I do not own Halo. I tumbled through the air, flipping randomly until I was able to gain control of my fall. I looked downwards as I streamlined my body, falling face first. I peered off to my left and saw Logan just a little ahead of me. I waved a friendly thumbs up at him and the quickly resumed looking downwards at the ground which was rapidly rising up beneath me. For almost as far as I could see the ground was a silver color, reflecting the clouds above and the sun in the far corner. This was our capital. It was nine square miles of semi reflective tile and in the center a tower 3 miles high, and a triangular shape. The tower was spewing smoke in a few places though and was clearly the victim of an all out assault, the ground equally charred from plasma burns and craters from Marines defending the building. Suddenly gunfire erupted as we passed the top of the tower. I looked at the altimeter, 15,000 feet and closing. The towers windows were split, most of them basted out, and as we got closer we saw more damage appearing. Gunfire from a hundred or more of the Shades began to pelt us. We were at a safe range for now, and the shots were only a deterrent of an assault, it was too late to call off now. I plummeted towards the gunfire of the Shades, and though it didn't seem to be the smartest thing to do it seemed to be the only option, till Logan got an idea. He wasn't one to look for the hard route out, and he yelled for m, the wind whipping by us making our hearing difficult. I snapped my head towards him, yelling "What?" I heard some undecipherable blather. "WHAT?" I replied, yelling louder. "GET INSIDE THE BUILDING! WE CAN FIGHT OUR WAY DOWN!!!" "RIGHT" I yelled back, checking my altimeter, and looking above me. The sky was randomly speckled with a few divers was clear enough, so I flipped so that I was belly down. Logan whipped past me, my declining speed slowed me to far beyond his rate of motion. I reached down to my chest and fumbled with the cord, finally pulling it and deploying my parachute. I was jerked upwards as some flak fire whipped by me some shots shattering a window above me. Tiny chunks rained down on me and a board fell past my parachute ricocheting off the slanted wall a few times before it left my sight. An explosion ensued and flames licked my parachute as I pulled on the side of it to swoop away from the building. As I did a dead Marines body flew by me wearing a parachute, a trail of crimson red following him to the ground. I swung around scanning the building for open windows, finding none. I was heading at the wall too fast so I whipped out my assault rifle and shot out the window ramming into it and smashing in the rest of the way. I tumbled into the room and got cut a few times from the glass and the parachute which also stopped me abruptly and hurt my shoulders a little bit. I wrestled free of the parachute, which was dragging me out of the building and watched it fall limp on our floor. I began to repack the parachute so that I wouldn't later get caught up in it as the window to my left suddenly smashed in, Jim skidding to a much more graceful stop then me. He then easily freed his parachute which floated out the window and drifted to a stop, quickly plummeting down with not weight to guide it as another few Marines drifted in with each landing with ease comparable to mine. He sat down in the room and began to assemble his rifle, I moved for the elevator as he quickly killed a dozen of the covenant in the shades before reloading. It is amazing what a little range can do for you. If I were on the ground fighting them I would be lucky to kill even one, while he was able to kill twelve without breaking a sweat. A banshee whipped by our window running parallel to the windows we were occupying causing all of us to leap in fear. I ran to the window and grabbed onto the pain for support, scanning the skies for the Banshee. It made a wide turn and circled back towards us flying strait at our floor. Gunfire from its plasma cannons ripped through our floor smashing in every window, glass shards flying everywhere settling with a hiss of noise. More gunfire whipped through the floor pummeling its was through the floor destroying everything in site. A few marines were quick enough to drop to the floor and cover their heads before they were killed. I was against a wall and was relatively safe, however more gunfire pelted our floor before the Banshee pulled out of its charge. We regrouped in the short time we had and slid the wounded towards the central elevator shaft. Logan fired off a few shots at the Banshee though their futileness made them into near to warning shots. I ran off to the front area where the Banshee had laid siege to our forces. Gunfire again ripped though our floor, immediately clipping one of the Marines in the face, his body flipping backwards and skipping to a stop, his face a burnt mess. Logan turned from the Banshee as it got closer, the gunfire ripping apart the walls behind him, one shot clipping him in the back of the leg before he got more than ten or so feet from the wall. I began to stand up to run for him when I saw the Banshee was stopping it hail of gunfire until a green bolt ached out from beneath it. The smoke cleared and Logan was gone. I looked out of the building and saw a body plummeting