Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the Halo Universe and all the Halo franchise is property of 343 industries. I take credit only for my own ideas that I bring to life in this story. This story is simply for entertainment purposes of the FanFiction audience.

Disclaimer: I do not own the cover image for this story. I have been granted permission to use it and this permission does not go to anyone else unless you contact the artist and speak to them yourselves. You'll find their Instagram name at the bottom of the chapter.

Update: And we're back again with another response to a guest review. I have allegedly f***** up the Spartan persona once again, except this time it's a much, much better review. "Now Wizard, why is it a much better review this time?" I hear you ask. Well my lovely readers, it is because this time I have been given no context whatsoever as to how I have mucked up this time. Simply a review saying, "Why do so many writers f*** up the Spartan persona?" Don't you just love it when you're given a complaint with no reasoning behind it, it's great really. So, once more shall we; If you are going to leave me a complaint in a childish manner without reason or decide to blast my story with your immature thoughts then I'm sorry, but I will politely ask that you stop reading and go and draft these stories yourself because again, I refuse to listen and take into thought people's disagreements with me if they are petty, without reason behind them, childish or just downright rude. All of the dialogue I write down has been done so after years upon years of reading, watching and playing the halo franchise, if you disagree with this then do so as an adult and actually converse with me over it. Enjoy the chapter guys : )

The plateaus on this ring were strangely immense for such a foreign structure that up until a day ago, nobody knew existed. As though whoever created the ring was expecting someone to find it, or it was intended as a haven and was abandoned? Either way, it made traversing the environment of the desert infuriating. The heat was not serving the men and women aboard Pelican Echo 419 any better as their sweat rolled off them in waves whilst they sat and waited. They were on their way to infiltrate a Covenant cruiser and a lot of the marines were starting to have doubts. This was a suicide mission.

"Captain Keyes is being held on that cruiser ahead. It is currently positioned three hundred metres above ground, but once we have made our way inside locating him should be relatively easy." Cortana relayed to the crew of the Pelican as bodies rustled in frustration and anxiousness. If it was three hundred metres above the ground, then it was clearly still functional, and this only served to worry the marines even more. After all, what hope did one pelican have against a Covenant cruiser? "If it's still in their air then how in hell are, we supposed to get aboard the damn thing. I was given a gun not wings" an ODST that had previously been picked up by the Foehammer crew replied. He had voiced what everyone had been thinking and now that he had, the others were starting to rile up a bit. He had involuntarily caused a small clash between Cortana and the marines.

Chief sat there in silence as the argument played out between Cortana and the worried UNSC soldiers. He was already aware of Cortana's plan to use the cruisers gravity lift to gain entry and he had found himself seeing a pattern over the course of the past few hours. She would make the plan and he would execute it… nothing quite like a little teamwork to get the job done. Looking across the Pelican he found Private Cooper checking his weapons in silence as he too ignored the still ongoing argument as it escalated now that they knew Cortana's plan of action. He would be joining the Chief in this mission along with a few ODST's if they ever got over themselves.

The crew felt the speed of the Pelican decrease at a rapid pace as it lowered itself to the ground in that traditional way that alerted any occupants that this was there stop. As the pelican landed the marines along with the ODST's and Chief poured out and onto the desert sands, weapons at the ready and stances firm. Once the Pelican had taken off the UNSC forces began to make their way along the right side of a small cliff face (even though most of it was under the sand) as suggested by Cortana whilst two of the three ODST's used snipers to keep an eye on upcoming Covenant forces. "We got the classics here boys; some Grunts, couple Jackals, two Elites and you'll never believe what I've spotted: we got ourselves a Brute Chieftan to deal with, and oh he's a big one." An ODST Sergeant informed as he continued looking over the enemy forces.

