This took a little longer than I wanted. Sorry if once again short, I had trouble writing but I needed to get it going!

"We're coming in too fast!" Informed a distressed chipmunk AI over Sonic's COM link.

"Really, Sal? I hadn't noticed…" Said a snarky hedgehog Spartan.

Saltana rolled her eyes.

The Bumblebee flew over a cliff, trailing smoke in the sky. Sonic watched from inside as the craft headed towards the ground at an alarming rate.

"Damn! Air brake failure! They blew too early! I'm losin' her. Brace for impact!" Forewarned the pilot as the four air breaks tore off at the back of the pod from the fast descent.

"We either have complications landing safely due to Sonic's armor and its additional one thousand pound mass - on the other hand, it is also unlikely that the Bumblebee's designers would utilize highly constrained mass profiles in designing the pod, given that atmospheric resistance and gravity vary considerably from planet to planet. Either way, I fear the worst, everyone!" Sally was worried for the entire pod's safety but knew if everyone, including the Chief, did not make it upon landing, she would be stranded – which was not a nice idea to her, mind you.

What seemed like moments later, the pod hit the ground. An explosion shook the pod violently; it was not a soft landing, to say the least. From here there would be no turning back now. It was quiet in the pod. Saltana examined the atmosphere with a sigh. Looking at her companion having been knocked down by the impact, she attempted to wake him.

"Chief? Chief! Can you hear me?" Blue eyelids slowly opened in the visor, revealing two green eyes, blurred by head pain. "At last! Are you alright? Can you move?"

"Yeah, I think so…" Sonic said holding his head while sitting up, looking around to the seats where all the passengers sat. "Oh no…"

"The others…" Saltana finished Sonic Chief's thought quietly. "The impact - there's nothing we can do."

"Yeah…" Sonic replied somberly, checking the vitals of first the pilot, then the four dead marines strapped into their pods, including the hedgehog he hoped to get to know better (seeing him dead broke Sonic's heart) and finally the other four that fell outside the Bumblebee.

"Warning!" Sally changed the subject. "I've detected multiple Covenant drop ships on approach. I recommend moving into those hills. If we're lucky, the Covenant will believe that everyone aboard this lifeboat died in the crash."

"Alright, first I want to explore a little…"

"Do what you will. It's not like I have say over where I'm transported to…" She responded as he chuckled, making way towards the waterfall up ahead, directly straight out from the crashed lifepod. "I'm reading thousands of types of flora. The ring's ecosystem is incredibly sophisticated."

"Heh, leave it to you to state the obvious."

"You're feeling rather playful, Sonic. Are you itching for a fight?" Saltana asked with a smile.

"You bet, Sal!"

Having noticed a bridge behind him, knowing good and well that even with his speed, to attempt to jump over the chasm would not result in anything good – as falling into the stream and down the side of the cliff by way of a larger waterfall did not sound pleasant to him, for good reason; he immediately went to cross it but also noticed how narrow it was and decided a slow approach would be smarter as to not let his fear of falling take place.

"Alert! Covenant Drop ship inbound! They must be looking for survivors. I recommend immediate evasion!"

"I'm not gonna miss this!" Sonic said heading back towards the pod, hiding in the pod and readying his pistol to take the first shot on a Grunt before taking any real action on the big guys.

"Have it your way, tiger."

"I'm a hedgehog, Sal, you know that-"

"It's a figure of speech, I'm supporting you for the upcoming battle." Sonic raised an eyebrow. "Nevermind, just watch your back, Sonic."

Hearing the loud rumble from above, Saltana stated, "Alert! Covenant drop ship has detected us, here they come."

"I'm ready…" Sonic crouched low with the pistol at the ready and aimed dead center ahead. The dropship made its descent and before taking leave, it deployed two Elites and a handful of Grunts. The shaky Unggoy were being shoved forward by the edgy Sangheili, Sonic muttered, "Come on over, you sneaky little imps."

As soon as one hobbled in Sonic's crosshairs, its head came clean off with the trigger-finger of the blue hedgehog. The Grunts panicked and ran in all directions – one escaped to the bridge, even. One of the Elites came into Sonic's view and he said to it,

"Why do you guys bother deploying the little guys if all they do is run?" Firing at the Elite with his Assault Rifle and downing him with a round of bullets, Sally retorted,

"They are cannon fodder, they are meant to divert your fire from the main warriors by overwhelming you in large numbers and-"

"Quiet you, I didn't ask you." He chuckled, downing all the Grunts and then spin-dashing into the second Elite.

