The Untold Story of Zeta Squad

Authors Note: Greetings, one and all. the main story is finally beginning. It's about time that the plot actually started. This chapter is what I had before I decided to make a prologue, so it has a bit of a prologueish style to it. The story will really start to kick off soon, so bare with me. Whats more, there shall likely not be much author's notes from here on, unless there is a necessity, like some confusion among the readers. Well, here you are. Hope you have as much fun reading this as i did writing it, and as always, please read and reveiw. Enjoy. ;)

Disclamer: I do not own Halo. It is owned by Microsoft Game Studios and 343 Industries.

Chapter 1: Covenant? Meet Zeta!

The city was under attack. Explosions erupted everywhere in clouds of yellow-black and electric blue. Bullets and Plasma flew through the air. The Covenant was pushing the marines back through the city. Warthog's exploded, ghosts flew to pieces. Banshees and falcons circled each other.

Chazz-013, also known now as Zeta-1, ran across the street. Spotting a dumpster that would provide good cover, while running full force, he made a forward leap, tucked into a ball, hit the ground and rolled in behind the dumpster. Pulling the DMR off his back, scanned the surrounding buildings. He knew the marines could handle the enemies on the streets...

There. Two elites. Two in a room in a building, looking through two adjacent windows, and one elite on the roof. The two elites in the windows had needle rifles and the one on the roof had a focus rifle. They were taking pot shots on some marines hiding behind some cars while a pack of grunts were advancing on them. Chazz decided the elite on the roof would go first. He took aim and fired. Four shots, and the elites shields failed, and one more right in the mouth to silence it. As for the other two, Chazz shouldered his DMR and pulled the grenade launcher off his back. Setting up his angle, he squeezed the trigger and held on. The grenade flew threw the air in a graceful arc, entered one of the elites windows and came to rest between the two aliens. Chazz released the trigger and the grenade exploded, killing both elites at once. The marines that had been pinned down behind the cars recovered from the mini siege and charged the advancing grunts.

'That should help them.' thought Chazz, putting his grenade launcher away. Suddenly his motion tracker lit up with dozens if contacts, all scurrying in different directions. It was the effect of elite active cammo. Chazz glanced left and right, trying to find the split-jaw before it found him. At that moment, a voice echoed in his mind. It was his old drill sergeant, yelling at him for something.
'Dammit, Private. How many times do I gotta tell you to look behind you!' Chazz spun around and brought his arms up. Something thudded onto his arms, it was a column of shimmering air, with an elite energy wrist blade on the end. Chazz grabbed the blade arm with one hand and caught the elites other hand while it was trying to punch him. The Spartan and the shimmering air locked into a battle of strength. Chazz flipped on his night vision, even though it was daytime. The green tint to his vision created an outline of the elite, allowing Chazz to see him better. He could now see the two other spec-ops elites advancing on him also, their plasma rifles currently at bay.
'Oh great.' thought Chazz. The elite he was grappling with was slowly winning, and its friends were advancing on him, their own wrist blades energizing.

At that moment, Chaz heard another voice. Not from his mind like the Sarge was, but a voice from his helmet comms.
"Wanna live? Tilt your left shoulder 20 degrees to your right." Chazz didn't understand why someone would tell him to do that, but he recognized the voice, so he trusted him, to some extent. He shifted his arm so that his CQC shoulder was pointing right at the elite he was fighting.

Then everything happens at once. A large CRACK sounded, Chazz was hit so hard he fell over, and all three elites fell dead. Chazz leaped to his feet, his arm slightly numb. Going over what just happened in his mind, he concluded that his teammate had just saved his life. A sniper round had passed through one elites head, struck Chazz's large shoulder plate and rebounded into the other two elites heads. Chazz looked up and found the source of the bullet.

Kyle-040, Zeta-2, faded out of his active camo armor ability and crouched beside a large vent protruding from a roof, his maroon armor blending to the brick. He was quite impressed with himself. Down below, he saw Chazz looking up at him.
"Thanks man." he said "Where did you learn that?" Kyle grinned behind his visor.
"About 10 seconds ago." Chazz visibly shook.
"How did you know that wasn't gonna kill me?" Kyle remained grinning.
"Chazz, there are some things in this world that you just don't ask." With that, Chazz, cursing under his breath, ran off back to the fight, and Kyle resumed his sniping. He was still relishing in the crap he had scared out of Chazz that he did not realize the pair of elites that had reached the roof of the building. It was an officer and a cadet in charge of protecting him. At the sight of the red human, the cadet growled and raised his plasma rifle. The officer held up a hand, stopping the inexperienced elite. HE would have the honor of killing the demon. The officer pulled out his sword and began his advance. He took no more than two steps when he heard a choked roar. The elite spun around and saw only three things. One was his cadet, dead on the floor, with a large knife embedded in his throat. The second was the barrel of a shotgun pointed at his face. The third was the gold face with a red mouth smiling evilly up at him.
'Sup.'