Chief checked his MA37 rifle once more before placing it on his back and taking a sniper from the Sergeant to look as he dragged his sights over the Brute Chieftan. It was angry; easily identifiable by its aggressive movements and the frustrated pacing it was doing around the small defence camp that had been set up to cover the gravity lift. "Why don't we say hello?" Cortana rhetorically asked as Chief dropped into a crouched stance and let his finger fall onto the trigger and in one smooth motion, released a bullet as it exploded from the barrel and tore through the air, the wind passing over it in howls before it planted itself cleanly into the brain of the Brute, throwing it straight onto its back. "Nice shot Sir." The Sergeant praised

It hadn't taken long for the UNSC forces to annihilate the small Covenant defence camp and after doing so they took a moment to reload and ready themselves. The plan was as follows: Master Chief, two marines and three ODST's would enter the gravity lift and board the Covenant cruiser. From there, Cortana would use Captain Keyes' neural implants to track him, and from there they just had to escape. That was the plan…

"So where did we go wrong!" the ODST Sergeant roared over the ongoing gunfire as he quickly moved behind cover from a stack of needles flying over his head, his eyes widening as he realised one of the marines had taken the hit instead, as his body slumped down to a stop. "Man down!" Cooper screamed as he checked for a pulse, for anything. He was gone as soon as he'd been hit. Cooper turned around and after unclipping it from his chest, he tossed a grenade down the corridor they were currently trapped in as it rolled straight under the feet of a group of three grunts. The sudden explosion not only caught the attention of the remaining Covenant forces in the corridor, but also gave Chief the opening he needed to sprint towards the enemy and wipe them out.

Continuing down the corridor, the navpoint that Cortana had set told the group that they were currently only 20m away from the Captain and yet he seemed so far away. Two of the ODST's stacked up against the door they were due to go through to enter the detention area of the cruiser. And yet, something felt off, if only it was noticed sooner. "Get away from the-" Cortana tried to warn as the door blew open sending the entire group flying backwards, killing the two ODST's who were directly in front of the blast. Two Hunters stepped through the blown open doorway and charged the group before they could get up.

GAP

Johnson took a puff out of his cigar as he once again scanned the area for any hostiles and to both his relief and disappointment, he found nothing. Again. The Chief and his squad had entered the gravity lift twenty minutes ago and they hadn't heard a single word of feedback since. It was most likely down to interference from the Covenant, but Johnson still had this nagging feeling that something had gone wrong, that they had failed in their mission and now he was beginning to think of what he could do to escape if they had failed. It was in these thoughts that he realised without Chief, without Cortana, and without Keyes there was truly little chance of escaping this nightmare.

"Sir, they're coming down!" a marine reported as he pointed up at the gravity lift. However, as Johnson looked up at the group of people coming down the gravity lift his doubts grew at an alarming rate, as he saw only one of the original six that went up there accompanying the Captain. Most noticeable of all those missing soldiers was the Chief himself.

"We got hunters!" the Sergeant shouted as he rolled away from being crushed by one of the two hunters before retuning fire whilst helping Cooper to his feet. They were a whole lot bigger than the ODST had ever imagined them to be, as the only other time he had ever seen one was from quite the distance a few years back. Dragging the Private out of the way as one of the hunters fired of its energy canon, they were both thrown a huge distance once more, but other than some dull pains they were okay. Chief on the other hand had engaged in combat with the other Hunter whilst the second was distracted. Moving back from a side swipe the Spartan hopped onto its canon and propelled himself up and over the currently 8-foot creature, landing behind it as he blasted its vulnerable back with a shotgun, he had picked up from one of the dead ODST's as the huge creature fell to its knees before collapsing completely.

"Sir watch it!" Cooper cried out as John turned a second too late as the second Hunter connected its huge, armoured arm straight into his chest throwing him a good 20 feet away before he collided loudly with one of the many metal walls. Shaking his head, he stood slowly and unsure of himself as the dizziness threatened to take over. He could hear a loud banging coming closer and closer to him as his enhanced recovery kicked in and his adrenaline spiked once more. Throwing his head up he instantaneously leapt into a roll to his right side as the Hunter slammed its arm right where he had been just seconds before. "Sergeant, retrieve the Captain and get yourselves out of here!" There really was no refusing an order from the Chief as the Sergeant nodded and took the Private with him to finish their mission, he trusted that Chief would make it out alive.

