The Ark

by Cossacks250

The Covenant controls Earth, the UNSC is scattered and almost completely annihilated and the Flood is preparing to spread outwards. Our only hope to save us and the galaxy is Eve. It's time to finish to the fight! Some OC's.

10. The Ark

Shadow of Intent Bridge

Vadumee, who was still sitting in his chair, looked out through the window ceiling. With every second, they came closer to their target: The Ark. Vadumee placed the tips of his fingers against each other. Even though he had attacked many planets before, he was nervous. They were at the very place where the Halo rings themselves were created. What he was also nervous about was that: what if Truth and his forces had prepared for their arrival? For all he knew, they could have AA turrets lined up all over the Ark's surface. If they did, then they were going to slaughtered. The one thing he needed at the moment was the element of surprise.

"Shipmaster!" one of the minor Elites working on a nearby control panel shouted. "We have picked up Brute ships! They are in staggered line, Shipmaster! They outnumber us three to one!"

Vadumee looked out through the window ceiling. Above the Ark, probably about three to four hundred miles away, and heading straight for them was another Covenant fleet. Truth's fleet. All of the assault carriers were there, and so were the CCS battle cruisers. Wait a minute, where was Truth's ship? Ah! That did not matter. What mattered right now was that the Elites gave the Brute's the biggest pounding of their lives, one they would surely never forget.

"We are even in this fight," Vadumee muttered under his breath. "All cruisers, fire at will!" he ordered, pounding a fist onto the side of his chair. "Burn their mongrel hives!"

Forward Unto Dawn's loading bay

The marines were busy rushing around trying to get to pelicans or into vehicles, ready to launch a ground assault on Truth's forces on the Ark. Eve was sitting in one of the pelican's resting area. For now, however, she would be going alone with the marines. Wally had to stay on the ship and try and find any useful Intel from the Ark, hopefully he could find something on whatever Truth was after.

"Truth's ship isn't taking part in the attack!" came Mary's voice from Eve's ear radio. "He must have gone to ground,"

"Roger that, Ma'am," came John's voice from the pelican's cog pit. "We're on him! Pilot, kick the door,"

"Roger, sergeant," came another person's voice from the cog pit.

The pelican's resting area doors closed. Eve and the three other marines felt the craft move forward. After about a minute, it stopped. Then, a loud unlocking sound, which everyone in the pelican could hear even though the doors were closed, filled the air. The pelican jolted as the crew felt it descend from the ship.

The pelican had descended from the Forward Unto Dawn's loading bay, along with about four others, and was now flying down at full speed towards the surface of the Ark. All around them, the Brute and Elite ships were firing on each other. Explosions erupted everywhere. Seraph fighters, both Elite and Brute, pursued each other, determined to shoot their opponent down.

As the pelicans flew past a Brute CCS battle cruiser, a Brute seraph fighter spotted them and fired a barrage of blasts from It's cannons at them. One of the blasts struck the back of one of the pelicans. The pelican spun round erratically towards the Ark.

"Thrusters are gone! I can't control it!" came the pilot's voice.

BOOM! The pelican exploded, killing everyone on board. The remains drifted off into space. The Brute seraph fighter chased after the remaining pelicans. One down four to go. This was going to be an easy kill.

Suddenly, another barrage of blasts flew through space, only this time they hit the side of the Brute seraph fighter. Smoke began to bellow out from the back of the craft. The fighter immediately banked left and flew off. Chasing after it were two Elite seraph fighters.

"We good, Hocus?" John asked from the cog pit.

"She's a little cooked, Sarge…" came the pilot's reply. "But she'll hold,"

"Alright, get ready, marines," John shouted from the cog pit. "We're almost at the LZ,"

Eve reached under her seat and took out an SRS99D-S2 sniper rifle and a clip of ammo. She loaded it into the weapon and looked up at the door. At any moment, she was expecting it to open to reveal an alien landscape with Covenant forces everywhere.

A few minutes passed. The door still remained closed. How far were they from the Ark's surface? Then again, it depended where they were heading to on the Ark. It could be one of the far away fins, or even the Earth-like ball hovering in the centre of the Ark's circle.

All of a sudden, the doors shot open. Sunlight quickly filled the resting area, blinding everyone who was within a few seats from the craft's exit. Eve moved her arm over her eyes to shield them from the sunlight. She could see an enormous desert spread out in front of her. Large mountains were in the far away distance. Eve looked up and saw the artificial Sun shining down on the Ark. Even though it was daytime, the many stars and planets were still visible.

The pelican began to descend towards a large plateau on the edge of a mountain that must have been well over a thousand feet high because the sands of the desert looked to be a mile down from the plateau.

"Huh, that's some view," one of the marines said as he gazed out of the pelican at the desert.

"Enjoy while you can, marines," came John's voice from the pelican. "Eve, your leading the attack. Your first objective is to stop the Covenant from setting up any AA defences. After that, we need to secure a landing zone for the Commander's frigate. We need all the Intel we can get…on wherever the hell we are,"

A few moments later, the pelican came to a halt about ten feet above the plateau. Eve and the marines jumped down from the craft onto the ground. A pathway led through a small rock archway and turned left. Wherever to was unknown.

"Good luck," John said as the pelican hovered into the air and flew back into the sky.

"Alright, let's go," Eve said to the marines.

She ran ahead of the squad under the archway; the marines followed. The squad ran past another small plateau. Another marine, who had gotten of another pelican, which had now flown back up into the sky after John's, joined them. The squad ran left up another path that led through a small cave with rocks along the ground next to the walls. The exit, that was about twenty feet ahead of them, led to an open area. The squad down the cave towards the open area.

When the squad emerged from the cave, Eve held up a hand to stop them.

"Get down!" she hissed.

The squad obeyed and kneeled down. Eve crouched and crept forward towards a small rock at the bottom of a path that went up and ran along the side of part of the mountain. When she reached it, she peeked her head out from behind to see a large, circular, metallic ring that was a dark silver colour and had pillars sticking up out of the sides. Each one was spaced about ten feet from each other. Part of the circle, directly opposite where Eve was hiding, was missing. A pathway ran out through the gap and into another large cave with boulders lined up along the walls. In the centre of the ring was more sand with several boulders scattered about. However, what she had really stopped the squad for was because of the Covenant presence.

Sleeping near one of the boulder was a minor Grunt. A few feet away was another sleeping Grunt, only it was a major. A large figure was walking in and out between the boulders. It was a Brute with teal green armour on. Eve could see the Brute shot he was wielding. Is that all that was here? No. Near the right end of the circle was a large cross shaped platform on the ground. A blue haze was hovering up into the air, from the middle of the cross shaped platform, to a large circular platform with pillars sticking up out of the sides. A tall bird-like creature with a silver vest over It's torso was walking around on the platform. A Jackal. Eve could just about see the top of the beam rifle it was holding. Another Jackal, with It's activated shield by It's side, walked past the Brute and went behind another boulder.

Eve turned her head back towards the marines and pointed up at the path. The marines, keeping low, followed Eve up the path. Most of the boulders were lined up along the sides of the path facing the ring. They had to be quick when moving between them so the Covenant soldiers did not spot them.

The squad came to a halt at the top of the path as it came to a dead end next to the side of the mountain. Eve hid behind a small boulder, giving her a clear view of the open area. The marines hid behind the boulders next to her. They could see another two Grunts sleeping against the outside of the ring. they could also see a purple pillar, which had been placed directly behind a large boulder, in the middle of the area inside the ring with a hologram of Truth above it. So far, the Covenant were unaware of their presence. That was good. They still had the element of surprise in their favour.

"You take the first shot, Eve," one of the marines whispered to Eve.

She nodded and, still keeping crouched and stepping out from behind her boulder slightly, aimed her sniper rifle at the Covenant squad. She moved it between the soldiers she could hit. The Brute was walking in the direction she was facing. She could hit him first. The Jackal on the platform, however, was an even bigger threat, but was also facing away from her as it was walking around the platform. Like all snipers, she had to pick the right target, but both were as dangerous as each other.

Eve finally made up her mind. She looked down the scope and aimed at her target. She rested her finger on the trigger and pulled down.

A loud scream filled the air as the major Grunt was hit in the head. Light blue blood was thrown across the ground and the boulder. The creature fell sideways onto the ground and turned on It's stomach and lay still. The Brute roared something and frantically began to look round. The rest of the Grunts, who had been woken up by the sound of the gunshot, screamed and ran around the area, waving their arms about in the air in terror.

"Where did that noise come from?" the Brute shouted.

The Jackal on the platform replied by screeching loudly and pointing over to the pathway. The Brute whipped round and fired a grenade from his Brute shot up at the pathway. Eve dived sideways away from the rock. A loud bang filled the air as the grenade hit the side of the rock. As Eve stood up she, inadvertently, revealed herself to the Covenant.

"The demon is here!" the Brute roared, pointing up at her.

A barrage of blasts flew at Eve. She ducked down, narrowly missing a blast as it flew over her head. The marines responded by firing back at the Covenant squad. One of the Grunts was hit and yelled loudly as it flipped backwards onto the ground, dead. The Jackal sniper fired a purple laser up at the pathway. A marine dived behind a nearby boulder, narrowly missing having his foot blown off as the laser flew over it and hit the side of the mountain.

Eve moved forward to the boulder she had hidden behind when they arrived in the open area. She peeked her head out from behind it to see the Brute was now firing at the marines. In front of him were three Grunts. The Brute cursed loudly as a burst of ammo struck him in the chest armour. Perfect. With his attention focused directly on the marines, she could kill him. Eve raised her sniper rifle and fired. The Brute roared in pain as the bullet broke through the armour and embedded itself in the creature's chest. Eve fired another shot at the Brute. The creature loudly as it fell to the ground, dead.

"They got leader!" one of the Grunts screamed. "Run away!"

The Grunts turned and ran away from the pathway towards the large cave. Big mistake. The marines raised their weapons and fired. The three creatures fell forward onto the ground, dead. The Jackal with the shield screeched and ran out from behind one of the boulders towards the cross shaped platform. The marines fired on the creature's exposed back, killing it. There was just one more Covenant left to kill.

Eve reloaded her sniper rifle and aimed out from behind the rock. The Jackal sniper looked down at It's weapon as it shook it to cool it down from firing too much. It was the perfect time to strike. Eve fired a shot out from her sniper rifle at the creature, hitting it in the head. The Jackal screeched loudly as it fell to the platform floor, dead.

"Alright, It's clear," Eve shouted to the marines.

The rest of the squad ran down the path and followed Eve as she climbed over the side of the ring and ran across the area in the middle of it towards the next cave. However, she quickly came to a halt as the hologram of Truth was talking again.

"… Even now it is engaged; turn death into war for this new world." the hologram was saying. "Do not relent until the heretic ships are smashed and are driven back to the Human cesspool world."

Eve breathed heavily through her nose, no doubt she was annoyed. She grabbed the pillar and dragged it over to the right end of the ring. When she reached it, she threw it over the side and it fell down the cliff, which was where the right side of the ring ended. A few loud crashing sounds followed but quickly faded away.

"You really hate Truth, don't you," one of the marines said.

"What gave you that idea," Eve replied sarcastically in a low tone as she turned and ran past the marine towards the cave.

Eve led the squad through the cave, turning right about half-way down it, to the end. When they reached the end, they saw they were in another open area with a metallic ring filled with sand and boulders in It's centre. This time, however, it was up against the side of the mountain where a small path went up from the other side of the open area to a small cave in the mountain's side. However, it was what was in the middle of the ring that drew the squad's attention.

Standing on three large gold legs was a large flat cylindrical metal piece. On top of that was a small bulge. The entire thing was a gold colour Eve recognized it instantly. It was another Covenant AA turret. The squad moved forward and hid behind a few boulders that were outside the ring, just in case there were any Covenant, which they were bound to be, patrolling the area.

A loud whirring sound filled the air. Eve looked up and saw a phantom hover down towards the turret. Below it was a large gold metal object that was shaped like a ODST HEV. After that, the turret would go on top and then it would fully operational. However, the phantom's three canons were still moving about as if they were birds of prey scanning the area for food. Even though they doubted it, the Covenant knew that they could not afford to take risks on the Ark.

"If that thing gets fully operational, It'll tear the Dawn apart!" one of the marines said, aghast.

"We won't be able to destroy it," Eve replied. "So we'll just have to get rid of the Covenant from this area and hope they don't come back,"

"You there!" a deep voice from the other side of the ring shouted. The squad froze, thinking they had been spotted. "Stop sleeping and help us put this turret together!"

The squad breathed a sigh of relief. They had not been spotted, at least not yet. The Covenant would eventually find them, but, hopefully it would be when the turret was still being constructed.

"Wait here," Eve whispered to the squad.

Keeping low, she crept out from behind the rock towards the side of the ring. With every step, she glanced up at the phantom with worried eyes, hoping that it had not spotted her. Thankfully, she was still safe. When Eve reached the side of the ring, she peeked her head out over the top.

The ground was about a ten feet drop from the side of the ring. Among the sand were four large boulders. There had been five but one had been crushed by one of the legs of the turret. At the other end of the ring, which, like the last, had a gap in it, was the path that led up to the cave.

Then, a large figure dressed in gold armour with a gold helmet walked out from behind one of the boulders. A Brute. In his hand was a Brute shot. Two smaller figures were standing nearby. Grunts. There were three so far, but there was bound to be more of them.

One of the Grunts walked away from the other and curled into a ball up against another boulder and began to snore. The brute immediately ran over to the Grunt and kicked it hard. The creature screamed as it woke up and aimed It's weapon around menacingly.

"Stop fooling around and keep on guard!" the Brute shouted at the creature, whacking the Grunt over the head. The creature groaned and walked back over to the other Grunt.

Eve moved back behind the side of the ring. Only three Covenant? Usually there would be more. Maybe the Covenant had decided the Humans would not land here and decided not to put a lot of troops on patrol. Although barely any Covenant at the turret was a good thing, Eve was still suspicious. More Covenant were lurking somewhere, but where?

Suddenly, a loud screech filled the air. Eve jumped and looked up to see a Jackal with It's beam rifle aimed down at her. It had been standing on a flat piece of the saucer that had not been covered by the bulge. Next to the top of the path, it was the perfect sniping position. The Jackal fired a shot. Eve dived out of the way, narrowly missing the laser as it hit the ground where she had just been. The Jackal aimed at her as she was standing up. It placed a finger on the trigger. She was in the perfect place. All the Jackal had to do was pull the trigger and she would be dead.

Suddenly, a barrage of bullets flew at the creature's side. The Jackal let out another screech as it fell to the turret's floor, dead. Eve looked behind her to see the marines standing next to the boulder.

"Thanks guys," she said.

"Fall back!" a deep voice shouted from Eve's ear radio.

As if on cue, the phantom, which had been hovering above the turret, banked right and flew out away from the cliff before it turned left and disappeared behind another part of the mountain about thirty metres away.

"Alright, now let's take care of the rest of them," Eve said to the squad.

The squad ran over to the side of the ring and pulled themselves up on the side. The Brute roared and pointed in their direction. However, before he could raise his weapon, Eve and another marine fired at the Brute. The creature was hit in the chest and head. After a few seconds, he could no longer withstand the barrage and he fell to the ground, dead.

"THEY GOT LEADER!" one of the Grunts screamed. "NOOOO! RUN AWAY!"

The two Grunts turned and ran towards the path that led up to the cave.

"We got 'em on the run!" one of the marines exclaimed. "Let's chase 'em down!"

The marine jumped down from the side of the ring to the ground and ran after the Grunts. Eve and the rest of the squad followed.

Suddenly, a loud whirring sound filled the air. Eve and the marines that were with her skidded to a halt. They knew what it was.

"Get behind cover!" she shouted to the marines, who dived behind the nearest boulders.

The leading marine, however, did not hear the noise and continued running on.

"Come back!" she shouted to the leading marine.

She ran after the leading marine, who had reached the path and was about to fire up at the Grunts when a hand grabbed the back of his uniform and pulled him away from the path and towards the boulders where the rest of the squad were taking cover.

An electrical explosion erupted behind them. The two looked over their shoulders just in time to see a red blast fade away into thin air. Eve looked up and saw a phantom hovering about twenty feet above them. The three enormous cannons aimed down at them, ready to fire again. Eve almost threw the marine forward behind a boulder ahead of them, where two other marines were hiding, and dived behind another next to it, where the other marines were hiding.

"That was close," Eve said as she sat up from the ground.

With the marine saved, they now had to find a way in driving off, or destroying, the phantom. It was going to be hard but at least they were safe from the phantom's cannons with the protection of the Covenant AA turret. For once, they were glad to have Covenant technology literally over their heads.

"Look out, It's dropping troops!" another marine, hiding behind the other boulder, warned, pointing up at the phantom.

