Chapter 2: You Lied

Unknown mine shaft in Terra II, Rendezvous with crashed Longsword squadron in progress…

The Master Chief forced all the strength he had into his arms as he struggled to move the heavy titanium lid off the top of the vent shaft. He was standing on a small ledge that only had enough room for the small band of soldiers, if he slipped, there was at least a hundred feet of darkness awaiting him. Pushing the last of his strength in to his arms the lid started to open up, inch by inch.

" You…could…help…" He said, struggling.

"Okay pair up, you keep your partner steady." The Corporal never mentioned for someone to steady him, probably for the better. His Mark VI armor would be too heavy for a normal person. The Helljumpers got near the sliver of light and started to push. Even though they probably didn't know it, they took some of the load off the Spartan, enough for him to get gravity on his side. Cortana had said that the lid was at an angle and, if pushed hard enough, would slide downhill. The sliver of light started to grow larger and larger. Then, in a final push, the Chief lunged as far as he could and sent it down the slopes. Immediately snow started to slide in over their heads; quickly making the ledge very slick.

"I'll go first," said the Chief. He turned around and got a good look at the ledge. The snow was just coming in too fast for him to get a good grip. He made the decision to jump the fifteen-foot gap to the other side. The Helljumpers looked at him as he moved to the wall of the ledge and rock back and forth. Right as he was about to jump Cortana butted in.

" Remove your weapons, it'll make you lighter."

"Thanks. Here take these," he said to a marine next to him. John handed the marine his Battle rifle, pistol, grenades, and extra ammo. He readied himself again and started to sprint, he had, at most, eight feet of room to run. Five of which he covered in two steps. The ledge came and he lunged forward, stretching his body out. Floating over the abyss he felt like he wasn't going to make it, he thought that he hadn't gotten enough speed. Then his hands latched onto the ledge and tightened. He quickly lifted himself up and out onto the mountaintop. He looked around and was amazed. The mountain was at least 15,000 feet tall judging from the dense clouds covering the mountain just about a hundred feet up. It was snowing heavily, obscuring the rest of the mountain beyond two hundred feet.

"You gonna get us?" Called out the Corporal.

"Yeah, just checking the surroundings," he replied. The Chief came to the lip over the small ledge that he had just been on. He reached down for the closest soldier and pulled him up with one arm. The Corporal was the last man to come up after handing him his equipment.

"Cortana, where are the life signs?" asked the Spartan.

" About three hundred feet up the glacier," she broadcast to everyone, " There is a small bowl up there." The glacier wasn't very steep but the weather made it almost impossible. They were walking through pea soup clouds making visibility almost zero. Every once and a while the motion detector would show someone wandering off so they would stop and the Chief go help them. Then they reached the bowl. It was one of the spookiest places the Chief had ever been to. Surrounding it were jagged black rocks that curled in towards the center. But even spookier was what was inside of it. Five Longswords were crashed there. Two seemed to have made a somewhat smooth landing near the middle, pointing towards the summit, seemingly undamaged. Two others were on their sides near the monolithic like rocks surrounding the outside. These were heavily damaged; both were missing one of their wings, tail fins and large chunks of their fuselage. The last Longsword was directly across from the party and was the heaviest damaged, as it was lodged in the middle of the large rocks on the other side. The Chief then realized what had happened to it. The Longsword coming in, destroying the rocks and the continued to its final resting place caused the opening they were standing in.

" It's weird how they landed, they're in a V," said a Helljumper behind the Chief.

"Well, lets go look for survivors," ordered the Corporal. At that the marines started to walk towards the wreckage of the crashed fighters. The Chief went to the Longsword directly to the right of him. He walked around the fighter looking for anything on the outside first. After clearing the outside he started to venture inside. The Longsword seemed to have been stripped clean, computer screens were broken, wires were torn out, and the nav computer had been smashed. Even with a crash that hard these items wouldn't have looked like that. But something was weird also; there weren't any bodies, even those of the crewmen who might have died in the crash. He hurried outside and noticed the others looking as confused as he was.

"I don't have any bodies," called out a Helljumper.

"Neither do I," replied another.

"Maybe they moved out of the bowl. There's probably a cave somewhere around here," suggested yet another.

"We don't have time to speculate, the weather's going downhill fast," said the Corporal. The Chief hadn't noticed it but he was right. The wind was picking up and the snow was falling even heavier.

"UNSC Frigate Claire Ann… UNSC Frigate Claire Ann. Recovery team Alpha reporting to the UNSC Frigate Claire Ann."

"Nobody home? Could be some geological activity," stated the Chief.

"No, they should be right above us. No, something's wrong, even with geological hindrances there would at least be static. There was nothing, like I was on the wrong com channel," she cut him off before he could suggest that as an error, "I was on a locked com channel, they would've been able to hear us the whole time."

"Okay, what should we do?" She didn't answer.

"AHHHH!!! OH MY GOD!!! COME HERE!!!" The Chief swung around and saw a Helljumper drop his gun and slowly walk backwards. He hurried over and was horrified at what he saw. Buried in the snow were frozen humans all missing their heads. But they weren't cleanly cut off; plasma burns scorched the necks.

"Jesus Christ, that's not caused by any crash. These men were executed," John said, almost in a trance, but he snapped out of it, "C'mon. We need to get out of here! Hurry!" But it was too late. Red dots started popping up on his motion tracker. He looked around and saw Elites appearing out of thin air, slowly closing in on the humans. But the Spartan would not go down without a fight.

"Get to the Longswords for cover!" yelled out the Corporal. Some of the Helljumpers followed his orders but others stood frozen by the graves. The Chief lowered his Battle Rifle on the Elite behind him and started to fire. The 7.62mm slugs hit the Elites shield near his head throwing his head back from the impact. Regaining his senses the Elite prepared to fire but was too late as the Spartan threw himself into the alien, forcing him to the ground. But all hell had broken loose. The rattling and loud bangs of assault rifles and battle rifles tore through the relative quietness of the mountain, but the Elites immediately returned fire, scorching the makeshift cover the Helljumpers had taken advantage of. The Chief got up faster then the Elite and threw an armored boot into the Elites chest, blowing his shields out and anything else inside his chest cavity. He aimed his rifle at the Elites forehead and put a three round burst into the armored skull, the Elites brain matter spraying out onto the snow. But the Master Chief wasn't done. He crouched down behind a nearby rock and started to take aim at the Elites whose shields were flaring up. One Elite took two rounds in the neck and collapsed to the ground, purple blood covering his comrades and surrounding snow. He killed two more through headshots before he was spotted. Blue plasma bolts splashed against the rock slowly breaking it apart with every shot.

"Cortana, I need to ask you to do something I never thought I'd have to ask you. Please place your self-deletion protocol on standby. I want you to be gone within ten seconds of me dieing."

I'm already ahead of you, within ten seconds I will self-delete and start your suit's self-destruction sequence. How long will the timer be?"

"One minute," he replied, "I want to take as many as possible out with it." But he didn't have time to think about his demise for he heard something unwanted, the deep humming of a Covenant drop ship.

"Cortana, you lied, you said that there were no Covenant on Terra II."

"I wasn't allowed to due to ONI directive1798-2. I'm sorry Master Chief."