"The remaining Grunt is taunting you on the other side of the chasm!" Saltana notified Sonic.

"Heh, I'll teach him to taunt a way past cool hedgehog! Time for another spin-dash!" As he folded himself into a ball and revved his inner engine, Sally asked,

"What happened to going it slow across the narrow bridge?"

"My integrity was attacked…" Sonic replied.

"Riiight…" Sally scoffed jokingly.

Having narrowly escaped falling, he rolled down the bridge, leapt up and towards the spiteful Grunt and blew him into tiny bits. Some of it fell off the cliff while the rest rolled down the incline of the hill.

Walking along the other end of the Cliffside, Sonic noticed two banshees flying overhead, shooting at him.

"Whaddya think I oughta do, Sal? Go to their level or bring 'em down to mine?"

"I'd fancy seeing you do both."

"Two plates of banshee stew, comin' right up!" Sonic said as he furiously but carefully fired his pistol at the hull of one of the vulturing aircraft. After about ten to fifteen shots, the first banshee blew up and fell down the chasm and into the stream. Shuddering at the sight of water, Sonic looked to the horizon and saw the second banshee fleeing around the bend. "Oh no you don't, banshee!"

"I strongly discourage what you're about to do!" Sally cautioned.

"And I strongly disagree!" He stated as he spin-dashed to gain some speed, slingshot himself into the air, and scarcely made it to the banshee where he then placed a plasma grenade he looted from one of the Elite bodies and it stuck to the hull of the banshee. As he departed from the craft, letting himself fall to the edge of the canyon below, the banshee above exploded and dropped to the ocean beyond the canyon.

As Sonic dove nose first to where he leapt, he stretched his hands and readied his feet for a landing – which did not mirror his initial take-off. Hitting the ground, he tumbled towards the chasm and before he could fall, he gripped the corners of the cliff – hanging on by his fingers.

"Can I say I told you so?" Sally snobbishly asked.

"No, I'm fine, Sal." He said as he pulled himself up onto the grassy hill.

"You were seconds away from plummeting into the chasm…"

"It's an occupational hazard*1 to goof up, at least I stuck the S.O.B!" He said wiping the debris off his armor.

"It is better to let an enemy retreat than meet certain death, Sonic."

"Not for my ego, it isn't."

"I submit…" Saltana sighed, giving up the argument with Sonic.

Treading through the canyon now, Sonic was face to face with an Elite leading four Grunts.

"Time to take out the trash!" Sonic said eagerly as he pulverized the robots until they were nothing but scrap metal or nuts and bolts.

Moving further into the canyon, he jumped down a couple steep short cliffs. A familiar sound of a Spirit dropship was on the left side of Sonic's line of hearing.

"I'm reading a lifeboat beacon over the next hill. We should check to see if there are any survivors." Said Saltana.

"And I detect some bots to take down!" And sure enough, there were Sangheili and Unggoy attacking some survivors.

"Huh, I guess both of us were right. Do your thing, Sonic." Smirking, he took care of a pesky Elite and three grunts all with a Needler. Upon killing one of them, Sonic stood over one of the bodies and ransacked it of a Needler.

"I haven't used one of these in a while." Sonic pointed out.

"Ah, Type-33 Guided Munitions Launcher, such a curious little weapon. Did you know that its effective range of fire is 210 feet?"

"Do you really feel the need to share useless information, Sal?"

"Sorry, I tend to go on tangents whenever something new and exciting comes my way. It's part of my ability to process things that need to be stored for later use. I just have this innate unstoppable motor that runs on information and without sharing it, the data goes nowhere and can be recycled inside of me endlessly until it drives me mad. But I digress…" Sally clearing her throat, virtually sat in the back of Sonic's mind, awaiting to be needed once more.

"Right. Let's just keep going."

Approaching the survivors after battle, there stood Avery "Knuckles" Johnson and a few others.

"Good to see you, sir! Welcome to the party! I thought we were the only ones to make it off of the Pillar of Autumn!" Greeted a stallion by the last name of Bisenti.

"It's a mess, Sonic," Knuckles sighed. "We're scattered all over this valley. We called for evac, but until you showed up, I thought we were cooked."

"Don't worry, Sergeant. We'll stay here until evac arrives." Saltana reassured Knuckles.

"Heads up! I got a Covenant drop ship headin' in, over here!" Said Private Mendoza the Ant over the COM. Heading behind the structure in the center of the area, Sonic Chief went to go deal with the villains – including Kig-Yar, also known as Jackals.

