Hello my of you that reviewed have my thanks as do those of you that read the first chapter I will be sure to try and fix the previous chapters then this chapter shall be delayed no longer let us continue where we left off.

Chapter 2:Long Days

Remnant Emerald Forest 2:29

'Where am I? Where's the squad?' Were two of the many questions Dutch had in his head at the time, though there probably would've been even more if it wasn't for the headache he had from coming out of his pod inverted halfway up the trunk of a tree. Luckily, the trunk itself wasn't too tall so retrieving his Spartan Laser and M7S had been relatively easy for him.

After a half hour Dutch was ready to go, though he wished he knew where everyone was but shrugged and decided he'd find them sooner if he moved rather than wait around.

As Dutch was walking he attempted to raise his squad-mates with his helmet comms but received no answer, instead all he heard was static crackling over it, despite switching frequencies. Letting out an annoyed sigh, Dutch just gave up for the time being, deciding he'd find a tree to lean against and check his NAV to see where he was in the city. Or he would've, if the NAV wasn't completely blank.

'What the hell? Why's it just blank, did my helmet get fried in that fall? No, this thing's been through too much for it to not have happened before.' Dutch thought as he switched off the screen and started to walk again.

He didn't get too far when he heard some rustling in the bushes off to his right, pivoting towards it, his M7S at the ready in case whatever was coming out was hostile. As the sounds grew louder, dutch kept his breathing as clm as possible and let his instincts take over. Just as it came out, he prepared himself to fire, but only a single armored figure came out of the bushes. Dutch recognized the gear immediately and held his fire.

"Oh, it's just you Rookie." Dutch said, lowering his SMG as he spoke. Rookie just nodded without saying a single word to the corporal.

"You know where we should go?" asked Dutch, since he had no clue himself on where to go and did not feel like walking around unknown territory at night with no objective to reach. The Rookie pointed behind and above Dutch with his left hand, causing the trooper to turn around.

"Oh, I see." the Rookie had pointed at Beacon Tower, and Dutch agreed with him thinking it was logical to go towards the only sign of civilization. Besides, the design wasn't Covenant, or at least he didn't think it was. It lacked the purple color scheme that they used on practically everything.

Once both troopers were walking in the direction of the tower Dutch attempted to strike up conversation with the Rookie. "You make contact with the others?"

Rookie just shook his head.

"Look here Rook, I know I said it pays to be the strong silent type but not to this extent."

The Rookie just looked at him through his visor, slightly unnerving him because he couldn't see his face.

"Why don't you talk?"

The Rookie just shrugged.

"There has to be a reason, so what is it?"

Again, the Rookie shrugged.

"Is that all you do?"

The Rookie shrugged, but this time he was smirking under his helmet when he did, not that Dutch could tell.

Dutch sighed in annoyance once more, and left the Rookie alone only following him as the Rookie went around looking for clues as to where the squad was.

It wasn't that the Rookie couldn't talk, he just disliked it. Besides, ever since New Jerusalem, he talked even less. The battle had left some scars on him, he saw most of his friends die in that fight alone. Since then, he had gotten quiet knowing that it was best he didn't form a bond with anyone. The last time he actually spoke to anyone was when he was informed of Reach's demise shortly after he heard Gage's life story.

While Dutch was watching the Rookie do his thing he decided to try and raise someone on the radio again.

"This is Corporal Taylor Miles of the UNSC can anyone hear me? Please respond." this time Dutch heard a voice answer back.

"Dutch is that you?" it was Buck and Dutch was glad to hear another human beings voice even if it was over the radio.

"Holy shit I don't believe it, Gunny? Where are you?"

"You see that tower with all the green lights?"

"Yeah."

"Meet me there tomorrow morning or in the afternoon at the base of it. If you get there before me and people ask what you're doing just say you're Atlas military. That's the cover story for now."

"Alright, meet you there."

"Oh Dutch before you go is anyone with you?"

"Yeah the Rookie found me earlier, he's been leadin' the way looking for clues I guess. I don't know hard to tell considering he never talks." Dutch said as he looked at the Rookie who was yet again staring at him.

"Alright, Buck out." said Buck before ending the connection between the two.

"Guess we better get moving." he told the Rookie who nodded in reply.

The two heavily armored and armed troopers continued their trek towards the tower in silence. Dutch and the Rookie were both wondering where they were but they both decided that they would ask Buck when they met up with him at the tower. With the Rookie taking point and Dutch covering the rear they made decent ground. Although they couldn't go too fast for while they had a time limit to get to where they needed to be, they were cautious as they made their way and going fast would've slowed them down once they both tired out.