Walking along the many detention cells the ODST and Cooper eventually found Captain Keyes occupying one of the cells. He was bruised up a bit, but apart from that he was in a good state, as were the marines in the cell with him. Their faces lit up once they saw friendly forces on the other side of the cell bars. "Trooper, be careful they've got camouflage technology." Keyes warned just in time as more Covenant forces engaged the two soldiers as they returned fire. Pushing down an empty stack of crates, Cooper and the ODST took cover as the enemy came in increased waves. They had cover and the enemy was only coming from one direction, so it was easy to hold them off.

Or so they thought.

"Private, I need you to-" the ODST was lifted up into the air as an Elite came out of camouflage as he raised the Sergeant on his energy sword and laughed at the remaining human before him. Cooper wanted to run, wanted to scream and cry for help. His muscles almost forced him into submission until he had remembered what the Chief had said to him and it was all he needed. He was a soldier worthy of the Chiefs recognition and that wouldn't change now. Taking out his knife the Marine knew he had one chance whilst the Elite was readying itself and so, without wasting anytime he plunged his knife into the Elites right leg before dragging the blade in a downward motion, essentially tearing open the Elite's leg as it collapsed onto one knee. Instinct told Cooper to back away as the Elite attempted to grab his leg which led to him tripping on his own feet and falling backwards. Picking up his rifle, Cooper emptied the clip into the beast, dropping it to the floor. "Soldier, get us out of here now!" Keyes ordered as he saw more Covenant coming through the doors down the corridor.

Chief kicked the Hunter in the head as it lifted him off the ground by the neck, but to no avail as it simply raised its canon to face the Chief and yet he didn't panic, nor did he stop fighting back. He simply waited and watched as he remembered all the times, he had fought these creatures. Wait until the collection of plasma at the end of the canon gathered into a ball and then with one swift kick he forced the Hunter to fire its canon into the ground throwing them both to the floor, whilst also allowing Chief to escape the Hunters grasp as he grabbed the shotgun he used to kill the other one. Rolling into a crouched stance he unloaded three rounds into the Hunters exposed back before dropping his head and breathing deeply. "Does this always happen to you? Nearly dying I mean." Cortana asked as she began to check to the covenant comms for any changes. "You'll get used to it" Chief replied as he placed the shotgun onto his back before picking up his Assault rifle, loading it and heading for the prison cells.

"Chief you're here." Keyes exclaimed as he ducked under the crates that were still serving as cover. Chief crouched down and took notice of the dead ODST which resulted in his eyes darting about looking for Cooper as his mind eased up upon seeing the marine firing on the enemy. His helmet off and his black hair wet from sweating and some of it sticking to his bloodied forehead. He looked as though he'd aged years in just a few short hours. Looking back to Keyes he checked him over for any injuries and after concluding there was nothing more than bruises he nodded to him and ordered the rest of the marines to pull back whose morale was raised significantly as most of them didn't know the Master Chief was with them.

As the small group of UNSC soldiers made their way back down the many corridors that Chief and his group had originally come through they were beginning to get picked off as the covenant forces came in bigger waves than before. Chief was doing all that he could to draw the fire, but it just wasn't enough. "Cooper take the Captain with you. The marines and I will cover you until you're safely off the ship then we'll join you." Cooper nodded and grabbed the Captain before retreating towards the gravity lift behind him. Chief turned back around and continued to support the marines, but he was running out of ammo and soon there would be nothing else to do but run.

