were no Elites in that street. Almost as soon as he had thought this, several Covenant Elites seemed to appear from thin air, one on either side of him, and one directly in front of him. He turned around to run away, and he was greeted by two more. He heard a scream, and turned around to see the woman who was next to him, being held by one of the Elites. The alien had one arm hooked around her neck, and the other was reaching for his weapon.

He's going to kill her, Joe thought. He had to do something – and fast. If he didn't she would die, and he would be next. He noticed that the Elite was having trouble holding on to her – almost as if the alien were oily, and she was slipping from his choke-hold. The shield, Joe thought. She's slipping because of the energy shield around its body. The alien made a loud annoyed sound, and Joe heard the tell-tale sound of something powering down. The Elite suddenly had a much better grip on her. Joe then remembered the captured plasma pistol. He pulled it out of his belt, and aimed it at the Elite's head. If I'm going to die, I'm taking this bastard with me, he thought, as he pulled back the trigger and held it. The weapon started to get even brighter, and a green orb formed at the end. The weapon started to shake violently. Startled, Joe let go of the trigger, and a wave of heat washed over him, making his eyes water. He blinked away the tears, and stared at where he had fired. The Elite that he had fired at now had no head – it had been totally vaporized. The woman that it was holding fell to the ground, and its gold-armored body crumpled. The woman crawled towards Joe, and huddled next to him. The other Elites were staring at the body in shock, wondering how it was possible for a human to kill one of their kin. Then, they looked to where Joe and the woman were huddled on the ground, and snarled. They raised their weapons, and Joe grabbed for the captured plasma pistol, but he then realized that he dropped it. He was about to accept that he was going to die, when someone yelled "Get down!" and Joe gladly complied. He hugged the woman tightly, and dropped as close to he ground as he could. There was a loud Zzzaaaap noise, and lots of gunfire. When the firing had ceased, there were 5 dead Elites around them.

He looked back in the direction of the gunfire, and saw three SPARTANS with their guns raised. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

He spotted his fallen plasma pistol, and reached for it. When he picked it up, he noticed that the green light inside the "jaws" of the weapon was now dim, and the trigger of the gun would not even be pulled.

One of the SPARTANS saw him looking at the gun, and explained, "It was an EMP blast. That's why it was so easy to kill these tough bastards," he said as he gave dead Elite a king in the teeth. "That gun will be as useful now as if you were to try hitting them with a rock. Still though, I'll take it. We need as much information on covenant technology as we can get. Now, are you going to sit there all day, or do you want to follow us to the drop ship?"

The latter sounded like a very good idea to Joe, and so he stood up and handed the now dead weapon to the soldier. He took a few steps forward, when he heard a sniffling sound. The young woman that he had saved was sitting and crying. He looked ahead as the SPARTANS moved forward with the rest of the survivors. He was going to yell for them to wait, but then he considered that to be a very bad idea. He walked back to her and knelt down.

"Hey," he asked. "Are you alright?"

She looked at him with wide brown eyes – with a look of terror. Of course Joe knew that being grabbed by an alien and almost killed isn't a pleasant experience. So no, she isn't bloody alright.

"We should really get going," he said. He glanced up at the group of survivors, and saw that they were now much further away. He got a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. In most places of life, you only three chances – after that, you're out of luck. He knew that he had already burned out his three chances, and then some. He looked back down at her and with a sense of urgency he said, "Look, I know you are scared. I am too, but we have to keep up with the group otherwise we will be caught by the Covenant and killed for sport." She still didn't respond. Joe sighed and tried one more time.

"I don't know about you, but I'm not going to get caught again. I'm going to go with the group. You can choose to follow me or not. Just remember that I'm not going to be here to save you again." When she still didn't respond, Joe gave up and turned around to leave. As he took a step away, he felt a hand grab his wrist.

"Wait," said a warm voice. "I'm coming with you."

Joe looked down and into her face. He helped her up, and she gave him a weak but beautiful smile. He couldn't quite see her face properly, as she was wearing a brimmed hat and formal dress wear, which went up to her mouth. He gazed at her for a little while longer, when she finally asked, "Well? Are we leaving, or are we going to stand here?" Joe snapped out of it and silently walked with her to the corner of the building. They both peeked around the corner, and looked for the group of survivors.