Sam-909, Zeta-3, hung his shotgun on his back and stooped down to the two elite bodies in front of him. After yanking his kukuri knife out of the blue elites neck, he wiped the purple blood off it using the hand of the orange one. He then salvaged some grenades from both elites, and grabbed the orange elites sword, deactivated it, and stored it in the soft pouch on his thigh. Getting up, he glanced over at his teammate, who still didn't realize what just happened.
'He's so absorbed on shooting things.' Sam thought with a smirk. He turned to leave when he heard a whining noise. A squadron of banshees, nine in total, all veered towards the building, coming up on Kyle.
"Oh damn!" yelled Sam, 'He's so absorbed on shooting things!' Sam didn't have time to warn his friend or come up with a plan, so he just ran straight for Kyle.
"HEADS UP!" he yelled at the sniper. Kyle turned towards Sam, and Sam knocked Kyle off the building. The nine banshees each released a fuel rod bomb, sailing right were Kyle had been, which was were Sam still stood. Sam braced himself and fell to one knee just as he was engulfed in green light.

Kyle didn't understand. He had been picking off the enemy forces when Sam had suddenly been there. He yelled something at him and pushed him off the building. While falling, Kyle took in the banshee squadron flying in, and Sam being swallowed by a massive green explosion.
"NO!" Kyle screamed. He landed in a pile of garbage bags on the roof of a lower building beside the one he had been on. He didn't get up for a second. How could his best friend be gone just like that. What would happen to-
"Ow. What's with the yelling? Your gonna blow my ears out." said a voice over the comms, making Kyle straighten.
"Sam?" he said aloud. He looked up at the roof of the other building. The green light was dissipating, and Kyle saw Sam, down on one knee, with his fist slammed into the ground. An electric blue field of indestructible energy surrounded the Spartan. Sam disengaged his armor lock, stood, and turned to Kyle.
"If your not two busy staring at my awesome," he said, his voice full of confidence "Those banshees are coming around."

Kyle shook himself.
"Alright, I'll deal with you later." he called to Sam, and turned to the enemy fliers. The nine fighters were flying low in a V-formation, circling around in the air trying to spot something to kill.
'Alright then' he lifted his rifle, aiming for the lead banshee, and fired a round which tore its right wing off. The banshee pulled hard to the left and hit its wingman, causing the two to explode. The remaining banshees scattered. One discovered Kyle's location and zoomed toward him, plasma cannons blazing. Kyle dove behind the piles of trash and set his rifle up against it, tracking the banshees flight path. The covenant pilot was flying low to get a good shot, so low that it was level with the roof of the first building he was on. Kyle smiled, set his rifle down and counted down on his fingers
'Three...Two...One...' he snapped his fingers. As the banshee glided past the taller building, a streak of gold leaped off the roof of the building and landed on the top of the purple flying machine. Sam stuck his shotgun into the cockpit at fired, killing the elite inside. He then primed all four plasma grenades he had salvaged, and stuck them on one side of the hull, and pushed off. The force of Sam pushing off sent the banshee crashing into the ground, hitting a revenant. Then the grenades detonated. Completely scrapping the banshee and blowing up the revenant. Sam landed in the garbage pile right in front of Kyle.
"Tah-Dah." he said. Kyle rolled his eyes under his helmet, and the two faced the remaining six banshees. They were about to get moving when a voice came in on the comms.
"Looks like you guys have a fly problem. Let us deal with that." and with that, there was a thundering BOOM, and one of the banshees exploded. Kyle and Sam looked down and saw a familiar scorpion tank in the streets. They looked at each other, then sat back to enjoy the fireworks.

"Nice shot Stella." said Adam-130, Zeta 4, to his tank.
"Thank you Adam." the tank replied. Adam sat in the drivers seat of the tank scanning for another target.
"Another banshee, 10 o'clock, veering to the right." Stella swiveled her gun barrel and fired. The explosive round tore into the banshee and detonated, sending the banshee spiraling through the air, trailing blue smoke, before exploding. Over the comms, Adam could hear Sam cheering.
"Whoo! Damn, you two really know how to put on a show." Next came Kyle's voice.
"Sam, there're some more troops advancing on our position." Sam pouted.
"Aww. Just while I was enjoying myself." With that Zetas 2 and 3 left the comms. Adam returned to the banshees.

Two were flying in their direction. Stella was trying to shoot them down, but these pilots were able to evade the cannon fire.
"Adam, the two approaching banshees are fast." said Stella "I cannot land a shot on them." Adam already saw that, and had a counter measure.
"Alright, Stella. Let's try s catapult maneuver. On my mark." Adam retracted the tanks canopy over his head.
"Mark!" Stella activated the ejection system, which fired Adam into the sky. Triggering his jet pack, Adam flew towards the oncoming banshees. Hefting his rocket launcher on his shoulder, he took aim, locked on, and launched a rocket at the farthest banshee. The covenant vehicle swerved and tried to get away, but the guided rocket followed it and struck it in the right engine, causing a chain reaction that tore the banshee apart. The closer one was no more than 20 feet away, so Adam changed to his fuel rod gun and unleashed three rounds. The plasma bombs struck the front of the banshee, the first boiling its armor away, the second killing the pilot, and the third blew the craft to pieces.