The Rookie held his fist up signaling for Dutch to stop, however he didn't see the Rookie signal, and as a result accidentally bumped into him. The Rookie stumbled and turned around glaring at the bigger trooper through his visor, making Dutch uneasy once more.

After regaining his composure, the Rookie took his left hand and wrapped his index and thumb around his wrist leaving his three other fingers off his wrist before moving his left hand off his right wrist putting it at waist level with his fingers pointing upward almost in a talon shape telling his squad-mate that enemy dogs were nearby. Almost as soon as the Rookie had done this Dutch could hear growling in the bushes and behind the trees. he quickly checked his gun and leveled the M7S while the Rookie did the same.

Almost as if the Beowolves were waiting for them to finish getting ready, the first few jumped out at them causing both Dutch and the Rookie to open fire at once wondering what exactly they were shooting at.

"What the hell Rook! I thought you said they were dogs!"

The Rookie didn't respond but instead kept shooting but they were both realizing they would run out of ammo before they could kill them all. Rookie slammed a new mag in while Dutch kept him covered before running dry himself. They'd only killed two of whatever was attacking them and both had put at least half a mag into them to finish them.

"Hey Rookie, we gotta go!" Dutch yelled to him, the trooper in question nodded in agreement and began running at full speed, with Dutch not far behind. the Beowolves kept chasing down the two troopers not wanting to let go of their prey so easily, causing Rookie to pump his fist up and down repeatedly telling Dutch to move faster.

"You know Rookie, I'm trying but its not so easy when you have a Spartan Las- Wait a minute! Rookie keep them off me for a few seconds, I have an idea." The Rookie complied and pivoted on his left foot as Dutch crouched pulling out his Spartan Laser and began warming it up.

Rookie began firing instantly, firing into the things indiscriminately, reloading as fast as he could when he heard a click. While he was putting in a new magazine, he saw Dutch's Spartan Laser fire and lance through the Beowolves that were behind them, though it wasn't able to get rid of them all.

Normally, Dutch would've celebrated, but seeing as how the friends of those things didn't evens slow down after he shot, he just put it back on his back and began running once again.

"Keep moving, this thing's gotta cool for a bit before I can afford to fire another shot and they didn't even slow down."

The Rookie followed him, focusing on putting more space between him and the Beowolves. Occasionally he turned and fired a round or two into them with his Magnum after holstering his M7S. Never for too long though, since he wanted to go as fast as he could, and turning like that would only slow him down.

Dutch then signaled to the Rookie that he was going to turn around and let off another shot with the Spartan Laser. He then quickly holstered his M7S and drew the Spartan Laser, already warming it up as he crouched down and quickly aimed into the group.

Once more, the laser hit the beasts, getting rid of two of them instantly while the remaining two were left unscathed. Standing up and throwing the weapon onto his back while backpedaling, Dutch drew his M7S and was about tp fire whatever was left in the mag into the one coming straight at him. But he never got around to doing it as the Beowolf was faster and tackling him, sending him to the ground forcing him to drop his M7S as it bounced out of his reach.

"Son of a bitch! I could use a little help here Rook!" Dutch called out, as he held the Beowolf back using his brute strength alone, though he could feel him slowly losing the battle.

Rookie on the other hand, was busy dealing with his Beowolf, managing to avoid it's attempt at hitting him and firing a long burst into it's side, before it fell down. Quickly switching off from his target, he got a bead on the one on Dutch and gave it the last of his mag.

Dutch heard the rounds impact the side of the Beowolf, causing it to grow weaker, something Dutch took advantage of and with a sudden burst of adrenaline fueled strength, managed to get the Beowolf off of him and reached for his M7S, and then fired off his last few rounds into the beast, killing it.

"What the fuck were those things?" Dutch asked as he caught his breath, coming off his adrenaline high.

Rookie just shrugged in response.

"You know, I honestly don't know what I was expecting you to do."

The Rookie just stared at Dutch, making the trooper uncomfortable once again. He couldn't explain why, but something about not being able to see the face of the person staring at you just made him feel disturbed in a sense.

"Quit doing that, creeps me out a bit. Now hurry up, we need to go meet up with Gunny it's almost time anyways. We'll once we get there."

Rookie nodded, and helped Dutch up, before the both of them began their trek towards Beacon Tower.

And that's this chapter done and updated, this AN itself is an update actually haha. Apparently I forgot to write one or something, so here it is. The other chapters will be revised and edited just like this one, so yeah. Until next time y'all.