OK, I am still working on finishing this story for reasons that are too long to list right now, one or two more chapters and then it will be over, I am have started working so I can't work on this as much. Please R&R. (^-^)

~x~ (Halsey's POV, several hours after Max left)

"You sure you want to do this? Once you do, there is no going back, and with the amount of data and training in such a little time can be a danger to your mental and physical body."

"Yeah, we know what we are getting into, and we accept." He told me. "Once I saw what Destiny was holding, I knew what was going on. Why do you think we jumped off?"

I nodded.

"Get us ready doc, we are not leaving a friend behind just because we wants to show some macho." He said.

I nodded again and then injected the sedative into the IV stream. He closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. I walked out of the room and placed a hand on the door frame while I spoke to Cortana.

"Add Austin and his friends to the Spartan roster."

~x~ (Adam/Max's POV, Somewhere in space, in the future)

The jump went smoothly, and we only had to wait about a day for the right alignment of the moons. During that time, Skarlet and I talked, mostly about random stuff that came up. Home, earth, various planets. I had to lie about a few things when personal life came up of course. Her parents were from one of the first planets burned, and was born shipside so she did not really have a planet to avenge, just her surname. When stuff about the flood came up, I corrected her on most everything; most of what she knew was exaggerated tales from people that witnessed the flood on earth. But she defended it like it was the truth. Once we got onto relationships, she just got quiet and stared off into space, not wanting to push I just changed the subject.

The next day (If it can be called that in space), my alarm went off and I woke Skarlet up. The planets were in place for a jump, so we got ready for anything. We got weapons and ammo, a few translating programs if needed, and a program for hacking into forerunner computer for any data on the device. Manuals, blueprints, anything.

We also had a few ways of communicating with forerunners if there were any, unlikely, but you never knew, I mean, if the librarian can talk to someone who lives in the distant future through dreams, then anything can happen.

"You ready?" I asked.

"Born ready." She replied.

"Once we go, we will only have about 3 hours if we want to have a short trip home, otherwise it's a several week trip through Slip." Once through the slip, we would have another window to slip out back to the ring of moons

"Ok."

I broke orbit of one of the moons and got into position. We were facing the large planet with the center ring of moons in between us and the planet. Ran last second calculations and then opened the throttle to full and started our death wish of a journey. We reached the right speed and angle. With the gravity being overlaid in a wire grid, I open a slip space portal right before the tip of the cone and go through. Right before we did and lost scanner capability's, I thought I saw a slip energy signature other than our own.

I quickly forgot about it because I felt something you never should, acceleration.

Heavy acceleration, moving beyond normal speed. I could feel the broadsword shaking, vibrating and jerking.

"What's going on? At this rate, we will shake apart!" Skarlet had to scream over all the vibration.

"I don't know! We should not even feel the ship moving!" I yelled back.

At that moment, without my or Skarlet's input, the slip drive activated and we slipped out of S-Space. Backwards, I could see that because the wall in front of us going away at a very fast pace. In the rearview cam, I saw a wall getting closer and closer, I fired the afterburners, but that was not going to stop us. "Brace!" I screamed at Skarlet.

We hit the wall, not enough force to crush us, but enough to cause some sort of stalactite to break off and fall down on us, pushing us down into a seeming endless pit.

The stalactite tilted and fell off us as we fell. I only had some control over the swords surfaces, but no engine; the back half might as well be gone. I was able to keep us from spinning, but could not get a good angle to glide, so we kept falling. Soon the walls of the pit started to get closer. Eventually it pushed into the sides enough to stop us.

After a moment of relief, I heard Skarlet sigh and say "Night will fall, and the sun will drown when a good man goes to war." I look back and see that she was looking up. "We are inside a planet. I don't think we are where we are supposed to be."

"Knowing my luck, we are. Let's get going. How far down do you think we went?"

"It happened so fast... Two Kilos?"

"Sounds right, popping canopy." I pressed the emergency release on the canopy and it flew off and glided down the pit.

"How are we going to get back up there?" Skarlet asked.

I opened a small compartment next to my seat and pulled out two small pistol looking device with a few spikes on the business end. "These"

"Are those Grapple guns?"

I nodded. "I will carry us up the first time and when we reach the end of my line, you fire yours and carry us up another length, and repeat."

"Sounds good, but can one of those carry two Spartans fully loaded?"

"This was made for the Mark-III, those were a lot heavier. Grab your stuff and let's go." Skarlet gathered her gear, A Saw with four extra drums of bullets, a modified 10 gauge shot gun that was missing the butt, two SMGs and four plasma grenades. I carried the same, but no Saw; I had the assault riffle, the older type that held 60 rounds instead of 32. I aimed high and fired the grapple gun, it hooked onto something sturdy and so Skarlet and I put each other's back together and I switched the polarity on my weapons magnets. We were stuck together. I pulled us up and then Skarlet did the same after I unhooked the grapple, we did this process for about an hour when we heard a loud crash from above. Looking up we saw nothing, so we assumed that it was another stalactite falling.

