Author's note 1:

Guest: Good riddance. If you knew what I'm going to write about Halo 2 you would have left from the start of this story.

Destroyer856: No.

ptl: No plans, there is no Darkness per se. Also, if you are referring to Chief launching the grenade, is it canon that you cannot grab a grenade before it explodes and throw it away? And not gameplay wise, but lore wise.

Enjoy!


Chief's abilities at driving were questionable by the Titan, especially if dealing with hills to climb. He was grateful the feeling of sickness was gone over his years as a Guardian because he would have surely puked.

Ghost in the meanwhile either filled him with more informations about their predicament or enjoyed a chat with Cortana for a briefing.

The female AI intercepted a transmission and passed it to the duo.

"We are under heavy fire!" A marine said, as sounds of combat echoed in the background between plasma shots and human bullets. "We need help, now!"

The signal came from an alien structure, with an entrance to an underground section in the front.

The Spartan drove right for it as a Covenant patrol team circled the area.

Jake played with his new buddy, mowing the poor aliens one by one, standing no chance. Not even the Elites with their shield could withstand the firing power unleashed upon them.

"A part of the marines is on the other side of the complex…" Cortana explained as they dismantled from the vehicle. "…while another one is underground, both engaged in combat."

"Me and Jake will help the marines in the basement, you can go for the others." Ghost chirped.

Chief turned around and marched for his destination, while Jake rushed down the straight stairs.


"The architecture is very different from anything we've seen before."

Jake passed through a door and immediately raised his left hand as various marines pointed their rifles at him. About twenty meters from their position, another group of soldiers were under heavy fire by the Covenant.

He raised a palm. "Stand down! I'm with the Chief."

They scrutinized him before lowering their weapons. A portion of them immediately set to help their fellow comrades while another remained with him.

"Sorry for that, sir. We didn't know there were more Spartans out there."

Behind his helmet, Jake rolled his eyes but remained stoic. "I'm not a normal Spartan, marine. Codename is 'Guardian'…" Having settled that, he moved to more important matters. "…what's the situation?"

The soldier who started the conversation raised an eyebrow in confusion but quickly shook his head. They crouched behind a pillar and he pointed ahead of them.

"We've been taking shelter down here until those bastards discovered our hideout, we split in two groups: one would control the back entrance you came through, while the other would stop any Covies coming for us. We're risking to be sandwiched on two fronts."

Jake nodded. "You've got any other tips for me, marine?"

He did open his mouth to answer…

"HUNTER! GET TO COVER!"

…but he was interrupted.

A marine flew past them and collided with the wall, a medic immediately rushed to check his condition, if still alive.

And that was followed by a thunderous roar.

The Titan narrowed his eyes behind his helmet and sprinted for the source, as projectiles and screams filled the air.

"Oh, no…" In the middle of a wide space, with boxes containing supplies spread across the room, stood a twelve feet tall monstrosity. It grabbed another marine by the neck and roared in his face, ready to claim another kill for its counter.

Jake rolled Fatebringer on his palm and shot the 'Hunter' three times, two bullets landed on the chest and the last one on its mask.

The alien discarded the human with little effort and shifted its attention to him.

"Take someone of your size."

It punched the floor with its clawed hands and roared, accepting the challenge.

"I think you just made it angrier with that remark. You really had to choose a cheeky line to start a conversation, didn't you?"

Jake rolled out of the way as the monstrosity charged, it thankfully hit the wall.

"Just give me a help, will you?" He was in no mood to deal with Ghost's snarky comebacks, not when something as big as a cabal was boiling for a battle with him.

"Scanning…"

BAM! BAM! BAM!

Despite three accurate shots with Fatebringer's explosive payload, the Hunter brushed off the attacks and bumped his chest at him, probably a mocking motion.

"…the scans show a weakness behind its armored back. An exposed organic composition is the requested target."

A quick hologram of the Hunter's body, and the part described by Ghost, appeared on his helmet's screen.

He put Fatebringer back in its holster and switched to Felwinter.

As the alien resumed, the Titan patiently waited for the right moment to apply his strategy: he activated his jump and avoided a fatal blow just in time. He returned his feet on the floor and unleashed all of his magazine on the, now, dazed Hunter, hitting the brown part on his back.

A strange, yellow, and slimey, fluid rushed from the wounds. It howled in pain before falling on its back, apparently dead.

