Over The Mountains

"When you said a means of transportation I thought that you meant something faster than this…" Chief said as The Avatar, known as Korra and her friends and he rode inside a 'borrowed' Police Airship.

"Chief…at this rate we would be arriving at the waypoint by midnight. I don't think that the Infinity would like it to stay inside this planet for too long." Cortana said.

"…I need to get the objective or this world is at risk." The Master Chief added.

"Eh…don't worry, uhh…this is the fastest that the airship can go." Korra said as she pointed to the steam engine of the ship.

"I can't believe it! An actual Star-Lord is standing right in front of me! Awesome!" Bolin said with complete happiness and amazement as he looked at the SPARTAN.

"Cool it Bolin, I don't think that the space man likes to be watch every second." Mako, Bolin's older brother, said as he held his younger brother from touching the Chief's armor.

"The way your suit is made is years beyond what Future Industries can do." Asami, Mako's girlfriend said as she looked at the Chief. "Is it some kind of metal?"

"Classified." The Chief replied. "There's something going on below this world and if I don't get there the Covenant might doom this planet."

"You mean the Beasts? They have a name?" Korra asked.

"They are called the Covenant, a once powerful empire alliance of various…aliens." The Master Chief explained. "I thought that we had them beaten but it seems a faction of them survived."

"Why would they challenge the Star-Lords in the first place?" Bolin asked.

"First contact happened almost twenty-seven years ago, when they attacked one of our worlds, Harvest." The Chief revealed. "We got slaughtered, the planet's skies burned in fire."

"But how? Star-Lords are mighty, spirit-like." Asami said.

"Chief, something is following us." Cortana told the Chief. The Master Chief stood up and walked towards a nearby window.

"What is it?" Korra asked the armored super-soldier.

"Banshees." The Chief answered.

"What?" Korra asked again, then suddenly the sounds of screaming women loudly came from the outside as two purple blurs passed them. "What was that?!"

"Covenant air vehicles." The Chief responded as he took out his Assault Rifle. "Prepare for impact."

The air ship was then shot by the incoming Covenant Banshees, hot plasma burned through the steel frame making the motors explode. The air ship was now in descending course to the mountains below. Everyone inside the ship screamed except for the Master Chief. The Chief looked at his back, and nodded.

"Everyone around me!" He ordered, the teenagers quickly latched on him. Then the thrusters on his back activated, propelling him and his companions into the steel roof of the air ship. The Chief extended his arms so that the falling steel wouldn't crush the teenagers, his energy shields flickered as the debris fell on him.

He and the others flew right out of the air ship, making it out right before it crashed into the mountains. But the thruster pack on the Chief's back was not made to fly and they suddenly began to fall. Luckily, the landed on a snowy land-slide free of trees or rocks and began to roll down to safety as the air ship exploded far away from them.

"Ugh…let's not do that again…ever." Bolin said as he sat and rubbed his head.

"Everyone okay?" The Chief asked as his energy shields re-charged.

"Yeah…" Mako said as he took his head out of the snow.

"Me too." Asami added.

"That was…cool." Korra said as she stood up and the snow on her fell onto the ground.

"Chief we are about 20 miles from the objective and the Banshees have retreated back to the city." Cortana informed the SPARTAN. The Master Chief still wasn't sure if the humans on this world could defend themselves against the might of the Covenant but once the Infinity is brought up, they would help.

"We are twenty-eight miles away from our destination; we must make haste now since the Covenant air forces think we are dead." The Master Chief said as he placed his Assault Rifle on his back and started to walk towards his waypoint mark.

"Hold on…we almost died back there, we have to rest." Mako said.

"We don't have time to rest, the Covenant are already ahead of us." The Chief responded as he kept walking.

"Chief, we are not super like you, we're tired." Asami said, supporting her boyfriend's claims. The Chief stopped and turned around.

"Ten minutes." He clearly said as he sat on a nearby rock and began to count his ammunition rounds.

The teenagers then rested, looking at their surviving inventory for food and water. The Chief looked at his rifle, he inspected it deeply.

"The Covenant Battlenet is mess down inside the planet, Chief. They seem to have found something that is not good…at all." Cortana reported to the Chief.

"The Flood?" The Chief asked.

"Not from what sounds like…something different. Aside from that, the signal coming from the Infinity is increasing alarmingly." Cortana continued. "We better hurry."

The Master Chief looked at his gun once more…"When we get back to Earth…" He said.

"…Let's worry about the Covenant first Chief." Cortana interrupted.

Some feet away, Avatar Korra and her companions rested after such troublesome fall. "Hey Korra, I think that the Star-Lord over there is kind of nuts." Bolin murmured.

"I think that he's talking with a spirit." Korra responded.

"What makes you say that?" Asami asked.

"Well, Tenzin told me that the Ancients and the Star-Lords are capable of conversing with Spirits and that the Spirits personally come to them." Korra answered.

"Whoever he's talking to must be pretty special." Mako said.

"Why?" Korra asked.

"He's talking in a very soft tone, softer than the way he speaks to us." Mako responded. Then suddenly, the Master Chief stood up from his rocky seat.

