Date: 19th April, 2552. 14:35pm Earth time. Ten minutes after New Mombassa explosion.

Location: Unknown sector of space.

The stars of space lit up the night sky. It was a beautiful sight with a sensation that could just well… make you happy again if you were angry or sad. Some people described being up in space as being in Heaven. If only it were, but the war between humanity and the Covenant was stopping that one thing everyone wanted space to be. And the war had only escalated dramatically when the Covenant attacked the human home world; Earth.

It had been a long and hard fight on Earth since the Covenant fleet attacked it. Although the UNSC vastly outnumbered the Covenant soldiers and ships, they were just unable to evacuate any cities in the way of the Covenant's advance. At least one city, Teruga in southern Italy, had been completely destroyed by a Covenant cruiser. Thankfully, everyone was evacuated just before the attack on the city came.

However, the UNSC commanders still suspicious about this attack. When the Covenant broke through the defences above the planet, they could have just dropped armies of troops in every major population centre and let them work their way out from there or they could have called for more ships and glassed the planet. But they had done none of this. Sure they had attacked a few settlements but most of them were either small cities or were famous ancient landmarks. And they did not even completely destroy any of the cities on Earth, with the exception of Teruga. Why had the Covenant done this?

The only lead, which the UNSC commanders did not even know of, was that the last super soldier Evelyn Knight and Intelligent A.I Auto had some kind of crystal diamond they had found in an underground base in southern Mexico. They knew it was Forerunner, but they did not know what It's purpose was and if the Covenant got hold of the crystal, it could mean very bad news for Earth. However, they were reports that Covenant soldiers in the other three landing zones, the fourth being in the Maya city ruins in Central America, on Earth, which were Athens in Greece, the Khmer temple ruins in Cambodia and the city of New Mombassa in Kenya, were digging up the ground or destroying old human history landmarks and uncovering large metal objects that were not of UNSC or any human making. There was something more to the Covenant attack on Earth and the UNSC had to find out what.

In space, everything was still and quiet. Nothing moved and not a sound was heard. It was a quiet place that seemed to have no noise in it at all.

Suddenly, a large white circle appeared. It grew bigger and bigger with each passing second. Then, a large object flew out of the white circle. It had a curved front section with the bottom of the front section shaped like a teaspoon. The top of the front section carried on back to connect to a robotic eagle shaped section. Several large engines stuck out of the back of the eagle-like section of the ship. It was a Covenant assault carrier coming out of slip space rupture.

As the massive ship flew out of the hole, several large chunks of debris followed. Those chunks of debris were once buildings of New Mombassa city. The carrier had slip space jumped from New Mombassa to this sector of space. But why? There must have been something here that the Covenant wanted to get to.

As the hole began to disappear, a last object flew out of the hole. It had a main rectangular section with two smaller rectangular sections coming off the back of the main rectangular section. On the back of the two smaller rectangular sections were engines. Between the two was an enormous cube shaped section that also came out of the back and part of the bottom of the main rectangular section of the object. It was the Amber Clad.

Amber Clad Bridge

In the bridge of the Amber Clad, Mary grabbed hold of the sides of her seat to stop herself from being thrown onto the ground as the ship came to a sudden halt after exiting the slip space rupture.

"Whoa…" Mary exclaimed as she grabbed her seat. "Report,"

"Both engine cores have spun to zero," a nearby worker replied. "We're drifting,"

"What about are defences?" Mary asked.

"The ship's Archer pods are cold," another nearby worker answered. "I'll need to re-key the system,"

"Do it and find out where we are," Mary ordered as she rubbed the side of her head.

"Everything okay up there, commander?" John's voice erupted all of a sudden from the chair's built in com.

"If only," Mary replied. "Sorry for the quick jump, sergeant. You in one piece,"

"Yeah, don't worry I'm good," John replied. "Eve, Auto. You two alright?"

"We're fine," came Auto's voice.

The Amber Clad flew further into space after the assault carrier, which was already quite a distance ahead of them.

"Ma'am," one of the workers on the bridge of the Amber Clad said all of a sudden. "There's an object coming into view,"

Mary looked out through the bridge's window into space. A large blue planet was visible to the left of the window. In the back ground were thousands of white lights. However, there was something else in view as well. As the ship got closer, Mary could see it was… it was another ring!

Amber Clad hanger

The Amber Clad had many hangers scattered around the ship. This hanger was located at the front of the large cube section of the ship. It was a large square shape with multiple doors going along the back, left and right walls. Scattered around the hanger were several pelicans and long sword fighters. The pelicans, all but one which was parked on the hanger floor, were being held above the floor by large metal pincers whilst the long sword fighters parked on the floor, all facing the direction of the hanger blast door.

Standing near the blast door was Eve. She had to stay in the pelican as soon as it landed in the hanger. She had only just left the pelican and was now looking out into space.

It was then, her eyes rested on something far ahead of the ship. In front of the large blue planet was a circular shaped world. As they got closer, the strange world became more visible. Eve's eyes went wide as if they had seen something terrifying. Auto whispered something under his breath. Both were completely breath-taken at the sight before them.

"Auto," came Mary's voice. "What exactly am I looking at?" she asked him.

"That…" Auto replied through his com. "Is another Halo,"

Eve's ear radio suddenly came to life. A cough erupted from it.

"What did you just say?" came John's voice in a surprised voice.

"So this is what my father found," Mary said. "But I thought Halo was some kind of super weapon,"

"It is," Auto replied. "If activated, this ring will cause destruction on a galactic scale,"

Eve gazed out at the ring. Her breath had been completely stolen from her at the sight of this ring. She could not believe it. Neither could Auto. They thought they had destroyed Halo. Either the ring had rebuilt itself or this was another ring constructed by the Forerunners.

Wait a minute. When they were on Halo, Eve and Auto could remember something Juggernaut had told them.

"They created it to destroy the Flood's chance of spreading should another outbreak occur. But this is just one ring. As this ring has a maximum effective radius of twenty five thousand light years, the other will also activate"

So there were more than one of these rings. The question was; how many? The Covenant could inadvertently activate them and end up destroying all life in the universe. Or worse; they could end up releasing the Flood again on one of the rings, only this time it might escape and spread to other worlds.

"Auto, I need all the information you have on the first Halo." Mary ordered. "Schematics, topography, whatever. I need all of it,"

"Yes, ma'am," Auto replied.

"Where's our target?" Mary asked.

"The enemy ship has stopped above the inner surface of the ring, ma'am," worker in the background answered.

"Perfect!" Mary replied. "Head straight towards the ring."

The Amber Clad flew full speed towards the ring. Those in the bridge could only just see the carrier ahead of them.

"Given what we know about this ring, It's even more important that we capture the prophet of Regret," Mary said. "Find out why he came to Earth, and more importantly; why he came here? Eve, take first platoon. Hard drop, secure a landing zone,"

Eve placed a finger on the radio in her ear.

"Roger that, commander," she said.

"John, you take two flights of pelicans and follow them in," Mary added.

"Roger that," John replied.

"Well, we better get moving," Auto said.

Eve nodded and ran towards one of the side doors on the right wall. It opened as she approached it. Above the door were the words HEV bay. Eve ran through the doorway into a long room that had six large objects along both walls going down the room. The objects had four Covenant shade turret-like pillars on all four corners of a large box shaped section in the middle of the four pillars. To enter them was a long walkway that ran down the middle of the room to another door at the other end.

These objects were called Single Occupant Exo-atmospheric Insertion Vehicles, or HEV's (standing for Human Entry Vehicle) for short. These vehicles were launched from UNSC ships with an ODST inside them. They would then land anywhere within an area designated and allow the ODST's to continue with a mission. They could pretty much breath through any surface, except for the ground and a very strongly reinforced building's roof.

Eve walked up to the HEV on her right. The hatch automatically opened for her. The inside of the vehicle was a silver colour and had a battle rifle held in two large pincers on the left wall. Below the battle rifle, being held in small compartments, were several fragmentation grenades. The ceiling of the inside of the HEV was quite low, only just tall enough for Eve, because inside it was a chute that would open up when the HEV was several thousand feet from the ground of whatever planet they were on.

Eve stepped into the HEV. She turned and rested herself against the back wall of the HEV's inside. The hatch lowered down, making a small boom as it closed, sealing Eve off from the room. A small window opened up on the hatch, giving Eve a small view of the HEV bay. Several other small booms followed a few seconds later, indicating other ODST soldiers were boarding the HEV's.

"Over the target in five," a voice said from Eve's ear radio.

Eve breathed in and waited for the enormous jolt. She also pushed her hands onto the walls to give her extra support in staying still and not flying upwards when the HEV launched and smacking her head on the ceiling.

The HEV jolted violently. Eve looked through the window and saw the view change from a silver coloured room with another HEV just across from her to a black landscape filled with hundreds of small white lights. The HEV had just launched from the Amber Clad and was now in space travelling down towards Halo at least a thousand feet a second.

"Mind the bump," Auto said.

Eve rolled her eyes and pushed harder on the walls with her hands. Although the jolt danger had passed, it was not over. As soon as the HEV had entered Halo's atmosphere and was only a few seconds from the surface of the ring the chute would deploy to slow it down, creating another violent jolt.

As Eve's HEV flew down towards the inner surface of the ring, five others followed. A hard fight was ahead of them.

Five minutes later

Delta Halo's surface

The inner surface of Delta Halo was much like the Halo Eve and Auto had destroyed. It had many mountain ranges, jungles, islands and valleys, giving the ring It's own natural beauty.

On an island, which was part of a group of several other islands surrounded by a beautiful crystal blue sea, Covenant forces had been deployed. This island was covered with several small hills, rivers, trees and even several rock structures that had a slight resemblance to Maya buildings on Earth. The Covenant forces were in an area that was dotted with small hills, several groups of trees, a river flowing inland from the sea, the beach a few hundred yards away, and had a small cube shaped rock building with several openings on the sides and a doorway leading inside the building. The outside was covered with plants that had grown on it over… well however long it was there.

