First off, I don't own Halo. That right belongs to the developers 343 Industries, and Xbox Game Studios. I do not own any non-OC's such as Thel 'Vadam. However, OC's such as Muzlal are open for anyone to use, so feel free to do so.

Basic knowledge of Halo will likely make this story easier to understand. While I may briefly describe some of the lore and basic weapons/vehicles of the Halo universe I will cover far from everything.

This story is rated M for violence and some foul language but will not contain any sexual content.

I will update the story chapter by chapter as time goes on. I am unsure on how long I want it to be, but we will see where the story takes us as time goes on.

Please comment if you feel inclined to, your comments will only help me become a better writer.

Well, that is all the preliminary stuff that I needed to get out of the way. Enjoy the story!

Grunt

Prologue

During the events of Halo: Combat Evolved

Halo was falling. The Covenant had them outnumbered, outgunned, outmatched. Yet Halo was falling. They had superior technology; their vehicles were faster, stronger, more powerful. They had troops from all across the universe. Beings physically stronger and more intelligent than the primitive and fragile humans. By every right the Covenant should have crushed these heretics and their futile resistance. Regardless, Halo was falling.

The pride of the Covenant. The proof of their faith. What every effort the Prophets have made led up to. Halo. All for naught. Halo was falling. The Covenant had forced the humans to retreat from all their intergalactic colonies. They had won battle after battle. Slaughtered their soldiers, destroyed their ships and tanks, depleted much of their greatest resource.

The Spartans.

The humans mighty super-soldiers. What training made them so fierce and dangerous was still a mystery to the Covenant. There were rumors spreading across the ranks that one of them made it on Halo. If the stories were true, this soldier had to be responsible for the destruction of this massive ring. Even so, a single Spartan should not have been able to fight its way through all of the Covenant's armaments and fortifications. The Spartan definitely should not have been able to destroy Halo, the thought of this happening was entirely inconceivable.

And yet… they did it. Those damn humans did it.

Even under the command of Thel 'Vadamee, the humans broke through and now the ring was ripping itself to shreds. At first Muzlal did not believe it. It could not be true. All her life she had been told that the humans were all weaklings that any Covenant soldier could shoot down with their eyes shut. Then the tremors began. The ground shook. The Sangheili commanders were shouting at the small patrol of unggoys to make it to any available Phantom. An evacuation had been sounded; all Covenant troops were being commanded to immediately rendezvous at the Covenant carrier for further orders.

Muzlal had been excited to prove her worth. She had trained hard and risen through the ranks, to get where she was now. She was the only unggoy who had been given any form of praise from the Sangheili drill sergeants. The greatest honor she had ever gotten was the chance to fight on Halo. But she did not come to Halo just to protect the ring, it was being commanded by Thel 'Vadamee. She idolized him, he was the reason she chose to join the Covenant military, why she worked so hard. The only three people she idolized more than him were the Prophets, of course.

But her first battle was a major embarrassment.

She dropped the plasma pistol into the swamp. Watched the glowing ring sit underneath the shallow water as her head bobbed from side to side. She was being carried by a sangheili. The only one around. The fact that a sangheili even chose to help her surprised everyone. Normally, they would be more than willing to leave behind any unggoy who failed to keep up. She was thankful that he had come back for her, she could not make it out on her own, she could not walk, she barely could even stay conscious. Muzlal was in shock.

It was the fight that did it. But the unggoys never even made it to the humans they were fighting something else. Something worse. Muzlal did not even know what they were. All she knew was one unggoy was shot down by some monster that was firing a human weapon wildly. Then what appeared to be a large insect crawled over to the poor unggoy's corpse, it climbed into its body, and…

Muzlal had finally passed out. She could not remember her patrol making it out of a swamp into an opening overrun with more of those monsters, she could not remember her and the sangheili being some of the few survivors who had made it onto the Phantom before it took off, she could not even remember Halo exploding. What she could remember was the retribution from her commanding officers.

She was told any real soldier would not fall into shock. They told her she should be ashamed for risking her entire patrol's mission. They told her she would be permitted to continue to serve in the corps, but she would be marked as a coward, she would never be anything more than any other private fighting on the frontlines. She was told she would be punished for her actions.

Muzlal looked down. She was burning with questions. Questions she knew would be better left unasked. She was in enough trouble as it was, why burden the sangheili with questions? However, the curiosity had gotten the better of her.

"What were those things out there?" Muzlal asked.

The two sangheili reprimanding her turned to face each other. They hid it well. But Muzlal could make out that something about the creatures disturbed them.

"Nothing any respecting soldier can't handle," the sangheili on the left replied.

Muzlal was unhappy with such a vague response, but knew it was better not to push it any further. Besides she needed to know something else.

"What about that sangheili?" inquired Muzlal. "The one that carried me out of the swamp?"

Again, the sangheili turned towards each other. This time the one on the right sighed and turned to face her.

"It was stupidity that he even thought to save you. Any other soldier would and should have left you behind. Not him though. Wouldn't give anyone a straight answer on why he saved you, he just said he felt he needed to."

The one on the left finished what the one on the right was saying, "Regardless, such courage has to amount to something. So, we told him he would not be receiving any special honors for what he did, but he will not be punished for it either."

"But that does not concern you," the Sangheili on the right said bringing them back on topic. "We do not know the extent of your punishment, but for now cleaning the entire hull of a CAS carrier should do. Return here in ninety units and we'll get you to work. You are dismissed."

Muzlal nodded then turned and walked out of the room, the door automatically opening and closing behind her. She walked back to her quarters. Spread across the room were three rows of bunkbeds, standard living quarters for unggoy troops. She walked over to her bed and sat on the floor leaning up against it.

Muzlal closed her eyes. What was that back on Halo? How could such a monstrosity live on such a holy place? These are the questions Muzlal asked herself as she sat there. What did it do to Flul?

Muzlal wondered why the sangheili never told her about this thing before. Why they refused to tell her. Why they acted as if it was her choice to go into shock. After all, not only did they kill Flul, but those monsters then proceeded to use her body as a puppet. Her best friend, the one person who kept her going through her time in boot camp.

The Covenant had gloried this war and told its soldiers that they would too be gloried for their efforts. Their propaganda had been so strong Muzlal felt joining the corps would be like joining some sort of sport team. A team that would win without barely any competition. Instead, she was humiliated, her first battle very well could have been the Covenant's greatest loss thus far. She never even saw a single human, just some parasite she never imagined exists. A parasite that killed and controlled Flul, one that made Flul lift her weapon and…

Muzlal massaged her shoulder. The one that a single needle had impaled. Any soldier, even an unggoy, should have taken a single needle without too much issue. But this wound seemed to hurt worse than that time with her brother back on Balaho. Well, she called him her brother even though he certainly was not. After all, he was jiralhanae, and she unggoy.

Muzlal sighed, I shouldn't be thinking this right now. I should get some rest. After all, I have a lot of cleaning to do. And I should consider myself lucky for that, most sangheili wouldn't give a damn if they saw me ejected out into space for what I did. In fact, they'd probably enjoy it. Muzlal thought as she climbed onto her bunk. I will reclaim my honor, even if I have to kill twenty Spartan demons to do it!

Thanks to user SimonFireFox for helping edit this chapter!