through the air. Enraged I glared upwards at the Banshee which now attacked a tank that was parachuting to the ground. It passed by the tank however failing to destroy it and again picked out our floor, firing inwards and flying dangerously close to our window. As it flew along the floor I began to charge it, dropping a little lower mid rush to grab the parachute, slipping it over my back in case I missed. I jumped out of the window with nothing in front of me, slowly flailing forwards. I looked to the left seeing the Banshee getting closer to me as my arc began to aim downwards. It clipped me with my wing and I grabbed onto its wings. Wrapping my legs around the wing strut I began to slide up to the cabin area. Realizing what was going on the Elite flipped the ship but at the angle I was holding on it only slid me closer to the ship and drew me up to the top of the wings. My face slammed up against the side of the Banshee, the pain almost making me release the wing. My vision was blurred and I made a groaning noise as I began to see straighter and regain control of what I was doing. It flipped back over unsure of that I had fallen as I began to again to clamor up the wing. I got close to the body of the plane and searched for a crack as the Banshee began to turn. The centripetal force through me off a little and I near to lost my balance, however I was able to get a hand inside one of the crevices along the side of the ship and to use it to keep on the side of the ship. Slipping the gun around my neck I placed a second hand on the crevice that I had before me and pried it open a crack, just enough to grab a grenade, pull the pin out with my teeth and roll it in, slamming the cabin shut and leaping off of the plane. I fell side by side with it, the Elite losing control and panicking after I dropped the grenade in with him though his explosion sent him spiraling at a much higher rate than me, especially after I deployed the parachute that I had grabbed. I let the parachute unfurl and decrease my speed. The last of the Shades were being mopped up now, and I arced away from the building, the plane hitting one of the lower floors that arched outwards. I drifted to the ground and hit it with a running speed, landing near a tank, the Banshee exploding behind me a final time inside the building. I ran forward, salvaging a few grenades off of a fallen Marines body. A Grunt ran forward through the horde of Marines that were slowly gathering and attempted to get in a turret however it was shot before it could come even close to the gunner seat. I continued forward, a BAP unit struggling to flip over with one leg severely burned. Craters, bodies and bloodstains filled the once beautiful and scenic tiles that made up the capital's surrounding grid of tiles extending a mile in any direction outwards from the sides of the capital. This phenomenon could be seen from a low orbit and was one f the first places struck in the invasion because of its symbolic purposes to the Marines. I, however, did not find my morale to be broken at all by the invasion of the capital. A Warthog drive by me and I shouted out at the driver "WAIT!!!" while waving a hand. He slowed down and turned around to allow me to jump into the gunner seat while another GI filled the passenger seat. I tossed him a magazine of ammunition knowing that he would be needing it more than me. Off in the distance I saw the huge pillar of energy from one of the ships slipping closer to us, it was now within about a half dozen miles of the capitals main tile formation. I braced my chest against the Warthogs turret and wrapped my arms around it, grabbing the trigger. The driver accelerated driving us through the crowd and into the open. As far as I could see Marines were set up sparsely, all moving towards a common goal, the building in the far corner of the capital. Tracer fire ached upwards from the corner of the tiled area and we could hear screams becoming more audible. The Warthog arrived near the door and fell into a crater. The driver was stuck in the bottom of the crater and got out, running before us towards the building, he wanted a seat aboard the blockade runner. I hopped out at about the same time the Passenger did, and as he left he threw my ammunition back to me. I fumbled with it as I caught it, dropping it by accident. A grin crossing his face He crawled out of the crater. A tank shell rocketed over my crater and spiraled off into the distance. I crawled out of the crater and bolted towards the door, a Marine to my right getting shot in the leg and collapsing. I got one of my half dozen grenades and whipped it into the hallway as I saw a bazooka shot fly towards it. My grenade bounced to a stop combusting shortly before the rocket blast collapsing a portion of the ceiling. A few bodies flopped to a stop outside the smoke as I continued to run forward. I dropped low and rolled into the hallway passing through the smoke quickly. A few Grunts were peeking around the corner to I fired a few rounds in their direction, hitting one in the head and killing it as I grabbed another grenade. I through it to them and covered my ears. The explosion ensued and chunks of shrapnel flew around the corner. I came around the corner to find the only surviving Grunt to be rolling on the floor, his ears