On a small hill next to a small river, a Covenant shade turret was perched near the top as if it was alive and keeping guard over the river for any trespassers. Behind it was a Covenant Grunt sitting on the ground, playing with two plasma grenades by pushing them between It's hands, and a Jackal that was scanning the area watching several other Covenant soldiers scattered around the area.

The Jackal scratched It's chin as it scanned the area. It then looked up at the sky. A few clouds hung in the air but the Jackal could see the outline of the top part of Delta Halo, promising that it was most likely to be a nice day.

As the Jackal turned away from looking at the sky, It's head suddenly darted back up. Several fiery objects were coming out of the clouds. The Jackal watched the objects as they descended further from the sky. Were they comets? No, they could not be. If they were, then the carrier would have alerted them.

Up in the sky, the HEV's fell closer to the island's surface. They were going so fast that they were leaving a fiery trail behind them like a comet would do when it would come into a planet's atmosphere. Inside the HEV closest to the ground, Eve had her eyes closed and teeth gritted. The vehicle was starting to shake and the second jolt had still not come.

Riding a HEV is the worst thing ever! Eve thought miserably.

Suddenly, Eve almost screamed as the HEV jolted and slowed down, almost throwing her into the ceiling. Her heart beat madly against her chest from the shock of almost having herself knocked out.

"Whose side are these things on!" Eve grumbled to herself.

The other HEV's jolted as the chutes shot out of the top of the vehicles, slowing them down. They were now four thousand feet from the island. However, the crews had no idea that if the Covenant realised what the vehicles were, they HEV's would quickly be blasted out of the sky by the shade turrets.

Meanwhile, the Jackal was still watching the objects come closer to the ground. They were getting easier to identify. The creature's good eyesight saw the things as… HEV'S!

Immediately, the Jackal activated his shield and let out a screech as it pointed up into the sky. The Grunt sitting on the floor near him looked up and saw the incoming threat. It got up and climbed onto the shade turret. The Grunt then aimed the turret up into the sky and fired a barrage of blasts at the human vehicles. Another shade turret, also manned by a Grunt, on the top of the cube shaped building fired up at the HEV's as well. They were determined to destroy the human presence on the Sacred Ring.

Luckily, only just, the chutes had detached themselves from the HEV's, causing them to fall to the ground at a fast speed once again. However, as they neared the ground several thrusters on the bottom of the HEV's activated, slowing them down so they were not torn apart when they hit the ground.

THUD! A HEV hit the ground next to the river. THUD! THUD! Two more landed behind a hill. A Covenant minor Elite, armed with a plasma rifle, charged towards the HEV next to the river. Covenant forces did not know much about these UNSC vehicles, but they did know that there was a hatch on the front that whoever was inside had to force open to get out. The Elite stood in front of the HEV, It's plasma rifle raised at the vehicle. It was going to surprise the crew member inside the HEV. It was going to enjoy killing the human inside.

CRASH! The door of the hatch was hit with such force that it flew off the HEV. This was not what the Elite was expecting, but before it could even blink the door hit the creature in the head and chest, throwing it to the floor. Eve ran out of the HEV holding a battle rifle. She spotted the Elite on the floor. The creature, whose weapon was dropped on the ground, went to grab It's weapon. Eve fired a burst of ammo out of her battle rifle at the Elite, killing it.

Eve scanned the scene around her. The second and third HEV's had crashed behind a hill a few metres to her right. Another loud thud erupted from behind another hill to Eve's left. That was four, but where was the last HEV?

Eve got her answer when an almighty crash filled the air. It came from ahead, in the direction of the building. A small cloud of dust up into the air. By the looks of it, the last HEV went straight through the roof of the building.

Eve ran right towards the other crashed HEV's. The sounds of guns and blasts filled the air. As she got closer to the two HEV's, she could see the two ODST's, both armed with battle rifles, taking cover behind a fallen tree. They were firing at the Covenant shade turret on the hill. SO far, they were not having any progress with the turret's armour protecting the Grunt piloting the weapon.

"At this rate, we'll never break through!" one of the ODST's growled.

Another blast hit the side of the tree, narrowly missing the other ODST's hand.

"I've got an idea," Eve said. "Just keep them distracted,"

"Where are you going?" the other ODST asked her.

"You'll see," Eve replied.

Eve got up and ran right into a nearby group of trees. The turret's blasts ripped up the ground behind her but, thankfully, they all missed. Eve hid behind one of the trees and poked her head out from behind it. She could see the turret resume It's firing on the two ODST soldiers. Perfect! With the turret distracted, Eve could find a place to fire on it whilst the Covenant were distracted.

Eve ran out from behind the trees towards the building. From where she was, a huge hole was visible in the building's side and even part of the ceiling had caved in because of the HEV. As Eve got closer, she could see the other shade turret lying destroyed on the ground with one piece of the armour and one of the guns torn off. The Grunt that was piloting the turret was lying dead on top of the pile of rubble.

Eve ran up to the building and climbed through the rubble to get inside. When she had done so, she saw the hatch lying on the floor. However, she also saw blood across it and the floor. It led through the doorway outside. Eve walked over to the doorway and saw the ODST soldier that was piloting the craft lying dead on the ground, a huge burn mark on the back of his uniform. By the looks of it, he had been wounded when his HEV crashed through the roof or by any Covenant soldiers around the building and was killed by the Covenant shade turret. Eve sighed and ran out of the building back into the war zone.

After a few moments of searching, she found the perfect to fire on the other Covenant shade turret. It was a large rock at the bottom of the hill the turret was on, just on the other side of the river. Eve ran down the bank and across the river, which was only about two feet deep and was not very fast moving. She was quiet not to make a splashing noise with her boots so the Jackal and the Grunt did not hear her.

Finally, Eve reached the rock and ducked down behind it. She loaded another clip into her battle rifle and poked her head out from behind the rock. Just a few metres up the hill, Eve could the back of the Grunt and the top of the Jackal's shield. The only problem Eve had to worry about now was sneaking up the hill without alerting the Jackal or the Grunt and killing them.

Eve raised her battle rifle and crept up the hill towards the Covenant troops at the top. As she got closer, she could see the Jackal slowly becoming more visible. After a few seconds, Eve stopped. She was now just a few feet behind the two Covenant soldiers. They were still oblivious to the threat behind them. Eve rested her finger on the trigger and pushed down.

A burst of ammo exploded in the air, followed by the scream of a Grunt as it fell off the turret onto the ground dead. The Jackal shot round, only to get hit with another burst of ammo to It's face. The creature fell to the ground, dead.

"Good work, Eve," John's voice said out of her era radio. "We're starting our approach. Hang tight,"

As soon as John finished speaking, a whirring sound filled Eve's ears. It was coming from the air. Eve scanned the skies in search of the source of the noise. As she was looking over the top of the small ridge that was a few metres behind the building, she found it. The source of the noise was a phantom.

"Covenant incoming!" Eve shouted down to the other ODST's.

The rest of the squad ran over to the hill and took up positions around it. One of the soldiers took cover behind the rock at the bottom of the hill. The other two laid down on the top of the hill near the turret and aimed their weapons up at the phantom as it flew over the ridge. Eve climbed into the shade turret. It activated and was now usable.

Eve aimed the turret towards the phantom as it stopped above the right side of the river. The three enormous cannons turned towards the hill and fired a barrage at it. The blasts hit the top, side and the bottom of the hill in an attempt to either kill the humans or pin them down so there would be no trouble when dropping down the troops. Eve pushed her fingers down on the turret's trigger, causing a barrage of red blasts to shoot out of the turret and head straight for the phantom.

Then, as quickly as it came, the phantom flew off into the sky and disappeared behind the ridge. However, on the ground below where it was just seconds earlier was a squad of Covenant soldiers. It was made up of a major Elite, four Grunts and two Jackals. All of them were determined to protect their holy Prophet and kill the humans, especially Eve.

"The demon is here!" the major Elite shouted pointing up at her. "Kill her and any other humans! Show no mercy!"

The rest of the Covenant squad charged towards their human enemies on the hill. The major Elite fired a barrage from It's plasma rifle up at the hill. Some of the blasts hit the turret. One of them hit Eve, causing her shield to light up. Eve turned the turret towards the major Elite and pushed down on the trigger. Another barrage of red blasts shot out of the weapon and hit the Elite. It's shield lit up. The Elite tried to dive for cover but the blasts hitting it were too much for the creature and were stopping it from trying to flee. Finally, a final blast broke through the Elite's shield and hit the creature in It's chest. The Elite yelled loudly and fell to the ground, dead.

With the Elite dead, the rest of the squad could now fire on the remaining Covenant. Eve fired down at one of the Jackals as it tried to run across the river. Despite covering It's body with It's shield, the Jackal was helpless against the power of the shade turret. The blasts easily broke though the shield and hit the Jackal. The creature fell to the ground, dead. The two ODST soldiers behind Eve were firing down at two Grunts armed with plasma pistols. They fired up at the humans, but because their enemies were laying down it was hard to hit them. The ODST's fired a barrage of bullets down at the two Grunts, The armour was not match against them. The bullets embedded themselves deep within the Grunts and they fell to the ground, dead.

"AHHHH!"

Eve turned the turret round. The two ODST soldiers ran over to the edge of the hill and looked down. Behind the rock was their fellow comrade, lying dead in a pool of blood. Loud splashes drew the two's attention to the river. The last remaining Grunt and Jackal were running over to kill the humans. Eve fired two blasts down at them. Both hit their targets in the head, killing them.

With the Covenant squad dealt with, the two ODST's laid down either side of the shade turret in case another phantom was on It's way with more Covenant troops. Eve kept her trigger fingers ready. She knew that at any moment, another Covenant phantom could fly out of nowhere and drop another Covenant squad that was most likely to be larger and have more experienced troops.

Just moments later, another whirring sound filled the air. Eve's fingers tightened on the turret's trigger. The two ODST soldiers lying down either side of the turret reloaded their guns. They were ready for another fight.