The rest of the squad looked up at the phantom. The marine was right. The circle on the bottom of the craft opened up. An enormous figure hovered down from the craft to the ground. It was twelve feet tall, had a large plasma cannon attached on one hand and a large metal sword on the other and had orange skin underneath the armour that covered most of the body. It was a Hunter. Then, another hovered down next to the other. The phantom then flew off and disappeared behind the mountain.

"We are so dead," one of the marines hiding behind the boulder with Eve muttered under his breath.

Before Eve could reply, a large green light began to charge up in the Hunters' cannons. A second later, two green lasers shot out of the cannons towards the marines. The squad dived away from the boulders as an enormous explosion filled the air. Dust covered the area around the two boulders. The Hunters half-lowered their cannons and, cautiously, approached the boulders. Barely anyone could have survived that, even Eve who had the shield bodysuit to protect her. Even so, the Hunters were keeping their guard up, just in case there were any survivors.

Suddenly, a burst of ammo filled the air. The bullets hit the Hunter's face. Even though the creature was huge and had reinforced skin and armour, it still hurt. The creature roared loudly and staggered backwards as it placed it's metal sword arm over It's face. The other Hunter growled. The Humans had hurt his comrade. Hunters stuck together in pairs like brothers. It was going to make the Humans pay for hurting It's comrade.

The other Hunter charged forward and brought back It's metal sword arm. As it hit the dust cloud, the dust seemed to vanish as if in fear of the creature. Behind the remains of one of the boulders were three marines. The Hunter roared and swung It's metal sword at them. The marines dived to the ground, narrowly avoiding having their heads taken off their shoulders. The Hunter, who had turned left slightly by It's momentum knew that it missed and prepared to strike them with the back of It's sword whilst they were trying to get away. This time, it would hit It's target.

Suddenly, a barrage of ammo flew at the Hunter's exposed orange back. The creature let out an ear piercing roar as it fell onto the ground, dead. The three marines started at the body, breath taken. One of then looked at where the barrage came from. Eve and the two marines with her knelt down and weapons aimed at the Hunter.

"Thanks, Eve," one of the marines said in a relieved tone as he stood up.

Suddenly, another roar filled the air. The squad looked towards other Hunter. Oh no! They had completely forgotten about that one. Worse still, it was alive! The creature looked up at them, revealing a large spot of orange blood on the creature's lower face armour. The Hunter growled. It was angry at being wounded, but when it saw It's dead comrade, the anger and fury spilt over inside it like an overflowing cauldron. The Hunter let out another growl, only it was much louder.

All of a sudden, the creature charged towards the squad, heading straight for Eve and the two marines. It moved so quickly that the three, or even the marines that were hiding behind the other boulder's remains, did not even have time to raise their weapons before the Hunter reached It's enemies. The creature brought back It's metal sword and swung at them. Eve and one of the marines dived to the floor. Another, however, failed to react quickly enough. The metal sword hit him in the chest and threw him with bone crushing force against the side of the ring. He slid down to the ground and gasped as he tried to say something. He raised his shaking hand but it quickly dropped to the ground next to him and his eyes closed and he lay still.

Eve felt a sudden jolt of anger run through her as she looked at the body. That Hunter had just killed a fellow marine! That was another one dead. However, they would all be dead if this Hunter was not killed. She had to find a way to lure it into a tra-

"EVE! WATCH OUT!"

Eve looked back at the Hunter. The creature raised It's enormous metal sword. It swung the weapon at Eve. She dived to the ground again, narrowly missing the weapon as it swung over her head. Eve dived away from the Hunter and, when she had gotten up from the ground, ran from the creature. The Hunter wasted no time in chasing after her.

Eve began to panic when she looked over her shoulder and saw the enormous creature chasing after her. The marines fired on the creature but the boulders covered their range of fire to the creature's exposed orange weak spot. Also it was moving too fast. There was no way they could hit it. Eve would have to deal with this creature on her own.

That was going to be hard. Eve dived forward as she passed a boulder near the bottom of the path, narrowly missing another strike from the Hunter's metal sword. As she got up, a green light stretched across the side of the rock that formed the path. That green light was just like the colour of the…Hunter's cannon! Suddenly, an explosion filled the air, throwing a cloud of dust into the air. The Hunter had fired a laser across the side of the rock, causing a large chunk of it, along with it part of the path, to collapse onto Eve. The Hunter let out a growl and moved towards the rubble. When it reached the pile of rocks, it used It's metal sword to move them. What the…? There was no body! The Hunter had moved all of the rocks so there was no chance of Eve hiding, but where was she?

"Hey stupid!" a female voice shouted.

The Hunter growled in alarm and looked up. Standing on part of the path, that had not collapsed, was Eve.

"You missed!" she said mockingly.

Before the Hunter could react, Eve raised her weapon and fired a shot at the creature. The shot easily broke through the armour and drove deep into the creature's chest. The Hunter let out a groan before it fell sideways onto the ground, dead.

"Nice work, Eve," one of the marines shouted as they ran over to the path.

"Thanks," Eve replied. "Alright, let's move on." she added when the marines reached her.

Eve led the squad up the path towards the cave at the top. The path was dotted with boulders, especially near the top. They were the perfect places for any small Covenant troops to hide. When they passed the first few boulders near the top, Eve raised her sniper rifle and aimed behind them. As they passed them one-by-one, they came closer to the cave, but also closer to another danger. Were there any Covenant hiding in the cave? If there were, hopefully, they would not be more Hunters or any Drones.

None at all would be better Eve thought.

It seemed she had spoken too soon. When they were about fifteen feet from the cave…

"FOR THE GREAT JOURNEY!"

A small figure ran out of the cave and charged towards the squad. It was a Grunt. In both of It's hands was a plasma grenade. What was worse, they were lit. Eve fired a shot from her sniper rifle at the creature. The bullets hit the creature in the chest, killing it and sending it to the ground a few feet away. The grenades fell to the ground and exploded in a light blue light. The squad shielded their eyes until the light had gone.

"Stay alert," Eve said to the squad. "They'll be more suicide Grunts,"

Eve raised her weapon and ran ahead towards the cave; the squad followed. When she reached the cave, Eve stopped and aimed her weapon at the cave, keeping her finger on the trigger just in case any more Covenant tried to ambush them. She scanned every inch of the cave. After a few seconds, it was clear. She lowered her weapon.

"It's okay," she said to the marines as they reached her. "For now, at least." she added.

Eve ran into the cave; the squad followed. Very quickly, they were engulfed in the darkness that seemed to stretch on forever inside the mountain. They would easily get lost in here if they took a wrong turn into any other networks of caves inside this one.

"Hey, what's that?" one of the marines inquired, pointing ahead of the squad.

The squad looked ahead and saw a faint light at the end of the cave. It probably meant it was a way out of the cave. Wait a minute…but could it also be it was where more Covenant troops were?

"Stay alert," Eve whispered to the squad, keeping her voice low so any Covenant, if there were, at the end of the cave, could not hear her. "If there's any Covenant, we'll take them by surprise."

The squad raised their weapons and ran as quietly as they could towards the hole at the end of the cave. The light gradually grew brighter as they approached it. When they reached the end of the cave, they placed their fingers on their weapons' triggers, ready for, what might be, a gunfight. The light was coming from this hole. Eve stood on the edge of the hole and peered inside.

The light was coming from this silver floor, about ten feet below Eve, that led to a silver wall that had been built between a large gap in the side of the cave. A single door was on the wall, leading inside to whatever new thing(s) the squad may find. Eve lowered her weapon and looked over her shoulder at the squad, who were standing a few feet away, waiting for Eve to tell them what was in there.

"It's clear," she said.

Eve slid down the edge of the hole to the bottom; the squad followed. When they reached the floor, they ran over to the door. It opened automatically as they approached it. Eve raised her weapon and aimed around as she entered a long, wide corridor with a glass floor, pillars along the walls and some kind of small circular platforms next to the walls about half-way down the corridor. About thirty feet away at the end of the corridor was another door. Hopefully, it led outside.

Just then, Eve's ear radio crackled to life.

"Eve!" came Mary's voice. She sounded like she was panicking. "I'm giving the Brutes all I've got! But this is a heavy-weight fight! The Dawn's only go the tonnage to last a few rounds. Find me a place to set her down, over,"

Worry quickly filled Eve like a water tank being filled up. It was now a race against time to save Mary and the marines on the Dawn. If they failed, then they were all going to die.

The squad ran down the corridor towards the end. It opened as they approached it. The squad ran through the door. At once, the sunlight fell upon them, almost blinding them. They were back outside. Ahead of them, other than a few boulders, was a wide dug out pit that led up to a large path that led right towards a small hill between the side of the mountain and a large rock, that must have been part of another mountain that had probably collapsed. Leading left and going around the side of the pit was a sand pathway which had a few boulders near the edge of the pit. They needed to go that way next, as it was, apart from the corridor they had just left, the only way out of this area. Hopefully, it led to a landing zone, or at least something that could take them to a landing zone.

"Eve?" a voice ahead of the squad piped up.

The squad looked ahead to see a crouched marine move out from behind one of the boulders a few metres ahead of them. He was holding a battle rifle and he seemed to be in shock as Eve could see he was shaking slightly and breathing heavily.

"What happened?" Eve asked she and the squad ran over to him.

"Our pelican was tasked with landing in this pit," the marine explained. "Unfortunately, the Covenant had a few AA wraiths here and they shot us out of the sky. I'm the only one who made it out. But there is good out of this. We saw a good LZ for the commander's frigate."

"Can you take us to it?" Eve asked the marine desperately, hoping for a yes.

"Yeah," the marine replied, though he sounded uncertain.

The marine walked over to the path, stopping about half-way across it and pointed into the pit. Eve came over and looked. There, lying in the middle of the pit, was the wreckage of a pelican. Even though it was almost forty metres away, Eve could clearly see the damage, along the side and front of the craft, inflicted by the blast projectiles of the Covenant AA wraiths. The cog pit was smashed, the wings had been torn off the craft completely and the pelican's rear looked as though it had been crushed and bent. Weapons and vehicle remains were scattered across the sand. Among them, Eve could see the bodies of a few dead marines.

However, there was one vehicle left. A mongoose. Just one vehicle and there were six marines. Only two could fit on that vehicle so four, unless they found more vehicles would be following on foot.

Then, a large figure moved out from behind the wreckage. It was a Brute wearing dark blue armour with a dark blue helmet. Three smaller figures ambled out from the wreckage and mooched about among the weapons and vehicle remains. One of the Grunts moved towards a few rocks at the left end of the pit. When it reached the rocks, it curled into a ball and lay there. The Brute saw the sleeping Grunt as he went to pick up part of a destroyed mongoose. He grabbed the piece of wreckage and threw it at the Grunt, hitting the creature in the head. The Grunt screamed and woke up shaking, scared at thinking it was under attack.

"Do not let me catch you falling asleep again, you whelp!" the Brute shouted at the Grunt, who let out a small groan and lumbered back towards the wreckage.

"We need to get rid of these guys really quickly," the marine next to Eve said.

Eve nodded and turned her head round to face the rest of the squad.

"Marines, go along the path and get into a striking position behind the boulders," she ordered quietly.

The squad obeyed and, keeping low, ran along the path towards the boulders at the end. Eve laid down on the ground and crawled forward towards the edge of the pit, her sniper rifle aiming directly at the Covenant. The marine laid down next to her and kept his weapon on the Covenant as well, just in case they spotted them. Eve looked through the scope of her sniper rifle at the Covenant. So far, they were still unaware of their enemies presence. The Brute was still searching through the mongoose remains, as were the Grunts. The Grunt that fell asleep tried to sneak back over to the rocks. Unfortunately, the Brute saw what it was doing and barked something at the Grunt, stopping it and causing it to turn and lumber back towards the group. There were four easy targets to choose from. Any of them would do, but the Brute was the best one. If she targeted him, then the Grunts would flee and they could take the mongoose and start moving towards the LZ the marine said they had found. They still had to decide what to do with their numbers and the one mongoose, but they would come to that in a minute. Eve looked over at the rest of the squad. They were crouched down behind the boulders at the end of the path, perfect striking position. Eve looked back through the scope, aimed the weapon at her target and pulled the trigger.

A loud roar filled the air as the Brute was suddenly thrown forward onto the ground, dead. The bullet had struck him in the back and embedded itself in his chest, killing him instantly. The three Grunts screamed and ran from the wreckage towards the small hill. The marine lying next to Eve, along with the rest of the squad, fired on the Grunts, hitting and killing all three of them.

"Good work," Eve said. "Let's get down there,"

Eve and the marine stood up and slid down the side of the pit to the sand covered ground. They ran towards the wreckage of the pelican. The rest of the squad had climbed down the rocks and were also running across towards the pelican's wreckage. When they reached it, Eve ran into the pelican's resting area. Already, the marines were arguing amongst themselves who should get to drive the mongoose. Eve sighed and searched through the resting area. What she was looking for was a rocket launcher and any ammo. The marine that was going on the back of the mongoose, once they had stopped arguing, was going to need it. Finally, after opening a weapon storage crate underneath one of the seats, she found a rocket launcher with four rockets also in the box. Eve picked up the rocket launcher and checked inside it. There were two rockets already loaded into the weapon. Six altogether. Hopefully, it would last them on their way to the LZ.

"Let your cannons roar!"

Eve froze and looked up at the cog pit. That was where that voice had come from. It sounded like Vadumee. Eve walked over to the cog pit. Just as she reached it…

"Hit them again!" came Vadumee's voice from a small radio on the control panel. "And again! And again!"

"Seraph, on my six!" came a man's voice.

"Charge the MAC." came Mary's voice. "Give me a firing solution,"

Eve breathed a quick sigh of relief. Mary was still alive, but, by the sounds of the radio transmissions, she would not be for long. They had to find that LZ and fast! Eve turned and walked down the resting area to the pelican's entrance, where the marines were still arguing amongst themselves.

"Hey, I almost died when the pelican crashed!" the marine that had met the squad outside the cave exclaimed. "I should at least deserve to drive this thing!"

"Hey, we've lost a marine trying to get here!" another marine replied.

"Yeah, but everyone in this pelican got killed in the crash!" another marine argued back.

"Will you guys knock it off?" Eve shouted, silencing the marines. She walked out of the pelican holding the rocket launcher and the crate with the four rockets inside it.

"Jeez, you guys are like little kids!" she said. "Just quit arguing and get two of you on this thing! Or I'll blow it up and then we can all walk!"

The marines exchanged shocked looks. It was going to be bad if they walked, especially if there were more Covenant in this area and they had vehicles. They would be cut down easily.

"I'll drive," one of the marines finally said, climbing onto the mongoose.

"See, was that so hard?" Eve exclaimed. "Here," she added, handing the rocket launcher to another marine. "You ride on the back."

The marine nodded and climbed onto the back of the mongoose and placed the rocket launcher on his shoulder.

"What about the rest of us?" another marine asked Eve.

"We'll just have to walk until we find a Covenant vehicle," she answered.

"Uh, Eve?" the marine asked in a worried-like tone, pointing ahead. "We got company!"

Eve and the squad looked over to where the marine was pointing to see a large metallic vehicle shooting towards them. At the front was some kind of turret, that looked much like the old version of the shade turrets, where a large figure was sitting behind. Sitting on the sides of the vehicle were two more large figures. Brutes. Eve could see they were all wearing teal green armour. The vehicle they were on was something she had never seen before.

When the vehicle was about fifty feet away, the Brute on the turret shouted something and aimed the turret at the squad. A barrage of blasts flew towards them. The marine in the mongoose's driving seat started the vehicle's engine and drove the vehicle forward as fast as he could. The rest of the squad dived for cover as the blasts hit the ground where they were. One of them hit Eve's bodysuit, causing her shield to light up. Luckily, she had dived into the pelican's resting area, safe from any further harm, for the moment at least.

The large silver vehicle shot past the pelican's remains. Eve watched as it came to a halt a few metres away, giving her a clear view of the vehicle.

It was at least twelve feet long with a large main section that was also exactly like a Brute chopper, only there was no large tire-like spinning section at the front of the vehicle. Instead there was a large bulge at the front. At the very front of the vehicle, attached to the top of the bulge, was the large turret. Behind it, built into the bulge, was a small hole. The Brute piloting the turret was standing in the hole. On the sides of the main section were two large metallic wave-like sections, which explained how the other two Brutes were able to stay on the vehicle. However, at the back of the main section was a metallic seat with controls attached to the vehicle in front of it. Sitting in that seat was another Brute wearing teal green armour. So there were four Brutes altogether on this one vehicle.

"Engage that prowler!" one of the marines ordered.

The two Brutes sitting on the side of the prowler jumped off onto the ground. They were both armed with spikers. They raised their weapons and fired a wave of orange spikes at the marines, who dived for cover.

"Kill all of them!" the Brute driving the prowler shouted as he drove the vehicle forward.

