I do not own Halo or any of its characters. Halo belongs to its rightful owners.

NSA-Trooper:

1) The humans know very little about them, their speed is known to be unnatural

2) Nope, remember the arsenal? Looks like the covenant have taken a liking to the flamethrower

I'll concentrate more on updating, sorry

On the last episode of "The Escape":

He climbed into the ship and closed the door. Cortana was displayed on a screen in the main research area, "Thank god. Frank! Get us the hell out of here!" she yelled to the pilot, "Roger" He replied. The ships engines gave a giant lurch and we accelerated out of the area. The pilot seemed worried, "Guys, something's moving at us, and fast" the ship threw itself forward as something cut into the side.

The sound of explosions rung in the chief's ears. The ship rocked from side to side violently and plunged. The pilot had been trying his best to crash land on the small planet in the middle of the scene. The ship swung wildly and the chief was knocked unconscious against the side.

Some time later the chief woke up in the middle of the destroyed ship. The pilot was dead, and there was no sign of Cortana. The chief's eyes widened, where was she? If she fell into the covenants hands, he didn't even want to think of what would happen. His suit was badly damaged; his communication was alternating between functionality. His shields recharge was damaged so he would have to be careful. The nav point program was malfunctioning, either that or Cortana had set 30 different points before she left. He turned off the display and looked at the wreckage. The pilots head was cracked open. Upon closer inspection the chief noticed something strange. There where traces of plasma on the back of the seat! He was shot! That confirmed that the covenant had Cortana, "....Get... I don't know..... Self destruct... " a weak message came over his communication, "Cortana? Cortana! Where are you?" the chief asked in worry, "West, towards the hills, go...small covenant ship landed...no idea what I am yet. Hurry before.....find out." This message was clearer. Cortana was west in the hills, a small covenant ship landed and searched this area. They found her but luckily didn't crack her code yet. He had to hurry before they found out.

The chief picked up his weapon, it was scratched and the display was cracked although still on. He saw a small door halfway blasted open, and a familiar object was behind it, it was a warthog! The chief grabbed the door and pried it open and examined the warthog. It had a couple of scratches and the lights were broken, but it worked fine. He opened the rear hatch and backed out. He saw a large empty wasteland before him. The sky was almost white and frail trees were the only things growing out of the cracked surface. The chief turned towards a patch of green visible through immense fog, 'those must be the hills' he thought. After about 10 minutes of driving the machine gun on the back started firing on its own. The chief had no choice but to eject the gun. He pulled the plunger that disengaged the weapon and it flew off behind him. Soon the grey fog faded and he saw a small ship in a valley. He went around it; there was no point in attracting attention when he was so vulnerable. He found the signal from the message and found a small escape pod.he broke through its window and then examined the contents in the escape pod. There was an oversheild and camouflage. He applied them both and slid the door open. He noticed an elite walking towards a hallway; he followed him until he came to the room where Cortana's chip was being held. His display made him even more nervous: "Camouflage active: 40% / Oversheild active 80%" he saw one covenant sitting over a display in which the humans' battle plans were written in plain English. Fortunately the could not read English. He hid behind a small crate and turned on his translator. The covenant that was sitting was talking to the elite who just came in, "So, is he here yet?" said the one in the seat, "Calm down he is on his way, once the translator gets here we can figure out what the hell this thing says." The chief's heart skipped a beat, 'Crap! If they found out...' he thought. He had to get that chip. He silently crept over to the table and cracked the plasma that powered the machine.

The covenant that was sitting stared wide eyed in my direction. He looked like he had seen a ghost. Then I noticed my display "Camouflage deactivating/Oversheild Active 40%" I froze, "shit" I said under my breath. I quickly took the cracked plasma pack and hurled it at his face. He yelled in pain; I stood and let off some pistol rounds into him. Luckily the other covenant had left the room, but that shout would not go unnoticed. He grabbed the chip from the computer and slid it into the slot in his helmet. Cortana's voice quickly filled the helmet, "Lets get out of here, there is a vent that leads outside in the corner." The chief walked over to it and crawled through it. He soon came out on the other side where his warthog was. He hopped in and rode as far away from the ship as he could. Cortana spoke again, "Damnit, they modified some of my information. Hold on, let me access my backup files." The chief waited, "Ok, good as new, I'm going to see if we can find anyone to pick us up and fix your suit." A long pause was heard, "Ok, looks like we have a friendly ship around here, it doesn't have a name though, its code is 114-16." The chief was deep in though, "Where have I heard that ID code before? Oh yeah, wasn't that the pillar of autumn's ID?" Cortana gasped, "You're right, but we destroyed the pillar of autumn, how is that possible. Let me establish a communication link." After another moment of silence she spoke again, "Ah yes, remember that ship we took to get off of the pillar, well it has the same ID, although I overlooked the ship type. I gave them our coordinates, they should be here soon." The chief sat back and waited until he saw a small dot growing. Then he recognized the dot as the ship. It gave him a ramp to get the warthog inside.