"You guys don't need to worry," Auto said through his com. "It's a pelican,"

He was right. A pelican flew out from the clouds and descended towards the area the squad were in. As it got closer to the ground, the squad could see that a warthog, with a machine gun turret, in front of the pelican's entrance. The pelican's descent slowed as the craft got closer to the ground. When it was about fifteen feet above a clearing, the metal pincers holding the warthog opened up, releasing the vehicle. A loud crash filled the air as the wheels hit the ground.

Eve got off the turret and ran down the hill with the two ODST soldiers. They ran across the river over to the warthog. The pelican hovered back up into the air.

"I got a good view coming in," John's voice said. "There's a large pyramid-like structure on an island in the middle of this island group,"

"I saw it too as we were coming down," Auto replied through his com. "It looks like a temple. If I were a megalomaniac, which I am not… ("You do act like one, though" Eve said.)… then that's where I would be,"

"Roger that," John said as the pelican flew off into the sky. "You guys better start making a move towards that island."

Eve nodded and ran over to the warthog with the ODST soldiers. She climbed into the driver's seat whilst one of the ODST's got into the passenger and the other climbed onto the machine gun turret. Eve started the warthog. The engine hummed. Eve reversed the warthog and then spun it round at a 180 degree angle so the front of the vehicle was now facing the ridge. Eve sat up in her seat and scanned the ridge for a path that would take them out of this area of the island.

She found it. There was a small gap in the ridge only just big enough for the warthog to drive down. The squad had no idea where the path led to, but they could not stay here. They had a mission to get on with.

Eve drove the warthog forward into the path. Very quickly, they found themselves in a thin path with two tall rock walls. The two ODST soldiers kept their trigger fingers ready. This was the perfect place for the Covenant to ambush them. If they did, they would stand no chance.

Finally, the threat of an ambush passed as the warthog came out of the path into another open area covered with trees, hills and even a river. But this river was much wider and deeper, too deep for the warthog to go across. However, there was also a large cube shaped building next to the river. Next to the building was a hole about twenty feet wide. There was another hole, in exactly the same position as the hole on the squad's side, on the other side of the river. Also on the other side of the river was a tall and wide hill about seventy feet high with a large cave going through it.

Eve scanned the scene around them. Apart from them, there was no one else in this area. By the looks of it, the Covenant they had just encountered were only a recon team.

Suddenly, something big moved on the other side of the river. Eve looked in that direction. A large object, shaped like a chair and coloured purple, moved out from behind a rock fall. It was a wraith.

"Oh no!" Auto said. "We're stuck over here and if that wraith see's us, we won't stand a chance!"

"Maybe if we get over to the building, there could be something to make a path hat would get us across the river," Eve replied.

"LOOK OUT!" the ODST in the passenger seat yelled.

Eve slammed her foot down on the accelerator, causing the warthog to shoot forward. Although this sudden speed burst almost threw Eve and the two soldiers out of the warthog, it saved the three from being blown apart by a mortar shell.

BOOM! The mortar shell exploded, throwing up an enormous cloud of dirt and dust. That mortar shell came from the wraith across the river. Eve drove the warthog towards the river, only to skid to a halt to avoid another mortar shell that blew an enormous hole in the ground.

Eve skidded the warthog to a halt outside the building.

"One of you keep driving," she said to the two ODST soldiers. "I'll try and find anything in here that will get us across."

The ODST in the passenger seat nodded and climbed into the driver's seat. Eve ran through a doorway in the side of the building. She found herself in a short bronze coloured corridor with another doorway about half-way down it on the left wall. Eve ran down the corridor towards the doorway.

Suddenly, she skidded to a halt. She could hear… voices? Yes they were voices. Eve crept over to the doorway and looked into the room. She could see the shadows of an Elite and a few Grunts on the right wall. She could also hear some kind of metallic voice in the room. She had never heard it before. It had to be something important to the Covenant. Whatever it was, she was going to have find out once the Covenant squad had been dealt with.

Eve loaded another clip into her battle rifle. She took a deep breath and jumped into the doorway and fired a barrage into the room.

The screams of dying Covenant filled the air. After a few seconds, the barrage stopped. Eve lowered her battle rifle. The Elite and three Grunts were lying dead on the floor, being taken fully by surprise. Eve scanned the room. There was a large window on the opposite wall with a small control panel below it. It was then Eve saw the source of the metallic voice.

In the middle of the room was a purple cylindrical panel with a small glowing white circle about ten centimetres long and wide. The object was resting on the top of the panel. Eve walked over to the panel, her grip on the battle rifle hard. She was ready to fire at this thing in case it suddenly turned into a Covenant turret or beacon.

Suddenly, when Eve was two feet from the object, a hologram shot up out of the panel and hovered several feet in the air, startling Eve slightly. It's back was facing her so she walked around to the front of the hologram. The hologram was an alien with some large crown on It's head dressed in some kind of robes and sitting in a hover chair which looked like a throne. The hologram was chanting a sermon of some kind.

"What, or who, is that?" Eve asked.

"That's the Covenant leader we're after," Auto answered. "That's Regret!"

Eve went wide eyed as she stared at the hologram. She had finally seen what Regret looked like. She had never seen an alien like him before. But on first glance, he did look like one of the Covenant prophets because of his robes and probably whatever he was chanting.

"Do you think this panel's a beacon?" Eve asked Auto.

"No," Auto answered. "It's probably more of a hologram to inspire the troops. Anyway, we better find a way across the river, and be prepared. Regret will most likely have every soldier on his ship down here to guard the way to him."

Eve nodded and turned to face the opposite wall. The window gave a clear view of the two wraiths moving about on the other side of the river. One of them fired another mortar blast over to this side of the river, signalling that the soldiers were still alive but they would not be for long.

Eve rested her hand on a small oval shaped button. At once, a wave of light blue light swept out of the oval shaped button over the control panel and disappeared when it hit the wall. The sound of large moving metal could be heard. It was coming from underneath the building. Eve looked up through the window again to see the tip of a large dark purple/silver coloured rectangular shaped pathway come out of the hole and stretch across the lake. Another rectangular shaped pathway came out of the other hole and connected with the other about half-way across the river.

"We've done it," Auto said. "Now let's get back outside,"

Eve nodded and ran out of the room down the corridor. When she came outside, she saw the warthog, with both soldiers still alive, skid sideways to avoid another mortar blast. The driver saw Eve and drove over to Eve.

"All yours Eve," he said as he climbed back into the passenger seat.

Eve climbed into the driver's seat and slammed her foot down on the accelerator, causing the warthog to shoot forward and narrowly avoid another mortar blast that exploded on the ground where the vehicle just was.

Eve spun the vehicle round and rove full speed towards the bridge going across the river. The two wraiths fired at the bridge in an attempt to destroy it, but the blasts did absolutely no damage at all. Not even a mark was left. Eve drove the warthog across the bridge. The machine gun turret chattered away as the vehicle was half-way across the bridge. One of the wraiths fired another blast at the bridge. It missed and exploded on the water a few feet from the bridge. The bullets continued to hit the armour on the wraith. A small pillar of smoke rose up from the massive vehicle.

BOOM! The wraith exploded into a fireball. The body of the pilot Elite was thrown up into the air and landed on the floor among the burning remains of the wraith as the vehicle fell to the ground. The ODST on the machine gun turret turned and began firing away at the other wraith as Eve drove the warthog off the bridge. The wraith fired a blast at the warthog. However, it missed and exploded on the ground. Within moments, another pillar of smoke rose up from the wraith. It was close to exploding.

BOOM! The wraith exploded, throwing the Elite driving the vehicle up into the air on the ground. The burning remains of the vehicle fell around it. Eve slowed the warthog to a halt.

"Alright, now where do we go?" She asked herself as she sat up in her seat and scanned this side of the river.

"Over there," the ODST in the passenger seat answered, pointing over to the large cave going through the hill.

Eve drove the warthog towards the cave. When the vehicle was inside, the three found themselves in a tunnel that was normally lit! There must have been some Forerunner structure inside the hill that was keeping the cave lit like it normally was outside.

As the warthog drove further down the tunnel, Eve noticed something about the ground up ahead. As they got closer, she saw the ground had gone from dirt to faded yellow/gold coloured stone. The warthog rolled onto the stone, making it slightly hard to drive as the stone floor was completely smooth and quite slippery for a warthog's tires.

"I hope we don't crash," the ODST in the passenger seat said as he looked down at the stone floor.

"Please don't say that because we will," Eve replied.

"What do you guys think causes the cave to stay normally lit?" the ODST on the turret asked the two.

"Probably a Forerunner structure inside the hill," Eve suggested. "They're the beings who created this ring,"

"I swear they built another that you and Auto destroyed," the ODST in the passenger seat said to Eve, who replied with a nod.

"That's right," she replied. "It was a super weapon capable of destroying all life in the galaxy. It's obvious now there's more than one but I don't know fully how many there are,"

"Let's just hope the Covenant don't either," the ODST on the turret muttered.

Up ahead came a turning that went right. Eve turned the warthog right into another long and wide pathway that had part of It's right side rise up about ten feet, creating a small archway. Eve, suddenly, stopped the vehicle.

"What's the matter?" the ODST in the passenger seat asked.

"Look up ahead," Eve replied, nodding towards the other end of the path about forty feet ahead.

The two soldiers looked towards the other end of the pathway. Parked at the end were two ghosts. Next to them was a Covenant shade turret. Leaning against the ghosts were two Elites. Sitting on the floor were three Grunts. They were all bored. They had nothing to do, yet they had no idea that their enemies were here.

"Should we try and find another way around them?" the ODST on the turret asked.

"No," Eve replied. "This could be the only way through the hill. Just get ready to fire on them."

Eve revved the warthog's engine. The ODST's readied their weapons for the fight that was to come. They knew that the ghosts would easily defeat them if the Elites managed to get into them so they had to be quick in killing the Covenant soldiers.

All of a sudden, the sound of screeching tires filled the air. The warthog shot down the tunnel towards the Covenant at the end. When the vehicle was about half-way down the path, the machine gun opened fire. The Covenant were taken by surprise, but they also reacted quickly.