Johnson, after inspecting the Captain, shot his eyes over to the Private who had grabbed a rifle and prepared himself to go back up the gravity lift before two soldiers stopped him as they could clearly see he was bleeding far too much to head back into combat. "It's alright soldier, you don't have to head back up there." Johnson reassured as he placed a hand on Coopers back. "You don't understand sir! The Chief is still up there, and they're pinned." Johnson frowned as he looked over to a group of five marines and nodded as they jogged over to the gravity lift. However just as they were about to enter it, they saw Chief and a few marines coming back down it. It wasn't until they were still a good ten feet off the ground that the gravity lift turned off and they all dropped to the ground with a few thuds. "Gravity lift offline sir, just need to get the hell out of here." Chief reported as Keyes nodded in acknowledgement.

"Good work Chief. Foehammer is on their way now. You look like you've been through the ringer yourself though." Johnson chuckled as the Chief simply looked over to him before he held his hand out and dropped some tags into Johnson's hand effectively killing his smile as he took a moment of silence before looking to Chief. "They'll be remembered, all of them." Cooper joined the other marines walking over to the now landing Pelican as they all began to climb onto it before being joined by Chief and Johnson. "Listen whilst we were in captivity, I overheard some guards talking about the name of this ring, they called it… Halo. Now, I don't exactly know what Halo is, but they mentioned it was some kind of weapon of unimaginable power and if that is true then we need to do something to stop them from using this weapon." Keyes informed as he leaned against his seat before he sighed and sat back up again looking at Chief and before the Spartan could say anything Cortana chimed in. "After searching their database, they believe that this ring holds some religious value and that to activate it they need to find its control room. They'll do this by using some sort of map known as the Cartographer. Unfortunately for them, I now also know where this map is located."

"Then we know where we're going next."

"Ok Chief, whilst you and Cortana are looking for the map to the control room, I'm going to go with Sergeant Johnson and see if we can't find this weapons cache that Cortana mentioned earlier on." Keyes explained as everyone in the Pelican loaded up and readied themselves. Chief looked to his feet and for a fleeting moment he found his mind wandering. John wondered about his team, about Kelly, about Fred and about Linda. He wondered if they were even still alive and how they were doing if they were. "Here we go Marines!" Foehammer called over comms as Chief stood and readied his Assault rifle as he prepared to jump back into the action.

James opened his eyes slowly and once again let them get accustomed to the bright lights of the medical room he lay in. His eyes as usual scanned the room and found only Dr. Halsey in the room with him. She was looking down at a datapad with her lips pursed slightly as she brushed a strand of hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear. "Dr" James bluntly greeted to which Halsey didn't even look up at as she continued to read whatever was on the data pad for a few more seconds before sighing heavily and finally looking at James. "You're lucky you're a spartan James, or you'd still be in this room for another week or so. However, thanks to my work on you and your accelerated healing you are cleared to be back on your feet today." James had never felt such relief as he had felt then when he listened to those words. "Just don't do anything stupid to wind up back in here."

After a few more hours of checks and some finalised results, James was given some basic army fatigues before he was escorted to a spare room he would be using. It was small and was barely comfortable enough for him, but it was damn better than that medical room he had been trapped in. Setting himself on the bed he stretched out properly before noticing that the tags of Kat, Jorge, Carter, and Emile lay on the small table next to his bed.

"First Glassing? Me too."

"Tell em to make it count."

"I'm ready! How about you?"

"We're a team."

A knock sounded at James' door which startled him a little, but what he found on the other side of the door surprised him even more. "Good to see you on your feet sir." The young woman beamed as she looked up at him. She was the one who had thanked him after he had defended the marines from the Elite a few days ago. She wasn't in armour now and since James was standing this time, he was only just realising how small she was. Then again James was 6 ft 7. "Good to see you're still around as well…" James paused for a moment after he realised, he didn't actually know her name, but lucky for him she also picked up on this pretty quickly. "Millie, Millie Ritz." She smiled as James looked at her, his granite eyes piercing into her own dark green eyes. An awkward silence proceeded to surround the two as Millie fidgeted with herself before looking at the tall Spartan. "Wanna' grab some food, you must be hungry?" James nodded as he stepped into the corridor and followed Millie down the corridors towards the mess hall.