BOOM! An explosion on the ground almost threw the prowler onto It's side. The two Brutes roared in surprise as they turned to see what had happened. What the hell has caused that to happen?

"Hey bear face!" a voice shouted at the two Brutes from behind the squad.

The Brutes turned to see the mongoose next to the pelican's remains. The marine with the rocket launcher aimed the weapon at them. One of the Brutes gulped.

"Eat this!" the marine shouted.

A rocket shot out of the weapon towards the Brutes. They dived to the ground, narrowly missing the rocket as it shot their heads, heading straight for the prowler, where the Brutes, the one that had been manning the turret and the one that had been driving the prowler, had just freed themselves from the overturned vehicle.

BOOM! The prowler exploded, throwing large chunks of silver metal in all directions. The two Brutes roared loudly as they flew through, landing several feet away. Eve and the rest of the squad fired on the last two Brutes. The barrage broke through the teal green armour and struck the Brutes in the stomach, chest and sides, killing them.

When the two Brutes fell to the ground, dead, Eve stepped out of the pelican onto the ground.

"Good work," she said. "Let's move on. We need to find that LZ,"

The squad nodded and ran away from the pelican's remains towards the gap between the side of the mountain and the large rock. The mongoose followed alongside. However, when they were about twenty feet from the gap, another large silver vehicle shot up from below onto the ground and drove full speed towards them. It was another prowler.

"WATCH OUT!" Eve screamed.

The squad dived out of the way as the prowler shot past them, almost hitting one of the marines. The marine driving the mongoose had to swerve to avoid being torn apart by the large and heavier Covenant vehicle. The Brute on the prowler's turret laughed and turned the turret towards the squad and pressed down on the weapon's trigger. A barrage of blasts flew towards the squad, kicking up sand as they hit the ground. The marines ran around frantically to avoid being hit by the blasts.

The marine on the back of the mongoose aimed his rocket launcher and fired a shot at the vehicle. However, the Brute driving the prowler swerved the vehicle right, narrowly missing the rocket as it exploded on the ground. The Brute driving the prowler laughed and drove full speed towards the squad. Eve raised her sniper rifle, hoping to kill the Brute that was on the prowler's turret. However, just when she was about to fire, the Brute saw her and fired a blast at her. It hit her arm and, despite having a shield over her bodysuit, it hurt. A lot. Eve gasped and grabbed her arm to stop the flaring pain. Big mistake.

"I'll take that, demon," the Brute on the turret shouted as he grabbed the sniper rifle from her when the prowler passed.

Eve watched, wide-eyed, as the prowler swerved round near the side of the mountain so the front was now facing the squad. The Brute on the turret bended the sniper rifle, breaking it in two. Eve gasped. The Brute was not even having use all of It's strength and it was not even sweating. The Brute threw the remains onto the ground and grabbed hold of the turret's trigger and pressed down. At the same time, the Brute driving the prowler drove the vehicle forward again. This time, heading straight for Eve.

Eve dived out of the prowler's way. The Brute driving the prowler growled and went to turn the vehicle around.

CRASH! The prowler smashed front first into the side of the pelican. The two Brutes sitting on the sides of the vehicle were thrown off the prowler onto the ground. The Brute on the turret hit the weapon. Purple blood trickled down the side of the creature's face. The brute that had been driving the prowler was thrown onto the ground.

Not a good driver, is he Eve thought.

"Quick, while they're down!" one of the marines ordered.

The squad ran towards the prowler. When they were a few metres from the squad, they, apart from Eve, fired a barrage of bullets at the Brutes. The creatures were hit and fell to the ground dead. The squad ran over to the prowler.

"We can use this to carry the rest of us to the LZ," Eve said.

"I'm on the turret," one of the other marines said, quickly climbing into the turret.

"I'll drive," Eve said, getting into the driver's seat.

The last two marines climbed onto the sides of the prowler. Eve started the vehicle and reversed. It was quite difficult driving this vehicle since she was used to driving ghosts and banshees. Oh well. She would master it eventually, only if she did not end up killing anyone.

"C'mon, Eve," the marine driving the mongoose called to her. "See how fast you can make that thing go,"

The mongoose sped off towards the gap. Eve turned the prowler around and pushed the controls forward to maximum. The prowler shot forward after the mongoose. When it reached the gap, the crew saw it was a small hill that led into a large drop. The ground was about ten feet below the squad. A few more smaller sand hills were dotted throughout the drop, as was a large piece of curved rock that formed a ramp-like surface that led up to the gap. At the left side of the drop, built into the side of another mountain, was a large metallic surface that must have been either a door or a wall of a structure built into the mountain. At the other end of the drop, which had a sand hill about twenty feet high, was another gap, that was much wider, that had a wide sand path that led towards a trail of rocks about ten metres behind the gap ahead of the squad.

"Watch out! Chopper!" a voice shouted from below.

The group in the prowler looked down to see the mongoose swerve around a brute chopper. Driving it was a Brute with dark blue armour and a dark blue helmet. The Brute fired a shot from his chopper at the mongoose. It hit the back of it, causing it to shake and almost tip over. The marine driving the mongoose sped off and skidded around the side of the curved rock. The chopper chased after it.

"C'mon, we have to help them," Eve said.

She drove the prowler forward. The vehicle, landing with a loud crash as it hit the ground. The marine sitting on the left side of the prowler was almost knocked off by the curved rock. Eve drove the prowler forward and turned left around the side of the rock into the drop. The mongoose was driving erratically to avoid a barrage of blasts from the Brute chopper and four Covenant Brutes on the sand hill at the gap at the other end of the drop.

The marine with the rocket launcher fired a shot at the chopper. The rocket hit the front of the vehicle. An explosion filled the air, throwing large chunks of metal in all directions the Brute driving the chopper was thrown several feet into the air, landing next to the remains of what had been the chopper's front metallic tyre.

"One down, four to go!" the marine on the back of the mongoose shouted.

Eve drove the prowler forward towards the sand hill. The marine on the prowler's turret aimed the weapon at the Brutes and fired. A barrage of blasts flew at the creatures. One of them was hit in the chest, causing his armour to emit green volts of electricity. Another blast struck the Brute in the face. The creature fell to the ground, dead. The other two marines standing on the sides of the prowler aimed their weapons at the other Brutes and fired a barrage at them.

When the Brutes had been killed, Eve drove the prowler forward towards the gap. The mongoose followed close behind. When they reached it, they saw that the sand pathway turned right. However, they also saw the back of a large silver tail-like metal piece that lay on the ground a few metres away.

"What the hell is that?" the marine on the turret asked.

"Let's find out," Eve replied.

She drove the prowler forward, revealing more of the pathway and large metal parts that looked Covenant. The mongoose followed alongside them. After about ten feet, they saw it was the remains of a phantom. The craft's left side lay on the ground next to the craft. Large holes dotted the entire craft, revealing the insides of the craft. Eve could see the left cannon lying crushed and twisted on the ground next to the phantom's remains. A few inside parts of the phantom lay scattered on the path around the craft. By the looks of it, the phantom had taken quite a beating but, by some stroke of luck, managed to stay partly intact. Anyone who was on that phantom could be dead, but those Brutes the squad had just fought made them cautious. If there were any more survivors, they would kill them as they were going by the craft's remains.

"Stay alert," Eve said to the marines. "There might be more of them still alive in the remains,"

Eve drove the prowler left and down the pathway towards the remains that lay on the path's right side. The mongoose followed close behind. As they approached, the marine on the prowler's turret aimed the weapon at the phantom's remains and kept his fingers on the trigger. At the first sign of danger, he would fire on the remains, easily killing any Covenant survivors.

Luckily, there were no survivors. The squad eased, knowing they were safe. As the two vehicles passed over a few inside parts of the phantom, a nearby radio was still receiving transmissions from the battle above the Ark, only this time they were from Brutes, not the UNSC or the Elites.

"Keep their backs at fraud! Destroy all the heretic ships!"

"Their cruisers are mixed with us! Watch your fire!"

"Do not fear the Prophets' wrath, because if you fail, I will have your hide!"

"Hope we're winning," one of the marines said hopefully.

"So do I," Eve replied.

"Whoa!" the marine on the prowler's turret exclaimed. "Look!" he added, pointing ahead over the trail of rocks.

Eve and the marines looked and saw a tall metallic structure placed next to an enormous cliff that was part of another mountain. The structure was in the shape of a wall with huge pillars going from the top down to the ground. About half-way up the wall was a large walkway that ran along the wall until it was about half-way, where a large smaller wall section stuck out from the main wall and also went down to the ground. Eve could see that at the end of the walkway, it looked to have moved into the main wall, forming a wider, but smaller, walkway. Something was at the end of the smaller walkway, but what it was Eve could not tell.

"Do you think the LZ's on the other side of that wall?" one of the marines asked.

"If it is, then we're gonna need aircraft to take us over it," another replied.

Ahead of the two vehicles was a small cliff that led down to a sand covered ground about ten feet from the top of the cliff. Here, a path went two ways. To the right, the path went down a large slope to the bottom of the main wall as it stretched on to another cliff about seven hundred feet behind the squad, making the entire wall well over a thousand foot long. To the left, which was directly in front of the squad, led into a large open area that was wedged between the side of the mountain the squad had just passed and the wall. At the other end of the open area, starting where a large surface area of rock was just visible through the sand, was a rock pathway going along the side of the rock. The pathway led up to the sand pathway that went across the top of the surface rock. The sand pathway ended at the start of the wide walkway. In the middle of the open area was a large drop that had a just visible metal ground in the middle of the drop. The sand on the right side of the drop formed a kind of small slope that led down to the bottom of the wall.

"We'll head up there first," Eve said. "See if we can find a way through. If not, then we'll go the other way,"

Eve drove the prowler forward over the cliff onto the pathway. The mongoose followed close behind. The marine with the rocket launcher reached into the crate and loaded another two shots into the weapon, just in case any Covenant were here as well. The two vehicles drove down the side of the drop to the bottom. There, Eve and the marines could see a large blast door at the bottom of the slope, built into the bottom of the wall.

"There they are! Kill them!" a deep voice shouted from above the marines, which they could clearly hear.

The squad looked up and saw the bottom of two enormous vehicles fly off the edge of the walkway to the ground. Brute choppers. Driving them were Brutes wearing dark blue armour with dark blue helmets. Eve pushed the prowler's controls forward to maximum, causing the vehicle to shoot forward like a bullet. The marine on the vehicle's turret fired a barrage of blasts at the nearest chopper as it turned to launch a strike at the vehicle. The blasts broke through the armour protecting the spinning metallic tyre.

BOOM! An explosion on the ground next to the chopper threw the vehicle through the air. Before it landed, it broke apart into large chunks. The Brute that had been driving the vehicle fell to the ground and lay still. That was one down. Just one more to go.

The Brute in the other chopper, however, had seen what had happened to his comrade and, immediately, pushed his controls forward to maximum. The chopper shot across the drop towards the slope that led up to the start of the walkway. The marine on the back of the mongoose fired another shot after it but missed. Eve drove her prowler after the chopper. The marine on the prowler's turret fired at the chopper, trying to hit the Brute driving the vehicle. He too failed.

The chopper did a U turn and shot down the walkway towards the end. The prowler and the mongoose reached the start of the walkway and, to their dismay, saw that the Brutes had a shade turret set up at the end of the walkway with two barricades next to it. Pretty much one of the perfect ways for the Covenant to stop any UNSC vehicles from getting through the wall. The chopper the squad had been chasing was parked near the turret on the left side of the walkway. The squad just managed to catch a glimpse of a large figure squeezing through the gap between the shade turret and the barricade to It's right.

"Great!" one of the marines holding onto the prowler's side growled. "How the hell are we gonna break through that?"

"We'll have to call for help," Eve told the marine. "Let's hope they bring weapons to tear those defences apart!"

She placed a finger on the radio in her ear and was about to speak when…

"WATCH OUT!" a deep voice from the end of the walkway roared.

The squad looked to the end of the pathway and saw a small figure fall out of the shade turret. A Grunt. Something must have hit it and killed it instantly, but what? Then, the barricades and the shade turret exploded. The metallic remains collapsed to the walkway floor. The ball shaped section of the shade turret rolled away from the circular platform on the walkway floor. It fell over the side of the walkway and disappeared.

"What the hell's going on?" one of the marines holding onto the prowler's side asked.

"I don't know," Eve replied. "I don't like this at all," she added.

"Should we go on?" the marine on the back of the mongoose asked.

"We have to," Eve answered. "Just stay alert," she ordered.

Eve drove the prowler forward down the walkway towards the end. The mongoose followed close behind. As they approached the shade turret and barricade remains, an orange laser shot out from behind the corner wall, that led to the smaller walkway, and hit the Brute, that had been piloting the chopper, in the face. The creature roared loudly as it fell to the floor and lay still. What the hell was going on? Were the Covenant under attack by a new enemy? Eve knew those orange lasers. She had seen them before, somewhere. She finding it hard to remember exactly when she last saw those coloured lasers. Wait a minute! Now she remembered. Yes! She had seen those lasers when… Oh no! They belonged to…

A large diamond shaped machine hovered out from behind the corner wall. It had a small silo on the front of it with a small blue light next to it. It was a sentinel. Three more hovered out after the first.

"Fire on them!" Eve ordered.

"No, stop!"

The squad froze where they were, their fingers just mere micrometres from pulling the triggers of their weapons. However had told them to stop had saved these sentinels from, being blown apart.

A large shape hovered down towards the edge of the walkway. The squad looked and saw it was a pelican. The front was facing the walkway. Eve could see John and two pilots in the cog pit.

"Glad you could make it here, Eve," he said, which Eve could hear through her ear radio. "We got some new allies," he added, pointing at the group of shook her head and shot a cross look at John. It was as if she were saying You've made a big mistake letting these things join us. John ignored her and picked up a radio on the cog pit's control panel.

"Ma'am," he said. "Hocus almost lost his pelican's wing. But we found a good LZ nearby. It's perfect for the Dawn to land in. We also found a structure on the other side of this wall. It matches Auto's description of the map room from the first Halo ring,"

"A Cartographer," came Mary's voice. "Good, it should help us get a fix on Truth's location. Secure the LZ and I'll bring the Dawn down and we can push through that wall."

"Roger that," John replied. "Eve, follow my pelican. We'll lead you to the LZ,"

The pelican turned so the resting area was now facing the walkway. The craft then flew off and turned left towards the end of the wall. The sentinels hovered after John's pelican.

"I don't like those things being here," the marine on the prowler's turret said.

"Join the club," Eve replied. "I hope they don't turn on us. We've got enough problems dealing with the Covenant,"

"It's like they don't even see us, though," the marine driving the mongoose piped up.

"Oh, they see alright," the marine in the prowler's turret said to his comrade. "They just haven't decided what to do with us yet,"

"Alright," Eve announced, bringing the conversation to an end. "We better follow or we'll lose them,"

She reversed the prowler left before turning it right so it was now facing the start of the walkway. She drove the prowler down the walkway and did another U turn when they reached the end and drove back into the open area's drop. The mongoose followed close behind.

The two vehicles drove up the side of the drop and, when they reached the cliff they arrived through into the open area, turned right into the next path that led towards the next section of the wall. The two vehicles drove down the path to the end and turned right, revealing a wider pathway between the trail of rocks and the bottom of the wall. A few of the pillars that came down on the wall's side drove deep into the sand. At the end of the next pathway was another turning that led right up a small sand hill. A few Covenant barricades were scattered about but, by the looks of it, they must have left them here and forgotten about them. Probably because of the sudden UNSC and Elite joint attack on the Ark.

As Eve drove the prowler towards the end of the pathway, she placed a finger on the radio in her ear.

"John, how far are we from the LZ?" she asked.

"Not far, Eve," he replied. "It's just on the other side of the next cliff line that leads to this end of the wall."

As Eve lowered her hand, the marine on the prowler's turret suddenly started firing a barrage of blasts at an unknown danger.

"What's wrong?" Eve asked the marine. "Why are you fir-"

She quickly saw the answer when a loud crash drew the squad's attention. They looked to see the front of a ghost up against one of the pillars. Lying on the ground next to the vehicle was a dead Grunt. It must have shot out from the next path to try and stop them, but had obviously failed.

"The Covenant are most likely up ahead as well," one of the marines holding onto the prowler's side said.

"Get ready," Eve ordered. "We'll take them by surprise,"

She drove the prowler forward towards the next turning. The mongoose followed close behind. When they reached the turning, they turned left and drove up the small sand hill to the top.

Suddenly, Eve stopped the prowler, almost causing the mongoose to crash into them if it had not skidded to a halt, kicking up a cloud of sand in It's wake. One of the marines went to ask why she had stopped them but quickly knew why.

From somewhere up ahead, near the cliff line, they could hear blast fire and the shouting of Brutes and. Another battle was raging up ahead, but who it was between was the question. Was it the sentinels? Or was it John's pelican? They had to find out.

