Cortana was the first to wake up, although Halsey came in close second. They couldn't have been out for more than four minutes. The Chief had his Zat tuned to the lowest level. Dr. Halsey picked herself up and stood over Cortana's hologram.

"Doctor…" Cortana started, staring at the doorway with a blank expression on her face. "I need to know every thing. I need to know what made the Chief this way…"

Halsey looked over Cortana suspiciously and turned away.

"His name is John, Cortana. Call him by the name he was born with, not his rank."

Before Cortana could say anything, Halsey slipped a computer chip in her data pad and fed the information to Cortana. It was the complete mission report that she was missing. Cortana opened the file, which was a pretty big file, and began to read…

A WEEK EARLIER…

A Jackal hit the ground, minus a head. Purple blood was spread on the floor. The Chief fired a final round in the beast's corpse and reloaded his Battle Rifle. He slammed a new clip in and steadied his aim. Sure enough, a Brute hefting two plasma rifles came bellowing down the well lit hallway. The Chief knew that using anything less than a grenade or a shotgun against these things was suicide, so he aimed for the eyes. The Brute's head exploded in blood. Blinded and bleeding, the beast hit the floor, growling and whimpering. The Chief ran up to it and aimed some well placed shots at the Brute's spinal column.

Another Brute flashed from a shadow with surprising stealth and jammed a hairy arm into the Chief's back, knocking him to the floor. The shields flared up and died. Sparks danced in the air as the behemoth rammed his fists into the Spartan's back. John felt the blood on his back as the muscled freak pounded his armor in. The Chief wouldn't reveal his front side, which held even more damage.

The Brute held its fists in the air for a second, and then slammed his arms back down. Time seemed to slow down to a stop as Master Chief experienced what his late team-mates described as "Spartan Time". The fists came down and the Chief saw the rippling muscles, ready to deliver the final blow.

The room began to glow and the Chief was caught in a brilliant blue and white light. There was sound of rushing wind and the Brute's fists slammed into the empty floor. He roared in fury...

The Chief found himself on the deck of a strange, new ship. It was well lit and very big. There was sound of tinkling glass and a fountain. Overhead lights feed bright light onto certain areas and spread a calm glow all around. The walls were a white marble with echoing whispers resounding around him, quiet and calming. A humongous window formed a type of quarter-dome to view space. The space battle evolved in the vacuum.

And it didn't look good.

The Forerunner ship had indeed taken some damage, but it still put up a fight. It didn't appear to have shields, but it was made of a strange metal that resisted most attacks. Beams of energy lanced out from it and impacted the UNSC fleet. 90 percent of the hits resulted in casualties. The Chief locked his gaze on the ship, arms hurting in sympathetic pain for so many lives lost.

There were the sounds of footsteps and the Chief turned around. He was regretfully unarmed, his weapons seemingly misplaced. Hand to hand combat would have to do…

…Until he saw the tiny Asguard standing before him.

The tiny gray man looked over the Chief and huffed. He walked away, leaving the stunned Chief standing in place. The Chief didn't know whether these little men posed a threat or not, but he figured that since they didn't fire on any Earth ships, they didn't come here to start a fight. The Chief jumped when the little man spoke.

"Your armor's shielding systems are extremely crude. Battle damage is drawn out to bare minimum. Your armor is a junk heap."

The Chief was a bit concerned. His armor was designed to be more powerful than an Elite's armor. If it was crude to these new aliens, then Earth could have a serious problem.

"I assure you Master Chief, we did not cross an inter-dimensional wormhole and travel in hyper-space for two hours just to fight. Even though the task, morbid as it sounds, would be a simple task, we as a people have proven ourselves to be allies of Earth and all of its host planets…" The little Asguard said. The Chief relaxed and nodded. He turned to the ships attacking Earth. A small party of the ships and an escape pod from the Forerunner ship burst from the protective shield and made a beeline to Earth. The Chief turned his attention to the strange little man.

"Who would you be...?" He asked. The Asguard blinked.

"I am Trojan, Third Lieutenant of the Asguard fleet… This is the warship Highiron. I have been sent here by the Asguard fleet ahead of the rest, to offer our services against the race you call the Covenant." As if to answer for the Master Chief, two human vessels exploded behind him. Trojan sighed and hailed the Forerunner ship.

"This is the Asguard vessel, Highiron. I am sure that such actions can be taken to preserve life, instead of extinguishing it. Please respond."

The Forerunner ship changed course and began scanning for the trace of the radio signal. Trojan moved a control crystal aside.

"Disengaging cloaking generator…now."

In the vacuum of space, the Forerunner ship loomed over the dying ships of the UNSC fleet. The Asguard ship, however, dwarfed even that. It was in similar size to High Charity, and resembled a flat 'T' with four blades bursting from the top and bottom. The control deck sat neatly between the two on the top.

Trojan sighed and fired a final signal.

"This is your last chance. Surrender now."

The Forerunner ship fired a salvo of needle thin energy beams. The Chief braced for impact. It never came. The beams impacted the shields of the ship and the beams were swept way into oblivion. Trojan actually chuckled and pressed a button.

On the Asguard ship, along the outline, there was a series of conduits. Energy flashed up and down the flows, spreading a light halo around the ship. The energy raced along the outside of the ship, faster and faster. Trojan turned his attention to readout.

"Chief, I suggest that all of the human ships that can move leave the coordinates of the Covenant fleet. Minimum distance should be the upper atmosphere of the Earth."

The Spartan nodded and relayed a message to all ships.

"This is Spartan 117 to all UNSC ships, full withdrawal into the upper atmosphere. Our new friends have a way to win us this fight, but the weapon is powerful. Maintain safe distance. Acknowledged?" John said. The UNSC fleet hesitated, and they limped behind the MAC cannon range.

The ships controlled by the Covenant were angry with the retreating prey, but they all saw the Asguard ship. Highiron glowed in a cool metallic light. The Covenant were within sneezing range now. The Chief tensed. Plasma fired. The Highiron pulsed. Thousands of fiery eyes appeared in the mass of the Covenant fleet. Hundreds of thousands of metallic eyes stared back from this one ship.

Welcome to Oblivion.

Millions of thick, pulsing lasers spiraled out of every spot exposed on the Highiron. A shockwave of energy, debris, and the remnants of the Forerunner ship disintegrated in a fiery light. Then all was quiet. Nothing but dust remained of the once mighty fleet. A few UNSC ships comically peeked around the MAC range like frightened animals.

The Chief sighed and sat on the floor. He removed his helmet. Inch long, brown, spiky hair danced in the fresh air. His hair was far too long for military standards, but since Halo, he really didn't care much about his hair. Scars littered his face, stress taking a tool showed in his eyes. A fire danced behind the pupils. His blue eyes read the area and his tired mind stopped. He relaxed and glanced over next to him and looked at the Asguard, who had come to his side and stared out the window, his hands behind his back.

"Now comes the difficult part of the battle…"

"What is that?"

Trojan looked at him and gave the Asguard equivalent of a smile to him.

"We must retell our legacies…"

The flash back is not yet over! How does the Chief get the Ancient Database downloaded, and why does it seem to be forcing him to Ascend? Continues next.