GAP

"Then he goes-" Kelly began "You sound nothing like an Owl Sam." Fred finished with a laugh as Jun listened to the two reminisce about their training days. It was refreshing after the conflict everyone had been through in recent times; to be able to sit and talk with friends about times of the past. Before they could continue, Fred got the duo's attention and nodded towards the entrance of the mess hall as the two turned to see James up and about. It didn't take Kelly long enough to call him over, but as he got closer the trio noticed a woman with him whom they permitted to join them. "So, James gonna' tell us who your lady friend is?" Fred teased as he smiled at Millie causing her to blush a little. "I'm Millie Ritz, a Private. I was one of the marines James saved when he fought off that Zealot." "Oh, were you. James why are you picking up vulnerable women." Kelly said with a laugh as she gave him a slight push causing him to lightly smile. Lightly.

James knew what they were trying to do, he wasn't dense to the fact that Jun would've explained his state of mind to their fellow Spartans, and whilst it was nice that they cared, he wished they wouldn't make it so obvious what they were doing. Grabbing some food and then returning, James slowly got into any conversations that he could insert himself into, but more than anything else he just listened to every talking to each other.

"Ok, whilst it was fun getting the chance to officially meet you all, I need to get back to my rounds. Hopefully, I'll get the chance to talk to you all again." With that Millie stood and left the table and once she was out of earshot, Fred turned into the table a bit more. "Someone so young is already so aware that any day could be her last." He sighed the group of Spartans merely sat in silence at the comment before they too decided to stand and get on with their respected duties. However, it was in doing this that Jun motioned for James to follow him, and after a few minutes of walking they came across a small room that housed James' Spartan armour and yet, instead of going inside, James merely stared at it through the window.

The armour had been cleaned up a little, but the explosion marks, the laser burns, the memories were all still stained on the grey suit. It stood tall like a cruel reminder as to who James once was, as though it was torturing him as it stood whilst he fell. To James looking at that armour was like being able to see the past clearly and all he had to do was touch it right? All James had to do was suit up, put the helmet back on and he would be fine, he might even be whole again…

"Well, you not going to go in?" James took a moment longer before looking at Jun and he saw what he didn't want to see. He saw his teammates all there, standing next to Jun as though they were still with him and they'd never died. James knew that something was wrong with him, he knew that he hadn't been the same since that day at the Shipyard, since the day he died. "I don't know if I can ever wear that armour again Jun." James didn't have it in him to put on the armour and call himself Noble Six again, he lost that right when he let his team down, when he failed them. "We never should've gone to Halsey, never should've taken that damned A.I!" James punched the wall in frustration as he shut his eyes tight as though it would stop the memories from flooding through. Jun didn't know what to say or what to do. His friend, his brother was broken and there was no fixing this kind of broken, no mending the pieces back together. Without saying another word, James walked away to his room, leaving Jun there to look at the blood on the wall.

Chief walked slowly; his gun trained ahead of him as he traversed across the huge rectangular platform towards the consoles ahead. The room they were in was huge and went upwards for what seemed like miles whilst below was the deep dark abyss that would welcome anyone and anything into the arms of death. As he continued to walk Chief's caution only increased as he took mental note of how quiet his surroundings were. Surprisingly however, Chief made it over to the circular walkway where the consoles were located which after further inspection, Chief noticed he was stood on glass which only served to up his nerves some more. "Chief plug me in."