Eve drove the prowler forward and turned left up the side of another small sand hill. The mongoose followed them. When they reached the top, the squad saw several large boulders scattered across the hill top, which was quite large. Several paths criss-crossed around the boulders. One led to a large cave that went through the cliff line. Like earlier, a destroyed phantom lay against one of the boulders, It's insides scattered across the ground next to it.

The source of the noise was several ghosts hovering about between the rocks. Grunts were piloting them. With them were several Brutes wearing teal green armour. They were firing on something behind a large boulder in the middle of the hill top. The voice of a man shouted made the squad's eyes grow wide. They were firing on marines!

"C'mon, we have to help!" Eve said.

Eve drove the prowler full speed towards the Covenant forces. The mongoose sped after her. The battle came closer and closer with every passing second. The marines in the prowler saw what Eve was trying to do and braced themselves for what was coming. The target came closer and closer. Then…

CRASH! One of the ghosts was sent spinning sideways through the air, landing with an almighty crash on another boulder. The Grunt that had been piloting the craft was thrown out onto the ground. It did not rise afterwards.

"Watch out! The demon!" one of the Brutes, who was wearing gold armour with a gold helmet, shouted.

The ghosts immediately scattered, as did the Brutes. Two marines, taking cover behind the remains of a warthog and another mongoose, waved at the squad as they passed.

"Thanks, guys," the marines shouted.

The two marines climbed onto the mongoose and the one in the driver's seat started the engine. The vehicle's engine hummed. The marine pressed his foot down on the accelerator, causing the mongoose to shoot forward. The two marines joined their comrades in driving away the Covenant.

Eve and the marines on the prowler were chasing after a ghost that the Brute with gold armour was now driving, having kicked the Grunt, that had been driving it, off the vehicle, which resulted in the creature being killed by the marine on the prowler's turret. So far, the ghost was doing well to evade them. It had taken them around the side of the entire hill, almost resulting in the prowler turning over onto It's top at one point. The marine on the turret was trying to fire but every time he had the ghost in his sights, it would go behind a boulder or suddenly turn and speed off in another direction. They had to do something.

Then, Eve had an idea. She turned the prowler around, doing a 180 degree turn, and sped off in the opposite direction. Now the ghost was not getting away from them. It was coming towards them! As the prowler passed a boulder, the ghost came shooting out from behind the warthog remains. The Brute looked out over the back of the vehicle to see where his pursuers were. Huh. They must have given up. The Brute turned back to face the front of the vehicle. Oh no! He roared in panic as the prowler came straight for him and, in blind panic, grabbed the ghost's control and thrust them left. The vehicle flew sideways away from the prowler, narrowly missing being hit by it, only to crash into the phantom's remains. Eve turned the prowler around and drove towards the phantom's remains. The Brute groaned as it stood up holding It's head. The crown had been knocked off in the crash. The marine on the prowler's turret fired a barrage of blasts at the creature, easily breaking through the armour around his chest, killing him.

The mongooses were not having as much luck. They had destroyed one of the ghosts but the remaining two were giving them a hard time. In fact, they were being chased by the ghosts this time. The marine with the rocket launcher turned round and fired a shot at one of the ghosts. The Grunt driving the vehicle moved out of the projectile's way, narrowly missing it as it exploded on the ground. The Grunt laughed and fired a barrage of blasts from It's vehicle's cannons at the mongoose. The marine driving the mongoose turned around one of the boulders, narrowly missing having the back of the vehicle being blown off.

CRASH! The two mongooses crashed head first into each, throwing the marines on them to the ground. The driver of the mongoose with the rocket launcher marine groaned and rubbed his head.

"Are you alright?" the driver of the other mongoose asked.

"Yeah," the marine replied.

"Haha! You die now, bad guys!" a high pitched voice cackled.

The marines looked to their right to see the ghost, that had been chasing them, hovering just a few feet away. It's cannons aimed directly at them. Then, another shape appeared at the other end of the boulder. The marine looked and saw it was the other ghost. The Grunts driving the vehicles placed their hands on the cannon's triggers, ready to kill the marines.

"Get down!" one of the marines shouted.

"AAAAHH!"

The high-pitched scream filled the air. The Grunt of the ghost at the left end of the boulder fell to the ground, dead. The other Grunt screamed and put his ghost into reverse. It crashed against the side of another boulder on the edge of the hill. It was an easy target. The marine with the rocket launcher aimed his weapon at the vehicle and fired.

BOOM! The ghost exploded and fell to the ground a burning piles of metal. The body of the Grunt fell to the ground next to the vehicle.

As the marine stood up, a large silver vehicle hovered out from behind the boulder at the other end. It was the prowler

"You guys alright," the marine on the prowler's turret asked.

"Yeah, we're okay," one of the marines driving the mongooses replied.

The marines climbed onto the two mongooses and drove out from behind the boulder. Eve reversed the prowler and drove over towards the cave. The mongooses followed alongside.

"The LZ here's perfect, Eve," the marine driving the mongoose to the right of the prowler said to her. "The only problem is that the Covenant have heavy armour scattered across it. Some of it AA,"

"Let's just be glad It's not another AA gun," Eve muttered under her breath.

The vehicles entered the cave, driving around many boulders along the side next to the walls. The end of the cave was only a few metres ahead of them, giving them a clear view of an enormous plateau. The vehicles drove out of the cave into the plateau.

The plateau was enormous. Wedge in between a gap in the middle of an opening between two small cliff lines. A large drop was in the middle of the plateau. Sand pathways went around the side, leaving a few large caves underneath them going into the rock the sand covered. The vehicles were on one of the sand pathways at the front of the drop. At the other end of the plateau was a large piece of rock, which was up against the cliff line on the left side of the plateau, with several entrances on It's sides, all connecting to one another, making the rock look like a giant ant's nest. A sand pathway went past the rock on the right side of the rock, leading to a wide open ground about thirty to forty metres in both length and width. After that was an enormous cliff that led to the never ending sand ground far below the mountains.

Then, Eve saw what the marines had warned her about. On the pathway that went around the left side of the drop was a cross shaped platform with a blue haze shooting out from the middle of the platform up into the air. Hovering about ten feet above the cross shaped platform was a circular platform with pillars going around the sides of it. On the pathway next to the rock was another cross shaped platform with a circular platform hovering above it. On both were figures with beam rifles. Jackal snipers. Below the platform next to the drop were two parked choppers. Two Brutes wearing teal green armour were standing guard next to the vehicles. Next to the rock were more parked choppers. Scattered across the top of it, the squad could see several figures with shields next to them, Jackals, and a few smaller figures that were lumbering about, Grunts.

A loud boom filled the air. The squad froze. At first, they fought they had been spotted. Then, they saw a large green blast shoot up into the air from behind the rock. More booms filled the air, followed by more green blasts shooting into the air after the first. It was then the squad saw a pelican moving about from side to side to avoid getting hit by the blasts. It was amazing to see that even though there was an enemy ship hovering in the air above the plateau, other Covenant troops were not worried of the threat. In fact, they were just acting as if the pelican was not even there.

"That's John's pelican!" Eve exclaimed. "We better clear this area quickly whilst their focused on him," the marine on the prowler's turret replied.

"We'll go around the side and take care of those guys," the marine driving one of the mongooses said, driving the vehicle left along the path towards the Covenant.

Eve drove the prowler forward along the side of the drop towards the open area at the end of the plateau. The other mongoose followed. The squad in these two vehicles knew they had to be quick if they were going to surprise the Covenant forces here and quickly clear a landing zone for the Dawn.

Suddenly,…

"INTRUDERS!"

At once, a barrage of blasts flew at the prowler and the mongoose driving alongside. The Jackal on the platform ahead of the two vehicles fired a shot at them. The laser hit one of the marines, holding onto the side of the prowler, in the head, killing him instantly. The body fell off the prowler onto the ground. The marine on the prowler's turret aimed at the Jackal and fired. The blasts struck the creature in the chest and face. The creature screeched loudly and fell to the platform floor, dead. That was one of the Covenant here dead.

Another hundred to go Eve thought as the prowler and the mongoose shot past the large rock into the large open area.

The marine on the prowler's turret fired up at the Jackals. The blasts easily broke through the shields of the creature and hit their targets, killing them. The Grunts screamed and ran for cover, only for most of them to suffer the same fate. Only three were left, hiding in the tunnel network inside the large rock. The marines decided to ignore them and turned their weapons towards the anti-air wraith, which was still firing up at John's pelican.

"Eve!" John's voice shouted from her ear radio all of a sudden. "Look out behind you!"

Before Eve could turn to see what the danger was, she was suddenly pulled out of the prowler's driving seat. A Brute with dark blue armour had grabbed her by the neck and was now focused on choking her to death. Before the marines could help, two large silver vehicles shot past them and stuck the side of the prowler. The choppers! Oh God! The marines on the other mongoose were probably dead by now, and soon these ones were going to be dead as well. The prowler tipped over on It's side, throwing the marines on the vehicle to the ground. The other chopper stuck the mongoose and pushed that up against the plateau's right cliff line, throwing the marines to the ground.

The Brute laughed as he looked at Eve gasping for breath.

"You shall pay for following us, demon!" he growled evilly at her, smiling. "The Great Journey will soon begin. And neither you or your allies can stop us!"

The marine reached into the belt around his waist and took out a Brute spiker. He raised the weapon at Eve, aiming directly at her head. All he would have to do was pull the trigger and Eve would be dead. She closed her eyes and waited for the spikes to fire and penetrate her skin, for death to take her.

It never did.

Suddenly,…

"AAAAHH!"

Eve, suddenly, felt the grip on her neck being released. She fell to the ground and opened her eyes and rubbed her neck, gasping for breath. The Brute had roared loudly, which was alongside the noise of an engine. As Eve looked around, she saw the Brute that had grabbed her neck, lying dead on the ground a few feet away. A vehicle drove up to her. It was a mongoose. Driving it was a marine. It was the other mongoose with It's driver still alive! The other marine, however, was no longer on the back. It was obvious he was dead.

"Are you alright?" the marine asked her as he held out a hand for Eve, which she took.

"Yeah, thanks," she replied.

"Die, you bear faced bastard!" one of the other marines shouted.

Eve and the marine looked to see the marines, that had been on the prowler, firing on the Brute on one of the choppers, who was struggling to remove himself from the vehicle as it had tipped over when trying to do a 180 degree turn and drive full speed at the marines. The bullets hit the creature and he lay still on the ground. The other chopper tried to flee but the marine with the rocket fired his last shot at the vehicle. It hit the side and broke it apart completely. The Brute skipped across the surface of the sand and fell down into the drop with his vehicle, disappearing from sight.

"That's the last of them," one of the marines said as he tried to push the prowler over back onto It's bottom.

Eve and the other marines ran over to help. They pushed the prowler back onto It's bottom. With their vehicle now back on It's upright side, now they had to deal with the AA wraith.

"How the hell are we gonna destroy that thing?" one of the marines asked.

"Quick! Flee!" a high pitched voice screamed.

The squad shot round to see the three Grunts run out from the rock towards the pathway that led into the drop. They were easy targets. The squad fired on the Grunts, hitting and killing all three of them. Eve saw a small blue object with an orange lightning bolt down the front of it fell from one of them. It was a plasma grenade. She could use that to destroy the wraith, and then Mary could bring the Dawn down and then they could continue their attack through the wall.

Eve ran over to the dead Grunts and picked up the plasma grenade. She then ran over to the wraith. Her target was the spinning fan-like object on the back of the wraith. That was the weak spot on the vehicle. She had destroyed a wraith through this way before. Now she was going to do it again.

Eve grabbed hold of the back of the wraith and pulled off the shield that was over the spinning fan-like object. She pressed her finger down on the plasma grenade, causing it to light up a light blue flaming colour, making the device look as though it was on fire. She threw the grenade into the fan-like object and ran from the wraith, determined to get as far away from the vehicle as possible before it blew.

BOOM! An explosion tore off the back of the wraith. Eve skidded to a halt and turned to see the wraith explode again. This time, the front armour was taken off completely. The body of the Brute, that had been driving the Covenant tank, was thrown several feet into the air before it landed with a thud on the vehicle and rolled off down the side onto the ground.

That was it. The landing zone was clear.

"Commander," came John's voice as the pelican hovered several metres towards the right cliff line. "LZ's clear. Bring her down,"

"Roger that," came Mary's voice. "Beginning my descent,"

The squad looked up into the sky to see a tiny black dot slowly grow bigger as it descended from a series of flashes far away in space above the Ark's surface. They hoped now they would have better weapons ready to break through any further Covenant defences.

"Is the Dawn rated for atmosphere?" one of the marines asked, sounding slightly worried as the black dot became large with every second, quickly taking shape to be the Dawn.

"I guess we're gonna find out," another marines replied as the ship was now only a few hundred metres away and closing.

The squad could already feel the wind from the ship blowing onto them. It was getting fiercer.

"Alright, take cover!" Eve shouted to the squad.

They ran towards the large rock and hid in the network of tunnels. Just in time as well. A second later, the ground shook violently as if an earthquake had struck the area. The wind was launched across the plateau as if it were being hit by a super hurricane. Platforms, bodies, even entire vehicles were lifted into the air, landing with a loud crash into the drop. The prowler scrapped loudly as it moved across the top of the rock, making a small cloud of dust fall from the ceiling inside the tunnels. Eve prayed the rock would not collapse, which was probably what the rest of the marines were thinking.

Finally, after a few seconds, the shaking and the super gale strong force winds stopped. The squad emerged from the rock to see the Dawn now hovering no more than fifty to sixty feet above them. The front of the enormous ship stuck out of the cliff line that separated the plateau from the area in front of the wall, making it look as if it were a large monster scanning the horizon.

"Thanks, Eve," came Mary's voice. "We were almost blown apart up there,"

Eve and the squad ran over to the frigate so they were just below an enormous rectangular-like on the bottom of the ship.

"Did the Elites get a fix on the Cartographer?" Mary asked.

"Yes, ma'am," John replied. "It's just on the other side of that wall. But the Brutes have heavy armour all around it."

"Don't worry, I've already got a plan to combat this," Mary said.

Immediately after she had finished speaking, as if on cue, a long rectangular section of the ship's lower rectangular section lowered from the ship towards the ground. On it were three large scorpion tanks. Further up at the end nearest the enormous cliff was a warthog with a machine gun turret built onto it. On two of the scorpion tanks were marines. One of them had It's four spaces covered. The other had only two spaces covered. The last had none of It's spaces covered. The warthog was completely full.

"If we can't go over the wall, we'll go right through it," Mary continued. "Eve, take one of the tanks. Lead the attack and break through any defences the Brutes have. If you come across any locked doors, Wally will be happy to open them up,"

Wally was coming with them. Well, that was good. He could lead them through the wall to the other side, if he could remember the way, as he had told her and Mary and John and the Arbiter that he did not know the Ark that well. Then again, he had never set foot on it before.

When the rectangular flood hit the ground, the vehicles on it rolled off the sides onto the ground. The squad ran over to the tanks and climbed on. A figure hovered off the rectangular floor and landed a few feet from Eve. It was Wally. For some reason, he looked very happy to be here.

"Are you alright?" Eve asked him as she walked over to him.

"This… This is just… Amazing!" he was saying. "I-I cannot believe I am on the Ark! The place which created the Halo rings!"

Eve rolled her eyes.

"I take it you find this place amazing," she said to him.

"Yes," Wally replied, nodding and turning to look at her. "I-I mean, can you not believe it? All of the information a-and technology and even the very past of the Forerunners is left here! I cannot wait to explore this place."

"You can go sightseeing later," Eve said, taking Wally by the arm and leading him over to one of the scorpion tanks. "Right now, we need you to lead us through this wall,"

"Y-yes," Wally said, shaking his head slightly to put him back into reality instead of his dream of exploring the Ark. "Sorry. I will lead you through the wall,"

They reached the tank and Eve climbed on-board and got inside the tank's driving seat. In front of her was a small control panel with a holographic screen, giving her a view of what was outside the tank. With the holographic screen were the controls for the tank's main cannon and small machine gun.

Now it was time to begin the attack.

Eve drove the tank forward towards the pathway. The rest of the vehicles followed. Wally, who was holding onto the side of the large bulge-like section, watched as the cave, which was the entrance to the plateau, came closer. As the convoy of UNSC vehicles moved across the sand pathway, that went across the right side of the drop to the pathway that led from the cave, Wally saw the remains of the circular platform on the ground on the other side of the drop. Lying on the ground was a dead marine. Not far from the marine's body was a Jackal's body. So the marine was dead. Two had been killed trying to take the plateau. Many more could, and most likely, would quickly follow.

"Look out! Ghost!" one of the marines on Eve's tank yelled all of a sudden, pointing ahead at the cave.

