Chapter 5

As soon as the Elite fired the fuel rod cannon, a massive explosion came at the front of the Chief's Warthog. The Warthog flipped over the Elite into the next room and rolled violently once it came in contact with the ground. As soon as it came to a stop, the Chief could see and hear the marines swerving around the Covenant firing their machine guns or whatever weapon they had in their hands. The sounds of gunshots, yelling, death cries and car tires screeching against the titanium floor all echoed through out his mind. He forced himself up even though he was about to fall unconscious. He didn't look or feel injured so he grabbed a near by MA5K assault rifle which still had ammo inside and helped fight off the Covenant as memories of the Battle of Reach flashed through his mind under no circumstances.
The Pelican drop ship flew over the ruins of the city of Reach partially covered in glass and fire. On the ground, were the echoes of gunshots being fired down below and above them, were the bright yellow spheres of explosions from battle ships past the maroon colored clouds. The Master Chief looked out from the Pelican cringing at what he was about to do. The actions he was about to take would result in possibly thousands of casualties.

"Sir, there's way too many of them," said a young SPARTAN "Are you sure this will work?"

"It'll have to, 734," said the Master Chief "Otherwise, we're all doomed."

"But what about the others?" asked 734 "What will happen to them?"

"I…" replied the Chief uncertainly "I don't know."

"Well there must be something we can do!" snapped 734 angrily "We can't just let them all die out there! I can't believe you would allow this to happen to your own men! I thought you were better than that! I-"

The Chief became extremely irritated. He had had enough of this criticism. He abruptly grabbed the SPARTAN by the chest and slammed him into the wall aggressively. 734 shut his mouth in shock and looked at him like he had gone completely mad.

"Don't think I'm doing this because it looks fun!" retorted the Chief "War isn't just about winning or losing, dammit! It's about protecting our homes from god forsaken bastards like the Covenant! If any of those soldiers down there were in my position, they would do the same. This plan will prevent the Covenant from discovering Earth which will save millions of lives. Sometimes, you have to make the greatest sacrifices just to protect many innocent people… even if it means sacrificing your own life, or someone else's."

The Chief dropped the SPARTAN and went back to looking out of the Pelican. His fellow comrades all glanced at each other and at the Chief with concern. However he didn't seem to notice; he seemed more focused on the scenery than his men.

"WHOA! Hey, Chief, watch where you're aiming that thing!" shouted Johnson

The Chief realized that while he was fighting (and apparently lost in his memories) he had almost shot Johnson. He snapped out of it and aimed his gun at a group of Jackals. He managed to take down at least four of them within what felt like ten seconds. Will-043 took care of the remaining three that the Chief was shooting at. Once they had fallen the Chief quickly looked around to make sure he wasn't being fired at.

"Chief, Elite attacking at six o'clock!" said Cortana

He spun around and shot at a major domo Elite penetrating his armor. Blue electricity emitted all over his body from his personal energy shield. In reaction, the Elite fired back causing the Chief to also emit static from his personal energy shield. As his shield was being insinuated, he ran up to the Elite and smacked him across the face with the back of his gun crevassing his skull. Once the marines and the SPARTANs had finished the fight, there was a moment of silence as the echoes of gunfire quickly died down.

"Yeaaah! Which one of you goddamn Covenant son-of-a-bitches wanna take us on next, huh?!" cheered an energetic Johnson who immediately broke the silence

No one replied.

"Heh, didn't think so." added Johnson

"Sergeant Major," said one of the privates who was standing by a panel "You might want to see this…"

Johnson walked over by the private and examined the panel. It had strange alien buttons with some sort of a foreign language on it. The language looked like a mix of hieroglyphs, Arabic and Greek writing all blended in together like some sort of a curvy, pictogram-like complicated language. In the middle of the panel was a small, glowing, milky white square shaped button. Johnson glanced at the private in confusion.

"What is it?" asked Johnson

"I don't know, sir," said the private "But whatever its purpose is, it involves something big."

"Yeah," added the Chief who also came over and looked "Something big and explosive. The Covenant probably had set up a bomb that they forgot to activate. And judging by the big gap in front of us, I say we head back and try to find another route."

"Hold on a sec," uttered Evan-049 walking over "How can say for sure whether this is a bomb or not?"

"Come again?" asked the Chief

"What I mean is," explained Evan "What if it isn't a bomb? What if it's like a device that brings up a bridge or something?"

"So what you're saying is…"

"What I'm saying is, let's press that button and see what this baby can do!"

"Wait, Evan!"

"Relax; I was deemed the 'most accurate' out of class three!"

"That's not the point. Get back here!"

However, Evan ignored the Chief's orders.

"Evan! That's an order! Are you even listening, dammit?"

"You know, if I were you, I'd march my ass right back over there before Helmet Boy here blows a fuse." advised Cortana

"Aw, come on guys," said Evan carelessly "What's the worst that can happen?"

The very moment that Evan pushed the button, a ticking noise was heard all across the room. At first, its pace was slow but it got quicker as the moment passed by. To everyone, this noise meant only one logical explanation.

"Huh, I guess it really is a bomb." said Evan

Johnson and the Chief immediately took action and started giving out orders telling everyone to back up and take cover. Everyone put their Warthogs in reverse and backed out of the room while the soldiers on foot followed close behind. As soon as they got out of range, the soldiers waited until the explosion had passed… but it didn't come. Instead, there appeared a long, blue platform of energy over the gap the Chief had just mentioned before connecting the ledge on their side and the ledge on the other side like a bridge.

"It's okay, boys!" informed Johnson to the marines "False alarm!"

"Well, would you look at that," muttered the Chief "It really was a bridge after all."

He then turned to Evan-049.

"Don't ever disobey like that me again," he said "'Cause you could've gotten us all killed. Got it?"

"Sir! Yes, sir!" replied Evan

He tapped his fingers gently on his plasma rifle as he moved through the dark, vague swamp with his troops. The Supreme Commander and his men were searching for the crash site of the Truth and Reconciliation since they have not contacted them in about twelve hours or so as they said they would. At first he thought that the humans probably got them or that their communications systems might've malfunctioned. But deep down, he had a feeling that something far worse might have happened… something horrifyingly unimaginable. But he simply cast these thoughts out of his mind and ignored them.

The Supreme Commander turned his head to see a couple of Unggoy (Grunts) squabbling with some Kig-Yar (Jackals) about who knows (or even cares) what. Why the two races were always bickering he would never know. Suddenly, one of Unggoy, who wasn't paying attention to where he was going, crashed into a near by exotic tree. After quickly recovering from it, he dashed to catch up with his fellow kin. The Supreme Commander sighed and shook his head; another day, another moment of stupidity caused by the Unggoy.

"Supreme Commander 'Insosamee," said a SpecOps Officer Sangheili (Elite) approaching the Supreme Commander "We have located the Truth and Reconciliation. It is being searched now as we speak."

"Excellent," said 'Insosamee "Tell your commander to round up his men at once."

"Yes, sir." said the SpecOps Officer