Chapter 3: Highway through Hell

0134 hours, October 20 2552 (Military Calendar)/Western Sector, Toronto, Earth

The Warthog Transport vehicle raced through the streets of the once vibrant city of Toronto. What once was the residential district was now under a fallen Covenant cruiser, the Righteous Wrath. Master Chief looked outside of the transport to see Covenant troops patrolling the streets, looking for any human survivors to slaughter. As the Warthog drove passed these streets, Chief could briefly hear the squeaks and the chatter of grunts alarmed by the speeding vehicle, but other then a badly aimed plasma bolt, they encountered no problems.

"Chief, look up." Cortana alerted him. Master Chief peered up to a Covenant Cruiser parting the clouds and descending upon the city. On its starboard side, a large cloud of smoke rose from its wound.

"It seems the MAC guns are still operating, or they'd probably have glassed us." Noted one of the marines. Chief, however, knew the truth; there was something on Earth that they needed to find. It had to do with Forerunners, the builders of Halo, but this was not the time to dwell on these issues. Master Chief reloaded his battle rifle, ready for anything might happen.

"Chief, what is with these bastards? They are just so blindly aggressive?" asked one of the marines, but before Master Chief could answer him, a plasma mortar crashed into the ground just ahead of them. Weston swerved to dodge it, nearly flipping the vehicle. The marines and Master Chief luckily were strapped in, or there would have been a few more bodies covering the road.

"This is Base Command to any UNSC forces in the Western Sector, come in." Base Command called over the com channels.

"This is Charlie Team, what is going on, over." The General relayed back as the Warthog raced through the streets.

"We have one available Pelican Transport and one Sea Eagle Gunship coming into the city for one last pick up, I have sent Cortana coordinates to LZ, over.

"Roger that Base Command, Charlie Team over and out." Cortana said, "Chief, I am going to set up a nav point to guide us to the LZ."

A small arrow appeared on the Spartan's HUD with a decreasing distance next to it. At that moment Charlie team was one kilometer from the landing zone. Chief however was worried about the plasma attacks that they narrowly escaped. Most of the time the elite piloting the Wrath would need to see you in front of him to fire at you. Then it hit him. Master Chief picked up a sniper rifle from the supplies on board the transport and he began to comb the roof tops for anything, and sure enough, the tanks had a spotter. It was one of the Elites, in its blue armor, were relaying to the tanks the position of the Warthog. Chief had to put a stop to this, so as the Elite peered down looking for the vehicle Master Chief got the alien within the target receptacle of the scope and he pulled the trigger. The Elite looked towards the area where the sound of the shot was emitted from, but it was too late. The anti-material round went right between the eyes, cracking its energy shield and its armor. The dead alien's body wobbled around before falling down and off the fifteen story building. A few minutes passed until they were within seventy five meters of the landing zone and the Warthog was driving past an intersection when they saw a grunt, but this grunt was glowing blue and was running right at them.

"Shit! Get out! It's a suicide bomber!" The general screamed as he hit the emergency brake. The fast stop threw the marines and Master Chief who had unbuckled themselves from the seats in anticipation of getting to LZ fast. The Grunt waddled faster and faster towards the stopped Warthog. The troops ran out and scattered as the little alien detonated. A large explosion picked up the warthog's smoldering metal corpse and threw it down the street. As the smoke settled, Master Chief could see two dead marines lying on the cold asphalt, bleeding from several different places. A tell tale wound that told the Chief these two died from flying shrapnel.

"General where are you?" Cortana called out. Master Chief looked around but he couldn't find any of the marines. Then the eerie silence of the dead city was broken by sporadic gunfire and the howls of grunts being slaughtered. The Chief ran towards the battle and as he turned a corner he could see the surviving marines battling the large Covenant advancement. Five marines, a general, and a Spartan were all that remain to face hundreds of Grunts, Jackals and Elites. They were moving a set pattern; the Jackals protected the front, side and rear flanks of the column, this group only took up one row in the front, the back and each of the sides. The inside of this group were Elites armed with their Carbine rifles and plasma grenade throwing Grunts. The Elites could snipe the human forces without worrying about being hit by enemy fire. This reminded Chief about the Roman Army he had learned about during his training, many years ago. The column had stop moving and began using suppression fire tactic against the human forces that were hiding behind the metal corpses of vehicles and large piles of rubble. Master Chief looked around, for he knew the battle rifle would be able to take on all these aliens. As he turned to his left, he saw what he needed, a Jackhammer rocket launcher or known to the troops as the Spanker, because of the acronym on its side that read SPNKR. He picked up the rocket launcher and aimed for the middle of the column but something caught his eye. On the opposite corner hiding behind the building, he could make out a shivering small mass hiding in the shadows. At first he thought it was a grunt, but if it was it would have tried to attack the marines. Then he realized that it wasn't an enemy, it was a child.