They were nowhere in sight.

Joe searched frantically for them, but he didn't see them anywhere. He just wanted to give up right then and there, but he knew that if he did that, he would be killed for certain. At least he would have a better chance of survival if he tried to escape. Besides, he had another person in tow, and he couldn't sentence her to sure death on his behalf. He turned to her and whispered, "Come on."

They slowly crept out of their hiding place, and they went off in the general direction that Joe thought he saw the survivors go. They darted from tree to tree, from broken wall to broken wall, hiding for their life. After a little while, Joe saw a strange purple-black splatter on the ground, and pondered as to what it was. Then it struck him where he had seen this before.

It was the blood of a Covenant Elite.

He looked around for a wounded Elite that might want to finish them off, but he found no such thing. When they rounded a half destroyed wall, a rather gory sight met their eyes. There was a trail of purple-black blood that ended in a pool. Lying in that pool was a Covenant Elite – or rather part of one. Its legs were gone and only its torso remained. There were bits everywhere. The woman averted her eyes, and Joe tried to, but then they locked onto its face. The expression it had was horrible – the epitome of pain. He couldn't even begin to describe what it looked like. He even felt sorry for the poor guy – if it was even a guy. You can't even tell with them. However, this dead Elite did mean something good; it meant that the group of survivors was nearby. He could tell, because the bits of the alien were still smoking.

"Come on," he said to the woman. Of course he didn't really need to say that. It's not like she would stop and refuse to go on. As he was leaving, he noticed a blue glow amongst the pile of gore. He slowly walked into the smoldering area, and picked up what appeared to be a functioning Covenant weapon, albeit a blood soaked one. He aimed it at the wall and slowly pulled the trigger to make sure that it did actually work. He pulled, and suddenly the trigger locked up.

"Damn," he muttered. He chucked the weapon onto the ground, and it landed with a loud clatter. As they were turning to leave, he heard a high pitched whistle, and a rather odd sight came floating into view.

The first thing that Joe noted was that it definitely wasn't human. The second thing he saw was that it was somehow floating about a meter above the ground. It was a sort of grayish-pink color, and it has weird bumps allover its body. The thing that was really creepy to Joe was the fact that it had six eyes, and several tentacles. Both Joe and the woman shrank back from the creature. It floated into the room and seemed to ignore both Joe and the woman. It immediately gravitated towards the weapon that Joe had thrown away, and picked it up using a tentacle. It held up another tentacle, and the end of that split into hundreds of super-fine cilia. It probed the weapon with these, and then cracked the case. It fiddled with it for a little while, and then with a chirp, put it back together. It floated towards Joe and the woman, and she hugged tight to him. It pointed the weapon at them, butt first.

"It's not attacking us," Joe thought, "It's giving it to us."

He took the weapon, and the alien chirped happily. The weapon hummed in his hands, and Joe realized that it would now work. He turned to thank the alien, when it suddenly bolted towards the outside. Joe and the woman followed it, and watched as it repaired several different broken Covenant weapons. That's when Joe realized that they were following a trail of dead Covenant bodies. The little alien didn't seem to care, though. It seemed like it just wanted to fix things. Several thoughts popped into Joes head then. One of them was to follow the trail of dead bodies to the group of survivors, and the other was that the alien would repair plenty of Covenant weapons for the SPARTANS to research. They followed the alien as it went, and collected the weapons that it gave to them. Joe could barely hold any more, and was going to have to ditch some of them, when the new alien suddenly darted forward. Joe was so into what the alien was doing, that he didn't notice the gigantic ship in front of him. However, this wasn't a Covenant ship, but a human one, with humans standing around it. They had found the group of survivors! And just in time too, as it appeared that all the other civilians were already on board the dropship, and they were almost ready to take off.

The alien kept going until it reached a SPARTAN and grabbed the plasma pistol attached to his belt. The armored soldier turned around and saw the alien, and was ready to attack it, when Joe screamed, "Wait! It's not hostile!" The soldier looked up quizzically at the sound, and stopped half-punch. He stared at Joe and the woman, and then let his hand drop and gave a curt nod. The alien gave the weapon back to him, and floated in place.