Jake reloaded his shotgun and noticed various stares from the marines.

He became annoyed. Finding excuses for something so common back where he came from was exhausting.

"New tech chosen for Guardians like me by the UNSC…" He said. "…it would be hard for me to explain how it functions. Just consider it a jetpack for now."

"Uh, yes, sir!"

"Your ability to push forward a conversation is certainly improving. By a few days, you'll be a perfect match for social meetings!"

"Shut up, Ghost." He muttered.

Jake, and the marines, left the underground section of the facility. He scanned the area while the others finally breathed fresh air… and shielded their eyes from the bright light.

He heard multiple footsteps approaching and found Master Chief walking towards them with their own platoon of rescued people. The Titan motioned with his head a greeting and Chief nodded.

One of the marines stepped forward, he spared a glance to Jake and then saluted. "Sergeant Andrew Harrison reporting in! It is so damn fantastic to have you here, sir…" He cleared his throat. "…uh, and you too, sir."

"Guardian Jake Torrance from the Tower, I'm with the Chief."

Cortana chose the right moment to step in. "Sergeant, there are more marines out there, right? What happened here?"

Harrison glanced at his comrades as Echo 419 landed on solid ground, they slowly made their way to the back of the Pelican.

"Our landing was fortunate, we were pretty much all together in this shit. A group of Covies found out our position and sent an entire platoon upon us. We fought back, but we split up…" He paused. "…I'm not going to abandon my man."

He straightened his posture. "Asking permission to come with you. I've got a few bastards to add to my counter."

The Titan looked at Chief for a moment before shrugging. "More firepower will be useful against the Covenant, not to mention your men's morale will increase if they see you. I agree with you staying, you'll just have to be careful."

The Spartan simply climbed in the Warthog diving seat, his answer mostly clear to the sergeant who reloaded his rifle and slumbered contently in his seat.


"I must say…" Cortana began as they circled a river to get to the other side. "…you Guardians are surely extraordinary. Most of these files clearly give a detailed description of your unusual abilities given by this paracausal entity, I can understand why the UNSC chose to maintain Project Penumbra a secret."

"Ah, indeed. My origins are still a mystery, even to myself. I don't know why or how I truly was created, I'm a perfect composition of foreign energy and technology."

That was mostly true, after all Ghost didn't know the process of HOW he was created, and he didn't have memories prior to his, unexpected, activation.

Before the AI could continue the opened conversation, their comms spiked.

"This is private Paul Jackson, UNSC infantry. We are under heavy fire and in needing of assistance! There are about three squads of Covenant waiting for us here, we've taken refuge between a rocky structure. We need EVAC, now!"

Harrison groaned. "Jackson, you crazy son of a bitch…" He felt stares on his back and without even turning to look at them, he sighed. "…that private was a kid I've met back on board. Chatted a bit with him and found out we've got many fucking things in common, thought he had died in the crash."

"We'll get them out sergeant, you count on that." Master Chief promised.

Three groups of Covenant troopers were scrambled around, hitting the UNSC on multiple fronts.

Jake could clearly imagine the marines sandwiched and grinding their teeth against the aliens…

He suddenly got an idea. It was risky, almost suicidal, but it could work out.

"Chief, stop the Warthog." He ordered. And when the Spartan pulled off, he looked behind his shoulder in question with Harrison. "I've got a plan to take out most of the Covenant without losing a single soldier, but I need you both to trust me."

Chief didn't answer for a moment, contemplating his strange request… but in the end he nodded. "What do you need?"

"Sergeant, you'll take this boy behind and send these bastards to Hell. Chief, when you see a flare raising in the sky, I want you to drive right in that area…" He pointed with a gloved finger to the middle entrance to the natural structure formed by rocks. "…if all goes according to plan, we'll have all the aliens in one spot for the butchering."

Harrison didn't really voice his concerns about trusting a plan without a proper explanation, but if the Spa-Guardian had as much experience as the Chief, he would be glad to oblige.

Ghost, meanwhile, chirped from his dimension. "Oh! You're using that tactic? Huh, wonder if they're dumb enough to fall for it."

The Guardian dismounted for the vehicle… and did the most incautiously move possible, but also the most Spartan thing. He rushed right in the middle of the Covenant, who were luckily unaware of his presence. Double jumping proved to be the right strategy as he gunned down two grunts to then safely land behind the UNSC line.