Eve, who had heard the marine's warning, looked on holographic screen to see a small Covenant vehicle shoot out of the cave. It was a ghost. Piloting it was a Grunt. It would be the first target. Eve aimed the tank's main cannons towards the ghost as it sped towards them. The Grunt was obviously launching a suicide attack as a ghost would stand no chance against a scorpion tank, especially if there were three of them. She aimed at the vehicle and fired.

BOOM! The ghost exploded into a fireball and scrapped across the ground, completely disintegrating the Grunt's body. The ghost's remains ploughed through the sand, coming to a halt a few feet in front of the leading scorpion tank. Eve drove on.

"Huh, tank beats ghost!" one of the marines, sitting on the side of Eve's tank, said as the tank drove past the vehicle's remains.

"We got more company!" another marine on the tank warned, pointing ahead.

He was right. Eve had heard him and looked on her tank's screen. Two large figures were running down the cave towards the end of the cave. When they came into the sunlight, they saw they were a pair of Hunters.

Eve aimed the tank's cannon at the Hunters and fired a shot, making the tank shake slightly. The shot hit one of the Hunters. The creature roared loudly as it fell backwards to the ground, dead. The other Hunter growled and aimed It's cannon at the tank. A light green light began to form inside the cannon's silo. It was preparing to fire! Eve saw the danger but it would be another few seconds before she could fire the tank's main cannon again. Suddenly, another loud boom filled the air. A tank shot hit the other Hunter, throwing it backwards to the ground, dead. Eve went wide-eyed. Lucky for her and the marines on her tank, one of the other scorpion tanks had fired on the Hunter just as it was about to fire.

"Tank beats Hunter!" a marine sitting on the side of Eve's tank, the same who made the remark about the ghost, said.

Eve drove the tank onward towards the cave. The rest of the convoy followed her. When they entered the cave, the darkness swept over them, blocking out most of the light from outside the cave. Eve kept her finger on her tank's weapon's trigger. If any Covenant in the cave tried to surprise attack them, she would kill them quickly before they could do her or any of the marines any harm.

Finally, the convoy reached the end of the cave. Ahead of them was the hill top. The remains of the previous battle still lay scattered across the hill top. However, another was about to take It's place. Ahead of the UNSC convoy was a large shape with a silver bottom and a purple top with three cannons attached to the silver bottom. It was a Covenant phantom. The craft was hovering no more than ten feet above the ground. Then, two objects dropped from the craft to the ground and the phantom hovered back up into the air. The two objects were ghosts, both being piloted by Grunts.

The phantom tried to hover away from the ground as the danger approached, but it was already too late. Eve turned the tank's main cannon at the craft, whilst the marines fired on the ghosts, and fired a shot at the craft's rear. The two tail-like sections on the back of the phantom were blown off completely. The tank behind Eve's fired a shot up at the phantom as well, hitting it in the side, blowing off the right turret and part of the right door. Eve fired another shot at the phantom, hitting it in the centre of the bottom of the craft.

At once, small light blue explosions erupted all over the craft. A loud charging sound filled the air. Then…

BOOM! The phantom exploded, throwing large chunks of It's remains through the air to the ground. Loud crashes followed as the remains hit the rocks and tumbled down the side of them out of sight.

"Tank beats everything!" the marine exclaimed as he killed one of the Grunts piloting one of the ghosts. "Oh man! I could do this all day!"

When the other Grunt had been killed, Eve turned her tank left and drove down the side of the hill top and turned right towards the slope path that led to the bottom of the wall. The rest of the convoy followed. When Eve's tank was about half-way down the slope path, a Brute chopper shot out from behind the rocks and charged straight towards the convoy. Eve fired at the chopper, blowing it apart and killing the Brute driving it. She led the convoy on to the bottom of the path and turned left.

Ahead of them was a slightly more dangerous obstacle. It was a wraith. However, this time it was not an anti-air wraith. It was a normal wraith. The enormous vehicle fired a mortar blast at Eve's tank. The marines dived off it to the ground. Wally hid behind the sphere-like section of the tank and braced himself.

BOOM! The blast hit the front of the tank, making it rock wildly. Eve growled as she hit her head against the top of the hatch. She aimed the main cannon at the wraith and fired a shot. The wraith was hit and rocked slightly as the projectile hit the side of the vehicle's front armour. The wraith reversed away from the tank towards the path at the other end of the main path. Eve, with the marines running alongside, drove the tank towards the wraith. She fired another shot at the wraith, hitting it at the top where the mortar blasts were fired from.

BOOM! The wraith exploded, throwing large pieces of the wraith's armour, and even the body of the Brute driving it, into the air. The vehicle immediately deactivated and fell to the sand covered ground. The marines climbed back onto the tank and Eve drove on towards the next path, turning left with the rest of the convoy when they reached the end.

"Look out! The demon!" a deep voice shouted.

Ahead of them was another circular platform hovering above a cross shaped platform. Around the cross shaped platform were several barricades. Hiding among them were brutes. There were about three of them, all wearing teal green armour and armed with spikers. As usual, on the circular platform, was a Jackal with a sniper.

The Brutes fired a barrage of orange spikes at the marines on Eve's tank. One of them was hit and fell to the ground, dead. The other marines, along with help from the marines on the tank behind Eve's, fired at the Brutes, killing one of them. The others, however, hid behind the barricades, which were bullet-proof. It was going to take something more powerful to kill the Brutes. Meanwhile, one of the other marines fired up at the Jackal just as it was about to fire a shot from It's beam rifle at another of the marines, killing the creature.

"We need to use a tank shot on those barricades," one of the marines shouted as he fired a burst of ammo from his battle rifle at the barricades, missing the Brute that was hiding behind it.

Time for me to blow them apart Eve thought as she aimed the main cannon at the barricades.

BOOM! A tank shot filled the air, hitting a gap between the barricades. At once, large pieces of metal were thrown through the air. One of the brutes roared loudly as it flew through the air, only to stop abruptly as it hit the side of the trail of rocks. The other Brute landed on the ground a few metres from the barricades.

Eve led the convoy on past the Covenant encampment towards the entrance to the open area. When they reached it, they saw that the Covenant had been busy setting up defences on this side of the wall. At the other end of the open area were two wraiths. Another wraith was at the end of the walkway that ran along the wall. The crew could also see several smaller Covenant vehicles scattered across the walkway. This time, they were ready for hold the line against the UNSC assault.

"Eve," came a marine's voice, through her ear radio, as she drove into the open area. "Head up onto the walkway. Have that cyborg guy pick that lock. We'll lead the attack through the lower doorway in the wall."

"Excuse me," came Wally's voice. "I am a normal Human, like you. And I would prefer to be called either 'Wally' or '343 Guilty Spark',"

"Yeah, well your also our ticket through this wall," the marine replied. "So if you don't mind?"

"I will help you in entering this structure," Wally said.

Eve smirked and looked on her holographic screen. Out of the comer of the screen, she saw Wally hover away from the tanks towards the end of the walkway. Smaller objects appeared out from behind the rocks and headed towards the end of the walkway as well. Eve zoomed in and saw they were the sentinels.

Oh, they finally decide to show up and help us! she thought frustratingly.

"Watch out! Mortar blasts!" one of the marines on her tank yelled.

Eve saw the deadly blast descending towards her tank and drove into the drop. The warthog, however, failed to see the danger. BOOM! The blast exploded on the vehicle, destroying it completely and killing the marines on it.

"You bastards are gonna die for that!" one of the marines on one of the other tanks yelled at the wraiths.

The tanks aimed their cannons at the wraiths at the other end of the open area and fired. One of the wraiths was hit by all three tank shots and exploded into a fireball, killing the Brute driving it. The other wraith near it hovered away from the destroyed wraith towards the pathway. Two ghosts came zooming off the pathway and turned towards the drop to launch their own attack. However, they were easy targets for the scorpion tanks. Eve fired on one of them, destroying it. Another fired on the ground a few feet in front of the other ghost, causing that one to crash into one of the large pillars. The marines on Eve's tank fired on the Grunt that had been piloting the ghost, killing it.

A loud explosion erupted on the walkway above the tanks. The marines looked up and saw a large piece of armour fall to the ground next to Eve's tank. It was wraith armour. Seconds later, the body of a Brute fell down to the ground. By the looks of it, the sentinels had blown apart the wraith at the top of the walkway. That was good. It was one less obstacle for the marines to deal with. Now there was just one more wraith to destroy and the entrance onto the pathway would be clear.

The last wraith fired another mortar blast at the tanks. It hit the ground a few feet behind Eve's tank, making it shake slightly. Eve drove her tank forward up the side of the drop. Even though the tank was in a vulnerable position, it was safe from the wraith's mortar blasts. If she could try and lure it towards her or away from her, then the other tanks could destroy it. Either way was going to destroy the wraith but Eve, and probably the other marines on her tank, preferred if the wraith moved away from them.

Unfortunately, that was not what happened. The Brute driving the wraith must have decided to launch a solo suicide attack, even if it meant losing the tank defending the walkway entrance. The wraith came forward, but now in front of Eve's tank as she had hoped. Instead, it moved a few metres right down the pathway and then moved forward onto the drop's side and turned towards Eve's tank. It was a perfect target. All the Brute had to do now was fire one, maybe two more times and Eve and the marines would be dead. The UNSC would lose the one thing that still keeping them going.

Suddenly, another two tank shots hit the side of the wraith. The vehicle exploded, throwing large pieces of the armour through the air. The Brute that had been driving the vehicle was launched into the air and landed with a thud against the side of the wraith and fell onto the ground, dead.

"Good work, marines," came John's voice as his pelican flew over the open area, coming to a halt next to the walkway. "Eve, you go on inside the wall. We'll meet up with you on the other side,"

Eve opened the hatch and climbed out of the tank. One of the marines ran over and took her place in the scorpion tank's driving seat. Eve ran onto the walkway as the tank tuned and drove back into the drop to join the other two tanks, who now had another warthog, that was completely full and had a grenade launcher turret built onto it, with them. Eve ran down the walkway to the end and turned left towards a large wall. Wally was hovering a few feet above the walkway floor and was firing a blue laser at the wall. He looked over his shoulder to see Eve.

"Hello, Eve," he said. "Oh, I cannot wait to get inside here. So much knowledge is buried within the walls of this structure,"

"You won't have long to go over it, Wally," Eve told him. "We do have a mission to complete first,"

"Yes. Right. Sorry," Wally replied. "Sorry, I am just… Overwhelmed to be here. This is a very sacred place to my creators."

"Well, it would be," Eve said. "Are you trying to unlock a door?" she asked Wally, who replied with a nod.

"One moment," he said, sounding like he was a hard worker trying to complete a long and tough task. "Almost. And… there we go,"

A rectangular shaped section of the wall, about four feet wide and seven feet high, moved forward several inches before rising up along the wall above it. Eve and Wally, who had hovered to the floor, walked through the opening into a large rectangular shaped room where the floor, about half-way down the room, went into a slope at about a 110 degree angle for about thirty feet down to the bottom, where a door was on the left wall near the corner that turned onto the end wall of the room. A platform walkway stuck out from the top of the slope until it was about half-way from the top of the slope to the end wall. At the end of the walkway was a circular end. On the floor at the end of the platform was a few metallic parts.

"Come," Wally said. "We must go into the next room."

Wally led Eve past the platform and down the slope to the bottom of the room. As the passed the platform pathway, Eve saw a sentinel hover up to the metallic remains at the end of the platform pathway.

"Why are the sentinels here, Wally?" Eve asked him.

"Because your enemy's leader has done something to activate them," Wally replied. "What it is, I do not know. But he must be stopped."

The two reached the door. However, it did not open automatically as they usually would do. Wally fired a blue laser from the bulge on his arm at the door for a few seconds until he stopped. The door opened. Eve and Wally walked through into a large cylindrical shaped room with a glass pathway going along the right wall. About half-way down the glass pathway was a control panel. At the other end of the pathway was another door on the wall opposite Wally and Eve. About fifty feet below the pathway was another walkway that ran along the left wall towards a large blast door on the front wall of the room. Another walkway went along the right wall of the room, where a large horizontal, rectangular shaped doorway was on the wall, leading into a large tunnel. What separated the two walkways was an enormous hole that was so deep that a cloud of mist was hovering in the air about a hundred feet below the walkway.

"Hey Eve," a man shouted. Eve looked and saw the three scorpion tanks and the warthog parked on the left walkway. "Try and see if there's anything that'll activate a bridge,"

"The control panel will help your marines," Wally said to her, pointing over at the control panel.

Eve nodded and walked over to the control panel. When she reached it, she rested a hand on a small trapezium shaped button on the control panel and pushed down. A loud charging sound filled the room. Eve looked down at the pathways just as a light blue light began to appear on the sides of the walkways. The lights on both walkways suddenly shot towards each other, forming a large energy bridge. The marines could now get across.

"Thanks, Eve," one of the marines shouted.

Eve nodded and watched as the scorpion tanks drove across the energy bridge to the other side. Bringing up the rear of the convoy was the warthog. The convoy drove through the rectangular doorway and turned right, disappearing into the tunnel behind the wall of the room.

"This way, Eve," Wally said.

Eve followed Wally across the pathway and through the doorway at the end into a small cube shaped room with a large anchor-like shaped object that was coloured dark silver. On the left wall of the room was another door. Eve and Wally walked over the door, causing it to open as they approached it, revealing a large rectangular shaped room.

Suddenly, the room shook violently. Eve grabbed hold of Wally to stop from falling over onto his back.

"What was that?" she asked him in an alarmed tone.

Before he could answer, a large unlocking sound filled the room. Then, the entire front wall of the room ahead of the two seemed to moved. It was because it was rising. Within a few seconds, the sunlight swept into the room. Eve and Wally looked through the new doorway and saw that they were outside. Ahead of them was a large, rocky open area with a sand covered ground. Many large boulders and trails of rocks formed paths between them. Along both sides of the open area were large rectangular structures that came out of the enormous wall. They had large pillars placed at an angle on their sides and slopes, at around 70-80 degree angles, along the sides of the structures. Far out at the end of the open area was a dark blue colour. By the looks of it, they must be near some kind of enormous coast.

Suddenly, a large metal leg slammed down into the ground outside the doorway. Eve and Wally gasped and looked up through the half-cylindrical gap the door had made to see that the leg was connected to some kind of large, metallic object. It then hit Eve. It was a scarab. The leg that had pounded to the ground in front of them was the front right leg of the enormous machine.

BOOM! The leg moved forward, crashing into the ground about seventy feet ahead. The rear right leg crashed into the ground in front of the structure. BOOM! BOOM! Two more legs, that Eve and Wally could not see, moved somewhere outside. The scarab moved right and climbed over the side of the structure on the right of the open area, disappearing from sight.

"Oh no!" Wally gasped as he shot up from the floor. "I must make sure they do not damage anything!"

Before Eve could stop him, Wally activated his anti-gravity boots and hovered outside after the scarab. Eve sighed and moved her hand down the front of her face. Wally was starting to annoy her. Okay, she could accept that being here, to him, was an amazing thing, but that did not mean he should just shove everything else aside and try and worry some data the Forerunners had. Even if the data was useful, he still had to help her and the marines.

Boy, he's changed a lot since he's come onto this place's surface! she thought frustratingly.

After a few seconds, she sighed again. She would have to try and remind him he was in a war later. Right now, she had to help punch through the Covenant defences.

Eve ran forward through the doorway outside. She saw that there was a lower level of ground about twenty feet below her, just below the edge of a sharp side of rock the sand was covering. This lower ground level led to a large blast door on the wall.

Three large shapes moved out from the wall. Eve looked and saw they were the scorpion tanks. A smaller shape shot ahead of them and turned right, disappearing behind a large boulder. By the looks of it, the warthog was going to pick her up, but how? It was still completely full. Oh that did not matter. She could easily follow the warthog to the tanks.

Eve ran across the ground towards a path that was between two large boulders that were at the end of two trails of rock. When she was about half-way to the pathway, a large explosion erupted from behind the left trail of rocks. Not even a second passed before a vehicle shot out from behind the left trail of rocks and drove full speed up the path. The warthog. It's passenger seat was empty.

The marine driving the vehicle waved as he saw Eve. He slammed his foot down on the brake, making the tyres screech loudly as the vehicle came to a halt a few metres in front of her. She ran over to the driver's seat.

"What happened?" she asked him.

"The Covenant have got a few patrols on the other side of those rocks," the marines replied. "One of their plasma turret got Samuels in the face, blew him right out of the warthog."

"Look out!" the marine on the turret shouted all of a sudden.

Eve and the driving marine looked at the marine and saw a shape shooting up the path towards them. It was a ghost. The marine on the turret aimed the weapon at the Covenant vehicle and fired a shot. The ghost seemed to break apart as it was hit. The Grunt that had been piloting the vehicle was thrown to the ground, tumbling several times before coming to a halt. The ghost's remains fell to the ground and skidded across it, throwing up a cloud of sand in front of it. It came to a halt a few metres behind the warthog.