"Hey, look, it's the ugly Jackals using their crummy shields! Time for a spin-dash!" Slicing and dicing through a flood of Jackals, some Elites and Grunts, Sonic had left a few leftovers to the rest of the soldiers.

"Look sharp! Covenant drop ship on approach! I could use some help over here!"

"On my way!" Sonic sped through the open terrain, awaiting the dropship to deploy unfortunate robots. The doors had barely opened when all robots were down. The Spirit knew shooting back would gain nothing so as quick as it came it left. "That's right, suckers! Nyah nyah!" Sonic said making a humorous face as it left from his view.

As a third dropship hovered where Chief entered the area, Mendoza said, "Uh-oh, another bandit droppin' in behind us! They're tryin' to flank us!"

"This is my life. And I'm okay with that!" Sonic said as he dealt with the flanking enemies. As more came in from another dropship, Sonic embraced the open air with his courage-filled lungs and exhaled the peace that would result in this long war.

"It's beautiful out here, isn't it Sonic?" Saltana said unexpectedly as Sonic delivered the blow to the last enemy standing.

"Yes. A guy like me can enjoy a place like this. When I get the chance, I want to sit back and stare at the clouds.

Closing his eyes, Sonic smelled the fresh air that flowed in the wind.

"This is Pelican Echo 419. Anybody read me? Repeat: any UNSC personnel, respond." Said a voice over the COM.

"Roger, Echo 419. This is Fire Team Charlie. We read you. Is that you, Foehammer?" Replied Saltana.

"Roger, Fire Team Charlie. Good to hear from ya!" The voice retorted with joy in her voice.

"If you're not too busy, Foehammer, we could use a lift. We have survivors to transport to the Command Shuttle."

"I'm on my way."

Just then, three blazing pods smeared across the sky in different directions. As Sonic awed at this, Saltana stated, "Look, more lifeboats! They're coming in fast. If those lifeboats make it down, the Covenant are going to be right on top of them." And over the COM, "Foehammer, we need you to disengage your Warthog. Sonic Chief and I are going to see if we can save some soldiers."

"Roger, Saltana."

"Do I really need a vehicle to roam the Ring, Sal?" Sonic said with a hint of irritation in his voice.

"Look at your Speed Gauge on your visor, Sonic." He noticed the flashing bar of red. "It's reading below fifteen percent, not enough energy to use your speed. If you tried to use it now, you'll chance the possibility of the inability to fight. Until it reaches a critical low, like it is now, you can only use your speed in short bursts. It will take some time before you can reuse your speed. And without your speed, we'll need that Warthog if we want to get to the other lifeboats in time."

Sighing, Sonic replied, "Remember how I said I loved my life? I'm officially hating it now."

"Oh, don't be such a baby, Sonic. You can have some time away from your feet. Besides, it's not like you haven't done this before*2!" Saltana joked as he headed to the vehicle.

"Fine…" Sonic groaned, watching Foehammer deploy the vehicle, Carol stated,

"Okay, Charlie Team, Warthog deployed. Saddle up and give 'em hell!"

"You know we will!" Sonic told her giving her a thumbs up to Carol. "Especially since I can't travel on my own two feet…" The hedgehog muttered while getting into the driver's seat.

"Sonic!"

"What?"

"Ugh, it's nothing. Just sit back and relax." Saltana told Sonic. "Anyway…Roger, Foehammer. Stand by to evac survivors and transport them to safety."

"That's affirmative. Echo 419 staying on station. Foehammer out."

"Sergeant Knuckles, Sonic Chief and I need some backup, can you spare a few men?"

"Sure, Saltana. All right ladies, volunteers step up on the double! The rest of you, get to the drop ship."

"Yo, Knuck, how come you don't want to join me for some adventure?"

"I have important business to take care of – my squad and I are gonna see about this huge and mysterious Emerald somewhere around this ring*3. Said to be floating on an island here."

"Alright, you take care, then!"

"You too!" As Knuckles Johnson left with the Pelican, a Porcupine took the gun of the hog and an Echidna took side seat.

"Everyone ready?" Sonic said eagerly, encouraging his new companions but with a twinge of annoyance in his voice.

"Yes, sir!" The two replied.

"Alright, let's head out!" He said immediately punching the gas.

"Well, looks like SOMEbody has a need for speed!" Saltana stated.

"Is grass green? Is water wet?"

"Yes and yes. And I assume if you didn't have your armor on, you'd ask if hedgehogs wear sneakers?"

"Correcto-mondo!" The blue – er, green – blur replied.