After we reached the top we found we were inside a sphere of some kind, with a smaller one inside, it was off center causing the walls to close in for the broadsword, and once we found a foot path, we started scanning for any wireless networks left running by the Forerunners. Found one that was only for an A.I. system to travel through, useless to us, so we started to look for any sign of where we were on the planet, and if there was a lab containing that device we came here for. After an hour, I spotted a Forerunner worker ship docked, that would be our way out, I marked it and we continued on.

At one point I swore I heard Voices, But Skarlet did not, we found a bridge to leading to the inside sphere. We started to cross it when the flood started to show their face. Only infection forms, so Skarlet and I held our ground and also our fire, there was no need to announce to the whole planet that there was fresh meat here. We just let the shields take care of them, and then more dangerous forms showed up, combat forms and some brute looking flood started to show up.

We opened fire and managed to hold them back, they kept piling up against the shields and we kept layering them.

Then something I only read about in the forums for Halo 2, an unfinished flood form showed up. The one that would take rockets and grenades to take care of it. The Juggernaut, I was really hoping that I would never see one. Its tentacles could more then likely go right through the energy shields. "We need to get out of here!" I yell at Skarlet.

"How!?"

Then, as if descending from the heavens, a Spartan used a jet pack and softened his landing.

"You two are in deep doo doo here." Doug said.

"Doug!?" I almost stopped firing just to take a look at him, I didn't though. Then From the inside of the inner sphere, a weapon of some kind was fired repeatedly at some of the surrounding flood.

"Who's that?" Doug asked as he shot gunned a few flood forms.

"You don't know?"

"NO" He pulls off the jetpack and slaps it onto my back. "Go see who that is! I got this."

I jumped up and launched. Looking back I see that Doug grabbed Skarlet and jumped over the side of the bridge. They did not have far to fall because below them was a pelican. They landed and then climbed inside. I flew to the sniper to see someone I had not for a long time. Stephen, He was in my Boy Scout troop and then switched troops. We hung out, but not often. He had no suit of armor or anything. How he got the weapon was unclear. I landed on the ledge and pulled him inside the room behind him.

"How did you get here?" I ask him.

He looked shocked. "Uh."

"Speak!"

I just woke up here about four days ago."

"Great." I look around and see a Forerunner suit locked in a glass case. I go break the glass and hand it to him telling him to put it on. As he did at an agonizingly slow pace, I when to the ledge and buy us some time. After a minute the pelican hovered over in front of the ledge, I look back and see that he had it most of the way on, that would have to do. I grab another riffle that was sitting on a rack for him and I toss Stephen into the back of it. I hop on and told the pilot to get away from the area, I knew once Stephens's suit was online, its A.I. might have the location of the device.

I look around and see that Doug, Austin, Carolina and John were suited up and ready for action. Skarlet was reloading her guns and ammo

"How... Why are you guys here?" I asked.

"Well I can't speak for myself, but I think there here to rescue you." Stephen said while putting on his new helmet.

Everyone nodded, including John.

"Andddd speaking of which, who are you guys?" Stephen asked.

"Well you should Know John, A.K.A Master Chief." I told him

"Chief... Halo?"

I nodded.

"And you?" He pointed at me.

"Here, my name is Max, but you know me as Adam."

Skarlet tilted her head.

"Adam... Adam from Troop 8?!"

"Yep."

"Which Adam?" The other Adam was also in the same troop, but slowly faded out for martial arts. And he lost a foot of intestine from his first cancer, so Adam was never really more than a twig.

"The one with body fat."

He nodded. "So how did you get here?"

"Long story" I looked at Skarlet. "Tell you later."

"So where is the other Adam?" Stephen asked.

"Up here!" The pilot yelled.

"He's flying?!" Stephen jumped into a seat and immediately pulled the safety bar down.

"Johns to scared he would mess something up, and Adam is the only one that has seen a pelican flown besides me." Carolina said.

"So where to?" Adam asked from up front.

"Hold on, Stephen might have the answer."

"Me?"

"Yeah, your new suit has an A.I. in it; I might know where we need to go. Just waiting on you to boot it up."

"How?" He asked looking himself over.

"Here, this might help." Austin joking reached over and hit the back of Stephens's helmet. As soon as he did, Stephen went stiff and then relaxed.

"That actually worked." Stephens's eyes were darting behind the visor, looking at all the data that passed as the suit and A.I. started up.

After a few moments of mumbling to himself, Stephen spoke up. "The computer- Easserin, sorry, said that the thing you seek is in a research station above the planet."

"Go up!" Austin shouted to Adam.