"You drive, Eve," the marine in the warthog's driving seat said, climbing into the passenger seat and taking out a battle rifle from the compartment above the passenger seat. "You got better reactions then me,"

I was just about to ask him if I could drive. Eve thought as she climbed into the driver's seat.

She started the vehicle. The engine hummed loudly. She reversed the vehicle right before turning left and driving towards the pathway. Eve drove down the pathway, turning left at the end into another that curved left slightly, about half-way down it, which would take them to the back of the open area. Straight to the tanks. However, ahead of them was a large boulder. Around that boulder were several Jackals and Grunts. A plasma turret was set up next to the boulder, aiming directly at the warthog. A marine was lying dead on the ground not far in front of the warthog. That was the marine that had been in the warthog before he was killed. Eve wondered if any of these two marines were going to follow the same fate.

"You die, you big jerks!" one of the Grunts shouted at the warthog as it ran over to the turret.

Oh no! That turret would tear them to pieces. Eve had to stop him. She slammed her foot down on the accelerator, causing the warthog to shoot forward like a bullet. Just as the Grunt was inches from the turret…

SMASH! The turret was broken apart, as if it were a twig, by the warthog. The Jackals dived out of the vehicle's way as it drove on. The marine on the warthog's turret fired several shots at the Covenant soldiers, hitting two Grunts and a Jackal, killing all three of them. One of the remaining Jackals pressed down on It's plasma pistol's trigger and fired a charged shot at the warthog. The deadly plasma shot narrowly missed the marine's head and hit the boulder. The missed shot was a big mistake for the Jackal. The marine aimed the turret at the creature and fired. The Jackal brought up It's shield to protect itself, but the grenade shot easily broke through the shield and hit the creature, killing it.

When the last Grunt was gunned down by the marine in the passenger seat, Eve drove on down the pathway, turning left towards the open area. When they reached the open area, the tanks, about forty feet ahead of them, came to a halt.

"Glad you guys could join us," one of the marines on the side of the tanks shouted to them.

Eve and the two marines climbed out of the warthog and ran over to the nearest tank, which had only two spaces on the sides covered. The marine driving the vehicle climbed out of the tank's driving seat and sat one of the sides of the tank. The marine that had been on the warthog's turret climbed on the last space on the tank. The other marine ran over to another of the tanks and climbed onto an empty space on that one.

When Eve climbed into the hatch of the tank, she drove the vehicle forward towards a large spire shaped rock with several small caves, big enough for the scorpion tanks to drive through, ahead of them about half-way down the open area.

"All armour, form up and follow Eve!" came a marine's voice through her ear radio. "Hit 'em where it hurts!"

As the tanks drove towards the large rock, Eve saw several large shapes appear on her tank's holographic screen.

"Watch out, wraiths!" a marine warned through her ear radio.

The wraiths fired a wave of mortar blasts at the approaching tanks. All missed their targets, one coming within just under three feet of one of the tanks. Eve aimed her tank's main cannon at one of the wraiths, which was partly concealed in one of the small caves. The shot hit the side of the vehicle, making it rock slightly. The wraith reversed through the cave to the other side of the rock.

"Watch out! Choppers!" Eve heard a marine on her tank shout.

She looked on her holographic screen. He was right. Two large silver vehicles shot past the wraith, that had reversed out of the cave, and through the cave towards the tanks. Eve aimed the main cannon at one of the choppers and fired. The shot hit the vehicle, breaking it apart and throwing the remains, along with the body of the Brute that had been driving the vehicle, to the ground.

The other chopper fared better. It shot past Eve's tank and the Brute fired a barrage of blasts from It's cannons at the marines along one of the other tanks. They hit one of the marines, killing him and throwing his body to the ground. The other marines, even those on the other two tanks, fired at the creature but he moving too quickly to score a direct hit, and even if they did hit him the strike was not powerful enough to break through the armour. Even the tank cannons were having trouble trying to fire on the chopper. Eve wanted to help her comrades, but she was worried. What if she accidentally hit one of them? She could end up killing the marine driving the tank, or the marines on the side, or even all of the marines on the tank altogether. She was going to have to let this one go.

She aimed her tank's cannon back at the wraiths, which had advanced several metres, thinking that the scorpion tanks were tied up in trying to destroy the chopper. They were wrong. Eve fired a shot at one of the wraiths. It hit the vehicle's side, blowing it off completely. The wraith deactivated and fell to the ground. The Brute driving the vehicle roared in anger and tried to climb out of the vehicle's driving seat. Eve, however, saw him and fired another shot at the wraith. The front of the wraith was blown off completely and landed several metres from the vehicle. The brute was completely obliterated. Nothing of him would be left behind.

The other wraiths, about two were left, reversed through the rock's caves, hoping to regroup with other Covenant forces.

BOOM! An explosion erupted behind the tank. Eve opened the hatch and looked behind the vehicle to see the other chopper lying in ruins on the ground. The Brute, that had been driving the vehicle, was lying alongside it, dead. Good. Now they could continue to advance against the wraiths.

Eve lowered back into the scorpion tank's driving seat, closing the hatch behind her, and drove the tank on towards the rock. The other two tanks followed. However, when the three vehicles were about twenty feet from the rock, one of the wraiths drove forward into one of the caves. The tanks saw it but fired on the vehicle before they realised it was in one of the caves. The vehicle exploded, killing the Brute driving it, and fell to the ground and lay there a burning wreckage. It was now blocked and there was no way the scorpion tanks could move the wraith to get through.

"Shit!" Eve heard one of the marines growl through her ear radio. "We'll have to go quickly through the other caves! Keep your weapons ready!"

Eve drove her tank towards the cave next to the blocked one. She drove the tank through the cave to the other side. One of the other tanks followed behind hers. (the last tank drove through another cave further down the rock towards the structure on the right of the open area). Ahead of the tanks was the bottom of a hill they had been driving down. The hill led to a flat sand covered ground that had a large cube shaped building with a circular front at the bottom of the hill, the circular front facing towards the dark blue ahead of the open area. A large ramp led from the top of the structure to the ground. Ahead of them, at the bottom of the hill, were more wraiths, bringing the total number to four.

The wraiths fired a wave of mortar blasts at the tanks. The one behind Eve's tank was hit and reversed back towards the cave. Eve aimed her tank's main cannon at one of the wraiths and fired a shot. It hit the wraith's side, causing it to fall off and explode, killing the Brute driving it. The wraith deactivated and fell to the ground. The tank further down the rock fired a shot at another of the wraiths, hitting that one but was not as successful as Eve's.

"We need to try and strike them in the side," a marine said through her ear radio. "Fire on the wraiths' sides!"

The tank that reversed into the cave drove forward again and stopped a few metres from Eve's. It and Eve's tank fired a shot each at another of the wraiths. The first projectile badly damaged the front armour, causing the wraith to shake slightly. The second projectile broke through the armour, smashed into the wraith's driving seat and exploded, completely incinerating the Brute inside and breaking the wraith into four large pieces.

"Hell, yeah!" one of the marines shouted happily, which Eve heard through her ear radio. "Now that's how you take down a wraith!"

Eve rolled her eyes and aimed the tank's cannon at one of the two remaining wraiths, which was moving as quickly as it could towards the structure at the bottom of the hill. Another of the tanks fired another shot at the wraith, hitting it on the side and blowing apart it, killing the Brute driving the vehicle. The last wraith turned and tried to flee from the tanks. However, the Brute driving it made the big mistake of exposing the vehicle's rear. The three scorpion tanks aimed their cannons at the wraith and fired.

BOOM! The back of the wraith exploded, being torn off completely from the vehicle. The wraith came to a halt where it was. The Brute driving it pushed open the hatch and climbed out of the wraith. Eve saw him on her tank's holographic screen and fired another shot at the vehicle. The wraith exploded and threw the brute several feet through the air. He landed about ten metres from the bottom of the ramp at the back of the structure and did not rise afterwards.

"Good work," came Mary's voice through Eve's ear radio. "Now we can get into the structure,"

"Which one is it? There are two main ones," another marine's voice asked.

"Our sources tell us it should be in the structure to your right," Mary replied.

BOOM! The ground shook violently. Eve looked on her holographic screen but saw nothing. What the Hell had caused the ground to shake just now?

"Oh crap! We got company!" a marine shouted, which Eve from her ear radio.

Then, a large metallic leg slammed into the ground about sixty metres in front of the tanks. Eve saw this on her holographic screen. It was the scarab's leg. That could, and did, mean only one thing.

"Scarab's back! Get the tanks to cover!" the marine on Eve's tank shouted.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The other three legs of the scarab slammed onto the ground. Eve frantically pushed her tank's controls forward to maximum, hoping to get behind the cover of the structure before the scarab spotted them. The other tank alongside hers did the same. Unfortunately, the last tank, that was about thirty feet away, was too far to get to safety and as it moved out from behind the protection of a few tall boulders, it came right into the scarab's view. The enormous machine's front cannon opened up like a flower blooming in Spring, revealing a huge silo in the middle of the metal petals protecting the silo. A green laser charged up in the silo and shot out towards the tank. It hit It's target, engulfing it in a huge explosion as the tank's ammo shells blew up. When the laser stopped firing, all that was left of the tank was the front half of the main section, the rest having been completely destroyed. Everyone on the tank was dead.

"Bastards are gonna pay for that!" Eve heard a marine growl from her ear radio.

She was thinking the exact same thing. If that scarab stayed operational, they were all going to die. Well it was time she showed the Covenant that these big machines of theirs were not invincible. She had destroyed one before in New Mombassa and another in Voi. This would be her third scarab kill, if she could get aboard it.

"Eve, move the tanks onto the top of the structure. We'll be safe from the main cannon up there," a marine said.

Eve drove the tank towards the ramp. The other tank followed close behind. As they reached the ramp and began to drive up it, she became aware of another danger. Although they would be safe from the scarab's main cannon, they still had the turret on the top of the machine to worry about. At least it was not as powerful as the cannon but if it scored a few direct hits it could be just as deadly.

As the tanks reached the top of the structure, Eve's worry was perfectly justified. A barrage of light green blasts flew at them. One of them landed on the structure's roof's floor no more than a few inches in front of Eve's tank. She turned it left as she drove the tank onto the roof. Another blast struck the back of her tank, making it shake slightly. Eve aimed the main cannon at the turret and fired a shot. It hit the front of the turret and blew off a piece of the armour. Damn! It was still operational, and as long as it was, they would be in for a rough fight.

When the two tanks reached the top of the structure, they fired a few shots at the scarab in an attempt to break through the armour. However, the armour was too thick and the only damage they scored was another hit against the turret, which blew off another piece of armour. There was no way they were going to win the fight with the machine this way. There had to be another way! Wait a minute. Eve, zigzagging the tank, which had travelled almost to the very edge of the front of the ceiling, desperately to avoid getting hit again, remembered back to when she fought the last scarab on Voi. How did she destroy it? A better question; how did she even get on-board it?

Of course! She got on-board it when the legs had been disabled. That was it then. That was how she was going to get on-board. However, it was easier said than done. She could die destroying this thing, as she almost had done when she was fighting the last scarab, but this was the only way to destroy it. The only question now was; how was she going to get on-board the scarab? The last time she jumped onto the top of the scarab's turret and climbed down from there. She would not be able to do it this time because the turret towered over the top of the structure. She could not jump onto the main section of the machine either, or even jump onto it at all. The scarab was too far away and was moving too much. Looks like she was going to have to board another way, but how?

It was then Eve saw a strange difference about this scarab. It had large purple coloured metal shield-like objects placed along the side of the main section between the two legs either side of the machine. On the last scarab, it did not have them. Maybe, just maybe, if they were blown off, she could climb on-board and repeat what she had done last time.

That was it then! That was how she was going to get on-board. The only thing that had to work was the metal shields being blown off and the legs being hit enough to disable the scarab.

Eve aimed the tank's main cannon at one of the metal shields on the right side of the scarab. It was proving difficult as the scarab was moving a lot. Finally, she fired a shot. The projectile, unfortunately, hit the top of the leg in front of the shields, doing little damage. She growled and fired another shot, this time hitting her target. The shield partially collapsed and fell onto the ground, but it was still attached to the side of the scarab. She needed to score another direct hit to blow the shield off completely.

Another projectile from the other tank, which had driven up and stopped alongside Eve's tank, flew at the scarab and hit the right pathway above the shield Eve was hoping to destroy, leaving a large black scorch mark on the pathway. Eve fire another shot at the shield, hitting it again. The shield exploded and collapsed some more, causing another large chunk to fall to the ground. A large hole was left in the top of the shield, revealing a dark blue/black surface inside the back of the machine's main section. It was still partly attached.

Just one more hit should do it! Eve thought hopefully as she aimed the main cannon at the shield.

Eve pushed down on the cannon's trigger. The tank shook slightly as another projectile shot out towards the shield. The shot hit the shield, blowing it off the scarab in a small explosion. The remains fell to the ground. The hole had been made. Now they had to disable the scarab.

Eve reversed the tank away from the edge and opened the hatch.

"Eve, what are you doing?" one of the marines asked her.

"I'm going to climb onto the scarab and take it down from the inside," she told the marine. "I need one of you to pilot the tank and fire on the scarab's legs to disable it,"

"But you'll get killed-" the marine began.

"Look, this is not the time for arguing!" Eve cut off the marine. "We'll be dead otherwise. I need one of you to pilot the tank and disable the legs. I also need a weapon," she added.

"Here," another of the marines piped up, throwing Eve his battle rifle which she caught.

The marine that had been talking to Eve climbed over to the tank's driving seat and disappeared inside it, closing the hatch behind him. Eve jumped off the tank onto the metal floor of the structure's top. As she stood up, she took one last look at the marines on the tank.

"Good luck!" one of them said to her.

Eve nodded and ran across the roof to the ramp. When she reached the ramp, she ran down it, almost stumbling once or twice, to the bottom and ran around the right side of the structure, stopping at the circular side of the structure. She looked up at the scarab as it was moving about. The turret was still firing at the tanks on the structure's top. A few projectile's shot out from the roof to the scarab, but only one hit the targets Eve wanted them to hit. The legs. The projectile blew off a large piece of the armour, throwing it to the ground to join the rest of the metal from the shield.

Eve placed a finger on the radio in her ear.

"Marines, fire on the legs!" she ordered. "We need to disable it!"

The projectiles ceased for a few seconds as soon as she stopped speaking. At first, Eve panicked, thinking that the turret had destroyed them. However, she was reassured when another projectile shot out at the front right leg, striking the centre of it. Another large piece of the leg's armour was torn off. Another projectile followed a second later, breaking off another piece of armour. The attack was going as planned.

Finally, after a few seconds of being hit, the projectiles tore off a large piece of the armour on the leg's centre. A loud beeping alarm ran out across the scarab. The scarab lowered so It's knee caps were sticking up into the air. This was it! Eve had to get there quickly before it rose up again.

She sprinted as fast as she could from the side of the structure across the ground twards the disabled machine. As she reached the scarab's main cannon, she heard a deep voice shout something from above. She looked up and saw a Brute wearing dark blue armour with a dark blue helmet aimed his Brute shot down at her and fired. Eve dived forward, narrowly missing the grenade as it blew up on the ground. She quickly picked herself up from the ground and ran on towards the hole in the main section's side where the shield had been. The Brute fired a few more shots after her, but all missed.

Eve finally reached the hole and pulled herself into the scarab. Like on the last one, this scarab had a large room with a rectangular shaped hole at the back of the machine's main section. Ahead of her, on the other side of a curved wall, was the dark blue ramp that led up to the top of the scarab.

"I have opened the portal to this hallowed place," came a voice Eve knew well. Truth's! She aimed her battle rifle round frantically to find the source of the noise but it seemed to be coming from everywhere in the room. It was probably on some kind of built in com. "In hopes that more of our Covenant would join us," Truth's voice continued. "Alas, save for a rabble of Heretics and their Demon allies, we are all that remains on this new world. So we must temper joy and sorrow in our hearts, for those who were left behind,"

If only he was here! Eve thought, annoyed, as Truth's com stopped talking.

Eve kept her battle rifle close and looked back over at the curved wall. She knew that the Brute that had just fired on her would waste no time in charging down the ramp to attack her. Eve ran over to the side of the wall and stopped. She pressed her back up against the wall's side and raised her battle rifle, only this time she had the rifle butt facing the entrance to the room. She did not want to alert all the Covenant forces on the scarab, so she was going to have to hit the Brute with her weapon rather then fire on it. All she had to do was hope that it knocked the creature out otherwise she would be on the scarab forever trying to destroy it.

