Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the squad characters, and the plot.

Chapter 2 – The Beginning

Three days earlier - "What a dump!" muttered John, "How'd we score bunker duty?"

I looked around, there was junk everywhere! The bunker didn't look like it had been cleaned in about two weeks! But then again, being stuck out at a remote defence station half way across the galaxy, on a ring world floating through space, with jack all to do but sit around and wait for the next unlucky bunch of souls to "volunteer" for frontline defence is…well, enough to make anyone a little careless.

"Don't get use to it," I said "'cause it looks like we've got some cleaning up to do." Groans came from all the men around me.

"Come on Sarge, cut us a little slack, we only just got here!"

"I don't really give a damn." I said "Find your bunks, drop your gear and form up. You've got five minutes, so GET TO IT!"

A flurry of activity burst out around me as every man in my five man squad raced forward to do what they had to, this was the military after all. Within three minutes flat my men where lined up and at attention, gear stored and waiting for their next command. This was the best bunch of men I had ever had control of, and I knew every single one from the day they entered the corps.

John was a heavy weapons expert, the kind of guy who likes to blow things up just for fun, and blow them up big. He was also BIG, 7 feet tall and full of muscles from regular gym work. He could lift a Warthog without breaking a sweat, run 10 miles without stoping once, and knock you out cold if you got on his bad side.

Michael was a grunt, but a fiercely loyal friend, and that made him tough. He once survived a gruelling thirteen day live-fire exercise with bullet wounds to his chest, while carrying his best friend Nicholas on his back, who had been hit in the legs by shrapnel from a rogue grenade. He was lean, with brown hair and highly athletic.

Nicholas was a sniper, and an excellent marksman, but he was extremely competitive, and would challenge anyone who thought they were better than him. He had a cybernetic right eye, (a replacement for the real one he lost in a bar fight) various scars on his face and body from brawls and near-misses, and the tattoo of a Jaguar on his left shoulder.

Gary was a hacker, one of the brightest in his field, but an internet incident landed him in my squad. He was a geeky looking guy with blonde hair, glasses and the annoying habit of ignoring you if he was with a computer.

Paul was a field mechanic; he could fix just about any type of vehicle or machine you could think of, provided he could study the plans first. His memory was excellent when it came to blueprints, but anything else just slipped right out his head. He was about 5 feet tall, with black hair and dark brown skin, and could swing a wrench at your head faster than you could say "Jamaica".

Myself, I was just a grunt, but I'd seen more battles than half of the officers in the Corps put together. I had experience. So, naturally, being told I had to do guard duty really pissed me off.

"Right," I said "You know why were here. We're here to patrol this sector of HALO Echo, and provide early warning to Earth if hostiles attack."

"So basically," muttered Gary, "we're just going to sit on our butts for the next six months, twiddling our thumbs and hoping something happens…great."

I looked at him sharply, "Get used to it, 'cause you're going to be doing it for a long time. And if I were you, I'd want to be hoping to high heaven nothing happens. There are some real badass aliens out there; and you don't want one of them breathing down the back of your neck."

Gary fidgeted; I'd gotten through to him, at least that was something.

"Right men, you know your posts, get to 'em."

I hope to be able to continue with this story, and should have the next chapter up at some stage in the next few weeks, but you never know. Anyway, please review!