"How far?"

"All the way."

"Alright, strap in!"

We did in the nick of time, because Adam pulled up at a steep angle and we passed through the layers of the flood infected planet. The g-forces were getting stronger as Adam flew us faster. After we broke through the top layer, I got out of my seat and because of the zero gravity; I floated my way up to the pilot's area.

"So where to?" he asked.

"Stephen said there is a station in orbit. Do a scan."

"Right, hold on." Adam set a course so that we would orbit around the top and then the bottom of the world.

The world was forerunner that much was clear. But it was old. The metal colors were stained, many holes covered the surface. There were a few lights on, but I think that was all automated systems, keeping the world turning. I don't think it would last another 200 years.

"Bingo got something. Something big with heat coming off of it. Detecting RADs, Nothing harmful, just low levels of gamma."

"Life forms?"

"Doubtful, I will check again as we get closer."

"OK, I will get the others ready."

I floated back to see Stephen walking on the ceiling. Magnetic boots I think. The others were prepping there weapons.

"Alright, be ready, no idea what's on the station. Could be flood, or it could be unicorns. Either way, be ready." I said.

Everyone nodded, including Stephen.

"Stephen, you need to stay here. You have no training, no suit other than that one, and I doubt that its combat rating is above 2."

"Easserin says that this is not just a normal EP suit. He said that this thing is made to fight the flood. He can take care of the weapons." He said.

"Do you know how to use them?" I asked. John got up then and pulled up a collapsible table.

"Beat me and you can come with us." John said while he put his arm on the table. "Lose and you stay."

Stephen pulled his helmet over his head, and placed his arm next to Johns. John sent me a message with the neural link.

-I'm going to overpower my suit and make this kid stay.-

I responded with -just don't kill him.-

John and Stephen gripped each other's hands and started to wrestle. John was grunting, Stephen was whistling, Stephen's arm had not moved. After a minute, Stephen just calmly moved Johns arm down with as much effort as moving his own arm.

"Damn…" John sighed.

I was thinking of clapping. Stephen stood up and smiled, "So how we getting over there?"

"The power in the station is off, so we will have to space walk over there and turn it on ourselves."

Stephen and the others nodded.

Adam made his way to the bay of the pelican, got loaded up and ready.

The door closed and I held onto a handle on the ceiling. The air was leaked out and the pressure was equalized. John hit the door release and it opened. Stephen was not carrying any weapons with him. I grabbed a shotgun and handed it to him.

"No thanks, I got this." He got a running start and jumped off the ramp. He floated out to the station. I could see his suit firing micro thrusters to correct his course. I activated my jet-pack and followed him, the others did as well, Adam included.

-We need to activate the power core- Stephen started to go around the outside of the station. He started to move levers and use computers, Every now and then, he would point to something and I or Austin would move something into place.

Half an hour later, lights started to turn on, some hardlight bays activated, the superstructure was minimal with only a few compartments built in. But to access any of them, Stephen said that we needed most of the systems online. Easserin was telling him what to do, we just followed.

Once we did all that we could outside, the cargo door was ready and waiting, but it was only opened by three key looking devices that were as large as a man. but there were none just floating nearby. Adam said that the scans picked up a forerunner ship in orbit, but it was on the other side of the planet. Its orbit was stable, and was not geostationary, so it would pass us in a hour or so. The cargo door was only needed to get the device out. There were airlocks all over, and all of them worked.

-John, Carolina, Skarlet get the JATO's from the pelican, set them up to stop the forerunner ship by the station. Stephen will talk you through powering it up with the help of Easserin. We might have to use it to transport the device, I don't know how big it is. So it might be able to be transported by the pelican, or not.-

I got three confirmations and they flew off back to the pelican. Adam, Austin, Doug, Stephen and I made our way inside an airlock. We turned on our magnetic boots and cycled the airlock, as the environment pressurized, our suits hissed as it pushed the CO2 from the filters and refilled the micro tanks that held oxygen.

"Stephen, where is the device?" I asked as I moved to the inside airlock, I saw nothing but a hallway on the other side, there could be flood hiding in the superstructure, the rest of the station was hardlight, so if there was flood, it would mean it was only a matter of time before they showed up.

"Center lab, the one that is part of the superstructure."

"Alright, stay quiet, move quickly, and don't die." I said.

Everyone nodded. I opened the door and we moved in.

"Check your corners." I said, Stephen was holding his arm up, I saw part of the armor slid back and a barrel emerged. I had no time to ask what it was.

We had gotten about halfway there when we heard the flood. I looked around for the nearest exposed superstructure, on the ceiling was a vent of some kind.

"Stephen, can you seal that?" I asked.

He pointed his arm at the vent and a red line followed by a blue one was fired at each corner. Very advanced lasers, if they were even lasers. with the vent welded shut, we picked up the pace.