Chief, we'll need your weapons, your suit, your warthog and of course, Cortana. The chief took the chip out and handed his weapons over with it. He opened a panel on his arm and pressed a few buttons. The plates which had seemed tense had loosened and the chief slipped out of the suit. It had felt good to be out of that thing, the air was better and it was not hot anymore. Thanks chief, you better get some sleep; we have word that they have a job for you tomorrow. The chief groaned, "Again? Fine, but have the equipment fixed by then." The man nodded and put Cortana into the ships systems. She appeared and looked around then fixed her gaze on the man, "Hi dad" she said to him. The chief froze in his place, "Dad, what do you mean?" Cortana looked over at him, "Meet my creator, Jay. He also created the suit." The chief smiled, "Didn't you also make the assault rifle that we all use now?" Jay shook the chief's hand, "I didn't make it, but I programmed it. I'm glad you are a fan of my work" the chief nodded and went into the small room in which he slept. He yawned and dropped onto the bed, falling asleep almost instantly.

"Chief? Chief? Wake up, they gave us information on your job, here's the report." The chief, still dazed from sleep, opened his eyes and read the paper, "So there was a battle in this place that has been raging for the past 3 days? And they want me to be the guest of honor? " the man nodded, "Yea, they want you to take out some covenant tanks because they are tearing through our forces. Then snipe some hunters, they just want you to take out the bulk. You are going to do all this out of a pelican." The chief stood, "Has my equipment been repaired" he asked, stretching. The man nodded and pointed to his suit hanging on the wall, "I'm afraid Cortana is not coming with you. The damn covenant messed around with her more than I thought; I'll need to fix her." The chief nodded.

After putting on the suit he walked outside and saw a pelican on the ground and the pilot leaning against it, smoking. He walked up to him, "Hey, I'm here to take out the tanks and hunters in the battle" the man took another puff of his cigarette and responded, "The rocket launchers in the back, there are several rounds and there is a sniper there too. Just get in and I'll fly you there; you better have good aim, because I'm not standing still in the middle of this." The chief nodded and climbed in the back and readied the rocket launcher.

Soon he saw signs of gunfire down below. The pelican turned and dove. The scene sharpened below. There were 7 covenant tanks placed on mountains, they were all attacking a large group of humans. The pilot dove deeper, "Showtime, take out as many as you can." I propped the rocket launcher on my shoulder, connected it to my suit and looked through the scope, my suit automatically calculated when I needed to fire. The crosshair locked onto the tank and I fired two rounds at it. They both hit it. The tank exploded just as a familiar voice entered the helmet, "Chief! Don't fire! There are banshees there, enough to rip that pelican apart! Don't attract attention and get the hell out of there!" the chief stood up, "Get us out of here! Abort the mission!" the pilot jerked the ship upwards. But the chief could already see the banshees catching up. He tried to fight them off, and successfully destroyed two of them, but many of them still flew towards them. They started firing at the ship and after a large amount of resistance the ship finally was damaged beyond control. It plummeted and the pilot handed the chief a backpack, "Jump" he said as he jumped out of the aircraft. After a couple of seconds of hesitation, I put on the backpack and jumped out.

I ejected the parachute after a small while and landed right in the middle of a large group of dead covenant. This was where the battlefield had been before they moved. A warthog was moving through and they were shooting bodies to make sure they were all dead. All of a sudden the warthog stopped and started to shoot at the chief. He quickly dodged it and yelled, "Hey! Friendly fire, asshole!" the bullets stopped and the warthog slowly approached me. The gunner jumped off, "Sorry about that, we thought you were operating from a pelican so we didn't think any human would be here." The chief sighed, "we were shot down. Can you drive me somewhere were I can call for extraction?" the driver snorted, "We can't leave the battlefield until all covenant are neutralized. But if you could help us it would be great." The chief pried a plasma rifle from a covenant's dead body, "fine, but I call shotgun" he said smiling.

All right, not much action in this one, but don't worry; the next chapter is full of action. Until then.