Adam was beginning his decent when suddenly his shield flared. The spun in midair to see the remaining two banshees accelerating towards him, firing their guns. They were to far away for the fuel rod to be accurate, and it would take to long for his rockets to lock on. What's more, Adams jet pack was beginning to overheat. He had enough time to safely land, so he would be a sitting duck.
"Stella?" he called to his tank "The last two banshees are coming up on me and I'm a bit of a sitting duck." Stella was also a little busy.
"I am sorry Adam, but a group of ground soldiers have engaged me." Adam looked down to see a ghost patrol attacking his tank.
'She's better off than me' he thought.
"Well, seems like your almost out of options Adam." said a female voice. At that moment, a very shark like pelican flew in from around a building. Jenny, the pilot, spun the pelican around and fired a missile. The diamond tip explosive device tore a hole right through one banshee and hit the second, causing both to explode at the same time.
"Whhoooo Yeeeaaahhhh!" yelled Jenny. With that she flew off to attack more ground troops.

Adam grinned.
"Thanks for that." he called. He turned back as he was controlled falling back to the ground, and his eyes widened in horror.
"Stella, you've got a bad guy on your tail!" An Ultra Elite had mad a run for it, and jumped on the back of the scorpion, a plasma grenade primed.
"I got it." Chazz ran up from around a corner and tackled the elite off the tank. He then the primed grenade and rammed it down the elite throat. No on even stopped to look at what happened to the elite. Chazz saw a line of artillery grunts lined up to unleash hell on Stella.
"Crap!" yelled Chazz. He ran in front of Stella just as the grunts all fired. Chazz triggered his drop shield, stopping all the fuel rod rounds, but then vanished. Chazz couldn't stop it a second time. Then a rocket flew from the sky and killed the the grunts. Adam touched down on the ground and looked back at Chazz.
"Thanks for that." Chazz nodded.
"No problem. Now let's finish this fight."

With no more air support, the Covenant was growing weaker, and the marines now went on the offensive. Chazz got a seat in the turret of a warthog and unleashed hell. Jenny flew low over the mass of covenant forces, Her 75 cal. machine gun tearing them up. An elite hefted a fuel rod gun and tracked the pelican's movement. It was about to fire when a sniper round tore through its head. Kyle then shot a brute, passing through its helmet and head and hitting a hunter in its exposed back, killing it instantly. An Anti-Air wraith locked on to Jenny, but Sam leaped on top of it, and punched a hole through the hatch, an elite looked up at him. Sam smiled and dropped a grenade in the drivers seat. He then reached in and triggered the wraith's boost ability, causing it to accelerate into a horde of enemies, running a bunch over. Sam jumped off and activated his armor lock just as the wraith exploded, vaporizing everything in a five yard radius. Sam popped out of lock and charged a pack of brutes, his SMG rattling. Adam and Stella together brought down a scarab, the Covenants last hope. The battle had turned exponentially, until the tensing aliens were surrounded from all sides. Soon they killed them. All but one. Jenny radioed the cruiser in orbit.
"Midnight Shadow, this is pelican Juliet-Seven-Two-Niner. The enemies have either been neutralized or have run away in small groups."
"Very good, Seven-Two-Niner." said the commander of the Shadow, Admiral Jesse "Pick up the miracle boys and come home."
"Copy Midnight Shadow, over and out."

The four Spartans all advanced on the elite Zealot, the last remaining enemy. It stared at the four Spartans, its eyes burning with hate. Adam took a step towards it.
"I'll bet that didn't go as you planned." the Elite roared in rage and charged Adam, with no weapon. For that it received a sniper round in one foot from Kyle and a DMR round in its other foot from Chazz. The Zealot fell to its knees. Sam strolled up and squatted so that he stared it right in the face.
"Now that was bad manners. I should make you apologize to my friend here." The elite snapped its mandibles at him.
"You dare mock me, Demons?" it hissed. Sam cocked his head to one side.
"Yeah, I've been wanting to ask you guys about that." and he pulled his helmet off, his grey eyes piercing the elite's.
"Why do you only call us 'Demons'? Were humans like them." he pointed to a group of marines. "Why don't you call them demons?" The Zealot gave a growl and didn't reply.
"Oh well." said Sam, shrugging. He then pulled out the serrated knife on his chest. The elite didn't even flinch.
"There are others. More will come. This world will soon burn." Sam leaned in so he was right in the elites face, and brandished his knife.
"Let's see them try."