Chief did so without waiting as he reached up behind him with his left hand and smoothly pulled Cortana's chip out of his helmet before lowering his arm and sliding it into the main console. It was only a brief second before Cortana appeared before him in her holographic form, but much bigger now that she had a 'pedestal' of a kind to stand on. Her eyes were flashing red and her body was morphing every now and then as it flashed blue and green. "You alright?" Chief asked sincerely and to Cortana it was almost sweet to hear such concern coming from what the rumours and stories portrayed as a cold and calculating weapon. "I'm better than ever! You can't imagine the amount of data I'm getting right now." She sounded ecstatic and if it weren't for their current situation Chief wouldn't have interrupted her. Unfortunately, they were in a dire situation here and she needed to stay focused on the mission, not how much data she had at her pretty little fingertips. "Let us stay focused. This is a weapon, right? So, how do we use it on the covenant." "This ring isn't some cudgel you barbarian, it's something else… something much more important. The Covenant were right… this ring… it's Forerunner. Give me a second to access… yes, the Forerunners built this place, what they called a "fortress world", in order to… no, that can't be. Oh, those Covenant fools, they must have known, there must have been signs!" Cortana was becoming almost fearful as she frustratingly ranted out word after word. Whatever she had discovered wasn't good and if this ring was indeed a weapon as powerful as it was claimed to be, then Chief didn't want to be here any longer.

"Chief, I'll explain when we have the time. Right now, you've got to find the Captain, now!" Chief didn't understand, quite frankly he didn't want to understand. But if there was something, he did understand is that if Keyes was in danger then it was Chief's duty to rescue him. Without hesitation Chief turned and, after placing his weapon on his back, broke into a sprint at about 30 mph out of the control room. He'd reach Keyes, he had to…

"Sergeant, what is it you found down here?" Keyes asked as he joined up with Johnsons fireteam. They were currently underground, standing at a door as two marines attempted to break the mainframe and open it up. Hopefully, the weapons they needed to beat the Covenant and get off this ring were in this room. Johnson took another puff of his cigar and after enjoying the scent, he turned to the Captain with his famous smile. "Sir, behind this door should be everything we need to beat those Covenant bastards!" Johnson chuckled as the marines finally got the door open.

Entering the room, the fireteam and Keyes got about halfway in before stopping to examine the room properly. It was a two-story room, the upper level housing the same type of rooms as the first floor. In the middle of the room was two huge coffin-like structures, but after further inspection through the glass in the middle of them revealed a blackness and nothing else. It didn't take long for the aura of the room to start playing on everyone's minds as they realised that this was no weapons room, as a matter of fact, it looked more like… "Sir, you hear that shit?" one of the marines asked as they continued to very slowly, cross deeper and deeper into the room. "-Captain, Sarge… Ca… Can you hear me?!" came the sudden intrusion to silence as Johnson's radio crackled to life, although the static was making it hard to hear the voice on the other side. "Come in trooper, what's going on up there?" Johnson asked as he looked over towards Keyes, his eyes portraying the same uncertainty Johnson was feeling. "We've got heavy contacts… Lots of 'em… but… not Coven… just tearing through us… what the Fuck!" the comms cut out.

Keyes was starting to realise now that there was more to this ring than any of them had realised and coming to find these 'weapons' was a grave mistake that may very well cost them all their lives. "Mendoza, get your ass back up there and see what the hell is going on!" Johnson ordered. However, just as the Private was about to make his way out of the room a strange hissing noise became present, getting louder with each passing second until eventually the doors around them began bursting open as some strange alien creatures began to head towards the group. Captain Keyes was the first to respond as he pulled his magnum pistol off his belt and opened fire taking out one, two, three of the creatures before the others followed suit and opened fire too. This action, whilst valiant, was in vain as the group was very soon surrounded by the alien creatures until the marines were dead and their helmets still recording, showed Johnson and Keyes being dragged away deeper into the room until the recordings stopped.

Chief arrived at the room that held the dead marines and the bloodied floors, but what disturbed him more than anything was the alien corpses. He had never seen them before and even though they were dead, some of them still seemed to be moving, but whether this was from nerve damage or something else Chief didn't know. After proceeding over to one of the Helmets, Chief noticed the recording and so, upon placing the recording chip into the slot on his helmet where Cortana used to be held, he watched as the shocking fate of Keyes and Johnson was revealed. Chief ripped the chip out of his helmet and launched it across the room in anger. He was too late and now their salvation, their hope of escape was gone. Chief was about to sit down when the door he had entered through shut and locked behind him. It was now that Chief realised what this room was, but even so, he would not fall prey to these disgusting creatures.