bleeding. I fired a round into its head to put it out of its misery. Its body flopped limp to the floor. A few more Marines rushed around the corner, peering around the corner only to have their glance returned with gunfire. A few plasma shots hit the wall behind them as one fired a grenade launcher down the passage bouncing it around the corner, exploding it a few seconds later. We all rushed around the corner and killed all the surviving Elites who had only a few non lethal major wounds. Again, popping round the next corner we were greeted with gunfire, this time a grenade. We all ducked back in time but one of the more unfortunate Marines received the grenade and found it clipped to his chest. Screaming he ran towards the enemy forces, detonating along their lines. As the smoke settled another Marine whipped a grenade down the hallway. Following the clatter of the grenade down the hallway came shouts and then an explosion as they realized that there was a grenade by their feet. Instantly after the explosion we began to run down the next corner to the control room. In this room there were some flipped over tables, some sandbags with burn marks and some dead and decomposing bodies behind them, they were clearly the technicians behind the control of this room. This room however was what looked like an ordinary control room for the autocannon defensive turrets of this fortress like capital. The CO of our mob paced ahead of us and hit a series of commands into the computers and a door behind him, which was concealed very well, hissed open to reveal a large hangar, and docked inside it was the last hope of the inhabitants of this planet. The CO stepped in, his footsteps echoing off the walls of the chamber. He stopped and stared in awe at the size of the craft. It sat atop a launch pad, the ceiling more than a football field up. It was mostly high speed booster rockets to get it into orbit before the Covenant could respond. He stepped forward and looked at it again before turning to us. Hew said solemnly, "200 of us will live. The rest will be heroes. I will get a helmet and draw names. Best of luck to you all." His sentences were short and detached, each one a statement of the same emotions, gratitude towards those who were left behind and sadness for the same minority. He grabbed a sheet of paper and tore out 215 pieces for all of us, 200 with an X, meaning that you would get to go aboard the ship, the others blank. He took the helmet and shook it up, mixing the tickets. We began to form a line, all of us grabbing a ticket. Most of the soldiers responses were a variety of cheers, all of them making it and only a small portion of them not getting aboard. I witnessed Skip step forward. He took a ticket. A sick feeling crossed his face, he was left behind. He stepped out of the line and went into a corner where he sat down and sighed deeply, unsure of what to do. I note a strange gratitude on his face, almost as if he had wanted to stay. The line slowly progressed forward as I finally came to draw my ticket. I opened it and looked down. I saw the two distinct lines of an X. The Marine behind me stepped forward and grabbed a ticket. A familiar sick look crossed his face as he looked down at the ticket, he had a blank ticket. "NO!!! I wanna live!" he bounded towards the ship a few people catching him and holding him back despite his frantic kicking. I looked down at the small piece of paper that I had and carefully weighed my options. With everyone I knew dead and our survival only temporary I had already accepted death, which was why I had gone on a few near to suicide missions sometimes making it out only based on the assumption that my friends were there to back me. I owed Skip my life, and I would stay with him. I grabbed the frantic Marine, "Here, take mine, I don't want it." He turned around confused, his charging stopped. "What?" "Yeah, you heard me, take mine. I got a ride, but I don't want it. Take it." I waved the ticket at him. He snatched it out mf my hand a smile now spreading across his face. "Thank you thank you thank you! My god, I get to live! Here, tell me your name, I'll tell your family what a hero you are!" I replied coldly, "I have no family." His enthusiasm hampered he said, "Oh, well at least let me have your name, I'll but a great gravestone!" he immediately regretted his statement, it was rude. "Oh, I mean, I will do whatever you like!" "okay, listen, I would like a gravestone that says on it how I died. Tell them why I died, tell them where I died. And live on." I said. "Patriotic." he turned to leave then spinning around, "what did you say your name was?" I reached into my armor and grabbed my dog tag, grabbing it by the nameplate and pulling it off violently with a quick motion. I extended my arm and dropped the dog tag into his waiting hand. He nodded and left, he knew I wasn't much into talking about things like this. I sat down by Skip who was now recovered from his shocking discovery of his failure to get to live. I grabbed his bible, the bullet hole in it still there and handed it to him. He sat staring at the floor and said to me emotionlessly, "Did I ever tell you I stole 340 credits of yours in the ninth grade?" "No." "Well, consider that my reckoning. Hear that god?" I gave a weak laugh, but it wasn't that