One of the Elites jumped into one of the ghosts. The craft hovered up from the ground and flew full speed towards the warthog. The Elite fired a barrage of blasts from the ghost's cannon. The ODST on the warthog retaliated by firing a barrage of bullets at the Covenant vehicle. The ghost was no match for the warthog's bullets.

BOOM! The vehicle exploded, sending the burning remains and the dead Elite onto the ground. The ODST's then fired a barrage of bullets at the other Covenant forces. The passenger ODST hit and killed the other Elite just as it tried to board the other ghost. The ODST on the warthog's machine gun turret fired a barrage at the Grunts, one who was on the shade turret. The weapon's armour was no match for the machine gun. The turret broke apart and fell to the floor, also letting off a small energy bang which killed the Grunt on the turret.

"TURRET DEAD!" one of the remaining Grunts screamed. "RUN AWAY!"

The two Grunts ran from the body of their dead comrades, screaming and waving their arms in terror. They ran left and disappeared behind a wall.

"Looks like another path up ahead," Auto said through his com. "Let's go after them,"

Eve nodded and drove the warthog down the pathway after the two Grunts. When they reached the end, she turned the warthog right into another pathway and drove down that one. This pathway was shorter and turned right. The squad could see rays of sunlight coming in from the right pathway, meaning it must have led outside.

Eve drove the warthog down the pathway and turned right into the next one. Eve suddenly stopped the warthog. They were greeted by a beautiful view of the sea and another island in the distance. There was a path to their right leading down through the jungle to the coast which had a large structure near a platform that rose about thirty feet above the ground.

"Wow," Eve said as she surveyed the scene in front of them. "This place is beautiful,"

"That's what I don't like," the ODST in the passenger seat said. "We get to a world that looks like the perfect one and then we end up having to destroy it,"

Eve let out a silent smirk.

Suddenly, the machine gun turret fired a barrage down the path to the squad's right. Eve and the passenger ODST looked to see a ghost charging towards them. But before they could fire…

BOOM! The Covenant vehicle exploded into a fireball. The Elite piloting the vehicle flew through the air and landed on the ground, dead.

"We better hurry," the ODST on the turret said. "They'll know we're coming,"

Eve nodded and started the warthog again. She drove the vehicle down the path towards the bottom. The jungle canopy grew higher as they went further down towards the ground. When they were half-way down the path, the three saw the bodies of two dead Grunts. The Elite piloting the ghost probably kill the two Grunts because they were fleeing, which is mostly seen as a dishonour to the Covenant.

The warthog drove onto normal ground and down another path that cut through the trees. At the other end, the squad could see the large structure next to the platform. What were then structures there for? Maybe for some kind of transportation that would get the three across the next island.

As the warthog was about half-way down the path, a purple shot suddenly fired out of the trees and hit the side of the vehicle.

"Watch out! Sniper!" the ODST on the turret shouted.

Eve slammed her foot down on the accelerator, pushing the warthog to maximum speed. The machine gun turret chattered away as they drove down the path. The ODST's fired on the trees on both sides. Occasionally another purple shot would fire out from the trees but after the bullets hit where they came from, they would stop. Eve took a quick look over her shoulder and even saw the body of a Jackal, which was most likely what the sniper was to be, fall from the branches onto the ground.

Finally, the warthog drove out of the trees onto the beach where the platform and the structure were. Eve stopped the vehicle, picked up her battle rifle and got out; the ODST's did the same.

Eve gazed at the structure. It had a large cube shaped base, about fifty feet long and twenty feet high, with a small doorway shaped opening the side. On the top of the cube base was a wide vertical rectangular shaped section that went up into the air about sixty feet . Near the top of the rectangular section were four pyramid base triangle shaped sections, one on each side of the rectangle, that must have either been viewpoints or bridges because Eve could just make out a window on each of them. About half-way down the rectangular section of the structure was a small pathway that led onto the platform, a large flat metal square shape that was being held up by four wide legs at each of It's corners.

"This must be some kind of station," Auto suggested. "But if it is, there's no vehicle on the platform."

"Maybe It's over on the other island," Eve replied. "We'll just have to try and find a way to get it back over here,"

Eve ran over to the doorway; the ODST's followed. When they reached the doorway, Eve raised her battle rifle and looked inside. There was a large room with dark blue coloured walls and a silver floor and ceiling. There was a large light silver section of the floor that was directly beneath a square shaped hole in the ceiling that led into a tunnel.

Eve stepped into the room, scanning it with her battle rifle. If any Covenant were preparing to ambush them, she would be ready to take them down. Luckily, there were no Covenant present in the room. Eve lowered her battle rifle and looked over her shoulder.

"It's okay, you can come in," she said.

The two ODST soldiers walked into the room. Although it did look safe, they had their hands on their weapons ready to take on any Covenant.

Eve walked over to the middle of the room, where she saw the light silver section of the floor. She stepped onto the light section. The two ODST's walked over and did the same.

The three jolted slightly as the light silver section of the floor hovered up into the air towards the tunnel. It was a lift. Within seconds, the three were surrounded by dark blue walls that were closer to them as if they were closing in. Eve looked up the tunnel and just faintly saw the light of day at the top.

The three jolted again as the lift stopped alongside a wide flat pathway that led to a large silver door that was closed. However, the three were also greeted by a group of Covenant Grunts being led by an Elite.

"Bad guys!" one of the Grunts shouted, pointing It's plasma pistol at the squad.

Eve raised her battle rifle and fired a burst of ammo at the Covenant squad, killing a Grunt. The Elite growled and fired a barrage of sky blue blasts at her. One hit her shield, causing it to light up. Eve and the ODST's fired on the Elite. The bullets quickly broke through It's shield and killed the creature.

"LEADER DEAD!" one of the Grunts screamed. "RUN AWAY!"

The remaining three Grunts turned and ran for their lives, waving their arms in terror. The two ODST's raised their weapons and fired on the Covenant soldiers, killing them.

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

Eve ran down the pathway towards the door at the end; the ODST's followed. As the squad got closer to the door, it suddenly opened up, revealing the outside world to the squad. Probably automatically controlled. The squad ran through the doorway and across the pathway onto the platform. Eve scanned the scene around them.

"What do we do now?" one of the ODST's asked.

"I don't know," Eve replied. "There has to be some way of getting across to the other island,"

"There is!" Auto suddenly exclaimed. "Look out towards the other island,"

The three did so and saw a large shape coming towards them. It must have been about half-way between this island and the second island, or even further away, because it was too far out for the squad to make out what it was.

"What the hell is that?" Eve asked.

"I don't know," Auto replied. "But if It's a transport, then I hope we can use it to get across the next island."

Suddenly, a loud whirring noise filled the air. Eve recognized it immediately and looked up. She was right. The shape of a phantom flew down towards the platform. It's three plasma cannons aimed down at the squad and fired a barrage of blasts at them. The three managed to dodge them and retaliated by firing back up at the phantom. The circle on the bottom of the craft opened up and two large figures dropped down from the craft. Eve gasped.

They were Hunters!

Immediately after dropping the Hunters on the platform, the phantom flew away and disappeared behind the top of the structure. The Hunters charged up their cannons and fired two powerful lasers at the squad. Eve yelped and dived to the floor. The lasers shot over her head and disappeared about half-way over the clearing towards the jungle.

Eve got up and fired a burst of ammo at one of the Hunters' face, causing a small flow of orange blood to flow. The Hunter growled and charged towards It's human enemy, determined to kill her. Eve dived to her side as the Hunter swung It's massive metal sword and brought it down with a loud thud, driving the weapon deep into the metal floor. The ODST's raised their weapons and fired a barrage of bullets at the Hunter's exposed weak spot on It's back. The bullets easily tore through the skin, damaging the Hunter's insides. The Hunter could not take the barrage for long and it, after a few seconds, fell forward onto the floor, dead.

The other Hunter growled loudly and charged towards the two ODST's, It's fury at It's highest level. It wanted to kill the three humans painfully for killing It's comrade. The Hunter swung It's sword sideways and the tip of the weapon hit the ODST in the chest. The sharp metal easily cut through the skin of the human and he fell to the floor. He did not get back up. A pool of dark red quickly spread out around his body.

"YOU BASTARD!" the other ODST yelled.

Eve raised her battle rifle and fired a burst of ammo at the Hunter's back. The Hunter growled, shot round and charged full speed towards Eve. Eve gritted her teeth in anger and aimed her battle rifle at the Hunter. She fired two bursts of ammo from the weapon. The wave of bullets hit the Hunter's face. The creature roared in pain and placed It's metal hand over It's face as if it tried to pull the bullets out. The other ODST then raised his weapon and fired a round at the Hunter's back, killing the creature.

Eve let out a deep breath as she lowered her battle rifle. She cursed the body of the Hunter under her breath. She really hated the Covenant.

Humanity has done nothing to them she thought angrily. We were just minding our own business and suddenly these beings come an attack us

The obvious reason for Eve hatred for the Covenant was because they killed all her friends. Sometimes, she just wished she could just have every Covenant soldier standing in front of her so she could kill them and end this war.

Eve heaved a heavy sigh. She cursed herself for thinking such things. The Covenant probably cursed the humans but she knew there was no reason to follow their example. It was just an outburst but… it was just how she felt. Each human's death lowered mankind's hopes for winning this war.

"Eve, look!" the other ODST exclaimed, pointing over to the edge of the platform.

Eve looked over to where the ODST was pointing. Next to the platform was the vehicle the squad had seen coming over from the second island. The vehicle had a large square shaped floor with a drop in the middle of it that led down to a wall that was placed in the middle of the drop. On the wall was a control panel. There was a large wide roof that rose over the drop and set down on both sides of the drop. One side of a large long sword fighter-like wing stuck up from the roof about thirty feet into the air. Another long sword fighter-like wing stuck out from the bottom of the square. This wing was slightly wider than the one on the top because there were two large silos on it. One on the back and one on the front to move the vehicle in whatever direction it had been called to. It was a gondola.

Eve raised her battle rifle and walked cautiously towards the gondola. As she approached the massive vehicle, it became obvious that somebody, or something, was already on board the gondola.

"Who's there?" Eve demanded.