A large shadow filled the light beaming in from the entrance to the main section, followed by loud footfalls. It was the Brute. Eve breathed in as the shadow grew larger with every passing second. She had to strike quickly or the Brute would alert any other guards on the scarab of her presence.

Suddenly, a large creature came out from behind the wall. Eve struck like lightning with her battle rifle, hitting the creature in the forehead. The Brute was thrown to the floor, groaning in pain. As he lifted himself onto his knees, Eve swung her fist at the creature, hitting him in the face. The Brute fell to the floor, out cold.

Eve jumped over the Brute's motionless body and ran up the ramp back outside onto the front of the top of the scarab's main section. All she had to do was run down one of the pathways behind her to the back of the machine and destroy the core then get the hell of it before it was blown sky high.

Eve turned and ran down the left pathway. When she reached the end, she turned right into the area where the core was.

"AAAHH! DEMON!"

Three Grunts had been keeping guard at the back of the machine. However, without their Brute to lead them, they quickly scattered. One of them, however, aimed It's plasma pistol at Eve and fired a shot, hitting her and causing her shield to light up. Eve fired a burst of ammo from her battle rifle at the Grunt, causing it to yell loudly as it flipped backwards onto It's stomach, dead.

With the guards taken care of, Eve could now focus on the core. Like on the last scarab, the core was a huge metal circle with four small clamp-like objects sticking off the circle at the top, bottom and the sides, connecting it to the wall. In the middle of the circle was the blue light. In the corners was the orange skin that resembled the body a Hunter was made up of. Again, also like on the last scarab, an enormous shield was over the core.

Eve walked over to the dead Grunt's body, knelt down and took the plasma pistol from the dead creature's grasp. She aimed the weapon at the shield and pressed down on the trigger. A green ball began to charge up on the front of the plasma pistol. It grew bigger and bigger with every second. Finally, Eve released her grip on the trigger. The deadly shot flew through the air towards the shield.

The shot was so powerful that it broke through the shield and also hit the light blue light directly in the centre. The light immediately changed from blue to red. A loud alarm erupted from inside the core. This was it. She had caused the core to go into malfunction. Now she just had to get off the scarab before it blew up.

Eve ran back up the left pathway to the top of the scarab and turned and ran back down the ramp into the scarab's room. She ran around the wall and headed straight for the large rectangular hole in the back of the scarab. It was getting closer. Just about another ten meters. She was almost there!

"You are not leaving this scarab alive, demon!" a deep voice shouted.

Before Eve could react, she was pinned to the floor by a large pair of hand. The Brute! He had regained consciousness and had been waiting to pounce on Eve when she would run back down the ramp to escape the enormous ticking time bomb. Eve hit the Brute in the face. He growled and clutched down harder on her sides. Eve winced in pain. If she did not get away from this Brute, then she would be blown to smithereens. She had to do something.

Eve threw a punch at the Brute, hitting him in the eye. At the same time, she brought back her legs and kicked with all her strength. The Brute was thrown through the air and landed on his back, adding more pain to the blow to his eye. Eve wasted no time in continuing the fight She scrambled to her feet and rushed out of the scarab, jumping out of the room onto the ground, and and ran as fast as she could away from the machine towards the structure where the tanks were.

Suddenly, a loud charging sound filled the air. It sounded like a Hunter's plasma cannon preparing to fire. It grew louder and grew louder. Then…

BOOM! A gigantic explosion lit up the sky behind her. Eve could actually feel the heat of the blast on her back even though she was quite a distance away but she did not stop running. When she reached the structure, she stopped and turned to see the scarab lying on the ground an enormous pile of metallic ruins.

Three-nil to me Eve thought.

"Not bad, Evelyn," Came a deep voice from her ear radio. It was Vadumee's. "I saw that explosion from orbit,"

A large shape in the sky caught Eve's eye. She looked and saw it was an assault carrier. It was the Shadow of Intent.

"The Brute's fleet lies in ruins," Vadumee said. "Find where the wretched liar hides, so I may place my boot between his guts!"

"We'll know soon enough, Shipmaster," came Mary's voice. "Eve, head towards the Cartographer structure on your right."

Eve nodded and ran towards the large structure at the right of the open area. Ahead of her was the enormous ramp that went up the side of the structure to, hopefully, a door that led inside the structure. As she passed the side of the structure, the marines from the scorpion tanks ran after her.

"Watch out, Eve!" John warned from her ear radio. "Infantry on the ramp!"

Eve looked up at the ramp. He was right. A squad of Covenant soldiers were running down the ramp towards the ground. They were made up of three Grunts, a Jackal and a Brute wearing teal green armour. The Brute roared something and pointed at the squad.

"Mop 'em up!" John ordered.

Eve led the marines towards the bottom of the ramp. When they reached it, they fired a barrage up at the Covenant. Eve fired a burst of ammo at one of the Grunts, hitting the creature in the face, killing it. Another of the marines fired up at the Jackal. The creature, however, brought up It's shield and deflected the bullets. Two marines fired up at the Brute, hitting it in the face and chest. The creature roared in pain as blood flowed from the wounds. The two marines fired again at the creature. The Brute crumpled to the floor and lay still.

"AAH! Leader dead! Run away!" one of the remaining Grunts screamed.

The last two Grunts turned and ran up the ramp, waving their arms about in terror. The Jackal shot round and screeched something after them, probably telling them to get back here and fight. Big mistake. Eve fired a burst of ammo at the Jackal's exposed back. The creature let out a screech that filled the air as it collapsed onto the ground, dead.

"Move up," Eve ordered.

The marines followed her up the ramp towards the top. However, they quickly discovered, when they were about three quarters of the way up, that the top, as they saw it, was actually a flat piece of floor with two large cube shaped objects in the middle of the floor. Behind the two large cube shaped objects was a smaller ramp that led up to a larger floor about fifty feet above the first. That was the top.

Eve and the marines ran onto the smaller floor and up the ramp towards the top. When they reached the top, a large shape hovered down towards the floor. It was a pelican. When it was about ten feet above the floor, which the pelican stopped lowering, the resting area's door opened and a tall figure stepped out onto the floor. It was the Arbiter. He was carrying a Covenant carbine.

"Well done in destroying the scarab, Evelyn," he said to her as he joined the squad.

"Glad you could join us, Arbiter," she replied. "Now we need to find a way in here,"

"There," one of the marines piped up, pointing to the wall of the structure ahead of them where a small door was.

The squad ran towards the door. It opened as they approached it, revealing a short,, dimly lit corridor with pillars going along the walls and another door at the other end, which was about thirty feet away. About half-way down the corridor was a shorter corridor that led left and also had pillars going across it. However, scattered across the floor of both corridors were the bodies of several Grunts. Who, or what, had killed them?

Eve and the Arbiter walked into the corridor first, their weapons at the ready in case they were attacked. The marines followed them. When they reached the smaller corridor, they saw several metallic remains on the floor. Sentinel remains. So a battle had taken place here and that is why there were Grunt bodies.

"Do you think the sentinels killed them?" Eve asked the Arbiter.

"There is a chance they may have done," the Arbiter replied. "I just pray they are still our allies and have not turned against us,"

Then, the door at the other end of the corridor opened, revealing a pitch black room on the other side. The squad aimed their weapons at the door, ready to fire on whoever, or whatever came out of it.

"Eve?" a familiar voice said.

A figure stepped out into the corridor. It was Wally.

"Where have you been?" Eve asked him as she walked over to him.

"I just had to make sure your enemies did not damage anything," he replied.

Eve sighed. She went to say something but was cut off by the Arbiter.

"Oracle," the Elite said. "Can you lead us through this door?" he asked him, pointing down the shorter corridor, which was about ten feet long, to a door at the end.

Wally nodded and walked past Eve and into the shorter corridor. Eve just sighed again and walked with the rest of the squad into the shorter corridor. Wally fired a blue laser at the door but it did not unlock like it had done last time.

"Hmm," he said. "I seem to have crossed a circuit,"

"Well, let me have a look," one of the marines piped up. "I'm quite good with technical stuff,"

"No, thank you," Wally replied in quite a rude tone. "I can do this,"

The marines stood where he was. He was quite shocked by this. Not that he had never received anything like this before, but it was by Wally that shocked him. When he was on the Dawn, he seemed like a nice person. Now, all of a sudden, he just turned quite rude.

"I'm getting worried about him, Arbiter," Eve whispered to the Elite. "He just seems to… No longer care about this mission anymore,"

"It is because he is on the Ark," the Arbiter replied. "He is no longer becoming aware of the danger of the Covenant. He is much like Truth, in a way, as he is no longer becoming aware of the risks. He is just continuing on in any hopes that this 'Great Journey' will happen. And it is obvious he is willing to leave his entire army behind if he has to,"

Eve took in the Arbiter's words and looked back at Wally, who was still trying to unlock the door. She was starting to get worried about him. What if he decided he no longer wanted to help them? If that happened then how could get through to the Cartographer, or worse; How could they get to Truth?

"I would be careful of your friend, Evelyn," the Arbiter whispered to her. "He could go rampant,"

Before Eve could ask him what he meant by 'rampant', the door opened up.

"Excellent, this way," Wally announced.

The squad ran forward through the doorway. They found themselves in a large square shaped room with some kind of large energy sword shaped pillar in the middle of the room. Along the walls were a few top hexagon shaped bulges. On the right wall, in the top right corner of the room, was another door.

"Stop!" Eve suddenly hissed, holding out an arm to stop the squad.

"What is I-" one of the marines asked but quickly saw why.

On the wall next to the door was a Brute wearing dark blue armour and a dark blue helmet. He was facing away from the squad and had his hands placed on his stomach. Why did he-Oh very nice! He was urinating on the wall.

"He is defiling this room." Wally growled.

"Leave him," the Arbiter said. "He is mine,"

The Arbiter crept forward towards the Brute as quietly as he could. When he reached him, he swung his weapon at the Brute's back. The Brute's eyes went wide and rolled back into his head and his mouth opened up to let out a strangled cry. The Brute fell backwards onto the floor. The Arbiter then brought down his weapon onto the Brute's face, just to finish him off.

"Come," the Elite said to the squad.

The Arbiter ran through the door, which opened as he approached it, on the wall behind him. The rest of the squad followed, jumping over the Brute's body. They found themselves in a long corridor in which the floor, about half-way down the corridor, went down at a 220 degree angle. At the end of the corridor on the left wall was another door. The squad ran down the corridor to the door. It opened as they approached it. The squad ran through.

They found themselves in a large square shaped room with several large cube shaped objects scattered in a square formation. Along the left and right walls were raised sections of floors, about three feet high, that had pillars going along the edges. On the wall at the end was another door. The rooms of the wall were a dark brown colour with Forerunner markings engraved into them.

"Intruders!" a deep voice shouted.

The squad dived for cover as a barrage of blasts and orange spikes flew at them. One of the marines, however, was hit and thrown to the floor, screaming in pain as he had taken a wound to his side. Another spike flew at his chest and drove deep into it. The marine let out a quiet gasp and went quiet. He was dead.

Eve, who was hiding behind one of the cube shaped objects with the Arbiter, looked out from behind her cover to see two Brutes with teal green armour, both armed with spikers, hiding behind the cube shaped object directly ahead of hers. Behind the other cube shaped objects was another Brute with gold armour, who was armed with a plasma rifle. The Brute saw Eve and fired a blast at her, to which she quickly moved her head back behind her cover, narrowly missing the blast as it hit the side of the cube shaped object and faded away.

"We need to find a way to flank them," she said to the Arbiter.

"Go along one of the paths, Evelyn," he replied. "I will cover you. Go,"

Eve nodded and ran out from behind the cube shaped object towards the left raised pathway. When she reached it, she pulled herself up onto it. Suddenly, another blast struck her in the side, causing her shield to light up. Eve looked down the pathway and saw a Jackal with It's shield raised at the other end. The creature fired against Eve. This time, she dodged the blasts by hiding behind one of the pillars.

"Damn!" she hissed to herself. "At this rate, we'll never get through them!"

Eve looked out from behind the pillar at the Jackal, who fired another blast at her. Eve moved her head back behind the pillar, narrowly avoiding the blast. She had to find a way to get rid of that Jackal so they could get to the Cartographer.

The Arbiter, who was still hiding behind the cube shaped object, saw the Jackal at the other end of the pathway. The creature's front was protected but his side was not. He could kill it, or at least injure the Jackal enough for Eve to kill it. Either way was good. The Arbiter aimed his carbine at the Jackal and fired.

A loud screech filled the air. The Jackal fell forwards onto the floor, dead. Eve turned her head towards the squad and saw the Arbiter nod at her. She nodded back at him and ran out from behind the pillar and down the pathway to the end.

Eve hid behind the pillar at the end of the pathway and aimed her weapon at the gold armoured Brute. So far, he was still firing on the squad, completely unaware of the threat behind him. Eve placed her finger on her battle rifle's trigger and pressed down. A barrage of bullets flew at the creature, easily breaking through the armour. Purple blood flowed from the impact points. The Brute roared in pain as it placed a hand over the wounds to try and stop the flow of blood. It's momentum caused it to stagger out from behind the cube shaped object. Big mistake. The Arbiter fired on the Brute, hitting him in the chest, killing him.

"Pull back!" one of the remaining Brutes shouted.

The two teal green armoured brutes ran out from behind their cube shaped object towards the door, causing it to open automatically. They ran through the doorway into a small corridor, with dark brown walls and a glass floor, that rose up several feet to another door at the end.

"C'mon. We have to catch them!" Eve ordered.

She jumped down from the pathway and ran towards the door. The rest of the squad followed. The corridor's door opened as she approached it. Eve ran into the corridor and just managed to catch a glimpse of a teal green armoured back at the other end before the door closed.

"Keep your weapons ready," she said to the squad behind her. "There's no doubt they'll be ready for us,"

Eve raised her weapon and ran up the corridor to the door at the end. The squad followed, their weapons, apart from Wally, also raised. The door opened as Eve approached it, revealing another room much like the same they had been in. It had four large cube shaped objects in a square formation around the room, two raised pathways going along both side walls and pillars along the side of the pathways, dark brown walls engraved with Forerunner markings and a door on the wall at the other end of the room. But what was different about this room was that, apart from it being slightly bigger than the last room, was that there was another door on the same wall Eve was at, but just slightly further down to her left, and that there were also a few small half C-like dark brown objects in a cross formation in the middle of the room.

"There! Kill the demon!" a deep voice shouted.

Eve dived forward behind one of the cube shaped objects as a barrage of blasts flew at her, narrowly missing an orange spike that almost hit her leg. The rest of the squad ran in and took cover either with her or behind the other cube shaped object at their end of the room.

Eve looked out from behind her cover to see the two teal green armoured Brutes hiding behind the cube shaped object directly ahead of theirs. Behind the other cube shaped object, at the top left area of the room, was another Brute with dark blue armour and a dark blue helmet. Two Grunts were hiding behind the cube shaped object with him.

Eve moved her head back behind the cube shaped object. Next to her were the Arbiter and Wally.

"Should I go along the path again?" she asked him.

"I will go along the other and we kill them before they retreat," he replied.

Eve nodded and the two ran towards the pathways, the Arbiter towards the left and Eve to the right. Eve pulled herself up, narrowly avoiding a blast from one of the Grunts, and ran down the path to the end. She hid behind the pillar and waited for the Arbiter. A few seconds passed. Where the hell was he? Wait a minute. He might be pinned down. Eve ran back up the pathway and hid behind another of the pillars, so she was now in line with the middle of the room, and looked out from behind there. The pillars on the opposite pathway, like in the last room, were not in line with hers. She saw two Jackals with their shields raised and firing down the pathway at the Arbiter, who was hiding behind one of the pillars. Eve had to help him, but she also had to be quick, otherwise the other Covenant in the room could easily fire on her and kill her.

She knelt and moved out from behind the pillar, her battle rifle aimed directly at the two Jackals. She pulled her weapon's trigger. A barrage of bullets flew at the creatures, hitting one of them in the side. A loud screech filled the air as the first Jackal that was hit fell to the floor, dead. The other Jackal staggered away towards another pillar, probably being injured by one of the bullets that went through the first Jackal and hit the other. The Arbiter saw the injured creature and fired a shot from his carbine at the Jackal. The creature let out a loud screech and fell to the floor, dead.

With her friend's path clear, they could now deal with the rest of the Covenant. The Arbiter ran down his pathway to the end. Eve did the same. The Brutes had not tried to attack their enemies. In fact, they were not even focused on killing them. They were still trying to kill the rest of the squad. This was the perfect chance.

Eve and the Arbiter, who were now at the ends of their pathways, looked out from behind their pillars and nodded, confirming they were ready to attack. The two stood out from behind their pillars and fired. For a few seconds the air was filled with the shouts and screams of dying Grunts, Brutes and gunfire, both Human and Covenant. Finally, the noise came to an end. All of the Brutes were lying dead on the floor, as were the two Grunts, all having been killed outright in the barrage.