"Rest's over, let's move." The Chief said as he began to walk towards his objective again. The teens groaned at the thought of walking miles, but followed the SPARTAN on.

UNSC Infinity, orbiting above the planet

"The signal is coming from where?" Captain Andrew Del Rio asked his commander and naval officers.

"It's coming from within the planet sir." Commander Thomas Lasky answered. The other naval officers in the bridge began to re-check the coordinate data.

"It must be some kind of error." Captain Del Rio said. "This world is currently off limits by the UNSC FLEETCOM, according to the records, this is an Insurrectionist planet."

"Looks pretty backwards to me sir, they barely have plains." Commander Lasky said. "But the scanners from the Infinity don't lie; the signal is coming from within the planet."

Then the shipboard AI appeared on the holographic panel table that detailed the planet that the UNSC Infinity orbited. "Should I order Commander Palmer to send SPARTAN Fire teams; Castle and Shadow for ground deployments?" Roland, the ship AI asked.

"No, not yet." Captain Del Rio responded. "Not until we know what that damned signal is saying."

The Captain and the Commander then looked at the planet below from the bridge. It looked a lot like the Earth; it could as well be its twin world.

Tunnel to Interior of Planet

"This is it." The Chief said as he looked at unearthed hole in the ground, big enough to allow him entrance.

"That's just a hole in the ground." Bolin said.

The Master Chief, ignoring what he said, descends down the hole. They followed nevertheless. Once they got down deeper into the tunnel, the Master Chief turned on the built-in flashlight inside his Assault Rifle which surprised the teens following him.

"That's definitely not a natural cave formation." Cortana said as they were stopped by a quite big metallic Forerunner gate. It was sealed shut.

"Howa re we going to get through?" Korra asked the Chief. The Master Chief began to move his hand over the gate, and then he stopped it on a certain spot. It began to glow.

The gate began to move, startling the young benders. The gates opened revealing a corridor that went deeper until a small elevator could be seen at the end.

The Master Chief looked at his surroundings, and once he knew it was safe he proceeded forward. "Wow…" Asami said as she looked at the fantastic metal works on the walls, floors and ceilings. Even the stairs going down looked amazing, this must be the work of the Ancients.

"Portal gate." Cortana told the Chief.

"I'm going to tell you that what comes next could be extremely dangerous, are you ready?" The Master Chief asked the group.

"We're ready." The all said in unison. The Chief nodded.

"Cortana, open the gate to send us directly to the core." The Master Chief ordered. Then in front of him, a swirling purplish-black portal opened. He walked towards it…he turned to face them again. "I'll go first."

He walked inside and…he was gone. "Do we go?" Korra asked her friends.

"Uh…looks like fun." Bolin responded.

"I know I'm going to regret this." Mako added.

"We have to do this you guys, our people are up there fighting against the Beast or Covenant or whatever they're called. We have to help the Star-Lord!" Asami said. Agreeing to her, they all walked towards the portal and jumped in.

The Core of the Planet

Once they arrived to the other side, the first feeling they got was nausea.

"I think…I think I'm going to throw up." Mako said as he tried to prevent a mess.

"My lunch is in my throat." Bolin added.

"Pull…yourselves up." Korra said as they recovered from such trip. "Are we in the…"

"This is the core." The Chief said as he stood in front of them. The hollow interior of the planet surprised all of them, only a circular sphere floated in the middle. From the sides, several spires fed the center with energy.

"Chief that's where the signal's coming from, from that satellite." Cortana informed. The Infinity isn't here…but how did it know its signal code? "But that doesn't leave out the possibility that the Infinity is orbiting the planet."

"What do you mean?" The Chief asked.

"Place me in the terminal." Cortana said. The Chief then took out the chip from his helmet and inserted it inside the center terminal. The appearance of Cortana's hologram took Korra and her friends for surprise, almost as surprise as finding out that their world is hollow.

"That…that's the Spirit." Asami said.

"Yeah…" Korra responded.

"The satellite used the signal of the Infinity right? It's probably on orbit right now, we have to warn them about what's going on since most of the Covenant capital ships are inside the planet." Cortana said.

"What do you plan?" Chief asked.

"We can use the satellite to send them another signal to warn them." Cortana responded.

UNSC Infinity, orbiting above the planet

"Sir, additional scans confirm Covenant Storm presence on the planet. But minimal." A naval officer reported to the captain.

"Storm? With their weaponry they could annihilate any army this world would throw at them." Captain Del Rio said. "Prepare the ODST for…"

The Infinity then began to shake…"What's going on?" Commander Lasky asked.

Roland then appeared on the holographic table. "We are being pulled by the planet!" Roland said.

"How?!" Captain Del Rio yelled.

"I don't know but we are heading straight into the planet's surface!" Roland responded.

"Make the engines to go back!" Commander Lasky ordered.

"I can't…they won't respond." Roland responded sounding worried.

Lasky and Del Rio then turned and looked as the Infinity drew closer and closer into the planet. This is nuts but something must be going on the planet!