The SPARTAN motioned for the dropship ramp to be opened, and it slowly eased open. "Get on board you two!" he ordered. And so, they did. The little alien chirped in a frantic way, and tried to get on board the ship. The SPARTAN gently but firmly held it back. Joe and the woman climbed on board, and the alien tried even harder to get on. That's when Joe noticed that its eyes were locked on him, and there was a look of desperation in them. He quickly said to the SPARTAN, "I think it wants to follow me on. Please, just let it."

The soldier thought for a second, and then looked down at the pile of weapons that Joe had brought him. "Very well," he replied. "But if he does anything that threatens anyone's safety, he's coming with me." He let the alien go on board the dropship, and it immediately floated over to Joe. Other people on the ship gave it weird – and some scared – looks, but the alien was content where it was.

The woman turned to Joe, and said, "Thanks for saving me back there. I would have been a goner for sure."

Joe replied, "Well, I wouldn't just leave you to die. I couldn't even if I had wanted to," he reminded her. "Besides," he continued. "I wouldn't have someone to talk to if I had." She gave him a smile, and she asked him, "I never did find out what your name was."

He replied, "My name is Joe. And you?"

"My name is Madeline, but you can call me Maddy."

"It's nice to meet you Maddy. I'm glad we had the opportunity of meeting each other, even though the situation isn't right," he added with a dry smile.

She was about to reply, when she was cut off by a sudden upward lurch. They both help on to their seats and the alien gave a squeal of surprise. They were taking off. As they were leaving, Joe had a clear view of Cotê de Azure. He watched his city lowly shrink away into the setting sun. That's when a strange blob of light appeared where the city was, and Joe was trying to figure out what it was, when a shockwave hit the ship. That's when he realized that the city had been blown up – that it had been nuked. Part of him was sad to see this happen, but another part of him was glad to see it go. There was nothing left for him there, and it was time to start a new life.

After a while, both he and Maddy fell asleep, and even the alien did. And there they were – the oddest trio that one would ever see, peacefully asleep, slowly drifting upwards…

The Elite named Ilpa 'Veromee seemed to materialize out of thin air. He looked at the remains of his fallen friend with anger. The human explosive device had ripped him in two, spraying bits of him everywhere. However, he was still left alive – the humans would not even give him a mercy killing; disgusting creatures. His friend Adsp 'Ileolee had been alive long enough for him to ask for revenge of his death. 'Veromee vowed to hi that he would find the human responsible and punish him.

He heard a small group of humans coming, and he activated his cloaking. He watched in silence as the human came with only one other, and he was tempted to kill him then and there, but that is when he realized that this must be the human responsible for the death of 'Ileolee. Any human powerful enough to take out a Sangheili single handedly is a very powerful warrior indeed. He would need to take him by surprise.

He didn't know where the human would go, so he thought up a plan. He took his own plasma rifle, and jammed the trigger and then silently stuck it next to his dead comrades' body. Just as he had expected, the human immediately gravitated towards the power of the great ones as did all things living. The creature picked up the weapon, and tossed it aside, finding it was broken. That is when 'Veromee sent out a Huragok to fix it. He then followed the three of them to an enemy dropship. He captured the scent of the human, and put a nano-tracker onto the ship. He snuck forward to take the Huragok back, but he stepped on a twig and snapped it. The Huragok, being the cowards they are, immediately darted onto the human dropship. It looked like 'Veromee had another to kill – this one a traitor.

He slowly crept back to the shelter of the wrecked building, and through the human forest. He got back into their dropship, and told the pilot to take off immediately. He had a feeling that something bad was going to happen soon. As soon as they were five hundred units off the planets surface, there was a loud explosion. 'Veramee looked at the view screen, and saw that the human city was engulfed in a ball of fire. He went back to his seat, and vowed to revenge his fallen friend, no matter the cost.

Authors notes:

Dun, dun dun! And so the plot thickens! Sorry for the long delay (for those who actually read my story). Between school and work, I haven't had time to write.

Please R & R. Thanks!

Cheers,

gman021