She got her answer when a blast shot out of the gondola and hit her bodysuit, causing It's shield to light up. Eve fired a burst of ammo into the gondola. A yell erupted out from the vehicle, most likely to be a Grunt's. Only a second later, the tall and bulky figure of an Elite ran out of the gondola's drop onto the platform. It was a major and was armed with a needler.

"Prepare for your fate, demon!" the Elite growled.

The Elite raised It's plasma rifle and fired a barrage of blasts at her. Eve dived to her side to avoid them. The ODST fired a barrage of bullets from his weapon at the Elite. Although this did almost no damage other than cause the Elite's shield to light up, it did draw the Elite's attention. Eve saw this and quickly fired a barrage of bullets at the Elite, killing the creature.

With the Elite dead, any more Covenant on the gondola would most likely panic and flee. Eve and the ODST ran onto the vehicle, their weapons raised ready to fire on any Covenant they came across. They searched the platform, the drop in the gondola and checked the top and even the bottom wings of the vehicle to make sure there were no Jackals or Drones clinging to the side of the craft.

"Alright," Eve said. "Let's get across to the other island,"

Eve walked into the drop up to the wall in the middle of it. She rested her hand on one of the controls on the control panel. The craft jolted slightly as the silo on the front of the bottom wing activated and fired out a light blue haze. The gondola began to move away from the platform in the direction of the second island.

Eve walked over to the front of the gondola. She gazed out at the island far ahead of her. Maybe that was the one with Regret on it. If it was, then she, Auto and the ODST were going to have their work cut out for them because he was most likely going to be under heavy protection from troops who were most likely to fight hard and to the last man before allowing any human to get to their holy leader.

As the gondola moved further over the water towards the second island, Eve saw another gondola coming from the second island towards them.

"Is that gondola filled with Covenant?" she asked Auto.

"Most likely," Auto answered. "I'm not completely sure, though,"

"Whoa!" the two heard the ODST shout suddenly as he ran onto the front of the gondola near Eve. "Eve, look into the sky,"

Eve did so. She gasped. Although it was very far away it still looked reasonably close, probably because of It's size. It was Regret's carrier. Eve stared at it in amazement. Although she could only make out the silhouette of the front of the craft, it was still easy to identify despite being partially covered by clouds.

"Man, even from afar those Covenant ships are still huge," Auto said.

"You can say that again," Eve replied.

"Watch it!" the ODST exclaimed. "The other gondola's pulling alongside of ours,"

He was right. The other gondola was now passing the gondola Eve and the ODST were on. Then, it suddenly stopped. Eve's grip on the battle rifle tightened. The gondola probably stopped because Covenant troops wanted to board their enemy's one and kill any hostiles on board.

Sure enough, only a few seconds passed before an enormous group of enormous bugs with light green armour, skin and each wielding a plasma pistol flew off the left gondola and began firing at Eve and the ODST. Drones!

Eve and the ODST fired up at the Drones to try and kill them or kill enough to make the rest fly away. But it was really hard. Every time you fired a burst of ammo up at the creatures, they could quickly manoeuvre out of the way. It was not until after a few moments passed before Eve managed to kill a Drone by firing a round into It's head (The body fell into the water below)

Suddenly, one of the Drones dived down towards the two. Eve saw it coming and dived to the floor. The Drone flew over her. The ODST, however, was not quick enough. The Drone grabbed him and flew high into the air holding the soldier by the arm. The soldier squirmed and tried to whack the alien with his the butt of his battle rifle, but it was no use. The Drone then raised It's plasma pistol and fired a shot into the head of the ODST and threw the body over the edge of the gondola to the water below.

Eve gritted her teeth in anger. She raised her battle rifle and fired a burst of ammo at the Drone. The bullets hit the creature. The Drone screeched loudly as it fell out of sight to the water below. Eve then whipped round and fired on the other Drones. After a few minutes of fighting, they were all dead.

Eve let out a low breath. Fighting Drones was a lot harder now than it was when she first met them on Earth. Probably because they were to protect this area for Regret.

The gondola jolted again. Eve's gondola began to move away from the Covenant gondola towards the island. Eve watched as the engine silo on the Covenant gondola lit up and began to move the enormous vehicle towards the first island.

"That was a tough fight," Auto said.

"Yeah, it was," Eve replied. "Is this the island Regret's on?"

"No, the island he's on will come into view when we reached the other side of this island." Auto answered. "We'll have our work cut out for us because this is the biggest island in the entire island group…"

"And it will have the most Covenant troops," Eve said, finishing Auto's sentence.

"I'm afraid so," Auto replied.

A few minutes later, the gondola hit the surface of another platform. Eve stepped off the vehicle and scanned the new scene in front of her.

This island had much more jungle than the first. There was a row of razor sharp mountains about two hundred metres ahead on the other side of the jungle. They went in a row before stopping all of a sudden. Either they were formed like that or they were there as some kind of barrier to protect something. There was also no structure alongside the platform this time. Instead, there was a ramp that was at just the right angle for anyone to walk up or down it.

"How many Covenant do you think they'll be in the jungle?" Auto asked Eve.

"Lots," Eve replied.

Eve raised her battle rifle and ran down the ramp to the sands of the beach below. When she hit the ground, she ran on towards the jungle. As she got closer, her tense level began to rise. Neither she or Auto knew how many Covenant were in the jungle waiting for them. There could be loads or there could be only a few units. Either way, all it would take was the Covenant to find one dead body of their soldiers and the warning will go out to all their forces in the island group.

Eve pushed through a massive leaf as she walked into the jungle. All around her, the green depths of the trees could, and were most likely, be containing Covenant soldiers that were ready to ambush any human that came on this island. Then again, this was probably a main defence line before reaching Regret. Well, at least they would not have far to go before they reach the bottom of the hill.

As Eve pushed a branch out of her way, she saw something out of the corner of her eye. She looked up into the trees. Suddenly, she dived to the ground. A laser flew over her head and hit a branch. Eve crawled behind a nearby tree, narrowly avoiding another laser that hit the ground just a few inches from her legs.

"That was close," Auto said as Eve got up.

"I know," Eve replied as she raised her battle rifle. "But I doubt that Jackal will be the last we see in the jungle,"

Eve peeked her head out from behind the tree trunk, only to hide back behind it again as another laser shot out from the trees and hit the ground a fee feet in front of Eve.

"Can you get it?" Auto whispered to her.

"I can see the Jackal," Eve answered. "I just need something to distract it with,"

Eve searched the floor, hoping to find something she could use to draw the Jackals' fire long enough so she could kill it. She found it. On the floor was a small branch. Eve picked it up and threw it to the right from behind the tree. Sure enough, the Jackal fired a laser at it thinking it was Eve. Big mistake. Eve quickly aimed her battle rifle out from behind the tree and fired a burst of ammo up into the trees. A loud screech filled the air and Eve saw the body of the Jackal fall from the branches to the ground below.

"Nice shot," Auto said.

"Thanks," Eve replied.

Eve ran out from behind the tree towards the mountains. As she got closer, the colour of dark grey slowly started to become visible through the trees. The mountains. Eve was just fifty metres from the mountains… now forty… thirty… twenty, almost there!

Suddenly, Eve screeched to a halt. She could hear voices up ahead. There was no doubt that they were Covenant but what type was the real question. They could be Grunts, or Jackals, or Elites. If they were either of those three suggestions, or even all three, she hoped there would not be a lot of them.

Eve was now just ten metres from the bottom of the mountains. A large gap was visible through the trees. Eve hid behind a tree and looked out at the mountain. A large metal ramp led up the side. Eve could only see a little bit of the path before it was blocked out by the trees. However, Eve could clearly see Covenant soldiers and a parked ghost. There was an Elite and three Grunts. The three Grunts were sitting cross legged on the ground near the mountain's side with their heads leaned forward near their legs. Eve knew that they were fast asleep, since she had seen this sometime earlier on the first Halo. The Elite was leaning It's back against the ghost. It had a plasma rifle in one hand and lightly throwing a small ball shaped object a few inches in the air and catching it in It's hand. Eve saw it was a dark blue colour with an orange thunderbolt going down the front of the object. A plasma grenade.

Eve raised her battle rifle to fire at the plasma grenade. It was only ten metres away, she could not miss. Then, she lowered her weapon again. She realised that if she hit the grenade, the explosion would kill the Elite but it would also wake up the Grunts and cause them to fire on her. This could also get any other Covenant forces in the area to be alerted to her presence. Eve had to find another way to get the Elite's attention and try to find a way to kill him.

"Try making some noise," Auto whispered to Eve. "That'll get the Elite over here,"

Eve nodded and grabbed a branch a few feet above her. She began to pull it, causing the leaves to emit a loud rustling noise. Sure enough, the Elite heard this and began walking over to where the noise was coming from. It was walking right into the trap. When he Elite was about five metres away, Eve stopped pulling the branch and gripped her battle rifle tighter. She needed to hit the Elite very hard over the head in order to kill it or knock it out.

The Elite stopped just a metre from the tree. It raised It's plasma rifle and scanned the scene around it. The creature was uncertain of something; it probably thought it was being watched. The Elite just shrugged and walked behind the tree trunk.

WHAM! The Elite did not even have time to breathe before the butt of Eve's battle rifle hit the creature in the head. The Elite let out a weak groan before it fell backwards onto the ground, out cold. Eve knelt down and picked up the plasma grenade and threw it behind her, creating a loud rustling was heard afterwards. She then walked out from behind the tree trunk, stepping over the knocked out Elite, and walked towards the mountain up ahead. When she came out of the trees, she crept over to the path so she did wake the sleeping Grunts.

When Eve reached the path, she ran up the metal surface. At the top of the path was a wide gap. As Eve got closer to the top, a figure walked out from the left. It was a Jackal carrying an activated shield. Before the Jackal could spot her, Eve raised her battle rifle and fired a burst of ammo up at the alien. The Jackal let out a loud screech as the bullets tore through It's chest and fell to the ground, dead.