"This is Echo 419. Chief, is that you? I lost your signal when you disappeared inside the structure. What's going on down there? I'm tracking movement all over the place!" Foehammer called out over comms as she looked down to the entrance of the structure the Chief had entered whilst looking for Keyes. Within just another moment the Chief ran out of the structure as he tossed a grenade behind him. After the explosion came green blood and what looked to be pieces of a being. What came next sent chills up the Pelican Pilot's spine, as she watched piles of squid-like aliens pour out after the Chief.

Running into a group of marines, Chief grabbed their attention and together they held the area as little by little the aliens were pushed back until the last of them met their fate under the boot of Master Chief. Taking another moment to sweep the area, Chief lowered his weapon and looked to the group of marines who were a mix of relief and terror. "Sir what the hell were those things!" one of the marines asked as another threw up. "Stow it, soldier!" Chief ordered as his raspy voice carried more emotion than usual. "Alright, here's what's going to happen. We're going to head for that tower where Foehammer will pick us up. From there, we'll rendezvous with whatever forces we can and make our way to the control room. We'll figure out the rest from there." The marines seemed more at ease now that they were given a directive to distract them. It still didn't stop a few of them cowering in fear whenever some more of those strange aliens showed themselves.

As they were nearing the tower Chief was engaged by an Elite yet, the Elite was one that looked as though it should be dead with its torso torn open. It didn't take long however, for the Chief to realise the Elite had been taken over by one of the aliens and it was this that caused him to realise their true intention. "Don't let them get on you, or near you.!" Chief was about to continue firing when suddenly he was teleported to the top of the tower, they were close to. In spite of this, Chief made ready to leap of the tower and re-engage the enemy when out of nowhere, a floating robot of some sort appeared in front of him preventing him from moving forwards causing Chief to instinctively aim his weapon at it. "Greetings. I am the monitor of Installation 04. I am 343 Guilty Spark." Chief didn't understand why, but he was finding himself ignoring the commotion going on below them as gunfire continued and some form of bright beams began cutting through the swamp killing off the flood as they advanced on. "Someone has released the Flood. My function is to prevent it from leaving this Installation, but I require your assistance. This way."

Chief was quickly surrounded by dim golden circles as he and 343 slowly vanished from the tower.

"Chief, I've lost your signal! Where'd you go? Chief? Chief!" Foehammer desperately called out over comms as the robots who were producing the beams left the marines to their fate as the Flood quickly and violently took the area, reducing the marines to nothing but mindless vessels of slavery.

Authors Note: Well then, that was a much bigger chapter than I have previously written. I've been toying with the idea of making the chapters a bit longer if you'll all enjoy them since you get to read more each chapter, but it also means that it will start taking me a little longer to update if that is to become the case. As well as this, it would seem we are coming close to Chief getting off this damn ring now which should be in the next chapter and so that means the chapter after that, he shall finally meet the infamous Noble Six. Don't forget to send in your ideas if you have them, someone asked me in a recent review if I could include some dialogue from Keyes in his ultimate moments as it shows how much of a relentless badass, he was. To that I absolutely agree which is why I've kept him as the character he is, someone who isn't afraid of a fight. As well as this, you may also be very aware that there isn't a lot of attention on James at the moment and this is because there isn't a lot to write about right now. Due to this you won't read anything about him next chapter, but that's ok as the real story begins as the events of Halo 2 take place.

Don't forget to leave a review, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter. See you next time Spartans!

Cover Artist: Instagram - anjum_faiz please make sure to give them a follow. They are incredibly nice and have some beautiful art on their page.