Eve stepped down from the pathway and ran towards the door. The rest of the squad followed her.

"The Cartographer should be nearby," Wally said as he reached Eve.

"Alright," she said. "Marines, you stay here and keep guard." she ordered. "Wally, Arbiter, let's go,"

Eve, Wally and the Arbiter ran through the doorway as it opened, revealing a short and thin silver corridor with a glass floor and pillars along the walls At the end, on the opposite wall was another door. The three ran down the corridor to the end. The door opened as they approached it. They ran through the doorway.

They found themselves on a large platform overlooking the biggest waterfall any of them had ever seen. It stretched on for miles both ways and the water seemed to be pouring endlessly over the edge, kind of making it look like the old Medieval phenomenon of anyone sailing too far to edge of the world would fall over the side. Two large cylindrical pieces stuck out from the wall above them for about one hundred feet. The platform had two slightly curved pathways sticking out of the top, forming two short pathways, making the entire thing look like a C. At the back of the platform, directly ahead of the three, was a terminal with holographic controls hovering between two pillars that stuck out from the sides of the terminals. Looking both left and right, they could see many of these types of platform along the structure they were on.

"There," Wally said. "That is the Cartographer,"

The three walked forward towards the terminal. Eve placed a hand on one of the holographic switches. At once, an image of a galaxy appeared. It was the Milky Way galaxy.

"That's our galaxy," she said to Wally. "We're beyond the rim,"

"Two to the eighteenth light years from galactic centre, to be precise," he replied, hovering out so he was on the other side of the image.

The image of the Milky Way galaxy changed to a large green outline of a structure Eve had seen before. The Ark.

"I had always assumed that the Ark was part of a… Shield installation," he said. "But it seems I was mistaken,"

"That's not really a first, is it," Eve said.

"Not at all," Wally replied. "I did have a complete understanding of Installation 04," he explained. "But my makers wisely limited mine and other monitors' knowledge. Compartmentalization-in case I was captured by the Flood-"

Wally stopped where he was and looked sadly down at the Ark. Eve knew what it was that had stopped him. It was Mendicant. His old friend, or had ben old friend before he had defected to the Flood.

"Are you okay, Wally?" Eve asked.

"Y-yes. I am fine," he replied, snapping back into reality.

"Can you tell us exactly where we are?" Eve asked him.

"Here," Wally answered, pointing at the circular ball in the middle of the Ark, where a small light blue light appeared.

"And Truth?" Eve inquired.

"Unfortunately, he is near Ark's superluminal communication arrays," he replied. "The Meddler has triggered a barrier, a defensive perimeter around the Ark's core,"

"Look out!" the Arbiter, who had walked up the left pathway sticking out of the top of the platform, warned, pointing out into the air.

Eve and Wally looked and saw two Covenant banshees flying left along the side of the structure. Following close behind was a phantom. The Brutes were probably going to launch a last attack to stop them and kill the marines here.

"The barriers will be difficult to disable," Wally said. "I find it odd how my creators would place such a comprehensive defence around a single-"

He suddenly stopped and went wide-eyed as if he had seen something shocking.

"What is it?" she asked him.

Before Wally could answer, a large shaped came towards them. It was the Brute phantom.

"Watch out!" the Arbiter shouted, raising his weapon. "The phantom!"

Eve and the Arbiter ran from the side of the platform, their weapons raised at the Brute craft. Wally, however, just continued to hover in mid-air, staring wide-eyed at the hologram of the Ark as if he were in a kind of trance.

"Wally! Move!" eve shouted to him, snapping him out of his trance.

Wally hovered away from the hologram as it disappeared towards Eve and the Arbiter. He touched down on the floor next to them.

"We must get past that barrier!" he said. "Or the Meddler will destroy it all!"

The phantom's three large cannons aimed towards the group. Eve and the Arbiter fired on them, but their bullets and carbine shots would do little against the armour of the craft.

All of a sudden, the phantom reared back away from the three. A smaller shape shot towards them. A banshee! The Arbiter ran from Eve and Wally, hoping to draw the craft's attention. He did.

"Eve!" came John's voice from her ear radio. "You got a whole mess of hostile air inbound! Get back inside while we take 'em out!"

Eve nodded but looked helplessly at the Arbiter, who was firing on the banshee, which just flew on towards It's enemy. She could not leave him here! She needed to help him! The Arbiter saw her.

"Evelyn, follow the Oracle," he said to Eve.

Before she could reply, the Arbiter jumped up at the banshee as it turned to fly over the edge of the platform, grabbing hold of the side. He pulled himself over to the back of the craft and grabbed the legs of a Brute flying the vehicle. With all his strength, he pulled the creature out from the cog pit, throwing the Brute over the platform's edge. The Brute screamed as it fell but they quickly faded away.

"I will help your sergeant clear the sky," the Arbiter said to Eve through her ear radio. "Now go!"

Eve watched as the banshee flew out past the platform towards the waterfall. The Covenant phantom turned and flew off right, the Arbiter in hot pursuit. She just prayed the Arbiter would live.

Eve turned and ran back towards the door; Wally followed. The door opened as they approached it. The two ran back into the silver corridor and ran to the end, causing the door there to open automatically. However, just as they reached it, a marine, who was going to get them, stood in the doorway.

"Ah!" he yelled, falling over.

"Sorry," Eve said to the marine, helping him up.

"It's alright," he replied. "I'm glad you're here. The pelican's gonna land in the level below us,"

Eve nodded.

"Alright, let's go," she said.

Eve ran path the marine towards the right door on the wall ahead of her. Wally and the rest of the marines followed. The door opened as they approached it, revealing a kind of glass pathway in a large tunnel. Glass walls went around the left sides of the pathway. Looking through them, Eve could see the outside of the tunnel corridor they ran through to get up to this level. The pathway went around the sides, going down at 220 degree angles with each turn. About thirty feet below them, on the same wall, was another door that, hopefully, led onto the platform the pelicans were going to pick them up on.

Eve ran down the pathway to the door at the bottom. The squad followed. When they reached the door at the bottom, it opened automatically. The squad ran through into a large square shaped room with a large pillar in the middle of the room. Along the walls, about ten feet up from the floor was a glass pathway. Glass walls were placed over most of the sides of the pathways. On the opposite wall, where the pathway ended, were two slopes coming off the sides of the pathways and going down to the floor. On the middle of the back wall of the room was another door. Hopefully, it led to the platform where they would be picked up.

The squad ran right down the pathway and turned into the next part that went along the right wall of the room. However, they quickly stopped when they saw a large figure standing on the floor below them. It was a Brute. What was worse, he was wearing dark red armour and had a gravity hammer attached to the back of his armour. The creature must have been expecting them because as soon as they stopped, it growled at them.

"The pack will feast on all of you!" he shouted at them. "Especially you, demon!"

The Brute then turned and ran towards the door on the back wall. It opened as he approached it. The Brute ran through the doorway and it closed behind him.

"There's just one of these freaks left to stop us?" one of the marines said, sounding slightly surprised. "Man, the Covenant are more stupid than they loo-"

"SURPRISE!"

Suddenly, a large figure appeared further down the pathway ahead of the squad. It was a Brute wearing teal green armour. He was wielding a spiker. Before the squad could react, he fired a barrage of spikes at them. One of the marines was hit and fell to the floor, dead. The rest of the squad dived for cover. The Brute laughed at how easy it was to easily scatter them.

As Eve stood up, she raised her battle rifle to fire on the Brute. Huh? Where was he? He was there just a second ago. He could not have fled underneath the pathway because he would not be quick enough to escape their gaze. He could not have just disappeared into thin air.

Unless… Oh no!

"Be careful!" Eve warned as the rest of the squad got up. "They've got camouflaged armour,"

"Oh, as if it isn't bad enough!" one of the marines replied sarcastically.

Suddenly, a barrage of light blue blasts flew at them from the left side of the pathway they arrived on. Eve looked and saw there was no one there. There must be at least two of them. If there were anymore, then they were dead.

Then, an idea popped into her head.

Eve raised her battle rifle and fired a barrage of bullets down the pathway head of her, moving her weapon both left and right to spread them further. It was when she turned them right one of them hit something. A drop of purple blood appeared and fell to the floor. That was where one of them was.

"Fire near that drop of blood," she ordered.

The squad, apart from Wally, fired around the drop of blood. More appeared out of thin air and fell to the floor. Loud grunts of pain filed the air. Finally, the outline of a figure became visible. It was the Brute. The barrage had cut through his armour and embedded themselves all over the inside of his body. The Brute looked at the squad and let out a weak groan and fell to the floor, dead.

"One down, hopefully, one to go," one of the marines said.

The squad aimed their weapon down the other pathway and fired a barrage down there. Very quickly, the bullets found their target. The squad fired on the Brute, disabling his armour, making him fully visible. The creature roared loudly as he fell backwards onto the floor, dead.

"Alright, let's move on," Eve said.

The squad ran to the end of the pathway and down the slope to the floor. The door on the wall opened as they approached it, revealing a pathway with circular pillars going along the side of the pathway. The pathway was about fifteen feet long. The end was a slope that led down to a large circular platform with a glass floor in the shape of a circle in the middle of the platform. In the middle of the platform was a Covenant pillar with a hologram of Truth hovering above it. Standing in the middle of the platform was the Brute with dark red armour.

"Come and face me, demon!" the Brute shouted at her.

The squad ran to the end of the pathway, coming to a halt at the top of the slope. "Stay here," Eve said to the squad.

"What!" one of the marines exclaimed. "Eve, you cannot face him alone!"

"Don't worry," she reassured him. "I'll be okay,"

Before anyone else could stop here, Eve jumped down from the top of the slope to the platform, which was about a ten foot drop. She walked over to the middle of the platform, her feet pounding loudly on the glass floor. The Brute reached into his back and took out something and tossed it to Eve. She caught it. It was an energy sword activator.

"Let us fight in a duel instead of using guns!" the Brute said to Eve, taking out his gravity hammer.

Eve nodded and threw her battle rifle to the floor and activated the energy sword. The two readied themselves for the coming fight. In this duel, only one of them would come out alive. Both were going to do whatever it takes to make sure they were the victors.

It was the Brute who struck first.

The creature charged towards Eve and swung his gravity hammer at her. Eve dived awy from the creature as she felt the air explode behind her. As she stood up, the Brute charged towards her for another strike. She dived again, narrowly avoiding the Brute's second strike.

"Haha!" The Brute laughed at Eve. "You will have to do better than this, demon!"

Oh don't worry, I will. Eve thought as she stood up.

The Brute charged towards her for another strike. It was then Eve made her move.

As the creature swung his gravity hammer towards her, Eve dived again, but this time it was towards the Brute. She narrowly missed hitting his leg as she went past him. Before the Brute could react, she swung her energy sword at the creature, easily breaking through his armour's shield and cutting into his leg. The Brute roared in pain and almost collapsed as he fell to the floor. The marines cheered. She was this much closer to winning.

Suddenly, the Brute swung his arm at Eve, slamming into her legs. She fell to the floor, hitting her head hard on the glass floor. The Brute stood up, wincing slightly because of the pain on his leg, and kicked away Eve's energy sword from her hand. He raised his gravity hammer.

"You are a worthy opponent, demon," he said. "But even you are no match for me,"

Eve had to do something, or she would be blown apart and killed instantly. There had to be a way to take down this Brute, or at least stun him so she could flee. The Brute was standing to the side of her. Maybe she could find a weak spot to hit him in.

The Brute was about to bring his gravity hammer down when Eve brought back her leg and swung it at the Brute's lightly armoured stomach. The creature gasped for breath and staggered backwards. Eve quickly stood up and ran from the Brute. However, he recovered quicker than Eve had anticipated and chased after her, his gravity hammer at the ready.

"You must win this fight!" Truth's hologram said to the Brute. "Failure will bring a fate worse than death - abandonment, as we speed forward on the Great Journey!"

Eve ran over to the hologram and dived behind it. At the same time, the Brute swung his gravity hammer towards her. The weapon struck the side of the pillar. An electrical explosion filled the air as the remains of the pillar were thrown through the air and over the edge of the platform to join the water in the endless fall. Eve was unharmed, the pillar having provided as a shield for her.

"How dare you!" the Brute shouted.

Eve quickly ran from the Brute as he swung his gravity hammer at her again. She ran over to her energy sword activator and grabbed it. As she re-activated her weapon, the Brute charged towards her and swung his weapon at her. Eve dived out of the way and, when she stood up, swung her energy sword at the Brute. However, he saw it coming and placed his hand as the end and used the middle of the hammer to block Eve's attack. The energy sword slammed against the middle of the gravity hammer but did not go through it. She pushed harder to knock the weapon out of his hands, but the Brute was also fighting to force her to the floor.

"Come on, Eve!" one of the marines shouted to her. "Kick that bear faced freak's ass!"

The marines cheering gave Eve the thought of not to give up, but it was getting harder and harder to match the Brute's strength. He was tiring her out. If he kept this up much longer, he could easily push her aside and finish her off completely.

However, the Brute was not going to waste any more time. He wanted this to end quickly, and he was going to do it the very easy way. By cheating.

The Brute took out a spiker and swung it up at Eve, striking her in the stomach. Eve was thrown to the floor a few feet from the edge of the platform's glass floor.

"You bastard!" she shouted at the Brute. "You cheated!"

"We fight dirty, demon!" the Brute said to her. "That is something you need to learn. No one fights fairly, even if they are!"

The Brute brought up his spiker to fire on Eve. She would killed easily! There was no way she was going to win!

Then, she had an idea. It had a very small chance of succeeding, but it was better than nothing.

Just as the Brute was about to fire, Eve brought back her energy sword and swung it at the creature, striking so quickly that he barely had any time to react. The weapon easily broke through his shield and cut into his shoulder and upper arm, also striking the top of his gravity hammer and knocking it clean out of his hand. The Brute roared in pain and threw his spiker to the floor and placed a hand on his shoulder. Eve saw her chance and scrambled over to her battle rifle. She stood up and aimed it at the creature. The Brute went wide-eyed when he saw her with her gun pointed at him.

"You cheated!" he gasped.

"Like you said, nobody fights fairly," Eve replied.

She fired a barrage of bullets at the floor around the Brute. Loud cracking sounds followed. The Brute gasped as he looked down at the glass and saw large cracks beginning to appear. Eve dived off the platform.

Suddenly, with an almighty crash, the glass broke. The Brute roared in panic as he fell towards… Well, whatever would, or might, be at the bottom. His roars quickly faded away and all was quiet again.

The marines cheered and clapped.

"Nice one, Eve!" one of them exclaimed.

"Nobody messes with you!" another shouted.

The squad ran down the slope to the platform. Eve smiled as she stood up.

"ETA: dam quick!" came John's voice from her ear radio. "Standby for pickup!"

A second later, a large shaped hovered down towards the edge of the platform. It was a pelican. The resting area was facing the platform. The doors opened. The squad ran over to the back of the pelican and climbed on-board. Eve was about to climb on-board when she noticed something. Her eyes went wide with fright.

"Commander!" Eve shouted, raising her weapon past the pelican out at the waterfall.

The pelican in front of Eve hovered right slightly, giving her a clear view of what frightened her.

There were sentinels. Hundreds of them! They all seemed to be rising up from the waterfall. When they were about one hundred feet above the top of the waterfall, they zoomed off into the distance over the endless sea.

"John! Look sharp!" came Mary's voice from Eve's ear radio.

Another pelican hovered in front of Eve, only this time the resting area was facing the waterfall. John was standing in the resting area with a deployable machine gun aimed directly at the sentinels.

"Don't worry. I got 'em!" John said.

"No! Do not shoot!" Wally shouted, hovering out from his pelican in front of John's. "They mean us no harm! Those units have a priority task!"

"Oh yeah?" John replied, not sounding so convinced. "And what might that be?" he asked.

"I cannot say… Not for sure." Wally replied. "But if you allow me to find a terminal closer to the Core-"

"No, Oracle!" the Arbiter interrupted, which Eve heard through her ear radio. "We must keep the liar Truth firmly in our sights."

A sentinel hovered up from below the platform towards Eve. The front of it opened up and a blue laser fired out and hit Eve in the head. After a second or two, the sentinel closed It's front, turned and hovered off after the other sentinels.

"But what about your construct?" Wally asked. "His solution to the Flood? With more data, I-"

"The Arbiter's right," Mary interrupted Wally. "We have priorities too. Until we kill Truth, stop the Rings from firing… Nothing else matters."

The first pelican hovered back towards the platform. Eve stepped on-board. Wally sighed in defeat and hovered back on-board. The doors closed and the two pelicans flew off after the sentinels.

The first battle on the Ark was over. The second, and also the last, would quickly take It's place. The final battle against the Covenant would soon begin.