After a few moments, Eve finally reached the top of the path. She gasped. In front of her was a large lake about half a mile to three quarters of a mile long and wide. The enormous razor sharp mountains rose up around the lake, making it look like a bowl. There was a small pathway that ran around the entire bowl along the mountains. Alongside the pathway in front of Eve was a circular shaped platform. Eve walked forward towards then edge of the pathway and looked down over the platform. Below was a small circular hole that went down into the rock and was about twenty feet from the lake.

Eve stepped onto the platform. She jolted slightly as the device began to descend down towards the hole.

"Where do you think this hole leads to?" Eve asked Auto.

"Probably some kind of short cut underneath the river," Auto answered. "I don't know. Maybe the Covenant might have something down here,"

"If they do, then we'll find out what," Eve replied.

Just as Eve finished speaking, she was completely surrounded by darkness. They were in the tunnel. Eve looked up to see the hole to the outside world slowly shrink as if she and Auto were being taken away from the surface forever. Then, the tunnel lit up but with no lights, probably because the wall had the ability to light and darken the tunnel when the platform entered it.

Eve looked over the side of the platform. At the bottom, about twenty feet away, was a large cube shaped room with dark blue walls. It had a small circular hole in the floor near the middle of the room. As the platform reached the hole, a locking sound kept it in place, Eve stepped off the platform. On the wall ahead of her was a small door. Eve walked towards the door, raising her battle rifle. The Covenant were most likely to be in this short cut under the lake so Eve was ready to fight them when she came across them.

The door opened as Eve approached it. Eve walked through the doorway into a long half cylindrical shaped corridor with gold bars along the corners of the room and there was a wide gold bar going along the ceiling. There were windows instead of walls along the side and floor of the corridor. They showed the clear blue water of the lake. It was really beautiful. However, when Eve looked down the corridor towards the other end, where there was another doorway, Eve saw four Covenant Grunts asleep along the side of the corridor. An Elite was patrolling the corridor. At the moment the creature was in the middle of the corridor walking towards the other doorway so Eve had a chance to kill the Elite before it turned and saw her.

Eve ran down the corridor towards the Elite. When she was three feet from the creature, she dived towards it and pushed the Elite to the floor. The Elite let out a loud roar of pain, waking the Grunts. Eve quickly whacked her battle rifle over the Elite's head. The blow instantly killed it. Eve then turned and fired four bursts of ammo at the Grunts, killing them.

Eve stood up and ran towards the other door. It opened as she approached it. Eve ran through into a large square shaped room with walkways, about fifteen feet from the floor, going along both walls. Several pillars, coming up from the floor to the ceiling, went along the walkways. In the middle of the room was a large cube shaped object with a small doorway on the front of it. Two small walkways came out of the top of the cube and joined onto the other two walkways.

Eve raised her battle rifle and walked into the room. It was obvious that Covenant were going to be in here, but what type was the question.

Eve got her answer when, all of a sudden, a group of Drones flew out from behind the cube and fired a barrage of blasts at her. Eve's shield lit up and her holographic meter appeared, the level in the yellow zone and dropping fast. Eve panicked and ran towards the cube as fast as she could. The blasts flew all around her as the Drones attempted to kill the most hated out of their human enemy.

Eve dived the last few feet into the cube. She shot up and rested her back against a wall, breathing heavily. That was close. If she had been out there for just a few more seconds, she would have been killed. The room had a large ramp against the back wall with two more coming out of either side and going up to two doorways on the walls near the ceiling. Her holographic meter appeared above her wrist. The level was rising back up from the red zone to the top. Eve just now had to find out how to get to the other end of the room without getting killed.

Suddenly, a large green shaped flew through the doorway into the room. A Drone. In an instant, Eve raised her battle rifle and fired a burst of ammo up at the alien. The creature let out an ear piercing screech as it was hit and fell to the floor, dead. Another two flew in, only to be met by the same fate. Eve checked her battle rifle and saw it was out of ammo. She threw the weapon on the floor and grabbed one of the plasma pistols, dropped by one of the Drones, on the floor. She then quickly retreated back to her hiding position next to the doorway and waited for the next Drone.

A few seconds passed. Nothing happened. Where were the Drones? Were they preparing an ambush or have they fled? Eve crept up to the door and peeked her head out from behind the wall. Her eyes scanned the room. They were gone. Why had they just fled all of a sudden?

Eve shook that thought out of her head and ran up the ramp and turned left up the next ramp. The door at the top opened as she approached it. Eve ran onto the walkway and turned right. Ahead of her was a large bronze coloured wall with a small cube shaped section against it on a large rectangular object coming up from the floor. Both walkways led to the cube section. Eve ran down the walkway to the cube section where another door was. It opened as she approached it, leading her into a small square shaped room with a door on the back wall. Eve ran into the room and up to this door. When it opened, Eve gasped.

This room, a circular shape, was more like the insides of an ancient Maya temple. It had a pathway along the walls, a small ramp descended off from the back of the room to the ground. Four pillars, in a square formation in the middle of the room, went up from the floor to the ceiling. Many of parts of the room were even covered in plant growth so it did really look like the room had just come out of a jungle despite being quite far underneath the lake.

Then, Eve's eyes rested on another cylindrical panel in the middle of the room at the bottom of the ramp. Above it was another hologram of Regret. Again, he was chanting some kind of sermon.

"Watch out, Eve!" Auto shouted.

Eve dived to the floor, narrowly missing an energy sword that hit the wall behind her. Eve looked up at her attacker to see it was an Elite. However, this Elite was not a major or minor or a stealth. This Elite was covered with dark purple armour and a crown on their heads.

Eve swung her legs along the floor and hit the Elite, causing it to fly through the air and land painfully on It's face on the floor. She then scrambled to her feet and jumped off of the pathway to the floor. A loud growl made her turn to see the Elite wielding It's energy sword, a menacing look on It's face. Eve gulped. This was not good.

"What kind of Elites are these?" She asked.

"Honour Guards," Auto answered. "No doubt, the worst rank in the Elite part of the Covenant."

The honour guard Elite jumped down from the pathway and swung It's sword at Eve. Luckily, she ducked and whacked the Elite across the back with her plasma pistol. The Elite roared in pain before collapsing to the floor, dead, the impact having broken It's back.

Eve breathed a sigh of relief. The honour guard was easily taken care of, though she had almost lost her head. If these were new things to the Elites, then they were not very good.

That thought was quickly put out of her mind when Eve suddenly flew to the floor, her back burning with pain. Eve, wincing still from the pain, looked over her shoulder to see another honour guard Elite standing over her. However, this one was carrying a plasma rifle instead of an energy sword. The Elite growled

"You will pay for what you have done, demon!" it said to her. "You destroying the Sacred Ring will have serious consequences for you and your incompetent race!"

The Elite raised It's plasma rifle. All the creature had to do was pull the trigger and his enemy would be gone.

However, Eve was too quick. In the blink of an eye, she swung her leg across the floor and hit the Elite's leg. The Elite roared as it fell to the floor and landed painfully on It's face. A small muffled groan emitted from the creature. Eve saw her chance and grabbed the plasma rifle, which the Elite had dropped on the floor, and brought it down hard on the creature's head. The impact killed the Elite outright.

"Nice work, Eve," Auto said as she stood up.

"Thanks," Eve replied. "Now let's go on and get off this island."

Eve went to walk up the ramp, but Auto stopped her.

"Wait! Go back,"

Eve stopped next to the hologram. She turned to face the hologram of Regret.

"Upload me into the panel," Auto said.

Eve squeezed her shoulder and waited. A second later, the data cord rose up from her suit and lay there on her shoulder. Eve took it between her two fingers and placed it in a slot in the side of a panel. Auto's seven inch high avatar shot up from the panel a few inches in front of Regret's hologram.

"That's what I thought he said," Auto said. "He's planning to activate Halo,"

"Are you sure?" Eve asked him.

Auto snapped his fingers. Regret's sermon went from… well whatever language it was speaking in to English.

"I shall light this Holy Ring," the hologram of the prophet said. "I will release It's cleansing flame and burn a path into the divine beyond!"

Auto snapped his fingers again and Regret's hologram went back into chanting the sermon in the language it began with.

"Pretty much," Auto said, smugly.

"We better let the commander know," Eve replied.

"No need," Mary's voice erupted out of Eve's ear radio. "I heard everything. I've gone over the data you gave me about the first ring and from what I've got here, the prophet needs an object called the Index to activate the ring. I've located the library similar to the one on the first Halo ring. If the ring works in the same way, then the Index should be inside."

"I'll bet the Covenant are thinking the exact same thing," John's voice said.

"Then we better make a start to the library before they do," Mary said. "Eve, Auto. Should we pick you up?"

"No," Eve replied. "I've got one more thing to do and it involves the prophet,"

"Alright, contact us when your done," Mary said and Eve's ear radio went silent.

"Are you going to kill the prophet?" Auto asked her.

"I may have to," Eve answered. "But I have a feeling he knows something about that crystal we found in Central America on Earth and we need to know what it is,"

Eve took Auto's data cord out of the panel. His avatar instantly disappeared. Eve placed the data cord on her shoulder and it sank into her suit like quicksand.

Eve ran up the ramp to the pathway at the top. She then ran right down the pathway to a door on the wall opposite the one she entered the room through. It opened as she approached it. Eve ran through the doorway.

Eve found herself in a large square shaped room with a long two foot high cube shaped part of the floor in the middle of the room. Four large pillars were in the corners of the room going up from the floor to the middle of the cube section of the floor was an eight foot long and six foot wide hole that led down to a thirty foot long tunnel to a pool.

Eve raised her plasma pistol and scanned the room. It was clear, for the moment at least. Eve walked into the room. She climbed onto the cube section of the floor and walked towards the hole in the middle of the floor. When she reached it, Eve gazed down at the pool below. A large object was at the bottom of the tunnel.

"What is that?" Eve asked.

"I don't know," Auto replied. "But if we want to find out we have to get it up here,"

The sound of something unlocking suddenly shot up the tunnel. A whirring sound followed. Eve, who looked around the entire room thinking it was something near her, looked back down the tunnel to see the object rising towards her. As it came closer, she could see it was a cube-like object with gold connections going around the sides, top and bottom of it. Three windows were on the object, two on the sides and one on the back.