funny. "Well, did I ever tell you that I stole your cars sparkplug after that party in college?" "Yeah, I think you did. How about I tell you this secret. No one else knows this. Do you know my real name?" Even I didn't know that. I didn't know the name of the man who had saved my life. He had always been Skip to me, and I don't think that he had ever told me his real name. "No, I don't think you told anyone about that." "Well, I told Mac one day, but now that he's gone I am the only person that knows. It's Charlie." I sat still for a second. He had told me his name. It seemed as if he had just revealed his greatest secret, however it was really no act that I shouldn't have discovered on the first day that I had met him. "How did you get Skip from Charlie. Charles." "Hey, don't call me that! Long story short, it came from the Legacy. Before you were aboard, when I was only five or six. We used to play a game. It was called the Long Sword game. We would all sit around with our videogames pretending to be Long Sword pilots when one day someone called me Skip for piloting the ship in and setting a high score. It stuck." "That's stupid. Let's go outside and watch the launch." We stepped outside and I looked up into the sky. A blue beam was to the west of us running along the tile area towards the central tower. Creeping over the tower its laser pulsed as it blasted off the top of the tower and eventually a cavity within it. The tower caved in, each chunk of it incinerated as it fell into the center. Explosions sounded throughout the building as the remaining golden tinted windows were blasted outwards by the explosions, fire jutting from every floor of the building. It was much warmer now, and a trail of fire followed the laser as it began to move from the decimated capital building towards the launch area. It was strange that it would lose its position to attack a specific location such as the capital. To them this place held no importance, or at least it shouldn't have. Suddenly the tiles erupted outwards exploding in a series of percussive claps that sounded like the thunderstorms of the great spot over the ocean. A loud roar continued to fill the air as the rocket fired its engines. Skip jumped up, "I have to go, I'll be right back." He walked towards the door of the base and stepped inside. He was acting suspicious lately. Suddenly everything began to fall into place. The mysterious will to stay behind on the mission we were ambushed on. The glad look when he didn't get to go on the ship to escape. The times that he had been nowhere, and the times he had been off duty he never talked to anyone. He was a traitor. I walked a safe distance behind him, shedding much of my armor to escape from the heat. I followed him as the roar of the ship got louder. He stepped out into the woods a little and stood behind a tree his back sliding down it. I approached him from behind as the ship began to lift off. He raised a tiny purple device to his mouth. "Dispraiser?", from what I gathered the Dispraiser was the ship attacking the capital, "Do you read me? The ship is taking off in less than one minute, you need to." he felt the cold muzzle of a pistol press up against the back of his head.

He lowered the radio. "So, you caught on. I have no regrets, and will see you in hell. Goodbye Jacob." My turn to say something came. "Ah, so now god and I are in a race to strike you down. I win. Lets see you betray us in hell Charlie."

Within the next two hours all life on Lunar Four was vanquished as a result of the Covenant siege. Take it for what you may of what happened during the next, and last few minutes of Jacob's story as no one was left to document what had actually happened to him or more importantly the traitor, Charlie Morris. The occurrences beyond the launch of the Albatross are undocumented, and will forever be a mystery. The Albatross got lucky however, and made it to safety. Surprisingly the Dispraiser wasn't able to move into attack position in time to destroy the Albatross, so it was able to escape though sustaining heavy damage.

Incoming transmission ID#8976-Channel 7 Incoming........... 568 of 1028. 796 of 1028. Complete. ID James Williams Message transmit Position Alpha orbit of Reach Transmission from IP address 67.38.20.666

To whom it may concern: I once knew a man. His name was Jacob Johnson. He left himself stranded on Lunar 4 to save my life, and while I live on I know that he gave his life so that I might live further. I can tell you that he died a painless death, killed almost instantly (Authors note: A lie, he died a slow and painful death). Your friend/family member/other was a true hero, and you must all consider him to still be among the living, as I am sure he is, looking over all of us. Your friend/family member/other was a hero, and he died as one. For a soldier there is no greater honor than to die in service of your country or world, and in this case he did just that. Though I had only just met him when he was a few hours from death I know that had I known him for longer he would have earned my respect as well as he did yesterday on Lunar 4. I thank you Jacob, I think you deserve your rank among the saints. Jacob, you will be missed. END TRANSMISSION-POST ON ALL BULLITEN CHANNELS-REMOVE ALL CODE REPLIES-REROUTE, TARGET=67.38.20.666