Jumping off a couple hills, Sonic had a stunt in mind that would leave everyone, including Saltana, baffled and wishing they had a spare pair of undergarments (okay, so maybe not so much Cortana for the second part but you catch my drift…).

"Sonic, what are you doing?"

"Catching air!" And off the hog went over a VERY tall cliff and onto the ground below.

"Woo hoo!" The Porcupine ecstatically shouted.

"Oh man, I am gonna be sick…" Added the Echidna.

"I'm thankful I have no corporal body as of right now…" Finished Saltana as the warthog stopped, allowing Sonic to admire the cavern in front of him.

"Whoa," He whispered.

"This cave is not a natural formation. Someone built it, so it must lead somewhere." Driving into the cave, she continued, saying, "I've hacked into the Covenant battlenet. They're actually broadcasting tactical data on unencrypted channels! We should show them who they're dealing with. Sonic Chief, I'm going to use your suit's transponder system to monitor their chatter."

After navigating the tunnels, Sonic encountered a large cavern with a chasm dividing the floor into two halves. There was no visible way to cross. Seeing two Jackals on his right side, he rammed them with the front of the Warthog with a smirk. Sharing the enthusiasm, the Echidna yelled "Road kill!" and the Porcupine stated after shooting down a Grunt "Man, I love this job!"

With all the Covenant dead on either side from the assistance of both marines, Sonic temporarily got out of the Warthog and looked around for a way to reach the other end; the last chasm he beheld may have been difficult to cross if he had used his speed (might have been twice as easy if water weren't present) but this chasm would definitely be impossible to traverse on foot.

"There must be some mechanism to cross this cavern. Look for a control panel or switch."

"On it, Sal!"

Finding a balcony structure, Sonic noticed that an Elite refused to come away from his guarding post. Looking towards the two passengers, he nodded that he would take care of it and for them to stay put. They both nodded in understanding,

Sonic ascended to the balcony by the wall rather than the ramp and, sneaking up on the red armored robot, he stuck a plasma grenade on its neck, watched it attempt to undo it from a safe distance, and ultimately blew up. Chuckling to himself, he walked towards the control panel, and Sally said,

"You enjoy decimating your opponents, don't you, Sonic?"

"I do indeed, Sal. Nothing like burnt bot in the morning."

Snickering to Sonic's comment, the hedgehog activated the panel. Four giant silver beam-generating structures extended across the chasm, and an energy bridge slowly faded into coherence.

"Heh, cool. What just happened, Sal?" Sonic asked.

"Analyzing…I'm showing a lot of photonic activity. The excited photons have displaced the air around the light path." Saltana explained.

"Which means what exactly?" Sonic asked her.

"Which means that the light has become coherent. Solid.*4" Saltana explained further. "Essentially, this has become a bridge of sorts. With how ancient this advanced technology is, I can't guarantee what might happen if we cross the chasm on it but it looks like our only way across."

"I'm willing to test it!" Sonic exclaimed jumping over the balcony and onto the ground, he scurried to the bridge and, cringing in case he began to fall, put his toe on the bridge' surface. Feeling the assurance of solidity after a few more toe taps, he then hopped into the driver's seat of the hog and took his two marine passengers for a ride across the bridge. Crossing it, the gunner awed at the void deepness below him.

Coming into another tunnel, Saltana said,

"New traffic on the Covenant Battlenet... a lot more crew made it off the Autumn than I had predicted - the Captain really gave them hell! If we can find Captain Thorndyke and other survivors, we have a chance to coordinate an effective resistance."

"Leave it to Thorndyke to screw with the Covvies!" The Porcupine stated.

"Hope he made it out okay!" The Echidna added.

"I'm sure he did." Sonic comforted the lad; he smiled.

As Sonic strolled through the tunnels, Sonic prepared himself for three rescues that he was bent on making successful; especially if the Captain wasn't in one piece.

I hope there was enough action in this chapter Dx I didn't know what to do for the Installation 04 area so I rushed it. Any suggestions would be nice so I can make it longer :D

*1. – This is a reference to How To Train Your Dragon; both Hiccup and his father said it in the movie and idk, it just felt right using it here and I couldn't think of anything else xD it was in my mind as I wrote this!

*2. – This is referencing Sonic All-Star's Racing Transformed – he has raced in a vehicle before lol sure, this fic and that game are different but whatever lol

*3. – I think people might get this but just in case, the Master Emerald. Lol

*4.- I kinda took this from Halo: The Flood. Haha I didn't realize it was like, a real piece of literature but this dialogue is not all mine…idk, it just seemed right to place here.