"Must be an elevator," Auto said as the object was about half-way up the tunnel.

Eve was about to reply when her shield lit up all of a sudden. Eve shot round to see a group of Drones in the room with her. Well at least they knew where the rest of the Drone squad she fought earlier were now.

Eve raised her plasma pistol and fired a the Drones. They were easier to hit this time because they were in a smaller room. One blast hit a Drone right in the face and the creature fell to the floor, dead. Another was hit by two blasts, one from Eve and another from a Drone behind him, and also killed.

A locking sound quickly drew Eve's attention, still firing up at the Drones, she looked over her shoulder to see the elevator parked up over the hole. A glass door opened up at the front. Eve ran inside the elevator, narrowly avoiding a set of blasts. The Drones fired continually at the elevator's windows in an attempt to break them. Eve frantically scanned the elevator. At the back of the elevators inside was a small white circle. Eve ran to the back and placed a hand on the circle. It glowed white.

A loud screech drew Eve's attention to the front of the elevator. A Drone had landed on the floor and was trying to get into the elevator. Eve held her finger down on the plasma pistol's trigger. A green blast ball began to grow on the end of the weapon. After a few seconds, Eve raised the plasma pistol and fired the blast.

An ear piercing screech filled the room as one of the Drones was hit by the blast. It was so powerful that not only did it throw the creature into the wall of the room but it also fizzed away through It's armour.

Before another Drone could get into the elevator, the door closed and the vehicle moved back down the tunnel towards the water. Eve breathed a sigh of relief.

"That was close," she said.

"Yes, it was," Auto replied. "Now let's hope this thing takes us away from this island,"

The elevator suddenly stopped a few feet above the water. Was it broken or had it jammed? Then, the vehicle fell into the water, creating a loud splash, and began to move through the lake on It's own. There were no engines so it must have been programmed to follow the same route.

Eve gazed in awe at the sight in the lake around the craft. There were many rocks and undersea plats scattered across the lake bed. What was really amazing was that Eve saw fish swimming about in the lake. And what's more, they were Earth sea life. She could have identified them but the elevator's glass made it quite dark to see what was outside the craft.

"Hey Eve," Auto said, drawing her out of her gazing. "I've just intercepted a transmission from High Charity to Regret's carrier. It's a very well encrypted message from another prophet called Truth. Listen to this, Eve."

Auto cleared his throat, just like many people do when they read speeches, and began to read the message.

"Your haste has jeopardized the fulfilment of our Covenant, threatened our grand design. That you shall be spared a public display of our contempt is thanks only to Mercy and his wise counsel."

Eve took in what Auto had just explained to her.

"So there are three prophets called Truth, Mercy and Regret," she said.

"That's right," Auto replied. "When we get to the pyramid structure Regret is in, if you kill, only if you have to, then it could shake up the Covenant a bit. However, in a way, you might be doing Truth a favour."

The two suddenly found themselves in a dark cavern. The elevator went on and on through the water.

"Where does this cavern lead to?" Eve asked Auto.

"Tracking," Auto replied. "It leads out of the island to the ocean. And if I've interpreted the route correctly, we should go straight to a third island which is the nearest to the main temple."

The darkness suddenly left the elevator and replaced it with a light blue light. They were no in the ocean. Eve gazed out of the elevator's windows again to admire the beauty of this underwater world. Again, she saw many fish going about their daily business in the water as they would do on Earth.

Then, the elevator began to rise through the water towards the surface. Eve felt the elevator go up and saw a faint yellow light through the craft's ceiling. However, as the elevator got closer to the surface of the water, she saw a large square shaped hole in the water at the bottom of a tunnel. The elevator rose up to the tunnel and stopped directly underneath it.

"Is that it?" Auto asked.

He got his answer when the elevator rose up out of the water into the tunnel. Eve looked up through the ceiling to see another hole the size of the elevator about thirty feet up.

When the elevator rose up through the hole and stopped, Eve found herself in another small square shaped room, only this time there were no pillars in the corners of the room and the hole was built into the floor, not a cube shaped section that had risen up from the floor. A small door was on the wall right of the elevator.

The elevator doors opened and Eve stepped out into the room. She ran over to the doorway, causing it to open. On the other side of the doorway was a long corridor with a dark blue floor and a long window along the left side. The right side of the corridor was a dark blue wall. Eve ran into the corridor. She gazed through the window to see what was on the other side.

On the other side of the long window was the ground, about thirty feet below, of the third island Auto said they were to be on. Several platforms were lined up along the coast, all facing in different directions. At one of the platforms, the nearest to Eve, was a parked gondola. Maybe it lead to the pyramid structure. If it did, then Eve had to get there quickly. Eve ran back down the corridor towards another door at the end. It opened as she approached it. Eve found herself in a small cylindrical; shaped room that had a flat surface about ten feet above her. On the wall the wall next to her was a holographic control panel. Eve rested a hand on the panel.

She suddenly jolted as the floor seemed to break away from the walls. It then descended down into a long tunnel. Eve looked up and saw the top grow smaller as she went further and further away from it. Hopefully, this elevator would go to the ground floor so Eve could get across to the pyramid structure.

Suddenly, Eve's ear radio crackled to life.

"Eve, Auto?" came Mary's voice. "Can you hear me?"

"We hear you, commander," Auto replied through his com.

"Good, how's it going you two?" Mary asked.

"We're on an island that is the closest to the pyramid structure," Auto answered. "Once we get on a gondola, we should be able to get over there,"

"Understood," Mary replied. "We're on our way to the Library now. It's really dark here. Anyway, good luck. McCrea out,"

Eve's ear radio went silent.

Just as second later, the elevator jolted again. This time, it was next to another door. A locking sound echoed up the tunnel, most likely the elevator locking itself into place. The doorway opened to reveal the outside world to Eve and Auto again. Eve ran through the doorway onto the dirt surface of the island.

"Aright, we're almost there," Eve said in a relieved tone.

"Let's get over to the pyramid structure and have a little talk with the prophet," Auto replied.

Eve nodded and ran over to the platform with the parked gondola. A small ramp led up from the ground to the platform's surface. Eve ran up the ramp to the top and onto the gondola. She rested a hand on the control panel. The front engine activated. The gondola began to move and within a few seconds was far from the third island heading across the water.

"Eve, look ahead!" Auto exclaimed.

Eve did so. She gasped. Ahead of them was a small island with an enormous structure on it. It had six large stone legs come off both sides, with another three on the back of the building, of the diamond shaped main part of the structure that carried on behind the front for about another hundred feet. One walkway ran around the structure, starting from a large platform outside the diamond shaped entrance and going down the right side of the structure, then going around the back before going the left side and connecting with the platform again. A small ramp led up to the diamond shaped entrance from the platform.

"Commander?" Auto said through his com. "We're approaching the main temple now,"

"Good work," came Mary's voice. "We're at the library but we're as close as we can get for the moment. There's some kind of barrier. We're going to try and find a way around it,"

"Roger that," Auto replied. "We'll contact you later when we're done,"

As the gondola approached the temple, Eve could see figures moving about on the platform near some kind of turrets. When they were about one hundred feet from the temple, she saw they were Covenant with shade turrets. Eve hid behind the wall, ready to take on any Covenant that boarded the vehicle.

A locking sound echoed throughout the air as the gondola attached itself to the front of the platform. Eve quickly poked her head out from behind the wall to see several Covenant soldiers coming over to investigate.

"Are we expecting anymore reinforcements?" a minor Elite asked.

"No," a major Elite replied. "This must be some kind of trick. Search the craft! Report anything suspicious!"

Two minor Elites and a few Grunts walked onto the gondola, their weapons raised ready to take on any intruders. Eve heard their footfalls slowly grow louder. She tightened her grip on the plasma pistol in her hands.

"Me have bad feeling!" a Grunt squeaked.

"Be quiet and continue searching!" an Elite growled.

Suddenly, three Grunts and the two Elites walked past Eve. They did not even notice her. Perfect. Eve raised her plasma pistol. However, she stopped all of a sudden. Instead of wasting her ammo, she had a better way of getting rid of them. Eve rested her hand on the control panel and ran as fast as she could off the gondola. Her boots pounding on the metal attracted the attention of the Covenant squad on the gondola. They fired a barrage of blasts at her. Thankfully, Eve managed to dodge them. The Covenant soldiers charged after her, only to realise, too late, that the gondola was floating away from the temple.

"NOOOOO!" one of the minor Elites yelled. "We will get you demon!"

"Yeah but you'll have to get back over here first, split lip!" Eve yelled back.

The Covenant soldiers only continued shouting and cursing at Eve but within a few seconds they were out of sight as the gondola moved further away from the island. Auto laughed.

"Nice one, Eve," he said.

"Thanks," Eve replied. "Now let's get inside and find Regret."

Eve turned and ran towards the ramp that led up to the entrance into the building. However, when she was about five feet from the ramp, she screeched to a halt and looked up into the sky.

"What is it?" Auto asked her.

"I just saw something big," Eve replied.

Suddenly, a large shape appeared in the sky. It looked like a head with a mechanical spinal cord sticking out of it. Then, faint popping sounds, though they were loud enough to hear, filled the air. Just a second later, an enormous swarm of Covenant ships appeared. Both assault carriers and CCS battle cruisers. There were hundreds, no thousands of them!

"That…is the biggest Covenant fleet I've ever seen!" Auto said, breath taken.

"It's the largest anyone's ever seen," Eve replied.

"Get inside and take care of Regret quickly before the fleet stops us!" Auto ordered.

Eve nodded and ran up the ramp into the building. A large wall was placed in her path, though there were two gaps at It's ends. Eve ran left around the wall. Ahead of her was a large blast door. Eve ran over to it, causing it to open.

Eve was revealed with a large rectangular shaped room with a small pathway in front of her and a ramp leading down to the floor. Both sides of the pathway went along both walls as walkways. Several large stone pillars went along both sides of the room. At the other end was a large fountain with a small waterfall coming out of an opening on the wall.