The Titan ignored the few stares and thanked the Traveler for these marines' concentration: if they stopped shooting to stare at his trick, they would have been shot down immediately.

"I'm looking for private Jackson." He announced and after a few moments a marine presented himself before him, saluting.

"Private Jackson reporting, sir! That has to be the best acrobatic display I have seen in my entire life."

He answered with a small snort, making sure to not be heard. "We'll get to that later, right now I have a plan to get you all safely out of here and it involves the Master Chief too."

Jackson launched a magazine from his belt to another soldier who was out and nodded. "Specifics?"

"Get all of your comrades here, I'll handle the rest."

It was maddening by how he explained it, horror forming on Paul's expression. "Sir? Sir, but… we'll be overwhelmed on all sides! We are already barely holding them off."

"Trust me, Private. That's all you have to do."

Jackson opened his mouth to protest but chose to put his worries at ease. He was talking to a professional Spartan (or whatever he was), there was no reason to doubt his tactics if they would save their asses out of the fire. So, without another word, he scrambled to reach all of the other marines.

They all retreated, followed by hot plasma shots and roars of challenge. The Covenant probably thought they were finally conceding victory, but that was far from the truth.

Jake counted the strength he had with him. Small platoon, about ten soldiers, all checking their flanks.

"We're all here, sir. Now what?"

He smirked behind his helmet. "Wait for the Covie to fall for the bait."

The aliens slowly advanced upon them, circling them like prey.

"Now!"

SIUM!

He channeled void energy and let it spread around the area.

Ward of Dawn encased them all, with the rest of the humans being confused, but not as confused as the Covenant. The grunts took some steps back, emitting moans of surprise while the Elites growled, not understanding the implications of the strange and purple bubble.

One particular Elite felt brave enough to shoot at the barrier, but the plasma round bounced off effortlessly.

"Jackson? You have a flare, right? Give it to me."

TIU!

A blue smoke flew in the sky and the sound of an engine in the distance roared.

It didn't take long for Chief and Harrison to appear right behind the Covenant, on the Warthog.

What followed that was the sound of the machine gun strapped on the back of the vehicle and the rifles of the marines roaring, as they exited the barrier once they understood that it was harmless.

"We'll have to thank Saint again if we see him. He's hot-headed, but when he uses his head in the right way he's an excellent strategist."

Once the commotion was over, Jake walked towards Chief, watching as Harrison and Jackson interacted with one another.

"Another Guardian ability, huh?" Cortana asked, voice dripping with sarcasm but hiding a bit of curiosity.

"Ward of Dawn is a defensive ability of Titans like him, its properties also include major increase of weapon damage and a shield when you exit the barrier, as you have seen."

"Obviously, the marines were wondering why their 'new purple outfit disappeared'."

Jake and Master Chief stared at each other, one felt like intruding in a private conversation while the other simply waited for it to finish, so he may get back to his mission.

Chief motioned with a hand, silently asking if Ghost was always this chatty.

The Titan shrugged back in answer.

"New traffic on the Covenant battlenet!" This managed to grasp the attention of both warriors. "I found Captain Keyes, he's been held on a Covenant cruiser: 'The Truth and Reconciliation'. A ship I disabled before me and Chief abandoned the Autumn. Roughly 300 km up-spin from our current positon."

Cortana called for Echo 419 to pick them up and Ghost took the chance to have a private talk with his Guardian. "That's a long trip, do you want to use our own ship or should we hitch a ride?"

"Is that even a question? We won't risk revealing our technology that easily, put the ship on stand-by until we need it."

If the child of the Traveler could shrug, he would have. "Just checking to be sure."

It was then that Cortana addressed them. "We might need all the help we can get to save the Captain. Are you joining us?"

The Pelican safely landed on the grass, the marines all rushed for a place above. In response to Cortana's question, Jake boarded on and leaned on the far wall, crossing his arms.

"Good call, we might be able to discover what the Covenant's objective is on this ring."

Master Chief took his place on the opposite side of Jake's position.

The cargo door closed and the Pelican raised, beginning its ascension in the air.


Author's note 2:

And we're done with Mission 2.

I have some interactions in mind between Keyes and Jake before the fourth, to be honest.

Until next time!

Gino out!