Brewing Storm
Chapter 1: Arrival

Disclaimer: I do not own Halo or any of the characters involved except Guardian L. Lightning

The jungles outside New Mambasa were calm, the occasional breeze rustling the tree branches throughout the forested area. A boot stamped through the watered down mud of the forest floor as it sprinted toward a location somewhere off into the forest. A purple vessel flew past it and the figure looked up, a human man with dark skin and a green cap on his head growled to himself.

"Something wrong sir?" Another figure asked in a whisper as he approached.

"Covenant dropship, stay low, it's getting close," The man replied as he led his team deeper into the forest.

Meanwhile, another figure was stirring from his slumber. With a groan of pain he opened his eyes and looked around.

"What? Where am I?" he asked as he got up and looked around. He stood and immediately staggered.

"Whoa, what's… wait, how?" he looked down in surprise.

"My legs… they… they work? What's… what's going on?" he asked as he looked up the sky.

"Freeze!" a voice called to him.

The figure looked toward the voice and spotted the dark-skinned man from before.

"What are you doing out here kid? This place isn't safe,"

"I… I don't know… who are you?" he asked.

"My name is Sergeant Major Avery Johnson, and you're in my warzone,"

"Warzone?"

"Yes, the covenant are swarming all over this jungle looking for the same thing we are," Johnson explained.

"Covenant?" the figure asked.

"You been living under a rock? The Covenant! Y'know, aliens? Trying to kill humanity?"

"Wait, what? Please, you have to tell me what's going on, you have to take me home," The young man took a step toward Johnson but he raised his rifle and pointed it at him.

"You need to step back and calm down, this isn't the time to get all homesick. First you're gonna tell me what you're doing here and why you're dressed like that,"

"Dressed like?" He looked over himself and realized he was wearing a simple pair of shorts and a jacket with a shawl over his shoulders. He felt a loop attached to his belt and a ring on his finger, and noticed he wasn't wearing shoes. All of his clothes were bright yellow in color.

"I don't know," he said.

"Don't know? You're telling me you don't know how you ended up a hundred klicks from the nearest city dressed in some kind of civilian get up with no shoes and sleeping in a crater that looks like you dropped a box of grenades in it?"

Looking around for the first time the young man realized he was indeed in a large crater, although it wasn't very deep he could tell something had hit the ground with a sizable force.

"Sargeant Johnson, I'm sorry I'm not much help. All I know is that I woke up this morning in my wheelchair in my home and-"

A vision cut him off as he remembered what had happened: He woke up in his bed, his wheelchair had been electric and it was plugged into the wall charging, what he didn't know was that a surge had run through his house and overcharge his wheelchair, reaching out to touch the metal handlebars to pull himself up into he was electrocuted, the metal conducting the electricity into his body.

"Well it doesn't look like you need a wheelchair anymore son," Johnson said to him.

"I… listen, please, I just need to get home," he said as his senses returned to him.

Johnson seemed skeptical as the young man made his plea, but after a moment he sighed and lowered his weapon. "Fine, we can take you back to base and they'll get you home, but you'll need to wait until we got what we came for, so keep your mouth shut and your head down, got it?"

He nodded

Johnson signaled for the squad to move up and advance before approaching his new companion. "You got a name kid?"

He wanted to say his name, but he couldn't remember what it was, a simple image of a bolt of lightning appeared in his mind. "Lightning,"

Johnson's eyebrow raised as he said that "Guardian L. Lightning?"

The young man shook his head, "Yeah, that's it,"

Johnson sighed as he hefted his gun up into his arms and began to move toward the rest of his squad.

"Come on then, you've got a hell of an explanation to give,"

Lightning seemed confused as he followed Johnson and his squad deeper into the trees. They silently crept their way through the jungle, before long they eventually arrived in a small clearing, Johnson's men took up positions around the perimeter while Johnson and Lightning stepped to the center. Johnson let out a low, soft whistle and a figure appeared in front of them, shimmering into existence as its cloaking device was turned off. The figure wasn't human, standing a good foot taller than Johnson, its limbs were long, but thick with muscle and its jaw wasn't the normal upper and lower jaws of a human, but four mandibles that opened and flapped when it spoke.

"Greeting sergeant, I'm glad you made it here safely," it said in a deep voice, "Who is your companion?"

"This is an old friend of the chief's, somehow he's turned back up just in time," Johnson explained.

The figured looked to him and bowed his head as he put his three-fingered hand over his chest. "I am Thel Vadam, though most know me as the Arbiter,"

"Guardian L. Lightning," Lightning said as he replicated the Arbiter's action.

"I have heard tales of your valor Guardian, if what the demon spoke of you is true, then you have turned up just in time to lend us aid,"

"I just want to go home," Lightning responded.

The Arbiter seemed confused at his words, looking to Johnson the sergeant shrugged unknowingly, the Arbiter nodded and put his hand on Lightning's shoulder.

"We will get you home then young Guardian, do not worry,"

"Sir! We've got him!" A voice called through the trees. Johnson readied his rifle and had his squad move up. Lightning following slightly behind while the Arbiter disappeared into cloaking once again. The squad made their way through the jungle and eventually found themselves in a linear clearing, although unlike the previous one where the ground had been flat, this time the clearing was a ditch, it looked like something had been dragged through the ground. Following the trail Lightning's eyes widened as he spotted a figure in green armor some distance away. The soldiers were pouring over it while Johnson watched.

"Damn, why does he always jump?" he asked has pulled out a cigar and put it into his mouth.