At the lab door, we found a encrypted lock, and no one knew how to get it open.

"I could get through it... If I had three days." Stephen said as he scanned the door.

The flood showed up right then, I lay down cover fire as Stephen kept looking for a way in. Adam and Austin projected shields and also covered Stephen. Doug was helping Stephen with his scans by manipulating the hard light control panel. Fire, reload, repeat. This continued for several minutes, the flood kept coming, combat forms, infection, carriers. All types.

"The lock needs 5 DNA patterns, but I think that the owners of said patterns are long dead." Stephen said after what seemed an eternity.

"Why 5?" Austin asked.

"Who cares?" Doug said.

I remembered something that I heard on top of a mountain. "Guys, its us! We are the five!" I shouted over the gun fire.

"How do you know?" Doug asked.

"Trust me, I know. Everyone, get to the door, Adam, keep projecting the shield. I will do the same."

We shuffled our way to the door, while keeping the flood back at the same time. One by one, we all removed a glove, placed it on the hard light panel, put our glove back on, and continued to fight the flood. After everyone had done that, the door opened and we moved inside, Stephen closed the door and locked it so that it could only open from the inside. There was gravity in that room, and Stephen said something about getting the rest of the station online to turn on some defenses.

"Alright, look for anything related to the device, we need to know how to get it to work." I said.

The device I had seen was in the middle of the room, and it was only hooked up to a few wires. The others started to search, Adam found tablet like devices full of schematics, statistics, and it had a few diagrams that explained what to do. but there was a problem. "Uh... Max? the schematics show that the device on the table... is only a a plug in. The real device is the halo ring, plug this in, and the ring will do what it was made to do. But only the flood will be affected." Adam said while looking through the tablets.

"how can you read that?" Stephen asked him from the computer console he was at.

"It was in an alien language, but when I picked it up, it changed." He handed one to me. "See that? That explains how to build more for the other rings."

I was glad that Adam spotted that. but it was odd that all that was needed and more was on the tablets. The librarian really thought things out when she was planing this. Doug brought over a few small round cylinders with a button on the end of each of them. "The shelf said that these were some sort of movement devices." Doug said.

"How does it work?" I asked him

"I think it works something like this." Adam took two from Doug and placed it on my back piece. I heard a beep and then the next thing I know, I was being lifted off the floor as if I was a paper weight.

"I think that will do to carry out the device." I said after Adam put me down. "Just how heavy is that thing anyway?" I asked.

Stephen walked over to it, disconnected the wires and then placed his arms under it. He tried to lift it, but failed. I guess even a advanced suit like his has its limits.

I tossed Stephen the cylinder from my back , grabbed another from Doug, and the three of us got a corner of the device. We lifted it with ease, and one by one, we let go, the thing floated by its self. I grabbed a few more of the cylinders from the shelf and placed them in my soft case.

"Lets get ready to get out of here, the Flood always finds a way in." I said as I readied my assault riffle.

"Ready as we will ever be Max." Adam said.

"If we make it back to our time, remember to not call me that." I said.

Everyone nodded and got ready. I moved by the door and project my shield over it, I used the control panel and opened it. Only to find that we were alone. No flood or anything.

"I have a bad feeling about this..." Doug said.

"Silent, double time it to the cargo door" I told them. We started to jog to the bay, it would take some time. Stephen said that some systems were off line, that included some of the hard light generators. We floated through some halls, others we ran. We got half way again when we heard the voice, and when we did, we stopped running.

The same voice from the dreams, the old voice that gave me chills. "I am thankful... without you and your... companions, I never would have had the chance to live forever without the great rings ever firing"

I looked at the others, they heard it as well. This was not in my mind, this was real.

"Who are you!?" I shouted.

"I am an object of revenge, a being of time and thought. I was there when the rings fired, and I will be there when they are destroyed."

"Gravemind..." I said.

"Gravemind?" Austin asked, but no one answered him.

"And what in the universe, makes you believe that you will survive the second great wave?" I shouted, knowing that even though we could not see the gravemind, it could hear us.

"Only you would be able to unlock the vault, I have had a thousand life times to wait, and now that the time approaches, what makes you think that you will leave here with your hearts pounding?"

Adam spoke up. "Unlike you, we have not had life times to plan, but we have others."

Others? What was he talking about? I readied my suit, changing the way the shields sit, the power to them, and I sent settings to the others so that they would be ready for a massive fight against the flood if needed.

"Others won't help where the deed is already done, beware your step."

"Everyone! Get off the ground, don't touch the walls." Stephen said.

We all floated off the floor, I did not know what to expect, Stephen could see more than I could. I started my Jetpack on the lowest power, then I pushing the device down the hall, the others followed closely behind. Every hall way showed flood retreating, not coming at us, almost like they were scared. What did the gravemind have in store for us?