Disclaimer: Everything seen in Bungie's HALO series is © Bungie 2001- present. Everything not seen (including characters and such) is © Jon Smith 2003 – present.

::::Authors Note::::

I apologise for the piss poor first chapter – I'm only 13 remember!!

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Chapter II :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:::::::::::::::::::::::: "Fire Team Merc – do you copy?" ::::::::::::::::::::::::

Violet Plasma Bolts came flying in Echo619s' direction, as Sarge stood frozen in horror. Toey dropped his MA5B Rifle to lose some of the weight he was carrying as he sprinted towards Sarge. "Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaarge!" he cried as he dived between two Plasma Bolts which scorched the grass behind him – he pushed Sarge out of the way of a flurry of Bolts that came their way in midair.

They rolled across the floor, before Toey pulled the petrified Sarge up. "You OK Sarge?" he asked through horrific panting.

"Y-yeah. Move your ass solider! Get your gun and blast the fuck out of those bastards!" he screamed as he pulled the safety switch into "off". "Thanks," he whispered as Toey turned and ran off. Toey laughed. "DROP MEDIC, LOCK THE DOOR! KICK THEIR METALLIC ASSES!!!" Sarge screamed as he placed his cap on his head...again. They ran through the dozens of Hot Plasma bolts, towards the –now docked- Covenant Airship. The left side door opened and 10 or so Grunts popped out. Sarge laughed and whipped out his pistol.

He used the 2x Optical Zoom and crouched down – Toey got hold of his jacket as he ran past before pointing to the Jackals jumping out the other side. "Damn you Toey! Damn you to heaven!" it was clear that Toey was Sarge's favourite, although James came close. JoJo and James were just catching up when a huge green Plasma blotch came at them.

"WATCH OUT JOJO!" cried James as he rolled forward, under the Plasma. He kept running forward – JoJo did not. In fact, part of him rolled back – his head. The Plasma bolt had caught his face and ripped his head off. James hadn't a clue until he couldn't hear any movement behind him. He turned his head and saw the grass painted read – his head was smouldering away under the intense heat of the Plasma. "Oh god no...."

James had no choice but to keep moving towards the attacking covenant – with more vigour than ever before, he let rip with his Assault Rifle on the closest Jackal. "Die bitch."

"Where's JoJo!?" shouted Sarge over his shoulder to James. James didn't reply his face was full of concentration as he rushed head on into the Jackal side. "God damnit. 3 down...6 left!" The two that were quietest were quite a pair of fighters – Johnson and Phillips. Best friends from school. Phillips was a Mexican Sniper while Johnson was a Heavy Artillery/Weapon specialist.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!" cried Johnson as he threw a Fragmentation grenade into a group of 3 Grunts. It exploded splattering blue "Covie Puss" over 20 yards away. "Covie Puss" was what the marines liked to call the blood. The Covenant Dropships doors were closing...no-more Covies...for now. As it took off – James had disappeared.

"5 left..." sighed Sarge.

"Nuh-uh!" said a voice. It was coming from the Covenant Dropship. "Fire Team Merc – do you copy?"

It was James!

"You scared the shit outta me Corporal!" laughed Sarge as the dropship lowered its doors and the marines climbed in....

--- ---

A man in green armour stood on a balcony in an engine room somewhere on a Ship, in the middle of nowhere. Plasma bullets rang through his ears, he swerved this way and that, he seemed invincible. He pulled the last frag grenade of his belt, and primed it before accurately throwing it into a cylinder shaped whole in the opposite wall – a few seconds later, he was nowhere to be seen as the Grenade exploded, leaving the Engine Room in a huge blaze – a countdown initiated.

--- ---

"Yeehaw!" shouted James as he lifted the DropShip into the air and flew at an amazingly fast speed through the air. "That airship Echo619 brought back sure did some good!"

"What the bijeesus are you talking about Corporal?!" said Sarge....his eyes widened. "Shit."

--- ---

The man in the green armour raced through the maze ontop of the ship he had just blew in a vehicle known to the SPARTANs as a "Warthog". Strange creatures, almost human-like were fighting the Covenants – the soldier didn't seem to mind, he just mowed what ever was in his path down...

He came to a halt as he heard the familiar Pelican scream coming from above. "Cortana? Chief? You ready for extraction?" came a voice over the intercom in the mans helmet.

"This is Cortana – yes, Foehammer, we are ready for extraction from the Pillar of Autumn – we have roughly 2 minutes to leave this Halo!" she said in a hurry. The man was a woman?!

She got out of the Warthog and loaded her MA5B Assault Rifle. "Damn! Two Banshee's are closing in! I'm gonna have to shake'em!" cried "Foehammer". Cortana fired at the Banshees as the countdown clock ticked away – 1 min 30 seconds....

"No! Chief! I've been hit...sorry...but, this is Foehammer...over and...........................out....." came the voice again as the person in the suit watched the Pelican turn into a nosedive.

"Chief! There's another DropShip only a few hundred meters away! FLOOR IT!" cried Cortana. So, Chief was the guy in the robot...so who the hell was Cortana?...

--- ---

The Covie dropship landed next to the Pelican. "Everyone out, get in the Pelican!" ordered Sarge. The marines obliged – never knowing their doom was near...

Medic was OK – his leg still giving him trouble, but he could tell Johnson how to bandage him up – Johnson was also a Novice Medic.

Sarge got into the Cockpit and took off, aiming to flee the unknown planet....

--- ---

The Chief ran past a few structures that the Warthog could not pass and reached the Pelican. He jumped inside and entered to Cockpit, taking something out of his helmet and inserting it into the Pelicans mainframe. "Hold on! I'm gonna have to hack it to get out of here," said Cortana. Chief sat back and listened to the mechanical voice countdown from 20....

"WE'RE GONE!" shouted Cortana as the Pelican burst away from the Pillar of Autumn and into put the Pelican into Auto-Flight on a route to home.

"Where to now?" asked the Chief.

"Home...."

The Chief relaxed and removed his helmet...

Really, I'm just aiming here for you to get to know all of FTM – I killed off two of them because I had no plans for JoJo and the Pilot was just uneccesary – like Sarge said.

MC Master Chief,

Jon