It was then Eve saw a large metallic hover chair in front of the fountain. Two arms suddenly came out of the side of it before going back in. A chanting of the strange language filed the room.

It was Regret.

As Eve stepped forward into the room, the doorway closed, creating a small boom. Regret heard the noise and turned his hover chair round.

"You!" he shouted. "The demon is here!"

At once, a loud uproar filled the room. Just a second later, two honour guard Elites jumped up from the sides of the ramp onto the pathway either side of Eve.

"I guess he's not in a talking mood," Auto said.

"You think!" Eve replied sarcastically.

Suddenly, an energy sword flew through the air. It's target; Eve. Eve dived forward down the ramp. The other honour guard jumped into the air and raised It's energy sword. However, Eve saw the attack and fired a few shots from her plasma pistol up at the Elite. The blasts quickly broke through the creature's shield and a final hit to the head killed it. The body fell to the floor and the energy sword landed at Eve's feet.

The other honour guard growled. It now wanted to kill Eve more than ever to avenge It's fallen comrade. But the Elite was not the only one growing furious. As soon as the first honour guard Elite was killed, Regret pounded a fist on his hover chair.

"You useless fools!" he shouted. "You cannot even kill a simple Human!"

The other honour guard charged down the ramp towards Eve. It raised It's energy sword and brought it down. Luckily, Eve dived sideways, narrowly missing the weapon. She quickly grabbed the energy sword that lay on the floor and swung the weapon into the Elite's leg. Purple blood poured out from the wound. The Elite roared in pain and fell to the ramp's floor. Eve then swung the weapon into the air and brought it down into the Elite's chest, killing it.

"INCOMPETENTS!" Regret yelled, drawing Eve's attention. "I will kill her myself!"

At once, a large gold light ball began to form on the front of Regret's hover chair. Suddenly, it shot towards Eve like a laser. Eve dived off the side of the ramp, only to land painfully on her arm. Eve groaned as she got up. Regret saw this and laughed.

"This is the humans' greatest warrior?" he said, cackling. "How pathetic."

At once another ball formed up on the front of Regret's hover chair and fired out towards Eve, who dived forward and only just missed the laser. Eve shot up from the floor and fired a blast from her plasma pistol at Regret. However, when it was about two feet from the prophet, the blast hit some kind of shield and disappeared. Regret laughed again.

"Your attempts will be foiled by my hover chair's shield, demon!" he shouted at Eve. "Guards, remove this vermin from my sight!"

At once, a barrage of blasts flew at Eve from above. She looked up to see three Grunts on the ramp firing down at her. Then, Eve saw the crown of an honour guard Elite run past the Grunts and jumped down onto the floor in front of Eve. The Elite growled and bared It's mandibles as well as It's energy sword.

"Time to meet your fate, demon!" the Elite growled.

The Elite swung the energy sword at Eve. However, she ducked and the sword hit the wall and got stuck. Seeing her chance, Eve brought her energy sword up and drove it deep into the Elite's chest. Blood poured from the wound. The Elite let out a weak breath before it fell to the floor, dead.

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

The Grunts turned and fled up the ramp towards the room's entrance.

"FOOLS!" Regret yelled. "YOU DARE LEAVE YOUR PROPHET? YOU DO NOT DESERVE TO SERVE IN THE COVENANT! I HOPE YOU ARE PUNISHED-"

Regret was suddenly cut off when he saw Eve charging towards him. In an instant, he activated another charged laser and fired it at Eve, who dived sideways and ran behind a pillar.

"What's the matter, demon?" Regret asked in a taunting manner. "Am I too powerful for you?"

Eve gritted her teeth in anger. Her weapons began to shake in her hands. Although she was not usually angered by this type of taunts, Regret was really starting to get to her.

"The Great Journey will not be postponed!" Regret shouted. "Even by you, demon!"

BOOM! A laser hit the pillar, causing it to collapse. A cloud of dust was thrown into the air. Regret moved his hover chair forward a few feet. He chuckled slightly. He had most likely killed the demon and was going to be remembered in the Covenant for doing so. Now he wanted to see his fallen enemy.

When the dust cloud cleared, Regret gasped. Eve was not there. The rubble was only a few centimetres high so she would not be fully covered by it. Regret gritted his teeth in anger.

"Where are you, demon?" he shouted, pounding the sides of his arm chairs with his fists.

He got his answer when someone jumped onto the side of his chair. It was Eve. She raised her energy sword, only to be met by a flick of Regret's arm on her legs. Eve fell forward into the chair, dropping her weapons at Regret's feet. Regret grabbed Eve's hair and pulled, causing her to scream out in pain. Eve clenched her fist and threw a punch at Regret, hitting him in the head. Regret screamed in pain and released his grip on her hair. Eve saw her chance and lunged herself onto Regret. She grabbed beard with one hand whilst she pushed his head down with the other.

"G… Get… off me!" Regret shouted.

Regret grabbed Eve's throat and began to choke her. Eve raised her foot and brought it down on one of Regret's legs. The impact broke Regret's leg, causing him to scream in pain. His other leg came out of where they were sitting. Big mistake.

The hover chair suddenly swayed in mid-air and flew front first straight towards the fountain at the back of the room. Eve and Regret saw this but before they could react…

CRASH! The hover chair crashed right into the wall of the fountain, breaking it in two. Regret and Eve were lucky enough to fall out of the chair, along with the two weapons, before it hit the wall. Eve was in the middle of the fountain. Regret was at the right end.

Eve groaned as she got up. Her vision was blurry for a few seconds. She rubbed her eyes. That worked. Her vision was back to normal.

Suddenly, an electrical noise from behind startled Eve. She shot round to see Regret standing on both his legs, though she could see his broken one wobbling. However, in his hand was the energy sword.

"Your time has come, demon!" he shouted

Regret brought the energy sword back over his shoulder. He was going to throw it at Eve. Eve dived to the water covered floor of the fountain and grabbed the plasma pistol. She quickly rose up just as Regret was about to throw his energy sword.

A scream filled the room. Regret stood where he was. His empty hand dropped to his side. Lying in the water in front of him was Eve. The water around her began to turn red. All of a sudden, Regret fell backwards into the water, creating a loud splash. The water around him quickly turned red.

Eve breathed a sigh of relief. She had fired a few blasts at Regret just as he threw the energy sword. Eve counted herself lucky. The energy sword did hit her but, luckily, only creating a small tear in Eve's bodysuit and slightly cutting her arm open.

"That was close," Auto said.

"I can't believe I've just killed a prophet," Eve replied, whispering.

"Uh oh!" Auto said. "Eve, we have to go now!"

"Why?" Eve asked Auto.

"The Covenant fleet has an assault carrier directly over the island!" Auto replied. "It's preparing to fire on our position,"

Eve turned and jumped out of the phantom and ran down the room towards the ramp at the other end of the room. She almost fell over a few times because she was soaking wet from the water in the fountain. Eve ran up the ramp towards the door, causing it to open. She ran out of the room round the wall and out of the building onto the ramp that led down to the platform. Eve gasped.

Hovering high above the structure was a Covenant assault carrier. Eve gazed in awe and shock at the thousands of small lights and the enormous circle that led to pitch blackness on the bottom of the ship.

Suddenly, a purple light began to charge up in the hole. No sooner than a second passed before a wide purple beam shot down from the ship to the ground. Eve knew what this was and jumped off the left side of the ramp onto the platform. She ran across the platform and turned onto the pathway that ran along the side of the structure.

"I don't know how we're going to get out of this one!" Auto said to Eve.

"Can't you call for help?" Eve asked Auto, half-shouting.

"The pelicans are most likely to be with the Amber Clad at the library," Auto answered. "I doubt they'll send one over here,"

"Don't worry guys," a voice suddenly said out of Eve's ear radio. "Echo 219 will be your chariot to safety,"

A large shape hovered alongside the pathway. It was a pelican. A smile came upon Eve's face. She and Auto were going to be evacuated off the structure! The pelican flew to the end of the pathway and hovered down near it. Eve ran faster towards the pelican. She wanted to get off this structure quickly before she and Auto were killed by the Covenant's glassing beam. She was just twenty metres from the pelican. She was going to make it!

BOOM! An explosion erupted from the top of the structure. Eve looked up to see large chunks of stone and metal rubble falling from the roof towards the pathway and the sea. A large chunk of stone fell towards the pelican.

"CRAP!" the pilot shouted, his voice coming out of Eve's ear radio. The craft flew forward away from the pathway. "Eve, I'll have to pick you up in the water,"

Eve was about to reply when…

CLANG! A large lightning bolt-like pieced of metal landed at the end of the pathway and got stuck in the stone. Eve screeched to a halt. She looked over her shoulder to see the enormous purple beam only fifty feet away. The rest of the structure inside the beam was now a pile of rubble or was collapsing.

"Eve, I know what your thinking," Auto said. "It's cra-AAHH!"

Eve jumped up in the air and struck the top of the metal piece with her feet. The metal piece flew up into the air. Eve kicked it again, causing the metal piece to go flat. She then stood on top of it and pushed down so she was now riding it like a surfboard. The metal piece went down over the edge, only to scrape along the side of a leg going diagonally away from the structure into the sea. Eve rode the metal piece down the side of the leg towards the sea.

The pelican hovered down from the air towards the water until it was about twenty feet above the surface of it. Eve quickly got closer to the craft. Behind her, the beam continued to tear up the structure like a wildfire going through a forest. When she was about ten feet from the pelican she stuck her foot against the front of the metal piece, driving it into the stone and sticking the back of it into the air. Eve flew through the air. Amazingly, she landed on her feet in the pelican's resting area.

"Alright, I'm pulling away," the pilot said.

The pelican flew away from the structure, narrowly missing the Covenant's glassing beam as it tore through the last of the structure. Eve watched as the remains crumbled and fell into the sea.

"That was close," she said.

"Eve!" Auto said sternly. "If you ever do that again… I will kill you!"

"Very scary, Auto," Eve replied sarcastically.

"Alright guys," came the pilot's voice from Eve's ear radio. "You might as well rest. We're going to join the commander at the library."